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

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

Have fun! Maybe you can arrive early and catch a hr during batting practice.

I’m the shortest person of those three so I hope to duck out of the way and let them do the catching tbh

the fences are pretty shallow iirc

Good luck guys l’ll be wearing full tools of ignorance

Enjoying this thread as an ex-Expos fan who recently got back into baseball due to my son, who has been playing baseball for a number of years but has only recently gotten more into watching baseball.

Still feels weird to be a Blue Jays fan, but that's my son's team, so my team also.

Look no offence but did you not cringe at the hype for the Jays closer during that last Mariners game

Btw speaking of Expos I find it incredibly funny that Pedro hits the Phillies batter audibly in the first pitch of this video and the title of the video is about Pedro getting plunked

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDA85mcVSxU

Pedro Martinez is probably my favorite Expo, I still remember listening to his perfect through 9 innings game on the radio while playing videogames (which is a weird thing I regularly did as a teenager).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTNyk1oklQA

Thank you SF Giants youtube account for delivering me this unexpected Matt Cain content, I love him so much

lol straight into gyac's veins!

have you watched the whole thing?

it's strange, but you rarely get to hear baseball players actually talk in detail about the plays in a game. it's great. usually it's just rushed post-game shit about how we played hard and trusted in god

Yes I have! My favourite part of this is Blanco’s 7th inning catch, which he was in a position to get only because he knew Cain tended to throw a certain pitch when he was down in the count and if it got hit it would go in the gap between centre and right field.

absolutely incredible moment. right, all those minute little adjustments. they happen on every pitch but they're not usually appreciated.

i love how happy and lazy Bochy looks in the studio. you earned it buddy.

I love how everyone is so superstitious and afraid of jinxing it, they refuse to describe it. “Matt Cain has not given up a base runner tonight.” Lmao also @ Cain’s “ugh” when he throws a pitch in the dirt in the 8th inning and hits Posey bouncing back up.

xp clearly Peavy and Lincecum got him on the good stuff like Peavy said.

I can’t believe he unretired to coach the fucking Texas Rangers.

it's a great point posey makes that the last pitch of the game, the sharp opposite field grounder off the end of the bat, would have been a double down the line if that game was in 2022. third basemen just don't play left handed hitters over there anymore.

They also don’t mention my favourite non-play moment

Cain was at 103 pitches as he strolled back to the dugout, where baseball's superstitions had long since taken over for his teammates. Well, for most of them.

You don't talk to a pitcher who is working on a no-hitter, and you certainly don't sit close to him in the dugout. But when Cain returned after the stressful seventh, he found Belt, in his second big league season, in his spot. Cain was amused, and a day later Belt admitted that it wasn't his first faux pas in that type of situation. In the minors, he once walked back into the dugout in the middle of a no-hitter and pointed out to teammates that there were a lot of zeros on the scoreboard.

CAIN: "I mean, it's kind of obvious. There's a towel. (Pitching coach Dave Righetti) would always lay out a towel. It was always there ... (Ryan Vogelsong) was like, 'What are you doing!' Belt was just completely oblivious, which now we know Belt and its standard for him. It was awesome."

BELT: "It wasn't funny at the time. I got the death stare from Cain and Vogey, but looking back on it, he might have gotten the perfect game because I sat there. I look at it as I think I'm good luck. But yeah, that was a scary moment for me, for sure. I thought Vogey was going to kill me."

They should have included a trigger warning of Dave Righetti’s no hitter against the Red Sox.

Cain was always so stoic and calm on the mound. I love seeing him so emotional! 🥺🥺🥺

An extremely less magical but oddly memorable game was in 2011 when the Giants were eliminated from the 2011 playoffs by the Diamondbacks. Some weird shit went on in that game. Mike Fontenot got ran over by the 2nd base umpire (this was hilarious). Henry frickin Blanco got a triple.

gyac I am not sure if this was covered already but a friend posted abt it and I immediately thought of this thread:

Dock Ellis attempted to hit every batter in the Cincinnati Reds lineup on May 1, 1974, as he was angry that the Pirates were intimidated by Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and the rest of the Big Red Machine. In the clubhouse before the game Ellis announced, "We gonna get down. We gonna do the do. I'm going to hit these mo**********s." Ellis took the mound and drilled Rose in the ribs. Morgan was next, he was hit in the side. Dan Driessen batted third, attempt to spin out of the way, he got plunked in the back, bases loaded. Cleanup batter Tony Perez had a pitch thrown behind him, another thrown over his head, and somehow avoided two others to draw a walk. Manager Danny Murtaugh pulled Ellis, but not until after Dock sent the next two pitches directly at the head of Johnny Bench.

Was he tripping?

I assume not, I knew the LSD story of course but not that one

Pete Rose richly deserved getting hit. Not sure about the other guys.

He wasn't tripping. It was a vendetta of some sort--there was a detailed account of it in a book I read a few years ago...I think there was a specific reason why Perez was spared, but I've forgotten it.

Actually, I think it was just Ellis getting tired of the Reds beating the Pirates all the time, and their penchant for bravado and arrogance.

I didn't really think he was tripping, it just seems so bizarre (from the perspective of 2022) that it seems to be on par with the LSD story.

I think I maybe know where I read about it--let me check.

very heartwarming thread. i drifted away from watching baseball when i was a teenager and then i had to move home around the start of the 2021 season bc of breakup/job loss/life stuff and the giants miracle season, which i watched with my mom who is a lifelong fan, was the thing that gave structure to my day and kept me from falling into self-loathing + despair. and since then i've watched almost every game.

love watching the highlights from matt cain's perfect game + tim lincecum's two no-hitters. somehow even knowing what's going to happen the close plays have my heart racing.

I think it was Dan Epstein's excellent Big Hair and Plastic Grass where I read it--thought I had it, but maybe I read a library copy. Anyway, here's a pretty detailed account.

https://theathletic.com/1785449/2020/05/01/what-the-f-is-it-with-this-guy-the-day-dock-ellis-threw-at-every-cincinnati-red/

In the spring of 1974, Dock Ellis decided he was sick of the Cincinnati Reds’ shit. The Big Red Machine was ascending. Three years removed from a World Series, the Pirates were on the decline. Ellis couldn’t abide by how his teammates handled the paradigm shift. When he saw the Reds, he vowed to send a message. On the first day of May, he got his chance.