Well, kind of. The Dodgers and Diamondbacks played a two-game series down in Sydney, Australia over the weekend to kick off the 2014 season, but it felt like a honeymoon from the winter: seeing sunshine and 84 degrees for some competitive baseball (for the most part). From a fan's perspective, this was just the break we all needed from the Spring Training grind - rather than seeing players weakly run out ground balls and pitchers throwing their pitch counts regardless of how lit up they get (*cough* Joe Nathan yesterday against the Marlins), we got to see hard nosed, focused, regular season baseball. For that reason, it was awesome to see (if you have MLB Network). That said, I had to keep these games at an arm's length because these two teams head back for more Spring Training...and then more Regular Season. I love the idea of projecting the game abroad, but the timing of this is just awkward, but it makes sense. Australia is a doozy of a trip, and asking the players and teams to make that trip a few days before the season would set them off for a long time; with the hectic MLB season, they might never recover from jet lag! My two cents: take two of the more competitive teams that didn't make the playoffs and send them abroad during the playoffs.
From a future stadium operations professional (knock on wood), the place looked GREAT. The action in a match of cricket takes place right in the center of the pitch with players spread around in every direction, so simply because of where the baseball action is the grounds crew had a lot of work to do.
The Sydney Cricket Grounds have been in use since 1810 with the first recorded cricket match in 1854, making the oldest standing venue on which a baseball game has ever been played. Today, it is used for the Australian national rugby and cricket teams and have games/matches roughly once every week. So this is not just a major venue that is only used for huge diplomatic events, it's the real deal. It's like when some of the European soccer dynasties like Real Madrid or Manchester United will come to Michigan Stadium this summer or when the MLS All Stars played Chelsea in 2012. It is a generous offer by the Australians to allow the sport of America to play there for a weekend, especially considering the massive landscaping overhaul it required.
An article from the Sydney Daily Telegraph earlier this month wrote about the logistics required to make this game happen. 250 tons of a soil/clay composite mix was imported from San Diego to make the infield. This same infield (and the warning track) required 3,560 square meters of grass to be torn up so the dirt could go in and make the NL West competitors feel at home. Journalist Iain Payten writes, "it is nothing short of an epic construction." Read his full article here.
Here is a nice graphic showing the layover of the cricket vs. baseball at SCG:
So the field looked great, and the baseball was pretty much exactly what we expected. Kershaw dominated, Ryu dominated, Goldy raked, the Diamondbacks put up a fight but were ultimately no match for the Dodgers. In my NL West projections, I said the Dodgers have a shot to stay in first place the entire season, and I think that could happen. If they avoid the base running mistakes of Puig in the second game and the botched double play between Gordon and Ramirez (also in the second game), they will be great. Their pitching is absolutely stellar, as we saw, so I think the NL West won't be much of a competition.
In other news, my patience is running short with Puig. Sure he's talented but he's a punk and a diva. In an anonymous survey of 143 MLB players, 21% voted him the most overrated player, and Don Mattingly is already running out of patience with him, too. He came in to camp with two reckless driving charges as well as being 15 pounds overweight. He'll have to perform at an incredibly high level to avoid the LA faithful calling for his head.
PS - the international exposure of sport works both ways. While Aussies were watching baseball, I was motivated to learn the rules of cricket. Looks like a blast.
Thanks for reading. If you couldn't see the games yourselves, here are some pictures of the game via the Diamondbacks on Twitter.
PSS - this Buzzfeed article is hysterical: the rules of baseball explained by an Aussie who went to the games but had never seen or watched baseball beforehand.
Enjoy your Monday, folks.
No comments:
Post a Comment