One word: incredible.

Finally.

Interested? Check out our Recruiting Thread at the OOTP Developments Forums!

Bryce Harper is a phenom and might be awesome, he is also allegedly kind of a d-bag. No matter what his personality, watch this video; should he really have been tossed for that???

Man alive, what is with the men in blue?

This video is incredible. Since when do the umpires get allowed to bait players like this MINOR LEAGUE umpire did with Jason Kendall. Then, after tossing the Royals’ manager Ned Yost, he continues trying to engage Kendall in the argument.

This umpire, unlike Jim Joyce, does not get what his role is whatsoever.

As I suspected, my opinion is shared almost to the letter from Mr. Selig.

The thing about that job that people forget it, sometimes the right call is the hardest to make, because it’s usually unpopular. And that is why, despite all of the good that he has done for the game of baseball, he is often villified.

Being a lifetime Brewers fan, I’m not shy to let you know that I didn’t always approve of the way the franchise was run while it was under his direction. Even with that said, he was the man that brought baseball here; and he was the man (with an assist from a State Senator) who kept it here.

Then he become Commissioner of Baseball, a position he never really wanted, and was thrown into all kinds of tough spots with the union, and scandals, and messes. Here we are, almost 20 years later, and baseball is in better shape in nearly every conceivable way. Mr. Selig had a lot to do with that. He’s a rarity: a true baseball purist, but also willing to take a look at any idea that might improve the game.

It’s a shame that for many years fans think of him as stiff, unpersonable, an “owner”, not doing a good job, problems are his “fault”, and then there’s this image that people have found hard to erase:

When history looks back on Bud Selig’s reign as the Commissioner of Baseball, it will look well upon his time and efforts. People have put Kenesaw Mountain Landis on a pedestal for being “tough”. Bud Selig is “tough” as well, because he always does the “right” thing and never the “popular” thing.

I’ve been discussing this on my Facebook page but thought I’d put it out for discussion here as well.

A picture says a thousand words…but my take on it? They want the human element, they got it. You can’t go back and fix past calls, to do this would set a precedent that would have the 1985 Royals upset, among many others.

Everyone can agree that Jim Joyce messed up, including Jim Joyce. One of the great sub-stories of this huge story is how Jim Joyce and Armando Galarraga, the umpire and the pitcher involved, handled this event.  Both men handled this in a way that frankly we don’t see much anymore, like gentlemen.

This now has become a bigger issue, not about one call but has brought to the front of the table the long lingering discussion about poor umpiring. I believe that every step should be made to work to develop umpires, to hold them accountable for their performance, and to invest money into developing academies of upcoming young umpires that can step in when aging ones “lose a step”, just like players in the sport they umpire. However, the human element is part of what makes the game great. Are there BIG mistakes made at times? Yes. But replay is a slippery slope. It started with homerun calls, now we want close plays at bases…what’s next, a computerized strike zone? I, like my man Bud Selig, do not want to remove the sanctity of the game. If there’s a quick way to do it where maybe a manager can challenge 1 play a game, then let’s do it. But let’s stop there. I love the different strike zones. I’m a fan of the “unwritten rules”. The variances in the game are one of the things that makes it great. Anyways, I could talk about this all day, as you all know, I “kind of like baseball a little”.

So let’s hear what you think???

The Birmingham Bandits, currently at 82-78, are going to just miss the playoffs this year. They have plenty of talent, led by a great starting foursome of Damian Bedgood, Sammy Bodeen, Alex Khodorkhovsky, Hayden “Sidd” Finch.

Offensively, the Bandits have former major leaguer Chris Brown leading the way, with outfielder Medric Wood being the teams top power threat.

The most intriguing player on the roster is a 25 year old rookie rightfielder with a great arm and some power pop who apparently was one heck of a football player: Brett Favre

Interested??? Register for our MBBA Forums and then comment here with your registered username. We’ll go from there!!!

Visit our forums’  Completed Trades section for all the details:

http://baseballretrospective.com/MBBA/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=31

With the World Series in the books, we now prepare for our switchover from OOTPX to OOTP11, which is currently in progress.