You know, RickJay, when I posted the story/link, all I could think was “oh, man. I wonder how badly RickJay is going to HATE this deal’”
I think that makes it clear that the concern is not how much anyone paid to get to a particular seat, but that the presence of riffraff in the premium seats is itself undesirable.
Massive overreaction as MLB is putting Jose Reyes on administrative leave. MLB doesn’t need to turn into the NFL with the commissioner sitting as moral judge and jury. Let the legal system deal with legal issues and the baseball commissioner deal with baseball issues.
http://m.mlb.com/news/article/165255920/reyes-placed-on-leave-with-status-in-limbo
The last time I went to a Yankees game, I paid $5 for my seat. (This was last season.) It was not a premium seat.
Of course, given my unwashed condition, perhaps it was for the best that I was waaaaaay out in the upper deck beyond the left field foul pole. Wouldn’t want to disturb the swells in the boxes with someone like me.
Well, that’s easy for you to say.
Ideally, sure, we’d let the cops and courts deal with legal issues. But the world is not ideal and MLB is in the entertainment business, and is held to a weird moral standard that exceeds even what other sports are held to. If MLB lets Reyes play they’ll be accused of aiding and abetting spousal abuse.
It wouldn’t be a baseball thread if I didn’t get to pick on Josh Hamilton. He’s out for supposedly two months. Hamilton’s injuries seem to drag on longer. The Angels are paying almost all of his salary , but Hamilton is getting to that stage where he’s not worth his spot on the roster when he’s off the DL
NBC Sports - HardballTalk: Josh Hamilton out two months with more knee problems
New rules on double-play take out slides:
I think it’s a step in the right direction, but I’m not sure if it goes as far as I would like. The part that worries me is this:
I’ve seen a lot of takeout slides where the runner’s legs go for the fielder but he technically can read the base with his hands. I would prefer a wording that says for a feet-first slide the feet must be able to reach base, and for a head-first slide the hands must be able to reach base.
Ohhhhh…5 whole minutes saved. I bet that was at the instigation of the advertisers.
The ban on the take-out slide is a good idea. Let’s see if the umps get it right.It’s nice that the call is reviewable.
Hamilton is 34. Players with his career trajectory and health history are generally done. I sincerely doubt he has much of a career left; if he plays 150 more MLB games the rest of his life I’ll be impressed.
[QUOTE=silenus]
Ohhhhh…5 whole minutes saved. I bet that was at the instigation of the advertisers.
[/QUOTE]
Five minutes is a LOT. You are seriously underestimating the effect of five minutes of dead time.
The average MLB game in 2015 was about 2:55 (people never bitch about the length of NFL games, but they are longer, and always have been) which was down from the all time high of 3:02. It was noticeable. Another five minutes will be equally noticeable.
It’s not really the length, it’s the pace. Dead time sucks.
Dead time is beer time. I’m not seeing a problem here. 
Dexter Fowler returns to the Cubs. I guess this means Soler is back on the trade block.
NBC Sports - HardballTalk: Surprise! Dexter Fowler signs with the Cubs, not the Orioles!
WTF? Cubs have now signed Shane Victorino.
http://www.csnchicago.com/cubs/cubs-sign-shane-victorino-minor-league-deal
Not sure how he fits in. I’ve got the Cubs starters looking like this:
C-Montero
1B-Rizzo
2B-Zobrist
SS-Russell
3B-Bryant
LF-Schwarber
CF-Heyward
RF-Soler
With Fowler signing yesterday and now Victorino, there’s a glut of outfielders, even with a possible Soler trade.
Interesting too that Javier Baez is supposedly going to be getting work at just about every infield position as well as center field.
I didn’t realize Shane Victorino was still in the major leagues and do not understand why the Cubs would want him.
I had to look it up to see how recently he’d been good, and geez, it was 2013. He’d just totally disappeared from my baseball awareness.
The Jose Bautista story’s interesting.
Bautista’s contract ends at the conclusion of the 2016 season, a contract that to say the least has been great for the Blue Jays, who have gotten one of the most feared and effective power hitters in the game for what is, by modern standards, a very reasonable price. So will they sign him again?
Bautista has made it clear; No hometown discount. He’s told the Jays his price and that’s what he wants. Toronto management has said they want him back but have said nothing about his demands, which have been reported as 5 years and $150 million, though Bautista has personally stated those numbers are “fictitious.”
The fact that nobody’s saying a lot tells me this is Bautista’s last year in Toronto. Actually I expected him to be traded by now (assuming he’d allow it; he is a 10/5 player) as the new management is ultra cheap, but it appears they’re going to take one more shot at a championship before going super-Cleveland.
I love Jose Bautista more than I love my sister but I’m fine with that. Assuming he has a good 2016, he will be given a qualifying offer, will reject it, sign with someone else and they’ll get a draft pick. And as much as I love him, I bet Cardinals fans loved Albert Pujols, but is there anyone in St. Louis who ISN’T happy the Angels are paying Pujols for what Pujols did ten years ago?
The reality is Bautista is a wonderful, pure hitter… and he’s gonna be 36 in 2017. Big deals given to old players rarely work well.
I wonder if there’s ever actually been a good big signing of a guy that old. The Randy Johnson signing with Arizona was pretty good, but he was 35 then. Houston signing Roger Clemens at 41 worked out for them. Any hitters?
I’m going to say No, at least not yet. Everybody I can think of, either the player was significantly younger in the first year, or it was largely a bust. Or, it remains to be seen.
While he’s not a superstar player, Julio Franco was still a productive major league hitter into his 40’s. In 2004, the then-45 year old hit .309 in 361 PA for the Braves.
Julio Franco was great. But he never had a “big” (in MLB terms), multi-year contract.
I hang out at a lot of Chicago sports bars.I’ve never seen this kind of buzz about baseball before the first exhibition game. Random people discussing the Cubs starting lineup with me and even the batting order for opening day. I think, for the first time in my life, I’m truly experiencing what the hot stove league experience must have been like in the past.