Tag Archives: baseball

The Greatness and Legacy of Yogi Berra

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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):

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But then there is what comes after:

 

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.”

 

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World Baseball Classic News for 9-17-2015: Qualifier Pools Announced!

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Well, I told you that more news was probably coming, and today it was confirmed, as the World Baseball Classic qualifying pools have been announced! They are (all qualifiers in 2016):

 

Qualifier 1 (Sydney, Australia on February 11-14th):

Australia

New Zealand

Philippines

South Africa

Qualifier 2 (Mexicali, Mexico on March 17-20th):

Mexico

Czech Republic

Germany

Nicaragua

Qualifier 3 (Panama City on March 17-20th):

Colombia

France

Panama

Spain

Qualifier 4 (Brooklyn on Sept. 22-25th):

Brazil

Great Britain

Israel

Pakistan

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As you can see, they’ve mixed up the locations (only Panama is a return qualifying host), the pools (no pool has more than two teams that were in the same individual pool last time), and also teams (Pakistan has replaced Thailand). Some things to note here:

  • MLB players will be able to participate in Qualifiers 1-3, but not Qualifier 4.
  • It is again a modified double-elimination, meaning it’s double elimination until there are only two, at which point it’s a winner-take-all championship game. I’ve always had a problem with this format and feel a straight-up double-elimination would be better, but I understand how the organizers would like the drama of a winner-take-all game.
  • Qualifier 4, in Brooklyn, is clearly meant to be a pool of teams that don’t have pro-worthy stadiums in their countries. It’s likely Brooklyn was picked due to New York’s diverse nature, with MLB and the other WBC organizers no doubt hoping that the city’s large Jewish population will turn up for Israel games.
  • Looking at this right now, I’d say that Qualifier 2 will probably have the highest level of talent, Qualifier 3 will be the hardest for any one team to get out of, and Qualifier 4 will be the hardest to predict. Qualifier 1, by contrast, looks like it should be a fairly easy draw for Australia.
  • I’m somewhat surprised that the Philippines is in Qualifier 1. I had a feeling they might make it an All-Commonwealth pool and have the Philippines be in New York City. At least, that’s what I thought after reading Jon Paul Morosi’s original post before it was official.

 

So, look in the coming days and no doubt more news will come out and I’ll take a look at some of the teams and other aspects of the qualifying tournament- like Pakistan’s baseball program.

 

The Best Unlicensed/Unofficial Baseball Posters on the Internet

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First, there were the T-Shirts. And one day, I will return to those. But today, we are going to look at fan-designed unofficial and unlicensed posters. What type of posters? Well, go below the jump to see:

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Random Video: English baseball player gets hat and sunglasses knocked off by a bad throw… but nothing else

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We go the North of England, where the Sheffield Bladerunners of the British Baseball Federation are playing catch between innings:

Didn’t see it? Let’s look at the slo-mo version:

That’s Josh Taylor of the Bladerunners getting his cap and his sunglasses knocked off by a throw…. and nothing else. You’d think you’d at least break your nose or something, but the pitcher (Nestor Martinez) was able to somehow accidentally “William Tell” him and take off everything on his head without actually hitting or hurting Taylor.

What were the odds of that?

Bizarre Baseball Culture: Popeye and “The Twisker Pitcher”

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In Bizarre Baseball Culture, I take a look at some of the more unusual places where baseball has reared it’s head in pop culture and fiction.

Today we have a cartoon from 1937 starring Popeye the Sailor Man. It’s called The Twisker Pitcher, and it’s dark as hell. Seriously, this cartoon has…

A) Rampant steroid use (the spinach)

B) Violence, both on the field and in the stands

C) A near total disregard for rules and the space-time continuum

D) A total disregard for player safety.

Oof. So, go below the jump for a summary of this, the 47th Popeye Cartoon:

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The Best Unlicensed/Unofficial Baseball T-Shirts on the Internet

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If you look hard enough online (as in… google “T-Shirts”), you can find sites that sell unlicensed and unofficial t-shirts. These T-shirts feature designs created by fans and basically only are allowed to exist because they are fairly small-scale operations- the equivalent of those random guys outside of a stadium- and no company is willing to sue them to oblivion because of the bad PR that would result from going after people who in essence are their biggest fans would be… bad. In addition, a lot (but certainly nowhere near all) of the t-shirts don’t technically break any laws and don’t actually use anything trademarked or copyrighted.

So, what type of stuff are we talking about? (go below the jump to see the rest of this)

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MVPs of every day from 8-13 to 8-23, 2015

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Well, that was awhile. My computer crashed while I was on vacation, leaving me unable to do all of the MVPs of Yesterday from the 13th to the 23rd. Needless to say, to go back day-by-day would be a time-consuming folly, but thankfully, Sully over at MLB reports does something somewhat similar to “MVP of Yesterday”, called “Who Owned Baseball”. He’s given me permission to use his picks* as research to help to me retroactively give MVPs of Yesterday, for which I am very grateful. So, pay him a solid if you are reading this and go check out MLB Reports.  They’ve got some good stuff over there.

So, without further adieu, here are the MVPs from when I was gone:

8-13: Mitch Moreland

8-14: Matt Kemp (the first cycle in Padres history)

8-15: Jackie Bradley Jr.

8-16: Madison Bumgarner

8-17: Brian McCann

8-18: Curtis Granderson

8-19: Jesse Chavez

8-20: Chris Archer

8-21: Mike Fiers (No-Hitter… so duh)

8-22: Paul Goldschmidt

8-23: Clayton Kershaw (seriously, what were they thinking pulling him?)

Standings, as always, after the jump, and thanks again to Sully!

*(He picks multiple WOB winners, including half-winners for people who were good in losing efforts, while I just pick one every day and it’s full credit even if they were in a losing effort)

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The Full Scientific Names for Baseball Teams

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Your webmaster is on vacation, and as a result some of his posting might be erratic. Thankfully, he has set up some stuff go up in his absence. This is one of them.

Ever wonder what the scientific names for your favorite animal-named baseball teams would be?

No?

Well, too bad, because here we go:

The Toronto Cyanocitta cristata

The Baltimore Icterus galbula

The St. Louis Cardinalis cardinalis

The Tampa Bay Rhinoptera bonasus

The Detroit Panthera tigris

The Miami Makaira nigricans

The Arizona Crotalus atrox

 …But, wait, we can go deeper! Let’s go into the Minor Leagues and sample some of the animal teams there!

The Toledo Fulica americana (It turns out a “Mud Hen” is actually a duck-like bird called the American Coot, which is a type of Rail)

The Buffalo Bison bison

The Durham Bos taurus

The Memphis Cardinalis cardinalis (yes, the name Redbird is literally a synonym for Cardinal)

The Fresno Ursus arctos

The El Paso Canis lupus familiaris (a Chihuahua, in the end, is just a dog)

The Salt Lake Apis mellifera

The Richmond Glaucomys volans

The Carolina Ameiurus natalis

The Myrtle Beach Pelecanus erythrorhynchos

The Brevard County Trichechus manatus

The Clearwater Alopias vulpinus

The Charlotte (Florida) Menippe mercenaria

The Jupiter Sphyrna mokarran

The Beloit Chelydra serpentina

The Wisconsin Crotalus horridus

The West Virginia Ursus americanus

The Missoula Pandion haliaetus

The Idaho Falls Alectoris chukar

The Ogden Utahraptor ostrommaysorum (Yeah, they have a dinosaur.)

AND NOW YOU KNOW!

 

“Fantastic Four” Bizarre Baseball Cultures that are probably way better than the new movie

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The new Fantastic Four movie recently came out. It was a total and utter disaster, with a Rotten Tomatoes score that can only be seen with a microscope and a box office performance so pitiful it couldn’t even win it’s week. It’s hardly surprising, really, as A) it was not made by Marvel itself, but rather FOX, which only has the rights to make these movies due to a deal it made way back in the early 1990s when Marvel was in the direst of financial straits, and B) it was trying to turn what is arguably the most optimistic and adventuresome of comic books into a dark and moody techno-thriller. I mean, seriously? SERIOUSLY?!?!?

With luck, this failure will lead to the Fantastic Four and their stable of villains (most notably DOCTOR DOOM) back to the Marvel line, so we can see a real and proper movie featuring the FF, with Doctor Doom done right, and maybe with a Hulk-Thing fight thrown in, too, because after how badly this and the previous movies have hurt the reputation of “Marvel’s First Family”, they’re going to have to go all out to win back the crowd.

But, anyway, enough rambling. Here are the Bizarre Baseball Cultures that featured the Fantastic Four. All of them, no doubt, are better than the current film:

2007’s AAA Baseball Heroes

This Marvel/AAA Baseball crossover is great in that it shows off how the Fantastic Four are basically an ordinary family who happen to go exploring alternate dimensions and fight space-gods in their spare time. I mean, look, they all are at a ballgame together!

 

2007GiveawayComicPage1From what I understand, the latest movie has none of this stuff. And it flopped big time. Coincidence? I think not.

It also has a Hulk-Thing fight and this, the greatest image in the history of art:

Screen Shot 2013-06-18 at 5.53.33 PM2008’s AAA Baseball Heroes

This installment of the Marvel/AAA Baseball didn’t have as much Fantastic Four fun, really only featuring Reed Richards and the Mole-Man (who served as the villain). However, unlike the new movie, it showed the Fantastic Four as part of a large and vibrant universe and as close allies and friends with characters like Iron Man and Spider-Man. Which, if you ask me, instantly makes it better than whatever piece of crap 20th Century Fox just put out.

We also see the Mole Man cry tears of joy, which still makes me laugh for some reason:

And the Mole Man wept...

Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius Super Summer Spectacular

A good, innocent, all-ages comedy comic about Franklin Richards, the eldest son of Reed and Sue Richards, as he tries to cheat in little league by using a Flubber-like explosive substance on his bat to hit some home runs.

It also has this image:

Screen Shot 2013-11-30 at 10.37.50 PMAh, such light-hearted whimsy. If only the new Fantastic Four movie had some of that, maybe it wouldn’t have been called something that “not only scrapes the bottom of the barrel; it knocks out the floor and sucks audiences into a black hole of soul-crushing, coma-inducing dullness.”

That’s something that somebody actually wrote. Go look on Rotten Tomatoes.

Cameos

The FF has also made brief appearances in my run-down of Marvel Universe appearances by Yankee Stadium, and in the Bullseye miniseries. I won’t go in depth on those, as we are forgetting about the unofficial fifth member of the Fantastic Four, their arch-nemesis, the greatest villain in Marvel comics….

DOCTOR DOOM….. who once tried to kidnap Jeff Conine

Okay, this is what Doctor Doom apparently looks like in the new movie:

What. The. Hell. That isn’t Doctor Doom. That’s, like, I dunno, what would happen if evil C3PO had a baby with a Gothic Crash-Test Dummy. Jeez, is it THAT EFFING HARD, FOX?!?! THIS IS WHAT DOOM LOOKS LIKE, IN BATTLE WITH TWO OF HIS GREATEST FOES:

BILLY THE MARLIN and SPIDER-MAN!

MarlinsSpideyCoverI mean, jeez, that’s one of the most iconic things in comic books. It was the partial inspiration for Darth freaking Vader. But, NOOOOOOOO, you have to go make Doom like like a human vacuum cleaner that just got put in the oven for too long.

…Seriously, FOX, give back the rights to Marvel. They’re Disney. They have the money. They have the X-Men television rights you want. For the good of all that is holy. PLEASE!

(ahem)

Anyway, Doctor Doom made one of the most notable appearances in Bizarre Baseball Culture when he went and tried to kidnap Jeff Conine to force him to play for the Latverian national baseball team, only to be foiled by Billy the Marlin and Spider-Man. Truly, words cannot describe the greatness of this story. If Marvel ever gets the rights to Doctor Doom back, the very first thing they should do is make a deal with a Marlins and put into production a adaptation of this, albeit with Giancarlo Stanton taking the Jeff Conine spot.

I mean, look at this brilliance:

Screen Shot 2013-09-27 at 11.05.15 PMI mean, behold this:

Screen Shot 2013-09-28 at 1.44.38 PMSeriously, this is probably better than that new movie, and the Fantastic Four aren’t even in it!

…So, anyway, that concludes a look back at Fantastic Four appearances in Bizarre Baseball Culture. Keep an eye open in the next few days for the next installment, featuring Popeye the Sailor Man, a known user of performance-enhancing substances (i.e. spinach).

 

Over at Hall of Very Good: The Coming Anti-Toronto Conspiracy

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Over at Hall of Very Good, the latest Wisdom and Links looks at the upcoming Anti-Toronto Conspiracy. Check it out.