February 4, 2008 [LINK / comment]

The Super-duper Super Bowl

The Giants' upset win at the 2008 Super Bowl certainly adds an interesting chapter to the ancient New York vs. Boston sports rivalry. What else does the Super Bowl have to do with baseball? Well, the following stadiums which were once the home of major league baseball teams have also hosted the Super Bowl:

(Those pages have been updated, along with a couple others.) In terms of pomp and frivolity, baseball's counterpart to the Super Bowl is the All-Star Game. In both sports, all that hype is a big annoyance to real fans, but it probably serves a purpose in getting wives and girl friends to watch, and it may even make new fans out of some of them. In terms of the purpose of showcasing the best players in the sport, football's counterpart to the All-Star Game is the Pro Bowl, traditionally held in Aloha Stadium one week after the Super Bowl. It's very anti-climactic, and frankly, nobody cares. Here's a suggestion: Why don't they schedule the Pro Bowl in the middle of the fall season, with all teams taking a week off at the same time, rather than staggered throughout the season?

San Juan Marlins?

The Florida Marlins are considering the possibility of "relocating" temporarily (?) to San Juan, Puerto Rico to host the Mets in July. See MLB.com. I think there would be less risk of hurricane damage if they were to play the games in Montreal...

Estrada for Lo Duca

Since they learned that Paul Lo Duca will be out of action for 4-6 weeks after getting knee surgery, the Nats decided to sign Johnny Estrada to a one-year contract, to fill the gap behind the plate. Estrada played for the Brewers last year, and has a reputation for not being a "team player," which he is eager to disprove. See MLB.com. I still think it was dumb to let veteran catcher Brian Schneider go so abruptly. They should have brought in a promising young guy to gradually fill in for Schneider more and more often over a 2-3 year period.