Running 2015 MLB Regular-Season Thread

Nobody's ever guilty of anything.

 

<color=#0000ffff>See? Barry Bonds' not a cheater!</color>

 

Ah, yes. The moral outrage about Barry Bonds. So 2007.

Thankfully Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz and Eric Gagne were around to win the World Series and restore baseball's reputation. And we could all breathe a sigh of relief that Alex Rodriguez, in the prime of his career, would restore dignity to the home run record.

 

On a night where Kershaw and Bumgarner are dueling it out, not only are SoCal fans unable to watch the game on TV, but the feds are questioning the Comcast-Time Warner merger that, among other things, would give the Dodgers' channel more exposure.
Comcast bid for Time Warner Cable faces regulatory resistance - LA Times

 

OK what should have been the ruling: In a key play leading up to the Giants winning on a sac-fly, Gregor Blanco made contact with third base coach Roberto Kelly as he over ran the bag. Dodgers argued Blanco should have been out, thus giving the Giants two outs and the Sac fly doesn't happen. Umps don't rule Blanco out for touching Kelly (which he clearly did). So the question, is Blanco out? The book says the base coach can't make contact but it also says the runner is out if the base coach assists him advancing or returning to the bag. Kelly basically stood his ground and Blanco hit him as he was coming to a stop. Not clear if there was any "assisting" going on. Does that distinction matter or is Blanco out no matter what?

 

I think he did intend to affect the play. I think he was worried about Blanco blowing through the stop sign.

It should have been an out. Kelly was assisting him in returning to third.

 

That happened in an Angels-Rangers game last week and the ump did nothing. Scioscia questioned him to no avail.

 

To me it looked like Kelly got too close to third and saw Blanco coming and said something to the effect of "ah crap" and just let the contact happen because there was really no avoiding it. Then again, if the roles were reversed and that was a Dodger doing that, I might be screaming for the out to be called. He may just as easily have said I'm getting as close as possible to act as a back stop and make it look like incidental contact. To me, it looked like the play wasn't affected anyway, but still wanted to ask because I'm not sure what the rule is. Seems like no contact means no contact, but there's ambiguity in the book to allow something like Blanco into Kelly.

 

Without having read the decision itself, this sound pretty solid. He gave a rambling non-answer to a direct question. Witnesses do that sometimes. Then, apparently, he answered the question later. Just from the explanation of what happened in news accounts, I'm surprised he was ever convicted to begin with.

 

Chris Rock: 'Blacks and baseball just ain't a good match anymore' - CBSSports.com

The writer's glib/shorthand opinion on the disappearance of African-Americans from baseball, from 19 percent in 1986 to eight percent today:

"They don't need baseball, but baseball does need them..."

Discuss.

 

The fewer athletes that play football (concussions) will start to move some back to baseball - and to soccer.

 

Baseball is clearly dying.