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Someone of mild importance has finally given Lance Berkman a shout out for his insane month of May.

For six glorious days, Lance Berkman was the best hitter anyone has ever seen. This will go down as one of the best weeks anyone has ever had in the history of the game…

One of my regular reads is FanGraphs, which is a site about baseball players and statistics. I’ve been questioning the Astros’ decision to keep Brandon Backe for a while, and FanGraphs backs up my opinion in an article published today.

Brandon Backe just may be the worst pitcher in baseball consistently given start after start… Why this man still gets paid to pitch in the major leagues befuddles me.

Meanwhile, the MLB playoffs are starting and I have no team to cheer for. I don’t care for any of the NL teams, and I’m not familiar with any of the AL teams. As usual, I’d prefer to see the NL win the World Series. I’d probably lean towards the Brewers (strong lineup) or the Phillies (Brad Lidge). As for the AL, maybe the Devil Rays since they had such a turnaround season. For the most part though, I don’t care who wins.

My family in Texas recently sat through yet another hurricane. This time it was Ike, and it was a direct hit to Galveston and Houston. Luckily, my Houston (Katy) peeps went unscathed and those in Nederland/Port Neches had only minor damage to their houses. They were lucky because if the storm surge had been much higher, they would have had flood damage in addition to the wind damage.

On a related note, the streaking Astros were forced to play two “home” games against the Cubs just 90 miles from Chicago in Milwaukee. From what I hear, the Cubs fans that showed up were quite rude and obnoxious. The Astros fans, and players, were understandably angered over the whole ordeal. Given the amazing pitching from the Cubs, we wouldn’t have won anyway, but still it would have been good sportsmanship to treat a team in turmoil with a little respect. Most of the Astros players have families that were directly affected by the storm and they had to make a last minute flight to Milwaukee to play a home game in front of their rival’s fan base. Not to mention, they are now on the road for an entire week while Houston recovers without them. Oh well, it’s just baseball, I reckon.

Being a web developer and active browser of the web for many years now, I see a lot of wasted web space (including this web site). I would venture to say that 90% of web sites out there are useless and/or uninteresting, or just a rehash of other web sites that are slightly more interesting.

And then there’s Batting Stance Guy, which is the best use of the web that I’ve seen lately. This guy posts videos of himself imitating the batting stances of MLB players. He is right on with all of them, and it’s sometimes hilarious. I’m also really impressed with design of his web site. It’s simple, eye pleasing, and user friendly.

Speaking of baseball, the Houston Astros are at .500 on the season as of yesterday! They still have almost no chance of making the playoffs, but at least the season isn’t a complete disaster.

We just got back from watching the Round Rock Express vs. the Portland Beavers. It was a good game! It was tied in the bottom of the 9th, and one of the Beavers hit a home run (almost) and the Express center fielder made an amazing catch over the wall to save the game. Then Reggie Abercombie hit a 3 run homer for the Express in the 11th and Fernando Nieve saved the game in the bottom of the 11th. Towles was catching, and he still can’t hit, but he made a great diving catch on a foul pop up.

Since my favorite MLB baseball team is doing so badly this year, I’ve started to lose interest in watching professional baseball. It’s not fun to watch your team lose. As a result, I’ve brainstormed some ideas to make the game better.

The season is too long! 162 regular season games per team is just too much. Sure, it makes for better statistics, but modern man/woman doesn’t have the attention span for it anymore.

• Get rid of inter-league play. This is debatable because I like inter-league play, but it seems unnecessary. Let each league fight it out against each other and then the best team from each league can play for the championship.
• Have one 3 game series against each team in your league per season. That reduces the number of games to 45 (for the NL) and the best teams will still float to the top.
• Shorten the playoffs. There are up to 19 games played per team in the playoffs (including the World Series). Why not let a 3 game series determine each playoff round? That seems sufficient enough to me to determine who should move on.
• Shorten the World Series to 3 games, or maybe 5. The Superbowl is so popular because it’s one game on one specific day each year. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s ridiculous that a champion is determined by a single game, but a 7 game series drags on and you don’t know what day the winner will be determined.

How about if we stray from tradition to make the game more interesting?

• NL: Either teach pitchers how to hit or use the DH. I tend to fast forward when a pitcher bats.
• Change up the pitching rotation. What’s so great about having 5 starters, 3-4 middle relievers, and a closer? Why not have 10 pitchers who throw 2-3 innings each when appropriate?
• Change up the batting order. I don’t have a suggestion here, but the batting order across all teams seems set in stone. Power hitters at the 3-4-5 spot, weak hitters in the 7-8 spot, pitcher in the 9 spot, etc. I’m not convinced that this is always the best way.
• Don’t even think about instant replay. The human factor is one thing that baseball has going for it. There are bad calls here and there, but it all works out in the end. Who doesn’t enjoy watching a manager get ejected over a bad call?
• Promote the players more. Why wasn’t Lance Berkman or Chipper Jones all over the front page during their amazing hitting streaks? Bret Favre is a superstar because he’s a good quarterback. Everyday people should be excited about the prospect of seeing Chase Utley or Hanley Ramirez play baseball.

That’s all I’ve got. Baseball is still the greatest sport on earth, but I fear that non-hardcore fans will eventually lose interest in the new, fast moving world.

As soon as this becomes available, I’m going to buy it and get into shape. Apparently, you will be able to hula hoop, do yoga, do push ups, play soccer, and a bunch of other stuff - right in your own living room. You can’t beat that.

I knew the Houston Astros would be a mediocre team this year, however I wasn’t prepared to see them lose 7 games in a row. It’s too early in the season to give up on them, but Berkman and Lee (and pretty much everyone else) need to kick it up a notch or two.

It’s time again for March Madness (NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament). I’m usually neutral about who wins, but this year I’ve got 3 teams on my radar: Oregon, Texas, and Texas A&M. I’m not counting on any of those teams to win the whole thing, but it’s fun to root for them. I’m watching the Winthrop vs. Oregon game as I type…