"Hey Batter Batter, Sah WING Batter" Baseball 2012

That is right baseball fans Spring training starts in 14 days (2-18-12), with the first games around 3-4-12.  I can not wait.  I am not a basketball fan and hockey is ok, but with football over tomorrow, and racing season a month away I am ready for the "Boys of Summer" to get to work.
 
There is nothing better than a warm spring day, sitting in the park listening to WLW or WGN AM radio and BASEBALL in late Feb or early March.
 
The NL Central should get interesting this year with the departures of King Albert and Prince Fielder to the AL

I've got the Cactus League schedule on my wall at work.  The addition of Pujols makes the Angels games attractive.  I've plotted out a 4 game weekend, but am not sure I can pull it off.

Baseball on the radio is fun.

John Sterling. Oh I can't.

He is the radio announcer for the Yankees.

I grew up with an AM transistor radio summer nights with Marty & Joe on REDS radio or WGN and my cubbies afternoons if the weather was right (before the lights went up at wrigley)
 
Nothing like the warm sun on your face, the smell of fresh clean spring air, and the crack of the wooden bats and the "peanuts get your peanuts" in the back ground

JRPfeff


I've got the Cactus League schedule on my wall at work.  The addition of Pujols makes the Angels games attractive.  I've plotted out a 4 game weekend, but am not sure I can pull it off.

 
OH SURE RUB IT IN 

When I was young I used to love slowly trolling the AM dial to see what stations and games I could pick up and in far north central Illinois that usually meant that the long-distance broadcasts involved the Cardinals, Reds, Indians, and Tigers.
 
I don't expect the White Sox to contend this year but it will be interesting to see what the young players can do.  The loss of Fielder may or may not hurt the Brewers, depending on how well his replacement combines with new 3B Aramis Ramirez.

Clicking slowly on a clear night we get a good signal for the Orioles.

I live in Port St Lucie, Fl where the Mets train, unfortunately spring training especially on the east coast of Florida may be going away soon. We only have the Marlins, Cardinals in Jupiter and the Nationals in Viera left on this side of the state in addition to the Mets. Rumor is the Nationals may be the next to go. These teams don't like travel during spring even if it's a 2 hour trip across the state.

CajunKing - If I was rubbing it in I would have mentioned that the reason I won't pull off 4 games in 72 hours is that I have a golf lesson scheduled on the Saturday of that weekend.  Scratch that.  The golf lesson is a different weekend on Monday.  I can actually get in 5 games in 69 hours (or 6 in 75) when night games are considered.  I'm looking at LAA at CLE, CWS at MIL, KC at AZ, LAD at MIL, and MIL at CLE CHC at AZ* (& CIN at TX optional) from 7:00 on Friday to 1:00 on Monday (7:00 Monday optional).  Anyone want to tag along?
 
* Changed my plans again. My golf lesson is on Monday, the Cubs-Dbacks game is only 7 minutes from the golf course.
 
ces1948 - That is too bad, the tradition of Florida spring training baseball is something I would hate to see go away.  Two hours is not that long.  It takes one hour to get across Phoenix between some of the spring training sites.  Playing the same teams will get boring for fans & players. In the Cactus League, they typical play a home and away against each of the teams and are done.

The Nationals spring training facility is less than a 15 minute drive from our house. I stopped going to the games because the visiting team is almost always a "split squad". Going east-west in central FL is seldom a direct route, so most of the veterns on the visiting team opt to stay at their training facilitiy rather than taking the long, round-trip bus ride.

Wonder who is going to sign Cespedes, the Cuban wunderkind? 
 
He'd be a natural for the Miami Marlins, but I'm hoping for the Rangers - especially given the general "fragility" of my favorite player - Josh Hamilton.

Of course, in the fine tradition of Cuban ballplayers no one can be sure of Cespedes' real age...
 
The White Sox have generally been successful when it comes to Cubans and I'm hoping that the current presence of Alexei Ramirez and Dayan Viciedo can work in their favor.

ScreamingChicken


Of course, in the fine tradition of Cuban ballplayers no one can be sure of Cespedes' real age...

True, but check this list of native Cubanos who have played in the majors:  http://www.baseball-reference.com/bio/Cuba_born.shtml .  That's quite a talent pool!
 
If I "ran things" I'd solve the "Castro problem" in one fell swoop simply be giving Habana a MLB franchise.  The Castros couldn't resist and the inevitable intrusion of U.S. media into that closed society would soon sow the seeds of freedom. 
 
 Then maybe I could get real sugar in my Coca Cola instead of high fructose corn syrup!

<<When I was young I used to love slowly trolling the AM dial to see what stations and games I could pick up and in far north central Illinois that usually meant that the long-distance broadcasts involved the Cardinals, Reds, Indians, and Tigers. >>
 
Young?? I STILL do that.  Ain't nothing like sitting outside on a warm spring/summer night and twirling thru the dial on my trusty Grundig S350 listening to games from all  over, Major and Minor Leagues. On a busy Friday night a few years ago I decided to keep a count, and picked up 17 different games.
 
I realize that with MLB.Com you can now pick up all MLB radio broadcasts, with the right gadgets for a reasonable fee, but it just aint the same.

After the parade down the Canyon of Heroes for my WORLD CHAMPION Giants, I can devote full attention to my Yankees as they prepare for Ring # 28!!!!

ken8038


Ain't nothing like sitting outside on a warm spring/summer night and twirling thru the dial on my trusty Grundig S350 listening to games from all  over, Major and Minor Leagues. On a busy Friday night a few years ago I decided to keep a count, and picked up 17 different games.

Upgrading to a quality AM receiver probably make quite a difference regarding the number of games I can pick up.  Back in the '70s I had a GE portable (the black, box-shaped model that seemed to be around forever) that worked pretty good but since then I've used mostly a clock radio or something similar with less than impressive results.
 
At first I thought a "Grundig S350" was a special edition Mercedes...
 
Brad

Cubbies have it locked up!!!  No if, ands or butts!

One of the great pleasures of my Pittsburgh youth was listening to Bob Prince's and Jim "the possum" Woods' vivid descriptions of the Pitates' games on KDKA. 
 
For some reason the KMOX night signal was very strong where we lived so we also enjoyed Harry Caray, Jack Buck, and the Cards on nights when the Buccos weren't playing. 

Growing up in central California about 100 miles north of  Los Angeles listened to the Dodger games with Vin Scully. Loved the Dodgers and knew every name on the roster but never saw them play in person until mid 70's when they trained in Vero Beach, Fl
Edited to add Jerry Doggett as Scully's partner during most of the years I listened. Had completely forgotten him and had to look up on Wikipedia.

ChiTownDiner

Cubbies have it locked up!!!  No if, ands or butts!

 
YOU BETCHA!!!
 
(singing) "GO CUBS GO, GO CUBS GO, HEY CHICAGO WHAT DO YOU SAY? THE CUBS ARE GOING TO WIN TODAY..."
 
Sucks they got rid of Rami, but we got a lot of young talent that should just improve with age
 

The closest I'll admit to having "feelings" about Baseball is when I watch "Field of Dreams".  I'm not one to watch a whole game anywhere.... much less do more than an inning or two in front of the TV. I wasn't always this way...but sure am now.  (Same goes for Hockey, and Pro B-Ball)  Sorry to rain on anyone's fan club session (TTM ) but if ain't College B-Ball or Pro Football, you probably won't see it on my screen !

Wasn't it only about fifteen years ago that people were predicting the demise of the Cactus League? I seem to remember that they were down to about 5-6 teams and everybody else was in Florida. What did they do to put the shoe on the other foot?
 
CNW

leethebard


After the parade down the Canyon of Heroes for my WORLD CHAMPION Giants, I can devote full attention to my Yankees as they prepare for Ring # 28!!!!

Isn't the left side of that infield getting a little long in the tooth?  Proof?  Your thirdbaseman even dated Madonna!

Pity the Pirates. 
 
They are the baseball equivalent of the Detroit Lions.  Instead of "The Curse of Bobby Layne", they are afflicted by "The Curse of Barry Bonds". 
 
After the once Mighty Buccos decided they couldn't afford him from 1993 - forward their fate went straight downhill.  Now they are the AAA team for the clubs with the big $$$.  The talent they signed, developed, and couldn't afford to retain would be a WS winner if it could be reassembled: Jose Bautista, Aramis Ramirez, etc. ad infinitum.  Their only hope is for Mark Cuban (a native Burgher) to buy the team to be one of his "ego toys".
 
I wish MLB would reorganize along the lines of the NFL where even tiny markets like Indy and Jax have hope of winning the big prize.  It's no accident that the Rangers are winning these days; they have the fourth biggest market (the three larger ones have two teams each) and the wealthiest owners in MLB.
 
 

There are still 15 teams in Florida which is the same amount as in Cactus league. The majority of teams based in Florida are concentrated on the west coast part of the state. Many teams enjoyed sweetheart taxpayer funded deals to move which may also be the case in Arizona. The east coast of Florida has lost the Dodgers, Yankees, Orioles. The Dodgers left Vero Beach for Arizona and the Yankees and Orioles went to the west coast of Florida.
The teams on the Gulf coast simply don't want to travel across the state (2-3 hours) to play a spring training game. 
 

CNW


Wasn't it only about fifteen years ago that people were predicting the demise of the Cactus League? I seem to remember that they were down to about 5-6 teams and everybody else was in Florida. What did they do to put the shoe on the other foot?

CNW

That's a little revisionist history on Jose Bautista. The Pirates did draft him, but lost him in the Rule 5 draft. He then bounced between the Royals, Rays, and Mets organizations before being traded BACK to Pittsburgh  in the legendary Kris Benson trade.  When the Pirates traded him to the Blue Jays, he was in midst of hitting .230 and only making about $1.5 million.  They didn't trade him because they couldn't afford him - they traded him because he stunk.  NO ONE could have seen Jose Bautista's most recent two seasons coming.
 
Yes, they couldn't afford to keep Ramirez, but who else?  Where is this all-star team you speak of?  The real reason the Pirates have been awful is poor management.  Having the #1 pick in the draft and using it on Bryan Bullington - who, may have been the first #1 draft pick ever to be called a bust before the draft ended.
 
The Pirates have, historically, had one of the worst scouting and development departments in baseball.  This list is the entire history of Pirates top draft picks.  Of their numerous Top 10 picks, Bonds is the only Hall of Fame-caliber player (not debating his Hall candidacy, just his statistical performance on the field). Maholm was a below league-average player, Benson was a .500 pitcher and McCutchen has had a nice start to his career.  Of course, the jury is still out on the most recent picks, but this is an entire collections of bums, has-beens, and never-weres. This list is even better.  You can blame MLB distribution of income on a lot of things, but the Pirates are an historically mismanaged franchise.

Just for a point of comparison, a team that has also suffered from baseball's misaligned finance system (can't afford to keep the players they develop), the Oakland A's, since 1984 have developed the following Top 10 draft picks: Marl McGwire, Eric Chavez, Ben Grieve, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito. Walt Weiss and Nick Swisher fall just outside the Top 10.  THAT is a team that cannot afford to keep its own good players.  The Pirates just have bad players.

Me, I miss going to the Polo Grounds to watch the New York Giants. Now I'm stuck checking the paper to see how they're doing out there in some part of California. Heck, I can't even find out Mel Ott's batting average these days.

Look at the bright side.  It probably hasn't changed much since the last time you looked.

Probably not. Last time I looked it was .304.