Today, Major League Baseball–like, the league–announced that it’s getting into the video game business proper. And its first title? R.B.I. Baseball 14.
This is either going to be the most amazing thing or the worst thing of 2014.
Tag: baseball
This is my daughter. She is not yet a year-and-a-half old. We took her to her first Cardinals game when she was 2 weeks old. (She was adorable then, too.)
It appears I have already set this child on the right path:
I think we need to call in those Sasquatch Hunters guys.
It was a party in the stands. I was a total stranger who wasn’t even wearing anything Nationals-related, but it felt like I was sitting in seats with people whom I’d been suffering alongside for 30 years. High fives were exchanged. Blankets were shared. Everybody poked good-natured fun at the guy who was loudly offering Harper tips on how to properly maintain his balance throughout his stance just before he took Wainwright deep. I started wondering whether I would get fired from Grantland if I changed allegiances and Simmons noticed. It was the sort of scene you dream about as a fan, just complete and utter joy with hours more to go. It wasn’t my personal team’s joy, but I was having a lot of fun faking it through three innings.
And then, slowly but perceptibly, the situation began to erode.
Even after last year, I found what happened this weekend to be pretty improbable. But I never turned off the game and never gave up hope that just one more hit would turn things around. Barnwell nails how Cards fans feel about our team:
Think about it. In 13 months, the Cardinals have gone through last year’s September run, Game 6 of the World Series, and this 25-to-1 comeback win over the Nationals. If you were a Cardinals fan, why would you ever believe that your team is going to lose a playoff series again? If they happen to lose to the Giants, I feel like Cardinals fans will sit in front of their televisions until February expecting to hear that Yadier Molina’s exploited some loophole, restarted the playoffs, and somehow walked, hit a game-tying home run, and threw out runners at second and third on the same play. The Cardinals are closer to superheroes and action stars than baseball players in elimination games at this point.
By the way, I hope you’re ready for a lot of baseball stuff to hit my blog. It’s pretty much consuming my life right now, and in a good way.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch on the TV ratings for the MLB All-Star Game:
The Nielsen Co. says that Fox’s telecast of Tuesday night’s contest from Kansas City was seen in 20.5 percent of homes with a TV in the St. Louis market. That’s up from the 17.8 rating last year and tied with the figure from 2010. The local All-Star rating soared in 2009, when the game was played at Busch Stadium and drew a 37 figure.
All those games were on KTVI (Channel 2). Coming in second this year was KC (18.7), followed by Detroit (16.1).
Best baseball fans in the country. It’s one of the main reasons I like living here. People “get it” when it comes to the game itself.
XKCD:
What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?
A careful reading of official Major League Baseball Rule 6.08(b) suggests that in this situation, the batter would be considered “hit by pitch”, and would be eligible to advance to first base.
Fantastic.
Every year all MLB teams (probably excepting the Jays) wear a special hat for the 4th of July.
This year’s hat was my Father’s Day present.
Joe Strauss for the Post-Dispatch:
Carpenter, 37, acknowledged last Friday that he would continue to throw until it became clear there was no hope of soon returning to the Cardinals’ rotation. Carpenter said if he reached such a point he would consider other options. Surgery is among them.
Resistant to surgery when the same condition forced his shutdown in August 2008, Carpenter has been told he likely requires the procedure to extend his career.
I’m not an expert—merely a fan—but I would not be surprised to see Carpenter take this cue to retire and end his career at the top of his game, after a championship run last season and the best pitching performance I have seen in my life.
And he’d be forever loved in St. Louis.
It’s designed to pull at you, but the music selection is perfect and the message is one that means a lot to me:
Baseball is something we share with our parents and children—that connects us as family. I love that this commercial isn’t just small kids but older generations as well.
If you didn’t get to see it last night, this is the moment.
First rings for more than one veteran player. First rings for young guys still not much out of the minors. Second rings for the core of the team that gave us a championship in 2006. Smiles on the face of all of St. Louis.
I’ll have more to say on this later, but if you’ll excuse me I have to refresh three different browsers with the window for buying championship rally tickets.