First game in 4 hours!

Like a kid on Christmas.

Sucks it is against the defending champs.

I'll get to your post manupod later today or tomorrow.

1-for-2 with an opposite field double. 2 IP, 4 K, 2 BB, 1 H, 0 ER.

Opening Day starter. 3rd consecutive year.

6IP 8R 2BB 1K. We play seven and were visitors and lost 8-6 so I pitched the whole game. Hits and Earned runs are tough ones. I didn't look at the book after.

Had 3 run-scoring hits dropped in the outfield and one non-interference called when their runner ran right into our SS trying to field a routine 6-3. So instead of inning over it was 2nd and 3rd 2 out and of course I give up a hit to the next guy. Ump said after he got it wrong, thought our league had a rule that differed. We have a rule you cannot block bases/runners without the ball but not when you are going to field it. Pivotal play that would have made a huge difference in the game.

The 2 walks were to the first 2 batters. I was amped up and overthrowing. Calmed down and got into a rhythm and got a lot of ground outs the rest of the way. I had 4 1-3 put-outs and we should have had a 1-6-3 DP but the throw was high.

Batting line was 2-3, 1 2B, 1RBI, 2R. Not going to keep stealing stats. Catchers cannot stop the running game in our league. Already surpassed my XBH total from all of last year with my first AB where I put it over the CFers head.

We gave the defending champs a run for it. Had the tying run on in our last AB so a good first game overall

Good game buddy. Love that K total.

i could use you guys in my fantasy team. good job

i got a straight red card in the last minute of my mens league soccer game. lost my cool for a sec with the idiot talking tons of **** and backing into me. shouldn't have pulled him back and tripped him. if hadn't started bleeding all over i mighta gotten away with a yellow

manupod, has nothing to do with your form or anything but move the tee back away from the net. when possible try to hit long ways in the cage, much more positive and negative reinforcement when you can see the ball's path travel ~45 feet instead of 2 feet. i'll let kyleb attack the hitting form.

Cool! I still plan on loading my swings on here but have been lazy. I don't think my camera is quality enough anyway. How tall are you? Your stance is pretty upright but it looks like you get your hands through really fast. What length/weight bat is that? I used a 33/28 when I played but technically I think it was supposed to be a -3 bat league. I've got an old 34/31 at my house that I could take some swings with but it wouldn't be the same.

Not that I really saw. Every team has 1 or 2 dbs who think they should have gone pro or whatever and will hotdog things but even among separate teams it was pretty decent cameraderie.

Though I was threatened by a teammate who implied bazooka usage once through a team-wide email chain. It was so weird that my coach had the commish remove him from our team for fear of safety. I noticed some players were very successful in "the real world" and didn't take kindly to being called out about unforgivable mental mistakes. IMO, the field is a clean slate and you command respect on the field only.

Our first game was last Thurs. I'm still gun-shy with my arm after last year so all I did was DH, went 0-2 with a BB and run scored but I liked both of my AB's on the outs. The first one was a hard line out to the left field wall and the last one was a line out to 3b. We ended up winning 8-4, so it was a good start to the season.

We play again tomorrow, so hopefully I get them to fall in then.

lost so much mojo hitting from the right side in BP, will be switch hitting this season.

Has anyone here played baseball outside of Continental America?

0-1, BB, HBP. Took a low 80s fastball in the wrist. Still hurts. Had to sit out the second game of our doubleheader. Hoping I can play on Wed, but it's iffy.

1 IP, 4 Hits, 3 ER, 1 HR that was probably about 440 feet to straightaway center and I'm not sure it's come down yet. Guy swung on a 3-0 pitch up 15-0, so I should have hit the next guy I think. Last guy I faced ducked out of the way of a curve ball for a called strike three so at least I ended well. First time on a mound since 2000 so I was just happy to throw strikes.

15-0
the winning team should swing at 3-0 pitches and any pitches they can reach.

Lol, no, they shouldn't swing on 3-0.

The team that is crushing shouldn't steal or bunt or stretch out extra base hits or bases.

But my god, please swing 3-0, swing at all pitches, don't try to work the count and walks, game needs to end asap.

Nice work on the K. Yeah someone has to pay for that 3-0 swing.

Agree in theory, so it should not get to 3-0. If it does, take the pitch.

I played a pick-up game in Cuba.

I never heard of not swinging at a 3-0 pitch in this situation if its a strike.

The situation hasn't come up too much in my career, however, If I'm pitching in a game we are getting killed in and I get a 3-0, I'm happy if the guy swings. Why do I want him to take a strike and have to throw another pitch and have the game drag on?

I hear people ITT are upset about that but no one explains why. Please help me understand.

cheers.

PS: What was it like playing in Cuba? I'm in Philippines now, watched a game from their top league here, but I think I'm going to go play in Prague this summer.

i agree with you sandviper actually

swing at everything close, even on 3-0

ETA: I remember you talked about the Prague thing. Didn't you put up a thread about that? Or was that someone else here. Anyway if I was like five years younger I would totally go do that. I can probably hit low-level bad European pitching with some authority.

I think I put up a thread trying to find someone to rent my room or entire apartment in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I paid for May rent, so would be nice to have someone come in so I can leave to Prague earlier.

Playing baseball in Europe is a ton of fun, I've been playing over there for years, also nice when you can add online poker to the mix.

Yeah I checked, it was some other guy who was putting together a lol team in Poland or something. I saw the competition. Pretty sure my amateur league team could win the championship, and we only have like seven ex-college players. (Though the majority of them could have played college ball somewhere.)

My friend rediscovered his love for baseball in Switzerland. He was an 11th-12th round draft talent here in the US, smashed in a wood bat JUCO league as a catcher with a 1.9 pop time in showcase games (not some bull**** practice numbers), and quit baseball because he hated it (told scouts to not draft him). 6'4" 240 lbs with the baseball face and a great power bat and a big arm behind the plate.

Moved to Switzerland to be a walderbeiter (lumberjack), decided to play pro ball a year into it, and his team won the national championship where he hit 5 HR in the 3 game series. He says the average player in his league would be a below-average JUCO player, which is about what I am currently. Sounds like a lot of fun.

Switzerland sucks as far as baseball europe.

I never played major league, just juco and briefly independent. The best Euro league is in the Netherlands, the competition here is legit. The other leagues i've played in Sweden, Belgium, South Africa is decent, but ya, my vegas tournament team would be the best team in these leagues more often than not, exception netherlands. But then again, our vegas tournament team was all ex college and pro players.

I hear Netherlands competition is very good from friends who have played there. Most have played pro ball or very good college/indy ball and they say it's comparable to wherever they were previously (AA washouts / Northern league players at best).

Our rotation is pretty good but might actually not be the best in our league. We have two ex-Gonzaga pitchers who are both RHP and consistently in the high-80's (one just graduated and he's consistently 90, the other is two years removed from A ball and is a bit out of shape but still obv very good) and an NAIA pitcher who is consistently 81-82 with superior command of his fastball/slider and is actually our best pitcher. Hitters in our league can't always turn around 87 MPH fastballs but enough of the good ones can.

The other rotation that challenges ours would be a recent HS grad who is getting some work in before going to D-I ball after turning down bonus money in the 4th round due to a strong commitment to a Pac10 school. (You can probably guess which one since only one Pac10 school has strong commitments to academics.)

He's LHP, 6'4" and consistently 91-92 and clearly the best pitcher in the league. Their #2 is only 79-81 but has pinpoint command of three pitches, and obviously that is the most important thing against amateur hitters who have plenty of holes.

South Africa sounds like a lot of fun. I bet you have some pretty cool stories. I wish I had put some time into playing ball after college (I went to a godawful nothing D-III) but only took it seriously over the past 18 months.

Played one inning before removing myself. My hand still hurts like hell. Singled in my only at bat against a former d2 pitcher though.

www.sandvipers.com

This is the local vegas team I created and put together in 2006 and it continues when I leave the states. Thus.. being where I got my poker SN from. #23 on the Sandvipers.