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Post by Farrar on May 6, 2021 17:30:37 GMT -5
Game 5 of the 1973 NLCS. My friends and I left school a bit early and went to Queens and Shea Stadium. We didn't even have tickets, we just wanted to be there. By the time we got there the game had already begun. The guards let us in. I found a seat, my friends sat in the aisles. The score was tied and when the Mets came to bat, they had a couple of hits and scored a run. The Mets then loaded the bases and who came up to pinch hit but Mays. Standing ovation. He drove in a run. As you can imagine, the place erupted. OMG I'd never seen anything like this, the excitement, pandemonium, the chanting "Will-ie, Will-ie, Will-ie." Willie came in to score a run in that inning; the Mets won the game and went on to the Series.
That was a game and a day I'll never forget. I'm so glad I had a chance to see the great Say Hey Kid in person, even if it was at the end of his career.
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2021 13:45:42 GMT -5
Apparently the Pirates are auditioning for a role in the remake of the Bad News Bears...
c'mon man, two steps back, step on the bag, the play is over. As a former first baseman, this play hurts my soul.
-M
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 28, 2021 13:54:15 GMT -5
Apparently the Pirates are auditioning for a role in the remake of the Bad News Bears... c'mon man, two steps back, step on the bag, the play is over. As a former first baseman, this play hurts my soul. -M Exactly. I couldn't believe that when I saw it. I'm not even a big baseball fan and haven't played since grade school and even I was yelling...just step on the damn bag.
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Post by berkley on May 28, 2021 17:14:06 GMT -5
Nice Springsteen reference by the announcer!
I can't wait for those stupid little chin beards to go out of fashion though.
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Post by The Captain on May 28, 2021 17:28:23 GMT -5
Saturday morning, the "richest match in the world" is being played, that being the English Championship League's playoff final. The winner gets promotion to the Premier League and an estimated 185MM Pounds ($225MM USD) windfall, while the loser licks its wounds and spends another campaign in the second tier while trying to earn a spot with the big boys.
Brentford, a club in west London, hasn't played in the top-flight in 74 years and has failed in its last nine playoff appearances for promotion. They will be facing Swansea City, from Wales, who is eyeing a return to the Premier League after being relegated after the 2017-2018 season. The two squads played to a pair of 1-1 draws in the regular season just completed, so it should be a very even match.
My butt will be on the couch and my eyes glued to the 55" TV while rooting on my Swans to take the victory and move back up to the top once again. GO SWANS!
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2021 0:37:40 GMT -5
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Post by Prince Hal on May 29, 2021 15:59:24 GMT -5
Nice Springsteen reference by the announcer! I can't wait for those stupid little chin beards to go out of fashion though. Goat a problem with chin beards, eh?
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Post by Icctrombone on May 30, 2021 5:00:53 GMT -5
My wife I getting into baseball an we are watching games together this year. I haven't watched this many games for years and noticed the fielding shifts that are being used by every team are beginning to be broken by opposite field hits and bunts. Good. I always hate when a batter sees everyone on one side of the field and doesn't have the ability to hit it the other way.
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Post by Prince Hal on May 30, 2021 13:37:03 GMT -5
My wife I getting into baseball an we are watching games together this year. I haven't watched this many games for years and noticed the fielding shifts that are being used by every team are beginning to be broken by opposite field hits and bunts. Good. I always hate when a batter sees everyone on one side of the field and doesn't have the ability to hit it the other way. I like that you're seeing players hitting (or trying to hit) against the shift, but I wish more would do so. However, it's not easy to change an approach that you've learned and practiced for so long. The emphasis on scoring in bunches, "launch angle," and hitting home runs has led to the philosophy that you should swing big for the fences, and for most players, that means pulling the ball and the belief that strikeouts really aren't so bad. And since teams are paying big dollars for players who use that approach, we see "small ball" disappearing. Why hit into the shift if you can hit over it? Why bunt, steal a base, or hit to the opposite field? But, for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction, and so we got the shift, we got starters trained to throw high strikes at 95+ for as long as they can (usually four or five innings), we got relievers out of the same model, and we have a game now in which hitters are often reduced to looking for three outcomes: a strikeout, a walk, or a homer. (The Adam Dunn style.) I can see why people don't like the shift, but I love seeing teams and players adapting to it. It probably won't be enough, though, and MLB will butt in to make changes, as it did by lowering the mound after the "Year of the Pitcher" in '68, as it did by creating the DH, and changing the extra-innings rules last season. We may see the mound moved back a bit; they'll be experimenting with that in the minors later this season. (If MLB would inform the umps that the strike zone is actually bigger than a postage stamp, you might see pitchers able to actually "pitch" rather than throw gas only for a couple of innings and hitters forced to take a swing or two instead of letting every count run to three and two.)
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2021 15:02:10 GMT -5
My wife I getting into baseball an we are watching games together this year. I haven't watched this many games for years and noticed the fielding shifts that are being used by every team are beginning to be broken by opposite field hits and bunts. Good. I always hate when a batter sees everyone on one side of the field and doesn't have the ability to hit it the other way. I like that you're seeing players hitting (or trying to hit) against the shift, but I wish more would do so. However, it's not easy to change an approach that you've learned and practiced for so long. The emphasis on scoring in bunches, "launch angle," and hitting home runs has led to the philosophy that you should swing big for the fences, and for most players, that means pulling the ball and the belief that strikeouts really aren't so bad. And since teams are paying big dollars for players who use that approach, we see "small ball" disappearing. Why hit into the shift if you can hit over it? Why bunt, steal a base, or hit to the opposite field? But, for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction, and so we got the shift, we got starters trained to throw high strikes at 95+ for as long as they can (usually four or five innings), we got relievers out of the same model, and we have a game now in which hitters are often reduced to looking for three outcomes: a strikeout, a walk, or a homer. (The Adam Dunn style.) I can see why people don't like the shift, but I love seeing teams and players adapting to it. It probably won't be enough, though, and MLB will butt in to make changes, as it did by lowering the mound after the "Year of the Pitcher" in '68, as it did by creating the DH, and changing the extra-innings rules last season. We may see the mound moved back a bit; they'll be experimenting with that in the minors later this season. (If MLB would inform the umps that the strike zone is actually bigger than a postage stamp, you might see pitchers able to actually "pitch" rather than throw gas only for a couple of innings and hitters forced to take a swing or two instead of letting every count run to three and two.) The problem is that all of player development for baseball players from little league to the majors is training players to play for those three "true" outcomes, and not just in the USA but in all the international markets as well, so even if MLB makes changes, it's going to take at least a generation to get a pool of players who aren't playing for those three true outcomes, and since players make their money based on those three outcomes, and most changes have to be approved by the MLBPA who represents those players and whose purpose is to protect the ability of players to keep making money, any changes MLB might make are going to be opposed by the MLBPA since it is not in the interest of the players' wallets to do so. And with a new CBA negotiation coming up that already looks cantankerous at best, based on just how much rancor was present on both sides when trying to negotiate the specifics of how last season should be played in light of the pandemic, any attempt by MLB to force changes through is going to sabotage those negotiations and potentially destroy any hope of labor peace in baseball, so I am highly skeptical of any changes to address these types of thing actually being implemented until they've been haggled over, assigned a dollar value and incorporated into the new CBA at the cost of concessions on other issues facing MLB, and even then, it will affect the quality of baseball being played because of all the young players from little league on up who are going to have to relearn how to play baseball, which will also gut the minor league systems of many teams of potential prospects whose entire developmental career has been spent learning to play to the goal of those three outcomes and a lot of highly rated prospects will have to be reevaluated if you change the way you want them to play the game. Baseball is the way it is because they (owners, GMs. scouts, coaches, player development personnel, sabermetric gurus etc.) have been shaping it that way since the advent of moneyball in the 90s. You aren't going to "fix" nearly three decades of intentional development by making a couple of minor changes and expect to see immediate results that reshape the game. -M
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2021 16:19:19 GMT -5
MLB All Star Voting opened today. Cast my first set of ballots with Google this afternoon.
-M
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jun 6, 2021 20:29:50 GMT -5
GO HABS GO!!!
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Post by The Captain on Jun 6, 2021 20:48:42 GMT -5
I can go along with this, if only because they beat the Maple Leafs in the 1st Round. The only NHL fanbase I despise more than Toronto's is Philadelphia's, so the longer either of those teams go without getting to hoist Lord Stanley's Cup, I'm a happy man.
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Post by The Captain on Jun 25, 2021 8:29:06 GMT -5
The Montreal Canadiens are on their way to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in nearly three decades (last there in 1993) after defeating the Las Vegas Golden Knights in 6 games (winning the final one in OT).
While not a Habs fan, it is nice to have one of the Orginal Six back in the Finals (as long as it isn't the StRangers or Maple Creeps). With the options on the other side being the Islanders (who took out my Pens) or the cheating Lightning, I will be rooting for Montreal to add another set of names to Lord Stanley's Cup in 2021.
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Post by dbutler69 on Jul 12, 2021 16:02:04 GMT -5
MLB All Star Voting opened today. Cast my first set of ballots with Google this afternoon. -M Kinda weird the way they changed the All-Star voting rules this year. I guess the good part is, the voting for the finalists starts so much later now. I always thought it was silly to open the All-Star voting in May or whenever it was.
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