Extra-Innings Rule In Minors Gains Supporters - ESPN http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...pted-minor-leagues-receiving-positive-reviews
2018 Hall of Fame class: Vladimir Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman, Chipper Jones, Jack Morris, Alan Trammell, Jim Thome.
Earlier in the week, the Today's Game Era ballot was released. Voting will take place on Dec. 9. This year's nominees are... Players Harold Baines (1980-2001) White Sox, Rangers, A's, Orioles, Indians Albert Belle (1989-2000) Indians, White Sox, Orioles Joe Carter (1983-1998) Indians, Padres, Blue Jays, Orioles, Giants Will Clark (1986-2000) Giants, Rangers, Orioles, Cardinals Orel Hershiser (1983-2000) Dodgers, Indians, Giants, Mets Lee Smith (1980-97) Cubs, Red Sox, Cardinals, Yankees, Orioles, Angels, Reds, Expos Managers Davey Johnson (1984-90, 1993-97, 1999-2000, 2011-13) Mets, Reds, Orioles, Dodgers, Nationals Charlie Manuel (2000-02, 2005-13) Indians, Phillies Lou Piniella (1986-88, 1990-2005, 2007-10) Yankees, Reds, Mariners, Devil Rays, Cubs Owner George Steinbrenner (1973-2010) Yankees 10 Named To Today's Game Era Ballot For Hall - MLB https://www.mlb.com/news/baseball-hall-of-fame-todays-game-era-ballot/c-300253378 Today's Game Era Could Go Without Hall Inductee - ESPN http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...a-ballot-lacks-surefire-cooperstown-candidate My vote goes to Albert Belle As far as Steinbrenner is concerned, I think no "modern era" owner should be inducted until Charles O. Finley (Kansas City/Oakland A's, 1960-1981) is put in the Hall.
maybe the problem with the Dodgers is that the decisions are scripted by Friedman/Zaidi ( who is leaving the LA club to take the Director of Baseball Operations in SF -- traitor! ) and not made at the time by Roberts. in the long run a comprehensive strategy works, but in the short haul, decisions like bringing in a left handed pitcher to face a left-handed batter might be misguided, if the pitcher being pulled has struck out the last two batters.
Rivera, Martinez, Halladay, Mussina Make HOF - ESPN http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...laday-mike-mussina-elected-baseball-hall-fame CLASS OF 2019 (including Today's Game Era selections from December) Mariano Rivera - https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/riverma01.shtml Edgar Martinez - https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/martied01.shtml Roy Halladay - https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hallaro01.shtml Mike Mussina - https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mussimi01.shtml Lee Smith - https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/smithle02.shtml Harold Baines - https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/baineha01.shtml (from Baseball Reference) Voting Results: Mariano Rivera: 100% Roy Halladay: 85.4% Edgar Martinez: 85.4% Mike Mussina: 76.7% __________ Curt Schilling: 60.9% Roger Clemens: 59.5% Barry Bonds: 59.1% Larry Walker: 54.6% Omar Vizquel: 42.8% Fred McGriff: 39.8% Manny Ramirez: 22.8% Jeff Kent: 18.1% Billy Wagner: 16.7% Todd Helto: 16.5% Scott Rolen: 17.2% Gary Sheffield: 13.6% Andy Pettitte: 9.9% Sammy Sosa: 8.5% Andruw Jones: 7.5%
Bob Friend, Pirates Leader In Innings, Starts, K's, Dies At 88 - ESPN http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25917999/bob-friend-pirates-leader-innings-starts-ks-dies-88 Bob Friend at Baseball Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/frienbo01.shtml[/quote]
MLB To Rename Disabled List As 'Injured List' - ESPN http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25947020/major-league-baseball-rename-disabled-list-injured-list
An anecdote on the late Frank Robinson... Last week, following the death of Frank Robinson, the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy transcribed a story told him by Robinson’s Orioles’ teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Jim Palmer: “One night in Fenway, he hit a shot off the wall that he thought was going out. He jogged out of the box. But the ball didn’t go out. Yaz [Carl Yastrzemski] played it for a single. We won the game, so it didn’t really matter, but it mattered to Frank. “When [manager] Earl Weaver got to his office after the game, there was a note and a couple of $100 bills. The note read, ‘I embarrassed the ballclub. I embarrassed myself. It will never happen again.’ ” And one about the late Bob Friend... Last week, Bob Friend, a great pitcher on mostly bad Pirates’ teams, died. Curt Block, a longtime media specialist who worked for NBC, sent this: “I never met Bob Friend. Only spoke to him. Once. In 1964 I was a rookie sportswriter at UPI. I was assigned to write the late ‘National League Roundup.’ It was supposed to include quotes from a star of the games. Friend threw an outstanding game. He was the guy I needed. I called the Pirates’ clubhouse and was told that he’d return my call. It was probably 10-10:30 p.m. Then it was midnight. Then 1 a.m. “Around 1:30 somebody yelled from across the room: ‘Call on three!’ It was Bob Friend. He’d forgotten. He remembered when he was driving home. He pulled over to call from a pay phone. “He was embarrassed. I was grateful. I never forgot Bob Friend.” MLB's DL Change Shows How Misguided Society's Concerns Are - Phil Mushnick, N.Y. Post https://nypost.com/2019/02/14/mlbs-dl-change-shows-how-misguided-societys-concerns-are/
Rays To Explore Splitting Home Games With Montreal - ESPN https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27016429/rays-explore-splitting-games-montreal
The Rays have permission from MLB, but the Players Association argues that it must be collectively bargained. MLB responded that businesses are allowed to move without an agreement or permission from a union. The mayor of St. Petersburg said the team is not allowed to leave, and they signed a contract to be in Tampa/St. Petersburg through 2027.
Angels Pitcher Tyler Skaggs, 27, Dies In Texas - ESPN https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27099081/angels-pitcher-tyler-skaggs-27-dies-texas Tyler Skaggs at Baseball Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/skaggty01.shtml
Jim Bouton, Author of Tell-All Baseball Memoir 'Ball Four', Dies at 80 - N.Y. Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/sports/baseball/jim-bouton-dead-ball-four.html Jim Bouton, a pitcher of modest achievement but a celebrated iconoclast who left a lasting mark on baseball as the author of “Ball Four,” a raunchy, shrewd, irreverent — and best-selling — player’s diary that tainted the game’s wholesome image, died on Wednesday at his home in the Berkshires in Massachusetts. He was 80. When it was published in 1970, “Ball Four,” which reported on the selfishness, dopiness, childishness and mean-spiritedness of young men often lionized for playing a boy’s game very well, was viewed by many readers, either approvingly or not, as a scandalous betrayal of the so-called sanctity of the locker room. In Bouton's telling, players routinely cheated on their wives on road trips, devised intricate plans to peek under women’s skirts or spy on them through hotel windows, spoke in casual vulgarities, drank to excess and swallowed amphetamines as if they were M&Ms. Mickey Mantle played hung over and was cruel to children seeking his autograph, he wrote. Carl Yastrzemski was a loafer. Whitey Ford illicitly scuffed or muddied the baseball and his catcher, Elston Howard, helped him do it. Most coaches were knotheads who dispensed the obvious as wisdom when they weren’t contradicting themselves, and general managers were astonishingly penurious and dishonest in dealing with players over their contracts. Not only was “Ball Four” an instant and enduring best seller, it also earned widespread recognition as a seminal text of sports literature: In 2002, Sports Illustrated placed it at No. 3 on its list of the top 100 sports books of all time. Perhaps more notable, in 1995, as the New York Public Library celebrated its centennial, it included “Ball Four” as the only sports book among 159 titles in its exhibit “Books of the Century.” Jim Bouton at Baseball Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/boutoji01.shtml
Pumpsie Green, First Black Player on Red Sox, Dies at 85 - ESPN https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27211156/green-first-black-player-red-sox-dies-85 (AP) -- Former Boston Red Sox infielder Elijah "Pumpsie'' Green, the first black player on the last major league team to field one, has died. He was 85. The Red Sox said Green, who lived in California most of his life, died Wednesday at a hospital in San Leandro, near Oakland. No cause of death was immediately available. The team observed a moment of silence before its game against the Toronto Blue Jays. A speedy but light-hitting utilityman, Green brought baseball's segregation era to an end of sorts when he entered a game against the Chicago White Sox as a pinch runner for Vic Wertz on July 21, 1959 -- more than a dozen years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Green joined the team on a lengthy road trip and had played nine games before taking the field at Fenway Park for the first time. Green said this year in an interview with NESN, the Red Sox TV network, that he remembered receiving a standing ovation when he came to the plate, batting leadoff. A few days after Green was called up, the Red Sox added Earl Wilson, a black pitcher. Green said there was an informal quota system that required teams to have an even number of black players so they would have someone to room with on the road. Green played parts of four seasons with the Red Sox before finishing his career with one year on the New York Mets. In all, he batted .246 with 13 homers and 74 RBIs. Pumpsie Green at Baseball Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/greenpu01.shtml
Al Jackson, An Original Met, Dies At 83 - ESPN https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27421691/lefty-al-jackson-original-met-dies-83 (AP) -- Al Jackson, a tough left-hander who provided a rare glint of hope in the early days of the woebegone New York Mets, has died at 83. His death was announced by the Mets, for whom he worked for 50 years as a pitcher, major league coach, minor league pitching coordinator and front-office adviser. Jackson, who started his career with the Pirates in 1959, went 67-99 with a 3.98 ERA in 10 major league seasons. He was an original Met in 1962 and spent five seasons with the club before he was traded to the Cardinals as part of a deal for Ken Boyer. Jackson returned to the Mets in a trade following the 1967 season, but was sold to the Reds early in the 1969 season and missed out on the Mets’ historic ride to a World Series title. He later was pitching coach for the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles. Al Jackson at Baseball Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jacksal01.shtml
Hmmm... Cardinals Claim Baseballs Traveling Less In Post-Season - ESPN https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id...als-claim-baseballs-traveling-less-postseason
The Nats have pretty good pitchers along with the weather getting a bit colder. That is usually a combination that hurts hitters at this point in time when compared to the regular season. Don't need analytics or a scientist to figure that out.
Marvin Miller, Ted Simmons Elected To Hall Of Fame - ESPN https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id...tive-marvin-miller-elected-baseball-hall-fame Marvin Miller, the union leader who revolutionized baseball by empowering players to negotiate multimillion-dollar contracts and to play for teams of their own choosing, was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame on Sunday along with former St. Louis Cardinals catcher Ted Simmons. After falling short in his first seven times on veterans committee ballots, Miller received 12 of 16 votes from this year's 16-man modern committee, exactly the 75% required. Simmons was on 13 ballots. Former Boston outfielder Dwight Evans was third with 8 votes. Dave Parker received 7 votes, and Steve Garvey and Lou Whitaker 6 each. Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Thurman Munson and Dale Murphy all got 3 or fewer. Miller, who died at age 95 in 2012, led the Major League Baseball Players Association from 1966-82, a time when players gained the right to free agency after six seasons of big league service, to salary arbitration and to grievance arbitration. He led the union through five work stoppages and was an adviser during three more after he retired. Simmons, an 8-time All-Star during a 21-year big league career, was a switch-hitter who batted .285 with 248 homers and 1,389 RBI for St. Louis (1968-80), Milwaukee (1981-85) and Atlanta (1986-88). Ted Simmons at Baseball Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/simmote01.shtml
Umpires Back Test Plans For Automated Strike Zone - ESPN https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id...es-agree-mlb-test-plans-automated-strike-zone
Don Larsen, Who Pitched Only Perfect World Series Game, Dies At 90 - ESPN https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id...itched-only-perfect-world-series-game-dies-90 Don Larsen, the journeyman pitcher who reached the heights of baseball glory when he pitched the only perfect game in World Series history in 1956 with the New York Yankees, died Wednesday. Larsen was 90. The former pitcher died of esophageal cancer in hospice care in Hayden, Idaho. Larsen was the unlikeliest of characters to attain what so many Hall of Famers couldn't pull off in the Fall Classic. He was 81-91 in his career, never won more than 11 games in a season and finished an unsightly 3-21 with Baltimore in 1954, the year before he was dealt to the Yankees as part of a 17-player trade. In the 1956 World Series, won in seven games by the Yankees, Larsen was knocked out in the 2nd inning of Game 2 by the Brooklyn Dodgers and didn't think he would have another opportunity to pitch. But when he reached Yankee Stadium on the morning of Oct. 8, he found a baseball in his shoe, the signal from manager Casey Stengel that he would start Game 5. The Dodgers and Yankees split the first four games, and Stengel liked the deception of Larsen's no-windup delivery. The manager's instincts proved historically correct. The lanky right-hander struck out seven, needed just 97 pitches to tame the Dodgers and went to three balls on a batter only once -- against Pee Wee Reese in the 1st inning. Larsen, selected MVP of the 1956 Series, had two close calls. In the 2nd inning, Jackie Robinson hit a hard grounder that was deflected by 3rd baseman Andy Carey to shortstop Gil McDougald, who threw out Robinson. In the 5th inning, Mickey Mantle ran down a long drive to left-center field by Gil Hodges. With two outs in the 9th, pinch hitter Dale Mitchell took a third strike, completing the perfect game and sending catcher Yogi Berra dashing out from behind the plate to leap into Larsen's arms. Their celebration remains one of baseball's most joyous images. Don Larsen at Baseball Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/larsedo01.shtml