Entries Tagged 'Baseball' ↓

Veteran lefthander Tom Glavine took the mound for the Mets in Game 2 Thursday night and pitched six shutout innings in route to his 13th career playoff victory, while shortstop Jose Reyes got his first two career postseason RBIs, as New York beat the Dodgers 4-1 to take a two games to none lead in their best of five National League Division Series.

Friday is a travel day. The Mets can sweep the series with a win Saturday night in LA. Steve Trachsel will go for New York against the Dodgers’ Greg Maddux.

Results from St. Louis’s victory over San Diego and Detroit’s win over the Yankees, can be found here.

After losing a second starting pitcher, possibly for the remainder of the postseason, and starting a rookie in his place, the New York Mets behind a 4-5 day at the plate for a 14 year veteran playing in his first playoff game, beat the wild card Los Angeles Dodgers 6-5 in an exciting Game 1 of the National League Division Series.

Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez was the Mets starter who was scratched from the lineup following a calf muscle tear on Wednesday. Rookie John Maine, who has been called upon during the regular season to fill in at the last minute, pitched 4 and 1/3 innings in his place, while Carlos Delgado, a veteran player but post season rookie himself, had 4 hits including a home run, two runs scored and two rbi in the win.

The tension-filled game however will be forever remembered for the wild double play the Mets pulled off—or rather the Dodgers screwed up—in which two Los Angeles players were thrown out at home on the same play. You had to see it. It was straight out of Little League.

Game 2 of this best of five series is Thursday night in New York.

Results from other playoff series can be found here.

Because he’s celebrating.

That’s Carlos Delgado, first baseman for the New York Mets and he and his teammates won the National League East Division title Monday night, the first title in his 13 year major league career. A good cigar and a lot of champagne usually follows a victory.

“The Amazin’s” did it by blanking the Florida Marlins 4-0. Pitcher Steve Trachsel (15-7), their longest-tenured player, combined with relievers Guillermo Mota, Aaron Heilman and closer Billy Wagner on a four-hitter that allowed the team to claim the title at home, after road losses in Pittsburgh over the weekend. The Mets are the first major league team to clinch this year, running away with the division and finishing 14.5 games ahead of second place Philadelphia, 18.5 in front of the fourth place Atlanta Braves who were division winners last year.

With two weeks remaining in the regular season, Manager Willie Randolph will rest certain players and allow others to get some needed playing time, before the post season starts. The division title is the first of three hurdles they must overcome to win a World Series this year, and I like their chances. They have winning records against every other NL team this year, solid starting pitching, a deep bullpen, a powerful lineup, steady defense in the field, and a manager who knows how to win from his days as both a player and coach.

Understandably, here in New York, with the crosstown Yankees also on the verge of clinching the AL East, we’re dreaming of another Subway Series. That would undoubtedly bore the rest of the country, but frankly, nobody I know cares what the rest of the country thinks (LOL). Mets versus Yankees talk has been a hot topic around here, including a NY Times article and a follow-up letter to the editor by one of their most ardent fans.

As the baseball playoffs heat up, I’ll be devoting more space here to the Mets, following them as far as they advance.

And in football, how ‘bout those Giants!

This weekend, the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York will hold the induction ceremony for the class of 2006 hall of fame honorees, including 17 former players and officials from the Negro Leagues. We first reported on this back in February because of a personal involvement in the story.

Today’s New York Times sheds further light on the history of Blacks in baseball prior to Jackie Robinson breaking the Major League Baseball color barrier in 1947.

Before the summer is out it may be time to make a trip up there.

I did some more voiceover work for the Baseball Hall of Fame today. They contacted me a few weeks ago about doing some television public service announcements for them that will air across the country during Major League Baseball games. Of course I agreed and it was just a matter of matching schedules with the studio. They were recorded at the facilities of Major League Baseball Productions, the production arm of Major League Baseball, who provided their services as a favor to the Hall (the two are separate unaffiliated entities).

MLB Productions has their offices in the beautiful, relatively new Chelsea Market, which long time ago was a Nabisco factory on 9th Avenue between 15th and 16th Streets. The ground floor houses a variety of food-related retailers and wholesalers, and the upper floors have many media companies, including the Food Network. They’ve got about a dozen digital editing suites, lots of digital tape logging bays, a voiceover recording studio, lots of tape library space for the tons of game footage they receive daily, and two floors of offices. Pretty cool modern industrial design with a baseball motif.

We had about 15 :05 second tags to record and I of course knocked them out in no time. The MLB producer and engineer liked my sound and it was good to make that connection. Their offices are not far from mine and there could be more work down the road. For a guy not actively pursuing the business, fortune seems to be smiling down on me.

Speaking of baseball, this Sunday being Mother’s Day, players and teams across the league will be honoring mothers and raising awareness about breast cancer by swinging pink bats.

More than 50 major leaguers have ordered special pink-dyed versions of their lumber for use on that day, and all on-field personnel will be wearing pink bracelets. The bats and other commemorative items will be auctioned off later, with proceeds to benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.