2061

David Freese.

Great story in yesterday’s Post-Dispatch about him. St. Louis kid, went to the same high school (Lafayette) as Ryan Howard (Howard graduated before Freese’s freshman year). Stud shortstop in prep baseball, but dude was kind of a party guy, and quit baseball despite having scholarship offers. Did nothing for a year but hang out with friends after high school. Then he went to Mizzou, who begged him to walk-on to the baseball team (where he’d have been a teammate of Ian Kinsler’s and Max Scherzer). Freese was uninterested.

So…at Mizzou in 2002 or 2003 or so, David Freese as a pledge on his fraternity’s team, was playing slow pitch softball in the co-rec intramural league at the University of Missouri. Batting 8th and playing right field because he was a pledge, even.

2062

BTW, kind of an underreported story, but a big one:

As a condition of buying the Houston Astros for MLB approval, any new owner must be amenable to moving the Stros to the AL West next season. That puts 15 teams each in the AL and NL (Right now there are 16 teams in the NL–6 squads in the NL Central). Obviously, that also means a schedule change throughout baseball–with an odd number of teams in each league, there will always be an interleague series going on alongside the regular MLB schedule throughout the entire season.

2063

In boring Dodger news, Fox is now threatening to not show any Dodger games until 2014, of course assuming the MLB doesn’t kick the Dodgers out of the league. This is because of McCourt trying to basically eliminate their exclusive TV rights.

I guess the next threat is to obliterate Chavez Ravine and kidnap Vin Scully. Geezus.

2064

I don’t mind having Houston in the AL West honestly since there’s a team disparity between the two leagues anyway, and adds extra oomph to a 4-team division (which kinda sucks to be honest). Though I kinda liked a limited intra-state series that interleague brought between the two, having it happen a lot more often should be better for us (especially since we kill Houston a lot :))

I think there’s probably a bit too much intra-division play to be honest but that’s just me.

— Alan

2065

I don’t care about interleague and having it every day (essentially) will kill whatever novelty is left in the idea. Houston to the AL West is interesting, not the least of which is my surprise that Houston is willing to give up 50+ years of NL-style baseball. I wonder what the fans there really think about losing their long-time rivalries when all they really get is the Rangers in return. Then throw in all the late divisional road starts they are now going to see on their schedule. I know when Seattle switched conferences in the NFL it took a few years for people to adjust and even now there is a significant part of the fanbase that still harbors hatred towards the Raiders and Broncos far more then it cares about the Rams, Cardinals, and 49ers.

2066

They’ll get over it.

2067

What long time rivalries would Houston be giving up?

2068

I really don’t think Houston has any long-term rivalries except for the Rangers.

— Alan

2069

Cardinals and Cubs are listed as rivals on the Wikipedia page and I’m sure there is some Reds feeling as well based on past history. But someone who has lived in Houston would be better suited to explain that part of their history.

I’m just pointing out that the Astros have been around since 1962, so nearly 50 years, all of that in the NL. There is a history there even if the Astros haven’t been all that successful of a franchise.

2070

I was literally about to post here that Texas needs to yank this pitcher ASAP before the game gets out of hand, because the Tigers are totally dialed in on him. Cabrera ripped one down third. VMart pounds a triple into the right field corner. Then Young ripped one just foul down left.

But before I could post it, Young crushes the next pitch in the stands to put the Tigers up 6-2. Now it’s just a question of whether Detroit can hang on with Verlander running out of gas and their main bullpen out of action due to extra innings last night.

2071

Damn, missed opportunities sure hurt Texas today…bases loaded, 1 out, about to break the game wide open and they get the DP ball from Kinsler.

And still had a shot to pull ahead in the 9th with Napoli at the plate…lots of drama in this series for sure. Bring on Scherzer Saturday night!

2072

That’s very interesting.

But I just can’t imagine the NL being willing to lose a team to the AL.

2073

I’m not sure what this means. It’s not like the NL and AL are separate entities – they don’t even have presidents any more. And it’s not like the owners of the Mets and Phillies and Dodgers and Giants are going to care if the Astros shift to the American League. Who is this “National League” entity who’d actually block this move?

If anything, the owners of the teams in the NL Central – Cards, Brewers, Pirates, etc – would probably be happy to have one less team to compete with for their division. If it’s a negative for anyone, it’s the 4 teams in the AL West, and I don’t see what they could really do to stop this (or if they’d even want to).

2074

What?

This is MLB’s call, and it’s based on what the owners want.

2075

I thought the NL and AL were separate entities to this day? I remember the controversy regarding interleague play in the 90s.

2076

Think of them as separate brands of the same business organization. The controversy was within the MLB. With the exception of the DH, they are just like the AFC and the NFC in American football.

2077

Well damn. Things change a lot when you grow up in a foreign country =/

2078

Yay. Brewers evened up the series!

2079

They officially merged over a hundred years ago, but the two leagues were largely run as seperate entities for a long time. Its only been under Selig that the old infrastructure (seperate league presidents and other offices) have been eliminated.

2080

And the Tigers live to play another day!