2020 MLB Season
Saw quite a bit of baseball over the weekend and saw my very first socially-distant manager/umpire argument yesterday in the Bucs/Cards game. Strange days, indeed...
Interestingly, no team even made it to 3-0 (or 0-3) this weekend. I wonder when was the last time THAT happened. There seems to be at least one team that runs off 8 or 9 wins or losses to start a season most years. (Not that I have statistical data to back that up... just a feeling).
The last time no teams had an unbeaten streak to start the season was 1954 when there were only 16 teams.
4 Marlins test positive for Covid-19 while in Philly. Miami's home opener against the Orioles is postponed. Yankees due to arrive in Philly today.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29546814/sources-marlins-cancel-game-virus-spreads
Phillies and Yankees are cancelled (postponed) for today. Ugh. That didn’t take long.
Happy birthday to our very own big leaguer Cole Kimball today. The Mets bullpen is really killing that team.... maybe Cole could make a comeback?
As for my Orioles, gee, it really warms my heart to see Zach Britton getting saves for the Yankees (like, gag me with a spoon, real-lee) and did they need to trade home grown Manny Machado this early in his career?
Cespedes has opted out of playing anymore as announced yesterday before the Braves game.
He probably should have told someone of importance if he announced it yesterday.
https://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/1994995/cespedes-opts-out-of-season-after-skipping-game-leaving-hotel
"Van Wagenen said the club had no idea Cespedes was planning to opt out, Healey reports. The GM added that the two-time All-Star's agent called the Mets toward the end of Sunday's game against the Atlanta Braves and told them of Cespedes' decision."
Rhys Hoskins in the powder blues brings back memories of Michael Jack from the late 70s/early 80s...
Yes, he's got that 70s haircut going on. If he has the same kind of career ...
whoa, Nellie! Now, if only Philly can find a Steve Carlton, Tug McGraw, Garry Maddox and "The Bull." One of the best looking uniforms ever ... the IronPigs wore them a few times for special occasions.
Think Twins have light blue this year too. Padres have their old brown n yella back.
Old Yank Horace Clark passed. I was just a puppy then but still have a couple of his cards.
Poor Horace had to step into Bobby Richardson’s shoes. I was at a Twi-Night doubleheader against the Tigers and the second game went 20 innings and they were going to call a curfew after the 20th inning. Horace drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 20th around 1:30am. Needless to say my father who was a die hard Tiger fan was not happy.
I’ve heard through the years and recently read how that NY era is repeatedly referred to as the Horace Clark Yanks.
Yes, it is true, not many bright spots for the Yanks during his time there. The up and coming Bobby Mercer, Roy White along with Mel Stottlemyre were additional bright spots during those horrendous years.
Horace gets a bad rap --- he was a good player. RIP
Those bad years for the Yankees were great years for the Orioles ... getting Frank Robinson made a good team a champion and 1965 Rookie of the Year Curt Blefary became a Yankee killer. He'd grown up in Jersey as a Yankees fan and signed with the Bronx Bombers --- but NY did not keep him on the 40-man roster --- pretty soon the Yankees became the Bronx Bummers.
By the way, Mel Stottlemyre is the last pitcher to have a 5-for-5 game as a hitter.
Since they've tinkered with the rules hoping for shorter games, MLB needs a mercy rule!
The Marlins and Twins are polar opposites with their playoff histories ... the Marlins have won every series they've played thus far ... while the Twins have an incredible losing streak in playoff games. How can things like that go on for so many years?
TB/NYY Game 5 - the "woulda, coulda, shoulda" game for the Pirates rotation with Glasnow facing Cole.
This should be a great game tonight, both pitchers move that ball around, hard to groove one out as the case has been.
Great praise for Gio this week from Nettles the best 3rd baseman. (Yes he was Andy)
Whitey Ford passed away. RIP
LGY!
Interesting that the "other guy" in the Chris Archer trade debacle, Austin Meadows, also came up big for the Rays last night... Bucco fans around the country shake their collective heads and wonder what could have been, lol.
Brooks set the standard, he was the first to do those things ... that's why announcers still say, "that was a Brooks Robinson play" ... Manny Machado was pretty darn impressive too ... so was Mike Schmidt in his time ... Nettles is a cool dude, met him in Bernardsville a few years ago ... Sparky wrote a lot of funny things about him in Bronx Zoo.
An odd thing related to the Yankees ... since 1958, all their WS titles have come when Democrats were in the White House ... 61 and 62 with JFK, 77 and 78 with Jimmy the Peanut Farmer ... 96, 98, 99 and 00 with "Bubba" Clinton and 09 with Obama ... no Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush or Trump.
If the Astros don't win for a long time now, historians will say they were under "The curse of the garbage can." Go Rays
As a youngster in the 70’s I remember some of the A’s with J Rudi in afternoon playoff games (I think) by the time I followed baseball and the Yanks the Reds beat them. Morgan and that darn elbow pump at the plate, some kids emulated it, I just wanted to yell stop. It was wrong, Rose was a showboat, Munson was better than Bench, something was wrong with Morgan, ahhh warped memories of youth. Great player, not highly thought of as a broadcaster. RIP
Morgan had that chicken wing ... Bench was the best catcher I've ever seen ... but Andy Etchebarren got the ring in 1970 :-D A question I ask every hard core long time Yankee fan .... was Reggie a "true Yankee?"
He was an Oriole rental for part of 1976, but I figure once a bird, you're a bird for keeps. I cheered Reggie at Memorial Stadium, he was fun to watch.
Thanks to Munson being the number one guy with the Yankees, the O's got Rick Dempsey in a trade ... thank you, Yankees .. Dempsey was World Series MVP in 1983 and a very popular personality in Baltimore to this day.
Dempsey went to Os during the season of 76, todays anniversary of Chambliss 76 AL series winning hr. Always looked like that bat was too heavy even for him.
Going with no with Reggie, but I think he and NY have certainly made it seem so. 5 years, one huge series, not much in NY but stories in newspapers.
I've seen that Chambliss run around the bases several times on Yankees Classics ... glad he made it home alive! Yankees got him and Nettles in some astute trades ... same way the O's acquired Ken Singleton and Lee May. Eddie Murray got his chance to play at age 21 thanks to Reggie's departure.
Oct. 15 is the 50th anniversary of the O's WS championship in 1970 (also Jim Palmer's birthday) and Oct. 16 is the anniversary of the O's WS championship of 1983.
Funny thing about the six WS the O's played between the time I was 16 and 33 ... three times the O's were underdogs and won ... and three times they were favored and lost ... prompting Brooks to say "you never know what will happen in a short series."
Camden Yards has yet to host a World Series ... the Baseball Gods do not approve of this proud franchise with many Cy Young and Gold Glove winners in its history, playing in a bandbox.
Another thread highjacked, 20 mlb, glad Hou n LA won a game.
Had great time in Balt visiting Camden Yards when it was new, its among the oldest in the league now...
For a long time the Yards didn't have any empty seats ... it was the fun thing to do for so many new baseball fans and it was a big part of a larger renovation and upgrading of the downtown area. Hope you had a chance to visit the House That Built Babe ... the Babe Ruth Birthplace.
I'm an old timer who still is nostalgic for Memorial Stadium ... except for the Ripken consecutive games thing, my best Orioles memories were in the old place.
So Yank fans we root for....the Dodgers?
Visited Ruths birth house in Balt among other things.
Who knows the mistake on the Ruth statue, my wife knew it, so proud.
I'm sure the Yankees fans have no love for former Red Sox star Mookie Betts, who is a marvelous red-light player.
If Kershaw pitches like he's supposed to, I think the Dodgers will win. They seem to have all the right pieces ... Tampa does not hit enough but that hasn't stopped them from reaching the series ... the 1969 Mets can tell you about good pitching stopping good hitting.
Curious to learn what the mistake on Babe's statue is ... one thing that's annoyed me is how Babe is always portrayed as being fat ... when he first came up to the big leagues he was 6-2, 190, a marvelous athlete. The hot dogs and beer made him balloon up late in his career.
Watching YES as we speak, on DIRECTV ... Michael Kay is really glum about the G-men .. Bobby Valentine was on, looking back on Subway Series (20th anniversary) and the Piazza/Clemens drama. Who let the dogs out?
Exciting series going on, worth the late hours, Dodgers really blew one last night ... now there's a good chance it could go seven.
Serious question and I don’t want to debate pro or con but — all that money, all the tech, some like catchers, batters, basically wearing masks to begin with. Football players e
more so ....
Is there a technical reason they don’t incorporate masks? I mean even if they’ve tested everyday; their families aren’t.... Just seems weird for a football helmet, catchers mask, batters helmet not to include / figure it’s technical but wondered if anyone knows.
At least tennis players don them once they grab their court-side bag and bang rackets instead of shaking hands. But even there, chair judge is unmasked.
One player who consistently wore a mask this season was Didi Gregorius, now with the Phillies ... he said he has a kidney issue and has to be extremely careful.
I saw Clint Frazier hit a long, long home run at Citi Field while wearing a mask, so you can't say wearing it hurts performance.
First basemen, in particular, should wear them, because you get a lot of visitors there and the other team's first base coach is always standing behind you and talking to the baserunners.
Once there's a vaccine for vulnerable people we shouldn't have to wear masks. It isn't healthy to wear masks and breathe in air you've exhaled. The people that crack me up are the ones that wear one while driving in their cars with the window up....
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