1. The author purchased this weekend MiLB.TV as part of his 2013 subscription to MLB.TV. The service, which costs ca. $40 by itself, costs half that (ca. $20) when bundled with an MLB.TV subscription.
2. Here is a graphic — clickable for purposes of embiggening — of all the clubs whose home games are made available with MiLB.TV.
In yesterday’s latest-night edition of Spotted, we found — for reasons that weren’t entirely clear at the time — found Zack Segovia of Puerto Rican club Caguas intentionally walking former major-leaguer Karim Garcia, currently of Mexican club Yaquis de Obregón.
In tonight’s edition, we find a another grainy daguerreotype — in this case, not of Garcia being walked intentionally, but hitting a tie-breaking jonron in the top of the 14th inning of tonight’s/this morning’s Caribbean Series title game in Hermosillo.
“I, in fact, am Karim Garcia,” the Obregon DH appears to be suggesting, arms raised and rounding first base.
If Robert Pollard of famous and elderly indie-rock group Guided by Voices was in the business of making animated GIFs, he’d make an animated GIF not entirely unlike this one — of Ricardo Nanita tying the Caribbean Series title game, in the ninth inning, off Luis Ayala, from a probably illegal and rather low-quality video feed.
Piracy in action!
The author, who knows zero percent of Spanish, is currently watching an illegal video stream of the Caribbean Series — the other occupants of which video stream are conversing in a chat area exclusively by means of the Spanish language.
In this post, I will use Google Translate to understand poorly what they are saying!
User: koricoman
Comment: “Vamos Mexicooo!!! saludos desde peñasco, son. y nos vemos en phoenix en el clásico 2013.”
Translation: “Let Mexicooo! greetings from rock, are. and see you in Phoenix in 2013 classic.”
Note: “Let Mexicooo, indeed!” one is compelled to say for reasons that aren’t entirely clear.
MLB.TV features high-resolution graphics for your viewing pleasure.
As MLB.com’s Mark Newman noted not very many days ago, MLB.TV is now available in exchange for American, and maybe other kinds of, currency.
The rates this year are $109.99 for the old and dusty basic service and $129.99 for the refulgent and inspirational Premium service — the latter figure having increased five dollars, it seems, from the 2012 charge.
Besides that — and perhaps a more robust list of compatible connected devices — things seem roughly unchanged.
Of note, probably: MLB advertises 150 spring-training games, beginning on or near February 21st. I asked Newman via email if a schedule of existed of which spring-training specfically might be available to MLB.TV subscribers. To which question he responded (promptly!) that MLB hoped to have the schedule posted sometime next week.
It’s not immediately clear to the author what set of circumstances might have led to the six intentional walks recorded by Karim Garcia during his 10-year major-league career. Whatever circumstances they were, however, they’ve been resolved since 2004 at the very latest — i.e. the last time Garcia appeared in a major-league game.
Yet, what this grainy daguerreotype reveals is, in fact, Karim Garcia receiving a base on balls in the most intentional of fashions — specifically, from Zack Segovia of Puerto Rican club Caguas in what, this very second, has become a bit of a runaway victory for Mexico’s Yaquis de Obregón (box).
It’s imperative — for any American hoping to telegraph his sophistication — it’s imperative to have at least a cursory knowledge of what is known universally as the Sport of Kings Who Aren’t That Interested in Thoroughbred Racing.
In so acquainting ourselves with the sport, we find this spectacular defensive effort courtesy 24-year-old cricketer Kieron Pollard from Tuesday’s international match between Pollard’s West Indian team and Australia.
There’s a possibility — like, probably about a 50% possibility or 65% possibility or something — that, at some point in his life, the reader will need to locate, with due celerity, action footage of former major-league shortstop and current minor-league pitcher Tony Pena Jr.
What this post at NotGraphs is all about is rendering that service real hard. “To what end?” the reader might ask. “Monetary gains? Political favors?” To which line of inquiry the author replies: “No. None of that. Only the satisfaction of having assisted a fellow pilgrim on this goddamn camino we call Life.”
Which is to say, what follows is Tony Pena pitching for Puerto Rican club Caguas Dominican club Escogido during Caribbean Series play earlier this afternoon.
First, striking out Dominican Puerto Rican outfielder Daniel Ortiz on a high-80s fastball:
“With mounting intensity” describes the way in which the present author conducts much of his business — and characterizes, specifically, the manner in which that same author has turned his attention of late to the art and science of the bat flip. Recently, we have considered in these electronic pages the contributions to this developing canon of Hiroyuki Nakajima (link), Carlos Ruiz (link), and — owing to yeoman’s work done by Eno Sarris — an instantly regretful Japanese right-hander (link).
Today we consider the following bat flip, by Johnny Monell, from Saturday’s Caribbean Series contest between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Monell, who is also a catcher in the Giants system, has already established his credentials so far as enthusiastic swings are concerned — so it’s not entirely surprising that he would continue his work in this field.
Here we find a GIF of Monell’s home-run swing:
Let’s not consider, reader, what course of events has led the childless and otherwise unencumbered author not only to seek out video of Arizona right-hander Chase Anderson’s plus changeup on this Saturday Night in America, but also to render that same footage into GIF form.
Rather, let’s consider the ways in which Chase Anderson’s changeup has facilitated ecstatic union with the One — like in that one book by Plotinus where he talks about attaining ecstatic union with the One.
Regard, from certain video of his appearance at the AFL Rising Stars game, here is Chase Anderson striking out Hak-Ju Lee via the changeup:
