Steroids

Can you think of any negative views that the MLB receives? STEROIDS!! This era of baseball has been known as the Steroid era, the game has been tainted by the drugs that some players are using to try and catch an edge over the rest of the players who are not taking these performance enhancing drugs. It is giving these people horrible public images as well as causing fans and players to lose all respect for them in and out of the game. And if they do play again all of their success will be blamed on the use of drugs. 

   Many famous stars such Roger Clemons, Barry Bonds, Ryan Braun have all been accused of using the drug but have not been convicted. Just because a player is successful, they are beginning to have their success blamed on them using these enhancers. And once they have been labeled as using them fans seem to have a negative image in their head towards the player even if they are innocent. 

Bryce Harper

I am sure that a majority of you have never heard of this name, but you will in these next coming years. He was the #1 draft pick over all, at the age of 18 years old! He has been known as one of the best baseball players to ever enter the draft. He left high school after receiving his GED and then began to attend Junior College. This did not last to long as he entered the draft the next year.

It is not common that someone at such a young age has such recognition, the use of technology to spread the word of his success, has been sent around the world like a wild fire. As soon as his name was first published in a magazine, it began to pop everywhere such as on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He played in his first major league game a couple of days ago, getting his first major league hit and RBI.

Some people do no believe that he will be successful in the MLB, "he is to young", "he is too cocky" and such non sense like that. He is most likely only to get better, and receive more knowledge from veterans. He deserves to be cocky, he can back it up by being one of the best baseball players going into the draft. In a matter of fact he was the best.

The amount of money each team receives in income each year is not constant. The net average value of a Major League team is 523 million dollars. But this is the average some teams are higher some are substantially lower. For example the New York Yankees had a value of 1.7 billion dollars. The amount of money that is flowing in the Major League is unheard of especially during the times of recession.

There was only one team that needed help from the MLB headquarters to pay there players that was the Texas Rangers, this is because they struggled with the building of a new stadium and and the low aount of fans at each game. I find it interesting that even during such an economic downturn that teams are still able to have such an income from the fan base. For example the Yanks brought in 325 million from fan revenue.

The pay roll of teams is a huge spectrum starting with the highest the Yanks, with 200 million dollars, and going as low as 55 million with the Padres. Is the game fair?  How is a team that has such a low payroll supposed to compete with a team that has such a high one? A player will most likely always go where theres more money that is just the human nature. How did they do it in the old days with such little money?

The game of baseball has turned from just a game into a multi billion dollar business. The business aspect of baseball has become such a more dominant role in the way the game is played by the players. The players are now property of the team and are dealt like playing cards to other teams usually for an increase in salary. Not only are players dealt around entire baseball teams are capable of being put up for sail for upwards of a billion dollars.

I am not trying to say that in the beginning years of the League that there was not trading of players I just mean that there was more respect for players. For example a player who has been a part of an organization for 10 years is just traded away like nothing during todays game. The level of professionalism has declined over these last couple of years and the game has been tainted by steroids and by controversial actions done by players/coaches.

Recently in the Controversial move by the coach, Ozzie Guillen stated that he "loves Fidel Castro" this offending the famous announcer for the Marlins who escaped from Cuba at a young age. He did not only offend the announcer but the millions of fans who took offense to this statement. Of course the front office of the Marlins forced Ozzie to apologize to the fans, that his comment was not serious and was not appropriate.

A huge change has been made previously to the 2012 baseball season. The addition of a new baseball team into the league. Actually it is just a transfer of names and cities that the team is located. The previous Florida Marlins now referred to as the Miami Marlins are home to a new team. The new stadium is among one of the most technologically advanced stadiums that are in the Major League.

The Major League is composed of 30 teams 29 which are located in the United States and 1 that is located in Canada.  Compared to in 1930 when that Major Leagues consisted of 16 teams. The growth of the sport also triggered a growth in the amount of teams there are as well as the publicity that surrounds the game. The formation of the Florida Marlins was in 1993 and throughout there existence they won 2 World Series titals, them winning was not the issue that they changed there name and location.

Some say that the reason they changed there name was because there stadium was shared with the Miami Dolphins and was not the ideal place to play. But the real reason was becasue the name was under lease by Sun Life Stadium (there old stadium) so when they changed locations to the new feild they had to change the name of there team as well.

Here is a picture of the new stadium.

Opening Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNf3nwWyk80&feature=relmfu

I posted a link to a commercial for the 2012 opening day, the excitement that surrounds the day is beyond all other sports. It is the beginning of a 162 game grind to the top. It is where teams will find out how the compete, see how rookies will step up where needed. It is a huge day in the game of baseball the media and sports broadcasters that cover opening day and the first week of baseball.

Still even with the publicity some sports analyses argue that opening day is not what it used to be. This year the first major league game was held in Japan, but after that there was a solid week long period where no games were played and the excitement seemed to kind of build then die then build again.

They amount of talk that surrounds opening day has seemingly not been as high of a topic as past opening days. Maybe it is because of all the other sports still being played and headline news in those sports. For example on my twitter I really did not see to many of my friends tweeting about opening day or about if they are excited.

With the beginning of the season upon us I would like to talk about season predictions using series of calculations to attempt to predict a players success. Technology has had such an advantage on the players who play in this age compared to previous generations. The use of computers to baseball has a huge impact, calculating players pros cons using computer software, creating charts and graphs on where players tend to hit the baseball as well as pitchers habits when they pitch. 

Older players who did not have the access to technology like today did not have the same advantage that players have today. They were not able to get years of scouting reports on hitters/pitchers, they had to just play the game and figure it out on there own with the little amount of outside help they had. Newer equiptment has helped decrease the injury rate as well as the facilities the players play at are unreal. For example the Arizona Diamondbacks have a pool behind the center field wall. 

Or the slide that is mounted at the Milwaukee Brewers Stadium. And the retractable roof. 

Previous to the age of internet and mobile connection there really was not such a large amount of pressure on them. It was just considered a game that was for entertainment, now with such a huge amount of pressure from money, there social image, and the business aspect it has really become more than just a game for entertainment. The players are scrutinized for what they say on there twitter or what they do off the field. Players making up to around 30 million dollars makes the game seem to be more of a business now then it has been. 

But still even back in the early years of the Major League there was still social issues that surrounded the game. The color barrier existed there was the Negro League and the MLB, African Americans were not aloud to play in the MLB and Whites were not able to play in the Negro League. This social barrier does not exist any more and was a lot more serious then the social issues surrounding MLB today. 

Players are basically property of the organization they are apart of, they agree on a contract and a certain amount of money and then they have to do what the team says. They become the face of the team if they tweet about something controversial or say something wrong the whole organization takes the hit.

Obviously the game has changed over the years but the question asked by many whose better?  Does Derek Jeter compare to the level of Cal Ripken JR. or even go back to Honus Wagner? The speed of the game has changed the factors that are part of the game have changed. In my opinion I believe that the baseball players of todays day and age would be better. Maybe it is because those are the only people that I have seen play or maybe it because of all the resources they have available to them to make them better? No body will ever know but it is a question that puzzles millions of people. 

Have you ever noticed how the game of baseball has changed? Baseball you watch today is almost seen as a different game from the year it began. From the origin there was two different leagues, the Major League Baseball and the negro league. African Americans were not able to play in the MLB until 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and entered the MLB.

The size of the game and the magnitude of the scale that baseball is played on is two different worlds. Baseball now is viewed by millions of viewers, thousands of people go to the games, and thousands of people listen over the radio. There is no reason that you cant watch or listen to the game no matter where you are. You can actually now watch and or get live updates directly to your phone. The amount of teams in the league are almost doubled from the year MLB was founded

Not only has the soundings of the game changed but some of the rules have changed, one of the most important roles in baseball, the DH role in the line up is designated to a strong hitter who may not be able to field as well.