First order of business: this weekend Williams College takes on Amherst College in the 149th anniversary of the first-ever intercollegiate baseball game.  Weather-permitting, that is.  The forecast, unfortunately, calls for rain all weekend in Pittsfield, MA, where the anniversary game is scheduled to be played.

Who designed the Orioles’ schedule this year?  Given the unbalanced schedule, isn’t it odd that the O’s do not play Boston in April, but take two separate trips to the west coast (one to Seattle and one to Oakland) and their first and only trip to Texas before they play the Sox in 2008?  On top of that, the Rays visit Baltimore twice in the month of April.  What gives?  I know Baltimore and Tampa Bay are more evenly matched than Baltimore and Boston, but why do you think the Orioles had the smallest crowd in the history of Camden Yards on just the second game of the season?

Continue reading "College Ball, Schedules, Overachievers and Underachievers"

I was pleased to see Curtis Granderson back in the Tigers lineup and immediately contributing in his first major-league action this season, going 2-4 with two walks, two RBI’s, and three runs scored in Detroit’s 19-6 shellacking of Texas on Wednesday.  Granderson followed up his season debut by leading off Thursday’s game with a home run and igniting the Tiger offense in an 8-2 win, completing a three-game sweep of the Rangers.

After learning this week of Detroit manager Jim Leyland’s plan to have Carlos Guillen and Miguel Cabrera switch positions, I realized that the Tigers have an all-Latin infield – Guillen and Cabrera (both from Venezuela) at the corners, Placido Polanco (Dominican Republic) at second, and Edgar Renteria (Colombia) at short.  Throw in catcher Ivan Rodriguez (Puerto Rico) and they’ve really got all their bases covered.  Interestingly, despite the fact that Latin American players are so central to the majors, I could not come up with a single other team whose four (much less five) starting infielders all hail from Spanish-speaking countries.

Continue reading "Curtis Granderson, Latin Ballplayers, and The Big Hurt"