Mr. Crane, Astrogate IS about baseball

[DCPatriot]

@Jazzhead
Flattery will get you everywhere. (The Athletic staff includes one of my all-time favourite baseball writers, Spink Award winner Jayson Stark.)

I believe Jayson Stark succeeded Tom Boswell as Washington Post writer covering the Baltimore Orioles and MLB.   Or was it Richard Justice?   

[GrouchoTex]

@EasyAce
@catfish1957

If you meant 'beloved', the comparison to Berra is fitting.

That said, I don't see the analogy.

Money says that Nolan Ryan was not a party to the pitch-tipping.  For all your aforementioned...Ryan would just leave the Game. 

Instead, he's gonna be a Ranger again.

Makes me also wonder how the 'whistleblower', Mike Fiers, will fare in The Show for the rest of his career.

The reality of the crushing disappointment keeps returning every time I 'see' Bregman's and Altuve's grins in my mind's eye. 

All the adoration they got from their fans not only in Houston, but across the nation.

This is not cool.

@DCPatriot

Altuve?
I don't know he swings at everything.
Not sure he'd care if he whether or not what pitch was coming next.
He's one of the best "bad ball" hitters I've ever seen.

Bregman?
Cocky to be sure, so he'd be more likely of the 2.

Leave Altuve alone, man, don't go there!
 

Seriously, hard to imagine Altuve bothered with it, but who knows?
I don't yet, to be sure.

[GrouchoTex]

@DCPatriot @EasyAce
At 73, I could hit a baseball 400 ft, if I knew the speed and location ahead of time.   Well okay...maybe 300 ft.   

I had my Beatles birthday on Monday (you know---"When I'm Sixty-Four") and 300 is about right for me with a good swing, too. Subject to change without further notice, of course, you can't beat the ol' biology.

Well, if I could see 300 feet, that would be a start!

[EasyAce]

I believe Jayson Stark succeeded Tom Boswell as Washington Post writer covering the Baltimore Orioles and MLB.   Or was it Richard Justice?   

Stark spent a long time at the Philadelphia Inquirer before joining ESPN for a good long time. (He joined the Inquirer in 1979, three years before Boswell published his first anthology, How Life Imitates the World Series.) He never worked for the Washington Post.

Justice worked at the Baltimore Sun and the Post before moving first to the Dallas Morning News and then the Houston Chronicle. He may have taken the Oriole beat at the Post when Boswell was promoted to columnist in the 1980s, but I'm not entirely sure.

[DCPatriot]

Altuve?
I don't know he swings at everything.
Not sure he'd care if he whether or not what pitch was coming next.
He's one of the best "bad ball" hitters I've ever seen.

Bregman?
Cocky to be sure, so he'd be more likely of the 2.

Leave Altuve alone, man, don't go there!
 

Seriously, hard to imagine Altuve bothered with it, but who knows?
I don't yet, to be sure.

Did Altuve wear a buzzer inside his batting glove?  Didn't one of them accidentally drop something at his feet while doing the bullshit batting glove routine during the postseason?

Was he wearing said device when he took Chapman off the concrete in Left Field?

Asked, because IYRC, I said what speed and what quadrant.  That little SOB went upstairs and away on that fastball.   Nobody does that in THAT count against Chapman.   


    

[EasyAce]

Well, if I could see 300 feet, that would be a start!

@GrouchoTex

Here you go . . .

[DCPatriot]

@DCPatriot @EasyAce
At 73, I could hit a baseball 400 ft, if I knew the speed and location ahead of time.   Well okay...maybe 300 ft.   

I had my Beatles birthday on Monday (you know---"When I'm Sixty-Four") and 300 is about right for me with a good swing, too. Subject to change without further notice, of course, you can't beat the ol' biology.

Well, if I could see 300 feet, that would be a start!

    

Love talkin' baseball with you guyz!   

[GrouchoTex]

Did Altuve wear a buzzer inside his batting glove?  Didn't one of them accidentally drop something at his feet while doing the bullshit batting glove routine during the postseason?

Was he wearing said device when he took Chapman off the concrete in Left Field?

Asked, because IYRC, I said what speed and what quadrant.  That little SOB went upstairs and away on that fastball.   Nobody does that in THAT count against Chapman.   


    

@DCPatriot

Thought Chapman's pitch was a bit up and in, but Altuve would be one of the few in the game that I think could get to it.

Not sure about the buzzer dropping thing, but Altuve does have a routine when he steps out of the batter's box.
He always loosens and then tightens the velcro on his gloves.
Then, he adjust his helmet from the top of his head, moving it three times.
(Maybe that's to put the tin foil back in place. He'll need it, to ward off half of what is being said now, or pass that tin foil along to certain Yankee fans.They're seeing cheating everywhere on twitter).

 

[GrouchoTex]

@GrouchoTex

Here you go . . .

LOL

PERFECT!

Thanks!

[EasyAce]

Asked, because IYRC, I said what speed and what quadrant.  That little SOB went upstairs and away on that fastball.   Nobody does that in THAT count against Chapman.   


    

@DCPatriot
It wasn't a fastball. After Altuve took a 2-0 slider that hit the middle for a called strike, Chapman threw another slider . . . but it hung up and a little away 83 mph and got hung off the back wall. (Yankee catcher Gary Sanchez wanted a pitch down in the zone and set up that way behind the plate. Oops.)

[EasyAce]

Not sure about the buzzer dropping thing, but Altuve does have a routine when he steps out of the batter's box.
He always loosens and then tightens the velcro on his gloves.
Then, he adjust his helmet from the top of his head, moving it three times.

@GrouchoTex
He's been doing that ever since he came to the big leagues. So much so that I once thought he was bucking for Mike Hargrove's title as the Human Rain Delay.

[GrouchoTex]

@GrouchoTex
He's been doing that ever since he came to the big leagues. So much so that I once thought he was bucking for Mike Hargrove's title as the Human Rain Delay.

@EasyAce
LOL, I've heard Jeff Bagwell call Marwin Gonzalez that!

[GrouchoTex]

   

Love talkin' baseball with you guyz!   

This spy fiasco aside, it is a lot of fun talking with y'all (y'all being the proper way to say "guyz") about baseball, and other things as well.

I'm trying to keep a sense of humor about it all.

Sometimes life is too serious to be taken seriously, even baseball.

[DCPatriot]

@GrouchoTex
He's been doing that ever since he came to the big leagues. So much so that I once thought he was bucking for Mike Hargrove's title as the Human Rain Delay.

Trey Turner...Anthony Rendon both do the same thing.

When asked about it once in an interview, Turner indicated that it's a reflexive action and all he's thinking about is WTF the pitcher is thinking about.

Oriole catcher Rick Dempsey once intentionally let a pitch get a few feet behind the plate/umpire...when he threw it back to the pitcher, he purposefully hit Hargrove right in his earhole.       Orioles Classic.   

[EasyAce]

@EasyAce
LOL, I've heard Jeff Bagwell call Marwin Gonzalez that!

@GrouchoTex
The hell with the Human Rain Delay, watching Gonzalez sometimes I was inclined to think of him as the Local---you know, making every last stop before the destination.

[EasyAce]

Trey Turner...Anthony Rendon both do the same thing.

Those two are so deft at batter's box stalling that I half expect one of them to pull his cell phone out of his pocket taking an important call between pitches.

[Jazzhead]

@Jazzhead
Flattery will get you everywhere. (The Athletic staff includes one of my all-time favourite baseball writers, Spink Award winner Jayson Stark.)

For years,  we in Philly had Jayson Stark all to ourselves.   He's a terrific sportswriter.   

[EasyAce]

For years,  we in Philly had Jayson Stark all to ourselves.   He's a terrific sportswriter.

Just as, growing up in and around New York, we had the pleasure of Red Smith (New York Herald-Tribune and, later, The New York Times) and, later, Ira Berkow (New York Times). I envied Los Angeles fans having Jim Murray (his columns would turn up syndicated in New York papers every so often) and Washington fans Thomas Boswell (see Murray), but when I worked in Washington for a year (1990-91) my morning always began with reading Boswell and Shirley Povich (still very much alive and well then) in the Washington Post.

[Jazzhead]

Just as, growing up in and around New York, we had the pleasure of Red Smith (New York Herald-Tribune and, later, The New York Times) and, later, Ira Berkow (New York Times). I envied Los Angeles fans having Jim Murray (his columns would turn up syndicated in New York papers every so often) and Washington fans Thomas Boswell (see Murray), but when I worked in Washington for a year (1990-91) my morning always began with reading Boswell and Shirley Povich (still very much alive and well then) in the Washington Post.

The great daily sportswriters are hard to find these days, especially at papers like the Inquirer for which the quality and quantity of reporting has shrunk as revenues collapse.   Many of the best veteran sportswriters have been lured away by The Athletic - an on-line subscription-only site that, IMO, is well worth the cost.   

[GrouchoTex]

@EasyAce 
Passan says players who cooperate with the investigation have been told they can expect leniency when it comes time to hand down discipline; however, front office personnel and members of the coaching staff could face stiff penalties. Several players who are no longer active have declined to be interviewed. MLB's rules require only active players to participate in an investigation.

I wonder why that is a rule?
If the are not required, can they still do so voluntarily?
Just curious...........

[Axeslinger]

So Crane is supposed to comment during an active investigation?  Your Astro hate sometimes clouds commons sense. 

Like I said on another thread /.....  Bring it.  And make sure all 30 teams get the same rectal examination

Let's clean up this game COMPLETELY, once and for all.

Better yet...just ban it altogether.   I’ve never understood the allure of watching 7 guys standing around watching 2 guys playing catch.  It’s truly an awful, watching paint dry “sport”.

[EasyAce]

I’ve never understood the allure of watching 7 guys standing around watching 2 guys playing catch.  It’s truly an awful, watching paint dry “sport”.

You are talking way above your pay grade. 

[AllThatJazzZ]

Better yet...just ban it altogether.   I’ve never understood the allure of watching 7 guys standing around watching 2 guys playing catch.  It’s truly an awful, watching paint dry “sport”.

Ha! This reminds me of how I used to think about baseball. Funny, though. It never occurred to me that the sport should be banned because I didn't like it.

[GrouchoTex]

Better yet...just ban it altogether.   I’ve never understood the allure of watching 7 guys standing around watching 2 guys playing catch.  It’s truly an awful, watching paint dry “sport”.

Some like Chocolate, some like Vanilla.......

[EasyAce]

@EasyAce 
Passan says players who cooperate with the investigation have been told they can expect leniency when it comes time to hand down discipline; however, front office personnel and members of the coaching staff could face stiff penalties. Several players who are no longer active have declined to be interviewed. MLB's rules require only active players to participate in an investigation.

I wonder why that is a rule?
If the are not required, can they still do so voluntarily?
Just curious...........

@GrouchoTex
I'm not sure why that rule applies only to active players. But those out of baseball could do so voluntarily if they chose. The key being "if." And, how long, if you know or remember how long it took various members of the 1951 Giants to admit that yes, they had the center field clubhouse spyglass-to-buzzer to the bullpen sign-stealing thing going down that stretch.