Tag Archives: MLB Baseball

Baseball Is Back: Now & What’s Ahead

11 Monday Apr 2022

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As I sat at Nat’s Park on Thursday, April 7th awaiting the start of the 2022 baseball season, I kept hearing the same comment all around me: “It’s so good to be back.”

And indeed it was.

No matter the rain which had delayed the game from 4:05 PM until the first pitch was finally thrown about 8:30 PM.

No matter the cold. I was wearing three layers and had a fourth, a knitted hat, and warm gloves close by.

No matter that Trea Turner, Anthony Rendon, Bryce Harper, Max Scherzer, Ryan Zimmerman, Steven Strasburg, etc., etc. were nowhere in sight.

No matter that the Nats were simply awful, except for a 425 foot ‘useless’ home run from Juan Soto.

It was simply delightful to be back at the park with the green outfield, the freshly swept infield, and enough fans to cheer for either the Nats or the Mets.

And I went again two days later.

The weather was still cold.

There were fewer fans. Probably more Mets fans than Nats’.

The Nats were even worse..

But It was baseball again.

Plus, this was not my beloved Red Sox, who were soon to lose their first two games against those thugs from NY.

Watching the Nats is more relaxing. I want them to win, but if they don’t, it’s not a big deal.

It’s still baseball.

And I think there are some changes coming that will make things better. Wunderkid Theo Epstein (Red Sox and then Cubs GM) is heading an MLB effort to collaboratively evaluate the State of the Game, to look at the rules and institute some changes. His effort is how to make the game better for fans, to restore some action, some drama by putting more balls in play and speed up the game.

*Already there’s no Designated Hitter in the National League.

*Some teams are already using the electronic system between the pitcher and catcher to signal what pitch is to be thrown.

*And there’s a lot of experimenting going on in the minor leagues to evaluate a variety of changes, and some of those will likely make it to the majors during this season.

If you have the time, I high recommend you listen to the interview with Theo where he discusses what is being considered and why:

Theo Epstein Discusses How Rule Change Process Could Impact the Future of Baseball

Whether you believe that nothing should change in baseball, that somethings need to change, or you’re somewhere in the middle, I think you’ll find Theo’s thoughtful approach could just be the best thing to happen to baseball in the foreseeable future. (You can skip the first part of the link above and go to the 13 minute portion of the broadcast. The most important part begins about 23 minutes into it.)

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MillersTime Baseball Contest Update:

It appears that more than 30 MLB sportswriters as well as those from The Athletic have been looking at what the brilliant (?) MillersTime Baseball Contest contributors have predicted for the 2022 season.

Everyone, it seems thinks the Dodgers and the Blue Jays will face each other in the World Series, with the Dodgers the more likely winner. There were a few scattered votes for the Rays and Yankees making it and possibly winning.

But I suspect that both the professionals and the MillersTime contestants will once again be surprised come October/November.

Like last year. Who predicted the Braves would win it all?

As for the first question on the MillersTime contests, there many thoughtful and informed submissions and only a few ‘Homers’. It seems many of you know your team and follow them without blinders (not so Chris E).

But I don’t think anyone will match the brilliance/luck of what Chris Ballard was able to ‘foresee’ last year (see 2021 Contest #2 results).

No matter.

Baseball is back

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If you’re interested in joining me for a Nats’ game this year, email me and indicate if you have a particular game that interests you and/or a particular say or time that works best for you.

Also, if you’re interested in purchasing seats for a game, I have a full season plan in Section 127, Row Z, Seats 1, 2, & 3. They are terrific seats, just about 20 rows off the field, between the catcher and first base. I also have parking next to the stadium. We can negotiate a good price, especially if it is not a game that I already plan to attend (e.g., Dodgers, Orioles).

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How Well Do You Know Baseball?

11 Friday Mar 2022

Posted by in Escapes and Pleasures, Go Sox

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Photo by Ellen Miller

Now that we will have a full baseball season for 2022, I am announcing a slimmed down MillersTime Baseball Contest.

Since there was virtually no Hot Stove League this year, it is hard to know what team rosters will look like on Opening Day. Still, we have a bit of time to try to get a sense of what we might expect from our favorite teams, from our hated opponents, and for this frustratingly delayed season.

So, only two contests, and everyone has about three and a half weeks to sort out their own teams and the overall outlook for 2022.

The date for your submission is noon on Opening Day (likely to be April 7th.)

I suspect you will all need that time to make ‘informed’ predictions.

Contest #1:

Choose your favorite team or a team you know well enough to prove you are not a ‘homer’ and answer the questions below. (My definition of “a homer” – a sports fan who is (so) loyal to their home team that it may be difficult to be objective about the team’s prospects for the coming year. Other definitions and synonyms: “a simple-minded person; moron; unintelligent person; idiot; someone who has a (too) close devotion to a sports team; not cognizant of the world around them.”

  1. Name the team.
  2. What will their season record be in 2022?
  3. Where will they end up in their Division at the end of the regular season.
  4. Will they make the 12 team playoffs?
  5. If so, how far will they go in those playoffs.
  6. What will be the reasons for how well or poorly they do this year? The more specific you are the better.

Prize: Two tickets to the 2023 All Star Game (Seattle Mariners, T-Mobile Park) or one ticket to the 2023 World Series.

Contest #2:

  1. Who will be the four teams to be playing in the League Championship series in 2022? (Name the two from the AL and the two from the NL).
  2. What two teams will actually make it to the World Series.
  3. How many games will the WS go?
  4. Which team will win the WS?
  5. What are the reasons that team wins?

Prize: Joe Posnanski’s new, fantastic book, The Baseball 10

Additional Details:

  1. There is no advantage this year as to when you send in your predictions. Take as much time as you want to gather whatever info you need, as long as you send in your answers by noon on Opening Day.
  2. You don’t have to enter both Contests.
  3. Send your predictions to me at Samesty84@gmail.com with as much specificity as you can as I suspect that will be important in choosing winners.
  4. MillersTime Winner T-Shirts go along with the prizes mentioned above.
  5. If you get another baseball obsessive to join the Contests and he/she mentions your name and wins, you’ll get a copy of Posnanski’s book too.

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2021 MillersTime Baseball Contest Winners, Part II

16 Tuesday Nov 2021

Posted by in Escapes and Pleasures

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Results of Contests 1 and 3 are now in:

CONTEST #1: How will the COVID-19 virus affect the 2021 MLB season? Include some Overall Predictions as well as some Specific Ones. Creativity is encouraged. I’ll choose the five best submissions and have MillersTime baseball contestants vote on the winner:

Winner as chosen by you readers was #2: Very little overall. There will be some hand-wringing about vaccinations, but the season will happen and a champion will be crowned. Attendance will increase throughout the season, and the World Series will have a completely full stadium.

BRANDT & SAMANTHA TILIS who submitted that answer are the winners. As their Prize, they get to join me at a Nats’ game next year, or I’ll join them for a regular season MLB game of their choice anywhere they choose, at my expense (for the cost of the tickets and refreshments only).

(Full Disclosure: Brandt ‘happens’ to be my son-in-law and Samantha is his daughter and therefore my five year old granddaughter. Fortunately, I do not vote in any of the Contests and the selection in Contest #1 was chosen by readers/contestants who voted for this anonymously listed submission.)

CONTEST #3: Five Fill in the Blanks & Five True/False Questions.

There were five submissions that all answered seven of the 10 questions correctly:

Daniel Fischberg, Jeff Friedman, Larry Longenecker, Ed Scholl, & Matt Wax-Krell.

By dint of being the earliest submission, ED SCHOLL is the winner and his Prize is to join me (along with another guest of his choice) for any Nats’ game in the 2022 season. (If I’m not available, or if he prefers, he can choose to take two others with him to that Nats’ game.

Additional Prizes for those who sent in questions that were chosen for the 2021 Contests: – Tim Malieckal, Zach Haile, Dawn Wilson, and Steve King: Choose either to join me, and you can bring a friend, for a game of your choice with the Nats in 2022 or get one of the MillersTime Contest Winners Exclusive T-Shirts. Let me know which you choose.

And if you missed the winners of Contests #2 & #4, check here.

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For anyone interested in attending Nats’ games next year, here is an offer from a friend, Jim Cooke, a long time Nats’ season ticket holder:

I have a full season plan for a pair of seats at Nats Park in Section 117 (3rd Base Dugout Box), Row K, seven rows from the field, 90 feet from home plate. I’m relocating to Philadelphia and would like to hold onto them for the sake of three current partners. The seats are available at cost ($80 per), so a 10-game share costs $1,600. You pick the games you want in a draft of dates in early March. For more information, please contact me at my cell phone number (240) 731-9576. Thank you, Jim Cooke.

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Baseball’s Back! Your Predictions

25 Saturday Jul 2020

Posted by in Escapes and Pleasures, Go Sox

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Opening Night Nats Park – (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Good News: Major League baseball is back.

Bad News: 41,339 fans were missing from National’ Park in DC and 37,731 missing fans from Fenway Park.

Good News: More than four million baseball fans watched Nats v Yankees Opening night game on TV, the highest number since 2011. Add to that 2.7 million fans watched the Giants v Dodgers Opening game the same night, thus making this the most ever watched Opening Day in baseball.

Good News/ Bad News: Just prior to the start of the Nats v Yankees opener, it was announced that the MLB playoffs – assuming they occur – will be expanded from 10 to 16 teams, eight in each league. The first AND second place teams in each Division will all make the playoffs, plus the two teams with the next best records in each league. (See Winners & Losers for what this new playoff schedule may mean).

Good News/Bad News: The Red Sox and Yankees are both undefeated as of this morning, July 26, and are tied for first place in the AL East. (H/T Nick Nyhart)

And what can we expect according to the ever savy MillersTime Baseball Contests submissions?

  1. Overwhelmingly these ‘prognosticators’ believe the Dodgers and Yankees will be in the World Series, with the Dodgers slightly favored to win it all.
  2. The Nats and the Astros are the next most likely WS contestants.
  3. Two contestants said the playoffs and WS would not occur.
  4. And the usual delusional Chris Eacho believes the Orioles will win it all.

For those of you with nothing better to do, here is a partial list of what the MillersTime Baseball fans believe will be the takeaways from the 2020 season:

  1. NL designated hitter will prove to be a good idea that should be permanently adopted.
  2. It was a really bad idea to play the season (numerous variations of this takeaway).
  3. Play without fans sucks (numerous variations of this takeaway).
  4. People are still hungry for baseball which will draw very high numbers to telecasts.
  5. No need to play 162 games ((numerous variations of this takeaway).
  6. Short season means “every game matters” (numerous variations of this takeaway).
  7. There will be a team nobody expects who will come out hot and get on a roll.
  8. There will be a team everybody expects to win who will fall flat out of the gate and can’t make it up.
  9. All Division races will be closer than typical.
  10. Regular season will be virtually meaningless. Season will forever have an asterik (numerous variations of this takeaway).
  11. DH rules aside in NL, more offense than defense, more runs/game and bloated ERAs (numerous variations of this takeaway).
  12. Pitching adjusts better than batting to shorter season (numerous variations of this takeaway).
  13. One contestant said his wife will hate him a little more than before the season started.
  14. Spouses of baseball fans will not be as aggravated as usual.
  15. Not a responsible thing to have done.
  16. Fewer games, more at stake, so fans will be more engaged, and playoffs will draw more interest (numerous variations of this takeaway).
  17. Creating fake fan noise will replace live fans.
  18. Baseball fans will be healthier due to lack of access to baseball park food.
  19. Fans matter (numerous variations of this takeaway).
  20. Runner on 2nd in extra innings should be tried in 162 game season but not in the playoffs.
  21. Aaron Judge will finally stop being treated like a star because he isn’t and never was.
  22. Astros win it all, proving that sign stealing or no sign stealing, they can flat play.
  23. Long term reduction in number of games in the future. Early April too early to start the season.
  24. Because of no fans, no home team advantage, no sounds of baseball, quality of play slacks, but no cheating (too easy to get caught).
  25. Short season will be used to explain many teams’ performances.

PS – I watched the entire Sox v O’s Opening game on a big TV and thoroughly enjoyed it, in part because the Sox won easily but also just to be able to spend 3 hours and 18 minutes with no concerns other than the usual ones that every Sox fan knows has learned to accept.


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“It will be a season like no other.”

25 Thursday Jun 2020

Posted by in Escapes and Pleasures, Go Sox

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Finally.

Some baseball will return.

On or about July 23rd or 24th, a 60 game ‘season’ will begin.

How far it will go, what it will be like (compared to an 162 games season), whether it will shortened by the virus, or is it possible there will be fans in the stadiums before the season ends?

No one knows the answers to those and a number of other questions about MLB in 2020.

But we do know some things:

Look at the two articles below, the first outlines the main the guidelines and ‘rules’ under which the teams will compete. The second is an attempt to calculate if a 60 game season will need asterisks in the baseball history books. (Ed. Comment: Of course it will, but for those of you who like to get into the ‘weeds’ of baseball, it’s an interesting look at how 60 games can be compared to 162 games.)

What We Know So Far About the 2020 MLB Season by Jason Stark, The Athletic, June 23, 2020.

60 Games Aren’t Enough to Crown the Best MLB Team. But Neither Are 162 Games by Neil Paine, FiveThirtyEight, June 24, 2020.

Whether or not you read either of these articles, I need your suggestions for a three question MillersTime Baseball Contest for 2020.

And I need them quickly.

By Sunday, July 5.

That way I can get the Contests out to everyone in time for you to submit your award winning answers prior to the first game.

So, see what you can come up with in regard to this “season like no other.”

Send them to me at Samesty84@gmail.com., and if one of your questions is chosen, you will be ‘entitled’ to a MillersTime Baseball Contest Winner T-Shirt.*  (You can also make suggestions for the prizes for this year’s Contests.)

Deadline for Potential Questions: Sunday, July 5

Contests Will Be Announced by Friday, July 10

Submission for Your ‘Winning’ Answers Due by July 23rd.

*Alternative T-Shirt if one of your questions is selected fo the 2020 Contest.
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Truck Day, Spring Training, & The Contest

03 Friday Feb 2017

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Finally.

Life begins again.

Truck Day for the Red Sox is Feb. 6.

Sox Pitchers & Catchers report to Spring Training Feb. 14.

Sox first full-squad workout is Feb. 17.

(Sox are reporting a week earlier than last year, tho many, if not most, of the players go early to ‘Fenway South’ – JetBlue Park – anyway.)

Sox first Spring Training game is Feb. 23 against Northeastern. and their first Grapefruit League is against the Mets Feb. 24.

And I’ll see the Sox vs the Nats at The Ball Park of The Palm Beaches (the Nats new Spring Training facility) on Mar. 7, and then three games at Jet Blue Park (USA team, O’s, and the Rays) on Mar. 9, 10, & 11.

Opening Day for MLB is April 2 with the Yanks vs Rays and the Cubs vs the Cards. The Sox open at home against the Pirates on April 3, and the Nats also open at home April 3 vs Marlins.

Life takes a turn for the better.

MillersTime 2017 Baseball Contests:

Meanwhile, I’m starting to work on the annual MillersTime Baseball Contest questions for 2017, and I have a few questions I hope you’ll answer:

  1. Usually I have six contests with maybe an Extra Credit one. Is that too many?
  2. I’ve moved from a Sox vs Yunkee focus to questions about your favorite team and ones that require more knowledge of all of MLB. While I try to have a mixture of simple and more complicated contests, what kind of questions in general do you prefer?
  3. I’m open to specific suggestions on new questions. If you have an idea for one for 2017, please send it to me in the next couple of weeks.

I hope to have The Contest questions posted on this website by Mar. 1 with your predictions due by Opening Day, April 2 at 1:10 PM.

Feel free to have your baseball friends join in. If anyone you bring in wins (they need to mention your name), you too will win a prize.

To see last years winners, go to: Summary of 2016 Winners and to see last year’s questions, go to: 2016 MillersTime Baseball Contests.

And all winners will get the exclusive and highly coveted MillersTime Winner baseball t-shirt in addition to individual prizes for each contest.

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Don’t Bother Reading This Post

18 Monday Mar 2013

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photo26

So what does this Sox obsessed fan say about the 2013 season?

First, I’m almost never correct; so you can stop reading now if you’re interested in accuracy.

Second, even when I try to be a bit objective, I have trouble tamping down my enthusiasm and hopes for the Sox.

Third, my two days at Spring Training this year mean nothing and has given me no real insight, tho it has gotten my juices flowing for the regular season. Plus, as everyone  knows (and often overlooks), Spring Training bears no resemblance whatsoever to what happens in the regular season. Won-Lost records in March are useless, tho the last two weeks when most of the starters play most of the games might be indicative of something (perhaps the first couple of weeks of the regular season, at best). Spring hitting and pitching statistics are unreliable. And finally, a teams’ lineup for most of the year often differs significantly from that of Opening Day (re, injuries, etc.).

However, I can’t resist making a few predictions about the coming Sox season and a few other observations as well.

Continue reading »

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