WARNING!! Annual Off-Topic Baseball Thread. Esteemed Members BEWARE!!

[mplagrow]

I had a 8th grade season end tournament this weekend. I happen to be the assignor for this tournament. I reffed the third place game, which was played right before the championship game. It was great--two teams and coaches that demonstrated great sportsmanship. Everyone was having fun. At the end of the game, a boy hit two free throws with .6 left to send it to OT (my first of the year). A kid from the other team rimmed out a 3-pointer as time expired in OT, or we would have gone to a second OT. Nobody cried, pouted, complained. It was everything basketball should be, IMO.

I stuck around to watch the championship game. It was the complete opposite. The refs I assigned are both doing varsity high school semi-final games this year, top notch guys. They let the teams play a little, and are as consistent and mechanically solid as anyone. The coaches were jerks, the players were angry pouters, and the fans from both schools were just downright terrible. Watching from the stands, it made me want to quit reffing. Then I'm asking myself why I let this ruin the high from the third-place game. I have one more tournament next weekend, maybe it will leave a better taste in my mouth.

Is there really that much of a decrease in sporstmanship from year to year, or am I just letting the bad ones get to me?

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by mplagrow

Is there really that much of a decrease in sporstmanship from year to year, or am I just letting the bad ones get to me?

The players make the game. All we can do, as officials, is just react. You can't make chicken soup from chicken sh!t.

Enjoy the good ones. Forget the bad ones.

[mick]

undeleted.

[M&M Guy]

Thanks mick. Now I can be reminded more often of 98 years of frustration...

[rockyroad]

Article in the local paper today talking about Felix Hernandez - Mariners pitcher...guess he lost 20 pounds and is in fantastic shape and they are looking for him to have a break-out season and become the ace the M's have needed the last few seasons. Sigh...I don't know why I bother getting my hopes uo...guess that's why they call us "fanatics"...

[mick]

The Tigers got to Lakeland early.
They lost a 3-pitch-per-outing ptcher, lefty Jamie Walker.
Sheffield is smiling as much as Chris Weber.

[Chess Ref]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

Article in the local paper today talking about Felix Hernandez - Mariners pitcher...guess he lost 20 pounds and is in fantastic shape and they are looking for him to have a break-out season and become the ace the M's have needed the last few seasons. Sigh...I don't know why I bother getting my hopes uo...guess that's why they call us "fanatics"...

Well the M's did end last season on a 2 game win streak. That did put them within 15 games of the A's........

I am a A's fan who enjoys the surprise of what we get every year, will Piazza get us 20, 30 who knows.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

Article in the local paper today talking about Felix Hernandez - Mariners pitcher...guess he lost 20 pounds and is in fantastic shape and they are looking for him to have a break-out season and become the ace the M's have needed the last few seasons. Sigh...I don't know why I bother getting my hopes uo...guess that's why they call us "fanatics"...

Um, no, actually we call you Mariners fans "idiots". Don't take that personally though.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by mick

undeleted.

Thanks, Mick. I'll delete that other thread so that we don't have dueling baseball threads. Maybe on opening day, we can lure Chuck Elias out of retirement for a day to start this year's thread. It would seem kind of strange if he didn't.

[mick]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Thanks, Mick. I'll delete that other thread so that we don't have dueling baseball threads. Maybe on opening day, we can lure Chuck Elias out of retirement for a day to start this year's thread. It would seem kind of strange if he didn't.

I agree. I hope to read his assessment on the upcoming season, a season which could be kinda fun.

[Scrapper1]

It's nice to hear about the good things some MLB players do, instead of hearing about drugs and arrests. Especially since this one is a Rangers player:

CHINANDEGA, Nicaragua -- Even before he made millions of dollars in the Majors, Rangers pitcher Vicente Padilla remembered the limitations that he was surrounded by during his childhood. Those memories created a desire to start up a project aimed at assisting the most needy children in his hometown of Chinandega.

On Friday at the Hotel Los Volcanes, Padilla, introduced the Vicente Padilla Foundation, a foundation created to support local students in sports while at the same time stimulating the studies of young people who have good qualifications and sparse economic resources.

Plus, Hank Blalock's shoulder should be 100% by Opening Day!

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Scrapper1

Plus, Hank Blalock's shoulder should be 100% by Opening Day!

Hank Blalock?

The Hank Blalock?

[ChuckElias]

Red Sox roll over the Yankees, baby!! Behind a scintillating 4-inning, 4 ER performance by the number #3 starter. A knuckleballer coming off a 7-14 season. The longer I type, the more depressed I get. . .

[Dan_ref]

A Chuck Elias sighting.

Does this mean we'll have 6 more weeks of winter?

Or we'll be over run by squirrels?

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by ChuckElias

Red Sox roll over the Yankees, baby!! Behind a scintillating 4-inning, 4 ER performance by the number #3 starter. A knuckleballer coming off a 7-14 season. The longer I type, the more depressed I get. . .

Yo, Chuckster.....

Did you see the clip at the start of the game where the two Japanese BoSox players kept bowing to Matsui? Hilarious. That oughta tell you right there what the proper pecking order in the AL is.

Manny looked good on that triple too. Hope he didn't hurt himself hustling like that.