740 posts tagged with baseball.
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50th Anniversary of "The 10¢ Beer Night Massacree"
"During a scary ninth inning, Texas manager Billy Martin, never one to back down from a fight, turned to his players in the dugout and told them to grab bats before leading a charge onto the Municipal Stadium field and into mayhem." June 4, 1974: Baseball on a warm late-Spring evening! Texas vs. Cleveland! Beer's only ten cents a cup tonight! What could possibly go wrong.
Justice League
Major League Baseball has incorporated the statistics of former Negro Leagues players into its historical records on its website, meaning legendary leaders in some categories like Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb have now been replaced in the record books by players who were not allowed to play on the same fields as them during segregation. Josh Gibson, one of the greatest sluggers in the history of the Negro Leagues, is now listed as MLB’s new all-time career leader in batting average at .372, moving ahead of Ty Cobb at .367. The MLB website shows Gibson also overtaking Babe Ruth in career slugging percentage. [more inside]
There's Trouble in River City.
Shohei Ohtani's interpreter accused of massive theft
Shohei Ohtani, singular baseball talent and recent recipient of the largest contract in sport history, has always been close with his interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara. On Wednesday Ohtani's lawyers have accused Mizuhara of a massive theft to pay off gambling debts. The day before Mizuhara and Ohtani's camp had a different story: Ohtani knew about the gambling debts and had agreed to pay them off.
Was Ohtani just covering for a friend, or was he taken advantage of? Did he knowingly pay off a bookie despite MLB rules against such interactions?
Surprisingly It's Not Muscular Fan Struggles With Water Bottle
Baseball And The Algorithm: The MLB YouTube channel has posted 291,289 videos. If you had to guess what happens in the video with the very most views, what would you say?
Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with Ruth
To all the fans and everyone involved in the baseball world, I apologize for taking so long to come to a decision. I have decided to choose the Dodgers as my next team. [Instagram] [more inside]
Nobody hates baseball more than Major League Baseball
Weird podcasts are the best.
Sleep With Me has put me to sleep for 10 years and 1200 episodes, entertaining me and helping me feel better about the brain bots that keep my mind busy at night. Northwoods Baseball announces games for a made-up league in northern Michigan. Everything Is Alive is back for another season, this time exclusively interviewing animals. And EIA's sister-show In The Scenes Behind Plain Sight rewatches a fictional show about a nudist colony, as an homage to rewatch podcasts (and it drives my husband up the walls).
A Cautionary Tale
Yet within the sport, and even for the larger world, the Giants remain a cautionary tale: a high-profile example of what can happen when prejudice derails a talented organization or team, when discord and distrust become everyday elements in a workplace. Instead of dominating the big leagues with their core of talented Latino and African-American players, the Giants were perennial also-rans for most of the 1960s. from Giant Missteps
Different strokes: How modern MLB players develop their autographs
An autograph is a personal thing, a marker of someone’s identity, a few dashes of ink that can help preserve a legacy. Short or long, sloppy or neat, every player has a story behind their signature. There are more demands on athletes’ time than ever, so there’s a balance at play when it comes to the art of signing. (archive.today link)
Bhutan Ball
They had no grand design on establishing a baseball association, though: The two simply loved baseball -- DeSantis learning the game back in America, while Dorji fell in love while attending the World Children's Baseball Fair in Japan -- and wanted to offer it to the children who lived nearby the military barracks in Thimphu. from In the mountains of the world's most remote country, baseball takes hold
"Don't rub it too high or someone will cry, and steal your homerun away"
FORTY YEARS AGO TODAY: With the Kansas City Royals trailing 4–3 in the top half of the ninth inning and two out, future Hall-Of-Famer third baseman George Brett hit a two-run home run off of "Goose" Gossage (also a future Hall of Famer) to give his team the lead. Yankees manager Billy Martin, who had noticed a large amount of pine tar on Brett's bat, requested that the umpires inspect his bat. Home plate umpire Tim McClelland ruled that the amount on the bat exceeded what was allowed, nullified Brett's home run, and called him out. Brett, having already rounded the bases and returned to the dugout, launched himself towards home plate in a rage, requiring his manager and teammates to drag him screaming and cursing away from McClelland... but the story doesn't end there. [more inside]
The Final Vestige of Something Irreplaceable and Delicate
To those who know what Oakland A’s baseball used to be, what Fisher had turned the team into was nothing short of tragic. A’s teams in the past had brought to Oakland pride and repute, as they had seemed to represent, in their character and color, their misfit swagger and underdog grit, something both essential and specific about the East Bay’s sense of self. In this way, certain of those teams had evinced something distinct about the constructive potential of pro sports writ large: how beloved local teams can bring a people together and lift a city up. Fisher’s A’s evince something very different: pro sports’ concurrent capacity for diminishment and plunder, disillusionment and grift. from The Long, Sad Story of the Stealing of the Oakland A’s [The Ringer; ungated]
"AI interpretation went somewhat askew."
In Praise Of The Pitch Clock
I’m on record as opposing the pitch timer, and I opposed it on aesthetic, even theological, grounds... I’ll just have to come right out with it. I was wrong.
Merging the Negro Leagues into MLB stats has not been seamless
MLB’s plan to integrate Negro League numbers and statistical legacies with its own remains years from completion. More than two years after its announcement, MLB is still in the initial phase of the project: data acquisition. (archive.today link)
There is Persistent Consumer Demand to Believe in Magic
We have adjectives to describe the insistence on a superior past, and they tend toward the pejorative: vestigial, atavistic, reactionary. Exaltation of lost glory necessarily discounts the present; reimposing the ancien régime requires tossing aside today's players, often with casual recklessness. Audiences embraced "Field of Dreams" because it's a sumptuously shot, well-crafted movie with compelling actors and an Oscar-nominated score, yes, but also because they worried then—and continue to worry now—that something valuable is vanishing, that the best of baseball and the country of its birth is in the rearview mirror. That the only path to redemption is believing, twice as hard this time, in a fairy tale. One that narcissistically absolves our own active role in the decline. from The Expensive, Seductive Nostalgia of Field of Dreams
Minor League Baseball players get living wages
The first-ever collective bargaining agreement in minor league baseball history is near, a landmark moment in the sport’s history, and for the players in particular. The deal — which would have sounded outlandish just a year ago, when minor leaguers didn’t have a union — provides substantial raises to players and a slew of other improvements. Evan Drellich at The Athletic has the story. (Archive link.) More than 99% of minor leaguers voted in favor of the agreement. (Twitter). [more inside]
A little baseball humor for opening day
A Few More Last-Minute Baseball Rules Major League Baseball is adding a pitch clock, and if you're a baseball fan, you probably have strong feelings about this rule change. Reading this parody of MLB rule changes was a fun escape from the conversations about how the new MLB rules are ruining / saving the game.
LAST COMISKEY - Story of the 1990 White Sox and the Final Season (slyt)
LAST COMISKEY - Story of the 1990 White Sox and the Final Season (slyt) is a 3-part video series on the last season of old Comiskey Park in 1990. Interviews, photos, videos of players, fans, coaches, sportwriters, and stadium staff, this is a great homage to a beautiful old baseball park for the Chicago White Sox, focusing on the last year in 1990 (before it was torn down) and with a good amount of flashbacks to previous eras. [more inside]
Playing for the Yankees Has Perks. In-Flight Internet Is Not One of Them
Tragically, one of the world’s most valuable sports franchises doesn’t provide complimentary Wi-Fi to its millionaire employees. [more inside]
"This is Baseball in 2023"
It's Day 2 of spring training games and the pitch clock is already wreaking havoc. It's the bottom of the ninth in yesterday's Spring Training game between the Boston Red Sox and the Atlanta Braves. The bases are loaded, two men are out, and the Braves' Cal Conley has a full count. What happens next? Conley is given a strike by the umpire for taking too long to get ready and the game is over. Welcome to the new MLB season and the new rules.
ah yes, the deadly jumbotron
Using only a pixel baseball bat and one (or possibly more) balls, can you fend off an ever-increasing swarm of abstract dots? Find out in the delightful Vampire Survivors-alike Bases Loaded.
1 Batter, 59 Home Runs; Needs 3 With 16 Games to Go
Judge hits 58th AND 59th HRs, just two shy of Maris ... Aaron Judge home run pace tracker ... HR Digest: Aaron Judge [more inside]
9.5 1952 #7 = $12.6M
Fastball
Fastball [1h27m] is a documentary about that blink of an eye showdown between batter and pitcher. How fast is fast? What is it like throwing or facing a big league fastball? This 2016 documentary by Jonathan Hock is a history of baseball through this lens.
This is Vin Scully, wishing you a very pleasant good afternoon.
"You and I have been friends for a long time, but I know in my heart that I’ve always needed you more than you’ve needed me, and I’ll miss our time together more I can say.
But you know what — there will be a new day, and eventually a new year. And when the upcoming winter gives way to spring, rest assured it will be time for Dodger baseball.
So this is Vin Scully, wishing you a very pleasant good afternoon, wherever you may be."
[more inside]
Most players make less than $14,700 per year
Stadium Beer Night Fans Riot, Ending Cleveland 's Rally in Forfeit
"They don't have enough fans to worry about." - Billy Martin. Cleveland’s Infamous 10-Cent Beer Night (STYK podcast) or watch on YouTube
Roger Angell has died at age 101
NYT obituary. From a remembrance by New Yorker editor David Remnick: He was not only the greatest of baseball writers; he had also lived long enough to see Babe Ruth, of the Yankees, at one end of his life and Shohei Ohtani, of the Angels, at the other. Age conferred authority. When Roger covered the Yanks in their late-nineties heyday, Joe Torre, the team’s heavy-lidded chief, would sometimes interrupt one of his avuncular soliloquies to a clutch of young reporters and look to him for affirmation: “Roger, am I getting that right?” Sitting in his office, Roger, much like Torre, held court, telling stories about playing Ping-Pong with James Thurber, editing William Trevor and Donald Barthelme, and watching ballgames with the Romanian-born artist Saul Steinberg, . . . [more inside]
One, I Love This Game and Two, I Want to Continue Playing It
"I think I'll be OK if I don't get the album back"
It's not even a baseball game. It's a circus.
Independent league baseball team the Savannah Bananas knows how to entertain. On a given night, their sold out stadium might feature the team doing the Harlem Shake as a hitter steps to the plate, their 60 & up female dance troop The Banana Nanas, The Dad Bod Cheerleading Squad, their official bat dog, Daisy, or an opposing team hitter whose bat is literally on fire. Taking their cues from the Harlem Globetrotters, the Bananas aim to be as unproblematically crazy and entertaining as possible. Their motto: Fans first. Entertain always. All inclusive. [more inside]
Twenty-Three (and seven-ninths)
Clayton Kershaw was six outs away from pitching the first perfect game in nearly a decade on Wednesday afternoon vs. the Twins. But, after seven innings, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts decided to pull the All-Star pitcher based on his pitch count.
She's at First
Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb
Jon Bois and Dorktown are back with a four part series on a certain perennially undervalued Toronto Blue Jays ace: Captain Ahab, the Story of Dave Stieb. [more inside]
"to restore a more traditional set of aesthetics and outcomes"
After more limited trial runs in the 2021-2022 season, in March "Major League Baseball ... announced a variety of experimental playing rules that have been approved by the Competition Committee and the Playing Rules Committee for use during the 2022 Minor League season." "Consistent with the preferences of fans, these rules are designed to improve the pace of play, create more action on the field, and reduce player injuries." Minor league teams will test out a pitch timer ("to create a crisp pace of play"), larger bases, and constraints on defensive positioning ("a minimum of four players on the infield, with at least two infielders completely on either side of second base"). If the rules work well in the minor leagues this year, then MLB might alter its major league rules in the future.
They’ve Left Cooperstown Barren, Uninteresting and Illegitimate
This is a museum of baseball history. What purpose does that museum serve when it purges entire pieces of history from its walls? You’ve ripped the guts out of the thing and left it as not only a dry branding exercise, but a culturally irrelevant one. Only the weirdos who file FCC complaints about vulgarities during the Super Bowl halftime show would ever want to visit it. from By Leaving Out SF Giants Legend Barry Bonds, the Baseball Hall of Fame Finally Signs its Own Death Certificate by Drew Magary [more inside]
Baseball Radio ASMR
It’s a radio broadcast of a baseball game. It’s completely fictional. And it’s designed to put you to sleep. The Northwoods Baseball Radio Network is on the air with no yelling and commercials at the same audio level. In an interview with its creator, Chicago-based media producer Mr King said "I experimented with listening to podcasts and white noise, and I found I liked to fall asleep by listening to a west coast game that I didn’t really care about." One game has been "played" with more planned as part of a podcast.
The Skill-Luck Continuum
Untangling Skill and Luck "For almost two centuries, Spain has hosted an enormously popular Christmas lottery. Based on
payout, it is the biggest lottery in the world and nearly all Spaniards play. In the mid 1970s, a man
sought a ticket with the last two digits ending in 48. He found a ticket, bought it, and then won the
lottery. When asked why he was so intent on finding that number, he replied, “I dreamed of the
number seven for seven straight nights. And 7 times 7 is 48.” "
Outcomes from many activities—including sports, business, and investing—are the combination
of skill and luck. Most people recognize that skill and luck play a role in results, yet they have a
poor sense of the relative contribution of each. The ability to properly untangle skill and luck leads
to much better thinking about most day-to-day outcomes, and allows for sharply improved decision-making." [more inside]
Zig-Zag-and Swirl.
Fantastically Wrong: The Inventor of the Airliner Also Invented This Hilariously Absurd 'Science'.
Alfred Lawson and 'Manlife' Documentary Explores Lawsonomy & Its Last Crusader
MLB to require teams to provide housing for minor leaguers
Amid mounting pressure from players and advocacy groups, Major League Baseball said on Sunday it will require teams to provide housing for minor league players starting in 2022. [more inside]
Go Team Chaos!
It's the last scheduled day of the regular season in Major League Baseball and every game will be played starting simultaneously at 3 pm Eastern. The AL Wild Card and the NL West are still up for grabs and a bewildering array of two, three, and even four way ties and resulting tiebreaker games is on the table. Root for your favorite team, or just root for chaos.
I had a chance to travel anywhere. Why did I pick Spokane? (SLNYT)
Link to NYT article Having been to Spokane on more than one occasion, I couldn't resist clicking this link. Instead of a snarky takedown, I found a poignant reflection on Covid, parenthood, and what we are leaving our children. There's also a lot about baseball :). (Mirror link) [more inside]
There's no tying in baseball
Did Dottie Drop the Ball On Purpose?: Solving the Only Cinematic Mystery That Matters
The time has come...to debate what is probably the most important question of an old millennial’s life: Did Dottie Hinson drop the ball on purpose at the end of A League of Their Own in order to let her sister shine?[more inside]
Take Meowt to the Ballgame
Is a Feral Cat Responsible For the Orioles Losing 18 Games in a Row? An Important Investigation This was going to be a single link post to Molly Knight's substack The Long Game (now you know what you're clicking on), but then I found: [more inside]
The Honus Wagner T206
The Honus Wagner T206 is the sports card GOAT, and always will be. It sold recently for $6.6 million. Dan Hajducky and Tisha Thompson at ESPN.com give a short history of baseball card boom and bust and boom.
Cleveland Baseball Team Renames Itself
And in this round of the Professional Sports Teams With Racist Names Choose New Names Draft, for the 2022 season and onward, the Cleveland baseball team selects "The Guardians." Atlanta, you are on the clock.
Unparalleled in living memory and unmatched in the modern game
A lot of athletes are incomparable and revolutionary in their respective sports. There are too many wonders in the world for any one person to pay attention to all of them... But if it’s even conceivable that you could care about baseball—or about boundary-breaking human achievement, regardless of the field—you should try to pay attention to Ohtani. Ben Lindbergh on Shohei Ohtani's incredible two-way performance this season in Major League Baseball, "Shobaes", and the oddity of an elite athlete who is "improbably pleasant".
Sticky Fingers
'This Should Be the Biggest Scandal in Sports.' Rampant illegal pitch-doctoring--with "sticky stuff" like Spider Tack and Pelican Grip--is Major League Baseball's latest cheating scandal. Most recently, a former Angels clubhouse manager named a long list of pitchers he's helped use sticky stuff, and, when asked point-blank whether he was cheating, Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole refused to answer. In response, MLB plans stricter enforcement of existing rules against foreign substances.