I will see maybe 20,000-plus pitches this year. How can I be focused for those 20,000 pitches, not knowing when one might change the game? You can’t worry about yesterday, and you can’t worry about tomorrow. It’s about what is right there in front of you.
~Bobby Witt, Jr.
Here’s a video from Fun Fact Films featuring fifteen behind-the-scenes facts about one of my favorite baseball movies, The Sandlot. I do sympathize with Tom Guiry having to hear the line, “You’re killing me, Smalls!” every day for the rest of his life. Perhaps this is what led to him bashing the windshield of a Jeep with a dumbbell?
On July 24, 1926, Lou Gehrig stole home for the second time that season. The feat was accomplished as part of a double steal, with Babe Ruth as the trailing runner. The Iron Horse would steal 102 bases during his career, with 15 of those thefts being of home plate.
Here’s a fascinating video from Business Insider that I came across featuring Victor Conte, founder and president of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO). BALCO, you might recall, was a major player in MLB’s steroid scandal of the early-2000s. In this video, Conte talks openly about his role in the distribution of performance-enhancing substances, his thoughts on how pervasive doping has become in sports, and his thoughts about who is impacted by it all. The video focuses primarily on track and field and the Olympics, but I find it fascinating to see how this all is able to happen in general, and as the video shows, how the pressures across all sports might persuade an athlete to participate in drug use that they might not otherwise consider.
If you want to survive in New York, you better only read the box scores.
~Billy Martin
Ed Summers of the Detroit Tigers pitched all eighteen innings of a 0-0 tie with the Washington Senators on July 16, 1909. This contest at Bennett Park would be the longest scoreless game in American League history.
Happy Independence Day to all my U.S. friends! Please celebrate safely.
What you are thinking, what shape your mind is in, is what makes the biggest difference of all.
~Willie Mays
