Here it is again for the 1,000th time. Photo courtesy of Google Images.

The only reason I’m bringing this up again is because Calcaterra over at Hardball Talk said Posey was told to “stop” blocking the plate.   This implies that Posey “was” blocking the plate, which he was not as the photo above clearly shows.  The runner intentionally left the baseline with a spectacular charge  aimed directly towards the catcher with no intention of getting to the home plate.  The runner, Scott Cousins,  said later his intention was to dislodge the ball~ which he could not, because Buster never had it.

But here’s what’s really amazing about this photo.   Notice the umpire.  No one  had a better birds-eye view than this umpire, standing steadfast and staring intently at the play as it was happening and boom!  Crash!  Bam! Slam!   The play’s over and the umpire calls the runner safe, run counts,  and the catcher is lying mortally wounded* (defined below) on the field.  What the heck was he thinking?  The umpire I mean.

Somehow it seems reasonable that MLB Rule 7.08 (b) could be construed to somehow apply in this situation.  A good attorney could probably make it work.  I don’t know.  I’m just saying the umpire has total charge of the game.   And in this case I  think he let this one get by.  Too bad.  Would have been a real feather in his cap if he’d stepped up to the plate (no pun intended) took a stand and said something like “No more! This ain’t gonna happen on my watch”.   Like the NFL did when they made it illegal to spear with their helmets, with no intentional blows to the head.

Who knows?  An umpire taking a stand.  Might have changed the game forever.  He has the authority to do that you know. Baseball needs a little cleaning up.   It’s not just bulldozing the catcher at the plate that can get really nasty, but what about all those pitches thrown at the batter’s head, back, arm, foot, leg in retaliation for some stupid reason (there are hundreds of them) that everyone knows about, including the umpires.  They all know what’s going on.  It’s extremely rare that a pitcher gets thrown out of a game for hitting or trying to hit a batter, even though it happens regularly.  And if a pitcher does happen to be ejected for intentionally hitting a batter the minimum fine is a whopping $200! (MLB Rule 8.02)  Can you believe it?  Who makes these rules.  I mean a batter could get killed, and has, from one of those bean balls.

"The Scales of Justice"

Here in the land of fruits and nuts according to Wikipedia, “on April 6, 2006, in a case arising from a game involving community college baseball teams, the Supreme Court of California ruled that baseball players in California assume the risk of being hit by baseballs even if the balls were intentionally thrown so as to cause injury.” So I guess the message is  if you’ve got the moxie to do it, do it in California.

You might notice I’ve not once tried to blame any of  this on Scott Cousins (see my June 4, 2011 post).  Scott was doing what he was trained to do which is to do everything he can to win. And he did.

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking"

No, this is something that falls on the  Major League Umpires Association.  They’re the only ones who can get this violent aspect of the game  under control and they don’t need any rule changes to do it.   If they’d start bouncing players out of the game when they resort to these retaliatory pitches and the unnecessary violence at the plate and elsewhere, the players would get the message and it would stop.  The question is, will they?  The answer is,  probably not.  They’d have to move  a tad out of their comfort zone and who the heck wants to do that?

* Mortally Wounded Defined:   A mortal wound is a very severe and serious injury (almost always a form of penetration or laceration) whether accidental or inflicted intentionally…

Related articles

• Giants tell Posey not to block plate this season (sfgate.com)
• Scott Cousins Speaks Out For First Time Since Buster Posey Injury (bayarea.sbnation.com)
• You: Buster Posey Is a Catcher and Should Stay a Catcher (bleacherreport.com)
• Crasnick: Posey positive in his return from knee injury (espn.go.com)

I never saw this “Simpson” segment when it first appeared on the telly.  Thanks to Deadspin for recreating it for us.   I really like most of the “Deadspin” blogs but this is  only one of a handful I’ve been able to share with you, ours being lily-white and theirs being, well, um, colorful.   This Deadspin blog’s titled, “The Making of Homer at the Bat. The Episode that Conquered Prime Time 20 years Ago Tonight” (February 20).   I found the article totally entertaining.

Consider this little fluff-post a jump start as we head into spring training ~ I mean a gal’s gotta do something.  Can’t just sit around and twiddle our thumbs waiting for opening day you know …

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How To Score Baseball - The Four Strikeout Inning

It’s one of the most peculiar situations in all of baseball, a pitcher striking out four players in one inning. Not only is it an odd situation, it’s one of the rarer baseball situations you would record in a baseball scorebook.

The four strikeout inning occurs when a batter swings and misses on strike three but the catcher misses the ball. The batter then runs and reaches first base before being tagged out.

Two conditions must be met for a pitcher to strike out 4 batters in one innings: 1) with less than two outs there cannot be a runner on first base and 2) the catcher makes an error catching the third strike and the batter reaches base safely. Technically, a 4 strikeout inning could occur if a batter swings at a wild pitch on the third strike, and reaches base safely.

When scoring the 4 strikeout inning in a baseball scorebook, the pitcher is still credited with a strikeout, and an error is charged to the catcher (if the catcher missed the third strike “E2″) or the pitcher (if the third strike was a wild pitch “E1″).

This at-bat would be recorded as a “K” (swinging strikeout) and E2 (error on the catcher) in the scorebox of the batter.

So let’s take the situation where the first two batters in the inning strikeout swinging and the third batter strikes out swinging but reaches first base and the fourth batter strikes out swinging to retire the side.

1st batter: Jones strikes out swinging on 1 ball 2 strike pitch.

Write a “K” on the baseball scorecard to denote a strikeout swinging. In the top right hand corner enter “1″ and circle it to denote the first out. The dots in the boxes represent the count on the batter at the end result of his at-bat.

2nd batter: Adams strikes out swinging. Write a “K” in the box to denote a strikeout swinging. At the top right had corner enter “2″ and circle it, to denote the second out of the evening. Again, the dots represent the count when the batter struck out.

3rd batter: Smith swings at third strike but the catcher misses the ball and the he reaches first base safely. Write a “K” in the scorebook AND “E2″ to denote that the ball passed the catcher; hence the reason for batter reaching 1st base safely. Draw a diagonal line from Home to First “/” to denote the batter reached first base. The dots represent the fact that he swung and missed on a full count (3 balls 2 strikes).

4th batter: Odom strikes out swinging: Write a “K” on the baseball scorecard to denote a strikeout swinging. Draw a diagonal the under the player at-bat box to denote he made the last out of the inning. The dots represent he struck out on an 0-2 pitch.

A Little History About the Four Strikeout Inning

The first Major League player to be credited with this rare feat was Ed “Cannonball” Crane of the New York Giants on October 4, 1888.

The last player to achieve this feat was Yovani Gallardo of the Milwaukee Brewers, who struck out four batters in the fifth inning of a game against the Cincinnati Reds on September 17, 2011.

There have been a total of 57 4 out innings recorded in MLB history, 24 in the American League and 33 in the National League.

A five strikeout inning has never been recorded in MLB. However, it has happened in the minor leagues 3 times; and you can even begin to count how many times it has happened in amateur baseball.

Written by: Robert Bulka, author of How To Score Baseball – Advanced Edition

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For the Love of Baseball”  by Joyce, Monterey Park, CA.

We don’t just love baseball, don’t just watch baseball, don’t just talk about baseball – we live baseball and our team’s every season, every game, every inning, and every pitch. We cheer on the rookies and bow down to the retiring heroes. We drive home anxiously from work or school to catch the first pitch and stay up late to savor the closing of a great game. We feel the agony of errors, wild pitches, and blown saves. We argue balls, strikes, and close plays.

We understand and can distinguish between double plays such as the 6-4-3 and the 5-4-3. We appreciate a sacrifice bunt/hit to advance runners, a cycle, a perfect game, a no-hitter, and base-by-base scoring more than a home run. We question the manager’s decision to go to the bull pen, call up a pinch runner, and give an intentional walk. We marvel at the eye-popping, breathtaking defensive plays. Baseball may seem to be a slow, boring game, but it is really an artwork of strategies, gambles, and patience.

In the end, nothing brings more happiness and excitement than to relax after a long day and watch your team play. They’re down 1-0, at the bottom of the ninth, two outs, the rookie from the farm team gets a hit. A bunt to third base, and the kid is faster than the ball. He’s safe. It isn’t much, but there’s hope, because there’s always hope.

There’s always the next inning, the next game, the next season. Comebacks happen, because nothing is ever the same. And when you jump up in exhilaration rejoicing the walk-off home run and watching your team celebrate like kids around home plate, then you will truly understand what it means to love baseball.

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Baseball's Einstein

If you want to practice and/or test your knowledge of all things baseball, here are a few little ditties you might be interested in.

“BASEBALL I.Q.”   MLB Network’s first-ever game show is hosted by MLB Network’s Matt Vasgersian and airs Tuesdays through Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. ET.  It’s a  30 minute trivia show featuring two participants from opposing teams, with a chance to win up to $45,000 for charity.    I found out quickly how much I don’t know, but it’s still a lot of fun to play along.

Rick Swain ~ Baseball Crossword Puzzles

A  BASEBALL CROSSWORD PUZZLE?   Who knew?  Rick Swain has a great website that includes a weekly crossword puzzle all about baseball .  If you’re one of those fans who like to keep their baseball IQ skills honed, this is for you!  You can even sign up for a notification of Rick’s weekly crossword puzzle delivered right to your inbox.  Sign up through Rick’s website, Rick Swain Author of  Books About Baseball’s Unsung Heroes.

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Nolan Ryan & Robin Ventura's friendly encounter after Ventura charged the mound. Photo Courtesy of Google Images.

Here’s a great post I found this morning from one of our GFBB’s Recommended Websites, William Miller’s “The On Deck Circle” .   Bill tends to write rather lengthy articles  so I’m posting a portion to peak your interest.  The complete article is linked  below.  It’s about the pitchers deemed the hardest to hit in all of baseball and includes some of the best and worst in other positions.  I think you’ll enjoy this.

February 6, 2012   William Miller’s  ”On Deck Circle”

BASEBALL STATISTICAL ODDITIES

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Photos courtesy of KNBR and Ronni Redmond

I made up my mind last year that no matter what happened, I was going to the Fan Fest this year!   And I did.  We, my husband and I, always take Cal-Train to Giants games at AT&T Park just to avoid the parking and we did the same today.  It’s a few blocks to the ballpark from the train station and it’s the perfect way to travel stress-free to the games.

All the stories about the crowds proved true again this year.  Rumor has it the crowd was around 35,000 but to tell you the truth we avoided all of that.  I leave the autograph-seeking to the youngsters  so we headed up to the club level and found a perfect spot, a little to the right of  home plate,  front row, seats 1 and 2.  And we settled in for the day with our perfect seats for some perfect photo’s and perfect weather.  I loved this.   And we had a fantastic view of the KNBR Broadcast Stage and could hear the interviews and conversations as though we were sitting right there with them.   We had a great time at the park today!

Baseball season is finally here.  Almost.  But it’s close enough you can reach out and touch it, feel it.  Tomorrow’s Super Bowl Sunday which is probably great if you’re a football fan.  Oh okay,  I have to admit I did get a little taken up with the Tebowing  thing this year, but honestly can you truly say there’s anything better than spring training and opening day of baseball?   I’ve been waiting for this since the 7th  game of the world series last year and it’s just as good as I’d hoped it would be.  Thank you God. Baseball, one of the many pleasures in life.

You might remember a Bill Cosby video many years ago that included a story about little Jeffrey.  ”Little Jeffrey” on the airplane.   On the one and one-half hour ride home  we had a little Jeffrey on the train.  Little Jeffrey screamed all the way home finally de-training just one stop before we did.  I watched him as his poor drained parents stepped off the train and  carried him past our window, little Jeffrey all smiles.  Our children are all grown now and gone, with children of their own.   But I remember the days.  Thank you again God.  Retirement, one of the many pleasures in life!

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Mini Corn Dogs with Honey Mustard Dip

This is one of my favorite baseball foods, from one of my favorite blogs, “Sweet Pea’s Kitchen”.  We’ve used her before ~ (remember the nacho’s?).  You can link to her site here and find more recipes for any sporting event, but it’s timely now for Super Bowl Sunday.  The pictures alone make you want to just dive in and eat don’t they?   Enjoy!

Mini Corn Dogs Posted by Christina, Sweet Pea’s Kitchen, September 17, 2011

Ingredients:

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk
• 1 quart vegetable oil for frying
• 2 (16 ounce) packages beef hot dogs
• Toothpicks

For the Honey Mustard:

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon prepared mustard
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Just slathered with mustard works too!

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, salt, pepper, sugar and baking powder. Stir in eggs and milk. Add more milk to adjust consistency for dipping.
2. Preheat oil in a deep saucepan over medium heat to 365°.
3. Cut each hot dog into thirds. Pat hot dogs dry with a paper towel and insert toothpicks into cut hot dogs. Roll hot dogs in batter until well coated.
4. Fry 4 to 6 corn dogs at a time for 1-2 minutes, or until lightly browned. Drain on paper towels.  Place in a 200 F oven to keep the corn dogs warm until all are fried.
5. To make the honey mustard, in a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard, honey, and lemon juice. Serve with mini corn dogs for dipping.

Source: corn dogs adapted from allrecipes.com, honey mustard adapted from allrecipes.com

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I’ve been a member of  the Lefty O’Doul Chapter of SABR,  Society for American Baseball Research, for a year now and this was the first function I’ve been able to attend.   I mention this because I wish I’d attended all the functions this past year and I had this thought that,  if you were exposed to the idea, you’d probably like to do the same thing.

Our day included a tour of AT&T Park, a video conference with the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown,  special guest speakers Henry Schulman, sport writer for the SF Chronicle and author Michael Duca, Chapter President, Marlene Vogelsang  and SABR National Director, Paul Hirsch giving us lots of good timely information.  It was a very good day in San Francisco!

So in recognition of  “SABR Day in America 3″ this is an open invitation to anyone interested in finding out more about SABR to please check it out.   You’ll meet some really great baseball fans and be able to talk baseball all you want without having to deal with eyes rolling back in the head indicating “oh boy, here we go again”.  These guys get it! And so will you!

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This video shows  a Tim Lincecum fastball and curveball delivery correlated at the release point and superimposed to provide an overlay comparison of the two motions.   The two pitches look nearly identical to my untrained eye. This YouTube video uploaded by laflippin on June 18, 2009.

So I’m  listening to play-by-play of  a game the other day and the announcer says instantly “that was a fastball (curveball, sinker, slider, doesn’t matter … you get the point) and I’m thinking how the hell does he know that?  I mean the ball’s traveling at 90-95 mph and he’s up in the announcer booth 200 feet away.   I know this announcer used to be a pitcher  so I’m pretty sure he knows what he’s talking about, but how is that possible ~ to call the pitch instantly in split-second timing, almost before the ball’s even thrown?

I set out to research this so I might understand the difference between the  pitches and how a pitcher  might determine which pitch to throw and when to throw it.

The first article I ran into was “Fastball, Curveball, Change-up, Slider” ~ An Analysis by John Walsh, December 20, 2007, Hardball Times.  (See  ”Pitch Movement” Diagram here, looks  like a pap smear. I never figured out where the pitch was).  The article is only seven pages, but it took me nearly 2 hours to read, and re-read to realize there was no way I was going to “get it” no matter how many times I read it so I chucked it in search of another.  I mean this stuff’s really confusing!   I’m starting to understand why some of these kids decide to forego the draft in favor of college before embarking on a baseball career.

Eephus Pitch Courtesy Stevenellis.com

My next attempt at research didn’t end up much better.  I mean how can you go wrong with Wikipedia?   Did you know there are 33 recognized pitches at the Wikipedia website?   And did you know that an “Eephus Pitch” (I kid you not)   is thrown overhand like most pitches, but is characterized by an unusual high arcing trajectory and corresponding slow velocity, bearing more resemblance to a slow-pitch softball delivery than to a traditional baseball pitch.  It’s considered a trick pitch.   You don’t say.

Juan Marichal

Orlando Cepeda was quoted as saying that most pitchers have one or two pitches, curve ball and a fastball, but Juan Marichal had at least 16 different pitches because of the way he delivered them.  His entire body, arms and legs were in constant motion and his delivery changed constantly giving a distinct characteristic to different pitches.  It’s a good thing they didn’t decide to name all the different pitches, or maybe they did.

In any event, I decided to postpone my research for another day.   I’m way out of my league here which reminds me once again of my favorite Einstein quote, ”You teach me baseball and I’ll teach you relativity. You will learn about relativity faster than I learn baseball.”   Here’s to you Professor Einstein!  It really doesn’t matter to me whether the  catcher calls, or the pitcher throws, a fastball or a curveball or a slider.   Surprise me!

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I intended to blog about the Texas Rangers job opening for an “accountability partner” for Josh Hamilton but had second thoughts.  It seems a little heartless to  talk about it, maybe even a little sad, so when I found this little ditty out there in YouTube land it was an easy change-over.  This is light-hearted good stuff!

So in case you’ve never seen it and even if you have here’s a wonderful version of one of Abbott & Costello’s finest routines.  Abbott and Costello performed this classic “Who’s on first?” baseball sketch in their 1945 film “The Naughty Nineties” first performed as part of their stage act.   This video now plays continuously on screens at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

In 1999, Time Magazine named the routine the “Best Comedy Sketch of the 20th century.    And who’s to argue with them?   No matter how many times I’ve seen it, it’s a classic that never gets old.

You can read all about it at Wikipedia, but not on Wednesday, January 21, as they’re having a “black-out” to protest the Freedom of Information Act being proposed in Congress.

“Who’s on First”  YouTube Video courtesy of, and uploaded by, Swancourt on Feb 16, 2007.

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