Don’t Tell Mom

If you’re a fan of the game, you’ve been dreaming of this day ever since you were little. Some might say it’s bigger than Christmas. Some might even say it’s bigger than their own birthday. Some have never been and then there are some that get to go every year.

That’s right, I’m talking about the one and only Opening Day of baseball. Most people only think about Major League Baseball when talking about opening day but the first day of the season is always exciting no matter how old you are.

Opening Day makes everything better. The smell of peanuts and cracker jacks, the fresh cut grass, and the bright sun is always better on the first day. Granted nobody likes to lose and see their favorite team lose but it sure beats being in class or at work.

The MLB has some intriguing Opening Day match-ups this year. Opening Day 2017 is a mere four days away. The schedule for this year’s opening day is stacked with the Cubs @ Cardinals, Royals @ Twins, Angels @ Athletics and much more.

Baseball is America’s past time and it seems like lately baseball is starting to make somewhat of a comeback. Some of the young stars are starting to make baseball fun again. Players like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Anthony Rizzo, others bring a young feel to the game. Younger and younger kids are starting to like baseball more and more and its doing helping the game in ways you couldn’t imagine.

Moral of the story is just that, if you have a child, boy or girl, don’t tell mom and have a little fun and take your child to Opening Day. Get them some cotton candy and ice cream in a helmet. See the smile on your kids face and they’ll love you forever. Like they say, anything is better than being at work or school. 

The Write Stuff

The Learning Process 

Blogging has become a huge part of the internet. So many people think they are "journalists" when in actuality they're just wanna be bloggers. 

Some of the things I have learned is that blogging is hard work. It isn't something that you can just take for granted if you want it to be successful. Along with maintaining it everyday, most of the time blogs are the writers personal opinions and if you post it to social media, more than likely, someone will have a different opinion. 

The Bullpen 

My blog has changed in the fact that I have started using actual facts in more of my posts but at the same time, I have no problem putting my opinions in the story as well. 

Gold Glove 

Blogging is something that most people do for fun. At the same time, there are people that have turned it into a profession. I would love to use my skills to become a professional blogger for a Major League Baseball team. There are several different blogs that focus on specific teams, sports and players. 

The Starting Rotation 

It has allowed me to realize how difficult it can be to keep up with a specific idea if you are't around it 24/7. There are so many different bloggers out there that write about the same thing you do so it can be difficult to be different. That's also part of the fun, you have the write to do it however you want. See what I did there? 

A Complete Game

While blogging is fine and dandy, there are some rules that must be followed. If you put facts in your story, you better make sure they're right. Part of catching people's is coming up with a catchy title. Writing about baseball has helped when it comes thinking of different titles, hence the title of this story. 

Journalism in Baseball

Baseball is very different than the other three major sports in America. Nobody really knows the exact history of how it started. Many think some white men watched the Indians play stickball and decided to make some changes. Others believe that Abner Doubleday, a Major General of the Union Army, was the first to create baseball. As time went on, baseball soon became the biggest sport in America and became what is known as America’s past time. 

Baseball has come a long way since it first started. So, has the reporting of baseball. At the time, newspaper was the only way for people to get their news. As new teams started to pop up, more and more reporters were needed to cover games, news, and much more. 

In the early days, journalists worked for individual teams much like they do today but rather than working from home or for a newspaper, they traveled with the team and was paid by said team. It was the team’s way of making sure nothing was in the newspaper that they didn’t approve of. 

As time moved on, the Negro League came along and black reporters were eager to be a part of a team. However once Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, black journalists weren’t allowed in press boxes during the MLB games. They had to sit in the colored seating just like the rest of the fans. For them to get their stories out on time, they had to sit with their typewriters on their knees and write from the stands. It wasn’t until the 1948 season that Wendell Smith worked for the African American-owned Pittsburgh Courier and was the first black baseball journalists that could join the BBWAA. From that point on, all baseball reporters regardless of their skin color could use tables and desks to wright their stories.

Baseball journalism has come a long way since the 1940s. Today anybody can be a “journalist” for any sport they want. All you need is some way to connect to any social media site and a way to type, but you are now a blogger with no set accountability. A lot of people are so biased to their team and they can’t accept the fact that bad things happen. A well-respected writer will write about the good and the bad, the popular and unpopular opinions, and ins and outs of their team.

That's Nasty

It will throw you off guard. It will make you think you have a chance at hitting it and just like that you take a giant swing and miss. You'll give the pitcher a look of disbelief and he''ll look back at you with the biggest grin one can make.

The origin of the knuckleball is pretty unclear but most have dated it back to Toad Ramsey of the Louisville Colonel of the old American Association. Others have dated the knuckleball back to Eddie Cicotte of the 1908 Chicago White Sox. Eddie was given the proper nickname of "knuckles" for his pitch that seemed to lack spin. 

What makes the knuckleball so hard to hit is that a conventional pitch contains a natural spin of the ball when leaving the pitchers hand. When the ball doesn't have the conventional spin, it will move in an awkward path on the way to the catcher making it nearly impossible for the hitter to determine where the ball will end up. 

For pitchers it is one of the hardest pitches to throw. That being said, it takes years to master the knuckleball and even then it can't really be perfected. Most of the time, a knuckleball pitcher will have only one or two pitches at most. 

One of the best to ever throw the pitch is R.A. Dickey. He strictly became a knuckleball pitcher during the 2006 season while earning a spot on the Rangers rotation as the fifth starter. He was strictly a knuckleball pitcher. He struggled in his first couple games and was sent down to play in the Rangers Triple-A program. In January of 2007, he signed a deal with the Milwaukee minor league program and put together a 12-6 record with a 3.80 ERA.

R.A. Dickey and Steven Wright are the only known current Major League pitchers that are strictly knuckleball pitchers. That's not to say that other pitchers don't know how to throw the knuckleball. Rather than throwing it ever pitch, they may throw it a total of ten percent of their four or five pitches in their stock. Throwing it consistently can severely mess up your arm if you don't throw it correctly every single time.



The pitch that can get anybody, Nobody is immune from looking like giant idiot when facing this pitch and that's just the way it is. You really can't say i'm going to work on batting against this pitch because its that inconsistent. The best you can do it stare it down, pray and hope you get even the slightest bit of wood on the ball. 

Twice as Nice

Your 2016 World Series champs are the long-cursed Chicago Cubs. The cubs just snapped a 108-year streak of not winning a major championship. The longest such streak on any of the four major sports that have previously won. They did it with the help of some youth, skill, and great management. Some are calling it the greatest thing to ever happen to the city of Chicago.

On their way to snapping their 108-year streak, the Cubs had a regular season record of 103-58 and winning the NL Central division by 17.5 games. They did it with the talent of Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Jason Hammel, Jason Heyword, Ben Zobrist and more. The team had a .343 BA and a league leading 3.15 ERA.

 It’s a new year and much has changed. The cubs are still expected to be the front runners and repeat. While the Cubs have made some off-season trades and changes, their main core is still the same. The pitching staff has changed a little but nothing that they shouldn’t be able to overcome.

Can you imagine if the Cubs repeated after nothing for so long? I think most would speculated the world would be coming to an end. People wouldn't know how to handle themselves. You could almost forget about Steve Bartman (lets be honest, nobody will forget about Steve) and what that infamous night.  

The Cubs will repeat due to one position. The manager Joe Maddon will have that team more focused than ever. They just snapped “the curse” and everybody knows they don’t want to go another losing streak. Joe has been in the game for a long time and knows what it takes to keep his guys positive. He’s surrounded himself with a great staff and players that want to be coached.

Baseball has a rich history in Chicago and the people won’t accept anything less at this point. The Cubs will repeat for one simple reason, the city of Chicago won't let another one slip away. They haven’t seen the likes of greatness since Michael Jordan left for retirement. Although the 90s weren’t all that long ago, 20 years can seem like forever in the sports world. 

It doesn't matter if you're a Cubs fan or not, if they were to repeat, you would have to celebrate. When people think of baseball, the Cubs are one of the first teams they think of. But I guess that's what happens when you eat, sleep and breath Wrigley Field. It doesn't matter if you like them or absolutely despise them, you know it will help the game of baseball if they repeat. 

The Full Count

Major League Baseball is trying to add yet another rule to their illustrious rule book. This time they're testing an extra inning rule where a runner would be automatically start off on second base. The rule is being proposed to help increase the pace of the game.

Minor League Baseball will be testing the rule for the upcoming season. If you think about it, it should be very interesting considering that Minor league baseball isn't aired on national television just like slow pitch beer softball isn't on national television.

Today people are so worried about how fast something can go and how quickly they can be done with something. If you ask me, MLB is doing way too much to try and please fans rather than just playing baseball. They're so worried about pumping up the pace of the game that they seem to be forgetting about why people attend America's past time.

Last year the MLB implemented a rule that said batters must leave on foot inside the batters box at all times or else the player would be punished with an automatic strike. The rule seemed to work for about half of the year but later seemed to be worthless. Players seemed to not care and umpires weren't enforcing it.

Now I understand that there are times where it seems like a baseball game can take forever. Some pitchers have a knack for taking their sweet time on the mound and some batters seem to take a million practice swings. All in all, yes baseball is a slow game but if you think about it, it wasn't made to be a fast paced game. It is a very mental sport and requires a lot of thought and focus. Not everybody can through an 85 mph slider in a space smaller than the human body and not everybody can hit a ball the size of an apple coming at them at 100+ mph.

Peanuts and cracker jacks, ice cream in fun sized helmets, the smell of fresh cut grass, why would anybody want to hurry and leave? If that can't make you want to stay, lets not forget about the beautiful sunsets baseball fields always seem to provide. The authenticity of the game is unlike any other. Baseball has been around longer than any of the other four major sports in America and has some of the oldest stadiums around.

If you can't be convinced that baseball is fine the way it is, than you should leave that seat for someone who can fully appreciate the game. Nobody will judge you if you don't like the game but someone out there loves the game more than they love their own mother and would love to have that ticket.

Hall of explain yourself?

The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame has made it so their voters will have to make their votes public as of 2018. Finally, we get to see as to why players such as Ken Griffey Jr. weren't unanimously selected in.

There are many players becoming eligible for the HOF that played in what is known as the dark ages of baseball. The baseball world has been riddled with steroids and steroid like substances. It not only ruins athlete’s bodies, it ruins the name of the game.

Players such as Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire are the two huge controversial discussions that not only make writers question their decisions but also the everyday fan. Many think they should be in and many think they should be banned for life. It’s hard to decide but maybe the votes should go public. The writers must explain their thinking and reasoning. Some people will like it and some won't. 

The argument for Bonds is that he clearly used steroids. when he first entered the league in 1986 as a skronny kid and just kept getting bigger and bigger while gaining more and more power. There was always suspicion but nothing really until the end of his career. His frame started getting bigger and his skin tone started to get darker. 

The problem with McGwire is that everybody knew he was doing steroids. At the time, it was completely legal to do so. He consistently had bottles out in the open in the locker room and never tried to hide it. People at the time seemed to have no problem with it. Suddenly as he's working to get into the HoF, people seem to be so disgruntled about him using PEDs. 

The thing about baseball writers is that they study the game so closely. They eat, breath, and sleep baseball. They can give any argument and for the most part will be right with whatever they say. Players and coaches trust them to make fair and accurate statements. They earn the respect and the right to be in the locker rooms. 

At the end of the day, it’s up to the writers to decide and quite frankly, the public must deal with it. These are professional writers and their life basically revolves around baseball so they know what they’re doing. If someone decides to not say why they voted or didn’t vote for someone, it’s their choice. If you don’t like it, maybe you should become a writer and make your own decisions.