Dominicana wins Caribbean Series

Since Puerto Rico lost to Venezuela tonight, the Dominican Republic wins the series and tomorrow's Puerto Rico versus Dominicana game means absolutely nothing.

Javy Valentin is a good first baseman. I'm not just saying that. The announcers said it, too, and he really did make some great plays in the series. Perhaps the Reds should consider playing the guy there more often. He is not a bad hitter, though his PAs have been limited in his career. In 221 ABs in 2005, the year he had the most ABs, he hit .281, 14 HR, and 50 RBI. I wonder what he could do in 400 ABs...

I was really hoping Puerto Rico would win so there could be baseball on Thursday, which would have been played if the Puerto Ricans had beaten Venezuela today and the Dominicana Yankees tomorrow. How many more days until the next baseball game?
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Jugadores del Caribe

I was looking forward to the big game yesterday. No, not that big game (football is over - yay!) The Puerto Rico vs Dominicana game, the two undefeated teams who were supposed to duke it out in the finals of the Caribbean Series. After getting four runs in the first inning, though, the Dominicans threw down and the Puerto Ricans ran away from them en route to a stinging 12-0 defeat. It was such a dull game that I actually watched the fourth quarter of the Superbowl.

The only Red in the game, Javy Valentin, got two hits for Puerto Rico, one of the few offensive bright spots for the team.

In other Caribbean Series news, Columbia and Nicaragua want the series to expand to include them. According to MLB.com, there is some speculation that the name of the tournament might have to be changed since "not all the countries in the Series are actually in the Caribbean." Two of the four that are already in it aren't in the Caribbean. All six of the teams touch the sea, however, so why is this even an issue?

A complete recap of the game can be found here. Here are some phrases to assist you.

Alex Cora out en primera sin asistencia. [Alex Cora out at first unassisted? I assume this means a ground out to first.]
Juan Gonzalez ponche. [Juan Gone strikes out. And he wants to play MLB?]
Hiram Bocachica elevado al derecho. [Hiram Girlsmouth flies to right.]
Anderson Hernández hit. [Duh.]
Luis Polonia sencillo al izquierdo. [Luis Polonia does something to left. Singles?]
Miguel Tejada bases por bolas. [Miguel Tejada walks.]
Tony Batista out en el cuadro anotando Hernández. [Something to do with scoring a run.]
Nelson Cruz out de siore a primera anotando Polonia. [Something to do with scoring a run.]
José Fernández triple impulsando a Tejada. [Jose Fernandez triples in Tejada.]
Alex Fernández hit al izquierdo impulsando a José Fernández. [Alex Fernandez hits to left scoring Jose Fernandez.]
Alberto Castillo doble poniéndo out en el plato a Alex Fernández. [Alberto Castillo doubles something and Alex Fernandez is out at the plate - this was a great play.]

See how easy this is?

UPDATE:
Dominicana up 4-1 against Venezuela in the 7th

I feel like the Dominicans are the Yankees of the Caribbean. I'm rooting for Puerto Rico in this series because of Javy Valentin and because they are the anti-Dominicans. (I'm watching at work. Shh...)

UPDATE: Dominicans killed Venezuela 7-1.

Public Service Announcement

As I've said a billion times in the last two or three days, I've been watching the Caribbean Series on MLB.TV. I haven't been listening to it, however, because there has been no sound. I spent a couple of hours yesterday trying to fix it, but nothing worked. This morning I continued to try to figure it out. Apparently, I am not the only one who was having trouble with the audio in video clips or streaming feeds judging from the various questions on computer boards. Troublesome sites varied from BBC.com to CNN.com, but all had the same see-video-no-sound problems.

It appears that there are issues with Windows Media Player 11 (issues with a Windows program? No way!) and that WMP 11 can be missing the appropriate audio codecs (codecs are what converts data into sound or video or something like that.) I'm willing to bet that many people have "upgraded" their WMP to 11 over the off season and this will be a common problem for MLB.TV, so I wanted to let MLB.TV subscribers know what I did in case it happens to them. I downloaded the Ace Mega Codec Pack 6.03 which contains more codecs than anyone can use, I'm sure. It's freeware, so it isn't like it's illegal or anything, but for some reason all of the US links were broken, so I had to download it from Romania, which was a pretty long process. Anyway, a couple of restarts later and voila! Sound!

I'm going to email customer support for MLB.TV and tell them this story in case they feel compelled to be competent for once and help people troubleshoot this problem. I'm also going to repost once the season starts (if I remember.) I hope this helps someone!

Beisbol 101

In the spirit of the Caribbean Series, I thought I'd take a moment to throw out some Spanish beisbol terms.

# Lanzador (Pitcher)
# Receptor (Catcher)
# Primera base (First base)
# Segunda base (Second base)
# Tercera base (Third base)
# Parador en corto (Shortstop)
# Jardinero derecho o exterior derecho (Right field)
# Jardinero central o exterior central (Center field)
# Jardinero izquierdo o exterior izquierdo (Left field)
# Bateador designado

What I find funny is how "baseball" is translated as "beisbol," yet the positions use the word "base."

Dominicana just hit dos cuadrangularos and are up 4-0 against Mexico.

Six and a half hours of baseball

And the second game hasn't even started yet!

The Dominican Republic rallied in the bottom of the 18th inning to defeat Venezuela by a score of 4-3. What a baseball game! The Puerto Rico-Mexico game was supposed to start at 7:30, but the games are played on the same field, and the first game did not finish until 9:30. Still waiting for the second game to begin.

MLB.TV is having the usual technical difficulties. I got a picture and no sound for the last three hours. Seriously, Major League Baseball makes billions of dollars a year. They could afford to spend a little money on getting someone who knows what they're doing to run MLB.TV. The thing is that when you call customer support, you're on hold for at least 45 minutes before you even talk to someone, who assumes you're a technology moron and asks stupid questions like "Do you have your speakers plugged in?"
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Live Baseball Right Now!

I am watching baseball right now.

I just signed up for MLB.TV's off season package so I can watch Spring Training games in a few weeks. In the meantime, I am going to watch the Caribbean Series, which is included in the package. At the moment, Randall Simon is up to bat against Jose Lima in the Venezuela-Dominican game.

While flurries and freezing rain flirt with the dull gray sky and the wind whips frightfully around every corner, the thirst for baseball is greater than ever. It's thrilling to be watching this game - an oasis in the middle of winter.

Miguel Tejada just went yard!

Some observations: The umpires have the Evil Direct TV logo on their backs. The players have corporate logos where their names should be. There was a commercial for a car rental company with a phone number 666-6666. The game is broadcast on SNY, and the commercial for the 2007 Mets with the "Coming Soon" message was enough to bring a tear of joy to my eye.

Last year, new Red Alex Gonzalez (pictured) scored the winning run for Venezuela in the final game of the series.

The schedule is as follows:
Friday, Feb. 2:
Venezuela vs. Dom. Rep.
Mexico vs. Puerto Rico 7:30 PM
Saturday, Feb. 3:
Dominican Republic vs. Mexico 3:00 PM
Puerto Rico vs. Venezuela 7:00 PM
Sunday, Feb. 4:
Mexico vs. Venezuela 3:00 PM
Puerto Rico vs. Dominican Republic 7:00 PM
Monday, Feb. 5:
Dominican Republic vs. Venezuela 3:00 PM
Puerto Rico vs. Mexico 7:00 PM
Tuesday, Feb. 6:
Mexico vs. Dominican Republic 3:00 PM
Venezuela vs. Puerto Rico 7:00 PM
Wednesday, Feb. 7:
Venezuela vs. Mexico 3:00 PM
Dominican Republic vs. Puerto Rico 7:00 PM

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