Let's bring on the baseball season, but before we do let's listen to a few more Jackson Browne songs. What a great, unique, and immediately distinguishable artist. Though probably not his best, I love "Tender is the Night," because 1983 was such a great time in my life.
Fully agree on pitchers length of play. I can remember starters who stayed in for more than 9 full innings until they won the game. Once the pitches got so much attention for being in the 100 mph range, which was highly publicized by the ESPN media, it all became a 'look at what I can do' creating lots of injuries to elbows and shoulders and ruining careers. I'd rather watch a pitcher using finesse (i.e. Bronson Arroyo, Johnny Cueto) than trying to prove how hard he can throw the ball. Coaches in high schools and colleges were pushing the speed test to give the kids the honors to pitch. Poor coaching tactics caused this issue...and the 'meme' attitude.
Absolutely, Heather Cox Richardson is a blessing! Not only do you get an intelligent, well-reasoned narrative of the topic at hand, but you also get the history related to the particular topic.
Yo, Doc! The Great Nolan, Ryan, who pitched his 7th no hitter at age 44, once threw 235 pitches in a game. Cy Young pitched 749 complete games. In my opinion, that is the record least likely to be broken in all of pro sports. And now we have what we have. Meanwhile, the only golf advice better than Sid’s may be to play IDGAF Golf. Looking forward to watching you play it soon! WHODEY!
Also check out Sanity Clause by Joe Klein. Best political writer there is.
When I was at my peak, about a 3 handicap, I played 9 holes in 30 minutes solo walking with no one in front of me. It was so much more enjoyable! No practice swings, read the green as you approach, accept the score and move on. Less thinking, and I usually scored better! I stopped because even a 4 hour round is interminable to me.
"You can't fool me. There ain't no Sanity Clause!"
When I saw those 2 words, I thought of this. A scene in the Marx Brothers' 1935 movie A Night at the Opera, in which Groucho Marx attempts to explain the intricacies of a business contract to Chico Marx. When Groucho mentions the "Sanity Clause", Chico responds, "You can't fool me. There ain't no Sanity Clause!"
Jackson Browne is the kind of singer/songwriter I best appreciate when sitting down listening and reading his lyrics as each song plays. I miss too much while playing his stuff in the car.
A month or more ago we took turns listing our favorite Stones records. I regrettably omitted “Blue and Lonesome”, an album of covers in honor of their blues heroes. It’s the Stones like you never heard them before-playing very tight and on fire. Great stuff and a Grammy Award Winner, to which Keith commented “It’s about f#####g time”. Checkitout. I’m interested in reviews of their latest, another Grammy winner. Any reviews from the mob?
Hackney Diamonds has its moments.. love the “Angry” track (and its video—mmm!) We also saw them play in Vegas. They don’t rock the stage like in their youth, but still sound great.
I've always felt bad about the beating David Bell unfairly takes for events outside his control. You can posit that pitchers should learn to pitch deep into games, but that's not the game that's played today. Kids are pitching year round at a young age and some even begging to get TJ surgery out of way early in the their development so that can throw harder than before.
Third time thru the llineup is a real thing and Bell was just trying to win games and keep his job with young pitchers who so far haven't been able to stay healthy. How do you get to October when your staff doesn't have a history of throwing 180 innings?
Pitching is strictly a power game today from little league onward. That ain't changing.
When Maile’s Dad told me last summer D Bell only had one rule - be ready by the National Anthem - my opinion of him changed. And I agreed that even if his team is weak, they could be better with less of a “player’s manager”.
Tend to agree about starting pitchers. The problem is that over the years, they started pitching the same as relievers. Too much emphasis on speed. Starting pitchers need more finesse. Develop 3+ pitches and focus on pitch placement. Every starting pitchers should have a decent fastball, curveball, and changeup, at a minimum. Maybe more should study Greg Maddux, or our local Bronson Arroyo.
I also think the reduced innings for starters increases the strain on their arms while they are pitching. Since they know they won't need to pitch more innings, they throw harder and increase spin rates for the earlier innings, without regard to the strain it causes on their arms.
Another good TOFD. Just, and I mean just listened to "For a Dancer" on YouTube.
When I golf (not very often I admit), one or two practice swings then I let her rip. The good news is that my son moves back from JAX in two weeks AND brings back my clubs!
I think the issues with pitchers today is overthrowing and excessive spin rates. How can you put those genies back in the back in the bottle? Drop and drive pitching style might help as well. My high school coach wanted all of us to be Tom Seaver juniors.
Maybe the answer isn’t to keep expanding playoffs so that more teams get in making it exciting for more fan bases. Maybe there should be a penalty for finishing last. Maybe you get kicked out of league for a year for finishing last. Creates interest for the last place teams fighting for their league lives. The team gets rotated back in the following season being replaced by the next last place team.
I once umpired a showcase ( tryout ) day for a well known local select ball organization. The head of said organization addressed the parents about pitching. He said they, voluntarily, include pickoff throws as pitches . Say what ? The Athletic recently interviewed Justin Verlander. A three time Cy Young winner, he claimed that there was a time when complete games were a badge of honor and the five inning starters were considered pu####. During the era of Lolich, if the training table didn't include fried chicken they were scorned. You would think with the modern day training methods that complete games would thrive. I surmise that the problem is " Spin Rate ". Forcing movement puts strain on the arms yet that's what all teams look for. I worked an intersquad game for a local college in the early 2000s and the coach told m his pitchers were going to throw nothing but heat. His reasoning was that a good fastball was one that mimicked a desirable piece of real estate. Location, location, location !
Jackson is definitely in my top 5 artists of all time. Slow golfers are the worst golfers. I don’t care what you shoot , just don’t take all day to do it. And then the guys who don’t tee off on a 300 yard par 4 and proceed to hit it 200 yards or worse top it . 😤
I hate being one of those old geezers who claim everything was better back in their youth. But, I have to say, baseball was better when I wore a younger man’s clothes. Batters were up there to swing the bat, they weren’t concerned about working the count and trying for a walk. Putting the ball in play was the minimum expectation, striking out was an embarrassment. And, one of my biggest criticisms of today’s baseball managers is that so many of them burn out their bullpens because the analytics say a starter can’t go through a lineup a 3rd time. How are pitchers supposed to learn how to go deeper in games if they aren’t given the opportunity to do so? Modern analytics might illuminate the most efficient way to play baseball, but a game dominated by analytics and the “three true outcomes" is certainly not the most entertaining game to watch. I’ll have more to say about baseball next month in a post on my own Substack, but thanks, Paul, for providing a forum for me to gripe about it today.
And, by the way, on behalf of Pirate fans, thanks for blasting Bob Nothing.
Haha. I’ve never taken a valium in my life, Kate. Although I’m sure there are times when I could have used one. I thought maybe I should be more civil when commenting on someone else's Substack. I’ll save the profane, nasty rants for “The Storm. By Norm”. 😏
That’s kind of you. But, Paul can banter with you, so not to worry.
Don’t ever take a Valium. The only time I got a DUI I was taking Valium for a back issue. In the 1970’s, women could get Valium from any doctor as they handed them out like candy to get the feminists to just calm down and shut up. So, I learned, never mix Valium w/alcohol, not even Coors Lite. I will never touch V again. It is addictive and I’d get the shakes until I took the next one. Nasty stuff….difficult to wean off of. (sorry about ending this in a preposition.)
It’s hard times. Hang in there and together we all will hopefully, get thru this. Don’t lose your humor. Mine is on the edge, I can tell you that.
Doc, Is a quality outing by a starter still defined as 6 innings, 3 runs or less surrendered? It seems that WAS the measuring stick. And, it would seem to me that, at minimum, 6 should still be the expectation. I know it’s not though. Having grown up watching and/or listening to starters going 7, 8, 9 and more innings maybe not regularly but often, it would seem that front offices and managers would be seeking that. And, while I think Dave Bell is a good baseball man, I can see where he definitely did completely wear out the bullpen last year and, well, every year he was manager. It might not have been his fault but it happened. I’d be interested to know where Tito stands on this.
I strongly agree with your first bolded statement. We’ve had a real Winter this season and, enough is enough. Like you, I’m freezing my whatever’s off! And, like you, I use spring baseball as my getaway…this year just on TV but…it’s baseball! Yesterday, I watched McClain, Elly and CES Homer as they dismantled the Angels. While I’m not predicting anything for my Reds, I liked what I saw. Just seeing Matty McClain out there looking like he did when he came up, well, that looked and felt really good. And, yeah, it was warm and nice out there. Bring on warm weather soon, PLEASE!
Hey Doc, what's your favorite JB album? Mine is The Pretender. But his solo acoustic live albums are fun to listen to.
Let's bring on the baseball season, but before we do let's listen to a few more Jackson Browne songs. What a great, unique, and immediately distinguishable artist. Though probably not his best, I love "Tender is the Night," because 1983 was such a great time in my life.
Fully agree on pitchers length of play. I can remember starters who stayed in for more than 9 full innings until they won the game. Once the pitches got so much attention for being in the 100 mph range, which was highly publicized by the ESPN media, it all became a 'look at what I can do' creating lots of injuries to elbows and shoulders and ruining careers. I'd rather watch a pitcher using finesse (i.e. Bronson Arroyo, Johnny Cueto) than trying to prove how hard he can throw the ball. Coaches in high schools and colleges were pushing the speed test to give the kids the honors to pitch. Poor coaching tactics caused this issue...and the 'meme' attitude.
Heather Cox Richardson is a blessing, looking forward to reading her books as well
Absolutely, Heather Cox Richardson is a blessing! Not only do you get an intelligent, well-reasoned narrative of the topic at hand, but you also get the history related to the particular topic.
Yo, Doc! The Great Nolan, Ryan, who pitched his 7th no hitter at age 44, once threw 235 pitches in a game. Cy Young pitched 749 complete games. In my opinion, that is the record least likely to be broken in all of pro sports. And now we have what we have. Meanwhile, the only golf advice better than Sid’s may be to play IDGAF Golf. Looking forward to watching you play it soon! WHODEY!
-🐅🧒🏻
Also check out Sanity Clause by Joe Klein. Best political writer there is.
When I was at my peak, about a 3 handicap, I played 9 holes in 30 minutes solo walking with no one in front of me. It was so much more enjoyable! No practice swings, read the green as you approach, accept the score and move on. Less thinking, and I usually scored better! I stopped because even a 4 hour round is interminable to me.
"You can't fool me. There ain't no Sanity Clause!"
When I saw those 2 words, I thought of this. A scene in the Marx Brothers' 1935 movie A Night at the Opera, in which Groucho Marx attempts to explain the intricacies of a business contract to Chico Marx. When Groucho mentions the "Sanity Clause", Chico responds, "You can't fool me. There ain't no Sanity Clause!"
Jackson Browne is the kind of singer/songwriter I best appreciate when sitting down listening and reading his lyrics as each song plays. I miss too much while playing his stuff in the car.
A month or more ago we took turns listing our favorite Stones records. I regrettably omitted “Blue and Lonesome”, an album of covers in honor of their blues heroes. It’s the Stones like you never heard them before-playing very tight and on fire. Great stuff and a Grammy Award Winner, to which Keith commented “It’s about f#####g time”. Checkitout. I’m interested in reviews of their latest, another Grammy winner. Any reviews from the mob?
Hackney Diamonds has its moments.. love the “Angry” track (and its video—mmm!) We also saw them play in Vegas. They don’t rock the stage like in their youth, but still sound great.
I've always felt bad about the beating David Bell unfairly takes for events outside his control. You can posit that pitchers should learn to pitch deep into games, but that's not the game that's played today. Kids are pitching year round at a young age and some even begging to get TJ surgery out of way early in the their development so that can throw harder than before.
Third time thru the llineup is a real thing and Bell was just trying to win games and keep his job with young pitchers who so far haven't been able to stay healthy. How do you get to October when your staff doesn't have a history of throwing 180 innings?
Pitching is strictly a power game today from little league onward. That ain't changing.
You’re probably right. I still think a major philosophy change could be both revolutionary and beneficial for an org w the guts to try it
When Maile’s Dad told me last summer D Bell only had one rule - be ready by the National Anthem - my opinion of him changed. And I agreed that even if his team is weak, they could be better with less of a “player’s manager”.
Tend to agree about starting pitchers. The problem is that over the years, they started pitching the same as relievers. Too much emphasis on speed. Starting pitchers need more finesse. Develop 3+ pitches and focus on pitch placement. Every starting pitchers should have a decent fastball, curveball, and changeup, at a minimum. Maybe more should study Greg Maddux, or our local Bronson Arroyo.
100%!
I also think the reduced innings for starters increases the strain on their arms while they are pitching. Since they know they won't need to pitch more innings, they throw harder and increase spin rates for the earlier innings, without regard to the strain it causes on their arms.
In one year, Ferguson Jenkins won 25 games. 29 complete games. Has there been one team in the last 20, hell 25 years that's had 29
complete games? That is my #1 pet peeve with MLB. Nothing will change until kids learn how
to pitch and stop learning how to throw. I don't recall Tom Seaver ever having an arm issue and
the reason was he knew the importance of leg strength when it came to pitching. I have said it
on here before, baseball fans of today have no idea what they are missing. Greatest baseball
games I ever saw were pitching duels by great starting pitchers who went the distance. Jim
Maloney forever........no hitters by 5 pitchers? NEVER!!!!
Maloney's 10-inning no-no against the Cubs: 187 pitches, walked 10, struck out 12, hit 1, 13 full-counts.
Maloney forever, INDEED!
Another good TOFD. Just, and I mean just listened to "For a Dancer" on YouTube.
When I golf (not very often I admit), one or two practice swings then I let her rip. The good news is that my son moves back from JAX in two weeks AND brings back my clubs!
I think the issues with pitchers today is overthrowing and excessive spin rates. How can you put those genies back in the back in the bottle? Drop and drive pitching style might help as well. My high school coach wanted all of us to be Tom Seaver juniors.
Speaking of Spring, I saw crocuses blooming yesterday in Franklin, Indiana. Spring is here! For a day, anyway.
Maybe the answer isn’t to keep expanding playoffs so that more teams get in making it exciting for more fan bases. Maybe there should be a penalty for finishing last. Maybe you get kicked out of league for a year for finishing last. Creates interest for the last place teams fighting for their league lives. The team gets rotated back in the following season being replaced by the next last place team.
Relegation
I once umpired a showcase ( tryout ) day for a well known local select ball organization. The head of said organization addressed the parents about pitching. He said they, voluntarily, include pickoff throws as pitches . Say what ? The Athletic recently interviewed Justin Verlander. A three time Cy Young winner, he claimed that there was a time when complete games were a badge of honor and the five inning starters were considered pu####. During the era of Lolich, if the training table didn't include fried chicken they were scorned. You would think with the modern day training methods that complete games would thrive. I surmise that the problem is " Spin Rate ". Forcing movement puts strain on the arms yet that's what all teams look for. I worked an intersquad game for a local college in the early 2000s and the coach told m his pitchers were going to throw nothing but heat. His reasoning was that a good fastball was one that mimicked a desirable piece of real estate. Location, location, location !
Jackson is definitely in my top 5 artists of all time. Slow golfers are the worst golfers. I don’t care what you shoot , just don’t take all day to do it. And then the guys who don’t tee off on a 300 yard par 4 and proceed to hit it 200 yards or worse top it . 😤
I hate being one of those old geezers who claim everything was better back in their youth. But, I have to say, baseball was better when I wore a younger man’s clothes. Batters were up there to swing the bat, they weren’t concerned about working the count and trying for a walk. Putting the ball in play was the minimum expectation, striking out was an embarrassment. And, one of my biggest criticisms of today’s baseball managers is that so many of them burn out their bullpens because the analytics say a starter can’t go through a lineup a 3rd time. How are pitchers supposed to learn how to go deeper in games if they aren’t given the opportunity to do so? Modern analytics might illuminate the most efficient way to play baseball, but a game dominated by analytics and the “three true outcomes" is certainly not the most entertaining game to watch. I’ll have more to say about baseball next month in a post on my own Substack, but thanks, Paul, for providing a forum for me to gripe about it today.
And, by the way, on behalf of Pirate fans, thanks for blasting Bob Nothing.
Norm, are you taking valium? I've never seen you write so calmly....
Haha. I’ve never taken a valium in my life, Kate. Although I’m sure there are times when I could have used one. I thought maybe I should be more civil when commenting on someone else's Substack. I’ll save the profane, nasty rants for “The Storm. By Norm”. 😏
That’s kind of you. But, Paul can banter with you, so not to worry.
Don’t ever take a Valium. The only time I got a DUI I was taking Valium for a back issue. In the 1970’s, women could get Valium from any doctor as they handed them out like candy to get the feminists to just calm down and shut up. So, I learned, never mix Valium w/alcohol, not even Coors Lite. I will never touch V again. It is addictive and I’d get the shakes until I took the next one. Nasty stuff….difficult to wean off of. (sorry about ending this in a preposition.)
It’s hard times. Hang in there and together we all will hopefully, get thru this. Don’t lose your humor. Mine is on the edge, I can tell you that.
Doc, Is a quality outing by a starter still defined as 6 innings, 3 runs or less surrendered? It seems that WAS the measuring stick. And, it would seem to me that, at minimum, 6 should still be the expectation. I know it’s not though. Having grown up watching and/or listening to starters going 7, 8, 9 and more innings maybe not regularly but often, it would seem that front offices and managers would be seeking that. And, while I think Dave Bell is a good baseball man, I can see where he definitely did completely wear out the bullpen last year and, well, every year he was manager. It might not have been his fault but it happened. I’d be interested to know where Tito stands on this.
I strongly agree with your first bolded statement. We’ve had a real Winter this season and, enough is enough. Like you, I’m freezing my whatever’s off! And, like you, I use spring baseball as my getaway…this year just on TV but…it’s baseball! Yesterday, I watched McClain, Elly and CES Homer as they dismantled the Angels. While I’m not predicting anything for my Reds, I liked what I saw. Just seeing Matty McClain out there looking like he did when he came up, well, that looked and felt really good. And, yeah, it was warm and nice out there. Bring on warm weather soon, PLEASE!