Baseball thread

[Martino Knockavelli]

CLAY BUCHHOLZ, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!

 

[TomPNE94]

Buchholz having a mare

 

[TomPNE94]

CLAY BUCHHOLZ, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!

I'd go to bed again if I were you!

 

[.V.]

^^^ delaying obvious joke until I've seen if Buchholz has a meltdown...

Ahem

 

[Toffee_Joe]

Surely they should bring in a rule of 12 innings and then it is called a draw or something (i know yanks don't like draws) ! Love watching baseball but a limit has got to come in somewhere on how long a game can go on for.

3-2 for my team Oakland so far, hopefully have a good year !

This would be such a shame. Having an exceptionally long game once in a blue moon is fantastic. Its great for the fans, more baseball and means we get all sorts of exciting things like hitters pitching.

 

[TomPNE94]

Any of you play Beat the Streak?

 

[TomPNE94]

Any of you play Beat the Streak?

 

[.V.]

I have done in the past. Setting up a league? Is there an app for it?

 

[TomPNE94]

I have done in the past. Setting up a league? Is there an app for it?

I might do. I've played it since last year, highest was 27! Nope, still not got a UK app for it, strangely.

 

[Toffee_Joe]

Pretty sure you can't win in UK so that's why there is no app for it.

Could be fun if we had a forum league or something though?

 

[TomPNE94]

I'll set one up later tonight

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

Mookie
Valuable
Player

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

I don't think I have ever seen more comical defense than the Nationals are playing today. No exaggeration. Multiple easy fly balls dropping between befuddled outfielders. They must have LSD in their Gatorade.

 

[TomPNE94]

League made, think you may have to search for it, it's called 1FF Supaleeg and the password is FootballForum

 

[.V.]

Stephen Drew; power hitter.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

Scene: Red Sox batting, trailing 7-5, 1 out in the 7th.

Nats conspire to load the bases without giving up a hit - 1 error, 2 HBP.

Hanigan hits an easy double play ball back to Treinien. He flubs it then and then bags himself another error by throwing it in the stands. 2 runs score.

Holt hits bog standard grounder to short. Desmond hesitates and then inexplicably throws to 1st instead of home. Holt out but another run scores.

3 runs scored, no hits recorded. Sox lead 8-7.

WTF DID I JUST WITNESS

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

2 more defensive catastrophes for the Nats today and it's only the 2nd inning. I'm gonna miss seeing this lot.

 

[.V.]

I know I've asked this before, but I didn't get many replies. Can anyone recommend any good baseball books to read? I'm thinking of reading David Wells autobiography.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

Ball Four - Jim Bouton. Autobiog, very controversial at the time, for its insider gossip and wotnot. Seems a little bit quaint now that we're used to sports as an open sewer and people accidentally tweeting pictures of their willy, but still interesting, entertaining, and a great time capsule.

Boys of Summer - Roger Kahn. About the Brooklyn Dodgers. Literary equivalent of Ken Burns-y sepia toned romanticism. Beisbol as metaphor for everything, the gnomon by which all else is measured. Lays it on a bit thick in places, but still.

Veeck as in Wreck - Bill Veeck. Hilariously entertaining memoir of lunatic team owner, architect of Disco Demolition Night, using a dwarf as a pinch hitter, etc....

Moneyball - assuming you know this one.

Only the Ball was White - Robert Peterson. Definitive history of the Negro Leagues. First published in the 70s, a great piece of scholarship, so much of this could v easily have been lost to the mists of time.

You Gotta Have Wa - Robert Whiting. About Japanese baseball, its culture and its history, the travails of US players going over there. Interesting and amusing, an insight into something I dunno much about (WARNING: CONTAINS TRACES OF BOBBY VALENTINE).

Eight Men Out - Eliot Asinof. Novelistic account of Black Sox scandal. Great history, great writing.

The Rocket That Fell to Earth - Jeff Pearlman. Biog of Roger Clemens (subject did not participate...). The rise and fall and all that. Not as good as the other stuff on the list, but one I read quite recently and probs of interest to you. Clemens comes off as a bit of a loon (surprise surprise), but it's not unsympathetic to him.

(see how I didn't even jokingly add any post 04 Red Sox ones? What a nice guy I am )

 

[.V.]

Cheers CF. Your restraint has been noted

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

A-Rod edges back ahead of Mookie in early MVP stakes!

 

[.V.]

A-Rod edges back ahead of Mookie in early MVP stakes!

Last night he hit the longest and hardest home runs so far this year, in all of baseball! Either he still has it, or...

 

[Craig]

Tillman!! LOL

 

[.V.]

Tanaka pitched 7 innings last night, 5 of which were perfect and allowed one hit in each of the other two. Hopefully he's getting more comfortable with his 4 seam FB.

 

[Toffee_Joe]

I would wait until he does it against someone who isn't the Rays. Some of the hitting last night was so passive I didn't think they were ever going to swing.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

Blummin heck

https://twitter.com/colin_dunlap/status/590307341653905408

 

[WAP]

How the hell are we 10-3!

 

[.V.]

CC Sabathia; ground ball pitcher boys and girls.

 

[Toffee_Joe]

CC Sabathia; ground ball pitcher boys and girls.

He has been my best fantasy pitcher so far this year. That speaks about him and my team in equal measure.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

I figured that Hanley Ramirez in LF would take a little time. But I didn't think it would be this much of an adventure.