Bad News Bears (1976) - Baseball

First of a trilogy of films takes an unflinching look at the underbelly of little league baseball in Southern California. Former minor leaguer Morris Buttermaker is a lazy, beer swilling swimming pool cleaner who takes money to coach the Bears, a bunch of disheveled misfits who have virtually no baseball talent. Realizing his dilemma, Coach Buttermaker brings aboard girl pitching ace Amanda Whurlizer, the daughter of a former girlfriend, and Kelly Leak, a motorcycle punk who happens to be the best player around. Brimming with confidence, the Bears look to sweep into the championship game and avenge an earlier loss to their nemesis, the Yankees.

NBC has bragged about providing 416 hours of broadcast coverage on NBC including its three cable television stations. But since these Winter Olympics first started airing its events on February 11, 2006 to date, viewers have been treated to little more than glorified highlights between 8:00 PM 11:30 PM in whichever time zone one happens to be. During that time period, bits and pieces of coverage from any one of 15 sport disciplines are shown, with scant coverage of any athletes other than American Olympians or only winners of an event should they not be American.

The supposed television Winter Olympics schedule is available in local newspapers, in various sports magazines and all over the internet. But the schedule times are useless in pinpointing when any particular sport is broadcasted. And depending on what time zone one lives in, it is virtually impossible not to hear the results on television, radio, or view online prior to seeing the broadcast as NBC has its coverage tape delayed in five different U.S. time zones.

What NBC has tried to do over the years is to please all demographics as well as its sponsors while losing sight of the intrinsic value of the actual event. But as viewership continues to erode for Olympics coverage, the NBC network is largely responsible. In its zeal to compel the American viewer to tune in, it has overproduced its coverage, thus turning off the very audience it is trying to attract and retain.

Its that time of the year again. The 2005 National Football League season has come to an end with the Pittsburgh Steelers capturing the Super Bowl title, the Major League Baseball Spring Training season is just readying to begin, the National Basketball Association is in a holding pattern for most fans until its playoffs, the NASCAR season is just getting started with the Daytona 500 just raced and the National Hockey League is on hiatus due to the 2006 Winter Olympics. And with the NCAAs March Madness still weeks away, what is a sports fan to do?

Since television coverage of the Olympics is all about ratings, as is all television fare, NBC for years now has shot itself in the proverbial foot when whining that not enough of the American public is tuning in to Olympics coverage, no longer just applicable to the Winter Olympics, either. While the Summer Olympics attracts more viewers, its coverage too is close to beyond the pale.

So what you say? Who cares? Well, chances are if you are reading this, you are a sports fan. Although we all have our favorite sport, we crave watching competition, with few exceptions. For example, the idea of watching curling is comparable to watching paint dry and how it is considered an athletic event is beyond this writers comprehension.

The excuse to not broadcast real time coverage during these Olympic Games is viable this year in that Italy is six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Standard Time. But on weekends it is feasible for live coverage at least on the east coast. It is worth noting that almost 40 years ago, U.S. television viewers were able to enjoy primarily live coverage of the 1968 Winter Olympics from Grenoble, France and later with the 1972 Olympic Summer Games from Munich, Germany, via television satellite. But what was the excuse in not broadcasting the 1996 Summer Olympics live when they were in Atlanta, GA and then when the 2002 Winter Olympics were in Salt Lake City, UT? Both were instead tape delayed, again in five different time zones.

The Olympics tells its own story and most sports fans do not have the patience to sit through over three hours of teaser-filled coverage. Now we all know the reason it is done this way. The hope is that viewers will sit through enough coverage in order to be exposed to advertisers as well as to garner more consistent ratings. But in fact, NBC is accomplishing the opposite result, forcing many to either record the coverage and thus eliminate the ads, or tuning out completely.

We force ourselves to tune in to the NBC television broadcast network in order to try to catch some of the real competition on tap in the XX Olympic Winter Games. Sports fans are not averse to watching Winter Olympics coverage, but trying to figure out NBCs television schedule has become a sport of Olympic proportions unto itself.

Winter Olympics TV Coverage Far From Golden

Diane M. Grassi is a freelance columnist, reporting and writing commentary on current events of the day providing honest and often politically incorrect assessments. From U.S. public policy to Major League Baseball, she is an eclectic thinker, and demanding of her readers to reflect on their own thinking patterns from an alternative perspective. Whether you agree with her or not, Diane M. Grassi will have you coming back to note her opinions, and if at best she wakes you up, then her goal will have been accomplished.

But for now, we are stuck with what we have. When the numbers are crunched this time round for NBC, perhaps they will get the message that the sports fan drives the numbers and more and more of us are getting fed up. Maybe they need to go back to the drawing board and revisit the Jim McKay playbook on covering worldwide sporting events. It worked for ABC broadcasting way back when, when the athletes were the story, not the network; sadly a crucial element which NBC seems to have forgotten.

Ms. Grassi is featured with the online publications: New Media Journal.us; American Chronicle; Mich News.com; the Federal Observer; Opinions Editorials; the Conservative Voice; the Las Vegas Penny Press; the Sierra Times as well as many others. She also writes regular columns on Major League Baseball where she is a featured online columnist with The Diamond Angle Baseball Ezine and Sports-Central.org. Ms. Grassi may contacted at: dgrassi@cox.net

The reason for NBCs incoherent TV scheduling is because of its monopolized ability to edit and package the coverage any which way it wishes in order to appease sponsors while placing advertising spots wherever and whenever it chooses. Unfortunately, for the viewer, it denies the spontaneity of competition as well as deprives viewers from selectively choosing which sports they wish to watch.

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Round has been in use for over 150 years as the shape of choice. With all the modern advances in materials, composition and machining, the round shape wins.

To select the right bat, first it must be comfortable and feel right in your hands. The weight must be right so that it will not throw you off balance at the end of the swing from being too heavy, or so light that you whip it around too easily and must restrain your efforts to meet up with the ball.

Baseball bat selection is an ongoing process that changes with the players age, skill and strength. Younger players actually have less time to bring the bat around then their older counterparts as the decision to swing takes longer. Where Older players will commit to a swing mid way through the ball flight from the mound to the plate. Younger players in their ever mindful desire please the coach and swing only at strikes generally do not make the commitment until the ball is two thirds the way to the plate.

When selecting a baseball bat in the store, keep in mind that the aisle you are inspecting it in is in no way the experience you will have at the plate. Best results on picking out a bat is at the ball field. Players will generally allow teammates to try their bats.

Looking cool at the plate with a large bat with intense graphics is not nearly as awesome as hitting the ball and getting on base so often that the other teams recognize you as a threat. Yes, size matters, the right size and weight. Use what works for you and do not be afraid to go down a size to go up in your stats.

With prices upwards of $400, beginning and intermediate players should not feel pressured to buy the latest and greatest. Many similar bats are available at attractive prices from the discount retailers. There are many players with impressive batting averages utilizing discount equipment. Often it is the top of the line model from a few years earlier.

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What I Know And Remember About baseball - Bat Selection

Fortunately we are all unique, my hand is similar but not exact to your hand. The power in my grip is better than some and worse than others. If everyone who played baseball was batting 750 or better, the game just would not be the heart wrenching, nail biting experience that it is.

Imagine hitting a baseball with a whittled down 2 by 4. Lots of large surface area to strike with, but off the top third or bottom third, the ball would go almost no where. An easy out for the defense.

In the beginning of the sport, batters made their own bats. Every species and shape brought to the diamond was done by hand with the singular goal of having the most reliable hitter on the field. The round barrel quickly took the lead as the most appropriate form as it proved to remain in tact longer and the ball tended to stay in bounds more often.

The well publicized Barry Bonds length of preference is 34 inches; Ty Cobb 34.5 inches, Hank Aaron 35 inches. Here is a great example of personal bat choices. Bonds, likely the larger and stronger of the three chooses the shortest bat.

For younger players, using one of the numerous bat charts is a great place to start. Even through early teens, these charts are useful to check that your player is not getting too far away from accepted sizes.

Little League baseball, College or Professional, the perfect baseball bat is a personal decision based upon experience. Tailoring to players needs, desire and level of play, technology has evolved to create bats that deliver peak performance not only in the basic mechanics of hitting a baseball but also fitting the player to enhance their ability to strike the ball.