I want my Big Cat on drugs. all of them. fuck the haters. kslim I also loved Molitor. Yount was getting old when I started following baseball, but was still a great player
I just started this book last night. I don't remember ever LOLing while reading non-fiction, but I did last night. Thanks. Reading about one of Cobb's teammates, Germany Schaefer, is what had me cracking up. Spoiler One of his most famous exploits was stealing first base . . . With runners on first and third, a common ploy in baseball at the time was an attempted double steal, in which the runner heading from first (in this case Schaefer) ran for second, hoping to draw a throw from the catcher as the runner on third tried to scamper home. The catcher did not throw the first time, inspiring Schaefer to steal first base in reverse and then attempt the double steal once more on the following pitch. It worked in Jones' recollection although factual evidence of this is lacking. Although it was not passed until 1920, after Schaefer's death, rule 7.08i states that a player is out if "After he has acquired legal possession of a base, he runs the bases in reverse order for the purpose of confusing the defense or making a travesty of the game. The umpire shall immediately call 'Time' and declare the runner out." It is often said that it was passed because of Schaefer's thefts.
On May 24, 1935, the Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 in the first night game in major league history at old Crosley Field. The original plan was to play one night game against each National League opponent. The first World Series night game was 1971. No Series day game has been played since 1987. The Reds have only 5 weekday day home games left on the 2016 schedule.
feel like baseball is losing these new generations of americans b/c of this. 30 years now. Obviously talking about on the weekends. 8:45 start times on week nights is brutal too.
By day game, I mean 12:25 pm start Mon-Fri. No one except the Cubs really puts a premium on drawing people out of the office during the day during the week. Quick juggsian research shows the Yankees with five remaining. Something to be said about sipping a beer in the sun on a weekday watching a game without a clock.
I like the day game as a special occasion, a Sunday out with the kids or the classic Thursday 12:25 the Reds play. When I was 10-14 or so, I ate up those night games because my parents went to bed and they were the only thing on in the Summer. Im a traditionalist on most things, but I think baseball needs fewer games and more playoff teams to bring in younger fans. The 162 game season is way too many meaningless games that mean even less in September when 3/4 of baseball is eliminated from contention.
Gotcha. When I think of day games, I think of anything 3:30 or earlier. Hell it's light until 8pm or later these days so a 3:30 game ends in daylight. If I can watch while in my office, it's a day game imo.
Living in the east I'd love it when the Expos went on their western trips. Meant I could listen to the game on the radio in bed. Dave Van Horne and Duke Snider. They made the game come to life.
Braves used to be in NL West. Nothing better than summer nights as a kid staying up for Dodgers/Giants games late at night.
World Series games need to start no later than like 6:30 on weekends. I get the debate on weeknight starts for the west coast. But Id rather compete with football than have games end at midnight.
I was a huge Braves fan growing up since so many games were on TBS. I remember the 93 NL West race vividly. McGriff coming over from SD and the Braves catching fire. So many great memories watching those 90's Braves teams.
http://m.mlb.com/video/v740700783/vin-scully-recites-famous-field-of-dreams-speech Vin Scully doing James Earl Jones speech from Field of Dreams.
Willie Mays started his major league career 0-12, until he got his first hit on May 28, 1951. He hit a home run off of Warren Spahn, on his way to becoming National League Rookie of the Year.
Forgot to share this one on Thursday. May 26, 1959 was a memorable day. From BBREF: Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitches one of the most remarkable games in major league history. Haddix tosses 12 perfect innings, retiring the first 36 Milwaukee Braves batters he faces, before losing the perfect game in the 13th inning when Felix Mantilla reaches first base on anerror. After a sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk to Hank Aaron, Haddix surrenders an apparent three-run home runto Joe Adcock. Aaron leaves the field, and Adcock passes him on the basepaths. Adcock's blast is called a double as Mantilla scores the winning run. Lew Burdette of the Braves goes all the way for a 12-hit, 1 - 0 shutout. In another of Bill Veeck's stunts, 3' 7" Eddie Gaedel returns to a major league field along with three other midgets. Arriving by helicopter and dressed as Martians, the quartet drops onto the Comiskey Park infield and shakes hands with second baseman Nellie Fox and shortstop Luis Aparicio, giving them toy ray guns as the public announcer informs the 40,000 plus in attendance that the "extraterrestrials" have arrived to help the somewhat short keystone double play combo in their struggle with giant earthlings.
David Ross hit his 100th HR of his career yesterday. Anyone care to guess who he hit his 1st career HR off of? Spoiler Mark Grace
He went on about the Legend of Zelda when talking about Bumgarner a few weeks ago - that's when it became obvious to me that he has people writing for him. Kinda sad, because he's great by himself.
They were going to let Haddix take a perfect game as long as he could, no argument there. The Pirates had the best relief pitcher in baseball on that team. In 1958, Elroy Face led the NL with 20 saves. On that 1959 team, he went 18-1 with a 2.70 era with no games started. His .947 is the best W/L percentage in history.
Ross is the only player in MLB history to collect 100 career HRs despite never accumulating more than 350 PA's in any one season.
As good as he was, Face had a terrible time in the 7th game of the now-famous 1960 World Series. In 3 innings of relief he allowed 4 runs on 6 hits and was, at one point, on the hook for the loss. In fact, of the 9 total pitchers used by both teams, only 1 didnt allow a run: Harvey Haddix.
That might be the most lopsided series that the winner was out scored by the loser all-time. The Yankees pounded them in each win as the Pirates scraped by in theirs. There is a group of fans that gets together every year on the afternoon of the anniversary and listens to a replay of the radio broadcast in a spot near left field where Mazeroski hit his home run. Forbes Field has long been torn down, but they get together where it used to stand.
A portion of the outfield wall remains on the campus of PITT. Home plate was - for a while - encased in plexiglass on the floor in one of PITT's buildings, supposedly though it was in the 3rd stall of a womens restroom. I was at Mazeroski's statue dedication in September of 2010 at PNC, met several former players from that team.
I was living in Pittsburgh in 2000 and Mazeroski was there, but I thought work was more important and didn't go.
He's my favorite player of all-time despite having never seen him play. I love a quiet work ethic, I would rather watch guys turn DP's than hit homers, and everyone loves a Yankee Killer (except dbl)
On June 2, 1921, Cincinnati Reds outfielder Pat Duncan became the first player ever to hit a home run over the fence at Crosley Field. The park opened in 1912.
Heard on the Marlins-Pirates broadcast last night (of all places) that Rod Carew was born on a train and that his mother named him after the conductor who delivered him.
Underrated player to me is Andre Dawson. He is one of 4 players in the history of baseball to hit 400+ homers, 300+ stolen bases and 2000 hits.
Probably would go with a Dave Concepcion, Steve Finley or Dave Stieb. If I were to go with a cub I would probably say Ron Santo. Did not realize you could not mention people that played with your team.
I do agree he has the recognition of the hall but I think he is underrated in terms of how fans percieve or look at him.
cry? not really, I just stated my opinion. I go to 20-30 games a year and have a ton of conversations with people in the seats around me (especially fans of the opposing teams to make them feel welcome in Wrigley) and I am just stating my opinion based off of conversations that I have had through the years.
And I'm saying that my opinion is that your view is skewed bc you're a Cubs fan. He's a HOF'er. He's not underrated.
HEY NEW SPL GUY, dbl is right even about your opinions. get it? got it? good now lets talk about otis nixon, man was he underrated
I'm not sure how any fan our age could consider Dawson underrated. If you mean no one thinks about him very often, it's because he played on a really shitty team for the majority of his career.
He was at least 62 years old when he played too. Or he smoked a lot of crack. He was fucking awesome either way.
I feel like he was the best pure hitter from that era but you don't even think about the guy. I think some people toss aside statistics from the Rockies just because of the stadium/thin air they play in.
fuck that big cat and larry walker hit well everywhere they went, yes altitude helps and the balls were juiced but he is an all timer