Baseball! First blog in awhile

Hello, and welcome back to this totally not-dormant blog! This thing is as active as one of those crazy Icelandic volcanoes, amirite?

Jokes aside, [insert sob story about why I haven’t written a blog in over half a year]. But I’m back with a vengeance, and today we talk about my favorite sport to watch: baseball.

I know, you probably just clicked off this article after hearing that and thinking “what a square,” but if you see this that means you’ve remained loyal. I don’t really have any one thing I want to talk about, so why not talk about a bunch of things? Here we go…

The Home Run Derby

First off, congratulations to Pete Alonso for repeating as Derby champ, a feat last accomplished by my (former) favorite player Yoenis Cespedes. The dude absolutely mashes. But this section is less devoted to the good of the Derby and more focused on the bad. Don’t get me wrong; I love the Home Run Derby. Every year since I can remember, I’ve always pestered my dad to record it so I can make sure I don’t miss one of the dozens of dingers that fly out on those magical nights. However, the MLB has recently made a poor decision (what’s new) in regards to the format of this otherwise spectacular event, and I cannot stand idly by as that stupid clock ticks to zero.

If you couldn’t tell, I have a beef with the implementation of a timer for each round. This replaces the previous format where a batter had ten “outs” before their round ended, and an out was defined as any swing that did not result in a home run. This style was the far superior one. It allowed for a good flow to the event, as there was no premium on speed. Each homer was admired in its full beauty, and the batters did not get gassed as easily as they do nowadays (unless you’re Josh Hamilton). Now, a three-minute timer counts down as the batters swing themselves into a frenzy trying to make sure as many balls clear the wall as is possible in the short timeframe. The broadcast has a terrible time attempting to keep up and track every ball, and batters are swinging their bats like limp noodles by the end of each round. It turns the Derby from a spectacle to a frenzy of an event, something baseball has never been. But if we’re being real, the Home Run Derby really went downhill when Chris Berman stopped calling it. I wish we could go back back back back back to those days.

All Star Game Injuries/Dropouts

Okay, I wasn’t the only one surprised by all the All-Star game dropouts this year, was I? It seems like half the guys who got voted in came down with some ailment a week before the game. To provide some notable names: Jose Altuve, Buster Posey, Mookie Betts, Yadier Molina, Yu Darvish, JACOB DEGROM. I mean this is getting out of hand! Now, this is not to suggest these guys are faking it to get out of playing/flying to Denver, but it did kind of water down the experience for me. I wanted to see the Astros players get picked on!

Closing Statements

Let’s end with some quick notes on what we saw in the first half of the season. The Giants are winning the pennant, the Yankees franchise is officially over, the NL East sucks, and Tony La Russa was actually a good hire?...Anyways, as my favorite swine friend would say “That’s all folks!” See you in the next one.