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Great Baseball Lies: Old replica uniforms with names on the back (and other inaccuracies)

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Quick: What’s wrong with the picture below?

Okay, how about this?

The answer is: Neither of them are correct. In fact, they both have anachronisms in them: the Ruth jersey, for example, has the famous “NY” logo on the jersey itself, something that they didn’t do until 1936, by which point Ruth was retired.

But the biggest lie on these replica jerseys: they have names on the back. To the casual fan, perhaps, this is not anything out of the ordinary. After all, teams have been having the names of the players on the back of their uniforms forever, right?

They’d be wrong. In fact, the first time any MLB team had names on the back of the uniform was in 1960, when the White Sox started doing it.

So, in other words, Babe Ruth never wore a Yankees’ jersey with his name on the back (no Yankees, not even those of the present day, have their names on the back, with the exception of some recent batting practice uniforms). Ted Williams never had his name on the back. And, quite frankly, if you don’t know immediately that a “3” on the back of a Yankees uniform means Ruth and/or a “9” on a Red Sox uniform means Ted Williams, perhaps you should be paying more attention the history.

So, for giving people a false image of baseball history and insulting the intelligence of devoted baseball fans, I hereby declare that having names on the back of retro uniforms is one of the Great Baseball Lies.

Baseball’s children

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In a bid to combine their powers and increase the chances of returning to the Olympics, baseball and softball’s international federations (the equivalent to soccer’s FIFA or basketball’s FIBA) recently decided to merge. How well this will or won’t work, as well as what effect this might have on things like women’s baseball or men’s softball, remains to be seen. However, it does give a good excuse to look at some of the “children” born from baseball. See after the jump.

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Olympics Continuum: Why not joint hosting bids?

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I stumbled across an article today that caught my eye: a city councilor in Toronto, worried about the gigantic cost that hosting an Olympics brings to a city, has suggested that there be a joint bid between Toronto and an American city, such as Buffalo or Detroit.

I have written of this before back at the Courier, but seeing this news item has brought it back to my thoughts: why not? Why can’t and why hasn’t there been a joint Olympics bid, featuring cities relatively near a national border?

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What type of Olympians would MLB stars be?

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Getting into the Olympic spirit, the folks across the pond at the BBC have created a neat little website that lets you enter your height and weight and it then tells you which Olympian is similar to you. Well, in theory, anyway. I’m sure their bodies are made up of way more muscle than the average Joe. I mean, I certainly am not built like a weightlifter, but it said I’m most similar to one.

However, let’s do a far better use of this already useless technology: find out what type of Olympic sport baseball players would play. Now, as I said, there is a difference between having the same height and weight as somebody and actually having the same type of body and abilities as them, but in general some things hold true: somebody who is smaller is more likely to be a gymnast or a weightlifter, while somebody tall is more likely to be playing hoops.

So, let’s get down to business:

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RETRACTION- The Orioles are not dead

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On July 17, I declared that the Orioles’ playoff hopes were dead.

However, since then, the Orioles have somewhat stabilized, and are now 6.5 games out of 1st in the AL East and only 1.5 out of a Wild Card spot. Therefore, as I thought they would drop completely off the map by the end of July as they struggled heavily, I must retract my previous statement: the Orioles are alive.
At least for now. They continue to be playing far better than their run differential suggest (they’d be 46-59 if their record reflected their run differential!), and, while they didn’t make any moves at the deadline and have had Jim Thome and Brian Roberts go on the DL, it’s becoming increasingly clear that they will at least somewhat remain in it so long as they can continue defying the gravity of their run differential problem. They are winning close games but losing blowouts.

It will, in the end, all come down to how they play against their AL East rivals. And in MLB’s toughest division, I’m wary of making predictions.

Ozzie Guillen doesn’t show up that much as the Trade Deadline dominates in the 4th episode of “The Franchise”

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This week’s episode of The Franchise focused on the Trade Deadline, primarily focusing on the front office, the players being traded, and the players being traded for.

Go after the jump for thoughts and the weekly count of Ozzie Guillen’s foul mouth.

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Olympics Continuum: The insane greatness of Michael Phelps

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Throughout the Olympics, the Baseball Continuum will branch out to give the occasional look at the XXX Summer Olympic Games. This is the Olympics Continuum.

Michael Phelps won two more medals “last night” (actually early afternoon EST, but don’t tell NBC that), bringing his total to 19, making him the greatest Olympian of All Time, as he passed Soviet gymnastics great Larisa Latynina for most medals of any kind.

So now is as good a time as any to note just how great Phelps’ accomplishment is, using one of my favorite methods: fun trivia and facts:

  • Phelps first competed in 2000 at Sydney and has had only himself and his relay teammates to gain medals. Despite this, he has only one fewer medals (19) than India, which first sent a competitor in 1900 and has sent them continuously since 1920. Oh, and India has 1.2 billion people. So, yes, it’s entirely possible that, by the end of these games, Michael Phelps will have as many or more medals than the second-largest country in the world has had in history.
  • He already has more medals than Venezuela, Chile, Algeria, Pakistan, and various post-Soviet republics.
  • His now-15 gold medals is as many Golds as such all-time Olympic greats as Paavo Nurmi (9), Jesse Owens (4) and Jim Thorpe (2) have combined, although admittedly they were in different sports and eras.
  • He’s swam 3,500 meters in races that he’s earned a medal- not counting heats and preliminaries. That’s about 2.175 miles. Or about 70 times across the pool.
  • It’s the equivalent of him swimming over 38 football fields (not counting end zones).
  • He’s won a gold in 71% of all of the events he has done in the Olympics.

Amazing, huh?

Clearing the debris after the Trade Deadline

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Maybe it was the Olympics. Maybe it was because the 2-Wild Card format means more teams are “in it”, but this seemed a rather underwhelming trade deadline. While it wasn’t quite as boring as what Glen Perkins was saying it was, it was hardly a call back to some of the great Trade Deadlines of lore. So, let’s take a look at some of the trades that went down today (after the jump):

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Olympics Continuum: Samuel L. Jackson tweets the Olympics (Rated R for Language)

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Throughout history, many great men have looked at sports despite being outside of it.

Presidents.
Philosophers.
Poets.
Authors.

But none, perhaps, are more wise, more charismatic or more badass than Mr. Samuel L. Jackson, who has been watching and tweeting about the Olympics. And he seemingly does it in the same persona he has in basically every movie he is in (the man embraces his niche). Is it good? I don’t know. Is it a funny and off-beat look at the Olympics? Definitely.

Note: Not all of these tweets are appropriate for all ages. In fact, most of them aren’t. Cover the eyes of children and certainly don’t say them out loud in the presence of children. Go after the jump for them.

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The End of the Liriano Era

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It is done. Francisco Liriano is no longer a Minnesota Twin, traded to the White Sox for lefty starting prospect Pedro Hernandez and utility-man Eduardo Escobar. In some ways, the fact he got traded for such an uneven haul is fitting, because Liriano always something of an uneven pitcher. When he was on, he was one of the best pitchers in the game, when he wasn’t… he was one of the worst.

Acquired in a highway robbery trade with the Giants (who got A.J. Pierzynski in return… for one season) that also brought the Twins Joe Nathan and Boof Bonser, Liriano had a brief appearance in 2005. But it was his first full rookie year, in 2006, that was magnificent. He made an All-Star team, came in third for Rookie of the Year. He also had the first of many injuries. It would be the bane of his career.

He would never be the same again for any long stretch of time. He had his moments, including a no-hitter. However, in general, he was a case of what might have been. The same could be said for the Twins- who knows how different the past few years could have gone if they had a top-of-the-line power pitcher like Liriano had been in his early career. It’s possible, in fact, that they might not have even had gotten to this point to begin with, and would instead be worrying about whether they could keep Liriano when he hit free agency, not simply whether the haul they got for him was good or not (time will tell, but there are no obviously top-level prospects getting received).

So, thus ends the Liriano era. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… and it would have been a lot better if not for injuries.