MLB Game Pictures

Most baseball fields should be around 3 acres long. This would be approximately 400 square foot area, however this includes room for bleachers and other areas. “The official diamond is 90 feet on a side, with dimensions across the diamond 127 feet 3-3/8 inches. There should be a minimum of 60 feet from home plate to the backstop. From home plate, down the foul lines to the outfield fence, the distance varies. However, 320 feet should be the minimum.” Read the rest of this entry »

Hellickson looks to be the number 5 starter with the middle staff not quite in order as of spring training. James Shields numbers were not up to par last year but he still might be the number 2 hurler. Joe Maddon says he has to figure out who’s better for middle innings and who’s gonna close games.

Figuring out who can control the 8th and 9th innings is still a work in progress because he is still evaluating spring training. Full squad will start practice Monday the 21st including catchers and pitchers. Rapheal Soriano did a fine job last year as the closer.

The five starters look to be David Price, Wade Davis, Jeff Niemann, Jeremy Hellickson James Shields, all taken as Tampa Bay draft choices. The rays have always prided them-selves in bringing in good pitching. Showing himself as a up and coming star Hellickson came through in some tough spots last year allowing the release of Matt Garza. Touting a strong farm system the rays have some new sets of arms coming up for 2011.

Waiting on call and drafted by the rays in 2007

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The Detroit Tigers have a legitimate shot to win the American League Central Division in 2011. Despite a mediocre 81-81 finish in 2010, the team played very strong in the first half. Detroit has the talent to maintain that success for a full season in 2011.

Last year Detroit finished behind both the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox in the American League Central. Both teams reloaded this off-season and will provide heavy competition again in 2011. Despite this, both teams are vulnerable in spots and can be beat.

Below are the reasons why the Detroit Tigers can bring home the 2011 American League Central title.

Improved Offense
Opposing teams can no longer pitch around Triple Crown Read the rest of this entry »

New York Yankee fans are anxious, now that the holidays are over and believe that Andy Pettite has had more than enough time to think about his decision to pitch in the 2011 season or begin his retirement from baseball.

Coming back from Hawaiian holiday vacation, everyone is on pins and needles including the New York Yankees. Hoping the over the next week or two Andy will step back into the public eye and let us know his decision.

The word around the street has been that Pettitte, who is going to be 39 years old this summer, might be heading toward retirement. This is after 16 seasons in baseball, with 13 years playing for the Yankees. During the 2010 MLB season he got off to the best Read the rest of this entry »

We all know and love baseball and we all look forward to the base ball season. But did you know that baseball players can do the most comical things? In this photo it looks like the player did not get his V8 before he went on to the field. Do you remember the old commercial where men and women were walking sideways or where they smacked their self on the forehead and said I should have had a V8? Well its clear that this player needs the help of a v8 to get his game on. Baseball is a rough game and the player have done some amazing stunts that only professional ballet dancers should be able to pull off. Have you seen how they do the swan dive or the graceful way they fly though the air in their attempts to catch that ball?

Here in this photo the player needs to lean so far to one side in his attempt to get that ball that it looks like he just might fall over at any moment. But we all know that he is far to graceful to allow that to Read the rest of this entry »

There are players who can hit well and there are players who can hit for power, but players who can hit well and hit for power aren’t that common in baseball. It’s therefore someone surprising that baseball’s three best hitters this past season, Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers, Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers, and Carolos Gonzalez of the Colorado Rockies, are all equally dangerous in their ability to hit the ball and hit the ball out of the park. However, this is not to say that there are no differences between them. Rather, they are all dangerous in their own way.

Josh Hamilton finished with the best batting average In the major leagues, hitting .359 for the season, and it’s perhaps fitting that his team is the only one in the playoffs. Of the three batters under discussion, he has the least home runs and RBIs. However, the 32 home runs and 100 RBIs were enough to give rise to talk of Hamilton being a Triple Crown threat early in the season. Hamilton’s biggest weakness is his impatience at the plate; he drew twice as many strikeouts as he did walks in 2010. He also hit for the least extra base hits of the three, with 111 of his 186 hits being singles.

With an average of .336, Carlos Gonzalez was the NL batting champion and also led the league in hits, with 197, 77 of them going for extra bases. Gonzalez also finished second in the NL in RBIs, only one behind the Cardinals’ Albert Pujols. with 117. However, he was even less patient at the plate than Hamilton, with his 135 strikeouts being more than triple his 40 walks. As a result, his .974 OPS was the worst of the three sluggers. However, with this only being Gonzalez’s third year in the league, his first playing more than 100 games, the Rockies can be optimistic that some of those numbers will improve.

Miguel Cabrera may have the worst average of the three, but .328 is still respectable and he proved to be a better slugger than Hamilton or Gonzalez, slamming 38 home runs and 126 RBIs, finishing first in the majors in the latter category. While Cabrera still has more strikeouts than walks, his proportion is by far the best of the three, with strikeouts outnumbering walks by only six. He also had the most extra

Jose Offerman, the 41 year old Major League Baseball veteran and interim manager of the Licey Tigers of the Dominican Winter League, has been suspended for life after attempting to punch an umpire , Daniel Rayburn, January 18, 2010 during a playoff game against the Ciabo Giants at Quisqueya Stadium in the Dominican Republic.

The Giants were winning 6-0 in the third inning when Jason Bradley, the home plate umpire, ejected Tigers catcher Ronny Paulino from the game for arguing balls and strikes. Offerman came on the field to talk to Bradley, but began arguing with Rayburn who was the first base umpire. The argument became more heated and Offerman took a swing at Rayburn who fell to the ground.

Offerman was detained by police until the game ended to see if Rayburn wanted to pursue prosecution.

Offerman, who spent 15 years in the majors league playing for both American and National League teams and was two time All Star selection with the Los Angeles Dodgers is no stranger to on the field controversy regarding violence towards other players.

Leonardo Matos-Berridos, the Dominican Winter League president said, “The decision is…definitive. Offerman is excluded for life from Dominican baseball.” Matos-Berrido went on to say the decision cannot be appealed due to the magnitude of the offense.

The umpires from the game, Daniel Reyburn, Jason Bradley, Justin Vogel and Barry Larson resigned and left the country citing fear for their personal safety after receiving threats from fans.

Matos-Berrido said he would be requesting the Dominican Police investigate the alleged threats.

In 2007 during an independent minor league game playing for the Long Island Ducks, Offerman hit Bridgeport Bluefish catcher John Nathans in the head with a bat after being hit by a pitch from pitcher Matt Beech.

Following the 2007 incident with Nathans, a court forced Offerman into an anger management program . Offerman faces a 4.8 million dollar civil lawsuit filed in 2009 in the U.S District Court in Bridgeport, in which Nathans complains of continuing problems stemming from the attack which ended his baseball career. Nathans continues to attend a rehabilitation facility in an effort to recover from his sustained injuries.

Seriously?

The myths regarding steroids have run rampant for years. Many people believe the most common myths are true because they have been repeated verbatim for years. Some of the most common myths regarding steroids range from the belief that steroids lead to a short life span and that steroids cause men’s genitals to shrink.

Steroids are a common prescription given by doctors to help people get through a painful injury. Steroids when taken in prescribed dosages will cause no more damage than a simple aspirin. The extreme cases that can be traced to athletes or others from the use of steroids is always the exception and not the rule.

The second most common myth when it comes to steroids is that using steroids will cause a man’s genitals to shrink. This myth stems from years of false information and has never been documented in any medical publications.

Yet another common myth of steroid users is that steroids cause the user to become unusually violent and unreasonable. Most male adults in the age range that commonly use steroids are in the 20-40 year-old age range. This group of males in naturally more aggressive than most other age groups.

This adds to the myth of “roid rage” and it ends up being an unfair characterization of most steroid consumers.
“Roid rage is always one of the most common reasons given when a large male gets aggressive and fights in a social setting. The truth is the male would have most likely gone ballistic with or without steroids in his system.

Many people buy steroids and expect an instant boost in their muscle mass yet don’t expect to have to work hard to gain muscle. This could not be further from the truth. Gaining muscle mass can be assisted by steroids for one reason. Steroids decrease the recovery time in between workouts and give the user the ability to build muscle mass through increased repetitions and hard work. The only way to ever gain muscle mass and stay in shape is from working out hard and being dedicated to it one hundred percent.

One last myth that gets a lot of unnecessary attention is the myth that steroids decrease sex drive. This myth the total opposite. Men who use steroids in a normal cycle have a tremendous sex drive while on steroids. The added testosterone increases the sex drive and stamina of the user.

The more popular football bets in the sportsbook is the NFL parlay. For years, I have watched TV commercials for Las Vegas sportsbooks that showed lines and NFL Vegas odds and lines of sports bettors lining up to make these fun bets.

Here is the lowdown, NFL parlay bets are not the best bet in the house (straight bets are), but they are fun & I would not dream of going through one week of NFL betting without putting in at least one parlay bet.

Your parlay card can have 2-20 bets on it (depending on the sportsbook), & it can be a combination of sides and totals, take a look at this example NFL parlay card:

Look: Seahawks + 3, Vikings / Giants ov 45, Patriots – 7

What you see above is a three-team parlay. In other words, I am betting that all three of these bets will win-it is an all or nothing thing. The more bets you put on a parlay card, make the higher it pays out. Of course, as you add football bets, the ticket gets harder to hit at vegas odds nfl.

Payouts of parlay cards vary from sportsbook to sportsbook, however they are all fairly close. For instance, a typical 3-team NFL Parlay is likely to pay 6-1. So, in the above example, if you bet $10 & hit all three bets, you did win $60. Add more bets and you will see payouts of 150-1, 300-1 & higher.

For my money, the three-team parlay is the best overall value, the 6-1 payout is nice & it’s fairly relative to your actual odds of winning when compared to larger cards. Still, nothing is sweeter than hitting a ten-team parlay.

If you have never placed an NFL parlay bet, make it your mission in life to try a couple this NFL season. I have hit many parlay bets. Is possible that there a secret to winning more NFL wagers? Is there anything you can do to win more that football bets? Well, yes there is.