Completely agree re DH. Then there was the game in Milwaukee last week where the Cubs had no pinch hitters left and had Travis Wood up with the bases loaded after an IP to the catcher and two out…Wood walked of course!
Padres are in trouble with the gay community because last night was “Day Out at the Park”, presumably a gay night. They invited the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus to perform the national anthem, but they never got to sing because a pre-recorded version sung by a female performer was played instead. There was no explanation, no apology at the time, no report, the chorus stood around on the field and just eventually wandered off. The team has issued a belated, half-hearted apology, but the Gay Men’s Chorus is asking the city to investigate the incident as a hate crime.
John Gibbons was ejected from today’s game. He’s been ejected 4 times this season…three of them since last sunday.
Major fuck-up by the Padres here, at best. It was promoted as a theme game on the team site, ticket bundles were resold through San Diego LGBT Pride. People paid with the expectation of an explicit recognition.
The Giants take 2 of 3 from the Cubs, while the Dodgers drop 2 of 3 to the Padres. Things are looking good as we head toward June.
Sorry Rockies, I know you’re in second place…it’s just that nobody thinks you’re actually going to stay there…
The team apparently wanted the Chorus to pay for tickets to the game, too.
Mariners, Mariners, Mariners!
Seriously, am I and gnoitall the only AL West fans here?
The Mariners just swept the Reds in Cincinnati, and have 26 wins, and a 4-game winning streak, and the best road record in baseball. All three first-place AL teams have 26 wins.
And a rookie manager!
God, I’m loving my Mariners this year!
I read about the Padres anthem thing and I just can’t understand it. I don’t believe they invited the Gay Men’s Chorus to sing and deliberately pulled this stunt on them. I mean, why? I think there must have been a technical mistake or a PA tech gone rogue, but the team did badly mishandle the result. Faux pa? Absolutely. Hate crime? Sorry, no.
In actual baseball news, the entire Red Sox lineup is out of their collective mind right now. Team BA is near .300 and Big Papi is hitting like a 25 year old since announcing his retirement. Crushed a home run on a 98mph fastball yesterday. And I remember 3 or 4 years ago people said bust him with fastballs, he can’t get around on them.
Well, it was Cincinnati. And I’m still bitter about getting swept by the Angels at home. :mad:
This is the year we should have had last year. Oddly, King Felix isn’t carrying the team (and not even reliably dominant like you’d think he should be), but it’s working out better that way.
Good batting all around, reliable fielding, strong starting pitching (no obvious soft spots, only bad days and good days), and relief pitching that doesn’t try to break your heart.
It’s good to be a Mariner fan.
Watching the Giants - Cubs, and the controversial out-of-basepath call on Baez, and I have to marvel that ESPN doesn’t pay to have a rules expert (eg, off-duty or retired umpire) on standby. Nobody in the broadcast booth had the remotest clue what the rule says with regards to running out of the basepath, and were throwing in random bits of unrelated rule nonsense (like the interference at 2B rule, or the running outside the lane rule).
For the record, the gist of the rule:
Unless there’s a tag attempt, a runner can go anywhere he damn well pleases. If there is a tag attempt, the runner can only go 3 feet from “his basepath” to avoid a tag.
(I kept waiting for a broadcaster to say the magic words “3 feet”…never happened.)
What’s a basepath, you may ask? The runner establishes his own basepath, as a direct line between where he is and where he needs to go (ie, the next base).
Since umpires don’t carry measuring tape, the protocol is: it’s how far a fielder can go with a “step and a reach”. Did Baez go beyond a step and a reach to avoid Belt? Yes. Out.
I disagree. It looked to me like he was within arm’s reach of the bag, and never went further out than that. He also is allowed to avoid the tag.
Safe.
Distance from the bag is irrelevant (you’re thinking of a runner sliding into the bag while taking out the pivot man). He’s allowed to avoid the tag, but has to stay within 3 feet.
If you’re reaching for the bag, fully extended, you’re going to be within 3 feet
I can picture a path that goes 4 feet around the fielder then loops back within arms reach…which is exactly what happened.
As the commentators mentioned, Baez’s left arm was inside the base path the whole time
I think we can safely establish that the commentators had no idea what constitutes a basepath. They may have been thinking it was the chalk line.
I’ll disagree on the call, and had it been reviewable, I think it gets overturned. But it’s not worth a continued hijack, so let’s agree to disagree.
Agreed. 
40 year olds getting around on 98 mph fastballs. Gee, how does that happen?
Cuz it was 3-1 count and he knew it would be a fastball? I get where you’re headed and it’s hard to believe that Ortiz would, in his final year, jeopardize his reputation by doping. I guess if you’re gonna do it, might as well do it now. But only if you’re not a Hall of Fame caliber player.