• Welcome to BellGab.com Archive.
 

What a crazy year for baseball...

Started by pate, October 01, 2014, 04:09:40 PM

ShayP

Quote from: Paper*Boy on August 17, 2015, 11:07:10 PM
I was a young kid, we were on our summer vacation, visiting my uncle.  He worked for the bus company that drove the sports teams around, of course knew his fellow drivers and some of the players, and it was his idea to go down after the game.  Cleveland was in town, it was F Robby's first year as manager and him being baseball's first black manager that year was a huge national story.

The A's beat them that night, but Boog had homered and was all happy after the game.  Robinson, who hated to lose, finally came out.  He brushed past everyone ''no autographs tonight''.

Uncle Bob, who was pretty much the same size as Powell went on the bus, and, heh, told Robby I was a big fan and had come all that way to see him manage - and got the autograph.

The other thing I remember from the game was Oscar Gamble and his huge afro.  When he had his cap on it stuck way out and sort of looked like Mickey Mouse ears...

That's a great story.  I know the word gets thrown around too much, but....the part about you uncle is awesome8)

ponyboysunset

I just wanted to say that my Tigers might limp into the playoffs. If so, yeah, they are going to get lit up. Sigh. Why is the American League so awful that the Tigers as bad as they are this year might make it?

pate

Heya, PBS.

My beloved Royals losing to the Red Sox (team with a losing record) two nights running isn't very inspiring...

Keep the hope alive!

Up the Royals!

3OctaveFart

PonyBoy-
It would be incredible if a team that did a salary dump and fired its GM in August made the playoffs.

Another reason the DH stinks. 

Last week Madison Bumgarner - last year's World Series hero - hit his 5th homer of the season in a game in which he was the winning pitcher, and went 1 for 2 as a pinch hitter coming off the bench in between starts

Eddie Coyle


  Where baseball really suffers compared to football, hockey and basketball?

   Olbermann, Burns,Lupica and Calcaterra types plague the sport, where the other three don't have nearly as many fustian egomaniac activists. Though football may be catching up with their disgrunted ex-player class. "I've retired. You can abolish the sport now."

Eddie Coyle

  As summer 2015 winds down, The Darwin Award competition heats up!

  Initial reports have the fan who fell to his death at Turner Field, vigorously booing the pinch hitting A Rod and apparently so caught up in it...that he lost his balance and fell at least 40 feet.

  How this hasn't happened yet in the "Monstah" seats at Fenway troubles me.

pate

Quote from: Eddie Coyle on August 25, 2015, 02:08:23 PM
  Where baseball really suffers compared to football, hockey and basketball?

   Olbermann, Burns,Lupica and Calcaterra types plague the sport, where the other three don't have nearly as many fustian egomaniac activists. Though football may be catching up with their disgrunted ex-player class. "I've retired. You can abolish the sport now."

I am interested in this Olbermann?  RBIs, ERA, SB, E, &c?

My google-fu seems weak tonight...

Wait a sec, I find indications that there are many Olbermann Errors, but can't quite find the official MLB number.


Tonight's Giant-Dodger game matches a pair of aces - Bumgarner and Greinke. 

They are both batting 8th in their respective lineups.

Eddie Coyle

Quote from: Paper*Boy on September 01, 2015, 08:49:51 PM
Tonight's Giant-Dodger game matches a pair of aces - Bumgarner and Greinke. 

They are both batting 8th in their respective lineups.

   Good 2-1 game, MadBum's being taken deep by a long slumping Joc Pederson was a bit of a shock.

Quote from: Paper*Boy on September 01, 2015, 08:49:51 PM
Tonight's Giant-Dodger game matches a pair of aces - Bumgarner and Greinke. 

They are both batting 8th in their respective lineups.

People are finally starting to follow LaRussa's batting the pitcher in the 8th spot strategy.

Quote from: Eddie Coyle on September 02, 2015, 03:21:20 PM
   Good 2-1 game, MadBum's being taken deep by a long slumping Joc Pederson was a bit of a shock.

Pederson was one of the 2 batting 9th behind the Pitchers


MadBum (.254) went 0 for 2, Greinke (.207) 0 for 3

The most embarrassed players on the field, batting 9th:
- Adrianza (.165) for SF went 0 for 2 before being lifted for a PH
- Pederson (.213) rose to the occasion with the HR in one of his 3 At Bats

At the July 31 trade deadline, Yoenis Cespedes was sent from the Detroit Tigers of the American League to the New York Mets in the National League.  Before the trade, the Mets offense was anemic, since then they've led the league in scoring. 

Cespedes is doing for the Mets what he used to do for the A's in Oakland.  To the point that it is being wondered aloud if he could be the MVP of the NL, despite playing half his games in the AL this year (with the Tigers)

With Toronto's Josh Donaldson the leading contender for the AL MVP, and now talk of Cespedes as the NL MVP - Billy Bean, the asshole General Manager of the Oakland A's, has a shot at becoming the first GM in history to have traded both league MVP's away in the prior year. 

Money Ball in action.  Oh yes, it's just so successful


Quote from: Paper*Boy on September 12, 2015, 08:48:17 PM

Money Ball in action.  Oh yes, it's just so successful

Sandy Alderson seems to be better at it. Even the Padres had playoff teams when he was down there.

Eddie Coyle


    Congrats to Florida Evans doppelganger David Ortiz reaching 500 homers. It would have meant something 20 years ago. 500 homers and being on the "PED list" means Cooperstown is no lock. The Red Sox cult doesn't understand that.

Quote from: Eddie Coyle on September 12, 2015, 10:16:39 PM
    Congrats to Florida Evans doppelganger David Ortiz reaching 500 homers. It would have meant something 20 years ago. 500 homers and being on the "PED list" means Cooperstown is no lock. The Red Sox cult doesn't understand that.

Maybe because I saw them play, instead of being legends from the past, but the last several decades of Hall inductees leave a lot to be desired.  Someone ought to tell the BBWAA voters it's ok to go a year or two (or 5) without electing anyone. 

The Veterans Committee has been on overdrive over about that same period of time as well.


Why on earth did Bob Melvin agree to a 2 year extension as manager of the Oakland A's? 

He knows Bean is going to trade anyone who develops into a decent player a year before they enter their arbitration eligible or free agency year. 

Bean, who loves losing, almost shit himself last year when the A's inexplicitly had the best record in baseball coming up on the trade deadline, and were cruising towards the playoffs.  He took care of that by ripping the heart out of the lineup - because he 'knew the team wouldn't hold up the rest of the way and he had to shore up the pitching' (they immediately went into a tailspin and barely made it into the one-game playoff, which the pitcher they traded Cespedes for promptly lost).

Bean then dismantled the rest of the team during the offseason.  Which he seems to do nearly every year.

So what unaddressed mental illness does Bob Melvin - who everyone agrees is a superb manager and who could easily get another job on a contender - have to want to stay around this GM and ownership group?   

Eddie Coyle

Quote from: Paper*Boy on September 13, 2015, 12:12:42 AM
Maybe because I saw them play, instead of being legends from the past, but the last several decades of Hall inductees leave a lot to be desired.  Someone ought to tell the BBWAA voters it's ok to go a year or two (or 5) without electing anyone. 

The Veterans Committee has been on overdrive over about that same time as well.

   The roid era has screwed the voting up royally, where the premiere hitter and pitcher(Bonds/Clemens) are on ice, therefore leading to this idiotic "I guess this guy was clean" arbitrary process. Rickey Henderson was as guilty as anybody of "usuage" and got in. It's such a phony system.

    Eddie Murray's "hanging on until 500/3000" was nauseating. The guy was a average/below average player the second half of his career. Robin Yount made the all star team 3 times in 20 years, but had the magic 3,000.

     Seeing Jim Rice get in drove me nuts. I started watching in '80, so I missed his MVP prime. But the Rice I saw from 80-89 was a 6-4-3 machine, whose RBI after '82 were due to having Wade Boggs get on base 300 times a year. He hit 30 homers once after '80. He slugged .500 twice after '80. A righty power hitter who merely had to hit a 310 foot fly ball for homer at Fenway, and yet he struggled do that after '83.

One of the idiot sportswriters around here must have tuned his car radio to the sports talk station recently, because last week he wrote something about fans calling stations to bash Giants management for the year they are having, basically writing they were fools and didn't know what they were talking about.

Really?  Because no one could have possibly known that they were 2 Outfielders short before the beginning of the year?   There was no way for the fans to know they needed at least a couple more decent Starting Pitchers?   

Of the Outfielders, not one is in double figures for HRs (Pence, the one decent player out there was hurt much of the year and has 9).  Pence has 40 RBIs, followed by Pagan with 32 and Aoki and Blanco with 26 each.  Pathetic, and very predictable based on last year.

Pitching:  Was it not extremely clear they needed more starters when Bumgarner had to basically pitch the last few games of the World Series by himself?

Ok, Bumgarner is 1 guy to put out there every 5th day.  Cain had to undergo elbow surgery during the offseason, so he couldn't really be counted on, and hasn't done well so far.  No one expected rookie Heston to be as good as he was.  That leaves Lincecum, Peavy, Hudson, and Vogelsong - none of those guys should be expected to go more than 5 innings, or be little more than .500, at best.  The team is lucky to get an occasional Quality Start out of any of them (6 inning with no more than 3 earned runs)


SF ended up picking up OFs Marlon Byrd and Alejandro De Aza, and P Mike Leake in August, too little too late, but at least maybe they'll have them back next year.

And no one is supposed to mention any of this, none of it could have been expected before the season started?

albrecht

The dastardly realignment is causing me to have ulcers with these Rangers/Stros, teams that were awful recently, now both doing well and fighting each other. Hope both make it because I have odd, divided loyalties for both since, in times past, there wasn't much chance for a real rivalry and, ability to watch better NL ball here, so many good times going to both of their games....but realignement, crazy cable and MLB dramas, etc and now this. Good games but....need another shot of whiskey and Mallox.

Eddie Coyle

Quote from: albrecht on September 15, 2015, 09:50:12 PM
The dastardly realignment is causing me to have ulcers with these Rangers/Stros, teams that were awful recently, now both doing well and fighting each other. Hope both make it because I have odd, divided loyalties for both since, in times past, there wasn't much chance for a real rivalry and, ability to watch better NL ball here, so many good times going to both of their games....but realignement, crazy cable and MLB dramas, etc and now this. Good games but....need another shot of whiskey and Mallox.

    You can thank the sclerotic Scioscia's Angels pathetic second half fade for keeping both Texas teams at the the top of the West. Astros HAVE to win tomorrow, IMO just for their own health. That win on Sunday was vital and put the Angels on life support. And once they get home Friday, they need to sweep or win 2-3 in both upcoming home series.

pate

Quote from: albrecht on September 15, 2015, 09:50:12 PM
The dastardly realignment is causing me to have ulcers with these Rangers/Stros, teams that were awful recently, now both doing well and fighting each other. Hope both make it because I have odd, divided loyalties for both since, in times past, there wasn't much chance for a real rivalry and, ability to watch better NL ball here, so many good times going to both of their games....but realignement, crazy cable and MLB dramas, etc and now this. Good games but....need another shot of whiskey and Mallox.

St. Louis looks to me to be the Nat'l League dancer.

But what do I know?  I echo the shot of whiskey sentiment...

albrecht

RIP Milo Hamilton.
http://www.click2houston.com/sports/houston-astros-fans-remember-legendary-announcer-milo-hamilton/35330282 I like President Bush's statement, with the "Holy Toledo" comments.

Former President George H.W. Bush issued a statement that read, "Barbara and I mourn the loss of Milo Hamilton, a genuine baseball icon, a Hall of Fame sportscaster -- and, happily for us, a good friend. In time, Milo became his own Houston institution, and the countless good causes he helped made him one of the brightest Points of Light we knew. It was hard for him, and indeed all Astros fans, when Milo stepped away from the booth in 2012 after his legendary career, but from this day forward we can take comfort that he will always have the best seat in the house. Holy Toledo, what a good man he was -- and we were fortunate to know him."

pate

Quote from: albrecht on September 15, 2015, 09:50:12 PM
... Good games but....need another shot of whiskey and Mallox
...

I like the "pink" Pepto, meself.

Mixes well with Vodka if you are a drinker of that stuff...

Erm,  Whiskey shot to my Royal sense of "entitlement."

Got a gut feeling about that, and WTF?

The lady has to accept your invite to the dance and you have to dance.

Or something...

(Wanta make a Fanta ref hear.  Canna)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F614uU3DsqM


Eddie Coyle


    This is my favorite baseball clip of all time, even better than Lee Elia '83. Particularly for the ump's retorts, which get Earl even crazier.

    Take note of the scoreboard. This argument begins at 7:38, in an era where games started at 7:35. So we're three minutes into the game, just the second batter...and fireworks right away. Though Weaver and Haller had a history going back a decade by this point(Sept 1980)

  http://youtu.be/rpS-XFXxJvE

chefist


What's the big Feel Good Story at the end of the baseball season here in SF/Oakland?  Well, it isn't how well the two local teams are doing, nor is it sizing up potential postseason matchups. 

It's certainly not picking through the ashes to determine why ''Billy'' Bean has traded away every decent A's player over the past 15 years, or even limiting that discussion to just the past year or so.  Nor is it how Giants Management thought they could win a pennant again with 1 reliable starting pitcher and 1 healthy big league outfielder (who also ended up on the DL for extended periods during the year) and no bench to speak of.

No, there is a bigger story dominating the sports pages this week.  Back in the early '00s Oakland had 3 aces in Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, and Mark Mulder.  After showing early promise, they essentially went on to have mostly mediocre careers - Hudson and Zito both ending up along for the ride in San Francisco during World Championship years.

Hudson is retiring after this year for SF, and Zito - after getting a lush $120,000,000 long term contract from the Giants, which he did not earn and which thankfully finally ended last year - spent what is likely to be his final season in Oakland's minor league system, hoping for a September call-up to the A's.  Zito got hurt late in the season, pitched little after being activated following the injury, didn't earn that call-up, and didn't get it (until this week, see below).

So what did the bored geniuses who write sports columns for the local papers concoct?  For several weeks now they've been clamoring for Oakland to call Zito up, and for the 2 teams to schedule Hudson and Zito to face each other as Starting Pitchers during the upcoming A's / Giants series.  To shorten a long story, it's apparently on for this Saturday.  And Mulder?  Apparently he's now an announcer for ESPN or someone, just happens to be in town that day, and the 3 of them will throw out the first pitch (pitches?). 

Meanwhile tons of former A's players are heading for the playoffs, and those same sports writers are scolding anyone for second guessing Giants management.


Quote from: Eddie Coyle on September 23, 2015, 02:54:25 PM
    This is my favorite baseball clip of all time, even better than Lee Elia '83. Particularly for the ump's retorts, which get Earl even crazier.


That is a good video. I always think of Earl Weaver's comments about Jim Palmer when I see EW.
When I was watching the Earl Weaver video on youtube it had all links to all kinds of great videos like Rob Dibble putting Lou Pinella in a headlock and Leyland cussing out Bonds (for slacking). Even in 1991 Bonds thought everyone was persecuting him.

Quote from: Paper*Boy on September 23, 2015, 09:36:21 PM

Meanwhile tons of former A's players are heading for the playoffs, and those same sports writers are scolding anyone for second guessing Giants management.

When Beane was doing his roster moves over the winter I thought the Giants should have tried to pick up some of those players. I think Brandon Moss would have been a good fit in a part time role. The whole Brandon Belt in the OF and Buster Posey at 1B situation seems to have the Giants unwilling to add a 1B/LF.

Powered by SMFPacks Menu Editor Mod