Pitching is such a vital part of the game, as far as winning is concerned.

On most teams the set up man has become more valuable, on others not so valuable.

Something to keep in mind — it’s raining lightly. The infield could be very wet on ground balls.

What is a drop and drive pitcher? He is a guy who drops and drives. Very simple.

So by guessing right you might have guessed wrong.

Giambi walks too much. He’s always clogging up the bases with all that walking.

As a new day begins in New York, the sun sets in Hawaii.

If football is a game of inches then baseball is a game of inch.

If that ball had more elevation, it would have been a home run.

If the double play is a pitcher’s best friend, what is a fielder’s choice? An acquaintance?

It’s better to have a fast runner on base than a slow one.

One thing about ground balls. They don’t go out of the ball park.

The reason we call that pitch up and in is because the arms are attached to the shoulder.

He wears his hat like a left hander!

Any ball that goes down is much heavier than any ball that stays on the same plane.

The blood on his sock looks exactly like Oklahoma!

You don't want to use too many statistics. The ones that apply to a July or August game won't be relevant on Saturday.

American McCarver

Wake Up, Sleepyhead, the Game’s On

By Jason Snell, June 27, 2011

Being a sports fan in the Pacific time zone is quite a bit different from being a co-conspirator in the collective East Coast Bias. Out here, we have to rush home from work to catch Monday Night Football or the start of the All-Star Game. (In fact, I haven't watched an All-Star Game live since I bought my first TiVo.) But no baseball game lasts much later than 11 p.m.

Last night I watched the Marlins-Seattle game go into extra innings--at 1 a.m. Miami time. All thirteen die-hard Marlins fans had been wheeled back into their private rooms at the home many hours before.

To Easterners, NFL Football is a post-church, post-lunch activity. Meanwhile, ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown is usually on before I crack an eye on Sunday morning. Some college football games start at 9. NFL games start at 10, and even the Sunday Night Football telecast is over with hours before bedtime. Sadly, baseball isn’t usually included in the crazy-early time mix, other than the Patriot’s Day game in Boston, which is on at 8 a.m. on a Monday every year. (Great morning-commute fodder via the MLB.com At Bat app.)

But the best thing about being sunk eight hours behind Greenwich, if you ask me, is the ability to watch live European sports in the extreme early-morning hours. Like, you get up at 6 a.m. and watch sports for an hour or two before getting out of bed and trundling off to work. Or not, depending on how good the sport is.

The Women’s World Cup and Wimbledon are both going on right now, early in the morning. I’m getting up early and turning on the TV. My kinds crawl into bed and ask me endless questions about why those people are wearing yellow (they’re Australians rooting for Lleyton Hewitt, dear--and they’re already disappointed) and why that woman has a funny bandage wrapped around her head in the Japan-New Zealand soccer match (she bumped her head, apparently).

It’s great. And it’s special, because these international events aren’t available all year round. We watched a whole lot of the 2010 World Cup with our eyes half-closed. The French Open and Wimbledon bring tennis into the early morning. And during English Premier League season, there’s now usually an early-morning game on ESPN.

My daughter loves baseball and is now using “just until the end of this inning” as an excuse not to go to bed, but for bonding over sports with my kids, there’s just something special about doing it at the crack of dawn.

[Photo by Jonathan_W via Flickr]

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