Bartolo "Big SEXY" Colon

They call him Big Sexy. If you saw him you would probably question as to why he was given such a nickname. To an average eye, he’s a middle-aged man with the stomach size of one. He stands at 5-foot-11, 285-pounds.

Bartolo Colon has become a fan favorite over the last couple years. He is currently the oldest player in the Major Leagues and is on the Atlanta Braves roster. To give you an idea of how old he is without saying it, he started his career with the Cleveland Indians back in 1997. In 2002 played for the Montreal Expos, the only active player from the Expos. The Expos haven’t been in Montreal since 2004 when they moved to Washington D.C.

He was given the nickname by his teammates and several media members. He plans to get the nickname trademarked and wants to sell merchandise with the name on it.

Big Sexy has had quite a good career. He was a win-loss record of 233-142, a 3.93 ERA, and 2,365 strikeouts. He became a huge fan favorite during his three-year stint with the New York Mets. His giant swing and misses became something one could watch for hours and laugh every time. On May 7, 2016, he hit his first homerun of his career. He holds one stat that nobody else has and that is the oldest player ever to hit his first homerun.

Many people look at him and think “well if he can play professional baseball, then I could play professional baseball.” Although he is large around the waste, he is fantastic shape. Bartolo works hard in the offseason in his home country of the DR. Someone at his age would more than likely be sitting at home and having a sweet tea while enjoying the life of being retired.

Quite frankly I don’t see Big Sexy retiring anytime soon. He has the work ethic and want to keep playing. As long as someone will give him a deal, he’ll keep playing. 

Pitchers Who Rake

The San Francisco Giants opened their season with a 6-5 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. There is a specific reason as to why this is a big deal. And no, it probably isn’t the reason as to why you would think it would be.

The Giants went with their ace, Madison Bumgarner, better known around the baseball community as Madbum. Madbum pitched a pretty good game going. He struck out 11 and gave up three runs while pitching seven innings. Normally that would be a pretty good outing for an everyday pitcher. Madbum on the other hand is not an everyday pitcher. While having a pretty good day on the bump, he had an even better day at the plate. He went 2-2 at the plate and smacked two home runs while he was at it.

810 feet… think about that. Madison Bumgarner is a pitcher and he hit two home runs a total of 810 feet. I know it’s only one game but the pitcher is leading the MLB home runs.

Many are calling for the pitcher to be in the home run derby and rightfully so. There is an un-kept stat that people like to keep, Pitchers who rake. In the National League the starting pitcher (and the bullpen pitchers) take an at bat when it’s their turn. That being said, NL pitchers have a better AB than AL pitchers.

Madbum has had a history of having some big homeruns. The pitcher is not only a fear for batters but a fear for opposing pitchers. His swing is like a gift sent from heaven. For pitchers, at least.

Madbum is just a beast no matter how you look at. You may not like him (I don’t like him because he single handily beat my Royals in the 2014 WS) but you can’t help respect the crap out of him. He does everything the right way. He works hard and day in and day out. My hat sir, is tipped to you. 

Uuugggghhhhh

The MLB has come out with a new rule and I personally hate it with a raging passion. The rule states that if the pitcher plans to intentionally walk a batter, the pitcher must notify the home plate umpire of said decision. After the umpire is aware of the decision, he must send the batter to first base without a single pitch being thrown.

Here is the reason I hate the rule so much. Over the years, we have figured out that no pitcher can just throw a lat te da pitch to home plate. His instincts always seem to take over and they try to throw the ball much harder than it needs to be. There have been wild pitches that have left the players on base the chance to advance because the pitcher couldn’t control himself to do one simple thing.

At the same time, there have been pitchers that couldn’t even get the ball outside of the plate. They throw in a little lob and its right over the middle of the plate. This couldn’t be any better for the batter as he sees the slowest pitch of the game coming right down his sweet spot.

All in all, I think the rule is stupid and people are just trying to make the game faster. Baseball doesn’t need to be faster. It’s a game of skill and smarts. Yes, people don’t realize how athletic you have to be to play baseball, but they also don’t realize that you have to be a quick thinker. Nothing is given on an intentional walk so why are we just trying to hand out bases like Christmas gifts? Reverse the rule and make players earn the base. 

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.