Stadiums I've Been To... #1 - FirstEnergy Park (Lakewood BlueClaws)

In 2019, as a new homeowner who no longer needed to save every penny for a down payment, I got the idea to use some spending cash to see how many stadiums I can attend over the summer. That has since developed into somewhat of a personal challenge to attend games at all 30 MLB parks over the next few years in addition to hitting some minor league parks along the way. It's only right that we started with the local favorite.

I've lived at the Shore for 20+ years and have never seen an actual BlueClaw

Stadium: FirstEnergy Park
Team: Lakewood BlueClaws (Lakewood, NJ)
Class: Low A
Affiliate: Philadelphia Phillies
Game Date: June 9, 2019
Final Score: Greensboro 3, Lakewood 4

FirstEnergy Park

Minor league baseball is something I enjoy more than most baseball fans. Games are cheap, fan friendly, and generally more accessible for the average person. On top of which, since there's no TV timeouts or anything like that, games are a little bit shorter. Overall it creates for a more relaxing environment. Additionally, there's something cool about being able to look back years down the road to see what MLB caliber player came through the organization.

I moved to the Jersey Shore in 1999 and soon thereafter, my father informed me that a professional baseball team was being established locally. That team was hosting a contest where kids were submitting their ideas for what the team should be called. I don't remember what my idea was, probably something shark related, and I don't even remember if we even sent in the idea. I do vividly remember learning that the what the team decided on and my first reaction being, "what the fuck is a BlueClaw?"

I've probably gone to this stadium more than any other ballpark in America, aside from Skylands Stadium where my family had season tickets to see the now defunct New Jersey Cardinals when I was still living in Union, NJ. Typically I go watch the BlueClaws 2 or 3 times a year for a variety of reasons. I live about 15 minutes down the road so going is a pretty easy commute, but I've also attended games here as part of school field trips, work functions, and even as a pre-game honoree as the softball team that I coached was recognized for their season accolades. Over the years, I've been able to see Hall of Famer Roy Halladay make a rehab start, current MLB star Bryce Harper play as an 18 year old, and I've even had the experience of watching a friend from high school play against the BlueClaws during his minor league baseball career.

Unique Stadium Features:
Every game features a pork roll, egg, and cheese race where fans root for which delicious breakfast sandwich ingredient they want to win. I always vote for cheese because he's more aerodynamic. If you don't know what pork roll is, El Jefe Eats should be able to help you out. Also, if you call it Taylor Ham you are a fucking idiot.

Lakewood also has "sod squad" seats where fans can pay for general admission, bring a blanket, and watch the game from the grassy hill behind the left and right field walls. The sod squad has an incredible mix of parents enjoying a game with their kids without seat restrictions as well as college kids blacking out on cheap thirsty Thursday beer.

Ball Park Rating: 8.1/10
I'm going to rate the minor and major league stadiums on different scales. As far as minor league stadiums go, I'm biased but I like this park. It's clean, super easy to get to, and just a fun and friendly atmosphere.

Shoutout to Lakewood for being one of the few minor league teams that sells shot glasses on site

Unboxing Some Early 90's Baseball Cards

A few posts back I referenced my father's baseball themed office that contains tons of baseball memorabilia including around 100,000 trading cards which honestly looking back might be a low estimate. He's been painting this office and had to move a lot of things in the living room to give himself some space to work - again, this room is basically the size of a walk in closet. While visiting my parents on Easter Sunday, I happened to peak over at some of these things and noticed an unopened box of baseball cards that at first glance, appeared to be from the late 80's or early 90's. Deprived of sports for the last month, I walked over to see what else was in this pile of relocated boxes and I was pretty surprised to find an additional 13 boxes of unopened wax packs. These boxes contained anywhere from 36-48 packs with 10-12 cards in a pack. Around 6000, 30-year old baseball cards just sitting there unopened.

Remember that scene in Happy Gilmore where Happy takes a hockey puck out of his pocket and challenges Virginia to shoot it into the net from center ice in exchange for a kiss, and Virginia's only concern is "Do you always carry a puck around" and Happy is like "Yeah...?" My dad had a similar reaction when I asked him if he's really hung on to over a dozen unopened boxes of baseball cards for the last 30 years.

One of the boxes my dad had laying around was Leaf Studio from 1992 - a 260 card base set with 14 card subset of inserts. For those unfamiliar to the hobby, a base set includes a simple picture of a player with his name, position and team, and an insert subset is a collection of rarer cards that fit some kind of theme. The 1992 Leaf Studio inserts featured active (at the time) players wearing vintage jerseys. The entire box included 48 packs of 12 cards each. I decided to take a box back home with me, and open it on Google Hangouts with a few friends.

We opened 12 of the 48 packs before calling it a night, but had a ton of laughs while looking back at some of the players that played when we first started watching baseball 25+ years ago. What made this set unique was the back of each card player's card. Typically, the back side of a baseball card includes the player's career stats and maybe a fun fact about their playing career. This set didn't show you their stats, but instead gave you a quick little biography about their hobbies, favorite books or movies, people they'd like to meet, etc. In other words, we got a glimpse of what an MLB player's dating profile would have looked in 1992.

Not counting duplicates, we've pulled the cards of 118 different players in the base set in addition to 2 cards in the "Heritage Series" subset. Without further ado, here are my favorite things from the those 120 cards:

-My Three Favorite Photos:

I have to imagine if Tinder was around in 1992, this would have been Jose Rijo's default picture. The guy is a professional MLB player and according to the back of his card was the 1990 World Series MVP, but he still needed to grab a dumbbell and flex for his picture. That dumbbell can't weigh more than 10 pounds either. I have to imagine Rijo has a poster-size version of this card framed somewhere in his current house. To top it all off, the back of his card says the person he would like to meet is Paula Abdul. I'm going to pretend this card was his way of trying to serenade her in some weird way. Can't hate on the guy for shooting his shot.

What a beast. Between Rijo and Rob Dibble, the early 1990's Cincinnati Reds had more swag than can be contained. I imagine Leaf asked Dibble to come to the photo shoot with his baseball gear and he said nah, fuck that. I'm just gonna rock some shades and look like a badass. The back of his card makes it even better. Hobbies include playing the drums. His favorite singer is Ronnie James Dio. Favorite actor is Bruce Willis. Favorite book is the bible. Would like to meet... of all people to pick in 1992... Donald Trump.

This is without question the best card in the set. Most players pose with a glove or a bat. No. Jose Lind showed up to this photo shoot with a fucking samurai sword. Eager to learn more about this guy, we Googled him and found out he was arrested in 1996 for drunkenly leaving the scene of an accident and doing so with possession of cocaine and being naked from the waist down. The quote from the arresting state trooper is one of the greatest sentences ever spoken: "He actually mentioned that he was a baseball player but I didn't believe him. The reason we didn't do a field sobriety test on the side of the road was because he had no pants."

-The Hall of Famers:
Twelve of the cards pulled so far have since gone on to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame: John Smoltz, Ryne Sandberg, Barry Larkin, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Eddie Murray, Tony Gwynn, George Brett, Robin Yount, Harold Baines, Randy Johnson, and Nolan Ryan. A thirteenth player, Deion Sanders, was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.

Favorite Hobbies: long walks on the beach and beating the shit out of Robin Ventura

-The Managers:
Two of the players pulled included current MLB managers: Joe Girardi and Don Mattingly. Former Nationals manager Matt Williams was also pulled.

A rare look at Joe Girardi not over-managing a baseball game

-The Broadcasters:
At least 5 of the players found in my 12 packs have gone on to be pretty famous for their broadcasting abilities: John Kruk, Orel Hershiser, Paul O'Neill, Eric Karros, and Rick Sutcliffe.

I remember being dumbfounded as a kid when I found out that fat slob John Kruk used to play baseball

-Actual MLB Players That Sound Like They'd Be Porn Stars:
-Dickie Thon, Ricky Bones, and Randy Ready

Favorite Actor: Myself
Favorite Movie: Backdoor Sluts 9

-Other Notable Players:
-Delino DeShields was in this set. His son Delino DeShields Jr. has been on the Texas Rangers the last 5 seasons.

-Joe Carter and Mitch Williams were pulled from the same exact pack. Cruel.

-Three guys who can be considered Mets legends for different reasons were pulled: Doc Gooden, Bobby Bonilla, and Lenny Dykstra.

If the Mets won the World Series in 2015, would Bonilla have received a ring?

-Most Popular Answers on the Backs
-Person I'd Like to Meet: Jesus Christ
-Favorite Book: The Bible
(I'd estimate 1/3 of the cards pulled mentioned one or the other)
-Favorite Movie: 1991 Best Picture winner, The Silence of the Lambs
-Favorite Talk Show Host: Arsenio Hall
-Favorite Actor: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Pacino, and Kevin Costner.

-Heritage Series Inserts:
These cards are pretty cool. They feature players wearing vintage uniforms and the photos have a sepia colored filter to make them look old school. We pulled two so far: Jose Canseco wearing a 1929 Philadelphia A's jersey and Don Mattingly wearing a 1939 New York Yankees jersey and holding a Lou Gehrig bat.

Additional Notes:

-Card collecting was so much more fun when the cards were simple and mass produced. The hobby took a nose-dive when companies found out people will pay a ton for cards that include jersey fragments and things like that.

-In addition to Mattingly and Girardi, there are 7 more current MLB managers that I distinctly remember watching throughout middle and high school: Craig Counsell, David Bell, Rocco Baldelli, Mike Matheny, Aaron Boone, Gabe Kapler, and Dave Roberts.

-I wish I had the connections to interview some of these players and ask them if they could fathom a guess as to what they said their favorite things were back in 1992.

-My dad sold me this box for $5. I still haven't paid him.

Most Likely Hall of Famer from Each Team - National League

A few days ago, I wrote about a simple concept inspired by an ESPN.com article. The article discussed which player from each NBA team was most likely to one day be enshrined in the basketball hall of fame. I decided to apply the same idea to the MLB and predicted which American League players I thought would eventually make it to Cooperstown. Now it's time for the National League.

NL West:

San Diego Padres - Fernando Tatis Jr.: This kid right now is one of the most exciting and fun players in baseball to watch. The son of a former big leaguer who's only claim to fame is hitting 2 grand slams in one inning, Tatis Jr. does everything you want in a player. He has a potential to be a future 40-40 guy in addition to having the best arm among all MLB shortstops. He's only 21 years old but is already one of the top players in the league and should be for many more years to come. Did I mention his father hit 2 grand slams in one inning? I bet you've never heard that before. If I could somehow copyright that fact and profit off of it every time an announcer mentions it on air, I'd be a millionaire by the time Tatis Jr. retires.

Fernando Tatis Jr. thinking about that time his father hit
2 grand slams in one inning.

San Francisco Giants - Buster Posey: In the last 55 years, 5 catchers have won an MVP award. Johnny Bench and Pudge Rodriguez are already hall of famers, Joe Mauer will be eventually, Thurmon Munson would have been if his life wasn't cut short during his playing career, and the last is Buster Posey. Posey is a 3x World Series champ, has caught 3 no hitters, and has some silver sluggers and gold gloves in addition to an MVP award. Of all of his accoldaes, none are as impressive as somehow surviving 3 seasons as teammates with Aubrey Huff.

LA Dodgers - Clayton Kershaw: If you go to this page that lists the pitchers with the best ERAs in baseball history, you'll see the headshots of the top 24 players. 23 of those pictures are black and white and the other is, well, it's not Clayton Kershaw. It's Mariano Rivera. But for a long time, Kershaw was the 24th slot but a "bad" year last year where he only finished 10th in the MLB in ERA with a 3.03 dropped him out of the top 24. His career ERA now stands at 2.44 which is mindblowingly low for a modern day pitcher. Over his career, Kershaw has won 3 Cy Youngs and has 7 top five finishes in addition to winning the MVP in 2014. He's one of the best starting pitchers of all time and is a no-brainer hall of famer.

The international sign for Clayton
Kershaw in the playoffs

Arizona Diamondbacks - Madison Bumgarner: Admittedly, I'm not big on evaluating any player's career on postseason stats. The postseason is usually a small sample size in comparison to the rest of a player's career and that goes for all sports. However, Bumgarner's postseason stats are too impressive to ignore. His career postseason ERA is in the low 2's in addition to having 3 World Series rings and a World Series MVP. In 36 innings of World Series pitching, he's allowed only 1 run (100 points to anyone who can tell me who homered off him to score it) and has the lowest World Series ERA of all time at 0.25. Unfortunately Bumgarner is as unlikable as they come, as he's one of those players who throws a tantrum every time anybody acts like they're having fun. If only he applied those same rules to riding dirt bikes or swimming in the ocean.

Colorado Rockies - Nolan Arenado: Over the last 5 years, Arenado's has posted remarkably consistent season totals in just about every category, in addition to being one of the best defensive players in the league. He's an MVP candidate every year but it's hard to overlook the Coors effect as his batting average and on base percentage are 60 points lower on the road than at home. If he was an Astro, there would be some cause for suspicion. Instead he's a Rockie so the fans are probably way too baked to even give a shit.

NL Central:

St. Louis Cardinals - Yadier Molina: Yadier in his prime was a wizard behind the plate and did something most catchers today are incapable of doing - batting above like .210. He's also one of three Molina brothers to have caught in the big leagues and all 3 of them rank in the top 5 slowest players to ever play the game (Bartolo Colon and Dmitri Young are the others). In all seriousness though, Yadi is one of the best catchers to ever play the game and plays the game the right way. It's not like the Cardinals would ever get caught in a cheating scandal. 

Chicago Cubs - Javy Baez: Former Cubs manager Joe Maddon once said that Javy Baez is the best tagger he's ever seen. I had no idea what that even meant, and then I saw this play and realized, holy shit Javy Baez is the best tagger I've ever seen.  Baez can play anywhere in the infield, is super aggressive on the bases, and will swing at just about anything and still make contact. He's one of Chicago's fan favorites, along with freezing cold weather year round and getting shot while walking down the street.

Milwaukee Brewers - Christian Yelich: After getting out of the dumpster fire that is the Miami Marlins organization (more on that later), Yelich's career exploded with an MVP award and a 2nd place finish in his first two years with the Brewers. He's a top player in baseball with insane all around numbers and bares a striking resemblance to SNL cast member and comedian Pete Davidson.

It would be easy to mistake Christian Yelich for Pete Davidson, but
unlike Davidson, Yelich can hit baseballs and make people laugh

Cincinnati Reds - Joey Votto: In the 9 season from 2010 to 2018, Joey Votto led the league in on base percentage 7 times. One of the years he didn't win the OBP crown he missed 100 games. The other year he posted a career high OBP of .459 but lost the title by a fraction of a point to Bryce Harper. Votto has an MVP to his name and 5 more top 10 finishes in addition to being one of funniest guys in baseball.

Joey Votto is a hall of famer. No doubt aboot it.

Pittsburgh Pirates - Josh Bell: Every team in the NL Central has at least one hall of fame lock, and then there's the Pittsburgh Pirates. Josh Bell is an enormous human being who had nearly 30 homers and 85 RBI before the 4th of July last year. He ended up cooling off around the all star break, but prior to that he was a treat to watch, routinely sending balls into the Allegheny river to reside with the fans hopes of ever seeing their team make the playoffs. 

NL East:

Washington Nationals - Max Scherzer: This guy might be the scariest pitcher in baseball to face because he's uber competitive and pitches with a ton of emotion. He also has two different color eyes and might be a terminator. Scherzer has finished in the top 5 in Cy Young voting each of the last 7 years having won the award 3 times across both leagues and was able to finally win a World Series last year. He's a no brainer for Cooperstown.

Max Scherzer is a friend of Sarah Connor

Atlanta Braves - Ronald Acuna: Twenty eight players in National League history have hit 30 homers and stolen 30 bases in the same season. Acuna is one of them. Only 4 players in MLB history have hit 40 homers and stolen 40 bases in one season. Last year, Acuna was 3 stolen bases shy of becoming the 5th, but it's only a matter of time before he reaches those totals. Additionally if there is ever a guy to be the inaugural member on the 50-50 club, it's Acuna. He's only 21 years old and already a top three player in baseball. Go back and read all the underlined words in red. Sorry Atlanta.

New York Mets - Jacob Degrom: At one point, Zack Wheeler was the Mets best pitching prospect. Then Matt Harvey went on a 2 year run of dominance. During all of this, Noah Syndergaard was regarded as having the best stuff. Meanwhile, Jacob Degrom kept chugging along posting absurd numbers that have led to back-to-back Cy Young awards. Over his last 2 seasons, Degrom has posted a 2.05 ERA. That means he's giving up and insanely low TWO RUNS EVERY NINE INNINGS and only has a 21-17 record to show for it. When all is said and done, Degrom has a really good chance of passing Ed Kranepool as the greatest Met of all time.

Philadelphia Phillies - Bryce Harper: You know what current Philly had an MVP award, four top 5 MVP finishes, a top 5 rookie of the year finish, 4 silver sluggers and 5 all star appearances before the age of 28? Actually it's Andrew McCutchen, but Bryce Harper is pretty good too. Harper came into the league with more hype than anyone in MLB history. He was hitting 500 foot home runs while in high school and had the ability to play any position in baseball. Just about every minor league game he played in sold out and he made his MLB debut as a teenager. By age 22 he was an MVP, rookie of the year, and 3 time all star. He'll likely end up really huge career totals but despite all of the accolades, baseball fans are left wondering if he will ever live up to the hype. It just seems like unrealistic expectations were set from the beginning and the hype got to his head. The fact that he's kind of a dick makes it easy to call him overrated. The Washington Nationals winning the World Series the same year he left in free agency didn't help his case either.

The floor is the NLCS

Miami Marlins - Ryne Stanek: I have no idea. The Marlins are a disaster and there is a less than 0 chance anyone on this roster makes the hall of fame. Stanek at least possesses the unique trait of being one of the original "openers" in baseball. He's good at what he does but is far from hall of fame caliber so I will use the rest of this blurb to bash the franchise that currently pays him.

The Miami Marlins are the most poorly run franchise in all of sports. They make the Cleveland Browns look competent. This franchise at one point signed a bunch of stars to backloaded contracts, used this talented roster to secure a lucrative TV contract and a brand new stadium paid for mostly by tax payers, and then proceeded to trade all of those star players before the the higher annual salaries kicked in. The owner then sold the franchise and made a huge profit. Derek Jeter then came in and proceeded to trade Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, and Marcel Ozuna which you can argue would be the best outfield in baseball right now. This continued a tradition of the Marlins trading all of their good players. Of the top 25 players in Marlins history, 23 have been traded. The other two are AJ Burnett who left as a free agent and Jose Fernandez who sadly died before the Marlins could trade him away too. Somehow, the Marlins have never lost a playoff series and have two World Series titles but are as big of a joke as any team in all of sports, with no disrespect aimed at the players who suit up every day. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.


Additional notes:

-The National League needs a DH. Pitchers hitting is a gigantic waste of everyone's time.

-Nolan Arenado and Matt Chapman, the two best defensive 3rd basemen in all of baseball, were on the same high school team.

-Top position players in baseball: (1) Trout, (2) Yelich, (3) Acuna, (4) Lindor, (5) Bellinger, (HM) Betts, Arenado, Bregman*, Freeman

-Top pitchers in baseball:  (1) Degrom, (2) Cole, (3) Verlander, (4) Scherzer, (5) Strasburg, (HM) Buehler, Ryu, Morton, Hader

-Fernando Tatis once hit 2 grand slams in one inning

-I rip on Derek Jeter a lot but really he is a great GM when it comes to negotiating player contracts because he doesn't range very far from where he starts

Most Likely Hall of Famer from Each Team - American League

At this point, there's really not much interesting sports journalism going on, and that includes the poorly written blog you're currently reading. However, I did see an interesting article on ESPN the other day that attempted to predict one player from each NBA team that would eventually find their way to the basketball hall of fame. I found the article interesting because of the wide variety of players they chose. There were slam dunk picks (Lebron, KD, Kawhi) and some guys being picked squarely on potential (Zion, Morant), but there were also some teams that didn't really have either. For what it's worth, the author thought the Knicks were so worthless that he wouldn't name anyone from their roster. For other teams, names like D-Rose and Kevin Love were suggested for one reason or another and it got me wondering if I can come up with an MLB equivalent. I'm certainly going to try.

I'll preface this by saying there is no chance all 30 of these guys make the hall of fame. I'd go as far to say half of them probably won't. Some of the teams in the league really lack star power but I'm still going to pick someone from each roster. I'm going to split this post into two parts and start with the American League with a post about the National League coming in the near future.

AL West:
Houston Astros - Justin Verlander: The Astros have somewhere between 3 and 5 guys that have the talent to be hall of famers but it'll be interesting to see how the cheating scandal effects their legacies moving forward. Verlander is a guy who's been dominant since I was in high school and if you break down career strikeouts by inning, he is the active strikeout leader in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th innings. This of course is the 2nd most impressive he's done in his life behind marrying Kate Upton. Verlander is a Cooperstown lock until we inevitably find out how the Astros cheated to benefit their pitchers as well. 100 points awarded to anyone who can tell me who is the active leader in 8th and 9th inning strikeouts, different guy for each inning.

LA Angels - Mike Trout: This is probably the easiest pick of the entire post. Trout is elite in every facet of the game except for arm strength where he's certainly above average. In his 7 full MLB seasons, he's finished 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 1st, 4th, 2nd, and 1st in MVP voting. The year he finished 4th, he missed nearly 50 games. He's the best player I've ever seen.

Mike Trout, Tim Salmon, and AJ Pollock would
make up my all time fish themed outfield

Oakland A's - Matt Chapman: The rest of the AL West gets a little weird as the elite talent gets stretched thin. With Chapman, you have the best defensive player in the MLB (proof) who also happened to hit 36 home runs last year. The A's typically trade all of their good players in order to save money so I imagine Chapman won't be on this team for much longer. Maybe the A's front office can use all of their surplus to get dugouts that don't smell like shit.

Texas Rangers - Corey Kluber: Kluber has been as good of a pitcher as anyone the last 5 or 6 years. Injuries derailed him a bit last season but I was eager to see what he'd do with his new team in Texas this year. However, the Ballpark at Arlington is a hitter friendly stadium where we see a lot of bombs dropped, which isn't surprising considering the Rangers used to be owned by George Bush.

Seattle Mariners - Dee Gordon: The Mariners suck. Dee Gordon stole a lot of bases a few years ago and he hit one of the most memorable home runs in Marlins history (RIP Jose). He's my reluctant pick.

AL Central:
Cleveland Indians - Francisco Lindor: After Mike Trout, there's a debate over who the next best player in baseball is. Lindor is certainly in the conversation. He hits for contact and power, steals bases, and plays gold glove caliber defense.

Francisco... that's fun to say. Francisco... Francisco...

Minnesota Twins - Josh Donaldson: Donaldson is an example of a good player the A's like to trade away. He's bounced around a few teams over his career but has always been a solid player. He has an MVP award and plays some great defense. He's also going to make a great hitting instructor once his playing career ends (worth a watch if you're a baseball nerd). There's no doubt in my mind that by adding Donaldson, the Twins have solidified their status as a top team in the American League that will continue to lose to the Yankees in the first round of the playoffs.

Chicago White Sox - Yoan Moncada: I don't think the White Sox have been relevant since Chris Sale stormed into the clubhouse before a game and literally chopped up the team's uniforms because he thought they were stupid. As a player acquired in the Sale trade, Moncada was failing to live up to his potential before having a huge breakout year last season. A few more seasons like that and maybe the White Sox can be a dark horse to finish two games below .500.

Detroit Tigers - Miguel Cabrera: Cabrera has been playing baseball since I was in middle school, has a couple MVP awards, a triple crown, a World Series, and at one point in his career batted .330 over an 8 year stretch. Absurd. One of the best hitters I've seen.

Up until recently, I always thought of Miguel Cabrera as the Tiger King.

Kansas City Royals - Whit Merrifield: Aside from a couple years where the Royals were dominant despite a lack of real star power, they've been a complete dogshit franchise for most of my life. It's a real shame considering how beautiful their stadium looks. Whit Merrifield is one of the best players in baseball that no one talks about. He's a .300 hitter who steals bases, plays good defense, and can play pretty much anywhere in the field. Unfortunately for Merrifield, the 2nd best baseball player in Kansas City is currently the Chiefs quarterback. It would be cool for the entire state of Kansas to see Patrick Mahomes follow in the footsteps of former Royal Bo Jackson as a multi-sport athlete.

AL East:
New York Yankees - Giancarlo Stanton: Shout out to all 6 people who came to this blog post, skipped the entire body to find the Yankees, and are now closing the tab thinking I'm an idiot. Remember how ecstatic you all were when Derek Jeter traded him away for free? Remember the reasons you were hyped to have him? Those reasons are why I'm going with Stanton here. Despite Yankee fans hating this guy for being injury prone, he's still a 35 HR, 100 RBI guy if he can get healthy. Most people would probably nominate Aaron Judge at this spot, but honestly they're the same exact player from height to power to arm strength to strikeout rate. The only difference is Stanton has done it for much longer and unlike Judge, actually won an MVP award (shots fired).

Boston Red Sox - Chris Sale: The guy is a bit a of a head case but Sale also recently had a 7 year stretch of finishing top 5 in Cy Young voting. He also has the 2nd best strikeout rate in baseball history (100 points to anyone who can name #1 without looking it up.) Sale tends to fade as the season goes on and has been underwhelming in the playoffs but his career numbers are good enough.

Chris Sale totally misunderstood what a cutter means in baseball

Tampa Bay Rays - Austin Meadows: Blake Snell would probably be the popular choice here but I think he's more of a one-year wonder than a hall of fame pitcher. Austin Meadows on the other hand can absolutely rake. He's only 24 years old and is coming off a 33 home run total in his first full season. I wouldn't be surprised if Tampa starts doing some Meadows themed promotions, like giving player t-shirts or bobble heads to all 14 fans in attendance.

Toronto Blue Jays - Bo Bichette: The Blue Jays have been trying this interesting strategy of drafting the sons of former MLB players. Their current starting lineup includes the offspring of hall of famers Vlad Guerrero and Craig Biggio, as well as Dante Bichette. While Vlad Jr. has been really hyped and already won the home run derby as a rookie, I think Bichette ultimately ends up the better player.  Bichette played in 80 fewer games than Vlad and only hit 4 fewer home runs and 8 fewer doubles while posting a better batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage. Toronto might be dangerous in a few years and could soon be a 100 win team, which is about 72 wins after you factor in the conversion rate.

Baltimore Orioles - Scott Boras: Anyone who can negotiate $161 million for Chris Davis deserves their own hallway in Cooperstown.

My Top 5 Baseball Movies

Twenty-seven years ago today, Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez pickled The Beast. In doing so, he destroyed an old blind man's property, ruined a picnic, ripped apart a movie screen, and nearly killed a dog all to rescue a Babe Ruth signed baseball. And we love him for it.

The Sandlot was released in theaters on April 7, 1993 and has since become a cult classic. It's one of those movies that not only has everyone seen, but everyone loves, regardless of age, race, gender, or anything else. I legitimately can't think of a single person I know who doesn't enjoy this movie. My generation remembers it as the baseball movie we all watched and loved as kids, but being set in the year Lou Brock broke the stolen base record (1962), it's a movie our parents can also relate to. Very few movies can capture the nostalgia across multiple generations, but I guess that's what helps make it a great movie.

Seeing posts on Twitter about today being The Sandlot's birthday got me thinking about what my favorite baseball movies are so I came up with a top 5. We'll start with 3 movies that didn't make the cut for various reasons:

Space Jam - Everyone who knows me knows Space Jam is my favorite movie of all time. While widely considered a basketball movie, the movie begins with a young Michael Jordan telling his father about his dreams of playing both basketball and baseball. Following an awesome opening credit baseketball montage, the next scene features MJ, now retired from basketball, announcing his pursuit of a baseball career. Other scenes include MJ striking out in a AA game, talking with his son about his rec league baseball game, and he even returns to Earth at a baseball field. I wanted to slide Space Jam into the baseball category, but I quickly realized one of the most annoying parts about Christmas is all the squids that try really hard to pretend Die Hard is a Christmas movie. I won't subject Space Jam to that so we'll leave it off the list.

Major League - Most people love Major League and for a long while, I did too. Something changed around 2011 when Charlie Sheen went completely nuts. Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty of garbage people in this world whose work I still like. For example, despite Kanye being a gigantic asshole, I still love just about everything on his first 5 albums. Despite Harvey Weinstein being a sexual abuser and all around piece of shit, I still love Inglorious Basterds and Good Will Hunting. But there's something about the amount of uninteresting, attention-craving nonsense that has since made me hate just about everything associated with Charlie Sheen. I can't even watch The Departed without seeing Martin Sheen and immediately thinking about his dipshit son.

Hardball - Is Keanu Reeves a good actor? He'll never win an Oscar, hell I'm not even sure if he's ever been nominated for one, but there's something about all of his movies that I thoroughly enjoy. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure would be in my all time top 10, Point Break and The Replacements are movies I rarely skip by when they're on TV, and Hardball is one of my favorite baseball movies. While not one of the more popular sports movies, Hardball follows the story of a gambling addict as he coaches an inner-city youth baseball team. It's a great movie that even features a Sammy Sosa cameo. It doesn't crack my top 5 because there's been so many good baseball movies, but it really isn't far off.

The Top 5:

The California Angels participated in a cheating scandal
that would rival the Houston Astros.

(5) Angels in the Outfield - This is a bit of a sentimental pick as it was the first movie I ever saw in a movie theater. Angels in the Outfield is a remake of a crappy 1951 movie of the same name and features a loaded cast - a very young Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Danny Glover, Christopher Lloyd, Tony Danza, Adrien Brody, Matthew McConaughey, MLB veteran Carney Lansford, and the actress who played the Pigeon Lady in Home Alone 2. Angels in the Outfield follows the story of a boy living in a foster home who makes a wish that the last place California Angels can win the pennant so that his non existent father will love him... because that entire sentence makes sense. Actual angels end up coming down from the skies to assist the baseball team in winning games as the team competes for a title.

Ghost baseball players living in a cornfield is the most
believable part of this movie.

(4) Field of Dreams - Let me start off by saying this movie makes absolutely no sense. Kevin Costner living in bumblefuck, Iowa hears voices that tell him to mow down his cornfield and build a baseball field. The ghosts of baseball players then come out from the remaining corn and begin playing baseball. Those same voices then tell him to drive to Boston to kidnap a retired author and take him to Fenway Park. The voices then appear in text form on the Boston scoreboard and tell him to go to Minnesota to find Archie "Moonlight" Graham, a long retired baseball player who played one inning in his MLB career. He finds out that Moonlight Graham is dead. However, he ends up going for a walk and surprisingly finds Moonlight Graham also walking on the sidewalk. After a conversation about the important things in life, Costner decides he can't bring Graham with him back to Iowa so he lets him go (apparently kidnapping wasn't an option this time.) On the drive back to Iowa, Costner picks up a young hitchhiker named Archie Graham who wants to play baseball. Even more bullshit happens and at no point in watching this movie do you feel you have any idea what is going on. With that being said, I love everything about this movie.

Remember Derek Jeter's "flip" play? Jeremy Giambi was safe.

(3) Moneyball - At some point, I'm going to get around to reading the book that this movie is based on. A sports movie getting nominated for an Oscar is a rarity and for whatever reason is usually only reserved for Boxing flicks. Moneyball, however, managed to earn a nomination as Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill play the roles of A's GM Billy Beane and his assistant GM and build the Oakland A's roster on an incredibly stingy budget. It's based on a true story and the A's real life success ended up completely changing how baseball teams approach the game. Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill go all in on the analytics and meet a ton of resistance from Phillip Seymour Hoffman who plays the role of A's manager, Art Howe. The movie is played up for Hollywood of course and paints Howe as a villain who makes decisions in
spite of what Billy Beane wants. The real life Art Howe has since explained how he's legitimately pissed out how he's portrayed in the film as he and Billy Beane, in reality, worked together to help the A's become successful.

The actor who played Yeah-Yeah actually
grew up to be a huge douchebag

(2) The Sandlot - As mentioned above, this movie is simply iconic and there's not much more to say. There's a scene in the movie where the kids play against a cross-town team and you get to see all of the kids take a swing at the plate. Despite being painted as a baseball legend who would go on to play in the MLB, Benny has the worst swing out of any of the 9 kids. Squints and Smalls have the two best swings on the roster. It's a shame none of these kids really went on to have notable acting careers.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains

(1) Bull Durham - The second Kevin Costner baseball movie that makes my top 5 is my favorite of all time. Bull Durham focuses on the story of a journey man catcher who has spent much of his career in the minor leagues as he tries to teach life lessons to a hot shot pitching prospect before his career ultimately takes off. Meanwhile, the two baseball players are competing against each other for a woman who sleeps with one baseball player each summer. There are so many hysterical baseball anecdotes within this movie, including my favorite scene where we learn what managers/players talk about during mound visits. This movie is absolutely hysterical and I feel like it somewhat depicts what goes on at the minor league level, even if it's over exaggerated.

Additional notes:

-One of the first things I plan on doing when baseball inevitably resumes is to attend a minor league game either in Lakewood or on a road trip to Wilmington, DE. We all miss baseball, but the MLB is a billion dollar operation that will ultimately survive. Unfortunately the minor leagues don't generate nearly as much revenue and many teams are likely going to end up folding. These teams are going to need a lot of support when the world goes back to normal and I really hope the fans do their part and show up.

-Kanye's first 5 albums are absolute fire and I'd put them up against any rappers discography. Unfortunately, every album he's produced since My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is complete dogshit.

-There's an urban legend that Cal Ripken Jr.'s games played streak was in jeopardy as he caught Kevin Costner banging his wife before one of the games. Ripken was so distraught that he couldn't play. Mysteriously, the Orioles had an issue with their lights that night and had to postpone the game. While it's documented that this story is extremely exaggerated/never happened, I still want to believe it.

-The field where The Sandlot takes place is located in Salt Lake City, Utah. I have no idea if I'm ever going to go to Utah, but if I do, that's one place I plan on stopping.

My Baseball Origins

As a sophomore at Rowan University majoring in physical education, I enrolled in an elective psychology course because it was a bullshit, money-grabbing requirement for graduation. The class met once a week for 2.5 hours over the duration of the semester, but despite spending nearly 40 hours in class that could have otherwise been spent playing Halo 3, there isn't much I remember learning in this course. I can't even fathom a guess as to what the professor's name was, and that's coming from a person who remembers the names of every player in the Baltimore Orioles starting lineup in World Series Baseball '95 for Sega Game Gear. However, I do remember three things from my time spent in that Wilson Hall lecture hall:

(1) I remember writing all three of my major papers on examples of psychological disorders found in movies I had recently downloaded on DC++, like Rounders (addiction), Memento (anterograde amnesia), and Fight Club (dissociative identity disorder.)

(2) I remember writing all three of these papers (and all papers for every other college class) in APA format after spending all of middle and high school failing to understand MLA citation.

(3) I remember learning that the earliest memories formed by most human beings can go back as far as 3 years old. More on that later.

Flash forward to yesterday, a Saturday night dinner spent at my parents' house in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. After indulging in some takeout from Texas Roadhouse, my father casually mentioned finding a box in his home office, filled with old ticket stubs from various baseball games we attended over the years.

Before I continue, let me explain what my father's "home office" consists of.  It's a room that's so tiny it starts to feel very warm if more than 2 people are inside at the same time. Inside this room is your standard office stuff - a desk, a computer with a home sized printer/copier, an office chair, etc. - but he also has his own little baseball museum of sorts that includes some common and some no-so-common memorabilia. This includes, but is not limited to:

-A one-of-a-kind, custom made replica of the scoreboard from Ebbets Field
-Two stadium seats from Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, home of the Atlanta Braves until 1996.
-A framed copy of the contract signed when Babe Ruth was traded to the New York Yankees in 1918.
-A baseball signed by Mickey Mantle
-Approximately 100,000 baseball cards (not exaggerating) ranging in value from being worthless monetarily to certain cards that at one point in time worth well over $1,000.

In this tiny room is an even tinier closet that contains things from my baseball career (1994-2008) such as a few rec league jerseys and hats, every baseball glove I've ever used aside from the one currently in the trunk of my car, and some pictures other things that my father never bothered to throw away. While going through some things out of quarantine related boredom, he found the aforementioned box of old ticket stubs. One of the tickets inside this box was dated July 17, 1993 - the first baseball game I ever attended.

I wish actual ticket stubs would become a thing again

The New York Yankees hosted the Oakland A's in a pitching matchup between Oakland's Bobby Witt (who received 0 votes on his Hall of Fame ballot) and New York's Jim Abbott (who was born with one hand.) The first batter I ever saw take the box in person was the legendary Rickey Henderson who in his first at bat of the day, proceeded to hit 1 of his MLB record 81 career leadoff home runs, and I was hooked to the sport immediately. Watching Rickey trot around the bases to give the A's a 1-0 lead is the earliest childhood memory I have, which echoes what I learned in psychology class about humans developing memories at 3 years old.

Ok, so the last sentence is just as much bullshit as the fact that my degree required 3 psychology credits. I just looked up the box score on Baseball Reference and my father says I watched very little of the game but was instead more concerned with eating my ice cream out of a mini plastic Yankees helmet. 

Fortunately my interest level would increase as I grew older and attended more and more games. While I don't remember a single thing from that particular game, my father unknowingly opened my world to a sport that has been a huge part of my life. I've since attended a few hundred more baseball games between MLB and minor/independent leagues and my vacation and getaways the last few years have revolved around what teams are in what cities at what time. 

Last summer, I was able to attend games at 12 different professional stadiums and had intended on adding at least 6 or 7 more this summer before COVID-19 put a damper on things. Everybody in the health industry has advised the public to be "safe at home", which means something a little different in life than in baseball. After 3 weeks of having bare minimum human contact, I've reached the blog stage of quarantine. I miss the game of baseball and feel like I need to talk extensively about it despite the current season being suspended indefinitely. The other day I got sucked into wormhole about Jamie Moyer 's career oddities and realized I need some form of therapy. Maybe this is it.

Jamie MoyerChris McGrath/Getty Images

I'm not sure what direction this blog will head in but some things I plan to write about include those 12 stadiums I went to (and more in the future), some crazy baseball facts and stats, and some other stories, memories, and thoughts that might pop up along the way. 

A few additional notes:

-Orioles starting lineup in World Series Baseball '95 by position... Chris Hoiles (C), Rafael Palmeiro (1B), Mark McLemore (2B), Leo Gomez (3B), Cal Ripken Jr. (SS), Brady Anderson (LF), Mike Devereaux (CF), Jack Voigt (RF), and Harold Baines (DH) with Mike Mussina on the mound.

-My dad bought those 1993 tickets to Yankees/A's because he wanted to watch one of his favorite players, Mark McGwire, play in person. McGwire was given that day off in favor of some guy named Lee Blankenship. McGwire getting a day of rest every time we went to watch him play was a running theme for many years. 

-The first stage of quarantine was the Marvel Cinematic Universe stage. The second stage was the Tiger King stage. We're currently on stage 3 and I'm scared to find out what stage 4 and beyond looks like.

-One Jamie Moyer fact... he pitched in FIFTY (50!!) different MLB stadiums.