16 year old Eri Yoshida was drafted by the independent Japanese League Kobe 9 Cruise as a pitcher. Supposably she has an decent knuckleball. The Japanese League isn’t even one the main minor league leagues, so it’s completely like the Frontier League, but still, it’s something.
After four minutes and 10 seconds, a changed call.
The bad call was always part of the game, and a good team could win even with a missed call. Now we’ll have a bunch of whiners crying “Let’s go to the videotape!”
There’s no crying in baseball.
The Red Sox will not be playing in Boston during SIGIR itself. Unfortunately, that means you can’t attend one of their games. Fortunately, you will not be conflicted about whether to skip a SIGIR event to see them play.
The Red Sox will be playing Baltimore from the 24th to the 26th if you want to stick around some extra days. You can get more information starting from the July 2009 Red Sox calendar.
Because of the timing, SIGIR itself will not be organizing any Red Sox event. You’re on your own.
Nice.
Bud Selig, in yet another effort to fix something that ain’t broke, is approving instant replay in baseball.
Fuck you, Bud Selig.
Has there ever been a worse commissioner? He oversaw rampant steroid abuse. He added that stupid rule that the All-Star game picks which team gets home field advantage in the World Series, because one year there was a tie because both teams ran out of players. He could have made the arbitrary alternating system that existed before to something sensible like best record, but no. He wanted to boost television ratings on the All-Star game. He created the damn interleague series to “promote rivalries,” but really is just diluting the differences between the leagues. (Expect the DH to come to that NL any year now. He already eliminated the league presidencies.) He even created that damn wild card system so that pennant races mean less, and teams just play to qualify.
I haven’t seen any evidence that this year has had more blown calls than usual, and even if there is, that doesn’t mean this year is indicative of a trend, rather than an outlier. Worse of all, this rule change is occurring in the middle of the fucking season! Jesus Fucking Christ on a Mother Fucking Unicycle! Who the fuck changes the rules in the middle of the season?
Bud Selig. That’s who.