BASEBALL 2017---Bring it On!!!

[Machiavelli]

Reds honor Pete Rose with perfectly designed statue

[catfish1957]

Reds honor Pete Rose with perfectly designed statue

Sorry...I just don't see the likeness.....

[Bigun]

Here's the real one!



I heartily approve!

[EasyAce]

Here's the real one!



I heartily approve!

It should have shown him sliding into a betting window. ;)

[Machiavelli]

Five outs in two at-bats in the same game

Clarence Mitchell is famous for two things:

• He was a grandfathered spitball pitcher.
• While batting for the Brooklyn Robins, he made five outs in two at-bats in the same game:

On October 10, 1920, in Game 5 of the 1920 World Series, Mitchell made history when, with men on first and second and no outs, he hit a rising liner that Cleveland Indians second baseman Bill Wambsganss caught. Wambsganss was able to double up the lead runner, Pete Kilduff, who was still running toward third, then tagged out Otto Miller, who had come down from first base. Mitchell is the only player in Major League history to hit into an unassisted triple play in a World Series. In his next at bat, Mitchell hit into a double play, making him responsible for five outs in two consecutive trips to the plate, another World Series record.

Ironically, he was a good hitting pitcher.

[DCPatriot]

Dusty Baker needs to retire.   Now, would be soon enough.

Max Scherzer pitched a no-hitter for 8-1/3 innings, when he instinctively reached up to snap a come-backer, balling ticking up off the webbing of his glove.  Shortstop throws an adequate major league short-hop that Zimmerman can handle sitting down.

But wait!  Zimmerman was riding the bench.   A genuine defensive star sitting on the bench with a 1-0 lead with six outs to go??

But wait!   There's more!!

Michael A Taylor, who runs like a deer, was sitting on his a$$ too!  He may have gotten to that short-hop basehit to left field that scored the tying run.

Night game...Day game.   Travel.   I get it.

But no excuse to help Scherzer get his no-hitter by having defensive STARTERS sitting on their ass.

[DCPatriot]

http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/80593/max-scherzer-is-mlbs-ultimate-must-see-ace

Max Scherzer is MLB's ultimate must-see ace

David Schoenfield

No, Max Scherzer didn’t become the sixth pitcher with three career no-hitters. He didn’t even win the game thanks to a rotten-luck eighth inning. But I’ll say this: With apologies to Clayton Kershaw and Chris Sale, Scherzer is the ultimate must-watch starting pitcher right now.

I was in the office Wednesday afternoon, and we were all riveted as to our television screens as Scherzer dominated the Miami Marlins for the first seven innings. The no-hitter seemed like a sure thing. It was the 11th time the right-hander had taken a no-hit bid into the sixth inning in his three seasons with the Washington Nationals, five more than any other pitcher has in that span (Corey Kluber has six). More than that, it was the electric quality of the stuff that was so impressive.

His slider was devastating -- Nationals announcer F.P. Santangelo called it the best he’s seen from Scherzer -- and by the middle innings, Scherzer went almost exclusively to fastballs and sliders. What made the slider so impossible for the Marlins to hit was that Scherzer would start it at a right-handed hitter and have it break over the plate for a strike, or start it over the plate and see Marlins hitters flail as it broke six inches off the plate.

more at link

[catfish1957]

Dusty Baker needs to retire.   

Crusty is a blight on the game.  Prior and Wood may have been HOF bound if it wasn't for this idiot's (mis)management of pitching staff.

[DCPatriot]

Crusty is a blight on the game.  Prior and Wood may have been HOF bound if it wasn't for this idiot's (mis)management of pitching staff.

Scherzer threw 120+ pitches, I believe.

He had a no-hitter going and was DOMINATING into the 8th inning. 

YOU go out there and tell him he's coming out!   

Guys like Scherzer...and Sale?   No way, Jose!

[Cyber Liberty]

Scherzer threw 120+ pitches, I believe.

He had a no-hitter going and was DOMINATING into the 8th inning. 

YOU go out there and tell him he's coming out!   

Guys like Scherzer...and Sale?   No way, Jose!

I missed this.  Scherzer had a no-hitter going in the 8th, and he was pulled??  Do I understand this?  He was a Diamondback, and I was peeved when we let him go, but he's been great for the Nats.

[Machiavelli]

It should have shown him sliding into a betting window. ;)

@catfish1957
@Bigun
@EasyAce

• He's an a$$hole.
• He does belong in the HOF.
• He's still an a$$hole.

[EasyAce]

• He's an a$$hole.
• He does belong in the HOF.
• He's still an a$$hole.

@Machiavelli
1. Right
2. Wrong (The Hall of Fame says those banned from baseball aren't eligible to stand for election to the HOF---a lot
of people don't realise the Hall of Fame isn't governed by MLB and can make their own rules about eligibility---and
they were a) within their rights, and b) right as rain, to say and do so.)
3. Right

;)

[catfish1957]

Scherzer threw 120+ pitches, I believe.

He had a no-hitter going and was DOMINATING into the 8th inning. 

YOU go out there and tell him he's coming out!   

Guys like Scherzer...and Sale?   No way, Jose!

@DCPatriot


Sometimes circumstances dictate being able to leave a pitcher in, who might have extra stuff that day.  My point is that on a macro scale Crusty has had a history of overusing and ruining pitchers.  F him.

[Bigun]

@catfish1957
@Bigun
@EasyAce

• He's an a$$hole.
• He does belong in the HOF.
• He's still an a$$hole.

He's also one of the best to ever play the game!  And you are right! He DOES belong in the HOF!

[Cyber Liberty]

He's also one of the best to ever play the game!  And you are right! He DOES belong in the HOF!

It's the betting thing.  Reminds people of the Black Sox. That's a big deal.

[catfish1957]

He's also one of the best to ever play the game!  And you are right! He DOES belong in the HOF!

All for him getting in on a posthomous basis.   

[catfish1957]

It's the betting thing.  Reminds people of the Black Sox. That's a big deal.

Yep, if Rose gets in, they need to also let in Shoeless Joe.

[Bigun]

It's the betting thing.  Reminds people of the Black Sox. That's a big deal.

Yeah!  I know!  Pete never was the smartest guy around!  Just out hustled most of them!

[skeeter]

Yeah!  I know!  Pete never was the smartest guy around!  Just out hustled most of them!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtkU3apSMHw

Of course Fosse shares in some of the blame here.

[EasyAce]

It's the betting thing.  Reminds people of the Black Sox. That's a big deal.

Actually, it's Rule 21(d):

(d) BETTING ON BALL GAMES.  Any player, umpire, or club official or
employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in
connection with which the bettor has no duty to perform shall be declared
ineligible for one year.

   Any player, umpire, or club or league official or employee, who shall
bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which
the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible.

I wrote at length about the issue when Michael Bertolini's notebook surfaced:

Closing the (note)book on Rose at last?
http://throneberryfields.com/2015/06/23/closing-the-notebook-on-rose-at-last/
23 June 2015

Really, now, only one thing should shock about the now-firm evidence that Pete Rose bet on baseball while he
still played baseball: that anyone should be shocked, when all is said and done. The telltale signs have been
there. And, numerous observers are saying (and have said in the past), Rose changes his story almost as often
as he once changed his sanitary socks.

One year after Fay Vincent was purged as baseball’s commissioner, Vincent told at least one reporter, “He bet
[on baseball] as a player with the Phillies.” Rose’s own mother once told a Cincinnati newspaper reporter her
son lost bets on the Padres to win the 1984 World Series. And now comes evidence from documents formerly
unseen outside official investigative channels.

If what ESPN’s Outside the Lines transmitted Monday is certain, the last known defense available to Rose in
his quest to return from baseball’s Phantom Zone to the Hall of Fame has crumpled. Big. “This is the final piece
of the puzzle,” says John Dowd, the one-time federal prosecutor deputised to investigate Rose originally for
baseball government. “This is it, this does it. This closes the door.” Over a quarter century since Rose first insisted
he never bet on the game as a player, there comes a smoking gun.

The smoker is a notebook that once belonged to Michael Bertolini, once a Rose marketing partner, through
whom Rose bet with mob-tied bookmakers, apparently. The notebook is damning. Very damning. It shows Rose
betting extensively on baseball in his final playing season, 1986. (The player-manager played in 72 games,
collected 52 hits, and hit .219 before ending the playing part of his career 17 August 1986.)

The notebook sat under court-ordered seal for 26 years before going to the National Archives’ New York division,
seized as part of a mail fraud investigation during a kind of raid at Berolini’s home two months after then-commissioner
A. Bartlett Giamatti banished Rose. ESPN says its authenticity is verified by two officers involved in the 1989 raid.
Attorneys for Rose and Bertolini say their clients won’t talk; in Rose’s case, his statement through his attorney says
he won’t talk until after he meets with commissioner Rob Manfred about his reinstatement application.

Among other things, the notebook’s pages say that in late April 1986 Rose—still the Reds’ player-manager, not yet
close to his final playing game—dropped bets down on several games including at least one or two involving his
Reds. He bet several other baseball games, too. Either he or Bertolini made notes of the games’ starting pitchers in
hand with each bet:

* Rose bet $2,000 on the Mets on a game started by Dwight Gooden, the defending National
League Cy Young Award winner: “2=D 2000 vs. Pete," the entry reads.

* He bet $500 on the Blue Jays with Doyle Alexander—eventually a Brave sent to the Tigers in the deal
that made a Brave out of freshly-elected Hall of Famer John Smoltz—taking the ball, and won that bet.

* He bet $1,000 on the Red Sox with forthcoming World Series standout Bruce Hurst—who’d beat the
Mets twice in the Series before running out of fuel in Game Seven—on the mound, and won.

* He bet $1,000 on the Royals with Charlie Liebrandt, knuckleball specialist, on the bump, and won.

* He bet $1,000 on the Orioles with Storm Davis (their starter and winner in Game Four of the 1983
World Series) starting, and lost.

* He bet $500 on the Indians with another knuckleball specialist, Tom Candiotti, starting (Candiotti
eventually portrayed Hall of Famer Hoyt Wilhelm in Billy Crystal’s film about the 1961 home run chase,
61*), but the entry seems a little muddy and it’s hard to tell whether he won or lost the bet.

* He bet $500 on Jose Rijo and the Athletics, and lost.

* He bet $500 on Mike Scott—emerging that season from nobody special to never better—and the
Astros, and won.

* He bet $1,000 on Rick Horton and the Cardinals, and lost.

* He bet on Candiotti and the Indians in another game, and won $1,000.

* On twenty-one of the days the notebook makes absolutely clear he was betting on baseball, Rose
dropped bets on the Reds, one way or the other, including possibly for several games in which Rose
did play.

* Most if not all of the time, Rose was likely to drop as much as $2,000 per bet, on average, with the
highest recorded bet during the timeframe being a Boston Celtics basketball game. Charlie Hustler
lost that bet. He bet big on basketball, college and pro, that March, and once lost $15,400 in a single
March day, during a week in which he lost $25,500 total.

Two postal inspection service agents weren’t figuring on anything other than a failure to render services complaint
when the service got a complaint from a dissatisfied customer of Bertolin’s Hit King Marketing, Inc. operation. The
agents called the realtor tasked with selling the home posing as a couple looking to buy and got a guided tour of
the house.

When they saw an item another complainer said hadn’t been returned (Bertolini apparently might have been forging
baseball autographs, including, ESPN says, those of Rose and Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt,
and Duke Snider) the agents sought and got a search warrant. That search produced the notebook that may now
close the book on Rose permanently.

The notebook’s existence wasn’t exactly a secret, ESPN notes, with themselves and several news organisations seeking
access under the Freedom of Information Act following Bertolini’s guilty plea for tax fraud. Because it was introduced
as a grand jury exhibit, ESPN continues, those requests were denied. Only after the notebook transferred to the National
Archives at a U.S. Attorney’s Office request, were the contents able to be copied.

“There has never been a doubt about the serious danger that Rose brought to baseball though his chronic gambling,”
writes Kostya Kennedy, author of Pete Rose: An American Dilemna, for Sports Illustrated. "But there had always been
three factors held up as mitigating Rose’s sin: 1) There was no hard proof that he bet while a player; 2) He never bet
on his own team to lose; and 3) Betting on his team did not influence his managerial decisions.”

Obviously, factor number one is now “passe,” to use Kennedy’s polite-way-to-phrase-it word. Factor number two should
be blown away by the language of Rule 21(d) which does not distinguish between betting to win and betting to lose.
As for factor three, someone might remind Manfred (and anyone else) that strictly as a manager Rose is now known to
have withheld betting on his Reds on certain days, with certain pitchers starting, which Sports Illustrated‘s Jay Jaffe
previously reminded us actually sends signals to other bettors to bet against the team.

Kennedy recalls, correctly, that in the original 1989 investigation Rose and his legal team mounted a “horrifically botched
defense [that] revolved around questioning minute details and picayune facts of baseball’s investigation, trying to wriggle
free of guilt on technicalities rather than meet the allegations head on.”

With even a modicum of sincere admission, Rose might have escaped with far
less than permanent ineligibility. So although Rose has continued to deny he bet as a player
—as recently as last year—his best move now is to come completely clean when he meets
the commissioner.

He’s come “clean” how many times? Sooner or later, even the sturdiest garment can come clean only so often before it’s
washed up. There’s been much talk in recent years about a mercy factor, about showing Rose mercy after all these years.
But every time the mercy factor arises, it seems that something else comes forth to throw it a knockdown pitch.

A month ago Rose told a radio station he “never once” bet on baseball while he still played the game. The Bertolini notebook
blows that one away, too. Strike three called, curve ball on the inside corner. When at last will Rose, his shrinking circle of
defenders, and even baseball’s commissioner, agree that enough’s enough, that it’s time to quit defending what can’t be
defended?

[Bigun]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtkU3apSMHw

Of course Fosse shares in some of the blame here.

Yep! And as an aside, a play just like that ended my baseball career and it was my fault!

[Bigun]

Actually, it's Rule 21(d):

I wrote at length about the issue when Michael Bertolini's notebook surfaced:

Two postal inspection service agents weren’t figuring on anything other than a failure to render services complaint
when the service got a complaint from a dissatisfied customer of Bertolin’s Hit King Marketing, Inc. operation. The
agents called the realtor tasked with selling the home posing as a couple looking to buy and got a guided tour of
the house.

When they saw an item another complainer said hadn’t been returned (Bertolini apparently might have been forging
baseball autographs, including, ESPN says, those of Rose and Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt,
and Duke Snider) the agents sought and got a search warrant. That search produced the notebook that may now
close the book on Rose permanently.

The notebook’s existence wasn’t exactly a secret, ESPN notes, with themselves and several news organisations seeking
access under the Freedom of Information Act following Bertolini’s guilty plea for tax fraud. Because it was introduced
as a grand jury exhibit, ESPN continues, those requests were denied. Only after the notebook transferred to the National
Archives at a U.S. Attorney’s Office request, were the contents able to be copied.

“There has never been a doubt about the serious danger that Rose brought to baseball though his chronic gambling,”
writes Kostya Kennedy, author of Pete Rose: An American Dilemna, for Sports Illustrated. "But there had always been
three factors held up as mitigating Rose’s sin: 1) There was no hard proof that he bet while a player; 2) He never bet
on his own team to lose; and 3) Betting on his team did not influence his managerial decisions.”

Obviously, factor number one is now “passe,” to use Kennedy’s polite-way-to-phrase-it word. Factor number two should
be blown away by the language of Rule 21(d) which does not distinguish between betting to win and betting to lose.
As for factor three, someone might remind Manfred (and anyone else) that strictly as a manager Rose is now known to
have withheld betting on his Reds on certain days, with certain pitchers starting, which Sports Illustrated‘s Jay Jaffe
previously reminded us actually sends signals to other bettors to bet against the team.

Kennedy recalls, correctly, that in the original 1989 investigation Rose and his legal team mounted a “horrifically botched
defense [that] revolved around questioning minute details and picayune facts of baseball’s investigation, trying to wriggle
free of guilt on technicalities rather than meet the allegations head on.”

He’s come “clean” how many times? Sooner or later, even the sturdiest garment can come clean only so often before it’s
washed up. There’s been much talk in recent years about a mercy factor, about showing Rose mercy after all these years.
But every time the mercy factor arises, it seems that something else comes forth to throw it a knockdown pitch.

A month ago Rose told a radio station he “never once” bet on baseball while he still played the game. The Bertolini notebook
blows that one away, too. Strike three called, curve ball on the inside corner. When at last will Rose, his shrinking circle of
defenders, and even baseball’s commissioner, agree that enough’s enough, that it’s time to quit defending what can’t be
defended?

Yeah! You're right!  And it's sad that it only happens in baseball!

[EasyAce]

Yeah! You're right!  And it's sad that it only happens in baseball!

In case there are those who took that literally, no it doesn't:

* Thirty-five active and former college basketball players were accused of fixing games when
a point-shaving scandal that began at CCNY rocked the NCAA in 1951.

* Detroit Lions tackle Alex Karras and Green Bay Packers halfback Paul Hornung were banished
for one year after revelations they'd bet on NFL games. They were forced to sit out 1963.

* Connie Hawkins was kicked out of the University of Iowa after he testified in a 1961 point-shaving
scandal---and Hawkins actually hadn't played a single minute before he testified.

* In 1978-79, four Boston College players were exposed as having been part of a point-shaving
scheme masterminded by Lucchese Family figure Henry Hill. The players were banned for life;
two served jail terms, I think.

* Art Schlichter, once a star Ohio State quarterback, was banished from the NFL over his gambling
addictions, which eventually got him sent to prison several times for fraud, forgery, and other
crimes tied to his gambling.

* In 1996, thirteen Boston College football players were suspended for a year and six banned for
life, after it came out that BC players bet against their own team in a loss to Syracuse.

[TomSea]

Cardinals kept their Christian day;
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/fischer/170619
That's good, but at the same time, are they planning a Pride night too?
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/cardinals-planning-pride-night-at-busch-stadium/article_afd026bf-08a2-587f-b615-b0a477383096.html

[Free Vulcan]

Who'd a thunk the Brewers would have been in first place in the NL Central closing in on the All-Star break?