Author: Christopher Glotfelty (Page 51 of 67)

      Jamie Moyer wins 250th

      May 31, 2009 /

      moyer

      Congratulations to Jamie Moyer, professional baseball’s Darryl Hammond, for earning win #250 against the Washington Nationals. Over six scoreless innings, the 46 year-old only allowed three hits en route to the Phillies’ 4-2 victory. In reaching this plateau, Moyer joins 43 others, only 10 of whom are lefthanders.

      Still, Moyer reached the 250-win plateau while moving into 44th place, one behind Bob Gibson with 251 on the all-time wins list. Among active pitchers, Moyer ranks third, trailing San Francisco’s Randy Johnson with 299. Moyer is the oldest pitcher to win his 250th game at 46 years and 194 days.

      “I really haven’t thought about it,” said Moyer, who is in his 23rd Major League season. “For me, it takes so much effort to prepare and to play. I’ve been taught to play the game as a team and not as an individual. That’s really how I approach things.”

      In his sixth attempt at the milestone, Moyer stayed in control, allowing just three hits and no walks, which had been a problem. One of those hits, off the bat of Josh Willingham, traveled beyond the left-field wall for a solo home run, but otherwise, no runners advanced past first base. Moyer struck out four, throwing 62 of 102 pitches (60.8 percent) for strikes.

      For the unassuming lefty, helping the Phils register the sweep and move a season-high eight games above .500 was more meaningful than his 250th career victory.

      “I was looking for some consistency,” Moyer said. “I wasn’t concerned with the win beside my name as much as the win beside the Phillies’ name.”

      I like Jamie Moyer. The man is (as far as I know), the only player in the MLB who rocks the stirrups. Also, despite his age, he’s managed to figure out a way to remain effective in a league with more cheaters than spring break in Puerto Vallarta. Along with Cole Hamels, Moyer was extremely vital to the Phillies during their 2008 championship run. Way to go, Jamie.

      MLB

      Defending champion Ivanovic loses as well

      May 31, 2009 /

      Eighth-seeded Ana Ivanovic was unable to defend her title at the French Open as she lost today to 19 year-old Victoria Azarenka. Ivanovic couldn’t get anything going during the entire match, making 20 unforced errors and only converting two of five break points. Along with Nadal’s unexpected loss earlier today, this French Open is going all sorts of weird.

      The eighth-seeded Ivanovic did little right on Court Suzanne Lenglen, converting only two of five break points and making 20 unforced errors in her 6-2, 6-3 loss to Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.

      Before the final game of the first set, Ivanovic called for a trainer to look at her neck. Azarenka then held to take the lead, and broke Ivanovic’s serve in the first and third games of the second set to take a 4-0 lead.

      Ivanovic won her only Grand Slam tournament title at last year’s French Open.

      The 19-year-old Azarenka lost in the fourth round at Roland Garros last year, and will next be playing in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.

      Now, I have never wanted to say a negative word about Ivanovic. She played amazing tennis at this time last year. Throw in the fact that she posed for FHM and speaks adorable English and I’m her #1 fan. Still, she’s far from an elite tennis player anymore. As much as I don’t want her to pull a Kournikova, it’s looking inevitable.

      Tennis

      Which baseball fans are the most valuable?

      May 24, 2009 /

      The fans of the San Francisco Giants, apparently. Forbes.com has an interesting article up which ranks the MLB’s most valuable fans. To find the results, they divided the local revenue of each team (including such sources as local television and radio revenue, gate receipts and sponsorships) for the 2008 season by the population of its metropolitan area, according to the 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimate. It’s an interesting piece worth checking out.

      A look at the top-ranked Giants’ $78 revenue per fan reflects just how juiced Bay Area fans are to see their team, regardless of its last few lackluster seasons. In comparison, the Dodgers, who made it to the National League Championship Series last season, only generated $38 in revenue per fan.

      Of the $166 million the Giants generated in local revenue last year, 71% came from gate receipts and from their local television deal. The Giants get better television ratings than most other teams in similar markets. In December 2007, the team smartly acquired a stake in FSN Bay Area, resulting in a station name change to CSN Bay Area and $30 million in rights fees, a 30% increase from the prior year (and more than double what the Minnesota Twins and San Diego Padres get from their local deals).

      For an additional wow factor, the Giants introduced two new luxury suites: the Legends Club, a 120-person party space in left field, and McCovey Cove Loft, a 40-person patio space off the right field wall that creates the illusion fans are actually sitting on top of the grass.

      Not surprisingly, the Florida Marlins were ranked as having the least-valuable fans which bring in only $11 per person. You can’t blame it on the players since the Marlins have won two World Series championships and boasted winning records the last five seasons. Maybe if their stadium didn’t have the disposition of a cemetery a few more people might show up.

      As for the Giants, despite having one of the most gorgeous ballparks in the league, the experience at their games is great. I went to AT&T Park a bunch of times when I was in college and had a great time, even though I was decked out in Dodgers regalia. The stadium is clean, the views are perfect, and the concessions prices aren’t absolutely terrible. On top of that, the place looks beautiful at night and the whole experience is augmented by their loyal fans. I can’t stand the team, but I love where they play ball.

      MLB

      Murray and Ivanovic advance at French Open

      May 24, 2009 /

      The 2009 French Open at Roland Garros kicked off today with a slew of quality matches. Third-ranked Andy Murray and defending women’s champion Ana Ivanovic both got off to sluggish starts but managed to pull through. In other notable matches, Marat Safin, Lleyton Hewitt, Gilles Simon, Fernando Verdasco, Marin Cilic, David Ferrer, Nadia Petrova, and Victoria Azarenka all advanced.

      Murray, who has reached only one clay-court semifinal in his career, was broken in the first game of the match, but he then dominated Chela with 55 winners and 10 aces to advance to the second round.

      “After that, I was very happy with the way I played,” Murray said of the early break. “I wasn’t expecting to play that well in the first match.”

      Defending champion Ana Ivanovic struggled on the important points in the opening match on center court before beating Sara Errani of Italy 7-6 (3), 6-3 in the women’s draw.

      The eighth-seeded Serb converted only five of the 20 break points she earned against her opponent. Errani broke three times and even served for the first set at 5-4.

      “I knew I had to work hard for my points today, and I’m very happy I did that,” Ivanovic said. “And I kept my composure.”

      Murray looked rusty early in his match, but he soon began to hit some hard groundstrokes and move Chela around the court. While Murray only had four fewer unforced errors — 19 to Chela’s 23 — the Briton had 41 more winners.

      I think people often forget about the dramatic weight in the women’s competition amidst all the Federer vs. Nadal speculation. Ana Ivanovic, who has taken a complete nosedive since winning this tournament last year, is going to have a rough road ahead of her if she wants regain her position as one of the best players in women’s tennis. Serena Williams and Dinara Safina have both been playing great tennis and I would put my money on either of them over Ivanovic.

      As for the men’s draw, don’t count on Murray making it to the finals. He’s not a great clay-court player and both Nadal and Federer know Roland Garros better than any player on the tour. Anything less than a Nadal/Federer final would be an injustice to all of tennis.

      Tennis

      What’s most important about Zimmerman’s streak…

      May 17, 2009 /

      maggio

      …is that it reminds us how phenomenal Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak really was. Legendary reporter Art Spander has written a nice column for Real Clear Sports looking closely at Zimmerman’s streak, DiMaggio’s record, and how fans respond to these hitting achievements.

      The best part is we may understand how good Ryan Zimmerman is going to be. The second-best part is we may again understand how good Joe DiMaggio was.

      Zimmerman, the kid from the Washington Nationals, caught our attention there for a month. He hit in 30 consecutive games.

      The streak ended Wednesday against the Giants. The streak ended with a standing ovation. From fans of the visiting team.

      The streak ended with greater appreciation for Joe DiMaggio.

      We don’t know much very about Joltin’ Joe these days. He came before ESPN and CNN and Twitter. He retired 58 years ago. But Ryan Zimmerman, age 24, knows all he needs to know about DiMaggio.

      Watching from the press box Wednesday was 85-year-old Charlie Silveria, who grew up here, who as a 10-year-old watched DiMaggio, then with the San Francisco Seals, hit in a Pacific Coast League record 61 straight games in 1933.

      Silveria joined Joe on the Yankees in the late 1940s and was Yogi Berra’s backup catcher. They talked about the old days. They didn’t talk much about streaks. “He was private,” reminded Silveria.

      We never learned what DiMaggio thought of hitting in 56 straight major league games. We did learn what Ryan Zimmerman thought of hitting in 30.

      Personally, I don’t think DiMaggio’s streak will ever be broken. When the Yankee Clipper hit for 56 straight games in 1941, the complexion of Major League Baseball was much different. Nowadays, hitters may face three or different pitchers in a game. When DiMaggio played, it was common that a team would only use one or two different pitchers. This makes it much harder on a hitter to make the proper adjustments after “studying” a pitcher from a previous at-bat. Even more so, rosters are much larger and contain many more pitchers than they did in the ’40s. Thus, it’s tougher for hitters to get a feel for pitchers over time since they really may not face them all that often in the grand scheme of things. On top of that, players are bigger babies than they were back when DiMaggio was around. Team management is so quick to act on a precautionary measure rather than have their guys man up and take the field. It’s also rare that a guy even plays 56 games in a row. I really like ballplayers like Zimmerman, Longoria, and Utley because they are multi-talented athletes that remind me of DiMaggio. Still, Joltin’ Joe was simply that much better than those guys. They just don’t make ’em like him anymore and even if they did, it would be hard for DiMaggio to eclipse his own record if he played in these times.

      MLB

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