things I learned about in baseball this week/how i learned to stop worrying and love baseball

xp PBKR 💀💀💀

Yeah felicity that’s what I think I means as well - but they aren’t the best up for the team in that inning, like they aren’t meant to be guys that would give a good shot at getting on base. But it turns out they’re clutch and Casey isn’t!

I admit, haven't done my podcast homework assignment yet.

in my mind there are two possibilities - casey is leadoff or casey is cleanup. i like tracer's interpretation for casey as leadoff but casey as cleanup is how i remember it too.

i agree with gyac that mudville probably had the lead first. i do think that they lost the lead relatively late in the game, which is why the crowd is so volatile and calling for the umpire to be killed.

CASEY AS LEADOFF
-cooney and barrows are the sixth and seventh batters. not great but not spectacular. can be thought to reliably put the ball in play at least, maybe get some singles. and they both did put the ball in play. but they both 'died at first'.
-flynn the hodooo and jimmy the cake are eight and ninth. understandably there's a pall when they're due up. jimmy is also the pitcher and is despisèd for not only being a terrible hitter but also allowing 4 runs in the seventh and eighth, turning a surefire win into a probable loss. however, the fact that he "tore the cover off the ball" and legged out a double was totally unexpected. it adds to the crowd's excitement after "the dust had lifted" and the "men saw what had occurred" - the crowd needed a second to process - who would have thought the 8 and 9 guys would get on base, much less both be in scoring position?
-casey in this scenario is a nineteenth century kyle schwarber. guy who starts the game off with a solo home run. maybe both runs in the game are due to casey solo shots. mighty casey! but also bats under 200 and is on the verge of setting the single season strikeout record, so the end of the poem is VMIC.

CASEY AS CLEANUP
-cooney the pitcher bats ninth and barrows is leadoff. the poem isn't negative towards cooney because when he bats there are no outs, anything can happen, even if he gets out that's only one out, still plenty of life in the inning.
-but when barrows the leadoff hitter can't get on base - that's bad. two outs!
-biggest question here as has been pointed out is why flynn and jimmy are so bad and hated but still batting two and three. i think it's because they're both 0-4 in the game, four strikeouts each, 10 RISP left on between them (bottom of the order has been hitting well), and not only that but have been slumping in their previous games - and the manager won't shuffle the lineup yet because he doesn't want to mess with their heads (the other reason the manager won't change the lineup is because the manager also either flynn or jimmy). jimmy is also probably in year 2 of a 10 year/$3000 contract that he's drastically underperforming. so he's much depisèd. that said, he can still smack the ball occasionally - this is supported by blake "[tearing] the cover off the ball" and legging out a double.
-casey bats cleanup as most people assume and you know what happens next.

i don't like casey as cleanup because even if the two and three hitters are underperforming, they're still good and the crowd should still have some hope. i think casey as schwarber is the better read, even if it goes against how most people remember the poem.

Jesus Christ this is an absolutely superb analysis. I’m in awe here.

I prefer your favourite interpretation too! Plus it’s funnier.

Cooney and Barrows both grounded out and not just grounded out but died. Suggests they are both ultra slow and baserunning liabilities. Also I really like the idea of Jimmy Blake being the pitcher. I know he includes the first name to make it scan better but I like the idea of there being several Blakes on the team hence the need to specify.

“Blake, as in our best hitter?”
“No Blake as in the pitcher who gave up a grand slam to the nine hole hitter last series.”

Both very well argued positions. I can't choose between them!

Page 4 of the June 3, 1888 Sunday (morning) edition of the San Francisco Daily Examiner:

https://i.imgur.com/RWMJWDZ.jpeg

(if you are of advanced-age, you may need to open that jpg in another tab and zoom: 4th column, middle-bottom)

So many fun and random things on this page. I want to try Joy's vegetable sarsaparilla. That lynching in St. Helena seems super fishy "Wright, I understand hanged himself". Apparently the crowd threw the rope around his neck, argued whether he deserved to die, then Wright says "I'll be damned if I stay in this crowd another minute!" and jumps.

Also "Mr. Hogg, who recently died at Okton, Maryland, is said to have been the oldest railroad man in the world. He was certainly the most appropriately named". OUCH

rolling sabermetrics and statistics thread

WHAT

The video game Yakuza 0 contains a reference to the curse in the form of a statue of a chef floating underwater in the river of Sotenbori (a fictional version of Dōtonbori). The statue can be seen underwater in the cutscene where Majima enters the bed of Styx.

Didn’t really know where to post this, but this was so fucking upsetting.

https://t.co/MStgkIxESq pic.twitter.com/zoEadgZp4l

— Infield Fly Girl (@infieldflygrl) June 12, 2024

In 1992, Rockies outfielder Dante Bichette struck his pregnant 19-year-old girlfriend. The story was not public at the time and there was no discipline. "Although it was very wrong, we joke about it now," he said in 1999. One wonders exactly how often they laugh about it, and why.

2010 MLB Police Blotter

But yeah thats grim

Important to share, but yeah this is NOT the thread for it. I love this thread as a means of sharing pure unadulterated joy for the game.

Hope it stays that way moving forward... I usually am excited when this thread is bumped!

Sorry, to me this is unfortunately relatable :/ but yeah, in my mind that other thread is for arrests etc.

I feel like we’ve all just forgotten Pedro Martinez had a dwarf sidekick he would hang around with in 2004

Idk how to reply to that itt but I feel I should point out that the correct term is probably ‘little person’.

What I came here to say: Tim Lincecum turned 40 yesterday and KNBR did a thread of his best moments. The enduring love for him is something else.

Screw it, 40 Tim Lincecum moments for his 40th birthday

A thread: pic.twitter.com/qyags7tSXh

— KNBR (@KNBR) June 15, 2024

Hunter Pence & Tim Lincecum imitating each other's mechanics.

[From: https://t.co/Ka4bSeDscg ] pic.twitter.com/fKNaXeMesG

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) November 21, 2018

I looked it up actually before posting because I figured someone would say something. That term is apparently on par with “little person” or “individual of short stature”. “Midget” is the faux pas term to use.

Saw this incredible card on Twitter scrolling through this account (long gone ofc)

#tankstax til 6/5! $4 flat shipping

Tim Lincecum Roy Halladay 2009 topps all star game dual jsy relic /25. Super tough card

$45 pic.twitter.com/irQAwohmCA

— Frank - TanksSportsCards (@frank_lubatti) June 4, 2024

The 5-foot-10 (maybe) Lincecum against the 6-6 Halladay, who is a sculptor's idea of a big league pitcher.

Lee pitches as if the streetlights just came on and he's got to finish before his mom is forced to walk over to the park and get really ticked. It's like this: If he could figure out a way to throw the next pitch before the last one, he'd do it.

Jays-Mariners last night. Toronto batted ball goes past the pitcher (who narrowing misses a play on it), ball proceeds to the 2B who plays it in the basepath and gets bodied by Vlad who started on 1st. Vlad is called out.

Now Buck Martinez was saying that if the pitcher had made any contact before it got to the 2nd baseman, Vlad would be allowed the lane, as the pitcher would be the "fielding player" and not 2B.

Is this accurate, and if so did you guys know that?

why can't there be multiple fielding players? nothing in the rule says there can only be one https://www.mlb.com/glossary/rules/fielder-right-of-way

Special mention of Cliff Lee too:
Lee pitches as if the streetlights just came on and he's got to finish before his mom is forced to walk over to the park and get really ticked. It's like this: If he could figure out a way to throw the next pitch before the last one, he'd do it.

Halladay was very much the same there too. I heard one announcer say “Roy Halladay pitches like he’s double parked”. Which turns out was stolen from Vin Scully describing Bob Gibson.
I remember the season after Cliff Lee won the cy young over Halladay, going to Cleveland to see the two go head to head. Halladay won.

xp you know what, it's possible he meant if the pitcher fielded it and the 2b was in the basepath and not fielding the ball at all. i'd have to look at it again. it's true that it doesn't make much sense

Things I learned about baseball today.

Only three teams have yet to have a player receive an MVP while playing for them: Dbacks, Rays and...... The Mets?!?

Does that mean each team has a cy young and a ROY?

For Cy Young, without checking, I don't think Colorado has one for obvious reasons.

For ROY--checking!--the four latest franchises have all won one, so my assumption is that the other 26 franchises have too.

struggled to remember a pirates ROY, but was saved by best beloved canadian OF jason bay

I've encountered that before as one of those Immaculate Grid categories (like Marlins MVP) that are terrible because they allow for exactly one correct answer.

For Cy Young, without checking, I don't think Colorado has one for obvious reasons.

― clemenza, Wednesday, July 10, 2024 10:11 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i looked this up and there are two teams w/o one, the second team surprised me (rangers)

So Kyle McCann, bearded catcher born in Atlanta, GA, is no relation to Brian McCann, longtime bearded catcher born in Athena, GA. And neither of them related to Mets catcher James McCann.

Was watching As/Red Sox and they flash up “McCann” at C, with a blonde bearded visage grinning into view and did a serious double take. (“I knew the As were desperate, but…”)

AthenS

In service of my commitment to making my thread the repository for the stupidest and most trivial baseball content on ilbb I can come up with*, here’s my audio review of a Canadian HoF magazine clemenza sent me. Entertainment value is very, very low, but it took me about 1/4 the time to record and upload this as it would have to write it up, so I’m checking it up as a W for me only. At yr own risk, etc.

https://voca.ro/1h7dJUX5FmFp

* you guys are so, so lucky I have no current intention of writing about baseball fic fandom.

“Not going to review the whole thing” - me before reviewing the whole thing

the wy learn about today thred:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Wagner

Following the end of his playing career, Wagner appeared in small acting roles, most prominently in John Cassavetes' 1974 film A Woman Under the Influence and as a member of a Depression-era barnstorming team in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976).

And

Wagner struggled with alcohol and drug issues, having had numerous financial difficulties after his baseball career ended. He lived in an abandoned electrical shed next to a dumpster in Los Angeles, which is where his lifeless body was found on January 3, 2004. The coroner ruled that Wagner had died of natural causes.

:<

Daddy Wags--I might have mentioned him in the baseball movies thread.

Yeah I’m definitely making that fic post.

xps it was, actually, that Jeff Francis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPUoP2Ft3S8

gyac: I'm parked in front of Lyric Flowers right now--right in front.

🤩🤩🤩🤩

Andy Pages just struck out while Framber Valdez was walking around the mound. Something about pitch clock and the batter having to be set even while the pitcher is picking his nose on the grass.

What I learnt is that I still don't quiet get how the pitch clock/player-batter being "set" rules work.

I also learnt that I still hate the astros as much as I did 6 years ago

Man oh man. Casas drew a walk in the first inning, then had clutched at his side and was subbed out after the inning.

Me: 🙃

To recap, the starting infield for this team:

SS: Trevor Story - season ending injury
2B - Vaughn Grissom - groin strain in spring training, working through a rehab assignment
3B - Rafael Devers - sore shoulder, bone bruise on knee
1B - Triston Casas - “left field with left rib discomfort”

Cora said he's now fully convinced Trevor Story will play for the Red Sox this year. Story will take BP on the field Monday in what Cora said is a "huge step" for him.

Pivetta will throw a bullpen Monday before his next start either Wednesday or Thursday.

— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) August 9, 2024

https://www.instagram.com/p/C-c_qqdoE0q/?igsh=MWs3anBmODZ3aHliag==

This article made me think of this thread.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/06/magazine/radio-baseball-mets.html

Fun piece in The Athletic about the language of baseball:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5734020/2024/09/03/mlb-baseball-slang-guide-dictionary/?source=user_shared_article

I think I knew most of these but this was new to me.

Waffled

Everyday meaning: v. – equivocated, vacillated

Baseball meaning: v. – to be the victim of an emphatic hit, as a pitcher
“Last time I faced this guy, he waffled me. He hit it so hard I thought it was gonna go through the wall.”

When worlds collide: “It’s gonna take a while for the roads to clear; that ice storm waffled the whole town.”

The game isn’t fun atm with the way the teams I follow are playing, so…

An informal guide to Homer at the Bat & the things I understand/jokes i get and love all the more now that I understand baseball.

I’m literally just typing this into my phone so this isn’t going to be super coherent.

Mr Burns giving Homer the signs

Not only do I understand the purpose of the signs but I’ve seen Bruce Bochy do them!

https://i.postimg.cc/9Xxt4T5y/IMG-9400.gif
https://i.postimg.cc/BZwHZ0Hg/IMG-9399.gif

The episode title

Please see Casey at the Bat discussion upthread (one of my favourite series of posts of the year btw, dayo mvp)

things I learned about in baseball this week/how i learned to stop worrying and love baseball

Mattingly muttering “I still like him better than Steinbrenner”

This episode is obviously a classic but it’s amazing how much funnier it becomes when you actually understand lines like this.

Mr Burns’s original lineup
https://i.postimg.cc/3rSLpz5S/IMG-5278.jpg

Obviously you can appreciate this without knowing the names - classic Burns is insanely old joke - but when you do…

Most of these are obviously legends and/or Hall of Famers but his pick of Gabby Street at catcher is really intriguing. Street had a pretty perfunctory career compared to most of these guys, with a career 66 OPS+ and 2 career home runs. Intriguingly, he played for the Yankees in 1912 and then reappeared in St Louis in 1931 at the age of 48(!) for one solitary AB.

What we can conclude from this selection: Burns liked the cut of his jib & the plant’s catcher (Lenny?) was bad enough that it didn’t really matter who he out there.

Mr Burns platooning Darryl Strawberry based on a handedness matchup against an amateur

Just funny as fuck. Strawberry had a career OPS of .763 against LHP!

I haven't watched a new Simpsons episode in 20 years, at least, but they should do another baseball one with Judge, Betts, Lindor, etc.

Honestly good decision on your part it’s been awful for years. I stopped watching new episodes on a can’t miss basis around 2001-2 for school reasons (more time spent on school stuff, less time for everything else weeknight evenings) and every time I’ve watched a newer episode I’ve always regretted it.

Also, Canseco forcing them to rewrite him as a hero and then the writers choosing to apply this in a humbling Sisyphean fashion is just very funny to me.

Shohei would be a must, obviously, and they could get some good material from the takeover of analytics (Homer pontificates on ERA vs. FIP).