Category: MLB

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Are Now Just the Los Angeles Angels

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SportsLogos – The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim still the butt of jokes on social media and elsewhere due to their clumsy name have officially changed their name to just “Los Angeles Angels” finally dropping the “of Anaheim” part.

Apparently the Angels quietly made this change awhile ago, but didn’t make any grand announcements about it because, well, its always been a ridiculous name. Los Angeles is a cool 40 mins from Anaheim, which if you’ve ever driven around LA you know is more like 2+ hours.

That would be like Charlie Baker deciding to put a team deep on the South Shore. Might as well be the goddamn Cape League at that point.

This is the FIFTH time the Angels have changed their name and the teams only been around since 1961. Thats fucking bananas. Not to mention they’re going back to a name they already used with LA Angels. They’ve also been the Anaheim Angels and the California Angels, but its hard to top Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

I still hold out hope that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred will get drunk and green light an NL expansion team in Boston. Then we could really get wild with some team names. Lets just say the Minutemen for now. The Boston Minutemen of New England. The Seaport District Minutemen of Boston. My personal favorite? The Allston Minutemen of Brighton.

Speaking of Don Draper, Apparently He Designed the 1975 Astros Jerseys Too

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draper astrosESPN Uni Watch – If you’ve ever looked at the rainbow uni and wondered who dreamed it up, the answer is the advertising firm McCann Erickson, which was hired by the Astros to redesign the team’s look for the 1975 season.

It would be fascinating to see the company’s original files and to know the identities of the people who worked on the project, right? The good news in that regard is that McCann Erickson still exists (it’s now known simply as McCann). The bad news is that a company spokesman said the firm no longer has any original sketches or other archival paperwork. The Astros haven’t saved any original documents, either. Sigh.

I can imagine the Don Draper pitch to the Houston Astros…

In your first 13 seasons you’ve never reached the playoffs, never won more than 84 games in a season, and never finished higher than third place. Now, you’re not even the only game in town. You’ve got to deal with the Texas Rangers in Arlington siphoning fans away from you. It’s time to change the conversation.

The Astros play in the state-of-the-art Astrodome. The Eighth Wonder of the World. Isn’t it time for the Astros to wear uniforms as ground breaking as their stadium? I give you the uniform of the future.

Baseball has never seen anything like this, and neither have your fans. People will flock to the Astrodome just to get a glimpse of these uniforms. They will get people talking. They will get people to forget whether or not you’re in the pennant race. And most importantly, these uniforms will get people to forget about your rivals in North Texas.

They said the Yankees never used to lose because the other teams were too busy staring at the pinstripes. Imagine playing the Astros, and staring at these.

BUY BUY BUY!

This uniform is audacious even by today’s standards. I’d love to have seen the reaction of the Old Time Baseball Guys when they got this pitch from McCann Erickson in 1975. But  it has aged quite well and is almost universally revered to this day. It has to be the most popular throwback out there. Some looks are dated and stale, but this look is still fresh.

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The Astros took a step in the right direction the last time they updated their uniforms in 2013. Hopefully the next time they make a change it’s a little bit further in this direction.

Hanley Ramirez is Store Brand Manny Ramirez

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ESPN – [Hanley Ramirez] was told he’s 5-for-35 with eight strikeouts in 45 plate appearances against lefties, a far cry from his .346 mark last season or his .300 career average against southpaws. “You’re kidding me,” Ramirez said. “It took you long enough to tell me that. I didn’t know that, for real. So OK, after this conversation, let’s see what’s going to happen now. I’ll say it: Bring it, OK? I didn’t know. I swear. Interesting. Thank you.”

What a shitshow this guy is. I gotta tell you, I’m souring on Hanley Ramirez pretty quickly this season. Ever since David Ortiz retired, without the benefit of someone telling him to get his shit together, Hanley has increasingly become more and more like Manny Ramirez. Just doing Manny Being Manny shit.

Like laughing off how abysmal he’s hitting lefties this year. Or legitimately refusing to play First Base. Or sitting out with sore shoulders, while his much less heralded teammate Mitch Moreland is mashing home runs and playing First Base with a broken fucking foot.

Hanley Ramirez has become store brand Manny Ramirez. He acts like Manny, he gets babied like Manny, he is a general pain in the ass like Manny. Except he doesn’t hit the goddamn ball like Manny. If you wanna be treated like a superstar then you better be hitting moonshots onto Landsdowne. If you wanna sit out games and laugh about how shitty you’re playing, then the Manny treatment is over.

Even for one of the greatest righthanded hitters of my generation, eventually that act wore thin in Boston. And LA. And Tampa Bay. Imagine how much quicker that shit happens if you’re hitting .241/.341/.406 with 10 home runs, 29 RBIs and a WAR of 0.1. Let me repeat that, Hanley Ramirez has a WAR of 0.1, which means he is BARELY better than an average guy out there at first. Thats essentially what Mitch Moreland is and the Red Sox have fared far  better with him playing than Hanley.

The Butthurt Is Strong With Manager John

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I don’t like it any more when Bill Belichick spars with reporters and the media. Tom Brady always finds a way to say nothing without coming off like a prick. It annoys me to no end to see Belichick talk to reporters like they’re children. But at least Belichick has earned it.

Bill Belichick is unquestionably the best head coach in the NFL today. He’s arguably the best head coach of all time. Manager John has managed 1049 games and is 23 games over .500 (536-513, .511). And for whatever reason that includes the 49 games Torey Lovullo managed while John Farrell was out at the end of 2015. Take out those 49 games Louvullo managed (28-21), and Farrell’s managerial record is 508-492 (.508). Suffice to say, Sparky Anderson Manager John is not.

Regardless, I don’t understand what he got so hot and bothered about. In between Dale Arnold softballs, Rich Keefe asked why they (seem to) run into so many outs and why his use of Craig Kimbrel has apparently changed. Easy answers:

“We like to be aggressive, and we think we more than make up for the outs we run into by scoring more runs.”

“It’s a long season. Kimbrel’s been great, but we can’t use him for four outs every time we’re ahead in the eighth.”

BOOM. I should be the Red Sox PR director. Crisis averted.

Instead, Manager John came across as a petty asshole. And if this is how to reacts to Rich Keefe grilling him, imagine how he’d react to Dan Shaughnessy grilling him if John Henry didn’t own the Globe.

And if the Red Sox were really scuffling, I could maybe better understand this episode and his meltdown Saturday night. But this team is in/near first place with all sorts of injuries. This team is not circling the drain. Manager John needs to project an image of success and lead. Instead, he chose to act like David Price and pick a fight with a guy making $32,000 a year. Not a great look.

Red Sox Win, Moreland Homers Again and Farrell Takes a Dig at Hanley

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After topping the Angels with Chris Sale picking up win No. 10, Craig Kimbrel going 1-2-3 in the 9th for the save and Mitch Moreland homering in his 3rd straight game, John Farrell praised his guys for persevering. But mostly he took a pretty subtle (read: blatant) dig at guys like Hanley Ramirez for being soft.

Last night Hanley sat out because he had a sore knee. Before that he had a sore shoulder. Then of course there’s the whole debacle of Hanley not being able (read: willing) to play first base because all the throwing hurts his shoulder. Meanwhile Mitch Moreland is balling out, hitting bombs and playing the field with a broken fucking toe. So it would seem like Farrell’s over it. Especially with bums like Pablo Sandoval in and out of the lineup, its time to start cutting the dead weight.

I like this new Farrell. Blowing up on umpires and calling out guys for being assholes. Lets get more of this Farrell and less of the robot Farrell.

If the Red Sox want to go anywhere come October they’re gonna need guys like Hanley and David Price to get their sit together. Otherwise this is gonna be a reaaally expensive team to get knocked out in the first round. Not to mention, the more the team struggles the more Dave Dombrowski’s collar gets a little tighter. This guy has traded just about all of the Red Sox top prospects in a concerted effort to win now. Except most of the guys he’s traded for have either gotten hurt (Tyler Thornburg, Carson Smith) or just straight up sucked (David Price). Obviously guys like Kimbrel and Sale have been lights out this year, but that was another half dozen prospects to acquire those two. So if this team doesn’t pick it up soon then thats another wasted year for a veteran team with a more narrow win-now mindset.

Tonight the Red Sox Will Retire #34 for David Ortiz

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David Ortiz will be the last Red Sox player to ever wear #34 as it will go up on the right field deck tonight. It’s a weird feeling seeing the players you grew up with, the players who won titles for your favorite team, the guys who became legends in front of your eyes, its a weird feeling seeing their number get retired.

The first one was obviously Pedro Martinez as he got his #45 retired by the Sox in 2015. Now Pedro had one of the greatest runs a pitcher has ever had in the history of the game, but he was only on the team from 98-04 and won one title with the Sox. Even then he was the c0-ace on the team behind Schilling. But, Ortiz was on the Sox for 14 fucking years and was THE guy on 3 World Series winning teams. Walkoff hits became so routine with him that people legit expected it when he stepped to the plate.

Of all the huge home runs David Ortiz hit, the one I’ll never forget was his grand slam against the Tigers in the 2013 ALCS.

The Sox were down 1-0 in the series, were getting smoked in Game 2 and staring down the barrel at Detroit’s daunting starting rotation. It seemed like a Game 2 loss probably would have killed any chance at winning the series. In steps Ortiz, who hits a motherfucking grand slam to tie the game. I was sitting in the bleachers that game and I’ve never heard Fenway louder than it was right then. And it of course made a goddamn celebrity out of bullpen cop Steve Horgan for his famous celebration.

Obviously the Sox went on to win the World Series where David Ortiz batted .688. The guy hit just under fucking .700 in the World Series. That is unbelievable. That is legendary.

2013 was an emotional season after the Boston Marathon bombing in April so that whole season and especially that playoff run was something the city needed. David Ortiz wasn’t just an iconic player, he was the face of the franchise, a folk hero and someone people genuinely liked. So it was particularly fitting when he took the mic on April 20th, 2013 and gave the entire city a rallying cry that will forever be synonymous with Ortiz.

David Ortiz will likely be the first DH to go into the Hall of Fame and rightfully so. He’s already got a bridge and a street named after him. One day the guy will have a statue outside of Fenway and we can tell our kids how we saw him become the most feared hitter in the game, how he became the biggest star in the toughest market in all of sports, how he became Big Papi.

Minor League Baseball Team to Honor Bat Dog With Awesome Jerseys

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Yahoo – At Trenton Thunder games, you don’t just enjoy a hot dog and a beer. You also enjoy a bat dog and a beer. The New York Yankees Double-A affiliate has used canines in lieu of bat boys for years now. Since 2008, that role has been filled mainly by Derby, the son of the team’s former bat dog Chase. On Monday, the Thunder will honor Derby by wearing jerseys with his face on them. It’s pretty adorable, if you ask us.

Using bat dogs is without a doubt the best thing any minor league team does. Now what is the second best thing? Absolutely ridiculous promo jerseys. Whether its Star Wars night or I remember a team once did Seinfeld night, they’re always awesome and I need to buy one. But combing dope nonsensical jerseys with bat dogs? And you can bring your dog to the game too? Thats a fucking winner right there. I mean just look at these beauties.

I would wear the shit out of that thing. I still have yet to witness a bat dog in person. I was late to a Fisher Cats game in NH last summer and missed the first inning. Apparently Ollie, who is actually the brother of the Trenton bat dog Derby, only works the first inning and now he’s retired. So to say I was devastated is an understatement. Need a bat dog at Fenway. Wally, Tessie and all the little bat boys can kick rocks. Get me a golden retriever on the field and I’ll listen to Jerry Remy’s rants on Asian translators on day long.

Some of the best minor league jerseys I could scope out are below.

Guerin Austin Could Learn a Thing or Two from this Red Sox Sideline Reporter

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So as is tradition here at The 300s, I enjoy giving Red Sox sideline reporter Guerin Austin shit because every single time there’s a victorious Gatorade bath she gets SOAKED. Every. Single. Time. Smiles right through the pain too.

Last night though this suave new guy stepped in (prob because Guerin has pneumonia from one of those Gatorade waterboardings) and showed everyone how its done.

 

Cue the highlights!