inthedougout

Baseball is funny.  A sport that is seemingly rooted in structure, order, and rules.  The shorthand for all of this is etiquette and there is a lot  of baseball etiquette .  There is a certain way  that baseball players are supposed to handle themselves and as a youth coach, I've fallen into this myself.  I require my players to respect their uniforms, work as a team, and slowly, I teach them the many unwritten customs of the game.  Lately, the boundaries of baseball etiquette have been pushed, particularly as the league has been set on fire with the controversy of the bat flip .  But more recently, and something we see more often, is the post-game interview gone rogue.  There are more than a few infamous examples of this (see, e.g., Allen Iverson bemoan the idea of practice.  But what Jake Arrieta did recently warrants asking: how far is too far? The problem with that is pretty simple: it does not bode well for the team as a whole.  Do the players feel like they can commun

Tim Anderson plays shortstop for the Chicago White Sox and he's off to a fantastic start to the season.  Not only did he welcome his second daughter to the world in April, but statistically, he is off to the hottest start of his career and one of the hottest starts in the league.  He's hitting .422 for the year, with 4 home runs, and 7 stolen bases.  The batting average puts him at first in the American League.  Not too shabby.   Anderson has also attracted some attention to himself for the newfound energy he has brought the game.  Anderson is one of the more energetic players I've seen lately and he's at the forefront of a new trend we're saying: bat flips and emotion are the new "in" thing.  His most recent bat flip was more of a throw than anything else.  We saw Bryce Harper excessively flip a bat when he hit a home run against his former team.  We've even seen pitchers start to get involved in the fun with their own version of a ba

The inevitable has reared its ugly head.  Two and a half weeks into the season, several teams are already starting to understand their weaknesses.  In New York, the Mets are relying on Jason Vargas and that strategy is failing miserably .  In Washington, the Nationals can barely hold a lead and are wasting quality start after quality start .  The calls, in these respective cities, grow louder and louder to sign able-and-willing help that's sitting on the sidelines.  These aren't the only teams with fans clamoring for their front office to make a move.  In ordinary times, there may be a decent free agent or two that is just sitting at home, but currently, there are two high-quality pitchers just waiting to be signed.  Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel -- a former Cy Young winner and one of the best relievers in the game.    The reports are all over the place, with some outlets saying that "there's no explanation" for why we're in the situation we're i

The season is young, but it has already produced a number of significant stories.  It started with significant free agent signings involving Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, and Paul Goldschmidt, among others.  We've seen early season showdowns, with none more significant than the first at-bat between Bryce Harper and Max Scherzer.  More recently, in fact just yesterday, we saw Yaisel Puig face off against his old club (with Clayton Kershaw on the mound).  The Yankees have half of its lineup on the injured list.  The Cubs and Red Sox are struggling to regain form and both are sitting at the bottom of their respective divisions.  The Mets and Rays are playing some of the best baseball in the league.  These are all great story lines but none of them have captivated the entire league as much as Chris Davis's hitless streak.   By way of background, Chris Davis is the Baltimore Orioles' first baseman.  To date , Davis has slugged 283 home runs and 749 runs batted in, but with a

The scene in Washington, D.C. last night was electric.  Phillies.  Nationals.  Bryce Harper.  Max Scherzer.  It was a scene that not even a rain delay could dampen.  This was, after all, Bryce Harper's first visit back to his old team.  The open question before the game was whether Bryce would be cheered or booed.  By the first at bat, there was no question.  Most of the fans in the stadium booed Bryce Harper during each of his at bats.  But it wasn't so much the fact that he was booed, but how much  he was booed.  The booing was universal and frankly, pretty ruthless.  It was something we really haven't seen from the Nationals' fans.  They're usually too nice, too friendly, and way too forgiving.  But not on Tuesday.  Not when they felt betrayed (and we'll get to that later). First, I'm going to argue that Bryce Harper leaving the Nationals changed the fan base forever.  They finally have a taste of what it's like to have a brutal loss.  Sure

Baseball in Florida has been struggling for a while.  By now, it has become some weird chicken-and-egg game of (1) not having the revenue to hold onto expensive talent and (2) not having talent to bring in the attendance numbers they need.   And what we don't know is how long this game will play out.  The Marlins attendance numbers are barely above what the Montreal Expos were bringing in and hey, we all know how well that worked out. The problem hasn't always been talent.  Just recently, the Marlins had a core lineup of Dee Gordon, Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton, and Marcell Ozuna.  In fact, over the years -- going way back to their two championship runs -- the Marlins have somehow found a way to accumulate talent.  But the attendance numbers just weren't there and we're left wondering why. Some of it could be pricing.  The seats just may not be cheap enough to convince the fans to come to the ballpark.  But Miami is really no different than many other fr