Orioles Feat You've Never Seen

[Moose Milligan]

On 4/1/2020 at 4:01 PM, DrungoHazewood said:

The DiMaggio streak would be more vulnerable if there were conditions where somebody could hit .400.   It's been 10 years since anyone hit .350!

I know nobody listens to me, but I'd much rather have a league that hits .290 with five Ks a game than .250 with 10, which is basically what we have now.

And if Scooter Gennett can hit four homers in a game, is it really that unlikely that someone hits five?  Might as well be someone like Ryan Mountcastle.

It's old school, but I agree.  I just watched a bunch of the Ken Burns Baseball documentary.  Still holds up fairly well.

But I'd like to see a game with less strikeouts, more balls in play.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, batting average isn't en vogue these days but it would be cool to see someone hit .350 again.  Or .375.  

The game ebbs and flows between offense and pitching, rarely is it in perfect balance and that's ok.  But I'm not sure how the game ever regresses from where it is now where you've got damn near everyone throwing 95+ and trying to strike everyone out.  And hitters that don't care about striking out, either.  

[Mr. Chewbacca Jr.]

I personally always wanted to see Kevin Millar try to go for an inside-the-park home run. Just thinking about it makes me laugh so much.

[Moose Milligan]

2 minutes ago, Mr. Chewbacca Jr. said:

I personally always wanted to see Kevin Millar try to go for an inside-the-park home run. Just thinking about it makes me laugh so much.

I think you'd have a better chance at seeing a perfect game.  Millar getting an inside the park homer would have to have so happen...like he'd have to hit it off the wall in RF, the rightfielder would have to miss the carom off the wall, miss the cutoff man...and even then, I'm not sure Millar could get around and be safe at home.

[thezeroes]

Kevin Millar had two inside the park home-runs in his career.  His first MLB home-run was an inside the park while playing for Marlins and it happened on 5/24/1999 in Chicago NL.  His second was while with Boston on 8/26/2003 in Toronto.

[MongoBoy]

4 hours ago, Number5 said:

A feat we didn't see?  How about Armando Benítez throwing a fastball to an overmatched Tony Fernandez in the ALCS instead of a slider he could hit?

He had no problem hitting Tito Martinez in the back with that fastball.

[DrungoHazewood]

2 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

It's old school, but I agree.  I just watched a bunch of the Ken Burns Baseball documentary.  Still holds up fairly well.

But I'd like to see a game with less strikeouts, more balls in play.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, batting average isn't en vogue these days but it would be cool to see someone hit .350 again.  Or .375.  

The game ebbs and flows between offense and pitching, rarely is it in perfect balance and that's ok.  But I'm not sure how the game ever regresses from where it is now where you've got damn near everyone throwing 95+ and trying to strike everyone out.  And hitters that don't care about striking out, either.  

I should probably give the Burns documentary another chance, but I didn't much like it when it came out.  I thought it should have been titled Race Relations in America, As Seen Through the Lens of Baseball.  But it's been a long time since I saw it.

Also, I thought it barely mentioned dozens upon dozens of topics that whole books have been written about.  I suppose that's to be expected, you can't fit everything in the time alotted.  I was really looking forward to the episode on the early history of the game up to 1900, and (I know, this is just me) I came away thinking I didn't learn a single new thing.  Burns spent maybe 30 seconds on the champion NL Orioles, and most of the rest of the episode on how Cap Anson and others segregated the game.

I wanted a documentary on baseball, not on how repugnant Anson's attitudes look to a modern observer.

[Aristotelian]

How about throwing a baseball about 400 feet on the fly across a lake: https://www.mlb.com/news/orioles-grayson-rodriguez-shows-off-arm-strength

[MongoBoy]

2 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

I think you'd have a better chance at seeing a perfect game.  Millar getting an inside the park homer would have to have so happen...like he'd have to hit it off the wall in RF, the rightfielder would have to miss the carom off the wall, miss the cutoff man...and even then, I'm not sure Millar could get around and be safe at home.

So, he had a chance against the recent O's? 

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, thezeroes said:

Kevin Millar had two inside the park home-runs in his career.  His first MLB home-run was an inside the park while playing for Marlins and it happened on 5/24/1999 in Chicago NL.  His second was while with Boston on 8/26/2003 in Toronto.

I can see Wrigley Field.  Hit it down the deep RF line, and have it get caught up in the ivy*.  But Toronto?  The CFer and RFer must have collided and knocked each other out.

* Description from AP article 5/25/99 "Millar's fly ball with two outs in the ninth inning off Aguilera went over Sammy Sosa's head, hit the ivy-covered wall and bounced away. When the Cubs right fielder couldn't find the ball, Millar circled the bases for a homer."

 

[DrungoHazewood]

5 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

How about throwing a baseball about 400 feet on the fly across a lake: https://www.mlb.com/news/orioles-grayson-rodriguez-shows-off-arm-strength

He's an Oriole prospect.  The odds of him tearing something trying that are... 94%?

[MongoBoy]

1 hour ago, thezeroes said:

Kevin Millar had two inside the park home-runs in his career.  His first MLB home-run was an inside the park while playing for Marlins and it happened on 5/24/1999 in Chicago NL.  His second was while with Boston on 8/26/2003 in Toronto.

It was in Fenway Pahk

[Moose Milligan]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I should probably give the Burns documentary another chance, but I didn't much like it when it came out.  I thought it should have been titled Race Relations in America, As Seen Through the Lens of Baseball.  But it's been a long time since I saw it.

Also, I thought it barely mentioned dozens upon dozens of topics that whole books have been written about.  I suppose that's to be expected, you can't fit everything in the time alotted.  I was really looking forward to the episode on the early history of the game up to 1900, and (I know, this is just me) I came away thinking I didn't learn a single new thing.  Burns spent maybe 30 seconds on the champion NL Orioles, and most of the rest of the episode on how Cap Anson and others segregated the game.

I wanted a documentary on baseball, not on how repugnant Anson's attitudes look to a modern observer.

Yeah, a lot of it deals with race.  And there's a lot of over-romanticizing about the game.  A lot of old people saying what the game means and represents.  

I mean, I'll take anything at this point.  

[Frobby]

4 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

It's old school, but I agree.  I just watched a bunch of the Ken Burns Baseball documentary.  Still holds up fairly well.

But I'd like to see a game with less strikeouts, more balls in play.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, batting average isn't en vogue these days but it would be cool to see someone hit .350 again.  Or .375.  

Until you wrote this, I hadn’t realized how long it had been since anyone hit .350.    Last qualifier to do it was Josh Hamilton in 2010.     

[LA2]

3 hours ago, Aristotelian said:

How about throwing a baseball about 400 feet on the fly across a lake: https://www.mlb.com/news/orioles-grayson-rodriguez-shows-off-arm-strength

Is there some allusion in it being a lake?

[LA2]

On 4/1/2020 at 2:52 PM, El Gordo said:

Another thing we haven't seen since Frank is a Triple Crown. Also I'd like to see an O break DiMaggio's streak record and hit an O hit 5 HR in a game.

I saw Frank do it and then Yaz the following year--and I knew Brooks had led the league in RBIs and was 2nd in BA in 1964--so I grew up mistakenly thinking it wasn't that rare an accomplishment. It's impressive that Barry Bonds didn't win it in 1993 with a .336 BA and league-leading 46 homers and 123 RBIs (the BA was 4th behind Galarraga's .370, despite Bonds leading the league in OBP).

Which Oriole since '66 could one say has come closest to the Crown? Davis in 2013 led in homers and RBIs, but was 21st in BA. Ripken in 1991 was among the leaders in all three categories, but not above third in any of them. Boog in 1969 was 5th in BA, 6th in HRs, 2nd in RBIs.