Christmas Gift Idea

If you’re looking for gift ideas for yours truly this holiday season, here’s something I’d really like to have:

Oh, and by the way, the Rockies beat the Phillies in Game One of the NLDS by a count of 4-2. Jeff Francis and the Rockies bullpen made Rollins, Utley, and Howard look foolish by hanging them with an 0-11 and eight strikeouts. The Rockies have effectively taken home field advantage away from the Phillies and ensured that there will be at least two games played at Coors in this series. Hopefully it won’t come to that, however.

American League Preview

Baseball, the greatest game currently in existence, will be returning to a stadium near you next month. I dearly miss Major League Baseball. I’m looking forward to being able to watch games live on television again and maybe even head to Coors Field to catch a game or two this summer. I went to a Taiwanese baseball game last summer but it just wasn’t the same. Nothing beats the real thing.

If you haven’t been following the offseason or spring training much, head on over to The Brushback and check out their American League season preview.

The Brushback has always been a quality baseball site and I’m ashamed that I haven’t visited in quite some time. I suppose I should add them to the weblog links (located on the menu to your right).

It’s About Damned Time

Baseball, with the help of the boys on the Hill, has finally instituted a decent steroid policy. The new guidelines come just one year after Major League Baseball began their current program, which most considered a farce to begin with.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Major league players and owners agreed to toughen penalties for steroid use to a 50-game suspension for a first failed test, 100 games for a second and a lifetime ban for a third.

As the title of this entry states, it’s about damned time.

National Pasttime

Personally, I can’t believe I’ve been writing these updates for a couple of months now and I have yet to mention the greatest sport on the planet… baseball. For you unrefined cretins who think baseball is boring, you may want to go visit the NFL.com or maybe the WWE’s website for the next few minutes. Of course, that’s assuming you can spell NFL or WWE. Which, if your a fan of either, may be a pretty big assumption. Oh, get over it. I’m just giving you barbarians a hard time.

Okay, back to the point. In my spare time, I’ve been able to catch a few Chinese Professional Baseball League games. Obviously, I don’t understand a thing the commentators say but it’s still entertaining none the less. The language of baseball is universal, which is just another thing that makes it such a beautiful game.

For those that don’t know, the CPBL is made up of six teams which are owned by large Taiwanese companies. The teams are the Brother Elephants, the Chinatrust Whales, the La New Bears, the Macoto Cobras, the Sinon Bulls and the Uni-President Lions. One very interesting thing about the league is that none of these teams have home stadiums like their American counterparts. How it works is all the teams play games in a the bigger cities around the country so that most everyone in Taiwan will get a chance to catch a few games each season. Seems like a pretty good idea especially since the island isn’t that large. From what I’ve been told, there are about 30 games per season here in Hsinchu. Needless to say, I am definitely interested in attending at least a handful games. Thankfully, the stadium is not too far from the part of town I will be living in. However, I have been unable to find an English website that has any sort of schedule on it. If anyone has any idea where that kind of information can be found, please send along an email or leave a comment.

The only other difference I’ve noticed thus far is the height of the pitcher’s mound. Actually, I don’t even know if you can even classify it as a mound. Bump might be a more descriptive term. That’s definitely an advantage for the hitters. That being said, I haven’t seen a lot of high scoring games. The games I’ve witnessed are nowhere near the disgusting homerun-fest that MLB has morphed into. Now don’t get me wrong, I love American baseball but the direction the game has been heading over the last decade or so has been deplorable. Homeruns in the CBPL actually seem to be somewhat rare. The style of play seems to be much more team oriented. There doesn’t appear to be that “stand around and wait for a three run dinger” philosophy that has become a staple of American baseball. There much more manufacturing of runs, which is one part of the game that I find the most entertaining. Of course, all of this is merely a first opinion based on a limited sample size so my initial analysis may be way off base (Oh man… off base… I just slay myself sometimes!).

For those of you wondering if I’m still able to keep up with MLB, the answer is yes. Mostly I check scores and whatnot on the internet but believe it or not, I have been able to catch a few MLB games on television. There’s not nearly as many games broadcast as the CPBL but it’s still nice that I’m able to watch an American baseball game every now and then. As a matter of fact, I’m watching the Angels beat the snot out of the Orioles as I type this. Of course, it’s not a live broadcast since there is a twelve hour time difference between here and the east coast of the US but as the saying goes, beggars can’t be choosers. Sadly, I’ve yet to see a Braves game. On the other hand, I’ve yet to see a Dodgers game so I guess it works out (that one’s for you, James).

Update: Just after I finished typing this, I noticed that there are two CBPL games on. Both are in the 7th inning. In one of them, the La New Bears are getting slaughtered by the Brother Elephants by a score of 12-1. In the other, the Chinatrust Whales are knocking around the Uni-President Lions by a count of 10-2. As a matter of fact, I just witnessed a homerun. So the odds are high that everything I typed two paragraphs up is complete and utter nonsense. Those that know me know that this is not an uncommon occurrence.