According to unreliable (imaginary) sources Coach Les and Gunrock are now in the portal.

5

One thing I'd like to see vanish from pro baseball are the so-called fan appreciation days. Appreciate the fans everyday by treating them better. It does nothing for me seeing them raffle off electronics and cars to a few people at Oracle Park while I'm sitting in a crappy 3rd deck seat because I'm not willing to pay $100 per ticket to see the darn game from slightly lower. I don't feel appreciated when I have to stand in a line going around the block for 30+ min while the stadium employees stand behind the turnstiles and glare at us, savoring the tiny bit of authority they have. I don't feel appreciated by having to pay over $30 just to get a hot dog, snack, and a drink, or ushers who aggressively demand to see your ticket but don't do crap when someone is sitting in your seat .
And here's the kicker-you have to buy a ticket to the fan appreciation game to be appreciated. I could have gone to 80 games, but if I don't buy a ticket to 81 I have zero chance of being appreciated. Meanwhile, somebody who makes that their only game of the year could win a new car.

Baseball is also popular in Asia. There are pro leagues in China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. Outside Asia Australia and Italy also have pro baseball. South Africa and Israel have fielded World Baseball Classic teams, although the latter relied heavily on Jewish American players. It's more of a global game. Just a few years ago the Pirates even signed two players from India, where cricket is much more popular. One of them-Rinku Singh-pitched really well in the low minor leagues despite the fact he never played baseball in India. He was a javelin-thrower I think.

I think they need to define fan better. A fan might not go to any games because they can't afford it or don't have any teams nearby. They might not even get any televised games of their favorite team. Doesn't mean they're not fans.

MLB has done a lot to alienate fans over the years. They act like we should be so grateful to pay high prices and be treated like trash inside if you're not a season-ticket holder. And then the work stoppages.

They will never be able to really bring down MLB salaries significantly without some major world event. If more teams decided to cry poor like the A's the other teams like the Dodgers would pay the stars. What do the Dodgers care about the luxury tax ? A team can decide they don't want to pay the players above a certain amount they can't as a league or in groups of teams decide to pay players less because that is collusion.

Baseball has strayed too far away from its origins, and a result has become too slow. Homeruns were fairly rare. A lot more stolen bases, and pitchers finished their games.

Now all the emphasis on the homerun has drivem up the scores and lengthened the games. The longer the game the more pitching changes you have. Instead of a crisp, lower-scoring game over in about 2 hours they go 3+.. These rules they put in to shorten games are ineffective. Saving 5 min with a pitch clock doesn't do crap.

What they really need to do is reduce the influence of analytics nerds, who are teaching line-drive hitters how to hit 25 homeruns and bat .220. The Giants won 107 games with a team of cast-offs and no superstars. They were the dullest 100 win team I've ever seen. How did they do it ? Farhan Zaidi (a.k.a King Nerd) and his fellow nerds scienced the hell of it . It's not a game at the MLB level anymore, just nerds playing chess with live pieces.

You would think the college game would be more pure, but even UCD has an analyst messing with stuff-I think she's Assistant Coach Valenzuela's spouse.

This year I have seen an unprecedented amount of offense in college baseball games I've watched. I've been to about a dozen games total this year and have already seen games where the winning team scored 18, 21, and 24 runs. I saw online Sac State gave up 20 yesterday to Nevada, which is not even a very good team. College baseball games, which used to be shorter because of no commercials/promotions are now super long. UCD scored more than 30 runs over the weekend and still only won 1 game ?

I would like to know how they arrived at the age of 57-that seems off. If there were mostly older people at the games I attended the crowds would be much better behaved-where are my old people ? . I think the data must be collected with certain conditions in mind to narrow and shape the results, like looking for fans who attended a greater number of games, who attended spring training gamed, and who had season tickets. Obviously retirees have time to attend more games and travel to AZ and FL in March. The general idea is valid'-that it's mostly an older fanbase, but 57 doesn't seem right. I would guess more like mid to late 40's.

If they beat no one else this season it was going to be Riverside. The Highlanders doubled their season win total in the series, and they were picked to finish 10th out of 11, the Aggies being #11.

They may beat somebody better though. Got the impression that it was just an unusually busy time for hitting@UCR over the weekend, like the pitchers would do better at Dobbins.
.

Less so. Now it has more overpriced restaurants in the once boarded-up buildings that now house them.

Yes, that section of K Street is nowhere to be late at night. It already didn't feel safe with all the super-aggressive transients, the poor drivers, and the people looting after George Floyd was killed.

I was just in that area Friday night too. And I passed by the San Jose lightrail yard last year the day before that mass shooting too.

The politicians unfortunately use these tragedies as a means for pushing their political agendas, and I got the impression from the press conference that Steinberg may do the same. I'm fairly certain he even mentioned gang violence when they have no leads to even suggest that it was gang-related. Al they know is that one or more people wanted to go out and shoot several people and they did it.

You're not really missing much with the no UC Davis baseball games this season, unless you're rooting for the other team. If you really want to see baseball Sacramento has three junior colleges, and they usually play ball on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays/Saturdays. The Triple-A River Cats should be starting up play soon (4/5 I think) Depending on how far you want to travel Cal also is home on Tuesday + Friday-Sunday.

1

1

With sexual harrassment it's largely about how the offended party perceives it, and judging by their lawsuit that's how those former players see it.

And context is important too. The fact that Nakamura was reported to having been seen nude on several occasions by the players is not really the troublesome point-in the normal course of a season that would happen quite a few times in the locker room/shower facilities. But that's just in passing. When the coach is struttimg around naked in the dugout and on the field people have the right to feel uncomfortable about that. And it truly is harrassment if that coach flips a player imto a kegstand position and pretends to eat the air near their crotch, which he is accused of doing.

One other troubling thing. I know some people on this site go to USF sometimes for Aggie basketball games. If you happen to see Benedetti Diamond on one of the trips you'll notice how you can see right onto the field from outside on the sidewalk. Passerby can see and hear everything.

Kezar Stadium was also in a "Dirty Harry" movie with Clint Eastwood. I want to say it was the first one.

Well, I think it's a terrible hire-he will make the receivers run in the wrong direction and score points for the other team !

Not really-it's an excellent hire. This was just to add some variety to what would likely be a very one sided topic thread.

One thing Mr. Allen already has going for him is his first photo on the UC Davis website doesn't show him with a pulled-down "chin diaper" mask like the new women's volleyball assistant. Makes her look like she has a neck beard for Pete's Sake. If you're committed to not covering your nose and mouth then take the darn mask off...it looks so stupid ! Would it have killed them to use a photo where she didn't look ridiculous ?

I believe Triton is one of the moons of Neptune, and in Greek mythology Triton is the son of Poseidon (Neptune in Roman mythology), god of the sea. So that's where the whole merman with a trident comes from. Poseidons or Neptunes just sounds weird. Still it doesn't make sense to make a single made-up figure plural for the sake of sports teams. It would be similar to calling your teams the Santa Clauses, the Easter Bunnies, or the Cobra Commanders.

I think there is a book out there somewhere similar to a baby name book that has potential names for school sports teams. Gauchos is a popular entry, as are Mustangs, Lumberjacks,,Bears, 49ers, Wildcats,Trojans, Matadors,, Eagles, Warriors.. Kudos to UCI for going outside the box and UCSC for being on another planet entirely.

She's a cyber-criminal. In my opinion being a talented rapper is like being the best at making packaged ramen noodles. People may enjoy rap very much, but they can just as easily live without it and not care if it suddenly ceased to exist, just as they could with ramen.

I guess you could say the same thing if you substituted baseball for ramen. Probably not football or basketball though. Football gives people an excuse to yell for no good reason and eat and drink too much on Sundays.

I've thought for a long time that Gunrock was kind of a strange-looking mascot, more like a hairy blue dinosaur. To be fair it's really tough to make animal costumes that don't look at least somewhat ridiculous. A cow is not going to look any less so. I'm guessing the supporters are either not vegan, or the idea is to have a plant-based cow mascot. There's no pleasing everybody. They could install a Transformer mascot because robots are gender-neutral, but people would have problems with the fact that Optimus Prime and co. are not electric vehicles and no one can verify that their bodies are comprised of 100% recycled material.

And what's your goal here ? For us to un-vaccinate ourselves ? Reasonable for us to assume those of us posting are not dead. The topic was Covid-19 Protocol at games. Not much to debate here. This is so out there even I, a confirmed troll, am perplexed

Wait, why does the COVID-19 analysis of an investment executive matter ? I guess the next time I need a check-up I'll ask the produce manager at Safeway.

I was going off the Sac State website article. Not sure where they got their #6 for Long Beach

It's clear though that neither team really deserved the ranking they had. The Dirtbags are 5-6, and then-unranked (don't know if they are now)North Dakota State gave them problems.

Sac State may not finish in the top 3 of their new WAC division in 2022 unless they take a big step forward with their pitching. Their success last year relied a lot on two starting pitchers whom they have now lost to the pros. In 12 games this year only one of their starters (the freshman who threw a seven-inning no-hitter in the first week) has actually won a game if I'm not mistaken.

Still that doesn't mean Sac State wouldn't beat UC Davis pretty soundly. I have accepted the possibility that the 2022 season isn't more than an extended opportunity for Tommy Nicholson to evaluate the players he inherited and determine who's a good fit for next year. What else can he do really ? Also for the players to get their reps in and improve however they can. This year's team may go 0-40 against the schedule they have. To be fair I don't think the team would have been very good had there been no hazing and no players had left. Just another crappy season. There had to have been some internal problems we don't know about besides the hazing which prevented the team from even posting .500 seasons most year since 2005.