When it becomes very cold we are not seeing the players at their best.  Baseball
in November is rediculous in the North.

--- In YouCanPutItOnTheBoard@yahoogroups.com, saul pulido <temohead@...> wrote:
>
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> MLB opts for ratings over reason
>
>
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> By Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports 1 hour, 58 minutes ago
>  
>
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>
> NEW YORK â€" Television ratings are up across the board in baseball’s
postseason. This is cause for celebration among the, oh, 50 or so suits who have
a stake in such things. That each is a willing co-conspirator in the gradual
ruin of the postseason seems to matter not, because ratings mean profits, and
money drives Major League Baseball and the Fox network’s myopia toward the
scheduling disaster that currently afflicts the sport.
>  
> Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here: The fourth consecutive season with a team
waiting at least a week between winning a League Championship Series and
starting the World Series. Note to bigwigs: Baseball is not football. Weeklong
layoffs don’t fly. It’s one thing if a sweep causes it. It’s different
when MLB allows Fox to hijack the entire schedule for $400 million or so a year.
>  
> Beaucoup bucks buy Fox the leverage to insist on starting the World Series on
a Wednesday instead of the Saturday that was standard until 2007. That’s
right: The World Series should have started already. Only because Saturday night
is a TV ratings sinkhole, and the potential of two games on Saturday makes Fox
executives cower, they make us wait. And wait. And wait.
>
>
> More From Jeff Passan
>  
>
> Never mind the possibility of showing Game 1 on Saturday afternoon and
enticing the millions of kids who can’t stay up late enough to watch a whole
World Series game. No, that would be far too novel. And don’t dare insist that
the frustration caused by the layoff might actually be worse long term than any
hit taken in the ratings. Because that would imply an eye on future health, not
current bank balance.
>  
> Beware: Disillusionment and apathy are first cousins, and the former can turn
into the latter awfully quick.
> “We’re used to it,” said Brad Lidge(notes), the closer for the National
League champion Philadelphia Phillies, who for the second straight season have
seven days between games. “It comes with the territory. If you get to the
World Series, you’re going to have to wait a little bit to play.”
>  
> Didn’t used to be that way. Prior to 2007, there was a standard formula
employed since baseball introduced the wild card. The playoffs always started
the first Tuesday following the regular season ending. The LCS would begin seven
or eight days later. And the World Series came 11 days after the start of the
first LCS.
>  
> Now the postseason starts on a Wednesday. And while the LCS this season began
eight days later, the World Series doesn’t start until 13 days after the first
LCS game. There are off days built in specifically to adhere to Fox’s request
of a Wednesday start, and with the World Baseball Classic already pushing the
season back a week, there will be at least one â€" and as many as four â€" World
Series games this November.
> Nothing says championship-caliber baseball like Elmer Fudd caps.
>  
> MLB and Fox must recognize how ridiculous winter baseball looks. Weather is
fickle, of course, and it could easily turn blustery in early October. The odds
are just greater in late October. See: ALCS Game 6, scheduled for Saturday
night, postponed to Sunday because of rain. The late-fall games, coupled with
unnecessary off-days, are a double whammy MLB and Fox dish out. How nice it
would be if both parties cared as much about the numbers most important to fans
(temperature and precipitation) as they do their two favorites (money and
ratings).
>  
> Arguments can be made both ways regarding the fairness to players. In 2006,
Detroit swept the ALCS, sat for seven days and got crushed by St. Louis. The
next year, Colorado rolled over Arizona, went nine days between games and lost
four straight to Boston. While both claimed rustiness, it affected neither of
the previous two teams with weeklong layoffs (Atlanta in 1995 and the New York
Yankees in 1996) nor last year’s champion, Philadelphia.
>  
> The Phillies relish what the week off affords them: a chance to rest weary
bodies, relax with family, set up their pitching rotation and procure more
in-depth scouting reports on the Yankees and Angels. Not a complaint came from
their clubhouse after their workout Friday afternoon, though the Tigers and
Rockies also downplayed layoff excuses â€" until they lost.
> “This is the World Series,” Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said.
“They’ll be prepared for it. If you can’t get juiced up or hyped up or
ready for the World Series, I don’t know how much of a pulse you have.”
>  
> Baseball’s, thankfully, continues Sunday at 8:20 p.m. ET. Had New York held
on to its Game 5 against the Angels on Thursday, MLB faced a dire scenario: six
days between games. Baseball should be ashamed that it allows Fox to bully it
into such a potentially momentum-wrecking situation.
>  
> The good news is, MLB and Fox aren’t beyond reason. They realized that 8:30
p.m. ET starts were too late and moved the majority of this year’s games back
to 8 p.m. Still an hour too late, but progress nonetheless.
>  
> So while MLB considers intuitive ideas to help its plight â€" like starting
the season a week earlier with games in warm-weather cities or domed stadiums,
then shaving off another week by making one day a month into Doubleheader
Sunday, a treat for fans and easily brandable product â€" it must make amending
the schedule priority No. 1. Can’t fix everything at once.
>  
> There is a cure for myopia, of course. Glasses. When MLB finds the right pair,
it will see what chasing money has wrought. Hopefully, apathy hasn’t taken
over.
>

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-------------- Original message from saul pulido <temohead@...>: --------------

Unofficial Cubs mascot Ronnie Woo-Woo Wickers seems to be everywhere. Here he appears in the background of one of this nation's darker moments, the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. Where else has Woo-Woo been spotted? Email your pics to photos@....

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Av5IRH6BxqVMA_RWUtChRd8RvLYF?slug=jp-playo\
ffpulse101409&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

From what I gather, it seems that the Rockies are looking to deal Brad Hawpe
this off-season. In the past, he has been a pretty big left-handed bat for the
Rockies. He hasn't hit below .280 since 2005, has hit at least 20 HR's since
2006 and seems to have fairly good stats elsewhere. He turns 31 next June and
might make a good fit as a part-time DH/part-time OF, giving Carlos Quentin more
at-bats as a DH. Thoughts?

From: petrohd [mailto:petrohd@...]


Should have figured it would happen...

Was telling a cousin of mine when the Twins (hes from MN) won the
Division that they would have it tough against the Yankees....and sure
enough thats what happened.

And now with St Louis out of it, I guess I am going for the Dodgers...

Think of it this way...if the Yankees and Dodgers get into the WS then
it will be a match of Torre against the Yankees....

Mike P


I'm rooting for the remaining six teams to lose.  Unfortunately, one
will win.

I guess if I gotta root I'll root for Torre.  Not the Dodgers.  Torre.
Seems like good people.

JK

http://wap.mlb.com/cws/news/article/200910127440078/

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

http://wap.mlb.com/cws/news/article/200910097409554/

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/article/2009-10-12/thome-open-returning-white-so\
x

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

I think the retractable roofs add millions to the project.  In this economy I
don't see many new parks being built.  Also, while some cities have the benefit
of year round warm weather like Miami and Oakland, there stadiums are crap.

--- In YouCanPutItOnTheBoard@yahoogroups.com, Brian Ryder <newworldsamurai@...>
wrote:
>
> I think having October baseball is fine. That being said, why haven't all new
stadiums built in questionable regions been required to include a retractable
roof? Even U.S. Cellular Field would benefit from having one. I think fans would
be more likely to show up in early April if they didn't have to bear the brunt
of 31 degree winds in the upper deck.
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: saul pulido <temohead@...>
> To: YouCanPutItOnTheBoard <YouCanPutItOnTheBoard@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2009 7:51:58 AM
> Subject: [YCPIOTB] Weather
>
>
>
> Snow in Colorado yesterday. game canceled.
> High of 49 today.
> Snow in Minn yesterday.
> They play in a dome.
> High of 53 in Boston.
> Brrrrrrrrr.
> Baseball was not meant to be played in
> cold weather.  It should be in the 60's and above.
> This is why MLB should shorten the season or just play more double-headers on
sundays like they did in the past.
> How can a player perform his best in 40 degree weather?
> Pitchers arms tighten up pretty quick, fast players lose a split second on
their jounts around the bases.This is football weather.
>
> I don't care who you are, you cannot pitch and hit you best in the game of
baseball when the temperature outside is cold, cold, cold.
> I like to watch the playoff games on the tube but when it is this cold I tend
to just watch the highlights on ESPN at the end of the day.  To me, playing in
cold weather takes away the luster of the game.
> Maybe they  should play the games in warm weather neutral cities.  I just
can't see going to game with a jacket and hat on and still freeze my ass off
watching a slow moving game.
>
> The playoffs should start right after labor day weekend.  I'm sure if the
owners had their way, they would have the world series end on thanksgiving day.
>

I agree that the season should be shorter.  I would shorten the season by 10
days (152 games) and wrap up the world series in Mid Oct.

--- In YouCanPutItOnTheBoard@yahoogroups.com, saul pulido <temohead@...> wrote:
>
>  
> Snow in Colorado yesterday. game canceled.
> High of 49 today.
> Snow in Minn yesterday.
> They play in a dome.
> High of 53 in Boston.
> Brrrrrrrrr.
> Baseball was not meant to be played in
> cold weather.  It should be in the 60's and above.
> This is why MLB should shorten the season or just play more double-headers on
sundays like they did in the past.
> How can a player perform his best in 40 degree weather? 
> Pitchers arms tighten up pretty quick, fast players lose a split second on
their jounts around the bases.This is football weather.
>  
> I don't care who you are, you cannot pitch and hit you best in the game of
baseball when the temperature outside is cold, cold, cold. 
> I like to watch the playoff games on the tube but when it is this cold I tend
to just watch the highlights on ESPN at the end of the day.  To me, playing in
cold weather takes away the luster of the game.
> Maybe they  should play the games in warm weather neutral cities.  I just
can't see going to game with a jacket and hat on and still freeze my ass off
watching a slow moving game.
>  
> The playoffs should start right after labor day weekend.  I'm sure if the
owners had their way, they would have the world series end on thanksgiving day.
>  
>  
>  
>  
>

-- High of 49 Today  They aren't playing the game until 8 PM!!!  Right now it's
32 in Denver with predicted lows of around 20.  Coldest playoff game in recorded
history was 37 in Cleveland and, if the game goes on, this already beat it. 
Interesting article in the Colorado Springs Gazette today.  Goose Gossage, who
resides here, also said that baseball is not meant to be played in cold weather.
You need your hands and it's mighty difficult getting a feel for fielding,
pitching and throwing when your hands are frozen.  I see that the last game of
the Series is scheduled for November 5th?!?!  Insanity!!!  What if the Rocks
make it into the Series.  NO way they'll be able to play in Denver in November
unless some freak heat wave happens.  At that time of the year in Denver, 40 is
a heat wave!!  This is nuts.  I remember when the Series was over the first week
of October.



-- In YouCanPutItOnTheBoard@yahoogroups.com, saul pulido <temohead@...> wrote:
>
>  
> Snow in Colorado yesterday. game canceled.
> High of 49 today.
> Snow in Minn yesterday.
> They play in a dome.
> High of 53 in Boston.
> Brrrrrrrrr.
> Baseball was not meant to be played in
> cold weather.  It should be in the 60's and above.
> This is why MLB should shorten the season or just play more double-headers on
sundays like they did in the past.
> How can a player perform his best in 40 degree weather? 
> Pitchers arms tighten up pretty quick, fast players lose a split second on
their jounts around the bases.This is football weather.
>  
> I don't care who you are, you cannot pitch and hit you best in the game of
baseball when the temperature outside is cold, cold, cold. 
> I like to watch the playoff games on the tube but when it is this cold I tend
to just watch the highlights on ESPN at the end of the day.  To me, playing in
cold weather takes away the luster of the game.
> Maybe they  should play the games in warm weather neutral cities.  I just
can't see going to game with a jacket and hat on and still freeze my ass off
watching a slow moving game.
>  
> The playoffs should start right after labor day weekend.  I'm sure if the
owners had their way, they would have the world series end on thanksgiving day.
>  
>  
>  
>  
>