2012 MLB Regular Season and Post Season (1 Viewer)

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Ockeghem /t/319627/2012-mlb-regular-season#post_3938235
Mike,
It's wonderful that I know of some of the numbers you posted about above!
Okay, just for fun, let me post a few numbers, names, and other oddities that have to do with baseball. I'm am very confident that you will know precisely what each of these refer to.
.367
56
.406
12 perfect innings and a loss
Walt Dropo
7 (This one may be a bit ambiguous, but I think you'll get it.)

.367 -- Highest career batting average (Cobb) I think this got rounded down to .366 a few years ago due to some scoring reconsideration. But, as kids, it was always .367!
56 -- Joe D's "The Streak"
.406 -- Last .400 season. Teddy Ballgame in 1941
12 perfect innings and a loss -- Harvey Haddix. Do you know how the game ended? It's a cool story. Kind of an oddity in itself.
Walt Dropo -- not sure what about Dropo is uniquely significant.
7 (This one may be a bit ambiguous, but I think you'll get it.) -- For the longest time I was stuck on Mickey Mantle's uniform # but then realized you probably meant Nolan Ryan's 7 no-hitters.

 

[Ockeghem]

Mike,
Well done! Yes, the '7' was indeed ambiguous, but you got what I was referring to with that one (Ryan).
Dropo's streak may have been tied. When I was a child, he was the holder of the most consecutive hits (12, I believe). Has that been equaled?
I'd love to hear the ending to the Harvey Haddix game.

 

[Greg_S_H]

In case you're out of the market, the Giants' Matt Cain is four outs away from pitching a perfect game against Houston. Make that three.

 

[Greg_S_H]

He got it.

 

[Mike Frezon]

A fielding error by Don Hoak ended the perfect game in the bottom of the 13th, with the leadoff batter for Milwaukee, Felix Mantilla, being safe at first base. Mantilla later advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, which was followed by an intentional walk to Hank Aaron. Joe Adcock then hit an apparent home run, ending the no-hitter and the game. However, in the confusion, Aaron left the basepaths and was passed by Adcock for the second out and the Braves won 2-0. Eventually the hit was changed from a home run to a double by a ruling from National League president Warren Giles; only Mantilla's run counted, for a score of 1-0, but the Pirates and Haddix still lost.

 

[Ockeghem]

Mike,
Wow, what an amazing ending to an amazing game! The name of Harvey Haddix was etched in my mind from a very early age.
Am I the only one that thinks that the timing of Matt Cain's perfect game jiving with what Mike and I have been writing about with regard to statistics, batting averages, no-hitters, and various records, etc., is a bit eerie? Perhaps a better adjective would suffice, but I find it a little odd!

 

[Greg_S_H]

Synchronicity? Nailed it!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Imagine if somehow Aaron or Adcock had screwed up the baserunning before Mantilla had scored the run!!!

Haddix could still be pitching in that game!

================

And to Scott's question about synchronicity (or, maybe, serendipity)...

Just think: only 22 Perfect Games in all of baseball history. 143 years. Wiki notes that more people have orbited the moon than have pitched perfect games.

 

[Sumnernor]

I don't have the stat but there are fewer unassistant triple plays than perfect games! A few years ago, the player threw the ball into the stands!!!

 

[Mike Frezon]

HERE'S the wiki page on unassisted triple plays. There have been 15 in mlb history.

In this passage, Wiki compares the unassisted triple play with perfect games and other feats:

The feat has happened only 15 times in modern major league history, plus once in 1878 (which is disputed). By comparison, there have been 22 perfect games since 1870, including two in the 19th century. On 16 occasions a player has hit four home runs in a game, including twice in the 19th century. Only seven players have recorded five extra-base hits in the same game.

The timeline for occurrences has been erratic, and may be connected with the fashionable proclivity of managers to send the runners (or the lack thereof). Six of the unassisted triple plays occurred in the 1920s, the sixth coming just one day after the fifth. Then, forty-one years would pass before the seventh, by Ron Hansen in 1968. Since 1991, there have been seven.

The unassisted triple play, the perfect game, hitting four home runs in one game and five extra-base hits in a game are thus comparable in terms of rarity, but the perfect game and the home run and extra-base hit records require an extraordinary effort along with a fair amount of luck. By contrast, the unassisted triple play is essentially always a matter of luck: a combination of the right circumstances with the relatively simple effort of catching the ball and running in the right direction with it. Troy Tulowitzki said of his feat, "It fell right in my lap," and as WGN-TV sports anchor Dan Roan commented, "That's the way these plays always happen."

I think the idea of the number of unassisted triple plays correlating to the interest of managers into sending runners makes a lot of sense. That makes for an interesting way to divide up eras of baseball.

 

[Ockeghem]

"And to Scott's question about synchronicity (or, maybe, serendipity)..."
Mike,
I actually thought of both words soon after I posted.

 

[Ockeghem]

Mike,
Well, I suppose it had to happen. I wish Youkilis the best with the White Sox. I don't know if we'll miss him or not, especially given Middlebrooks' play lately. We'll see. The two ovations Youkilis got during the final Red Sox - Braves game were heartwarming, and IMO well-deserved.

 

[Mike Frezon]

It is funny how attached Red Sox Nation gets to individual players.

Youk deserved the adulation. He played hard and worked hard during his time with the Red Sox.

I am a little concerned that I don't think the Red Sox are necessarily a better team after the trade. They really didn't get that much from the White Sox and are still paying the bulk of Youk's '12 salary (which ain't insubstantial).

I hope, of course (like many Red Sox fans) that this trade acts as a catalyst for the '12 team like the summer of '04 trade of Nomar Garciaparra was for that team.

 

[Ockeghem]

Mike,
I miss Nomar -- a lot. ;(
Agreed that the BoSox didn't get much in return for Youkilis. I read that they did free up about two million, but that they will still have to pay him the bulk of his contract. When the trade of Youkilis was being talked about, I wished somehow that Garza and Dempster could have been worked into a deal with Chicago, as Boston needs starting pitching. But the Cubs were never at this particular table, unfortunately.

 

[Patrick_S]

Mike,
I miss Nomar -- a lot. ;(
Agreed that the BoSox didn't get much in return for Youkilis. I read that they did free up about two million, but that they will still have to pay him the bulk of his contract. When the trade of Youkilis was being talked about, I wished somehow that Garza and Dempster could have been worked into a deal with Chicago, as Boston needs starting pitching. But the Cubs were never at this particular table, unfortunately.

Seriously? What makes you think the Sox could have gotten either Garza or Dempster let alone both for an over the hill position player like Youkilis?
The Cubs will trade both eventually but it will be for some prospects and not some player on the down side of his career.

 

[Ockeghem]

^^^
Nothing makes me think they could have gotten either pitcher. I wrote that I *wished* that they somehow could have worked them into a deal.

 

[Patrick_S]

Sorry Scott literally seconds before I posted I had just finished a conversation with an ignorant Giants' fan so I wasn't in a good mood.
Now if the Sox want to trade some decent prospects for either I'm sure Theo would be willing to make it happen.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Us Boston fans "wish" a lot of things.

Youk is definitely on the downside of his career..but he definitely has a fair amount of value left in him and the Sox should have gotten a lot more than they did. They, unfortunately, backed themselves into one of those situations where he "had to go" because his two positions (first and third base) had better players who could be written into the starting line-up. The pickup of Gonzales was a calculated move...but I think the sudden emergence of Will Middlebrooks came as a surprise to the Boston braintrust.

But Youk will still be putting up some good numbers the next couple of years. He could now be even more motivated to do so! He may have lost a step or two at third...but a lot of people forget he won a Gold Glove at first base, too.

 

[Ockeghem]

Sorry Scott literally seconds before I posted I had just finished a conversation with an ignorant Giants' fan so I wasn't in a good mood.
Now if the Sox want to trade some decent prospects for either I'm sure Theo would be willing to make it happen.

Patrick,
No problem at all. I wish the Red Sox could get Garza, but I don't know what we'd have to give up to get him. He was quite a thorn in our side when he was with Tampa Bay. And a few years ago, I really liked Dempster's game. (Okay, maybe it was the way he flipped his glove around before he delivered.) I don't know how long the latter is on the DL, but I wouldn't mind picking him up somehow.
Mike,
From what you've read, do you think Youk was a problem in the clubhouse? I remember a couple of years ago when he got into it with Manny in the dugout, but I never perceived him (Youk) as a trouble-maker.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Ockeghem /t/319627/2012-mlb-regular-season/30#post_3942403
Mike,
From what you've read, do you think Youk was a problem in the clubhouse? I remember a couple of years ago when he got into it with Manny in the dugout, but I never perceived him (Youk) as a trouble-maker.

Scott: He was supposedly intense in the dugout/clubhouse (think Paul O'Neill). But my understanding is that he was extremely well-liked and well-respected by his teammates. I think the Manny confrontation only served to further bolster such feelings. You can be sure Manny deserved whatever he got.

I remember thinking when I first heard Bobby Valentine's messy verbiage about Youk early on in the season that the only reason a manager would ever say something like that (not having the passion he once had for the game) about a player like Youk was that he was on the trade block. It's not too often I'm right about something like that...

Ah well. Time to move on and embrace the new kid.