rippleintime17

Derek's final moment in Yankee Stadium couldn't have been written any better. I thank MLB for allowing even those of us blacked out to watch his ABs and other highlights during the game last night. Would have been sad to miss it. The 90's Yankees were my intro to baseball and I still miss those guys more than I can get excited about the current ever changing roster. It was perfect and I love that it happened that way for him and all of us too, really! And in other news, Hunter Pence is awesome: http://deadspin.com/we-now-go-live-to-hunter-pences-dirty-dirty-mouth-1639410347

I would love Clayton Kershaw so much if he wasn't on a team I hate. I already can't dislike the guy and I admit I like watching him pitch, I just hate he didn't have to be so good against a team I want to win all the damn time!

I'd buy tickets to a Madison Bumgarner/Yasiel Puig cage match. Money's on Bum, too.

I actually enjoyed this episode more than the last, but that's because it had Tig capers and Nero and Wendy have some chemistry that actually make their scenes enjoyable. I hope we see more of them. The "let's just kill everyone all the time" plan is already old.

I think the issue was that the HBP was not the final pitch of the at-bat. If it happened and was ruled a swinging strike, the next AB would have begun and Fiers could have been replaced. But I'm pretty sure the pitcher can't be removed in the middle of an at-bat.

I don't think it's comparable. A drunk driver is still putting himself in a position where he is more likely to injure himself or others than he would otherwise. A pitcher is always at risk of losing control and a batter is always at risk of being on the other end of that. It's so rare for a player to be injured as severely as Giancarlo by a HBP (I think before last night, where there were TWO, it was Jason Heyward last year). Guys get their hands hit and broken a bit more often but even that is usually because a pitch is inside and not due to any kind of intent. It's a risk of being in a profession where dudes hurl objects at you at 96mph. I'm not sure what can be done to prevent it. Thoughts are going out to Giancarlo though. It really looked terrible and I hope that his injuries are the type that can heal well and not cause a lot of lingering effects. Giants first baseman Brandon Belt has been out with a concussion for over a month and a half after being hit in the face with just a thrown (not pitched) ball, so that whole area can be really wonky. And thoughts to Chase Headley too. His HBP didn't look quite as severe as Stanton's, at least he was able to sit up and walk off the field on his own, but I haven't heard if he has any fractures or long term injury from it yet.

I loved marathoning the first four seasons of this show. Back then, I couldn't wait to watch the next episode. The next two seasons were not as great but I kept up with it because I was so invested in the earlier season. I watched this premiere because I've been with the show and I might as well see how it ends, but when I had to pause it about 45 minutes in, I realized I wasn't interested enough to even finish the episode. The writing has gone so downhill that it's not even entertaining anymore. None of the Sons have personalities or side stories of their own, there isn't a hint of levity, the violence has reached a point where even the insanity of it doesn't cause me to react (oh what, they are dragging an amputee with a car? yawn. they just shot innocent people to death? of course they did). Disappointing.

I was a Yankee Stadium when they played the Braves the year of Chipper's retirement. They did have an on field ceremony for him, and gave him a gift. I think it happened pretty much everywhere.

It happened to the Giants last year. They were no-hit by Homer Bailey of the Reds, then Tim Lincecum no-hit the Padres a week or so later.

I can't remember the last time I've loved watching someone pitch as much as I do Madison Bumgarner. He doesn't get as much attention because he's in the same division as Kershaw but I kind of like that. Just quietly shows up every 5th game and deals.

That game ended up getting called over four hours after it stopped raining. Ridiculous.

It's pretty awesome that the Little League World Series has a marquee player.

Yeah, he is "on assignment". He starts to miss quite a few around this time of year what with LLWS, then his college football games he does. A busy man, and it makes sense seeing as how good he is at what he does!

I love that there are girls too! Plus, my absolute favorite broadcaster, Dave Flemming, will be calling the games for ESPN.

Yankees and Mets usually have a game a week on local network channels as well, either My9 (Yankees) or WPIX (Mets). In this case, the YES or SNY broadcast team is used but the game isn't available on either of those networks. I don't have cable of any kind in my apartment but do have a digital converter box, so enjoy being able to watch the games on those nights since I am blacked out on MLB.TV.

Seeing as he's my favorite player, I am loving the random absurdity of the Hunter Pence signs. Especially that Hunter himself is now in on it, since he is the best ever.

I'm a Giants fan and they are making not one, not two, not three but FOUR trips to the East Coast in the second half of the season. One is done but they still have three more to go, one of which involves them staying for only three games, and this is after they went to play two games against the White Sox in the first half with no visits to any surrounding teams in that time zone. Colorado being in Mountain Time does not make it an "Eastern" team, schedulers!

Interestingly, my first experience with the Farewell Tour in person was when the Yankees played the Braves and there was a ceremony for Chipper. They gave him third base (of a ballpark he hardly played at) and then he wasn't in the lineup. I thought the whole thing was bizarre and then two Yankees that I've liked my entire life of sports fandom went and did the same thing!

I definitely read Jeter in the locker room before the game started as a planned thing. Jeter sass 'Joe, we don't have time for THIS, we have a GAME to play."

I grew up a Yankee fan and while my interest in them has wanned a bit over the past few years and I've found myself more invested in my NL team, Jeter will always be a favorite. It's interesting to see the reaction of non-NYC/Yankee fans to the Jeter fest. I personally didn't love it because I know that it's not really Jeter's thing. He's always treated the media as a thing he has to do being an athlete of his level and he still seems to be humoring everyone by doing what is expected of him when he'd rather just go play and focus on baseball. I guess you could say he could have foregone the Farewell Tour but I am not even sure that was entirely his idea or something he asked for. Either way, I'll miss Derek but I won't mind next year's All-Star Game (hopefully) not having a main focus. Also, weighing on the DH thing. When a pitcher you love is slugging better than Giancarlo Stanton, has two grand slams and 12 RBIs and is a better hitter on his team than some of the position players, you are pretty okay with the DH not being a thing.