The Sporkball Journals » Uncategorized http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog Serving up the dish on baseball, life and the pursuit of happines Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:18:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Link of the Week (or Whenever): From the ‘I Don’t Get It’ Department, Part 2 http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2009/07/08/wooden-baseball-bat/ http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2009/07/08/wooden-baseball-bat/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:00:29 +0000 BeesGal http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/?p=5824 July 02, 2009 — Granted, these are pretty enough. Although, would these be all that interesting if they’d been carved from an unfinished piece of blank stock ? . . .Your friend in baseball.


]]> http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2009/07/08/wooden-baseball-bat/feed/ 0 Link of the Week (or Whenever): From the ‘I Don’t Get It’ Department http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2009/06/30/link-of-the-week-or-whenever-from-the-i-dont-get-it-department/ http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2009/06/30/link-of-the-week-or-whenever-from-the-i-dont-get-it-department/#comments Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:00:34 +0000 BeesGal http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/?p=5819 June 30, 2009 — Note to Marketing/Promotions purchaser: “Organize focus group. Key question: ‘Would people actually buy this stuff?’”. . .Your friend in baseball.


]]> http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2009/06/30/link-of-the-week-or-whenever-from-the-i-dont-get-it-department/feed/ 0 Reflections 1: A Season to Remember http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2008/09/14/reflections-season-wrap-up/ http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2008/09/14/reflections-season-wrap-up/#comments Sun, 14 Sep 2008 14:00:02 +0000 BeesGal http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/?p=1591 September 14, 2008 — It’s a tough transition for yours truly as the minor league season winds to a close. After getting used to watching or listening every day, I always end up going through some DTs when baseball up-close-and-personal ends so abruptly. This is the time of year when I “cheat” a little and watch some Major League games. It fills up the hole in my evening schedule, and it’s fun watching the guys who’ve been called up.

It’s been quite a year for the Angels’ farm system. All the affiliates, save Advanced-A Rancho Cucamonga, qualified for post-season playoff berths. In addition, all contributed ballplayers (and a couple managers) to the various All-Star/All-League Teams. Take a gander at this star-studded tally:

Play-Off Results
Salt Lake Bees (Pacific Coast League): Pacific North Division Champions
Arkansas Travelers (Texas League): League Champions
Cedar Rapids Kernels (Midwest League): Western Division Semifinal Winners
Orem Owlz (Pioneer League): League Championship Runner-Ups
Tempe Angels (Arizona League): 1st-Half Winners

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End-of-Season All-League Teams
Pacific Coast League
Matt Brown, Brandon Wood,
Shane Loux, Jason Bulger		 Pitcher of the Year: Shane Loux
Texas League
Ben Johnson
California League
Sean O’Sullivan, Mark Trumbo
Pioneer League
Jayson Miller, Will Smith,
Roberto Lopez, Luis Jimenez,
Angel Castillo
Honorable Mention: Jose Perez,
Ivan Contreras, Donato Giovantto,
Tom Kotchman (manager)
Pitcher of the Year: Jayson Miller
League MVP: Roberto Lopez
Arizona League
Tyrone Boykin (manager)
Manager of the Year: Tyrone Boykin

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USA Futures Team
Kevin Jepsen

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Midseason All-Star Teams
Pacific Coast League
Matt Brown, Jason Bulger		 PCL All-Star MVP: Matt Brown
Texas League
Bobby Mosebach, Dan Denham,
Kevin Jepsen, Ben Johnson
California League
Peter Bourjos
Midwest League
Trevor Reckling, Michael Anton,
Efren Navarro

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The best and brightest achievement of the 2008 has to be Kevin Jepsen and Matt Brown being selected to play for Team USA Baseball and their winning of the Bronze Medal at the Beijing Olympics.

I’d like to take a moment to show a little extra love for Matt Brown, who’s had a season for the ages. In addition to the accolades noted above, there’s first cycle of the PCL season, PCL Batter of the Week and Angels Minor League Player of the Month. And my favorite corner infielder was a big part of the Bees’ record-setting, 23-and-2 April.

In Beijing, Team USA faced some truly odd IBAF rules—such as 10-run mercy forfeits, extra-inning tiebreakers and umpiring via translator. In the high-stakes, winner-takes-all tournament format, top prospects LaPorta and Fowler, and seasoned veterans Hessman and Gall didn’t fold exactly. But they didn’t live up to their highly publicized billing either.

Matt, on the other hand, put up offensive numbers that topped his teammates in several categories: .281 BA (4th highest), 32 AB (5th highest) and leading in RBI, SLG%, TB (tied) and BB. In short, he got dropped into the pressure-cooker and didn’t even singe an eyelash. Well, except maybe a few belonging to opposing pitchers.

Seeing Matt for the first time since Beijing, I noticed a new gleam in his eye. A glimpse, perhaps, of the coming-of-age for a promising young ballplayer. Ask any coach dedicated to developmental athletics; these are the moments we live for.

Remember to have fun up there in Anaheim, Brownie! Bye for now!

End of Part 1
 Check back tomorrow for Part 2!

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]]> http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2008/09/14/reflections-season-wrap-up/feed/ 0 2008 Olympians: Hardware http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2008/09/10/olympics-kevin-jepsen-matt-brown-4/ http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2008/09/10/olympics-kevin-jepsen-matt-brown-4/#comments Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:00:49 +0000 BeesGal http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/?p=1758 • UPDATE•

September 12, 2008 — Just discovered the Salt Lake Bees added a whole bunch of medals pix to their Photo Gallery. Check ‘em out! Bye for now!

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• EPILOGUE•

See Part 1 See Part 2 See Part 3

September 10, 2008 — Yours truly must have been sleep-writing when I announced the last of the Olympic posts. Du-oh! Of course, . . . gotta give our returned Olympians the chance to flash their stylin’ new bling-bling. Bye for now!

]]> http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2008/09/10/olympics-kevin-jepsen-matt-brown-4/feed/ 0 Link of the Week (or Whenever): Heads Up! http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2008/08/27/prank-foul-ball-look-out/ http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2008/08/27/prank-foul-ball-look-out/#comments Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:00:06 +0000 BeesGal http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/?p=953 August 27, 2008 — For those who enjoy watching baseball live and in-person, you understand how startling (and frightening) it can be to hear those two words. Someone has turned this experience into a funny, and thankfully harmless, little prank.

The next time you’re at the ballpark, remember, “Beware of objects leaving the playing field.” Bye for now!

]]> http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2008/08/27/prank-foul-ball-look-out/feed/ 0 Link of the Week (or Whenever): Finally! A Use for Metal Bats http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2008/08/17/baseball-bat-juggling/ http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2008/08/17/baseball-bat-juggling/#comments Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:00:44 +0000 BeesGal http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/?p=490 August 17, 2008 — Yours truly needs to give her fingers (and brain cells) a bit of a break. During the first half of August, you’ve benefited from the convergence of a greater-than-normal density of big-ticket blogs. So rather than the usual full-length Sunday post, you’ll be getting a daily “Link of the Week” for the next few days.

Found this video clip courtesy of Game.ops. Can’t say much for the guy’s hitting mechanics, but his juggling various items of baseball gear is dandy. Bye for now!

]]> http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2008/08/17/baseball-bat-juggling/feed/ 0 Link of the Week (or Whenever): How Much is Your Blog Worth? http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2008/07/23/how-much-is-your-blog-worth/ http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/2008/07/23/how-much-is-your-blog-worth/#comments Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:00:25 +0000 BeesGal http://www.chiburibird.net/sporkballblog/?p=260 July 23, 2008 — This week’s link is pure, unadulterated silliness. Readers wondering what on earth this has to do with baseball can blame Joe Posnanski for getting me started.

Background: Apparently, visitor traffic is considered passé for measuring a blog’s revenue potential. Instead, blog valuation should be rated according to the number of indexed links it has with clearinghouse networks such as Weblogs, Inc.

With that pearl of SEO wisdom in mind, I analyzed the net worth of The Sporkball Journals using this handy little applet called How Much is Your Blog Worth? And just for fun, I entered the URLs of my competition, er, . . . I mean friends on the right. Here’s how we pan out:


The Sporkball Journals is worth $564.54.


eFieldhouse.com is worth $0.00.


FutureAngels.com is worth $0.00.


gotmilb? is worth $0.00.


Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf is worth $19,194.36.


Rich Burk’s Footnotes is worth $0.00.


Looking Through the Mask is worth $1,129.08.

I can totally understand how Ron Kaplan’s site kicks a*s on everyone else. So I was feeling pretty good about the results. Except, how did Rosey get the drop on us? Bye for now!

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