MLB 2018 - Hope for a 7-game WS so they'll play on Halloween

I’m glad baseball is back, but we don’t need to play it all at once. Had the Tigers and Cubs games on today, which went a combined 29 innings. And after all that, they still both lost.

The ‘torture’ might be another year without hitting. Less confidence in the pitching holding up to win much.

Enjoyable for now. It had been a while since the Giants had beaten the Dodgers 1-0 on a home run:
Felipe Alou took Sandy Koufax deep at Candlestick Park to fuel a 1-0 win on September 3, 1960.

This isn’t something you see every day…

Yikes. He sure benefited from some less-than-stellar work by the Yankees. The defense on his steal of home is what you expect in little league.

This is pretty neat. I don’t remember hearing about it last year.

Twins are beating the Orioles 7-0 in the 9th and they put the shift on against Chance Sisco, so he bunts down 3rd for an easy hit. And the Orioles are upset with him for bunting. I guess because his team was down by 7 he was supposed to give up and just hit into the shift?

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23001797/minnesota-twins-upset-chance-sisco-baltimore-orioles-bunted-vs-shift-9th

Yeah, that was silly. “Bunting is mean, but putting the shift on is just Playing The Game!”

I still love the quote - forget who it’s from - that goes something like, “I’ll stop trying to score as soon as the other team promises to stop trying to win.”

Damn, that was one beautiful bunt. Screw the Twins. Brian Dozier sounds like a snowflake. And Berrios says “it’s not good for baseball”, whatever that means. That bunt probably drove at least 5,000 kids away from baseball and into the arms of a sultry basketball or hockey mistress. How dare Sisco try to get on base! It’s not like he was throwing a perfect game.

I mean, I think it’s a bunch of dudes who want to get off the field and high-five their young ace who is wrapping up a gem of a game and hiding behind some even-more-unwritten-than-usual rules to do it. And of course the kid who bunted is 23 or whatever, so it’s “rookies disrespecting veterans!!!11!1”

Nevermind that in baseball more than any sport, the historical record of what you’ve done follows you around for your entire career. This kid might not get more than 100 PAs this year. That bunt could be a point of AVG, a point of OBP, a point of SLG, and two points of OPS. Not to mention avoiding the strikeout, and showing off a skillset unusual for his position (catchers bunting? Madness!) and the confidence to keep defenders honest in an era when the shift is becoming more prevalent every day.

Ain’t nothing guaranteed you in the game. If I’m a 23-year-old backup catcher sniffing some MLB time at the very front end of my career, you can be damn sure I’m doing everything in my power to get on base down 7 runs in the ninth.

I love me some Twins, but ye gods you guys.

To no-one’s surprise, this ballpark thing may turn out to be more complicated than the A’s hoped.

https://ballparkdigest.com/2018/04/01/oakland-coliseum-site-now-a-hot-property/

Edwin Encarnacion, of all people, gets an inside-the-parker:

I’ve seen that attributed to a couple of folks. I do know for a fact that Whitey Herzog (who was managing the Cardinals) said it when Roger Craig (who was managing the Giants) got upset with someone on the Cardinals stealing second in a 5-0 game. (Actual quote occurred when Herzog was told by a sportswriter that Craig was miffed about the steal after the game, and Whitey said “Tell Roger we’ll stop trying to steal bases as soon as he promises to stop trying to score runs.”)

But it may pre-date even that.

It’s awesome that this is Encarnacion’s second inside the park home run.

That’s the one I remember. Could have been Earl Weaver, too.

FWIW, Whitey and Roger Craig seemed to have a give and take, sometimes good-natured, sometimes really angry feud that went back decades. Two cranky old baseball guys giving each other guff.

So is it an error if the fielder has no idea the ball is still inside the ballpark?

No. Being clueless is not an error. In baseball terms, it can’t be scored an error if the fielder makes no attempt at a play on the ball.

Also not an error:

One of the greatest baseball moments ever. In terms of sports follies, it ranks with the butt fumble.

The guy who hit that ball off Jose Canseco’s head was a journeyman corner infielder named Carlos Martinez.

He passed away about 10 years ago, from cancer.

He has a son, though. His name is Jose Martinez. And Jose Martinez can absolutely rake, and if he isn’t on your fantasy league team and he’s unclaimed in your league, go get him. He’s pretty much won the Cardinals first base job.