The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Sports & Leisure => Topic started by: robot_god on February 16, 2006, 01:46:21 pm
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Spring training is about to begin. May I ask whom is your team?
At the risk of having my cans wiped out: I am a Yankee fan.
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I would wipe out your cans, but we're in different leagues, so it's basically OK.
I am a Cardinals fan.
Unfortunately, I'm moving to Seattle in a few months, and I don't know what to do then - it's not even an NL town. Do I have to be a Mariners fan? That'd be tough.
For now, Cardinals all the way.
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I am also a Cardinals fan.
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I don't really like baseball but I go to school in Cincinnati and I live in the Cleveland area during the summer. So I guess I have the Reds and the Indians to look forward too. Boy, I sure am lucky.
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Baseball is the one team sport that I can't seem to shake. I just love it. No matter how horrible the players and owners act or how they try to change the game to make it more "appealing to younger fans" i.e juiced balls, or how cities that can barely afford to pay for basic services to their citizens continue to fork over billions for (so called) better stadiums, I just can't seem to get over baseball like I have Football and basketball. The Astros going to the World Series (despite being spanked in 4 games) was a totally exciting experience. One of my biggest disapointments about not getting to go to Florida is I thought I was going to be able to fulfill my dream of watching some spring training games.
Astros Fan, Nolan Ryan, Milo Hamilton, the Astrodome, Mike Scott, J. R. Richard...
~Paul
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I hold a 20-game ticket plan for the
Montreal Expos Washington Nationals. However, I have been a fan of the Phillies since I was 6, and it's been hard to give up that attachment. It's a difficult row to hoe, given that the Nats and the Phils are in the same division and play each other all the damn time.
I've been to a lot of Orioles games over the years, but after his repeated (and now failed) attempts to bring a team to Washington, Peter Angelos can suck it.
I have been to more major league ballparks than you. Twenty-four of them.
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I have been to more major league ballparks than you. Twenty-four of them.
I've been to three. Two of those are no longer in service as MLB parks. One has been demolished.
~Paul
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I've been to old and new Cleveland, old and new Comiskey, Wrigley, Orioles, Yankee Stadium, and minor league parks in Columbus and Akron.
And I love baseball, the game. I try not to think about the business behind it but it's sure fun to watch from the stands.
It's also for my money the only sport you can really appreciate on the radio.
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It's also for my money the only sport you can really appreciate on the radio.
Yes exactly. A great deal of my enjoyment of major league baseball stems from listening to Milo Hamilton on the radio turning the game into poetry.
~Paul
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Yes, the radio is a big reason - baseball on radio is nearly as good as baseball at the stadium. Well, no, it's not, but it's far better than radio football v. actual football. Unfortunately, the Cardinals changed their St. Louis AM affiiliate to some crappy station full of shock radio and garbage from KMOX, who'd been broadcasting Cardinals ball for like 30 years - but we keep the same broadcasters, so it shouldn't be that bad. Unfortunately, those broadcasters anymore are Al Hrabosky and Mike Shannon, neither or whom hold a candle to the late, great Jack Buck.
I can't believe I just had the "old baseball radio was better than current baseball radio" rant before even graduating from college. Excuse me, I need to go drink irresponsibly while just barely staying enrolled in school for a few months in order to correct this imbalance.
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I subscribe to MLB.com's all-radio-feeds service very season, if for no other reason than to listen to Vin Scully when the Nats or Phils play the Dodgers.
I am hoping to wrangle my employer into sending me to a conference in Denver this summer, so's I can go to a Rockies game. If that falls through, I will probably get my new ballpark this year by going to the new one in St. Louis.
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Luckily for me, I'm a fan of the Brewers. I get to listen to Hall of Famer Bob Uecker on the radio. And of course the best time of the year to listen to Mr. Baseball is Spring Training when the games don't count and the players don't give a damn.
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I am hoping to wrangle my employer into sending me to a conference in Denver this summer, so's I can go to a Rockies game.
Oh shit yeah, i'll meet you there. Denver is the closest big city to where i'll be staying in Utah. Road trippin'.
~Paul
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GO CARDS!
I blame Alex...
except now I really love baseball and watching the Cards win or lose and going to games...new Busch stadium, here I come!
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I'm an insane, obsessive Red Sox fan, since birth. When they won the world series, I cried.
Beat that, bitches!
Love
Biz
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Screw the Red Sox. (http://www.bigfool.com/foolblog/archive/2005_04.htm#000413)
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Salt Lake is an OK city, but it would be much better if it had a MLB team. I just can't get into the NBA enough to shell out the money for a Jazz game. I haven't been in years. Although we do have a minor league time with a nice stadium, and that's cheap and fun.
Anyway, I'm a Mariners and a Mets fan. I grew up in Seattle, hence the Mariners. I've been a Mets fan since 1986. It was my first World Series, and it was thrilling to my young mind. This year I'm going to a Mets game for the first time (they played in Seattle when I was home last summer, but I didn't go. Long story). Especially cool because this is the 20th anniversary of the '86 series.
Also, boo Yankees.
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I'm an insane, obsessive Red Sox fan, since birth. When they won the world series, I cried.
Beat that, bitches!
The Brewers have never gone to the playoffs in my lifetime. I'm of legal drinking age in the US. I cried when we got victory #81 last year.
I win.
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I've been a Mets fan since 1986. It was my first World Series, and it was thrilling to my young mind.
Fuck you!!!
~Paul
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You know, I don't even remember the playoffs that year (I was not quite yet seven). But, yeah, it must have sucked to be an Astros fan.
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yeah, it must have sucked to be an Astros fan.
Yeah it sucked. The Astros were so damn good that year, but dammit, they just couldn't beat the Mets. (http://espn.go.com/page2/s/1986/revisit/nlcs.html).
~Paul
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I don't care much about baseball.
I grew up where there was no team, but the nearest big city was Atlanta, so we were Supposed To Like The Braves. They were on TV all the time (not just TBS). All the stores sold Braves merchandise. Trouble is, people who live in towns near Atlanta hate Atlanta precisely because you are required to go there for "big city" things. Until Southwest, something like 90 percent of all flights leaving Birmingham flew to Atlanta just to transfer. Concerts? Atlanta. Shopping? Atlanta. Comic books? Atlanta. Theme park? Atlanta. Museums? Atlanta.
So we had an inferiority complex, and the Braves symbolized everything bad about Atlanta, and so I didn't develop a fandom in that critical pre-teen time period. Plus they sucked then. Heck, Atlantans still don't care about the Braves, so why should I?
Living here in San Diego was odd, what with them leading the woeful NL West all year. I almost wanted to go to a game, but I can't justify paying more to park than to get a ticket just to say "I saw the division leaders play a game." $40 plus four hours of my time isn't worth the novelty. Sorry, Padres.
Also: one team having seven times the payroll of another team in the same division is stupid. Baseball, you are dumb. Rich and dumb.
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Yeah it sucked. The Astros were so damn good that year, but dammit, they just couldn't beat the Mets. (http://espn.go.com/page2/s/1986/revisit/nlcs.html).
Oh man. Imagine 2001 as a Mariners fan. fuck*ng Yankees.
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The Brewers have never gone to the playoffs in my lifetime. I'm of legal drinking age in the US. I cried when we got victory #81 last year.
I've read a number of reports saying the Brewers are one of the most improved teams this off-season.
I hate hate hate the Braves. And the Yankees.
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I am in love with baseball. I have a MacFarlane figure of Barry Zito on the top shelf of my desk among a scattering of foul balls from MLB, International League and Frontier League games.
This summer I'm planning a trip where I will see 11 games around Ohio in 9 days, another trip to both MLB parks in Pennsylvania and probably a run to three or four other parks at the minor-league level. The Ohio trip includes an 11am start with the Lake County Captains because few things are more satisfying than settling in to a sunny seat with a hot dog in one hand and a cold beer in the other at 10:30 in the morning with two or three hours of baseball ahead of you.
I've been to the old and new Cleveland stadia, old and new Cincy, old and new Pittsburgh, old and new Detroit, old and new Atlanta, old and new Comiskey, Safeco in Seattle, and Tropicana Field (boo to that), plus a bunch of minor-league parks from Brooklyn to New Orleans.
I participate in at least six fantasy leagues every summer - you should see the spreadsheets I built to get me through this year's drafts. It's open in another window as I type this and I can tell you that my team will be 2% better if I take Eddie Guardado in the next round than if I take Tad Iguchi. Aubrey Huff is the most helpful available player but there's more depth at 1B than at 2B or CL and I don't want to get stuck taking a risk on Tom Gordon or some other creaky old stiff.
So yeah. I'm a baseball fan.
So yes, baseball fans exist. I love the game.
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This summer I'm planning a trip where I will see 11 games around Ohio in 9 days, another trip to both MLB parks in Pennsylvania and probably a run to three or four other parks at the minor-league level. The Ohio trip includes an 11am start with the Lake County Captains because few things are more satisfying than settling in to a sunny seat with a hot dog in one hand and a cold beer in the other at 10:30 in the morning with two or three hours of baseball ahead of you.
Turbo Ninja! Brother!
Daaaaaaaaaaaaamn. Best I've ever done is six ballparks in six days (http://www.bigfool.com/mascots/mascots7.htm). One year I planned a trip to hit all 30 major league parks in one season, but due to my not being independently wealthy I couldn't actually take it. In hindsight I wish I had thrown caution to the wind and done it, 'cause I certainly can't do it now with a mortgage and two kids. Hopefully when the kids are off at college I destroy their inheritance and pull it off.
Those early-start games are rare, but wonderful. A minor league team here had "Breakfast at the Ballpark," a 10 AM start, but it was a failure. Now their mid-week afternoon games are "Child care program days" and are overrun with kids in brightly colored T-shirts who know all the words to the Spongebob Square##### theme.
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Those day games at Lake County will definitely be full of day camps, school groups and various and sundry other organizations in matching t-shirts. The Spongebob singalong is to be expected but you've reminded me of the spine-freezing shrill cacophony that thousands of elementary school kids will generate when promted by a scoreboard and/or mascot. I'll medicate myself with a couple of early-inning Miller Lites and everything will be okay.
I forgot to say that my favorite team is the Cleveland Indians. I appreciate National League baseball more than the AL game (pitchers should hit) but I'm all about the Tribe.
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M-E-T-S! METS METS METS!
Or something like that.
Two reasons, really: my dad was one (although if I'd followed this reasoning in football, I would have been a Bills fan), and the AAA affiliate for the Mets is the Norfolk Tides, just down the Interstate a spell. Interesting fact: the old stadium the Tides played at, Met Park, sat under the flight path of the Norfolk International Airport. It was kinda lousy, but it trained the players for promotion, because Shea Stadium sits under the flight path at LaGuardia, and is also lousy.
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The Braves are my second least favorite team in all of sports, because my second favorite team is the Mets and also Ted Turner is a douchebag. And that corny friggin' chant. DAMNIT.
However, I do not hate them as much as the New England Patriots.
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I was a Mets fan for about a year in like seventh or eighth grade, with my friend Barbara Vesey the Queen of Corona. I still find the name Tug McGraw rather poetic (I suppose that dates me, but we already knew that I am Old.) I still think fondly of the old-fashioned charm of baseball. To maintain this feeling, distance seems like a good idea, so I don't actually follow the sport like I normally don't actually talk to the bartender I have a crush on.
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Today I wore my Cards hat because this thread inspired and excited me.
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The Mets are pond scum.
I'm not very fond of the Astros either, although that's more of a rivalry type thing.
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i am a diehard Mariners fan.. season ticket holder and all. the last couple of years have been tough, but this year we'll be good damn it!
sometime in the last three years or so my AL mistress has become the Red Sox, mostly because i think manny ramirez is the hands-down best hitter in baseball, but also because he is a loopy lunatic. it's great
i don't really have an NL mistress, i think the NL game is too rigid and slow for the most part. although i am partial to the Nationals, because frank robinson is awesome
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i am a diehard Mariners fan.. season ticket holder and all. the last couple of years have been tough, but this year we'll be good damn it!
Do you know what's going on with Bucky Jacobsen this year? He's an old Brewers prospect and I love the guy.
Also, AL games are statistically longer on average.
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I am a grumpy, Cardinal hating, Cubs fan and am glad that I have no pop that this heavily FRR populated board can take away.
We have Ron Santo and Pat Hughes on the radio, which beats the crap out our TV guys, I usually mute the TV and listen to them.
Oh, and the Brewers are gonna be a team to watch out for this year. If for no other reason than they're a year older. I said it at the time and I stand by it, that Sexson trade was a stroke of genius.
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Also, AL games are statistically longer on average.
education.
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i don't really have an NL mistress, i think the NL game is too rigid and slow for the most part. although i am partial to the Nationals, because frank robinson is awesome
Much respect for Frank's playing history, but he's kind of sucky as a manager. Lord, does that man love to bunt. And he hates pitchers--ran a couple of them off the team last year.
AL games do take longer. And dammit, if you play in the field, you have to hit, and vice versa. It's how the game works.
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I am a grumpy, Cardinal hating, Cubs fan and am glad that I have no pop that this heavily FRR populated board can take away.
We have Ron Santo and Pat Hughes on the radio, which beats the crap out our TV guys, I usually mute the TV and listen to them.
Oh, and the Brewers are gonna be a team to watch out for this year. If for no other reason than they're a year older. I said it at the time and I stand by it, that Sexson trade was a stroke of genius.
Gross......... a Cubs fan
You're right about the Sexson trade though. That was great.
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i am a diehard Mariners fan.. season ticket holder and all. the last couple of years have been tough, but this year we'll be good damn it!
Hey remember 2001? Remember how that was like the best year ever, notwithstanding the events of September 11th (and for me, a bad break-up the same month)? Until the Yankees...well, I don't even want to finish saying it. And then remember how great it was when the Yankees lost? Luis Gonzalez became my favorite ballplayer for a little while.
It's hard being a Mariners fan, but one day...
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Hey remember 2001? Remember how that was like the best year ever, notwithstanding the events of September 11th (and for me, a bad break-up the same month)? Until the Yankees...well, I don't even want to finish saying it. And then remember how great it was when the Yankees lost? Luis Gonzalez became my favorite ballplayer for a little while.
It's hard being a Mariners fan, but one day...
i think the 2001 series was the greatest i'll ever see... nobody picked the d-backs to win, but johnson and schilling put the team on their backs and won it anyway. and any time you see the greatest postseason closer of all time lose his mystique, it's awesome. especially when he plays for the yankees.
it's interesting to me that i have seperated 9/11 and the 2001 baseball season, in my mind. even though they happened at the same time. when i think of the 2001 mariners season, though, i don't think of 9/11. and i still think that the 1995 mariners could have beaten the 2001 mariners... there was just something that clicked in 2001 that made it a great season. the addition of ichiro, the last of the steroid seasons for bret boone, the last great season from edgar and dan. just a great time.
but this season we will be good again. i like what they've done in the off-season... but i would've gotten rid of gil meche and kept ryan franklin. i think franklin will have a great year for the phillies.
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Do you know what's going on with Bucky Jacobsen this year? He's an old Brewers prospect and I love the guy.
Also, AL games are statistically longer on average.
the m's cut bucky sometime last year... he never made it back from a leg injury. i don't know if he's been picked up by any other team, but i know he's out of the mariners organization.
he was an interesting guy, because when he came up for his cup of coffee in 2004 he already had a fan club. and then he turned out to not be very good at all, at least while he was here. i think he's a guy who ended up being a minor leaguer too long,... who knows if he would have ever been able to hit major league stuff. i'm sure there was a reason he was a career minor leaguer
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i think the 2001 series was the greatest i'll ever see... nobody picked the d-backs to win, but johnson and schilling put the team on their backs and won it anyway. and any time you see the greatest postseason closer of all time lose his mystique, it's awesome. especially when he plays for the yankees.
it's interesting to me that i have seperated 9/11 and the 2001 baseball season, in my mind. even though they happened at the same time. when i think of the 2001 mariners season, though, i don't think of 9/11. and i still think that the 1995 mariners could have beaten the 2001 mariners... there was just something that clicked in 2001 that made it a great season. the addition of ichiro, the last of the steroid seasons for bret boone, the last great season from edgar and dan. just a great time.
Fuck, dude, you're getting me all teary-eyed and shit. I'm not kidding.
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i think the 2001 series was the greatest i'll ever see... nobody picked the d-backs to win, but johnson and schilling put the team on their backs and won it anyway. and any time you see the greatest postseason closer of all time lose his mystique, it's awesome. especially when he plays for the yankees.
Something I will always remember about the 2001 series will be how much Fox sucked. I remember a World Series ad after Game 3 where the announcer was all "Nobody could have predicted the drama that is now unfolding."
Schilling and Johnson won game 1 and 2; the Yankees bounced back to win game 3. That was pretty much EXACTLY what half the baseball world had predicted to that point.
The point is, Fox sucks. Joe Buck sucks. Tim McCarver sucks most of all.
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Something I will always remember about the 2001 series will be how much Fox sucked. I remember a World Series ad after Game 3 where the announcer was all "Nobody could have predicted the drama that is now unfolding."
Schilling and Johnson won game 1 and 2; the Yankees bounced back to win game 3. That was pretty much EXACTLY what half the baseball world had predicted to that point.
The point is, Fox sucks. Joe Buck sucks. Tim McCarver sucks most of all.
yeah, i would have to agree that fox sucks hardcore. they determine what they think the storyline of the series will be before game 1 and they stick with it until game 7, even if it's obviously changed. the 2004 ALCS totally showed that, with the tide turning against the yankees in game 5.. even though boston was still down 3-2, you could just feel that they were going to pull it out. but the overwhelming story was "when are the red sox going to collapse?" rather than "how about that yankee collapse??!?!"
and... joe buck. he's just a totally biased broadcaster... he thought randy moss was a horrible person, so when moss did his harmless "fake moon" last year in the nfl playoffs, buck went wild. irritating. and whenever he did a seahawks game this year he acted like he had never heard of half of the guys. and why do you think they always have him do the ALCS, rather than the NLCS? it's because the cardinals have always had a shot at being in the NLCS, and they know it'd be a joke to have buck do those games. it'd be like watching a local feed, rather than the national spotlight game.
and don't even get me started on tim mccarver. i wish they would drop him and get lou pinella to do it... he was great this last postseason. always great to hear from lou.
but what i really wish is that nbc had taken the money they spent on the olympics and paid for the MLB rights. bob costas is a great baseball play-by-play guy.. team him with somebody like pinella and it'd be perfect
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and... joe buck. he's just a totally biased broadcaster... he thought randy moss was a horrible person, so when moss did his harmless "fake moon" last year in the nfl playoffs, buck went wild. irritating. and whenever he did a seahawks game this year he acted like he had never heard of half of the guys. and why do you think they always have him do the ALCS, rather than the NLCS? it's because the cardinals have always had a shot at being in the NLCS, and they know it'd be a joke to have buck do those games. it'd be like watching a local feed, rather than the national spotlight game.
and don't even get me started on tim mccarver. i wish they would drop him and get lou pinella to do it... he was great this last postseason. always great to hear from lou.
but what i really wish is that nbc had taken the money they spent on the olympics and paid for the MLB rights. bob costas is a great baseball play-by-play guy.. team him with somebody like pinella and it'd be perfect
Amen.
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Christ, how long has it been since Costas has been able to DO baseball play-by-play?
It's like (and I'm not so sure we have (m)any other NASCAR fans in here, so this may be irrelevant) how we get Darrell Waltrip for the first few races each year, and then when each race starts getting more and more important, we're stuck with the damn NBC/TNT broadcasters, who are just this side of horrible. And on that note, if we're able to have World Cup soccer games commercial-free when no one cares, why can't Budweiser fork over the cash to take the breaks out of these races? Grrr.
Go Tony Stewart