Towards the end of last season ESPN America made over its website, probably to make the former NASN.com more like the rest of ESPN. But there were some flaws in the new site, which I wrote to ESPN about at the time. Now with the new season almost here, not much seems to have been done to fix the problems.

I wrote to ESPN again a couple of weeks ago to point out or ask about a couple of things:

1. This year would they give us games from Arizona as well as Florida? (NASN did during its tenure, but last year ESPN America only carried games from the Grapefruit League.)
2. NASN had printable versions of the schedule for each day. When ESPN did its make-over that feature disappeared, and any attempts to print a day’s schedule just produced the first couple of hours.

It took more than a week, but ESPN America wrote back:

Thank you for your comments and for being an ESPN customer! We monitor feedback very carefully as it helps us offer you the best channel possible. We will take your comments into consideration for future scheduling.

ESPN America is always working to provide a fair and balanced schedule as we try to serve the needs of fans of so many different sports and teams. For the most up-to-date schedule, visit our schedule page at: http://www.espnamerica.com/tv-schedule

This says almost nothing, and with the Spring Training games only a couple of days away, a look at the website reveals they haven’t done much. Once again all of this year’s scheduled Spring Training games for broadcast are from Florida, They are carrying a Tigers-Braves game on March 3, six days after the Grapefruit League opens, the next scheduled broadcast is a Yankees-Red Sox match-up 12 days later on March 15, followed by a Red Sox-Phillies game almost a week after that on March 21.

Why there are so few games is extremely hard to understand. Even harder is the lack of games in Arizona. Perhaps ESPN has failed to notice that both of last year’s World Series teams are in the Cactus League?

On the second question, there is in fact an improvement. If you try to print out a day of the ESPN America schedule, this year the whole day prints. It isn’t formatted for print, and the entire first page is a big black splotch. But it works (although you have to write in what day it is yourself since that information is above the page with the big black splotch.)

They do offer a monthly overview in PDF, but this is less useful for two reasons. One, ESPN America has a tendency to make it available first one or two weeks into the month, and secondly, they often change their schedules as late as the day of broadcast. You can’t trust the PDF.

A few years ago ESPN America’s predecessor NASN was just about the only way to watch baseball in Europe. But that isn’t the case anymore. With a subscription to MLB.TV, not only can you watch every game on a computer (and many on iPhones and iPads) rather than just the handful from ESPN, you can also pipe them into your TV from a PlayStation 3.

So listen ESPN, you don’t have a monopoly any more, there is an alternative. If you keep messing us up, we’ll just go with the alternative and cancel our subscriptions with you.

Last year the At bat 2010 app only offered access to live games, not terribly helpful for those of us 6-9 time zones away from North America. At the same time, subscribers to MLB.TV and Gameday Audio have always been able to access games after they were played, including on netbooks.

Why should a netbook user be favored over an iPad user? I wrote to MLB.com Customer Service about this, and have received the following reply:

Response Via Email(Amanda Jackson) – 02/02/2011 09:28 AM
Dear George:

Thank you for your inquiry.

We are working on having archive games available for the iPhone and iPad. We will continue to make it possible for this feature to be available to our customers.

Sincerely,
MLB.com Customer Support

First of all, there’s been a proliferation of events around the real game, the Futures All Star game, the Homerun Derby, and more. Personally I think the Homerun Derby is silly and proves absolutely nothing. But people seem to like it, and it doesn’t get in the way of the real game, since you don’t have to watch it.

What bothers me is all the hoopla before the game actually gets started. Living in Europe I’ve been listening and watching afterwards. On the ESPN Radio broadcast, it starts with a comment that the game will start in an hour. So I fast forwarded an hour, from where it was another half hour before the opening pitch.

Since I fast forwarded I have no idea what they were blabbering about, but it just doesn’ take that long to introduce a game.

TV is just as bad. I think it takes forever for them to inntroducd the players, but those guys have worked hard to get there and deserve the recognition! What bothers me is all the other stuff. Now they have a feature where they introduce people who deserve recognition for their work in the community. These people are great of course, accomplishing way more than me. But why are they occupying a bunch of time before a baseball game?

Between the end of ,presenting the players and the first pitch, it took 25 minutes. And that was in the rebroadcast with minimal commercials!

I just want to see the ballgame, and watch those great players in action. Everything else is just a waste. All Star inflation.

On the field, the Baseball World Cup Group C qualifier could have gone a lot better for Sweden. But the tournament was a great victory for Swedish baseball.

The Swedes lost all three of their games. The closest was the opening 10-8 loss to the Netherlands Antilles.

The 5-1 defeat to South Korea’s was a lot closer than expected considering they are Olympic champions, and ranked number two in the world, compared to Sweden at number 26. But a glance at the roster showed that around half the Korean players were university students. This was obviously not the same team that did so well at the World Baseball Classic.

So it probably wasn’t really a surprise that Antilles beat Korea 9-5. (Although someone mentioned that the best players from the Netherlands Antilles are actually playing for the Dutch national team, so perhaps this was the Dutch team B we saw here.)

The Canadian team (with former Rockies/Cardinals slugger Larry Walker as hitting coach!!!) was made up completely of minor league players, ranging from AAA to the Rookie League. While Sweden probably matched them defensively, the lack of Swedish pitching depth was apparent. There were seven Swedish pitchers in a game called under the mercy rule after the 5th inning, with Canada ahead 19-1.

One of the most emotional moments of the game was when opening game starter Joakim Claesson came in in the fourth inning in the final game, in an attempt to put out the fire and stave off the mercy rule loss. The entire crowd went wild, fully aware that Jocke had pitched well in the first game, and couldn’t have a whole lot left in his arm on one day’s rest. He had pulled it off two weeks previously for Stockholm in the Swedish baseball finals, Jocke winning the first game on the Saturday and coming in as the closer in the final game the next day.

Alas, despite the emotional outpouring things didn’t quite work out the same. Jocke game up a grand slam before closing the door, and Per Sjörs came in to pitch the fifth inning, giving up four hits and one earned run.

So Sweden could have done better on the field. But in terms of organization Sweden was a big winner in the Group C qualifier.

The Nya Örvallen stadium was amazingly transformed, with stands for 3000 instead of perhaps 50 before the upgrade. Where the right field bleachers were during the tournament, there used to be a bench on a small hill overlooking the field.

Most of the new bleachers are temporary, apparently only a handful behind homeplate will remain. But it was amazing seeing the old stadium with so much seating!

And all the concessions were also amazing. The little Sundbyberg Heat kiosk and tiny single toilet were closed, replaced by several restaurants and lots of porta-potties. There were sales of t-shirts, caps, baseball gloves, and even balls signed by all the players on the various national teams. There was even a place with a radar gun so kids could practice pitching and see how fast they were throwing.

It really reminded me of attending a game by the old Sonoma County Crushers, a Santa Rosa team that played in the sadly gone independent AAA Western Baseball League. Same concessions, but a much more powerful feeling, as all of baseball Sweden came together for a three day celebration.

The tournament also gots lots of publicity in the Swedish media. The national dailies “Dagens Nyheter” and “Svenska Dagbladet” not only reported the scores, as they do with Swedish Elite Division games, they ran large articles almost every day. The photo news agency Scanpix sent photographers every day. Even Swedish Radio’s Radiosporten reported the final scores after the end of the tournament. (First time I’ve ever heard them report on anything baseball other than the final game of the World Series.)

So congratulations to the Swedish Baseball and Softball Federation and the tournament organisers.

(And a tip for next year…change the selection process for the national team. The coach actually has to go watch the various teams play before picking his team. There were only four players on the 24 man roster from Sweden’s best team Stockholm. The three Stockholm position players all hit home runs, the only Swedes to do so, and the pitcher was Sweden’s best.)

The surprise is that the Swedes did as well as they did, going down 5-1 before a home crowd in Sundbyberg.

South Korea quickly scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning, but after that the game was close. Sweden kept the Koreans from scoring again until the sixth inning, when they got two more runs, followed by the single Swedish run in the seventh, a home run by centerfielder Peter Johannessen.

South Korea got one more run in the eighth. Both teams had five hits, the Swedes made two errors (both by catcher Björn Johannessen), the Koreans one.

Sweden is hosting the Group C tournament at Sundbyberg, outside Stockholm. Besides Sweden and the Netherlands Antilles, the other participants are South Korea and Canada.

Wednesday’s opening game started close, with the Antilles ahead 2-1 going into the 7th inning, and 4-2 as the 9th inning opened. But the visitors scored 6 unearned runs off Swedish closer Niklas Melin in the top of the inning, four in a grand slam home run by Jair Josepha.

With the score 10-2, the game looked over. But the Swedes came back in the bottom of the 9th with 6 more runs, after loading the bases with no outs. The rally climaxed with a three run homer by catcher Björn Johanessen, before the Antilles closed the door.

Sweden might have a chance against Canada in the final game of the tournament, but the chances of beating South Korea seem very very remote, even if the Swedes did manage to hold the Olympic champions to a 3-2 one run loss in a training game before the tournament opened.

This may be because neither national team captain Kalle Knutsson, nor any of his coaches, are from Stockholm:

Catchers (2)

Tomas Börjes, Rättvik
Björn Johannessen, Stockholm

Infielders (5)

Henrik Johansson, Karlskoga
Lukas Olsson, Leksand
Magnus Pilegård, Stockholm
Rickard Reimer, Rättvik
Adam Sorgi, Rättvik

Outfielders (7)

Mikael Andersson, Tranås
Tony Dermendziev, Tranås
Peter Johannessen, Stockholm
Christoffer Johansson, Karlskoga
Philip Gajzler, Sundbyberg
David Leander, Tranås
Per Lindgren, Sundbyberg

Pitchers (10)

Joakim Claesson, Stockholm
Maikel Hurtado, USA
Tomas Häggblom, Eskilstuna
Peter Jansson, Rättvik
Kent Karlsson, Karlskoga
Rickard Leander, Leksand
Nicklas Melin, Rättvik
Nick Soubiea, Sundbyberg
Christian Staehely, Everett AquaSox
Johan Tisell, Sundbyberg

Sadly, Swede Bryan Berglund, who played for Royal High School in Simi Valley, California, and recently signed a minor league contract with the Flordia Marlins, was forbidden from the Marlins from taking part in the qualifier.

Stockholm defeated home team Tranås in the third and final game of the best-of-three series 6-5. The two teams split Saturday’s doubleheader.

Stockholm, which also won the Swedish Elite Division title last year, finished second to Tranås in this year’s league play.

The Swedish Baseball Federation website reports that Stockholm took an early 6-2 lead. Tranås closed to 6-5 in the 7th inning off Stockholm starter Niklas Eriksson. Joakim Claesson, who started and pitched 7 innings in the opening game Saturday, closed the door, pitching the 8th and 9th innings.

Joakim Claesson was chosen as the most Valuable Player of the finals.

Defending championships Stockholm had taken the opener 9-2.

This year’s best-of-three tournament will be determined by Sunday’s game 3.

Stockholm just needs to win Saturday’s second game in the best-of-three series to defend the championship they took last year.

In this year’s Elite Division, Stockholm finished second to Tranås.