Month: October 2016

“Pitcher,” by Robert Francis

October 17, 2016

I love how this piece highlights the seeming contradictions that one finds in the job of the pitcher, and how everything a pitcher strives to do seems to go against the grain of what everyone else strives to do.  I feel like I could spend hours picking apart the various subtleties and potential interpretations of this piece.  I particularly love the third stanza: “The others throw to be comprehended. He / Throws to be a moment misunderstood.”

*

His art is eccentricity, his aim
How not to hit the mark he seems to aim at,

His passion how to avoid the obvious,
His technique how to vary the avoidance.

The others throw to be comprehended. He
Throws to be a moment misunderstood.

Yet not too much. Not errant, arrant, wild,
But every seeming aberration willed.

Not to, yet still, still to communicate
Making the batter understand too late.

This day in baseball: First NL DH

October 16, 2016

Dan Driessen of the Reds became the first National League player to be used as a designated hitter during the first game of the 1976 World Series.  From 1973 to 1975, though the DH had been employed in the American League, all World Series games were played under National League rules, with no DH and pitchers batting.

Starting in 1976, the DH rule applied to all games in the World Series, regardless of venue, but only in even-numbered years.  Beginning in 1986, the DH rule was used in games played in the stadium of the American League representative.

dan_driessen_autograph
baseball-almanac.com

A Chicago Man in Hell

October 14, 2016

This joke got a bit of a chuckle out of me.  As a general rule, I don’t go out of my way to dis on another team, because I know how much I hate it when others say things about mine.  That being said, even as I post this, I do think it would be really cool to see the Cubs win a World Series in my lifetime — heaven knows they’ve waited long enough.  This, as you’ll see, is the crux behind this joke.

*

A Chicago man dies and goes to hell. When he gets there, the devil comes over to welcome him. The devil then says, “Sometimes it gets pretty uncomfortable down here.” The man says, “No problem. I’m from Chicago.”

So the devil goes over to the thermostat, turns the temperature up to 100, and the humidity up to 80. He then goes back to the Chicago man to see how he’s doing. To the devil’s surprise, the man is doing just fine. “No problem… just like Chicago in June,” the man says.

So the devil goes back over to the thermostat, and turns the temperature up to 150, and the humidity up to 90. He then goes back over to see how the Chicago man is doing. The man is sweating a little, but overall looks comfortable. “No problem. Just like Chicago in July,” the man says.

So now the devil goes over to the thermostat, turns the temperature up to 200, and the humidity up to 100. When he goes back to see how the man is doing, the man is sweating profusely, and has taken his shirt off. Otherwise, he seems OK. He says, “No problem. Just like Chicago in August.”

Now the devil is really perplexed. So he goes back to the thermostat, and turns the temperature down to MINUS 150 DEGREES. Immediately, all the humidity in the air freezes up, and the whole place (meaning Hell) becomes a frigid, barren, frozen, deathly cold wasteland. When he goes back now to see how the Chicago man is doing, he is shocked to discover the man is jumping up and down, and cheering in obvious delight. The devil immediately asks the man what’s going on. To which the Chicago man replies, “THE CUBS WON THE WORLD SERIES!!! THE CUBS WON THE WORLD SERIES!!!”

Quote of the day

October 13, 2016

It’s a funny kind of month, October. For the really keen… fan it’s when you discover that your wife left you in May.

~Denis Norden

denis_norden
The Jewish Chronicle

Infographic: MLB 2015 Injuries

October 12, 2016

Here is a fascinating infographic, presented to us by Forbes.  It depicts the cost of placing players on the disabled list — or, at least, the total cost of injuries in Major League Baseball during the 2015 season.  To the surprise of no one, I’m sure, elbow injuries in pitchers comprise the largest chunk of the overall total.  And, as we all know, player salaries only continue to rise, which makes placing them on the disabled list all the more costly.

2015-mlb-injuries

Quote of the day

October 9, 2016

Why? Why should the bond between a people and their baseball team be so intense? Fenway Park is a part of it, offering a physical continuum to the bond, not only because Papi can stand in the same batter’s box as Teddy Ballgame, but also because a son might sit in the same wooden-slat seat as his father.

~Tom Verducci

 

tom_verducci_2011
Wikipedia

 

Turning two

October 7, 2016

It feels like only yesterday that I wrote my 500th post on this blog.  It seems quite surreal that I now find myself sitting down to work on this one, post number 1,000.  To commemorate the occasion, I thought I’d focus on a play from my softball-playing days that I look back on with pride and fondness.

During the summer between my junior and senior years of high school, I played for a competitive softball team called the Drifters.  We were a pretty solid team, and with the exception of a few stints in the outfield or at third base, I spent most of the summer playing shortstop.

I honestly cannot recall where we were playing or who we were playing against, nor can I recall what inning we were in, but I do remember that this particular memory happened around mid-summer and that it was after dark.  The artificial lighting illuminated the field so completely that it might as well have been noon, and bugs buzzed around the infield as though they wanted to be a part of the game, too.

We were on defense, with me at shortstop, and we had one out in the inning with a runner on first.  The girl at the plate slapped a groundball to second base, and everything that happened from there was essentially the product of hundreds of repetitions during practices.

With a ball hit to the right side of the field, I automatically moved to my left to cover second base.  Our second baseman fielded the ball cleanly behind the baseline and tossed it to me as the runner who had been on first came barreling towards me.  I caught the ball and pivoted.

All I can remember seeing was the front of the baserunner’s jersey.  I couldn’t see our first baseman, but I also knew that I didn’t have time to look for her.  With the runner coming straight at me and not bothering to slide, I dropped my throwing motion to a sidearm and fired as hard as I could around the runner, making my best guess at first base without being able to locate it visually.  The baserunner came into second base, still standing.

Next thing I knew, I heard cheering and my teammates were running past me towards the dugout.  I blinked, confused.  Holy crap, did we get her? I thought wildly.  I jogged towards the dugout, where our coach greeted me with a huge smile and a high five.  I sat down on the bench, still too stunned to believe it.

We had turned a 4-6-3 double play, and I hadn’t even realized it.  It was the first (and only) double play of that sort that I’d ever turned.

Watching Major League Baseball on television, an infield double play like that appears to be one of the most routine plays out there.  You don’t realize just how difficult it is to pull off until you’re out on the field trying to do it yourself.  Every piece of it has to go right: the ball has to be fielded cleanly, thrown cleanly, and caught cleanly, and it all has to be done with rapid fire precision.  The tiniest misplay or hesitation can blow the entire play.  At the amateur level, the only double plays you ever really see are the result of unlucky line drives or miscues by baserunners.  That play we turned with the Drifters was the only one of that sort that I’ve ever seen at that level, and I didn’t even get to see the end of it.  But I sure was glad to be a part of it.

This day in baseball: Galvin’s 300th win

October 5, 2016

James Francis “Pud” Galvin of the Pittsburgh Alleghenys became the first pitcher to reach 300 victories on October 5, 1888 when Pittsburgh defeated the Washington Senators, 5-1.  Pitching in an era when two-man pitching rotations were the norm, Galvin accumulated 6,003 innings pitched and 646 complete games over his career, numbers second only to those of Cy Young.  He reached the 300-victory landmark at the age of 31, and would finish his career with a 365-310 record.

pudgalvin
Library of Congress