SeaSportsCamp - About Sports

There are seven independent baseball leagues in North America. Six have started their 2007 season with the seventh about to start. Below are the leagues and their season start and other major dates:

• American Association of Independent Baseball - Season start: May 10
• Playoffs start August 27, 2007
• Atlantic League Baseball (ALB) - Season start: May 4
• All-Star Game - July 11, 2007
• Playoffs start September 18, 2007
• Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball (Can-Am League) - Season start: May 24
• Playoffs start September 5, 2007
• Frontier League - Season start: May 23
• Playoffs start September 4, 2007
• Golden Baseball League (GBL) - Season start: June 7
• Northern League - Season start: May 17
• All-Star Game - July 7, 2007
• United League Baseball (ULB) - Season start: Nay 8
• All-Star Game - July 11, 2007
• Playoffs start August 24, 2007

Greg Dobbs 2007 Batting Gamelogs - Baseball-Reference PI I added team record in games started to the batting gamelogs (currently just 2007, the rest of the years tomorrow). I also moved the player’s season summary to the top of the page as I’m guessing it was getting lost at the bottom of the page. [...]

This should not come as any surprise to anyone…

The National Baseball Hall of Fame has been wondering out loud if Barry Bonds would consider donating the bat he uses to break Hank Aaron’s home run record, or maybe his uniform… Barry’s reaction - “I’m not worried about the Hall. I take care of me.” (see: Bonds might not donate prized items to Hall of Fame)

Nice. I’m tempted to let that stand on its own. But I can’t resist…

For Barry his whole career has been about Barry. He has never cared about his teams, team mates, baseball, or the fans. Barry first, everything else a distant second (if at all…). Is it any wonder that nobody at all appears to like this guy?

So for me - I don’t care about Barry or his impending record. I care more about baseball and its fans so I am going to ignore it and him - as I hope everyone else does…

When You’re Hot, Your’ re Hot!

The Red Sox are hot. They own the best record in MLB. When the bats go cold the pitching gets hot. When the pitching goes cold the bats get hot. Beckett gets injured and Tavarez starts pitching well. Calls are gong their way. They are even hitting inside-the-park home runs…

…and When You’re Not, You’re Not

Meanwhile at the other end of the American League East the Yankees free-fall continues. Instead of making a run on first place they are making a run on last (currently tied with Tamp Bay for last at 13.5 games out). Very few MLB teams (I think the number is three, but don’t take that to the bank) have come back from being double digits out to take the division title. Yankees fans are probably in the unfamiliar territory of rooting for the Yank’s to win the wild card (they are only 7.5 out of that…). History says that is a much more doable task…

Now I would expect the Red Sox to cool off a bit, and the Yankees to heat up a bit. But I don’t think they have good enough pitching, even with the “Rocket”, to make a concerted run on the top… NYY fans keep thinking wild card… (or out of it and a new coach next year…)

1951 New York Giants Schedule, Box Scores and Splits - Baseball-Reference.com I did some revamping as people suggested to these pages and also added a few additional things. If a team is in first the games back now has “up 5.0″ for a 5.0 game lead. I’ve also added more summary stats [...]

Milwaukee Brewers Pitching Register - Baseball-Reference.com The batting and pitching registers available through the main team franchise indexes now have a toggle option. Clicking the red text above the team stats now brings up the team’s rank in the league for each statistical category. For instance, you can quickly and easily see the last time [...]

If the forecasters are right and it keeps raining in Paris, the winner at the end of the French Open  might night be not be best clay courters but rather the fittest. The more it rains the more likely players will be playing back-to-back five setters, meaning unfit guys will be falling by the wayside rather quickly.

So how will that impact our two stars, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Fortunately for Fed he has a pretty friendly draw, and for Nadal, a meeting with Hewitt or Niemenin could loom, but I think he should be okay.

Bottom line, all this rain should benefit them both, as long as the rain doesn’t force the semifinals and finals to be player on consecutive days.

On the flip side, a young kid like Novak Djokovic who has had past struggles with fitness could be in trouble having to play back-to-back five setters, or playing three such matches in four days. Same goes for his young peers Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet.

Hopefully none of that will come into play and the sun will shine. But if it doesn’t be sure not to pin your hopes too high on a charge who can’t fight the fatigue.

The Memorial Day weekend was a good one for Major League Baseball teams looking to sweep a series from their opponent. There were no fewer than  8 series sweeps over the weekend. These included:

• Angels sweeping the Yankees
• Diamond Backs sweeping the Astros
• Indians sweeping the Tigers
• Mets sweeping the Marlins
• Padres sweeping the Brewers
• Phillies sweeping the Braves
• Red Sox Sweeping the Rangers
• Rockies sweeping the Giants

Obviously a good “holiday” weekend for the winning sides…

National Pro Fastpitch, women’s professional softball, will kick off its 2007 season on Tuesday, May 29th, when the Chicago Bandits travel to Illinois to take on the Rockford Thunder. Game time is 6:35 PM at SportsCore One stadium. This will be the first of a four game series between the two teams.

For more on National Pro Fastpitch see the NPF Website…

The 91st Running of the Indianapolis 500 will take place on Sunday, May 27. 2007’s race represents the 67th consecutive occurrence of the “Indy 500″. The first 500 race was raced on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 30, 1911. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was built in 1909.

Indy 500 Trivia: What driver has won the most Indianapolis 500 races?