Foo - Play Ball!!!

...it's almost time for real baseball.....and this could be the year....

for the steroid taking, striking and ending the world series, spoiled cheating losers to lose a few more fans and slide further down the popularity polls? I do not see the fascination with baseball. But that is just me. I would rather watch high school football than pro baseball.

Go Sox!!!!!!

I predict it will be the usual for the Astros.
-Lackluster start to the season
-Have a comeback at the last possible moment in the season to make the playoffs.
-Lose to the Cards.

Go Sox!!!!!!


....here we go red sox, here we go (clap clap clap)

for the steroid taking, striking and ending the world series, spoiled cheating losers to lose a few more fans and slide further down the popularity polls? I do not see the fascination with baseball. But that is just me. I would rather watch high school football than pro baseball.


baseball is a thinking man's game......those who can't get into it aren't thinking hard enough

Go Sox!!!!!!
Yeah, WHITE SOX!

;) :p

Actually.... it's GO CARDS, first. The Fight Sox are the only Chicago team I'll root for.

Let's just make sure Tony LaRussa catches a cab from now on. What an idiot falling asleep in an intersection and then blowing a .09. Baseball genius, maybe. Real life genius, highly doubtful! :rolleyes:

baseball is a thinking man's game......those who can't get into it aren't thinking hard enough
I think it is a travesty that a roided out jerk is gonna hold the home run record.

Used to follow MLB avidly. But two strikes, and I was out. ;)

I did go see the Cards play once in 1995 when I lived in St. Louis. $5 seat in centerfield. $7.50 for a tiny tray of nachos and a small soda. Place was nearly empty. Just wanted to be able to say that I had been to one major league game. But it was actually one more than I care to see.

Edit: I did used to go see the Durham Bulls play when I lived in Raleigh. That was always fun, and those guys always seemed to be playing their hearts out, for that one big break, but also for the love of the game. :)

I'm a Cards fan so last year was really good for me. This year probably not so much. Seems a lot of players leave after a team wins the Series lately. But I enjoy going to our local AAA games and having a couple locally brewed beers and a bag of peanuts more than the majors anyway.

I think it is a travesty that a roided out jerk is gonna hold the home run record.
True.

But I think it's more the jerk part of that that upsets most.

In football, nobody cares that roided out jerks hold and/or are breaking all the records. Heck, if you're Shawn Merriman, they vote you defensive player of the year, despite you missing 1/4 of the season on a steroid violation.

Baseball gets treated different because it's such a part of the fabric of the last 130+ years of American history. Football and basketball are the rowdy kids who get a pass for boys just being boys.

In any case, if you focus on home runs, the game is lame. An awesome pitchers dual is the best game to catch live. The game moves faster and people tend to pay more attention. A slugfest can get boring. YMMV

for the steroid taking, striking and ending the world series, spoiled cheating losers to lose a few more fans and slide further down the popularity polls? I do not see the fascination with baseball. But that is just me. I would rather watch high school football than pro baseball.
I was going to add - 3rd year in a row that the players maul and beat up their fans :p And now I'll add it :D

NM! I read that as basketball - despite having read it twice :p

I think it is a travesty that a roided out jerk is gonna hold the home run record.
+5000


What ever happened to him anyways. he seems to have dropped off of the radar - as people who commit heinous crines like him and Snoop Dog and other football players tend to.

Used to follow MLB avidly. But two strikes, and I was out. ;)

I did go see the Cards play once in 1995 when I lived in St. Louis. $5 seat in centerfield. $7.50 for a tiny tray of nachos and a small soda. Place was nearly empty. Just wanted to be able to say that I had been to one major league game. But it was actually one more than I care to see.

Edit: I did used to go see the Durham Bulls play when I lived in Raleigh. That was always fun, and those guys always seemed to be playing their hearts out, for that one big break, but also for the love of the game. :)

....that makes me sad.....

.....a baseball might be the most perfectly created plaything made by man. i drive with one hand and hold a baseball in the other, moving it around, feeling the seams and leather....

Does anyone know Dale Earnhardt Jr's Batting Avg.? It might help me get more interested in MLB.

Baseball is fun to play, but excruciatingly painful for me to watch. In the famous words of a friend of mine who responded to an offer of free tickets to an Orioles' game a few years back:

"Let me think...

Baseball?...
Death?...

Death?...
Baseball?...

I think I'll go with death."


I do "get" all the thinking and strategy involved, but ever since the era where managers have taken to switching pitchers with every batter in the late innings of close games, the game has lost something. Now I am completely apathetic, and have more time to do more productive things - like watching my grass grow. :p

Does anyone know Dale Earnhardt Jr's Batting Avg.? It might help me get more interested in MLB.
They do not have a batting average in hockey...... that I know of anyway.

....that makes me sad.....

.....a baseball might be the most perfectly created plaything made by man. i drive with one hand and hold a baseball in the other, moving it around, feeling the seams and leather....
Mmmm. Baseball p0rn. ;)

I used to love baseball. I just can't get worked up over it anymore. Maybe it's a personal thing, too. <shrug>

Good to see ya back on Foo. Guess you've been pretty busy, eh? ;)

....that makes me sad.....

.....a baseball might be the most perfectly created plaything made by man. i drive with one hand and hold a baseball in the other, moving it around, feeling the seams and leather....

Gaylord Perry did the same thing except he had sand paper in the other hand. :D

How are you going to feel when Barry Bonds breaks the homerun record?

Baseball is fun to play, but excruciatingly painful for me to watch. In the famous words of a friend of mine who responded to an offer of free tickets to an Orioles' game a few years back:

"Let me think...

Baseball?...
Death?...

Death?...
Baseball?...

I think I'll go with death."


I do "get" all the thinking and strategy involved, but ever since the era where managers have taken to switching pitchers with every batter in the late innings of close games, the game has lost something. Now I am completely apathetic, and have more time to do more productive things - like watching my grass grow. :p
Or watching paint dry. Oh, wait, you already did that this year. :p

http://www.umbc.edu/UMBCathletics/Recreation/Intramurals/Sports/BASEketball/BASEketball%20logo.JPG

They do not have a batting average in hockey...... that I know of anyway.

I heard he averages like 10 rebounds a game! :eek:

Gaylord Perry did the same thing except he had sand paper in the other hand. :D

How are you going to feel when Barry Bonds breaks the homerun record?

As a fairly big baseball fan, I can say I will be fairly apathetic that Bonds is breaking the record. If he had an ounce of class in that fat head of his, his pursuit of the record would be a season long celebration. Instead, he's obfuscated (note I did not say admitted or tested positive) regarding the HGH and steroid issues. His own teammates can't stand him. When he hit his 500th homer, the only one to greet him at the plate was the batboy, his son. His fellow players remained on the bench. (I think it was his 500th... may have to recheck that).

Baseball has always had jerks. The two career leaders in hits, Rose and Cobb, were respectively a gambler who was/is banned from the MLB ranks and a racist jack@ss bully.

Baseball has also had good guys. Hank Greenberg, Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Curt Flood, Roberto Clemente, and the list goes on and on.

It has had its 'beloved' cheats, such as the above mentioned Gaylord Perry. Personality goes a long way.

The start of April is always somewhat special. Opening Day. It's just a great two word phrase that means it's time to catch a game.

As always, YMMV, especially to those who gave up on the game... :)

As a fairly big baseball fan, I can say I will be fairly apathetic that Bonds is breaking the record. If he had an ounce of class in that fat head of his, his pursuit of the record would be a season long celebration. Instead, he's obfuscated (note I did not say admitted or tested positive) regarding the HGH and steroid issues. His own teammates can't stand him. When he hit his 500th homer, the only one to greet him at the plate was the batboy, his son. His fellow players remained on the bench. (I think it was his 500th... may have to recheck that).

Baseball has always had jerks. The two career leaders in hits, Rose and Cobb, were respectively a gambler who was/is banned from the MLB ranks and a racist jack@ss bully.

Baseball has also had good guys. Hank Greenberg, Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Curt Flood, Roberto Clemente, and the list goes on and on.

It has had its 'beloved' cheats, such as the above mentioned Gaylord Perry. Personality goes a long way.

The start of April is always somewhat special. Opening Day. It's just a great two word phrase that means it's time to catch a game.

As always, YMMV, especially to those who gave up on the game... :)

I agree 100% :beer:

I was unfair with my Gaylord Perry reference. I don't think he ever used sand paper. He did and admittedly so use the "spitball." Although, I don't think that was blatant cheating. He had better spit than the others. I respect Gaylord Perry and honor him.

It would seem MLB would have done something to stop Bonds from breaking the record. The tainting of various records is bad enough without a suspected performance enhancing user sitting atop a record where the original holder set the record with "blood, sweat, and tears."

mmkay. I plead ignorance. What is "YMMV"? <curious Vega look>

mmkay. I plead ignorance. What is "YMMV"? <curious Vega look>

Your Mileage May Vary. ;)

Automobile term used to explain different perspectives.

I agree 100% :beer:

I was unfair with my Gaylord Perry reference. I don't think he ever used sand paper. He did and admittedly so use the "spitball." Although, I don't think that was blatant cheating. He had better spit than the others. I respect Gaylord Perry and honor him.

It would seem MLB would have done something to stop Bonds from breaking the record. The tainting of various records is bad enough without a suspected performance enhancing user sitting atop a record where the original holder set the record with "blood, sweat, and tears."

Perry used Vaseline to shine up his pitches. You're thinking of the Niekro brothers who used the emory boards to make their knucklers even more knuckly. There's that famous scene of Joe Niekro emptying his pockets for the umps and trying to toss the emory board to the side. One ump's eyes follow the board as it flies off to the side. Classic. Pitchers have been doctoring balls forever. Kenny Rogers (the pitcher for the Tigers, not the real Gambler) had a clump of pine tar on his hand and pitched an amazing Game 2 of the World Series just last fall. He was pitching so well he probably didn't need it, is what LaRussa said.

As for Bonds, he could be innocent for all we know, but he'd be in the same place Floyd Landis is in as the 'winner' of the TdF last year. It won't matter to some people if he is completely exonerated because the muck has been so thick with accusations from both sides. The cloud of suspicion over his head is enough for people to put their own internal asterisk on any record he breaks.

MLB knows it has been hypocritical on the matter of 'roids, as evidenced by the celebration of McGwire/Sosa in '98 and subsequent Congressional hearings to basically tear down the muscles that brought the game back from strike-driven oblivion. The Mitchell findings will be most intriguing when finally released someday.

Mmmm. Baseball p0rn. ;)

I used to love baseball. I just can't get worked up over it anymore. Maybe it's a personal thing, too. <shrug>

Good to see ya back on Foo. Guess you've been pretty busy, eh? ;)


....there's nothing like driving along the ocean around 1 am, when the Sox are playing on the west coast, and having the am radio on listening to the game, with the windows down, the salt air blowing through the car, and tapping a finger or two on the roof, going nowhere, just listening to the game...

In the 70's, I liked the Dodgers and Steve Garvey. Until early 90's, it was the Braves.

Heh,heh. They're trying to get an MLB team here in Charlotte. Then we'll have three losing pro sports teams. :D

....there's nothing like driving along the ocean around 1 am, when the Sox are playing on the west coast, and having the am radio on listening to the game, with the windows down, the salt air blowing through the car, and tapping a finger or two on the roof, going nowhere, just listening to the game...
Preferably with one of the classic voices calling the game, though many of them have been passing in the last decade.

Man, I miss Jack Buck's gravel voice. His was the voice of summer for me. Outside grilling, working in the lawn/garden, in the boat fishing, going on a sweltering Midwest evening to get frozen custard, wherever. And the feeling of home when catching KMOX across the empty night expanses of I-70 when road tripping. <sigh>

Nobody waxes nostalgic about football or basketball radio broadcasts, do they? Ahh, but baseball... the voices of radio are gigantic. Harwell, Caray, Brickhouse, Scully, Buck.

Preferably with one of the classic voices calling the game, though many of them have been passing in the last decade.

Man, I miss Jack Buck's gravel voice. His was the voice of summer for me. Outside grilling, working in the lawn/garden, in the boat fishing, going on a sweltering Midwest evening to get frozen custard, wherever. And the feeling of home when catching KMOX across the empty night expanses of I-70 when road tripping. <sigh>

Nobody waxes nostalgic about football or basketball radio broadcasts, do they? Ahh, but baseball... the voices of radio are gigantic. Harwell, Caray, Brickhouse, Scully, Buck.

Nothing beats Jerry Trupiano's "Swing and a drive! WAY BACK! WAAAY BACK! HOME RUN!" :)

Who cares? THE single most boring game ever invented.

Who cares? THE single most boring game ever invented.
Ever watched some guy bat for like 37 consecutive hours in a cricket match? I hate baseball as much as the next guy, but there are tons of sports that are more boring.

VegasVic, ask the average music fan to sit through a Zappa album. While I'm into diggin all three acts of Joe's Garage, most folks would be bored silly at the weird noises eminating from the speakers. Yes? No?

What's boring to one is another's fascination.

Ask your friends or co-workers to watch an entire stage of the Tour de France. Or golf. Or poker. Or darts. Or whatever.

Most sports and pastimes are not boring once one immerses themselves into said sport or pastime. The intricacies and minutiae are what make things fascinating.

baseball blows goats.

...it's almost time for real baseball.....and this could be the year....

That the Tampa Ray Devil rays win the World series:D .

for the steroid taking, striking and ending the world series, spoiled cheating losers to lose a few more fans and slide further down the popularity polls? I do not see the fascination with baseball. But that is just me. I would rather watch high school football than pro baseball.

I smell a fellow texan. lol yea i agree baseball is great to play but not to watch.

Sorry for you guys and gals who don't get baseball. It's the best game in sports imo.

My team has sucked for the last three years but springtime always brings new hope.

baseball blows goats.


....like i said before...it's an intellectual's game....

I was sad to hear today that the Cardinals manager received a standing ovation when he returned to the field after his DUI arrest. Drunk drivers kill thousands of people every year and maim thousands more. MLB has once again chosen to stick its head in the sand when one of their own does wrong.

Said it once and I will say it again, if I had to choose between high school football and major league baseball, I would choose the high school football game every time. I guess I just do not possess the intelligence and intellect to appreaciate the intracies of steriod abusers that lie to Congress breaking legitimate records while being managed by drunk drivers, all of whom go unpunished by their governing bodies.

Said it once and I will say it again, if I had to choose between high school football and major league baseball, I would choose the high school football game every time. I guess I just do not possess the intelligence and intellect to appreaciate the intracies of steriod abusers that lie to Congress breaking legitimate records while being managed by drunk drivers, all of whom go unpunished by their governing bodies.
Ha!

If you only knew the steroid abuse going on in high school sports these days. Is it because they didn't get subpoenaed by Congress that they get a pass?

And many a high school football player has been known to knock back a keg or three and then wrap a car around a tree or some such other stereotypical jock action while under the influence.

If you don't like baseball, just say it. Trying to justify why you don't like baseball because of hypocrisy of drugs and drinking is specious reasoning.

Oh Hells yea!

I personally think that everyone is watching the wrong records getting topped. I seriously think this is the year that Biggio ensures MLB immortality with an influx to his Hit By Pitches record!

Oh Hells yea!

oh my my
oh hell yeah
you got to put on that party dress

buy me a drink
sing me a song
take me as i am
cause i cant stay long

oh my my
oh hell yeah
you got to put on that party dress

buy me a drink
sing me a song
take me as i am
cause i cant stay long
Tom Petty rocks. Okay, the power of Tom Petty has brought me around, baseball is ok, not great but , ok. No more hating from me. Play Ball!!!:D

Go Yanks!

Should be a very, very interesting year. Can't wait!!

Reds-Indians

Since I was 10 years old, this has been my dream World Series. This is the year.....but I say that every year. Baseball is a great sport. Nothing's better than kicking back on a warm summer day, drinking a cold beer out in the bleachers. I've been to countless basketball and football games, and I love both sports, but nothing compares to baseball, the sights, sounds, even the smells.....it's almost zen like at the ballpark...any ballpark, from little league games to major league games, they're all great.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot:
"YANKEES SUCK!!!!!"

Oh, yeah, almost forgot:
"YANKEES SUCK!!!!!"


that goes without saying...but I'll second the motion

Oh, yeah, almost forgot:
"YANKEES SUCK!!!!!"


that goes without saying...but I'll second the motion
+1, AJC, we have found some common baseball ground upon which we both agree!!!!!

Lets all say it together

1... 2... 3....

"YANKEES SUCK!!!!!","YANKEES SUCK!!!!!","YANKEES SUCK!!!!!","YANKEES SUCK!!!!!"

While it is known to be a fact that the aforementioned Yankees do, in fact, "suck," hollering out all the time just makes them more obnoxious.

As a Cardinal fan, I also know, for a certain fact, that the Cubs "suck," however it's more fun to watch them collapse than it is to taunt them verbally with what the Cubs and their masochistic fans already know.

:)