Mack’s Apples - Alec Bohm, Fortnite, Bud Harrelson, Baseball Is Perfect, And Not The End of The World

Baseball America’s  Top 500 Prospects –

       

    6 – (Last: 6):  Alec Bohm  4YR 3B   School: Wichita State

Ht: 6-5 | Wt: 240 | B-T: R-R | Committed/Drafted: Never Drafted

Scouting Report: Bohm has been one of the most impressive college hitters in the 2018 draft class and has positioned himself to go early in the first round after several big performances in front of large groups of evaluators this spring. With a large, 6-foot-5, 240-pound frame, Bohm brings a vast amount of strength to the batter’s box, which helps provide some of the best raw power in the country. Bohm has gotten to that power frequently this spring, hitting .353/.464/.596 through his first 36 games with eight home runs and nine doubles. Perhaps more impressive than Bohm’s power output—he also hit 11 homers as a sophomore and six as a freshman—is his improved plate discipline this season. He’s cut his strikeout rate and significantly improved his walk rate, taking the free pass more frequently than striking out for the first time in his collegiate career. He has an exceptional understanding of the strike zone and always seem to have a plan when he steps in the batter’s box, with the ability to make adjustments within an at-bat. His loud spring comes on the heels of a summer in the Cape Cod League, where Bohm was selected to the all-star game and finished second in the league with a .351 average. Bohm has done as much as anyone in the 2018 class to prove himself with the bat, but where the questions will surface for him are on the defensive side. Some scouts think Bohm will eventually have to move to first base, while others believe his strong arm will be enough for him to stay at the hot corner.

Fortnite Addiction  Is Becoming a Problem for Major League Baseball –

        

   One of video gaming’s most popular titles, Fortnite is a big game and a big business — sort of like baseball, the sport that’s officially known as “America’s pastime.” They’re both free to play (as long as you have the right gear), if you’re good you could land a college scholarship, and if you’re great you could earn a ton of money and become a massive celebrity.

Mets legend Bud Harrelson to discuss his Alzheimer’s battle at Midtown conference –       

    He's fought Pirates, Giants and a few Dodgers as a shortstop and manager for the New York Mets, and now Bud Harrelson is in a fight shared by 400,000 New Yorkers: The war against Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

Harrelson, 73, and his family will be participating in a frank discussion about his struggles with the memory-eroding disease this week in an educational conference sponsored by the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.

When baseball is perfect –

          

Pay no attention to the sportswriters and their incessant focus on what’s wrong with baseball. They’re on the clock; they’re like most people who are working: they just want to go home. Forget them.

Baseball is perfect, as we witnessed last night when Stephen Piscotty, of the Oakland A’s, came to bat after returning to the team following his mother’s funeral.

https://youtu.be/pGuLOpB83Oc?t=81

Betting on Baseball Is Not the End of the World –

           

Even before this week’s Supreme Court decision striking down federal restrictions on sports gambling, it was already shaping up as a rough season for baseball lovers. Many of the game’s biggest stars have been faltering. And with a quarter of the season behind us, there seem to be only two really good teams — the Yankees and the Red Sox — both of whom have been trying to buy the pennant, never a happy thought for purists. Worse, the season features an unusually large number of horrible teams, climbing over (perhaps we should say under) each other in their race to the bottom.

And then this gambling thing comes along — and, boom, panic. Major League Baseball warned of “profound effects” on the game. Some worries were distributional — questions about who will get richer and who will get poorer. But most of the concerns echoed former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent, the man who banned Pete Rose from the sport. Vincent met the decision with a question: “How do you protect the integrity of these games?”