Baseball Small Talk

(#160)

Joe DiMaggio had a 56 game hitting streak broken on July 17, 1941, going 0-3 with two hard hit balls. After that game he hit safely in 16 more games. Hits in 72 of 73 games. Won the AL MVP over the great Ted Williams… who hit just 406.6.

MLB teams after winning any championship. Let’s celebrate the great victory with a central nervous system depressant drug. I hate to watch it. For that matter, the losing team will soon be drunk, too.

Stats are for losers. Arizona pitcher Archie Bradley, an 0.98 hitter, hit a 2 strike, 2 out, 2 run triple (the first of his career) to give the Diamondbacks an 8-5 lead in the NL Wild Card game. Every time you swing you have a 50-50 chance to hit it or not, hit it hard or not, get a hit or not.

The most dominating no hitter ever for Matt Scherzer was in 2015; the 2nd this season. 17 Ks, 9 in a row from 6th to 9th innings.

Watching Strawberry and Gooden on 30 for 30. Depressing. What a waste.

Does a team trailing by more than a run in the ninth still take until the get a strike like they used to?

It’s time to wave the stupid Covid rule in JUCO baseball.

I hate the fist bumps in baseball. Please shake my hand.

I think a lot of a pitcher’s control problems come from landing on the heel.

We need a notation in the scorebooks for umpire walks. Umpires are practicing, too I guess.

The quantitative definition of the zone is when thinking is inversely proportionate to the stimulus of the environment. Buzzzzz. Pitch. Glove. Pitch. Glove. Nothing else exists.

“There are three things you can do in a baseball game. You can win, or you can lose, or it can rain.”— Casey Stengel.

“One of the beautiful things about baseball is that every once in a while you come into a situation where you want to, and where you have to, reach down and prove something (as in life, Rick’s note).” Nolan Ryan

A good night tonight is 0 for 4 and not get hit in the head. (Oscar Gamble on facing Nolan Ryan in his “wild” years with the Mets.)

He would have been a great pitcher if the plate was high and outside. (Quote about Rex Barney)

Fastest fastballs ever recorded: Chapman- 105.1, Feller- 107.6, Nolan Ryan- 108.5!

Nolan Ryan’s last fastball (at age 46) was clocked at 98 mph.

“Sooner or later you have to say it’s my ball and half the plate is mine. Only I never let on which half of the plate I wanted.” Don Drysdale

Texas A&M Hitting Philosophy – Swing at strikes and take balls. Hit the ball where it’s pitched. Nothing less impressive than BP home runs. Personal insult if teams shift on us.

Led by Koufax and Don Drysdale, the Dodgers made it to the 1963 World Series against the New York Yankees. Koufax pitched the first game. The scouting report on Mickey Mantle read, “Do not throw him a curveball. He’ll crush it.” In the first inning, Koufax struck out Mantle throwing nothing but fastballs. On Mantle’s second plate appearance, Koufax threw two quick fastball strikes. Dodgers catcher John Roseboro signaled for another heater but Koufax shook him off. He wanted to try his curveball on Mantle, despite the warning. Koufax threw the curve and at the last second the bottom came out of the pitch. Mantle flinched and the umpire called “strike three.” Mantle hesitated, turned to Roseboro and said, “How the f____ is anybody supposed to hit that s___?” The Dodgers went on to win the Series in four games with Koufax winning two.

The MLB record for most pitches thrown in a game is held by Leon Cadore who pitched every inning of a 26 inning game in 1920. He threw a total of 360 pitches throughout the game.

Beside above, how many pitches did Nolan Ryan throw in his career? In 1989, at age 42, Nolan Ryan averaged 127 pitches a game with a high of 164, which came five days after he threw 150. He’s now the CEO of a team that has a pitcher who threw 130 pitches, creating a huge uproar.

The Tampa Bay Rays harp on “rushing to two strikes.”

Paul DePodesta endorsed an idea a decade ago as assistant GM for the A’s, in a forgotten nugget in that book everyone read, Moneyball. His language was colorful at the time, as he labeled hitters in 2-1 counts “all-stars” and those in 1-2 counts “anemic nine-hole hitters.”