Sportsman of the Week Ending 8/28/2022

The Los Angeles Dodgers, probably the model franchise alongside the Houston Astros over the last 7 years, are completely dominating the 2022 season.  Now 50 (!) games over .500 the only question is whether their pitching will be as healthy as it needs to be to beat the Braves, Mets, and Cardinals.  But their hitting is fine, thanks to their MVP candidate (not likely to win) Mookie Betts.  Betts is in line for his fourth Top 5 MVP finish in five years surpassing his career high in home runs and likely leading the league in runs for the third time in five years.  This week, Betts went 9-27. with 3 2B and 4 HR, but most of the damage was done over the weekend series against the Miami Marlins where he went 8-15, 2 2B, 4 HR, 5 R, 7 RBI. Team went 4-2 scoring 40 runs in the wins, just bludgeoning opponents.  Will Mookie win his 3rd World Series Championship in 5 years?  He will certainly have a say in it and is the Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 8/20/2017

The Major League Baseball pennant race is heating up, as is the chase for individual glory.  It's individual glory that we focus on this week.  The best power hitter in baseball, Giancarlo Stanton, is on a tear and could approach 60 HR by seasons end.  He padded his stats this week, going 8 for 20, with 3 HR and an astounding 7 bases on balls.  In all six games this week, he reached base at least twice resulting in a .556 on base percentage, and .700 slugging percentage.  He started the week finishing off a six game home run streak, which ended Wednesday, but was picked back up later in the week with a home run.  If he gets to 60 or 61, many may regard him as the legitimate single season home run champion, as records posted in the 1990s and 2000s are widely regarded as Performance Enhancing Drug induced.  Stanton is great for baseball, and the Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week!

Editors note: this is Stanton's second Sportsman of the Week, his first reads eerily similar for almost exactly three years ago to the day and similar stats!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 6/4/2017

As the sports calendar turns past May, baseball becomes the national pastime.  And one of the best parts of any baseball season is to see history made.  Edinson Volquez of the Miami Marlins did just that.  Volquez pitched the first no-hitter of 2017 (and first in more than a calendar year) against one of the better National League teams in the Arizona Diamondbacks.  He walked two, but induced two double plays to face on the minimum within 98 pitches.  Much of the game clinging to a 1-0 lead, the 33-year old Dominican Republic native fanned 10 with nary a close call.  And the feat was not without emotion.  It happened to be the birthday of fellow DR native and 2015 Kansas City Royals World Champion teammate Yordany Ventura, who died tragically in a car accident less than 5 months earlier.  And to boot, Volquez got a hit himself, finishing 1-4.  Volquez is a worthy Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 8/17/2014

The August "month of baseball" continues, this time with one of the best young talents and sluggers in Major League baseball.  The Miami Marlins Giancarlo Stanton has been touted as the "next great power hitter" for a couple of years now, and now is here.  He leads the National League with 32 home runs and 88 RBI, padded this week by an all-around good performance going 9-23 (.391) with 7 walks, for a .533 on-base percentage.  Add 3 HR, 9 RBI, and a Marlins record at 5-2, including taking a series vs. the playoff-contending St. Louis Cardinals.  Giancarlo Stanton is our Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 8/25/2013

As the dog days of summer wind up (and football starts soon), at least one more nod to America's pastime.  Although the Miami Marlins are in last place, they do have a reason for optimism with superstar Cuban phenom Jose Fernandez.  Fernandez sits at 10-5, a 2.30 ERA, with 165 strikeouts in 152 2/3 innings. This week, Fernandez was 2-0, 13 IP, 8 H, 1 ER, 16 K. On the grander scale, Fernandez hasn't allowed more than 2 ER since July 7, hasn't allowed a HR since July 23, and, did we mention, just turned 21.  Watch this kid, he might be a repeat winner of the Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week!

Round Rock, TX, MLB City?

Round Rock, Texas, is throwing its hat in the ring for (presumably) relocating a struggling franchise. Round Rock City Manager Steve Norwood announced:

“This may seem like an ambitious plan, but I think Round Rock could be an ideal location for Major League Baseball,” Norwood said. “I just think it’s logical here. … You’ve got Miami with 400,000 people, Tampa is 325,000 [people], Oakland is 392,000 [people], Denver is 560,000—and here is Austin at 700,000.”

Courtesy Sportslogos.net

Interesting he mentioned two teams that have had very public struggles to get a serviceable stadium, and another which just got one and is now unloading players in what is being called a "bait and switch" for fans. Round Rock is officially 20 miles north of Austin, but the "Metroplex" blends together up the I-35 corridor as Williamson County has been one of the fastest growing counties in the United States since the Dot Com boom. Note the Williamson county does not include Austin proper, but suburbs only, and Travis County (to include Austin) is also busting at the seams with population.  Round Rock has hosted two of the most successful Minor League franchises, the Round Rock Express. In 2000, the original AA Round Rock Express were established after a purchase of the Jackson Generals by a group headed by Nolan Ryan. In 2005, the same Ryan group acquired a second franchise, the AAA Edmonton Trappers, moved them to Round Rock, and moved his AA franchise to Corpus Christi. The AA Express still owns the Top 4 single season attendance records in the Texas league (2001-4) pulling in 2/3 of 1M people each year. Since the AAA franchise moved in, they've been 1st or 2nd in Pacific Coast League Attendance every year since 2007, leading in 2011 and 2012. Enthusiasm must be tempered by limited near term expectation. Reid Ryan, Nolan's son and Round Rock Express president and CEO, who is in Nashville, Tenn., attending the winter baseball meetings, said that it could be difficult for Round Rock to score a Major League team. Reid Ryan stated:

“I think having visions like that are good...but with the rules it takes, unless there [are] some monumental shifts, I don’t see any new markets getting a Major League team in the near future. Baseball is not a sport that has a lot of changes.”

For another blog, it's interesting how an entire college conference landscape can shift in a matter of days, but major league baseball moves can be more decadal in nature. But Round Rock has put Major League Baseball on notice: "We're listening to opportunities and we have the market and baseball history to support it." And they started in AA, have been promoted to AAA, and are now just waiting for the call to the big show!

**Originally posted in Reading Between the Seams by this same author**