All Star Game/Festivities Interest

[LA2]

20 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Hold on.  I thought after Bud made home field advantage in the Series for the winner everyone went back to being all 1970 Pete Rose and would spike an opponent from shoulder to ankle if it gave them an advantage.  Is that not true?

Also, the mics emphasized (possibly not in a good way) that you can carry on a conversation with 2/3rds of the outfield for five minutes and it's probably not going to have any impact on the game whatsoever.

What a cool sport!!

[LA2]

15 hours ago, waroriole said:

It’s like there’s a huge dent in the ball

The bat wins! It's neat to compare where Stanton's eyes are looking vs. where the ball is at that moment. The Q for me is whether they're still looking at where the ball has just been or at the anticipated trajectory of where it will go. Probably the former, but it's a stimulating question.

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, LA2 said:

The bat wins! I think it's neat to compare where Stanton's eyes are looking vs. where the ball is at that moment. The Q for me is whether they're still looking at where the ball has just been or the anticipated trajectory of where it will go. Probably the former, but it's a stimulating question.

I don't know how anyone ever hits a breaking ball.  The mean reaction time for a human to visual stimuli is 180-200 ms.  A 90 mph fastball released 58 feet from the plate takes 440 ms to get there.  The batter has roughly two tenths of a second to see the ball, identify the pitch, and swing where he thinks it's going to be.  

I say that's impossible. The whole game of baseball is some elaborate trick with mirrors and Play Dough.

[WillyM]

I didn't watch the Home Run Derby.  There have been occasions in the past when Oriole players competed in the Derby and it seemed like they totally screwed up their swings and went into deep slumps immediately after the All-Star break, so that event has lost its charm for me.

I did watch the All-Star Game.  I spent a lot of years in Philadelphia during the '70's and early '80's, taking a lot of grief from Phillies fans about the way the National League beat the American League year after year.  Now that the pendulum has swung the other way, I never get tired of watching the American League beat the National League.

I was glad Lopez retired the two guys he faced, though I expected him to pitch to at least one more batter.  I guess they disregarded the rule that says a relief pitcher must pitch to at least three batters unless he is injured.

[rm5678]

4 hours ago, WillyM said:

I was glad Lopez retired the two guys he faced, though I expected him to pitch to at least one more batter.  I guess they disregarded the rule that says a relief pitcher must pitch to at least three batters unless he is injured.

There were 13 pitchers on the AL roster and I guess Dusty wanted to use as many of those 13 as possible.  Since it was an exhibition game, I guess there was no reason that they would have to stick to the 3-batter rule.

[rm5678]

14 hours ago, CynBeth said:

Unfortunately I dozed and missed our guy pitching woke up just as he was walking off the mound.  I then dozed again and missed the SUTC prayers for Wayne.  I do not mind the players being mic’ed up just wish it had not been some of the horrid players from the Yankees.  I liked the ump and catcher cams as well.  

I don't like the Yankees, but I was actually quite impressed with the mic'ing up of Jose Trevino. He was well-spoken and funny, and I really enjoyed listening to him. 

[waroriole]

6 minutes ago, rm5678 said:

There were 13 pitchers on the AL roster and I guess Dusty wanted to use as many of those 13 as possible.  Since it was an exhibition game, I guess there was no reason that they would have to stick to the 3-batter rule.

Plus there was no chance of extra innings, so he didn’t have to save pitchers. 

[AnythingO's]

1 hour ago, rm5678 said:

There were 13 pitchers on the AL roster and I guess Dusty wanted to use as many of those 13 as possible.  

So Dusty doesn't suck but Cito STILLSUCKS!!!!! lol

[OriolesMagic83]

I don't understand the idea to settle an extra inning game with a home run derby.  That just sounds wack.  A much better idea would be to do what is done w regular season games.  Put a runner on 2nd to start an inning.  Has an extra inning game gone over 12 innings this year? 

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

I don't understand the idea to settle an extra inning game with a home run derby.  That just sounds wack.  A much better idea would be to do what is done w regular season games.  Put a runner on 2nd to start an inning.  Has an extra inning game gone over 12 innings this year? 

Four games have gone 13 innings.   

10 - 248

11 - 62

12 - 18

13 -4
 

[LA2]

15 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Four games have gone 13 innings.   

10 - 248

11 - 62

12 - 18

13 -4
 

So it seems to be working, unfortunately.

[Frobby]

2 minutes ago, LA2 said:

So it seems to be working, unfortunately.

Why do you say unfortunately?  Are you a fan of super-long games, or do you just not like the idea of artificially making easier to score a run in extra innings?

[OriolesMagic83]

1 hour ago, LA2 said:

So it seems to be working, unfortunately.

I don't think anyone is a fan of 17 inning games unless you like to see a position player pitch.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

36 minutes ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

I don't think anyone is a fan of 17 inning games unless you like to see a position player pitch.

[LA2]

On 7/20/2022 at 11:25 PM, Frobby said:

Why do you say unfortunately?  Are you a fan of super-long games, or do you just not like the idea of artificially making easier to score a run in extra innings?

Hi, sorry to take a while to reply. I opted to be driven at breakneck speed through late-night midtown Manhattan and river-leaping Brooklyn traffic by a very uninhibited, drunk Russian blonde in her new black Daytona Charger. It was a rare chance to reprise Bill Murray's role in St. Vincent and I went for it. It was a thrill, we all sang "Light My Fire" at the end, but I'm lucky to be alive. I still wonder why she had no fear of the cops pulling her over. We even had black-tinted windows and she stopped twice and pulled open both the front and back doors so that, shielded between them, she could relieve herself on the curb. Karolina: "When you have to go you have to go. And it's impossible to find a public bathroom in NY!" Masha: "It's how we do it in Russia. Who cares!" Feeling around the carpet upon which I fell asleep, I've confirmed I'm still part of the physical world. Good. Thank you COVID for making my return to Asia impossible these past few years.

I definitely prefer to leave open the possibility of an occasional super-long game. A truly responsible answer would be long and nuanced and I don't have the brain for It now and probably won't for the next 18 hours. So the rough answer is that some of my most memorable baseball spectator experiences have been extra-inning games. I was at both the 12- and 13-inning games against the Yankees in the 2012 playoffs, they were great and, as alluded to by the GIF posted above by OsFanSincethe80s, the 17-inning battle in Fenway earlier the same year with Crush pitching two shutout innings at the end, K'ing A-Gon, and Adam hitting the game-winning Weaver Special is one of my all-time favorites.

I also remember that it always felt like a wonderful treat to get a few "free" innings when I went to Memorial Stadium as a teenager, although the midnight curfew was a drag and the accompanying adult never seemed as delighted.

I'm not against all the new rules meant to speed up the game a bit. I like the minimum three-batters-faced rule and how it's liberated us from the LOOGY and the boredom of watching managers trudge slowly back and forth to the mound to replace minutely matched-up, otherwise inadequate pitchers. The Oriole bullpen seems actually to have done very well constructing itself around the new late-innings game with relievers who can go more than one inning and survive against both left- and right-handed hitters. It's a new rule but in a way has returned us to more traditional bullpens.

In fact, I'm OK with the compromise that I've seen mentioned now and then: holding off the runner-on-second starts until, say, the 12th or 13th inning. There'd be a real motivation to win before activating that. Who wants to pitch or try to defend against a runner with second and none out? But actually, I would make it begin with the runner on first instead. Make it less reliant on the now-common winning scenario of a sacrifice bunt followed by a sac fly--Do people really prefer to watch that? Make the batter get a base hit or the runner risk taking the extra base, including trying to score from second, maybe against a late-installed defensive outfielder with a strong arm, creating a close play at the plate.

I'm 66 yrs old and down 4-3 in the top of the 8th. I'm hopeful of tying the score at the end of regulation, but also have the distinct sense that I'm going to need all the innings in Creation to push the one after that over. As in baseball, so in life. I don't want to open the door and find the gun already pointed at me, the hands already around my neck. To modify a line from Laura Nyro's sublime "New York Tendaberry":

You look like a game

But feel like religion,

To me.

 

Thank you Masha for the thundering flight across the dark river. It's helped bring me to my senses and figure out the next pitch to throw.