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

2016 World Series, Cubs - Indians, Guardians, ugh, Indians

I read the story of this game 7 in SI a while ago and although that detailed out the key happenings of this in detail, that was a whole 162 games ago for me and I’d forgotten. So I was watching thinking, k this goes to extras but how? Hendricks was cruising, the Cubs were grinding out runs here and there, and then…they take Hendricks out early.

He looked how I felt watching it seven years later: like he wanted to kill someone. Insane if they took him out an inning early and ended up getting walked off.

I’d forgotten how many star names were on the rosters - a very young Lindor! A very young Kyle Schwarber! A baby faced Jose Ramirez! Drone injury clown Trevor Bauer! so I had some nice moments of recognition throughout. Anyway back to the game. I was trying to remember how the lead slipped away and then Jon Lester came in.

Anyway JL is a Sox/Cubs legend and yeah…that wild pitch off David Ross’s head? That felt like something that could only happen to the Cubs, and it did. But after that they pulled the score back to 6-3 and I was like, ok, where is this going?

Aroldis Chapman is coming out of the bullpen?

Yeah. I’m sure his blown saves are like actually less than his converted but at the same time you’re like…how the fuck does this guy have a job? And the Cubs ended up using three catchers in this game. I didn’t even know you could carry three on the roster.

Spent most of the ninth wondering where is this rain delay? And then it happened. Obviously I knew how it turns out but it felt when Cleveland didn’t walk it off in the end of the 9th that they weren’t going to, because that and the rain were a huge break for the Cubs.

What a thrilling double from Zobroist, though. The man went 0-4 and still stepped to the plate in the biggest moment of his life and got it done. NOT TRYING TO DO TOO MUCH. Rizzo freaking out on third as he realised they’ve scored the go ahead run and the inning is still going is one of the most endearing things I’ve ever seen in a game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE_1ShFSrY0

That’s got to be the biggest Cubs hit of all time, right? None of these guys should ever pay for anything in Chicago again. This also made me realise that Rizzo hasn’t been back to Wrigley since he was traded. I looked up the Yankees schedule for next year and it’s finally happening - in September. I hope he has a healthy year next season, but also, fuck the Yankees for jeopardising his health.

Bryzzo getting the final out was perfect. I only saw 2023 Kris Bryant play and he was incredible. What can you say? But his Cubs years are eternal.

Going to post this before I lose this post (happened once already!) and then paste the notes I took on my phone

Notes:

- Schwarber being ruled safe after bad Kluber fielding - lmao what even was that? Disastrous.
- Kluber era under 1 entering this game (!) - this was prime Kluber (and it made me sad watching him a bit, having watched his Red Sox non-season this year). He was pitching well but they got him.
- Rizzo to Fowler: WE NEEDED THAT - lol Dexter Fowler’s first inning homer. Rizzo was so much the heart and soul of this team. You can see it a mile off and seven years out.
- Kyle Schwarber stole a base?! - lol
- Jose Ramirez the best hitter “out of nowhere” - I was like, wtf, but then I looked up his br page and his 2015 was horrific.
- Ramirez pickoff - this was cruel but funny
- Schwarber TOOTBLAN - some guys can try for two, but not everyone can or should!
- Bryant slide at home - this was pure magic, what a perfect bit of baserunning
- “irregardless of what happens on the pitching front” - Smoltz 😑
- David Ross micd up talking to Rizzo (Rizzo: I’M AN EMOTIONAL WRECK RIGHT NOW) - this was the cutest omg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQKhf--Gxw0
- Bryant scoring from 1st (more baserunning masterclass)

Also the intentional walks used to be a joke? They used to make the guy stand there at the plate while they threw four balls?????

We have letters from my grandfather (lifelong Cubs fan) he wrote home from Sicily and Italy while fighting in WW2 where he says, "maybe this is the Cubs year?", so it was so awesome that he got to see them win it all at age 98. I wasn't a Cubs fan but I was rooting so hard for them that series for his sake. Even my Mom stayed up to watch Game 7 and she dngaf about baseball.

That’s incredible. I’m so happy he got to see it!

There's definitely an entire generation of Chicago baseball fans whose parents or grandparents never saw their preferred hometown team win a World series title. The White Sox won in 1917 and then finally in 2005, and of course the Cubs hadn't won in 108 years when they won in 2016. My dad's mom, a Northside Cubs fan, was born in 1911 and died in 1994. My mom's parents, southside Sox fans, born in 1918 and 1920, died in '98 and '99.

Also the intentional walks used to be a joke? They used to make the guy stand there at the plate while they threw four balls?????

― mojo dojo casas house (gyac), Monday, November 6, 2023 4:57 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

it was silly that they had to stand there but if not for that we never would have had this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6YzVvtxoaY

lol, was that considered against the unwritten rules

Or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR0jGrfQCu4

That was the trade-off: 100 years, 10,000 boring IBB, two memorable highlights.

Also the intentional walks used to be a joke? They used to make the guy stand there at the plate while they threw four balls?????

And we liked it that way!

We have letters from my grandfather (lifelong Cubs fan) he wrote home from Sicily and Italy while fighting in WW2 where he says, "maybe this is the Cubs year?", so it was so awesome that he got to see them win it all at age 98. I wasn't a Cubs fan but I was rooting so hard for them that series for his sake. Even my Mom stayed up to watch Game 7 and she dngaf about baseball.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Monday, November 6, 2023 2:23 PM bookmarkflaglink

Love this so much

They used to make the guy stand there at the plate while they threw four balls?????

was there ever an instance of a catcher being busted for stepping out from behind home plate too soon?

5.02 (a): the catcher must stand with both feet within the lines of the catcher’s box until the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand.
PENALTY: Balk

the ritual of the intentional walk is so good, hate they got rid of it

OTM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJBMm70kRgo

PLAY THE GAME

Bruce Bochy w/ Murph & Mac on former Giants reaching out following World Series win:

"Buster sent me a nice message, as Bum did too. Man, I tell ya, Timmy is one you don't hear from as much and for him to send one...Like I said it was overwhelming." 🥲

— KNBR (@KNBR) November 7, 2023

Indeed. Miss Bochy so hard right now, what a legend

His first boys texting him like that especially knowing how much he loves them all (was Matt Cain too busy though? Cmon…)

tbf Cain's arm still doesn't work after that 285 pitch CG.

Weak sauce, pretty sure Cain never threw as many pitches in a cg as Lincecum (148!)

Good baseball names I have seen on my daily trips around BR:

- Bullet Joe Bush
- Jimmy Outlaw
- Hank Shanks
- Bugs Raymond
- Snake Henry
- Sack Morgan
- Big Train Jackson
- Big Boy Davis
- Hooks Wiltse
- Rube Marguard
- Smead Jolley

Reading about the Ichiro inside the park home run at the ASG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiwO2BjcweU

Chris Young, the 6’10” former basketball player from Princeton, was making the first and only All-Star appearance of his career, and his nerves might have shown in the fifth inning when he took the mound and issued a leadoff walk to Baltimore’s Brian Roberts.

Ichiro already was 2-for-2 when he batted with one out. Would he try to bunt for a hit? Maybe slap a single to the left side? Instead, he faced a power pitcher and tried to supply his own. Young threw a first-pitch fastball and Ichiro turned on it, driving the ball over Griffey’s head and toward the right-field arcade. Griffey had played enough games at AT&T Park to know that whenever the ball hit the bricks beyond the sixth archway, it almost always kicked toward center field. He backed off and drifted toward center, like a power forward getting ready to box out for a defensive rebound. But the ball had other ideas.

The drive glanced off the seventh archway, and under normal circumstances, it would have taken a dead bounce off the chain-link fence. But the league installed additional signage in the form of plastic sheeting that was wrapped tightly around the bottom of the archways. Ichiro’s ball hit the signage and instead of deflecting toward center, it kicked hard right. A phrase flashed through Griffey’s mind.
“It’s a four-letter word,” he said, “and ‘oh’ is in front of it.”

Third-base coach Ron Washington said he never had a doubt about waving Ichiro home with the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history. Ichiro didn’t even need to run full speed or slide. “Noooo, no, no,” Washington said. “That was riding a bike over there.… He ended up walking into home plate. There was no doubt. You’re looking at a guy who plays as hard as he can and he wasn’t going to cheat himself. If you’ve got any kind of speed, you should be able to make it in there. That wasn’t just normal speed. You had exceptional speed right there.” Griffey, upon returning to the NL dugout, made eye contact with Bonds and they shrugged at each other. All those asymmetrical quirks of the ballpark, the ones that Magowan insisted upon during the design stage, created one of the most thrilling moments in All-Star Game history. Ichiro, with a straight face, joked that he felt the slightest bit of disappointment. He thought the ball had a chance to clear the arcade.

among the pitchers to throw a no-hitter in the pacific coast league are:

Sea Lion Hall (twice)
Red Toner
Bill Malarkey
Skeeter Fanning (twice)
Suds Sutherland
Death Valley Jim Scott
Tiny Bonham
Cotton Pippen
Kewpie Dick Barrett
Red Munger
Bubba Church
Luis 'Foreign Object' Tiant

― mookieproof, Wednesday, January 13, 2016 9:51 PM (seven years ago)

Rube marquand was a dude

Why is no one spelling his name right? it's Rube Marquard

Legendary entry in "The Glory Of Their Times" obv

give this clip some time once the replay angles start showing up, some eye-opening things abound lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjOeJTsKDE8

Steve Shasta I have covid and my brain is working at like 5% capacity, what am I missing here :(

Miggy's flat-footed attempt at fielding is something but Delmon Young's throw-in is an all-time WS highlight. These were the 2 best teams in baseball ~10 years ago.

Feel better soon, try to get Paxlovid if it's still available to you.

now see normally when my female Red Sox friend sends me a clip with a caption like that it’s usually to highlight that some player’s dick is visible through their pants - none of these morons wear cups anymore

xp oh I’m fine, I’m just full of mucus, we’re really in bad cold territory

ty though :)

Feel better. Here are two quality names I found in my baseball reference travels:
Jack Glasscock
And possible time travelling Eminem alias, Slim Sallee

I found out thanks to good baseball Twitter user Brent Rooker that all players get their uniforms tailored to fit them and this has both been glaringly obvious and also incredibly revelatory? It explains why the uniforms photograph so well and how a guy can slide face first into home and his uniform shirt will stay put.

I also didn’t realise that they wear the same sets of uniforms all year, but it makes perfect sense if they’re tailored.

It really makes a big difference aesthetically; baseball players come in a variety of shapes and sizes but nobody has a belly hanging over their belt, nobody looks bad or uncomfortable or awkward. When you look at a picture of a player during a game, the line of the uniform follows the form of the body and there’s no messiness or distraction. Photos of players in motion always look incredibly dynamic to me in part because the uniforms photograph so well and follow the form.

Genuinely think the aesthetic game is underrated regardless of how players interpret it.
https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Francisco-Lindor-2.jpg

https://images.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/03142023_cal_160528.jpg?d=1020x1530

Isn't there something in Ball Four about that? Maybe Pepitone refusing to take the field unless his uniform was form-fitting?

i’ve still never understood how you can have a professional sport where people slide into each other etc and part of the uniform is a leather belt with a metal buckle

xp yes you’re right!

xp I was watching a video with Lucas Giolito and Tyler Glasnow talking about their huge feet…Glasnow said when he was in the minors they didn’t have cleats in his size so if he left them behind he’d squeeze his feet into cleats that were two sizes too small “cos otherwise you get yelled at”…they both fondly reminisced about the special spare belt with elastic that clubs carry for guys who lose theirs.

Jokes aside that’s probably why Judge has his number on his belt, right? You’re not finding another one for him in a hurry.

Second London series trip next year - Mets/Phillies, you have no idea how much I’ve been praying for Shohei not to sign with the Mets before the tickets went on sale today

Looking forward to a good time with users Tracer Hand, SV & Fongles

Odor was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, on February 3, 1994.[1] His first name is a combination of his grandfather's name, Douglas, and his grandmother's name, Nedia; in keeping with the family custom of giving boys names that begin with the letter "R", the "D" in Douglas was changed to an "R," yielding Rougned.[2]

His father, also named Rougned, played college baseball for the University of New Orleans.[3] He has a sister[4] and a younger brother, Rougned José Odor,[5] who signed with the Texas Rangers organization on February 19, 2015.[6] His uncle, Rouglas, played for eight seasons in Minor League Baseball for the Cleveland and Milwaukee Brewers organizations

If Rougned Odor has multiple sons I hope they are all named Rougned as well.

Just one of the best Wikipedia entries ever.

'rouglas' is a legit great name

Looking forward to a good time with users Tracer Hand, SV & Fongles

As am I! But... what's this "Fongles" business

It’s in relation to what I discussed with you earlier

oh no what did fizzles do now

didn’t know my surname despite us having met double digit times irl & attended baseball together

Watching this video of Manny being Manny and I’m nearly in tears at the Damon cutoff interception, what the fuck was he doing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQjTXct8e3k

From the Athletic history of the Idiots:

Arroyo: Millar had all these quick little sayings he’d say in the dugout. We were playing the Orioles and they were just making a bunch of errors. It looked like “The Bad News Bears” out there. Bill Mueller hit the ball and there was another error. Millar said something like: “Look at this! They’ve got the Dancing Bear and the poodle with extra long ears!” He was referring to a circus. But anything he would say, if it got a laugh, Manny would repeat it. For the next two years, every time Bill Mueller would get a hit, you’d hear Manny go…

Millar: “Papi, Papi, the poodle with the long ears and the dancing bear!”

Arroyo: He thought Millar was talking about Bill Mueller.

Timlin: Every time (Manny) would walk by, he would say: “Billy, you’re the dancing bear.” And Bill would laugh and smile and Manny would walk off and he’d go: “I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about.”

the thing about that cutoff is that damon’s arm really was that bad