I have to admit, I’m impressed that Mr Strasburg has been able to live up to the hype after two starts.  Sooner or later, he has to come down to earth, I would think. 

Our freshman outfielder at the University of Illinois hit three homeruns in his first college game against the #1 team in the nation last year.  A lot was made of it nationally obviously and his name was put on the map.  But one thing I remember was what our color guy (and former Illini player) said.  “That’s the worst thing that could happen to him”. 

Now our outfielder has been doing great since his first day but our color guy’s point is well taken.  There’s a lot to be said for our sports media setting expectations and then having a player live up to them.  There are Stephen Strasburg player trackers out there and every game he pitches is being live-blogged by practically everyone.  What would the baseball community do if he pitched one game like a regular human being?

Despite all the hype, he’s still a 21 year old rookie with two Major League starts to his name.  He’ll have some developing and growing to do even at this level.  Let’s let Strasburg develop naturally and preferably with as little pressure as possible (considering he was sleeping two hours before his second start, he seems to be doing a good job of not letting it get to him). 

Strasburg could turn into another Bob Feller but let’s not set the expectations so high that we turn him into a Mark Prior.

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Never cared for Bryant Gumbel… now I have one more reason why.  He implicitly accused Jeff Bagwell, Nomar Garciaparra and Ivan Rodriguez in an open letter to Mark McGwire that he read on his show, “Real Sports”:

“In closing, guys, please feel free to share this letter with Bagwell, Nomar, Pudge and all those others who went from hitting homers to power outages overnight. Tell ‘em fans are ready to accept what happened. Tell ‘em we’re ready to move on. Tell ‘em that most of us get it…even if they, like you, still don’t."

I’m not prepared to say one way or another if these players did or didn’t.  But a person in Gumbel’s position should know better than to throw names around without proof. 

Sanctimonious dolt.

***

Gary Bedingfield maintains a baseball blog with a special bent.  His site, Baseball in Wartime focuses on the history of baseball during wartime and baseball players who served in the military.  It’s a unique idea for a blog and Gary seems to have a lot of info on the topic. 

***

Finally, those who follow Illinois Baseball Report know this already but we are less than one month away from regular season.  If you’re talking about college baseball, that is.  Usually, that’s not big news as normally teams from the north travel south to play colleges in the warmer climates. 

The catch this year is that University of Illinois will be starting their season at home in chilly Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.  They will be playing host to the Bradley Braves on February 20-21.  It’s the first time I know about that Illinois has had a home season opener in February. 

Now, if Mother Nature lets this series happen will be another thing.

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The Biz of Baseball reports the Washington Times is dropping their Sports Section and laying off their 25-person sports staff. 

Here’s a farewell note from staff writer Mark Zuckerman.

When it comes to local newspapers, it’s up to the Post to cover the Nationals now.

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Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitch interviews Peter Gammons mostly on the topic of his transition from ESPN to the MLB Network and his relationship with ARod.

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Chicago White Sox reliever Scott Linebrink was a subject of a photo in the Boston Globe’s annual gallery of The Big Picture photos.  If you have seen any of the Boston Globe’s galleries in past years, you know that these photographs are the year’s best of the best in news, science and society.  I really encourage everyone to take a look at them.  You won’t regret it. 

Here is the direct link to the photo with Linebrink.  As was the photographer’s intent, Linebrink himself is a bit fuzzy (a bit like his performance with the Sox this year) in the background but the ball which seems to be hurling towards the camera is crystal clear. 

Nicely done by AP photographer Issac Brekken.

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What happened to the Cleveland Indians this year??

Former Indian slugger Albert Belle has an opinion… or three.

"Tell Larry Dolan I won’t be interviewing for the manager’s job," said one of the most feared and ill-tempered hitters in Indians history. "How can you manage when you’ve got no players?"

Manager Eric Wedge and his coaching staff were fired Wednesday by General Manager Mark Shapiro.

"This season isn’t the manager’s fault," Belle said. "They traded away all his players. You can’t win when you trade two Cy Young winners in CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee.”

I was going to make a joke about Belle not being any worse a manager than Ozzie Guillen but I figured that was too easy.

He might be more entertaining (though.it would be close).

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Filmmaker Joe Scherrman contacted me and told me about his new movie “Ghost Player: Relive the Magic” which he produced and directed.  In short, Ghost Player is a documentary about a comedic baseball show centered around the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa.

From Ghost Player’s web site:

GHOST PLAYER is a one-hour documentary that chronicles the adventures and misadventures of a boisterous and unlikely team of middle aged baseball players. In 1989, Hollywood went to Iowa to shoot the movie “FIELD of DREAMS”. Little did anyone know this blockbuster would spawn a comedic baseball show starring local ballplayers that would have an 18 year run and travel the world.

Ghost Player has already received acclaim.  On September 1, it was chosen to be shown at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.  Not only that, it has been selected to be shown at film festivals throughout the country.  For those here in the Illinois area, Ghost Player will be shown at the Naperville Independent Film Festival which starts Saturday, September 19th.  Mr. Scherrman informed me of Ghost Player’s screening times:

The Naperville Independent Film Festival is September 19–26, 2009. “Ghost Player: Relive the Magic” is scheduled to screen Sunday September. 20th at 7:10PM and Thursday September 24th at 6:45PM. Mr. Scherrman is participating in question and answer sessions with the audience after each film showing.

Interesting concept for a film and so far, has been received well.  If you get a chance, check it out.

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Much is being made now about over-zealous homerun celebrations and the reactions they get from the opponents.  I first came across this article on mlb.com about the Giants getting “irked” about a couple of homeruns in which teams exhibited in the Giants’ opinion, “unprofessional” behavior. 

One was the actions of Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder, the other of Adrian Gonzalez of the Padres.  Giants starter Brad Penny, who gave up the four-bagger, thought Gonzalez lingered a bit too long, admiring his work before making the trot.  

I saw the video of the Gonzalez homer and honestly, I didn’t notice it.

Now, USA Today has picked up on the story.  And they have a pretty damning photo of Fielder’s antics to go along with it, too  The story is compelling with good examples etc etc..

But it makes me wonder if this story has taken a life of its own.  Does it merit this much attention? 

Two thoughts that popped into my head regarding this rather unimportant issue (in the grand scheme of things):

One, mlb.com covered this a few days ago.  The same news source that recoils at anything controversial.  Normally, the cynic in me would surmise that MLB is just trying to perhaps generate controversy/interest/rivalry in the midst of a postseason hunt but the teams involved are not near the top of their division. 

Two, god forbid should this story take off to the point that MLB feel that they need to “do something about it”.  Professional baseball has enough regulations already and a lot of them range from unnecessary to a hindrance.

Some of you watch more baseball games from different markets than I.  Is this really a problem?  And why is MLB so worried about it?

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The most excellent baseball blog Hardball Cooperative just posted their Top List of Baseball Flicks.  I had a hand in contributing in the article so definitely check it out. 

In their poll of contributors, Bull Durham eked out Field of Dreams for best baseball movie.  For my part, I chose Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns as my fave and did a short review of it.

And what’s a best baseball movie list without a list of “bad” baseball movies?  HC didn’t drop the ball and presents us with their panels’ list of “worst” baseball movies.  Clichés, stereotypes and over-used plots are the norm here.  My choice?  Major League: Back to the Minors (aka Major League 3).  I have to admit the “bad” movie list is an entertaining read.  Check out the article (including my review of ML:BTTM).

Thanks to James Bailey of Hardball Cooperative for affording me the opportunity to participate in the project.  It was fun.

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Last week was the 70th anniversary of the first televised professional baseball game in major league history.  On August 26th, 1939, it was a doubleheader that took place in Brooklyn between the Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds (the very first televised baseball game was a game between Princeton and Columbia held at Bakers Field).. 

There was nothing particularly outstanding about the games themselves though the Reds did manage a 5 run inning in the first game to make a comeback making the final score 5-2.  Dem Bums made it a split by scoring a quick six runs in the first three innings and never looked back winning the second game 6-1.

While the implications of televising this game most definitely had far-reaching effects, I’m sure those at the time may have had their doubts.  There were only about 400 television sets in the New York that could take advantage of this this new technology.  The quality of the picture was very grainy and snowy. 

But the picture quality eventually improved over years, taking away the mystique of the commentaries from the radio broadcasters and showing EXACTLY what was happening on the ball field.  And with the continued development of televised baseball broadcasting, Major League Baseball owners saw with delight the revenue streams that could be exploited with it.  Soon after with sports media networks such as ESPN, came to the same conclusion. 

Fast forward through 70 years of development, both from a technological and business sense and in the last 10 years, we see Major League Baseball going through a new revolution in content delivery.  We now have High-Definition television taking the picture quality to a higher level. 

But we also see MLB content delivery taking a different turn away from conventional television.  We no longer need to switch on the remote to follow your favorite team.  In 2000, MLB created a new branch, the Major League Baseball Advanced Media, to meet this need.  Generally speaking, the MLBAM is charged with content delivery of baseball on the internet as well as any interactive media.  Because of MLBAM, fans can view baseball games on streaming video over our computer and recently, even our smartphones.

Orville and Wilbur Wright probably never envisioned NASA when they were successful in their first flight at Kitty Hawk.  Nor did those responsible for televising the very first game 70 years ago envision the state of baseball viewing today.

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