Today I’ll be trying out a new potential series.  If this is received well, I’ll continue to do it in the future. 

In this series, I will take an annoying sports cliché and explain exactly why it’s dumb and overused by sports writers who think they know sports, but in actuality, are clueless.

Today’s annoying sports cliché is: “They Wanted it More.”

This phrase is typically thrown out by broadcasters and writers in a game where one team completely outplays another.  To the naked eye it appears that one team just wanted to win more than the other, that the losing team was woefully unprepared and did not give it 110% on every play.  Meanwhile, the winning team fought like they were on the beaches of Normandy, playing every moment like it was a life-or-death situation.  

This makes for an easy storyline the next day.  Rather than taking the time to breakdown the intricacies of the game, the writer will take the easy way out and write a 1,000 word piece knocking the team for having “no heart” and playing “gutless.” (more…)

The MLB League Championship Series begins tonight, and as a big baseball fan, that has me pretty excited—But these pictures of girls representing the remaining playoff teams might have me more excited.

While the Yankees, Rangers, Phillies and Giants will battle it out on the field for their respective pennants, here at Living with Balls, we’ll pick our winners based on which girl is hotter.  Check out the pictures after the jump and be sure to vote.

WARNING: These pictures are probably NOT SAFE FOR WORK (more…)

I’m a pretty hardcore baseball fan.  I’ve played and watched baseball my entire life and I love everything about it.  I’m willing to bet there aren’t many people out there into our national pastime more than I am.

I’ve attended my fair share of baseball games over the years and every time I go, I always see some actions by other fans that get under my skin.  Some people just don’t know the right way to watch a baseball game.  When I go to games with Mrs. Sacks or my brother, I complain about these things constantly.  I guess I just can’t understand how people don’t enjoy the game as much as me.

Because of this, I’ve created some rules to inform you less-passionate baseball fans out there the proper way to attend a ball game.

Rule #1: Leaving the game early is not allowed (There are only a few exceptions to this rule) (more…)

It was announced today that rookie phenom Stephen Strasburg of the Washington Nationals will need Tommy John surgery and will be out of baseball until 2012. This isn’t funny. It’s actually pretty unfortunate for any fan of major league baseball.

What is funny are the number of brilliant tweets, making fun of Rob Dibble for criticizing Stephen Strasburg’s toughness.

For those of you who don’t know, Rob Dibble—a former pitcher for the Reds in the 90’s—recently criticized Strasburg after he exited his last start with pain in his forearm. Here’s what he said:

“Okay, you throw a pitch, it bothers your arm, and you immediately call out the manager and the trainer? Suck it up, kid. This is your profession. You chose to be a baseball player. You can’t have the cavalry come in and save your butt every time you feel a little stiff shoulder, sore elbow…. Stop crying, go out there and pitch. Period. You need to know the difference between pain and injury. When I was 12, my arm hurt. When I was in my teens and I would throw and walk off the mound when I was a starter, my arm would throb. I couldn’t even hold a glass of water. And you know what? I loved it. I was so sick, I loved it, ’cause I felt okay, I’m throwing hard enough to make my arm shake when I’m just standing there.’ So I was a totally different animal than I think has been created here with Strasburg, where now you’re telling this kid as soon as you feel any arm pain, call us and we’ll come help you. Please.”

Now Dibble is forced to take his foot and plant it firmly in his mouth.  It’s times like this that I truly love Twitter.  So many great tweets have come out this morning.  Here are some of the best I’ve found. (more…)

June 8^th, 2010, 9:00 pm—Joey’s Apartment: Bellerose, New York

(phone rings)

Joey: (watching Mets Game) C’mon Francouer! Ya piece-a-shit!

(phone rings)

Joey: Hello?

Owen: Joey! What’s up ya guinea bastard!?

Joey: Just watchin’ deez fuckin’ shitty Mets, ya dumb Irish prick.

Owen: Shitty? Things are looking good! We are just 2.5 games out of first. We look unstoppable at Citi Field right now!

Joey: yeah yeah, They can’t fuckin win on da road though!  They’ll never go anywhere if they don’t’ win on da road!…And dis piece-a-shit Reyes! When is dis bum gonna start fuckin’ hitting? He’s battin’ Two-Fowty!

Owen: yeaaaah, he’ll get it together though.  Give him some time.

Joey: Nah, he’s a fuckin canca in the clubhouse! That’s the problem with dis’ fuckin’ team.  We need some team chemistry! We got all these fuckin’ Mexicans on the team, doing dances every time they hit the ball or pointin’ to da sky every time they strike someone out! Dees bastahds should be cuttin’ my fuckin’ lahwn!

Owen: Jose Reyes is from the Dominican Republic

Joey: Same fuckin’ shit! Omah Minaya is fuckin’ racist! We need more white guys on da team!

(David Wright strikes out) (more…)

In the world of sports, commentators, writers and other members of the media like to throw around all sorts of overused sports terms. Since many members of the media often have a close relationship with the players, they have to choose their words carefully when they criticize them in the newspaper or on a broadcast.

Over the years, several critical sports terms have become mainstream. These politically-correct terms usually hide some type of flaw in the player’s game. Here are a few examples.

Game Manager

A term given often given to a mediocre quarterback who happens to play on a team with good defense and a strong running game. Typically it’s someone who throws like a girl, can’t hit receivers downfield, but rarely gets picked off. It usually takes him 20 plays to execute a scoring drive because he can’t throw the ball effectively on passes more than five yards.

The media may say something like: “The Miami Dolphins have a great running game and a solid defense. If Chad Pennington can just manage the game, I like their chances of coming out with the victory this Sunday.”

Translation: “The Dolphins have a great rushing attack and their defense may even score some points for them. If Pennington can just hand the ball off to Ronnie Brown and not throw the ball to the other team four times, then they should probably win this game 9-7. (more…)

Today, we have our first solo post from Don Valdez, AKA DV from the 24 Mockery feature…

Why am I a Mets fan?  When I was about four years old my father threw me a bag and said if you catch this you get to keep what’s inside.  I dropped the bag twice.  On the third time I did catch the bag and inside was a Mets hat.

162 days out of the year I ask myself… Why I did I accept this gift when I clearly dropped the bag twice?   The baseball gods were clearly trying to help me out.  Alas, I ignored their signs.  And here I am.

Were there good times?  Of course there were good times.   Were there bad times?  No.  Simply saying there were bad times would be a horrific understatement.

This will likely turn into a recurring article—as every few days I plan on confessing I am a Mets fan and how much it blows.

April 29^th 2010 – Today’s Confession… I Hate the Mets… (more…)

When it comes to the New York Yankees, baseball fans either love ‘em or hate ‘em.  There is no in-between.  Today I have a post on The Casual Observer titled “Why I Love the Yankees”, while Kosmo—the founder of The Casual Observer—will discuss why he hates the Yankees on this site.   While it pains me to posts this blasphemy written below, I will post it because it should strike up some good conversation.

Why Kosmo Hates the Yankees

Derek Jeter is overrated

OK, people, please put down the pitchforks.  I’m not suggesting that Jeter isn’t a fine player.  I’m not even suggesting that he’s not Hall of Fame caliber.  I’m just suggesting that he’s placed on a pedestal a bit higher than what might be appropriate. (more…)