Meet a Baseball Fan (Welcome to Anyone)

Google search discovery: Bill Hader has a 10-year-old daughter named Harper.

jimmurphy said:

Yes, some other reliever.

You use your best against their best. Hader should have been facing the 3, 4 and 5 hitters and then somebody else for the bottom of the order. Managers and closers get it stuck in their heads that the closer should pitch the 9th even if the best hitters are coming up in the 8th. I can see why Milwaukee traded him though if he's reluctant to pitch two innings with the pennant on the line. 

There has been a recession when the Phillies have won the championship. Go Astros? I'll be happy to see Dusty or Wheeler win it all. Syndergaard and Bregman on the other hand...

I read something today that said if your city doesn't have to grease its light poles to prevent your degenerate fans from climbing them you honestly don't deserve to go to the World Series.

jfinnegan said:

I read something today that said if your city doesn't have to grease its light poles to prevent your degenerate fans from climbing them you honestly don't deserve to go to the World Series.

Careful what you call a symptom of degeneration.

https://www.italianmarketfestival.com/grease-pole.html

DaveSchmidt said:

Careful what you call a symptom of degeneration.

https://www.italianmarketfestival.com/grease-pole.html

sounds like a good time. I have been going over Easter Weekend the last few years. The only issue is Reading Terminal Market isn't open on Easter Sunday. 

90% chance of rain in Houston on Friday. Will they keep the roof open? 

I also read that Aaron Nola has thrown 10,000 fastballs, only 9 have been over 96 mph and 3 of them were against his brother Austin. 

No US-born Black players on expected World Series rosters (AP)

“For the first time since 1950” means since another Phillies World Series. The franchise’s integration history is notoriously deplorable, which made this team’s whiteness all the more striking from the start of the season. 

The Phillies and the Astros have met for six playoff games in their history.

The last five have gone extra innings.

The Phillies did what the yankees, who have Aaron Judge, could not do.

What a win.  I thought it was over in the 2nd.  

And they saved their best pitcher for Game 2! Then again the Astros might have also.

Great article about Schwarber in the NYT.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/29/sports/baseball/kyle-schwarber-phillies-world-series.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

How about that.

Bring on Thorsday.

This is a pretty good series.

second combined no-hitter against the Phils this year. I was in attendance for the other one.

Syndergaard did better than I was expecting. It's a bit strange seeing a pitch clocked at 94mph and it looking like it has nothing on it.

Local kid makes good. Darnit.

All that pain McCormick saw, he’d caused it. The defensive gem of this 2022 World Series belongs to a West Chester Henderson High graduate who had zero Division I offers out of high school, went to Millersville University, got drafted by the Astros in the 21st round, had been a playoff hero for the Astros, but hadn’t done much to get noticed before the ninth inning of Game 5.

https://www.inquirer.com/phillies/chas-mccormick-astros-catch-world-series-20221104.html

I've said it before, but watching an outfielder chase down a fly ball is a thing of beauty.   And he did it at a critical time in the game.  I know baseball outfielders do not do the math equations but think about if you had to do the equations to have to run to the right place at the right speed and have your arm and hand, and glove in the right spot as you leap up onto the fence.  Practice, practice, practice. 

I also wonder about major league pitchers who almost all throw in the 90s now.  It seems that this very high speed puts extra stress on the arms and thus the increase in injuries and use of pitch counts.  In the old days, a pitcher throwing a no-hitter would almost certainly not have been removed. But they are now.  

Go Phillies.  

RobertRoe said:

I've said it before, but watching an outfielder chase down a fly ball is a thing of beauty.   And he did it at a critical time in the game.  I know baseball outfielders do not do the math equations but think about if you had to do the equations to have to run to the right place at the right speed and have your arm and hand, and glove in the right spot as you leap up onto the fence.  Practice, practice, practice. 

I also wonder about major league pitchers who almost all throw in the 90s now.  It seems that this very high speed puts extra stress on the arms and thus the increase in injuries and use of pitch counts.  In the old days, a pitcher throwing a no-hitter would almost certainly not have been removed. But they are now.  

Go Phillies.  

It's a well known fact that if a pitcher throws 100 pitches his arm falls off. Tom Verducci said so. Dusty usually isn't afraid to push his pitchers, but there was no way the starter was going to get through 9 innings without throwing at least 130 pitches.

jfinnegan said:

It's a well known fact that if a pitcher throws 100 pitches his arm falls off. Tom Verducci said so. Dusty usually isn't afraid to push his pitchers, but there was no way the starter was going to get through 9 innings without throwing at least 130 pitches.

that's part of the equation that a lot of fans seem to leave out when they complain that pitchers don't finish games. Hitters of this generation are different. They foul off more pitches. Seven and eight pitch at bats used to be rate. Now it's common to see several in one game. 

If starters were going to finish games now they'd need to throw 130 or 140 pitches. Or more. How often did Seaver, or Gibson or Carlton throw 140 pitches to complete a game?

This chart is from Sports Illustrated July 21, 1975. 

Of course Nolan Ryan was a different guy. He would be completing games in 2022 if he was in his prime. 

The story behind Nolan Ryan's 235-pitch start

Warren Spahn, via Tom Boswell, on why 100 pitches today aren’t like 100 pitches then.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/03/cristian-javier-don-larsen-complete-game/

DaveSchmidt said:

Warren Spahn, via Tom Boswell, on why 100 pitches today aren’t like 100 pitches then.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/03/cristian-javier-don-larsen-complete-game/

yup. 

If I'm doing my math correctly, according to that 1975 chart Palmer had a 1.0 WHIP and Seaver's was 0.88. Palmer's K/9 was 5 and Seaver's was 7. They were doing a lot of "pitching to contact" that season. And Seaver was capable of striking out just about anyone if he wanted to. 

ml1 said:

And Seaver was capable of striking out just about anyone if he wanted to.

Where have you gone, Tommy Hutton?

https://baseballroundtable.com/baseball-roundtable-whos-your-daddy-series-tom-seaver-edition/

DaveSchmidt said:

Where have you gone, Tommy Hutton?

https://baseballroundtable.com/baseball-roundtable-whos-your-daddy-series-tom-seaver-edition/

Thus the "just about" qualifier. 

Some math thoughts on playing outfield.    The ball comes off the bat at say 90 to 100mph and as per physics and gravity force, it is actually traveling in a parabola.  But, there is a lot of air resistance, ball spin, humidity, and wind changing its course in mid-flight.  Due to the distance from the batter to the outfielder, the ball appears small.  Sunlight and shadows and even more difficult night flood field lights futher may make seeing the ball more difficult. The fielder must make an instant body movement decision on which way to run.  One wrong body  direction turn could be a disaster. The outfielder must adjust their running speed so as to get to the ball just as it is dropping into a playable location.  Eye and hand (glove) coordination are essential.  

Conclusion:  Outfielders must be smart like NASA engineers.   

All I know is that it is warm in November, the Phillies are in the world series, and the Devils are in first place.  Clearly the end times are upon us.

ml1 said:

Thus the "just about" qualifier. 

Yeah, I got it, and waxed nostalgic.

https://bronx.news12.com/50-years-of-baseball-board-game-bonds-longtime-li-buddies

I thought this was a wonderful story. I had never heard of this game. I used to play APBA baseball all the time growing up.