Great thread.
Here's mine.....
-- Pitchers who slow the game down to a crawl with all those pick-off moves to first-base. This is a totally pointless exercise -- unless the game is tied and it's late in the game. Do pitchers really need to throw 15 times over the first base and add another 10 minutes to a game that has already gone past 4 hours?
-- 75 year old men who wear baseball uniforms. I've had it. 46-waisted Yogi Berra, Don Zimmer, and Tom Lasorda do not belong in skin tight baseball uniforms. It would be like dressing George Karl up in NBA threads. End it. End it now!
-- TV networks who paste adverstisments in the picture behind home plate. This is a disgrace. Aren't there enough advertisments already?
-- Baseball stadiums named after huge corporations, pimping themsleves out to the highest bidder. You gotta' love what happened at "Enron Field." Let's keep calling it that -- forever.
-- Baseball/Televisions's complete lack of ANY acknowlegement of lines or the fact millions of people are betting on these games. Honestly, if there's a game late in the season between Tampa Bay and Minnesota, I'll bet MORE GAMBLERS are watching the game (in Vegas, sports bars, and satellite dishes) than casual fans. How about a little acknowledgment instead of sitcking your head in the sand and pretending baseball gambling does not exist?
-- Major League Baseball's handling of the Pete Rose controversy. Players deserve to be in the Hall of Fame based on on-the-feild acheivements. End of story.
-- Pete Rose's handling of his own controversy. Quit trying to be a martar. Admit what you did and let it go. Quit lying and misleading us. We all know you gambled on baseball.
-- People who go to the games and don't bother to watch the game. Why is it that the front rows at most of these ballparks seemed to be filled with clueless females barking into cell phones?
-- Team mascots. I hate mascots. Flame the idiots wearing those fat rolly-polly sponge costumes. They might be confused with managers.
-- Bob Costas, George Will, and all the other broadcasting nerds who ceaselessly pontificate about how major league baseball represents everything about America. It's a freakin' game, people -- and nothing more.
-- People who still refer to this game as "the National Pastime." Quit living in 1952. Baseball is now the THIRD most popular team sport in the country (and fading) and hasn't been the national pastime in 40 years. Pro football is the national pastime. Period.
And now my number one pet peeve......
-- Fans who cheer after a batter has grounded into a fielders choice. If you go to games, you know what I'm talking about. With a runner on first base, the batter hits to the shortstop. The shortstop relays the ball to 2B for the force out. Then, the ball is hurled over to first base and the runner is safe. The fans cheer. What??? The joker just made an out and failed to advance a runner, and yet the fans are cheering like it's a base hit. Stupid. They should be booing the player, if anything.
Go Expos!!!!
-- ND
