The strange little details of the game Options

[AaronSmith]

As baseball season approaches, I was just pondering how many different things can happen in the game and it occured to me how, even after more than a century and a half of the game, surprises can still occur and certain events can still be very rare.

For example, I was just reading an online obituary of a pitcher named Bob Rush who died this past week. Rush pitched in the 40s and 50s. According to the article I read, he pitched a game against Warren Spahn in 1950 and both Rush and Spahn stole a base. Amazingly, there has been only one other time in the whole history of baseball when both starting pitchers in a game have had a stolen base! The other pair was Greg Maddux and Jason Marquis in 2004.

Something else I learned recently. There are 27 players in the exclusive 3000 hit club, but of those 27, 25 had either singles or doubles for that 3000th hit. Only Paul Molitor reached the milestone with a triple and only Wade Boggs (who hit very few home runs) had a homer for #3000.

I'm sure I could find many more examples of rare things like that. It just amazes me that out of over 17,000 players in major league history, it's still possible to do things no one, or very few, have ever done before. I can't wait till the season starts.

This post has been edited by AaronSmith: Mar 24 2011, 09:40 AM

[Ron Fortier]

Nice spotlight on the game we both love, Aaron. Like you, when watching any game, I try to be aware if there are any "firsts" happening here. And although I doubt they were actually the first, I'd have to a lot of researching here....but the first time Joba Chamberlain pitched to Jacoby Elsbury, I do believe was the first time two Native American professional ball players ever squared off against each other. What do you think?

[AaronSmith]

I hadn't thought about that one, Ron, but it just might have been a first.

[AaronSmith]

Hey Ron, I see that David Ortiz just became the all-time leader in RBI by a DH. Good for him and congrats to Red Sox fans.

Another statistical oddity along the lines of what started this thread: as of the start of this season, the Yankees' Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera are now the first trio of players not just in baseball but in any major professional sport to play together in 17 seasons!

[Cary]

Interesting info there for sure guys! I really enjoy live baseball, even at the minor league level, and my wife and I actually chose where we moved the last time because the town we live in hosts the Round Rock Express, which used to be the Astros farm team but now belongs to the Rangers. Anyway, we dig live baseball. What drives me crazy about the sport is the stats. Screw the stats. There's nothing cooler than a dude with a stick standing in front of another dude who is throwing a ball at him hard enough to kill him, trying to knock that ball out of the park. The thrill of the game is the sound of that bat making contact, the roar of the crowd, the concession vendors, and balls out slides. They can keep the stats.

[Ron Fortier]

Well there is lots to say for team longevity and other some "human" stats, Cary,as Aaron pointed out. But of course you are right, it really is all about loving the actual drama of the game. The contest between one man with a ball and the other with a stick. And I so love the crack of the bat smacking that leather encased ball. Enough that I detest aluminum bats. Drives me nuts to think every Little League team in the country uses the damn thing, as they do in high school and college. Then when some talented kid makes the pros, he has to learn to use a wooden bat. Duh.
What's wrong with that picture? Of course wood breaks and years ago the aluminum bat companies sold them how economical it would be to switch.
Yeah, right. The sound of aluminum "pinging" off the ball. Screw the dollar savings, I say and teach these kids with "real" bats.
And lastly, I just learned my five year old grandson, Logan, is starting pee-wee tee-ball. His grandfather's advice last night, "Swing away, Logan. Swing away!!"

[AaronSmith]

As much as I like stats and trivia, I agree that stats are overdone and overcomplicated in recent years. I like stats that I can visualize. I know what a home run looks like or what a stolen base looks like or what a triple (which i think is one of the most exciting of all hits because it's so rare now) looks like, but I can't make heads or tails of some of the newer stats. WHIP? WAR? OPS? Forget that newfangled garbage and tell me a guy's batting average and whether or not he can hit with power and run. That's what I need to know.

And Ron, I agree about the wooden bats too.

[AaronSmith]

Only in baseball can a guy hit a home run one inning and have a shower of onion rings the next! That was some first game as a Yankee for Andruw Jones.

[Ron Fortier]

Sounds wild, Aaron. Me, and the rest of Red Sox Nation, are getting drunk.

[AaronSmith]

Don't worry Ron. The Red Sox are saving their energy to use it against the Yankees this weekend.

[Ron Fortier]

Now that made me smile, Aaron, coming from a loyal Yankees fan. Hey, let's both hope some really good games.

[AaronSmith]

Unfortunately, I seem to have been right. Congrats, Ron.

[Ron Fortier]

Too weird, Aaron, and thanks. Honestly, the pitching was subpar on both sides starter-wise. One has to wonder what the game would have been like had Colon been the starter for the Yanks. Lackey sure as hell couldn't contain them. Whereas Aceves, Jenks, Bard and Papelbon delivered. I'm thinking we've got a better bullpen then starters this year for sure.

[AaronSmith]

Baseball Justice!

The Yankees clobbered the Orioles last night. CC Sabathia pitched brilliantly and the bats were roaring too. By the 7th inning or so, the Yankees were winning 13-3, thanks in part to their new catcher, Russell Martin, hitting 2 home runs. So Martin comes up for his next at bat and the Orioles pitcher, in a very un-classy move, drills him, hitting him in the back and sending him to first base. Angry looks are exchanged, shouts come from the dugout. The umpire does not issue a warning and the commentators predict that this will give the Yankees "unspoken permission" to retaliate. The next batter is Brett Gardner, the Yankees left fielder, a scrappy speedster with very little power who has been in a terrible slump and batting under .200 for the season so far. The Yankees retaliate all right, but not by hitting anyone, because Gardner, the most unlikely one to do it, launches a home run! Martin, put on first by being thrown at, scores, and the Yankees have two more runs tacked on to their slaughter of Baltimore! That's the right way to get revenge!

[Ron Fortier]

Amen to that, Aaron. I didn't see any of this...except for little of Martin's interview after came, where he was grinning from ear to ear, completely shrugged of getting beaned and said the right thing to do was to just play hard. Bravo. He has forever endeared himself to me and baseball fans everywhere as a true, class act on the diamond!!! As for Gardner, I wish he played for out team.

[AaronSmith]

Mariano Rivera yesterday became the first pitcher ever to pitch in 1,000 games for the same team!

And Ron, have you been following the Rockies since moving to Colorado? Former Yankee Jason Giambi seems to have been putting on quite a show lately, becoming the second oldest player (after Stan Musial) to hit three homers in a game!

[Ron Fortier]

Oh yeah, Giambi has found some kind of second life career out here in Colorado. Must be the rarefied air.

[Glen Davis]

I really thought he was done after his time with the Yankees.

[AaronSmith]

He seems to have a little something left. And he's in rare company after that game. Players who have hit 3 home runs in a game after the age of 40: Giambi, Musial, Reggie Jackson, Babe Ruth!

[Ron Fortier]

Speaking of Giambi and the Rockies, we are off to Coors Field tonight in fact to see our first game there. Yahoo. They're playing the Cardinals. Should be a good game. Go Rocks!!!