I ASKED THIS QUESTION earlier in the forums, but thought that it might be a good piece of water cooler fodder for you folks who just read the front page.
Why can’t women play professional baseball?
While there is a lively discussion going on inside, I brought this up to a friend of mine who works as a scout for MLB. After some chuckling he gave it some thought.
“Well, certainly a woman could play any infield position, assuming she could hit. And, given some of the loser arms I see playing the outfield these days, I doubt that there would be a drop off there either. Pitching and catching might be an issue, but only because we don’t develop young women. I would guess that they would stand a decent chance given some training.”
We talked some more about how women tend to play “Ozzie-Ball” (lots of bunts and running) and noted that the steroid monsters are slowly fading away, so it might happen in our lifetimes.
So, my question still stands. Or, maybe it should be rephrased to “Why don’t they?”
Oh well, enough about the kind of game baseball could be and on to the kinds of games we actually witnessed last night.
The Cubs got beaten by future Cy Young winner, Ross Ohlendorf (don’t let his gaudy 4.41 ERA fool you) last night in Pittsburgh. The Pirates, who posted their first winning record in June since 1996, got out of the month with a 14-13 tally on the register thanks to the Cubs. While the Pirates needed the win to achieve their goal, the Cubs chances of posting a winning record in June were nil when they got to Pittsburgh. They posted an 11-14 record this month. Two wins wasn’t going to cut it.
The Cubs added to their woes by getting shut out for the 8th time this season, matching their entire total for 2008. WAYNE STAATS (MLB.com) fills us in.
Offensively, the Cubs were dominated by Ross Ohlendorf. In his first career start against the NL Central rival, Ohlendorf held the Cubs to four hits. Chicago finished with six on the night and went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position, stranding seven on base.
“I think we’ve forgotten how to hit,” manager Lou Piniella said. “I think that’s the problem. I think we’ve forgotten how to hit, especially with men on base.”
But, since the Cubs are the Cubs, they did not give up the wining run on a home run or nifty single or anything like that. Nope, the runner scored from second on a passed ball.
The only run the Pirates needed came in the fourth inning, when Freddy Sanchez scored on an error. With two out and a runner on first, Andy LaRoche singled to left to set the stage for the atypical play. Although Brandon Moss struck out swinging, the ball got away from Geovany Soto on a wild pitch from Ted Lilly, and Sanchez raced home from second. The Cubs almost got the out at the plate, but Soto’s throw got away from Lilly.
On the south side, the Sox faced a legitimate Cy Young contender in Cliff Lee. His 2.21 home ERA is one of the lowest in the league and he is a dominating pitcher 99% of the time. Yesterday was his 1%. MATT O’DONNELL (MLB.com) fills us in.
The South Siders defeated the Tribe, 11-4, on Tuesday at Progressive Field after waiting through three rain delays before the game was finally called in the top of the seventh. It was their second blowout of Cleveland in as many nights.
Every player got a hit for the Sox, and starter Clayton Richard did enough to hold off the Tribe offense to give Chicago its sixth win in seven games. The White Sox are now a game over .500 for the first time since May 2.
WOW! A whole game over .500 and people were buying me drinks. Well, that is a perfectly acceptable way to celebrate as far as I’m concerned. But, I am not sure celebration is called for just yet. Nevertheless, this win guarantees their third winning series in a row and is the first showing of consistent signs of life we have seen this season.
Oh, and just for fun, I should note that Ozzie sat almost all his big bats last night so he could get a game of Ozzie-Ball in.
Lastly I am going to take a look at the horribly flawed Sports Illustrated poll that came out. It lists Lou and Ozzie as the two managers players would least like to play for. What is the flaw you ask? They sent the questionnaire to 380 players. Not all responded. Moreover, of those that did respond, some are saying that was the one question they didn’t answer. Had they posted the number of respondents versus the number of questionnaires sent, then the poll could be taken with some measure of seriousness. As is, it is just another example of why sports fans are dropping SI as their source for sports information (they have lost 31.3% of their online readership in the last year alone).
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