Sammys Boombox

I thought it was a good idea to move to the IF Terrace Reserved from the Bleachers, because I was able to get the middle of a section and Row 12 between the pitchers mound and 1B. Considering just a few rows in front of me costs double, and I have none of the negatives (poles, overhang) of the rows just in front of me, the seats are amazingly priced. This is mainly because if you move 5 seats to the left or right in the same row your seat sucks (dang poles). However, the bleachers appear to sell much better because even though my seats are much, much better than most IF Terrace Reserved seats that is not easily portrayed on StubHub. I made back 43% of my money this year in games that we did not use. I'm sure when most people walked to their seats they were pretty impressed with what they had just bought...

If turnovers are automatic reviews how come the fumble/incompletion? recovered by NYG that was then fumbled and recovered by DEN not reviewed?

Yep. No. Most of those kids are on the travel team because one or both of their parents are living vicariously through them. It's a brag wall. Talent will out. The kids who are on those teams because of talent don't pay a lot to play on the team. Someone else pays. It's the way these things operate. Also, often the coaching on those teams is abysmal. The way kids get better is in the offseason when they go to skilled people to get private lessons or small group instruction. That does cost money though. But if they talent isn't there to begin with it won't matter. All of what you said is true, but the point is these travel leagues make the rec leagues absolutely atrocious in almost all rural/suburban areas of the country. Most of the kids who play travel ball are not near good enough to justify it, but them playing travel ball guts the rec leagues. I've seen every side of this. I have coached a travel team, umpires hundreds of travel games, watched one of my brothers play hundreds of travel games which meant my other brother and myself got stuck in rec league. Thankfully, no travel team materialized in my age group so our rec league did not suck, but my other brother got left way behind. I started on the best two teams our HS has ever put out. He got cut after sophomore year on a much worse team (same HS). He was a better athlete and more driven than me. My third brother is 12 years younger than me. The rec leagues now are a total joke compared to when I played. He's been playing travel since he was 9. My parents can't afford it, but his loaded coach insists on paying for everything because he thinks they're going to win state when they're in HS. I want to scream at him, "You have no clue what their competition is going to be like! How can you claim this group of 12-year-olds is going to win state?"

Yep.

Of course there are those (and they're not all that new), but they're not by any stretch the only options for kids to get on a field and play competitive ball, and I think that's what we're talking about here. There is a large percentage of the country where the current choice is 1. Pay literally thousands for your kid to play against halfway decent ball players sacrificing nearly every weekend and neglecting your other kids or 2. Play rec league and get left way behind kids who are nowhere near as talented but they get good instruction and plenty of repetitions. At age 10 or younger.

was intrigued, clicked and saw it was sano at bat, got very intrigued, read and saw it was a pelotero sequel and GOT SUPER RAGING INTRIGUED Never saw it. Guessing I should. Yes. Yes, you should. I umpired my way through college. This video made me miss it a little bit.

I don't believe I have ever started a game thread before, but I'm going to tonight's game and it looks like Fred is the only one starting these lately, so I don't think he will mind. In Fred fashion: Cubs are 21-20 overall when I am in attendance Padres are 0-2 overall when I am in attendance Cubs are 1-0 against the Padres when I am in attendance Cubs are 12-8 on the road when I am in attendance Cubs are 0-0 in San Diego when I am in attendance Cubs are 4-2 in NL West parks when I am in attendance Please win.

Does anybody else have the goal of reaching each stadium before they die? Anybody have some decent progress to this point? This week I'm going to ball games at my 18th (Angels), 19th (Padres) and 20th (Dodgers) MLB stadiums. (21 if you count both Busch Stadiums.) I only count parks where I've actually been to a game, but here are the 10 I am missing: Seattle Oakland* Texas Chicago AL* Toronto Boston Milwaukee* Atlanta* Washington* New York NL I've seen and/or been inside the stadiums with *, but the Nationals was RFK. Yankee Stadium is unbelievable. Pittsburgh has the BFIB based on my limited experience of a handful of games there and their spring training facility. Chase Field, Tropicana Field and Marlins Park all tie for the absolute worst for differing reasons. Colorado and SF have the best overall aesthetics. Houston is just weird. Can't decide if it's a mall or a ballpark. I somehow went to a game in Minnesota when it was 100F. Baltimore and Philadelphia have crappy fans. Comerica is HUGE! St Louis and Philadelphia are strikingly similar.

Apparently he has taken them for years for ADHD and was given a waiver. This year Bud took the waiver away. If that's true, bud is a dick. I can buy that. My 12-year-old brother was pointing out how strange/borderline immature Tejada was acting between pitches during the Red Sox Friday night game.

That's not the guy I spoke to. Wonder if he works or worked at that Millhouse place that Mihlfeld owns.

Do we have the name of this guy, because a few weeks ago I went to a prayer breakfast for my church and it was loosely sports themed with a former Chiefs player speaking. The guy I was in line with to get food claimed to be Pujols' first trainer.

Since the break: Royals 17-4 Tigers 16-4 Royals lead head-to-head 2-1. Pretty rough only picking up a half game on the division (5 games on the WC). Although, they have gained a lot more ground on some other teams. At the break the Royals were behind the Yankees, Blue Jays and Angels. They were 9.5 out of the WC. The Cubs were 10 out.

I laughed out loud at the animal reactions. People in my office think I'm nuts.

http://wapc.mlb.com/cutfour/2013/08/08/56286952/video-amazing-minor-league-fan-catch

The radio guy for Iowa has an extremely annoying HR call.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kottage01.shtml George Kottaras 12-for-69 21 BB 5 HR 4 2B .380 OBP .830 OPS 129 OPS+

Moises Alou and the entire 2003 Cubs bullpen are still mad they got screwed out of their shot at a 5-game sweep.

Since the break the Royals are 10-2. While moving up the WC ladder they have not done much damage in the division race. Detroit is 9-3 (including 1-2 vs KC) and Cleveland is 8-4. Taking away head-to-head games the three teams are 24-6 since the break. That's .800 baseball.

What are you talking about? We're less than two years into the Theo regime. You're acting like he's been here for ages. How am I acting like anything? Maybe I misunderstood your post. Some of your phrases make it seem like there have been several instances where the team was on the verge of competing, only to have Theo and Jed blow it up. It was never going to be a quick fix. I was under the impression that the general consensus around here from the start was that 2015 is the year. Regardless, I sounded like an ass in my response, and for that I apologize. I didn't realize it was so harsh when I first posted it. No worries. For the record, I'm extremely excited about everything going on. I just wish it was happening faster, but that's not realistic. I think if you went back to this offseason you would see a lot of people pretty upset that it was apparent that the moves were putting us in a position to most likely not contend until at least 2015. A lot of people were hoping for signs that pointed more towards 2014. But maybe I'm remembering it wrong and that's why I would have liked to have had a history of these polls. Also, "dual fronts" and rumors of $200MM payrolls had some people hoping for 2013 contention when Theo was signed.

What are you talking about? We're less than two years into the Theo regime. You're acting like he's been here for ages. How am I acting like anything?

Did anybody else notice Lucroy's bat grip? I have never seen that on a wooden bat.

I wish we had started a poll the day Theo was hired and repeated the poll each Opening Day and each October asking the same question: What year will the Cubs first contend (be within 5 spots of a playoff spot on or after Sept. 1)? 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Later I'd be curious to see how the answers changed. I feel like with myself I keep saying two years from whatever year we are in at the moment.

I wonder what the odds were of the Cardinals making the playoffs on that date. Probably not all that terrible since the division was so awful. So depressing. They won the wild card, and the Brewers won 96 games. Coolstandings had them at 1.1%.

I was there in 2009 when Soriano hit the walk off grand slam against Houston. That was basically the last week the Cubs were serious contenders.

Also, his grand slam in the NLCS and his 8th inning grand slam in 2008 off the Phillies when the Cubs were down 2.