To many people, baseball is the hardest sport to stay interested in from beginning to end, unless of course your team is running away with their division and kicking ass.  Or in my somewhat recent fandom days, in first place but sinking and sinking quickly.  If you are in those scenarios baseball is easy to keep track of from beginning to end.  Now is the hard part however, at least for myself as a Mets fan.  The good teams are starting to become great now and the mediocre teams are starting to sink.  The teams that should win games are starting to win those and the losers are well losing.  I imagine what it feels like in Pittsburg right now.  Regardless of how your team is doing there is always a reason to watch baseball.  This time of year is when the players who are going to help your team in the future really have a time to shine.  Call up all the talent, let’s see what we got!  Now the problem is that there comes, at least for me, a depression once I realize my team is no longer fighting for the big prize.  I consider myself a baseball fan as well as a Met fan, but that baseball fandom is stronger at the beginning of the year and seems to be closely related to how well the Mets are doing.  Unlike TheYankee I am also a huge football fan so that also comes in to play at the end of year.  There is nothing like pre-season optimism. (Note: this is not a endorsement of crappy pre-season NFL football.)  One thing to keep in mind, and yes it is preached constantly, is that baseball is a marathon not a sprint.  It is a long season with many ups and downs and changes.  Injuries are a key to a teams success, especially when it comes to pitching.  So if your a struggling fan, look for things to get excited about!

• Rookies called up, who is going to step up?
• Current players, who is going to fight till the end and earn a roster spot next?
• Pitching prospects.
• Who are next years free agents?
• Who’s season can you ruin?

So there is still reason to watch.  Find players on other teams that you like as well.  Most importantly keep baseball alive.  It is truly an amazing sport and these players make amazing plays every time the ball hits.

Baseball is an adventure and even in a losing season you learn a lot from your team by those who continue running and making plays.  As a fan you can learn a lot about your team and a lot about baseball in general in these final months.  It also doesn’t hurt your fantasy baseball knowledge.

Every year there is a lot of buzz over the last day of july as its the trade deadline. The problem is, no it isn’t. Its the non waiver deadline and trades through this process can go for another month with playoff eligibility being met. Waivers do become more of a game of chance as teams other than the ones involved in a trade can screw things up by claiming waived players. This forces the waiving team to pull the guy off waivers, work a deal with the claiming team or actually release the player. While the blockbuster deals don’t get done the gamesmanship between rivals keeps it interesting. Also, its not always the ubaldo to cleveland or pence to philly deals that make the difference. Sometimes a team like the ’01 cardinals pick up a woody williams and storm into the playoffs

Don’t worry, I’m not going to speak about the difference been the national and american leagues. However you feel on that subject, you have good reason and I’m not going to change your mind.

I want to speak to the notion any aging or defensive liability can be placed in this full time role and produce for another season or two. It isn’t as simple as that, there is a flow to the game and this season is proving it more than ever with the struggles of Jorge Posada, Adam Dunn and Bobby Abreu. DH is unique hitting talent and one that should be cherished by fans of David Ortiz and Jim Thome. Edgar Martinez is perhaps the best example of this skill and sparks the debate, should he be in the hall of fame? Numbers wise he has what it takes to be a shoe in. For me however, its an emphatic no. You don’t get into the hall spending half the game talking to a utility infielder and the backup catcher. I do admire what he accoplished though.

At least, that’s the view from from where I sit
The Yankee

When you play baseball, especially amateur baseball, you will occasionally get hit by a pitcher when standing in the box. The same is also true of practice. In 5 games of my Heredia Baseball career I have been HBP’d twice, one of those times being practice which also happened to be yesterday.

In the batters box I tend to stand in confident and looking like I want to fight. Nothing takes the fight out of me more than a fastball high and inside and on me. So I type this with a sore palm, for lack of better description, it’s the fat part under your thumb. One of our pitchers had the ball get away and well I couldn’t get away. I definitely stood there with the, “that didn’t hurt” mentality, cause that’s my style, that’s how I roll, but damn, HBPs f’n hurt.

Yours in the obvious,
TheMet