The Raiders went to Vegas.
The Warriors moved across the bay to SF.
Now the A’s move to Vegas also.
Oakland became the first city in American history to lose three professional major league sports teams to other cities within a span of five years.
- Wikipedia
Imagine going from a city with 3 major sports teams to having effectively zero. Even the new WNBA team which will reportedly have its HQ in Oakland will play in San Francisco.
So this is super-interesting.
Last week there was a kerfuffle between Mets shortstop Jeff McNeill and Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins after Hoskins slid kind of late in a double-play situation.
A lot has been made about this play and how supposedly it was dirty by Hoskins even though it seems that people who actually play baseball had no issue with it. A bunch of internet tough guys were also talking about how Hoskins is a chicken because he doesn’t get into an argument with McNeill. However, when I looked at the situation It seemed to me much more like Hoskins had no idea why McNeill was even mad and didn’t see anything to be angry about. He just seemed confused. Admittedly though I might be biased because I am a Phillies fan and that makes me predisposed to not like the Mets, and Hoskins was on the Phillies until recently.
Regardless, the fact of the matter is that baseball players are allowed slide in a genuine attempt to reach the bag, and players use this in order to put pressure on the fielders and prevent double plays.
However, Jomboy did an even more in-depth analysis and it seems like the Mets in general play these sorts of situations really, really badly. Like it seems that they are instructed by coaching to not even try to break up the double play.
I think the weirdest is Nimmo who is a dude that literally sprints to 1st on a walk and yet doesn’t seem to have any hustle getting to 2nd.
In a surprising turn of events, the most hated umpire in the world Angel Hernandez has retired and the baseball world is celebrating.
Hooray!!!
In sports who retire of their own volition do it in-between seasons. Even when someone has some kind of tragedy in their lives that forces them to consider retirement, they typically take a leave of absence and leave the formal retirement announcement until the season is over.
In this case, retiring mid-season, you have to imagine there was some element of him being forced out. It could be that the pressure from fans and the media made him give up as he was tired of all the criticism. Or maybe the league was tired of the embarrassment and offered him retirement as a way to escape. Or maybe the pile of evidence that he wa no good at his job was just stacking up too high, and gaining lots of visibility thanks to umpscorecards, YouTube, etc.
Now we just need to fully bring in the computers for the balls and strikes.
Very intersting video on the career of Sammy Sosa.
Shohei Ohtani had the opportunity to reach 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in his most recent game. And he did this:
6-for-6 with 3 HRs, 2 SB, 2 doubles, 10 RBI.
So he’s now the sole member of the 51-51 club
Roki Sasaki has been posted. This is not a drill.
If you are unfamiliar, japanese players must be “posted” by their japanese club if they want to transfer to MLB unless they have completed 9 years of service for japanese teams. All MLB teams then have a 45 day window to negotiate and possibly sign that player. If they do, the MLB team also has to pay the japanese club a posting fee that is a percentage of the players contract in compensation.
Roki Sasaki is an incredibly talented pitcher who was already a monster in high school. In his NPB career he pitched a perfect game (the first in almost 30 years) and then pitched another 8 no-hit innings his next game before being pulled due to pitch count. He was also part of Team Japan when they won the WBC.