MLB Thread

[theatremouse]

5 hours ago, mojoween said:

Buster Olney said the Red Sox are just EXHAUSTED from the trip to London so you probably won’t see Mookie Betts at all and most likely not Xander Boegarts.

Um.

Ok.

Soooooo...Gary Sanchez.  DJ Lamahieu.  Are starting.  Did they not fly the same flight path?  Did they have some super secret jet stream that caused them to feel less fatigue?

I don't really have a beef with this. Back in the day every time I used to go to London I'd adjust to/from the jetlag almost immediately, but Sibling had a hard time. Different people react differently. It's plausible to me the Red Sox players are wiped to the point they don't really want to participate in an exhibition game, but the Yankee players are either less wiped or just as wiped but the ASG is important enough to them personally they want to participate anyway.

[catlover79]

2 hours ago, mojoween said:

At first I thought Aroldis Chapman was lustily booed because Yankees and also wife beater but then I remembered it was probably the two inning save in the WS.

Likely all of those, but most of all the WS...for sure.

[mojoween]

Weird. CC Sabathia comes out for a ceremonial mound visit, the damn Cleveland DJ starts playing “The Final Countdown” and coincidentally a dust storm blows right through my living room.

[catlover79]

A Tribe player wins MVP (Shane Bieber) of the ASG...only the third time that's happened in the player's home park. The only other ones to do it were Sandy Alomar in 1997 and Pedro Martinez in 1999. Way to go, Biebs!!

Edited July 10, 2019 by catlover79

[catlover79]

In case anyone missed it...

https://www.mlb.com/news/carlos-carrasco-honored-for-cancer-fight-at-all-star-game

[doodlebug]

4 hours ago, mojoween said:

At first I thought Aroldis Chapman was lustily booed because Yankees and also wife beater but then I remembered it was probably the two inning save in the WS.

I was there, we were booing on general principle, although we granted him 30 seconds of approval for ending the game.

[catlover79]

On 7/8/2019 at 4:11 PM, cleo said:

I wasn't going to watch the ASG this year bc honestly I spend too much time on my butt watching sports but as soon as they post the lineups I'm sucked in. 

Disappointed Yelich is not in the HRD, simply bc I think he adds a lot to the competition but glad he seems to be playing tomorrow.

I would say who I'm rooting for, but they would inevitably lose. Bc I'm a jinx.

OK, now that the competition and festivities are over...who were you rooting for?

[smittykins]

8 hours ago, mojoween said:

Walker Buehler is a great name.  It doesn’t feel like a baseball name, but it’s great nonetheless.

I think he should have “Anyone” as his Players Weekend nickname(although I think he’s used “Ferris”).

Edited July 10, 2019 by smittykins

[Crs97]

I hope Joey Gallo has Vinnie (or maybe Jerry Callo) on the back of his jersey as his nickname.  I know I think about My Cousin Vinnie every time I hear his name.

[cleo]

@catlover79 I was rooting for the NL. I am still a jinx lol. I actually thought they were a long shot to win it regardless. 

I dont like the idea of the DH in the NL except that it would even the leagues out maybe bc the AL always seems stronger to me. I don't know why, but I assume it is because of the DH and the different styles of play in the two leagues. My alternative idea of getting rid of the DH in the AL is apparently not popular. 

Edited July 10, 2019 by cleo

[mojoween]

I liked having the players mic’d up but not talking to the announcers.  I would just love to hear a games worth of chatter.

The teams could all afford the multitude of FCC violations that would then occur.

Edited July 10, 2019 by mojoween

[roamyn]

20 hours ago, catlover79 said:

A Tribe player wins MVP (Shane Bieber) of the ASG...only the third time that's happened in the player's home park. The only other ones to do it were Sandy Alomar in 1997 and Pedro Martinez in 1999. Way to go, Biebs!!

While the Indians hold the record for hosting the ASG, the last two were at THE JAKE and both times an Indian won MVP.  If THE JAKE ever hosts again, Tribe players will have some major pressure.  LOL

[ebk57]

RIP Jim Bouton

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/jim-bouton-baseball-pitcher-whose-ball-four-gave-irreverent-peek-inside-the-game-dies-at-80/2019/07/10/f73acf52-b4e5-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?utm_term=.e5a1a5eb06a8

[attica]

The sheer force of vitriol thrown at (geddit?) Bouton for 'revealing the secrets of the clubhouse' was a.may.zing.  Everybody in baseball haaaaated him for a long time. And all he did was just...write about his day.  People are really invested in the myths they tell about themselves, you know?

Sportswriters, who you would think would be all for it, were largely not.  It threatened their gatekeeping status. It mostly took a generational turnover to praise Bouton. By the time we got to Patrick/Olbermann, it had been completed.

Edited July 11, 2019 by attica

[mojoween]

So I have to admit that I was unaware of this book but I need to get and read “Ball Four” posthaste, no?

[Lantern7]

54 minutes ago, mojoween said:

So I have to admit that I was unaware of this book but I need to get and read “Ball Four” posthaste, no?

Perhaps the greatest book ever written by a member of the Seattle Pilots.

Also, one of the most influential books in the sports genre. Get thee to the library.

[Crs97]

Ball Four is awesome!  He also wrote Strike Zone, which is fictional, but also delightful!

[doodlebug]

1 hour ago, mojoween said:

So I have to admit that I was unaware of this book but I need to get and read “Ball Four” posthaste, no?

You must.  Bouton wrote a baseball classic that changed the way players were viewed by the public.  He exposed Mickey Mantle and other heroes of the game as fallible human beings who weren't always perfect.  It earned him a lot of grief from his fellow players, but it ended up being good for the game, IMO.  Bouton's absolute love for playing baseball comes through on every page.

He's also the author of my favorite baseball quote.  In Ball Four, he is at the end of his career, hanging on by the skin of his teeth and coming to the realization that maybe he isn't good enough even for an expansion team.  He tells the story of a guy he once played with who, after being released from the minors, travelled all over the country playing semi-pro ball because he just couldn't leave baseball behind.  Bouton wondered if he would do that, too, and comes to the conclusion that, indeed, he'd do whatever it took to stay in the game.  Bouton did play semi-pro ball well into his 50's. This is what he said:

“A ballplayer spends a good piece of his life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.”
― Jim Bouton

ETA: Bouton and a teammate invented 'Big League Chew', the bubble gum that comes shredded and in a pouch like tobacco.

Edited July 11, 2019 by doodlebug

[cleo]

Man I used to love Big League Chew. Totally forgot about it.

[smittykins]

It’s still around; I’ve seen it at my local supermarket.

[jennifer6973]

Big league Chew also comes in a gumball version.  Not as fun.

[mojoween]

I lived on Big League Chew in the 80’s (grape, always grape).  I gave some to my son in his stocking a few years ago and he was like “eh.”  It was very distressing.

Baseball, come back!  I miss you.

[Ms Blue Jay]

7 hours ago, mojoween said:

So I have to admit that I was unaware of this book but I need to get and read “Ball Four” posthaste, no?

I heard soooooooooo many good things.  I have a couple of copies lying around now, because used ones are so cheap on Amazon and I got one for my Dad.  We still haven't read it 😫

[catlover79]

3 hours ago, mojoween said:

I lived on Big League Chew in the 80’s (grape, always grape).  I gave some to my son in his stocking a few years ago and he was like “eh.”  It was very distressing.

Baseball, come back!  I miss you.

You are my spiritual animal. I LOVE grape Big League Chew. The sour apple flavor is really good, too. 

Update on the Lucroy/Marisnick collision:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27169303/marisnick-suspended-2-games-lucroy-collision%3fplatform=amp

[xaxat]

17 minutes ago, catlover79 said:

Update on the Lucroy/Marisnick collision:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27169303/marisnick-suspended-2-games-lucroy-collision%3fplatform=amp

Good.

[catlover79]

Shane Bieber, Terry Francona and Carlos Carrasco are all going to be talking to the media tonight, ahead of the homestand that will start tomorrow.

[Lantern7]

MLB teams with Atlantic League to introduce new rules for the latter’s second half. Normally, I’d post this in the minor league thread, but it looks like MLB is throwing stuff on another walls and sees what sticks. Do “robot umpires” and “stealing first base” sound blasphemous to anyone reading this?

[smittykins]

How, pray tell, does one steal first base?

[attica]

Picking up the bag on your way to second and running with it?

[Bort]

It looks like they can try for first on a wild pitch.

[Lantern7]

4 hours ago, kariyaki said:

It looks like they can try for first on a wild pitch.

There it is, @smittykins. The ideas sound kinky as hell, though I can see one or two maybe getting considered by MLB.

ETA: Got a nice present in my copy of Sports Illustrated in the Scorecard section: a simulated Bingo card of the Mets' miseries this year. I can't find it online. I know that there's promise with some of the players, but the hopelessness is so thick with them, to a point where it's easy to lump them with the Marlins and Orioles. I'm thinking the average fan's worst fear is Noah Syndergaard getting traded to the Yankees and losing all that hair. Also, that he winds up winning 30 games in 2020 as a Yankee.

Edited July 12, 2019 by Lantern7

[mojoween]

Joe West is terrible.  The WORST.

[Lantern7]

On 7/12/2019 at 8:03 PM, mojoween said:

Joe West is terrible.  The WORST.

What happened?

ETA: Mets are currently up 2-1 on Miami. Oh, and Doc Golden Gooden might have fallen off the wagon. Again.🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

ETA2:  . . . and Vargas gave up back-to-back homers. Also, I found out ESPN has fireworks effects when someone homers. Once again: 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

ETA3: “Doc Golden”? Friggin’ autocorrect . . .

Edited July 14, 2019 by Lantern7

[mojoween]

This is just one of his egregiously bad calls.  The overhead cam showed just how far off the plate it really was.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

1 hour ago, mojoween said:

Joe West is terrible.  The WORST.

He is pretty terrible, but I think Angel Hernandez is my least favorite ump. I'll never forget one of the games I attended before the replay review became a thing, and how the only reason the Giants lost a game was because of his terrible, beyond incorrect call. Even from the nosebleed seats, you could tell our player was safe. Heck, even a blind person would have been a better ump. Our player was beyond safe. Ridiculously safe. It wasn't even a close call. It was just such a fucking stupid way to lose the game and unnecessary. So, he's been on my shit list ever since, and clearly I'm never going to forgive him for it. 😆

So maybe Angel, your blatantly shitty umpiring is why you were overlooked for promotions. 🙄

[mojoween]

Wasn’t Angel at first base for the 28 out perfect game?  The guy who made Armando Galarraga make that sad face earned my enmity for life.

Edited July 13, 2019 by mojoween

[catrox14]

8 hours ago, mojoween said:

Wasn’t Angel at first base for the 28 out perfect game?  The guy who made Armando Galarraga make that sad face earned my enmity for life.

As much as I find Hernandez awful, that was Jim Joyce. He and Galarraga worked together on a book about that incident called Nobody's Perfect.

The sad part is that Joyce was generally considered one of the best umpires in the league prior to that call.

[smittykins]

As soon as he realized his mistake, Joyce owned up to it.  I could never imagine West(or Hernández)doing so.

ETA:  The combined no-hitter by the Angels hit me right in the feels.

Edited July 13, 2019 by smittykins

[mojoween]

2 hours ago, catrox14 said:

As much as I find Hernandez awful, that was Jim Joyce. He and Galarraga worked together on a book about that incident called Nobody's Perfect.

The sad part is that Joyce was generally considered one of the best umpires in the league prior to that call.

Ahh ok thank you.  

The emotion when Tyler Skagg’s mom threw out the first pitch...oof.  Grieving in public has to be one of the worst parts of fame.

[Silver Raven]

When Liam Hendricks was chosen for the All Star Game, the Athletics took out a full page ad in an Australian newspaper celebrating him.  At the bottom of the page, they included their motto, Hashtag RootedInOakland.

"Root" is Australian slang for "fuck".

Edited July 13, 2019 by Silver Raven

[theatremouse]

13 hours ago, smittykins said:

ETA:  The combined no-hitter by the Angels hit me right in the feels.

I'm not crying, you're crying.

[attica]

Doc Gooden was arrested last month for cocaine possession.  While driving. 1 am. New Jersey. 9 years since his last arrest. 

I mean, what really can you say? 

[theatremouse]

Sadly, this probably just means it's the first time he's been caught in more recent years.

[AimingforYoko]

1 hour ago, attica said:

I mean, what really can you say? 

Rick James said it best.

[Lantern7]

I think the point is to never look up to celebrities. The harder they fall, the stupider you'll feel afterward for rooting for them. The sad thing is that Doc isn't even the worst "my childhood is ruined!"* issue. I grew up listening to albums from Bill Cosby. Can you imagine the number of routines that take up space in my brain? That includes his original "Fat Albert" bit. And I can't share there in polite (re: offline) company!

For any Yankees fans . . . .are you feeling bad about Doc's latest fall from grace? I mean, he did win a few rings in the Bronx, and he did get that no-hitter. But he's mainly remembered as a Met, for good and for ill.

*My childhood wasn't retroactively ruined. It was pretty messed up. I'm not one of those dudes that hears about a "reboot" and starts screaming about it. Well, not usually.

[theatremouse]

13 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

are you feeling bad about Doc's latest fall from grace?

For me, I think the time to feel bad about it was back when the news first broke a million years ago. I don't know if I'm a pessimist or an asshole, but hearing the current news about Gooden is not in any way surprising. It's always been a "when" not an "if" in my head, I think. The next time I'll be sad to hear about this is if he dies because of it (either actual OD or doing something while under the influence that cases his death - and hopefully no one else's). I hope it doesn't happen but I'll unfortunately not be surprised if it does.

[Bort]

People have drug-problems. For a lot of people, that never goes away. I really don't have any sort of Fallen Hero disillusionment about it because it's not like Doc turned out to be a serial killer or anything. Cokehead. Oh well. It happens.

[Lantern7]

Something major happening. Can’t say what or where. If you have MLB Network, turn to that now and wait.

[Sew Sumi]

Watching! It's not on yet. 

[Sew Sumi]

Oh well. So much for that.