This week, there were two things on the ballot for Major League Baseball. One was the approval of the sale of the Atlanta Braves from Time Warner Cable to Liberty Media. Although Ted Turner owns Time Warner, the ballpark is owned by the city, and thus the name "Turner Field" will remain, so I am okay with this. Next on the ballot is the potential sale of the Cubs by the Chicago Tribune. Let's hope Wrigley Field doesn't become "Uno's Pizzeria Field."The second thing was the potential reinstatement of ball as an Olympic sport. It is a cut and dry case as far as I'm concerned - Selig doesn't want to interrupt the season with the use of Major League Players (Ben Sheets in college playing for 2000 olympic team to left), so there is no point in discussing this, particularly since there is the World Baseball Classic now. If they want to reinstate ball, however, that would be fine with me. United States collegiate and minor league players could handle most of the world's professional competition pretty handily, except for maybe Cuba and Japan (All-Star ballots are now available in Japanese, FYI...)
The fun story of the week was that in exchange for Mets fans having to sit through a 3+ hour rain delay a few nights ago, all fans in attendance who sta
yed through the rain delay will receive free seats to a game against the Twins of their choice from June 18-20. I'm not sure if a hand stamp as you left the rain-soaked game will be able to keep until June, so let's hope they had a better system than that.And this just in -- J.J. Hardy belted his 12th homerun Monday in a loss to the Phillies, making him the first NL shortstop to lead the league in homeruns this late in the season since 1986. Ernie Banks was the last NL shortstop to lead the league in HR for an entire season, with 40 in 1960. Hardy hit another one yesterday, putting himself and Prince Fielder at 1-2 in HR in the NL, with 13 and 12 respectively.
**Arrests & Suspensions Toteboard updated**
LAST NIGHT'S RESULTS:
Twins L (18-21)
Brewers L (25-15)
Reds L (16-25)
touch with baseball when his childhood heroes Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, and Jim Gantner retired but the Great Home Run Chase of 1998 reignited his passion. As a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Erik became involved with the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity. With this group Erik traveled to Portland, OR and Baltimore, MD to work on construction projects and help the group raise $25,000 to partially sponsor a house in Milwaukee. Also at UWM, Erik met Peter Nagel. The two attended their first Brewers game together during Opening Weekend 2003. Despite their failure to ignite the coals at their first tailgate, the two had a blast and were soon making weekly trips to the ballpark. Erik has gone on to several colleges and changed careers several times, and has moved all the way out to New Hampshire, but has always stayed true to his baseball roots by holding part-time stadium usher jobs. To this day he looks back fondly on his incredible cross-country journey.
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