Willie McGee is part of the 2018 St Louis Cardinals

especially frustrating because he could be legitimately useful in the bullpen right now.

Game score 75!

i am a genius

*eats words*

that was ~vintage wainwright~, it really was. if nothing else i'm really happy i was able to sit down and see it tonight, even if i'm not sure it'll ever happen again

Gomber has missed several possible called strikes tonight because he and Molina are not entirely on the same page and YM has to lunge around a bit.

yeah, on the Sunday Night Baseball game the announcers were raving about his pitchframing abilities, but to my eye they haven't been particularly outstanding of late (not sure what the metrics are (or how reliable said metrics are))

tyler o'neill, the guy at the party with his shirt off

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yS_J_NuRsesXtVmyiTeiRoarLU8=/0x0:953x529/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:953x529):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13137033/tyler2.jpg

if y'all can sweep the Cubs I will proudly wear a "best fans in baseball" t-shirt

it's remarkable how much more i like the cardinals when they're not managed by TLR or matheny. and even more so if they don't bring bud norris back next year

i'd like 'em more without Molina but that's probably just sour grapes because he has an OPS of like 2.500 against Milwaukee

fact check: false

molina has hit .263/.324/.409 against milwaukee, and in fact has a higher OPS against all the other NL central teams

but yeah, i don't like him either

oh then I was just talking about the games I watch

can you check that

(actually he has hit pretty well at miller park)

Let me check my files...

Looks like his OPS is 1.836 when I truly, truly believe in him as I cheer him on

RIP cardinals, btw. I just saw the score of today’s game with the cubs.

how about this miles mikolas kid

cinderella story out of japan, throws 200 innings, goes 18-4 . . . and all without striking out a single batter

https://awfulannouncing.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/94/2018/08/stl18.jpg

viva el clemente bridge

according to some admittedly dubious math and a lot of assumptions, the guy who threw the baseball back after stanton's HR throws harder than marcell ozuna

https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2018/10/6/17939400/who-you-got-marcell-ozuna-or-stanton-home-run-guy

Oquendo will remain in the organization, working out of Jupiter. https://t.co/Op4JYzxbr8

— Jenifer Langosch (@LangoschMLB) October 16, 2018

noooooooooooooo

Yadier Molina has been named the recipient of the prestigious 2018 Roberto Clemente Award in recognition of his exemplary humanitarian efforts, including relief work in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017. #STLCards pic.twitter.com/vOo6SWUxBT

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) October 24, 2018

good, bcz the Mets' nominee was Jose Reyes

willie turned 60 on friday and i am ashamed to have forgotten until now

Karl Malone has to get a Joe Posnanski subscription so he can read this and have several meltdowns.

http://theathletic.com/1352678/2019/11/05/posnanski-on-mike-matheny-and-the-challenges-of-being-a-21st-century-baseball-manager/

:D

i am very curious!i do think matheny might have been an excellent 20th century baseball manager

When Posnanski moved to The Athletic, I remember him saying he didn't mind if subscribers occasionally re-posted something, so here's the Matheny piece on a Google Doc:

http://docs.google.com/document/d/1jGg1VPWGE24006Lgt56qTu4I1DFTS1sREuXNOV0F7iM/edit

Just read it...Good bookend to Hinch/Cole.

Thanks for posting that. I can see matheny sticking around KC for a while, but he seems to be particularly ill-suited to an up and coming team of prospects. In STL he was known for favoring poor-performing veterans for years at a time while providing inconsistent playing time to the prospects underneath. Maybe that won’t be such an issue in KC.

happy willie mcgee's birthday, everyone

happy willie mcgee's birthday. he's 62, today.

https://i.imgur.com/oY2lPtW.jpg

MC Gee is on the mic tonight

not sure what other teams were covered under fox sports midwest, but it's now sinclair_gambling.jpg(tm)

...

Fox Sports Midwest (along with most other RSNs acquired by Sinclair) will be renamed some permutation of Bally Sports, thanks to a deal with gaming and casino giant Bally’s Corporation.

Sinclair President and CEO Chris Ripley promised more integration of sports betting into the broadcasts, in an effort to “gamify sports.” That may involve some new technology for viewers to place bets via the TV or app they are watching on. But even without some new technology, if betters are watching the game and placing bets on their mobile apps - and they are - if Bally’s can drive those fans to bet via their book rather than DraftKings or William Hill or someone else, that’s a money-maker.

The silver lining for Cardinals fans is that this deal aims to provide more options for you to watch the games. Ripley also announced a plan to offer a standalone subscription for RSNs in their given territories. In other words, you will be able to subscribe to just Bally Sports Midwest (or whatever it’s called). Ripley promised this was being developed aggressively and would launch next year, though it is not clear if that will happen before Opening Day.

My guess is this will come in the form of a Bally Sports Midwest App, likely available on all your mobile devices, AppleTV and Roku, etc. And yes, I would expect that while you are streaming the game on your Bally’s Sports Midwest App, you can get some action on the Jack Flaherty strikeout prop.

https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2020/11/25/21718960/the-deal-between-ballys-and-sinclair-will-provide-more-ways-to-watch-cardinals-baseball
(stupid URL)

missed this, 6 years ago, but it's great:

https://www.sbnation.com/2014/5/15/5717272/sb-nation-reviews-willie-mcgee

...When he got to the plate, he looked like he had just been beaten by angry people with truncheons, a crouched, stiff figure who didn't swing a bat so much as he threw it at the ball hoping for something to happen. It was a half-swing, really, the kind you'd take if an old war injury had left you with half a shoulder joint and shards of depleted uranium in your knees. He leaned backward waiting for pitches like a 75 mile an hour gale was blowing in his face. He looked, in the words of his teammate John Morris, like he "was in a lot of pain, and having a miserable time."

That sounds bad, but it got worse. At one point, provided McGee threw the bat and it made contact with the ball, there was a point where Willie McGee, all pained face and salvage-grade joints, had to begin moving like a human. Once he turned and got over the shock of hitting the ball-- and no matter the situation, McGee always looked shocked he'd made contact -- McGee would lurch forward and begin running on the balls of his feet, always at a ridiculously pitched angle like he had an invisible drag chute bolted directly to his shoulder blades.

It looked fast in motion, but let's specify what kind of fast. There is the fast of a Usain Bolt, the kind of effortless, long-striding speed, and there is the bull-strong intimidation of a Lamborghini you get when someone with giant traps can also run a 4.4 second 40 yard dash. (Think Bo Jackson in his prime.) Then there is the kind of fast that terrifies you for all the wrong reasons, like when a toddler in a grocery cart gets loose and begins rolling downhill in a busy parking lot. That is the kind of speed Willie McGee had: something that once in motion begs for a merciful stop, and the immediate intervention of safety authorities.

You may like an athlete because they happen to be very good at what they do. You won't love them for this, though, or at least not without combining it with other variables that make them unique. There were players as good as Willie McGee, but none were as entertaining to watch based strictly on quirk and the apparent misery that every step caused him. That misery was only part of it, though. McGee chose the odd set of options in life in every facet of the game, a switch hitter who looked equally strange from either side of the plate, a superb center fielder prone to rare but grandiose mistakes in the field, and a man who could not take a baseball card portrait without looking like you had just:

a.) bought him the most adorable rabbit in all the world

b.) made it his only and best friend

c.) slaughtered this rabbit in front of his horrified eyes

d.) put a bat in his hand, and pointed him toward the DonRuss artist while tapping at your watch

It's easy to explain why you love a conventionally excellent player, but way, way more fun to try and explain the appeal of a top-flight athlete whose every step and twitch appeared to be bringing him dangerously close to death itself. You had this guy, St. Louis, and he was awesome and everything, but every time he hit a triple he'd pop up and have the saddest look on his face like everything he loved had died, and left him with the soul of an ancient, sad, and immortal Golem. It was like watching Buster Keaton play centerfield, and he was like that every time he played.

That’s great.

i've come to the conclusion that he is my third-favorite ballplayer of all time

the two ahead of him either shared my surname or gave me a childhood lesson in decency, and both played for my home team.

willie mcgee is just a guy who was really good at baseball, and completely took over game four of the 1982 world series, and fucking look at him. <3

Mookie Wilson and ???

lol

dave parker & willie stargell

I was close!

Wild guess:

Parker = surname
Stargell = decency

Obviously, Mookieproof’s real name is Cobra.

willie mcgee is 63 today <3

https://greatestondirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/willie-mcgee-1983-smiling.jpg

From Goldschmidt's Baseball Reference page:

Nicknames: Goldy or America's First Baseman

Really? Someone somewhere has actually called him "America's First Baseman"?

i called him that, but the full quote is "america's first basemen in being a moran"

Hes America's first basemen because he isn't allowed anywhere else

yadi is (allegedly) skipping 2 games to watch the puerto rican basketball team he owns play in the championship

yes, but during that time his knees will heal

lol

Goldschmidt just isn't letting up. His OPS+ after yesterday is 202; the only players this century to finish with an OPS+ over 200 are Bonds (4 times), Soto, and Sosa. I can't see a first baseman who did it since Bagwell (213) and Thomas (212) in '94. I expect he'll fall back, but what a season. (Judge is at 194 right now.)

also has a legit shot at the old-school triple crown; he's three homers behind schwarber and two RBI behind alonso

i haven't looked it up, but i suspect he might be having an all-time platoon split season, too. vs lefties this year, in 111 PAs he's .435/.527/.848, wrC+ is 276

Leading in the slash TC right now, too. Huge lead in slugging, comfortable lead in batting average; Soto will probably overtake him in OBP.