Barry Bonds in recent years has been a heated debate. Should he or shouldn’t he get in the HOF? And if the answer is yes, should Barry be a first ballot HOF? C’mon man! This guy was unbelievable, PED’s or whatever! There is one thing you need to ask yourself, “Is Barry Bonds and his performance on the field during his career worthy of HOF entry? As my son would say (he’s 8 years old), “Duh!” ‘Nuff said. Barry is simply one of the best to ever play this great game. No maybe, no but what about the help he might have gotten, and no, well, lets put him in but make him wait. I see clearly now, the powers that be are playing HOF God? C’mon man! If Barry is not an automatic, in any era, no matter what help he might have gotten, Hall of Fame baseball player, than I’m done with this Cooperstown thing. - http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/07/28/brogna-on-baseball-either-you-are-a-hall-of-famer-or-you-are-not
The problem, anti-tobacco advocates say, is the increasing use of smokeless products by young people and the health risks that go with the habit. The Centers for Disease Control says that smokeless tobacco can cause cancer, oral health problems and nicotine addiction, and stresses it is not a safe alternative to smoking. Despite the risks, the CDC's most recent survey found that in 2009, 15 percent of high school boys used smokeless tobacco — a more than one-third increase over 2003, when 11 percent did. The sport's current collective bargaining agreement expires in December, and Selig, who endorsed the ban in March, has said he will propose it in the new contract. Union head Michael Weiner said in June that a "sincere effort" will be made to address the issue. Neither side would comment on the status of a tobacco ban in negotiations. http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/story/2011/09/24/sp-baseball-tobacco.html#ixzz1Yu828tya
In his early years as G.M., (Theo) Epstein, like Beane, was more apt to use those picks on college players because statistical models indicated they were better bets to succeed than those out of high school. From 2003 to '06, the Red Sox used only a third of their picks on high school players. But by 2006, three years after Moneyball had spelled out Oakland's college-centric draft strategy, Epstein noticed the industry was focusing disproportionately on college players. High school players who would have gone in the second or third round before Moneyball were still on the board in the fifth or sixth. So the Red Sox switched gears in 2007, the first year under Epstein in which they drafted more players out of high school than from four-year colleges. (They used 56% of their picks on high schoolers from 2007 to '11, nearly doubling their early rate.) One of those picks was Rizzo, a lefthanded-hitting first baseman out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Fla. Rizzo wasn't even the best prospect on his team; most scouts went to Douglas to see a catcher, Daniel Elorriaga-Matra. But when Laz Gutierrez, a Boston scout in the area, watched the team early in the season, he liked Rizzo. Rizzo did not run well and had a soft body—faults that turned off some scouts—but Gutierrez filed reports enthusing about the way the ball jumped off his bat to all fields and how smooth his hands and footwork were around the bag. Team cross-checkers Dave Finley, Mike Rikard and Marc Delpiano all concurred with Gutierrez. - http://cnnsi.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?expire=&title=Eight+years+after+it+forever+shifted+baseball's+tectonic+-+09.26.11+-+SI+Vault&urlID=460825547&action=cpt&partnerID=289881&fb=Y&url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1190632/1/index.htm
Jonah Hill stars with Brad Pitt in the critically well received new movie, Moneyball. The film is based on a true story about the Oakland Athletics and their unorthodox way of using statistics to build a winning franchise in Major League Baseball, despite not being able to spend money compared to the other baseball teams like the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, among others. While the movie is set in the baseball world, Jonah Hill feels that you don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy the film. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3IYYgkWdD8
The Rays, under general manager Andrew Friedman, have become the new poster boys of what the A’s had started. Seeing a value in defense that few others saw, the 2008 Rays went from embarrassingly bad for a decade to the World Series. The turnaround was so great that it spawned “The Extra 2%,” a book released last spring that chronicles how the franchise turned itself around and the strategy used by Friedman. He looked to squeeze the value out of every transaction and to find those players whose worth was not commensurate with their market price. It was baseball’s equivalent of an informational arbitrage of sorts. Since the 2008 season started, Tampa Bay has been the best defensive team in the majors, leading all of baseball in UZR, according to Fangraphs — a stat that quantifies the number of runs above an average fielding team. Their appreciation of defense has led them to two division titles in the past four years as the chase their third playoff appearance in that time. - http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2011/09/as_moneyball_hits_theaters_bil.html
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