Pitch Tipping

I had never before today heard of "pitch tipping." The concept is fascinating to me, and will surely motivate me to research the history of this practice in major league baseball.

EPSN published an online article about details from Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts' book "A-Rod" that were released by the New York Daily News. Aside from the expected steroids headline-attracting points, one of the first was "pitch tipping." Here's how the ESPN article / Roberts alleges A-Rod cheated:

A-Rod "pitch tipped" when he played for the Rangers by letting opponents at the plate know which pitch was coming in lopsided games. A-Rod expected players he helped would reciprocate when he was having an off night and needed to get his batting average up.

Wow. I wish I had thought of that. Well, I wish I were a major league baseball player and THEN had thought of that.

More (potentially) to come.

Congratulations, Pedey!

I thought that the prevailing anti-Boston bias would get Josh Hamilton enough votes, but our very own Dustin Pedroia has been named the American League MVP!

Two Sad Losses for Baseball

Ugh. What a sad weekend for baseball. First we suffered the loss of Mike Coolbaugh, killed by a line drive as he was coaching first base during a game of the Colorado Rockies minor league's team, the Tulsa Drillers. Mike was only 35 years old. He had a wife, two young sons, and a baby due in October. Ugh.

From young to old, the oldest former major leaguer, Rollie Stiles, died at the ripe old age of 100. He pitched to Babe Ruth over three seasons, and Rollie said that the Babe only ever had three hits off of him. Cool.

Yeah, people die every day. I know that. But why so many people lately -- people close to me and people for which I feel such a connection?