This is Eric Sogard. Eric Sogard is an infielder who plays for the Oakland Athletics. Eric Sogard wears glasses. Not sports goggles. Not regular goggles. Not contacts. Glasses. In addition to being apparent by just looking at him, this important fact is also noted in the first paragraph of Eric Sogard’s Wikipedia article:
He is one of the few baseball players to wear spectacles.
For those who might be wondering why Eric Sogard doesn’t just switch to contacts, here’s what he told ESPN’s Jim Caple in April:
“I’m probably one of the last players to wear them, but they work for me,” said Sogard, whose vision is minus 2.5. “I’ve tried contacts, but I just don’t see as well with them. I’ve been wearing them since high school and I’ve never had a problem with them. I’ve always seen better with glasses than contacts so I’ve just stuck with them.”
So, there you have it. Eric Sogard and his glasses are inseparable. I wonder if he knows that they have their own Twitter account.
If you’re a professional baseball player, there are many different ways in which you can endear yourself to fans. You can write a bunch of witty Tweets, or you can do a lot of charity work for your community, or you can be a funny/quirky/gritty/gamer-ly guy, or you can simply be good at baseball. You could even do all of the above for extra brownie points. Or, you can just skip all of that and be Eric Sogard and wear glasses.
Why is this such a big deal to me? Well, it’s just cool to see Eric Sogard representing bespectacled big leaguers, seeing as they’ve become a dying breed since the 70’s (see Caple’s article above). Perhaps I find it especially cool because I wear glasses, and I see Eric Sogard the baseball player also wearing glasses, and it’s like, hey, maybe I don’t have to become an accountant. Maybe I can be whatever the heck I want. For that, Eric Sogard has a fan for life.
With this in mind, I really, really want him to become a successful major league player so that the A’s will have an Eric Sogard Bobblehead Day, and all the kids who have ever been made fun of for wearing glasses will get to take home a little Eric Sogard of their own, and they will see his bespectacled face bobbing up and down whenever they feel discouraged, and they will be inspired to keep their eyes fixed on their dreams. That’s all we four-eyed folk could ever ask for.
Thing I can cross off my life achievements list: having the same eyeglasses prescription as a MLB player.
Buster lazy high-fives all around!
One of the many things that makes Buster so great.
MLB Faces Antitrust Suit Regarding Its TV Blackout Policies. May 12, 2012
I’m pasting some of this here in case the article “disappears” again:
Major League Baseball’s television blackout policies are the subject of a class action antitrust lawsuit that was filed on Wednesday in the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs in Garber v. MLB allege that the league has violated Sections One and Two of the Sherman Act by unfairly restricting its fans’ ability to watch out-of-market broadcasts in two primary ways. First, through its MLB Extra Innings cable package and MLB.tv Internet package, MLB refuses to offer fans the ability to purchase just their favorite team’s games, instead requiring consumers to purchase a package including all out-of-market MLB broadcasts. Second, both the Extra Innings and MLB.tv packages blackout any games broadcast locally via a regional sports network (RSN), meaning that fans cannot use those packages to watch their local team play, but must instead purchase a cable subscription to watch the games on their local RSN. The complaint alleges that these exclusive broadcasting policies drive up subscription fees for all cable consumers by enabling the RSNs to charge monopoly prices for their highly desirable sports programming.
…Interestingly, the Garber suit does not name all 30 MLB teams as defendants, instead suing only the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Colorado Rockies, New York Yankees, Oakland A’s, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants, and Seattle Mariners, along with the Office of the Commissioner, MLB Advanced Media, DirecTV, Comcast, and various RSNs.
…It will also be interesting to see if the Garber lawsuit finally motivates MLB to update its antiquated television blackout policies. The rules have been frequently criticized by baseball fans, and can lead to absurd outcomes such as fans in Iowa being unable to watch any game involving the Twins, Royals, White Sox, Brewers, Cubs, or Cardinals on either the MLB Extra Innings or MLB.tv packages, even though in many cases none of those teams’ games are available from their local cable provider. MLB has reportedly been considering updating the rules for years, but has yet to act. Perhaps this threat to its cherished antitrust exemption, along with potential treble damages, will finally force the league to act.
Complete article in Sports Law Blog:
http://sports-law.blogspot.ca/2012/05/done-mlb-faces-antitrust-suit-regarding.html
Josh Hamilton turns baseball field into Slip ‘n Slide
Typically, a slider in baseball refers to a pitch.
But on Wednesday night, the term referred to Josh Hamilton.
A night after blasting four homers in one game, Hamilton and the rest of his Rangers teammates made the best of a rain delay, turning Camden Yards into a ginormous Slip ‘n Slide.
This is the only appropriate course of action during a rain delay.
Baseball: Where grown men, who earn tens of millions of dollars yearly, can play on a 5000 square foot Slip N’ Slide.
Take that, NBA.
A found poem composed from tweets by Jose Canseco.
via Pitchers & Poets, of course
