Ohhh, That Pesky Joe Morgan

Yes! THE season has started. As much as I love the NFL and the Indianapolis Colts, my heart still can't wait until baseball season starts. And it started last night!

Of course, ESPN HAS to start the season with Sunday Night Baseball. And if you have Sunday Night Baseball, then that means you get...Joe Morgan. Love him or hate him (We love Joe the baseball player. We hate Joe the baseball commentator.) he is at least good for giving us loads of sounds bytes or Joe Chat quips.

Thankfully, Joe did not waste any time in providing some quality material on opening night.

Jorge Posada hit a second-inning home run off the Pesky Pole. John Miller started to tell the story about Johnny Pesky and why the pole is named after him and his "warning track power."

Miller: Most of the time when Pesky hit the ball for a home run it went off the foul pole, hence the naming of the Pesky Pole.
Morgan: I think they used to call it the Pesky Pole didn't they?
Miller: *pause* They still do.
Morgan: Oh.

Ahhhh, thanks, Joe. It is good to see you are already in mid-season form.

COMING SOON: Once again Slut and I will don our prognostication caps and show that we know just as little as all of the pundits when it comes to picking how the teams will finish and who will win the World Series. FYI - Slut was correct in last year's pick of the Yankees and we both had the Yankees and Angels in the ALCS. We were just way off when it came to the NL. Cubs in the World Series...what the fuck was I thinking...

Rivet-ing Baseball

Congratulations to the Vincennes Rivet baseball (and to the girls basketball team) for a fine and exciting season that fell short in the Indiana Class A state finals. Vincennes Rivet was trying to be The Little Engine That Could in winning its first state championship in any sport. Considering Vincennes Rivet was founded in 1792, it has been a long wait for sure. The only other Rivet team to make it to a state championship final was the girls basketball team back in March.

Rivet is the smallest high school in Knox County with only 93 students and is the ninth smallest school in the state out of 400 schools. The Rivet baseball team had only eight players until the coach begged a few of the students to play in order to field enough players. This alone is a worthy story. However, it gets kicked up a notch when you learn that one of the 11 Rivet players is a girl, Emily Montgomery. Emily became the first girl to play in a state championship baseball final on Friday. Unlike one of our previous posts of the girl who wanted to play baseball and had to sue to IHSAA and the school for the right to play, Emily was asked, pleaded and begged to play for the Rivet team. Emily's brother Cory wanted a shot at a state title, but with only eight players on the team, they needed one more.

I'm saddened that the Vincennes Rivet Patriots fell in the final game. I was hoping they would win their first state title, regardless of having a girl on the team.

I was a bit infuriated when I see this headline on the Indy Star's website on Saturday morning.

Girl's baseball team falls in Class A title game

I understand the team had a girl on it and I'm sure she was a regular contributor on the team during the season. I just feel that the title is a slap in the face to the Rivet team. ESPN's story on the team focused on a team that just happen to include a the younger sister of one of the players. The Star's story is more "HEY! THERE REALLY IS A GIRL PLAYING BASEBALL HERE!" and oh, by the way, there just happens to be 10 other boys who also helped get this team to the state finals after a 10-11 regular season, but, "HEY, THERE'S A GIRL ON THE TEAM!"

I guess that is why I think the Star is such a shitty paper.

I hope the Patriots do not have to wait much longer for their first state championship. Just remember to keep on chugging along and eventually you will reach the peak!

There's No Crying in Baseball!!

One of Jimmy Dugan's best lines along with his autographed baseball - "Avoid the Clap - Jimmy Dugan."

Due to a lawsuit against the IHSAA and against Bloomington South High School, they have both relented and allowed a girl to try out for the baseball team. Why all the stink in the press? Well, because BSHS has a softball team, both felt that girls do not belong on the baseball team.

Under previous IHSAA rules, if a school offered a girls "equivalent" of a boys sport, then they could exclude girls from the boys sport. So if a school offered boys and girls basketball, a girl cannot try out for boys basketball. However, the IHSAA believed that baseball and softball were equivalent sports. According to Blake Ress, the IHSAA commissioner, he states, "he believed that baseball and softball were comparable sports because each involves a bat and a ball, similar positions and baselines on the diamond, and six outs in an inning." Yep, they are the same in those manners even though the field dimensions are different...the balls are different...the pitching is different...but, yeah, they are the same.

Personally, I do not have a problem with a girl wanting to try out for the baseball team. She has been playing co-ed community baseball since she was 5. She and her parents must think she is good enough to file a lawsuit for the right to tryout. I might have a problem if she doesn't make the team and then sues to try and get on (assuming she was legitimately cut.) But she should also know that she could be benchwarming for most of the year. Yet, I would not be surprised if turned out to be an average every day player.

Just because she is a girl doesn't mean she should get special treatment to play. She should be graded on the same criteria as the boys, nothing more, nothing less.

The IHSAA is griping about making the change because it feels it would probably lose the lawsuit and the fact that several other states have already made this change. So, why it is such a problem, IHSAA?

Honestly, I hope she kicks some ass!