Share Your Fenway Memory, Win a Remembering Fenway Park Book

Would you like to read this amazing book, Remembering Fenway Park, commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the oldest ballpark in the country? We want to give it to you as a gift.

All you have to do is share a picture with us of yourself at Fenway. You can be with your buddies, your weird family, or all by yourself... you don't even have to be a Red Sox fan. There are three ways to do this...

1) Tweet your photo to @babeslovebball
2) Share it on our Facebook wall
3) Email us at babeslovebaseball@gmail.com

Then we will pick one of you at random this evening and announce it via Facebook and Twitter. Looking forward to seeing your beautiful faces and ugly mugs!

Remembering Fenway Park by Harvey Frommer (foreward by Johnny Pesky) beautifully documents the stadium’s entire career through a decade-by-decade account, a priceless collection of historical photographs, and vivid, first-person reminiscences of the people to whom this great place has meant so much: journalists, players, and fans.

Happy Opening Night, St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins Fans!

...and every other baseball fan who has waited for this day since last October.

A lot can happen in one offseason, and the reigning World Champion St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins are a perfect example.

The Marlins are kicking off 2012 with a complete face lift: a new name and a spastic jazzy new logo on their uniforms, a new skipper in Ozzie Guillen along with a few high-end acquisitions like Heath Bell, Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, and Carlos Zambrano, all in a spankin' new, $515 million ballpark. Pretty exciting stuff.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals begin defending their title on Day One of their first season without long-time manager Tony LaRussa and one-time fan favorite Albert Pujols. The team will also have to do without staff ace Chris Carpenter as well for the time being due to nerve irritation in his pitching shoulder, but they've regained Adam Wainwright, who was dearly missed during his Tommy John surgery rehab. They'll have to replace 30-40 home runs in the middle of the order without Pujols, but guys like David Freese, Matt Holiday, and everyday first baseman Lance Berkman are being counted on to do just that.

Young Lady Gets the Chance to Interview Curtis Granderson for Baseball Youth Magazine

When this email came across our inbox, we couldn't help but smile.

In an attempt to avoid dating myself, I'll just say that when I was Haley Smilow's age, I fell deeply in love with baseball and never looked back. Sadly, I never got the opportunity to interview my favorite player, Scott Leius. Anyway, we decided to share her interview with Curtis Granderson for Youth Baseball Magazine with all of you. It's awesome.

The 10-year-old New York City native and her family took a fun baseball trip around the Midwest this summer to seven stadiums in five states, including Miller Park, U.S. Cellular Field, Wrigley Field, Busch Stadium, Kauffman Stadium, Target Field, and Oriole Park at Camden Yards, to enjoy 26 ballgames in 31 days. Now that's a vacation.

Along with several other players, Haley had the chance to meet the New York Yankees center fielder for an interview, which was published in Baseball Youth. While we are re-printing the interview in full, we encourage you to check out the magazine, which would make an excellent holiday gift for the little baseball lover in your life.

We are Going to Help You Plan Your Next Trip to the Ballpark

Ever wonder which big league ballpark has the cheapest beer? How about the most expensive? Of course you have. These details determine how booze much you will consume before entering the stadium. Personally, we've never been to a major league establishment that offers them for under $6.50 a piece, so we tailgate pretty hard.

(I once paid $12.50 for a 6 oz. Bloody Mary at Target Field. When I figured out that not only was it not going to change my life, it would taste like shit and give me heart burn, I was none too pleased with myself. Live and learn, I suppose.)

Do you often consider the economic relativity of attending a baseball game in certain cities? We know you've contemplated how many gallons of delicious, ice cold, overpriced beers are pounded at ballgames each season. For Pete's sake, knowing all of these answers is an absolute must in order to maximize your baseball-watching enjoyment.

Mike Donghia has puzzled over each of these questions and more. Obviously, what better thing to do with all of this information than to compile it into an attractive-looking infograph! The only thing that would make this more awesome is a power-point slide show to Eye of the Tiger elevator music.

Ozzie Guillen to Manage Miami Marlins and Their Stupid New Logo

Update: The Miami Marlins logo has been leaked via Twitter (how else?) and fans are having mixed emotions about it. We think it's lame, but don't really give a crap either way.

I guess we all pretty much knew already that Ozzie Guillen, upon his parting with the Chicago White Sox Monday evening, would end up managing the Miami Marlins next season... we just weren't sure when it would be announced.

The club, who handed Guillen a four-year, $10 million contract, wasted little time in making the reunion public, introducing the team to their new manager just hours before their final game at Tropicana Field Wednesday. Marlins owner Jeff Loria is not concerned in the least about the outspoken skipper "ruffling any feathers" upon his arrival in Florida:

Florida (Miami) Marlins Pumped for Brand New Ballpark

The Florida Marlins, who will become the Miami Marlins prior to the 2012 season, are getting pretty excited to open their spankin' new stadium, Miami Ballpark, next year. In fact, they will be granted an exclusive opening to the new baseball season.

The Marlins and the St. Louis Cardinals will open the season a day ahead of the other 28 teams in the league on April 4 at their new $515 million, retractable-roof ballpark on the site that once housed the legendary Orange Bowl. You can probably catch that on ESPN. Prior to anything official, the Fish will host the New York Yankees in exhibition games on April 1 and 2.

Congratulations Rosie!

The readers have spoken. Rosie and her pork-chop-on-a-stick was your favorite Ballpark Photo!

She will receive a $100 gift card to MLB.com while our other three finalists will get sexy BLB t-shirts. Thanks for playing everyone!

If you'd like to see all of our contestants, check out our Facebook album.

Enter Our Ballpark Photo Contest!

Would you like to win a gift card to MLB.com? Of course you would.

We've run this contest before, and it was such a success and so damn much fun, we're doing it again. All you have to do to become eligible is send us a picture of yourself at the ballpark.

The rules are pretty simple: send one picture of you at a ballpark. You can be alone, with your buddies, your mama, or however you roll at the game. Please include your name and where the photo was taken. For the record, don't pull a Grady Sizemore on us. Unless you're hot. Actually no. Either way, you must be at a baseball stadium.

Anyway, Marea and I will then choose a few of our favorite photos before submitting them in poll-form to our wonderful readers, who will vote for their favorite.

The lucky winner gets the gift card worth $100 and the three runners up will receive a sexy and official BLB t-shirt, like this one modeled by the studly Mike. Thanks buddy!

Send your submissions to BLB by Friday, January 21 at 11:59pm ET. We will work tirelessly that entire weekend (when we're not bombed and watching football) to have a poll ready for you by the beginning of the week.

The winner will be announced after the polls close on Friday, January 28.

We can't wait! Ready...go.


*Obviously, by sending us a picture of yourself, you agree to have said photo displayed on the internet for all to see. We'll also be adding each one we receive to an album on our Facebook page. It'll be like scrap-booking, except awesome.

Ricky Nolasco Gets Three More Years with Marlins

Ricky Nolasco has agreed to a $26.5 million, three-year contract with the Florida Marlins, according to an anonymous leaker close to negotiations. Of course, the deal won't be set in stone until the right-hander passes his physical.

While the team's ace, Josh Johnson, has a good three years remaining on the $39 million contract he signed last season, Nolasco's deal reinforces their rotation which already includes Anibal Sanchez, Chris Volstad and the recently acquired Javier Vazquez, who was inked to a $7 million, one-year deal earlier this month.

Rays to Hand Out 20,000 Free Tickets (Updated)

In response to Tampa Bay Rays players' recent comments about the lack of fan support at Tropicana Field, the Rays organization is giving out 20,000 free tickets to Wednesday night's finale -- and final regular season home game of 2010 -- against the Baltimore Orioles.

Free tickets to see the Rays. The postseason-bound Tampa Bay Rays. And Evan Longoria, ladies.

Take Me Out To The Ballgame!

Ok, BLB readers. I know I've mentioned this before, but it is definitely worth mentioning again. Last week, I took a ride on the TwinsTrain, and I have to say, I am impressed. There's nothing like going to cheer on your team on another team's turf, even if they do get their asses handed to them like the Twins did in Milwaukee this past week. Yuck.

I just had to give Scott, the owner of TwinsTrain, a huge thumbs-up for arranging such an awesome trip. It's hard enough to find tickets, lodging, transportation, parking, food... etc., when you are trying to plan a baseball trip. I should know.

Balls for Charity... and Plaques

Our buddy John Bonnes of Twins Geek passed along this press release with the hopes that some of the Minnesota Twins fans who read BLB may be as interested in this as we are...

To celebrate the Inaugural Season of Target Field as well as to raise awareness and money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Minnesota, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions, Nikco Sports will be donating two unique pieces of Twins history...

"A limited edition baseball featuring a stunning color photo of the new Target Field on one of the panels, and important historic information printed on the other panels, along with the official Inaugural Season logo is being produced to commemorate the first game at the new ballpark on April 12. Only 5,000 baseballs will be made, priced at $39.95, and each comes with a handsome acrylic display case. From each sale, $4 will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Minnesota.

Babes Love Visiting Ballparks!

Hey Twins fans! Have you always wanted to visit another ballpark but you just don't feel like planning out such a complicated trip? Have you always wanted to meet Sooze or Marea? Come take a ride with the Babes on the TwinsTrain!

Planning out a baseball trip can be time consuming. You have to figure out schedules, find tickets (preferably before you get to the ballpark and you are stuck paying $300 for a seat to a guy with a trenchcoat and a creepy scar above his eye), figure out where you're going to stay, how you're going to get to each city, how you'll get around, and a slew of other details.

A Ballpark Stimulus Would Be Pretty Sweet

The many scores of outraged, frugal fans have spoken. And Bud Selig has answered. Sort of.

In these tough economic times, some of us ride our bikes to work and school. Others have cut down on going out to eat or sadly, even slowed down on the binge-drinking. One thing we shouldn't have to give up is a trip to the ballpark to watch our favorite teams play our favorite game.

Those empty seats in the shiny new palaces of New York have not gone unnoticed by commissioner Selig.

It's not that he's asked the Yankees and Mets to lower their ticket prices, but he may have hinted at it. Ultimately, it's up to them.

Well, Hello Sexy: My Affair With The New Yankee Stadium

(I know this looks long, but it's quick. Just like my ex boyfriend.)

After years of being a Yankees season ticket holder, I was finally priced out. In the new stadium, my seats would not have been as good and now that I've re-located, I can't go to the 40-50 games I used to. I certainly couldn't afford the prices on the secondary market and therefore had resigned myself to watching the first regular season game in the new Yankee Stadium on television.

Then, late Wednesday afternoon, I got an email from a contact I have at Pepsi (the new "official beverage of the New York Yankees") offering me a pair of tickets to the game. Of course I didn't even think twice about it. I'm very easily bought.

So being that I was out of town at the time, I jumped on a bus from DC at 6:45am and began the trek to the new Yankee Stadium. My heart belonged to the original one (my thoughts from the final game are here), and I was holding my judgment on the sexy new lover that had come to claim my affection. I got to the city and jumped on the familiar D train, the same train that carried me to my second home hundreds of times before.

If They Build It, Will They Come?

I think we can all agree that Dolphin Stadium is a giant piece of crap that has passed for a ballpark for 19 years now pretty out-dated.

The Florida Marlins won't have to deal with it for much longer, though. The team jumped through the final hoop Monday, after 10 years of trying to get their own ballpark in Miami. The 13 people on the Miami-Dade County commission voted 9-4 to approve the multi-million dollar deal.

The Fab Four

We are at our happiest when at ballgames, and it seems you are, too. We asked you to send us your favorite picture from the ballpark, and we received an over-whelming response. Some were hilarious, some were heart-warming, some were totally inappropriate. But you'll have that, since most of you found us via google search for "babes."

So, we're having a little trouble choosing the pictures we liked best. We're gonna need another day or two. Posted above is a photo of fellow blogger Clare. She gets an A for effort.

Below is Camp Tiger Claw. So hot.


Check back tomorrow for the four finalists to see if you're one of them!

[BLB Ballpark Photo Contest]

That Certainly is a Hot Dog

Just a friendly reminder that we'll be choosing our favorite ballpark photos this Tuesday before handing over the giant responsibility of dubbing the most awesome one to our lovely readers.

The prize for the sweetest pic is a $50 MLB.com gift card, and a BLB t-shirt and cap. So send your photos -- but please not of your body parts. That was sick dude, and I swear to god if I ever find out who you are I'll punch you there -- by Tuesday, June 24th and cross your baseball-loving fingers until Friday, cause those are some badass accolades.

Also, pictures of lone hot dogs -- relish or no -- do not count. Hot dogs cannot wear t-shirts, hats, nor spend gift cards online.

[BLB Ballpark Photo Contest]

Rangers Change Their Ballpark's Name Again

Three years after changing their stadium name to Ameriquest Field, the Texas Rangers put the kibosh on their 30-year deal with the struggling lender, Ameriquest Mortgage, rebranding their home field as Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

No, not The Ballpark in Arlington. That would be what the stadium used to be called before the $75 million sponsorship with Ameriquest changed it. Details, details.

Ameriquest's parent company, ACC Capital Holdings Corporation, announced last week that it was going to fire a massive amount of people "slash its work force" for the second time in less than a year due to the "very challenging nonprime market."

[Guardian Unlimited]

Fenway Expands. Again

Next season, the Boston Red Sox will be able to squeeze several hundred more fans into teeny Fenway Park. During each off season since 2002, the organization has added several more seats to the oldest park in the majors, most notably seats atop the famed Green Monster, as well as a patio on the right roof deck.

Changes for this year include renovations to some of the women's restrooms, more luxury box seats, a new concourse behind the third base seating area, vending machines to purchase Charlie Cards to make stumbling onto the Green Line easier after the game, and a "Bleacher Bar" under the center field seating area. Just what the bleacherites need, another place to buy an $8.00 Budweiser.

No plans have been announced to replace the Fenway seats, which are only comfortable if you are under 5'3 and 110 pounds, and have scoliosis.

[Yahoo! Sports]