Duke sucks in baseball ethics too

[Jack]

The argument of "no good players" in NCAA baseball is patently false, by the way. You certainly won't get to see many of the Latin and Asian stars, but of the American born players in MLB, around half of them played college ball. The talent is dispersed, and some guys only play JC ball, but if you watch the Pac 10, Big 12, ACC, or SEC you are bound to see some future major leaguers and probably some future All Stars at that. For example, if you had watched Pac-10 baseball over the past 5 years, you would have seen Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, and Jed Lowrie, all of whom are now playing key roles for the Red Sox, and that is just one team.

Personally, I have grown up going to Cape Cod league games every summer and I have seen (and remember seeing) the likes of Frank Thomas, Mo Vaughn, Nomar Garciapparra, Jason Varitek, Ryan Braun, Darrin Erstad, Chase Utley, Billy Wagner, and many others, side by side with major league scouts. Something about sitting on a grassy hillside with sea breezes, wooden bats, and kids running around seems like baseball the way it oughta be. Unfortunately, coming from northern climes you rarely have those types of nights during the academic year, but there is plenty of talent in college baseball.

[hifigator]

Good points. Off the top of my head, some of the stars that I have seen in person as college players are Frank Thomas, David Eckstein (2 time World Champion and World Series MVP), Andrew Miller, Ryan Braun, Pat Burrell, Brad Wilkerson and many more. For some reason, I don't think I saw Will Clark and Rafael Palmeiro in person, but they are two more good examples.

[moe09]

Apr 23, 2008 16:48:08 GMT -5 hifigator said:

Jack, I think you are pretty much correct.

Last week I was on vacation and only 1 of the 4 games was televised. To make matters worse, the local Gator affiliate didn't carry baseball games, and I don't have a laptop. So for the three games that weren't televised, I called the radio station and had them put me on hold. When you are on hold, you get the AM850 feed. I then put my phone on speakerphone and sat and listened to the games.

Wow... and I thought watching baseball on TV was boring... You spent part of your vacation listening to a baseball game on the radio? Or rather, on your cell phone's speakerphone? Tell me you were at least on a beach or something. Otherwise you may be ordained the dullest man I've ever encountered. The only person who's more bored than someone listening to baseball on the radio is Whistler's Mother...

[hifigator]

moe, on one of the games we were actually on the drive down there, so it was just like listening to the radio, which I tend to do in the car anyway.

The other times, I was grilling out by the pool. So I guess you could sort of call it a beach. My kids were swimming away while I cooked either burgers/dogs, salmon filets or steaks. I had more than my share of adult beverages too. It really wasn't that bad ... except for the losing the games part.

[TBird41]

Apr 24, 2008 15:20:34 GMT -5 hifigator said:

My kids

Scariest part of the whole post. There are little Hifis

[Elvado]

8 to 5, their Mom is also their aunt.

[hifigator]

Apr 24, 2008 15:28:29 GMT -5 Elvado said:

8 to 5, their Mom is also their aunt.

So you'll be sending me a check in the mail I presume. By the way, this isn't Tennessee dickweed.

[hifigator]

Pardon my french

[moe09]

Apr 24, 2008 15:20:34 GMT -5 hifigator said:

moe, on one of the games we were actually on the drive down there, so it was just like listening to the radio, which I tend to do in the car anyway.

The other times, I was grilling out by the pool. So I guess you could sort of call it a beach. My kids were swimming away while I cooked either burgers/dogs, salmon filets or steaks. I had more than my share of adult beverages too. It really wasn't that bad ... except for the losing the games part.

OK, phew. If you want to listen to baseball games on the radio, that's fine I guess. I just couldn't see anyone sitting in the house/hotel room while on vacation so they could listen to baseball games on the radio instead of heading out to the beach or something, which is what it seemed like when you first posted...

[FewFAC]

I expected something a lot worse. In effect, this seems no worse than calling a timeout to freeze a field goal kicker in football.