Tag Archives: baseball

Bizarre Baseball Culture: Trying to find any sort of meaning in Blue Bolt V9 #1

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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.

The “Dick Cole” story in Blue Bolt (Volume 9) #1 is one of the most pedestrian stories I’ve ever featured here. There are no superheroes, science fiction elements, cartoon elements, or unintentionally hilarious outdated views on concussions. And yet, it is also just like a ton of other stories, in that it’s about somebody trying to fix a amateur game of baseball. So, in search of any way to make this interesting whatsoever, I’m going to look at this from various perspectives, trying to find any sort of meaning in it.

Here’s what I mean:

Back in college, we learned all about stuff like close reading and literary criticism, and more-or-else I realized that anybody can find anybody if they look closely enough. A Marxist, looking at Wizard of Oz close enough, will be able to find enough things to make him or her claim that it’s a Marxist work. Feminists looking at the same thing can also find something that will make them claim it is a feminist work. Still others can find meaning by looking at something psychoanalytically. There are countless others as well. Symbolism! Biography! Deconstructionism! Post-Modernism!

So, surely some sort of meaning in this story can be found by looking at it from various ways… right?

Right?

In the public domain, it is the first story here. So, from June 1948 and Novelty Press, it’s the Dick Cole story from Blue Bolt (Volume 9) #1.

Here’s the cover, the rest is after the jump:

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GO BELOW THE JUMP FOR MORE!

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Pre-Euro contests make Dutch fall to 6th in the Continuum Baseball Rankings

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Due to one (!) surprising loss to France in the run-up to the European Championships (which are going on now), the Dutch dropped enough points where they are now in sixth in the Continuum Baseball Rankings. No other teams made any big changes, although Belgium and Sweden have entered near the bottom. While they are definitely not as low in baseball talent as their ranking indicates, it is custom to have new entrants enter based on how forward or back in the IBAF rankings they are of the lowest rated team in the Continuum Rankings. It’s likely they will both be moving up as time goes on.

The next rankings update will come at the end of the European Championships, which are going on right now. Go below the jump to see the full rankings:

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Famous For Something Else: Scott Boras

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Scott Boras, of course, is famous as a baseball agent. But some of you might not know that he once played baseball and was a pretty good player in the minors!

Year Age Tm Lg Lev Aff G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
1974 21 Cardinals GULF Rk STL 33 120 95 13 26 3 2 0 10 7 2 18 16 .274 .402 .347 .749
1975 22 St. Petersburg FLOR A STL 99 368 300 39 83 15 4 2 36 1 1 60 24 .277 .402 .373 .776
1976 23 St. Petersburg FLOR A STL 129 512 437 63 129 22 6 2 44 2 0 56 38 .295 .378 .387 .765
1977 24 3 Teams 2 Lgs A-AA CHC,STL 110 405 343 54 100 11 6 1 33 4 0 55 36 .292 .392 .367 .759
1977 24 St. Petersburg FLOR A STL 22 92 78 17 27 2 2 0 7 2 0 12 9 .346 .440 .423 .863
1977 24 Midland,Arkansas TL AA STL,CHC 88 313 265 37 73 9 4 1 26 2 0 43 27 .275 .377 .351 .728
1977 24 Arkansas TL AA STL 13
1977 24 Midland TL AA CHC 75
4 Seasons 371 1405 1175 169 338 51 18 5 123 14 3 189 114 .288 .390 .374 .765
Rk (1 season) Rk 33 120 95 13 26 3 2 0 10 7 2 18 16 .274 .402 .347 .749
A (3 seasons) A 250 972 815 119 239 39 12 4 87 5 1 128 71 .293 .393 .385 .778
AA (1 season) AA 88 313 265 37 73 9 4 1 26 2 0 43 27 .275 .377 .351 .728
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/10/2014.

As you can see, Boras was a pretty good player. In fact, in 1976 he made the Florida State League All-Star Team! However, he had knee problems, and that forced him to retire… and eventually led him to become an agent.

A Mr. Peanut suit that totally hung out with Reggie Jackson, now on eBay

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Cy Young’s coffee pot. Freaky Mr. Met costume. Stan Musial’s wallet. Mickey Mantle’s music. Mike Trout’s Little League card. All have been available/are available from eBay. All have been on the Baseball Continuum.

And now, I am proud to give you… a Mr. Peanut costume once worn next to Reggie Jackson. Yes, not a Mr. Peanut costume once worn by Reggie Jackson (as hilarious as that would be), but rather one reportedly worn next to him as a publicity stunt during the media blitz for the release of the REGGIE Bar.

Screen Shot 2014-09-07 at 11.21.54 AMYes, you can own that Mr. Peanut suit. And also get a commemorative wrapper of a REGGIE bar! Say, what does the Mr. Peanut suit look like now?

Screen Shot 2014-09-07 at 11.25.07 AMSomewhat nightmare-bringing, okay, but, still, truly a great part of… standing next to baseball history.

And all for the low, low, price of…

Screen Shot 2014-09-07 at 11.26.58 AM

Just under 16-thousand dollars.

Any takers? I’ve got about twenty bucks.

2014 Rochester Red Wings in Review, Part 2: Five Things We Learned

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Apologies for being late, but here are five things we learned from the 2014 Rochester Red Wings season:

1. It is possible to throw a No-Hitter in two different states and two different months

2. Geography is Destiny

3. As always, the fate of a Minor League Team is in large part outside of it’s control

Make no mistake, the purpose of AAA baseball teams is, and always will be, to provide a place for future MLB players to get ready for The Show. Winning is of only secondary importance, and, with rare exception, no AAA team will go the season with all of their key pieces untouched. What’s more, there are still the other hazards that haunt every baseball club: injuries, slumps, players that just don’t work out or underperform.

This year’s Red Wings were a perfect example of that. The Red Wings played 144 games this season. Only six position players were in at least 100 of them, only four were in at least 120 of them, and only two (Eric Farris, who’s “get to know your Wings” scoreboard segment was by far the best, and Aussie infielder James Beresford) were in at least 130 of them. Danny Santana, who many thought would be in Rochester for a good chunk of the season, ended up only playing 24 games, while Darin Mastroianni was lost to first the Majors and then to the Blue Jays through waivers after just four games. Chris Parmelee, the leading power threat through the first month of the season, was also gone early. The vaunted opening-day rotation of Alex Meyer, Trevor May, Yohan Pino, Logan Darnell and Kris Johnson saw all but Meyer spend at least some time in Minnesota, and the loss of May and Pino down the stretch especially hurt. If Rochester had all five of them all season, I see almost no way that they miss the playoffs, but, again, those are the breaks that come with being a AAA franchise.

And, of course, there were injuries, both in the majors (which led to certain players getting called up to replace the injured Twins) and down in the minors. The loss of Meyer to injury early in the third-to-last game of the season may well have doomed the Red Wings, as it forced them to burn Mark Hamburger, who was expected to pitch a must-win game against Pawtuckett the next day. Instead, the Red Wings had to have Jose Berrios, a 20-year-old (albeit one of the top prospects in the system) pitch that game, where he was beaten up on in a loss that ended the Wings’ playoff chances.

Health problems below AAA also put a wrench in the Wings’ season. At the start of the year, it was considered possible that top prospects Miguel Sano and (although more of a longshot) Byron Buxton could join by the end of the year. Sano got hurt and missed the whole season, and Buxton got a concussion in his first game in AA (although by that point it was clear he was probably not going to end up in Rochester by the end of the year).

Speaking of prospects, I think it’s becoming increasingly unlikely that Rochester will ever see Kennys Vargas, who has gone .314 in 140 AB for the Twins since getting the call-up from AA. Prospects jumping from AA to MLB is less frequent in Minnesota’s system than it is in some others, but it does happen: Joe Mauer would never have played in Rochester if not for a injury so early in his rookie season in MLB, for example.

4. Of course, the above thing also can go the other way.

After the first month of the season, I don’t think anybody expected that Chris Colabello would be back in Rochester. He’d done great early in the year, after all, even winning AL Player of the Week at one point. Then he crashed back to earth and ended up spending more games in Rochester this season (61) than he would in Minneapolis (59). He did not receive a call-up at the end of the year and it’s almost certain that his time with Minnesota- and maybe even affiliated baseball in general- is at an end. But what must have been a horrible disappointment for Colabello was good news for the Red Wings, as he ended up leading the team in HRs. In his two seasons with the Red Wings, Colabello ended up batting .319 in 551 ABs, with 34 HRs and 114 RBIs. His OPS of .966 was spectacular. He will be missed, but hopefully he gets another shot at a permanent place in the Majors.

Similarly, Chris Herrmann was originally with the Twins to start the year, but ended up playing sizable time in Rochester, where he became one of the Wings’ best hitters. He’s now in Minnesota again as a September call-up.

The same sort of thing will no doubt happen next year, just as it happens every year.

5. The Mario-Coin Sound Is An Excellent Sound Effect For Scoring A Run

This season, when the Red Wings scored a run, the sound from Super Mario Brothers when you got a coin would play. They aren’t the only team that does it- I believe the Cleveland Indians do the same, and the Twins use the 1-Up Sound from SMB. It’s great, funny, and is also a good reminder that ultimately baseball is a game.

In fact, it even inspired me to try my hand at some artwork:

marioredwingsThat’s Mario in a Rochester Red Wings jersey. I’m not entirely sure why I made it, but I find it funny and I’m glad I made it. Let’s just hope they don’t change the sound effect next year, otherwise this will just be ridiculous.

 

…

So, the 2014 season is over in Rochester. It’s far too early to guess what the 2015 season may bring: Will Gene Glynn return as manager? Will some players be lost to free agency or by making the jump to the big leagues? Will next year by the year that Sano and/or Buxton make the jump to AAA?

Only time will tell.

 

2014 Rochester Red Wings in Review, Part 1, AKA “The IL North is Tough”

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If there is one lesson to be learned from the 2014 Rochester Red Wings, it is that minor league baseball is perhaps even more cruel than Major League Baseball, and perhaps even more unforgiving, at least to teams.

If you want to know what I mean, take a look at the standings of the International League this year. You’ll see on them a horrible unbalanced league, where one division clearly was better than the other two. That division was the IL North. Take a look at the near-final (there were one or two games still going on when I posted this) standings here:

Screen Shot 2014-09-01 at 4.04.16 PMNow, as you can see, the North simply owned the other divisions. The four teams with the best records in the league were in it (meaning the playoffs will consist of the first, second, fifth, and sixth best teams), and it’s two worst teams (Scranton and Lehigh Valley) would have been in a three-way fight with Gwinnett for second in another division (the South).

Sadly for the Red Wings, they were in the North. And, sadly, they were unable to win the Wild Card. To be sure, there were times this season where it could be said they blew their chance at the postseason: a horrible 0-for-Ohio road trip, a few blown games by the bullpen here and there, and some games where they got plenty of men on base but never got enough of them home. But, ultimately, the Red Wings were just unlucky victims of geography, stuck in what may have been the best division in all of baseball (relative to the rest of it’s league).

That said, despite the disappointing ending, it was a ton of fun, so on Wednesday, I’ll have a second part, a retrospective on the 2014 Red Wings season, complete with photos!

 

Some stuff you should probably read

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Some things I recommend you read:

On the new commissioner, his challenges, and the bloc that was against him:

Other stuff:

 

Random Thoughts (August 3, 2014)

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Some random thoughts this Sunday, some of them on baseball, some of them not:

1. I wish that that “double no-hitter” last night had continued past the seventh inning. That truly would have been a sight to see. Only once has there been a no-hitter both ways after nine innings, by the way.

2. I still can’t believe how bad Ruben Amaro Jr. is at his job as Phillies GM, at least as far as the last few years go. It makes the glory days of the late-aughts seem a million years ago, and the lack of prospects in the wings means it could be a long road back, especially if he continues to refuse to flip what few trade pieces he has left.

3. It’s good to see Manny Machado has once again become Manny Machado instead of that slumping guy from the first half who got hurt and threw his bat in anger. One of these days he will literally throw out a man at first while standing on the wall that separates the field from the seats.

4. It’s going to take awhile to get used to David Price being in a Tigers uniform.

5. A video you should see of a one-armed pitcher in a youth all-star game.

6. It’s over a week old now, but I still recommend “An Idiot in Exile” by Pat Jordan, on Johnny Damon’s post-playing days.

7. It is truly sad to see Jim Kelly as he is now, but also truly inspiring to see him continue on despite his cancer.

8. Guardians of the Galaxy is a fun (and funny) movie and I think you all should go see it.

 

Some stuff at the bottom in the August 2, 2014 Continuum Baseball Rankings

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It’s been awhile, but it’s time to update the Continuum Baseball Rankings! The C-Levels of the European Championships took place recently, and since it included previously-included Continuum Rankings teams like Israel, Ireland and Slovenia and involved senior teams (i.e. the best players they could round up given circumstances), it counts in the Rankings! Of course, the best players that these teams could get aren’t necessarily that great (the best rosters in this tournament would probably be beaten by fairly good D3 college teams)- Israel didn’t have Minor League ringers this time around like in the WBC Qualifiers, for example. But still, it counts, and Israel won it.

So, the movements in this installment (all at the bottom of the rankings, more or less):

  • Slovenia and Ireland swapped places, with Slovenia (which finished 2nd in the tournament) taking 47th while Ireland (4th) fell to 48.
  • Romania entered the rankings at 49, pushing Mongolia (inactive) back to 50.
  • Finland, Latvia, Hungary and Norway made their Rankings debut, being 51, 52, 53, and 54, respectively. Norway is now the lowest-rated team in the Rankings, and would, if they were to face a Senior USA team (which could mean anything from Indy Leaguers all the way up to MLB-filled WBC teams), lose over 99.39% of the time.

 

Lastly, a note about methodology: To make updates a bit more active, I am considering making it so that the Rankings cover everything 18 and over. This would bring in results by college teams and the like. Such a change won’t be made until 2015, but it’s something to note.

 

Anyway, current rankings are after the jump:

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How to Tell if a Deadline Deal is Real in Five Easy Steps (Humor)

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1. Is it not past the Trade Deadline?

It ended 4:00 PM today, Eastern. So if somebody around midnight starts squawking on Twitter that Marlon Byrd is Bronx-bound or that the Dodgers have shipped Matt Kemp somewhere, they are WRONG. In theory such things could happen if they put them through waivers first, but it’s unlikely to happen this soon after the non-waiver deadline.

2. Is it an actual account?

Because, really, if MLB Network, Jim Bowden and ESPN all fell for various fake Twitter accounts today, so can you. Before you retweet that hot news about Joe Superstar going to City X for Prospect Z, check to see how many followers that account has (I’m going to doubt that the real Buster Olney only has 12 followers), and whether the seemingly-lower-case “L” at the end of “Rosenthal” is actually a upper-case “i” or a | symbol. Unusual spaces in the name or unprofessional profiles are also another clue.

3. Are other people confirming it? Is the team confirming it?

If all of Baseball Twitter is in agreement that the trade has happened, it probably is true. If the team says it happened, it definitely is true.

4. Don’t get fooled by obviously fake trades. The Yankees and Red Sox haven’t traded with each other one-on-one since 1997 and they aren’t going to start now.

Wait… what?

5. Also, assume any trade by Ruben Amaro Jr. of the Phillies is fake, especially if it involves any players from the team’s late-aughts glory years.

Because, seriously, after this year, I’ve come to the conclusion that Amaro won’t get rid of them until they retire.