New Yankee Stadium

Today was the Yankees home opener at their bran new field, Yankee Stadium. While it is the same name and from the pictures that I have seen looks very similar to the old Yankee Stadium, it is still in fact a new ballpark.

When I first heard of the Yankees building a new stadium, I was upset. In my opinion there were three baseball stadiums that should never be replaced - Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, and Yankee Stadium. All three of these ballparks are very historic and nee to have baseball played in them no matter how old they may be. The Cubs and the Red Sox have done the right thing with there stadiums, which is trying to keep the ballparks in running order and expanding seating capacity.

The Yankees, however, did what they should not have done, build a new stadium. Sure it is high-tech and top of the line, but there is no history in the stadium. What made the old Yankee Stadium special was knowing what happened there and who played there. Future generations can no longer say, I was in the stadium where Babe Ruth set records, or where Aaron Boone hit a walk-off home run in Game 7 of the League Championship Series, or where the Red Sox came from behind in a 7 game series to beat the Yankees before winning the World Series.

Might there be some great historic moments at the new stadium? Maybe, but I am upset as a basaball fan that I will never set foot in the "House that Ruth Built." So on this day that the Yankees open a new park, a good portion of me is happy that they are getting blown out.

IT’S ALMOST HERE!!!

After a long off-season, it is nearly the first day of baseball season. This is the best time of year for any baseball fan. On opening day every fan can still be optimistic about his teams chances. Other than the All-Star Game and World Series, opening day is probably the most hyped event in baseball all year.

Throughout the years there have been interesting events that have happened on opening day and I would like to share some of them with you here.

1. The only no-hitter in opening day history was thrown by Bob Feller in 1940.

2. In 1974, Hank Aaron hit his 714th career home run which tied him with Babe Ruth.

3. Greg Maddux is 6-0 in seven career opening day starts.

4. Frank Robinson and Ken Griffey, Jr. each have hit eight career opening day home runs

5. The longest opening day game in history was a 15 inning game between the Tigers and Indians in 1960.

6. Several times games have been delayed or cancelled due to snow on opening day. One of the most famous happened occurrences of this was in 1907.

My Chat with a Beat Writer

Today I had the privilege of sitting down with Mr. Andrew Call, former Cleveland Indians beat writer for The Repository in Canton, Ohio. Mr. Call covered the Indians from 1995 until May 2008. During his time covering the Indians, he was able to see some of great baseball teams and players.

When I asked him who his favorite baseball team was when he was growing up, I got an answer that I was not expecting. Mr. Call said that he rarely, if ever watched baseball as a young person. His school did not offer baseball either, so his exposure to baseball before becoming a sports writer was minimal.

Knowing that Mr. Call covered some good teams and players during his time in Cleveland, I asked him who his favorite players to watch were. I was not quite as surprised with his answers to this question. He said that his favorite hitters to watch were Albert Belle and Manny Ramirez. Belle was one of his favorites because he was a greatly feared hitter who had amazing power. Mr. Call liked watching Manny Ramirez because he was the best pure hitter that he watched.

Before I had time to ask my next question, Mr. Call answered it. Being a Giants fan, I wanted to ask him what he thought about Omar Vizquel. He said that Omar was his favorite defensive player to watch. I completely agree with him on that statement after having the pleasure of watching Omar play for a couple years in San Francisco.

During my chat with Mr. Call, I asked him about the greatest moment he was able to witness in baseball. The moment he mentioned is not necessarily a famous baseball moment, but having been in similar situations I was able to understand where he was coming from. The moment he mentioned was the the first game of the playoffs in 1995. This was the first time the Indians had been to the playoffs since losing to the New York Giants in the 1954 World Series. This moment stood out in his mind because of the electricity that was running through the crowd in that game.

Talking with someone who followed the game closely for several years was a great pleasure for me. I was able to ask Mr. Call many other questions about baseball, but didn’t write it all down this time.

Don’t be discouraged, winter is almost over and Spring Training Games are just around the corner!!!

Steroid Era*

A few days ago another Major League Baseball superstar, Alex Rodriguez, admitted to using steroids. I am not going to bash A-Rod, after all I am a fan of the Giants which had the most famous steroid user so far. Because of steroid use there are people that want to put an asterisk next to records that were set by people who used steroids. While I do not think that it was right for players to use steroids, I do not think that an asterisk should be put by there names. Instead of putting asterisks by names, we need to name this era like we have named past eras in baseball. We have had the live ball, the dead ball, integration, and free agency eras. You may be thinking that this would not be fair to all of the players that did not take steroids though. I would disagree with that statement. Even players that have not used steroids have been effected by steroid use because they were playing against players that did take steroids. If the players that took steroids had inflated statistics, then it would make sense that players that did not take steroids would have deflated statistics. In the end is naming the era going to effect how we view certain players? Probably not, but it will explain why players stats are the way they are during this time. As far as Major League Baseball is concerned, they do not need to worry about asterisks or eras. They need to focus on cleaning the game of steroids so that we can start a new era.