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(Source: boroclothing)

oldtimefamilybaseball:

From Peter Hartlaub at the San Francisco Chronicle’s Big Event blog: “I’ve never seen a more depressingly out-of-date sports calendar than the current Oakland A’s version. I would offer this as a gift to an Oakland A’s fan only if I wanted to watch them burst into tears.” 

Apparently Billy Beane didn’t have the whole “You can’t start Pena at first tonight” conversation with the calendar’s general manager, who I imagine is a rather frail old man who makes his living painstakingly hand-crafting MLB team calendars in a dusty workshop behind a freight yard.

Hartlaub continues: “Apparently the scorching June 7 major league debut of Jemile Weeks was too late for deadline. In retrospect, the safest move would have been to make the entire calendar about Jemile Weeks. Jemile Weeks hitting. Jemile Weeks fielding. Jemile Weeks buying a Sprite at the vending machine.”

See, wait for it, the bright side of this is that the 2015 calendar may just have four studs in form of the prospects that Beane has been acquiring by jettisoning those calendar guys. I mean, there’s an epidemic failure in the calendar industry to understand what Oakland As players should be prominently featured.

(Via the always effervescent NotGraphs)

hubertkang:

Finally it was the big  game day

Right from the beginning I could feel the buzz in the air in this little baseball field surrounded by hills and farms. The locals were arriving in buses blowing their horns, shouting baseball, baseball. The Ugandan kids were loose and fooling around. The Canadian kids were calm and collected. 

Before the the game began, I already knew there can’t be a loser in this game. Months of hard work by the organizers and volunteers have paid off. The game that should have happened in the Little League World Series is finally happening, except it’s now taking place on their home field of dreams. Everything looked almost too good to be true.

But it was true. The 2 teams played a fantastic game. Uganda scored early to take a 1-0 lead. As the Canadians shook of their rust,  they came back to tie the game 1-1 at the top of 6th, the last inning. Bottom of 6ht, Abooki, the youngest and littlest player on the Uganda team, got on the base with a beautiful single. He had this huge smile on his face as he celebrated with a little dance. But just as he has always been so quick to smile, he stole the second base. Then the 3rd base. Augustus followed with a walk-off RBI single. Of course, the game just had to end with the littlest guy coming back home to score the winning run for Uganda. 2-1.

The players and the crowd rushed the field, propping Abooki up on their shoulders. The Canadians looked on, all with the biggest smiles on their faces. Me? I found myself taken over by the moment, with a bit of tears in my eyes. 

*Update: Here is a great article by ESPN’s Steve Wulf on the game. Much more detailed: http://es.pn/xCn7GI

If you are inspired by these children, please consider donating to Right to Play: http://righttoplay.akaraisin.com/YouthBaseball

myespn:

WALKER DARVISH RANGER

With great money comes great expectations, and even greater pressure. The Rangers need Yu Darvish to live up to the hype. Richard Durrett »

ilovecharts:

R.I.P. Bobs

(Source: unlikelyalliance)

chitwoodandhobbs:

Get A Good Ball To Hit

One of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball, Ted Williams. Hitting a baseball is largely considered to be the most difficult thing to do in all of sports and Ted Williams could do it better than nearly every one. That’s a one-line resume. No further explanation necessary.

Ted Williams was a naturally gifted athlete with sharp eyesight and quick reflexes. Perhaps the same skills that lent to becoming a top-notch fighter pilot in WWII. What gave Williams the edge was his scientific, systematic approach to hitting.

The now famous Ted Williams strike zone first appeared in Sports Illustrated in 1968, Science Of Batting. In this article he broke down the strike zone into 77 baseballs. The average on each of ball is not what Williams actually hit but rather his projected average — that’s key. Ted Williams doesn’t pretend that he can hit every pitch. Balls low and outside he knows he should lay off, the odds are against him. But right in the center of the plate, that’s his “happy zone”. “The heart of the plate, belt-high, and with some sugar on it.”

Maybe it was Williams’ shear willpower that allowed him to hit .400. He had the self control to wait for his pitch. And then wait some more.

I remember Lefty Chase, who pitched for Washington. He had a hell of a curve and fastball, but he was wild. One day he got me to 3 and 2 with two men on, and threw a big sharp curve, and I took it. Fooled me. Strike three. I got up again in the fourth inning, bases loaded, count goes to 3 and 2, and here comes another, and I’m hanging in there, waiting, waiting, and I don’t think I moved until the ball was right by my ear. It darn near hit my hat and spun it on my head. I walked.

@chitwoodhobbs