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2008 MLB Season
- Thread starter zioxide
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Ouch... do I come across as that young? You're pretty far off on my age to assume I didn't watch him play his entire career.
I know he'll go, I'd just prefer he go with a Dodgers hat on and my die-hard Dodgers fan friend hopes for the opposite. Just always felt his bat < his defense + self-aggrandizing ass.
No, I just assumed that you knew him primarily from his years with the Mets -- which came after his years with the Dodgers. I suppose I've gotten accustomed to the idea that people on the East Coast are only dimly aware of the fact that we play the game of baseball out here.
Yeah, Piazza could come off like a egotistical butthead sometimes. I only appreciated him when he was clobbering the ball, which fortunately, he did quite often.
Tom Lasorda is talking to Piazza about wearing Dodger Blue for his Hall of Fame induction. After the unceremonious way he was traded, I wonder if he'd go for it. If anyone can talk him into it, it would be Tommy.
I don't know that the statistics say either way -- he played about the same number of years in both cities. He was in decline in his last couple of seasons with the Mets, IIRC. All of his years with the Dodgers were pretty spectacular offensively.
His personal story really is indisputably as a Dodger. He was originally signed as a very high draft pick, mainly as a favor to Tommy Lasorda, a close friend of the family and Mike's godfather. What happened next was a baseball fairy tale.
Let's see...
He had roughly 7 seasons with the Dodgers, only 69 at bats in 1992 and only 149 at bats in 1998 when he bounced over to the Marlins and then to the Mets (18 AB and 394 AB respectively). Then, 7+ seasons with the Mets, a portion of 1998.
Offensive numbers:
For the Dodgers: 3268 ABs, 1080 hits, 674 RBIs, 209 homers, .374 OBP
For the Mets: 3478 ABs, 1028 hits, 655 RBIs, 220 homers, .373 OBP
Dodgers, 69 errors
Mets, 65 errors
Feel free to check my math, but looks like the difference isn't huge. Obviously he did better in Los Angeles with more hits and RBIs and 210 less at bats, but that alone won't be enough for him to definitively agree to go in as a Dodger... which I still hope he does.
I read somewhere he was picked in the 66/67th round. The rest, as they say, is that.
The stats below really say it all.
Damn! It's pretty much an even split! That's consistency, no joke.
He could always choose the no hat option. But I think he'll pick somebody.
Can someone please tell me what is up with the Joe Torre State Farm ads? They are trying to kid us into think Joe surfs.
Figured as much. He is wearing LA gear everywhere, including wearing a LA cap surfing.
Pretty much a commercial how Torre is now a LA guy.
Might as well teach some of the others pichers a lesson not to throw at Yankees all the time.
Red Sox
I've never seen one. Must be an East Coast thing.
But I do have tickets to Joe Torre Bobblehead night at Dodger Stadium. Maybe I should stick one on Ebay and find out what it's worth.
Major League Baseball is making tentative plans to experiment with instant replay in the Arizona Fall League, according to a baseball official with knowledge of those discussions.
If that experiment proves practical and successful, MLB then is likely to continue the experiment next March during the World Baseball Classic and spring training games.
If no insurmountable problems arise, baseball could begin using replay -- though only to decide home run calls -- as soon as next season.
What is yet to be determined is whether calls would be reviewed by a "replay umpire" in each stadium, as the National Football League does, or in the MLB offices in New York, a system that would more resemble the National Hockey League's.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3408154
If that experiment proves practical and successful, MLB then is likely to continue the experiment next March during the World Baseball Classic and spring training games.
If no insurmountable problems arise, baseball could begin using replay -- though only to decide home run calls -- as soon as next season.
What is yet to be determined is whether calls would be reviewed by a "replay umpire" in each stadium, as the National Football League does, or in the MLB offices in New York, a system that would more resemble the National Hockey League's.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3408154
Anyone else use MLB.TV?
This is annoying... they added commercials between every half inning. Aside from it being the same 2 commercials played two or three times every break (which they are working on more of a mix of commercials!) and that the volume of the commercials is noticeably louder than the game this is a big, annoying difference in a product that doesn't quite balance out considering the money paid.
This is annoying... they added commercials between every half inning. Aside from it being the same 2 commercials played two or three times every break (which they are working on more of a mix of commercials!) and that the volume of the commercials is noticeably louder than the game this is a big, annoying difference in a product that doesn't quite balance out considering the money paid.
Might as well teach some of the others pichers a lesson not to throw at Yankees all the time.
How you can condone throwing at people's heads is beyond me. Let's see what happens if a Yankee gets hit in the head, how much bitching would you do? You want to send a message in a blowout, throw at them the right way and not at the head.
I'm pretty sure the player doesn't get to choose anymore.
One commentator said "He could have been aiming for his feet, that's how wild he is."
Seriously, head = no go. Hawkins should be glad he wasn't pitching to Ritchie Sexson.
the mets got swept by my braves and judging by the turmoil in the mets clubhouse, don't be surprised if willie gets canned soon...that's all for now, i'll be enjoying this night.
No. I live in Seattle. Plays here all the time. Weird they don't play it in the real market.
Yuck. This idea is even worse than the DH. Baseball isn't football, and won't be improved by making it more like football.
I don't watch much commercial TV, except for Dodger games. But I have not seen these ads.
Well they need to do something, the umps have been horrible this year.
Do you guys get the Joe Torre Safe at Home commercials now.
No they don't. This is a solution in search of a problem. People have been griping about umpiring for the entire history of the game. Just because people are still griping about umpiring and we've been offered this technological so-called solution, doesn't mean it needs to be implemented. Baseball a game played and officiated by human beings. It is not science experiment.
Haven't seen them either. Clearly I don't watch enough TV.
You making several unsafe assumptions here (so to speak).
Technology does not necessarily give you the "right" answer, it just hands the answer off to another form of interpretation. How many times have we seen a slow-motion replay of a play at first from several angles and still could not tell for certain whether the runner beat the throw or not? So now we're talking about handing off this judgement from the umpire on the field who had his eyeballs on the play to some official in a booth who looks at taped replays. Meanwhile, the game is halted while we wait for this technological oracle to rule. Great, what an "improvement."
And don't try to tell me that they're just talking about home runs. It starts with home runs, next thing they're using replays for ruling on plays at the plate, and downhill it goes from there.
The great thing about baseball is that it hasn't been mucked around with. Aside from that other huge mistake, the DH (thankfully, only in the AL), the game has remained almost unchanged for over 100 years. Leave the game alone. It doesn't need to be "fixed," because it isn't broken.