Papelbon Fined

Jonathan Papelbon was fined $5,000 last night for taking too long to throw his first pitch. This is the second time this has happened to the Red Sox closer this year. MLB has set a rule that a pitcher coming out of the pen has 2 minutes and twenty seconds from the final out made the previous half inning to make his first pitch. They also implemented a rule that a pitcher has twelve seconds from the time a hitter steps into the box to make a pitch. Why is there a time limit on these games? I am pretty sure that everyone has lights at their stadium. This is Major League baseball, not the Perky league.

This is all triggered due to the fact that all of you front runners out there that follow teams because they won the World Series the year before cannot even sit through a baseball game without being bored! MLB has decided to try to speed up the game to keep the fans "interested" in the game. Give me a break. If you cannot stay interested then don't watch baseball, don't follow it, and more importantly do not act like you know a certain team, or the game itself. Essentially what the great commissioner of baseball is trying to say is that he would rather a player get hurt cause he is not loose enough, then lose interest from some front running Red Sox fan that can't sit through a baseball game because its not fast enough for them. All Selig cares about is money, and not what is best for the game. Here's an idea. Instead of fining players for taking too long to throw a pitch, get to the bottom of the mess that you created by allowing steroids into baseball. By no means am I Red Sox fan, but I have to stick up for Papelbon in this situation. Bud Selig is an asshole that does nothing for the integrity of the game. I am not sure if this rant is stemming from the fact that I am about to miss out on the playoffs in fantasy baseball this year after losing 7 straight, or how bad some of the fans of baseball annoy me, or both.
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Perky League

The Perkiomen Valley Twilight League has been around for about 70 years now. It is a Semi-Pro wood bat baseball league that has gotten very competitive over the years. The "Perky" league is in fact one of the best leagues around and has been for quite some time. They have produced some pros and a dynasty was formed there in the Norristown A's. I have been playing in this league since 2001. Each year the pitching, hitting, fielding, and all around competition gets better and better. One thing, on the other hand, consistently gets worse and worse each year. That is the umpires. I am not being biased because I am a player in this league, but I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that these umpires flat out suck.

For those of you that know me I am not exactly calm when it comes to playing baseball, but when I am out there giving 100% I expect my counterparts to do the same. This is playoff time in the perky league, my team was just eliminated and the league is in the semi finals right now. I read something yesterday that I just could not believe and I thought that I would prove my point of how incompetent and arrogant these umpires are in this league.

Game one of the semi finals was hosted by Harleysville on Monday night at 5:45. Keep in mind that this is a twilight league and Harleysville's field does not have lights. Harleysville breezed through the regular season for the most part and were playing host to Nor Gwyn, who is the 5 seed. It is 8-6 in the top of the 7th in a 7 inning game. Nor Gwyn comes up to bat and makes 3 outs. Going into the bottom half of the 7th Harleysville is down 2. They score a run, so it is now 8-7 with one out and the bases loaded in the last inning. The umpires in the game get together while the next batter is coming up to the plate and decide to call the game due to darkness. They said it was for the safety of everyone and it was too dark. Well being that it is a twilight league, the rules are that whenever the game is called it is over. The game will not be continued the next day. So Harleysville lost the game because the game reverted back to the 6th inning (the last full inning that was completed). This is the semi finals! Is this not ridiculous? I could see if it were the regular season, no big deal, but this is the playoffs! There was 1 out already in the bottom half of the last inning. Chances are the game will be over within the next 5-10 minutes, and the umpires blew it. You have to let the teams play out the rest of the inning.

Its a shame that the umpires can have that big of an impact on the game. For as good of a league this is the umpires really leave a bad impression on the league. The commissioner really needs to look into this and make some changes if he wants this league to be around for years to come.
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