Ten Things You Need For The Baseball Season

The baseball season is nearly upon us and fans of the pastoral game are no-doubt psyched!

But before the smorgasbord of popcorn, hotdogs and beer starts flowing, let’s take a look at some of the stuff that you need (or at-least desire) to get your hands on before the regular season kicks er… pitches off!

10. Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster 2008 - Have you got your fantasy team sorted yet? Need a little help from a trusted source? Ron Shandler has been aiding fantasy managers with his in depth statistical analysis since 1986. If you’re determined to win your league this year, then this is the one for you.

9. Major League Baseball 2K8 - This game comes out on March 10th and apparently offers “Unparalleled bat-to-bat contact” via the “Swing Stick 2.0”. Hmm… I don’t know about that, but with two weeks to go until opening day, this should help scratch your itch nicely.

8. 2008 Topps Baseball Cards Complete Set (Series 1) 330 Cards – What is it about a nice clean crisp baseball card that always reminds me of summers back in the day? Am I the only one? Ehh… probably. But anyway, if collecting is your thing, then this has to be the perfect way to start the ’08 season!

7. Take Me Out to the Ballpark 2008 Wall Calendar - The 2008 Take Me Out to the Ballpark Calendar highlights thirteen of the most beloved ballparks past and present from the United States and Canada. I was always pretty sure there were twelve months in the year, so I’m not sure why there are thirteen ballparks… hmm…

6. Markwort Speed Sensor Ball with LED Display 9" Baseball – This is pretty cool really. It’s the regulation size and weight of a baseball but when you throw it, it measures the speed (in MPH) and displays it on a small LCD screen. It measures up to 120mph, which should be plenty, considering none of your buddies will reach anywhere near that out in the yard.

5. Official Major League Baseball Game Ball – If we’re talking equipment, there’s no point doing things by halves. Get yourself an official game ball the easy way, rather then hanging around in the stands with a mitt and a prayer.

4. D-Bat Pro Stock Ash Wood Baseball Bat – And while we’re at it, hook yourself up with a decent bat (and maybe some Mizuno batting gloves too). Whether it be at a ball or at a friend, is there anything more satisfying then swinging a brand new bat?

3. Rawlings PL158PB Players Series 9.0 Inch PInk Tee Ball Glove with Ball – It’s a pink glove! Your girl/gay friend will love it!

2. Tickets! – If you’re wanting to go to any of the thousands of games this season, then it goes without saying that you’re going to need tickets. Vivid Seats can get you in anywhere.

1. Baseball Prospectus 2008: The Essential Guide to the 2008 Baseball Season (Baseball Prospectus) – This is *the* book when it comes to baseball analysis. Reportedly read by every GM in the game before every season, it provides enough analysis to feed the frenzy of the most ardent armchair fan.

The book contains (among a plethora of other things) a list of the top 100 prospects this season, a bit on how base running turns into runs and a view on the projected leaders in a variety of categories. It is a must for all baseball fans.

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Don't Bother Turning Up Early...

According to the stats over on MLB.com, 14,311 people turned up to see the Marlins sneak one over the Braves on Sunday. Well I don't know where the other 13,000 fans were at but I find it a stretch to say there were even 1,000 seats filled. And this was a Sunday game. Maybe the Marlins have a really, really great secret hot-dog stand out back.

Now, I once had an 'exceptional experience' with an 'exceptional young lady' in the empty upper decks during a Marlins game, but that doesn't change the situation one little bit.

I know there's been countless speculation about a move North (or any other freakin' compass point would do) but, putting that asside, there has to come a point where it's just not worth screwing up the damned field to create a baseball park. I find it hard to believe that it's still financially viable for Dolphin Stadium to host baseball games anymore.

Ok, I've never really been for baseball being played in the Dolphin's backyard, but I figured if it helped bring in the dough and therefore keep the Stadium in good order. But is that what's happening here?

A big part of going to any sporting event is the atmosphere. If you're sitting in an empty stadium then it can really kill your excitement and if that happens a couple of times you're not likely to want to go again. Unless, you know, you have an experience like I had. But if you're an ugly bastard or a Marlin's fan then that's not likely to happen to you.

I think the Marlins are a bit of an embarrassment to the MLB. It's time for somebody to accept that the experiment didn't work and it's time to stop flogging the dead horse.

Competition Time. Win $30 worth of Amazon.com Goodness! Free to enter!!

That's right, you can win a $30 Amazon.com gift voucher just by entering our free competition. It's open to anybody 18 or over who has an email account, so check out the rules below and join in!

To enter all you have to do is tell me why you love your favorite sport. In three words or less. It doesn't matter what sport you love or why you love it but the reason must be no more than three words in length. For example:

I love football and my reason (one of them anyway) is "Unnecessary Roughness". Having a foul for 'Unnecessary Roughness' implies that, in order to play the game, there is necessary roughness. Which is brilliant and humorous at the same time.

You can choose a facet of the sport, a player that you love to watch, or whatever you like, as long as it's three words or less, it's all gravy.  You can leave an explanation of your choice if you want. The winner will be the one that I like the best and my decision is final bitch.

The competition will run from right now to the 1st of July. Entries can be made by comment or by email to shottonothing[/at/]gmail.com and you can enter as many times as your heart desires. The winner will be announced on Monday the 2nd of July and will be notified by email (so remember to send me your email address if you're answering via a comment!)


Good luck and thanks for taking part!

Phil Wellman Laughs in the Face of Your Ejection

You see, you log on all ready to write a nice intelligent yet humorous piece on the various sporting issues of the day, when you spot this little beauty on You Tube...

[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUcFWPgB8oY"]

and try as you might you just... can't... stop... gut laughing.

Taking One For The Team

In the clip below Uconn's Josh Farkes shows us how it is possible to play Defense whilst being on Offense. I'm not sure how much Farkes knew about it but it brings a whole new meaning to the term 'The best Defense is a good Offense'.

[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WWE8HgD85U"]

Perhaps Notre Dame's Brett Lilley has something against him...

Global Update

As you can see by the picture to your right, the Leicester Tigers won the Guinness Rugby Union Premiership yesterday. and they did it in spectacular form, smashing Gloucester by 44-16. The best description of the Tigers performance came from one of the commentators who likened it to "Watching a tank being driven like a sports car"

This was the tigers third attempt at the Premiership title and having finally won it they are now on course to win the treble.

Btw, the whole Ricky Williams testing positive whilst trying to re-enter the NFL thing has not passed me by. It's just that my seething disbelieve at the mans stupidity is requiring me to right a full post on the matter at a later date.

Raphael Nadal has shown how outrageously good he is on clay by taking his 76th victory on the surface and simultaneously breaking John McEnroe's previous record for most wins on one surface. It's good to see someone with a bit of passion and character taking centre stage in the Tennis world. I like Federer as much as the next guy, but he's not all that exhilarating personality wise is he?

Incidentally, Federer has unexpectedly split from his coach, Tony Roche. Both sides say the decision was mutual - yeah, sure it was. I guess if you're Roger Federer you're probably wondering if there's anything left to learn about Tennis.

The Spanish Grand Prix is the next race in the Formula 1 Calender and takes place in just over an hour from now. Felipe Massa has once again claimed pole position with a fairly ridiculous last second charge. Being a Ferrari fan, I would love to love Massa, if only he would get through a damned race without screwing the pooch several times and gifting the victory to the opposition. Ragnamit.

Other then that, The Spurs are helping the Suns to set, the Yankees have a losing record and everybody is pretty impressed with the Warriors. But then you knew that already didn't you?

That's it for your Sunday Global update, take it easy y'all.

[BBC Sport]

[SI]

Global Update

Damn, The Masters is hard this year. After the cut there's only three guys above even! The leader-board looks like so:

B Wetterich -2
T Clark SA -2
V Taylor -1
J Kelly even
V Singh Fij even
Z Johnson even
J Rose Eng even
D Howell Eng +1
L Glover +1
P Harrington Ire +1

Tiger Woods ain't lookin' so hot at +3 but I don't think he should be too worried, he's only five shots off the leader and also... well, because he's Tiger Woods.

In College Baseball the Gators managed to blow my theory about them hotting up by losing 12-2 to South Carolina. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted....

Felipe Massa (Ferrari) has claimed pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix (Formula 1) tomorrow. Kimi 'X-nay on the personality-ay' Raikonnen got bumped down to third by Fernando Alonso (Renault) which is great news, because Kimi Raikonnen is the only person in the entire world who can make the worlds fastest Ferrari look boring.

Let's see, what else...

Oh yeah, Track Athlete Christine Ohuruogu is said to be 'stunned' by the loss of her appeal against a 12-month doping ban. Well Christine, that's kinda what happens when you decide to skip a load of drugs tests, it's the same for everybody.

More importantly than this other crap is news that Ricky Williams has officially applied for reinstatement to the NFL. The Dolphins management say they won't comment because Ricky hasn't been reinstated yet. Doesn't that sound like a big old 'Not Interested' resonating from the Phish heads?

Finally, Kentucky have finally found someone to coach their basketball team next year. That man is Billy Gillespie and he doesn't think there's that much work to do in fixing th UK team. Hmm, yeah, good luck with that Billy.

That's it, you're all updated, I hope you're happy. Have a great Easter and don't eat too much eat as much damned chocolate as you can handle. What do I care, it's not my body... you fat bastard.

What are the Gators Putting in their Water?

AKA can the Gators make it three?

At the beginning of the season the Gators baseball unit were ranked No.22 and looked like the poor brother to Florida State's No.1. Any chance of them taking down a third national title looked pretty slim.

But with sports writers and bloggers around the globe all collectively echoing the same three letters (WTF?), the Gators destroyed FSU, took the lead in the SEC Eastern and are now on the end of an eight game winning streak.

Over Easter the Gators will face the No.4 South Carolina Gamecocks who have won six of the last seven series against UF and this could well be the true indicator of just how good they are. If they do win this series, as they did in 2005 eventually going on to finish runner up in the College World Series, the entire college baseball world is going to start quaking in their caps.

So is it something in the Water down in Gatorville? Or is it the adrenalin soaring sounds of Whitney Houston being played through the PA during practice?

'Ohh, I wanna dance with somebody...'

Now that's enough to get any dude pumped up right?