Open Stance - The Blog

The New Worst Ballpark in Major League Baseball

2010-04-14T15:01:00.011-06:00

Congratulations, Tampa Bay Rays and St. Petersburg, Florida! With the advent of Target Field in Minneapolis, Tropicana Field replaces the HHH Metrodome as the Worst Ballpark in Major League Baseball.

As far as I'm concerned, they can't blow this dump up soon enough. While they're at it, they can "contract" the Rays, too.

©2010 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Follow Open Stance on Twitter

2010-04-12T21:18:00.006-06:00

After over a year of dormancy, I'm firing up the Open Stance Twitter account. Click the button below and join the bandwagon!

©2010 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Happy New Year!

2010-04-12T20:19:00.003-06:00

I attended my 29th consecutive Major League Opening Day on Friday. Gawd! Even after all these years and games, I still get excited, and I look forward to the day with great anticipation.

I loosely follow an annual ritual: Play my recording of former Fenway Park organist John Kiley's versions of The Star Spangled Banner and Take Me Out To The Ball Game (at high volume), get into town early, go out to breakfast, take in the street scene, be in line early, be one of the first people in the park. I hit all of those points, and more.

It was really great to see all of my ballpark buddies, some of whom I hadn't seen since the last Rockies game in October. It was great to enter the confines on a beautiful game day (first time I wore shorts to an O.D.) It was also swell that the home team won, more so with a 7-0 2-hit shutout of the division rival San Diego Padres.

Welcome back, baseball. You were missed!

©2010 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

When Counting To Ten, Start With One

2009-12-27T18:16:00.002-07:00

I found this post on mlb.com last night:

2009 brings memorable end to decade
From Buehrle to Yanks, season was perfect in many ways

By Mark Newman / MLB.com

I posted the third comment: The decade isn't over till the end of 2010.

There are, as of this moment, 112 comments, about 80% arguing whether the end of 2009 marks the end of the decade. (It does not. If you don't understand that, start counting from the beginning, and be sure to start with Year 1, not Year 0.)

Of those related comments, I'm guessing that about 40% understand my point and agree. The other 60% have used all kinds of crazy arguments as to why the decade runs 2000 - 2009.

It never ceases to amaze me how some people just can't think outside of their little box.

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

MOTY & Me

2009-10-23T15:06:00.002-06:00

Congratulations to Rockies manager Jim Tracy, Sporting News' 2009 National League Manager of the Year.

Let's hang out again soon!

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

The 60/60 Rule

2009-10-07T12:36:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure whence I first heard this adage - it may have been from George "Sparky" Anderson - but it goes like this:

Every team will win 60 games, and every team will lose 60 games. It's the remaining 42 games that separate the first place teams from the last place teams.

That's pretty amazing, when you think about it. It usually holds true, as it did this year, if you employ a slight fudge factor. The Yankees only lost 59 games, but they won six more games than the next-winningest team. The pathetic Nationals only won 59 games, but they lost three more games than the second most-futile team, the Pirates.

What I take away from this is that there are no unimportant games. I hear a lot of alleged baseball pundits talk about September games "that count." This is, of course, absurd. Games in April and May count the same as every other game.

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Rocktuber!

2009-10-06T16:29:00.003-06:00

Today's Rant to the Denver Post

2009-09-12T13:11:00.002-06:00

From today's paper, Page 4C:

Mariners vs. Rangers • SEATTLE >> Ppd., rain

If you knew anything about Major League Baseball, you'd know that Safeco Field in Seattle has a retractable roof that prevents rain outs.

If you read your own paper (Page 5C), you'd see that today's game between the two teams is in Texas. As was last night's rain out.

Just because something comes from The Associated Press doesn't mean that it's right. How about a little baseball awareness and critical thinking?

dtd

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Call Me Scoop

2009-09-01T22:29:00.004-06:00

I was watching the Dodgers game last night, and Vin Scully said that LA had just acquired Jim Thome from the White Sox. I was also sitting at my computer, so I started looking for more info.

The Denver Post's Troy Renck had a story about the Rockies acquiring Jose Contreras that also mentioned that the Dodgers got Jon Garland. No mention of Thome.

At 10:47, I posted this comment on the story: The Dodgers also acquired Jim Thome.

So, I scooped the Denver Post on this fairly big story with local ramifications -- on their own site!

When I got up this morning, I checked the page again. The story had been updated (last at 01:06:56 AM MDT) with the Thome information.

Hey, Denver Post! If it was my job to be your national baseball correspondent, I bet I could do a much better job than your incumbent. I'm available -- let's talk.

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Read Your Own Paper (And Try To Retain A Little Bit)

2009-08-20T15:18:00.003-06:00

I had a great relationship with the sports writers and the sports editor at the Rocky Mountain News. They were generally good-natured, and even better, they responded to my comments, questions and corrections.

Not so with the Denver Post, which I've been reading since "The Rocky" went under. (Growing up, it was always referred to as "The News." Guessing that was some marketer's idea of a hip rebranding...)

I don't know if they've always been this bad, but the Post folks seem to screw up a lot, and they don't seem to care. Or, maybe they're getting so many complaints, they don't have time to answer all of them. Yeah, I sometimes get a little snarky with them, but for cryin' out loud! It's their jobs to get it right.

In any event, I fired off this missive last week in response to an error about the Pittsburgh Pirates in a Dave Krieger column. I sent it to Dave and cc'd sports@denverpost.com. Not surprisingly, I didn't hear back. As evidence that they don't care, as of today, they have not corrected the online version of the column.

========================

Page 5C

"...they had little choice but to trade Freddy Sanchez, Jack Wilson, Adam LaRoche and Nate McLouth in July..."

Nate McLouth was traded on June 3. It was in all the papers. Even the Denver Post.

dtd

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Old Timer

2009-08-12T23:01:00.003-06:00

The Pittsburgh Pirates are in town to play the Rockies. Both the Rockies radio and TV teams have claimed that Pirate Lastings Milledge wears number 85 "because that was the year he was born."

That would make him 1,924 years old.

The baseball media in Denver is about as bush league and clueless as it gets.

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Seeing The Cycle

2009-08-11T15:15:00.003-06:00

I saw Rockie's shortstop Troy Tulowitzki get credit for hitting for the cycle last night. The triple was a bit specious: Alfonso Soriano bobbled the ball in the left field corner before gaining control and firing it in, and if the throw would have been caught at 3rd base, Tulo would have been out by ten feet. But it was scored as a triple and it's a cycle.

I was watching ESPN's Sports Center when I got home, and they said that only two men in MLB history had turned an unassisted triple play and hit for the cycle: John Valentin and Troy Tulowitzki.

I'm guessing I'm the only person on the planet who was in attendance when Valentin turned his triple play and Tulo hit for his cycle.

How special does that make me? (Uh... That's a rhetorical question!)

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Media Rants

2009-08-08T09:50:00.002-06:00

I'm continually finding factual errors in the media, both sports and news, and I always find myself compelled to fire off a note to correct the offenders. It occurred to me that this blog would be a good place to keep track, so I'm introducing a new feature: Media Rants.

Here's the one from today. I might dredge up some previous ones, too.

=====================================

(The Denver Post)

From today's paper, Cub-Level Seats, Page 15A:

"Take away the Yankees and Red Sox, who've made one regular-season stop apiece in Coors Field's 15-year history..."

Wrong! The Yankees played regular-season games in Coors Field on June 18, 19 & 20, 2002; then again on June 19, 20 & 21, 2007.

As Casey Stengel would have said, "You can look it up."

dtd

=====================================
There was another factual error that I didn't bother pointing out to the Post:

"...Rockies fans appeared to more than hold their own, accounting for perhaps two-thirds of the crowd, every one of whom went wild when Chris Iannetta hit the only home run of the game..."

Uh... I was there. I did not go "wild." I saw many others that did not go "wild" as well.

dtd©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Thanks To Me?

2009-06-29T18:07:00.003-06:00

I'm watching the Red Sox play the Orioles on MLB Extra Innings. They've only got the home feed, so I have to watch Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN). Jim Palmer and Gary Thorne are their announcers, and I generally like both of them.

Several times in the early innings, Jim Palmer referred to Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester having dealt with leukemia.

So, I went to the MASN web site and filled out a "contact us" form as follows:

Please tell Jim Palmer that Jon Lester had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, not leukemia.

Within ten minutes of my note, Jim Palmer made the correction on the air. Wonder if it was because of my note.

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Box Score Revelations

2009-06-25T19:36:00.004-06:00

After writing my previous post about my encounter with Bill Veeck, I took a closer look at the box score from that game in Wrigley Field on September 21, 1981. A couple of Cubs players jumped out at me:

- Bobby Bonds I didn't realize that I saw him play, and I'd forgotten he'd played for the Cubbies. I always think of him as a Giant, but he also played for the Yankees, Angels, White Sox, Rangers, Indians and the Cardinals. After I saw him that day, he only played eight more games in the Major Leagues.

- Jim Tracy I'm guessing I'm one of a thimbleful of Colorado Rockies fans that saw their current manager play in the Majors. In his career, Tracy only had 213 plate appearances, and I saw one of them when he walked that day. Jim had only four PA's in the bigs after that. His base on balls on September 22 was the last time he reached base. Tracy then played a couple of years in Japan before hanging up the spikes.

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Bill Veeck and Me

2009-06-23T15:39:00.005-06:00

Yesterday, Today in Baseball had a piece on the anniversary of Bill Veeck becoming a Major League team owner. It reminded me of my encounter with him.

In September of 1981, I was living in Boulder. Since I was born and raised in Colorado, I was looking to live somewhere else, just because I thought I should. I had a hot job prospect in Peoria, IL, and I was called back there for a second in-person interview. Being the resourceful type, I decided to take Amtrak, because the Denver - Peoria route included a change of trains in Chicago. There was no additional charge for a layover, and on the way back, I spent a few extra days in the Windy City. On Saturday and Sunday, I made my first and second trips to see the White Sox play at Comiskey Park. On Monday, the Cubs were playing at home. Prior to that trip, I'd only seen five Major League games in my life. How could I not take advantage of the opportunity?

One of my closest friends at the time (sadly, since estranged), a friend of his, and I got walk-up bleacher tickets for an afternoon affair with the Cubs. You could easily do that in those days. Unbelievably, only 3,635 of us elbowed our way into The Friendly Confines that afternoon. It would be a trick to squeeze in the game and get me to Union Station in time for my trip home, but it was doable. Still, I had one eye on the clock the whole game.

The Cardinals shut out the Cubs, 2-0, in a snappy 2 hours and 33 minutes. The timing was good, but we couldn't dawdle. We left our seats and went underneath the bleachers to exit to the street. My friend said, "Hey, I think that's Bill Veeck!" Sure enough, he'd been watching the game in the bleachers with us, pegleg and all.

There was a crowd around him, and Bill was signing autographs. I went through a phase where I thought asking for an autograph of anyone was rather déclassé. I could very well have been in the middle of that phase at that point.

I did, however, come equipped with a camera! I had a Kodak Pocket Instamatic, that was roughly the size of an ice cream sandwich. It was a relatively good point 'n' shoot camera for the time, even though it was in the short-lived 110 format. It didn't have a built-in flash, but it did accept a flash cube -- a four-sided flash bulb that rotated after every shot.

I whipped out my camera and gave it to my friend. When it was my turn with Bill, I asked him if I could get a picture with him. He was very friendly, and he bellowed, "Ah, why do you want a picture of an old guy like me?" Then he put his arm around me in a bear hug sort of a way and posed for the shot.

My friend squeezed the shutter button, and... the freakin' flash didn't go off! Since we were underneath the bleachers, it was dark enough that it was necessary. Worse yet, it was the last exposure on my last film cartridge.

I didn't think (or didn't want to -- see above) of asking for an autograph. If we'd waited until we were out on the street, we wouldn't have needed the flash. We scooted out of there pronto so that I didn't have to walk back to Colorado.

Needless to say, the picture didn't come out. Years later, I dug through boxes and boxes of photos until I finally found the negative. I was hoping I could take it to a professional lab and get some sort of image from it. Alas, the whole frame was blank.

Even though I don't have the photograph, I had a momentary encounter with one of the legends of the game. That picture will be in my mind forever.

As luck would have it, and after several months of being strung along, I didn't get the Peoria job. The woman who referred me said, "Sorry about that. Why don't you try this guy in Boston. I hear he's looking for someone." I called, and six weeks later, I was living there. I've often contemplated how different my life would have turned out if I'd landed in Peoria instead of the Hub of the Universe. Not nearly as much fun, methinks!

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Vin Scully and Me

2009-06-22T20:37:00.003-06:00

The multi-dimensional Keith Olbermann posted a pretty cool blog entry recently about Vin Scully. A couple of the anecdotes were about the trepidation of meeting Vin, and it reminded me of my good fortune to encounter the Voice of the Dodgers.

It was May 25, 1993. As a writer for Boston Baseball magazine (then known as Baseball Underground), I scored media credentials. I was really excited to see Tommy Lasorda's famous office, and I just wanted the chance to see legendary Mr. Scully. Alas, the pass only allowed me field and press box access, so I had no chance to get into the clubhouse and see Frank Sinatra's autographed photo on Tommy's office wall.

Still, being on the field at Dodger Stadium is a pretty cool deal. During batting practice, I got to say hi to former Red Sox Jody Reed. Not that I asked, but he didn't want anything to do with an interview, and he pretty much blew me off. When I said I just wanted to say hello, he chatted with me for a second, so it wasn't a total snub. I got the feeling that he'd left his Boston days in the dust.

While I was sitting in the Dodger's dugout, a woman was conducting a player interview
for local radio. I sat a few feet away from the rookie player and pretended to be disinterested. In actuality, I was hanging on every word. The player was Mike Piazza. Wonder what ever became of him...

After batting practice, I made my way up to the press box. I was standing in the chow line, when someone bumped into me. He kept moving, but politely said, "Pardon me." Before I knew what had happened, the shock of red hair (okay… orange hair) had already passed me. I not only got to see Vin Scully, but he bumped into me and spoke to me! I couldn't have been happier, and the game hadn't started.

After eating, I grabbed a chair in the last row of the press box to watch the game. In the top of the 7th inning, I was leaning my chair back against the rail. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed someone was standing behind me, just to my right. Awe-struck only begins to describe the feeling I had when I realized who it was: Vin Scully and Don Drysdale!

So, here was little ol' me from little ol' Baseball Underground, with two Hall of Famers! In the press box at Dodger Stadium! Yikes!

Believe me -- it was hard to keep my cool. I knew I had to talk to them, but I didn't want to make a fool of myself. Vin made a comment about what a weird and poorly played game it was (I may have his exact words scribbled down in one of my many boxes of stuff). I muttered something, and managed to engage both of them in a bit of conversation. When Roger McDowell plunked Derek Bell with a pitch, I turned to Drysdale, who was notorious about drilling batters, and asked him if he thought it was intentional. Drysdale just said, "Nah." He was probably right, since the bases were loaded and it forced in a run.

So, not only did I manage to see Vin Scully, I can legitimately claim that I got to hang out with him and talk baseball! Having Don Drysdale there, too, was icing on the cake.

It was quite a night for a baseball fan. Mission Accomplished. And then some!

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Train Renck

2009-06-19T12:08:00.003-06:00

Here's a letter I sent to the Denver Post this morning. I dragged my feet on it -- the offending article appeared last Sunday -- so who knows if they'll run it. But I had to get it off my chest.

Re: Mr. Juan-derful faces a raw deal when Manny Ramirez returns
Page 12C
Sunday, June 14, 2009

Troy Renck asserts that Manny Ramirez failed a drug test "with a banned fertility drug appearing in his system." This is patently false.

Manny's drug test indicated elevated levels of testosterone. Further tests showed a high ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone -- an indicator of synthetic testosterone use.

A prescription for human chorionic gonadotropin (HGC) was found in the medical file Ramirez turned over to authorities -- not “in his system.” Ironically, a simple search of denverpost.com confirms this.

While I'm no defender of Manny, it's clear that he does his job much better than Mr. Renck does his.

I've Lost A Friend

2009-05-15T11:43:00.007-06:00

I found out right before the start of yesterday's Rockies game that my friend, Bob Duprey, lost his fight with Hodgkins lymphoma on Wednesday.

I met Bob in 2004, my first year as a Coors Field usher. He had a season ticket in my section, and we got to know each other well. Over the years, as I started to go to more games with a ticket, I would sit next to him. We sat together for all of the 2007 post-season. In 2008, I bought a season ticket for the seat next to him.

We had some great talks about baseball. He was born and bred Yankees fan, and I'm a Red Sox fan, so that inspired many lively discussions. As baseball games accommodate, we also had great talks about myriad other things, too.

I knew he was very sick, but I was hoping that he could beat this the way he did another illness a few years ago. I expected him to be back in his seat at some point this season.

But it was not to be. I missed him at the games this season, and it's now sinking in that I'll never get to sit next to him and watch a ball game again.

He was a good friend, and I will miss him.

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

The GM & Me

2009-04-16T12:55:00.009-06:00

I went down to Colorado Springs to see the Sky Sox yesterday. I was listening to the game on the radio, and I heard the announcer say that Dan O'Dowd, the Rockies GM, was in attendance. He was there to check on the performance of starting pitcher Frankin Morales.

I looked around and spotted him in the box seats behind home plate. We were both wearing the same style Rockies warm-up jackets, so I walked up to him and said, "Nice jacket!"

I chatted with him for a bit, got his autograph on my ticket stub, and took a photo. He couldn't have been nicer to me.

Now, if he'd only sign me to a contract...

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

My favorite headline of today!

2008-07-28T20:48:00.001-06:00

Conflicted Interests

2007-10-23T21:00:00.000-06:00

Friends have been asking me for a couple of weeks: "Who you gonna root for?"

From time to time, I've been ambivalent about who wins the World Series, but I've never been so torn as I am now. I follow both teams.

I was born in Denver and grew up following the AAA Denver Bears. I left Colorado for Boston in 1982, a full 11 years before the Rockies fielded a team. I became an instant diehard Red Sox fan. I went to a game at Fenway Park at my first opportunity (Opening Day, 1982). I wrote for Boston Baseball magazine for four years. I went to Games 4, 5 and 7 of the 1986 World Series. I'm a card-carrying member of Red Sox Nation. I've seen the Red Sox play on the road in 19 venues. The last thing I did before I left Boston to move back to Colorado was to go to a Red Sox game in Fenway Park. I bleed Red Sox.

I moved back to Denver on Labor Day weekend in 2003. I went to four September games for my new home team at Coors Field. During one of those games, I was approached by an usher who noticed me wearing a Boston Red Sox cap. He asked if I was a Sox fan. Of course, I told him I was, and he told me the same. In the course of a ten-minute conversation, we realized we had a tremendous amount in common, and we became fast friends. We remain so today.

Rosie the usher told me who to contact if I wanted to be an usher, too. I didn't think I wanted to, but I followed-through nonetheless. I've been an usher at Coors Field for the past four seasons. In 2004, I worked 76 games, and I went with a ticket to four others. Three of those were when the Red Sox were in town. In 2005, I worked all 81 games. I've spent hours and hours hanging out at Coors Field, watching this team, through thick and mostly thin. I know hundreds of people from the ballpark -- front office personnel, season ticket holders, fellow ushers, vendors, media, cops and more. It's family.

I've said for a long time that I root for the Rockies, and I wish them well, but I don't have the emotional involvement that I do with the Red Sox. It's hard to convincingly explain to someone of the connection to that team if they haven't lived in New England and experienced it themselves. I've also said for a long time that the Rockies have a lot of talent, but they didn't know how to play nine innings, or that they didn't know how to win. They clearly have that figured out, at least for the short term.

Strong cases can be made for both: The Sox had the best record in baseball for most of the season. They've had some lousy luck over the years. They have history. They have tradition. They're the Red Sox. The Rox came from dead-in-the-water to the World Series by winning 22 of their last 23. It's their first World Series. They do have a lot of talent, and they've been really fun to watch over the last month. And, I live in Denver. It'd be nice to root for the no-place-like-home team. Especially since the Broncos won two Super Bowls when I was living in Boston, and the Red Sox won the World Series when I was living in Denver.

My friends think this should be a dream match up for me, and that I should be in baseball heaven. In reality, it's kind of a nightmare. The two teams I root for and follow are playing each other. One of them will win, which should make me happy, but it will be at the expense of the other, which will make me sad. In short, I won't be able to fully appreciate one of my teams winning the World Series. Oh, the humanity!

So, what am I supposed to do? I'm so very conflicted. As one of my friends at Coors Field told me, "Yeah, it's kinda like life."

The best that I've come up with is to celebrate both of my teams. I've been wearing my Rockies jacket and my Red Sox cap. I'm going to cheer for both teams and hope that it's a good Series. I hope that it's clear that the team that wins deserved to win.

I'm big on the "fan experience." This is certainly an interesting one. I finally decided to just do my best to enjoy it.

©2007 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Something cool. Could be much cooler.

2007-02-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

Here's an email I just sent to espn.com. I'll let you know if/how they respond.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hi –

Your Baseball Road Trip Planner is a great idea, and it could be a very cool tool. Unfortunately, it has some serious flaws that make it far less robust and useful than it could be.

Here are my suggestions. If implemented, the Planner would be vastly improved.

1) All professional leagues need to be included. When planning a road trip to an area, it’s important to see schedules for all teams in the area, including independent leagues.

2) The planner only shows one week at a time. This wouldn’t be a major problem if your week didn’t run Saturday through Friday . What calendar looks like that? If it ran Monday through Sunday, the important weekend days of Friday, Saturday and Sunday of a given week could all be seen on one screen. It would be great to see more than a week at a time. If the teams were on the horizontal axis, you could show the entire season on the vertical axis.

3) There is no "Go To" function – you have to click a link to advance one week at a time, rather than having a calendar or other method of advancing to a desired date. The Planner shows the current week (when there is no baseball now – why not start it in March?) If I want to look at a schedule today for the second week of July, I must click the link 22 times to get there.

4) Listed game times are in Eastern Time. If I’m planning a trip to California (or anywhere else not in the East), why would I want to see the time for another zone? Times listed should be local – this is a trip planner, after all.

Please seriously consider implementing these suggestions. I think they’d be relatively simple for a talented developer to figure out.

I’m a big fan of ESPN. The current planner does not reflect your usual level of excellence. With a little effort and thought, it could.

Thanks!
Douglas

©2007 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Couch Potato Heaven

2006-04-12T21:03:00.000-06:00

I'm not one to use this space to plug commercial ventures, nor do I advocate giving the cable company even more money, but in this case, I'm willing to make an exception.

I got MLB Extra Innings on Friday, and I love it! I may never leave the house again.

©2006 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Department of Redundancy Department

2006-04-11T20:03:00.000-06:00

One of my many pet peeves is redundancy in language. When I hear people use terms like "ATM machine" and "PIN number," they just sound stupid. I hear the latter often in commercials, which is even worse, because professional writers, editors, agencies and more are involved, and stuff like that still slips by.

So it drives me a little nutty when I hear or see redundant baseball terms. Today, I was listening to the Red Sox home opener radio broadcast on my computer, and I was following along on Yahoo! In the 7th inning, Yahoo! posted this: "D. Ortiz homered to deep right." Well, he couldn't have homered to shallow right.

Another one that I hear all the time that bothers me is "grand slam home run." A grand slam is, by definition, a home run. You can't have a grand slam triple, or a grand slam sacrifice fly. If you hear "grand slam," you know it's a home run. Or you should.

Sometimes less is more.

©2006 Douglas T. Dinsmoor