Isotopes

89 degrees at game time.

This is so tedious. I wish it was soccer.

2-1 Omaha after 3.

Hey, Ray proposed (via the scoreboard) and Leslie agreed. That’s cool.

One important thing. No vuvuzelas.

Lakers 51 Celtics 31 at half.

Hu’s on first. (Hu scored, but it’s 7-3 Omaha after 5.)

Awesome, I caught one of those foam baseballs they toss from the pressbox during the 7th inning stretch. After we sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” of course.

Hu’s at bat. Hu grounds out 4-3.

Still 7-3.

Lakers won. 11-5 here going into the 9th. 9:38 PM. 82 degrees. 15% humidity.

11-8 final score. Hey, that’s 19 runs. 19, that’s only four less than the total number of scores in the first 14 World Cup games.

[Chin-lung Hu]

Another fine debut

Don Nava of the Red Sox came up for his first Major League at bat yesterday in the second inning with the bases loaded.

And he sent the first Major League pitch he ever saw into the right field seats for a grand slam home run.

Lest we get too excited, the only other major leaguer to hit the first pitch he saw for a grand slam was Kevin Kouzmanoff.

Who?

Best Strasburg line of the day, so far

“Stephen Strasburg’s 14-strikeout debut performance for the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night didn’t just meet expectations, it took those expectations out on a date, romanced them, and then married the expectations in a lavish beachside ceremony attended by Tom Cruise and Barbara Streisand.”

The Daily Fix – WSJ

Best how good will Strasburg be line of the day

“When you have a 98-mph sinker and it’s your third-best pitch, but your strongest suit is your control, then the broad outlines of the debate are settled.”

Thomas Boswell

Stephen Strasburg’s Major League debut is tonight. It’s a sellout, but on ESPN at 7 ET.

‘Topes

98 degrees at game time. But a great breeze and almost comfy sitting in the sun. Sunset one hour away.

Third inning and Hu’s on first — but he got to second before I could snap a picture. And then he came around to score. 3-2 Isotopes. 95 degrees at 8:00.

Middle of 6, ‘Topes up 8-2. Big crowd enjoying the show (fireworks after game). Hu has scored twice and batted in two. De Jesus with long 2-run homer to left-center. 9:00. 93 degrees. Excellent night.

Green Chile, Red Chile, Taco and Salsa line up for the race to third base. Salsa won. iPhone photo.

Isotopes win 9-3. 9:45. 89 degrees. Need a jacket.

Bring on the fireworks. (Fireworks show was terrific and watching scores of little kids run the bases even better!)

More than the usual

… amount of class being shown all around. Tigers’ manager Jim Leyland had pitcher Armando Galarraga take the lineup out to the home plate umpire for today’s game. The umpire is Jim Joyce.

Meanwhile the commissioner sits on his hands. Overturn the call Bud. It’s simple.

Galarraga pitches 28-out perfect game

Video highlights.

Charles Pierce sums it up arguing for the commissioner to overturn the call.

I mean, it’s not like there aren’t already fluky perfect games dotting the major-league record book. The first recorded one was by a guy pitching for the Worcester Ruby Legs. (Major leagues? Please. ) And, for 74 years, they counted Ernie Shore’s having thrown one in June of 1917, despite the fact that Babe Ruth started the game by walking Ray Morgan and then slugging the home plate umpire. This earned him an ejection, which brought on Shore in relief. Morgan got thrown out trying to steal and, until they changed the rules in 1991, Shore got credit for a perfect game because he retired the next 27 guys. How is that less complicated than what I am suggesting? Let’s give Galarraga seven decades, too. He more than earned them.

Shore retired the next 26 batters, not 27.

Nobody’s perfect

Detroit Tiger’s pitcher Armando Galarraga threw the 21st perfect game in 135 years of major league history tonight — and inconceivably the third this season.

Well, he would have, except that first base umpire Jim Joyce just didn’t know it and inexplicably called the 27th Cleveland batter safe at first when he was clearly out. Not even close.

Galarraga got the next batter to end the game and preserve the shut out.

Instant replay anyone?

Joyce apologized after the game and Galarraga accepted the apology with grace.

Here’s the video.

The first out in the ninth was a spectacular catch that preserved the perfect game for Joyce’s screw up. Here’s that video.

Beisbol…been berry berry good…to me

Chico Escuela may have to reconsider.

“The head of the baseball players’ union and one of the owners of the Diamondbacks issued statements Friday saying that had concerns about Arizona’s new immigration law.”

USATODAY.com

Damn Yankees not quite so damned

“Contrary to popular belief, the Yankees are only the fifth-most despised team in the majors, according to an Internet algorithm built by Nielsen Co. that analyzes how people feel about certain things.”

WSJ.com

Most disliked — the Cleveland Indians, followed by the Red Sox (YES!), the Reds, and the Astros.

Least disliked — the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics.

Yup, it’d be a damn shame

“A great number of major-league baseball teams have their spring training sites in Arizona. Most, if not all, of those teams have players of various Latino origin. This is also true of the Arizona Diamondbacks and the several minor-league teams that play their entire seasons there. Baseball has been very, very good to Arizona. Be a shame if something happened to change that.”

Charles Pierce with an idea he got from Keith Olbermann

And he slides, no … wait, he vaults into home …

There’s no replay so you don’t need to watch the video after the key play.

Thanks to Muddy for the link (and Bob, too).

Best ‘never thought about it before, but good question’ line of the day

“Opening Day is all about renewal: same old white lines, same old thin sunshine, same old wondering how those F/A-18 fighter planes time their screech-by to coincide with the end of the anthem.”

Roger Angell : The New Yorker

Go read Angell’s whole Opening Day blog post. It’s only two paragraphs. If you love baseball, you love Angell.

Or about $20,600 a game

“According to [Major League Baseball Players Association] calculations, the average salary of 828 players on Opening Day rosters, including those on disabled lists, was $3,340,133 — a slight increase over the 2009 average of 3,317,475.”

MLB.com: News

“[T]he cumulative season-opening payroll of the 30 Major League clubs is $2,765,630,418…”

The minimum [MINIMUM] player’s salary is $400,000.

Alex Rodriguez’s salary this season is $33,000,000 or $203,700 a game (162 games).

If Alex Rodriguez had to share his salary with the 827 other major league players, they’d still make almost $40,000 apiece for the six month season.

Asterisks Dept.

From a brief, good piece “on continuity and baseball statistics” by Ben McGrath:

Remember 1987? Brook Jacoby—Brook Who?—hit thirty-two home runs. Wade Boggs, never before a slugger, hit twenty-four. The next season, they hit nine and five, respectively. The game’s self-appointed custodians that year whispered about juiced balls, not juiced bodies, but was it any less a disruption of the perceived natural order? More home runs were hit, per game, in 1987 than in 1998, the year, now tarnished in so many fans’ memories, of McGwire and Sosa.

Important Date

Pitchers and catchers begin reporting to Spring Training on Wednesday.

MLB.com: Schedule

The best record in baseball

Flip Flop Fly Ball has a chart on how often the best team during the season wins the World Series. Interesting.

When each team breached the color line. Tigers 1958! Red Sox 1959!

And here’s another chart on the town in the 48 states farthest from any major league team (hint, it’s in Montana).

And my favorite chart.

Oops

Dad makes the catch but daughter returns it [short video]

Can a Ballclub’s Record Justify Its Beer Prices?

According to data collected by Team Marketing Report for the 2009 season, beer prices vary dramatically among big-league teams. A 21-ounce beer costs $4.75 in Pittsburgh, but you’ll shell out $8.75 for a 20-ounce brew at San Francisco’s AT&T Park. This led us to wonder: Does quality have anything to do with beer prices?

The Count — WSJ.com has more.

The worst value in baseball — Fenway. Just 12 ounces for $7.25.

Old school

25 Things We Miss In Baseball

Truest line of the night

“Every team going back 10-15 years needs an * if you want to consider giving it to anyone.”

Curt Schilling

Take me out to the ballgame

75 degrees at game time. Beautiful sunny evening.

Isotopes 8 Redhawks 0 after first inning.

14-4 after three.

22-4 after six. Don’t believe I’ve ever been at a game with so many runs scored with adults playing.

Time to go.

(The final was Isotopes 23 Redhawks 6.)

Vin Scully

One of the great moments in baseball — not just the story, but the storyteller. Go listen to baseball’s best broadcaster describe the last inning of Koufax’s perfect game in 1965.

Scully talks about virtually nothing but the action in front of him. Even allowing for the drama of this moment, compare and contrast to most current broadcasters who seem incapable of keeping their eye on the ball. And Scully says nothing for 40 seconds after the last pitch. He allows you to savor the moment. It’s not about him.

Link via a fine tribute to Scully at the Bats Blog.

The Catch That Saved the Perfect Game

You gotta see DeWayne Wise make the 9th-inning catch that saved Mark Buehrle’s perfect game today. 48 second video.

Only the 16th perfect game in major-league history.

BTW “Ian Kinsler accomplished a feat so rare on Sunday, it only happened four times previously in major-league history.”

Click here to learn what Kinsler and the others did.

It was a beautiful night

100º F. at game time, but a chilly 84º by the ninth inning. With the humidity around 10% it was actually quite comfortable.

The New Orleans Zephyrs took an early 2-1 lead, but Closser had a grand slam in the sixth to put the ‘Topes ahead 5-2. The Zephyrs got another, then fell apart in the 7th as the homeboys scored 7 and went on to win 12-3.

The taco won the red-green-salsa-taco race from first to third.

And I took home an Orbit bobblehead.

I honestly think that all around, watching the Isotopes on a great Albuquerque night is equal to anything in the major leagues for its entertainment value.