The wager is all even as Lobstein does that and more

The great, big bloggers baseball wager is all tied up. And I saw Syracuse fall to Toledo right before my very eyes Friday night. Boo-hoo. Mud Hens pitcher Kyle Lobstein had a startling fastball when you compared it to his back-breakingly slow change-up. Lob-stein indeed. Third baseman Mike Hessman clouted a homer over the deepest…

A diamond in the sun

Add two weeks, four days to opening day. Add 25 degrees to the temperature. Subtract 5,000 fans. What I enjoyed with my good friends Dave and Steven T. was a noontime baseball game at NBT Banks Stadium, the home field for the Syracuse Chiefs, in 75-degree and sunny weather. The grass was inarguably greener than…

We still like Ike

My dear wife Karen noticed the words on one of the TVs over the bottles at our neighborhood sports bar Chadwick’s first. Mets Trade Ike Davis to Pirates, the Friday happy hour sports news show revealed. “Oh, no,” Karen said, pointing to the volume-muted flat screen. We were sad. We liked Ike Davis. Big bat…

Give us a good time, please, say Syracuse Chiefs fans

At the beginning of April in Syracuse, N.Y., the grass was not yet green. Not even at the big ballpark that the Syracuse Chiefs baseball team calls home. That did not stop 6,661 fans from welcoming the start of another Triple-A season to NBT Bank Stadium. But first, they had a pretty big party in…

The lid is off our baseball season

Opening day was a success in Syracuse Thursday afternoon. Even though the Syracuse Chiefs lost the game to 4-1 to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. As the season unfolds, victories for the Triple A-affiliate of the Washington Nationals will indeed become important. But on this opening day, of more significance was the fact that 6,661 fans showed…

Does a major league player deserve paternity leave?

Daniel Murphy missed the first two games of the New York Mets baseball season. He took paternity leave because his wife delivered their first child early on opening day. He gets three days off to share in the joyful family milestone. It’s written into the agreement between management and the players union. And yet there’s…