Ballpark Travel

I sit here on Wednesday night, in the wake of Major League Baseball's second ever post-season no hitter and I just know that it is just beginning. When I look at the teams that made it this season, there is one juggernaut (Philadelphia) and seven others that are hungry for playoff success. Here is what I am thinking about each team starting the playoffs: Philadelphia (97-65): The Phillies had a dominant September. They have an American League offense, the big three and their closer is back and pitching lights out. When I see this team, it is going to take a lot of heart to uproot the team that has played in each of the last two World Series. They are deep in pitching, deep in hitting and have a serviceable bench. They are going to have to get in their own way to get knocked out before the World Series, if they do that -- is it poor defense? is it Lidge reverting to his erratic self because of Manuel's overuse? I know what it won't be -- this team is cool and collected, th...

· Has one steal ever meant more to baseball than Dave Robert’s steal of second in the 2004 ALCS Game 4 (Rickey Henderson picking up the bag at third, not even close). · When talking about Barry Bonds, the five minutes of discussion about Bobby Bonds and Willie Mays was a little excessive, but did really open up a little bit about his personality (Pirate Hats in the 1980’s were so awesome). · Where does Ken Griffey Jr. fit between steroids, corked bats, amphetamines and then steroids again? · Jason Grimsley is Spideman and apparently the hero of the players for replacing Albert Belle’s corked bats with a untainted bat (I bet the steroid allegations he made at the end of his career weren’t very well received). · Performance enhancing culture, it’s about time that it was said (Didn’t need to think about Cialis or Viagra, but it hit it home)! · Never remember seeing the Joe Torre scene crying before the 1996 World Series. I must admit, that r...

As Buck Showalter and the Orioles discuss the future of the Orioles behind closed doors, it is time to wonder what happened to the team that was supposed to compete this season and be a difference maker between the big three in the AL East. In looking at this team, the Orioles are loaded with strong young talent, coming into the season, it was said that they had the best young outfield in baseball with Adam Jones, Nick Markakis and Nolan Reimold. Jones started the season off cold, coming around recently, Markakis needs to have some of his doubles (25) turn into homers (4) to be a middle of the order threat and Reimold is hitting .212 at AAA Norfolk after a .205 start in the majors this season. The arrival of Jake Fox this week and Matt Wieters completes their core of young offensive talent. Looking at the Orioles reserves for the players at these positions, their fourth outfielder is Corey Patterson, Julio Lugo is their infield backup and Craig Tatum backs up Matt Wieters. While Patter...

Little did I know when I moved to Atlanta in 2008 that a retro baseball oasis was just two hours away in Birmingham, Alabama. On June 2 nd , 2010, the Birmingham Barons and Tennessee Smokies matched up for a game at Rickwood Field to honor its 100 th year of having professional baseball played at the stadium. This stadium is the oldest professional stadium, older than both Fenway Park and Wrigley Field with a similar rich history. Far away from manufactured crowd noise, sausage races and peanut butter jelly time, 9,400 fans took a mid-week afternoon to take in a baseball game. Walking through the parking lot, my Connecticut license plate was a badge of honor shared by many other out of state cars that day. Truly, people came from all over for this game and once inside the gate, it was incredibly obvious as to why this was. A retro-styled game program was available at the gate, there were hundreds of people in the concourse trying to garner refreshments from the 95 degree heat from t...

So, it is two months into the season and I am pretty disgusted with the All-Star voting (as usual through the first count) so I figured I would make my All-Star selections public through the first two months of the season. National League - Visitor C - Rod Barajas , NYM (Where did that power come from; Ivan Rodriguez was my choice prior to the injury, leadership and a .340 batting average speak volumes) 1B - Albert Pujols , STL (Rival to Miguel Cabrera) 2B - Martin Prado, ATL (Hitting .330 and found a home in the leadoff position on the hottest team in baseball, one is fueling the other there. Lots of other solid choices, Utley , Brandon Phillips, Kelly Johnson in that order) 3B - Ryan Zimmerman, WAS (Great batting average this season with same power numbers and leading the surprise Nationals. Jorge Cantu was a close second) SS - Hanley Ramirez, FLA (Pure talent, having another great season, not even close here) LF - Ryan Braun , MIL (Easy choice) CF - Andrew McCutchen , PIT (Dyn...

Sunday afternoon while driving from Florida to Georgia, I received a text message from a baseball mind that I highly respect wishing me a happy opening night. As always, I tried to come up with a clever response and eventually it hit me...Happy New Year. Baseball is back and stadiums across the country are full of optimism and excitement as we work our way through the first series of 2010. Just like the millions of people that celebrate New Years eve, people are excited to see a new season because the slate is clean and there is a chance to start anew and maybe, just maybe, win a World Series. Hope is spreading across baseball fans(even in Washington) today and that is a reason to celebrate spring! Some brief predictions are: The Tampa Bay Rays will return to the playoffs this season, meaning that one of the Yankees or Red Sox will not. While the Rays are not flashy, they are solid across the diamond and are developing offensively on a daily basis. The addition of Rafael Soriano wi...

Ten Changes over the Next Decade for Baseball #6 Substantial Changes to the Revenue Sharing System Earlier today I was talking with a close friend and great baseball mind about the revenue sharing system. We both agree that the current revenue sharing system in baseball is broken and the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement discussions will largely re-shape this system. Whether it stems from changes in other areas of the game such as introducing a salary cap and minimum, altering arbitration, internationalizing the draft or other things that I have already discussed, something needs to be done. The large market teams are not effected enough by the current system, the small market teams do not receive enough assistance and the mid-sized teams do not get anything out of the system. Revenue sharing went the wrong way in 2006. Instead of increasing the fines for passing the luxury tax threshold, the agreement significantly increased the taxation threshold and decreased the fines for exceed...

Ten Changes over the Next Decade for Baseball #5 Competive Balance Issues Addressed Again As I sit here watching game 7 of the 1992 NLCS , the Pittsburgh Pirates and Atlanta Braves history took polarized turns after this game. The Pirates have not had a winning season since 1992 and the Braves went on to win a World Series and they were in year two of fourteen consecutive winning seasons. Competitive balance has been a big conversation in baseball since free agency dollars started having such an impact which has resulted in increased costs for the fans and the corporate clients. Baseball, just as all sports has become an expensive activity to enjoy on a regular basis in most markets. Large market teams have been well equipped to spend on player talent and improve their team easier than opponents in small or medium markets. The Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals have 1 winning season since the 1992 season. They are a collective 1-33. This is not healthy for the sport to have t...

Ten Changes over the Next Decade for Baseball #4 An International Draft During a interview with Bud Selig around the World Series this year, he talked about potential changes that he wanted to make in the Collective Bargaining Agreement when discussions re-open in 2011. Selig earmarked changes to the draft system as being one of the changes he wanted to make. The rationale for making the draft international would be to even the playing field amongst signing amateur talent outside of the United States. So for players such as Aroldis Chapman, who signed a reportedly $30M contract with Cincinnati this week, he would have to enter the draft to determine what team they would play for. This would mean that the landscape of the Dominican League camps and international scouting would change drastically. Rather than having the right to sign any of the talent directly out of their home countries, teams would now have to wait for the MLB draft in order to sign talent. This would be a major chan...

Ten Changes over the Next Decade for Baseball #3 MLB Expansion/Relocation to Portland, Oregon During my senior year of college, several classmates and I worked on a group project that detailed a strategic plan for relocating the Oakland Athletics to Portland, Oregon. It was our opportunity to get creative and develop an idea that was plausible. The result was a comprehensive report that covered pretty much all of the areas of running a professional sports franchise including: sponsorships, marketing, baseball operations, etc. Here is the condensed version of why Major League Baseball belongs in Portland: Currently, the Portland Beavers provide the city with their baseball entertainment playing in the AAA Pacific Coast League. With their stadium located downtown, accessible to public transportation, the city was thinking with foresight when they built the new stadium with the ability to expand the seating capacity and upgrade the facility if Major League Baseball came to calling. Getti...

Ten Changes over the Next Decade for Baseball #2: Cuban Politics Affecting Baseball In the 2000's Cuba saw a few players defect from their country to be eligible to play baseball in the United States. Examples of such players include Lvian Hernandez, Orlando Hernadez, Jose Contreras, Yunel Escobar and Kendry Morales to name some of the more famous players. There already is some history of Cuban players succeeding in Major League Baseball and being well compensated (See Jose Contreras and bidding war). [For an excellent story detailing Yunel Escobar's defection, the following Sports Illustrated article opened my eyes: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1130711/index.htm ] With Ardonis Chapman now being contacted by double digit number of teams, and the performances at the World Baseball Classic in 2006 and 2009, there is a lot of top-tier talent that remains untapped from Cuba. There is talk that border restrictions will be loosened for their country now ...

Ten Changes over the Next Decade for Baseball #1: A New Commissioner for Baseball This is an excellent starting point for this conversation because we already know that Bud Selig has decided to step down from his post as MLB Commissioner, a position that he has held since 1992. The decision that the owners make for his successor may also be the most important one made of the decade. As we have seen all throughout baseball history, the leadership of the players and the league have changed the game. Examples such as Kenesaw Landis (famous for stomping out the rival Federal League), Marvin Miller (Leader of the MLBPA and responsible for increasing player rights) and Bud Selig (Initiated the Wild Card, revenue sharing and steroid testing) exist as proof of the importance of this decision. The coming decade could be an opportunity for baseball. Football has become America's favorite game to watch in recent years and they could be in for some trouble with a strike or lockout due to ...