A couple of baseball quickies the Clarion heard or noticed in the last week; one we liked, one we loathed, and one that is transcendentally more important than our opinions.
The one we liked was Matt Holliday talking about playing in Fenway Park. Holliday felt like it was substantially better to play in Fenway than any road stadium of his career. He cited the difference between the Boston atmosphere and the atmosphere almost anywhere else with uncanny accuracy. As Peter Gammons related the story, Holliday said the key was in almost every other ballpark fans reacted to the action with their cheering and booing, whereas in Fenway fans anticipated the action with their sound. The comparison is hardly the same, the anticipation keeps the players on edge creating a playoff like atmosphere every game.
The one we loathed was Peter Gammons in the same radio interview waxing on about the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays knowing they were for real because of how good their run differential was. What? Talk about a meaningless stat!!! Run differential couldn't be less important, games count the same 1-0 or 15-1. It is our belief that Gammons was swayed by the fact that the Mothership started carrying run differential in their standings page. Come on Peter, you're better than that. Don't be fooled. (Just like last season in the NL where run differential signified little about who even made the playoffs, run differential is wrong again this year.)
The third one is a charitable cause, strikeoutsfortroops.org This is a charity started by the San Francisco Giants lefty pitcher, Barry Zito. It has given over a million dollars to wounded war veterans since its establishment. It is highly rated for its proper allocation of funds to the cause rather than overhead. It came to the Clarion's notice on September 11th when Zito was on the Jim Rome radio program discussing that USAA had agreed to make a $500 donation for every strikeout in the major leagues that day. The Clarion believes in the collective obligation of all American citizens to wounded war veterans.
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2 comments:
Aaron,
There were 132 strikeouts in baseball on Patriot Day and that brought the amount USAA pledged to $66,000. On Sunday, at the San Diego Padres' Salute to Veterans game, USAA's Barbara Gentry, SVP for Community Affairs and Kent Fortune, GM and VP of USAA's Sacramentio regional office, presented a check to Strikeouts For Troops in the amount of $100,000.
Thank you for including Strikeouts For Troops in your sports blog and USAA couldn't agree with you more that we all have a responsibility to take care of our trrops AND their families. They do so much and ask for so little.
John - USAA Military Communications
Kudos to USAA! Keep up the good work folks.
And everyone else, keep the troops and their families in your hearts and minds.
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