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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54230

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The Athletic has yet another column with nothing but Greinke stories:

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When Greinke was young, he hated the label “genius.” What he did was not genius. It was pragmatic. And to him, at least, it was obvious, even if almost no one else saw it that way.

Years ago Greinke and Arizona catcher Jeff Mathis were going through the game plan against the Cincinnati Reds’ lineup. But when they got to first baseman Joey Votto, Mathis could tell Greinke didn’t have an answer. Votto, himself a cerebral iconoclast, possesses one of the best eyes in baseball and an appreciation for Greinke.

“I feel like we have some similarities,” Votto said. “First of all, I have a lot of respect for him. But I just remember going to All-Star games with him and thinking: ‘I f— with this guy.’”

Greinke was stumped. Then, boom, it hit him: He was going to throw Votto a hanging slider in the middle of the strike zone.

“Uuuuuhhh, I don’t really know,” Mathis said. “But if you want to do this, I’m not going to argue.”

Greinke threw a slider that spun aimlessly across the top of the zone. Votto took it for a strike. Greinke threw another cement-mixer at the belt. Votto took it again.


“He steps out,” Mathis said, “and kind of does his Joey Votto look around like, What the f— was that?”

What Greinke had intuited was that no hitter recognized spin like Votto, that he would see slider and expect it to break out of the zone, that he could use Votto’s own gift against him, that all he had to do was throw a meh slider that stayed in the strike zone and Votto wouldn’t swing.

“I just left that game shaking my head like, ‘This son of a bitch,’” Mathis said.

 

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TonyTexas
TonyTexas

I think this number is entirely dependent on if the pitcher had ever met you

patrickdrinksbeer
patrickdrinksbeer

the names of my 3 & 1 year-olds.

TheStoicPaisano
TheStoicPaisano

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Make em eat Taco Bell

Make em eat Taco Bell 1549

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57 minutes ago, Helobious said:

Did 1950 Boston & 1999 Cleveland win the World Series? Wanna take a guess at who won both those years? 

Yanks are not going to win another WS in the limited balance of your lifetime.  16-1 is very good odds for them, doesn't mean they'll win it but is excellent value.  I'd put some money on Baltimore and Atlanta to cover all reasonable expectations. 

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54230

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The first time Jeff Mathis met Greinke was at a restaurant in Kansas City. They weren’t teammates yet and the pleasantries quickly turned into a conversation about pitching. Greinke was at the height of his powers, so Mathis asked what Greinke’s favorite thing to do was, expecting a response along the lines of “just blowing people’s doors off.”

Instead, Greinke’s answer shocked Mathis: fielding bunts and holding runners.

A few days later, Greinke faced Mathis with runners on. Mathis was often asked to bunt in those days, and Greinke knew it, so he spun his La Lob curveball up there. (When a pitcher came up in a bunt situation, Alex Avila didn’t even bother putting down the sign. He knew the slow curve was coming).

Mathis started to push the bunt down the third base line, and it was right then he realized Greinke was standing on the line, almost waiting for the ball, a step ahead of everyone else as always.

“Zack is the only pitcher I know that would throw a pitch, sprint off the mound to a point on the field and I’ll be damned if almost every time he did that it wasn’t weak contact and he fielded the ball and threw the guy out,” Bradley said. “It was in-credible.”

Several years ago, Greinke was pitching for the Diamondbacks in Boston. Greinke didn’t survive the second inning, but before he was pulled, a Red Sox hitter sent a swinging bunt up the line. Greinke bolted from the mound, fielded the ball and fired an off-balance throw to home, nailing the runner.

When the inning ended, Greinke walked back to the clubhouse. Bradley, curious how Greinke would react to a rare shelling, followed. Greinke headed right for a video monitor and watched the play he’d just made. Then he turned to Bradley: “That play just won me the Gold Glove.”

“I couldn’t help but laugh,” Bradley said. “And you know what? He won the Gold Glove.” 

Much later on, Greinke was sitting with Bradley when a Diamondbacks’ PR staffer walked by. Greinke won three Gold Gloves in Arizona. “Hey Zack,” the staffer said. “Your Gold Gloves are still in the office if you want to take them.”

At least one of them had been there for two years.

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He made his first All-Star game in Chicago and shook hands with President (and White Sox fan) Barack Obama, although Greinke was disappointed by the interaction. “Because none of the White Sox guys like me,” he explained to the KC Star. “So I was hoping that he’d recognize me and be like, ‘You punk, I hate you.’”

 

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Helobious

Helobious 9453

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3 hours ago, TonyTexas said:

Sounds like an extended stint on the IL

 

If you want to know how shitty dodger stadium is, that wasn’t a gate he ran into, it was a section of the actual wall. The gate was a few feet over. He smashed his foot into the concrete below it.

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