It’s Interleague Time! Let the Defense/Criticisms Begin!
I tend not to get too excited over the prospect of interleague baseball. In fact, I’d wish they’d get rid of it entirely. While the baseball fan in me is glad to have the opportunity to see Oakland play at Shea in July, I still find the whole affair rather impractical. And when I find myself agreeing with Chipper Jones, it’s worth exploring.
It is difficult not to wonder how much of an impact these interleague games have on the final standings. If the Braves miss the playoffs by a game or two, I feel that they would have a legitimate gripe. As would the Mets, since they inexplicably are scheduled to play the Yankees, Tigers, Twins and Athletics – the four teams that made the playoffs in the AL in 2006. Combined with their usual NL schedule, the Mets are the only team in baseball to have to play seven of the eight playoff teams from a season ago. The only reason why they don’t play all eight is, well, they’re the eighth.
While I must admit that my fondest memory of watching a game at Shea remains the July 10, 1999 game against the Yankees when Matt Franco singled to bring home the tying and winning runs off of Mariano Rivera with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, it’s a short-term gratification when viewed through the context of an entire baseball season. Would I turn in my experience of that game if it meant that the Mets would make the playoffs? Absolutely, I would.
As ESPN’s Rob Neyer wrote in his blog on Monday, even the financial benefits to doing this are limited. Neyer points to an MLB press release from 2006 that announced the results of the season’s interleague play. It reads:
“The average Interleague attendance of 34,097 is 15.5 percent higher than the intraleague average of 29,520 per game thus far in the 2006 season. The 2006 Interleague average is up 3.4 percent over last year’s Interleague average of 32,985 fans per game. Since its inception in 1997, Interleague Play has drawn 13.2 percent more fans than intraleague games. Interleague Play has averaged 32,842 fans per game, compared to the intraleague average of 29,023 fans per game during the same time.”
So roughly speaking, that’s 5,000 more attendees in 2006 for the interleague games. What this report fails to point out is on what days of the week these games took place. Looking back at the Mets’ 2006 schedule, I found that 12 of the 15 interleague games that took place fell on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Should we be surprised, then, that the Mets had better attendance during these games? Knowing this, is interleague play still financially beneficial? If not, then is this unbalanced schedule within divisions merited?
May 14th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Hot? Yes. The Hottest? Not even close.
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May 14th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Legs for days…
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May 14th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Should I read anything into the fact that all but two of the photos in this post are missing? Is it that Jamie is so gobsmackingly beautiful that mere mortals can’t lay eyes (or anything else) on her lest they be transformed into a pile of rosin powder?
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May 14th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Oh, there she is. Yeah, pretty hot - and also very, very cute, which just adds to the hotness. She looks like the kind of woman who would bake you an apple pie, serve it with ice dream, and then do you in the kitchen until your eyes pop out.
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May 14th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
I’m a Devil Rays fan. Do you need pictures of me (perhaps wearing a D-Rays hat) to verify my existence?
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May 14th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
But why is she always on the left? Could she be horibly disfigured on the left side of her face? The mystery continues.
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May 14th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Well done Mark Kotsay.
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May 14th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
E. Dukes, the difference between a D-Rays fan and a hot baseball wife is that D-Rays fans are pathetic, while hotness is always hot. So no, no one wants to see any pictures of you, with or without a D-Rays hat. Thank you.
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May 14th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Yes, Mama Kotsay is all sorts of hotness… but who’s the foxier fox on the right?
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May 14th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
What a set of legs and an ass. I can’t say that she is the hottest ever though. She doesn’t take a perfect straight on face pic, which is a requirement to date me.
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May 14th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Oz, which right are you referring to? I hope it’s not the one holding the baby. (Though for a challenge, try staring into her eyes for a minute. without crying or laughing.)
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May 14th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Jock sniffing of the highest order.
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May 14th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
good face. great legs. unbelieavable ass. wow. a perfect 11.
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May 14th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Here are more photos of Mrs. Kotsay and other hot A’s wives:
http://www.athleticsnation.com/story/2006/6/25/143535/266
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May 14th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Re: Murderface - “hotness always stays hot.”
If that’s true, how do you explain Spears, Britney and Lohan, Crackho?
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May 15th, 2007 at 10:26 am
As usual, when something gets built up to this degree, there’s a bit of a letdown. Not to say she isn’t hot - she certainly is, but I’d probably have to see her in the wild to truly appreciate it.
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May 15th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Apparently “Donkey Carnival” is a nom de plume for Daniel Craig. Dear Mr. Craig, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing you in Casino Royale (and in those swim trunks).
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May 15th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Under-rated parts of these pictures:
(1) Her batting stance is almost picture-perfect. Much better than mine, but that’s not saying much.
(2) Is that Matt Cain in the upper left corner of the very top picture? Hah, what’s he doing there?
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May 16th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
The JK in the field shot was taken at the annual A’s-Giants wives softball game, so Master Cain was there to support his wife/girlfriend as well as his teammates’.
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May 17th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Did Cain’s girlfriend and wife play on the same or opposing teams?
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May 18th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
I’ve always been against interleague play, from the start.
Having two leagues that *never* played against each other except in the All-Star game and the World Series was one of the quirky things that made baseball different from other sports.
People wonder why nobody cares about the All-Star game anymore, but the answer is clearly, interleague play. I even think it takes away (just a bit) from the mistique of the World Series.
I mean, it used to be that two teams who had possibly never even played each other ever were facing off for the championship. Now, they might have just played each other back in June.
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May 20th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Interleague Play is clearly an abomination in the eyes of the baseball gods.
Also, without whipping all those limp NL teams, the Red Sox would have finished under .500 last year.
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June 6th, 2007 at 2:31 am
I was in a club suite at tonights game and was able too meet Jamie Kotsay and man can I say she is hot in person. The pictures don’t do justice
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July 1st, 2007 at 8:56 am
Man, I must be the only one who thinks these women aren’t really anything special. They look like what most run of the mill good looking chicks look like these days, nothing more.
Are we grading on a curve??
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July 9th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
what about mS alex rodriguez???? thats hot
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July 11th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
The wives/girlfriends of the A’s and Giants have an annual softball game before one of their interleague games so the A’s wives-g/f face the Giants wives-g/f.
The woman in the right of most of the photos (wearing the #3 jersey) is Alex Chavez, wife of third baseman Eric Chavez.
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August 6th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Looks like they are keeping the trend with hot wives on the team down in Sactown. Rivercats wives were out last night at the game wearing their husbands jerseys. Putnams wife very girl next door cute. Meyers chic legs legs legs. Merlonis wife hot hot hot. Any chance on getting pictures of these girls??? Keep up the good work guys!!
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November 17th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Wow, all the A’s wives are bottle-blondes. Er…classy.
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January 13th, 2008 at 6:23 am
Welcome to the Braves, Mrs. Kotsay.
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February 8th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
She does exist..she was my college roommate and she also a nice person…not JUST HOT!!!
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February 8th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Gina G, right on! In my opinion, it takes more than being “just hot” to be a truly hot baseball wife.
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February 9th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
I’m just kidding..I’m actually a blonde as well. sometimes I don’t know what I’m saying…
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March 15th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Holy SH**! She Officially now is THE hottest wife in Baseball. Reason being; she doesn’t look all plastic like the rest of the trophy wives.
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March 19th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I love Jamie
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April 23rd, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I think that jamie is very hot and a turn on. I don’t look at other women but, I just can’t help but wonder what she would be like. You know what i mean
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May 22nd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Any truth to the rumor they are now divorced?
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August 13th, 2008 at 6:55 am
[...] most elusive women in the search for baseball’s hottest wife. (Check out this article from Umpbump.com for a well documented history of the search for Mrs. [...]
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