Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Tonester's Sports Tales: Reds, Bats, New Friend, and Devils Baseball
Tonester's Sports Tales: Reds, Bats, New Friend, and Devils Baseball: " Good morning all. I'm coming to you live from a nice place on this planet, not so much this morning as there is rain, cool temps, and c..."
Reds, Bats, New Friend, and Devils Baseball
Good morning all. I'm coming to you live from a nice place on this planet, not so much this morning as there is rain, cool temps, and clouds. As some of you may know I am on twitter (@Tonester5) and have a great bunch of followers. The vast majority of these followers are Cincinnati Reds fans. (No one knows that I too am a Reds fan. Keep that quiet, don't want anyone to find out!!!!!)
Lets reminisce back to April 2010, when many baseball experts had the Reds finishing no higher that third in the division. As we Reds Fans all know, the Reds team raked in wins all season long and won the 2010 NL Central Title. This was an accomplishment only a few of us die hard Reds fans even saw as a remote possibility (I predicted the title win on April 6, 2010). We all celebrated like school kids getting out for summer break running around, yelling, jumping, and boasting our teams greatness. All was well in Reds Nation, even though our team was swept by the Phillies in the playoffs.
Excitement for this season was at an all time high for me and many other Reds fans. Talk was about how young our team is, how much talent we have, and totally about winning. Recently, I've had a hard time reading some of the tweets from my fellow Reds friends. Now, all of a sudden, the talk is not that the team is very good or awesome, but exactly the opposite. To the point that some players are not as good as we need and the team is bad. My question to all Reds Fans is: How did some of us go from being positive and excited, to being down on our boys and negative in the span of a couple months?
My mantra is to be positive all the time, because the fifteen years prior to 2010 we Reds fans didn't have much to cheer about. Just think, we could go back to the years of finishing last or second to last in the Central. I for one, like where the team is and in no rush to go back to the bottom of the league. REDS NATION - stay positive. The team is very good. Lot of games left, they will be on top soon. I'm calling it now, mark it down.
On Thursday June 9, 2011, I met up with a fellow Reds fan (@jgranger) to attend a Bats v. Chiefs Triple A baseball game in Syracuse, NY. I had never met Jeff in person prior to the game. We only tweeted each other from time to time, and made plans to meet up to see our Farm Hand Reds. My girlfriend and Jeff's wife both asked us the same thing, "What if you meet the guy and he is an Ass?!" Our answers were pretty similar in that we could both fake it to see the game at least!!!! LOL All that being said, we had a blast and I have a new friend, his name is Jeff Granger (he's the guy in the Jay Bruce jersey!). http://twitpic.com/59oq9t We are going to try to make going to a game a tradition. I'm in.
http://twitpic.com/59jfnc Corky Miller and Sam LeCure warming up pregame.
http://twitpic.com/59jguy http://twitpic.com/59olcx Sam singed my baseball. Great pitcher and even better person. I'm officially Sam's biggest fan. (geesh, I'm just a little kid at 40)
http://twitpic.com/59jkl7 Louisville Bats players autographs.
http://twitpic.com/59onjv Sam pitched one inning of scoreless baseball, 3 up 3 down.
Yonder Alonso hit a Homerun that hasn't come down yet. The guys fought the entire game and almost pulled it out, but the Bats lost 4-3. (Jeff, thanks for the great pics.)
On a lighter note, my baseball team the Devils beat the Padres 7 to 4. It was our first win over the Padres in my 4yrs on the team. The game was by far the most solid all around defensive, offensive, and fundamental game we have played this season.
My stat line - 2-5 2 singles, 1 run, 1RBI, 2 ground outs, and 1 big swinging K. I injured my right heel in the 6th inning and played hurt the rest of the game. I'm still gimpy but not going on the DL. Next game Thursday at the Univ of Rochester.
Feel free to post any comments or questions. Thanks and Cheers from the Cheap Seats.
My stat line - 2-5 2 singles, 1 run, 1RBI, 2 ground outs, and 1 big swinging K. I injured my right heel in the 6th inning and played hurt the rest of the game. I'm still gimpy but not going on the DL. Next game Thursday at the Univ of Rochester.
Feel free to post any comments or questions. Thanks and Cheers from the Cheap Seats.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Reds Outfield Issues, Home Plate Collisions, and Devils Triumph
Currently the Reds are in the midst of struggling to get wins. The team has won only two games in their last ten. Losing three series match ups to the Pirates, Indians, and Phillies. The pitching is getting beat, the bats are somewhat cold, and the outlook for wins has some serious questions.
The one bright spot for the Reds has been Jay Bruce through this whole losing issue. JB, over his last ten games, has hit for the following stat line: 19 of 43 for .442 BA, 6HR, 15RBI, 9R, 3BB, only and 7Ks. His season stats are OBP .353, SLG .556, and OPS .909. Since May 16th, the rest of the outfield has only accounted for 4RBIs during the recent skid. One thing you can readily see, no team is not going to win many games when only one outfielder is producing out of five.
Jonny Gomes has been benched, Fred Lewis and Chris Heisey only get spot starts, Drew Stubbs is a lead off hitter on pace to strike out 188 times this season, and Jeremy Hermida is in AAA Louisville. Some one needs to step up to help fill the outfield production void soon or this season is going to be long and monotonous. (I have not even talked about the issue at Short Stop) Reds fans, we need to keep the faith and do our best to give these guys support to turn the corner.
If you are a baseball fan, you already know about the injury to Buster Posey, an outstanding young catcher for the San Francisco Giants. He has been lost for the season to a horrific broken leg and torn legitimate damage. Buster was blocking the plate to try to stop Scott Cousins, of the Florida Marlins, from scoring and as Posey tried to field the throw to home Cousins collided with him. During the collision, Posey's Left ankle was stuck under him and twisted violently to cause the season ending injury.
The collision/injury has sparked a huge debate within the Baseball community calling for changes to the current blocking the plate, runner catcher collision topic. Some are calling for drastic measures from not allowing catchers to block the plate, all the way to not allowing runners to crash into catchers for any reason, meaning mandatory sliding. Then on the flip side of the coin there are people that don't want any change to the current rules.
I am one of the people who believes that the rules should not be changed. Every catcher that has ever strapped on shin guards, chest protector, and helmet knows there will come a game where a collision is going to happen. There are also base runners out there that look for the opportunity to make that collision happen and hope they can knock the ball free from the catchers clutches. No matter how the collision occurs, collisions at home plate have always been around.
Here is my thought line as a lifetime catcher in baseball (biased). Home plate is the only base on the diamond that is protected by a player in equipment. You do what it takes to stop a runner from scoring. The catcher(soldier) is protecting the plate(homeland) to stop the other team(enemy) from scoring. Some enemies will hook slide(flank) and some will crash (9/11) into the catcher. Either way, you deal with the outcome, injury or not. So, just because a young up and coming player gets hurt on a play at the plate, doesn't mean rules should immediately be changed.
Post any and all comments, no matter what your opinion is on this subject.
On a personal note - my baseball team, the Devils, won Thursday night by the score of 9 to 3 over the Storm. My Devils scored 9 runs on 12 hits with only 2 strike outs. Our Pitcher, Rick D., threw all 7 innings surrendering 3 runs on 6 hits, striking out 6. My personal stat line - 2-2, 2 singles, 1 BB, 1 SB, 2 Runs, 2RBIs, and threw the only attempted base runner out at 2nd in the fourth inning. Dennis Quaid's character Jim Morris in The Rookie said "You know what we get to do today? We get to play Baseball!"
Thanks all and Cheers from the Cheap Seats.
The one bright spot for the Reds has been Jay Bruce through this whole losing issue. JB, over his last ten games, has hit for the following stat line: 19 of 43 for .442 BA, 6HR, 15RBI, 9R, 3BB, only and 7Ks. His season stats are OBP .353, SLG .556, and OPS .909. Since May 16th, the rest of the outfield has only accounted for 4RBIs during the recent skid. One thing you can readily see, no team is not going to win many games when only one outfielder is producing out of five.
Jonny Gomes has been benched, Fred Lewis and Chris Heisey only get spot starts, Drew Stubbs is a lead off hitter on pace to strike out 188 times this season, and Jeremy Hermida is in AAA Louisville. Some one needs to step up to help fill the outfield production void soon or this season is going to be long and monotonous. (I have not even talked about the issue at Short Stop) Reds fans, we need to keep the faith and do our best to give these guys support to turn the corner.
If you are a baseball fan, you already know about the injury to Buster Posey, an outstanding young catcher for the San Francisco Giants. He has been lost for the season to a horrific broken leg and torn legitimate damage. Buster was blocking the plate to try to stop Scott Cousins, of the Florida Marlins, from scoring and as Posey tried to field the throw to home Cousins collided with him. During the collision, Posey's Left ankle was stuck under him and twisted violently to cause the season ending injury.
The collision/injury has sparked a huge debate within the Baseball community calling for changes to the current blocking the plate, runner catcher collision topic. Some are calling for drastic measures from not allowing catchers to block the plate, all the way to not allowing runners to crash into catchers for any reason, meaning mandatory sliding. Then on the flip side of the coin there are people that don't want any change to the current rules.
I am one of the people who believes that the rules should not be changed. Every catcher that has ever strapped on shin guards, chest protector, and helmet knows there will come a game where a collision is going to happen. There are also base runners out there that look for the opportunity to make that collision happen and hope they can knock the ball free from the catchers clutches. No matter how the collision occurs, collisions at home plate have always been around.
Here is my thought line as a lifetime catcher in baseball (biased). Home plate is the only base on the diamond that is protected by a player in equipment. You do what it takes to stop a runner from scoring. The catcher(soldier) is protecting the plate(homeland) to stop the other team(enemy) from scoring. Some enemies will hook slide(flank) and some will crash (9/11) into the catcher. Either way, you deal with the outcome, injury or not. So, just because a young up and coming player gets hurt on a play at the plate, doesn't mean rules should immediately be changed.
Post any and all comments, no matter what your opinion is on this subject.
On a personal note - my baseball team, the Devils, won Thursday night by the score of 9 to 3 over the Storm. My Devils scored 9 runs on 12 hits with only 2 strike outs. Our Pitcher, Rick D., threw all 7 innings surrendering 3 runs on 6 hits, striking out 6. My personal stat line - 2-2, 2 singles, 1 BB, 1 SB, 2 Runs, 2RBIs, and threw the only attempted base runner out at 2nd in the fourth inning. Dennis Quaid's character Jim Morris in The Rookie said "You know what we get to do today? We get to play Baseball!"
Thanks all and Cheers from the Cheap Seats.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)