Masatu Akamatsu:
To this, we can add…. Mike Trout:
Enough said.
Add another Spider-Man: Mike Trout.
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Breaking OOTP, Episode 2: ARENA BASEBALL
In BREAKING OOTP, I push Out Of The Park Baseball to it’s limits in various scenarios. Some will answer questions, some will settle scores, and some will push Out Of The Park Baseball to it’s very limits, to see if I can literally cause the game engine to beg for mercy.
This week, we are going with a simple idea: what if there was an Arena Baseball? The smallest possible field, with a fast astroturf, 42-foot-high walls to knock balls off of and easily lob high-reaching homers over. Something like this:
And, what’s more, I’m telling the computer to approach this as if this is the 2015 MLB season, so they’ll use the same tendencies that MLB teams would.
This could get weird. Go below the jump to see how weird it gets (and click any pictures to make them larger):
TOMORROW: BREAKING OOTP EPISODE TWO!
Aside
Tomorrow, BREAKING OOTP returns for it’s second episode. It’s all set to go up automatically, so if it doesn’t go up, then presume that the machines have risen and overthrown me.
Until then, I now introduce to you the BREAKING OOTP logo:
WE HAVE OUR FIRST SONG OF OCTOBER FOR 2015
The postseason is full of traditions. And the use of songs again and again by MLB and it’s network affiliates are… one of them. However, we have yet to truly learn what shall be played this year so much that we make memes out of it and/or threaten to throttle somebody whenever we hear them.
And, while they haven’t made it official yet, we can now safely say that the National League side of things on TBS will be having the Zac Brown Band song “Heavy Is The Head” playing, at least if this promo video I found on YouTube is anything to go on:
I don’t like it. Not good enough to be good, nor bad enough to be meme-worthy. Of course, I’m sure after a few games my opinion will be changed based on how Twitter reacts to it.
And so, we now wait/worry on FOX, MLB Network, perhaps ESPN and MLB itself to see/hear what, if anything, they will be adding to the October Song repertoire. Rest assured, I’ll be updating the “Songs of October” database far earlier this year than I did last year.
MVP of Yesterday (Sept. 24, 2015): Mike Moustakas
The Royals clinched their first Division Title since 1985 last night, and Mike Moustakas led the charge, going 3-3 with two walks, a HR, and 3 RBIs.
Standings, as always, after the jump:
MVP of Yesterday (Sept. 23, 2015): Neil Walker
Neil Walker had six plate appearances last night. He had four hits, a HR, six RBIs, and a walk. He’s the MVP of Yesterday.
Standings, as always, after the jump:
MVP of Yesterday (Sept. 22, 2015): Jake Arrieta
Why did the Orioles get rid of Jake Arrieta? Why didn’t they let him throw his cutter when he was there? How do you hit against Jake Arrieta? These are all tough questions that may never be answered. The Brewers certainly didn’t answer them last night, as the Cubs pitcher struck out 11 and gave up just 3 hits and a single walk, while getting a hit of his own for good measure. So, he’s the MVP of Yesterday.
Standings, as always, after the jump:
The Greatness and Legacy of Yogi Berra
We may know Yogi Berra by his quotes. That’s how I paid tribute to him on Twitter this morning (I woke up inexplicably briefly at like 4:00 this morning before falling back to sleep, explaining how early some of these tweets are):
“I never said most of the things I said.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“We made too many wrong mistakes.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“You can observe a lot by just watching.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“Even Napoleon had his Watergate.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“You don’t have to swing hard to hit a home run. If you got the timing, it’ll go.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“It ain’t over till it’s over.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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“Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.”
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
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But then there is what comes after:
– Peter Lawrence “Yogi” Berra. 1925-2015. 18-time All-Star. 13 time WS Champ. 3 time MVP.
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) September 23, 2015
Those final facts are often the ones forgotten. Lost amongst the legend of his “Yogi-isms” is the fact that he was one of the greatest catchers of all time, as well as a an esteemed coach and manager (three of his WS titles came not as a player, but as a coach with the Mets and Yankees, and he was the manager of the 1964 Yankees team and 1973 Mets teams that lost their World Series).
He was a Forrest Gump of Baseball, seemingly involved in countless major events connected to baseball from the end of WWII (where Yogi served as a gunner’s mate on a navy ship, including during the D-Day invasion) until his death. He was the soul of Casey Stengel’s Yankees. Jackie Robinson played against him and had perhaps his signature moment- the steal of home in the World Series- off of him (to the end, Yogi claimed Jackie was out). When Don Larson had his perfect game, it was famously Yogi who leaped into his arm, leading Larson to say “Damn, Yogi, you’re heavy.” When Bill Mazeroski hit his walk-off home run, it was Yogi who watched it fly over the left-field fence. When Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth’s record, Yogi was on deck. The “Miracle Mets’ had Yogi Berra as a coach.
And, perhaps above all, he was a hell of a player. As Tom Verducci pointed out in his article on Yogi, he never struck out more than 40 times in a season. He and Joe DiMaggio are the only players in history to have 350 home runs or more with fewer than 500 strikeouts. He was by most accounts a defensive catcher and pitch-caller of fine quality- at one point he held the record for consecutive games behind the plate without an error. One does not become a All-Star so many times being merely average.
In the end, perhaps Casey Stengel summed up Berra the best (it’s included in Yogi’s obituary), even though it was 1949 when he said it, very early in Yogi’s career:
“Mr. Berra,” Casey Stengel said, “is a very strange fellow of very remarkable abilities.”
MVP of Yesterday (September 21, 2015): Jeff Samardzija
The MVP of Yesterday was Jeff Samardzija. He pitched arguably the best non-no-hitter of the year, giving up just one hit, no walks and struck out six Tigers in a 88 pitch complete-game win (a Maddux!).
Standings, as always, after the jump:
Over at @HOVG: A Wisdom and Links look at extreme ballparks!
Aside
Over at Hall of Very Good, the latest Wisdom and Links looks at the most geographically extreme baseball fields, and more! Check it out!
The Baseball Continuum 