Your Shirt Has Pizza On It Comment Count

Seth

In case you couldn't tell I'm pretty excited about this softball season you guys. When I get excited I make t-shirts.

Year of the Pizza - Navy

Quick refresher on The Pizza Rules:

Single: Roll out the dough.

Double: Sprinkle the cheese.

Triple: Rain pepperonis

Home run: Surrounded by a circle of cheese-sprinkling chefs she "CHOMP" eats the pizza.

(Also comes in cheese-coloredYear of the Pizza - Maize)

Comments

anonbastardo

May 30th, 2015 at 2:30 AM ^

Here in lies the rabbit hole that is mgoblog.  Softball may just be my uncany valley when it comes to Michigan sports. This should probably be a 'dear diary' question:  at what point does it get weird caring about university sports teams that you have little affiliation with?

The answer is likely stop reading a sports blog dedicated to U of M sports, but I like my mgoherion.

By the by, as a never-poster-always-lurker, you guys do great work on this blog.  My knowledge of the game of football has increased 1000 fold thanks to your analysis.

Seth

May 30th, 2015 at 11:06 AM ^

This softball team has some remarkable parallels with 1920s MLB teams. The players are informal--they jeer at each other and stuff and interact with the crowds. Superstars  really shine because of a smaller pool of athletes but they also live among the people. The beginnings of all the major sport followings were a lot like this. The allure isn't just a rabbit hole; it's pure sport.

I think what held softball back for awhile is between about 2002 and maybe last year it was such a pitching-dominated game that there were seldom lead changes or baserunners even to get excited about. Games would just coast 7 innnings and be done and you'd talk about the tan you got. Teams with a dominant pitcher would win 1-0 all the time.

I theorize that sports get less interesting the more competitive the leagues are. People say they want to be surprised but really they far more enjoy having their preconceptions justified. Rank the popularity of sports in the US and you'll have a ranking of how likely the better team is to win.

That's why I'm such a Sierra Romero fan. She's like a Babe Ruth for the sport. She generates ridiculous bat speed--like MLB hitter bat speed--and can dominate pitchers who don't have a lot of late movement. Such pitchers are still going to roll through lineups (when Betsa's stuff is going she's unhittable, and Florida's pitcher is like that all the time). But I think hitting has come far enough now that it's just excellent sport. She's so good that you can go to a game expecting her to do something amazing and most of the time she will.

If you're a sports fan, especially a college sports fan, getting into softball should be easy right now, because it ticks all the fan boxes.

Canadian

May 31st, 2015 at 5:44 PM ^

I agree with most everything you said Seth. I started loosely following the Michigan softball team a few years ago. Last year I was following games on gametracker and was captivated. Honestly I watch because I respect what they are doing out there. I stood feet away from Cal's pitcher warming up before their game against Pitt at Alumni field a couple weeks ago and confirmed my belief; "There is no way I'd hit that shit."
I stood there and watched for a couple mins and a Cal assistant walked over and asked if she could help me with something. I looked her dead in the eyes and asked "yeah, how in the hell do these girls throw like that and hit this?" She laughed and noticed I was just standing there in amazement and that's it.

004

May 29th, 2015 at 7:10 PM ^

...For my httv over the photobomb T

Go Softball, crush all before you!

I enjoyed watching last nights game on the bar TV in downtown Columbus OH. Even the NUTZ were happy to see a B1G team beat Bama.

P.S. Happy Friday Happy Hour :)

zejesama

May 30th, 2015 at 4:44 AM ^

 Start making cash right now... Get more time with your family by doing jobs that only require for you to have a computer and an internet access and you can have that at your home. Start bringing up to $8423 a month. I've started this job and I've never been happier and now I am sharing it with you, so you can try it too. You can check it out here  
 +_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+ http://www.netjob80.com  
 

Seth

May 31st, 2015 at 3:26 PM ^

We've reached out to him on several occasions but that never got anywhere. The guy Denard has doing this stuff hasn't been interested and we get permission for everything we do, from that person if it applies to a specific person.