Blogcritics Author: Zach Baker

Nuxhall's Death Ends an Era

Zach Baker — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 10:26:53 EST

Listening to the Reds will never be the same.
Joe Nuxhall may be remembered by many as the 15-year old kid that pitched a Major League game during "the War" (WWII). He may be remembered by others as the Reds' announcer, the voice of baseball in Southern Ohio.I have yet to think of how I'll remember Nuxhall. I only know Reds games on the radio can never be the same without him. One thing I...

A Winter of Discontent: Red Sox-Yankees Overdrive To Follow Underwhelming Series

Zach Baker — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:50:39 EDT

So the Red Sox won the World Series and the Yankees will have a new manager. I envy the groundhog.
And so, the baseball season ends the way it began: With people talking about the Red Sox and Yankees. This two-headed monster always seems to loom over all baseball discussion, and it will be stronger than ever Monday.The Red Sox polished off a sweep of the Colorado Rockies in the World Series Sunday night in Denver; the Yankees are set to hire...

World Series: Rockies Chances Fogg-y At Best

Zach Baker — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 13:08:08 EDT

Josh Fogg is the last chance at a competitive series. It's like asking Woody Allen to bench press 500 pounds.
You want to believe in the Colorado Rockies. You want to think they will come back, and if not win the World Series, then at least make it interesting. And let's face it. Only Red Sox fans want to see the World Series end in four or five games. So the question is: After two games in which the Rockies have scored just two runs, can they find their...

World Series Game 1: One Game (One Bad Game, But... )

Zach Baker — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:06:45 EDT

On the scale of bad Game One's, this was an 11.
It's easy, as an Indians fan, to feel a little bitter about the World Series right now.The Red Sox beat my favorite team, and honestly, deserved to beat my favorite team. Because Cleveland got so close to the World Series, there is a temptation to ignore the Fall Classic, and focus on football and whatever else.But if you love baseball, that's not...

MLB Playoff Notes 2007: Day 2

Zach Baker — Fri, 5 Oct 2007 16:49:38 EDT

Another day, another Cubs loss.
So, are we at the point where we can expect a Diamondbacks-Rockies National League Championship series?There were a couple of defining moments from the second day of baseball’s playoffsThe first came when Phillies manager Charlie Manuel pulled his starting pitcher, Kyle Kendrick, with a lead in the third inning with the bases loaded and two...

2007 MLB Playoff Notes: Day One

Zach Baker — Thu, 4 Oct 2007 09:45:54 EDT

It's day one for the playoffs, and day one for TBS carrying them. Both were satisfying.
Part of me still can't believe the teams in the National League playoffs. None of them were in the playoffs last year, and all have had World Series droughts.Okay, Arizona won the whole thing in 2001. But that was a while ago. Not as long as the Phillies (last World Series appearance in 1993), the Cubs (1945), and the Rockies (never), but still...

BGSU Football Mulls Over Michigan State Loss During Bye Week

Zach Baker — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 13:55:19 EDT

BG couldn't duplicate its effort against Minnesota, but its loss wasn't a major disappointment.
Maybe it was too much to expect the Bowling Green football team to pull off consecutive upsets of Big Ten teams. Still, the Falcons had some success against Michigan State Saturday, taking a 14-7 lead before being worn down by the Spartans in the second half and falling, 28-17.For the second-consecutive week, Falcons' quarterback Tyler Sheehan...

Bowling Green Football, Week One: A Win to Build On

Zach Baker — Mon, 3 Sep 2007 15:08:55 EDT

BG's overtime win over Minnesota wasn't the biggest upset of the day. But it is reason for hope.
Going into this season, Bowling Green State University football fans had reason for skepticism.Last season was a disappointment, with a loss to a winless Temple team and a near-loss to Buffalo. The Falcons finished 4-8, 3-5 in the Mid-American Conference. For those of us who went to the school during the short Urban Meyer tenure, and stuck around...

Tim Couch Deserved Better

Zach Baker — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 19:40:51 EDT

Tim Couch's legacy took a turn for the worse Tuesday.
Tim Couch was not supposed to be a savior for the Cleveland Browns’ franchise. Tim Couch was supposed to be the franchise.For a football-starved city with outrageous expectations, the Kentucky quarterback was a symbol of resurrection for a team that had been gone for three years. Given all of that, maybe it’s not surprising that eight...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Baseball Hasn't Earned Fan Trust

Zach Baker — Wed, 7 Mar 2007 06:44:58 EST

Some analysts want us to return to the days when baseball was about standings and box scores. Make no mistake, I can agree with them on that point. The issue is how we get back to the days when baseball was about baseball..The point is that some in the sport want us to just go back to talking about the on-the-field product, instead of getting sidetracked every time an outfielder shows up in mid-February looking like a WWE wrestler.It reminds me of a discussion I had three years ago with someone close to me. We were discussing the world’s events, and she said, “I miss the days when all Washington talked about was sex scandals.”It was a simplification. The problem is talking about something that’s easier to deal with won’t make the big problems go away. In baseball, I get the impression some media members would rather ignore the issue altogether. I’m not the only one here with that suspicion.Sunday night, ESPN’s Peter Gammons made a comment about how Sammy Sosa has never failed a drug test. I think Gammons was implying we should stop asking questions as fans, give all players the benefit of the doubt, and move on. He should know it’s not that simple.Some want us to ease off baseball, trust that the steroid issue will be taken care of, and keep buying tickets. They want us to trust the sport again. Trust has to be earned, and no sport has betrayed its fans more in the last decade and a half than baseball.Through two World Wars, a depression, and constant change in the country, there was always a World Series. In more than 90 years, the World Series was cancelled once – in 1904. Then came The Strike. As it turned out, it wasn’t world conflict or social unrest that canceled a Fall Classic. In 1994, it was pure greed. No need to rehash the sorry affair. Just know, many fans deserted the sport when it finally got around to playing again.Four years later, MLB had finally turned the corner in winning back trust. Mark McGwire and Sosa’s assault on Roger Maris’ single-season home run record revived interest in the game. McGwire’s 62nd homer of the 1998 season is a moment I won’t forget. Soon, Commissioner Bud Selig was bragging about a “renaissance” in baseball. I never bought into that, but some people did. Seven years later, baseball’s once untouchable sluggers were sitting before congress. McGwire refused to answer questions about his possible steroid use. Sosa seemingly forgot how to speak English. Orioles slugger Rafeal Palmero wagged his finger and denied any drug use—then failed a test a few months later. Over the next several months, books came out that alleged there was a major drug problem in baseball, and that many of the drugs in use were difficult to detect. Since the sport had no performance-enhancing drug testing program during the 90s, it became difficult to have any idea which stars from that period used. The end result: everyone was under suspicion. Baseball hasn’t exactly been great in other areas of the game over the last 15 years: revenue disparity between teams, an All-Star game ending in a tie; television deals made to exclude thousands of fans. All of that is nitpicking. Nearly 10 years ago, fans stood and cheered McGwire and Sosa like national treasures. Now, many of us feel swindled by the game we love.Now, even with testing in place, fans have every right to be skeptical. As long as some in the game wish to look past the obvious, there will always be a problem. As long as there’s a problem, there will be a lack of trust. Fans don’t want to be fooled again.