MLB's New Media Dress Code And Its Aim At Women

This past Tuesday on the second day of the General Manager Winter Meetings in Dallas, Major League Baseball announced a new dress code policy for members of the media. This new policy is the first of its kind in any of the four major sports (MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA), and it's an attempt to keep a more professional atmosphere in and around the ballpark during games. MLB is clearly trying to prevent any incidences like what had occurred in the NFL between Mexican TV reporter Ines Sainz and the Jets locker room. Her attire and beauty drew much attention to a room full of men which led to claims of harrassment. We could get into the whole Erin Andrews deal but that occurred in a hotel and not a ballfield.

Can't imagine anything she wears on the field is inappropriate

According to the guidelines, members of the media should dress "in an appropriate and professional manner." Clothing should be proper for a "business-casual work environment" when in clubhouses, press boxes and on fields. Muscle shirts, ripped jeans, visible undergarments, sheer clothing, one-shouldered and strapless shirts or clothing exposing bare midriffs will be banned. Skirts, dresses or shorts cut more than three or four inches above the knee will be deemed to be in violation. Never in my lifetime have I seen any male media members wearing muscle shirts or tank tops during a broadcast so clearly this policy was designed for the female media contingent. The thought of Jon Miller or Michael Kay in a muscle shirt leaves a tinge of vomit in my mouth.

The only real problem that has been mentioned in baseball has been around the Florida Miami Marlins where female reporters have been known to wear much skimpier clothing. I can't imagine why they would be wearing less in Miami. Maybe 100 degrees with 100% humidity is an issue. The real problem in Miami is the new player uniforms and not what their reporters are wearing. "This is not in response to any single incident," MLB spokesman Pat Courtney told The Associated Press. "It can be a fine line. What one person views as appropriate may not be seen the same way by someone else." They say that albeit the only incident in the big four of sports has been the Ines Sainz issue so clearly that had to be a major factor in creating this new policy.

In my opinion female baseball reporters have always been professional. Growing up in New England and watching NESN (The New England Sports Network) has provided us the opportunity see many classy female baseball reporters including Hazel Mae, Tina Cervasio, Kathryn Tappen, and Heidi Watney

All in all MLB has much more to worry about than some dress code so in honor of those female reporters that keep it classy and professional, lets take a look at them......

Heidi Watney

Kathryn Tappen

Tina Cervasio

Keep it classy ladies!!!....and thank you NESN!!

 

Rookies of the Year and the Rest of MLB's Award Predictions

Rookies of the Year. Craig Kimbrel (L), Jeremy Hellickson (R)

Yesterday Jeremy Hellickson and Craig Kimbrel won the 2011 Rookie of the Year award for the American and National Leagues respectively. Kimbrel won the award unanimously for a season which included setting a Major League record for saves by a rookie with 46 and was an easy choice for voters. Hellickson was also deserving of this award beating out Anaheim's Mark Trumbo for the honor. 

Today I believe the AL Cy Young Award winner will be announced. I'm going to list my predictions for the rest of the awards with a quick little explanation for each. Let's see how I do.

AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers

This one is obvious and nobody even comes close to matching the performance from the big righty from Detroit. The man went 24-5 with a 2.40 ERA, pitched a no-hitter during the season, and led the Tigers to another AL Central crown. This should be a unanimous decision. 

NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers

Kershaw led the NL in Wins (21), ERA (2.28), K's (248). Leading the league in those categories means that Kershaw won the pitching triple crown in the senior circuit. Case Closed.

AL Manager of the Year: Joe Maddon, Tampa Bay Rays

After losing Carl Crawford, Matt Garza, Rafael Soriano, Carlos Peña, and Joaquin Benoit, Joe Maddon still managed to lead his team to the playoffs. Maddon certainly had to work much harder to keep his team in games and had to deal with injuries to their best player, Evan Longoria. It took a collapse from the Boston Red Sox but Maddon kept his team playing hard through September and the season's last game to win the AL Wild Card. Job well done Joe!

NL Manager of the Year: Kirk Gibson, Arizona Diamondbacks

Leading a team to 94 wins and a NL West title after coming off of back to back 90-loss seasons is just remarkable. This was a team nobody expected to do well at the beginning of the season and most would have been content with a 3rd place finish let alone finishing 1st. Gibson was the right choice as manager for this young ballclub and deserves this award.

AL Most Valuable Player: Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers

This one gets controversial with Verlander being a pitcher. I may be biased as a pitcher myself but this guy just had one special season which should not be overlooked. The baseball purists won't vote for a pitcher out of general principle so this award will more likely be dished out to a hitter. The problem with this is that there are too many choices and the votes are going to be spread out so widely that a true MVP won't be decided on, turning this more into a popularity contest with Verlander sitting in the corner. Cases can be made for Jose Bautista, Curtis Granderson, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Adrian Gonzalez. Gonzalez and Ellsbury are going to split votes between baseball writers in the Boston market. If you go purely by stats then Jose Bautista should be the clear cut choice. This one will be interesting to see.

NL Most Valuable Player: Matt Kemp, Los Angeles Dodgers

Two men prevented Matt Kemp from winning the NL Triple Crown. Jose Reyes and Ryan Braun had batting averages higher than Kemp's .324 and other than that Kemp led the NL in HR (39) and RBI (126). Kemp was pretty much the only offense the Dodgers had which can explain how the team could have both the MVP and CY Young award winners on one team and still be a terrible team. Baseball is funny that way and just goes to show how a collective team effort is more important than individual performances.

Memorable MLB Rookie Hazings

UPDATE: Just got an word of Mike Trout in drag. Here it is....

Angels' Mike Trout as Lady Gaga

September in the MLB brings about expanded rosters/September rookie call-ups, and that means one thing...Rookie hazings. Back in the day hazings were fairly physical in nature that came in the form of physical abuse and harassment. Nowadays teams are tamer, usually making rookies dress up in some form of costumes and parading around in public. This season brought about the usual costumes and pink backpacks, nothing extraordinary but the Washington Nationals did stand out by making their farm kids dress up like the smurfs with Stephen Strasburg as Papa Smurf. Wilson Ramos was the poor bastard that had to wear the skirt and dress as Smurfette.

The Washington Smurfs

Here's a sampling of some of my favorites from years past including Yankees cheerleaders (Chien-Ming Wang in a skirt is hilarious), Padres Hooter Girls, and an appearance by Saturday Night Live's Ambiguously Gay Duo. Enjoy!!!

Nothing like a 6'3" Asian in drag

Hooter Girl Dude Night in San Diego

I feel bad for the two that got stuck as Ace and Gary in public.

Where Did All The Day Games Go?

I finally get a weekend off from work and would like to sit back, enjoy a cold beer, and watch a ballgame. This to my dismay will not be happening on this fine Saturday afternoon as the earliest game happens to be the national Fox telecasts at 4pm. The rest of the day's slate of games start at 7pm eastern time or later. Not too long ago everybody seemed to play at 1pm. Business won't be booming for MLB in the primetime slot on a Saturday night. Nobody cares....bring back afternoon weekend games. I really don't feel like watching the Mets at 4pm as I would probably want to gouge my eyes out but I'll have to man up and deal with it. Feel like discussing anything else? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Local Pitcher Called Up To The Bigs

Courtesy of MadFriars.com

*UPDATE* Scribner managed to get into last night's game against the Braves. Evan pitched 2 scoreless innings, giving up 2 hits and walking 1. An impressive debut to say the least. 

So I just got word that Evan Scribner has been called up to the San Diego Padres today. Scribner was a former pitcher at Shepaug High School and played for the Torrington P38s American Legion Baseball team. Scribner was called up to the Show from AAA Tucson while lefty Wade LeBlanc was sent back down.

I had the opportunity to face Evan back in the day (early 2000s) and he sure was one hell of a pitcher in his younger days. Luckily the books have been burned as I'm sure I have a lifetime 0-fer against him. 

I wish nothing but the best for Evan and hopefully he can stick around the pros for a long time. He should stand as an inspiration for every aspiring youth pitcher in our local area. 


YES you can make it kids....


Here are the links to stories from the Register Citizen and the San Diego Padres

Aces In An Early Season Hole

(Photo by J. Meric/Getty Images)

 "I felt good. But when you're going against another team's No. 1 and give up four runs, you're going to lose,"   -David Price on his outing against Baltimore.

Here's the list of pitchers from yesterday's slate that ended up struggling taking either the loss for their team or ending up with a no decision: David Price, Jon Lester, Ubaldo Jimenez,  CJ Wilson, Fausto Carmona, Carl Pavano, and Mike Pelfrey. That is one hell of an All-Star caliber list of guys right there. As David Price stated above, if you give up 4 runs facing off against the other teams ace, you will most likely lose.


The start that stood out most to me was Jon Lester's against the Rangers. Lester lacked command of most of pitches throughout the outing giving up 3 home runs. It was the first time in his career that he gave up 3 dingers in a start. At one point Lester hit 2 batters in an inning and left his pitches out over the plate and missed Jarrod Saltalamacchia's glove way too much resulting in giving up 5 earned runs. His stat line for the outing was as follows:

Jon Lester: 5.1 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 HR, 1 BB, 0 K, 2 HBP

The Red Sox will need a quick turnaround from Lester with the uncertainty of Josh Beckett and in my opinion the ugliest pitcher to watch throw a game, Daisuke Matsuzaka. Lester does have a history of terrible April starts and since 2008 has an ERA of over 8. I expect nothing but improvement from Lester but as for opening day starts goes, this one was ugly.

*Do note that even as a Yankee fan I have nothing against Jon Lester. In fact we both share something big in common both having fought Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma at around the same time. 

Opening Day 2011: The Unofficial National Holiday

There is not a day more anticipated by baseball fans than opening day. Everyone for at least one day is in first place and everything just seems right. With six games leading off the season there was plenty to be excited about and the games didn't disappoint. Here's a recap of my version of Christmas...

 

(Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)

 Tigers 3, Yankees 6

Mike Mussina threw out the ceremonial first pitch (a sentimental favorite of mine) as the Yanks took on the Tigers in the Bronx on a gloomy dreary day but came out on top in this one. Mark Teixeira managed to blast a 3-run bomb off of Justin Verlander and the player of the game, Curtis Granderson had the biggest hit of the day putting the Yanks in the lead for good with a solo homer off of former Yankee Phil Coke (a lefty might I add). Granderson also made 2 spectacular catches in the games. The Yankees' improved bullpen took over for CC Sabathia and held Detroit in check the rest of the way for the win. Joba Chamberlain, Rafael Soriano, and Mariano Rivera earned the Win, a Hold, and Save respectively.

Celebrate. (Associated Press)

Brewers 6, Reds 7

Offense was a big deal in this matchup and the Brew Crew took on the Reds in Cincy. Back to Back homers by Rickie Weeks and Carlos Gomez started the game while Ryan Braun added his own solo shot. Milwaukee took a 6-3 lead to the ninth where it all seemed to unravel. John Axford blew the save for the Brewers when he gave up a 2 out, 3-run walkoff oppo homer to Ramon Hernandez and the Reds continued with their 2010 ways by stealing another win from an NL Central team.

Braves 2, Nationals 0

Derek Lowe was on his game and held the Nats scoreless while Jason Heyward added another opening day homer to his resume.

Angels 4, Royals 2

Anaheim's bullpen almost let this one slip away but otherwise the Angels looked like their old winning selves beating KC 4-2. Jared Weaver pitched 2-hit ball into the seventh and homers by Torii Hunter and Jeff Mathis led the offense for LAA.

Padres 5, Cardinals 3 F/11

They needed eleven innings to settle this opener. Albert Pujols GIDP'd 3 times in this one (must be the contract....joking). Cameron Maybin his a solo shot for the Padres and his single in the 11th led to the Padres taking the lead and holding on for the win.

Giants 1, Dodgers 2

3 Giant errors were costly against Los Angeles as Clayton Kershaw dominated the Giant's offense for a 2-1 win in LA.