Welcome to I Love Baseball! Please Introduce Yourselves!

Favorites:

Hall of famer: Robin Youth, Richie Ashburn
Current players: Hideki Matsui, Carl Crawford, any funky sidearm/submariner reliever (Bradford, Fuentes, etc)
Minor leaguer: don't really pay attention anymore
Non-hall of famer: Kent Tekulve, Jim Eisenreich, Chris Bosio, Todd Frohwirth
Manager: Jim Fregosi, especially when liquored up
Book: Nine Innings
Website: Baseball Prospectus
Writers: Jayson Stark was an excellent Philly writer while I was growing up
Movie: The Natural
Favorite announcers: Jerry Remy, that play-by-play guy in Seattle who just retired
Ballpark: Detroit (Comerica), Pittsburgh (PNC) are the best of the new bunch
Playing Experience: plenty o' whiffle ball
Positions Played: scorekeeper
Ball Parks Visited: almost all of them ... Fenway, Yankee, Skydome, Camden Yards & Memorial, Tropicana, Tigers & Comerica, Metrodome, US Cellular, Jacobs & Cleveland, Kauffman, Angels, Ameriquest, Safeco, Shea, Vets & Citizens Bank, Fulton County, Dolphins, Olympic & RFK, new & old Busch, Minute Maid, Riverfront, County & Miller, Three Rivers & PNC, Wrigley, Qualcomm, Dodgers, PacBell, Chase, Coors plus a bunch of minor league parks as well.
Best Game attended: How about memories ... scaring youngsters at Fenway by repeatedly claiming "I love Rafael Bournigal," sneaking into Yankee stadium with my sister, Skydome closing during a game, Toronto fan getting ejected from Tigers Stadium bleachers (the rowdiest crowd ever), the racket the wooden seats made in Cleveland, huge lighting storm in KC, Ichiro blasting one off the restaurant after I told Lisa he was a singles hitter, Jamaicans on 1st base side in the 700's at the Vet, the lovely usherettes at Olympic, farm day cow milking competition at Riverfront, hard liquor brought to your seat in Milwaukee, the frigid wind at Wrigley, strange WC fan vibe at Qualcomm, cross-sectional taunting at Chase (neither group a Snakes fan either), the musical taunting of Sox fans at Coors.
Best Defensive Player: not objective, but I enjoy those Torii Hunter moments.
Best Current Pitcher: objectively, Santana. not objectively, Papelbon.
Favorite outfield ever: Lenny Dykstra / Jim Eisenreich / Pete Incaviglia
Areas of Interest (baseball): 2nd baseman fielding the ball from the catcher after the warm-up throws
Favorite Quote (baseball): "With the Cardinals everybody would be reading the business section to see what their stocks were doing. You get to this locker room (Pirates) in the morning and everybody is looking at the sports page to see if Hulk Hogan won." -Andy Van Slyke

My ILB name is hstencil. I'm 31, I live in New York CityBrooklyn and I root for the Cubs and White Sox (or whomever is playing against the Yankees, Braves or MetsTwins or A's).

Favorites:

Hall of famer: Willie Mays or Ted Williams
Current players: Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Beltran, Jermaine Dye, David Wright, Jose Reyes, Paul Konerko
Minor leaguer: Rickey Henderson, heh
Non-hall of famer: Shoeless Joe Jackson (they could never prove he took the money)
Manager: Earl Weaver
Book: Eight Men Out, Crash: The Dick Allen Story
Website: espn.com, cantstopthebleeding.com
Writers: anybody who's not on the Tribune payroll
Movie: Major League (so bad it's good)
Favorite announcers: Steve Stone or anyone without Caray as a last name
Ballpark: Wrigley Field for ambiance, ComiskeyUS Cellular for fans (the non-psychotic field chargin' ones), Keyspan Park because its at Coney Island
Playing Experience: N/A
Positions Played: I was a soda/peanut vendor at Wrigley Field at the end of the '98 season, usually upper deck.
Ball Parks Visited: Wrigley Field, Comiskey (I have not been since it's been renamed), Fenway, Yankee Stadium, Fulton County Stadium (RIP), Memorial Stadium (RIP), whatever the old one in Cincy was called (RIP), and I've driven by the Jake, old Tiger Stadium, and the old stadium in Milwaukee (RIP).
Best Game attended: probably Mike Cameron's 4-homer game, Mariners vs. White Sox, sometime in '02. or Pedro's 12 strikeout game against the Astros last year.
Best Offensive Player: Barry BondsAlbert Pujols
Best Defensive Player: dunno who I'd pickAaron Rowand Faceplant
Best Current Pitcher: Esteban Loaizanot Johan
Areas of Interest (baseball): all
Favorite Quote (baseball): "I did not bet on baseball" -Pete Rose.

My ilxor name is Van Horn Street. I'm 25 and live in Montreal. Root for the Giants and the France National Baseball team (I think their might be one).

Favorites:

Hall of famer: Willie Mays, Christy Mathewson.
Current players: Buster Posey, Tim Lincecum, Max Scherzer, Andrew McCutchen, Josh Donaldson.
Non-hall of famer: Barry Bonds.
Manager: Leyland, Bochy, Stengel.
Book: Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mays, the Parallel Lives of Baseball's Golden Age
Writers: Joe Posnanski, Jonah Keri, Rob Neyer, Grant Brisbree, and the great duo of clemenza and Dr. Morbius.
Movie: Baseball by Ken Burns. Moneyball. The Battered Bastards of Baseball.
Favorite announcers: Kruk and Kuip. I've been enjoying the Mets' trio as well.
Ballpark: The Big O.
Playing Experience: Very little.
Ball Parks Visited: The Big O. Rogers Centre.
Best Game attended: One game in 1998 in which Guerrero scored a home run, the only I've seen. I can't even remember who it was against.
Best Offensive Player: Mike Trout, Yasiel Puig.
Best Defensive Player: Jason Heyward, Josh Donaldson.
Best Current Pitcher: Felix Hernandez, Chris Sale.
Areas of Interest (baseball): Reading Bee OK's comment when the Giants are losing. History. Statistics. Understanding America.
Favorite Quote (baseball): It ain't the heat, it's the humility. - Berra.
Baseball dream: Build a little baseball field somewhere in Dordogne.

Hello all! I'm Larry, 45, and live in Austin. I post as UrbanShocker on Fangraphs.

Hall of famer: Greg Maddux
Current players: Puig?
Minor leaguer: Joc Pederson
Non-hall of famer: Andruw Jones
Manager: Earl Weaver
Book: Baseball When The Grass Was Real
Website: NotGraphs
Writers: Jonah Keri
Movie: Bull Durham
Favorite announcers: Orel
Ballpark: PacBell Park
Playing Experience: Little League. I made up for being slow by not being able to hit.
Positions Played: Outfield.
Ball Parks Visited: Dodger Stadium, Safeco, Angel Stadium, Oakland Coliseum, Pac Bell, Coors Field, The Ballpark Arlington, Minute Maid, The Ted, and going to Wrigley at the end of the month!
Best Game attended: Braves v Indians, Game 6!
Best Offensive Player: Miguel
Best Defensive Player: Simmons
Best Current Pitcher: Clayton
Favorite outfield ever: Chipper, Andruw and Sheff
Areas of Interest (baseball): Sabermetrics*
Favorite Quote (baseball): "Ninety percent I'll spend on good times, women and Irish whiskey, The other 10 percent I'll probably waste." Tug McGraw

*I am skeptical of some Sabermetric stats.

serious lols at this: Areas of Interest (baseball): Reading Bee OK's comment when the Giants are losing.

Thanks, VHS. Believe it or not, I just now figured out your display name. (Not the VHS acronym--I was going to say you'd have to know the Expos, but I see now that VH is still around. Had no idea.)

Found Andy K's playing background really interesting. I won't fill out the whole questionnaire, but I would like to make it a matter of public record that I was league MVP--well, tied with Jim Peardon, actually--when I was 13. And then, as Jim Bouton says, the big kids got out of school.

i would like jim in glasgow to answer these questions!

also:

Best offensive player: Ryan Howard

― Andy_K (Andy_K), Tuesday, October 3, 2006 8:01 AM (9 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

2006!

^^^ andy amaro

http://image.mlive.com/home/mlive-media/width620/img/cutoffman/photo/021510-dave-dombrowskijpg-1626b49e2d55ee8e.jpg

Quote this tweet with the VERY FIRST baseball player mannerism you copied as a kid.

— Brandon Warne (@Brandon_Warne) November 14, 2017

1. willie stargell's 'wind-up' while waiting for a pitch
2. probably john candelaria's delivery

even though both those dudes were left-handed and i am not

my brother and i would play wiffle ball in our backyard (a home run was one that landed on the roof of the house or went over the fence parallel to the house) and we'd play as teams, but only the teams we were familiar with. he defaulted to the cubs, i'd wind up as whatever opponent they'd play. lots of Cubs vs Expos and Pirates games. not because those teams were our favorite opponents but because we had two plastic helmets in addition to the Cubs one, and those were the two teams.

I'm pretty certain that the first stance I copied was Tim Raines (only his right-handed stance, til i learned to bat from the left side as well a couple years later.)

pitching-wise, i can't remember who i copied.

our six-yr old currently copies Kris Bryant's stance pretty damn well.

I don't know if I ever did so in actual games, but when I still played at 12 or 13, I'd imitate Carew's batting stance and Tiant's motion.