Baseball oddities

Interesting note on Valdez' pitching victory last night.

According to MLB.com, citing the Elias Sports Bureau, the last player before Valdez to start a game in the field and earn a win was Babe Ruth [left field] on Oct. 1, 1921.

In that game, the second in a double-header, according to the box score, the Yankees who had clinched their 1st pennant, had Ruth relieve in the 8th up 6-0.

Ruth had earlier relieved Wally Pipp from his first base duties [sounds familiar...] and was replaced in left by the humorously named Chicken Hawks. [also interesting to me is that the Yankee RF was named B. Roth!]

Ruth promptly gave up the entire lead. Oddly, to me at least, the Yankees who used two pitchers to hurl 8 shutout innings left him out there. But, then again the A's pitcher who gave up the 6 pitched the entire game for them.

The Yankees won the game in the bottom of the 11th. I can't tell who drove in the winning run. But, it was scored by Tom Rogers who doubled in his only AB. Could have been Ruth. Also could have been Johnny Mitchell or, less likely, Chick Fewster.

The win brought Ruth to 2-0 for the year. Ruth's 1-for-4 would plummet his average to .376. He steals his 16 base of the year in the game.

For some reason they play one more game and it's against the Red Sox. Ruth rebounds with a 2-4 and his 59th HR. He ends the year with 171 RBI, .377 AVG, and an astounding 1.356 OPS. Interestingly he has 17 SB and 13 errors.


SOURCE

Box Score for Charin

17 outfield assists that year makes up for the 13 errors.

Beavis/Butthead headline chuckle:

"Mets waiting to see how Dickey feels Monday"

Seems ESPN thinks similarly to me on EinHorn:

"Future Mets minority owner won't rule out franchise peril -- he might be banking on it."

"Einhorn has an option to up his share to 60 percent in three years, but that the Wilpons can block it by returning his initial $200 million investment."

"If the Wilpons block it, Einhorn would still retain one-sixth of the team, according to the source. That's a nice perk for what essentially would be a three-year loan."

Wilpon's gonna get clipped by another Jew. Israel, Madoff, now Einhorn. There is no doubt in my mind that he's running the team in 3 years.

Per Newsday:

"Einhorn is not arriving as a savior. His $200 million already is earmarked for the Mets' operating costs and substantial debt.

It's essentially an infusion of cash to keep the Wilpons afloat -- but just long enough to sink over the next three years, if not sooner.

This is not about Einhorn ponying up the money to keep Jose Reyes . Just the opposite.

He'd be more than happy if the Mets keep trotting out Triple-A lineups the way they did Monday night, when the only difference between them and the low-budget Pirates was the color of the uniforms.

Einhorn had no interest in blowing sunshine around Citi Field before the game."

SOURCE

Smart man, betting on the Wilpon's history of being inept and the chance Picard breaks them. Mets will be rebuilding another 2-3 years, shedding payroll. SNY has to be factored in to that 60% step up, or else he'd have them by the balls on it.

After the deal is signed, does Einhorn go around buying up Wilpon debt?

Fatcesa says it's more like a six-year loan.

Anyway, like you, he is counting on either Picard or Alderson falling on his face. Or he gets a 1/6 of the Mets for free anyway.




And, he's gotten TONS of publicity you'd have to spend millions on.

Before last week, did any of us even know OneHorn existed??

Now there is likely a rush to buy into his funds/services.

The Mets have gone 10 games without an HR. The last one was the important, but pathetic, pole hugger at Yankee Stadium by Daniel Murphy.

Beltran hasn't hit one since he hit 3 in a game in Denver. Bay since the next series in Houston.


While some might blame CitiField on this drought, I would remind those so inclined that 5 of these games were played at Yankee Stadium and Wrigley Field, neither unfriendly to the long ball.

And, over the same ten games the Mets have allowed 8 HRs.


The club record is 17 in 1980, which is also the last time they went 12 or more games without a homer.

Allan James Burnett, now 0-4 8.71 ERA in 8 starts against Boston since his free agent signing with the Yankees, has had FOUR games of 7 or more earned runs when facing the Red Sox.

According to several sources the only Yankee pitcher with more is Red Ruffing, who had FIVE such starts in more than FIFTY starts. Burnett, in comparison has made just EIGHT starts against the Sox so far.

Odd, since A.J. Burnett won 5 games without defeat in the same number of starts against the Sox with Toronto.

In fact his ERA was 2.56, less than the number of runs he gave up in just the first inning yesterday.




The speculation all day on every talk show - radio and TV - had been that he'd put Ortiz on his ass for flipping the bat after his HR on Tuesday [or just for being so comfortable at the plate, ala Gibson, Clemens, et. al.]

Instead, he decided on the olive branch of a grooved pitch for a HR the first time he faced him.

July 25, 1956 Cubs are leading the Pirates 8-5 going into the bottom of the ninth. After the bases are loaded, Cubs bring in lefty Jim Brosnan to face rookie Roberto Clemente. Clemente ends the game with a walk-off inside-the-park grand slam.
Box Score

Interesting ....

Not interesting, just a cool pic from the SI home page.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's a good one Chuck.

I remember that.

Would have been interesting if he couldn't continue, since Martin was out of the lineup because of his back and according to Cashman, and Jorge has refused to try to catch when he was told he wouldn't be the starter, so he isn't in shape.

That is what they say now. In the spring I remember the scuttle butt was that they didn't want him catching under any circumstances. With his Medoza line season, so far, I'm sure they'd love for him to catch a couple games and get injured so they can move on, and maybe collect on the insurance. I love Jorge, Favorite Yankee position player since Donnie Baseball, but if he had a f'n tantrum when they dropped him in the line up, if he is converted to a pinch hitter for the rest of the season, he just going to be sulking on the bench.

That is odd, isn't it?

But, Jorge isn't denying it.

I don't really understand the Yankees. They seem bent on undermining their past stars. I was surprised how they treated Bernie at the end [or the core position guys, I thought him the best].

Then this off-season with Jeter. Then with Jorge.

The only one immune is Mariano.

George was the one that cared about winning at any expense and Yankee tradition. Randy Levine and Lonn Trust don't give a shit about fans or players, just dollar signs. Cashman, I'm 50/50 on. I don't like the way he handles a lot of things, but he could be much worse.

Cashman is bitter about over paying Jorge for too many years, because he became a free agent after a really good year, with no other options out there.

They are all bitter about Jeter, because he is bigger than the team in the eyes of Yankee fans. He holds more power than they do, because with George gone, Jeter IS the Yankees.

Bernie...Bernie was treated like shit when he was young with the team. I think they made him go to arbitration every year, and denigrated him in the process. So when Bernie got free agency and made the Yanks over pay to keep him from the Red Sox, it went up their noses.

Andy Pettite was treated worse than all of them. George was always trying to trade the guy (to the Phillies for Schilling comes to mind), even though all he did was win and come up big in the biggest games. Pettite is my overall favorite Yankee of the recent era. Everybody talk about his high ERA, but pitching in the AL East is a different level than any other division.

Mo they are scared of, because he hasn't taken a step back, he is irreplaceable, and he won't have any problem walking away the moment god tells him its time. If they bad mouthed him tomorrow, he might leave the team by Monday morning.

That is true.

I forget about Andy because I hold a second-person grudge. I have a friend, a cousin and third indirect anecdotal source who all claim he's the worst tipper of all time.

But, he got them a bit in the end. He went to the WS without the core.

If the guy played the majority of his career in the NL West, he'd have no rings, but be a LOCK Hall of Famer.

I don't think many Southern/Mid-West bible freaks are good tippers. Bible thumpin is the only thing I hold against him.

May 19, 1925 Senators at Cleveland trailing the Indians 3-2 with a runner on base, two outs, top of the ninth. Pinch hitter Walter Johnson homers to give the Senators a 4-3 edge that holds up.
Box Score

Last night. The Mets after trailing the Braves 6-2 tie the game and then go ahead 8-6 only to see the game tied on a Brooks Conrad 2 run homer in the bottom of the 9th and then lose the game by balking in the runner from third in the bottom of the tenth . Story and line score.

Yeah. That SUCKED.

We can't get out Chipper or the guy who takes his place in the order, I guess.

So I am listening to Fatcesa today and he starts talking about Don Mossi. Says anyone that has seen his baseball cards would know something interesting about him. I figure it is something with his stats, so I check it out on Baseball Reference w/ my smart phone. Now I'm listening to the radio, and never heard of this guy before. With Fatcesa's Long Island accent and the buffalo balls he stuffs into his mouth before they turn the mic on, I'm looking up Don Marcy, Marci, Marcey.

Turned out it was the guy had huge ears.

I think the word I hate most that he says is mi-yun, in place of Million.

I turned off Fatcesa at about 1 hour today. Nothing was going on and he was "creating". Always a bad mix.

So right after the Tiki interview? You didn't miss anything with the golf guys that were on. Last decade golf was interesting for 20 minutes while Fatty and Dog were interviewing Lee Trevino at the US OPEN(?). Best interview they ever did, because it made me interested in something to do with golf.

I thought Tiki just furthered my opinion that he's an asshole. He completely bombed at NBC, but won't admit it. Guy never gives anyone else credit for helping him, and never takes responsibility for fucking up. I can't wait to see him fall on his face in his desperation return to the NFL.

P.S. That agent was a typical agent. Probably only demanded to be on to stick it to Fatcesa, who hates him. Guy is Beningo's agent too, I think.

Didn't hear Tiki. Intentionally didn't listen today. Tiki and golf. It's like a Mad Dog tennis day with Mike off. Feh.

I was talking about Monday. There were no real "issues" so he was trying to make issues out of nothing.

The first ball I got at a game was off the bat of now manager Bob Melvin when he was with the Nashville Sounds, a Tiger farm time at the time. The ball was hit over the head of Wally Johnson, whom we had been mercilessly taunting.

Wally enjoyed talking to us during the game.

Paul O'Neill ignored us when the Zephyrs came to town.

Fatcesa is on YES and WFAN.com, because of Mets rain delay and remote for NBA draft.

I don't really care about the NBA draft.

Riggleman resigned after the walk-off win because they wouldn't extend his contract.

Not even an extension, he said they wouldn't pick up his option for next year. I don't blame the guy.

And, it was only for like 600k. Odd, huh?

The money they threw at Werth, and they couldn't throw this guy 600k to get through the season?? Who they gonna get that's any better. Team is still a few years away.

Playing in his 1,000th game on Tuesday evening, Reyes entered the day with 97 career triples and 359 stolen bases.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the only other player with that many triples and steals in his first 1,000 games was Hall of Famer Ty Cobb, who amassed 106 triples and 391 stolen bases by his 1,000th game in 1912.

Yep. With 15 of those triples coming in the first half of this year. Isn't this type of performance the exact reason for NOT giving out long-term contracts? If he had to play-for-pay like this every year, he'd be a hall-of-famer for sure.

Four organizations wanted to sign me out of High School.




















The Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Marines.

What ? No offers from the church leagues ? Gaggggg !!!

Jeter: Home run for hit # 3000, only other guy to do that is Boggs.

5-5, only other guy to get 5 hits same game as hit # 3000 is Biggio.

You can hate the Yanks, I don't blame you. You can call him over paid, it's true. But Derek Jeter knows how to get the job done. No denying it.

Also, since the hit was a home run, there were worries about the ball getting back to him. A 23 y/o guy caught it and immediately turned it over. He got potential World series tickets, other minor things and the opportunity to present Jeter the ball. I'd held out for Minka Kelly nude pics and a pair of her soiled panties.

Clemens goes free because the government prosecutors play the wrong video. What is frightening about this is not that Clemens got away with it, it's that these are the same people they want to put in charge of trying terrorists.

He didn't go free, they will attempt to try it again.

Yes, it shows how inept the government can be.

WFAN screws up and is broadcasting the game today through radio.com, instead of doing a replay of a show. MLB Gestapo will not be happy.

Update: Top of second and they cut the feed. Few minutes of silence before they threw on a show from last week.

P.S. Francesa was talking yesterday about something revolutionary coming in Sept, something to do with taking the show into the digital age, that everyone will copy. My guess: Streaming the YES network feed to cell phones. Only other thing I could think of is putting callers on via webcams.

Game is on MLB Network.

Reds are about dead. Pitching seems to be good, but they keep leaving runners in scoring position. No situational hitting. And making base running and mental mistakes. Dusty needs to crack the whip.

The Pirates?

Jim Thome just hit his 600th home run.

Whatta ya think Chuck, juice or no juice w/Thome?

I like to think no juice, just bandboxes, the Jake and the park in Philly. One thing the guy did was keep Ryan Howard in the minors long enough to hurt his chances at 500.

I've never been a big Thome fan, but I think he did it legit. HOF automatic.

Yeah, HOF is a definite. I just perused his stats on Baseball Reference, surprising a lock HOFer only made 5 All Star games. Also surprised that he actually hit .300 a couple times.

If it wasn't for gambling and beer no one would watch baseball.

Royals become the first team in history to have all three of their outfielders hit 40+ doubles in a season. (Gordon, Cabrera, and Francoeur)

Really nice comeback season for Francoeur. Maybe the Mets should've kept him and traded away Jason Bay instead.

Only thing to help the Mets is trading away that stadium. Yet another brilliant idea by the Wilpons.

Maybe they can still fix it. It's pretty telling that a team 8 games under .500 has one of the best road records in the NL.

They can't hit there, and they don't have the pitching to keep other teams from hitting there. They need to go all 80's Cardinals, Reyes as their Willie McGhee, can Ike be Jack Clark, the Thumper surrounded by speed demons? I don't know.


Eat half Bay's contract and trade him for pitching. Trade Wright to a band box for pitching prospects. Cross your fingers Santana can pitch again. Hope Reyes isn't insulted by what the initial low ball offer will be.

And I think Alderson is going to bring the fences in, but they can only do a certain percent each year.

Braves should gave kept him to begin with.

Both wild card races tied up heading to game 162 tomorrow. I have the DirecTV Extra Innings package, I'll try to keep up with 4 games at once.

Cardinals and Braves tied, Rays and Red Sox tied.

Cards at Houston
Phils at Atlanta
Rays at New York
Red Sox at Baltimore

All under the lights tomorrow night.

Yankees are scraping the bottom of the bullpen for pitching tomorrow. Sux spent all that money last winter to watch the playoffs from their living room. Bruins Cup musta started another curse in bean town.

The Braves have two of their top pitchers out and can't hit a fucking lick. They don't even need to be in the playoffs.

What a night! I got the teams out I wanted out. BDM, I should like the Braves, but I can't stand that droning tomahawk chop shit. And, I loathe Boston.

AL-
Det. -vs- NY
TB -vs- Tex.

NL-
St.L. -vs- Phil.
Ari. -vs - Mil.

Yanks got it tough w/ Verlander 2x in a short series.

Red Sux declined the option on Francona. Beginning of the end for them boys. Francona didn't injure Bucholz, make Youk a China doll, spend all that money on a soft Lackey or Crawford. Another 80sumtin years Sox fans. Hope you DVRed the celebrations.

5-4 to the Cardinals.

Carpenter ineffective. Down 4-0 and the bullpen comes in and saves the day. Cliff led staked to a big lead and it doesn't last. They decide to pitch to Pujols and lose.

Game 3 Tuesday in St. Louis.

i'm going straight to the top on this one. steinbrenner style.
theo has probably got a decent coke habit going by now and john henry is pumping money into the thai lady boi market like a bull so of course tito is going to take the blame. he was the only guy watching the games...

Theo sniffin around the Cubs, he's ready to jump off a sinking ship. He doesn't want to watch Lackey pitch the next 4 years.

The University of Texas is already having fun with this one.

U of T isn't having any fun today.

St.L. over Texas in 6.

If Pujols and Fielder leave the division, the Reds look good next year!

Nationals Starting Catcher Kidnapped

Congrats to new Hall of Famer Ron Santo.

You mean Hall of the Pretty Good.

They break Santo's balls and keep him out while he's alive, then vote him in when he's dead and can't appreciate it.

Nice job MLB.

Like the Yankees have retired #s and then the monuments, the HOP should really have a special "inner circle" or something for the truly great. No offense to Santo, I'm sure he'd have been an asset to any team, but come on. Really I'd say if you don't get 50% of the vote your first year, you are off the ballot after 5.

Probably 1/3 of the Hall of fame doesn't belong there. Another 1/3 is boarder line, and 1/3 no brainers.

I agree with a small Hall. Santo should not be there. The Veteran's Committee has put too many marginal players in.

You know, I'd even go for a thing where the BWAA and the members of the hall vote for a starting line up, minus DH, RHP, LHP and reliever every 10 years and put them in a special wing.

how bout they just vote em in based on salary. it only seems fair.

Nooooo. Then we wouldn't have a chance of keeping Bonds and A-Roid out.

Shoeless Joe and Petey Rose for the hall ...now !

Shoeless Joe, yes.

Pete, he a lying sack o' crap, he made his own bed. Day after he dies.

I don't like him either but you can't argue with his stats.

Absolutely. He could have retired from palying 5+ years before he did and he still would deserve to be in. I'm hung up on lying and disparaging people, even though the bad remarks were predicated on his lies. Fuck him.

Bonds got 30 days house arrest, 2 years probation, and community service.


2012 Writers' Ballot

Have $20 million laying around? Then become a Mets Minority Owner. they are trying to sell 10-12 4% stakes in the team. They need $200 million. This confirms that the Wilpons are delusional.

Seriously delusional. They want a bunch of money without really giving up anything in return for it. And they want to make sure they get to keep the team no matter what. I'm hoping MLB steps in and takes it away from them so we can get a real owner.

The Braves need a power hitting outfielder. Any takers ?

Larkin is the only BBWAA inductee this year. Makes me happy.

I didn't watch him day in and day out, but I never thought he was a HOFer.

I don't think Posada is a HOFer, either, but the papers seem to be touting him as such. They make a good case, but they compare him to the guys in there already, not contemporaries like Piazza and Pudge-Rod, both of whom probably more juice likely than Jorge.

Go here http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof.shtml and click the Voted By column. The BBWAA inductees mostly deserve to be there, the Veterans' Committee inductees are mostly marginal.

Larkin did something exceptional every time I went to see him play. I think he is very deserving. He'd have a closet full of Gold Gloves if not for Ozzie. .295 lifetime while moving up runners, etc. a 30-30 season, MVP, and a ring. Yeah, he's legit.

Santo, not so much. and fucking Tim McCarver will get the announcer's award. Ugh.

A local sports columnist today called Larkin one of the top 5 ss to ever play.

^^No.

Banks
A-Roid
Jeter
Ozzie
Ripken

Not necessarily in that order, but that is 5 off the top of my head.

I'm not going to complain much about Larkin, just felt like voicing my opinion.

Add Honus Wagner, Lou Boudreau, and Robin Yount to that list as well. I could probably name at least ten shortstops better than Larkin. Both Larkin and Santo belong in the Hall of Very Good but neither belong in the Hall of Fame.

We could probably pull the plug on the Veterans Committee. ESPN Classic has been around long enough that there is no excuse for a current voter not to have seen plenty of footage of everyone even remotely qualified to even be thought about voting into the Hall of Fame. They've pretty much put in every player from the first two thirds of the twentieth century who has any business being there already.

I didn't remember what the split was with Yount between SS and CF.

Dale Murphy being a nice guy and religious will probably keep him out. Should have beat his wife and kids and he would have been a lock. [strong sarcasm]

Back to back MVPs, switch to Gold Glove CF from CATCHER!! Feared hitter from late 70's until the late 80's. I'da put him in before Rice. He did have a performance enhancing berry on his face. Seems his skills left as soon as his lil friend did.

Speaking of former catchers and center fielders, next year Craig Biggio goes on the ballot.

3000 hits = HOF

Rafael Palmeiro got 3020 hits and only managed to get 12.6% of the writers to vote for him. It wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't get in.

Raffy caught red handed on the juice, then threw a teammate under the bus. They might as well take his name off the ballot, because he'll never make it.

Biggio was a good lead off guy, 3000 hits, and I think he's top 10 in doubles. His only benefit from juice was scoring a bunch of runs thanks to Bagwell. He's gonna get in.

Side note: John Heyman bolted SI to write for CBSSports.com. Very bad for SI. Their 2 name baseball writers now are Posnanski and Verducci, 2 douche bags. Now SI is NFL articles, by Peter King and Don Banks, and not much else.

OK
3000 hits, 500 HR or 300 W and no obvious steroids = HOF

Vlad hasn't hit any of those marks, he will make it, helped by the .318 lifetime for a RH hitter, and the gun he's got for an arm. He is a better version of Winfield, that wasn't quite as durable. Winfield hung around for the pay days and the extra hits to take away any doubts and the "Mr. May" stank.

Over Walter Johnson's 3509 strikeouts is a lock. 3000 is iffy, Smoltz may get in, I don't think Schilling will and Vazquez won't if he gets there.