January 2009

Ballpark website and news

So I was surfing the net the other night looking at some old ballparks and I stumbled across a very cool website everyone should check out. 

http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball/index.html

It gives you a history of each stadium along with pictures and my favorite feature: the ability to see how the demensions of each park have changed over the years.  Ebbets Field for example had unbelieveable demensions when it opened in 1913.  It was an astounding 503 ft from home plate to the deepest point of the park in center field and 419 feet to the left field foul pole.  For someone who has been around today’s home run happy parks, it can be hard to fathom a park that big.  By the time Ebbets Field saw its last change in 1948, it was a very small ballpark, even by today’s standards, with the farthest point 393 ft. from home plate to center field and the closest 297 ft. at the right field foul pole.

 

In other ballpark news, the Marlins have released photos of the stadium they hope to build in Miami.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/874452.html

Personally, I don’t care for the look of the stadium at all, but it is better than playing in a football stadium.  My biggest problem with it is the location.  It’s supposed to be located on the site of the recently demolished Orange Bowl Stadium in Little Havana.  I had the chance to attend a football game there and lets just say it’s not the best part of town.  Had the game been at night there’s no way I would’ve felt safe there.  Now I’m sure that they are hoping this project will shape the neighborhood into something nice, but I think it’s an unrealistic expectation.  The Marlins already have enough problems with attendance, the last thing they need is something that drives away even more folks. 

posted by Jacob

 

 

 

 

11 Days, 20 Hours

Stephen here.  11 days and 20 hours before Pitchers and Catchers report to spring training.  I’ll be honest, the lull in baseball and end of college football has caused me to watch sports I’ve never spent much time in.  I watched some of the Australian Open the other day.  Congrats to Serena Williams, by the way.  I’ve also been tuning in to some NBA and College basketball.  Something I never do until March.  (As far as the NBA goes, something I haven’t done since… the mid 90′s).  Still, none of these comes close to baseball for me.  Not even the NFL (Cardinals by 3).  Needless to say, I’m pumped for a new season of baseball.  

One of the things I love about spring training is that you get to see players maybe you won’t see for a long, long time.  Many guys you’ll never see in a big league uniform.  You also get to see your team go up against teams they would never face outside of inter-league play (which I hate) or the World Series.  It seems like the Reds are playing either Boston, Tampa Bay, Minnesota, or the Yankees every other day.  If you’re fortunate enough to be able to make a Spring Training game in person (I’ve been to three), you’ll soon discover the other facets of it that make it great.  For one thing, there’s no better time to be in Florida than Spring.  The weather sucks up north and it’s perfect there, you pay $10 for seats you could only inherit during the regular season, and you get to personally scout the rising stars in your organization.  It’s fantastic and I wish I could make it to Sarasota this year.
It’s also a great time for another of my favorite hobbies.  Autographs. 
I know it seems childish to some and lame to others, but I love it.  I always have.  I love sports memorabilia and I getting signatures in person is WAY better than through eBay or buying it through some other means. 
That brings me to my final bit.  Like I said before, I’m into signatures.  Today, I got my first “through-the-mail” success.  And it was from none other than Brandon Phillips.  He signed a card I sent last week and I was (forgive me for using the word “pumped” again) pumped!  Lame or not, I’m a huge BP fan and an even bigger Reds fan, so this was great.  I’ll try to keep you filled in on my future big successes in the autograph department.  Signatures in person are much better, I know.  But through the mail has to be next.  
Anyway, that’s all I have for now.  Not much baseball talk yet, per se, but once the season really gears up, we’ll try to cover it like we know how to do.
Here’s a link to my signature.  I tried to upload it neatly straight into the post, but it was abnormally large.  I’m not too computer savvy, so until I figure out how to knock down the image sizes of my own pictures, I’ll just have to settle with this.  

Hi

Hi, This is Jacob, the aforementioned Cubs fan. Like Stephen said, don’t fear if you’re not a Cubs or Reds fan.  We really have a broad range of topics to comment on when it comes to baseball.  However, my first post has to have a Cubs tidbit.  It appears that the first shot of the 2009 Cubs-Cardinals rivalry has been fired by some clever Cardinals fans.  I would’ve never thought Cardinals fans could be this clever…

01cubssuck03.jpg

Welcome to Extra Innings & Runs!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to the spanking new blog Extra Innings and Runs.  My name is Stephen and I’ll be writing on here, sharing time with my friend, and Cubs fan, Jacob.  I’m actually a die-hard Reds fan, so we thought we might be able to provide an interesting twist on the game as we see it.  Most of the time we’ll be focusing on the NL Central, particularly the two aforementioned clubs.  But we will also weigh in on other NL Central teams and the all the other Major League Baseball organizations.  Also, we will both mention a lot about uniforms and stadiums, because they are cool and they make baseball fun.  We not only enjoy the physical and lively aspects of the game, but also the aesthetic facets, too.  
We’re not sure how many people will actually read the crap we spout off, but we hope those who  do will enjoy it.  No matter how many loyal, devoted followers we fail to gather, we both feel like we have things to get off our chests and that’s what blogs are all about.  Neither of us have any idea where this may or may not go, nor do we have any real form of writing experience.  So now that I have given you every reason to not read this blog, I hope you like it.  
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