Why I Love Baseball, Part 11

I was listening to the radio the other day and they were talking about the George Brett pine tar game.  What I never heard about that story was that when the league overturned the call and made the Yankees and Royals replay the end of the game, Billy Martin was so angry that he put Ron Guidry in center and Don Mattingly at second base in protest.  It was Mattingly's only appearance at second base in his career, which is not surprising considering he was left-handed.  That story and the fact that I am left-handed inspired this post.  Unlike in the other big sports, being left-handed makes a difference.  In basketball, being a lefty might give you a slight/temporary advantage because defenders are used to guarding righties.  In football, I remember Ben Graham as the Jets punter and people said his punts were harder to catch because the ball was spinning the other way (the same might be true for passes thrown by lefty quarterbacks).  And in hockey, you might want lefties taking faceoffs in the defensive zone on the left side and righties taking faceoffs in the defensive zone on the right side (to prevent drawing the puck back in the direction of the goalie), but lefties can play any position in all of those sports.  In baseball, lefties cannot play four of the nine positions.  That's a significant disadvantage, but being left-handed can also be an advantage.

Righties can play any position in baseball, but lefties can't play catcher, second base, third base, or shortstop.  Great trivia question:  Who is the last left-handed fielder to start a game at any of those positions in the Majors?  I'll give you the answer at the end of this blog post.  The last lefty to play any of those positions for more than an inning was Benny Distefano, who caught six innings over three games in 1989.  I have no memory of him.  The last lefty to play any of those positions was Mario Valdez, who pinch hit in a game and then played one inning at third base for the White Sox in 1997.  No lefty has played second base since Mattingly in 1983.  If you google "left handed shortstops," you'll find a list that is surprisingly long and it includes one of the greatest left-handed players of all time, Lou Gehrig.  So I did a little more research and the list isn't real.  Every player on that list was listed a a shortstop in the lineup, hit in the top of the first inning, and then was replaced in the field in the bottom of the first.  This blog post on left handed shortstops is great.  The last lefty to actually play shortstop was Hal Chase of the Yankees in 1909.  He played one game at short and had no fielding chances.  He was also the last lefty with a fielding chance at short.  That was in 1905.  So it's been 104 years since a lefty played shortstop in the Majors, 30 years since a lefty played second, 24 years since a lefty played catcher, and 16 years since a left played third.

Why can't lefties play these positions?  At second base, a lefty would have no chance to take the throw at second and turn the double play.  At third, I had trouble thinking of why a lefty couldn't play there.  I was thinking a lefty would struggle throwing out runners at first on grounders hit to his right.  That's true, but the best reason that a lefty can't play third is fielding the bunt.  A lefty would have no chance of throwing a guy out at first on a decent bunt.  But why can't a lefty catch or play short?  What I remember hearing as the explanation was that it's easier for a right handed catcher to throw to second on a stolen base attempt with a right-handed hitter up.  According to the article I linked about Distefano, 44% of hitters today are left-handed.  So there are plenty of times when a left-handed catcher would have the advantage throwing to second.  And I think the throw to third might be easier for a left-handed catcher with a right-handed batter up, but the lefty might have to step across his body to make that throw, so maybe not.  The article also mentioned bunts down the third base line giving a lefty catcher trouble, but I don't know about that.  A right-handed catcher has to turn his entire body to make that throw to first.  A lefty might have to approach the ball a little differently, but the throw might actually be easier for a lefty.  As for short, I think a lefty could play short.  Taking the throw at second and turning the double play would probably be easier for the lefty.  I think the biggest problem would be on grounders to the right of the shortstop.  Those plays would be definitely be difficult, but I think it would be easier for a lefty to play short than second or third.

So anyway, lefties are limited to five of the nine positions, but lefties have their advantages in baseball.  My biggest regret in my sports career is not playing baseball longer.  If you're a lefty and you can pitch or hit, you can play.  I certainly was not the best athlete, but I was probably better at baseball than anything else.  I should have kept playing.  According to this website, 10% of the general population is left-handed, but 33% of pitchers and 16% of position players are left-handed.  The article above said 44% of hitters, I assume that's based on at-bats and not necessarily players.  For example, a switch hitter is going to bat left-handed more often than right-handed.  And some right-handed fielders do bat left-handed (but aren't switch hitters), so I think all these numbers make sense.  So despite the fact that righties can play all nine positions and lefties can only play five, baseball is disproportionately left-handed.

As a lefty, I always root for lefties in baseball.  I contend that the five greatest hitters of all time were Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby, and Ty Cobb (Other contenders:  Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Jimmie Foxx, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial).  Four of those five are left-handed.  No coincidence.  When I named the starting lineup for the All-Jim Team in my comment after this blog post, my 3-6 hitters were all left-handed (Ruth, Williams, Gehrig, Griffey) and so was my starting pitcher (Sandy Koufax).  My favorite player today is Clayton Kershaw.  He probably would still be my favorite player if he was right-handed, but I like the fact that he's left-handed.

So yeah, being left-handed in baseball is awesome, even if you can't play four positions.  Back to that trivia question:  Who is the last left-handed fielder to start a game at catcher, second base, third base, or shortstop in the Majors?  The answer is the same as the last lefty to play at second base.  Don Mattingly played third base August 29-31, 1986 and started there on August 30 and 31.

Ryan Braun is a Cheater

We already knew this.  What still makes me mad is that he won the 2011 MVP over Matt Kemp.  That was the same year he tested positive for steroids and got away with it.  I'm glad the truth has finally come out.  What I want more than anything is the truth.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of players that used steroids that we'll never know about for sure.  And there were clean players that played in the steroid era that are tainted because of when they played.

Let's take one player that I've thought about a lot, Fred McGriff.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I think he was clean.  He's getting no Hall of Fame consideration, but if he was clean, he belongs in the Hall of Fame.  When he was playing, I didn't think of him as a Hall of Famer because his numbers were dwarfed by several other players.  But most of those guys were cheating.  If he hadn't played with cheaters, his 493 career home runs would jump out at you.  You know who else had 493 career home runs?  One of the greatest hitters of all time.

Major League Baseball still has a problem.  They've taken steps in the right direction.  Look at some of these numbers.  In 2001, the top ten home run hitters combined for 526 home runs (if you're checking my math, three guys tied for 10th place, so only add 41 once if you're counting just 10 players).  Last year, the top ten home run hitters combined for 396 home runs.  Baseball has harsher penalties for steroids than the other sports.  But we still have Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez.  So the problem still exists.

Unlike some of baseball's other problems, I have confidence that Major League Baseball will fix this.  I have long despised the players' union.  There were two reasons for that.  First was the 1994 strike.  Second was the way they initially reacted to the steroid crisis (pretending that there was no problem at all).  Well, we haven't had a work stoppage since the 1994 strike and the union just let Ryan Braun accept a 65 game suspension for steroids.  Skip Schumaker's reaction to Braun also gives me hope.  During the 2005 steroid hearings in Congress, you had Curt Schilling (who was there as one of the "good guys") testifying and pretending that baseball didn't have a steroid problem.  Now you have guys like Schumaker that are mad.

The penalties for steroids need to be harsher.  Besides suspending players for not enough games, there's another problem.  Ryan Braun is going to lose a couple of million dollars.  But he's still going to get $133 million over the next eight years.  I'd be fine if we went with Schumaker's suggestion of lifetime bans for first offenses.  But I have a less drastic proposal.  For a first offense, you receive a one-year suspension and your contract is no longer guaranteed (cut to the Yankees' front office enthusiastically endorsing my plan without hearing the rest of it).  For a second offense, you receive a two-year suspension.  For a third offense, you are banned for life.  I doubt we'd ever get to strike three.  If you were caught using steroids twice, you'd miss a total of three years of baseball.  I don't think any team would want a player that was caught cheating twice and had missed three years of baseball.  Besides getting cheaters out of the game, they would also lose the financial rewards (possibly hundreds of millions of dollars) they got for their cheating.

Ryan Braun is a cheater and a liar.  He was caught.  That's good.  There's still work to be done.  Alex Rodriguez, you're on deck.

Canterbury

My last two days in England were spent in Canterbury.  I didn't do too much other than wedding-related stuff.  But I did get to Canterbury Cathedral.

Built in the 11th century, visited by Jim in the 21st century

Canterbury Cathedral is an Anglican church, but it was where St. Thomas Becket was martyred by King Henry II's knights in 1170.  More evidence of how terrible the English monarchy has been.  Thomas Becket is considered a saint by both Catholics and Anglicans.  Apparently Anglicans don't see the very obvious parallels between Thomas Becket/Henry II and Thomas More/Henry VIII.

This is where St. Thomas Becket was martyred.

There was a shrine for Thomas Becket in the cathedral until 1538.  What happened to it?  Henry VIII ordered it to be destroyed.  The lesson, as always:  Henry VIII was terrible.  While the Thomases are just two of many Catholics martyred at the hands of the English monarchy, the Catholic Church is surprisingly strong in England.  Because of Henry VIII, all the old churches in England are now Anglican (also why St. Patrick's in Dublin is Anglican), but it's nice to see the Catholic Church doing well.  I was able to find Catholic churches easily in both London and Canterbury and get to masses on the Sunday I arrived in England and the Sunday I left England.

The candle marks where the shrine of St. Thomas Becket was until Henry VIII had it destroyed.

Rehearsal dinners apparently aren't a thing in England, but Pete's parents hosted something the night before the wedding.  I met Katie's parents there.  Katie's father insisted on being called by his first name and said that Americans are so formal.  I definitely didn't think of Americans as being more formal than the Brits, but whatever.  Katie's father was a big soccer fan so we talked about that a little bit.

That's Katie's father's hand between Pete and me.

I'm not going to go into all the details of the wedding, but it was amazing.  The reception was at a castle overlooking the English Channel.  When we got there, they were serving Pimms.  So I missed out on Pimms at Wimbledon, but I got to drink some at the reception.  It was pretty good.  Katie's father had arranged for fireworks when it got dark around 10:00.  It was two days after the Fourth of July and it was awesome.  The Americans sang the Star Spangled Banner.  As I said when I went to the Notre Dame game in Dublin, there's nothing quite like belting out your national anthem in a foreign country.  Between the fireworks and the Star Spangled Banner, I teared up a little bit.  And after that we came back inside and there were hot dogs and hamburgers.  There were lots of awesome things about the wedding, but the fireworks and American cuisine were two of my favorite things.

Fireworks at the wedding were an awesome touch.

The next day I got up early, went to mass, and then I came home.  It was good to be back in the United States.  England and Ireland are the only foreign countries I've visited so far.  Both were great.  I don't rule out going back someday, but I won't be disappointed if I don't.  There are rumors that Notre Dame will be playing in Ireland again soon.  If it was in the 20s (weird to say the 20s and not be talking about the 1920s), I'd probably want to go.  But it sounds like it's going to be in the next five years, so I probably won't be going.  So what's the next country I'll get to?  The overwhelming favorite is Canada to get to the SkyDome (you most likely know it as Rogers Centre, but it will always be SkyDome to me).  The only other countries I really want to get to are Australia, Italy, and the Vatican City.  Whenever I get to those countries, I'll make sure it won't be on the Fourth of July.  God Bless America!

Fourth of July in London

The Fourth of July was my last day in London before heading off to Canterbury for the wedding.  I really wanted to be home on the Fourth of July, but that wasn't going to happen so I was determined to make it as American a day as possible.

The first thing I did was go to the American Embassy.  It was a pretty big building and it was all fenced off.  I went there because they have a little park outside with some things I wanted to see.  The first thing I came across was the statue of Ronald Reagan.  Reagan is certainly a popular president, but I don't think he's been given the credit that he really deserves for winning the Cold War.  Mikhail Gorbachev has been given way too much credit.  Gorbachev was trying to save the communist empire.  He failed.  Ronald Reagan was trying to win the Cold War.  He succeeded.  He's a hero for the Eastern Europeans who live in freedom because of Ronald Reagan's leadership.  There were four great heroes of the Cold War:  Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher, and Rocky Balboa.  Reagan was the greatest of the Cold War heroes (I have John Paul II ahead of Reagan on my list of heroes because his heroism goes way beyond the Cold War, but if we're limiting the discussion to the Cold War, Reagan comes first).

He won the Cold War and he was a great friend of Great Britain.

Below the statue was a plaque with quotes from Reagan, Thatcher, Gorbachev, John Paul II, and Lech Walesa.  There was also a piece of the Berlin Wall.  I wish the Berlin Wall had fallen while Reagan was still president (it was 10 months into George H.W. Bush's presidency).  Lots of people point to that as the end of the Cold War.  I understand why people would point to that as the end of the Cold War, but I think it ended on May 31, 1988.  On that day, Reagan made a speech at Moscow State University talking about how great freedom is.  Here's my favorite quote from that speech:  "Freedom is the recognition that no single person, no single authority or government has a monopoly on the truth, but that every individual life is infinitely precious, that every one of us put on this world has been put there for a reason and has something to offer."  If the Soviet Union was letting the President of the United States say that at Moscow State University, the Cold War was over.

I don't know if you can read it, but my favorite quote was from Lech Walesa:  "We owe him our liberty.  This can't be said often enough by people who lived under oppression for half a century, until communism fell in 1989."

The last quote on the plaque was from Reagan:  "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate.  Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."  Below that quote from 1987 was this:

A piece of the Berlin Wall.

Besides the Reagan statue, there was also a statue of Franklin Roosevelt.  Plenty of folks would rank Franklin Roosevelt as one of the greatest presidents of all time.  I'm not one of those people, but his statue in London is well-deserved.

Another American president that was a great friend of Great Britain.

Besides the statues of the presidents, there was a memorial for the 244 Americans who flew in the Royal Air Force before the United States entered World War II and there was also a September 11 memorial.  There's nothing exciting about the embassy, but it's worth going to if you're an American in London to see all this stuff in the park outside the embassy.  By the way, they're moving the embassy soon.  I don't know if all the stuff in the park is moving with it.  All that stuff should be right outside the US Embassy.

World War II memorial

September 11 memorial

As I was walking around the park outside the US Embassy, the Madison Rising Star Spangled Banner came on my iPhone.  I teared up a little.  If you haven't seen it, click on the link.  I'm usually opposed to adding flair to the Star Spangled Banner because it draws unnecessary attention to the performer, but you can tell that the flair they added to their version isn't about them, it's about how awesome the United States of America is.

This was on top of the American Embassy.  It was great to see this on the Fourth of July.

I still had one more president to see.  I made my way to the National Gallery and found this:

The Greatest American to ever live

The statue of George Washington was given to the people of Great Britain and Ireland by the Commonwealth of Virginia.  I likened it to the Boston Celtics giving the city of Los Angeles a 2008 NBA Championship ring.  Washington was a loyal servant to the king ... and then he beat the British in a war and changed the world forever.  This man deserves statues all over the place.  Unlike the kings and queens of England, he wasn't born into greatness, he achieved greatness.

After a quick visit to the National Gallery (it was free, they had some good religious art), I went to find the statue of King George III to mutter obscenities at it under my breath.  While doing that, I had a thought.  If not for George's tyranny, the Declaration of Independence would not have been written in 1776.  Perhaps the United States never would have become the greatest nation in the history of the world.  Perhaps we would have rebelled later, but it might have been up to a lesser generation than the one of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams to try to create our country.  So Americans today can be thankful that George III was so terrible.  Things might not have turned out so well if he hadn't been a tyrant.

I cut off the top of George III's head.  I'm not too upset about it.

The last thing I really wanted to do was drink a Sam Adams.  Googling "Sam Adams beer London" did not turn up much useful information.  So I asked my cousin Kevin (he spent a semester in London when he was at ND) for a recommendation for an American bar for the Fourth of July.  He gave me Bodean's BBQ.  I went to the Tower Hill location.  It was exactly what I wanted on the Fourth of July.  I drank Sam Adams and had New England clam chowder.  It was great.  Thanks, Kevin.

It tasted like freedom.

At night I went to an American beer festival.  It was crowded and it was nice to hear lots of people with American accents.  The only disappointment was not having any Sam Adams beers.  I had a Brooklyn Summer Ale and a Brooklyn Brown Ale.

The stars should be in the upper left, not upper right.

It was as good as the Fourth of July could be considering I was out of the country.  The only thing missing was the fireworks.

England Days 3 and 4

I meant to preface my first blog post about England by saying that I had a really good time there.  I might make fun of the Brits a little bit, but nothing I say should be interpreted as me being anti-British.  I'm anti-royalty and anti-British spelling and I think the United States is the greatest country in the world, but I'm not anti-British.  Britain is America's most important ally, so I do appreciate them very much.  With that out of the way, let's get to my third and fourth days in England.

Pete's bachelor party was on Tuesday night, so I had the day to myself and then the night was devoted to that.  I had three things I wanted to do.  The first thing I wanted to do was find Notre Dame in London.  There wasn't anything to do there, but I wanted to see it.  It was just a building that blended in with the rest of the city, but I found it.

Seeing this put a smile on my face.

Then I wanted to go to the world's most famous prison, the Tower of London.  I took a tour guided by a Yeoman Warder.  I don't remember what you have to do to be a Yeoman Warder, but I think one of the qualifications was serving 22 years in the military.  They do wear ridiculous outfits, but the tour guide I had was very funny.  The tour strengthened my opposition to British royalty.  Henry VIII might have been the worst of all.  Thomas More was imprisoned at the Tower of London before being put to death.  Two of Henry VIII's wives (Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard) were imprisoned there before being executed.  And the tour guide told the story of how there was a cardinal who was speaking out against Henry VIII.  Henry couldn't get his hands on the cardinal, so he had the cardinal's mother executed.    And then there's George III.  Why do people care about the royal family?  I get that if you're British, you just grow up with it and there's no escaping it.  But why does anybody else care?  I'm no fan of the French, but at least they figured out that having a monarch is really really silly.

This guy might have been wearing a ridiculous outfit, but he was funny.

Anyway, after the tour, you can walk around and see lots of stuff at the tower.  Everybody wants to see the crown jewels.  Although I'm opposed to the monarchy, I would have seen them just to say that I saw them.  But there was a long line.  And I wasn't waiting on a long line to see something associated with British royalty.

I didn't fully appreciate just how terrible Henry VIII was until I visited the Tower of London.

After that, I wanted to go to Benjamin Franklin's house.  I went and found out that it wasn't open to the public on Tuesdays.  I think I had seen that on the website, but I just wasn't thinking about days of the week (I've really lost track of days of the week this summer).  So I ended up just walking around for a little bit.  I came across this really cool Battle of Britain memorial:

The world owes the British for winning this battle.

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

Pete's bachelor party was at night.  It was part 2 of his bachelor party.  The first part was just him and a few friends in Germany for a couple of nights.  He had just gotten back from Germany and he was still recovering, so this party was fairly laid back.  But it was a good time eating and drinking.  One of my favorite parts was one of Pete's British friends saying, "You know what the best thing about America is?  The best thing about America is freedom!"  I liked that guy.

Pete and me at a pub in London.

After Pete's bachelor party, I had no interest in waking up early the next day.  I didn't set an alarm and I stayed in bed until about noon.  That day was going to be my second attempt at seeing Benjamin Franklin's house.  They have actors there and put on little shows at different times.  So while I was waiting for one to start at 3:15, I took a walk to Buckingham Palace.

I already used this joke on Facebook, but it's pretty cool that they built this palace and named it after Deandre Cole's best friend.

I probably should have saved Benjamin Franklin's house for the Fourth of July (the following day), but I had a feeling it was going to be crowded that day.  So I went there on July 3.  Franklin lived in that house for 16 years before the Revolution.  He lived there until 1775.  It's crazy to think he was living there so close to the Revolution.  The house was essentially the first American embassy in London.  It's the only house in the world that Franklin lived in that's still standing.  Most of the stuff from when Franklin lived there doesn't exist anymore and they didn't replace it, so it's pretty empty.  But it was a cool experience.  And I didn't know much about Franklin's time in London, so it was cool to learn about that.

36 Craven Street

Franklin pretty much lived in two rooms and this was one of the few pieces of furniture in those rooms.

Following Franklin's house, I went to the Science Museum on the recommendation of Pete's British friend who loved America.  It was free and there was some cool stuff on space.  I didn't stay too long because it was closing at 6:30.  I actually ended up going back the next day.

USA! USA! USA!

I finished up the day by watching some Wimbledon and having dinner at a pub near my hotel.  I usually bought sandwiches at a place near my hotel to save money (they were pretty good and much cheaper than going out to eat), but I was in the mood for a legit London pub meal and some cask ale.  Cask ales are served at room temperature.  I only had one pint (I didn't want to drink too much after Pete's bachelor party the night before), but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.  Good, but it was no Sam Adams Summer Ale.

I only had one more day in London and that was the Fourth of July, my favorite American holiday.  More on that later.

All Star Game Diary

I have few rules in life, but one of them is this:  Any time the All Star Game is happening less than 50 miles from where I live and I can't go because the cheapest tickets were over $300 on Stubhub, I have to keep a running diary.  I have pretty low expectations for this All Star Game.  Hopefully I'll be wrong.  Here's what transpired:

8:06- Candice Glover finishes the national anthem.  Solid job.

8:09- Joe Buck is talking.  Tim McCarver is doing his last All Star Game for Fox.  Can he take Joe Buck with him?

8:10- Tom Seaver is wearing a hideous orange National League jersey to throw out the first pitch.  I'm all for Tom Seaver throwing out the first pitch, but he should but wearing a Mets jersey.

8:12- Fox shows Seaver's pitch from a terrible camera angle.  The pitch would have been down and away from a right handed batter.  It was respectable, but certainly not as good as this.

8:16- They show Torii Hunter in the clubhouse before the game.  I'm looking forward to his son playing football at Notre Dame.  They also show Mariano Rivera speaking in the clubhouse.  More on him later.

8:19- The game finally starts.  This game should start no later than 7:40.  Mike Trout doubles on the first pitch against Matt Harvey.  As good as Harvey has been this year, Clayton Kershaw has been better.  But the game is at Citi Field, so whatever.

8:21- Harvey hits Robinson Cano right on the knee.  That's not good.  If this wasn't the All Star Game, that would definitely merit retaliation.

8:23- Miguel Cabrera has 95 RBIs already?  He's hitting .365 with 30 home runs?  Wow.

8:25- Down goes Miguel Cabrera on strikes.  Robinson Cano is leaving the game for Dustin Pedroia.  I'm going to excuse Jim Leyland for this early substitution.  I hope Cano is okay.

8:29- After getting Chris Davis to fly out, Harvey gets Jose Bautista swinging.  He better come back for the second inning.

8:32- Max Scherzer has two different color eyes and he's starting for the American League.  Brandon Phillips is leading off for the National League.

8:34- Chris Sale is warming up in the bullpen for the AL.  Why?

8:36- Quick inning for Scherzer.

8:39- Harvey is back out for the second inning.  Good.  I just looked up the box score for the first All Star Game of my life.  There were ten pitchers used in the game.  Between the two teams.  Dave Winfield, Ryne Sandberg, Dale Murphy, and Ozzie Smith played the entire game.

8:42- Erin Andrews just interviewed Tom Seaver.  So I just looked up the 1967 All Star Game, which was finished by Tom Seaver.  The game went 15 innings and the AL used five pitchers.  There were ten players that played the entire game.

8:45- Harvey finishes a second scoreless inning.  He's probably done.  I would like for him to pitch another inning, but I can live with two.  The problem is that everybody else is only going to go one inning.

8:48- Chris Sale is in to start the second inning for the AL.  That's ridiculous.  Max Scherzer threw 12 pitches.  He could go another inning.

8:49- Erin Andrews is on TV again.  It doesn't really matter who she's talking to.

8:51- I wasn't sure what the first All Star Game that I remembered was, but I checked baseball-reference.com and it was definitely the 1991 All Star Game.  I remember an All Star Game in the SkyDome, but I don't remember the 1990 All Star Game at Wrigley Field.  The nonsense had already started by 1991.  Only two players played the whole game (future New York Mets legends Bobby Bonilla and Roberto Alomar) and 14 pitchers were used.

8:52- I chuckle at the thought of Bobby Bonilla being on the Mets' payroll until 2035.  No, really, I'm not joking.

8:55- The best left handed pitcher in baseball is in the game.

8:59- X-rays were negative on Robinson Cano.  Here's George Costanza's reaction.

9:01- 1-2-3 inning for Kershaw.  One Bugs Bunny curveball that was fouled off by Pedroia.  He's had that pitch since he came up, but he had been throwing more sliders the last couple of years.  This year it seems like he's gone back to the curve a little bit more.

9:04- Jim Leyland sends Chris Sale back out for another inning.  His arm is probably going to fall off after the game.

9:08- Ken Rosenthal interviews Robinson Cano and tells him he's the one Yankee that can't get hurt.  But it's going to be okay, Alex Rodriguez is coming back soon.

9:09- Sorry, Yankee fans.  That was mean.  We can all agree that Alex Rodriguez just needs to go away.

9:10- They show a shorter version of this commercial featuring the Phillie Phanatic and the best mascot in baseball, Mr. Met.  Really good.

9:13- Patrick Corbin is in for the National League.  The good news is Clayton Kershaw won't get hurt.  The bad news is Clayton Kershaw is out of the game.

9:14- Miguel Cabrera leads off with a double.  This is what happens when you take Kershaw out.

9:15- Chris Davis is up.  I really want him to hit 74 home runs.  Obviously that won't happen.  But he's right, we just need to agree that the real home run record is 61.

9:18- Sacrifice fly by Jose Bautista to give the AL a 1-0 lead.  This is what happens when you take Kershaw out.

9:19- Joe Buck says Jim Leyland is managing to win this game.  We'll see.

9:21- I just went through Paul Pierce's #THANKYOUBOSTON album on Facebook and liked all 44 pictures.  Lots of good pictures, but this was probably my favorite:

Thank you, Paul Pierce.

9:23- Vin Scully is talking about the Golden Age of New York Baseball (1947-1958).  Yes!  I wish Vin was calling this game instead of Joe Buck.  I know that's not going to happen (Vin doesn't travel east of Denver anymore), but let's find somebody better than Joe Buck.  Shouldn't be too difficult.

9:25- They're talking about how long it would take to ride the subway between the old stadiums in New York.  I wish I could travel back in time to the 1950s and go to baseball games at Ebbets Field, old Yankee Stadium (as in pre-renovation Yankee Stadium), and the Polo Grounds.

9:27- Andrew McCutchen pinch runs for Carlos Beltran and steals second.  Why are starters coming out of the game in the fourth inning?  And Felix Hernandez is pitching, but I'll give Chris Sale credit for going two and putting up an astronomical pitch count.  Those 24 pitches might ruin the rest of his career.

9:30- David Wright grounds out to end the inning with a runner at third.  The AL still leads 1-0.

9:38- With runners on the corners for the AL, a fan ran out on the field.  I tried to find the Seinfeld clip of George in the bodysuit on the phone with Jerry after running onto the field in Yankee Stadium, but I couldn't find it on Youtube.

9:40- J.J. Hardy grounds into a fielder's choice to give the AL a 2-0 lead.

9:52- The NL has made a bunch of changes.  We're more than halfway through the game now, so I can live with this.  The AL still hasn't taken out any position player other than Cano.  As Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo might say, excellent job out of Jim Leyland in that scenario.

9:53- They're interviewing Jason Grilli.  It's nice that's the Pirates are having a good season and he's doing well, but I don't really care about this.

10:01- Grant Balfour is pitching for the AL.  I'm excited that an Aussie's in, but come on, Matt Moore threw nine pitches.  He should pitch another inning.

10:02- Balfour walks Michael Cuddyer on four pitches.

10:08- After a bad start, Balfour gets out of the inning without any further trouble.

10:11- It's the Midsummer Classic, I have to drink a Summer Ale.

10:12- Aroldis Chapman is in for the NL.  I saw him hit 104 on the radar gun on Friday night in Atlanta.

10:15- Chapman just got a double play, but he's only throwing mid to high 90s right now.  Is he okay?

10:17- There we go, 101.  Adam Jones just struck out to end the top of the seventh.  He started the game.  Leyland has let his starters play.

10:24- Nice play by Manny Machado to throw out Paul Goldschmidt leading off the inning.

10:25- Mike Trout, David Wright, and Michael Cuddyer are the only starters still in the game.

10:26- Speaking of David Wright, he just singled for the second hit of the game for the NL.

10:27- Greg Holland is coming out after pitching a third of an inning.  Leyland has done a good job with the position players, but his use of his pitchers has been pretty ridiculous.

10:29- Big shift on for the left handed hitting Dominic Brown.  Come on, Dominic, get the tying run on base.  Lay down a bunt down that third base line.

10:30- Nope.  Dominic Brown goes down on strikes and Jim Leyland makes another pitching change.

10:34- Buster Posey strikes out to end the inning.  I'm rooting for the NL, but it's hard not to enjoy Buster Posey striking out.

10:39- Mariano Rivera might come in for the 8th inning because Leyland is worried about the NL taking the lead in the 8th and then not having to hit in the 9th.  Come on AL, score some runs.  Rivera should pitch the 9th.

10:44- RBI double for Jason Kipnis.  Can we get Rivera in the 9th please?

10:46- We're going to the bottom of the 8th.  It looks like Rivera is coming in.  This is wrong.  Rivera should finish the game.  Neil Diamond, the greatest songwriter/performer of this or any generation, is singing Sweet Caroline.  That's extra time for somebody else to warm up.  Come on, Leyland.

10:51- Nuts.  The greatest baseball player I have ever seen is taking the mound one inning too early.  Great reception for Rivera from the other players and the fans.  There have been so many things wrong with baseball for the last 25 years.  Mariano Rivera has been one of the things that was good about baseball.  Great pitcher, great person.  Baseball won't be the same without him.

10:56- Jean Segura grounds out for Rivera's first out.

10:58- Allen Craig lines out.

11:01- Carlos Gomez grounds out to end the inning.  Game over, right?  No, it's not?  In my mind it is.  I'm ending the diary here.  The American League wins 3-0.  Mariano Rivera gets the save.  That's the way it should end.

Wimbledon

All this traveling has cut into my blogging time.  And I have a lot of blogging to do.  It was two weeks ago now that I went to Wimbledon.  That was only the second day of my England trip.  So I have to finish that trip and I have three new baseball stadiums that I visited to blog about.  Let's start with my second day in England, my day at Wimbledon.

I got up early on Monday to go to Wimbledon.  I'm certainly not much of a tennis fan, but I always liked Wimbledon.  Pete Sampras, start of summer, and I like sports played on grass.  In The Ultimate Top-Ten Rankings of the Best in Sports, Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo ranked Wimbledon number 7 on his list of the Top-Ten Sports Venues of All Time.  (By the way, I have the book signed by both Mad Dog and Mike Francesa.  I miss Mike and the Mad Dog.  I can't believe it's been five years.)  With this Wimbledon trip, I've now been to six of his top ten venues:  Oriole Park (number 9), Wimbledon, Fenway Park (number 6), Notre Dame Stadium (number 4), Madison Square Garden (number 3), and old Yankee Stadium (number 1).  In case you're wondering, the ones I haven't been to are Cameron Indoor Stadium (number 10), the Orange Bowl (number 8), Augusta National (number 5), and Lambeau Field (number 2).  Cameron Indoor would be great.  Maybe I'll get there for a Notre Dame-Duke game now that we're in the ACC.  I'm too late on the Orange Bowl, but maybe I'll get to the Rose Bowl someday.  I would go to Augusta National if I was in the area at the same time the Masters was going on (like I did for Wimbledon, although getting to Wimbledon was much higher on my list than getting to the Masters).  And Lambeau Field is the only NFL stadium that I would make a point of going to.  I'll have to go some season when the Packers have a home game the day before Columbus Day (they're in Baltimore this year).

Me at Court 18

Anyway, I did some research on tickets.  The prices on Stubhub were outrageously high.  So I went to find out if I could just get tickets from Ticketmaster or something.  Nope.  Apparently there's some kind of lottery system (they call it a ballot).  But the good news is you can get tickets the day of the event by getting on the queue.  You just have to get there really early if you want to be in when the matches start at 11:30.  They sell tickets for Centre Court, Court 1, Court 2, and grounds passes.  The prices vary by day and I went on the most expensive day.  Centre Court is the most expensive and grounds passes are the cheapest.  With a grounds pass, you can walk around and get into all the courts except for Centre Court, Court 1, and Court 2.  People camp out overnight to be at the beginning of the queue get tickets for Centre Court or Court 1.

The queue at Wimbledon

I got on the queue a little before 7:00 in the morning.  It reminded me a little bit of waiting to get in at Boardy Barn, but with less drinking.  They don't let anybody in until 10:30 (I think), so I didn't move for a while.  But I enjoyed it.  It was relaxing to sit in the grass with great weather and just listen to music and read.  Eventually, I bought a grounds pass for 20 pounds and got in a little before noon.  I got to see about seven hours of tennis for 20 pounds.  Not bad.  When I got in, I walked around for a little bit.  I didn't really know where to go, so I just walked around and watched parts of matches where there was room to stand near one of the smaller courts.  After doing that for about 45 minutes, I got fish and chips for lunch.  Then I made my way to Court 18.  If you ever go to Wimbledon and get a grounds pass, I strongly recommend going to Court 18.  After the three biggest courts, the next big courts are Court 3, Court 12, Court 14, and Court 18.  So you can get some good matches on any of those courts.  The good thing about Court 18 is that there's plenty of room to stand.  So you can wait on the queue for Court 3, 12, 14, or wherever else or you can stand and watch at Court 18.  So I watched the end of one match at Court 18.  As I was about to leave, they announced that the next match was going to be Sloane Stephens and Monica Puig.  I knew Sloane Stephens was American, so I decided to stay (I found out later that Puig is Puerto Rican).  I stood for the first set, which Puig won.  Then I sat down and Stephens won the next two sets to win the match.

Sloane Stephens vs. Monica Puig

After that, I had a Magners, but apparently  I missed out on Pimms (alcohol and lemonade), which is a big thing at Wimbledon.  Then I went to Court 3 and watched a mixed doubles match.  I had to wait about 20 minutes to get in, but then one match ended and a lot of people left.  I was rooting for the two Brits in the match I saw, but they lost in three sets.  Then I went to Court 12 and watched the first set of another mixed doubles match.  After that, I walked around for a little bit and then I was ready to leave.  I had been there for over 12 hours and spent about 7 of those hours watching tennis.

Mixed doubles on Court 3

It was definitely worth going to Wimbledon.  I enjoyed it, but I have a couple of suggestions for making it better (I'm sure big tennis fans will probably hate these suggestions).  First, what's the deal with the scoring for the games?  I understand how it works, but it makes no sense.  It should just be that each game is played to four (instead of this 15, 30, 40, game nonsense) and you have to win by two.  Second, I just find the whole atmosphere weird.  For example, I think there was some home court advantage for Andy Murray, but it should be a much bigger home court advantage.  None of this polite applauding when Murray's opponent gets a point.  They should boo whoever Andy Murray is playing.  And why does it have to be so quiet when they're playing?  When Andy Murray's opponent is serving, fans should go nuts like when the road team is on offense in a college football game.

Anyway, I probably won't ever get to Wimbledon again, but if I ever go to England again, I would definitely try to schedule that trip so that I could get back to Wimbledon.  If it's the only time I ever get to Wimbledon, it was fun.  I might have to go to the US Open at the end of the summer to compare.

England Day 1

I arrived at Heathrow around 8:00 in the morning last Sunday.  I got to my hotel around 10:00.  I didn't sleep much on the flight, so that was all I wanted to do, but I couldn't get into my room until 2:00.  So the first thing I did was go to mass.  There was a Catholic Church a half mile from my hotel.  I was surprised by how well attended it was.  More thoughts on the Catholic Church in England later.

Our Lady Queen of Victories in London

After mass, I went to the Churchill War Rooms.  I think I've written about my love for Churchill before.  He might be the greatest political hero of all time.  I'm excluding somebody like John Paul II (more religious than political) so it's Churchill or an American for me.  The Revolution had plenty of heroes.  The greatest is Washington of course, but I see him as more of a military hero than a political hero (he was both, but I admire him most for leading the Continental Army during the war).  Next is Lincoln.  I have Lincoln as the greatest American political hero ever, but his heroism is pretty much limited to the US.  The next one is Franklin Roosevelt, but you can't put him ahead of Churchill.  You just can't.  If you like his domestic policies, Roosevelt is going to be at or near the top of your list of American heroes, but Churchill is the greatest political hero of World War II.  The last American political hero is Ronald Reagan.  He's the greatest hero of the Cold War.  Reagan was significant (more on that later), but I'm giving the nod to Churchill.  The Soviet Union was an Evil Empire, but they never attacked us like Germany attacked the British.  It's a miracle that Britain survived and Churchill is the biggest reason for that.  Churchill's resolve was incredible.  I've said it before, but if not for the British after the French surrendered, it might have been too late for the Americans to save the day.  If the roles had been reversed between Britain and France and Germany had defeated Britain first before turning their attention to the French, the French would have surrendered in about five minutes and Europe would have been controlled by Hitler and Stalin.  Thank God for Churchill and the Brits.  America has been attacked before, but I can't imagine anything like the Battle of Britain.

The world will forever owe a debt of gratitude to Winston Churchill.

Anyway, it was amazing to be in the war rooms underground where Churchill ran the government during the war.  Of course the US was in the war, but it didn't take place in the US, with the obvious exception of Pearl Harbor.  Besides the war rooms, there was also a Churchill Museum.  Lots of good stuff in there.  There was a video that showed his travels during the war. He traveled over 100,000 miles.  I sat down to watch the video and started nodding off, but I got up and powered through.  There are lots of things about Churchill that I love, but one of my favorite things about him is that he's an honorary citizen of the United States.  Here's the list of honorary US citizens:  Winston Churchill, Raoul Wallenberg (google him), William Penn, Hannah Callowhill Penn, Mother Teresa, the Marquis de La Fayette, and Casimir Pulaski.  Pretty awesome list.

Churchill's honorary passport

I didn't have anything else planned for the day and I was tired.  But when I left the war rooms, I heard somebody say that we were right by where they did beach volleyball during the Olympics.  I checked that out and then just kept walking around.  I passed 10 Downing Street, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and lots of statues.  The two statues that I saw that day that I particularly liked were Abraham Lincoln (I don't have an explanation for a Lincoln statue in London) and Winston Churchill.

The greatest president of the United States.  In London.

Parliament

After a good deal of walking, I took the tube back to my hotel.  I was done.  The lack of sleep and the time change did a number on me, but it was still a really good day.  Passing out early that night wasn't a bad thing as I set my alarm for 5:18 the next morning.  I was originally going to set it for 5:15, but I wanted the extra three minutes of sleep. So I was planning on waking up for Monday at 12:18 in the morning east coast time.  I'll explain why in my next post.