BATTER UP!

[2jakes]

"What do I do in the winter? I look out the window and wait for spring."
-- Rogers Hornsby

 

[belfastboy]

I think the big question from the series is....will Bellinger ever see another hitable fastball? Is he a one season wonder?
Secondarily....will Darvish recover emotionally from the trauma?

 

[belfastboy]

"What do I do in the winter? I look out the window and wait for spring."
-- Rogers Hornsby

There are just two seasons....baseball and waiting

 

[2jakes]

There are just two seasons....baseball and waiting

 

[Harp]

There are just two seasons....baseball and waiting

College Football. Notre Dame RB & Heisman Trophy candidate Josh Adams.
Go Irish!!!!

 

[Fading Fast]

Am I the only one that feels the gap not having baseball leaves: No games to watch or listen to / no scores to check in the morning (along with all the box score stuff I like for no particular reason)?

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's the big reason I collect recordings of baseball games -- even in the darkest, most miserable pit of winter, there's always a game to listen to when I'm in the mood to tune it in. With several hundred of them in rotation I usually don't know the outcome when any specific game is on, so it really helps to fill the seasonal gap.

Reading the sports pages is no fun during the winter -- I find myself gleaning the Boston Globe for every tiny morsel of Sox news until spring training starts.

 

[2jakes]

Am I the only one that feels the gap not having baseball leaves: No games to watch or listen to / no scores to check in the morning (along with all the box score stuff I like for no particular reason)?

My gosh pal... I would think there are
plenty of things to do.
You are in New York!

Me and Polo would be painting the town
red!

(Gotta go, Polo needs a new brush.)

 

[Fading Fast]

My gosh pal... I would think there are
plenty of things to do.
You are in New York!

Me and Polo would be painting the town
red!

(Gotta go, Polo needs a new brush.)
View attachment 92103

Very fair point, but it's not boredom that's the problem, it is the not having baseball playing on as part of the fabric of my day. I have no scores and schedules to check, no games to watch, no trades to lament, etc.

 

[2jakes]

Very fair point, but it's not boredom that's the problem, it is the not having baseball playing on as part of the fabric of my day. I have no scores and schedules to check, no games to watch, no trades to lament, etc.

Well... it’s like Christmas or Thanksgiving.

Isn’t it wonderful how nice it feels when it comes around only once a year and
not all of the time?


Sorry about the football, but wasn’t it
refreshing to watch a world series like
this last one?
There’s always past games to enjoy like the bartender does when the mood strikes. Give her a call, I’m pretty sure she has a plethora of games from the past!

 

[HudsonHawk]

Am I the only one that feels the gap not having baseball leaves: No games to watch or listen to / no scores to check in the morning (along with all the box score stuff I like for no particular reason)?

You're certainly not the only one. I enjoy football and basketball, and I'll follow along (in fact have season tickets to the Texans), but yeah, there's a part missing during the Void. That's why my favorite season is the spring, when it all begins again.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Now that the Hot Stove League season is in full swing, the time has come to consider some of the more extraordinary season records of the past hundred and fifty years. I call your attention to the deeds of Mr. George Wright, one of the first professional ballplayers in history, and a key player on the first professional team ever, the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings. The Reds played 57 games that season against all who dared to play them, and won them all -- and over the course of that season, Mr. Wright, the team's shortstop achieved the following line, according to the Sporting News' invaluable publication "Daguerrotypes of Great Stars of Baseball:

G: 57 AB: 483 R: 339 H: 304 HR: 49 BA: .629

Now, post-Civil War-era ball was a very different animal than what we know today in practically every way. But still -- 483 at bats in 57 games suggests that very few of those contests were finesse-oriented pitchers' duels, and that Mr. Wright was something of a terror at the bat. As late as 1875, playing in the first pro league, the catch-as-catch-can National Association, Brother Wright batted 407 times in 79 games. He had a terrible slump that year, though, and hit a pathetic .337. Ah, the life of a phenom.

 

[2jakes]

1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings Team Photo ~ Sporting News

Same image as above with a little bit of “dusting off” for clarity!

Back row ~ left: Cal McVey, Charlie Gould, Harry Wright, George Wright & Fred Waterman.
Front row ~left: Andy Leonard, Doug Allison, Asa Brainard & Charlie Sweasy.

Image of a drawing from “Harper’s Weekly”, July 3, 1869.

 

[Fading Fast]

...

View attachment 92344

...

Wild-looking high-top athletic shoes.

 

[2jakes]

Spalding’s Base Ball Guide of 1883

"Early Shoes and Kangaroos
Little is known about the very earliest baseball shoes. Most likely they were identical to athletic shoes of the day: high-tops, with simple canvas uppers and no spikes. As canvas tended to break down where creases formed, baseball shoes of the 1870s incorporated portions made of leather. Spalding’s “Chicago Club Shoe” was their first foray into a combined leather-canvas upper, and the sporting goods company claimed that the shoe was the “same as used by the Chicago and other League clubs.” The first all-leather shoe made available by Spalding was the calf skin “League Club Shoe,” first offered in 1882 for $6 per pair. By the end of the decade, Spalding had introduced an all-Kangaroo leather shoe available for $7 per pair. Strong, soft, and remarkably durable, Kangaroo leather remained a popular material for baseball uppers throughout much of the 20th century.”

 

[2jakes]

Basket Ball Shoes, 1904
(Gum Bottom, E’rrybody Got ‘Em)

Favorite Hi-Tops, wing-tips & Sperry top-sider.

 

[Fading Fast]

Basket Ball Shoes, 1904
(Gum Bottom, E’rrybody Got ‘Em)
View attachment 92381 ...

Great ad / great find.

Amazing how wordy that ad is - must have been the style of the time as, without even trying, I could edit it down by a third.

 

[2jakes]

Great ad / great find.

Amazing how wordy that ad is - must have been the style of the time as, without even trying, I could edit it down by a third.

You’re right.
When I started work in TV News, it was mostly anchors at the desk looking at the camera reading paper notes
with only photos or illustrations.
Very wordy!


I’ve read the Texas Register newspaper article (March, 24th, 1836) of the events at the battle of the Alamo.
Not only wordy but very theatrical or dramatic with their use of words.
Some phrases no longer in use.

Same thing with the ads from that period.
It looks like “exaggerating" was part of the format or style.
Something that is still around in some instances today!


I used to watch “You Are There” (not sure of the title) with Walter Cronkite on TV.

The format was basically the events as they were happening with Q & A from
the reporter. I loved the idea, but yet at the same time it was surreal in that
the people would stop to answer the questions and then continue with whatever they were doing as in the case of the Lincoln assassination.

I used to ask my dad, “how come the folks aren’t curious about the TV cameras
since they were not yet invented?”

He’d give me a long look and then would tell me to go outside because I was spoiling the show.

I still do that, especially when folks rave about the reality shows and how real they are.
When I can’t take it any longer...I speak up.
(for example)
Dude is preparing to climb this mountain,
letting us know that no one has ever done this before.
He looks at the camera as he starts to climb and bids farewell.
We get a shot of his behind
as he begins to climb.

Once reaching the top he shouts with joy!
We can see it in his face.
That being the case...”who the hell is shooting the video from the top of the mountain ?”

They usually give me a long stare and tell me to go outside and
ride my bike or play tennis.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In honor of Veteran's Day I call your attention to this man -- Cecil Travis of the Washington Senators.

Cecil is one of the best ballplayers 21st century fans have never heard of, and there's a reason. He was arguably the best third baseman in the American League from 1934 to 1941, hitting under .300 only once during that span, and hitting a breezy .359 with an OPS of .930 in his final year before going into the service in 1942. He was 29 years old, at the peak of his skills, and appeared to be in the midst of a Hall of Fame career.

He joined the Army shortly after Pearl Harbor, and like most high-profile major leaguers he spent most of his military career stateside assigned to morale duty, playing exhibition games on service teams. But in late 1944, Travis was transferred to the 76th Infantry Division and sent to the ETO, just in time for the Battle of the Bulge. While slogging thru the icy mud that winter, he suffered severe frostbite to his left foot -- causing permanent damage which threw off his balance. When he got out of the service in 1946, it was obvious that he had left his once-dominant skills in a rutty field in Belgium. He tried to come back, couldn't, and retired after a .216 season as a part-time player in 1947.

Cecil Travis was never bitter about what had happened to him, but neither did he consider himself any kind of a hero. "We had a job," he declared. "An obligation. And we did it."

 

[2jakes]

“Sporting News”