2014 Official Mlb Game Thread

[Yankee4Life]

Here is one thing that even the average fan should be able to see for themselves. Alex Rodriguez has not been here all season. No kidding, right? Well A-Rod can not be blamed for anything that happened this year with the Yankees. Look, I know he screwed up badly but at the same time that guy gets blamed for more crap that he didn't do than any ballplayer I have seen in many years. With Rodriguez gone hopefully these fans would have seen for themselves that there are players just as bad as him and not every time the Yankees lost was his fault.

I don't give a DAMN who they get rid of this off season. I just hope they leave the home grown pitchers alone.

[Yankee4Life]

Guess what Yankee hurt his little wristy and had to leave the game again.

A. Mark Teixeira

B. Mark Teixeira

C. Mark Teixeira

D. Mark Teixeira

[sabugo]

Guess what Yankee hurt his little wristy and had to leave the game again.

A. Mark Teixeira

B. Mark Teixeira

C. Mark Teixeira

D. Mark Teixeira

Someone should tell him to stop playing with himself.

[Yankee4Life]

Holy **** did Keith Olbermann let Derek Jeter have it in this commentary.

Wow. Someone had the guts to say it.

[Homer]

haha. someone had to say it. props to a great career and all. but yeah...

[sabugo]

Ooooooooooh, Keith is evil! 'How dare you disparage The Jeter!?' hahaha

He makes great points, but there's more to this game than numbers.

I have to agree that this whole farewell tour has sometimes gotten a little out of hand. But it would look bad if Mariano got one (entirely deserved imo) and Jeter didn't, so there wassn't really a better way to deal with this.

Still, Jeter deserves my respect. Numbers show he wasn't the great player he's made out to be, but his character makes up for a lot of that. Again, numbers aren't everything.

[Yankee4Life]

Keith Olbermann answers his critics concerning his previous Derek Jeter commentary.

Talk about hitting the bulls-eye.

[sabugo]

Still, how many moments like yesterday has Jeter been part of during his career?

I was sitting at home, one continent away and in a country that does not have any kind of baseball interest whatsoever when he homered for his 3,000 hit. Off David Price. He made me jump out of my couch.

How many other baseball players can say that they made such an impression on random people across the globe? Again, I'm in Portugal, there is no baseball here. None. I did not choose to admire Jeter, he just made himself admirable throughout the years. Much in the same way I didn't set out to dislike A-Fraud, it was all his doing.

But then again, Ketih is so right that it's painful. I just wished he did such a piece on Tex, A-Rod and Kevin Long.

[Yankee4Life]

David Ortiz isn't going to be playing in the final three games against the Yankees this weekend. Why should he? Boston's out of it so he may as well quit early and dream of what he's going to be eating on Thanksgiving day.

[sabugo]

David Ortiz isn't going to be playing in the final three games against the Yankees this weekend. Why should he? Boston's out of it so he may as well quit early and dream of what he's going to be eating on Thanksgiving day.

Three games in which we could have beaned him that simply won't happen.

This is a tragedy.

It could only get worse if say A-Rod comes back next year. Oh wait...

[Homer]

Still, how many moments like yesterday has Jeter been part of during his career?

I was sitting at home, one continent away and in a country that does not have any kind of baseball interest whatsoever when he homered for his 3,000 hit. Off David Price. He made me jump out of my couch.

How many other baseball players can say that they made such an impression on random people across the globe? Again, I'm in Portugal, there is no baseball here. None. I did not choose to admire Jeter, he just made himself admirable throughout the years. Much in the same way I didn't set out to dislike A-Fraud, it was all his doing.

But then again, Ketih is so right that it's painful. I just wished he did such a piece on Tex, A-Rod and Kevin Long.

you're just making more points for olbermann. it's exactly what he's saying. he's been hyped a lot more during his career than anyone we've ever seen. he was a great player but you wouldn't be jumping off the couch for him if he spent his career with the astros. he was a really good hitter, but he also had the luxury of spending his career during a very successful run for the yankees. his hype is so great that people actually have to discuss if he's a first ballot HOF'er when guys like biggio put up essentially the same numbers and are borderline even getting in.

kudos to him for all his success, but he's not the greatest thing since sliced bread. there have been far greater players to wear that uniform.

[Yankee4Life]

you're just making more points for olbermann. it's exactly what he's saying. he's been hyped a lot more during his career than anyone we've ever seen. he was a great player but you wouldn't be jumping off the couch for him if he spent his career with the astros. he was a really good hitter, but he also had the luxury of spending his career during a very successful run for the yankees. his hype is so great that people actually have to discuss if he's a first ballot HOF'er when guys like biggio put up essentially the same numbers and are borderline even getting in.

kudos to him for all his success, but he's not the greatest thing since sliced bread. there have been far greater players to wear that uniform.

There you go.

And really everyone did Homer just say anything bad about Jeter? (You didn't Homer and your Astros comparison was spot on.)

The best thing Jeter ever did was being born in 1974. He came to the Yankees at the exact time they were getting prepared to make that wonderful run that they did in the late 90's. And he was a huge part of it. Stop and think for a minute if Jeter had been born ten years earlier in 1964. His first full year would have been in 1986 and not 1996. Look at the Yankee won-loss records for the late 80-'s and early 90's. Not even a talented shortstop from Kalamazoo would have helped those teams.

Jeter will get in first ballot five years from now. Somewhere they are probably already making his plaque. And Craig Biggio just like you said Homer is struggling to get in. That's because in Houston they can't even get close to publicizing one of their players like New York can.

I have been reading about Yankee fans who have grown up with Jeter and not counting times when he was on the disabled list or when he had a day off, had never seen a game that Jeter was not a part of. I'm sympathetic towards them but I'm concerned for them. They'll live. So will baseball and so will the Yankees. It's the end of an era and not the end of baseball as we know it.

He is retiring. I wish him well for the rest of his life and I hope he is happy. That's what he's doing. Just retiring. He's not going to prison. He's earned this. And the Yankees will field a team next year and life will go on. I promise.

[Homer]

i don't really have anything disparaging to say about jeter. i talked a lot of smack about him through his career only because he played for the opponent, but that is expected. but at the end of the day, he was an excellent player and i feel privileged to have seen him play. the game needs more people like him, so I can understand the adoration he gets. i just happen to agree with the idea of all the overhype of how good he was compared to his peers.

[sabugo]

Maybe because of the distance I have a different and perhaps more romantic view than you guys. Jeter has been the face of baseball for a long time. To someone like me, in a country without baseball, the impact is bigger. That, coupled with the Yankees' and MLB's marketing machine made him a star, beyond his real value on the field.

And I agree that Biggio is getting screwed. Big time.

But like I said, Olbermann is so right that it hurts. I specially agree with the point he makes about the jersey patch. He's retiring, not dead. Creepy.

[Homer]

there's nothing wrong with the romantic view of him. a lot of people have that view on him, but a lot of it has to do with the fact that he's been in the spotlight. he gets more national attention because he played for the yankees. the things olbermann brings up pertains to the fact that people let that romantic view of the guy cloud what he actually did. they seem to make his accomplishments much greater than they really are. no one's saying he didn't have a great career, but so many have this view of him being such a great shortstop of his time when he really wasn't even a great shortstop. what he was great at was being a hitter, with consistency and longevity.

and i don't think biggio is getting screwed. i think he gets in eventually. there is a very elite group of guys that i would consider first ballot hall of famers based on how these guys have been voted in.

[sabugo]

Let's hope he does, because he surely deserves it.

[Homer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-sachs/saying-goodbye--to-ichiro_b_5896016.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

[Yankee4Life]

Selig Counted Money While Baseball Lost the Next Generation of Fans

Several years ago, Joey Boyd of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, wanted to introduce his 4-year-old son, Will, to the game of baseball by signing him up with a membership to the New York Yankees' kids' fan club. Boyd balked when he saw the team charged $26.

Boyd began checking other teams' websites and found nearly all Major League teams charged kids to join their fan clubs.

Boyd wrote Baseball commissioner A.H. "Bud" Selig to appeal to owners to not charge kids. It would be a loss leader for the teams, Boyd explained, because it would draw countless kids to the sport of baseball.

Selig responded by saying, "I will certainly discuss this matter with the clubs at Major League meetings."

Selig included an autographed baseball for Will.

Nothing changed. Most teams continued to charge kids to join their fan clubs.

This anecdote represents Selig's 22-year run as baseball commissioner, which ends in January.

Baseball isn't about kids or even adults to Selig. It's not about fathers playing catch with sons, keeping score, cheering for your favorite player, or, in the case of my own son, hoping to get a foul ball or a player's autograph.

To Selig, the only autograph a kid needs is Selig's. And to Selig and baseball owners, the only autograph worth having is the treasury secretary's signature on U.S. currency.

Major League Baseball has made billions of dollars in television revenues during the Selig years.

But what does it profit a sport to gain so much money but lose its future?

An ESPN study concluded that the NFL remains the most popular league among 12- to 17-year-olds in the United States, with 38.9 percent of respondents naming it their favorite. The NBA was next at 30.1 percent, surpassing NCAA football at 27.5 percent. Next were college basketball at 23.8 percent, the MLB and Major League Soccer at 18.0 percent, and the National Hockey League at 8.9 percent.

Selig's legacy may be that he lost the next generation of baseball fans. This is Selig's last World Series. Perhaps nothing demonstrates how baseball has turned off young sports fans than how young sports fans have turned off the World Series.

Television ratings were up for last year's World Series. And so was the age of the viewers who watched it. The average age of those who watched the series was nearly 54, which is believed to be the oldest in history.

On the other hand, only 4.1 percent of children between the ages of 6-17 watched the series, the Nielsen media research firm reported.

Selig, team owners, and the networks start most postseason games at 8:30 p.m. EST or later to generate primetime advertising dollars. By the time the game gets into the third inning, most kids -- or at least those who are still vaguely interested in baseball -- have gone to bed.

The World Series is baseball's biggest stage and yet the lights are out. If a baseball game is played at midnight and no one sees it, does it make a difference?

Children, who care less and less about baseball, grow up to be adults, who care little or nothing about baseball.

Unlike Selig and baseball, the NFL and the NBA understand that if you get the attention of fans when they're young, they can be yours for life. Football and basketball are better suited to younger fans. They're faster, more physical and play better on television.

But the NFL and NBA also market their games to kids.

Selig sends out an autographed baseball and goes back to counting his money.

Will Boyd is now 12.

He cares nothing about baseball.

LINK TO ARTICLE.

[DaSteelerz]

Maybe because of the distance I have a different and perhaps more romantic view than you guys. Jeter has been the face of baseball for a long time. To someone like me, in a country without baseball, the impact is bigger. That, coupled with the Yankees' and MLB's marketing machine made him a star, beyond his real value on the field.

And I agree that Biggio is getting screwed. Big time.

But like I said, Olbermann is so right that it hurts. I specially agree with the point he makes about the jersey patch. He's retiring, not dead. Creepy.

Trammell.

[DaSteelerz]

Sorry I joined the Jeter discussion very late but I had to add that. Compare stats with Jeter.. anyways about the Selig article, I enjoyed that. I agree totally. Nice read.

[raidersbball20]

I hate how they alienate viewers by broadcasting on mlb network, tbs, and fox sports 1. I have all these networks but my friends grandmother has been a lifelong cards fan and couldnt even watch the nlcs because of the tv situation