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

Play Ball? Please

By Mike Monteiro, July 7, 2011

The first thing I do in the morning is check the sports section. I used to feel guilty about it, skipping over news of housing market collapses and unwinnable foreign wars. But as the world got stupider, and I got older and less concerned with what other people thought, that guilt dissipated. And I got comfortable with the fact that I’d rather peruse last night’s box scores over my morning coffee than how many people had been killed during the night because they prayed to a slightly different version of God than people with slightly better ammo.

Then this happened.

Take a look at this morning’s New York Times sports section. Here, I’ll break it down further for you:

The only vaguely game-related story is a feel-good soft piece on the last player to reach 3,000 hits. Not even current. The rest is an affirmation of the pathetic state of affairs in the current sports world.

As Charles Barkley once famously said, “I am not a role model.” And we loved him for it because 1) it’s Charles and Charles is fat and funny, and 2) it was honest and irreverent and an outlier, or so we thought. 

But let’s pull back a little, because honestly, it would be awesome if just a few of you decided it was OK to be a role model. I wanna feel good about taking my kid to a ball game again and “Play ball!” should be a joyous shout from the home plate ump, not a desperate plea from the fans to two sides in a lockout.

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