Archive for the 'Bloops' Category

He continues to make us proud.

In all seriousness, if I weren't married already, I'd marry Lada Gaga in a second too, just because I really like the message of her new song--Born This Way. I'm not going to go off on a crazy tangent here, but what a great thing to tell today's youth--however you were born, whatever sexual orientation, you're perfect.

Rick Welts, CEO of the Phoenix Suns, recently revealed that he is gay, becoming the first high-profile person associated with a major American professional sports team to make such an announcement. The news brought me to tears. I am so amazed and impressed by his bravery, and so happy for him that he can now live his life openly. I salute him.

Remember all of the hemming and hawing over Tampa Bay and Boston's starts to the season? The Rays opened the year 1-8, the Red Sox 2-10. Both teams were 0-6, and no American League team had ever started 0-6 and reached the playoffs. No way these teams can make up those deficits, right?

Except both teams would make the playoffs if the season ended today.

Obviously it's a long season, and both teams could still end up missing the playoffs. But it's still funny to point out after all of the over-reactions in April.

Keeping Score: Posada Put Off Decline for Years – NYTimes.com

In this week's NY Times piece, I look at how impressive it is that Jorge Posada managed to last this long before finally showing his age.

This morning, I heard Nat's manager Jim Riggleman being interviewed on WFAN (Radio in NYC).   He brought up an interesting point regarding managing baseball compared to other sports. And, it was that there's no free substitution in baseball like there is in football, basketball, hockey, soccer, etc. Related, in baseball, when you take a player out of the game, it's a final decision. Whereas, in a sport like hoops, you can take a shooter out of the game early if he's cold - and then put him back in the game later (where he might score 35 points). Same thing with a QB or RB in football, etc.

At first blush, when I thought about this, and wondered what would happen in baseball if they allowed free substitution, I envisioned a game where you had specialists like pinch runners, defensive wizards, and left-handed pitchers flying in and out of the game every inning.  And, that seems like it would be chaotic.  For sure, it would lead to longer games and scorecard nightmares.

In any event, I thought it might be a fun topic for the baseball fanatics here to discuss.  What do you think?  Should baseball allow free substitution like the other sports?  Why?

Remember Mary Jane Schriner, the woman who dated George Steinbrenner when they were teenagers? We linked to several of her stories last fall:

Bloops: Summers With George Steinbrenner

Bloops: Steinbrenner’s Comeuppance

Bloops: More George Steinbrenner Memories

Schriner wanted to share her letters from Steinbrenner with the world, but apparently the Yankees are going to great lengths to make sure they never see the light of day. (Even though Schriner possesses them, the copyright is owned by the person who wrote them -- or, in this case, his heirs.)

Dashiell Bennett of Business Insider summarizes the frustrating saga of Big Stein's letters here:

The George Steinbrenner Love Letter That The Yankees Don't Want You To Read

Update: According to Bennett, Schriner is willing to sell the letters to a collector, either individually or as a collection.

Via BuzzFeed.com, our friends at the New York Times have made what has been dubbed the Nerdiest Correction Ever, at the intersection of baseball and The Hobbit.

If you're having a bad day (or even if not) this is guaranteed to make you smile.

Seems like the perfect day to make this call to the Baseball-Reference.com Bullpen for Mother Watson:

Mother Watson appeared in a couple major league games with the 1887 Cincinnati Red Stockings, a team which went 81-54. Watson was 22 years old at the time. He pitched 14 innings, giving up 9 earned runs along with 9 unearned runs. He also played in the outfield but had no chances.

He is the only major leaguer named or nicknamed "Mother". A 1987 article in the New York Times said that he "was considered virtuous". However, that explanation of his nickname doesn't square with the fact that a "Mother Watson" was a character in Horatio Alger novels, and not a nice one. Perhaps, the fame of the novels made the name just too enticing for major leaguers of the time not to utilize when a man named Watson came along.

He is recorded as weighing only 145 pounds.

The Wheeling Daily Register, March 30, 1888, reported that Watson was going to be given a trial by the Zanesville team, with expenses paid.

One source thinks he belongs on the "All-Family Team" with Willie "Pops" Stargell, Grandma Murphy, and Uncle Robbie Robinson.

He died at age 33 after being shot.

Betcha there's a lot of mothers out there who either tolerated and/or fostered some baseball fanatic children. If yours was one of them, pay her back today with a thank you. She'd probably love it.

Baseball StatHead: May 6, 2011

Stathead posts for today (with some catch-up from yesterday), including relegation thoughts, the worst fielders ever, and SABR award winners.

Keeping Score: In the Majors, Young Players Are Still Teething at the Plate - NYTimes.com

Sean writes about how poorly this year's debuts are hitting, plus a note on how well 2 Cardinals are doing at the plate (neither of whom is Albert Pujols).

If you haven't seen this guy's YouTube channel already, you should check it out:

YouTube - laflippin's Channel

He basically takes a Casio EX-F1 camera to games and films batters and pitchers' mechanics at 300 fps. For instance, here's a behind-the-plate view of Adrian Gonzalez hitting a HR:

Likewise, here's Tim Lincecum's delivery in slo-mo:

It's pretty awesome to see everything slowed down like that.