The Ladies Still Love Bryce Harper

So, the Washington Nationals are knotted up in their series against the St. Louis Cardinals and teen wunderkind Bryce Harper is batting a robust .100 (1-for-10, with six strikeouts) so far in his inaugural postseason.

But who cares about numbers, right? 

Regardless if he's batting his weight, your weight, a pre-teen girl's weight or staring down Hall of Fame reporters in the clubhouse, one thing is for certain...the ladies love them some Bryce.

And they took to Twitter to show it.

@KD_Swagg: Bryce Harper is seriously the guy of my dreams
　
@LivvMahonXO: Bryce Harper is hotter than mike trout #noquestion
　
@LoniiiS: Bryce Harper is some kinda sexy though #forreal
　
@natasha1hampton: Watching the Nationals game, I finally get to see my man! Bryce Harper you are sooo sexy, be mine
　　
@LaVivaaSarah: I love the Cardinals but Bryce Harper is so HOT!! #bewithme #baseballcrush
　
@abrookiee: I will defend Bryce Harper with everything I have.
　
@coraestern: well...dammit. it's okay, bryce harper, I'll comfort you ;)
　

And not to be outdone, wrestling legend The Iron Sheik got into the act.

Sure, the WWE Hall of Famer was commenting on the 19-year-old's eyeblack (the Alice Cooper wannabe ditched the warpaint mid-game) and not his sex appeal, but, c'mon...how many times do I get to embed a tweet from The Iron Sheik?

Adam Jones Hits Up Twitter for Fashion Advice

Even with the Playoffs upon us, don't think for a second that baseball players don't have the important issues on their minds.

Case in point...Baltimore Orioles centerfielder Adam Jones who hit the Twitters Sunday morning and asked his legions of followers for suggestions on how to wear his pants.

Seriously?

Seriously.

Sure, dude entered the game with a lifetime .341 batting average (14-for-41 with three homers) against New York Yankees ace CC Sabathia, but still...something tells me that even Richard Blackwell would suggest focusing on Game One instead of hitting up the interwebs for fashion advice.

Oh, and in case you're curious...Jones went with "up" and subsequently went 0-for-4 with a strikeout while his O's fell to the Bombers.

Me thinks "down" might be in order Monday night against Andy Pettitte.

OOTP Baseball...a Review

Oh, Draft Day, you've come and gone and left nothing but the promise of a championship in your wake.

Hold the phone.  I know what you're thinking...it's October and we're closer to Christmas than we are any sort of draft day.  What gives?  Well, Monday, The Out of the Park (OOTP) Laundry League held its inaugural draft and I was fortuante enough to take part.

The Laundry League is the brainchild of friend of The Hall and Seamheads.com founder Mike Lynch.  It was Lynch who came up with the idea that each team owner would only know what “laundry” (team) they would represent...but not the players.

 

"I've run online OOTP leagues in the past, so this time I decided to mix it up and let my owners pick their teams but not their players," Lynch said.  "We'll have the game run the draft and fill the teams, but we'll allow trading, so I'm sure there will be a lot of back-and-forth as everyone tries to lock up their favorites."

And with me busy trying to build a Laundry League dynasty with the Oakland A's, I've asked David Spencer (on loan from Crafty Lefty), to share his thoughts as to why you, too, should be playing the latest installment of OOTP.

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With the playoffs here, it means the baseball season is almost over.  I am not much of a football fan and with the hockey season in serious doubt, how does one span the time between the last out of the World Series and the time when pitchers and catchers report?

Simple, Out Of The Park Baseball 13.

When you open OOTP13, you have plenty of options. You can start just a regular season, you can play a past season (ever wanted to know what the Montreal Expos would do in 1994 had there been no lock out?), you can play a pre-configured game or you can make your own rules.

This is what makes OOTP13 great, you can play however you want.

Say you just want to play a regular game, using 2012 rosters. You get to name yourself as the General Manager to which ever team you would like, or you can act as the Commissioner and take temporary control of a team.

After that, hold on for the ride.

If you select the "General Manager" option you can choose any, and I mean any, team to manage. Want to be the GM of the Jamestown Jammers? Go ahead. The Richmond Flying Squirrels? Go nuts! The Pittsburgh Pirates? Clear the deck, cannon ball coming!

OOTP 13 has every team, league, player, coach, you name it. You can even make sure you never get fired!

As the GM you have as much control as you want. At the start of the season you are told by your owner what his expectation is and from there it is up to you to make good, or bad, on that. You can make trades. Demote players. Promote them. Release them. Everything a GM would do. And if you do not want that much control, you can set the AI to do that for you.

As I said earlier, OOTP is what you make of it and that is what makes this game so much gosh darn fun. The ability to cater it to what you desire it to be. You can do everything or just a little bit. You can play each game individually or you can simulate through them.

I only have two knocks against the game.

The first one is that it is too real. In my first season as the Oakland A's GM (I wanted to challenge myself) I had to use my disabled list often, forcing me to really use trades, waivers, and the farm system. I also forgot to check the contracts of all the minor league coaches, so I found myself having to hire a completely new set of coaches in the off-season.

The other knock, is that it takes up some much of my time! It's impossible to simulate just one day. It's always just one more game, just one more week.

I guess that last one isn't really such a bad thing.

Want to challenge you friends online? You can do that. If you are of the tech savvy type, you can setup an online league and compete against other OOTPers.

Are you on Twitter? Need help? They have a Twitter account that is among the best, offering tips, suggestions, and trouble shooting. All you have to do is ask.

So when you find yourself bored and/or needing a baseball fix over the long, cold winter months, consider OOTP baseball. You will not be disappointed.

You can check out OOTP13 (and I strongly suggest you do) over at the Outside of the Park website.

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Oh, and if you're curious how the Laundry League draft panned out or if you'd like to see my roster before I offer each player $300 to grow out a mustache?  Here's the link.

R.A. Dickey Benefits from "One At Bat"

After the season he had, it's pretty safe to say that R.A. Dickey will still be the topic of conversation long after baseball hands out its postseason awards.

But one achievement might have eluded the New York Mets knuckleballer if not for "One At Bat".  You see, of Dickey's National League leading 230 strikeouts...number 229 came against, you guessed it, Adam Greenberg.

As if that wasn't cool enough...the Cy Young frontrunner even responded.

 

 

Big Papi's Unlikely Streak Comes to an End

Lost in the drama surrounding the Boston Red Sox's worst record since 1933 and manager Bobby Valentine's inability to lead the team, is that one of baseball's most unlikely streaks will come to an end Wednesday.

Sure, David Ortiz has appeared in only a handful of games since the All-Star Break (an injury has had him on the shelf most of the second half), but with the Red Sox playing in their final game of the season Wednesday night, the slugger's streak of 12 consecutive years with at least one triple is officially coming to an end.

And be honest, had you been asked who the only two Major Leaguers are with at least one triple each season since 2000 are...would you have ever come up with the words "David Ortiz"? 

Oh, and the other...none other than the designated hitter's former teammate Johnny Damon.

To put things in perspective, "Big Papi" has 16 triples. Career triples leader, Hall of Famer Sam Crawford has 309 and 12 times over his 19 year career, he had 16 or more.

Red Sox Plan to Fire Bobby Valentine

File this one under "not a shock to anyone", but, according to the entire free world...the Boston Red Sox are planning on relieving Bobby Valentine of his duties as soon as the season comes to a close.

This, of course, comes after the manager led the Sox to their worst record since Franklin Roosevelt was in office. 

And, true to form, Valentine looks to be leaving BeanTown with guns blazing, saying in an interview before Wednesday night's finale against the New York Yankees that his coaches weren't loyal to him throughout the season.

Asked why, Valentine said, "You asked me what I feel. That's what I feel."

Valentine was then asked by WEEI's Glenn Ordway if he felt he was undermined by his staff, to which he responded "Yes." Asked why, Valentine again said, "[It's] just what I feel."

Something tells me Red Sox fans would just like to hit the reset button on 2012 and take a Mulligan.

Chipper Singles in Final At Bat

Sometimes, certain things just feel right, right?

During Wednesday afternoon's contest against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chipper Jones entered in the game in the sixth and delivered a pinch hit single in what would be his last regular season at bat.

On September 14, 1993, Jones did nearly the exact same thing in his first big league appearance for the Atlanta Braves...smacking a seventh inning pinch hit single off Cincinnati Reds pitcher Kevin Wickander.

Suffice it to say, between those two hits...dude was no slouch.

In case you were paying attention to the "Chipper Jones Milestone Watch" in 2012, Jones ended his career with 2726 hits, 549 doubles, 468 home runs and 1623 RBI for his storied career. The 40-year-old is the only switch hitter in Major League history to post a .300 career average (.303 to be precise) with more than 300 homers, and his career batting average ranks second all-time among switch hitters.

In 1999, Jones was named the National League MVP after hitting .319 with 45 home runs and 110 RBI. He was selected for eight All-Star Games and was part of Atlanta's 1995 World Championship squad.

Oh, one last thing.  With all due respect to Craig Robinson over at Flip Flop Fly Ball...I decided to do my own take on his "First and Last" series.

See you in Cooperstown, Chipper!

 

Adam Greenberg is Ready

The old adage "it couldn't happen to a better person" is, for the most part, trite.

But when you talk about Adam Greenberg and his opportunity to get one at bat in the Majors...it, well, it couldn't happen to a better person.

By now, you know Greenberg's story, but in case you need a quick refresher, more than seven years ago, dude was hit in the head by Valerio de los Santos fastball...ending his career with just that one plate appearance.

Enter Matt Liston.

Liston is a baseball fanatic and came up with a novel idea.  To get Adam Greenberg his one at bat.  And it worked.  Last week, the Miami Marlins, ironically the team that ended his big league career, offered the 31-year-old a one-day contract on national television

The team plans on using Greenberg as a pinch hitter during Tuesday night's game.

"Hopefully we can have it be for a pitcher, but I'm not going to pinch-hit him for the pitcher just because," said Guillen, who originally toyed with the idea of starting Greenberg and letting him hit in the leadoff spot. "If I need a base hit to take the lead or something, then I'll figure out another inning. I'm going to manage to win the game. I'll figure out how to play him, but if there's the game on the line, I'm going to manage to win the game."

I had a chance to talk to  Greenberg prior to the Marlins going all Willy Wonka and giving him his golden ticket...and I'll be talking to him when it's all done.

Until then...good luck, buddy.