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Okay, since I started the R.F.K. thread based upon the Nationals being there, and I don't know what the story is with concessions for D.C. United events or other events at R.F.K., it's high-time to steer the baseball food to this new thread. (Moderators: Please feel free to merge/add-in appropriate posts from the R.F.K. thread as necessary) It's been noted in the R.F.K. thread that the new food concessionaires for Nationals Park have been announced as follows: Ben's Chili Bowl, Boardwalk Fries, Cantina Marina, Gifford's Ice Cream, Krazee Ice, Kosher Sports, Hard Times Café, La Piccola Gelateria, Mayorga Coffee, Noah's Pretzels, and Red Hot and Blue. My first question is: Where the heck is Five Guys? I mean, it's a local, home-grown chain, after all. I'd love to see them there. By the way, as of today, the official Opening Day for the Nats season is only 35 days away, and for season ticket holders, the free game on Saturday, March 29th is only 34 days away. Spring is officially 25 days away. Don't those thoughts warm your heart?
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The Hall of Fame players with All-Star game hits against the greatest number of Hall of Fame pitchers: (There are other players with hits against 1, 2, or perhaps even 3 different pitchers, but I spent a fair amount of time on this, and it’s complete at the upper end.) 1 Barry Bonds (Halladay) 1 Rickey Henderson (Carlton) 1 Pete Rose (Hunter) 2 Ernie Banks (Wynn, Bunning) 2 Joe Dimaggio (Dean, Spahn) 2 Charlie Gehringer (Hubbell, Dean) 2 Cal Ripken, Jr (Ryan, Glavine) 2 Frank Robinson (Wynn, Wilhelm) 2 Alex Rodriguez (Maddux, Glavine) 2 Mike Schmidt (Ryan, Fingers) 2 Ted Williams (Roberts, Spahn) 2 Dave Winfield (Gossage, Ryan) 3 Hank Aaron (Ford, Wilhelm, Blyleven) 3 Nellie Fox (Roberts, Spahn, Drysdale) 3 Steve Garvey (Perry, Palmer, Gossage) 3 Derek Jeter (Johnson, Clemens, Halladay) 3 Mickey Mantle (Spahn, Roberts, Drysdale) 3 Stan Musial (Newhouser, Lemon, Ford) 4 Roberto Clemente (Ford, Wilhelm, Bunning, Kaat) 4 Willie Mays (Ford, Wynn, Wilhelm, Kaat) 4 Carl Yastrzemski (Jenkins, Gibson, Seaver, Perry) 5 [none] 6 [none] 7 Brooks Robinson (Koufax, Drysdale, Bunning, Marichal, Perry, Jenkins, Gibson) If Robinson hadn’t grounded out against Spahn, he’d have lapped the field. “Brooks Robinson: The Greatest Defensive Baseball Player in Baseball History, at Any Position (A Seven-Part Serial)”
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Good luck answering this one ... In what year did we have two batting Triple Crown winners? It's not a trick question. Mouse your cursor over this for a hint (it's an amazing hint, but I still don't think anyone will get the answer): Same City!
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During a late lunch I was half watching today's day game: Orioles/Yankees game in NYC. The Orioles crushed the Yankees. Orioles hits everywhere; homers, doubles, everybody for the Orioles was torching the ball. It wasn't much of a contest as the Orioles went up early and kept adding runs. One play grabbed my attention. It also grabbed the attention of the writers for ESPN who added these sentences: It was NOT a scorching shot. It was a ground ball on the shortstop side of second base. Jeter moved to his left, dropped his glove but it was still to the 2nd base side and below him. My reaction to that play was curious as to Jeter's age and range. The reaction was in sync with the comment above from the article. I couldn't have asserted that others would have made that play or done so easily but it was beyond Jeter's reach. I assume the author above is more knowledgeable than I and he "answered" my unstated question. Jeter has been an exemplary athlete over his career. I hope he goes out in style. -
I think after yesterday's performance, Mad Max merits his own thread. "Max Scherzer Flirts with Perfection, Striking Out 16 Along the Way" on nytimes.com "Max Scherzer Pitched One of the All-Time Games Today" by Rohan Nadkarni on deadspin.com "Max Scherzer Allows Hit to Carlos Gomez in 7th to Loser Perfect Game" on espn.go.com- 36 replies
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Sadly, Tom Seaver has dementia. Tom Terrific, the Greatest Met ever, star pitcher of the '69 World Champion Mets, who surprised all of baseball with one of the most amazing upsets of all time, beating the Powerful Orioles in the '69 World Series, Seaver is usually described as one of the all time great pitchers in baseball. Yeah...so I was a Yankees fan growing up...but as the '69 Mets taught us--"Ya gotta believe"
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By now the scope and breadth of what the Houston Astros were doing from 2017-2019 is well-documented. I'm sure we'll hear more in the coming months about exactly what the Red Sox were up to in 2018 as well, I don't get the sense that story has been fully told. With as much attention as this has received I think from punishment standpoint the participants involved have gotten off fairly easy. Yes, three different MLB Managers lost their jobs, as well as front office positions in Houston. There was a $5M fine for the Astros (the most that MLB was self-authorized to assess) and a loss of international pool picks (the latter stings far more than the former, the fine is chump change). Players not materially affected will carry the stigma of this, and the evidence is clear that basically the entire line up is implicated in one way or another. Who else gets the feeling that the MLB head office is jumping with joy that they may get away with this being sum total of the fallout?!? Here is a World Series champion caught red-handed not two weeks after the Series! Nobody questions that they cheated and gained a not-negligible advantage! Yet they've been able to deftly shift the discussion away from "So, should the Astros 2017 Championship be revoked?". There is SO MUCH going on here, and it's hard to even pin down my thoughts on what MLB should have done. Taking away a World Series trophy is a very big step, and in many senses there is absolutely no walking that back when this happens again (yes, something similar will happen again). The best MLB can hope for is to take very big steps against individual actors and hope the baseball-watching public sees justice. In the eyes of The Game those players are disposable. "But sign stealing is as old as baseball itself!", they say, and that is undoubtedly true. Technology has changed the way baseball fundamentally operates, so that fact that it's also being used to change the way teams cheat isn't surprisingly, but it's made it easier to catch those who are cheating, too! I've only scratched the surface here, this topic has tentacles that reach in a dozen different directions.
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The Dodgers got Mookie Betts, the best outfielder in baseball not named Trout or Bellinger. They also get David Price for half price. They send a pitcher who is unhappy and won't go to the bullpen and a player with questionable injury history in Verdugo. What a deal. -
I think Thomas Boswell is one of DC's greatest sportswriters - he is one of the people at the Post whom I look forward to reading whenever I can. Basically, I have nothing negative to say about him. One question, though: I remember back in 1997 when Mark McGwire was chasing Roger Maris, someone for the Post called McGwire "Our Babe Ruth." Shortly thereafter, the legendary Shirley Povich (1905-1998), sports editor since *1925*, took issue with the comment, saying something along the lines of: "Now hold on just a cotton-pickin' minute there!" etc. That's a little embellished, but the general tone is intact. Does anyone remember if this was in rebuttal to Boswell (as opposed to someone else), and what, if anything, was Boswell's response? It was a great little back-and-forth.
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We'll get to free agency in a moment ... ... do you want to know the best high school outfield in history? McClymond's High School had Curt Flood, Vada Pinson, and Frank Robinson playing at the same time. Some guy named Bill Russell also played on their basketball team. --- Jul 12, 2011 - "How Curt Flood Changed Baseball and Killed his Career in the Process" by Allen Barra on theatlantic.com Dec 3, 2019 - "Curt Flood Set Off the Free-Agent Revolution 50-Years Ago after Refusing a Trade to the Phillies" by Ronald Blum on inquirer.com
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There is an abhorrent stench of a carbon life form named Scott Boras, who has loaded the Nats' roster with the largest contracts they have. He has even boasted of building the Nats along with Mike Rizzo, who Boras apparently views as his lackey. I will not knowlingly and/or willingly spend a nickel on the Nats this year, knowing that some small but significant amount of my money would end up in the pocket of Scott Boras. That is all. -
I hope the Lerner's reverse their thinking and spring big time for a contract for Anthony Rendon. He is on a hot streak and knocking the starch out of the ball. Right now he leads the majors in batting average and RBI' s and is near the top for total bases, doubles, runs, OB% and slugging %. He has won a couple of games with walk off hits. Rendon's agent is the agent for Bryce Harper so he knows the Lerner's tendencies. Come on Lerner's. Sooner or later you are getting a big fat local TV payoff from the Orioles. Now is the time to share it with Anthony Rendon.
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And after this game, Stephen Strasburg is now 6-0. "Washington Nationals 6-4 Over Miami Marlins: Stephen Strasburg Improves To (6-0) With The Win" by Patrick Reddington on federalbaseball.com About Strasburg's contract, I just found this: "Stephen Strasburg's $175 Million Contract is Mostly Smoke and Mirrors and is a Brilliant Ploy by Super Agent Scott Boras" by Cork Gaines on businessinsider.com (Here's the thread on Scott Boras.)
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Some people might not know that the Washington Senators of Walter Johnson fame were a different franchise than the lovable losers we had playing here during the 1960s - the original team (which played 1901-1960) became the Minnesota Twins, while this franchise (1961-1971) became the Texas Rangers (*). These Senators' highlights were Frank Howard, and Ted Williams - who managed them to a winning season in 1969 (unless you want to include Ed "Big Stick" Brinkman, for whom Mark Belanger was grateful (*)). Here's Richard Nixon throwing out the opening day ball in 1969, with Teddy Ballgame also in the picture (the Yankee is Ralph Houk; behind him stands the owner, Bob Short, who outbid Bob Hope (!) for ownership of the team): <--- See the guy taking a picture at the top-center? He could have featured prominently in this photo; now, he's forever anonymous. Season 3, Episode 8 of "Dragnet" (which aired on Nov 14, 1968), had this sequence when the President (who was actually Lyndon Johnson at the time of airing) came to visit Los Angeles - Gannon and Friday are addressing the press corps: (*) Actually, they weren't the original Washington Senators: Believe it or not, there were two other Washington Senators teams (making a total of four) that played around the fin de siècle, but weren't in the Major Leagues. (**) It should be noted that Brinkman, whose *best* batting average from 1961 through 1968 was an abysmal .224, worked on his hitting with Williams in 1969: That year, he batted a relatively amazing .266. Remarkably, he played on the same high school team as Pete Rose, and Brinkman was considered the better prospect by a fair margin. I still remember this baseball card:
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As a prerequisite to this thread, please read the first post in The World Series thread. I would recommend not reading any further until you do. --- Assuming you've read that post, I'd now like to make a case for the *wrong* Second Baseman having been given the 1960 World Series MVP Award. The award was given to Bobby Richardson of the New York Yankees. The MVP Award didn't exist until 1955, and every year before 1960, it had been given to a pitcher; this was the first year (and the only year in history) it would go to a second baseman - the question is: *Which* second baseman? There is no doubt that Richardson had a tremendous World Series, batting .367, with 12 RBIs and a Grand Slam in the seven-game series. However, Richardson is the only player from a losing team ever to win the award, and I would argue that he was only the *second*-most-valuable second baseman playing in this series: Bill Mazeroski deserved the award. Mazeroski wasn't some little-known player like Rick Dempsey (in 1983) who had a fantastic World Series (no disrespect meant towards Dempsey, who was a better-than-average major leaguer); no, Mazeroski was a 10-time all-star (in 7 different seasons), an 8-time Gold Glove winner, and is in the Hall of Fame, primarily for his defense. All baseball fans know about "the most famous home run ever hit" - along with the 1993 shot by Joe Carter, the only walk-off home run ever to end an entire *season* (and still the only one in Game 7), giving the Pirates their first World Series championship since 1925! But what the average fan doesn't know is that Mazeroski batted .320 that series, and in Game 1, hit *another* game-winning home run: This one wasn't a walk-off home run; in fact, it happened in the 4th inning, but it provided the winning run in the game - that makes 2-out-of-4 games that Mazeroski won for the Pirates with home runs. The three games the Yankees won were blow-outs, by scores of 16-3, 10-0, and 12-0. They didn't *need* Richardson's RBIs; the Pirates, on the other hand, couldn't have won the series without Mazeroski - their four wins happened by scores of 6-4, 3-2, 5-2, and in the deciding game, 10-9: Both of Mazeroski's homers were indispensable, and Pittsburgh would have lost without them. I guess the New York publicity machine won the award for Richardson, but the real MVP of the 1960 World Series was Bill Mazeroski. If there's any doubt remaining, Richardson's OPS was 1.054 for the series; Mazeroski's was .960 - yes, Richardson's was stronger, but it wasn't *that* much stronger (Mazeroski got hits in 6 out of the 7 games). More importantly: Richardson committed errors in each of the first two games; Mazeroski didn't commit an error the entire series.
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The Washington Nationals' webpage Season opener, 9-7 in 10 innings. Amazingly, the score after regulation was 5-5 - that is a tense tenth inning. A classic Earl Weaver game: "pitching, defense, and 3-run homers." Look: 1) The Nats struck out *18* batters today, and gave up only 3 walks. 2) Error-free the entire game. 3) Anthony Rendon hit a 3-run homer. Strasburg fanned 10, and his BAA (batting average against) was .238. It's remarkable that his ERA after this game is 6.00. We've got to watch giving up the long ball. Box Score on cnn.com
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You're probably wondering what in the world I'm doing writing about Max Bishop. "Who in the heck is Max Bishop?" you might ask. Bishop was the second baseman, and more importantly, the leadoff hitter, for Connie Mack's great Philadelphia Athletics (AL Champions 1929-1931, and World Series Champions 1930-1931). Still, with Al Simmons, Jimmy Foxx, and Mickey Cochrane on that team, what on earth am I doing writing about Max Bishop? Bishop had a lifetime batting average of .271, but he ranks #15 all-time in on-base percentage at an astounding .423 (just ahead of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson") - he had 100+ walks a year for 8-straight years. He didn't steal much, but I guess with the hitters following him, he didn't need to. (It isn't often you see someone with a career slash line of .271/.423/.366.)
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Rogers Hornsby's career batting average of .358 is second only to Ty Cobb's (.367). During the decade of the 1920s, Hornsby hit .317 once, which was the only time he hit lower than .361. Look at this decade of hitting: 1920 - .370 1921 - .397 1922 - .401 1923 - .384 1924 - .424 --> The highest single-season batting average in post-1900 MLB history 1925 - .403 --> The 4th RBI Crown he won in the 1920s 1926 - .317 1927 - .361 1928 - .387 1929 - .380 --> The 7th time he hit over 40 home runs in the 1920s, leading the NL 4 times, and the 9th time he led the league in .OPS percentage
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Ted Williams is the only person who can claim - along with Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb - to be the greatest hitter who ever lived. Here are some statistics which are so mind-boggling that they simply do not compute: * Williams had a lifetime batting average of .344 - the highest of any player with more than 302 home runs. * Williams had 521 home runs. * Williams missed 3 seasons in the prime of his career due to WWII. The three years before, he batted .344, .406 and .356; the three years after, he batted .342, .343, and .369. * Missing those 3 seasons cost him at least 100 home runs - he would have hit 625 for his career. * Even more remarkable than the above? His *career* on-base percentage was .482. That is not a misprint. * Perhaps even *more* remarkable? Not once did he ever have 200 hits in a season. See for yourselves. How can that be? I guess it's because he walked so much (he had 20-12 vision). There are *three people* on that list of *525-different 200-hit seasons* named Williams, none of which is Ted. * If Williams had played 20 years earlier, I might be able to comprehend these numbers, but he was a *generation* after the big-numbers hitters of the 1920s. * His batting average, his home runs, and his walks - in my mind - make him a perfectly legitimate choice for the moniker: Greatest Hitter of All-Time.
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"How Babe Ruth Became the Model for the Celebrity Athlete" by Jane Leavy on si.com
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This may sound ridiculous, given that he's 16-years older than I am, but Jim Palmer was actually somewhat *after* my time as a baseball fanatic (at ages 7-12, I knew more about baseball than I know now, and I was something of a prodigy) - Palmer really didn't hit his stride until halfway through "my prime." I had always thought that he was something of a prima donna, but after watching the video I'm going to present to you, I think I was wrong - he had a very difficult childhood, having been adopted at birth, having lost his beloved adoptive father, Mo Wiesen, at age 9, and having gone from being named Jim Wiesen to Jim Palmer when his beloved mother, Polly Wiesen, married actor Max Palmer in 1956 - this child had three fathers by the time he was eleven! And he had legitimate, career-threatening injury problems from 1967 through 1969 - I always thought he was just a self-pampering person, but I was dead wrong - if you watch this video, you'll see just how much he loved his three parents, both adoptive-, and step-; he never knew his biological parents, but he isn't affected by that in the video (titled, "Jim Palmer - The Making of a Hall of Famer,," and narrated by legendary Orioles broadcaster, Chuck Thompson). He was an All-State athlete in three sports, and yes, he is somewhat cocky, and maybe even a bit "self-aware" when it comes to his athletic talent (and his looks don't exactly hurt), but given the gifts he had, he comes across, primarily, as a loving, devoted son to me - I never knew! In Game 2 of the 1966 World Series, Jim Palmer pitched a four-hit shutout against Sandy Koufax, in what was to be Koufax's final game ever. In the process, the 20-year-old Palmer became the youngest person ever to pitch a shutout in a World Series game - a record which stands to this very day. On Aug 13, 1969, a day after I turned 8-years old, Palmer pitched his only no-hitter: an "ugly" game, as he puts it, with 11 strikeouts and *9* walks! But it was good enough for a no-no against the expansion Kansas City Royals (one of four expansion teams in 1969, the very first year of the League Championship Series (the Royals would exact their revenge in the 2014 ALCS)). Palmer is also the only pitcher ever to win a World Series game in three different decades, and he did it the hard way - beginning in 1966, and ending in 1983. I'm so glad I watched this video - I always respected Palmer; now, I really, really like him as well.
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Who has a better career W-L record, Mike Mussina, or Tom Seaver? <--- These are links to their stats. Surprise! Every pitcher who has over 100 more victories than losses is in the Hall of Fame ... except for Mike Mussina. I know, I know: "Most overrated statistic there is." I don't buy it. Expect Moose to be inducted this decade, preferably with an Orioles' cap. We miss you, Mike. Even here in Northern Virginia, we miss you. New York is a bigger audience, but between Baltimore and Atlanta, you were *it*.
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Juan González is one of the greatest hitters not to be in the Hall of Fame. Yes, steroids, but at least be aware that he exists - he put up some great numbers in the steroid era, and is a relatively forgotten power hitter of that time.
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Yes, but was he the best defensive SS since Mark Belanger? It's kind of sad when you win 8 Gold Gloves, and are only the second-best left-sided infielder on your team, arguably only the second-best defensive shortstop in your team's history (Luis Aparicio is more famous), and nobody even remembers who you are despite playing as recently as 32 years ago. (Of course, Belanger is (unfortunately) deceased, and also had a career batting average of something like .032.) It's okay, Mark - *I* remember you. What's interesting about Smith and Belanger (and no, I don't honestly think Belanger was as good as Smith) is that they both played very vertical - [brooks] Robinson and Simmons play more horizontally, if that makes any sense. Yeah, both SSs had excellent lateral range, but they just "looked" like they were playing up-and-down as opposed to side-to-side. [BTW, I welcome people who grew up loving other teams to write about them and their players. All views welcome here, and the more information, the better.]
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Wow, look at this picture: <--- I'd tell you who they were, but if you don't know, you don't deserve to know. I won't mention this one, but at least be aware that it exists:
