Category: MLB (Page 366 of 448)

For anyone that finds athlete’s diets interesting, ESPN the Magazine took a look at San Francisco Giants’ closer Brian Wilson’s daily eating habits and it was kind of remarkable how much eggs and water my man puts down.

Brian Wilson: “A big part of my diet is that I prefer to cook for myself when I can. And I’m an adequate cook too. I’m not out there in the kitchen preparing a five course meal, but I can cook the things I want. After three months of really dieting and making your own stuff you can tell what’s good for you. For example, for breakfast I’ll usually make an eight egg-white omelette with bell peppers, shredded cheese, and slices or ham and turkey ripped up.”

BW: “As you can see from my fridge, I really enjoy drinking water. I read a 300 pages book on its benefits and it was fascinating. Over the course of a month, you can heal faster, you’re more aware, and your energy goes up. It also plays a huge role in digesting food and the way your metabolism works. On game days I drink 4 to 5 12 oz bottles during the morning workout, then another 4 to 5 during the game. That Coke was in the fridge when my roommate (Kevin Frandsen) and I moved in.”

An eight egg-white omelet? Holy crap.

Joe Sheehan SI.com takes a look at five things that are real, five that aren’t and five things that the month of April didn’t tell us regarding MLB. Among the five things he lists that are “real”, parity comes in at No. 5.

5) Parity. The last few years have seen the spread between the best and worst teams in the game narrow considerably, as natural cycles of aging and unnatural wealth-redistribution mechanisms serve to bring the extremes toward the middle. Throw in a National League in which three quarters of the teams can see themselves as one trade-deadline deal away from playing in October, and you have 1980s-style parity. The Diamondbacks and Cubs have so far separated themselves at the top, while the Nationals and Rangers have yet to reach 10 wins. Everyone else, from No. 3 to No. 28, is separated by just 6½ games.

That’s not a fluke: MLB has spent most of the 2000s working toward NFL-style competitive balance, and that’s what it now has. Whether that’s best for baseball remains to be seen — the game is at its best when great teams fight out great races in the regular season — but it does provide a heaping helping of hope and faith.

I can go either way on parity in sports. While I appreciate a late season series between the Yankees and Red Sox with a division on the line, I also enjoy seeing fresh teams in the mix from time to time. So I guess what it boils down to is if your favorite team was out of the running, would you rather have the same old rivalries or would you rather see teams like the 2006 Colorado Rockies make a run?