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Let’s Go Shopping for Hardware

Before we get to today’s blog content: I have a new ESPN column today. It’s a follow-up to last Friday’s column about All-Star Game batting helmet mix-ups. I’m excited about this one because it adds a lot to the historical record, including some stuff I had previously known about but forgotten and some stuff that’s completely new to me. Check it out here. My thanks to all of you who contributed info and photos.

Now then: Yesterday I looked at a bunch of stuff from the MLB All-Star FanFest. But there was one particularly interesting FanFest exhibit that I didn’t mention, because I wanted to give it its own entry: an exhibit of MLB award trophies, plaques, and related items.

Did you realize that the top base stealer in the National League each year is awarded something called the Lou Brock award? Sure enough, here it is (for all of these photos, you can click to enlarge):

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The National League also gives out the annual Mel Ott Award, which goes to the Senior Circuit’s top home run hitter each season:

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Another accolade you might not know about is the Hank Aaron Award, which is given to the top offensive player in each league:

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You’ve probably heard of the Roberto Clemente Award, which is given to the player who makes the greatest humanitarian efforts in a given year. It’s a beauty, especially when viewed from behind:

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The winner of last night’s Home Run Derby won this trophy, featuring a pair of crossed bats:

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The MVP of tonight’s All-Star game will win a glass bat, like this one:

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Looking ahead to October, the World Series MVP will win this trophy:

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One of the biggest surprises for me was that the MVP awards are fairly conventional-looking plaques, not all that different than an “Employee of the Month” plaque (this one is for the American League, but the National League version is identical):

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The Jackie Robinson Award, given to the Rookie of the Year in each league, is also a fairly conventional plaque (again, the two league versions are essentially identical):

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Finally, there’s something I’d never heard of before — the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award, which is not an annual award. It has been given out 12 times, as explained in the placard accompanying the trophy case:

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Notice anything missing? The Cy Young Award! It’s always been my favorite-looking baseball trophy (although some of you have told me you think it looks weird, or even disturbing, which I don’t really understand), and it’s probably more visually familiar than any of these other awards. But for some reason it wasn’t included in this display. Odd.

Okay, that’s it for the FanFest. As you’re about to see, we have a lot of other content today, so let’s get crackin’.

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Sponsorship chatter: Stage 14 of the Tour de France, which took place on Saturday, featured some interesting commentary from TV broadcasters Paul Sherwen and Phil Liggett (yes, Paul and Phil — very Uni Watch). Here it is, as transcribed by reader Joe Walsh:

Paul Sherwen: You might just notice that the rider in the red white and blue there, Arthur Vichot, who is the French national champion, has absolutely no publicity on his national champion’s jersey. Well, a few years ago it was a rule that you weren’t allowed to put publicity onto the French national jersey. At the time, Bernard Hinault was racing and in fact the team asked Bernard Hinault not to win the national championships because they wanted him to ride in his trade team. But this decision by Française des Jeux, FDJ, is they wanted to honor the French national championships jersey, so they put no publicity on it at all.

Phil Liggett: That’s a very good point. You know, I never noticed that. Very good point indeed. And of course now everyone wants to know who his sponsor is. So we’ll tell you, it’s FDJ. And they obviously don’t think like everybody else.
. So take a look at the national championships jersey of Holland here, you can’t see the jersey for the writing.

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Culinary Corner: Some people love to make pies. Me, I like to make things that are sort of pie-like but aren’t exactly pies. Instead of apple pie, for example, I prefer to make tarte tatin (much easier, tastier, and it impresses people because of the fancy-ass French name). And instead of cherry pie, I like to make a cherry crisp. I made one just the other day, in fact (see above) — first time in a few years. Not sure why it had fallen out of my repertoire, but I think it’s gonna stay in heavy rotation now, because it’s really good.

My cherry crisp is based on two separate recipes. The filling comes from a cherry cobbler recipe that ran in Cook’s Illustrated magazine in 2001, and the topping comes from my mother’s apple crisp recipe, although I’ve modified it by adding chopped nuts to it.

In order to make this recipe properly, you’ll need four 25-oz. jars of pitted Morello cherries — preferably from Trader Joe’s, although other brands are okay to use. I know, I know — it’s better to use fresh fruit, not the jarred stuff. But stemming and pitting a few pounds of cherries is a major pain in the ass, plus jarred cherries are surprisingly good, plus-plus the recipe calls for using some of the juice that the jarred charries are packed in. So that’s the way to go.

The crisp is super-easy to make and takes surprisingly little time. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a baker, you can do this! Trust me. Here’s how:

1. Before you do anything else, take a stick and a half of unsalted butter out of the fridge and let it sit out on the counter to soften. Give it at least 90 minutes, or even more. You want it to be really mushy. While it’s softening, get out the other tools you’ll need: a 9″ by 13″ glass baking pan; a whisk; a colander or strainer; a measuring cup or glass that can measure at least two cups; a flour sifter; and a medium saucepan.

2. Position the colander or strainer over the measuring glass. Open the cherries and pour them into the strainer, capturing the juice in the measuring glass. As you empty each jar, transfer the drained cherries to the 9″ by 13″ glass baking dish and spread them out evenly. Meanwhile, save the captured cherry juice up until it hits two cups’ worth. (You should hit that amount after draining about two jars of cherries, or maybe part of the third jar.) As for the remaining juice that accumulates after the two-cup mark, you can save it or dump it. But you only need two cups for this recipe.

3. Put a cup sugar, 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of cornstarch, and a pinch of salt into the medium saucepan and whisk to combine. Then add the two cups of cherry juice, a cup of dry red wine, and a stick of cinnamon. Place over medium-high heat, stirring with the whisk, until the mixture starts to thicken and reduce a bit, which should take about five minutes. If it doesn’t thicken, you can add a smidge more cornstarch, but only do this as a last resort — give it time to cook and thicken.

4. Once the juice/wine mixture has thickened, remove it from the heat, fish out the cinnamon stick, and stir in a quarter-teaspoon of almond extract. Then pour the whole thing over the evenly spread cherries in the glass baking dish.

5. Put the stick and a half of softened butter in a large-ish bowl. Add a cup of dark brown sugar use a large wooden spoon or something similar to combine. Then add a cup of Quaker Oats (or other plain oatmeal), three-quarters of a cup of chopped walnuts, and a cup of sifted flour. Stir to combine until you end up with something that resembles coarse meal.

6. Use your hands to pick up pieces of the butter/oatmeal mixture and place the pieces over the cherries in the baking dish. There’s no “right” or “wrong” way to do this — you’re just looking to cover the top of the cherries completely. It’s slightly sloppy work, but it isn’t tricky or anything like that. (You’ll be tempted to lick your fingers as you go, because the topping is delicious, but don’t do that — think of your guests.)

7. Put the baking dish into a 325 º oven for about half an hour. Let the crisp cool at least a bit, or completely, before serving. The filling will definitely be too hot to eat straight out of the oven.

And there you have it. You can add whipped cream or ice cream if you want, but it really isn’t necessary. The crisp is fine by itself. You’ll see.

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Collector’s Corner

By Brinke Guthrie

The point of Collector’s Corner is to remind you of stuff you had when you were growing up back in the day. Nostalgia rules. Reader Scott Hord recently wrote in about this very thing:

I was looking at the link for the Niners bank this morning and it made me think of a radio I had as a kid — a Miami Dolphins AM transistor radio. My parents got it for me for Christmas when I was eight or nine, which would have been late ’70s. Loved that thing. Believe they got it from the JC Penny’s catalog, which seemed like the only outlet for finding Dolphins stuff for a young kid living in central Pennsylvania. Think my Mom ended up throwing it out when I got older and it no longer worked.

All Moms did this, Scott, not just yours.

As for the rest of this week’s haul:

• Check out the cover art on this 1950 Niners game program. Don’t do ’em like this anymore, eh?

• Holy mackerel — a huge lot of Gatorade NFL lids.

• Here’s a 1970s Dolphins wooden coat rack — and the seller will throw in a 2001 team pennant, too.

• Heh, here’s a cloth remnant. It’s 3′ by 7′ and boy does it have some classic NFL artwork on there. Take a look!

• This old Mets tee doesn’t look all that remarkable, but I’m including it because it’s made by Champion, maker of the softest T-shirts known to man (or woman, for that matter).

• Here’s a 1960s Hormel NFL tin, just the Browns and the CB logo.

• This 1970s NHL bedspread is nice, but why are the California Golden Seals the only team that gets their actual font used?

•  And we wrap up with something from CC favorite Michael Clary, who found two baseball-themed Batman comics! Look here and here.

Seen something on eBay or Etsy that you think would make good Collector’s Corner fodder? Send your submissions here.

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Looking ahead: As longtime readers may recall, I take a one-month break from the site each summer, so I can recharge my batteries and retain my sanity (not necessarily in that order). My break this year will begin next Thursday, July 25. Phil will be in charge of the site from that date until Aug. 26, when I’ll reclaim the helm. Phil will be handling all the site’s weekday content while I’m on break, and webmaster Johnny Ek will handle the weekends.

The Uni Watch email address will be forwarded to Phil during my break, so all Ticker submissions and such will end up going directly to him. If you have a specific question or issue that only I can deal with, he’ll send those emails back to me.

I’ll still be writing things for ESPN work during this period (Phil will provide links, of course), and maybe I’ll even make a few cameo appearances here on the blog if events warrant. I’ll also be working on my annual college football season-preview column, which will appear on ESPN on Aug. 27-ish. I’ll be watching the site (and other sites) for college football news, natch. But if you’re submitting any college football Ticker items to Phil while I’m away, it would be great if you could cc me at newcollegeuni at gmail. Can do? Thanks.

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’Skins Watch: Someone on eBay is selling a bunch of old ’Skins programs from the 1950s. As you can see, many of them featured very photorealistic illustrations of Native American chiefs. “I find them a bit ironic in light of the team name and the owner’s well-known racist attitude, but the sketches are very well done and quite respectful,” says reader Frank Bitzer.

I’d never seen these before. I think the real problem with them is that they depict Indians as primitive savages (or savage primitives), instead of depicting the reality of Indian life in the 1950s. That’s the big gripe among many Native Americans who object to Native imagery in sports — they feel that they’re treated like relics, artifacts, historical cartoons, instead of as a living, breathing, ongoing culture.

What do you think?

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Uni Watch News Ticker: Looks like Houston football is getting new shoulder stripes, side panels, and number outlining (from Greg Popes). … Key passage in this article about changes to Citi Field for the All-Star Game: “[Mets equipment manager Kevin] Kierst said he would dedicate as many as three people to filling Gatorade jugs and setting them on the field for the Home Run Derby in high-visibility places for television cameras.” Why not just change Major League Baseball’s name to Sponsors R Us and get it over with? ”¦ New York Philharmonic conductor Alan Gilbert wore an All-Star Game BP jersey for the MLB Charity Concert the other day. ”¦ The University of New Orleans is revealing its new logo one piece at a time. ”¦ Here’s a video about the Sabres’ equipment managers (from Adrian Acosta). ”¦ Yesterday I Ticker-linked to a photo that showed a batboy from the 1987 MLB All-Star Game wearing a yellow cap. That prompted James Poisso to post a link to this cap, which he says is likely what the batboy was wearing. Never seen that cap before. ”¦ “Good idea: corporate sponsor giving jersey space to a charity,” says Caleb Borchers. “Bad idea: deciding they still have to include their logo and a bunch of other crap as well.” … More NBA teams wearing sleeved jerseys for the Summer League: the Lakers and Bobcats (from Vivek Tanna and Andrew Cosentino, respectively). … Here’s something I’d forgotten about: In 2003, MLB planned to have players wear the All-Star BP jerseys in the All-Star Game itself, but then they backed off of that plan (from Rich DeMarco). … Randy Williams was going through some old boxes and found a 1982 World Cup keychain, a sleeve patch from his Little League days, and a Danny Frisella Fan Club pin. “The Frisella pin is from 1970,” he says. “The Mets held spring training in St. Petersburg, where I grew up, and we went to many games back then. Somehow we met Danny and his family one day, struck up a friendship, and they gave us this button. We also sat with them when we went to Atlanta to see the Mets and Braves play. Interestingly, Danny was traded to the Braves a couple years later and we still went up every year. Unfortunately, Danny was killed in a dune buggy accident during spring training after he was traded to the Brewers.” … Very nice stirrups for the Concordia University Irvine softball team (from Denver Gregg). … Check out these great old Red Sox sweaters! From left: Bill Carrigan, Fred Anderson, Clyde Engle, fan Michael McGreevey, Jake Stahl, and Charley Hall (from Jim Bowles). … Steve Miller is doing a free concert at Turner Field, so the Braves ran an ad referencing “The Joker” and using a jersey. “Would be even better if ‘Maurice’ were a real player,” says Michael Raymer. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Here’s a page with lots of old photos and drawings of NYC ballparks. … A Seattle Post Intelligencer writer, who’s apparently quite the comedian, has asked if the Seahawks have the greatest NFL uniform of all time (from Nigel Herbig). … New football championship trophy for the SEC (from Britton Thomas). … The new Wendy’s logo may or may not have a hidden maternal message (from my ESPN editor Dave Wilson). … According to this mailbag column, the ’Skins have no plans to add a black alternate jersey (from Tommy Turner). … Mike McLaughlin notes that recent Mariners call-up Brad Miller consistently wears stirrups. … Someone who didn’t give his/her name reports that Chadron State has new football uniforms. … New matte black helmet for Coastal Carolina (from Chris Flinn). … Yesterday’s edition of the comic strip “Family Circus” included stirrups (from Alex Allen). … “I’m a teacher, and I recently found out that one of my students attended the recent Mariners/Cubs throwback game,” says Chris Engebo. “An official M’s photographer got a nice shot of him in period attire.” … Penn State football is keeping its NOBs. … New jerseys for the Windsor Spitfires (from Brian Thompson). ”¦ Remember how I mentioned yesterday that MLB was requiring FanFest attendees to remove the labels from non-Aquafina bottles of water? That prompted the following from Zach Wright: “I will always remove the Aquafina label from their bottles from now on — unless they pay me for advertising for them.” ”¦ “The American Outlaws are the biggest fan club, or supporter’s group, of USA Soccer,” says Juan Pinillos. “They have over 80 chapters nationwide, and some of them have come up with very cool logos. Further info here.” ”¦ The whole “Got [whatever]?” thing is soooo played out at this point, but I might make an exception for this awesome T-shirt, as modeled by Rays pitcher David Price (big thanks to Ken G). ”¦ Here are this year’s Notre Dame football cleats (from Warren Junium). ”¦ With so many MLB players now hailing from the Caribbean and Central and South America, I’ve long thought that one of the most important skills a baseball beat reporter can have these days is the ability to speak Spanish. But when ESPN’s Pedro Gomez conducted some bilingual interviews during last night’s coverage of the Home Run Derby, the nativists got restless. Unsurprising, I suppose, but still depressing. ”¦ Looks like the White Sox and Indians played a very dark color-on-color game back in 1977 (from Dennis Hasty). ”¦ Not uni-related but plenty entertaining: The Jimmy Fallon folks sent All-Star Game starter Matt Harvey out with a camera crew and had him ask Mets fans about Matt Harvey, which turned out to be hilarious because nobody recognized him. Recommended viewing (if you can’t see the embedded video, click here):

 
  
 
Comments (131)

    I studied the Wendy’s logo just now and thought the hidden message was the Little Dipper formation in freckles on one of her cheeks.

    So anytime the Indians broke out their dark-colored jerseys at home in 1977 they would have had to play a color-on-color game against the White Sox, since I don’t think Chicago had any traditional road grays that season. Still interesting to see visual evidence…

    Those ’70s White Sox uniforms would look much more awesome if they didn’t have NOBs, particularly in that huge size.

    That’s the Cy Young Award trophy, which depicts the dead hand of Cy Young reaching from the grave to hand the ball to the player deemed worthy to pitch in his place:

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    Or anyway, that’s the legend I prefer.

    In that collection of Washington football programs on eBay, one jumped out at me:

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    I am very curious if there is any backstory for that illustration.

    In the “also viewed” links at the bottom of the page, there is a 1979 media guide with the American flag colors incorporated into the subject’s hair:
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    And the depictions also extended to the tickets as well:
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    I don’t recall anything specifically in 1947 for the steel industry or Pittsburgh, but there was a wave of labor strikes in the years after WWII ended in 1945. (Labor strikes were largely outlawed during the war, so there was pent-up labor conflict after the war.) There was a major steel strike in 1946, as well as several Pittsburgh strikes that year. The wave of labor strikes was a major national issue in those years, and the Steelers were a team associated by name with industry and labor (as opposed to, say, the Eagles or Redskins.) So a cartoon depicting the Steelers as big industry and the Redskins as a picketing worker works as a sort of general commentary on the times.

    It would have been a much more pointed illustration in 1952, when President Truman tried to seize the steel industry to prevent a national strike. The Courts blocked Truman’s order and a national strike shut down the steel industry that summer.

    Interesting discussion on the best Seahawks uniform. While I would never consider it one of the best, I am surprised the poll doesn’t have the option of voting for the original version from their first season with the plain silver helmet.

    Because that uniform only existed on Topps football cards. The Seahawks did NOT wear blank helmets, ever. It’s been debunked hundreds of times. This joke isn’t funny anymore.

    Correct! Everyone’s helmet was blank that year on Topps cards. And some other years too.

    I wish American English-speaking game broadcasters, sports desk folks, and beat writers would learn a tad bit of Spanish just so that they can pronounce the names correctly. Granted, there are some players who grow up in the US whose last names end up pronounced in an American way (e.g. Chavez, Avila, Aviles, etc). So in those cases, it’s important to ask the player. But there are so many times where I KNOW the news folks just flat out get it wrong because of ignorance.

    Most common…
    Jimenez… It’s /he-MAIN-ez/ not /HIM-uh-nez/

    The others I listed…
    Chavez… It’s /CHAH-vez/ not /shuh-VEZ/ (That one shouldn’t be that complicated. It’s Spanish!)
    Avila… It’s /AH-vee-lah/ not /ah-VEE-luh/
    Aviles… It’s /ah-vee-LAYZ/ not /uh-VEE-layz/

    I’m not totally certain about the current players in MLB with names Avila and Aviles, because they have some US roots. But Wikipedia shows that Mike Aviles is Puerto Rican and lists the correct Spanish pronunciation with the accent.
    The Tigers’ Alex Avila is of Cuban descent but grew up in South Florida. Wikipedia does not show the accent on his name. So I can’t be certain.

    I’d like to see a pronunciation guide (preferably in the International Phonetic Alphabet) become a standard item in any athlete’s biography, right there with birthdate, birthplace, height, weight, etc.

    You’d think that announcers — people who make their living with their voices — would be spearheading a movement for this kind of thing.

    Come to think of it, I wonder what Yankees PA announcing legend Bob Sheppard did in this regard. I’m betting that, as a speech professor, he kept his own records of phonetic transcriptions of players’ names.

    I recall reading that Bob Sheppard used to ask players before games how they wanted their names to be pronounced. He liked announcing names that had different accents and syllables–his favorite name to announce was Shigetoshi Hasegawa.

    Broadcasters, at least on the news side, do regularly maintain pronunciation lists, and broadcast reporters generally do ask people how they pronounce their names. (And so goes the one time per year I will say nice things about broadcast journalism.) If sports broadcasters aren’t doing so, it means they’re failing at the basic requirements of their jobs, not that they just haven’t managed to think of a way to accomplish this difficult task.

    But I’ve never heard an American get it as wrong as a BBC broadcaster I saw in 2004, who pronounced the Red Sox’ shortstop’s name with a perfect Castilian lisp:

    noh-MARLH gar-THEE-AH-parlh-ah

    A valiant effort, but the dude’s a jock from California, not the king of Spain.

    As a Polish guy with consonant soup for a last name and an anglicized pronunciation from 4 generations in Canada, I certainly appreciate it when people ASK me how to pronounce my name rather than TELL me how to pronounce my name. But that’s just me.

    I’ve noticed the Dodgers’ PA announcer always announces Angel Pagan with the Spanish pronunciation for both first and last names; virtually everyone else announces “Angel” with its American pronunciation.

    I’ve always wanted to use the Spanish pronunciation for him, too (/AHN-hail/). But then I’ve never been sure if he just preferred the English pronunciation. Wikipedia has the Spanish accent on the A for both Angel Pagan and Angel Hernandez.

    This is why, if I were a broadcaster or PA announcer, I would personally visit each player and learn how they want their name to be pronounced. Some guys don’t mind over-Anglicized pronunciations and others do.

    (In fact, if I ever had a chance to apply for such a job, this is probably what I’d use to appeal to the team or station that I wanted to be hired by.)

    You can say any phoneme, in any language — even those exotic African click sounds — if you just listen to it and concentrate.

    A first name that isn’t shared by many players, but is often spoken is Yadier. Pronounced in Spanish (and by the PA announcer at Roberto Clemente Stadium) ya-DJER.

    MLB has, by far, the dumbest trophies, design-wise. None of them can really be held up comfortably. And they’re all a predictable bat and/or ball. A baseball is fine. But bats just aren’t easily displayed.

    The NHL has the best trophies. You just have to learn the names and which ones are for which achievements.

    That Jimmy Fallon “Matt Harvey” bit was funny. Sadly, I could care less about the All-Star game tonight.

    This coming from someone who’d keep score of the game as a 12 year-old. Now, it’s simply an indicator that summer’s halfway over.

    I cared a lot about the ASG when I was a kid.

    Then I stopped caring, because only kids care about the ASG.

    And then I started dong Uni Watch, which sucked me back into the ASG, because the ASG often features helmet snafus, unusual footwear, etc.

    And I admit that I’m excited to see Matt Harvey starting the game, even though I think all the hype about him is a bit premature.

    The whole World Series home-field thing has actually helped me care a little bit about the ASG. Not to the extent that I care about, say, any given regular-season game involving the Twins or Nats, but at least as much as I’d care about, say, a late-summer game between two out-of-the-running teams I sort of root for (Brewers at Padres!). Anyway, it’s precisely because of the home-field thing that I care enough to mind that Harvey is starting. Kid needs to be on a very short hook; it’s unfair to the league if World Series home-field rides on Mets pitching. If he throws a single scoreless inning, it’s an OK stunt for the home crowd. If he allows so much as a runner on second, it’s a travesty!

    The home-field thing isn’t enough to really get me to watch the game.

    I only care enough that I’d like to see the NL win. For the home-field thing, sure, but mostly because I’m a Pirates fan. The home-field thing makes me a tiny pinch more hoping for a win.

    As horrible as every-day interleague is, the home field advantage ASG rule is BY FAR the worst of the Selig changes.

    It’s a frickkin exhibition where the players involved are chosen via online ballot stuffing and you’re going to allow the championship of the league to be influenced by it?!?!?!

    Absolutely, positively, phenomenally stupid.

    Either it’s “fun for the fans” or it’s “meaningful.” It can’t be both.

    But the choice isn’t between “a frickkin exhibition where the players involved are chosen via online ballot stuffing” and some fair system of earning home-field by merit or record. The choice is between the ASG and alternating years based on the calendar. That’s the system the ASG replaced. It’s even more arbitrary and divorced from the actual play of the game than the ASG option, which makes the ASG thing, marginally, the better choice, if you’re into things like rewarding performance rather than arbitrarily applying abstract rules.

    Me, I’m an arbitrary abstract rules guy, so I’d just as soon go back to alternating years. But it’s a non sequitur to argue that WS home field advantage should be earned and that therefore the ASG thing is bad. If you want WS home-field to be earned, then the ASG thing is an improvement over what came before, which makes it one of Selig’s best reforms. From the perspective of a fan who wants WS home-field to be earned, that is, which I’ve found that most critics of the ASG thing do.

    The choice is between the ASG and alternating years based on the calendar. That’s the system the ASG replaced. It’s even more arbitrary and divorced from the actual play of the game than the ASG option, which makes the ASG thing, marginally, the better choice…

    You can’t compare those two systems. It’s like comparing apples and motorcycles — they have no relation to each other.

    The problem with determining home-field advantage (or anything else) on the basis of the ASG outcome is that the game is not played or managed to win. The game is played and managed to make sure everyone gets into the game, to ensure that certain pitchers don’t overtax their arms, etc. Winning the game is secondary, or even tertiary, in terms of priorities. If something isn’t being played to win, then you can’t let anything else be determined by its outcome.

    I see nothing wrong with letting home field alternate back and forth by year — seems like a perfectly acceptable way to do it, frankly, and I never had any problem with it back when they did it that way. If you want to peg home field to something, then give it to the team with the best record. But pegging it to a game that isn’t even played to win is ridiculous.

    Never understood why home field advantage in the WS wasn’t decided on winning percentage. MLB probably spouts off logistics but, if the NBA and NHL can do it, why can’t MLB?

    I still watch if I’m not doing something else but, in my mid-40s, it’s no longer the must-see event for me that it used to be.

    You can’t compare those two systems. It’s like comparing apples and motorcycles – they have no relation to each other.

    No, that’s an apples-to-apples comparison, in that those are the only two apples we’ve ever had. MLB used to use the alternating-year system, which it replaced with the ASG-winner system. They are the only two actual alternative we’ve ever actually had. If the ASG did not determine World Series advantage today, then whether the year is even or odd, would.

    And the whole purpose of awarding it to the ASG winner was to give ASG managers greater incentive to manage to win, not just to get every player in. Which is something every self-respecting traditionalist should approve, since that’s how the ASG used to be played. Just getting picked was an honor; not everyone in the dugout got to play, or expected to play, unless they were needed in a game situation to help the team win. So anything that bends the ethic of ASG management and playing back toward the old tradition should be a good thing.

    Like I said, I’d be plenty happy returning to alternating years. But if one believes, as most claim to, that World Series home-field should involve merit, not mere arbitrariness, then the ASG thing is an improvement over the system that it replaced, and therefore a positive mark on Selig’s record.

    I’m back in on the ASG. I was out for a while after the tie. I think part of it for me now is that due to various circumstances I haven’t had TV for the last couple years. I just finally got an antenna for over the air stuff so this one of my few chances to see many of these players. Feels kind of old school. I’m digging it.

    I think people who grew up in the 60s & 70s looked forward to the All-Star game because it was one of their few chances to see many MLB teams.

    In Buffalo, we got the NBC Saturday game, the ABC Monday Night Baseball broadcast, and the Expos and (later) the Blue Jays on Canadian TV. By that standards of most viewers, that was an embarrassment of baseball. If you lived in, say, Denver, you were lucky if you had access to two ballgames a week. No cable, no Superstations, no Interwebs.

    It’s the same reason we looked forward to This Week In Baseball, still the best highlight show ever. Who can forget Mel Allen rhapsodizing about the fielding wizrdry of the Indians’ Duane Kuiper?

    Today, we have a surfeit of baseball, dozens of games every day, and endless highlight clips. Who needs a midsummer exhibition game?

    I’m 25 and I still love the All-Star Game. Is the home field advantage rule stupid? I think it absolutely is.

    But as I’m a baseball romantic, the way I see it is this: How can I love baseball and not love the ONE night per year where baseball’s best players are on the field at the same time?

    It’s never going to get old for me, no matter how goofy they make it.

    I’m 31 and I still giddily turn on the TV like a little kid just to see all 30 uniforms lined up during introductions. Probably my earliest uni-geek moment and one I still enjoy immensely.

    Growing up in an AL city before cable TV and national broadcasts, the All Star Game used to be the only way to see a lot of players and uniforms, especially NL teams. My young baseball-watching intersected with a lot of great players of the 1970s but I never got to see them play other than at the ASG.

    Too bad the “Lou Brock” award sports the wrong font of “2” on the back. I don’t think the Cards (or Cubs!) ever had that Athletic Block font on their jerseys. Clemente’s award has the correct font of “2,” so someone pays attention to detail.

    I have a friend who is an FBI agent. He has worked the organized crime desk in the Northeast, drug gangs in poor urban areas and an Indian reservation beat in the Midwest.

    He has described the rampant, utter hopelessness of those reservations in great detail (drug & alcohol abuse, child abuse both physical and sexual, domestic violence); the worst urban ghettos pale in comparison to what takes place on the reservations.

    America conveniently ignores these people and their plight. I doubt that football fans would have cared to see this “reality of Indian life” (the ’50s reservations differed little from today’s, from what I understand, except that the poverty was somehow even worse) on their football publications.

    I see the seemingly daily stories on here about the Redskins and their offensive name and generally ignore them. The Indians on the reservations have been stuck in a cycle that would turn the stomachs of most Americans if they really saw what was happening there, yet no one can figure out how to really help them. The continued use of the Redskins name and logos strikes me as trivial in the scheme of things.

    My experience on reserves (and with urban aboriginals) in western Canada is the same as your friends.

    But so what?

    I’ll agree with you that the current state of affairs, living conditions, addiction levels, etc. is a much worse issue than the issue of team names. But racist team names are still wrong, and its a specious argument to say that we shouldn’t be talking about one bad thing because there are much worse things going on.

    Look at every single genocidal movement of the last 100 years. They don’t start by people waking up and marching their neighbors to the trains. There is a process:

    1. Demonize the group to be oppressed, playing on pre-existing prejudices. Use the popular media to make them the object of scorn and ridicule.

    2. Establish a mythology of depravity. Spread rumors about their proclivity for substance abuse, indolence, and sexual aberration. Make them seem less than human.

    3. Seize their property. Deny them education and job advancement opportunities. If you can convince the public it’s because the group in question lacks the “necessaries” for these positions, or that their being in these positions amounts to “robbing the place of the truly deserving,” so much the better.

    4. Put them in detention centers, preferably in really remote, inhospitable places, places visited by few outsiders. Given the public perception that these are less than human beings, it will be easy to convince the public that these people not only love living in these places, they deserve it. At this point, you can do whatever you want, and the public will not care.

    Cultural insensitivity (like calling a football team “The Wild, Possibly Drunken, Aboriginal Baby Scalpers”) is not genocide, any more than a freshly fertilized human egg is an All-Pro defensive back. But you never get All-Pro defensive backs without first having freshly fertilized human eggs. And you don’t get the conditions for the degradation of a people without having established cultural traditions that trivialize, demonize, or marginalize that people.

    Cultural insensitivity (like calling a football team “The Wild, Possibly Drunken, Aboriginal Baby Scalpers”) is not genocide, any more than a freshly fertilized human egg is an All-Pro defensive back. But you never get All-Pro defensive backs without first having freshly fertilized human eggs. And you don’t get the conditions for the degradation of a people without having established cultural traditions that trivialize, demonize, or marginalize that people.

    Well said, Cort! I was goig to say more or less the same thing, but you said it more eloquently, and with more passion, than I could.

    While fiction, there was a great comic series from the last few years published by Vertigo/DC Comics called Scalped about an Indian FBI agent undercover on the reservation where he grew up as a kid, working for the crooked/evil casino owner.

    I’ve found that crisp toppings come out better when you use cold butter, as opposed to softened or even melted butter. If you have a food processor, add all of the dry ingredients, and then add the cold and cubed butter. Pulse it maybe about 8-10 times, only until large clumps form. You don’t want to over-mix it. Top the cherries with the crisp topping and bake as the recipe states. After it’s baked, the topping will look great, and have a browned and crunchy texture.

    If you don’t have a food processor, you can just cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients using a pastry blender, a fork, or even the tips of your fingers. Again, just be careful not to over-mix it, melting the butter.

    This is good advice.

    Cold butter and cold water are two keys to super flaky pie crusts, too.

    I don’t get how you can describe those Redskins programs as featuring “savage” imagery, unless you consider pre-modern American Indians savages to begin with.

    Thanks, but I’m pretty comfortable with my understanding of the definitions and connotations of the word, especially when it’s modifying (or being modified by) “primitive.”

    Re-reading that entry, yeah, Paul did seem to get a bit redundant by using the word primitive in there, as it can alter how the word savage is interpreted in this case.

    A more accurate phrase to describe the imagery in this case would be “noble savage”. Still not the most flattering of terms…

    Last week there was a Twitter trending topic #lesspopularwrestlers. I definitely saw a “Macho Man Fred Savage” somewhere in there.

    Kind of odd to me (although happy to see it!) that Brad Miller is wearing stirrups. He is a Clemson alum and Clemson has long been known for having the “Clemson-cut” baseball pants, which are basically just long pants that go all the way to the shoe. They’re not baggy at all, but they just don’t leave any room for stirrups to be seen. But good for him for getting the call-up and even better for rockin the ‘rups!

    Ebbetts Field was a glorious ballpark. It’s a real shame that there is no MLB team in Brooklyn, playing in a park just like Ebbetts Field.

    Good column, but the “Sweet Spot” setup looks strange to me. David Schoenfield gets a byline above the other contributors’ bylines? Shouldn’t his be “edited by” or something when there’s another credited writer?

    So the two leagues still have their own separate trophies that they give away exclusively. Interesting, considering that they haven’t been separate leagues since 2000. I’m still waiting for the day that MLB decides to go with a radical realignment, ditches the AL and NL designations, and go with an east-west format similar to the NBA and NHL.

    As for Pedophile State keeping their names on back? I still think that entire university should’ve lost their regional accreditation, which would basically make a degree from there worthless.

    “I still think that entire university should’ve lost their regional accreditation, which would basically make a degree from there worthless.”

    I don’t know about that. Trust me, I couldn’t stand the “you’re hurting all the football players who had nothing to do with this” argument because I still feel like punishing the football program (the thing that was most trying to be protected) was the right thing. But removing accreditation would’ve been way too far-reaching, I think.

    There was serious consideration of them losing regional accreditation. This wasn’t speculation, either: the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools publicly said it was reviewing their accreditation. (It eventually allowed them to keep it.) If they had lost it, it would’ve meant State College would’ve been ineligible to receive federal financial aid: in effect, the entire university system would’ve been forced to shut down. (And I’m sure land-grant universities in nearby states such as Ohio State, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Rutgers, and SUNY would’ve been more than happy to take in all of their students.) That was one of those cases where the NCAA couldn’t really give ENOUGH punishment, just like the financial settlements that State College is going to pay the victims isn’t enough money. There is NO AMOUNT OF MONEY IN THIS WORLD that you can pay those victims for what they went through.

    It would also show that the NCAA needs some sort of reform. If Ohio State wasn’t on a postseason ban last year (on something that compared to the Jerry Sandusky case, looked like absolutely nothing), the SEC’s streak would’ve ended last year: it would’ve been Notre Dame and Ohio State for the national championship, not Notre Dame and Alabama. (Although I’m going strictly by win-loss records here: I think Alabama was better than Notre Dame.) The fact that between Ohio State and Pedophile State both being ineligible for the postseason last year, third-place Wisconsin won the Leaders Division, then went on to win the Big Ten Championship Game and lost in a surprisingly competitive Rose Bowl shows that the NCAA is a joke.

    While I still have some issues with it, thanks for the information. I wasn’t really aware that that was even on the table.

    link But, like I said before, they have since link

    Personally, I would’ve been more than OK with them losing regional accreditation–it’s what should’ve actually happened. A lot of people don’t realize that losing regional accreditation is much more of a big deal than anything the NCAA can do.

    Why would baseball radically realign? No chance ever for a Freeway World Series, Bay Area Series, Windy City Series or a Subway Series? It’s simply not going to happen.

    Because baseball needs to modernize itself. There was talk when the Astros moved to the AL that this is just the first step of a more radical realignment in the pipeline. Traditionalists might loathe Bud Selig for modernizing the game (interleague play, dissolving the two leagues and bringing both leagues umpires under control of MLB’s office, the DH, etc…), but in actuality he’s doing a lot of good. Can you imagine if MLB did drop the AL and NL designations and did an east-west realignment based on geography?

    I wrote link under my alias Anakin Forrest a couple of years back (incidentally enough, it was published about a month before talks of moving the Astros to the AL became public), an alignment that I would largely support now as well. It would keep major rivalries intact while creating new ones based on geography. Man, looking at that article now, I really nailed the predictions on year-round interleague play and am likely going to nail the DH prediction as well.

    As for the World Series focusing on one metropolitan area? We’ve had two in the expansion era: one of them (Bay Area Series in 1989) became more notable because of an link that incidentally aired on national live TV because of the World Series. The other one (Subway Series in 2000) was link Just simply more exciting when teams from two different areas compete.

    Then let’s realign the NFL while we’re at it. Would you support that, as well? Why do people always want to tinker with baseball when it’s more popular than ever?

    The NFL I have no issue with as well. Heck, I wouldn’t have too much to worry about: the Steelers HAVE to be in the same division as the Bengals and the Browns, due to the NFL’s settlement with the city of Cleveland. (Though we do stand to lose the Ratbirds.) Long-term, I do see a geographic-based realignment done for at least MLB down the road to cut traveling costs.

    “Because baseball needs to modernize itself.”

    Modernize is one of those words that can mean whatever the speaker or writer wants it to mean. With baseball, it either seems to mean “all the other major sports leagues are doing something, so we should too” or is just a synonym for “monetize every aspect of the sport”.

    Never forget.

    It still disgusts me to see anybody cheering for that football team.

    Reading on mobile so I’m not sure if I’m seeing all the comments, or if this was posted last night, but here’s a cool pic of Harper’s shoes from last night with NYC skyline etched in. From Adam Kilgore at WaPo

    link

    Probably the reason the California Golden Seals were the only team to use their font on that bedspread on Ebay is because they were the only team besides the Rangers to actually have their team name spelled out on their jersey in a particular font. (Okay, the Leafs too if you count the name inside the leaf logo). All the other teams used logos that contained a single letter, if they did have a letter. So you can’t really say there was such thing as a “Flyers font” or a “Canadiens font”.

    -Jet

    I noticed “Maurice” is number 13. In marijuana culture, “13” can be a reference to pot (M is the 13th letter of the alphabet), and the narrator in that song is both a joker and a “miiiiiidniiiight toker.” I dunno, seems to subtle a reference to me to be purposeful, but interesting none the less.

    Sounds like stuff you weed-headed pot-fiends dream up when you’ve gone loopy from taking the Mary Jane!

    So not only did George HW Bush wear awesome striped socks to a White House ceremony yesterday, he presented President Obama with a pair of loud socks as well:

    link

    Way to go, Poppy!

    This is Bush’s schtick. In his dotage, he wears crazy socks. His granddaughters got him started on it. Periodically, the Houston Chronicle will show the old man at some event, his crazy socks prominently featured.

    Ferdinand Marcos had his guayaberas. Castro has his fatigues. Don Cherry has his ridiculous blazers. And ol’ Bush 42 has his crazy socks.

    Wow – only 10 players in baseball history have received the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award, and four of ’em are Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, & Sammy Sosa. Just goes to show, kids, that even in baseball, there are times when a .400 average is nothing to brag about …

    Regarding the Pedro Gomez bilingual interviews last night.

    It’s not that I minded him speaking spanish, I just found it, lets call it wierd/unsetteling, watching someone ask and then answer their own questions.

    Being that he was asking non-consequential baseball questions, there is no reason to think Pedro wasn’t translating their answers accurately, but it did remind me of a scene from The Newsroom where Olivia Munn did an interview with a Japanese TEPCO spokesman where she did the interview in Japanese and when the spokesman refused to give her the answer she was looking for, she made up the answer that she wanted and said that he said it.

    It just sort of feels like a line that shouldnt be approached, a reporter asking and answering his own questions without a non-partisan translator.

    Again, there is no reason to believe that Pedro Gomez wasnt translating 100% (or as close to as possible to make sense in english), but there wouldnt be any way to know if he wasnt.

    Again, there is no reason to believe that Pedro Gomez wasnt translating 100% (or as close to as possible to make sense in english), but there wouldnt be any way to know if he wasnt.

    Um, yeah there was: Millions of people who speak Spanish were watching on live television. If he was playing fast and loose with the translations, that would have been reported on Twitter in no time flat.

    It’s interesting that you reflexively think of a third-party translator, such as the ones who’ve routinely been provided for Japanese players, as “non-partisan.” In fact, such a translator owes his employment either to the team or the player, which means he has a strong interest in presenting the player’s quotes in the best possible light. Since such translators don’t usually work on live television (i.e., they stand next to the player in his locker during postgame interviews), there’s no way to scrutinize their work or its veracity.

    I’ll take Gomez working on live TV over a third-party translator, possibly with a conflict of interest, working out of sight.

    Maybe I didn’t use the right choice of words…(that’s why I am a reader of a blog and not a writer)

    I was more pointing towards the situation of one person interviewing another, in a language where there is a need for translation, asking and answering their own question.

    More to the point, wondering if anyone else feels any feeling one way or another on that specific topic. It was a situation that stuck out to me and did give me a “weird” feeling.

    I recognize that this is not very different than a reporter transcribing a phone interview which the audience does not necessarily have access to, which I do not see anything wrong with and happens every day.

    After recently watching that specific episode of The Newsroom, it must have made me hypersensitive to what I was watching and made me take particular notice of a reporter asking and answering his own question on live tv.
    I know in the current time that it would have been reported all over if he wasnt being accurate with his translation.

    Also, not saying that I didnt enjoy the interviews.

    Also, I did not say a third-party translator, I said non-partisan, for that specific purpose. That might be something that is impossible to achieve for the reasons you mentioned (and also a plot line in that same Newsroom scene).

    Maybe this is all just me over reacting to something that reminded me of a scene from a TV show.

    i guess that horrible grammar/sequence of paragraphs is what i get from writing something and then cutting and pasting all over the place

    After further thought, maybe last night was/should be a shift to the new norm.

    With the reality of instant accountability with twitter, maybe we should push for interviews of foreign language players to be done by reporters who also speak that language.

    That way, a reporter could tell exactly what the subject was saying and how they said it.. It would eliminate the possibility of a translator having an agenda.

    This wouldnt be the first time someone thought that something new first felt “weird” and then became the new reality.

    well, i created a discussion, just like you like……it might have been with myself….but it was a discussion.

    As a professional independent third party translator I’d like to chime in on behalf of ITPTs. One note (I don’t add this to be a snit but because it seems this crowd likes knowing the facts), “translating” is done between frozen forms (i.e. writing). When done love the act is called “interpreting,” even when done consecutively. So really I’m not an ITPT, I’m an interpreter.

    Regarding being partial or biased, many interpreters belong to professional organizations and have governing bodies that impose strict ethical standards. Because of this most often you can rely on the interpreter to relay messages faithfully. Though many of work as independent contractors we know that if word gets out that we edit our interpretations we risk losing the chance to work ever again. This may not apply to other people working as interpreters, for example, Ariel Prieto who works with Cespedes. Not that I doubt The accuracy or intent of Prieto’s interpreting.

    As an A’s fan living in DC I was thrilled at how the derby played out. As an interpreter I was instantly curious about how he interview would be handled. Although having the interviewer interpret isn’t ideal from an interpreting theory perspective, (role conflict) I was happy with the approach. I think any chance to showcase bilingualism is a good thing and I thought Gomez did a good job all around. I’d like to see more of that. I feel like its been a while since someone like Clemente made a point of highlighting the exitiance of a multilingual clubhouse.

    Some nice uniform shots in this SI gallery:

    link

    White Sox Ball-and-Bat
    Cardinals Gaslight Gang

    MLB (read Bud Selig) will not allow Fox or ESPN to show any highlights of Pete Rose’s all-star participation including the memorable collision at home plate with Ray Fosse in the 1970 All Star Game.

    link

    Next years ASG is in the ‘Nati. I can assure you that if Bud has the stones to show up, he’ll be booed out of the ballpark.

    If the Ohio fans are so classless, it’ll reflect much more poorly on them than on Selig.

    Far as I’m concerned, he’s been far too lenient on Rose, letting him anywhere near a ballpark at all.

    Next year’s ASG is in Minneapolis, no? Selig will be retired by the ’15 game.

    Ohio fans are classless? To me, “classless” is to pretend that parts of baseball history never happened just because one of the participants later disgraced himself.

    What is this, the 1920s Soviet Union, where personae non gratae are airbrushed out of photographs as if they never existed?

    The fact that Pete Rose gambled on baseball in the ’80s doesn’t undo his accomplishments in previous decades. Ban him from the Hall of Fame, sure, but to try to erase his previous existence? That’s straight out of George Orwell.

    Just saw that Chris Davis’ jersey has the Earl Weaver patch moved to above the heart, left side of jersey.

    I think the real problem with them is that they depict Indians as primitive savages (or savage primitives), instead of depicting the reality of Indian life in the 1950s. That’s the big gripe among many Native Americans who object to Native imagery in sports – they feel that they’re treated like relics, artifacts, historical cartoons, instead of as a living, breathing, ongoing culture.

    What do you think?

    Sports mascots and team names, by their very nature, do not provide much of an opportunity for their namesakes to be depicted in a “living, breathing, ongoing,” context. They almost always generalize their subjects and “cherry pick” those characteristics and traits that will allow the constituent fan-base to easily identify with the portrayal. The simple rallying point that mascots provide is an essential component of their fundamental purpose.

    I see the question as being not so much whether mascots should be a more fully-formed, complex and three-dimensional representations of their subject matters. Rather, the questions should be, is the subject appropriate as the source of a team name or mascot? And, perhaps even more importantly, who should have input into the inevitable simplifications and generalizations that occur in the process of turning a subject into a mascot?

    When the “owners” of a culture are the ones who have say in how it is portrayed, these characterizations become archetypes. When those outside the culture are the ones who make the generalizations, they are stereotypes.

    Applying this to the Washington Redskins program covers, the photorealistic images of Native Americans depicted on many of them still present something of a problem. They’re certainly much more respectful than, say, the Cleveland Indians’ infamous “Chief Wahoo.”

    I don’t even have a problem with the images portraying their subject matter as “historical artifacts.” The problem is that the prevailing culture is making decisions about how to portray Native Americans rather than Native Americans being empowered to make those decisions for themselves. As long as that remains the case, the program covers, no matter how well-intended, veer closer to stereotype than archetype.

    I am a Redskins fan and I think our uniform and helmet are some of the best in the NFL(that includes the honorable man on the helmet sticker). I selfishly would hate to see a name change because it will lead to a terrible uniform and new helmet, I wonder how the American name over the weekend is viewd. I thought it solved the problem and kept the teams uniforms unchanged.

    As for the stereotype and “us” depicting Native Americans as we see them not how they want to be viewed. I have been to many Native American gathering and festivals and what you see there our a proud people living our “stereotypes”. You see head dresses and dancing and even art work showing the Native Americans just how we “stereotype” them. It is not a stereotype or even racist to think of a proud Native American in the dress of his grandfather. Look at photos from the past and how Native Americans dressed, no one made up their daily and ceremonial dress it is history. Is in not more racist to think that this is not how the Native American really is and that they actually were just like the “white man” and he made up these “stereotypes” to make fun or hurt them. Honor is lost in translation when it comes to Native American because we assume that how we depict them somehow is a false truth when in fact we honor them more by accepting the “stereotype” as a true wonderful and interesting thing.

    also i always wonder why depicting a Native American in traditional or time period dress equals primitive or savage. I believe that belief is your actual lack of understanding(borderline pompous)if you see an image of a Native American in traditional dress and see a savage. I feel that says more about you and how you view a Native Americans and there way of life and what you would view as a proper lifestyle. When a see old photos of Native Americans I see see honor, character and pure way of life I feel bad that some see that as a savage. Who may have the more offensive way of looking at the Native American and their history and culture. Love the site and read every day, also avoid purple and wore pink stirrups for wedding three yrs ago.

    OK… Why does Trout have the ASG patch on the left sleeve and the halo-A patch on the right, when everyone else seems to have their own team’s patch on the left and the ASG patch on the right?

    Somehow that off-white uniform just doesn’t look right next to all those home whites. The Mets really need to swap the fabric colors of their primary and alternate home unis.

    Did anyone else see that? It looked like Greg Holland was just wearing regular white tube socks, not baseball socks at all.

    Love the site but the anti-corporate douchebaggery can be a bit tiresome. Just for funsies I’m putting an Aquafina label on my water glass at work.

    Would you care to defend MLB’s corporate-conformity edict? In other words, would you like to defend the practice of telling people what brand of water they can and can’t bring into a “FanFest” event?

    Or are you just being contrary for the sake of being contrary?

    I was in Pittsburgh over the weekend and made sure I created new check-ins to say I was at the New Pittsburgh Civic Arena and the new Three Rivers Stadium just because I refuse to use the corporate names for these places. I do the same for our local ballpark and arena as well.

    I think it would be pretty cool if for an All Star game each player wore a throwback uni of their team. It would be a great way for MLB to market even more product.

    Anyone know what the World Series MVP Award is supposed to be? Is it a pennant?
    Also are both leagues MVP awards the same, or was there once more “metal” content or does the photo not show the “metal”. For the more “metal” take a look at Dustin Pedroia’s from 2008:link

    Two things:
    1) It would very much annoy (not upset, but that’s just my personality) if, when the Isles move to Brooklyn, they become the Brooklyn Mob Bosses with their primary logo a guy in a pin striped suit with a tommy gun and their secondary logo a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. I feel for the Native Americans. I really do.

    2) The all star game isn’t needed anymore. It’s not that only kids care about it, no, it’s that the times today are different from when we were kids. When we were kids, the only way to get to see some of these players (from other leagues/divisions) was at the all star game. This is before interleague play & before games were televised nationally and when you were lucky to get all of your home team’s games on TV. Just like when I was a kid, I got excited when the Mets came to town so I could watch Strawberry play, I was excited to watch the all star game to see guys like Eckersley, Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas, etc… Now, between interleague play & national broadcasting, I can watch M. Cabrera, Ichiro, etc whenever I feel like.

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