Stephen Strasburg is the Next Superstar in Baseball

21 year old Stephen Strasburg was just an overweight pitcher for the San Diego State University Aztecs in 2007. He was an above average pitcher who was throwing in the very low 90's. After getting himself in shape and ready for his sophomore season, Strasburg went 8-3 with a 1.57 ERA, 133 K's in only 97 1/3 innings. That's an average of 1.5 K's per inning. He struck out 23 batters in one game against the University of Utah in one of those games, which was a Mountain West Conference Record. Strasburg's 2009 season was even better if you can imagine that with a record of 13-1, ERA of 1.32, 195 K's in 109 innings (which is very close to 2 K's per inning on average) and giving up 59 hits on the season. His last appearance as an Aztec on May 8th, 2009 was a no hitter against Air Force where he struck out 17 batters in a game.

Now, after being the number 1 draft pick in the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft and signed a 4 year contract of 15.1 Million dollars (which was a record for any draft pick), he made his debut as a Washington National and the power to throw 100 mph.

Strasburg made his major-league debut on June 8, 2010, against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Stephen was supposed to go 6 innings or have a pitch count of 90 pitches. He ended up throwing more pitches and more innings because he was throwing so well. He is the first pitcher in major league history to debut with over ten K's (14)and not allowing a walk. Talk about incredible command of his pitches. Strasburg has command of 4 pitches: a two seam fastball, a four seam fastball, a change up, and a curve ball. He did let up a lucky two run homer but he didn't let that stop him from setting a team record of 14 K's in a game since the nationals moved back to DC. He also tied the record this season so far for K's in a game (14).

His performance was truly dominating and inspiring. He surpassed the hype and made every baseball fan young or old giddy, like a child going to their first baseball game. Stephen Strasburg is a once in a lifetime player that will be remembered forever if he stays healthy. He has the potential to be the next Nolan Ryan and probably set new records statistically as well as monetary (He will probably be signed for an absurd amount when his contract is up.) He is now baseball's golden child like Derek Jeter was for so many years.

I am buying tickets to the Nats game when he comes to Philly July 30th, 31st, and August 1st to see him pitch live (I hope his spot in the rotation is then).

Roughs R Ready

Summer Catch

June 2nd marked the beginning of another Roughrider season at our new field in Lindenwold, NJ. The field is an upgrade from what we have been calling our home field the past 5 years. Farwood field was an all dirt infield (with plenty of rocks) and an outfield without a fence. It was pretty busch league if you ask me. Now we have a home field that is not embarrassing and one we can use to our advantage. I say our advantage because our new field has lights and we normally play games from 6:10 pm to darkness during the week. Our Wednesday night home games are going to be starting at 7:30 and played for all seven innings.


June 2nd: Cherry Hill vs ROUGHRIDERS

Mike Reagle took the hill for us for the first 4 innings of work against Cherry Hill. I don't have his exact stats but he had a solid performance allowing only 1 run with a couple strikeouts. On the offensive side, Adriano Petrutz lead off the game with a solo shot to deep left and knew it as soon as he hit it. Later in the third, Andrew Frangos matched him with a two run blast to the same spot in deep left.

I was called in for the final three innings against Cherry Hill in relief. Our Coach, Bill Kohut, does not want our starters to go the full distance because we are not yet in shape to do so. His solution, the starters split time during games until we build up enough stamina to go the full distance if needed. Back to the game.. the moral was pretty down when I entered the game for Cherry Hill. I faced 10 batters, struck out 2, walked 1 and did not allow a hit. I normally prefer to be a starter because I am not that familiar with the closer or relief role, but I enjoyed finishing the game. My appearance would be considered "long relief," which is relieving for more than an inning. With Mike Reagle's solid start,my no hit 3 innings to close the game, and some explosive offense, the Roughriders won their opening game and I earned my first save of the season.

My coach also writes post game recaps as well after every week.

Roy Halladay Perfect Game!

As I stated in my last Phillies post, the game between the Phillies and Marlins was going to be a great pitching matchup between 2 aces; Roy Halladay and Josh Johnson. Roy Halladay ended up winning this matchup by throwing perfect, yes perfect. He retired all 27 batters in a row and didn't allow a batter to reach base. This acheivement is the toughest achievement in all of sports by an individual on a team sport. To tell you how difficult it is, Major League Baseball has been around since 1901 (Technically the National league had been in existence since 1876, but added the American league in 1901) The number of games that have been played since 1900 is 345950
Out of those games, only 20 have been PERFECT and 266 that were no hitters. The difference between a no-hitter and a perfect game is that in a perfect game, the pitcher retires all 27 batters without a hit and without allowing a batter to reach base. This also means that there are no errors by the defense as well. A no-hitter means that there are 0 hits in the game but a batter reached base either by an error, walk, or hit by pitch. The a few unwritten rules in the game of baseball, most are for superstitious reasons. When a pitcher has not given up a hit, you never reference what he is doing or it is considered a jinx. While watching the game last night, the Phillies broadcaster BROKE that unwritten rule on television in the 7th inning by announcing Roy Halladay was throwing a NO-HITTER.

Tom MaCarthy should be fired.

Thankfully, the "jinx" did not affect Roy Halladay's performance and he became the 20th pitcher to ever throw a perfect game. Roy Halladay has met expectations so far as being the ace that Philadelphia needed after trading Cliff Lee to Seattle. The Phillies still have a shot at acquring Cliff by the trade deadline like they did last year. If they end up with both Lee and Halladay, this team will be unstopable. That is if they get their offense to its potential.

The Game

April 21st, 2006
A date that I will never forget. When I woke up that Friday morning, I had no idea what lay ahead of me. I knew that on this dreary day, I would be pitching against Johns Hopkins University, ranked 12 in Division III Baseball. It was my senior year at Gettysburg college and I was off to a pretty good start with a 3-1 record. I had faced Johns Hopkins twice in the past and they had gotten the best of me and ruining my respectable ERA each season. To be honest, I was not looking forward to facing them a third time because the odds were against me. In the past 9 matchups between Gettysburg and John Hopkins, JHU was 9-0 and the runs scored in those games was 112-36 in favor of Hopkins. No wonder we hadn't beaten them, they averaged over 12 runs a game to our 4 runs. But the practice before gave me the confidence that I needed.

Called out
The Thursday practice before the game against Hopkins was normal as usual. I did my usual throwing and mentally prepared for the game ahead of me. At the end of practice we had our normal "Johns Hopkins" speech delivered by the head coach, John Campo. The speech was given the day before every home game against Johns Hopkins in order to motivate the team. During the speech which always involved "They are just a bunch of doctor's!," Coach Campo turned a pointed at me. To this day, I still do not know what his intentions were, or what drove him to say what he was about to say. He said "Brian Spicer is going to go out there tomorrow against John's Hopkins on this field and he is going to throw the game of his life." I was completely thrown off guard because Coach Campo never included any player in any of his speeches. I knew that I had to step up my game in order to live up to the coaches premonition.

Gametime
I had prepared for this game as it was a normal game. Had a big plate of pasta the night before, and done all of my other superstitions. As I took the field to get ready and warm up, I looked at the sky and saw that it was looking like it was about to rain. The weather channel called for rain and it was expected that the game was expected to be rained out. I believe to this day that I did not hype up the game because I thought it was going to be postponed. I went into the first inning with confidence and my arm felt healthy and strong. The time was now to get my revenge on the best team in our conference.

As I prepared to face the first batter, I collected my thoughts and walked to the back of the pitcher's mound to complete another superstition that I had. I put my hat on twice and said 3 phrases that I learned and believed in. Those phrases were "No Doubt, Refuse to Lose, and Whatever It Takes." Whenever I am competitive in any sport, I play with that attitude that I have "no doubt" in my abilities, "refuse to lose" the game, and do "whatever it takes" to win.

The first batter I faced popped up to first base. The second batter crushed the ball off of me, but luckily it was right at my shortstop who made the play. The third batter was Rob Pietrioforte, who was currently leading the Centennial Conference with his batting average over .500. He was my first but not last strikeout victim of the afternoon as he struck out swinging. I returned to the dugout and put on my jacket as I sat down on the bench by myself. I took a deep breath and knew I was off to a good start. Gettysburg scored first with a lead off double, a fly ball that advanced the runner to 3rd, and a single that drive in the first run of the game. As the first inning ended, I headed back to the mound to begin where I left off striking out the first batter. I threw a couple pitches to the next batter before he fouled a ball between first base and the catcher, a ball that would be hard to reach from either position. I sprinted towards the ball and called everyone off "I got it, I got it" and just as I was about to catch it, everything went black.

Blacked Out
I briefly lost consciousness and awoke unable to breath as I layed on the damp grass clasping my chest. I had no idea what happened after I was about to make the second out but it felt like I was run over by a car. When I went to catch the foul ball, the batter trotted down the first baseline and instead of getting out of the way for the defense (me) to make the play, he lowered his shoulder into my vulnerable sternum as I stared up into the sky. He upended me to the ground and knocked the wind out of me. As I laid there wincing in pain and trying to compose myself by getting air back into my lungs, I heard the umpire make the call. The batter was called out to pitcher's interference, which I had never heard of before but I am pretty sure baseball is not a contact sport like football is. My coach came over to argue what had happened and I heard my teammates yelling that the play was dirty. Still laying on the grass I finally got my wind back, pushed myself off the ground, and walked past the umpire and my coach towards the mound. I was pissed! I got on the mound and took some practice pitches to see if I was ok. I was throwing even harder now than I had in the beginning of the game. Turns out that that play changed everything and I was on a mission and determined to beat Johns Hopkins once and for all. Because I was staring into the sky about to catch the foul ball, I am unable to know if the collision was intentional or accidental, but it didn't matter, because I was going to do "whatever it takes" to win the game. As I was throwing the next couple warm up pitches faster and harder, I only threw 1 pitch to the next batter who flew out to right field. I walked off the mound to my teammates applauding me and getting them back into the game. I put my jacket on, sat by myself and stayed focused on the task at hand.

In the third inning I still had that fire inside me as I struck out the side. In the fourth inning I struck out the first batter, then faced the batter who hit a line drive to the shortstop for the second time in the game and he singled off of me. The nect batter was .500 Pietrioforte who I managed to blow a fastball by him for strike 3. I got out of the inning given up 1 hit. At this point I blocked out everything in my mind and concentrated solely on pitching. I payed no attention to statistics or the scorebook and sat quietly by myself on the bench while my teammates provided some run support from me.

In the 6th inning, I was still throwing hard and never lost sight at the light at the end of the tunnel. I had no idea how many pitches I had thrown or how many strikeouts I had, which I normally check. This inning I faced .500 Pietrioforte again and managed to get him to strike out on a curveball that was unhitable. I had struck out the best hitter in the conference 3 times giving him the "golden sombrero" which is what you get after 3 strikeouts in a game. I am not sure where the term came from or what it means, but it is a baseball term that is commonly used in this circumstance. .500 Pietrioforte was 1 of 3 strikeouts that inning and the term for the pitcher striking out all 3 batters is "striking out the side."

After striking out the side in 8th inning (and .500 Pietrioforte again for the fourth time of the game "platinum sombrero") I finally arrived to the ninth with a 4-0 lead. I was only three more outs away from beating the best team in our conference and they were not happy about it. On alot of my strikeouts, they were screaming and making noise about the calls the umpire was making but they did not have the view that I did. Maybe I should be knocked down during every game to create the intensity that I had on that grey Friday afternoon. I looked over to the side of the Johns Hopkins dugout to see the fans tailgating at the game and cheering on Gettysburg baseball. This was a rare scene because we did not get many fans at our games. However, this was a friday game against a rival and most classes were over by noon on Friday so we had fan support behind us. As I was ready to face the first batter of the inning, I looked over to see my teammates all on their feet making noise, supporting me, and hopefully witnessing their first victory over Johns Hopkins in 9 matchups.

The Final Three Outs
Hearing all the support for me from the crowd and teammates, I faced the first batter. A single to left field with no outs. The next batter struck out on an outside fastball that he thought was a ball; sorry, it wasn't. The next batter singled up the middle and the runner on first advanced to second base. With runners at first and second, I managed to strike out the next batter and get the second out. All I needed was 1 more out to complete the mission that I set out to finish in the 2nd inning. I had to calm myself down and keep my composure and get the final out. I lost some control on my next few pitches on the next batter and ended up walking him to load the bases. Now I am in a "do or die" situation. If I allowed a run, I would lose the shutout. If I allowed a run, I would be taken out of the game and been replaced. If I allowed a run, I would have failed my mission... I wasn't about to let that happen. I had come too far in this game that I needed to take control and end it my way. The count was 1-2 and the catcher put down the sign of an outside fastball, exactly what I wanted. I had been hitting the outside corner all game and the umpire enjoyed calling strike 3 seven times that game on outside fastballs that tailed in. Very hard to hit. I took a deep breath, wound up and threw my hardest fastball that my arm allowed me to throw. As I looked up, I saw that the batter made contact towards first base, I reacted by attempting to cover first base. As the ball traveled down the first base line my heart skipped a beat. The ball ricoted off the first base bag. Normally when the ball hits any bag, it changes directions and is hard to field. Thankfully the ball skipped off the bag right to the first baseman who fielded the ball cleanly and tagged the bag for the final out. GETTYSBURG WINS 4-0 OVER JOHNS HOPKINS!! What a game! As I was being congradulated by teammates, they told me that I had tied a school record of 17 strikeouts. I had no idea that I had that many and especially to a ranked team. This was my game on my day and no one could take that away from me.

A week later I was named National Player of the Week by Louisville Slugger with a few other players from across the country (All Division I schools.)

This was a day in my baseball history that I will never forget

Phillies Update 5/29

Crushed at Citi Field
What a rough week for Phillies fans. After getting swept in a 3 game series and unable to score a single run against their division rival Mets, the Phillies headed down to Florida against another division rival to redeem themselves. The Phillies were on a 5 game losing streak (2 to Boston and 3 to the Mets) and looked to end that streak with Kyle Kendrick (my twin) on the mound.

Kyle Kendrick (3-2)and the relief pitchers provided the defense that the Phillies needed in order to win 3-2. Kendrick bounced back nicely after a rough outing against Boston giving up 5 ER in 4.2 innings against Dice K's 1 hitter last Saturday. New closer Jose Contreras shut down the Marlins in the final inning earning his 3rd save of the season. Contreras gave up 2 hits and 2 strikeouts in his outing and I think it could be a permanent role since Ryan Madsen and Brad Lidge are on the DL.

Ryan Howard helped the offense by going 2-4 with an RBI and scoring a run in the 4th. Howard has started hot this season raising his average to .295 and becoming an all around hitter. Howard normally has a slow start and heats up in August and September down the stretch. His power stats are down this year but because he is such a homerun threat, pitchers are not throwing him anything that he can hit. It is even harder for him since the infielders shift towards his pull side. Since Howard is the victim of off-speed junk to keep him off balance, Jayson Werth has benefited by batting behind him and seeing better pitches. Werth is batting .309 with 33 RBI's and 9 homeruns.

The Phillies (27-20) take on the Marlins (24-25) tonight and will be a pitching duel between 2 aces; Roy Halladay (6-3, 2.22 ERA) against Josh Johnson (5-1, 2.43). Halladay is coming off his worst outing of the year against the Red Sox last Sunday and Johnson has only let up 1 earned run in his last 3 starts and 0 in his last 2. This should be a great match up tonight and hopefully the Phillies will break out the bats and give their starting ace the run support that he deserves.

Roughriders Baseball

Every Summer I play baseball in a wooden bat Tri County League with the Roughriders from Haddonfield. I really enjoy the website that was created for our team because it has statistics from previous years on every player for hitting and pitching. The league is and 18+ league and is a mixture of college graduates and players in their 30's. It is a pretty competitive league and taken very seriously. They won the championship in 2006 right after I graduated from Gettysburg College and went to Europe to play ball for 2 weeks. I will talk about Euro trip 2006 in a later post. We play about 4 times a week in South Jersey and are looking to make a run at winning the championship again in 2010. Our home field is in Lindenwold this year which was moved from Haddonfield where the Roughs have made home since they started. The Roughriders kick off their season June 2nd against Cherry Hill at Lindenwold.

Phillies shutout again

I hate the Mets
The past 2 nights have been pretty rough watching the Phillies struggle at the plate and scoring 0 runs in 18 innings against the rival Mets. Last night the Phillies lost 5-0 and the Mets gain a game on the Phillies. The Phillies were shutout AGAIN for the 2nd night in a row, something that hasn't happened to the Phillies since 8/7/08 and 8/8/08 against the Marlins and Pirates respectively. Joe Blanton pitched well for the Phillies but gave up a solo homerun to Jose Reyes early on and that would prove to be all the run support that the Mets pitching would need.

The Phillies need to do something to re-energize this ball club. They are swinging at horrible pitches and batting horrible with RISP (Runners In Scoring Position). I am not giving up on the Phils, but we need to at least salvage this series by winning tonight and end our current losing streak of 4 games.

LETS GO PHIGHTINS!

Phillies vs Mets 5-26 Preview

The Phillies have lost 3 straight, 2 to Boston on their homestand and a horrible loss last night to the Mets 8-0. Ouch. The Mets are feeling overly confident since winning their series against the Yankees in the subway series and took the first game in a 3 game series. The Phillies bats have been sleepy as of late and unable to get the run support that their pitching staff is used to. Phillies lost 5-0 Saturday night to a great game pitched by Dice-K of Boston only giving up 1 hit in the 8th inning. Dice-k even got himself a hit off of Kyle Kendrick, my twin!

Joe Blanton is taking the hill tonight for the Phillies with a record of 1-2 and an ERA of 5.06. His opponent is Hisanori Takahashi who has a record of 3-1 with an ERA of 2.53.

The Phillies (26-18) have a 4 game lead in the NL East over the Mets (23-23) who have won 3 straight against tough opponents. The Phillies bats are a concern because they stranded 13 batters last night and and in the past 5 games, the pitching staff has an ERA of 6.58. Hopefully with Mighty Joe on the mound, he can repeat his last performance which was the best of the year so far by going 7 innings strong. Blanton spent the 1st month on the DL and has been making progress.

Both Phillies and Mets are 5-5 in their last 10 games. I think its time we get "hats for bats" (Pedro Serano reference) and see that explosive offense that Phillies fans are used to. Go Fightins!!

1st Blog

Whats up blogworld
So I got this idea from a friend to start blogging and using this as an outlet to communicate my life to . . . strangers, haha. My life revolves around the great game of baseball and has been in my life since I was born. I was born into a baseball family and my grandfather was a great coach who was named "South Jersey Baseball Coach of the Century" and he has a baseball field named after him in Haddonfield, NJ. Yes, he is kinda a big deal.

Naming of my blog. Since this blog is about my life and baseball, I wanted to use a baseball term as my name. I thought that "Backwards K" would be fitting because I am a pitcher and love to "paint the corners" and freeze batters on a strike 3 called by the umpire. That term for those who do not know is called a "backwards K." When you go to baseball games and see fans holding up multiple "K's" and some are backwards, its not because they are dyslexic, but because they did not swing on Strike 3. When they do swing and miss on strike 3, then it is a regular "K." I threw in the number 2 because it was my college baseball number.

My life revolves around baseball in 3 ways. I currently play on a Tri-County team in Haddonfield, I am the Head Coach of a Sophmore American Legion Baseball Team in Mount Laurel, NJ (ages 14-15), and the Philadelphia Phillies. I will go more into depth about each of these teams and what I have done with them in the past.

Get to know your Blogger:
My baseball career.
I played 4 years of Varsity Baseball at Gettysburg College for 4 years from 2003-2006. I enjoyed my time there and was pretty successful and earned a major award for 1 game I pitched in which I will get to blog about eventually. I then went on to coach American Legion Baseball in the summer time for the past 4 years and also instructed pitching at a baseball facility in Warminster, PA. Since highschool, I have played on the same summer team in Haddonfield, NJ. The league is tri-county and is an 18 year old an up league. The team name is the Roughriders, yes . . . the Roughriders (insert inappropriate joke here) I am currently the most senior player on my team, not by age, but by how many years I have played with them. The pre-season starts tomorrow and the regular season begins June 2nd. Since I am a huge baseball fan and grew up next to Philly, the Phillies are my team, through the good and bad. Nothing is more relaxing than having a cold beer and watching the Phillies.

What to expect?

I am going to try to cover most of the Phillies games as well as attend some of them as well. I love going to Phillies games and at CBP there isn't a bad seat in the house. There I can sample the foods, take tours, and anything else you want to know about "The Bank". Hopefully it will also include pictures with the players! I will also keep you updated on my coaching team and playing team and how we do throughout the season.


-Spice