Baseball!!!

JStarnes

Oh yeah I love baseball...........HOW "BOUT THEM BRAVES!!!!!!!!! Swept those Phillies right out of ATL!!! :drinker: :bigsmile: :laugh:

Not a Braves fan but was happy to see their win over the Phillies.

MissingMinnesota

Go TWINS! I'm a Minnesota Twins fan all the way! I grew up watching Kirby Puckett as a kiddo and when I started T-ball as a youngin', I tried doin the Kirby leg hitch at bat. (hike that leg up like your a true slugger..haha). I grew up in Minnesota, but I live in Idaho now so I can only catch highlights of the games typically, which stinks. But, I love them! I lived about 5 hours from the Twin Cities, but my family would take 3 trips a summer to go watch the Twins play. My dad and his big-wig connections would get us seats right behind the catcher, or above the dugout. Oh man I'm getting the chills just thinking about it!!! Watched the Twins all my life... the days of Kirby and the World Series... sitting next to Tony Oliva at a game in the Metradome...Brad Radke pitching.... Doug Mientkiewicz and his obsession with bubblegum at first base (and sucky hitting streak)... Corey Koskie at 3rd base.... GUUUUZman at shortstop, who threw me a signed baseball after a game....booing at AJ Pierzynski after he left the Twins... 2006--the year of the Piranhas....Circle Me Bert.... Joe Mauer's sideburns and MN loyalty. Oh man I MISS watching them! I'm a fan no matter what!


Its fun, my husband loves the Red Sox so we like to have some healthy debates and competition. I love baseball season!!!

Haha I did the Kirby leg thing when I played softball. Oh and Homer Hankies. I still think my parents have the unopen wheaties boxes from the 87 world series. I get so jealous of my family when they update facebook about going to Target Field.

(can you tell today I don't want to work)

DeathIsMyGift

draft draft draft draft draft draft draft draft draft draft draft draft draft draftdraftdraftdraftdraftdraft DRAAAAAAFT

FORKDOWN

Not big on watching but love playing. I do wish they would speed up the game and shorten the season. Of course being a Cubs fan can kill your joy too. Come on Football season. :ohwell:

CasperO

I'm serious when I say this, if that was me I'd probably quit. Not because he's not a good umpire (we all make mistakes no matter how good we are), but because he probably took away Gallarraga's one true chance to go down in history, literally ruining a guy's chance at immortality (on a small level). I agree that he (Gallarraga) handled it correctly, but that doesn't remove the fact that Joyce just destroyed his chance at a dream.

I dunno.

He might've been famous sorta, as the 539th major leaguer to pitch a perfect game. He'd be an interesting answer in a trivia contest that nobody with a life might win. OTOH - as it is he will be remembered as the one and only guy in MLB history to be robbed of his perfect game as the result of a clear and obviously bad call,,, and also be remembered for the totally classy way he handled it.

Kind'a like Vanessa Williams. Yeah, at first she was more infamous than famous, with the nudie pics and all. But I think it's worked out for her. Name another Miss America,,,

godblessourhome

huge rockies fan!!! go seth smith (#7, left field)!

we go a dozen or so times a year. looking at getting season tickets next year, but boy are they spendy. we'll see.

SHBoss1673

I'm serious when I say this, if that was me I'd probably quit. Not because he's not a good umpire (we all make mistakes no matter how good we are), but because he probably took away Gallarraga's one true chance to go down in history, literally ruining a guy's chance at immortality (on a small level). I agree that he (Gallarraga) handled it correctly, but that doesn't remove the fact that Joyce just destroyed his chance at a dream.

I dunno.

He might've been famous sorta, as the 539th major leaguer to pitch a perfect game. He'd be an interesting answer in a trivia contest that nobody with a life might win. OTOH - as it is he will be remembered as the one and only guy in MLB history to be robbed of his perfect game as the result of a clear and obviously bad call,,, and also be remembered for the totally classy way he handled it.

Kind'a like Vanessa Williams. Yeah, at first she was more infamous than famous, with the nudie pics and all. But I think it's worked out for her. Name another Miss America,,,

539th? There have been only 19 perfect games in the last hundred years, you're thinking of no-hitters. that's extremely exclusive in my book.

CasperO

539th? There have been only 19 perfect games in the last hundred years, you're thinking of no-hitters. that's extremely exclusive in my book.

Ya', ya', whatever. Shows what I know about baseball (2 guys playing catch, another dozen standing around watching). My point is still valid - can you name those 19 guys without a book? How many can you name? This guy is not in a club of 19, he's in a club of 1.

SHBoss1673

539th? There have been only 19 perfect games in the last hundred years, you're thinking of no-hitters. that's extremely exclusive in my book.

Ya', ya', whatever. Shows what I know about baseball (2 guys playing catch, another dozen standing around watching). My point is still valid - can you name those 19 guys without a book? How many can you name? This guy is not in a club of 19, he's in a club of 1.

Can I name all 19? no, but I can name a bunch of them. some were before my time, in fact more than I can count. The point stands though, this is a travesty, a perfect game is exactly what it is, the point does not stand in my opinion, how can you compare a perfect game to a f-up of a colossal scale. I don't think you understand how great an accomplishment this type of thing is. Put it this way, there's 1 world series winner EVERY year, now I can't name all of those teams back until 1900, but that doesn't make winning the world series unimportant, and this has happened 1 fifth that many times in the last hundred years.

but the last couple of pitcher are

Mark Buehrle
Randy Johnson
Dallas Braedon (sp?)
Roy Halliday
Kenny Rogers
David Wells
Dave Cone


and from the past I know of
Catfish Hunter
Sandy Koufax
Mike Witt
Tom Browning
and Don Larson

The rest I'd have to look up.

If you aren't a big baseball fan, you can't know how rare and exceptional a perfect game is, it takes a once in a lifetime convergence of luck, skill, and team support to do it.

and baseball is ANYTHING but 2 guys playing catch and 12 others standing around. Besides the fact that that's not the right numbers (I guess if you're talking about guys in the field it would be 2 guys playing catch and 7 others standing around) but at any point in time, fielders need to be keeping active so they don't get cold, thinking about where to go with the ball if it's hit to them, where to go with the ball in any situation. And the team at bat has a whole host of strategies to think about including how aggressive to be on the bases, where to try to hit the ball, how many outs there are and how that dictates their at bat, who is on the bases (to know how to hit), who is behind them, to know whether they need to attempt to drive the ball in or just hit for singles, on base strategies, what inning it is, what the score is, how well is that pitcher locating, how fast is the outfield/middle infield. All these things are what I think of when I am playing ever single play. And no, it may not be a high intensity sport for long periods, but when there IS a ball hit to you, or when you DO have to move, you have to move fast, stops and starts that can be very very stressful on the body.

and I don't have to say, as a pitcher, and a former rugby player, and a current runner, and a former free safety in college football, there is nothing more physically demanding than being the starting pitcher on a baseball team, it takes EVERYTHING out of you.

CasperO

Millionaires playing with a ball as religious experience. Ok.

I still think this will be remembered long after Mike Witt's epic battle to throw a ball, but W/E.

SHBoss1673

Millionaires playing with a ball as religious experience. Ok.

I still think this will be remembered long after Mike Witt's epic battle to throw a ball, but W/E.

not by baseball enthusiasts. I still go back and check out Randy Johnson's perfect game once in a while, it was a thing of beauty, even if he isn't!

You could say that first thing about any number of pro sports. I say this, I don't get paid to play, in fact, I pay to play and so do many tens of thousands of adult men in the United States in many leagues all over the country, and I'd hazard a guess that while there's probably 150 thousand adult amateur games in the US every year (or more), I'd be surprised if there were 100 perfect games thrown by pitchers. I know if I were ever to throw one, it would be the game I would cherish for the rest of my life, regardless of whether I was ever paid a penny to play the sport. It's challenging both physically, mentally, and with agility training (it takes a core strength and agility to hit a baseball going 80 miles an hour, trust me!)

I know the MABL has over 3200 teams and 45,000 members alone, and that's just one of many leagues in the United states and Canada.

http://www.msblnational.com/main.aspx

oh and for the record, Armando Galarraga is in his 3rd full season as a Pro. and is making the league minimum which is 435K per year, granted, a great paycheck by normal standards, but not by pro standards, and they have to give 15% of that back to their managers (I.E. he makes somewhere in the mid 300's after manager fees). I know what you're thinking... Poor Kid, but remember, these guys toil through years of being a minor leaguer which is tough on you physically, and you make dirt for money, AND even the best pitchers only have a career expectancy of 6 to 9 years (very rare that a pitcher lasts longer than 8 years in the league, less than 20% of pro pitchers do that.), of which 3 years you are under the teams control which means you make league minimum or close to it (unless you're a super star), so when you think about players being millionaires, it's a super tiny percentage of professional ballplayers that hit the 1 million dollar mark, and those ones are the elite best of the best (thus they make the majors).

JStarnes

Relax boys.

CasperO

Relax boys.

I'm perfectly relaxed honey, it's all good. I could write songs about Miguel Duhamel and try to get everybody to be as big a fan as I am, but I don't. Most folks have never heard of him, and I'm Ok with that.

My point here was just that "Robbed of a perfect game by an officiating error" is a smaller club than "Pitched a perfect game" - 'cause it is. I'll admit that I'm a little disparaging of baseball because I just don't get it. Error on my part it seems. Oops.

SHBoss1673

Relax boys.

I'm perfectly relaxed honey, it's all good. I could write songs about Miguel Duhamel and try to get everybody to be as big a fan as I am, but I don't. Most folks have never heard of him, and I'm Ok with that.

My point here was just that "Robbed of a perfect game by an officiating error" is a smaller club than "Pitched a perfect game" - 'cause it is. I'll admit that I'm a little disparaging of baseball because I just don't get it. Error on my part it seems. Oops.

Aww J, don't you worry my dear, me and casp don't argue, we just debate.

Casper,
I will agree with your sentiments, absolutely. I'm just pointing out, I'd imagine there's no pitcher in baseball that would want to be unique for being the guy that had the perfect game stolen from him, as opposed to probably every pitcher in baseball who would want to pitch a perfect game. Even assuming this is one of the more memorable moments in baseball, I wouldn't want to be associated with it (if I had a choice). Would he take that or nothing? Probably, I mean at least he can claim he pitched a perfect game and had it taken from him, but given the choice of perfect or perfect and robbed and more notable, I'd take the former.

DeathIsMyGift

Correct me if I'm wrong but the name of this thread is, "Baseball!!!"....if you're not a fan...go play somewhere else.

Just sayin'.

CasperO

Correct me if I'm wrong but the name of this thread is, "Baseball!!!"....if you're not a fan...go play somewhere else.

Just sayin'.

Touche',

Peace - Out,,, as the kids say.

FORKDOWN

Relax boys.

I'm perfectly relaxed honey, it's all good. I could write songs about Miguel Duhamel and try to get everybody to be as big a fan as I am, but I don't. Most folks have never heard of him, and I'm Ok with that.

My point here was just that "Robbed of a perfect game by an officiating error" is a smaller club than "Pitched a perfect game" - 'cause it is. I'll admit that I'm a little disparaging of baseball because I just don't get it. Error on my part it seems. Oops.

Aww J, don't you worry my dear, me and casp don't argue, we just debate.

Casper,
I will agree with your sentiments, absolutely. I'm just pointing out, I'd imagine there's no pitcher in baseball that would want to be unique for being the guy that had the perfect game stolen from him, as opposed to probably every pitcher in baseball who would want to pitch a perfect game. Even assuming this is one of the more memorable moments in baseball, I wouldn't want to be associated with it (if I had a choice). Would he take that or nothing? Probably, I mean at least he can claim he pitched a perfect game and had it taken from him, but given the choice of perfect or perfect and robbed and more notable, I'd take the former.

The one thing that frustrates me about pro-sports officiating is that they are expected to be 100% perfect (or inhuman). A guy sitting on his butt watching a slow motion can get a call right but when that play is a split second before your eye and you only have one chance, your asking the impossible for perfection. "Instant replay" is a must.

SHBoss1673

Relax boys.

I'm perfectly relaxed honey, it's all good. I could write songs about Miguel Duhamel and try to get everybody to be as big a fan as I am, but I don't. Most folks have never heard of him, and I'm Ok with that.

My point here was just that "Robbed of a perfect game by an officiating error" is a smaller club than "Pitched a perfect game" - 'cause it is. I'll admit that I'm a little disparaging of baseball because I just don't get it. Error on my part it seems. Oops.

Aww J, don't you worry my dear, me and casp don't argue, we just debate.

Casper,
I will agree with your sentiments, absolutely. I'm just pointing out, I'd imagine there's no pitcher in baseball that would want to be unique for being the guy that had the perfect game stolen from him, as opposed to probably every pitcher in baseball who would want to pitch a perfect game. Even assuming this is one of the more memorable moments in baseball, I wouldn't want to be associated with it (if I had a choice). Would he take that or nothing? Probably, I mean at least he can claim he pitched a perfect game and had it taken from him, but given the choice of perfect or perfect and robbed and more notable, I'd take the former.

The one thing that frustrates me about pro-sports officiating is that they are expected to be 100% perfect (or inhuman). A guy sitting on his butt watching a slow motion can get a call right but when that play is a split second before your eye and you only have one chance, your asking the impossible for perfection. "Instant replay" is a must.

I agree that instant replay should be instituted in certain situations (NOT for balls and strikes) but for out/safe, I see no issue, it's not a judgement call, no more than fair/foul is judgement, which they already have instant replay for. It would have eliminated this problem already, and MLB has been dragging it's feet with instituting it for years now (it took them forever to get the very limited version they have now). On the other hand, I understand opposing viewpoints, the game is already far to long and boring, and it's not attracting new people at anything even approaching football or even basketball.

DeathIsMyGift

The one thing that frustrates me about pro-sports officiating is that they are expected to be 100% perfect (or inhuman). A guy sitting on his butt watching a slow motion can get a call right but when that play is a split second before your eye and you only have one chance, your asking the impossible for perfection. "Instant replay" is a must.

Instant replay is never going to happen in the MLB. Not for strikes anyway. And I'm hoping not for baseruns either.

SHBoss1673

The one thing that frustrates me about pro-sports officiating is that they are expected to be 100% perfect (or inhuman). A guy sitting on his butt watching a slow motion can get a call right but when that play is a split second before your eye and you only have one chance, your asking the impossible for perfection. "Instant replay" is a must.

Instant replay is never going to happen in the MLB. Not for strikes anyway. And I'm hoping not for baseruns either.

Not for balls/strikes, I agree, but Bud Selig already approved it for the upcoming season (on a trial basis) for out/safe (granted, it was done in response to this specific issue but whatever gets you there) and they've had it for 3 years now for home runs and foul balls (playoffs only up until last year). there's a huge cry for IR and I don't see any way he can avoid implementing it.