As I've mentioned before, I was a huge Reds fan in the early '70s, before the Jays. Between Rose, Morgan, and Bench (not so much Perez), they had an arrogance about them that I'm not sure any baseball team has equaled since. Maybe those '90s Yankees teams, but that felt more like a revolving cast (with a core, true), and there was also the late '80s A's.
― clemenza, Monday, 12 October 2020 17:49 (three years ago) link
Xpost to Thermo
Definitely. His reasoning was that it was his job to set the table so it made sense for him to take a walk, whereas other guys had to drive him in and thus shouldn't be taking walks. I think he understood the value of what he was doing but for him every player has a label that he couldn't escape. Like why can't an RBI guy also work the count? Why can't a middle infielder be a power hitter? He just never got it.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Monday, 12 October 2020 17:54 (three years ago) link
I'm probably one of three living people who's read his autobiography--I bought a remaindered copy for the free baseball card!
http://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/514kY1EQj+L._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
― clemenza, Monday, 12 October 2020 18:34 (three years ago) link
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/514kY1EQj+L._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
Best 2B I ever saw. RIP.
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 October 2020 13:04 (three years ago) link
class a greensboro grasshoppers bat dog miss lou lou gehrig, aged 9
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EkOIT3jXYAAkSwE?format=jpg&name=small
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 13 October 2020 16:03 (three years ago) link
goddammit. miss lou :(
― president of my cat (Karl Malone), Tuesday, 13 October 2020 17:48 (three years ago) link
Forgot about this, from Ball Four--someone posted it on Facebook.
http://phildellio.tripod.com/mfc.jpg
― clemenza, Tuesday, 20 October 2020 16:16 (three years ago) link
― clemenza, Tuesday, 20 October 2020 16:17 (three years ago) link
I don't get that at all...is Tripod blocking images now? Anyway.
Weird...They seem to be blocked on Chrome (along with every poll image I've ever posted on ILX: Neil Young, road films, etc.) but not Explorer.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 20 October 2020 16:22 (three years ago) link
MLB is deeply saddened by the passing of 34-year Major League Umpire Derryl Cousins at 74. The Californian worked nearly 4,500 games & three World Series ('88, '99, '05). He was behind the plate for the White Sox clincher in '05 & the '08 ASG at Yankee Stadium (pictured below). pic.twitter.com/lSRd89ZsxW— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) October 20, 2020
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 20 October 2020 19:51 (three years ago) link
New York Mets fan Bill Weber, 59.
Dr. Morbius (Bill Weber) RIP
― mookieproof, Thursday, 22 October 2020 00:40 (three years ago) link
Getting the chance to see a Mets game with him was nice. Seeing a Yankees game with him was a highlight of my time in NY because I thought he was going to get us killed.
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 22 October 2020 01:25 (three years ago) link
hahaha
I think I saw more Yankees games than Mets games with him!
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Thursday, 22 October 2020 01:28 (three years ago) link
so of my closest brushes with death with bill were during the military salutes at mets baseball games at citifield, lol
― president of my cat (Karl Malone), Thursday, 22 October 2020 05:22 (three years ago) link
Ya. Him yelling into their air about brainwashing during god bless America got us some attention.
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 22 October 2020 12:08 (three years ago) link
He invited me to a game when he was in T.O. for the SABR convention, it was the one and only time we met irl. I remember only two things about that game, 1) Bill James sat about three rows directly in front of us (Morbs pointed out a bunch of SABR-celebs from where we were sitting, 2) he was scoring the game and asked me to take over for a few minutes while he went to the bathroom. I hadn't scored a game in years and was so nervous about making a mistake and ruining his Blue Jays Experience. Needless to say, this place won't be the same without him.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Thursday, 22 October 2020 17:51 (three years ago) link
Apparently Tommy Lasorda is in p bad shape right now.
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Sunday, 15 November 2020 23:01 (three years ago) link
tommy sandt, 69
only played 42 big league games but did some managing in the minors and was on jim leyland's staff in pittsburgh, florida and colorado
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 19:36 (three years ago) link
David Lander has passed away. Many know him as Squiggy in Laverne and Shirley with Michael. He also was an incredible baseball man who was a scout for the Mariners. Always thought his role in League Of Their Own was a perfect fit. #RIP https://t.co/LgGwHbvsnS— Maury Brown (@BizballMaury) December 5, 2020
― mookieproof, Saturday, 5 December 2020 20:44 (three years ago) link
dick allen
― mookieproof, Monday, 7 December 2020 19:35 (three years ago) link
who might have been elected to the hall of fame yesterday had covid not forced the cancellation of the golden era committee meeting
― mookieproof, Monday, 7 December 2020 19:45 (three years ago) link
That's really too bad; should have already been in, of course, so they'll end up with another Ron Santo/Marvin Miller-induction on their hands, a year or two too late.
― clemenza, Monday, 7 December 2020 19:52 (three years ago) link
Rest in power to Dick Allen, underrated slugger and owner of one of the best SI covers ever pic.twitter.com/6OPqs6y6uT— Jon Tayler, Smiling Politely (@JATayler) December 7, 2020
― na (NA), Monday, 7 December 2020 20:02 (three years ago) link
dude was maybe two more productive years away from the HOF.
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 7 December 2020 20:08 (three years ago) link
Just posted that cover on Facebook--unforgettable (and probably the first thing most people remember about him).
Another instance of how you weight longevity/peak: his rate stats still have him high on some all-time lists (Top 20 in adjusted OPS), and he's at 5.3 WAR per season on Baseball Reference. But, yeah, it's pretty much impossible to get in with fewer than 2,000 hits, unless you're a catcher.
― clemenza, Monday, 7 December 2020 20:14 (three years ago) link
i had never seen that cover! badass. also weird to think about smoking a cig and then running onto the field
― Karl Malone, Monday, 7 December 2020 21:02 (three years ago) link
i used to play ultimate (tons of running) with a guy that would hammer back a smoke between each quarter and i have no idea how he didn't collapse into a hacking pile.
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 7 December 2020 21:19 (three years ago) link
12 playoff PA in his second-to-last season was it for the post-season; must be high on the list of best players without a WS appearance. (Ignoring position/defense, he was a better hitter than Ernie Banks.)
― clemenza, Monday, 7 December 2020 22:53 (three years ago) link
Rogelio Moret today, too:
https://www.lonestarball.com/2020/12/7/22159957/dick-allen-roger-moret-pass-away-death-mlb
I remember him because he went 14-3 for the famous '75 Red Sox team (also 13-2 for the '73 team). But I have no recollection of this (from Wikipedia): "His career ended in 1978 in bizarre fashion. Scheduled to be the starting pitcher against the Detroit Tigers on April 12, Moret was spotted in the Ranger locker room in a catatonic state, with his arm extended holding a slipper. He was unresponsive to examiners, and was immediately taken to a psychiatric facility and placed on the disabled list. He appeared in only six more games after the bizarre incident."
Allen wanted to be called Dick, writers insisted on calling him Richie; I'm guessing Moret preferred Rogelio to Roger.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 02:53 (three years ago) link
Goose Gossage on Allen in 2014: "He's the greatest player I've ever seen play in my life. He had the most amazing season (1972) I've ever seen. He's the smartest baseball man I've ever been around in my life. He taught me how to pitch from a hitter's perspective, and taught me how to play the game, and how to play the game right. There's no telling the numbers this guy could have put up if all he worried about was stats."
― clemenza, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 04:39 (three years ago) link
we're gonna have to talk about bill james vs dick allen at some point; might as well get it out now
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 04:59 (three years ago) link
I know he was very anti-Allen in the first Historical Abstract; didn't he recant that later on?
― clemenza, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 05:04 (three years ago) link
Checked the revised Historical Abstract; he didn't, just tempered his criticism with a shorter entry. Which amounts to, by not going along to get along, Allen destroyed his career. In terms of Allen's career, he's right. In terms of Allen's role as a person in the world, in terms of honor and integrity, and in terms of how Allen will be remembered, he's 1000% wrong.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 16:06 (three years ago) link
https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/reckoning-with-dick-allen-1942-2020
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 18:33 (three years ago) link
former minor leaguer charley pride, 86
― mookieproof, Saturday, 12 December 2020 21:35 (three years ago) link
phil niekro, 81
seventh hall of famer to die this year
― mookieproof, Sunday, 27 December 2020 17:37 (three years ago) link
that's as many as the last four years combined.
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Sunday, 27 December 2020 19:04 (three years ago) link
tommy lasorda, 93
― mookieproof, Friday, 8 January 2021 16:39 (three years ago) link
TIL he was basically the same age (2 months older) as Vin Scully.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Friday, 8 January 2021 16:57 (three years ago) link
a true master of the fuckin language of baseball
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rUy9FmzsxY
― mookieproof, Friday, 8 January 2021 16:59 (three years ago) link
Kurt Bevacqua! Last hit ever off Jim Bouton. (Not sure if that was MLB or the minors, and it may have been before Bouton's late-'70s comeback.)
Someone's death is the time to say something nice, so: while I hated Lasorda's rah-rah cheerleading while he was active, the one time I appreciated him was some interview I saw during the '94 strike, when he seemed, to me, truly and poignantly distraught by what was happening.
― clemenza, Friday, 8 January 2021 17:17 (three years ago) link
don sutton
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 19 January 2021 21:32 (three years ago) link
2020 can stop any minute now.
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 19 January 2021 21:51 (three years ago) link
17 seasons of at least 2.0 bWAR
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 19 January 2021 22:15 (three years ago) link
Biggest of all.
https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2021/01/22/hank-aaron-has-passed-away/
― clemenza, Friday, 22 January 2021 15:36 (three years ago) link
monumental
― mookieproof, Friday, 22 January 2021 16:52 (three years ago) link
RIP Hank Aaron
― Karl Malone, Friday, 22 January 2021 17:15 (three years ago) link
It's been said a million times before, but his level of consistency was something. He never had a season of 10+ WAR like Mays and Ruth and Bonds, but starting in 1955, his second season, and carrying through to 1971, when he was 37, he had an almost unbroken string of years between 6.0-10.0. The only year that fell short was 1970. That was an offensive boom year, so he would have been downgraded a bit for that, but in 1970 he hit 38 HR, knocked in 118, and had a slash line of .298/.385/.574--and that, as measured by bWAR, was his worst season. (Never struck out 100 times in a season.)
― clemenza, Friday, 22 January 2021 17:24 (three years ago) link