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

So.

This year I did something I didn't expect; I got into baseball.

It started in the summer, suitably. I couldn't sleep. I have several ways to deal with this but I usually start off by reading something boring. I was on Deadspin, they had one of those "how can Shohei Ohtani flourish?!" type articles on it. I read, I stayed awake, I read more. If I'd read about NFL, maybe I'd have fallen asleep, but no.

This went on for a few weeks and it only got worse, not better. I started talking to Pirates fan/general legend mookieproof about this, who started sending me interesting deep cuts. I mentioned it in passing to Red Sox dad Tracer Hand, who responded with enthusiasm and encouragement. I asked lifelong Cubs fan felicity about it, who was amused but who also encouraged this interest & would talk about her beloved Cubs and favourite players over the years. These three are my baseball gurus. I listened, I learned, I looked up their faves, I was and am grateful for their attention and patience with my nonsense.

Now, I didn't exactly know literally nothing. From the Yakuza games, I knew the different pitches, how/why you foul off a pitch, stealing signs (supposedly more serious an offence in Japan!), from general, idk, life? a lot of the terminology, a good chunk of the teams. I also knew that, given the inclinations of my gurus, I wouldn't be supporting the Yankees. (I do not actually have a team and tbh I don't know if I will*?) But basically I was starting out with almost nothing.

And I had a weird disconnect. I knew I liked reading about baseball - something that seems less weird in a game where so many people are into sabermetrics. But I wasn't sure about watching it. For one thhing - the games are long. (I generally watch/follow football/rugby/GAA - you could easily watch 2 or 3 games of any of those in a baseball game.) For another, I live in the UK and the games are late (and, you know, on another continent). And finally, what if I'd spent all this time reading about Sandy Koufax and the Black Sox Scandal and sticky stuff and juiced balls and all that and I didn't actually like it?

But I'd watched plenty of clips on Youtube and so I found myself, much to my husband's disgust, months after this phase started, watching Mariners-Angels. Carlos Santana homered. Ohtani struck out. But you know what? I fucking loved it.

One of my late night readings led me to Andrew Baggarly's book about the 2010 SF Giants WS win and I was captivated by his prose and the romance of the story, so I ordered that. I also have his other book about the Giants which I finished reading & reviewing here: The (S)word in the Autumn Stone: What Are You Reading, Fall 2022?

The story of the team took me in and it's stories that kept me awake reading about baseball. That and redasses. I respect that.

I watched what I could of the current season (maybe 10 games?) & then I realised that I wanted to watch the games I was reading about from those Giants teams. So I started watching them on Youtube. This was when I was watching 2012 WS Game 1 (Zito clowning on & eventually scoring off Justin Verlander is hilarious af, sorry.)
https://i.postimg.cc/7Z5Q9VLw/53-BFBC89-9-E37-4955-A010-1-DF3-EB023-DA0.jpg

And so I kept doing it. (FYI I have watched patches of the Giants 2010 & 2012 postseasons and I am excited to eventually get to the Madbum series, though my next one is the ALCS game 3 2003 cos I want to see two legendary pitchers clear the benches - hbp just doesn't provide me all the violence I need in a sport you know.) So if you are still reading this extremely indulgent thread 1) lol wau 2) thanks, though 3) please feel free to recommend you any classic games you think I might like. I will watch any team. I like pitchers and defence as much as dingers - some of my favourite teams in football have been Italian teams strong on defence, so I guess I carry that over from other sports. Hoping to watch as much of current postseason live as I can, but, timezones & also that's over soon.

Anyway, tedious intro over. What did I learn about in baseball this week? (This is so far in the realm of useless but entertaining trivia as I have finished one book & I still have 3 more to read, 2 of which are not about the SF Giants. I feel as though I could read and watch for ten years and still feel like a dilettante but I won't. Also, I have a job and husband and other responsibilities.)

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX4L2LHGs98

2. That poor Bill Buckner features in a surprising number of song lyrics, mainly about going between the legs.

3. That Mark Mulder makes John Rocker seem liberal now. (RIP Big Three).

4. That Jimmy Carter likes the Braves

*I basically need some sort of connection to a team. My football team are the one my family supports; I support GAA & rugby teams from my part of Ireland. So, no team, but that's ok for me.

So glad you started this thread

“Classic games” is an interesting one - so much of it is situational - like within the context of a season or a series. I’d love to know what other people think are classic games worth watching in and of themselves

I'd start with Carlton Fisk and Game 6, '75 Series--pretty sure the whole game's on YouTube. Fisk just scratches the surface of that game. It's also probably the last moment baseball was incontrovertibly "the national pastime." (Game 7 of the '75 Series was watched by 51 million people, second most ever--for some reason, more were watching Game 6 of the '80 Series.)

WS Gm 6, 1986, Mets/Red Sox.

If you are going to watch Gm 3, 2003 ALCS, you are sort of starting in the middle of the story. You might want to set it all up by watching some selected BOS-NYY games from the 2003-2004 regular season (7/01/2004 is a good one), the entire 2003 ALCS, Game 3 and Game 7 are classic moments, then top it all off with the 2004 ALCS. This is pure drama.

That’s a good lineup

The Joba Chamberlin midges game (Gm 2 2007 ALDS) is a tight game with some late laughs.

Might appeal to your sense of humor maybe.

Oh, sorry for so many Yankees recommendations, but the entire 1995 ALDS is amazing from start to finish.

That would be NYY-SEA.

What playoff baseball does better than any other sport is slow motion drama - the gradual tightening of the vice as the bases are loaded in a tight game and the pitcher's natural advantage gives way to pressure. Overtime playoff hockey has drama like no other, but the continuous action of the game and how suddenly it is over, doesn't let you appreciate the build the way baseball does. This is what I love about baseball.

Hey I'll watch any team! I just have the Yanquis permanently crossed out in my heart. Thank you for the recommendations! Fwiw the Game 3 rec was following on from the Phanatic-Dodgers video, in the genre of "fat old men getting mad".But I've been watching the 2010 postseason out of order anyway.

Lol @ old fat men getting mad - you've come to the right sport.

A thing I learned (though not this week) is how fast things can go downhill in this game. Managers are so fast to yank a pitcher off when he fucks up, but it's always unfortunate for the guy who inherits the mess afterwards. Postseason has delivered so much of this. The Mariners-Astros game, we had to stop after 12 innings, but I was so impressed by the way the pitchers held it together under what must have been immense pressure. Stuff like that, stuff like Tim Lincecum having a shaky first inning against the Braves in his first postseason game before going on to strikeout 14 of them. That's all stuff I love.

G7, 2001 WS was incredible, but, as pointed out above, detached from the rest of the series--and detached from the years preceding it, when it seemed like the Yankees owned the WS--it might not seem so incredible.

Probably true, but I don't really have a choice in the matter since I wasn't there. I will be watching these games, just fyi!

The background to 2003/2004 Sox/Yanks in my mind is that it’s the modern Yankees not quite in their full pomp but close to it, a young Jeter, Torre at the helm, just a few years removed from “greatest team ever” status (they got that engraved on their 1998 World Series rings). so-called because they set the MLB record for most wins in a season (though not the most regular-season wins iirc). They’ve still got Mariano (greatest closer ever), Bernie, Posada, Soriano, Pettite, Weaver, David Wells for god’s sake, Clemens, Contreras was great that year, they’d just signed Matsui. They were a great team. A-Rod was still playing short in Arlington, Texas.

Boston largely already had the lineup that would win it all a year later. Crazy to realise that Nomar was still playing for them in 2003! Feels like he doesn’t belong in this era of the team but there he was. It was Big Papi’s first year in Boston. Dustin Pedroia was NOT on this team (?!?) Schilling wasn’t either. The starting pitching was hittable apart from Pedro. And no real certified closer. Foulke was busy locking up the American League lead in saves in Oakland.

For a self-contained game, maybe G6, 2011--the David Freese game. Incredible...I think the Rangers were one strike away from winning the series three times.

Last post for a bit, else I'll never shut up...If you're interested in individuals, not just games, I'd suggest Reggie's 3-HR game in the '77 Series, Brooks Robinson in the '70 Series, and Roberto Clemente in the '71 Series. Not sure which specific games to look for with Robinson and Clemente.

5. Buster Posey grew up playing baseball in a purpose-built batting cage on his parents' 50 acre farm.
6. "Soft hands" - this is such a weird term omg?

Can I just point out, I made this thread as a way of giving some relief to the people I was no doubt boring to death about it, so please don't worry. And yes I am interested in individuals too!

G6, 2011--the David Freese game

Maybe this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ypIakgaR2c

The whole game's on YouTube too--almost four hours.

post season baseball is the absolute best and I'm sad I can't really afford bt sport anymore to record the games and watch them during UK friendly hours. at least I got to see the Atlanta baseball team win the WS for the first time since my beloved maddux/glavine/smoltz era.

You could fall down the rabbit hole for weeks with these recommendations, but if I had to pick one game from the last decade it has to be Game 7 of the 2016 WS, Cleveland vs Chicago Cubs. The history and backstory won't ever be repeated (176 combined years between the two teams since their last championship) and the game has at least five or six "WTF did I just see????" moments.

good one

oscar bravo i guess you might cite the 1991 World Series? it comes up a lot in “the best ever played” conversations. the beginning of the Smoltz/Maddux era in Atlanta.

would recommend game five of the 2015 ALDS between toronto and texas

it was toronto’s first playoff appearance in 22 years. the blue jays lost the first two games at home, then won both games in texas to force a decisive fifth game. the seventh inning alone — top and bottom — is among the craziest single frames in history

would also recommend game one of the 1988 world series between the dodgers and a’s. it has a legendary conclusion and the announcer was vin scully, who was peerless

I remember that 2015 game (how did I not think of that first?)...Another insane one with the Jays: G4, 1993. I don't know that it's famous for any one hit or play, but I think it was the longest Series game ever at the time (4:14), and maybe the highest scoring (15-14). Mitch Williams took the loss, a bit of foreshadowing.

I am excited for you to be in a position to watch an entire season next year! Baseball is best when you can let it ambiently drift by for a summer and take in the rhythms by osmosis (“he’s having a good year…” you’ll nod to yourself when your 2B is slashing 240/300/275. “Whaddabum…” you’ll say about your fringey reliever who’s pitched 50 innings of low-leverage ball to the tune of a 2.00 era)

Off the dome shit:

Kerry Wood’s 20K game

A’s at dodgers WS 88 game 1

Any supercut of Pedro Martinez strikeouts

Any supercut of Bonds’ HR in 2001, to see what peak performance looks like

I have also recommended the book “Class A” by Lucas Mann as a contemporary look at the low minors.

The Rhys Hoskins bat spike this weekend was rad

xp on Kerry Wood & Pedro Martinez but I appreciate specific recommendations, tysm!

Also commit this to memory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn28Dz4RUxc

gyac, I assume you've seen this classic moment:

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

Fun fact you might enjoy:

Left-handed relief pitcher Billy Wagner (known for his absurd strikeout rate) is actually a natural right hander but after breaking his right arm twice as a kid he learned to throw with his left arm. And now he’s probably going to wind up in the hall of fame for being such a dominant pitcher.

Game 7 of the 2016 series is also my pick. Classic Cleveland clutch comeback to tie it coupled with a classic Aroldis Chapman meltdown, finished off with a determined Cubs team scraping out two runs (and Cleveland making it tense at the end too.)

Ten cent beer night is an event that encapsulates baseball in Cleveland in the 70's

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

I will respond to all these posts in time but I’m watching this alds game atm. However I am nearly finished A Band of Misfits, about the 2010 Giants, and I’ve seriously watched this clip about ten times & also Clark’s homer against Nolan Ryan in his first big league at bat (!)

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

Lmao both at the guy going “you’re overmodulating” and Clark going “HUH??? NO WAY!” And also the guy stepping in from the side to clearly try to calm him down, and Clark shakes his hand instead.

Supposedly he used The Thrill is Gone as his answering machine message as well. Legendary.

smoothest swing of all time

there's also a whole thread about BASEBALL MOVIES that i haven't really paid attention to

would recommend:

BULL DURHAM - it's long since passed into cliche (and tim robbins very obviously cannot pitch) but it presents the cliches in a nice manner, and also i used to live in durham and know where that house is

SUGAR - pretty honest look at what it's like to be a (dominican/puerto rican/venezuelan) kid left to fend for himself in the minor leagues. needless to say, there are a lot of non-success stories

NO NO: A DOCKUMENTARY - the story of 1970s pitcher dock ellis, who once threw a no-hitter (for the pirates, no less) while tripping on LSD. among other crazy shit like plunking four straight cincinnati reds to start a game. he was a troubled and interesting man

This, along with Aaron's 715th, is my favorite baseball memory ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4nwMDZYXTI

I remember that 2015 game (how did I not think of that first?)

These days Toronto vs Texas G5 is the first thing I think of when it comes to games/moments that I want to rewatch. But I didn't want to be accused of homerism by recommending it first ...

Game 7 of the 2016 series is also my pick. Classic Cleveland clutch comeback to tie it coupled with a classic Aroldis Chapman meltdown, finished off with a determined Cubs team scraping out two runs (and Cleveland making it tense at the end too.)

And that's only the last three innings!

This week has been rough and I’ve barely watched any baseball.

More things I learned specifically about “Surfin” Barry Zito from reading excerpts from
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61frVWPOc1L.jpg

- Barry Zito did meth in his teens
- the first chapter opens with a quote from someone saying “if San Fran wins the World Series, does Barry Zito get a ring?” (Ouch - though I am a fan of brutally honest sports autobios).
- Barry Zito’s grandfather started a newspaper with Mussolini (!)

I need to read this book, there’s nothing more boring than reading stories of endless success from people who go to bed early and never do anything bad.

watch game 5 2012 NLCS giants vs cardinals if you want some more zito lore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8S-PI7HZ8o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Meay49NgGXI
giants down 1-3 in the series and he gets the start despite a very poor showing in the series before. giants win the next three then zito wins game 1 of the world series vs verlander which you mentioned.

I was thinking about which game I would recommend watching and actually realised the games I got the biggest kick out of weren't necessarily epic important ones. Like any Greg Maddux 85 pitch complete game shutout with like 2 strikeouts and upward of a dozen groundouts + handful of weak pop flys is amazing viewing imo. Especially with how different baseball is now.

Or Tom Glavine locating his fast ball consistently just outside the outside edge the strikezone with such monotone regularity that the umpire starts calling it a strike.

(xpost) You've almost perfectly described Maddux's G2 win against the Yankees in the '96 Series:

86 pitches, 6 H, 2 K, 0 BB, 0 runs. He didn't pitch a shutout, though--Bobby Cox brought in Wohlers for the 9th. He didn't let Maddux finish his Maddux.

yeah those 90s braves pitchers were clinical, hated them of course.

For what it's worth, Maddux was more of a strikeout pitcher than he's generally remembered as (with some help from the umps): 6.1/per 9 for his career, 6.9/per 9 during his '92-'98 peak. My favourite pitcher then--travelled to Montreal to see him somewhere in the middle there.

I did get the chance to see Smoltz's 3,000th career strikeout in person, that was epic. Still much love for him in the ATL.

I was thinking about which game I would recommend watching and actually realised the games I got the biggest kick out of weren't necessarily epic important ones. Like any Greg Maddux 85 pitch complete game shutout with like 2 strikeouts and upward of a dozen groundouts + handful of weak pop flys is amazing viewing imo. Especially with how different baseball is now.

ALCS game 3 2003

One that I forgot to recommend, on YouTube in its entirety: Mark Fidrych vs. the Yankees, June 28, 1976, 48,000 people in Yankee Stadium (on a Monday), ABC's Monday Night game, Fidrych 7-1 with a 2.18 ERA going in, the biggest story in baseball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwGj4VfCreg

For style, Luis Tiant.

https://phildellio.tripod.com/tiant.jpg

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play,
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

4-2 in the 9th isn’t a brilliant outlook no matter who’s on deck

Anyway why do you think those are their two best hitters?

at that point you’ve got nobody on, down 2, 2 out, and a hoodoo (I always remember this as “a lulu”) and a cake before it even gets to mighty Casey. A pall-like silence sounds about right

But shouldn’t the guys hitting in front of cleanup be good enough to get on base? The crowd should be cheering for them, but they don’t, cos they know they’re bad!

Maybe Casey has Tyler O’Neill disease, where it ain’t his style to drive in runners on base. Solo homers only!

Lol. Yeah that’s the part that doesn’t quite click into place - “mighty” Casey feels like an archetypal cleanup guy.

^^^
though, yeah, it doesn't make much sense that the two weak hitters are ahead of Casey

maybe 1888 analytics said bat your worst hitters early so they can rest and don't get rubella or something

Hahahaomg surely "Mudville nine" means the team. Baseball used to be a game played with 9 players!!

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