scrounge

Making the LCS a best-of-5 series would be fine, esp if it allows the wild card to be best of 3 instead of this inane single game. The rest of the article was garbagejuice. But I did appreciate the link to the gallery of Cardinals cheerleaders.

They seem to be...I alternate between helmet and mask, so I haven't put them through a super-rough test, but after two years I think they've got plenty of seasons in them. As I recall, their marketing info said that the padding itself does not break down like foam and can last years. The cover will prob wear out before the padding.

I can't ask any batter to go that high for a strike call, it's borderline dangerous to teach them to swing that high and unfair. I'd rather call a shin strike, esp when their knees are less than a foot off the ground anyway, than call something chin level - which is pretty much top of shoulders. If they have to swing the bat up, and for most a shoulder level ball would be an upwards arc, then that can't be a strike or the game just becomes a circus. Yea, I get that there are 20 walk games, but in those, pitches just outside the strike zone are hardly a problem. The ONLY exception that I'd even consider would be if the score is ridiculously lopsided and the winning team is still doing crap like stealing and pushing their runners on fielding mishaps, etc.

Mike I agree with you, but this begs the question why when we start out at a new level are our first assignments usually bases? That's odd, we make no such distinctions in our area. I think people just get fooled into thinking it's easier because it's not readily apparent that the BU is involved in every play. And on many plays he isn't. People think that 90% of the time it's obvious, so it must be easy. But if the BU isn't trained or isn't good or isn't attentive, that 10% can be so spectacularly bad that it blows up completely.

As an owner or GM? Hell yea I'm choosing Trout over Cabrera. All day long and twice at night.

Holy crap, Jax, were you at the post office when the sale was made?? Fastest shipping EVAH.

It's kind of like a toilet....sometimes, you get the design right the first time.

I don't have too much of a problem with Posey beating Braun, the lying little weasel shouldn't have even played 50 of the games this year.

Congratulations to Cabrera for winning the "Best Hitter on a playoff team using outdated stats" award...

I'd have no problem taking his offer for a helpful dad to call the leaving early. Provided, of course, that each team gets to contribute one dad and I'll only call the out if they both agree. Hilarity should ensue.

just give managers one challenge flag per game, and if they successfully challenge they can keep the flag for another....with NO argument allowed or any further delay if they lose the challenge.

You may be getting deep into American history but you're getting it completely, unarguably wrong. The Electoral College had little to nothing to do with landowners having more sway. Now, voting rules, the original election procedure of the Senate vs the House, women's suffrage, those had more to do with that, but the Electoral College was designed because the founders didn't trust the voters to directly elect the president but more importantly, a balance to ensure that small states weren't run roughshod and rendered irrelevant by larger states. And really, to not only bring up the 3/5ths in this context but also, as usual when it's brought up, get it COMPLETELY wrong? The absolute BEST thing that could have happened to slaves was to not be counted at all. Southern states wanted slaves counted as FULL persons - they couldn't vote but the southern states would get more Reps in the house for a greater population. It was NORTHERN states and anti-slavery abolitionists that wanted slaves to not count at all, to prevent the slave owning states from getting more power. This whole "I'm only 3/5 of a person" meme is ridiculous and ignorant of actual history.

The line has to be drawn somewhere, in a consistent and uniform way. Since we as a society have decided that 18 is the age when you can enter a binding contract, that seems like a fine line to choose as voting age as well. No way I'd favor lowering it.

Yea, that original $279 post-rollout regular price was absolutely ridiculous....I can't imagine they'd ever break $199 again. The market for pro-level chest protectors simply isn't that big.

Hmm....kind of a broad assumption - and a wee bit of condescension - about what level of ball people here do, isn't it? But I agree...if you see him miss the base, you call him out. But whaddayaknow, I didn't see it. I'll sleep perfectly fine.

Believe it or not, I had a very similar situation in an adult game. By weekend warrior standards, these were pretty good guys, an over 35 league but they took it serious. A pickoff attempt at 2nd was made. F1 spun around and fired it, the ball beat the runner but F4 caught the ball about a foot in front of the bag and put the glove straight down. The runners hand made it to the far corner behind the tag, I had a great view and called him safe. F4 didn't say anything but the pitcher was whining a lot. Nothing obnoxious, just a 45-50 yr old dude who was struggling a bit on a hot day and gave me a lot of "how can you call that, he was way out". Kept it up for two more innings. Again, nothing out of bounds, just nagging. Anyway, after the game he comes up to me and says "Blue, I just want to say I'm sorry about that, my 2B told me in the dugout he missed the tag and you had it right all along".

it sucks but it's totally on that coach...he's the one that failed as a leader, as a role model, and as a person.

World Series ratings least-watched on record By The Sports Xchange | The SportsXchange – 4 hours ago The final numbers confirmed what Fox feared. Early returns indicated the San Francisco Giants' four-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers could bring in the lowest World Series ratings on record, and Nielsen confirmed the average of 12.7 million viewers was the smallest ever. That is down 23 percent from 2011, and below the previous record-low of the 2008 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays (13.6 million viewers on average). Last year's World Series won by the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games over the Texas Rangers averaged 16.6 million viewers. Fox signed an eight-year deal earlier this month to extend its MLB television rights. "This World Series gave us exactly what we expected: a top 10 show among all viewers and a top five show among hard-to-reach younger men," said Michael Mulvihill, senior VP of programming and research, Fox Sports Media Group. "It's important for us to remain focused on the Series relative to today's competitive environment rather than bygone years. The World Series remains a powerful force in primetime and we're fortunate to have the Fall Classic for at least nine more years to look forward to."

I get that you probably mean the "perception" is that it's coming faster than an MLB fastball, but there's no amount of math that makes an 85 mph softball faster than a 95 mph MLB fastball. And the force imparted by a baseball or softball isn't dependent on your perception of speed but rather the actual speed.

I thought the intense crouching at the end was a bit theatrical...it was a foot fair, not like you have to super-stare at it like a Florida recount judge staring at a hanging chad.

Not a great percentage but when you consider all the money the NFL makes 5% adds up. Of course, it's hard to separate vague "awareness" campaigns that look a lot like merchandise marketing with actual contributions that go to tangible support... http://www.businessi...-cancer-2012-10

He told me last night - on TWO occasions - that Gerry Davis would only call a strike if it was over the plate. THAT.IS.GENIUS!!!

Another pair of plate/combo pants, All-Star shin guards, Champro or Diamond travel bag, a couple more shirts. Oh yea, and a wife that doesn't nag me about doing more than 2 games a week.