MentalFloss.com gives us a brief history of Wiffleball.
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MentalFloss.com gives us a brief history of Wiffleball.
Category Archives: Indy and Amateur
PICTURE: The NCAA can’t spell the name of one of it’s premier events right
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(Note: And I made a grammar error originally on the title originally, using premiere instead of premier. Whoops.)
Random Tweet: You don’t see that every day…
(If the picture doesn’t load, hit the link in the tweet)
#prayforcolorado pic.twitter.com/JY0ADpyoIR
— Peter McEvoy (@PeterMcEvoy2) June 12, 2013
Random Link/Article-I-Found-Interesting: The Congressional Baseball Game is Serious Business
Weather permitting, the annual baseball game between the Democrats and Republicans of Congress is going on right now. It’s taken very seriously, to the point where freshman congressmen who would otherwise not be noted in the halls of Washington suddenly become very popular amongst their fellows if they happened to have played college ball. At least, that’s what this article seems to say.
The Not-An-Expert Q-and-A preview of the MLB Draft (2013 edition)
Tomorrow, the MLB draft begins. As I mentioned before, College Baseball is sort of the odd man out in college sports. And, as I referred to in that post, a lot of high schoolers get drafted in the MLB draft. So, with that in mind, in most years you need a scorecard to know who the people being drafted are. So, with that in mind, I’ve done some research to get you up to speed on the draft, and who will probably get drafted, check it out underneath the jump:
(Portions of this are copied or modified from last year’s Q&A)
Random Video of the Undetermined Amount of Time: “There’s a Pooch on the Field!”
A dog runs on the field at a NCAA tournament game, cuteness ensues.
Crazy Question: Should Surgeons be in the Hall of Fame? (AKA: The Importance of Tommy John Surgery)
A man who had a major impact in baseball passed today, someone who helped teams win championships and aided some of the biggest names in the sport.
That man was Lewis Yocum, and he was a orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports surgeries like Tommy John Surgery, in addition to serving as the team physician for the Angels. His passing has been commented upon by many in the baseball community, with some declaring that they owed him their careers.
Which leads to this: should surgeons and doctors be considered for the Hall of Fame?
Well, the answer is probably no. After all, they aren’t in this for fame, and to try and say what makes a “Hall of Fame Surgeon” is fraught with questions I don’t think can be answered.
But, let’s just consider for a second the impact that some of these surgeons have had on baseball.
Imagine what the world of baseball pitching looked like before Frank Jobe. Who’s Frank Jobe? He’s the guy who first performed ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) reconstruction surgery, where a UCL is replaced by a tendon from elsewhere. You probably know it as Tommy John Surgery.
Before TJ Surgery, to have a dead arm was a death sentence for a career. Let that sink in and then remember the full implications of that statement:
- Without TJS, Stephen Strasburg‘s career would be done.
- Without TJS, Jim Morris would never have been portrayed by Dennis Quaid in a movie.
- Without TJS, Hyun-Jin Ryu never gets out of high school, much less comes to America and becomes one of the few bright spots of the 2013 Dodgers season.
- Without TJS, Chris Carpenter‘s career probably would have ended on Opening Day, 2007. Adam Wainwright‘s career would have ended in 2011.
- Without TJS, Eric Gagne‘s career probably have ended in the minors. Same goes for Kenny Rogers, C.J. Wilson and David Wells.
- Without TJS, Tim Hudson wouldn’t have won the 55 games he’s won since 2009.
- Without TJS, Phil Humber never has his perfect game. Francisco Liriano doesn’t have his no-hitter. Neither does Anibal Sanchez.
- Without TJS, Kerry Wood‘s career would have been an even bigger “what might have been” than it ended up being.
- Without TJS, John Smoltz‘s career ended in 2000, with 56 wins and 154 saves never happening.
- Without TJS, we MAYBE might never have even heard of Mariano Rivera. (There is some confusion over whether or not Rivera had a TJS in the minors, or if it was a different type of surgery).
Hmm… maybe surgeons should be in the Hall of Fame. At least Jobe should.
The Favorite Memories of Baseball Writers, Bloggers, Analysts and Fans
For this first anniversary, I decided to write. Not just articles, though. I decided to write people– as many of the baseball writers, analysts and bloggers I could think of. I asked what seemed to be a simple question: what is your favorite baseball memory?
My reasoning for this little project was all over the place. Partly, it was because it seemed like something that would be interesting. Partly, it was because I was curious to see who would answer. And, of course, partly it was because I thought perhaps it could tell me, and all of us, a bit about baseball fans.
For that reason, it was a rather eclectic group I sent the question to, ranging from big names that everyone has probably heard of, to the proprietors of smaller or more specialized pieces of the web. I also tried to ask the fans, bloggers or writers of a variety of teams, since the fans of one team would, of course, probably have a different favorite memory than fans of another.
In the end, I received responses from less than half of the people I sent the question to. But, hey, hitting in the upper .300s is nothing to sneeze at.
So what did I learn?
First off, as probably could be expected, a lot of the memories involve fathers. Pirates blogger Pat Lackey, for example, remembered going to a doubleheader with his father and seeing new-dad Rob Mackowiak have the day of his life. Others treasure memories of playing baseball with their children or going to their first game with them.
Secondly, the favorite memories in many (but certainly not all) cases involve actually going to games. And, again, I’m not surprised by this. Baseball, perhaps more than any other sport, is one that is best when seen in person, where you can get a true feel for the crowd, take in all of the unique sights, sounds and smells, and see the shifts and strategies at work. On TV, it just isn’t the same.
Third, and connected to the second thing, a surprising amount of favorite memories had nothing to do with a team winning a championship. Oh, sure, there are some, but for many, it was comparatively small things like scrambling to get tickets to see Rick Ankiel make his position-player debut, like Daniel Moore of Viva El Birdos did, or hearing that your their favorite childhood player had just hit their first (and only) big league home run, as Joe Posnanski remembered.
But lastly, what’s great is that everybody’s favorite baseball memory is unique and personal. It’s not like a bunch of people all had the same memory (although there were a few that were close), no, everybody had something unique, with a special meaning to them. For some cases, it was because it made them fall in love with the game. For others, it was seeing or experiencing something they never had before. And still for others, it was just something special, something that can’t be duplicated and will forever stick in their minds.
In other words… they were all reasons why we love to watch baseball.
So, after all of that, want to see the responses I got? Go below the jump:
Cool Link: Diamond Mines Scouting Reports Database
Continuum Global News has been delayed until the First Anniversary Spectacular this Wednesday. In it’s stead, here is a cool link.
The Hall of Fame is opening an exhibit about scouting, which is neat. But even cooler is that they’ve started a website that has a searchable database of old scouting reports! While there aren’t that many for more recent players (you won’t find any scouting reports for Buster Posey, for example), it’s full of stuff for older players.
Here are some neat ones I’ve found:
A 1985 scouting report of the Cubs’ affiliate in Peoria: Rafael Palmeiro hits well to all fields, but Greg Maddux is not strong enough to be a starter, according to Duffy Dyer.
Orioles scout John Stokoe discusses Mariano Rivera, who he notes threw a rain-shortened no-hitter against Rochester and who he is impressed with. However, he notes that Rivera doesn’t really have any off-speed pitches, and would need one for future success. Turns out he didn’t need a true off-speed pitch. Much like everyone else, Stokoe never sees the cutter coming.
Mariners scouting report declares Alex Rodriguez is “similar to Jeter only bigger and better.”
Satchel Paige‘s faults in 1956? Too old. In 1958, a scouting report on him has “?” for age.
The Royals scout a young amateur Jim Thome… who was a shortstop at the time. Let that sink in. Jim Thome… was a shortstop. Oh, on a similar note, Frank Robinson was a 3B, and Joe Nathan was being scouted as a shortstop.
Mark McGwire pitched a bit in High School, had a body like Dave Kingman and his father was a dentist, according to a 1984 scouting report by Boston scout Joe Stephenson.
And that is just scratching the surface of what this site has… check it out.
Picture of the day: A Team of Young Glass Workers, 1908
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The Baseball Continuum 