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

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

Yes! I have been meaning to check out Fidrych as well!

xps
I'm glad!! He was my favourite player back when I first started watching baseball. used to love andruw jones as well. and in the non atlanta baseball players division it was tony gwynn and his incredibly flat no uppercut swing. then later i was all about ichiro.

(xp) I think you'll fall in love. I was so lucky to have watched that game (14 years old). It's just hard to convey today how one baseball player could so thoroughly capture the public's attention and imagination. It happened again a few years later with Fernando, although I don't know that there's one single game of his where it all coalesced so perfectly.

xp Parker looking cool af.

(Oops--the Fidrych game was in Tiger Stadium, which makes the 48,000 people even more remarkable. The mid-'70s Tigers were not good.)

I love they have the commercials too in that broadcast!

I’ll be honest, a thing I found - and find, tbh - really difficult about watching baseball both live and classic is the number of ad breaks! How does that not drive people mad?

“At that time, I often thought that if I had had to live in the trunk of a dead tree, with nothing to do but look up at the sky flowing overhead, little by little I would have gotten used to it.”

— Albert Camus

Fidrych throwing 250 innings and striking out 97(!) that season is always really amazing to me. 9.6 bWAR!

xp lmao

xp baseball as a tv spectator sport simply isn't designed to hold your attention 100% of the time, you gotta pair it with something else that can be done in fits and starts such as browsing the internet or chopping vegetables or playing a turn-based video game

Parachuting in to say that I am a 51-year-old American male human with exactly one sports allegiance. And that allegiance is to the 1982 St. Louis Cardinals. Not the Cardinals in general, not St. Louis teams in general. Pretty much just that one spectacular season.

I was exactly the right age to be excited by a baseball team. Especially, a locally beloved and long-storied team that suddenly caught on fire in a particular way. Was it slugfesty? No it was not. Was it Sabermetric? No it was not. Was it especially steroidal? No it was not. It was a style of play based on baserunning, stealing, speed, fielding, contact. It was called "Whiteyball" after the (in retrospect) rather unfortunately nicknamed manager Whitey Herzog.

Ozzie Smith. Lonnie Smith. Willie McGee. Keith Hernandez. Bruce Sutter. Joaquin Andujar. It's been 40 years and no sporting persons have dislodged those names from my memory. Nor will they.

Since then, I have watched a few other sporting contests, with varying amounts of interest. But none has matched the passionate intensity of being eleven years old in a red hat in terrible seats in that cranky old Busch stadium with a scorecard on my lap and a fire in my heart. Personally I am fine leaving it there: a whole life of fandom in a few humid evenings in 1982, eating ice cream from a novelty batting helmet.

xp baseball as a tv spectator sport simply isn't designed to hold your attention 100% of the time, you gotta pair it with something else that can be done in fits and starts such as browsing the internet or chopping vegetables or playing a turn-based video game

That's beautiful, YMP.

^

eating ice cream from a novelty batting helmet

i have one from every stadium i've been to in the last 8 years (4 total) and my kids love these. they were bath toys until my youngest recently decided to elevate the jays and yankees ones to the "display"shelf in her room that was normally reserved for her fancy in-the-box dolls.

ymp are you . . . me?

that would be a plot twist!

1982 cards ftw of course. the '85 version of the team is fun too. they didn't win the WS but they were even better and even faster and more exciting, a team tailor made to play on artificial turf. willie mcgee having his best season, the wizard ozzie smith doing his usual defensive stuff but also putting together his first above-average offensive season after being seen as a liability earlier in his career, jack clark looking like a bag of big league chew and the only power threat on a speedy team. mcgee stole 56, tommy herr and ozzie both stole 31, andy van slyke had an incredible name and stole 34, and vince coleman stole 110 bases (!) and hit one home run.

this is a fun thread, gyac, thank you for starting it

Very nice, YMP.

Truly amazing: the '82 Series matched up the Cardinals (67 HR, fewest in the majors) against the Brewers (216 HR, most in the majors). Surely that's the only time that ever happened. George Hendricks led the Cardinals with 19 HR, Darrell Porter had 12, and no one else had more than 8.

Oh yeah put these names directly in my veins please: Lou Brock, Gene Tenace, Tommy Herr, Andy Van Slyke, Vince Coleman.

I gave exactly zero fucks about baseball (or any sport) before that. And I pretty much haven't since!

When my St. Louisan nephews cared about the Cardinals, it was the Mark McGwire to Albert Pujols era and I just couldn't get into it. Huge guys hitting long balls is not a Cardinal virtue. Base-stealing and relief pitching are Cardinal virtues. (That is, if you were an eleven-year-old St. Louisan in 1982. Plenty of other ways to be, but I cannot change my nature.)

Here in DC there was a brief flash of potential excitement around the Ryan Zimmerman, Jayson Werth, and Bryce Harper Nationals teams, but that has dissipated and I am back to not giving a shit.

We’re you a fan of the 2015/16 era Royals?

Or the 2022 Guardians?

I have no opinion on those, so I will punt to my apparent doppelganger. Take it away, mookieproof!

i'm in the willie mcgee k-hole again, but this sabr.org profile on him has so many lovable moments: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/willie-mcgee/

Willie loved sports as a child and played baseball, basketball, and football, depending on what was in season. However, it was baseball for which Willie developed a true passion. Around the age of 10, he found out that one could make a living playing baseball, and for a while he slept with his glove and bat while wearing his ball cap and cleats. The most sensitive of the McGee children, he was shy and lacked self-confidence. His little league coach described his posture on the baseball field as that of a child who “spilled the milk.” He attended Henry Ells High School where his reserved nature initially kept him from trying out for the baseball team. He eventually joined the team in the 10th grade at the urging of coach Bill Erkkila. “I was his P.E. teacher when he was a sophomore, and he was tiny, scrawny, and very quiet. His outstanding athletic attribute was speed,” Erkkila later remembered.

The rookie was needled and teased by teammates, including Hendrick. This initially bothered him until he understood they did so because they liked him. Hendrick, along with coach Dave Ricketts and teammates Bruce Sutter, Bob Forsch, and Ozzie Smith, served as mentors. Smith took McGee under his wing more literally, allowing him to live in his home. It was months before the always respectful McGee called Mrs. Smith by her first name.

'85 Cards had five players finish in the top 11 of MVP voting (McGee, Herr, Tudor, Clark, Coleman) with Ozzie Smith down at #18. Andy Van Slyke was good that year too.

I didn't know STL had the revitalizing juice back then, an aging Cesar Cedeno (a mere 34 but he'd been around since 1970) came over during the season and hit .434/.463/.750 w/6 HR, 19 RBI, 5 SB in 28 games.

Andujar won 21 games (didn't have a *great* season but a pretty good one which was enough to get those wins.) Tudor didn't luck into his 21 wins though, i always forget he threw 10(!) shutouts that season.

2003 ALCS game 3 brawl DELIVERS. The commentary on this is killing me.

DON ZIMMER, A 72 YEAR OLD MAN WENT INTO PEDRO MARTINEZ’S FACE AND PEDRO MARTINEZ THREW HIM DOWN

I see Martinez mentions this as his only career regret but I’m sorry, it’s seriously funny. You’re an old guy involved in baseball and you go charging into a brawl, what did you think was going to happen?!

actually both knees have been replaced

Zimmer gets bundled over like a pile of rags

Commentator 1: THAT IS TERRIBLE
Commentator 2: I’d like to see that again
Me: ME TOO

Oh yeah that’s the good stuff…the way he rolls…
https://media.tenor.com/S5izgmPLdcEAAAAd/pedro-martinez-don-zimmer.gif

Postscript to this tragedy: I went out to change 3 litter trays and I was not adequately focused on the job at hand - I ended up splitting a bag of used litter and having to scoop it up because I was still thinking about Zimmer’s roll and the way he went down and so set the bag down on a sharp-edged tile…still worth it…

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

It started in the summer, suitably. I couldn't sleep.

Curiously this happened to my mum a few years ago. Channel 5 (I think) started showing baseball really late at night - actually early morning - and she was going through an insomniac phase and she got hooked on it. This is someone who had never shown the slightest interest in any sport ever - except if there was a chance of Scotland beating England at something.

I reviewed A Band of Misfits and Moneyball here: The (S)word in the Autumn Stone: What Are You Reading, Fall 2022?

Baggarly seems like a cool dude. 3 time Jeopardy champ.

What!

https://www.nbcsports.com/sites/rsnunited/files/styles/article_hero_image/public/archive/assets_article/bayarea/2012/07/25/825877.jpg

Going to IRL BEISBOL with users Sharivari and Tracer Hand in London next year ahhhhhh
https://cdn-vox--cdn-com.cdn.ampproject.org/i/s/cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GBUfL4Ha6DhwK67pmCEhNVBafy8=/1400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/11573119/XdDDeOn.gif

too bad it’s Cubs-Cards but you can’t have everything!Still! BASEBALL IRL!!!!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/Cubs_win_World_Series.gif/640px-Cubs_win_World_Series.gif

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”

Fucking brutal. Hopefully he doesn’t miss too much time, but at least I got to see him hit a home run yesterday.

Saw Yoshida go 3-4 with a home run today and he was great. Kutter Crawford got into a jam in the sixth inning, Cora left him in and he got out of it. Joely Rodriguez came in to pitch the seventh and I was looking on my phone for Casas and when I heard Joely was coming in, I went, FUCK! I was right though.

Kenley came in for a save and was actually fine. Pirates manager got tossed for arguing an automatic strike call. Please don’t miss too much time, Casas!

gyac please stop killing my hometown baseball team

my man Mitch Keller might have injured the least healthy infielder

btw I cheered for Cutch when he came on to pinch hit

Also I talked to lots of Pirates fans

<3

Surprise win today with a patchwork lineup. Have I mentioned that on all three days that we were sitting in seats that we ended up realising were the wrong ones on two separate occasions and having to move? I have not.

Today Wilyer Abreu went 3-5 and drove in two runs; as someone who’s a nl Abreu truther based on his eye and his arm (both great), this was incredible for me. Ceddanne playing shortstop was great too; it remains to be seen if he’ll be as good there as at CF but I definitely felt good about him fielding the position and he made some plays.

Connor Wong was catching today and he was fine. He played well too.

Reese McGuire pinch hit and drove in two runs; did this prevent us from making fun of him? Reader, it did not.

Oh yeah, Aroldis Chapman came on to pitch and I booed him. I could not have told you I had that in me.

Various pictures that are mainly zoomed the fuck in or moving closer to the field when the game ended/before it started, so sorry for the mostly poor quality. I regret not being able to get a video of Bello dancing in the dugout:

https://i.postimg.cc/KcD5q11z/IMG-9511.jpg
Bello! I love him so much and I was glad I was there to see him pitch well. Today he was in the dugout wearing his hoodie up and dancing to music played between innings. He’s adorable.

https://i.postimg.cc/HsS9mF41/IMG-9518.jpg
The man himself on the right.

https://i.postimg.cc/5y48dmXt/IMG-9665.jpg
Our view before we realised we were sitting in the wrong section (!) and had to move.

https://i.postimg.cc/3JrFP3GZ/IMG-9679.jpg
Kutter Crawford after his first win of the year (his ERA over five starts is like 0.77).

https://i.postimg.cc/26FnKt8J/IMG-9704.jpg
Alex Cora today. He was out throwing batting practice earlier and will sometimes join in with the infielders as well.

https://i.postimg.cc/BnXcnNML/IMG-9711.jpg
Andrew Bailey and Jason Varitek going to the bullpen before the game.

https://i.postimg.cc/tg63hJ09/IMG-9727.jpg
Connor Wong.

https://i.postimg.cc/GmVP8Y5M/IMG-9734.jpg
Chris Martin, ???, Kenley Jansen. Possibly the middle guy is Bailey, I know all the relievers on this roster and I can see Joely Rodriguez and Bernie in the background. Everyone else was used.

Fun photos. Always love being able to see the bridge in the outfield.

Trip to Clemente museum

Went to the Clemente museum a few days back, felt like a necessary visit. Had a great time. It’s basically set across two floors with exhibits laid out across the floors and you can just walk around and explore within your time slot. They limit the number of people in there in every given hour so there’s a chance for everyone to see everything.

One of the first things we saw was this very morbid exhibit: a wing from the small plane that Clemente died in.

https://i.postimg.cc/J4Ym9mHQ/IMG-9613.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/XNQ0C3L0/IMG-9614.jpg

They had shirts and bats and other expected memorabilia:

https://i.postimg.cc/bvcXhvy1/IMG-9621.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/c4rPt36Q/IMG-9632.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/RVyy70n2/IMG-9635.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/tRmMbgD7/IMG-9636.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/ZqcwMYCb/IMG-9654.jpg

But also some less expected stuff, like his custom golf clubs, his fashion suit(!) and my favourite of all, a pot he made for his wife after he got into throwing pottery while suffering from insomnia:

https://i.postimg.cc/nz2NBYv1/IMG-9628.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/0QPLzHJQ/IMG-9630.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/SKqZdYQ1/IMG-9639.jpg


I didn’t get a picture of it, but he messed up the side of the pot and drew a little heart with his name on it there instead.

There were guides who were very helpful; they were mainly people who’d seen him play and one man told us that he and his brother overheard Clemente give his number to a reporter and they’d ring him after games. He said Clemente always answered and was kind to them.

One of the guides told us that Clemente would rent buses in his earliest days for the black and Latin players because often they couldn’t go to the same places as their white counterparts and he tried to help them out whenever he could. I’d seen a RETIRE 21 sign at PNC so I asked about it; his number is obviously retired by the Pirates but they are pushing for league wide recognition to have the number retired like Jackie Robinson’s.



Some signed shirts belonging to visiting players; the Giants one is Posey.

There’s a picture of Javy Baez wearing the Clemente suit jacket in the museum which you can see in my photo, more on this here: https://www.mlb.com/cut4/javy-baez-wore-a-jacket-from-the-roberto-clemente-museum-at-the-home-run-derby-c

I love Javy Baez. I asked my hometown Cubs friend the other day his favorite player from the 2016 Cubs team and we agreed it's Javy Baez. That suit looks perfect on him, so styling ~~

Yes! His bat is terrible now but I don’t think that man will ever need to pay for a drink in Chicago for the rest of his life. Truly a blessed team

My last few pictures didn’t load, think I messed up bb code. Player shirts:

https://i.postimg.cc/XvcP6cD0/IMG-9647.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/5yjKvc9x/IMG-9648.jpg

Other pics:
https://i.postimg.cc/PJc3Q6N1/IMG-9646.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/LsMWW0DT/IMG-9644.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/sgW8wRYx/IMG-9633.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/d3SXSsNk/IMG-9626.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/brCccHrv/IMG-9625.jpg

xp Folks in Detroit keep hoping he'll get his groove back. He's still a great fielder and base runner. He did have an RBI yesterday.

He is! I’ve been following him.