Baseball 2020

[Road Guy]

I'm not much into baseball, but VTE sure was so this thread is for him!

Regarding the Astros Cheating scandal, which I admit I don't know too much about, I would think for this to have been done, it would have to involve nearly every member of the team? And if so why aren't they all blackballed like Pete Rose?

 

[jeb6294]

I wouldn't worry about it...I have a feeling things will get sorted out once the season starts.

 

[jeb6294]

Personally, I am looking forward to the start of the season.  Unlike the Bungals, it looks like the Reds are at least trying to make progress during the off season.

I'm on the fence about going back to my side gig this year, i.e. working security Great American Ballpark.  It was pretty neat being down in the tunnel under the stadium seeing all the players and VIP's, but being the FNG at DOE now, Ill have to see if I can make it work with my schedule.  Since I had already been at the VA for a quite a while last season, it was easy to take time off to get games in.

 

[leggo PE]

I LOVE BASEBALL!
 

And have thought about making this thread many times, but never did, so thank you RG!
 

I'm a die-hard, lifelong Giants fan. They were in the toilet last year and will probably be in the toilet again this year, particularly thanks to the Dodgers and some (but not as much) to the Diamondbacks. I seriously hate the Dodgers.

I'm not a fan at ALL of how Manfred has handled the scandal with the Astros. I think he's a spineless coward who doesn't deserve to run the MLB. He seems so out of touch with the players and the fans!
 

 

[Supe]

 

[mudpuppy]

I've been a fair weather Tigers fan all my life, but with a record of 0.292 last year (the worst in MLB) obviously I'm not paying much attention to them these days.

I'm also a Cubs fan by marriage, which is much more exciting.  If they could get their bullpen in decent shape they could have another shot. . .

I've heard a lot on both sides of the Astros scandal.  Some saying sign stealing has been part of baseball forever, but the counter to that is using electronics to do it isn't fair, since the opposing team doesn't have the same opportunity.  Rumor is it was a fairly open secret across MLB that the Astros were doing this.  Agree with leggo that Manfred handled this poorly.  I think they should take the Astros 2018 title away.

 

[Supe]

Personally, while what the Astros did was scummy, they did not break the written rule, which said that they couldn't use electronic devices to communicate with the players on the field.  They really violated a memo that was issued in 2001, but was never actually incorporated into the rulebook.  The caveat to this would be that if it was proven that one of the bullpen catchers had an earpiece that was used to receive signals and then in turn signaled to the batter, that would directly violate the existing rules.  I don't know if that happened or not.  

 

[Road Guy]

I always tell myself that I am going to make it to more Rockies game in the spring, but never really do.  I dont think many people in Denver really care for the rockies, but the stadium is pretty nice its basically just a large brewery!

Will always be a Braves fan from my Atlanta days.  That was a fun decade for sure if you were an Atlanta fan!  Probably wont happen again with a corporation owning the team..

 

[jeb6294]

Cincinnati Reds had 4 days off when someone tested positive. Everybody was asking me about it, but it’s no different than being in a Dr’s office so they’re not going to broadcast any names. With all the games that were postponed, my best guess is that it was a regular player/coach who’s around the whole team in the dugout/clubhouse so they had to test the whole team multiple times to make sure nobody else showed up positive.

Also in Reds news, never assume your microphone isn’t hot....

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/19/us/cincinnati-reds-broadcaster-thom-brennaman-anti-gay-slur-spt-trnd/index.html

 

[leggo PE]

I thought this season was gonna be called off at least two weeks ago... Guess the MLB wants that ad money!

But seriously, HOW is St. Louis going to make up all the games they "postponed" in this compressed schedule? And what about the Marlins? Heck, even the Cubs, or other teams that didn't have confirmed cases but had games "postponed" because the opposing team did?

 

[Road Guy]

I tried watching a few games but its just odd to me without the fans - now I am not a (big) baseball fan but for those of you that are is just having the games being played enough?

Like Football is going to be weird to me if there is an empty stadium.

& If we can go to Chilli's and sit every other table I don't know why they cant let 10% in the stadiums? 

 

[leggo PE]

I've been watching, and honestly, have gotten used to the cardboard cutouts a lot of teams are doing. Now I think it's weird when a team doesn't have the cardboard cutouts....

 

[Road Guy]

Ive been trying to catch a Yankees game since my Cousins kid plays for them, he made the news a while back!

https://www.northjersey.com/story/sports/mlb/yankees/2020/07/18/new-york-yankees-clint-frazier-hits-long-home-run-while-wearing-mask/5466493002/

 

[mudpuppy]

I tried watching a few games but its just odd to me without the fans - now I am not a (big) baseball fan but for those of you that are is just having the games being played enough?

Like Football is going to be weird to me if there is an empty stadium.

& If we can go to Chilli's and sit every other table I don't know why they cant let 10% in the stadiums? 

I heard Alabama is going to allow 20% capacity in their stadium?

My wife's a big Cubs fan and we've been watching their games religiously.  I'll say it's a bit odd to not have fans in the stadium, but you get used to it pretty quickly.  But then they show a clip from a prior season and it's pretty jarring.

@leggo PE The Cards schedule is crazy with all the double-headers!  It's got to be brutal on their pitchers, but at least the double-headers are only 7 innings.  Cubs just played 5 games with them in three days, which gets them almost caught up; they have one more DH with the Cards and one with the Reds.  However the schedule is really tight, especially for the Cards, so there's a lot of speculation they may end up determining the playoff spots based on winning percentages in the end.

To me the weirdest thing with the season is the match-ups.  We're going to go a whole season without seeing any teams on the east or west coasts.  No Cubs-Dodgers games seems especially weird.  

 

[leggo PE]

Yeah, playing in regions makes sense from the standpoint of the pandemic and the fact that they are only playing 60 regular season games, and have to face their divisional opponents a certain amount of times... But it's still weird!

And double yeah, yikes, that sounds rough for the Cards! In that circumstance, I'm a fan of the 7 inning doubleheaders, but I really hope they don't keep that around assuming baseball in future seasons goes back to a normal length season.

Lastly, I just got an update from ESPN that the Marlins-Mets game has been postponed because a Mets player tested positive for COVID-19. Not good, especially considering it's a totally different market...

 

[jeb6294]

The fake crowd noise is kind of funny. That is actually in the ballpark...not something they add on TV. Part of it so teams can’t hear what might be going on in the other dugout/on the field but a big part of it is so people at home can’t hear the chatter from the teams because it is definitely not safe for TV.

I think I heard one of the announcers saying something about St. Louis having to get 50 games played in the next 42 days. I do have to say, I’m not hating the 7 inning double headers and extra innings starting with a guy on 2nd base. Makes things move along a lot faster.