Baseball Dogs on Super Bowl Sunday? You Bet!

Mini Corn Dogs with Honey Mustard Dip

This is one of my favorite baseball foods, from one of my favorite blogs, “Sweet Pea’s Kitchen”.  We’ve used her before ~ (remember the nacho’s?).  You can link to her site here and find more recipes for any sporting event, but it’s timely now for Super Bowl Sunday.  The pictures alone make you want to just dive in and eat don’t they?   Enjoy!

Mini Corn Dogs Posted by Christina, Sweet Pea’s Kitchen, September 17, 2011

Ingredients:

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk
• 1 quart vegetable oil for frying
• 2 (16 ounce) packages beef hot dogs
• Toothpicks

For the Honey Mustard:

A SABR Day in Sunny San Francisco!

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I’ve been a member of  the Lefty O’Doul Chapter of SABR,  Society for American Baseball Research, for a year now and this was the first function I’ve been able to attend.   I mention this because I wish I’d attended all the functions this past year and I had this thought that,  if you were exposed to the idea, you’d probably like to do the same thing.

Our day included a tour of AT&T Park, a video conference with the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown,  special guest speakers Henry Schulman, sport writer for the SF Chronicle and author Michael Duca, Chapter President, Marlene Vogelsang  and SABR National Director, Paul Hirsch giving us lots of good timely information.  It was a very good day in San Francisco!

So in recognition of  “SABR Day in America 3″ this is an open invitation to anyone interested in finding out more about SABR to please check it out.   You’ll meet some really great baseball fans and be able to talk baseball all you want without having to deal with eyes rolling back in the head indicating “oh boy, here we go again”.  These guys get it! And so will you!

Book Review by MLB Reports

Book Review

Sunday January 22, 2012  Posted by MLB reports

“Garlic Fries and Baseball: The Book” –  By Ronni Redmond  (2011)

MLB reports – Jonathan Hacohen:  From baseball blogger to author. This is the story of Ronni Redmond and her website: “Garlic Fries and Baseball.”  As you have probably guessed from the title, Ronni loves ballpark food. Heck, she loves everything baseball. I had no idea what to expect from this book. Perhaps a list of top ballpark foods. A ballpark recipe book. It could have gone in many directions. It turned out to be a bit of everything. Probably one of the easiest and funniest baseball reads you will ever find. Garlic Fries and Baseball: The Book, turned out to be an enjoyable baseball journey. Ronni threw just about everything but the kitchen sink into this one and produced a book to be proud of.

Fast Ball, Curve Ball, Slider ……What’s the Difference and Who Cares?

This video shows  a Tim Lincecum fastball and curveball delivery correlated at the release point and superimposed to provide an overlay comparison of the two motions.   The two pitches look nearly identical to my untrained eye. This YouTube video uploaded by laflippin on June 18, 2009.

So I’m  listening to play-by-play of  a game the other day and the announcer says instantly “that was a fastball (curveball, sinker, slider, doesn’t matter … you get the point) and I’m thinking how the hell does he know that?  I mean the ball’s traveling at 90-95 mph and he’s up in the announcer booth 200 feet away.   I know this announcer used to be a pitcher  so I’m pretty sure he knows what he’s talking about, but how is that possible ~ to call the pitch instantly in split-second timing, almost before the ball’s even thrown?

I set out to research this so I might understand the difference between the  pitches and how a pitcher  might determine which pitch to throw and when to throw it.

“Who’s On First” ….. Classic Baseball Video

I intended to blog about the Texas Rangers job opening for an “accountability partner” for Josh Hamilton but had second thoughts.  It seems a little heartless to  talk about it, maybe even a little sad, so when I found this little ditty out there in YouTube land it was an easy change-over.  This is light-hearted good stuff!

So in case you’ve never seen it and even if you have here’s a wonderful version of one of Abbott & Costello’s finest routines.  Abbott and Costello performed this classic “Who’s on first?” baseball sketch in their 1945 film “The Naughty Nineties” first performed as part of their stage act.   This video now plays continuously on screens at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

In 1999, Time Magazine named the routine the “Best Comedy Sketch of the 20th century.    And who’s to argue with them?   No matter how many times I’ve seen it, it’s a classic that never gets old.

You can read all about it at Wikipedia, but not on Wednesday, January 21, as they’re having a “black-out” to protest the Freedom of Information Act being proposed in Congress.

“Who’s on First”  YouTube Video courtesy of, and uploaded by, Swancourt on Feb 16, 2007.

Related articles

• Don’t Confuse Questions with Answers (thwingr.wordpress.com)
• Josh Hamilton and the Rangers are Looking for Another Accountability Partner (backyardsportsblog.com)

This Day in History …… Hall of Fame Voters A Little Pickayunish!

January 10, 1945.  This Day In History baseball writers fail to elect a Hall of Famer as no one receives the required 75% vote.                                        

Yesterday on Twitter someone asked why a player would be elected to the Hall of Fame in subsequent years if they weren’t chosen in the first year.  After all, nothing had changed as far as the player was concerned, his statistics remain the same.

In 1945 Frank Chance, Rube Waddell, and Ed Walsh came closest and, in fact, all three of them  were actually elected to the Hall the next year, in 1946.  What changed from 1945 to 1946 that  allowed these fellows to garner 75% of the votes, when they were unable to do so the previous year?

I found this a little puzzling and set out to research the people who actually do the nominating and selection and what the process is all about.  After about four hours, I gave up the search.  I ran into overwhelming statistics such as  only 296  have been elected to the HOF since 1936, out of a possible 17 quadrillion players (17,275,882,859,193,771 to be exact) who have played Major League Baseball.   (I’m an accountant by trade and still had to count backwards in three’s to come

St. Louis Fans Missing Pujols? ….. Not so Fast!

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m a huge Albert Pujols fan.  But here’s another way to look at it, courtesy of Sully Videos with a little John Travolta thrown in.  Take a look ~

Related articles

• Here’s The Newspaper Ad Albert Pujols Took Out To Thank St. Louis Fans [Albert Pujols] (deadspin.com)
• Pujols’ wife explains slugger’s leaving St. Louis (espn.go.com)
• St. Louis Church Sending Albert Pujols Jerseys To Needy People In Los Angeles (tracking.si.com)
• Albert Pujols and the Anaheim Angels Both Made the Right Move (bleacherreport.com)

Bloggers Alliance Votes for Larkin & Bagwell For Hall of Fame

BBA RECOMMENDS LARKIN, BAGWELL FOR HALL OF FAME

In the annual polling of members of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, former Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin and former Houston Astros first baseman Jeff Bagwell were recommended for induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  This is the third year the organization has conducted this survey of the membership.

Larkin, a 12-time All-Star who fashioned an .815 OPS over 19 seasons, received the largest percentage of votes, being named on 84.25% of the 148 ballots cast.  This is the highest percentage garnered by any player in the three years of BBA voting.

Bagwell, who hit 449 HR and had a .948 OPS in his 15 seasons in Houston, was selected on 115 ballots for a 78.77% rate.  As with the official voting done by the Baseball Writers of America, a player must be named on 75% of the ballots to be recommended by the alliance.

Baseball’s Top Ten News Items in 2011

2011 World Champions St Louis Cardinals

The media’s full of articles and videos of the most newsworthy items about baseball this past year.   You might think this would be those articles you and I found the most interesting and representative of baseball throughout the country, but not necessarily so.

I compiled a list from a survey today of the “top 10″ from USA Today, Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated, and ESPN.

Here’s the results and below that I’ve listed my own personal “Top Ten”.  How does your list compare?

TOP TEN FROM SURVEY

1. St. Louis Cardinals, World Series Champions
2. Justin Verlander,  AL Cy Young and MVP Winner
3. Game 162 collapse of the Red Sox and Braves.
4. Game 6 World Series between the Cardinals and Rangers
5. Derek Jeter’s 3000th hit
6. Ryan Braun’s Drug Test
7. Jim Thome’s 600th Home Run
8. Shannon Stone Fatal Fall at Rangers Stadium
9. Mariano Rivera all time saves leader
10. Bryan Stow beating at Dodger Stadium