Baseball predictions

Yesterday was Opening Day of the baseball season.  That means it is time for more sports predictions!  What teams do you think will play in the World Series, and which one will win it?

Baseball’s new replay rule

When the new baseball season gets underway at the end of the month, managers will get to challenge certain calls, which will be reviewed by a high-tech outfit in New York.   But managers will just get one challenge a game–two if the first one is upheld–though umpires can review plays after the sixth inning.

After the jump, an explanation of the new rule, including a list of the plays that are reviewable.  Also an excerpt from famed sportswriter Thomas Boswell defending the changes on the grounds that it will make for more strategy on the part of managers and more second-guessing on the part of fans.  What do you think? [Read more...]

A proposal for a new national holiday

There is a proposal before the body politic to declare a 12th national holiday:  Baseball’s Opening Day!

Finally, a cause to unite all Americans.  Or not.  I suppose we could also make Super Bowl Sunday a national holiday, to keep the balance of American sports, and since federal workers usually don’t have to work on Sundays anyway, it wouldn’t cost anything.  Or, if 12 is too many federal holidays–that’s over two weeks of paid vacations–we could move a bunch of the existing ones to Sundays, since that once-sacred day is no longer generally set apart anymore.

So what about Opening Day being a national holiday?  Why should our holidays be all about the government, political leaders, unions, and war?  Why not a sports day? [Read more...]

The secret of Greg Maddux

Pitcher Greg Maddux, fellow Atlanta rotation member Tom Glavine, and slugger Frank Thomas were voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Maddux won 355 games over a 23 year career.  How did he do that?  A rocket-fueled fastball?  An over-arching curve ball?  Not really.  Maddux tells his pitching secret to Pulitzer-prize-winning sportswriter Tom Boswell, after the jump. [Read more...]

The World Series is all red


Midwestern virtues vs. Hollywood star power


