Scoreboards

Injuries are always damaging for the teams. Whenever any player gets injures it is not just the individual but the team who suffers. When a player is particularly important for the team, and if the team relies on him too much, then a sudden injury or two can devastate a team’s season. In a baseball scoreboards feature, I have taken a look at five key players in MLB who got injured this year.

5. Rafael Furcal
The injury prone player has got himself into trouble again. He broke his left hand thumb while head sliding in the third base in April and hasn’t returned to the field till now. He is a key player for the Dodgers’ offense and the team needs him back badly! The team is already lagging behind in its division and without the influential Furcal it could be a long and painful season for the fans!

Everyone looks forward to the drafts each season. They brings teams and fans new talented players, as well as new talented flops-to-be. This very much depends on how well the team scouts understand a player and foresee any possible weaknesses. In this baseball scoreboards feature, I have taken a look at 4 players who I consider are good for nothing and who have become a liability for the club.

Jeremy Sowers
The Cleveland Indians used their sixth pick to draft Jeremy Sowers who was playing extra ordinarily well and was putting up great numbers before he was drafted. Sowers went on to have an amazing rookie season. Unfortunately, his form started to decline in his sophomore season, and this happened to such a great extent that he never recovered from it and lost his form completely. He was soon demoted to Buffalo, and it just kept going downhill from there.

It seems to be a rule that almost every MLB team has player who thinks only about himself and not of the team as a collective unit. It also seems like more and more of these personalities are appearing in MLB. In a baseball scoreboards feature, I have taken a look at the 5 players who I consider to be the 5 most selfish players of MLB.

5. Carlos Zambrano
Carlos Zambrano plays for the Chicago Cubs and is known for his short temper in Major League Baseball. More often than it seems like all he is interested in is himself and his own performance. He does not react when the team performs well but he certainly does when something goes wrong with him, and then he is ready to start a battle. He has a huge list of fights in the MLB, and a lot of players have fallen prey to his temper! (Unfortunately for them – he is 6' 5" and 260 pounds!)

Broadcasters or announcers are an important part of every baseball game. They can either make your baseball experience all the more enjoyable and exhilarating, or they can make the same experience an extremely painful ordeal. In this baseball scoreboards article I have taken a look at the top broadcasters or announcers in MLB, whose spoken words can make baseball fans question their strongest perceptions.

1.Vin Scully – Vin Scully is a living legend when it comes to MLB broadcasting and announcing. In the specialized profession of baseball announcing, he is the benchmark in the industry. If a young broadcaster is seeking a career out of the profession, then he has to try and be as good as Vin Scully. Scully started his broadcasting career in 1950 (and is still going strong) with the Dodgers, when they were still called the Brooklyn Dodgers. When he is doing a play-by-play for any game, he doesn’t need any color commentator to assist him in filling in between plays. He was NBC’s lead baseball announcer from 1983 – 1989, and the Hall of Fame awarded him the Ford Frick award in 1982.

Last week’s “baseball scoreboards” article listed the top 4 broadcasters in MLB history, and in this week’s baseball scoreboards feature, I will take a look at the bottom 4 most annoying broadcasters ever. These are the broadcasters who should not ever have been handed a mic during a baseball game, and the ones who make is think, if they got that dream job, why can’t I?!

4 - Tim McCarver – one has to wonder how a 3-time Emmy Award winner for best sports event analyst ended up on this side of the list? The answer might lie in the fact that McCarver is not a specialist baseball commentator or announcer. Over the span of his broadcasting career, he has covered everything from being a color commentator for MLB to being the announcer for the freestyle skiing event at the Winter Olympics in 1988. He has had stints as a game caller for the Phillies, Mets, Yankees and Giants. His nature to grossly over analyze things during a game is the primary reason he is on this list. Norman Chad criticized McCarver best in a Sport Illustrated issue “when you ask him the time, he will tell you how a watch works.”

Last week, in a baseball scoreboards feature, we covered the “Pine Tar” and the “Black Sox” incidents. Continuing from where we left off, let us take a look at the next 2 most infamous scandalous incidents in MLB history.

3. The Pete Rose Gambling Incident – it seems like MLB is more susceptible to gambling than other professional sports, or it may be that they are just not that well versed in hiding their illicit activities. The (baseball scoreboards) Pete Rose gambling incident is not so much an incident as a saga of denials and accusations that spans almost 15 years.

No professional sport is really complete without the occasional scandal; and baseball, of course, is no different from the rest. Over the years there have been quite a few scandals in the MLB. However, there are 4 scandals that are perhaps the most infamous of all in MLB history, and in the baseball scoreboards article, I have taken a look at 2 of the 4 first.

1 - The Pine Tar Scandal – ‘twas July 24th, 1983 when it looked like the Yankees had the Royal’s on their knees in the 9th innings, with the baseball scoreboards showing 2 outs and a runner only on the first. When George Brett came to the pitch, much to the Royal’s delight and the Yankees’ misfortune, he hit a home run, giving the Royals a one run lead. Of course this did not sit well with the Yankees, and in a desperate attempt to win the game, Billy Martin, the Yankees manager, ran up to the umpire (before Brett even had a chance to complete his home run) and spoke to him. After what looked like a heated debate, the umpire laid Brett’s bat on the home plate and soon after declared Brett as out. Obviously infuriated, Brett went up to the umpire and Billy Martin, inquired about the incident and had to be physically restrained from slugging the umpire.

Ever since the 2008 banking meltdown, MLB has been facing a major debt crisis spearheaded by the Mets and the Dodgers. Between the Mets’ investment at Bernard Madoff’s ponzi scheme and the McCourts (of the Dodgers) using the team’s assets as collateral to rack up an unbelievable $459 million of debt, Bud Selig has had to come up with emergency loans quite similar to that of the banking industry’s bail-out package. However, not all of the MLB teams are in the hands of such incompetent owners, which, despite the baseball scoreboards showing a general decline in attendance figures, 28 of the 32 teams witnessed a gain in value in 2010. In this baseball scoreboards feature, I have listed the top 5 teams that gained most value last year.

With the 2011 season right around the corner, there have been several trade rumors circling around. Some of the players are being rumored as up for trading because their teams see them more as a liability than an asset. Some players' contracts are nearing their end, and they may graduate to free agency. While others still might just be retiring (Bengie Molina). So let us take a baseball scoreboards look at some of the trade rumors circling around on the field.

Ryan Doumit, C – in 124 games, last season, for the Pirates, the baseball scoreboards showed that Doumit hit .251, 45 RBI and 13 homeruns. Couple that with various injuries over the years and you have a perfect mix for the Pirates searching the waters for better prospects.

Life has taught me that many of the good things come with a price. Many professional baseball players seem have come across the same problem. Baseball has given us countless legendary players and personalities and yet sometimes it is exactly these players and/or personalities who seem to so often go off the boil, and get lost amidst a wave of controversies. Apparently they have all the good things in life, but only the athlete in their position can truly understand the price of their fame and the incredible pressures that come with it. With that in mind, in this baseball scoreboards article, I have taken a look at the most controversial figures in the MLB.

Even though the 2010 season is long over, the fans’ memories are sharp, and the performances of the players in 2010 have not been forgotten. In particular, its the players who flopped that are stay on the fans' minds, and the coaches too! They will either be looking to replace them or at least to work vigorously on improving their performances for the 2011 season! So let us take a baseball scoreboards look at the top 5 players who wore the (not so honorable crown) of worse players in the 2010 season.

1 - Pedro Feliz – with 11 seasons in MLB with 4 different teams and a World Series win alongside the Phillies under his belt, this guy still fell short last season! May be its time for him to call it a day, but then again if you are making $4.5 million a year with the Astros why would you? Once upon a time he was a 20 HR player, but sadly the baseball scoreboards showed that he reduced himself to a walk rate of 3.3%, .994 fielding and a line of .221/.246/.296

Just like art or fashion or a particular field of study, your child may have a special talent and affinity towards a particular sport while growing up. Almost all sports require physical exertion, but perhaps none more than a catcher in baseball and a football player. As this baseball scoreboards article is directed towards baseball, let us take a look at what you, as a parent of a budding catcher needs to know about protecting him/her from injuries.

Some baseball scoreboards basics before Buying: before you go out to buy the equipment, make a few mental notes: