Baseball fans.....or anyone

[Frankieabbott]

baseball/curious? Check out the new 'Statcast' on MLB. It's brilliant.....a bit like the Hawkeye system we use here in Blighty. I don't understand much about this game......but at least I can now understand and appreciate how fast a ball is moving from the pitcher....and how fast it goes off the bat! Amongst a plethora of other stats. It's stats heaven.

 

[dodgy]

baseball/curious? Check out the new 'Statcast' on MLB. It's stats heaven.

Well if there's one thing baseball has a LOT of it's stats, with many going back a looong way. Most home runs and best pitchers and plenty of more obscure things. I have two examples from last night's Cubs game of events that have never ever happened before, going back over 100 years.

The Cubs hit 6 home runs during yesterday's playoff game. Till then a bunch of teams sharing the record had hit 5 of those. Also, the first time in history that a player from any team has gotten on base safely his first 9 at bats in a playoff game of any kind. Plus, the guy is a rookie brought up from the minors maybe 6 weeks ago.

Cubs have a chance to clinch today and move to the next round. The team they're playing has the best record of all the others but the St Louis ( Lewis sound) Cardinals are behind the 8 ball down 2-1 inna best of 5 match.

Sadly, many of the most important stats are messed up badly and it drives the Baseball purists nuts and with good reason. The steroid era which lasted quite a while really took it's toll on the legitimacy of performance driven records like home runs. Pitchers and other players would use it too, especially to come back faster from injury.

This has really screwed up Hall of fame nominees and if they can get in. It's tough to begin with because of a very high voting percent needed and so far history has not been kind to the members associated with that schtick personally. Hah, I forget the year but Congress was calling baseball players for PED questioning and one recently retired Hall of Fame quality player made an impassioned speech right in front of the politicians and said over and over he had never taken steroids in his life. The guy was excellent! Within a week it turned out he had flunked his test from last year and the results were just made public. Rafael Palmeiro if you wanna watch his act.

Martin

 

[Frankieabbott]

Aye....the Cubs hitting a record 6 home runs......rookies whacking homers.....and 21 home runs in all the games. Is baseball always this exciting.....or am I just lucky to start taking an interest at this moment in time? The most amazing stat ( correct me if I'm wrong) is that some pitched balls are travelling faster at the point that they reach the batter than when they left the pitchers hand!

 

[dodgy]

Is baseball always this exciting.....or am I just lucky to start taking an interest at this moment in time? !

For a while there, Baseball was outta favor with the supposed jaded fans being gullibly duped regarding the juice of choice for a bunch of players. One on the Cubs named Sammy Sosa is still not welcomed back by management and he was a huge star for a while, starting in 1998 or so and going to 2003-4 about. Heh, I admit to being a fan till late in his career and saw him lots of times that 1998 year. Guy hit over 60 homers......not the last time either as it turned out.

Probably the most exciting Series I can recall is the 2004 one, mainly because of how it came about that the Red Sox won the whole deal. That best of 7 series win against the Yankees happened with the Sox being down 0-3, then coming back and winning 4 inna row. Never happened before ever and it got em into the World Series final best of seven. From there they swept St Louis 4-0 and done deal. Won eight inna row after being mostly dead. Those would be worth watching. Oh, that was the first WS win in about 80 years for that team.

Also Kirk Gibson had a major famous Dodger home run when he was also mostly dead in the 80s. Guy had no good legs...pretty amazing.

Martin

 

[UKRob]

The most amazing stat ( correct me if I'm wrong) is that some pitched balls are travelling faster at the point that they reach the batter than when they left the pitchers hand!

How is that possible? Surely anything thrown must be decelerating from the moment it leaves the hand. Once it's left the hand there is nothing giving it greater impetus - so how could it increase speed?

 

[Frankieabbott]

As Scotty in Star Trek would say "Ye cannnae change the laws of physics". But, apparently they can pitch a ball with topspin.....the difference in speed is only small.

 

[Bogeyman]

...Is baseball always this exciting.....or am I just lucky to start taking an interest at this moment in time? The most amazing stat ( correct me if I'm wrong) is that some pitched balls are travelling faster at the point that they reach the batter than when they left the pitchers hand!

As in many sports, the playoffs are more action packed. On a 100 mph fastball the batter's eye cannot focus on the pitch after the first 1/3 of the ball's journey to the plate. Hence, the best hitters are in essence the best guessers. There is a lot more strategy involved than many realize. Yes, the labor strikes, shutdowns & steroids tainted the game. However, it has now regained much of the lost luster by the infusion of ultra talented Latinos from South America & the Caribbean as well as a new generation of White boys who can really play the game.

Is it always exciting? No, sometimes it is almost as mind numbingly boring as soccer, the sport for midgets who have not yet mastered how to use opposable thumbs!! Hahahaha!!

I almost started a riot in a South American café in 2010 during the World Cup. After 113 mins. before any score I asked if they could change the channel. That game was like watching a pond freeze over................in July.

All in good jest. I just cannot understand for the life of me how people get excited about soccer. It has to be a cultural thing I'm sure. Then again, I like watching golf (former player) which is surely the most boring for those who don't play the game.

 

[UKRob]

As in many sports, the playoffs are more action packed. On a 100 mph fastball the batter's eye cannot focus on the pitch after the first 1/3 of the ball's journey to the plate. Hence, the best hitters are in essence the best guessers. There is a lot more strategy involved than many realize.

Then again, I like watching golf (former player) which is surely the most boring for those who don't play the game.

That kind of speed is also registered in cricket - where apart from having to judge movement through the air, the batsman has the added complication of the ball hitting the pitch with all the variables of bounce and movement that that brings.

Marginally more boring that watching golf is listening to people talking through their game afterwards.

 

[jb74]

Unfortunately I just can't bear most American sports... not because I don't enjoy the sport, but taking American Football as an example, turning a 1 hour game into a 4 hour game and having to endure about 2 hours worth of advertisements. I've heard the baseball can go on for even longer. At least if you do enjoy soccer, you can watch if for 45 minutes straight before the waffle.

I enjoyed ESPN's 30 for 30 'Four Days in October' documentary covering the Boston Red Sox 2004 ALCS comeback victory. American sports do make for great documentaries, the 30 for 30 stuff is great - the 2 episodes covering the Miami Hurricanes, the LA Raiders, the OJ Simpson, Detroit Pistons, Bo Jackson are some standouts shows.

 

[Bogeyman]

Unfortunately I just can't bear most American sports... not because I don't enjoy the sport, but taking American Football as an example, turning a 1 hour game into a 4 hour game and having to endure about 2 hours worth of advertisements. I've heard the baseball can go on for even longer. At least if you do enjoy soccer, you can watch if for 45 minutes straight before the waffle...

I read an article regarding this very matter about the last World Cup: lack of advertising money DURING the actual game. Nonetheless, it is incredible the amount of money American football generates. Mind boggling. The salaries are insane. A few years back there was a baseball player who asked to be traded to a team outside of New York as he would save.............get ready for this........over $20 million in taxes!! Holy guacamole!!

I have a sister who is two steps to the Left of Karl Marx politically who says the that pro sports in the USA are the newest form of slavery for the Black man. I say......................clasp me in irons and frog march me to the field for $50 million!! I'm ready to play!!

 

[antdad]

You can probably count on one hand the number of bowlers that have barely cracked 100mph whereas a fair number of baseball pitchers do it on a regular basis every season. The delivery technique is obviously different but baseball clearly produces the faster arms and and that is the same for the outfield where the fielders in baseball generally throw harder, faster and far more accurately than the cricketing equivalent because the game demands it.

 

[dodgy]

As Scotty in Star Trek would say "Ye cannnae change the laws of physics". But, apparently they can pitch a ball with topspin.....the difference in speed is only small.

The way a ball moves after being thrown by the pitcher depends mostly on how it's held and the delivery involved. One very interesting and fun to watch pitch is a knuckleball. Amazingly slow as it crosses the plate with incredible action when it works right. When thrown poorly it will be hit about three miles but when thrown right can make pro players look ridiculous. Not a power pitch at all......just the opposite. The kicker is it's difficult to toss right.

Martin

 

[UKRob]

The way a ball moves after being thrown by the pitcher depends mostly on how it's held and the delivery involved. One very interesting and fun to watch pitch is a knuckleball. Amazingly slow as it crosses the plate with incredible action when it works right. When thrown poorly it will be hit about three miles but when thrown right can make pro players look ridiculous. Not a power pitch at all......just the opposite. The kicker is it's difficult to toss right.

Martin

Hi Marty. There are similarities between the two games. The knuckle ball is thrown (I assume) with the pitcher's same action - but is in fact a lot slower, with the intention of deceiving the batter who swings too early. The same kind of ball is used in cricket - the bowler looks as if he is bowling at his usual pace but lets the ball come out of the back of hand. Quite often the batsman will mis-read the speed and play early. This carries the highly technical term of a 'slower ball'.

 

[Frankieabbott]

The way a ball moves after being thrown by the pitcher depends mostly on how it's held and the delivery involved. One very interesting and fun to watch pitch is a knuckleball. Amazingly slow as it crosses the plate with incredible action when it works right. When thrown poorly it will be hit about three miles but when thrown right can make pro players look ridiculous. Not a power pitch at all......just the opposite. The kicker is it's difficult to toss right.

Martin

I currently can't get enough of this game. The stats....the tv style presentation....the running between bases ( some players have leg speed as fast as Olympic sprinters). The batting is amazing. And the pitching! Fast balls....really fast balls....balls that look fast on release but are slow (knuckleball)...balls that deviate left to right and vice versa....balls that dip...that weird ball where the stopper bloke stands away from the home plate and let's the batter walk to first base. (Or have I got carried away and just made that up?). Bring it on!

 

[UKRob]

What channel is this on Frankie?

 

[antdad]

Hi Marty. There are similarities between the two games. The knuckle ball is thrown (I assume) with the pitcher's same action - but is in fact a lot slower, with the intention of deceiving the batter who swings too early. The same kind of ball is used in cricket - the bowler looks as if he is bowling at his usual pace but lets the ball come out of the back of hand. Quite often the batsman will mis-read the speed and play early. This carries the highly technical term of a 'slower ball'.

A knuckle ball is a throw that has no or little spin imparted on the ball and the aerodynamics make the ball wobble or dip unpredictably in the air, the deception occurs with the wobble rather than speed. As far as I know there isn't really a cricketing equivalent but there is one in football when the likes of Ronaldo, Drogba and Lampard attempt it with their direct free kicks. As is the case with both sports if you get it wrong the ball ends up in the top tier.