2018 MLB Thread

[Player 4,576]

Helobious certainly would.

[spystud13 2,371]

0-8, 7 Ks, GIDP for that Phillies PH to start his career. Ouch. 

[Scraps 13,570]

Checking in to laugh at the Yankees and Helobodork

Carlos Gomez owns that ass

[Helobious 9,464]

The Yankees were the very last MLB team this season that hadn't suffered a 3 game losing streak until yesterday. But please start talking all the shit you want.

And yes, I'd rather give Mickey Mantle a BJ than choke on the syphilitic 4-inch Altuve-cock like you Astros fans do on a daily basis. Mantle was a fucking legend and always will be. 

Edited June 25, 2018 by Helobious

[Johnny Sack 8,397]

50 minutes ago, Helobious said:

The Yankees were the very last MLB team this season that hadn't suffered a 3 game losing streak until yesterday. But please start talking all the shit you want.

And yes, I'd rather give Mickey Mantle a BJ than choke on the syphilitic 4-inch Altuve-cock like you Astros fans do on a daily basis. Mantle was a fucking legend and always will be. 

The biggest Yankee fan from the fucking Rio Grande Valley.

[shnsajax 3,591]

So your admitting to preferring big cock over small cock?

[spystud13 2,371]

5 hits for the Nats in last two games. 

Sergio Romo strikes out Michael Taylor with bases loaded to preserve a 1-0 win, then immediately starts strutting towards the plate & jawing at the Wash bench over Taylor stealing 3rd with a 7-run lead earlier this season. 

Tampa also played a P @ 1B in the 9th, box score is fun. 

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/nationals-vs-rays/2018/06/26/530598#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=box,game=530598

 

[SurlyBDR 22,834]

 

[shnsajax 3,591]

Javy Baez has now hit a HR in all 9 spots of the lineup over his career. Waiting to get a list of everyone that has ever done that.

[Goo Punch 4,275]

oh shit, some camera man in LA just got his face destroyed by a foul ball. damn. 

[Goo Punch 4,275]

Javy!!!

 

Hes also 6-6 for his career vs Ross Stripling which is ridiculous. as was that grand slam he just smoked. seriously- i've been half-joking about this for a while now, but he's the most exiting player in baseball. 

Edited June 27, 2018 by Goo Punch

[Dewey 3,289]

Guess that hitters only meeting worked

[Goo Punch 4,275]

Homeplate umpire is trash.

[UTexasFight 9,527]

So the Orioles...
they could win every game (30) between now and the July 31 trade deadline—and the Yankees lose every game (29) between now and then—and the O’s still would only be in a tie for first (and still 2 games under .500).

[gecko 1,104]

[miguelito 11,294]

That's badass.

[henrygandorf 29,194]

11 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

Javy!!!

 

Hes also 6-6 for his career vs Ross Stripling which is ridiculous. as was that grand slam he just smoked. seriously- i've been half-joking about this for a while now, but he's the most exiting player in baseball. 

i can't remember if i heard this right, but (i think) baez has a chance to be the first player in mlb history to have an obp of under .300 and a slg over .500 in the same season.

right now it's .315/.555

[Goo Punch 4,275]

He swings. Hard.

[henrygandorf 29,194]

On 6/25/2018 at 11:44 AM, Helobious said:

The Yankees were the very last MLB team this season that hadn't suffered a 3 game losing streak until yesterday. But please start talking all the shit you want.

And yes, I'd rather give Mickey Mantle a BJ than choke on the syphilitic 4-inch Altuve-cock like you Astros fans do on a daily basis. Mantle was a fucking legend and always will be. 

not sure where this angst is coming from.  most astros fans including myself (who are too young to have seen him) are big mantle fans, and stories like this only make him more awesome.  altuve isn't a switch hitting outfielder, and he's not chasing any of mickey's records or his legacy.  altuve is a hits/avg guy, and could possibly end up a better version of joe morgan maybe?  

right now baseball is shaping into a 3 man race of super teams who will all likely win 100+ games.  depending on what the indians do and what the trade deadline looks like, it should be a very interesting october.  

maybe go for a run or take a boxing class.  get it out of your system.

[henrygandorf 29,194]

also, for bonus points, who hit the first ever homer in the astrodome?

[Mez2 4,025]

3 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

also, for bonus points, who hit the first ever homer in the astrodome?

mickey mantle, duh

[henrygandorf 29,194]

[shakahorn 1,645]

21 hours ago, spystud13 said:

5 hits for the Nats in last two games. 

Sergio Romo strikes out Michael Taylor with bases loaded to preserve a 1-0 win, then immediately starts strutting towards the plate & jawing at the Wash bench over Taylor stealing 3rd with a 7-run lead earlier this season. 

Tampa also played a P @ 1B in the 9th, box score is fun. 

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/nationals-vs-rays/2018/06/26/530598#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=box,game=530598

 

Yeah I watched that game.  Feeling like a genius for betting on the Rays.  The funniest thing is the pitcher/1B is a lefty and the whole point of keeping him in the game was to pitch to the lefties.  And he didn't get anyone out.

[Helobious 9,464]

20 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

not sure where this angst is coming from.  most astros fans including myself (who are too young to have seen him) are big mantle fans, and stories like this only make him more awesome.  altuve isn't a switch hitting outfielder, and he's not chasing any of mickey's records or his legacy.  altuve is a hits/avg guy, and could possibly end up a better version of joe morgan maybe?  

right now baseball is shaping into a 3 man race of super teams who will all likely win 100+ games.  depending on what the indians do and what the trade deadline looks like, it should be a very interesting october.  

maybe go for a run or take a boxing class.  get it out of your system.

I'm far less wound up today, the last 2 nights with your mom have done wonders.

You're right about the super teams, but truth be told it wouldn't shock me if only one of the Yankees/Astros/Red Sox made the ALCS. Baseball is weird like that. I can just see two of those teams falling flat & getting upset in October for whatever reason. 

[henrygandorf 29,194]

10 minutes ago, Helobious said:

I'm far less wound up today, the last 2 nights with your mom have done wonders.

You're right about the super teams, but truth be told it wouldn't shock me if only one of the Yankees/Astros/Red Sox made the ALCS. Baseball is weird like that. I can just see two of those teams falling flat & getting upset in October for whatever reason. 

well one of the east teams is going to end up (likely) hosting a west team for one game.  shit, at this point it could even be the a's.  if sale is off, anything goes.  severino has been lights out.  after that, the winner is going to have to go on the road with their rotation off kilter, which would give the 1 seed a pretty big advantage, especially if it's houston, who has the deeper starting staff.  price vs verlander is not what they want. 

whomever gets the one seed has a decided advantage, other than just being at home throughout, since as of current, seattle and boston each only have one scary pitcher (in my opinion).  the 2v3 matchup should be a great one, especially if the yankees trade for a better sp2 and carrasco/bauer are healthy and throwing well.  i just don't see the astros getting beat out for the top seed based on schedule.  injuries, etc, could change everything, but that's my view of it.

[Guest]

On 6/25/2018 at 12:44 PM, Helobious said:

The Yankees were the very last MLB team this season that hadn't suffered a 3 game losing streak until yesterday. But please start talking all the shit you want.

And yes, I'd rather give Mickey Mantle a BJ than choke on the syphilitic 4-inch Altuve-cock like you Astros fans do on a daily basis. Mantle was a fucking legend and always will be. 

Fuck the Yankees.

Enjoy your regular season triumphs.  Yes wins are necessary, but the quest for validation is comical, to say the least.  “Oh we have history on our side, “you say.  

Not recently, and until then, STFU and take it like the bitches you are.

[henrygandorf 29,194]

we won the world series, so any hostility is just silly at this point.  i'm gonna sit back and enjoy what could be a truly epic postseason.

[spystud13 2,371]

Damn, the dude found in Atl’s beer cooler was just trying to get everyone’s cups filled faster. 

Quote

A body found inside a beer cooler at the major league home of the Atlanta Braves belongs to a Minnesota inventor who was doing contract work at the stadium, police in Atlanta's suburbs said Wednesday.

Cobb County police on Wednesday identified him as Todd Keeling, 48, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota.

Keeling had worked an overnight shift for a beverage vendor, authorities said. A co-worker found his body inside the beer cooler at SunTrust Park before Tuesday night's Braves vs. Cincinnati Reds game.

An autopsy was planned Wednesday to help determine how he died, Cobb County police spokeswoman Sarah O'Hara said.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the death, agency spokesman Michael D'Aquino told The Associated Press.

The Braves declined to comment.

Keeling was an inventor, and had been at SunTrust Park to install his patented beer-pouring technology when he died, a relative told an Atlanta newspaper.

In October 2016, the United States issued the patent for the invention, which features "a new nozzle for a beer valve tap and a new foamless beer tap dispensing system," government records show.

"This is his dream since he was a kid," his aunt, Fran Kuchta, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution .

Keeling had already worked to get beer technology installed at The Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins' stadiums, and was excited about the technology being added to SunTrust Park, Kuchta said.

Just this week, Braves officials showed off the new technology to local news reporters, saying it will allow beers to be poured about three times faster than in the past.

SunTrust Park is northwest of Atlanta, near Smyrna, Georgia.

 

[cmontexas 3,279]

Pour one out for the homey

Quickly, of course

[Mez2 4,025]

5 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

we won the world series, so any hostility is just silly at this point.  i'm gonna sit back and enjoy what could be a truly epic postseason.

Helo was just born last time Yankees won a world series, so this is all new for him in the Rio Grande Valley

[spystud13 2,371]

Labrum surgery on Cozart’s left shoulder, done for ‘18. 

[txhorns 2,413]

Anyone else see the Angels pitcher break his ankle last night?  It was gruesome.

[Helobious 9,464]

18 hours ago, Mez2 said:

Helo was just born last time Yankees won a world series, so this is all new for him in the Rio Grande Valley

The Yankees have won 5 titles in my lifetime so far. 

Side note: What goddamn baseball team does a valley kid root for? Sure the Astros are big down there, but they’re the closest team and still over 6 hours away. As a hispanic I wasn’t keen on rooting for a team named after the “Texas Rangers” either. It’d be like a black guy rooting for a team called the “LAPD Enforcers” or something. More importantly they’re over 8 hours away. You clowns act like I was born & raised on the other side of Crawford St and still chose to be a Yankees fan. 

[Pato del Muerto 52,572]

1 hour ago, Helobious said:

The Yankees have won 5 titles in my lifetime so far. 

Side note: What goddamn baseball team does a valley kid root for? Sure the Astros are big down there, but they’re the closest team and still over 6 hours away. As a hispanic I wasn’t keen on rooting for a team named after the “Texas Rangers” either. It’d be like a black guy rooting for a team called the “LAPD Enforcers” or something. More importantly they’re over 8 hours away. You clowns act like I was born & raised on the other side of Crawford St and still chose to be a Yankees fan. 

I think most kids used to get their mlb team interests from some combination of

1 local team

2 family team

3 local minor league affiliation

4 access to games via radio or more recently tv

Atlanta and Chicago have a larger presence because of tbs and wgn games in early cable packages. Radio broadcasting range was the same thing for earlier generations  

Minor league affiliations change more often than years past but some are famously tied to major league teams(Scranton, Memphis, Pawtucket etc) and before free agency, most players on the mlb team spent time at these places. 

I guess now you can watch every game for every team, so there doesn’t have to be any reason beyond they were the best when I became a fan or I liked their mascot or colors. 

Edited June 28, 2018 by Pato del Muerto

[bschoolprof 6,271]

5 hours ago, txhorns said:

Anyone else see the Angels pitcher break his ankle last night?  It was gruesome.

read about it.  Don't want to see it.

[Fozzz 152]

1 hour ago, Helobious said:

The Yankees have won 5 titles in my lifetime so far. 

Side note: What goddamn baseball team does a valley kid root for? Sure the Astros are big down there, but they’re the closest team and still over 6 hours away. As a hispanic I wasn’t keen on rooting for a team named after the “Texas Rangers” either. It’d be like a black guy rooting for a team called the “LAPD Enforcers” or something. More importantly they’re over 8 hours away. You clowns act like I was born & raised on the other side of Crawford St and still chose to be a Yankees fan. 

For years everyone in McAllen was a Rangers fan.  

[Johnny Sack 8,397]

5 hours ago, Helobious said:

The Yankees have won 5 titles in my lifetime so far. 

Side note: What goddamn baseball team does a valley kid root for? Sure the Astros are big down there, but they’re the closest team and still over 6 hours away. As a hispanic I wasn’t keen on rooting for a team named after the “Texas Rangers” either. It’d be like a black guy rooting for a team called the “LAPD Enforcers” or something. More importantly they’re over 8 hours away. You clowns act like I was born & raised on the other side of Crawford St and still chose to be a Yankees fan. 

Root for who you want to root for.  We just like to give you shit about it for taking the easy road as a fan.

[Vic Mackey 47,138]

...

[Vic Mackey 47,138]

Damn

[Beau Vine 54,397]

I've been gone for 10 days and no one posted this?

Quote

 

Move over, Bobby Bonilla: The Braves have been paying Bruce Sutter for 30 years thanks to a ludicrous contract

By Dan Lewis Jun 25, 2018 61

It was the winter of 1984. The Atlanta Braves, fresh off an 80-82 season, decided to strike while the iron was mostly lukewarm, if you’re being charitable. Anchoring their bullpen was the perfectly suitable committee of Gene Garber, Steve Bedrosian, and Donnie Moore; each registered 28 or more Games Finished and had double-digit save totals. But for some reason, the Braves wanted more. They wanted Bruce Sutter.​>

Sutter was a closer in an era when the role was still emerging. He spent the 1984 season anchoring the bullpen of the St. Louis Cardinals, leading the league in Games Finished with 63 and amassing a then-record-tying 45 saves while pitching a now unheard of 122.2 IP. He finished sixth in MVP voting and third in Cy Young balloting. He was paid handsomely for his services, too — his $975,000 salary made him one of the highest paid players at the time. As he entered free agency that offseason, he expected to cash in even bigger. And the Braves were willing to meet his demands.

When the ink dried on the contract, the basic terms gave Sutter $9.1 million over six years, entering his age-32 season for, again, a team which failed to win half its games the year prior. The length of the contract was absurd at the time, but so was the amount, given the context. His salary — not accounting for some interesting structuring which we’ll get to — was the 10th highest in the Majors in 1985, behind guys like George Foster, Gary Carter, and Keith Hernandez. (Remember when the Mets spent money?) He was the second-highest paid pitcher in the game, only behind José DeLeón (really). Even if things had gone as planned, it would’ve been a crazy, terrible signing by the Braves.

Things didn’t go as planned. But that wasn’t even the worst part.

Over the course of his six-year deal, Sutter collected 40 saves, total, while sporting a 4.55 ERA. He was worth, collectively, -0.3 bWAR, and at no point during his Braves career did he turn in an above-replacement-level season as a pitcher. He was, shockingly, worth more as a batter: he put up a 0.0 bWAR line as a Brave, turning in a career-high 0.1 bWAR in 1988, when he went 0-for-1 with a walk and a strikeout. Injuries cost him his 1987 season and he was so bad in 1988 that he just hung them up. As contracts go, Sutter’s Braves deal was historically bad. The Braves destiny suffered a similar fate — over the six years of Sutter’s contract, the Braves’ best season (1986) ended with a 72-89 record. The other five seasons were all ones with 90 or more losses — one of 92, two of 96, one of 97, and a laughably bad 54-106 in 1988. Sutter, perhaps, retired out of embarrassment.

And again, that wasn’t the worst part.

The worst part was that Sutter decided to use his big free agency contract as a financial planning opportunity. Rather than get all of that $9.1 million paid out in relatively even amounts per year, Sutter insisted that his money be deferred. Both the Braves and the Cardinals agreed to the demands of the former Cy Young winner and future Hall of Famer. In the end, the Braves were the ones who offered more money — about $9 million over 6 to the Cardinals’ $7 million over 5, per The New York Times — and an absolutely whackadoo structure that could only be attributed to irrational exuberance.

First, Sutter was only paid about $750,000 per year while under the Braves’ control. For the thirty years after he retired — 30!!! — the Braves agreed to pay him no less than $1.12 million per year, and potentially more if interest rates spiked above a negotiated floor of 12.3 percent. (They haven’t.) That ends in 2021, and it’s only 2018, so Bruce Sutter, at some point this year, received or will receive a check for $1.12 million for his 112 games of sub-replacement baseball as an Atlanta Brave. On July 1, the New York Mets will pay Bobby Bonilla about $1 million to not play for them. As that date approaches, the Mets become a punchline — and punching bag — for beat writers near and far. And yet, at some point during this same calendar year, the Atlanta Braves will pay Bruce Sutter about the same amount.

But wait: there’s more.

Typically, when a player signs a multiyear contract, the total is paid out over the course of that contract in the form of annual salaries. That’s the case even when money is deferred; until the money is earned, there’s nothing to defer. In the case of Sutter, that means he shouldn’t have gotten the full $9.1 million (plus interest); he retired four years into the six year contact. But Sutter’s contract wasn’t typical.

For some reason, the Braves agreed to pay Sutter the full $9.1 million up front — think of it as a signing bonus of sorts — but then deferred the whole amount. If you do a little bit of math, you’ll realize that 12.3 percent of $9.1 million is $1.12 million, which makes sense. But what about the $750,000 he got during the six years of the contract? Those, too, were interest payments — the Braves agreed to pay him approximately 8 percent of the deferred amount during the first six years. As a pretty funny, and obviously unintended side effect, Sutter ended up getting his negotiated “salary” in both 1989 and 1990, even though he was retired.

And because all of the money he’s earned to date (and will earn through 2021) is interest, that $9.1 million in principal has, to date, gone unpaid. That’s right: it was deferred until 2022. Four years from now, Bruce Sutter will be a 69-year-old Hall of Fame pitcher who last pitched in 1988 who, unlike Bobby Bonilla, will be on the receiving end of a $9.1 million check from the Atlanta Braves.

In total, Sutter will earn north of $45 million for his three years being terrible as a member of the Atlanta Braves. Bobby Bonilla, eat your heart out.

 

[Beau Vine 54,397]

Also, happy anniversary to the biggest regular season game in my life:

Quote

June 28, 1976: The Bird captivates the nation

This article was written by Scott Ferkovich

Baseball fans throughout the country in 1976 had been hearing the scattered chatter, ever since mid-May. Talk of something new and exciting happening in Detroit. Some rookie pitcher with long hair. Didn’t they say he talked to the baseball? Got on his knees before each inning and groomed the mound? Stomped around the field like a hyperactive kid? Kind of a flake? He certainly hadn’t been pitching like one. He’d started eight games, winning seven of them. Of his seven complete games, two were 11-inning affairs. His only loss was a complete-game six-hitter in which he’d given up only two runs, while the Tigers had been shut out. His ERA was hovering in the low 2’s. “I don’t think even Walter Johnson even started this fast,” said his manager, Ralph Houk.1

And he was drawing crowds. Big crowds. The year before, the Tigers had lost 102 games, an awful team with no identity, which had given their fans no reason to want to come out to Tiger Stadium. But suddenly here was this gregarious 21-year-old kid, who came out of nowhere to mow down hitters and wow the fans, who were packing the ballpark. He was from Worcester, Massachusetts, and his name was Mark Fidrych. But they called him The Bird because his curly golden locks made him look like Big Bird, one of the signature Muppet characters from “Sesame Street.” And June 28, 1976 was the night that greatness was thrust upon him, as the rest of the nation finally found out what all the fuss was about.

Here were the Tigers, an otherwise ordinary team, facing the Yankees, who had been making mincemeat of the rest of the American League. New York was in first place by a wide margin, with stars like Thurman Munson, Chris Chambliss, Graig Nettles and Mickey Rivers. New York’s manager was Billy Martin, who had guided Detroit to a division title just a few years before. The ABC television network was featuring the game on “Monday Night Baseball,” to be broadcast coast to coast (except in Detroit itself, where the game was blacked out). Tiger Stadium was rocking from the get-go, with 47,855 Birdwatchers. Thousands, according to various estimates, were turned away when the box office ran out of tickets. Things hadn’t been this exciting at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull since the Tigers won the World Series in 1968. “My phone started ringing at eight in the morning and didn’t stop all day,” noted Detroit’s Bill Freehan, who had starred on that ’68 team, and was now in his final year. “Everyone wanted tickets to see The Bird pitch.”2

Reporters wanting to learn more about Fidrych peppered him with questions before the game. Surely he must feel some sense of awe to face the Yankees? Had he ever heard of Mickey Mantle? “Sure,” he said, “he was a ballplayer, but now he’s retired.” What about Roger Maris? “No,” chirped The Bird, “never heard of him.” OK, maybe that’s going back a ways, but what about the 1968 Tigers? He must have heard of them, since he would have been 12 years old at the time. “I was only 11, but I never heard of them, either. I was too busy working trying to make a living. Carry groceries, carry golf clubs — anything to make a buck. I had to go out once in a while, you know.”3

Game time neared. The fans stood up and cheered as Fidrych bolted out of the dugout and headed for the bullpen for his pregame warm-up. Once the contest started, the Bengals jumped out in front in the first inning on a two-run homer by Rusty Staub. That was all they needed in a 5-1 win. In yet another complete game, Fidrych clowned the Yankees, scattering seven hits with zero walks, the only New York tally being a home run by Elrod Hendricks. The radar gun had him clocked as high as 93 miles an hour, both in the first inning and in the ninth. Working quickly, he talked to the ball (or to himself) the whole time. But it was his excellent control, hard slider, and fearlessness that gave the Yanks fits all evening. The game lasted only an hour and 51 minutes. The Bird was now 8-1. All the while, he was, in the words of Detroit Free Press writer Charlie Vincent, “a perpetual motion machine on the mound.”4

Near the end, Bob Uecker, one of the announcers on the ABC broadcast, raved, “I gotta tell you. ... I’ve seen a lot of ball games played, and I’ve caught a few. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pitcher this keyed up, in the ninth inning of a ball game, or all through the ball game. You’d think this guy’d be running out of gas by now ...but he is just starting to heat it up.”5 Not to be outdone, his broadcast partner, Bob Prince, marveled, “He’s giving me duck bumps and I’ve watched over 8,000 ballgames!”6 The crowd kept chanting “Let’s Go Mark!” Elrod Hendricks grounded out to end the game, but the drama was just beginning. Also in the ABC booth was Warner Wolf. As Fidrych dashed off the mound to hug backstop Bruce Kimm — who caught all of Fidrych’s starts that season — as well as other teammates, Wolf cried, “And the Tigers act like Fidrych has just won the seventh game of the World Series!”7 Prince added, “He is some kind of unbelievable!”8 The Bird hopped around, shaking hands with teammates, with the umpires, with anybody in his path, much to Wolf’s utter amazement. “Young Mark Fidrych, thanking his teammates! Look at that, he’s thanking his teammates! He’s thanking the umpires ... everybody ... the ground crew!”9 Then The Bird ducked into the dugout and disappeared down the runway.

But nobody left. Nobody went home. The fans stood chanting “We want Mark! We want Mark!” “He’s gotta come back,” Wolf declared. “Come on, Mark! Nobody has left the ballpark!”10 The clubhouse attendant had to go back and find Fidrych to tell him to get himself back out there. Finally, after about two minutes, a dazed Bird popped back up out of the dugout, doffing his cap with a boyish grin. Tiger Stadium erupted again. He reached over the top of the dugout, shaking fans’ hands (including those of a policeman). Overcome with emotion, Fidrych covered his head in his arms, and tried to escape into the dugout, but his teammates urged him back onto the field.

Uecker corralled Fidrych in front of the Detroit dugout for an interview. “Mark,” he noted, “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life, and I know it’s a very emotional moment for you.”11 “Hell, yeah,” said Fidrych.12 The Bird’s youthful innocence was on full display, as he claimed that “everything is just so new to me.” He referred to Hendricks, who had hit the home run, as “that one guy.” “Damn,” he said at one point, “I couldn’t ask for anything more!” Uecker asked him what he was doing when he was grooming the mound. “I want to dig my own hole,” The Bird clarified. The camera got a close-up of Fidrych’s oversized feet as he stood there, sans shoes, in stirrups and dirty stockings. “I never played before this many people before. In the minor leagues, sometimes they had 2,000 people there. And when the place is packed, you want to do good.”13 The national television audience ate up The Bird. On a warm June night in Detroit, his legend had been born.

His teammates were enthusiastic in their praise of the rookie. “The best part about this game,” said Freehan, “was that with all of its ballyhoo, Fidrych didn’t disappoint them. Lots of times in these situations the game turns into a dud. ... It takes a lot of courage, ability, and concentration to do what he did.”14

“Every person can see the enthusiasm in Mark,” gushed Staub. “He brings out exuberance and an inner youth in everybody. It’s contagious.”15

“[Denny] McLain didn’t draw that many people,” said John Hiller, a teammate of McLain’s on the 1968 championship squad. “I even watched the game. I don’t usually do that.”16

“It was fun as hell,” noted Mickey Stanley, another ’68 hero. “It was like a World Series game.”17

The Yankees won the American League pennant in 1976. The Tigers finished fifth. Mark Fidrych numbered 19 wins, led the AL in complete games with 24, and ERA at 2.34. After the season, he became the first baseball player ever to get his picture on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. But arm problems cut short his career seemingly before it had even started. At age 26, his time in the big leagues was finished. But the memories lasted forever. “One word doesn’t describe it,” Fidrych said of that exciting summer of ‘76. “It was the ultimate.”

Anyone else remember this?  I was 9 years old.  I had heard about him, read about him, but this was the first time he pitched on national TV...  and he fucking delivered, big time.  Crowd was going nuts, and he was talking to the ball before every pitch, getting down on his knees and playing with the dirt on the mound.  I vividly remember him coming out of the dugout to give the post-game interview.

I wanted to be Mark Fidrych after seeing that..  

[Goo Punch 4,275]

"Easy to forget how good young Albert Pujols was". 

 

^^^ No it's not 

[WBT 20,659]

Scraps's boy mixing it up:

https://www.mlb.com/news/joey-votto-erik-kratz-cause-benches-to-clear/c-283404300

[Helobious 9,464]

Josh Hader, the Brewers setup guy, is putting up a historically dominant season so far. I’d wager over 95% of non-nl central team fans have never heard of him. I learned of his existence just a few weeks ago by randomly scanning pitcher leaderboards. He’s rarely mentioned on the MLB social media pages. It’s still crazy to me how vastly different stardom is in baseball vs other sports. 

[shnsajax 3,591]

Josh Hader, the Brewers setup guy, is putting up a historically dominant season so far. I’d wager over 95% of non-nl central team fans have never heard of him. I learned of his existence just a few weeks ago by randomly scanning pitcher leaderboards. He’s rarely mentioned on the MLB social media pages. It’s still crazy to me how vastly different stardom is in baseball vs other sports. 

They talk about him on MLB radio every single day. This isn’t new news.

[Goo Punch 4,275]

1 hour ago, Helobious said:

Josh Hader, the Brewers setup guy, is putting up a historically dominant season so far. I’d wager over 95% of non-nl central team fans have never heard of him. I learned of his existence just a few weeks ago by randomly scanning pitcher leaderboards. He’s rarely mentioned on the MLB social media pages. It’s still crazy to me how vastly different stardom is in baseball vs other sports. 

i'd bet you're way off. i've been referring to him by last name only for multiple months. he's been on my fantasy team since april 2nd. people know who he is.

Edited June 29, 2018 by Goo Punch

[Goo Punch 4,275]

double 

[Goo Punch 4,275]

https://twitter.com/PitcherList/status/1012331545439494144?s=20

[Fudge Nuggets 19,218]

4 hours ago, Helobious said:

I’d wager over 95% of non-nl central team fans have never heard of him.

You would lose that wager.  Anyone that follows baseball at all has heard of him.

[Fudge Nuggets 19,218]

7 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

I've been gone for 10 days and no one posted this?

 

Summary:  MLB owners have been dumbasses forever.