the pitch clock is counting down to the MLB 2023 REGULAR SEASON THREAD

end of year Rays' rotation will be their current AA team at this rate.

The Nationals are close but nobody’s home run celebration touches the Mariners

No. Doubt. pic.twitter.com/s6tWfAYQFc

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) May 13, 2023

You'll put somebody's eye out with that thing.

Seriously! I assumed it was plastic but it’s not!

It stands six and a half feet tall, weighs nearly 30 pounds and was so sharp out of the delivery box that its spikes have been dulled. The Mariners’ new trident, unveiled after each home run and bestowed to each slugger who goes deep, is as profound as it looks.

Absolute

Adding insult to tonight's proceedings: the Citi Field video board briefly just shut off during an at-bat, causing a momentary stoppage in play. When it turned back on, it displayed a massive Rays logo. Fans booed.

Then José Siri hit another homer.

Rays 7, Mets 1, top six. pic.twitter.com/KRgwtT8BNr

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) May 17, 2023

John Schneider: "shut up, shut up fat boy, shut up"

George Costanza must be up to his old tricks pic.twitter.com/WaLyHZyeYA

— BaseballHistoryNut (@nut_history) May 16, 2023

A’s win with a Ruiz walk-off single: pic.twitter.com/Fi2yY8RLMu

— Jessica Kleinschmidt (@KleinschmidtJD) May 17, 2023

wow absolutely no one there for the 12th

dying @ the rays logo

It’s incredible. Just unreal how you can fuck up that much

paid attendance in oakland last night was 3,261 so there was barely anyone there to begin with

and the place seats 47K for baseball (56K if they took the tarps off mount davis)

ftr, class a dayton drew more than twice that last night (to see the home team get no-hit)

at least brent rooker is off to a nice start

btw . . . rich hill!

Dustin May:

May’s velocity was down in the first inning, topping off at 95.8 mph. He was replaced on the mound by Dylan Covey.

In between innings, May met with Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts and pitching coach Mark Prior. He then left down the tunnel.

This is the same elbow that May had Tommy John surgery on in May 2021.

May is 4-1 this season with a 2.68 ERA and 32 strikeouts.

no wonder the a’s are moving to vegas?

Really a sad state of affairs for a historic franchise. The early 70s A's were what got me interested in baseball.

xp cos the ownership was running the franchise into the ground and giving the fans nothing to watch? Who’s going to watch them there?

Oakland had a couple of good runs in terms of attendance: the Henderson-Canseco-McGwire era (six consecutive years over two million, almost three one season) and the Moneyball years (five consecutive years ditto). Mostly they've been middle of the pack, and often worse than that. Their early-'70s WS dynasty drew about 2.8 million over three seasons--not as awful then as that would be today, but not particularly good, either.

only been there once, but i thought it was actually a decent place to see a game (to be fair, i grew up going to three rivers stadium, so basically any park with real grass is cool to me). i guess the enormous foul territory isn't ideal. and yeah it's not 'nice' like a post-camden yards park

but if you spend 30 years cutting everything to the bone while trying to extort the locals to build you a stadium -- and then finally make concrete moves toward leaving -- not too many people are gonna be interested in seeing a team on a 36-126 pace take on arizona

May’s velocity was down in the first inning, topping off at 95.8 mph.

Time was, a pitcher would be ecstatic about hitting 95 on the gun!

Speaking of Reggie (I won't start a thread), big day on the Jaded but Nostalgic Old Guy Calendar: happy 77th. I saw him twice: in 1969, when I was 7, the year he was threatening Maris's HR record at the All-Star break (remember nothing, but I later determined the game was close both geographically and on the calendar to the Manson murders); and in '87, his final season. I remember my dad and I left a couple of innings early and missed one of his last HR.

When I lived in New York, the one time I managed to go to Yankee Stadium--I think it was in 1992--happened to be on Reggie Jackson Day. I wasn't even aware of the occasion until we got there. I got really choked up seeing the man himself.

The one time I was there was pretty close to that--'87 or '88, obstructed view in left field, I think.

I briefly got to meet Mr October in Finsbury Park in London in the summer of 2019. My kids' little league team had somehow organised a skills day with a bunch of former Yankees and Aaron Boone. It was like walking around in a dream. Rivera, A-Rod, Pettite, Matsui, Beltran, and, uh, Nick Swisher. Reggie spent quite a bit of time with the kids, giving them tips on their stances and their swings. Other than that he frankly seemed kind of grumpy and mainly just hung out with Beltran eating BBQ which is fair enough, I think they'd arrived that morning from the East Coast. Cashman was there too and I had a long talk with him about the 'best team ever' years, and which Post and the Daily News reporters he got along with and which ones he didn't. Now that I think about it even Manfred showed up! He gave some boilerplate speech. But the Yanks donated an entire half-container of brand-new Rawlings gear to the team, I guess it was probably worth thousands. Just an incredible day. I'm told Reggie will only sign baseballs on the "sweet spot" where the seams come together at their narrowest, but both balls my kids gave him had already had those spots taken and he signed them anyway. Getting soft!

Oh, man--would love to meet him. His WS quote--"The only thing I don't like about playing in the World Series is I can't stay home and watch myself"--is one of my favourite ever. (Really enjoyed his old-guy book with Bob Gibson.)

Checking game logs, I'm not even close on the game my dad and I left early. It might have been this one, which was '83, four years before he retired.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/06/18/Reggie-Jacksons-two-out-three-run-homer-capped-a-four-run-California/2210424756800/

Memory fading.

             1-run   Other
Athletics      7-7    3-28

RHP Trevor Bauer has been sent down to the Baystars farm and will pitch Sunday.

https://t.co/evCwzztDuF

— Yakyu Cosmopolitan (@yakyucosmo) May 20, 2023

couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy

so is madbum done? it's been almost a month

Here’s the video of Trevor Bauer getting taken deep by the first batter he faced in his first game since being demoted to the minor leagues in Japan. pic.twitter.com/TiOUCjfd8m

— sky (@GonsolinRBW) May 21, 2023

straight into my veins

crazy that his agent popped into the thread to immediately agentsplain this

He chose to be sent down!

Long may his suffering continue.

xps to mookieproof

There’s an article in the Athletic now and 🫣

“

I definitely can,” Bumgarner said, “but I’m not going to throw anybody under the bus.” Pressed for specifics, he allowed that ditching the team-provided scouting report was “a big part of it.” It was an oddly cryptic answer, but it was hardly indecipherable. Most took the response to be a shot at the person who prepares attack plans for Arizona’s starters — pitching strategist and former big-league pitcher Dan Haren.

Haren confronted Bumgarner about the comment soon after, according to sources within the organization. That ended whatever relationship the pair had, and sources say the two didn’t speak to each other for the rest of Bumgarner’s time with the team, a span of almost two years. From then on, even as Haren worked closely with the team’s other starters, all game-planning information for Bumgarner was run through the Diamondbacks’ catchers.

Super cool to get racist ads (HAVE YOU BEEN HARMED BY DEI) on more than half the MLB broadcasts I catch on mlb.tv.

The AL East and AL Central are still operating like one giant division and we hope it never stops. pic.twitter.com/8IWALVjzvR

— Productive Outs (@ProductiveOuts) May 23, 2023

this video is legitimately amazing

【びっくり】MLBにリスが登場…観客席を走り、グラウンドに落下したリスが見事な着地披露pic.twitter.com/6bXx9iCmsk

— ライブドアニュース (@livedoornews) May 24, 2023

every single person doing the YouTube thumbnail face

Worst 50-game starts, since 1901:

1904 Senators: 9-41
1932 Red Sox: 10-40
2023 Athletics: 10-40
Four teams: 11-39

the 1988 orioles, who started 0-21, are one of the 11-39 teams

Should have called Contreras rule on Rojas in this Dbacks-Phillies game.

i remember sports illustrated doing a cover on the Os’ historic futility that year. it was in the waiting room at the dentist. one of those little memories that clangs around in my head.

https://vault.si.com/.image/t_share/MTY5MDk4MzYxMzQ1OTQzMDAz/702628---cover-thumbnail-image.jpg

I'm scanning every square inch of that bat with a magnifying glass.

first mlb game I went to was an orioles game in that series. I didn’t really care much about baseball (aside from baseball cards) but I was impressed by the losing streak.

cal ripken sr. was fired as manager at 0-6

he wasn't the problem, alas

I’m at marlins-rockies for my first live game of the year, and I’ve already seen a triple and a steal of home. though I’m seated looking directly down the third baseline, and it seemed like that should have been runner interference

i am not seeing this steal of home on the internet, but if it involved luis arraez it was absolutely legit because he rules

ps are you wearing nugs attire y/n

yes I’m in a bright blue and yellow nuggets warmup jacket

<3

i remember sports illustrated doing a cover on the Os’ historic futility that year. it was in the waiting room at the dentist. one of those little memories that clangs around in my head.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, May 24, 2023 4:43 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Imagine if you'd told teenage me in 1988 "this is only the fourth-worst Orioles team you'll see in your life"

iirc at one point ronald reagan called frank robinson to offer condolences/support

fucking insult to injury

lol ouch

clemenza that's the one! i remember the shot and everything. it seemed impossible at the time. it still does, i guess.

That was a weird division that year: 89 wins took the division, and the top five teams were all bunched between 85-89. I don't really remember Toronto being in a close race in '88 (like '87 and '89), but they only finished two games out, so I guess they were.