On deck
It's still snowing in New York, but major league baseball starts its regular season this Sunday night. For most teams, the schedule of real games (that count) commences the following afternoon.
Lo and behold, the Houston Astros, who will host the first night's game, are now in the American League. They'd be dreadful in any setting, but their move has significance for all fans. With 15 teams in each league, there will be at least some inter-league play more days than not.
We hear that a right-handed pitcher can no longer fake a pickoff throw to third and then wheel to throw to first. And there will be interpreters on the pitcher's mound for when managers and pitchers do not speak the same language. We are not making that up. (For pitchers from Portland, Klingon will be available.)
As best we can tell, the playoff format will be the same as last year's -- two teams in each league battling it out in a single game for a wild card berth against the top-seeded of their league's three division winners.
Vin Scully will reportedly be back calling the play-by-play for the Dodgers. Let's hope our iPhone can find him.
| Posted at 5:46 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (4)
Jack,
I had to laugh Friday right after your big announcement that you were shutting down the blog. I went outside and there was hail and what I swear were a few snowflakes coming down just for a couple of minutes. I thought, "What do we do now without the Storm Warnings from Jack Bog's Blog?"
It seems like everything has been getting stranger lately. I made a joke a week ago Friday about dead pigs in the river that supplies drinking water for Shanghai. I called the water bacon-flavored. The joke went on TV that night, and was revisited in a new form on Monday. It was aimed at the Chinese government's ridiculous statement that having thousands of dead pigs in the river would not affect the quality of the drinking water. My bacon-flavored part was repeated in the Monday version and - according to the WSJ - that clip has now gone viral in China. That's huge. I've slammed China many times but this is verification that it is actually bouncing around in their country, embarrassing their leaders. Love it.
This is what comedy is for - whether it's to point out the absurdities of city planners here in Portland, or to tweak a police state like China - there will always be a need for the rest of us to make fun of the powerful.
That is why Jack Bog's Blog will be missed.
Posted by Bill McDonald | March 25, 2013 6:55 AM
For $125, you can sign up with MLB.com and get every game (except the Mariners), including home and away broadcasts. Best $125 you'll spend all summer. All these years later, Scully is still on top of his game.
Posted by Bean | March 25, 2013 8:22 AM
If it wasn't for the exploitation of Latin American youth, MLB couldn't field more than a couple of teams.
The translators on the mound being just another example of a league using poor kids to make big bucks.
Posted by Tim | March 25, 2013 9:37 AM
K'Plah!
Posted by Jo | March 26, 2013 2:27 AM