Tommy Lasorda & Earl Weaver Caricatures

Fernando Valenzuela & Mark Fidrych Caricatures

Two great pitchers who exploded onto the big stage.

Oscar Gamble, Dick Allen & Thurman Munson Caricatures

Dave Parker, Mike Schmidt & Ozzie Smith Caricatures

Fred Lynn, Rickey Henderson, Mike Schmidt Caricatures

Jose Bautista Clutch Single

There have been a lot of baseball songs written and produced throughout the history of the sport, but like everything else, great baseball songs are rare, like Jose Bautista Clutch Single. I was just lamenting yesterday how musicians don't seem to write songs about specific ballplayers any more. I was wrong, sort of. Songwriter and producer Alex Cantrall and his partner, Jeff Hoeppner have created an excellent music video and song that is not only compelling to listen to but reflects the era in which is was created, namely using an R&B style. To more fully appreciate this song, it helps to listen to it in light of 'Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball' or 'Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song).

Pete Rose, Steve Garvey & George Brett Caricatures

 

 

George Foster Caricature

Garret Anderson Caricature

Just for fun.

Baseball Photos on Zimbio

If you're like me, you've searched Google Images for photos of your favorite players past and present. Recently, I discovered the power of Zimbio, an online magazine publisher, which has a nice gallery to view ballplayers as well as other celebrities.

There are different ways to get to the galleries, but the easiest one I've found is by manually typing in the person's name like so into your browser's navigation toolbar:

http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Joey+Votto
http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Prince+Fielder
http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Albert+Pujols

Zimbio immediately tells you above the first photo how many press photos (usually from Getty Images or AP Photos) it has archived of the person. You can also preview the thumbnails to the right, similar to Yahoo's MLB Gallery. The main difference is that Yahoo managed to pull an archive of 80 photos for Joey Votto, whereas Zimbio pulled a 247 photo archive. Zimbio also has a black background, providing better contrast for viewing the photos.

One caveat is that while Google Images pulls earlier images from the entire world wide web, Zimbio only pulls press photos. So if you're looking for that 1964 Topps Willie Mays card, you're better off using Google Images or EBAY. However, if you're somehow interested in following retired players in the press, Zimbio is a nice place to start your search. For example:

http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Willie+Mays
http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Mike+Schmidt
http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Nolan+Ryan

Watching MLB without Cable or Satellite in Los Angeles, Part 2

Last year I became one of the thousands, if not millions, of cord cutters who ditched their cable/satellite subscriptions and instead put a fraction of that money to use by subscribing to on demand services such as Netflix, Hulu Plus or Amazon Instant Video, or simply redirected that money towards more practical things like food, gas and medical bills. For me in particular, I opted to purchase a Roku box, a Netflix subscription, an MLB.TV subscription as well as watching over-the-air TV. Although I had unexpected and mixed results, it was clear that I could not follow the bulk of live Los Angeles Angels games on television without paying my cable or satellite company. Instead I had to resort to watching the occasional local broadcast or paying $120 to watch the glitchy archived games via MLB.TV on my Roku device. I wondered how the 2011 season would unfold for me.

Well, the 2011 season is already underway, and this year I made a decision to hold off on paying the $120 to MLB.TV so that I could observe how other subscribers would respond to the spotty and imperfect service. It didn't take long to discover that the number of complaints about the service was already accumulating rapidly like Pittsburgh losses. Still, I might consider subscribing to the service midway through the season when the price drops significantly.

In the meantime, I'm only watching live games on the local broadcasts and listening to games on radio. Additionally, I'll watch archived condensed games, game recaps and highlights on MLB.com. All of this is without cost. So far after a few weeks, I really haven't missed watching the games all that much, especially with radio broadcasts available for every game. If anything, this is the way it was when I grew up following games in the 80's sans the internet. During that time, games were typically only broadcast on television during the weekends, so you learned the art of listening to baseball on the radio. I've found that as much as I love baseball, I don't really need to watch every single game anymore. This is coming from someone who lives and breathes baseball year-round.

The blackout policy with MLB.tv is a raw deal for consumers because it essentially forces consumers to purchase a cable or satellite subscription or else watch most of their in-market games as archived games via MLB.tv, since a much smaller percentage of games are broadcast over the air for free. So if you're a cord cutter like me, ask yourself if it's really worth paying $600 a year just to watch every one of your local team's games? Not for me and especially not in this economy. Neither does MLB really have any motivation to change such arrangements--not when teams are reaping multi-million dollar television contracts year after year. In the end, consumers, in particular the cordcutters, are the losers and big businesses are the winners. And here's the irony, I would gladly pay $120 directly to FOX in order to watch in-market games on FOX Sports West (FOX doesn't currently offer such an online service), but if I subscribed to cable or satellite (currently the only option for all live broadcasts), my cable or satellite provider would only pay FOX perhaps $2 dollars for my subscription while passing the cost on to me. It's time for FOX to move beyond the current cable/satellite deals of the past and begin offering their own subscription-based online service.

The Natural in 1080p HD

THE OTHER DAY I watched The Natural in high definition on my father-in-law's 55" Samsung 1080p LED/LCD TV. It was nothing short of amazing as the picture quality was so sharp that it felt quite real, as if I was actually on the movie set standing next to the director with his video camera. But therein lies the problem. See, while it felt like I was priviledged enough to be on the set with the director and one of the greatest actors of our generation in Robert Redford, it also felt, well... fake.

See, if I feel like I'm on the set, then I'm no longer being drawn into the movie, relating and emoting with the characters. Instead, I found it fascinating, in virtual reality, to be observing the actors acting on the set. And I found myself quite critical of them. In particular, I thought Wilford Brimley, the manager, exaggerated a bit too much, almost coming across as being too cliche. On the other hand, I thought Redford's acting stood up quite nicely to the virtual reality of 1080p.

I don't necessarily feel like 1080p ruined movies for me. If anything, I'm enjoying the feeling of being on set with these great actors and in a baseball setting, so much the better.

NOTE: The Natural came out in 1984, that's 26 years ago, but you can still feel like you were there or at least 26 years younger. I also watched Back to the Future II (1989) and Jaws (1978). Have you ever watched a 32 year old movie from the 70's and felt like you were standing next to authentic and plaid polyester? I'm telling you, it's pretty amazing.