Baseball

Tigers Win, Kinsler Gets Picked Off Again

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In a previous post, I wrote about Steve Chilton’s speech at the annual dinner held by the Detroit Baseball Society. Chilton started off his speech with a story about his mother who passed away over the summer.  He said he was called to the hospital late at night because his mother wasn’t doing well.  When he arrived he sat next to his mother’s bed who was sleeping.  Sometime early in the morning his mother awoke and said to him, ‘Kinlser got picked off again.”

Those were her last words.

Last season Kinsler made a habit of getting picked off of first base.  Yesterday afternoon, he graduated to getting picked off of second base.  Kinsler doubled with one out, in the top of the ninth, and then was promptly picked off of second base.  Let’s hope this doesn’t continue.

I’m not holding my breath.

2017 Detroit Baseball Dinner

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So I’m a little late in writing about this, but with the season fast approaching, I figured better late than never.

Since 2001, The Detroit Baseball Society has been holding an annual dinner. This is the fifth year that I have attended.  Previous dinners were held a the Bloomfield Hills Country Club. This year’s dinner, however, was held at the Amnesia Room on the 16th floor of the MotorCity Casino.

In addition to dinner, drinks and appetizer’s there as a silent, sports memorabilia , auction and a slate of guest speakers.  The guest speakers included Andrew Romine, Brad Ausmus and Steve Chilton.

Romine was awarded the Bill MacAdam Tenth Man Award and gave a very nice speech. He seemed personable and genuinely excited about receiving the award, which I wondered about, given that the award and presenting organization are not widely known.

Brad Ausmus spoke for about 20 minutes and then took questions for the audience. If you weren’t a fan of BA before the dinner, you probably were after. He was smart, articulate, and seemed like a good guy, he was pretty funny too.

Worth the price of admission was Steve Chilton.  The first time I heard of Steve was when I saw him at the 2014 dinner. He is a genuine baseball / Tigers fanatic and a fabulous speaker.  In 2014, he spoke about his heartbreak at the Tigers’ playoff loss to the Red Sox.  This year he spoke about a shift in trends in MLB in how teams evaluate and value players.  Apparently, some teams are using advanced, video analysis of players that allows them to better evaluate their defense and runs they are able to save by making the proper defensive play.  He said the these advanced metrics are going to show up in the contracts free agents are offered.  I guess we got a little taste this past off season where Bautista and Encarnacion didn’t find the demand they were expecting.  (Incidentally, Chilton informed us that the advanced metrics  valued Kevin Kiermaier higher than Jose Batista.)

The price of the dinner was $150 and in my opinion, worth every penny.

I picked up a sweet autographed Gordie Howe picture in a baseball uniform.

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Last 10 World Series Champions…

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and their regular season winning percentage.

2016-Chicgao Cubs | .640 Best In MLB

2015 – Kansas City Royals | .586

2014 – San Francisco Giants | .543

2013 – Boston Red Sox | .599 Tied for Best In MLB with Cardinals

2012 – San Francisco Giants | .580

2011 – St. Louis Cardinals | .556

2010 – San Francisco Giants | .568

2009 – New York Yankees | .636 Best In MLB

2008 – Philadelphia Phillies | .568

2007 – Boston Red Sox | .593 Tied for Best In MLB with Indians

The statistics show that of the last 10 World Series Champions, four had either the best winning percentage in the regular season or were tied for the best winning percentage.  I guess I’m not sure why this surprises me.

I can’t wait for the season to begin.

We Are the Champions!!!

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Sorry, I’m a little late with this!

Minoring In Baseball

27743469782_7a51870636_zWalsh Park-La Grange, KY: I honestly don’t know where to start! First off, I guess we can congratulate the Mariners on winning the North Oldham Little League Rookie Division championship! It was not an easy road, and there were many good teams in this league. The Mariners finished third in their division and received a first round bye. They faced the Indians in the quarter-finals, and won by the score of 4-2, with Brian getting the game-winning RBI. In the semi-finals, they went against the Royals, a team they haven’t beat all year. The Mariners won a tough battle, however, winning 6-4 on a hot 90 degree day at noon, to head to the championship. The Mariners were down 5-0 in the first, then battled back for the win. Their opponent in the final game was the Padres, the team that won the division in the regular season. This time…

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Thoughts on Miggy

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Miggy has had two good games in Chicago and while I’m not saying, ‘he’s back’, his production has been nice to see.  That being said, I have noticed a few differences in his normal demeanor.  First, when he hit his home run yesterday, he put his head down and ran around the bases, foregoing his usual stutter-step before third base.  Second, I haven’t seen him constantly clowning around with everyone at first base whether on offense or defense.

While the commentators play off his incessant clowning as ‘a love for playing the game, IMHO, he takes it to the extreme and this extreme clowning projects a lack of seriousness.  Perhaps his lack of seriousness is understandable considering the amount of success he’s had and his success came immediately.  The Marlins brought him up at 19, he hit the ground running, and never looked back.  Maybe his recent struggles have humbled him a bit and forced him to refocus and take this craft a bit more seriously.  Like I said, I’m not sure he’s back, but the last few games have been fun to watch him again.

On another note, I wasn’t a big fan of Jack Morris’ color commentary with Mario Impemba but I like him a lot with Dan Dickerson. They seem to have good chemistry.  I don’t like Gibson period.  The booth rotation has to get Rod on more and get rid of Gibson for good. He’s horrible.