MLB Task Force

Hi folks!! Today I’m going to talk about MLB and their efforts to bring more diversity to the game. Earlier this week, Major League Baseball announced that they are going to create a task force to work on improving diversity on the field. Major League Baseball has made progress when it comes to bringing the game into urban areas. Currently Major League Baseball runs 7 Urban Youth Academies and has RBI program but they want to do more to make the game popular in urban areas. This announcement comes on the heels of the anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color-barrier and the release of the movie depicting the life of Jackie Robinson. The latest player diversity reports says that there are 8.5% players on this year’s opening day roster that are African American. This committee is made up of 18 people who are owners, players’ union representatives, Major League Baseball scouts, minor league managers and college baseball coaches. Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg and Detroit Tigers president Dave Dombrowski will run the committee. The goal of this task force is to increase the number of minorities’ especially African American players in Major League Baseball. The fact that Major League Baseball is taking the step to try and get African Americans to play the game of baseball is a good thing because the numbers have gone down in the past couple decades. It is a rarity that you see an African American in the game of baseball at all levels so now it is Major League Baseball’s job to try and make the game popular amongst African Americans.

Recap of the First week of the Season

The first week of the season has been a good one. Some teams are off to a good while others are off to bad starts. The Detroit Tigers and the San Francisco Giants, the two teams who played in last year’s World Series both had their home openers. The Tigers raised their American League Pennant Flag while the Giants raised their National League Pennant Flag and their World Series Championship Flag. The Giants also received their World Series Championship rings. The Giants star player Buster Posey received his National League MVP trophy and his Silver Slugger award. The Tigers star players Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera received there Silver Slugger awards while Cabrera received his American League MVP award. The Tigers also received there American League Championship rings. The Atlanta Braves and the Arizona Diamondbacks have the best records in Major League Baseball with a 4-1 start while there are 6 teams that are off to 1-4 starts. Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis is off to a hot and historic start. Davis already has 4 homeruns and 16 RBI’s. Davis’ homerun streak for his first 4 games matches the mark that was previously set by Willie Mays, Mark McGwire and Nelson Cruz. Davis holds the record for the most RBI’s in his first 4 games. There was also a near-perfect game. Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers was one out away from throwing a perfect game against the Houston Astros. I hope that the second week of the baseball season and the rest of the baseball season are as good as the first week of the baseball season.

Sunday Night Baseball opening day 2013 recap

Last night officially marked opening day in baseball. The two teams that played were the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros in a contest that was played on Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN. This also marked the first regular season game that the Houston Astros are playing in the American League. The Astros won the game 8-2 behind Justin Maxwell’s two triples and two RBI’s and Rick Ankiel’s pinch-hit three-run home run in the bottom of the 6^th inning. Astros starting pitcher Bud Norris threw 5 2/3 innings and had 5 strikeouts. He also gave up 5 hits and 2 runs. This was a big win for the Astros because they have been taking a lot of criticism for having one of the lowest payrolls in Major League Baseball. They have also been criticized for not spending money on a big time player. A lot of people are predicting that the Rangers and the Astros will in the bottom of the AL west so for the Astros to get a win against their in-state and AL west rivals was big. The loss for the Rangers was not a good way to start there season. They lost Josh Hamilton, who their best player in 2012 to free agency and now they are trying to move on past that.

Today most of the teams open up their season including the World Series champion San Francisco Giants who play their rivals the Los Angeles Dodgers and the American League champion Detroit Tigers who play the Minnesota Twins. The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox open up against each other. I am excited for today’s games but more importantly I am excited that the regular season is here.

2013 Major League Baseball season

Hi folks!! The start of the 2013 Major League Baseball regular season is around the corner. That means teams are playing games that actually mean something and that can help them get to the World Series. Teams have to make the tough choice on who’s going to be on their 25 man roster for the regular season. The players who don’t make the 25 man roster are either released by the team, traded or go down to the minor leagues. Some of the players who play well in the minor leagues during the season get called up to the major leagues because of injuries. Once the minor league season is over, some players get called up to the major leagues when the roster expands to 40 players in September. Teams also have until July 31^st to make trades but there is also a waiver deadline that is between July 31^st and August 31^st.

The start of the regular season is March 31st when the Texas Rangers play the Houston Astros on a Sunday night. Everybody else plays the next day on April Fools. The 2013 All Star Game will be played on July 16^th at Citi Field in New York City. The last day of the 2013 MLB regular season ends on September 29^th.

I believe that there will be a few teams that will catch people by surprise. I believe that the Toronto Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners will surprise some people in the American League and I think that Los Angeles Dodgers will surprise some people in the National League

Performance Enhancing Drug Penalties

Hi everyone! Last week I did a podcast on Performance Enhancing Drugs and if Major League Baseball should have a tougher punishment. Earlier this week, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said that he is pushing for a more strict punishment. He is proposing this punishment to Major League Baseball and the players’ association. Selig says that one of the reasons for a proposed tougher punishment is that players are allegedly trying to get performance-enhancing drugs through a South Florida doctor. Another reason why Selig wants a stricter punishment is the growing number of players who have been suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs since the punishment was implemented in 2005. There have been 67 players suspended for performance-enhancing drugs. In 2012, 6 players were suspended for performance-enhancing drugs. Selig says that he knows that their probably be a player that will break the rules but he wants the number of player suspension for performance-enhancing drugs to go down. I think it is good that Major League Baseball is trying to correct their mistakes of the past. In the past, Major League Baseball took a hit because it seemed that they ignored the issue when people started to talk about certain players who looked like there were taking steroids or other substances. I think the punishment that they have right now is a strict punishment.  I’m trying to understand what a more tougher punishment would be. Would a proposed punishment be if you test positive for performance-enhancing drugs at first time your ban for life? I think that Major League Baseball should keep suspending players who keep using performance-enhancing drugs but MLB wants to stop the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

World Baseball Classic 2013

The start of the 2013 World Baseball Classic is March 2nd. The World Baseball Classic is a tournament that was started in 2005 once the International Olympic Committee removed baseball as an Olympic sport. The first World Baseball Classic Tournament was played in 2006. The winner of the first World Baseball Classic tournament that year was Japan. The second World Baseball Classic was played in 2009. Japan ended up winning the 2009 World Baseball Classic tournament. The 2013 World Baseball Classic marks the third time the tournament has been played. In the past, the countries that played in the World Baseball Classic were countries that have a rich baseball tradition. I believe over the past few years, the game of baseball has grown. There are countries that are competing in this year's World Baseball Classic that did not compete in past tournaments and also did not have a rich baseball tradition. There are 12 teams that participated in the 2009 World Baseball Classic that were invited back to the 2013 World Baseball Classic. The first round of the tournament has teams broken up into pools. The teams in Pool A are Japan, China, Cuba and Brazil. Pool B consist of South Korea, The Netherlands, Australia and the Chinese Taipei Baseball Team. The teams in Pool C are Venezuela, Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic and Spain. The teams in Pool D are The United States, Mexico, Italy and Canada. Each team in the pools will play teams in their own pool once. The top two teams in each pool will advance to the second round. The second round consists of 2 pools. Pool 1 will be the top two teams in Pool A & B and Pool 2 will have the top two teams in Pool C & D. The second round is a double elimination tournament. The winners of the first games will play each other in the second game. The losers will play each other in an elimination game. The winner of the elimination game will play the winner of the non-eliminating game in another elimination game. The two teams that remain in the tournament will play each other in a game that will determine seeding for the Semifinals. The winner of the Semifinals games will play each other in the Finals to determine a champion for the World Baseball Classic. The first round games for this year's tournament will be played in Japan, Taiwan, Puerto Rico and Phoenix. The second round games will be played in Japan and Miami. The finals will be played in San Francisco.

Spring Training

Hi everybody!! This week I am going to talk about spring training. This week marks the first week that players report to camp to get ready for spring training. On Monday, the majority of teams reported to spring training camp in either Florida or Arizona. There are two leagues in spring training. There's the Cactus League in Arizona and the Grapefruit League in Florida. The Cactus League consist of the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Cleveland Indians, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Grapefruit League consist of the Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers, Baltimore Orioles, Miami Marlins, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals, St Louis Cardinals, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros, Boston Red Sox and the Minnesota Twins. Pitchers and catchers are the first to report to camp. Everyone else reports to camp later on in the week. The first few weeks of camp, position players work on their hitting and fielding drills. Postion players also work on bunting and situational drills. The pitchers usually pitch and work on fielding drills. On occasion, pitcher will hit and bunt but mainly they work on their pitches. Teams also have intersquad scrimmages against each other. In March, teams start to play each other during spring training. Teams that are in the Cactus League do not fly to Florida to play teams in the Grapefruit league and vice versa. A team that is in the Cactus League plays other teams in the Cactus League. The same goes for a team that is in the Grapefruit League. They play other teams that are in the Grapefruit League. Also these teams play there minor league teams and college teams during spring training. The point of spring training is to get MLB teams ready for the regular season and to pick the 25 best players for there roster.