4th Annual MDA Stride and Ride

(Click the picture to enter the MDA site)

I will be participating in the 4th annual MDA Stride & Ride on Feb 23rd, 2008.  This will be the second year I have taken part in the event.  I am looking for donations to help me make my goal.   Last year BTW readers helped me make it to my goal.  This Year I hope to exceed my goal.  Thanks for your support, Dave

Israel Baseball League: An Inside Look

The following is a special report submitted by a friend in Israel by the name of Asaf, aka The Pirate to PiratesLive Board frequenters. Asaf is a seventeen year old baseball loving true Pirate fan. Reading his submission almost gave me the same feeling I had when my son started hitting line drives at the age of 2. It is great to see someone from outside Western Pennsylvania love the Pirates and baseball as much as Asaf. I hope you all enjoy this, I know I did.

Asaf worries "There are probably some grammar mistakes". I believe he has done a fine job with this and a much better job than I could do writing in Hebrew.

By Asaf Yanko, Israel

As a 17 baseball player, you're normal dream should be to get to the major leagues. This is not really the case over here, in Israel.

All my life I was taught, heard and even played soccer. We used to play all day long, from sunrise to sunset. However, everything changed for me at the age of 13.

My father, as a part of a special delegation from the Israeli Ministry of Defense, went to USA, to Pittsburgh. He saw a baseball game, of the Pirates, over there and just drawn into the game. When he got back home, he gave me a Pirates shirt, a glove and a bat. I remember this day now… just as a reborn. Since that day, baseball has taken a big part of my life, a part that never got taken by soccer, for example. This was just pure lust and love for the game, that I never felt before – and I, just like my father before, got drawn to the game.

About 3 months later, I found out that there is an amateur baseball league. I was amazed. I've started playing ball, and since then – I haven't stopped.

The thing about the Israeli league, has always been that we've known we has no chance to fulfill our dream and get to the MLB or even to the minor leagues. Even for the really talented guys over here. At Israel, every 18 years old person, have to enlist the army. By doing that, all the baseball players are getting block of playing ball for 3 years and when the finish those 3 years, they're already 21 years old and too old.

This is why building a professional league in Israel is so important. By doing that, it opens a window for those talented players to play (even through the army… with certain approvals) and maybe finally even make it to the major leagues – and fulfill their dream.

On November 10^th, I was one of 70 players whom tried out for the 1^st Israeli Baseball League. Short, tall, thick, fat, young and old – we've all stood over there, smiling and hope to impress the judges (Former Red Sox GM, Dan Daquett for that matter). I was trying out for the middle-infield positions, and got 4 ground balls from the SS position to show my skills. I completed the task successfully.

After everyone else have taken their tryouts, Daquett has called all of the players and read a list of the last 25 players whom passed the 1^st cut and reached the last level. When he started reading, he passed over some names from the Israeli national team, and since I wasn't part of it, I was positive I'm going to get kicked off. However, he suddenly said "No. 51, Asaf Yanko". I was absolutely shocked as I went with the rest of the small group to the batting cage.

This was the end of the fun part, though. I sucked during batting practice and at the simulated game I got struck out twice. The IBL (Israel Baseball League) has chosen only 12 players out of these tryouts. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them.

There is some chance this is not the end, though, some friends of me, whom past the tryouts and got contract offers from the league, told me the league is planning on signing another 6 Israeli guys to the league, base on performance in the usual spring season. I really hope to impress them this time, and come up big. This will be extremely hard for me, though, as I'm probably one of the youngest players in the league at the age of 17 (as almost the entire league is 18 or older).

Even if I won't make it, this league will be great in promoting baseball over here in Israel. I believe it can work and that it will work, finally.

So, I guess I would see you all in the season opener of the 2008 Major League season over here in Israel (where it will be :] ), huh? :]

Thank you Asaf. I hope you get that call to be one of the additional players. Enjoy the game, and don't give up on the dream. Please keep us posted on league news and events as they happen.

Israel Baseball League homepage

Left from Right?

WHY?

Why does the national media insist the Pirates rotation has 4 left handed starters?

From ESPN.com:

"The Pirates expect to begin the season with four left-handed starters and have spent much of the offseason looking for a right-hander to compete for the No. 5 spot with right-hander Shawn Chacon."

I wonder if these reporters wear 2 shoes on the same foot? I guarantee they are horrible with driving directions. Some of them must work for mapquest.

Notice to National media (info grabbed from ESPN's player database), the likely rotation for the Pirates:

NUM	STARTERS	POS	THW
57	Zach Duke	P	L
45	Ian Snell	P	R
50	Tom Gorzelanny	P	L
28	Paul Maholm	P	L
36	Tony Armas	P	R
	ROTATION DEPTH
32	Shawn Chacon	P	R
46	Bryan Bullington	P	R
18	Sean Burnett	P	L
72	Yoslan Herrera	P	R
47	John Van Benschoten	P	R
27	Shane Youman	P	L

The Pirates have 5 left handed starters on the 40 man roster, two of which will start the season in the minors.

Training for the national media:

When standing on home plate looking towards center field, LEFT FIELD is on the side of YOUR LEFT arm.

When standing on home plate looking towards center field, RIGHT FIELD is on the side of YOUR RIGHT arm.

National reporters, please check your info before making the above statements or any statements at all.

Note: This is not the first time I have seen the national reports claim the Pirates are looking at four left handed starters to begin the season. Last article claimed Snell was left handed also, Chacon being the only right handed starter.

Phil's Prediction

Punxsutawney Phil has proclaimed an early spring!

The last time Phil saw his shadow was 1999.

The announcement has sent a shock wave throughout the meteorologist society. Every meteorologist saw his shadow this morning, causing confusion and panic.

Phil has left many a weatherman wondering when winter begins?

Bill Murray could not be reached for comment. Murray is the worlds foremost expert on groundhogs and pest control. His works include a documentary on the event called "Groundhog Day" based on the small community in Pennsylvania. He also is featured in a pest removal training video called "Caddy Shack".

Fun fact: The whole concept of Groundhog Day is built on German folklore.

PirateFest 2007

I requested a friend to do a piece on PirateFest 2007, which he graciously agreed to do. Magoo attended the event on Saturday and emailed this to me. Hopefully he will have a chance to post it himself, if not I wanted to make sure it made it to BTW. Thanks Magoo.

PirateFest 2007

By Magoo

Having attended several PirateFests in the past I wondered what might be new this year. For the most part, these events are for the 12 and under fan. That has not changed. The view of three to five year old tikes all dressed in perfect replicas of their favorite player has not changed either.

What has changed was the uniform. The past couple of years it was Jason Bay's number 38 that was the most popular. This year it has been replaced by Freddy Sanchez's number 12. They were everywhere.

Generally, the size of the area used remained the same, but the biggest change was the use of the space. Two years ago vendors consisted of mostly of a small smattering of the typical baseball memorabilia types.

This year there was an upgrade in the kind of memorabilia that could be had. A person having a thick wallet had ample options to select from. Nonetheless, anyone seeking to pour over plies of photos, could acquire a full color photo of the likes of Doug Frobel, who in his five year career posted a mighty batting average of .201.

In comparison to the MLB Fan Fest that was here last July this event was only about one quarter of the size. However, what made this PirateFest much better than the one's in the past, were the games of chance in which fans could participate. Most were set up to allow the fan walk away with a prize of some sort. Practically all of those prizes were leftovers from last year's giveaways. Pins, bobblehead dolls, everything except fireworks was the standard fare.

The typical baseball challenges were everywhere. The radar guns, the electronic video games, and this year brought the pop up machine. Here the 10 year old could show their stuff shagging the can of corn.

Another difference this year was the new player Adam LaRoche. Surprisingly, the line to acquire his autograph was quite small. At about 3:30 PM. At he time many of the attendees were assembling only 30 feet away. Their attention was focused on a stage where at 4:00 PM, Pirate GM David Littlefield, Manager Jim Tracy, and CEO Kevin McClatchy would be fielding questions about the 2007 Pirates.

Questioners peppered the trio with hard hitting (no pun intended) queries. Like politicians the three handled them with a firm commitment... to give no commitment in their answers. Who will leadoff, who is batting second, what about the fifth starter, will Adam Laroche make the team better. Anyone who has seen Littlefield and Tracy speak on such topics could have predicted their answers.

One kid asked Tracy if Jose Castillo was to fat to play second base. Tracy went on to explain how the reports out of Venezuela has Castillo slimming 10 pounds off his frame.

What struck me as kind of odd was how long each of their answers were. The above answer took Tracy a full five minutes to articulate. It was if he was speaking to a bunch of Russian immigrants who had no clue of the difference between a fastball and a curve. Littlefield was even more long winded in his answers. Over and over again fans attempted to wrestle out of him answers that he just side stepped with rhetorical very polite answers. All seemed to leave the fans with the notion of... what did he just say!?!!!

The biggest difference in this session from ones in the past was the lack of questions directed at Mr. McClatchy. His posture spoke volumes of how this is effecting his new position as the front man for new majority owner Robert Nutting. McClatchy sat with microphone in hand, most of the time facing, the floor rather than the crowd.

Just two years ago with Jason Bay and a host of other Pirate favorites were almost ignored as fans wanted to know if he was going to ever get MLB to move toward an even financial playing field. At the time one came away that he was going to champion the cause of the small market team. He boasted of his leadership role in the matter.

With the recent agreement between MLB and the players association no such questions arose. Again at times he seemed like a lost orphan.

Hanging from the rafters were signs of last year's slogan of We Will. The very same banners that were hung around PNC Park last season. The year before the banners were those of legendary Pirates who had once made Pittsburgh a proud baseball town. It got me wondering as to what the slogan might be for this coming year. Maybe just plain ARRRRGH might suffice.