Crack of the Bat, Y'all: A Thread for Baseball

[Ignatius]

Perhaps his zest for the game exceeded the limits of his moral fibers. But perhaps it does the matter injustice to attempt to sum it up in such a pithy statement.

Still, to have squeezed those biceps in their muscly heyday? I bet it would have felt just like when you pomegranate block, chiseled to an arm shape.

[davy]

Haha

[El_Josharino]

Any day that you beat the Mets twice is a great day.

[Ignatius]

Man, great doesn't mean what it used to.

[El_Josharino]

Iggy, I hope you're not some kind of Mets fan, because I like you, but if you're a Mets fan then I'm going to have to stop doing that.

[Ignatius]

No sir! My dad used to take us to Mets games when we were kids because Yankee Stadium was a rougher place back then, but only my oldest brother became a permanent Mets supporter. He was also 6 or 7 in 1986. He is something of an outlaw among the Burkes... There are like 30 of us across four generations who have all been big Yankee fans. I'm a Yankee fan as far as that goes, but unlike everyone else in my family, baseball is far from my favorite sport.

I did however hang out with Hojo, Kevin Elster and Mackey Sasser when I was five or six, and that was pretty cool.

[Thermofusion]

If I lived in NY and had to choose between supporting the Yankees or the Mets, baseball would be far from my favorite sport, too.

[El_Josharino]

I attended the first baseball game to be played in our new stadium, TD Ameritrade Park, which will be hosting the College World Series for at least the next 30 years starting this summer. It's a real bummer to see Rosenblatt go, but there's not much anybody could have done about it, I'm afraid.

It's a really nice park, and the field is built to the same dimensions as Rosenblatt (although they changed up foul territory a bit...), but really it doesn't have the character that ol' Johnny Rosenblatt did. I have no doubt that it was designed around the idea of hosting more than just baseball games there, which is a real bummer.

At any rate, the game tonight was chilly (high of 44 degrees today), but exciting, and was between two hometown teams (UNL Cornhuskers vs. Creighton Bluejays), and ended up being 2-1. Lots of solid defense and my buddy Luke nabbed a foul ball, which was swell. I doubt I'll see as many games at this park as I saw at Rosenblatt (the Omaha affiliate of the KC Royals is playing at a different park, and I don't follow college ball closely), but this one was a good kickoff.

[dumbfish]

In the college vs. minor league battle, the minors have a massive trump card-- beer.
Both dominate over the majors, fwiw.

[El_Josharino]

They were selling beer at last night's game. I know because I drank a bunch of 'em.

[Thermofusion]

I got memorably hammered at an Asheville Tourists game a few years ago, where they do thirsty Thursdays with $1 domestic drafts and $2 Highland Brewing Co. drafts. I took the longest pee of my life in the bathroom trough.

[dumbfish]

Josh, I now have a reason to move to NE. $2 Highlands beer sounds delightful.

[davy]

$2 Highlands beer sounds delightful.

This would do me in.

[El_Josharino]

Also, I got home last night just in time to see the Braves bats come alive against the Dodgers' shitty bullpen (Okay, Kuo is decent, but I think he's on the DL), which was fun.

Did anyone see that robot throw the first pitch at the Phillies/Brewers game today? Looks like they need to send it back down to triple A to work on mechanics.

[davy]

Also, I got home last night just in time to see the Braves bats come alive against the Dodgers' shitty bullpen (Okay, Kuo is decent, but I think he's on the DL), which was fun.

Hell yes that was fun.

[davy]

Tonight's game? Not so much.

[Thermofusion]

Did anyone see that robot throw the first pitch at the Phillies/Brewers game today? Looks like they need to send it back down to triple A to work on mechanics.

I love that the Philly crowd booed it. They booed a robot.

[coldforge]

Did anyone see that robot throw the first pitch at the Phillies/Brewers game today? Looks like they need to send it back down to triple A to work on mechanics.

In Soviet Robot Triple A, mechanics work on you.

[El_Josharino]

Did anyone see that robot throw the first pitch at the Phillies/Brewers game today? Looks like they need to send it back down to triple A to work on mechanics.

I love that the Philly crowd booed it. They booed a robot.

I wonder if they didn't throw batteries only because they weren't sure if the robot would take it as a sign of encouragement.

[El_Josharino]

Poll question of the night:
Would you rather
A) Be Carlos Beltran's knees, just rattling around out there in right field at Shea Stadium, or
B) Be the first base bag in a Brewers/Phillies game, wherein you would be repeatedly trod on by both Prince Fielder and Ryan Howard?

[Thermofusion]

Man, that's rough. Though both options are more desirable than being the humiliated PhillieBot, existing solely to underperform its lone intended task with feeble mediocrity.

[El_Josharino]

It should sign with the Astros.

[El_Josharino]

So have you guys seen Nyjer Morgan's twitter account? The username is Tony_Plush, which is apparently, as he puts it, one of his alter-egos. He doesn't break character at all, and the thing is good for some pretty consistent lulz.

[El_Josharino]

Whoa! Francisco Liriano: Still relevant after all.

[El_Josharino]

Whoa, big day for prospects. Royals call up Hosmer, Braves announce Teheran is pitching on Saturday. Holy fuck, I'm so pumped for Teheran.