MLB

Purple Mountain Haze is back up and running! Look for new posts on the upcoming college football season with plenty of analysis and opinion on BYU, Utah and Utah State. All three teams are expected to have good years. As well, there will always be a little baseball and Utah Jazz/NBA sprinkled in. And don’t be surprised if you come across an occasional human/community interest story. My son Jacob will be one of the contributors going forward. This blog has always been a fun hobby but other priorities have preempted it for the past 3+ years. Thanks for coming back and here’s to a great college football season in the Beehive state!

Baseball season is winding down and several teams are still fighting for wildcard playoff contention. One of those teams is the Angels. In case you’ve not seen it, Mike Trout made another home run robbing catch over the weekend against the Seattle Mariners. I am a huge fan of these types of plays and will always post them on the site. This is one of the five best I’ve ever seen and Trout makes it look routine.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Mike Trout may be the best baseball player in the last 50 years. I can’t think of too many guys that have possessed his combination of power, average, speed on the bases, a great glove at a critical position-center field and of course a great arm.

I think the guy that probably comes the closest is Ken Griffey Jr. He hit for power, stole bases and was an amazing center fielder. You could also make an argument for pre-steroid Barry Bond. Bonds could hit for average and steal bags, but he was not the outfielder Trout is (and he played left field), and had a rag arm.

I suppose Bryce Harper is also a five tool guy ...

We’ve all heard of a walk off home run, or a walk off win with a base hit. How about a balk off win? Very strange ending to the Texas Ranger vs. Los Angeles Dodgers game last night. No score in the bottom of the 9th and the Dodgers had a man at 3rd base. The runner danced up and down the line a bit and the movement was just enough to get the pitcher to break his motion and balk the runner home. Dodgers win 1-0.

I know a lot of people say baseball is too slow and there are too many intricacies that don’t translate well to TV. Regardless, you have to respect the game and every now and then enjoy the subtlety.

And if you need to see a good old fashioned highlight of a home run – check out this bomb from Joey Gallo earlier in the series off Clayton Kershaw. Notice right fielder Yasiel Puig put his hands on his hips and admire the moon shot go on by. The video is from MLBTV.

By the way, if you are still relying only on Baseball Tonight or SportsCenter for baseball highlights, you are missing out. MLB TV does ...

We’re still a month or so away from the open of Fall camp for BYU and Utah Football. The NBA finals just ended. Most sports fans are probably watching a little baseball or hitting the beach or the lake for vacation. During this relatively mild time of the sports year, I thought it would be cool to post some of the greatest sports calls of all time. Of course these calls generally coincide with the greatest sports moments of all time. You’ll recognize many of them.

My personal favorite is Kirk Gibson’s home run in game one of the 1988 World Series since I grew up in So. California as a Dodger fan. I remember sitting around the TV watching that game with my family. Vin Scully was the TV announcer. In addition to doing Dodger games, I think he worked for NBC and did all the big games. However, his call of the home run was actually not as dramatic as the late Jack Buck, who I believe was doing the game on radio. Jack Buck’s call is on the Youtube clip. (And I believe Jack Buck was also the announcer on the Ozzie Smith home run)

That said, the best ...

Any time there is a cool play by a Major League outfielder (Watch Great Catch by Dodger Center Fielder Joc Pederson), I am reminded of what I consider to be the greatest, most athletic baseball catch of all time: Gary Matthew Jr. of the Texas Rangers. I’m thinking this was about 8 or 9 years ago. Watch it to the end where the color man says “You may not see a better catch for a decade.”

What I love about the catch is that Matthews had to vault himself way above the wall. And it wasn’t one of the dinky 7 or 8 foot outfield fences where guys just back pedal a bit and then jump up and barely get their glove over to rob a home run. Matthews was running full speed and launches himself way into the air to make the grab:

One of the best catches you will see this year. Saved the game in the bottom of the ninth and the Dodgers went on to win it in extra innings yesterday in San Diego: