MLB 2017

TW3Bee

Can We Play You Every Week
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MLB 2017

Soon comes around again.

I suppose The Dodgers will win the West again and then blowout in Post Season?

Some things never change.

Giants led The D'Backs three times and ended up blowing a save and losing on a walk off.
:laugh:
 

MLB 2017

Soon comes around again.

I suppose The Dodgers will win the West again and then blowout in Post Season?

Some things never change.

Giants led The D'Backs three times and ended up blowing a save and losing on a walk off.
:laugh:

It's always a good start when the opening game of the season features a Yankees defeat!
 

MLB 2017

MLB 2017

Jays Win!
Jays Win!
Oh My God The Jays Win!
 

MLB 2017

At last, the weekend concludes with a tiny glimmer of light at the end of the long, dark tunnel that the Blue Jays find themselves stuck in!
 

MLB 2017

Having got tickets for the Blue Jays this August don't tell me it's going to be like watching Sunderland in football terms !
 

MLB 2017

Having got tickets for the Blue Jays this August don't tell me it's going to be like watching Sunderland in football terms !

Well, there's no relegation from the American League East though, at the moment, it's possible that will be the only difference between the two experiences...

Still, 140 games still to go, so time yet to turn things around. Unlike Sunderland, I suspect.
 

MLB 2017

Having got tickets for the Blue Jays this August don't tell me it's going to be like watching Sunderland in football terms !

Well, there's no relegation from the American League East though, at the moment, it's possible that will be the only difference between the two experiences...

Still, 140 games still to go, so time yet to turn things around. Unlike Sunderland, I suspect.

We always come good after the All Star break :sneakoff:
 

MLB 2017

I'll be in California in the summer and have the opportunity to take in a game in either Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego or either of the LA teams.

Has anyone been to see these teams at home? Which is the best stadium or crowd to experience? At the moment the Oakland game ties in with my schedule the best...
 

MLB 2017

I see my bet on The Gnats is having the desired effect.


They had the worst record in the NL in the second half of last season, and they've started this one how they ended the last.
 

MLB 2017

:eek:

Blimey what happened to The Mets?

They got a 23-5 pounding at The Nats.
 

MLB 2017

I'll be in California in the summer and have the opportunity to take in a game in either Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego or either of the LA teams.

Has anyone been to see these teams at home? Which is the best stadium or crowd to experience? At the moment the Oakland game ties in with my schedule the best...

San Francisco Giants have a beautiful stadium right on the water, it is relatively new also.
 

MLB 2017

San Francisco Giants have a beautiful stadium right on the water, it is relatively new also.

You could hire a boat and wait in McCovey Cove for HR balls.
 

MLB 2017

Unfortunately the least pleasant of the stadiums you can visit on your trip is Oakland's Coliseum. It's really a stadium built for the Raiders NFL matches, which gets converted for baseball. Half the stadium gets closed off and covered in a big green tarpaulin when baseball is on and, because of the stadium layout, the field is actually a long way from the stands. Most players hate playing there. They have been talking about moving to a new stadium for some while - maybe now the Raiders are relocating to Las Vegas, the opportunity may present itself.

Easily the most picturesque is the San Francisco Giant's AT&T Park. Situated right on the bay, across from Oakland, it attracts the highest average attendance in MLB and is routinely full for matches. Occasionally a home run will fly right over the stands in right field and plop into the bay itself. There is even a scoreboard to tell the crowd how many 'splash hits' have been recorded! On the down side, I once watched a game there when an earthquake struck. The stadium is modern and built to withstand quakes so, rather than panic and run screaming, the crowd actually cheered as the stands quivered and the foul poles swung back and forth for a few minutes!!

San Diego's Petco Park is a modern, well equipped facility smack bang in the middle of town. Of the two Los Angeles stadia, Dodgers stadium is the most historic and, at 53,000+, is I believe currently the largest capacity in MLB. It has had a lot of renovation and improvement over the years but still feels like an older venue. Slightly younger, with a more modern feel and a bit more picturesque, is the Angel Stadium. I visited this last September for a couple of Blue Jay's games and it is quite a pleasant experience, However, the stadium is actually in Anaheim, which is about 40 odd miles from LA itself and is quite a trek through the notorious LA traffic by car. There is an AMTRAK station nearby, but I don't know what the service is like.

Given a choice I would go for a Giant's game but, as with most north American sports facilities, you are likely to have an enjoyable experience at any of them.
 

MLB 2017

I'll be in California in the summer and have the opportunity to take in a game in either Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego or either of the LA teams.

Has anyone been to see these teams at home? Which is the best stadium or crowd to experience? At the moment the Oakland game ties in with my schedule the best...

OOPS - sorry, just posted this and it was supposed to be in reply to this original message!!

Unfortunately the least pleasant of the stadiums you can visit on your trip is Oakland's Coliseum. It's really a stadium built for the Raiders NFL matches, which gets converted for baseball. Half the stadium gets closed off and covered in a big green tarpaulin when baseball is on and, because of the stadium layout, the field is actually a long way from the stands. Most players hate playing there. They have been talking about moving to a new stadium for some while - maybe now the Raiders are relocating to Las Vegas, the opportunity may present itself.

Easily the most picturesque is the San Francisco Giant's AT&T Park. Situated right on the bay, across from Oakland, it attracts the highest average attendance in MLB and is routinely full for matches. Occasionally a home run will fly right over the stands in right field and plop into the bay itself. There is even a scoreboard to tell the crowd how many 'splash hits' have been recorded! On the down side, I once watched a game there when an earthquake struck. The stadium is modern and built to withstand quakes so, rather than panic and run screaming, the crowd actually cheered as the stands quivered and the foul poles swung back and forth for a few minutes!!

San Diego's Petco Park is a modern, well equipped facility smack bang in the middle of town. Of the two Los Angeles stadia, Dodgers stadium is the most historic and, at 53,000+, is I believe currently the largest capacity in MLB. It has had a lot of renovation and improvement over the years but still feels like an older venue. Slightly younger, with a more modern feel and a bit more picturesque, is the Angel Stadium. I visited this last September for a couple of Blue Jay's games and it is quite a pleasant experience, However, the stadium is actually in Anaheim, which is about 40 odd miles from LA itself and is quite a trek through the notorious LA traffic by car. There is an AMTRAK station nearby, but I don't know what the service is like.

Given a choice I would go for a Giant's game but, as with most north American sports facilities, you are likely to have an enjoyable experience at any of them.
 

MLB 2017

Houston Astros got their bats working last night.

Trailled Minnesota Twins 8-2 going into the 8th inning, but then scored 11 in the top of the eigth and 3 more in the ninth to win it 16-8.
 

MLB 2017

There hasn't been much to cheer so far this season, but this was definitely a brief respite from Blue Jays melancholy.

Molina is a nut job and it doesn't take much to set him off, so this was hilarious.
 

MLB 2017

Nationals v Giant's yesterday.
Hunter Strckland drills Bryce Harper in the thigh. Clearly intentional and very nasty.
Bench clearing brawl follows:

 

MLB 2017

Thanks to Idaho Bee and Lee at the Bees for their replies.

I'll be taking in Giants vs Twins in an evening game. Looking forward to it!

Did go to a Braves game a few years ago. Liked their stadium. But expecting more in San Francisco.
 

MLB 2017

Thanks to Idaho Bee and Lee at the Bees for their replies.

I'll be taking in Giants vs Twins in an evening game. Looking forward to it!

Did go to a Braves game a few years ago. Liked their stadium. But expecting more in San Francisco.

SF is a great City to visit, but don't make the mistake I did by wearing Dodgers gear about town.
 

MLB 2017

Nationals v Giant's yesterday.
Hunter Strckland drills Bryce Harper in the thigh. Clearly intentional and very nasty.
Bench clearing brawl follows:



Strickland's got a long memory.
 

MLB 2017

Nationals v Giant's yesterday.
Hunter Strckland drills Bryce Harper in the thigh. Clearly intentional and very nasty.
Bench clearing brawl follows:



Harper got a 4 game ban and Strickland 6.
 

MLB 2017

Edinson Volquez of The Marlins throws a no-no against The D'Backs.
 

MLB 2017

Albert Pujols of The Angels hits his 600th career Home Run.
 

MLB 2017

Harper got a 4 game ban and Strickland 6.

Why does the MLB continue to tolerate such deliberate dangerous pitching? Sport has a serious old-school macho eye for an eye attitude. Very different to NFL in terms of priority on player safety and good conduct.
 

MLB 2017

Why does the MLB continue to tolerate such deliberate dangerous pitching? Sport has a serious old-school macho eye for an eye attitude. Very different to NFL in terms of priority on player safety and good conduct.

A lot of sports journalists in the US are asking the same question.
 

MLB 2017

Unfortunately the least pleasant of the stadiums you can visit on your trip is Oakland's Coliseum. It's really a stadium built for the Raiders NFL matches, which gets converted for baseball. Half the stadium gets closed off and covered in a big green tarpaulin when baseball is on and, because of the stadium layout, the field is actually a long way from the stands. Most players hate playing there. They have been talking about moving to a new stadium for some while - maybe now the Raiders are relocating to Las Vegas, the opportunity may present itself.

Easily the most picturesque is the San Francisco Giant's AT&T Park. Situated right on the bay, across from Oakland, it attracts the highest average attendance in MLB and is routinely full for matches. Occasionally a home run will fly right over the stands in right field and plop into the bay itself. There is even a scoreboard to tell the crowd how many 'splash hits' have been recorded! On the down side, I once watched a game there when an earthquake struck. The stadium is modern and built to withstand quakes so, rather than panic and run screaming, the crowd actually cheered as the stands quivered and the foul poles swung back and forth for a few minutes!!

San Diego's Petco Park is a modern, well equipped facility smack bang in the middle of town. Of the two Los Angeles stadia, Dodgers stadium is the most historic and, at 53,000+, is I believe currently the largest capacity in MLB. It has had a lot of renovation and improvement over the years but still feels like an older venue. Slightly younger, with a more modern feel and a bit more picturesque, is the Angel Stadium. I visited this last September for a couple of Blue Jay's games and it is quite a pleasant experience, However, the stadium is actually in Anaheim, which is about 40 odd miles from LA itself and is quite a trek through the notorious LA traffic by car. There is an AMTRAK station nearby, but I don't know what the service is like.

Given a choice I would go for a Giant's game but, as with most north American sports facilities, you are likely to have an enjoyable experience at any of them.

If you are staying in LA you can get the Amtrak train there and back to watch an evening game. That's what I did when I was there. The station is right outside the stadium too - 5 mins walk I'd say, so it's quite visitable :)
 

MLB 2017

Thanks to Idaho Bee and Lee at the Bees for their replies.

I'll be taking in Giants vs Twins in an evening game. Looking forward to it!

Did go to a Braves game a few years ago. Liked their stadium. But expecting more in San Francisco.

Wear a coat cos it can be freezing even in summer - you'll probably see people tucked up in blankets on the bleachers!
 

MLB 2017

:eek:

Just checked The Standings and seen that The Astros are flying in the AL West.

A record of 43-19 and already a 12 game lead over The Angels and Seattle.
 

MLB 2017

Wear a coat cos it can be freezing even in summer - you'll probably see people tucked up in blankets on the bleachers!

Yup! Plenty of people sitting under Giants blankets. I was prepared - wore four layers.

So my 2nd baseball game and can't say I'm converted. Not a lot happens! Finished 4-0 to the Twins and all the scoring came in one innings. Pretty boring otherwise.

And the crowd just don't get into it. Plenty of chatting, eating and drinking. More excitment when the bloomin "Kiss Cam" came out.

And the food and drink prices. Oh my! $12 for a standard beer and $18 for a 600ml bottle of craft beer. $10 for a hot dog. $4.75 for a coffee. Mental prices! Doesn't stop anyone though.

Oh and while here at the cricket I've seen guys selling beer out of a pack on their backs, at the baseball i saw someone doing the same with hot chocolate. With whipped cream from a can strapped to his waste. Yours for $6...

Question for any American on here - at those prices how many home games do fans go to across a season? I know there are plenty of games to choose from... Feels a bit different to having a season ticket at Griffin Park.
 

MLB 2017

Question for any American on here - at those prices how many home games do fans go to across a season? I know there are plenty of games to choose from... Feels a bit different to having a season ticket at Griffin Park.

81 home games per year.

You must have been unlucky with the game you went to.
Some games are like that mate.
IMHO Some pitching duels can be just as exciting as a slugfest.

Giants have been pretty poor this year having Bumgarner injured hasn't helped.
 

MLB 2017

Prices purely depend on day of game and who you're playing.

Cubs at the weekend against the Dodgers for example would cost $60-$400 but playing the Brewers on a Tuesday afternoon would be $12-$90

Season tickets cost upwards of $6,000
 

MLB 2017

Some unbelievably tight races in MLB.

NLWest has three teams, Rockies, Diamondbacks and The Dodgers seperated by one game.
ALCentral has the whole division just five games apart.

On the other hand the NLEast AND and ALWest are pretty much all over already.
 

MLB 2017

My bet on The Giants seems to be having the desired effect.

:D
 

MLB 2017

On the other hand the NLEast AND and ALWest are pretty much all over already.

Houston Astros are this years Chicago Cubs. The World Series is theirs to lose.
The Washington Nationals need to address bullpen issues through a trade, but otherwise are very strong in both starting pitching and offense.
 

MLB 2017

81 home games per year.

You must have been unlucky with the game you went to.
Some games are like that mate.
IMHO Some pitching duels can be just as exciting as a slugfest.

Giants have been pretty poor this year having Bumgarner injured hasn't helped.

https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/06/20/standstill-pace-play-cody-bellinger-clayton-kershaw

Interesting story here. Have to agree based on what I've seen this season. They desperately need to speed the game up.

I'm in Chicago over the August bank holiday and am planning to take in Cubs-Pirates, and, maybe White Sox-Tigers.
 

MLB 2017

So my 2nd baseball game and can't say I'm converted. Not a lot happens! Finished 4-0 to the Twins and all the scoring came in one innings. Pretty boring otherwise.

And the crowd just don't get into it. Plenty of chatting, eating and drinking. More excitment when the bloomin "Kiss Cam" came out.

And the food and drink prices. Oh my! $12 for a standard beer and $18 for a 600ml bottle of craft beer. $10 for a hot dog. $4.75 for a coffee. Mental prices! Doesn't stop anyone though.

Oh and while here at the cricket I've seen guys selling beer out of a pack on their backs, at the baseball i saw someone doing the same with hot chocolate. With whipped cream from a can strapped to his waste. Yours for $6...

Question for any American on here - at those prices how many home games do fans go to across a season? I know there are plenty of games to choose from... Feels a bit different to having a season ticket at Griffin Park.

I've been following baseball for years and have watched probably a couple of hundred games live. I have always found, with respect to crowd interaction, that the whole event can come across as more of a social occasion than necessarily a sporting one. For example, there are far more family groups than we experience at our sporting events and it's quite common to get families bringing babes in arms along. Quite a lot of time will be spent getting souvenirs for the children and so on. Also, there's no doubt that, for any particular game, there will be a substantial number in the crowd who are only loosely interested in the action on the field and may not actually know much about the game (though there are quite a few at Griffin Park who fit that description...). I admit that for someone brought up watching sport in the UK, the crowd dynamic at baseball does take some getting used to. I have just been across to see the Blue Jays over the Canada Day weekend, where the attendance was nearly 50,000 each day. Once all the excitement of the pre-game ceremonies died down, it sounded like there were about 5,000 in the stadium!

I'm not sure how many season ticket holders there are (I think the Blue Jays have about 12,000-15,000) but for obvious logistical reasons most won't attend all 81 games.

As for baseball itself, I find the game much more rewarding as a spectacle because over time I have developed an understanding of the context of the game. So a contest between two top pitchers, which to a newcomer may seem as though nothing much is going on, can often be the most interesting games, once you develop an understanding of what's happening and have an appreciation for the skills being displayed. It's not dissimilar to cricket, in so far as a contest between a top bowler and a top batsman might be gripping to an enthusiast, even though few runs get scored and no wickets get taken. I think I read once that it's knowing what might happen that makes it interesting. Also, like cricket, having some knowledge of the history of the game makes it more interesting - you can imagine, with each team playing 162 games every year, that there's a pretty substantial amount of statistical analysis to hand. Knowing where a particular player sits in the overall scheme of things definitely makes watching more interesting, for example if long standing milestones are being approached or a player is having a spectacular season.

In the end though it's a sport and, like every other sport, on any given day the game can leave you wondering why you bother or it can have you captivated.
 

MLB 2017

Anyone going to the 'MLB Battlegrounds' event in Hyde Park tonight?

Can't make it I'm afraid. Hopefully it's a success. There's been some tentative talk about playing regular season MLB games over here - a la the NFL - for a while, but nothing seems to come of it.

They've taken games to Tokyo a couple of times and, a few years ago, the season opener was played at the Sydney Cricket Ground, so there's definitely an appetite to spread the game. Maybe tonight's event is part of a charm offensive!
 
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