Baseball Etcetera...A Rod Hits 7th HR

by user Niteowl049

Baseball Notebook

Jackie Robinson 60th Anniversary

Today baseball celebrates 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson becoming first black player to play major league baseball. Major leagues didn't have a black baseball player for the first 78 years of its existence.

If not for Branch Rickey signing Robinson to a contract we would not have been able to witness the greatness of players like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Larry Doby, Ernie Banks, Bob Gibson and Roy Campanella and too many others to mention.

Today finds baseball in a situation that is not excluding black players but in a situation in which black players are not dominant as they once were. Have a feeling that pro basketball has taken away the interest of black youths from baseball. However, there are only a few roster spots on a pro basketball team while a baseball team has about twice as many roster spots.

C.C. Sabathia recently pointed out that he was the only black player on Indians roster last season. In our local youth baseball leagues here in central Louisiana there are very few black players on the teams and a lot of teams have no black players. It would be better if black youth today would give baseball a chance instead if they can't make the basketball team. They may be insuring a lifetime of security for their families when they leave the high schools and colleges and become professional baseball players.

Baseball Digest

Paul Byrd pitches 6 scoreless innings in his first start this year as the Indians shut out the White Sox 4-0....B.J. Ryan blew his second save of the season yesterday and has a 12.46 ERA. Blue Jays had a 7-6 lead going into the ninth inning but lost 11-10. If Ryan can't get back on track soon Blue Jays may be in for a long season....Curt Schilling pitched 8 shutout innings in the Red Sox 8-0 win over the Angels who have lost 6 of their last 10 games. Gary Matthews the $50 million man now is hitting .227 on the season getting closer to the kind of numbers he put up before his "career year" if you call hitting 19 homers and driving in 79 runs a career year.

Mariners take over first place after their 8-3 win over the Rangers. Ichiro Suzuki has seen his average dip from .400 on the 4th of April to .192 after having 1 hit in his last 16 at bats. Vicente Padilla is 0-3 now which is major concern to Rangers who don't have that strong of a starting rotation to start with and were banking on Padilla pitching well this season....Sidney Ponson pitched the Twins to a 12-5 victory over the Devil Rays pitching into the sixth inning while allowing 2 runs....A's blew a 3-0 lead letting the Yankees tie the score in the seventh inning and win the game in the eleventh inning. Alex Rodriguez hit his 7th homer of the season. Mike Piazza and Shannon Stewart were 0 for 6 in the contest with the first four A's hitters having 2 hits in 21 at bats. Stewart and Jason Kendall have only 15 hits in 95 at bats combined.

Rich Hill is pitching the way the Cubs have expected this year giving up only one earned run in 14 innings and has posted a 0.64 ERA after two starts. It took ten games but Alfonso Soriano finally had his first RBI of the season yesterday. Jeff Suppan outpitches Kip Wells to lead the Brewers to a 3-2 win over the Cardinals take first place in NL Central. Albert Pujols continues to struggle hitting .158 and having only 2 runs batted in after the first ten games of season....Jimmy Rollins has twice as many homers (6) as Ryan Howard and Chase Utley have combined with 3....Diamondbacks are the first major league team to win eight games. Latroy Hawkins lost his third game of the season without a win blowing his second save of the year and has in the last four seasons has only 6 saves in his last 21 opportunities. Jake Peavy outpitched Jason Schmidt in the 7-2 Padres win over the Dodgers. Schmidt is 1-2 and has posted a 7.36 ERA this season.

Stats Corner

Only three hitters this season are hitting over .400 this season with Miguel Cabrera hitting .429 with Aramis Ramirez hitting .406 and former LSU star Aaron Hill hitting .405....Alex Rodriguez with 7 and Jimmy Rollins with 6 lead majors in homers....Dontrelle Willis is still only pitcher with 3 wins but 29 pitchers have 2 wins so he should have company at the top soon....Felix Hernandez and Justin Verlander are only pitchers with perfect 0.00 ERA's.

Standings Highlights

Surprise leaders in AL West are the Mariners and in NL Central the Brewers are leading. Mariners are only AL West team with a winning record....All six division leaders are a half game ahead as of yesterday....Brewers and Orioles have longest winning streaks at four games while longest losing streak is shared by Royals and Pirates with four each....None of the present division leaders won their division last season.

Today's Matchups

Giants at Pirates

Barry Zito tries to get on winning track after being 0-2 and having 8.18 ERA going against Ian Snell who is 0-1 with a 2.08 ERA.

Brewers at Cardinals

Ben Sheets who has a very good start and a very bad start in his first two starts will face Braden Looper who has pitched well for the Cardinals.

Yankees at Athletics

Andy Pettitte with a 1-0 record and 1.64 ERA will take the mound against Rich Harden 1-1 and 1.38 ERA. This could be the best pitching matchup of the day.

Grandson's Team Wins First Two Games My grandson Matthew who was replacing the regular first baseman for first two games of season fielded flawlessly yesterday as they won their second game of the season played on a cool day with blustery winds. We had heavy thunderstorms earlier in the day but the ground crews did a fantastic job of getting the diamond ready for the game.

Matthew's team was locked in a defensive battle that saw them not scoring many runs but just enough to take the win. Matthew hit the ball hard in each of his three at bats but hit into easy forceouts at second base all three times.

He was eagerly awaiting time for the game to start all day and when the game started shortly after 3 PM he was ready to play. Matthew has great baseball instincts and makes the plays that have to be made.

Most important of all Matthew has fun while playing the games. Wish all the readers could see the smile on his face when he takes the field. There may be better players in the league but none of them have the love for the game that Matthew has. He is only eight but has a love for the game old timers like me have been having since 1955.