Tag Archives: baseball

Mr. Octobers of Yesterday (October 26, 2013)

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Well, lost in the madness of the final play of last night’s game are those players who excelled in it, the Mr. Octobers of yesterday.

Both of them are hitters: Matt Holliday, who went 2-5 but who contributed three RBIs, and Yadier Molina, who was excellent behind the plate and also had three hits and an RBI.

Standings (PP= Position Player, P= Pitcher):

PP David Ortiz– 28

PP Matt Holliday– 18

PP Carlos Beltran– 16

P Koji Uehara– 16

P Justin Verlander– 14

P Michael Wacha– 13

P Jon Lester– 13

P Clayton Kershaw– 11

P Max Scherzer– 11

PP Shane Victorino– 11

P Zack Greinke– 10

P Carlos Martinez– 10

PP Yadier Molina- 10

P Adam Wainwright– 9

PP Jhonny Peralta – 8

PP Adrian Gonzalez– 8

PP David Freese – 6

PP Miguel Cabrera– 6

P Anibal Sanchez – 5

P Hyun-jin Ryu– 5

PP Yasiel Puig– 5

P Carlos Martinez– 5

P John Lackey– 5

PP Austin Jackson– 5

P Doug Fister– 5

PP Mike Napoli– 5

P Sonny Gray-3

P Gerrit Cole– 3

PP Pedro Alvarez– 3

P Mike Minor– 3

PP Hanley Ramirez– 3

PP Yoenis Cespedes– 3

P Jason Grilli– 3

PP Carl Crawford– 3

P Chris Capuano– 3

PP Seth Smith– 3

P Dan Otero– 3

PP Jose Lobaton-3

P Jake McGee-3

PP Juan Uribe-3

PP (Position Player) Russell Martin– 1

P (Pitcher) Francisco Liriano– 1

PP Desmond Jennings– 1

P Alex Cobb– 1

Headlines from around the Continuum: October 27, 2013

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Baseball-related headlines from the Newseum:

(Note that I try to copy the style of the paper as well, hence why some are in ALL CAPS while others aren’t. Also, I ignored extremely basic headlines like “World Series Preview” or “Cardinals Win”. I’ll occasionally make an exception for the team’s “home” newspapers)

Story: Obstruction play helps Cardinals win Game 3, take 2-1 lead

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: A LEG UP

Boston Globe: Cardinals win in wild finish

Boston Herald: FOR THE BIRDS!

The Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, CA): What a trip!

The Herald (Monterey, CA): WILD ENDING

Belleville (IL) News-Democrat: CARDS TRIP UP RED SOX

News-Gazette (Champaign, IL): SAFE AT HOME

Journal Star (Peoria, IL): WILD CARDS

Portland (Maine) Press: An ugly finish for Sox

The Sun Chronicle (Attleboro, Mass.): A tangled web in Game 3

Herald News (Fall River, Mass.): BITTER END

Cape Cod Times: WILD, WACKY, PAINFUL STUFF

Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Mass.): A long night (The game wasn’t done by press time for the Telegram & Gazette)

Burlington (VT) Free Press: OBSTRUCTED

Novedades de Quintana Roo (Cancun, Mexico): Triunfo cardenal de alarido (something to do with a howl or a screech, may mean “Cardinals screech to victory” or something like that)

Vanguardia (Saltillo, Mexico): POLEMICA VICTORIA (“Controversial victory”)

El Universal (Caracas, Venezuela): LOS CARDENALES TOMARON VENTAJA (“The Cardinals took advantage.”)

Quote of the Night (Obstruction)

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OBSTRUCTION is the act of a fielder who, while not in possession of the ball and not in the act of fielding the ball, impedes the progress of any runner.
Rule 2.00 (Obstruction) Comment: If a fielder is about to receive a thrown ball and if the ball is in flight directly toward and near enough to the fielder so he must occupy his position to receive the ball he may be considered “in the act of fielding a ball.” It is entirely up to the judgment of the umpire as to whether a fielder is in the act of fielding a ball. After a fielder has made an attempt to field a ball and missed, he can no longer be in the “act of fielding” the ball. For example: If an infielder dives at a ground ball and the ball passes him and he continues to lie on the ground and delays the progress of the runner, he very likely has obstructed the runner.

A nice infographic on how fast a 95-MPH fastball is and how long a hitter has to react

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Answer: Not very long.

Bizarre Baseball Culture: SHORTSTOP SQUAD (AKA “Ripken, Larkin, Jeter and A-Rod fight Faux-Godzilla”)

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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.

In the last years of the 20th century and the first years of the 21st, there existed a company called “Ultimate Sports Force”. It is gone now, existing only in old websites and undeleted news items, but in it’s day, it was a staple advertisement in things like Sports Illustrated for Kids.

What was “Ultimate Sports Force”, you ask?

Ultimate Sports Force was a comic company that made books in which professional athletes were superheroes, that’s what! They had licenses with MLB, NBA, NFL and others, and they made comics that involved them saving the world. And then, like a shooting star across the sky, they were gone.

But, oh, man, the stuff they left behind. I’ve come into possession of many of their great products, and while their quality varies from “surprisingly good” to “OH-DEAR-GOD-KILL-IT-WITH-FIRE”, they all represent a special point in our history, a time when we could think of our sports heroes as actual superheroes, and not individuals who got into arguments, used PEDs, had tumultuous love lives, politics we disagree with or other flaws. No, Ultimate Sports Force was the last Golden Age before we all became so jaded.

Perhaps the crown jewel of Ultimate Sports Force’s non-team-affiliated content was Shortstop Squad. Truly a marvel of the Bizarre Baseball Culture arts, it paid tribute to those that went before and followed in their traditions, as Cal Ripken led his team of Barry Larkin, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez against a fish-monster that basically is meant to be fish-Godzilla.

You may think I’m being sarcastic, and you are probably right, but, well, this is SHORTSTOP SQUAD, so your logic is irrelevant.

After all, just LOOK at this cover:

SHORTSTOPSQUADcover

Your mind is now blown.

So, let’s get started with Shortstop Squad #1 from 1999… after the jump, of course:

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Headlines from around the Continuum: October 25, 2013

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Baseball-related headlines from the Newseum:

(Note that I try to copy the style of the paper as well, hence why some are in ALL CAPS while others aren’t. Also, I ignored extremely basic headlines like “World Series Preview” or “Cardinals Win”)

Story: Cardinals even up series with 4-2 win in Game 2

News-Gazette (Champaign, Ill.): TURNING THE TABLES

The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa): A big pick-me-up

Portland (Maine) Press Herald: One for the birds: Cardinals pull even

Boston Globe: Reversal of fortune at Fenway

Boston Herald: HOUSE OF CARDS

Herald News (Fall River, Mass.): OUTGUNNED

Cape Cod Times: Fall in Fenway

Joplin (Mo.) Globe: YOUNG GUNS

Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader: CARDINAL WAY

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: SAFELY HOME (this was the Sports Page headline, shown on ESPN this morning)

Providence Journal: Not enough this time

El Expreso de Campeche (San Francisco de Campeche, Mexico): PICOTAZO (roughly translates as “PECK” or “PECKED”)

 

(The rest are rather generic)

Headlines from around the Continuum: October 24, 2013

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(Note that I try to copy the style of the paper as well, hence why some are in ALL CAPS while others aren’t. Also, I ignored extremely basic headlines like “World Series Preview”)

Story: Red Sox beat Cardinals in Game 1, 8-1

Hartford (CT) Courant: Hot Start On A Cold Night

Belleville (IL) News-Democrat: Rough start for Wainwright, Cardinals

The News-Gazette (Champaign, IL): FOR PETE’S SAKE (with image of Pete Kozma’s error)

Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.): RED SOCKED

Boston Globe: Red Sox are the whole show

The Herald News (Fall River, Mass.): Coming out swinging

Cape Cod Times: Red Sox bring it

Taunton (Mass.) Daily Gazette: STRIKING EARLY

News Tribune (Jefferson City, Mo.): CARDS SOCKED

News-Leader (Springfield, Mo.): FENWAY FIASCO

(The St. Louis Post-Dispatch had a large ad at the top talking about a poster giveaway tomorrow, and a small cartoon at the bottom depicting a Cardinal having a ball hit it’s head with the caption “Beantown Bash”.)

Concord (NH) Monitor: Strong opening statement

Texarkana Gazette: LIVING THE DREAM (on how Texarkana natives Will Middlebrooks and Michael Wacha are both in the World Series)

El Universal (Cartagena, Colombia): Los Medias Rojas pegaron primero (roughly “The Red Sox strike first”)

Vanguardia (Saltillo, Mexico): !PEGA BOSTON PRIMERO! (Roughly translates as “Boston hits first!”)

(Most others, including those from other countries, are either extremely similar to the above ones or are extremely boring.)

Bizarre Baseball Culture (Book Review): “Brittle Innings” by Michael Bishop

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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.

1816 was the so-called “Year Without a Summer”, as a series of events (including the ash from a very large volcanic eruption in Indonesia) caused temperatures around the world to plunge. Against this backdrop, a small group of English writers and poets had their summer vacation at the Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva ruined by record cold and wet weather. Stuck inside the Swiss manor, one of their members, Lord Byron, suggested they try their hand at writing ghost stories. One of them, a young woman named Mary Shelley, came up with an idea that would eventually become Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. It differed from other scary stories in one major aspect: instead of having the monster come from magic or religion, it was about a monster created by mankind, by science. In fact, some say that it invented science fiction as a genre.

So, perhaps it isn’t surprising that eventually Bizarre Baseball Culture would come across the Frankenstein Monster, but it is surprising that it comes in Brittle Innings by Michael Bishop, as opposed to a baseball episode of The Munsters or some sort of obscure comic. Because, you see, Brittle Innings, published in 1994, is an honest-to-goodness classy novel written for adults that doesn’t even advertise the fact that it’s unusual, and it’s premise is simple: what if Mary Shelley had merely been an editor of the tale of Frankenstein and his monster, and what if the Monster survived, moved to America, and took up baseball?

Okay, maybe that premise isn’t that simple. Depends on your definition of “simple”, I guess. Still, go below the jump for more:

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The 2013 World Series Preview/Prediction Spectacular

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It’s time to preview the 2013 World Series!

…After the jump, of course:

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My Votes in Baseball Prospectus’ “2013 Internet Baseball Awards”

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Baseball Prospectus runs the Internet Baseball Awards, the oldest such internet-voted awards in baseball, open to anyone with any type of account at Prospectus. Amazingly though, this is the first year I’m actually voting in them. I have no idea why. I think it may be because I never got around to getting one of the free accounts at BP. I am ashamed.

Anyway, here’s how I voted this year (using a combination of statistics, my own eyes, and a bit of my gut), and keep in mind that you too can vote:

AL MVP (in order): Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout, Josh Donaldson, Chris Davis, Robinson Cano, Max Scherzer, Evan Longoria, Manny Machado, Felix Hernandez, Ben Zobrist.

I pick Cabrera over Trout, Donaldson and Davis due to his importance to the team, despite the fact that under advanced statistics Trout and Donaldson both had better years, WAR-wise. In addition, I have to wonder how well Cabrera might have been if he was healthy all season instead of completely hobbled in the final weeks. Also, it’s what my gut says. And my gut is stupid like this.

NL MVP (in order): Andrew McCutchen, Paul Goldschmidt, Carlos Gomez, Matt Carpenter, Clayton Kershaw, Joey Votto, Yadier Molina, Jose Fernandez, Cliff Lee, Andrelton Simmons

This is far less based on gut and far more based on statistics. Andrelton Simmons’ place in 10th is more because of his great fielding play, by the way.

AL Cy Young (in order): Max Scherzer, Felix Hernandez, Yu Darvish, Hisashi Iwakuma, Anibal Sanchez

Not that much I have to justify here. Note: Iwakuma would have won the “Cy Underrated” award, if such a thing existed.

NL Cy Young (in order): Clayton Kershaw, Jose Fernandez, Cliff Lee, Adam Wainwright, Matt Harvey

Like the AL Cy Young, there isn’t much I have to justify here, especially at the very top. I was originally thinking of having Fernandez be four or five and perhaps Wainwright be two or three, but I’m feeling confident in this ordering and the stats more-or-less back me up. More-or-less.

AL Rookie of the Year (in order): Wil Myers, Jose Iglesias, Chris Archer, Sonny Gray, David Lough

The AL batch of newcomers this year was sort of “meh”, especially when compared to the National League.

NL Rookie of the Year (in order): Jose Fernandez, Yasiel Puig, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Gerrit Cole, Julio Teheran

Michael Wacha would probably be on this list if I included the postseason.

AL Manager of the Year (in order): John Farrell, Joe Girardi, Terry Francona

NL Manager of the Year (in order): Clint Hurdle, Don Mattingly, Mike Matheny

Manager voting is more-or-less based entirely on gut and impressions… so, uh, this is what my impression of how these guys did and what my gut tells me.