Unlikely Words » mlb

Fan catches foul ball while holding kid

aaron cohen — Tue, 31 May 2011 19:05:48 +0000

Fans catching foul balls are awesome. Fans catching foul balls while holding children are even more awesome. It happens more often than you think, even if MLB doesn't want you to see any unauthorized video showing this.
Here are a few I found in a quick Google search:
With the baby strapped to chest.
On a bounce back.
Moms can do it, too.
With a few bobbles.
One handed.
Another one handed.
This guy didn't drop the kid, and the kid didn't drop the drink!

This post was inspired by a Mike Davidson Tweet that pointed to a guy at a recent Dodger's game who dropped his kid to catch a foul and then muffed the catch.

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The Extra 2%

aaron cohen — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 22:37:46 +0000

Internet good guy and friend, Jonah Keri, is out with his first book, The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First:

In The Extra 2%, financial journalist and sportswriter Jonah Keri chronicles the remarkable story of one team’s Cinderella journey from divisional doormat to World Series contender. When former Goldman Sachs colleagues Stuart Sternberg and Matthew Silverman assumed control of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2005, it looked as if they were buying the baseball equivalent of a penny stock. But the incoming regime came armed with a master plan: to leverage their skill at trading, valuation, and management to build a model twenty-first-century franchise that could compete with their bigger, stronger, richer rivals—and prevail.

Check out an excerpt in GQ, and one on ESPN. Here's a bit about how the Rays missed on Albert Pujols even though one of their scouts loved him and they could have gotten him for a flyer.

They still worried about the player's build, as Jennings had earlier, and wondered what position he would play. This was especially odd, since the player didn't get much chance to try out at third base, his natural position, or first, where Arango thought he could also fare well. Many skeptics also wondered about his age: he was born in the Dominican Republic, didn't move to the United States until high school, and always looked old for the age he was supposed to be. Meanwhile, the player's agent was new to the gig, and that uncertainty raised fears that just signing the guy could become dicey, even in the later rounds. Besides, the Devil Rays had their targeted names up on the draft board, and the draft was flying by. Jennings wasn't ignoring Arango's projection per se. There was just so much other stuff going on that they didn't give it much thought. By the time you get past the tenth round, most players have no shot of ever sniffing the big leagues, let alone becoming productive regulars, let alone becoming the kind of superstar Arango envisioned. No big deal.

Congrats, Jonah!

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Tasering at the Phillies Game

aaron cohen — Tue, 04 May 2010 17:00:27 +0000

Can you imagine if this kid had died after being Tasered for running on the field at a Phillies game? I have a feeling MLB is going to ban the use of Tasers for this type of situation in the future.

UPDATE:
Oops, this one came from The Daily What. My bad.

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MLB All Star Ballot Monkey Business

aaron cohen — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:24:41 +0000

Or, Bullying the Ballot Box.

Red Sox Nation's power as one of the more active constituencies when it comes to MLB All Star balloting is well known. With that power comes great responsibility. Such as the responsibility to vote AAA player Lastings Milledge into the All Star Game. It makes sense, if the National League team is weaker, the AL is more likely to win and thus take home field advantage in the World Series. Also this:

...At the very least we'd be teaching MLB a valuable lesson on how to take a person's name off the digital ballot if they're not even wearing a major league uniform at the time. Why is Milledge even eligible?

Via Baseball Musings.

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The Truth Shall Set You Free – Baseball Edition

aaron cohen — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:29:18 +0000

Mike Piazza's strategy for keeping the steroid media monkey off his back? Telling reporters the truth - off the record. This made it harder for the reporters to report the story, and I think gave them less incentive because it wouldn't be as much of a 'gotcha'.

I'm sure there are examples of politicians using this off the record truth telling strategy with reporters and it plays right into the self-important "villager' mindset that corrodes the reporting of many DC insiders.

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Jonathan Papelbon Profile

aaron cohen — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:31:32 +0000

He's great, I just don't know how long he'll last, and there's whispers he's hurting already this year. ###Possibly related posts:Jerry Remy Profile Jonathan Safran Foer’s Book About Meat Jack Dorsey profile ### Possibly related posts:

Julian Tavarez Still Crazy

aaron cohen — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:55:33 +0000

Old friend Julian Tavarez used the 'beer goggles' excuse for signing with the Washington Nationals.

"Why did I sign with the Nationals?" Tavarez told a group of reporters. "When you go to a club at [4 a.m.], and you're just waiting, waiting, a 600-pounder looks like J. Lo. And to me this is Jennifer Lopez right here. It's [4 a.m.]. Too much to drink. So, Nationals: Jennifer Lopez to me."

A couple years ago, I was at a Red Sox game and got a tour from one of the minority owners after the game. She took us out the players parking lot and outside the entrance, Julian Tavarez almost ran us over. Twice.
(Via Hot Pink Sheets)

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We’re Number 1! (And Number 5, too)

aaron cohen — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:47:28 +0000

Ranking Pro Sports Franchises.

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Kevin Youkilis’ New Facial Hair

aaron cohen — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:08:21 +0000

I wish he'd lose the soul patch, but this is SO much better than the last 2 years.

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MLB.com Customer Service Can’t Spell

matt — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 01:15:03 +0000

I guess I signed up for some kind of Red Sox Nation thingy on MLB.com last year, and I just got an email indicating that it was being automatically renewed. I don't really feel like paying $15 for it this year, so I wrote back asking how to cancel the subscription. This is the email I got in return:

Subject
---------------------------------------------------------------
cancillation request

Discussion Thread
---------------------------------------------------------------
Response (Don Don XXXXXX) - 02/12/2009 06:50 PM
Dear Fan:

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately, you have not provided enough information to assist with your request. Please provide us with the email address you have registered under so we can assist your further.

Thank you for taking the time to write!

Regards,
MLB.com Support

Customer (M— X—) - 02/11/2009 01:26 PM
Hi,

I did not intend to renew this subscription. Can I cancel it?

On Feb 11, 2009, at 12:28 PM, subscriptions@website.mlb.com wrote:

Thank you for your order.

Order Date: 02/11/09 Order ID Number: 2302176
[...]

Apart from the hilarious mistakes, it's worth pointing out that (a) the email address I registered with is the email address I sent my cancillation [sic] request from, and (b) there's an order number in the email, which ought to mean something.

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Appreciation of Rickey Henderson – Stories, Thoughts, and Links

aaron cohen — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:28:56 +0000

Rickey Henderson is going to get a call from the Hall of Fame today telling him to pack his bags for Cooperstown. I spent a couple hours yesterday looking though old articles about Rickey because he’s always been one of the more enjoyable and enigmatic players in the game of baseball. (And hey, he played for the Red Sox in 2002, so he could be called one of my favorite Sox, right?)

Take a second to click through and enjoy Rickey being Rickey:

Joe Posnanski made a great argument that Rickey should be the first unanimous selection to the Hall of Famer, including the mindboggling statistic:

"He walked more times just leading off an in inning than Lou Brock, Roberto Clemente, Luis Aparicio, Ernie Banks, Kirby Puckett, Ryne Sandberg and more than 50 other Hall of Famers walked in their entire careers (more than Jim Rice, too)."

Of course, a writer 70 year old sportswriter left him off and now wishes he hadn’t. The BWAA might want to have some editorial control over writers who use their ballots to make a point (or in the case of Corky, just goof).

Rickey was nonpareil as a leadoff hitter, and according to this short collection of stories about Rickey, he agreed. “There ain't no other leadoff hitter but me.”

In 1982 Rickey’s manager, Billy Martin, wanted Rickey to get the season stolen base record at home in Oakland. This is a Rickey anecdote I hadn’t heard.

"Billy told that Chicken (Stanley) to get his butt thrown out, so he wouldn't be on second in my way,' Henderson said. 'But I hit the ball too hard, and he had to stop at second. Billy wants me to run, but Chicken's in the way. So Billy tells him to get picked off. Get caught. So they throw a pitch and Chicken is way off base, and they don't even try to get him. We're playing Detroit and (Tigers manager) Sparky (Anderson) didn't want me to get it. So he wouldn't let them tag Chicken. He's way off the base, and no one's even trying. And that old Durwood Merrill (the second-base umpire) is getting madder and madder. He knew what was going on. He didn't like it. He made them make the play on Chicken. I think Sparky was mad. I go on the next pitch. And I make it, I'm in there. And that old Durwood, he called me out because he was still mad at Billy and Sparky.”

He finally got the record in the next game. Over the years, Rickey’s speech after getting the record has become something critics touch on proving he was selfish and arrogant. This, because the last lines of his speech are, “Lou Brock was the symbol of great base stealing. But today, I'm the greatest of all time.” Interestingly, the article from Time has no reaction to the speech and Lou Brock helped him write the speech before the game. Also, most of these article are full of teammates (like Don Mattingly and Dennis Eckersley) praising Rickey as a teammate. (Update: Via the comments, the speech was after he broke the career record, not the single season record, so that's why it wasn't mentioned in the article. My point remains, though, I don't think there's anything wrong with his speech and "Rickey is selfish" is a media driven storyline, not borne out by facts.)

Also, via the comments, for those who say Rickey is selfish, there's one girl in Oakland who would disagree.

See, I told you Mattingly liked Rickey.

"When Rickey was traded back to the A's in the late 80's, I remember watching a game the Yankees were playing in Oakland. Before the game, Rickey was hitting off the tee, and Mattingly was sitting there setting up the balls for Rickey. Mattingly liked Rickey. This was the moment that I realized that all the negative writing about Henderson was wrong. Don Mattingly was the most respected player in baseball at that time. If Don liked Rickey well enough to sit there and tee up balls for him when he was playing for the opposition, Rickey must be okay.

Rickey suffers from being inarticulate and a lack of education, just as Roger Clemens does. When they speak to the media, they have a hard time expressing themselves clearly, so they come off as jerks. I'm glad this article shows Rickey talking in a comfortable setting. It gives us a new insight into the man."

In reading several of these articles, I found that Rickey was able to turn on and off the Rickey speak that made him seem inarticulate. And especially earlier in his career, he didn’t appear to use it at all. Roger Clemens was just a dumbass, but for Rickey, it seems like it was more of an act. “ He needed no coaxing to cruise into Rickey-speak, a mixture of a streetwise preacher and an eccentric professor.”

Here’s Eck relating a story about Rickey having trouble with R-E-S-P-E-C-T. His fondness for Rickey is clear.

This Sports Illustrated article from 2003 is overflowing with Rickey anecdotes. I’m going to go out on a limb and call this article the definitive compendium of Rickey Henderson Anecdotes. (There’s a ’25 Greatest Rickey Henderson Stories’ meme out there that you can find with Google, but this article is the source for it, and it has more than 25 stories so you may as well read IT instead.) One of my favorites, Rickey griping about his contract, "If they're going to pay me like [Mike] Gallego, I'm going to play like Gallego."

There’s also the ‘tenure’ story, the Olreud story (which is untrue), and TWO uncashed check stories, among several others.

The first mention of Rickey I could find in SI was when he was awarded Player Of The Week in October 1980 for having 12 steals.

Rickey was on the cover of SI 4 times:
In 1982, when he broke the single season stolen base record. In the accompanying story, “Medich and his catcher, Ted Simmons, had the downcast aspect of persons about to become answers to a trivia question.” Also, we find out that Kirk Gibson was once considered one of the faster major leaguers, which blew my mind. I had no idea.

In 1986 when Peter Gammons previewed the All-Star game by comparing Rickey to the other preeminent leadoff hitter of his time, Tim Raines.
Obviously, I’m going to snip the Rich Gedman quotation. Rich Gedman was one of my first favorites.

"Boston catcher Rich Gedman looked at Rickey Henderson, who was getting dressed. "He's built like Superman," Gedman said of the Yankee centerfielder. "When you play against him, you try to say, 'Don't let him bother you,' because there are times there is nothing you can do to stop him from doing whatever he wants to do. He's from another planet. Unfortunately, you can't help thinking about him. We're only human."

In 1989 when he took over the Post Season. (Remember the earthquake that disrupted the Series? Rickey was apparently on the toilet for that one.) Gammons writes

"In the seventh inning, after getting such a jump on his steal of second that Whitt couldn't make a throw, Henderson pulled up a few steps short of second and walked to the bag. "That kind of hotdogging isn't right," said Whitt (box, page 34). The A's went on to win 6-3, and the next day Henderson was quoted in the papers as saying, 'I can steal on Whitt whenever I want.'"

And in 1990 for an article about Tony LaRussa written by George Will.

Bill James’ response to Rickey setting the single season stolen base record in 1982 was exactly what you would expect. Curmudgeonly grumbling about how the stolen base isn’t an extremely effective offensive weapon and then plenty of statistics to back it up. The early Bill James byline was an exciting find, though. And, in 2001, James made his feelings for Rickey’s game clear, "Somebody asked me did I think Rickey Henderson was a Hall of Famer. I told them, 'If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers.'" (It's important to note that Bill James was correct in his assessment of Rickey's use of the stolen base because in the same year that he set the record for steals (130), he set the record for caught stealing (42).

Though Rickey and Bill James may have been of a closer mind than they knew. In this 1989 NY Times article, Rickey wants a new contract from the Yankees and is refusing to waive his no-trade clause. ''My average is down, but with a leadoff hitter, you don't consider average,'' he said. ''On-base is what's important and mine is right up there.'' I don’t think ANYONE was talking about on-base percentage in 1989 EXCEPT Rickey and Bill James.

Check out Rickey’s Wiki. He played 2 or 3 years of Independent ball after leaving MLB. Rickey was there doing his thing, hoping to get another job in the majors. Incidentally, he had an OBP of over .450 in his Independent league career.

And finally, here’s the obligatory New Yorker profile on Rickey complete with a story about getting thrown off an airplane and the quotation defining his last couple years playing for crowds numbering in the hundreds and low thousands. “I just don’t know if Rickey can stop.”

And, of course, a hearty congrats to Jim Ed Rice, as well. I'm glad he finally got in.

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New Red Sox Uniform Design

aaron cohen — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:46:16 +0000

The Red Sox unveiled new uniforms this week and the natives are restless. In an unscientific poll on Boston.com, about 80% of those who voted don't like the changes or only like some of the changes. I don't like the new hats at all, but I like the new road uniforms. They remind me of the 1986 era Dave Henderson/Don Baylor ALCS uniforms, though the font was more boxy.

I'm curious what the designers out there think. I also wonder if these changes were made to get the team's merchandising revenue through the economic down turn. These fonts/designs aren't completely new, the Sox have been selling merch with the 'hanging socks' design for years. Were they using those designs as tests for this type of situation?

(Images via The Red Sox Boston.com)

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