MLB Thread 2015- Part 2 (World Series or bust)

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I saw Kevin Millwood throw a no-hitter at the Vet in 2003, but I left my camera under the seat in the 700 level so there are no photos of this.

My dad and one of my brothers were at Doc Halladay's playoff no-hitter in 2010.
 
oh hai, meaningful september baseball. it's been a while.

Congrats, dude! It's been a long time coming. Don't wanna jinx anything for you. Hopefully things continue to go well for the Mets.


I think at this point, the only locks to win the division are the Cards and the Royals. But, the Mets are close to putting the Nats away for good. Weren't they supposed to win the World Series? :wink:
 
Won't be counting those proverbial unhatched chickens just yet, as they've been down this road before... but alas, things certainly look very promising.

Matz was called up after the game last night to help extend the staff, and eventually one of these guys goes to the bullpen if they close it out and go to October. They have enough hitting now where if the pitching lives up to expectations in October, they can certainly compete with anyone.

Should be fun.
 
It's okay to throw at people but bat flipping is bad. It's a wonder baseball is losing popularity among young people.

Is this a recent thing? This season, especially, I've started to hear a lot of tut-tutting about bat flipping, but hasn't it always kinda just been a thing? Why does anyone care? Hell, I think the F/O may have actually cut Junior Lake over a bat flip.

(Though, granted, that bat flip and subsequent taunting led to a benches clearing brawl, but whatever)
 
It's okay to throw at people but bat flipping is bad. It's a wonder baseball is losing popularity among young people.

Just reading the article...nice:

“We laugh about it because we can’t imagine a player doing that in America,” said Torii Hunter of the Minnesota Twins, a fan of Korean bat flips. “In America, it would be considered so disrespectful that the next time he came up to the plate, he’d get hit right in the neck, guaranteed.”
 
Underrated part of the article:

“I used get a lot more comments like ‘That guy needs a 95-mile-an-hour fastball to the head,’ ” said Kurtz, who now lives in Seoul, where his wife is a military physician.

“Well, you still have those,” he added, laughing. “They’re called St. Louis Cardinals fans.”
 
I don't know if it's a recent thing or not, but it definitely seems to be focused on minority players doing it, especially foreign guys.

Baseball being more fun is a problem for the Brian McCann's and Bill Plaschke's of the world.
 
Underrated part of the article:

Oh I mentally rated it. Highly.
I loved this part:

When I was in middle school, we had to learn about how to write newspaper articles, and part of the learning process was to spot sentences that have nothing to do with the rest of the story and were badly placed.

That read exactly like one of the example sentences.

One of the really obvious examples.
 
It's delicious. My Japanese friends introduced me to the idea of putting it on top of tofu with sesame oil and it's amazing.
 
It's okay to throw at people but bat flipping is bad. It's a wonder baseball is losing popularity among young people.


Both are dopey. Throwing at a batter is foolish. You're fucking with a player's livelihood. Flipping the bat looks stupid too. Just drop the bat and get to running. If baseball is losing popularity with young people its probably because they have the attention span of a gnat. Not because they need dopey theatrics like bat flipping.
 
It's your home run, do what you want as long as you're not hurting anybody or excessively delaying the game.
 
If baseball is losing popularity with young people its probably because they have the attention span of a gnat. Not because they need dopey theatrics like bat flipping.
It's the sign of a larger problem. If you don't think the baseball establishment wants to regulate displays of personality out of the game (in a very NFL-like way), you're missing something big. It's the same with a guy staring down a home run, apparently that's permission for a catcher to try to start shit with you. If you don't want the guy to celebrate, don't give up the homer.

Whether you think bat flips are "dopey" is beside the point. Regulating them out of the game via fights or hit batsmen is wrong, but people want to blame the young Hispanic players for showing personality instead of dipshits like Brian McCann who are massive assholes.

And don't let's not get into a "THIS generation" thing about young people. Baseball has gotten stale, despite one of the best influxes of young talent in a long time. It's not young people's fault, it's Major League Baseball's fault.
 
I think with the celebrations, the players just have to pick their spots. If you hit a big home run in a big game, then go nuts. But, if you're losing or it's early in the game or something, make like you've done it before and round the bases. If you're the pitcher and it really bothers you that a dude hit a home run, then pitch around him or intentionally walk him. But, I've never been in favor of beanballs or fights in baseball as a way of retribution.

I don't think baseball has gotten stale. It's a slow paced game. It's not exactly action packed all of the time. It's been that way for over a hundred years. I won't give you any This Generation bullshit. I was watching a game recently that took place in Toronto. People had the best seats in the house and half of the time their noses were in their phones. And we're talking various ages. Not even young people. But, when you have young people whose parents have given them every device known to man since they were a rugrat, odds of them being patient enough to sit through a 3 hour plus game are slim. It happens, of course, but it doesn't get any easier as time goes on.
 
Maybe it's just me, but I'd like more celebrations like this:

 
This is so stupid on every angle.

If you want to flip your bat or stare down a home run, go ahead. There should be no rule against it. But it IS disrespectful towards the other team in most situations. And I'm fine with that. If you want to talk shit, talk shit. Just don't bitch about it when there are consequences.

The Phillies got all pissy at Daniel Murphy for flipping his bat. They felt he was rubbing it in. And he was. And they responded by crying about it and then rolling over. So be it. If you have a real problem with it, do something about it. Otherwise shut the fuck up.
 
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The Phillies got all pissy at Daniel Murphy for flipping his bat. They felt he was rubbing it in. And he was. And they responded by crying about it and then rolling over. So be it. If you have a real problem with it, do something about it. Otherwise shut the fuck up.
And they were wrong. Larry Bowa is a fucking clown.

Threatening to throw at people as a "consequence" is a much bigger problem with baseball attitude than celebrating.

The "consequence" should be the celebration ante being upped when your team takes the lead back. If your team doesn't take the lead, that's your fucking problem. You lost. They celebrated and won. Too bad.

They should bring celebrations back in football too, but that doesn't mean there should be a "consequence" in the form of some guy getting to spear you for it.
 
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And they were wrong. Larry Bowa is a fucking clown.

Threatening to throw at people as a "consequence" is a much bigger problem with baseball attitude than celebrating.

I don't think they were wrong. I don't think Murph was wrong, either.

I have zero issue with another team being upset by somebody rubbing their dominance in their face. This is competition at the highest level. It SHOULD piss you off. If you're a competitor and you're not bothered by the opponent kicking your ass and rubbing your face in it, perhaps it's time to take on something new.

Any announcer or media type who's offended by the bat flipping can scratch my ass. But the opponent certainly should be.

The best way to get back at the opponent is to not get your ass kicked. If you get blown out, get angry about the other side rubbing it in your face, and then show up the next night and get rolled over again... well, you're simply a team that's given up, or you're just a puss.

I don't have an issue with a little bean ball thrown in, provided it's done the right way... i.e. nothing even remotely close to the head. But if that's your only response... hitting a guy and then continuing to play with zero energy or effort, well, you have bigger problems.
 
They should bring celebrations back in football too, but that doesn't mean there should be a "consequence" in the form of some guy getting to spear you for it.

It's not like celebrations have gone away in football. I like the slightly more muted ones we get now. I feel like that's the perfect level of response, the little end zone dances, and what have you. Having a little less time to do it seems to have made people even more creative with them.
 
Who gives a shit about that? People can still get hurt for something completely unnecessary. Seriously, "it's always been that way" is as bad an argument as you can make for anything.
 
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