The eighties and nineties will be bad decades for many baseball clubs. In 1986, Charles Urbanus jr. decided that it would be his last season. In the long run (2 years) this was a huge blow for his club, Amstel Tijgers. Urbanus was a magnet for players. It was an honour to play with him….
You may call me a big kid, but this is the kind of news that I like. A minor league team rebranding or restyling. In case of the San Antonio Missions, they will have a new look in 2015. In cases like this, I am always looking forward to check out the caps. I am…
Once again the Japanese pitching was magical and kept the MLB All-Stars in check rather well. Shota Takeda pitched three innings in which he allowed only one unearned run on four hits. He walked four and fanned three. The only run that Takeda (Softbank Hawks) allowed came when Alcides Escobar reached first base in…
The baseball season in the US is really over now. Last weekend, the Arizona Fall League final was played. None of the teams of Spencer Kieboom and Shawn Zarraga was represented. This time I would like to pay attention to the Dutch and Antillian players that I ignored all season. I didn’t ignore them because…
Matt Shoemaker recovered from his loss in game one of this series in Japan. In the first game he took the loss after five innings of work and two runs allowed. This time Shoemaker lasted five innings again but he allowed only two hits and struck out two. Jose Altuve was smoking again. In…
Originally, I wrote this article for the Cuban baseball magazine Universo Beisbol. The reason I post it on my blog is that I think it is interesting to see how a team could fail so miserably. The Seattle Pilots: The one-year mishap Seattle always had been one of the cornerstones of the Pacific Coast League…
On the final day of the U21 World Cup, several finale like games were played. First the game for the fifth and sixth spot in the final standings. Australia took on the Czech Republic. After four innings the Australians were leading 4-0 and the game seemed to be played. But not with this Czech team….
The MLB All-Stars already lost the series, but they wanted to put something straight today. They did, and especially Justin Morneau did. In the first inning, Morneau hit a double of Samurai Japan’s starter Shintaro Fujinami (NPB sophomore for the Hanshin Tigers) and drove in Yasiel Puig who got on base on a double…
A great performance by the Samurai Japan team. Jeremy Guthrie pitched five innings for the MLB All-Stars. In those five innings he allowed four runs on five hits (two homeruns). Guthrie struck out three and walked two. After a 1-2-3 first inning, he gave up a two run homerun to Hayato Sakamoto of the Yomiuri…
The Dutch have finished in ninth place with this year’s U21 World Cup. The Italians proved to be too strong for the Orange team. Not by much: 4-3. The Italians had a 4-1 lead at the end of the fourth inning. But in the sixth and the seventh, the Dutch scored a run each…
