Adam Bender, 8, is one of several kids who plays catcher in Southeastern’s rookie league at Veterans Park. What makes Adam stand out is that he plays one of the toughest positions on the field with only one leg. Because of cancer, he had his left leg amputated when he was one. Adam doesn’t use a prosthesis, and only uses crutches when he reaches base for the Astros. Since the story of 8-year old cancer survivor Adam Bender was published in the Lexington Herald-Leader, and on www.kentucky.com, on June 1, 2008, the one-legged catcher has been invited to throw out first pitches at a Chicago White Sox game, a Cincinnati Reds game, a Houston Astros game, and has been invited to a Garth Brooks benefit in Las Vegas. He is also being profiled for a story that will air on ESPN. On Sunday June 6, 2008, Adam threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Adam Dunn of the Reds. Because of cancer, Adam Bender had his left leg amputated when he was one but that hasn’t stopped him from playing baseball for the Astros in the Southeastern Rookie League at Veterans Park.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
IBAF Revises Extra Innings Rule
FROM IBAF NEWS
The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) announced today that it is introducing an extra-inning tie-breaker format
July 25, 2008- The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) announced today that it is introducing an extra-inning tie-breaker format that will be tested at a youth event this week and implemented officially in the baseball competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
The format is a first in international baseball competition and differs significantly from the currently used extra-inning model. The new rule calls for traditional baseball extra-inning rules to be used in the 10th frame, but all contests that are tied after 10 innings will compete under a new format. Beginning with the 11th inning and each inning needed thereafter, base runners will be placed on first and second base with no outs. All other rules of baseball will remain in effect.
The new rules will be taken into effect for all tournaments under the IBAF competition umbrella moving forward, which includes the IBAF Men’s and Women’s Baseball World Cup which are scheduled for September 9-27, 2009 in Europe and August 24-29, 2008 in Matsuyama, Japan, respectively.
“The upcoming Beijing Olympic competition may be our last unless we are successful in adding the sport back to the Olympic program for the 2016 Games,” said IBAF President Dr. Harvey W. Schiller. “We must demonstrate to the International Olympic Committee not only does our game belong alongside the other great sports of the world, but our sport is manageable from a television and operational standpoint.”
Dr. Schiller continued, saying the change is both a positive and necessary step for the sport of baseball.
“One of the unique aspects of our game is that it has no time limit. Extra-inning contests can bring about the most exciting results for players and fans, but such circumstances also make it difficult in the context of the Olympic program. Delays cause scheduling and logistical nightmares. Planned security, transportation, drug testing, broadcasts, and entertainment are just a few of the activities that may be seriously affected,” Dr. Schiller continued.
Many former and current professional players and administrators from baseball federations around the world provided guidance on the rule change. The new tie-breaker will be tested beginning today at the IBAF “AAA” World Junior Championships in Edmonton, Canada, which is the premiere international tournament for players 18-and-under.
The new extra-inning format will allow for each manager to select two consecutive batters from anywhere in their respective lineup to start the 11th on first and second base. The next batter in the lineup would then be the batter that starts the inning at the plate. Once those players/runners are determined for the 11th inning, the order of any subsequent innings will be determined by how the previous inning ended. That is, if the 11th inning ends with the #6 hitter having the last official at bat, then the 12th inning begins the #7 hitter at bat, and the #5 hitter at 2B and the #6 hitter at first base.
“Given these extraordinary times for baseball, I believe this will be an exciting shift for the sport,” Dr. Schiller said.
Extra-Inning Rule (to be added to the IBAF Competition Norms):
If the game remains tied after the completion of ten (10) innings, the following procedures will be implemented during extra innings:
• Each team will begin the 11th inning (and any subsequent necessary extra innings) with a player on first and second, no outs.
• To begin the 11th inning, representatives from each team will meet at home plate and will indicate (at the same time) to the home plate umpire where the team wishes to begin the batting order. That is, the teams have the option of beginning the 11th inning anywhere in the existing batting order that was in effect when the 10th inning ended. Note that this is not a new lineup (just potentially a different order), and it may very well be the same lineup that ended the 10th inning. The rationale for doing so is to ensure that both teams have an equal chance at having what theyconsider to be their best hitters and base runners in a position to score in the 11th inning.
• For example, if the team decides to have the #1 hitter in the lineup hit first, then the #8 hitter will be placed at 2B and the #9 hitter will be placed at 1B. Furthermore, if the team decides to have the #3 hitter in the lineup hit first, then the #1 hitter would be at 2B and the #2 hitter would be at1B.
• Once those players/runners are determined for the 11th inning, the order of any subsequent innings will be determined by how the previous inning ended. That is, if the 11th inning ends withthe #6 hitter having the last plate appearance (PA), then the 12th inning begins the #7 hitter at bat, and the #5 hitter at 2B and the #6 hitter at first base.
• With the exception of beginning the inning with runners on 1B and 2B with no one out, all other “Official Rules of Baseball” and “IBAF Competition Norms” will remain in effect during extra innings required to determine a winner.
• No player re-entry is permitted during extra innings.
• The traditional system of the visiting team hitting in the top of the inning and the home team hitting in the bottom of the inning will remain in effect until a winner is determined.
The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) announced today that it is introducing an extra-inning tie-breaker format
July 25, 2008- The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) announced today that it is introducing an extra-inning tie-breaker format that will be tested at a youth event this week and implemented officially in the baseball competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
The format is a first in international baseball competition and differs significantly from the currently used extra-inning model. The new rule calls for traditional baseball extra-inning rules to be used in the 10th frame, but all contests that are tied after 10 innings will compete under a new format. Beginning with the 11th inning and each inning needed thereafter, base runners will be placed on first and second base with no outs. All other rules of baseball will remain in effect.
The new rules will be taken into effect for all tournaments under the IBAF competition umbrella moving forward, which includes the IBAF Men’s and Women’s Baseball World Cup which are scheduled for September 9-27, 2009 in Europe and August 24-29, 2008 in Matsuyama, Japan, respectively.
“The upcoming Beijing Olympic competition may be our last unless we are successful in adding the sport back to the Olympic program for the 2016 Games,” said IBAF President Dr. Harvey W. Schiller. “We must demonstrate to the International Olympic Committee not only does our game belong alongside the other great sports of the world, but our sport is manageable from a television and operational standpoint.”
Dr. Schiller continued, saying the change is both a positive and necessary step for the sport of baseball.
“One of the unique aspects of our game is that it has no time limit. Extra-inning contests can bring about the most exciting results for players and fans, but such circumstances also make it difficult in the context of the Olympic program. Delays cause scheduling and logistical nightmares. Planned security, transportation, drug testing, broadcasts, and entertainment are just a few of the activities that may be seriously affected,” Dr. Schiller continued.
Many former and current professional players and administrators from baseball federations around the world provided guidance on the rule change. The new tie-breaker will be tested beginning today at the IBAF “AAA” World Junior Championships in Edmonton, Canada, which is the premiere international tournament for players 18-and-under.
The new extra-inning format will allow for each manager to select two consecutive batters from anywhere in their respective lineup to start the 11th on first and second base. The next batter in the lineup would then be the batter that starts the inning at the plate. Once those players/runners are determined for the 11th inning, the order of any subsequent innings will be determined by how the previous inning ended. That is, if the 11th inning ends with the #6 hitter having the last official at bat, then the 12th inning begins the #7 hitter at bat, and the #5 hitter at 2B and the #6 hitter at first base.
“Given these extraordinary times for baseball, I believe this will be an exciting shift for the sport,” Dr. Schiller said.
Extra-Inning Rule (to be added to the IBAF Competition Norms):
If the game remains tied after the completion of ten (10) innings, the following procedures will be implemented during extra innings:
• Each team will begin the 11th inning (and any subsequent necessary extra innings) with a player on first and second, no outs.
• To begin the 11th inning, representatives from each team will meet at home plate and will indicate (at the same time) to the home plate umpire where the team wishes to begin the batting order. That is, the teams have the option of beginning the 11th inning anywhere in the existing batting order that was in effect when the 10th inning ended. Note that this is not a new lineup (just potentially a different order), and it may very well be the same lineup that ended the 10th inning. The rationale for doing so is to ensure that both teams have an equal chance at having what theyconsider to be their best hitters and base runners in a position to score in the 11th inning.
• For example, if the team decides to have the #1 hitter in the lineup hit first, then the #8 hitter will be placed at 2B and the #9 hitter will be placed at 1B. Furthermore, if the team decides to have the #3 hitter in the lineup hit first, then the #1 hitter would be at 2B and the #2 hitter would be at1B.
• Once those players/runners are determined for the 11th inning, the order of any subsequent innings will be determined by how the previous inning ended. That is, if the 11th inning ends withthe #6 hitter having the last plate appearance (PA), then the 12th inning begins the #7 hitter at bat, and the #5 hitter at 2B and the #6 hitter at first base.
• With the exception of beginning the inning with runners on 1B and 2B with no one out, all other “Official Rules of Baseball” and “IBAF Competition Norms” will remain in effect during extra innings required to determine a winner.
• No player re-entry is permitted during extra innings.
• The traditional system of the visiting team hitting in the top of the inning and the home team hitting in the bottom of the inning will remain in effect until a winner is determined.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Fan has visited graves of 205 Baseball Hall of Famers
By Joe Capozzi
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Thousands of fans will flock to Cooperstown, N.Y., today to honor the Baseball Hall of Fame's two newest members - Goose Gossage and Dick Williams.
Stewart Thornley won't be there, but he's already planning to pay his respects to Gossage and Williams some day - at their grave sites.
There are fans and then there's Thornley, a fan of the dead who takes his passion to another level - 6-feet under. Baseball's Sultan of Cemeteries has visited the graves of 205 Hall of Famers, from 19th-century pioneer Alexander Cartwright's tombstone at Oahu Cemetery in Hawaii to Cy Young's marker at the United Methodist Church in Peoli, Ohio.
"Some people collect baseball cards. This is my form of collecting," said Thornley, 53, a drinking water educator for the Minnesota Department of Health.
"The process is a lot of fun, the hunting and the research. I like to travel and this gets me to many places I normally wouldn't go."
Thornley's ghostly tour has even brought him to Palm Beach County, where in 1999 he visited the grave of Billy Herman, a 10-time All-Star second baseman for the Chicago Cubs who's buried in Memorial Park in Tequesta.
"I knocked off a couple on that trip," Thornley said. "Max Carey in Miami. I crossed the state to Tampa and saw Al Lopez ... Ray Dandridge in Palm Bay, Ed Walsh in Pompano."
Thornley said he has spent thousands of dollars on 45 different trips to see the final resting places of baseball's greatest players, including shortstop Joseph "Arky" Vaughan's grave "out in the middle of nowhere" in Eagleville, Calif., and Babe Ruth's elaborate shrine at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, N.Y.
"Some people eye it up as being strange. They'll make snide comments like, 'Get a life,' '' Thornley said, "but, hey, it's my hobby. How is that any stranger than stamp collecting?"
Hall of Fame officials aren't insulted by Thornley's preference to honor the dead greats instead of the living ones.
"When I first heard about it, I thought it was kind of odd," said Tim Wiles, the hall's director of research. "But then I found out there are lots of people who do that. It's kind of like baseball archeology.
"Me, I like to visit another kind of baseball grave site - places where ballparks used to be."
Thornley's hobby started by accident in 1967 on a family vacation. Traveling through Michigan's Upper Peninsula, he saw a sign for the grave of George Gipp, whose Notre Dame football legend grew through Knute Rockne's "Win one for the Gipper" speech. Against the protests of his mother and brother, Thornley persuaded his father to make the stop.
"I was hooked," he said, though it would be another 30 years before he started his excursions to see fallen baseball stars and the deceased of various notoriety.
Thornley's cemetery visits include the graves of 40 U.S. presidents, Civil War generals, and several victims of Charles Manson's murderous night in Los Angeles. While visiting the grave of manager Leo Durocher in a few years ago, Thornley was able to walk 19 spaces more to see the resting place of teen heartthrob Ricky Nelson.
All told, he has visited more than 1,000 graves, "even all the vice presidents," said Thornley, author of Six Feet Under: A Graveyard Guide to Minnesota.
Thornley calls Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, burial grounds of rocker Jim Morrison, composer Frédéric Chopin and writer Oscar Wilde, "the Yankee Stadium of cemeteries."
But baseball graves are his passion, and he completed his first lengthy lists of visits in January 2002 by paying respects to Eddie Mathews in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Since then, he said, "as new Hall of Fame graves are added through Hall of Famers dying or those already dead being elected, I've been able to keep up with them."
One of Thornley's favorite visits was to the crypt holding Bill Terry, the last National Leaguer to hit .400, at Evergreen Cemetery in Jacksonville. "I pulled up and saw this old guy who worked there," he said. "As he's walking me to the grave, he says, 'By the way, I put him in there.' He buried Bill Terry and he was proud of that. I thought that was neat.''
Lou Boudreau's was the "freshest grave'' Thornley has visited. He was on a grave-hunting trip to Pittsburgh in 2001 when Boudreau died. Thornley altered his plans to attend the funeral near Joliet, Ill.
There are 10 Hall of Famers without final resting spots, including Bill Veeck, whose ashes were scattered over Lake Michigan, and Roberto Clemente, who died in a plane crash. (Thornley visited the airport in Puerto Rico where Clemente's plane took off, but he said that doesn't count.)
As an official scorer for the Minnesota Twins, Thornley lives with his wife and their two cats, "Jeter" and "A-Rod." He reads up on baseball, keeping an eye out for obits or stories about ailing stars. "I've never had the guts to go up to Bob Feller and say, 'Where are you going to be buried, in Van Meter (Iowa) or Cleveland?' I don't think he'd appreciate that," Thornley said.
Thornley has been to Cooperstown for one induction weekend, in 1996, but he was turned off by the swarm of fans.
"My feeling about Cooperstown is, I kind of enjoy it when it's a little more ... dead,'' he said.
Thornley used to collect autographs, but that hobby took a turn for the worse when he was a sophomore at the University of Minnesota in 1978. He approached New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson after a game and asked him to sign a paddle from Delta Upsilon, a fraternity to which Munson belonged while a student at Kent State.
Munson apparently wasn't in the mood to sign, the two exchanged words and, Thornley said, "He had me by the neck in a chokehold. (Yankees teammate) Fran Healy had to break it up.''
"Neither one of us was on our best behavior," Thornley said. "Something I'd rather forget."
Thornley doesn't hold a grudge. Munson, who isn't in the Hall of Fame, died in a plane crash in 1979.
"I've been to his grave several times," he said. "It's very nice."
Friday, July 25, 2008
What Ever Happened to Brett’s Pine-Tar Bat?
July 24, 2008
By Tyler Kepner
Thursday marks the 25th anniversary of the “Pine Tar Game” at Yankee Stadium, an episode that George Brett still can’t believe is his most famous moment in baseball.
“I never thought it would be that big of a deal,” Brett said on a conference call from Kansas City on Wednesday. “If it happened in Cleveland, it’s not that big of a deal.”
But it happened in the Bronx, of course, with a cast of characters including at least three Hall of Famers: Brett, Goose Gossage and, of all people, Gaylord Perry.
In 1983, Perry was 44 years old, making the final stop on an eight-team odyssey as baseball’s ultimate trickster (or cheater, depending on your perspective). He was playing for the Royals when Brett smashed his disputed home run off Gossage, and swiped the bat from umpire Tim McClelland during the melee after Brett was called out.
“Gaylord Perry, being the man of foreign substance that he is, got the bat and twisted it out of my hands,” McClelland said Wednesday at the Stadium.
The bat passed through several other hands before ballpark security personnel confiscated it, preventing the Royals from stashing it in their clubhouse. Eventually, the bat found its way back in Brett’s hands on a road trip in Detroit, and he planned to use it. Brett drew a red line 18 inches from the knob of the bat — the legal limit, he had learned, for pine tar.
But Perry, ever the wily one, interceded.
“Gaylord Perry said, ‘What are you doing using that bat? That’s a historic bat. You break that, it’s not worth anything,’” Brett recalled. “I said, ‘You know, you’re probably right.’ So I put it in the bat bag, and now it’s in the Hall of Fame.”
It did not get to Cooperstown directly. Brett first sold the bat to collector Barry Halper for $25,000. Realizing it should go to the Hall instead, Brett got it back from Halper six months later for the same $25,000 price. In thanks, he gave Halper the bat he used to hit three homers in a 1978 playoff game.
This weekend, when Brett visits Cooperstown for Gossage’s induction ceremony, he said he might doctor his famous bat. When he got it back, Brett had wiped off the pine tar so it conformed to the 18-inch rule. That just won’t do, he said Wednesday. So don’t be surprised if Brett brings a tube of pine tar with him this weekend.
“The one thing I should do is return the bat to its original state,” Brett said. “Go up there and put the pine tar back up.”
By Tyler Kepner
Thursday marks the 25th anniversary of the “Pine Tar Game” at Yankee Stadium, an episode that George Brett still can’t believe is his most famous moment in baseball.
“I never thought it would be that big of a deal,” Brett said on a conference call from Kansas City on Wednesday. “If it happened in Cleveland, it’s not that big of a deal.”
But it happened in the Bronx, of course, with a cast of characters including at least three Hall of Famers: Brett, Goose Gossage and, of all people, Gaylord Perry.
In 1983, Perry was 44 years old, making the final stop on an eight-team odyssey as baseball’s ultimate trickster (or cheater, depending on your perspective). He was playing for the Royals when Brett smashed his disputed home run off Gossage, and swiped the bat from umpire Tim McClelland during the melee after Brett was called out.
“Gaylord Perry, being the man of foreign substance that he is, got the bat and twisted it out of my hands,” McClelland said Wednesday at the Stadium.
The bat passed through several other hands before ballpark security personnel confiscated it, preventing the Royals from stashing it in their clubhouse. Eventually, the bat found its way back in Brett’s hands on a road trip in Detroit, and he planned to use it. Brett drew a red line 18 inches from the knob of the bat — the legal limit, he had learned, for pine tar.
But Perry, ever the wily one, interceded.
“Gaylord Perry said, ‘What are you doing using that bat? That’s a historic bat. You break that, it’s not worth anything,’” Brett recalled. “I said, ‘You know, you’re probably right.’ So I put it in the bat bag, and now it’s in the Hall of Fame.”
It did not get to Cooperstown directly. Brett first sold the bat to collector Barry Halper for $25,000. Realizing it should go to the Hall instead, Brett got it back from Halper six months later for the same $25,000 price. In thanks, he gave Halper the bat he used to hit three homers in a 1978 playoff game.
This weekend, when Brett visits Cooperstown for Gossage’s induction ceremony, he said he might doctor his famous bat. When he got it back, Brett had wiped off the pine tar so it conformed to the 18-inch rule. That just won’t do, he said Wednesday. So don’t be surprised if Brett brings a tube of pine tar with him this weekend.
“The one thing I should do is return the bat to its original state,” Brett said. “Go up there and put the pine tar back up.”
Thursday, July 24, 2008
George Brett and umpire recall Yankee Stadium Pine Tar Game
Rodriguez/APGeorge Brett must be held back from mauling
Tim McClelland after ump calls him out
for excessive pine tar on bat
25 years ago Thursday.
BY MARK LELINWALLA
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Wednesday, July 23rd 2008
Even with Hall of Famer, World Series champion and 13-time All-Star forever attached to his name, George Brett will never be able to live down one memorable blowup he had at Yankee Stadium 25 years ago Thursday.
It's hard to forget the July 24, 1983 image of an infuriated Brett charging out of the visitors' dugout with arms flailing wildly, sprinting and screaming at home plate umpire Tim McClelland, who had called Brett out after he had a homer for having pine tar too far up the handle of his bat.
Wednesday, Brett said that despite all of his accomplishments, he can't get away from that one incident, even in his own household.
"I probably watch it at least once a year with my boys," Brett said on a conference call set up by the Kansas City Royals Wednesday. "They just want to watch the aftermath of when the umpire threw me out."
It all happened 25 years ago in the top of the ninth inning at the Stadium, when Brett came to bat against Goose Gossage with two out and hit a two-run homer to give Kansas City a 5-4 lead. But after Brett rounded the bases, Yankees manager Billy Martin approached McClelland and alerted him about the amount of pine tar on Brett's bat. Upon inspection and measuring the bat against home plate, McClelland noted that Brett's pine tar exceeded the 18-inch limit from the tip of the handle and called the Royals star out the game. A red-faced Brett darted toward the then first-year ump, having to be held back by other umps and teammates.
"I knew he wasn't going to hit me or run over me and if he did, I'd probably own the Kansas City Royals right now," said McClelland, before manning third base in Wednesday's matinee between the Yanks and Twins. "We had done what we had to do - administer the rules."
The Royals protested, and their appeal was upheld by AL president Lee MacPhail. What was left of the game was played out on Aug. 18, with the Royals hanging on, 5-4.
Brett didn't realize how enraged he looked until viewing the tape. "I remember saying, 'If they call me out for having too much pine tar, I'll run out there and kill one of those sons of bitches," Brett said. "Actually, when I ran out of the dugout I had no idea I looked like that. When I saw my reaction I said, 'You've got to be (kidding) me.'
"That's the one at-bat you're remembered for and it was an at-bat in July. I never thought it would be that big a deal. Only in New York."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
