Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
This is something I’ve not seen before. Central Illinois Collegiate League is currently in their All-Star break. Through 26 games, all four teams are in a tie for first place. Poor Dubois Bombers… stuck in last place.
This is something I’ve not seen before.
Central Illinois Collegiate League is currently in their All-Star break. Through 26 games, all four teams are in a tie for first place.
Poor Dubois Bombers… stuck in last place.
The ugly ass logo of this year’s All-Star game Before the game, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver were going on about how “now it really counts” but for Tony LaRussa it’s more than that and it’s a matter of pride and he wanted to break the AL streak etc etc. I think that’s how it … Continue reading “All-Star wrap up”
The ugly ass logo of this year’s All-Star game
Before the game, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver were going on about how “now it really counts” but for Tony LaRussa it’s more than that and it’s a matter of pride and he wanted to break the AL streak etc etc.
I think that’s how it should have been all along except we didn’t need the home field advantage thing to give the teams the incentive to win. At least, we shouldn’t need it. Years past, managers were too concerned about making sure that all reserves and pitchers would get into the game rather than playing good fundamental baseball. We all remember the 2002 All-Star classic.
But the NL couldn’t pull it off despite Mr LaRussa using all his reserves… except one.
Now, with the bases loaded and down by one, why would you not tell one of the best hitters in the game to pick up a bat and get in the game? Pujols was itching to pinch hit for Rowand and if the situation called for it, he could have played the outfield. If LaRussa has a reason for refusing to do so, I don’t know it.
Pujols has publicly expressed frustration over the situation saying that he is “irked”.
Anyway, congrats to Ichiro for the whole running-around-the bases-without-being-tagged thing which contributed to his MVP award. Enjoy the Tahoe.
Note to Fox TV… the Eric Byrnes schtik in McCovey’s Cove was a joke. Don’t do it again.
Technorati Tags: all star game
ESPN shot their load with the All-Star rosters and now they’re paying for it. Because they announced the roster list before the MLB-imposed time limit, MLB will not allow ESPN’s Baseball Tonight to broadcast live from San Francisco. Instead, they will be doing the show from their studios in Bristol, Connecticut. They will be allowed … Continue reading “Who’s going to lose their job over this?”
ESPN shot their load with the All-Star rosters and now they’re paying for it.
Because they announced the roster list before the MLB-imposed time limit, MLB will not allow ESPN’s Baseball Tonight to broadcast live from San Francisco. Instead, they will be doing the show from their studios in Bristol, Connecticut. They will be allowed to have a one-hour show before the homerun derby.
In a obligatory statement, ESPN promises the “same in-depth All-Star coverage they have come to expect.”
Good luck with that.
I was talking to Mike, the commish of our APBA league this weekend and he was telling me about his current APBA replay. The 1961 season. Mike is a sucker for the 60’s decade when it comes to APBA replays. Mike uses the actual lineups and starting rotations when he does his replays. He uses … Continue reading “The 60’s Save rule: a new one on me”
I was talking to Mike, the commish of our APBA league this weekend and he was telling me about his current APBA replay. The 1961 season. Mike is a sucker for the 60’s decade when it comes to APBA replays.
Mike uses the actual lineups and starting rotations when he does his replays. He uses retrosheet.org to facilitate this. He came across something unusual in the boxscores regarding saves. There were instances of pitchers who were attributed saves even though they didn’t finish the game. Of course, nowadays finishing the game is one of the requirements of recording a save.
But looking through Retrosheet, I found a couple references of pitchers who recorded a save though they didn’t finish the game. After some research, I found this (emphasis mine):
The rule for a Save did not exist in the 1965 version of the baseball rules. A save was not introduced to baseball scoring until 1967. The rule in 1967 was:
“Credit a save to a relief pitcher who enters a game with his team in the lead if he holds the lead the remainder of the game, provided he is not credited with the victory. A relief pitcher cannot be credited with a save if he does not finish the game unless he is removed for a pinch hitter or pinch runner. When more then one relief pitcher qualifies for a save under the provisions of this rule, credit the save to the relief pitcher judged by the scorer to have been the most effective. Only one
save can be credited in any game.”
News to me. I wonder if Mike will be using this rule in his replay.
Former University of Illinois starting pitcher Brian Blomquist is on a roll. He’s had four straight quality starts for the Southern Illinois Miners culminating in Saturday night’s outing. That night, he pitched a four-hit shutout against the River City Rascals. “It had been a year since I had thrown in a real game before the … Continue reading “Saturday night’s all right for ex-Illini Blomquist”
Former University of Illinois starting pitcher Brian Blomquist is on a roll. He’s had four straight quality starts for the Southern Illinois Miners culminating in Saturday night’s outing. That night, he pitched a four-hit shutout against the River City Rascals.
“It had been a year since I had thrown in a real game before the season started,” Blomquist said, “so I was still trying to get back into shape and get a feel for all of my pitches. Now, I finally think I have it.”
In a related note, I mentioned in a earlier post that Danny Almonte was a teammate of Blomquist’s on the Miners squad. Almonte became famous as a little league pitcher who brought his team to the World Series only to have us find out he was older than he reported.
Well. Almonte was cut from the Miners’ roster after posting a 5.28 ERA in six appearances. Deadspin has the details.
Damian Miller: 4 for 5, 2 HR, 2 runs, 7 rbis
Yowza! Miller, a .264 lifetime hitter who had a career high 13 homers in 2001 for the WS champs Arizona Diamondbacks, made it HIS night, Monday…
…and he wasn’t even really scheduled to play. Johnny Estrada was scheduled to rest Sunday but played anyway so Miller strapped on the gear for last night’s game.
Milwaukee pretty much needed all of those rbis as they defeated Pittsburgh 10-7.
Kameron Loe: 6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K (Win)
Ok, there were certainly better performances on Sunday. Josh Willingham’s 5 hit game comes to mind. Also, five starters pitched 6 innings or more and didn’t allow a run (Heck, Atlanta’s Carlyle and Florida’s Willis faced each other and COMBINED for 7 shutout innings).
Regardless, I picked Loe because I had a gut feeling that he’s been improving as of late. I looked up his stats indeed, he has. Going into his June 14th, start, he was 1-5. He won that start against Pittsburgh (ok, no big feat) and hasn’t lost a start since.
He’s now 5-6 with a 5.72 which means he’s probably getting some help from his friends. That said, since his winning ways have started, he hasn’t given up more than 3 runs in a start.
Keep doing that and he’s bound to get below 5.00, no?
The Detroit Free Press has Tigers baseball cards available for download. You can view and print them out with Adobe Reader. Alas, they are one-sided. It would be neat if they had back sides with stats and whatever. You can access them here. I love the one of Leyland who is taking a swing… with … Continue reading “Downloadable Baseball Cards”
The Detroit Free Press has Tigers baseball cards available for download. You can view and print them out with Adobe Reader. Alas, they are one-sided. It would be neat if they had back sides with stats and whatever.
You can access them here. I love the one of Leyland who is taking a swing… with a bat, I mean.
(hat tip, Baseball Musings)
Over email, I was reminded of a pitcher’s duel that occurred on this date 44 years ago. With the subject line “Back in the Day”, DonS writes: July 2, 1963 — Juan Marichal of San Francisco beat Warren Spahn and the Milwaukee Braves 1-0 in 16 innings on Willie Mays’ homer. Both pitchers threw complete … Continue reading “Pitch Counts?? I got yer pitch counts right here.”
Over email, I was reminded of a pitcher’s duel that occurred on this date 44 years ago.
With the subject line “Back in the Day”, DonS writes:
July 2, 1963 — Juan Marichal of San Francisco beat Warren Spahn and the Milwaukee Braves 1-0 in 16 innings on Willie Mays’ homer. Both pitchers threw complete games, Spahn throwing 201 pitches at the age of 42. Willie Mays hit pitch number 201 over the fence.
PITCHINGMilwaukee Braves IP H R ER BB SO HRSpahn L(11-4) 15.1 9 1 1 1 2 1San Francisco Giants IP H R ER BB SO HRMarichal W(13-3) 16 8 0 0 4 10 0
You can find the box score here courtesy of retrosheet.org.
Brando, who remains a Brooklyn Dodger fan, responded:
For their careers:
Spahn GS 665 CG 382 57.4%Marichal GS 457 CG 244 53.4%Gibson GS 482 CG 255 52.9%Koufax GS 314 CG 137 43.6%I can excuse Koufax because he was a great DODGER pitcher and every game towards the end of his career was painful.
Yep those were the days.