Archive for the ‘Blog Entries’ Category

During the last episode, Ted promised a post with a link to friend of the show Ted Berg’s blog entry about Dan O’Dowd. Thanks to the wonderful people at Verizon, Ted still has no internet. So it’s a bit delayed, but here it is.

Spring Training is in full swing and the season is a month away.  The anticipation of Opening Day makes this one of my favorite times of year so I began to think about all of the things that make baseball so great. Here are a few of my favorite things…

Hotdogs and nachos all covered in chili
Todd Helton’s goatee and sweet-bearded Spilly
Getting excited with each Tulo swing
These are a few of my favorite things

Seats in the purple row and the Rockpile
My rekindled mancrush with each Fowler smile
Seth Smith proves why he’s the late-inning king
These are a few of my favorite things

Ubaldo on the mound mowing down batters
Every year Tony Gwynn gets even fatter
His diet must be mostly buffalo wings
Maybe occasionally some onion rings

When the bat cracks
When the crowd cheers
When I’m in the stands
I flag down a vendor and buy me a beer
And think that life is grand

VoRP, WAR, UZR, it all gets confusing
Year after year the poor Pirates keep losing
Attendance at Marlins’ games so bad it stings
These are a few of my favorite things

Aaron Cook’s sinker inducing a ground ball
Remembering the Steinbrenners are giant a$$%*!&$
Pitchers and catchers reporting each spring
These are a few of my favorite things

Minute Maid Park and the flag pole in center
Phillies fans throw beer while you try to enter
Tickets that cost more than flights to Beijing
These are not some of my favorite things

Extra innings
Walk off homers
Catches at the wall
Score seven or more for cheap tacos galore (with the purchase of a beverage)
Can’t wait to hear those words… “Play ball!”

With only one week to go until pitchers and catchers report to spring training, the wait for baseball is becoming harder and harder to stand.  With that in mind, I figured this would be a good time to distract everyone with how hilarious old-timey baseball is.

Take a look at this gem, which Abreana thoughtfully passed along to Rockiescast while she was doing some research.  A big part of what makes old-timey baseball so hilarious is language.  And I don’t just mean “base-ball” terminology, I mean the frilly Victorian language that was used in print and in speech in those times.  Add to that the outdated style of play and the amazing facial hair trends of the era, and you’ve got one hilarious situation.  Enter Conan O’Brien, who clearly recognizes these elements of old-timey hilarity.  This video is a few years old, but it’s still funny enough to watch repeatedly to pass the time until baseball begins anew.

This upcoming spring will mark my third year coaching Little League Baseball.  The season has yet to begin, but somehow I have already netted the biggest victory of my career.

At the end of every season, we (are supposed to) collect jerseys from the kids to reuse the following season.  When not enough are collected, the league has to buy new jerseys.  You’ll never guess who ”forgot” to collect jerseys for the past two seasons.  No, not me.  I always make it a point at the end of the season to delegate my roommate and co-coach to collect jerseys.  So technically he is responsible for this, although by putting him in charge of jersey collection I have a pretty good idea of where that is going to leave us… collecting 3 of 11 jerseys each year. As a result, the league is going to buy new jerseys and the commissioner was kind enough to ask if we wanted to change team names so he can order the appropriate jersey.  So, as of earlier today, I am the former coach of the Giants and current coach of the Rockies!  This is already my best season ever!

With the start of a new year, this seems like an appropriate time to take a look at what the future holds for the Rockies.

Starting with the immediate future, the Rockies will begin the 2010 season with a new voice in the radio broadcast booth. Jeff Kingery’s departure generated quite a bit of buzz and speculation last fall as to who would be given the task of filling his big original-broadcaster shoes. This week, the new guy was revealed to be longtime Nuggets broadcaster Jerry Schemmel. Needless to say, Rockiescast is very curious as to how this new broadcast team of Schemmel and Jack Corrigan will sound. I’m hopeful that Schemmel will be a solid replacement for Kingery. Kingery’s firsthand knowledge of every moment in Rockies history is gone, but Schemmel will bring his own skill set. A huge part of baseball radio broadcast is finding interesting topics to discuss during lulls in the action on the field, and it appears that Jerry Schemmel has plenty of interesting things to talk about.

The new year is also a good excuse to look at what the Rockies have cooking in the organization for the long term.  I freely admit that I’m terrible at getting good, in-depth info on prospects. Luckily, we recently got a hot tip via e-mail about a blog committed to the art of scouting baseball prospects: Diamond Futures. This week, they did their analysis of the prospects in the Rockies’ system.  Take a look: it’s some pretty interesting stuff. My only complaint is that Diamond Futures failed to rank organizations by the most important criteria: awesome prospect names. Al Alburquerque, Jhoulys Chacin, Rex Brothers, Delta Cleary…how can another organization possibly compete with names like that?!

Rockiescast wishes a very happy Boxing Day to our neighbors in the Great White North!

If you haven’t been following, the news has been encouraging for the Rockies’ resident Canadian this holiday season.  We are eagerly anticipating Jeff Francis‘ glorious return to the States, dominance.

The Rockies have offered arbitration to Jason Marquis. Presumably, this was just so they can receive a compensatory draft pick when he signs with another team, but it still seems a bit risky to me. What if he accepts? Nobody expects him to, but the option is on the table. Not that I’d be opposed to having him back, but Marquis doesn’t seem to fit into the 2010 plans. Neither does the salary he would receive through the arbitration process.

Virginia ranked 8th in the country in deer-vehicle collisions from 2007-2008. 8th? We can do better than that, and I did my part last night to try to help us climb those rankings. I went back to find the deer I hit and it was gone, which means I won’t be able to give Clint Barmes that gift I thought I had for him.

If you’ve been listening to recent episodes or reading Scott’s angry blogging, you know that Rockiescast was not thrilled with the World Series match-up or with the conduct of these teams’ average fan.  It’s reassuring to see that we are not alone.  Earlier this week, the Daily Show aired a piece on the confluence of trashy fans that took place in South Philly on Sunday, when the Eagles stomped the Giants at Lincoln Financial Field hours before the Yankees took Game 4 from the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.  It brought back fuzzy memories of the two times over the last three Octobers that Scott and I have made the trek to that very asphalt hellscape to take verbal abuse from the trashiest fans in sports.  Both times, it was a small price to pay to watch the Rockies beat the Phillies in a playoff game. Take a look, and I’m sure you’ll understand how these people made the Rockies’ victories that much sweeter.

Some Jerks took the mound and gave up some runs to some other Jerks. In the end, the Jerks prevailed, allowing the series to continue. There will be an off day as the Jerks travel from Citizens Jerk Park back to Jerk Stadium for the final game(s) of this Jerk series.

* CC Sabathia is still cool.

With the Yankees win last night it is no longer possible for the road team to win every game, which would have crushed the hopes and dreams of all fans in attendance and made me happy. So I guess now I’m hoping the Yankees to win in 5. How great would it be to see the Phillies drop three straight in front of their hometown fans and have to walk off the field as the opposing team celebrates around the mound? I can’t think of anyting (most) Phillies fans deserve more. Of course, I’d much prefer that outcome if it wasn’t the Yankees, but there is no other option. What I’d like to see is three straight late inning leads blown by the Phillies bullpen, culminating with a Game 5, 2-run shot by Mark Texeira in the top of the 9th off of Brad Lidge to give the Yankees a 1-run lead and the eventual victory.