Posted on 03/03/2018 8:51:46 AM PST by Mariner
I also thoroughly enjoy the X-Files episode, The Unnatural, which was written by David Duchovny, himself a real life baseball fan. The episode his full of subtle allusions to both baseball lore and UFO mythology.
AT&T Park is the most dead-ball park in MLB.
Fewer HRs there than any other park, on average.
It’s truly a pitchers park. Cold, wind and humid.
rF Line = 309ft
rF =365ft
Right-Center = 421ft
But today’s standards, it’s not a small park. Especially considering the weather. But yes, if you’re a left-handed pull hitter the RF line is short.
It’s still more than 400ft into the bay.
Flubber
I was joking about his legendary thirst before and after the games.
Fightin Whitey wrote:
I was joking about his legendary thirst before and after the games.
Well understood, rock on!
Of course not.
It also takes a magic arm brace.
The players are still juicing and the balls are juiced too
A few years ago home runs and scoring were way down, and players whose only skill was hitting homers (Mark Trumbo, Pedro Alvarez, guys like that) were valuable. Now there are so many homers that those guys have lost value.
I don’t think it’s just the ball though - if it were then all teams would have benefitted. A few teams did not (such as Pittsburgh). Makes me think that uppercut swings are partly responsible. Of course, it could be that the Pirates are just a bunch of lousy hitters, too.
It’s a BS story that comes around every couple of decades.
They key is that every team plays with the same balls.
Excellent. t y 4 posting link...
“Regularly”? That’s a bit of a stretch. He hit a grand total of 35 into McCovey Cove in 8 seasons. AT&T opened in 2000 and Bonds retired after the 2007 season. So, in the 8 seasons that he played in AT&T park he averaged fewer than 5 a season into McCovey Cove.
In the entire time Bonds played while AT&T Park was opened he hit 317 homeruns of which a whopping 35 went into McCovey Cove. I’m willing to bet that a much higher percentage of those homeruns landed in the first 45 feet beyond the outfield wall (the average boost from steroids) than landed in McCovey Cove. BY FAR.
By the way, his giant head has shrunk back down to normal now that he has retired. As has his body. Hmmmm.
You are very astute. Solo home runs do not produce runs. When you have a predominant majority of your lineup using this new “launch” swing, which is nothing more than an upper cut, so they are popping up or trying to pull away, breaking pitches and hitting a week infield ground ball while hitting 15 to 20 home runs a year and hitting .225, there are no runners on base to trot in.
And even the hot ball, which they brought in to create offence with the long ball to sell jersys and seats, short fences, and smaller strike zones can’t stop batters from chasing bad pitches because they are not producing and the club has two or three more down on the farm that can do that for less money. Economics, and the players know that. There goes the numbers. Now 15 to 20, becomes 5 to 10 and a career at AAA. Maybe a short one with another club. Your new name will be “player to be named later.”
rwood
“Randy John and Bob Gibson had pretty straight fastballs”
Both had a pitch that would rise and one that would tail. Gibson was not afraid to throw the tailing one inside to a right handed hitter. Ask Jim Ray Hart. He hit a home run in his first game against St. Louis and when facing Gibson in the second, he took one of those and it broke his shoulder blade. I was watching it. Hart’s career was changed after that. Gibson believed in using the whole plate, and then some.
And Johnson’s fastball that tailed away is what made his slider, in, so effective.
rwood
“I suspect, sans steroids, Henry Aaron’s career record and Roger Maris single season records would be intact.”
Amphetamines (AKA Greenies). Beginning in the 60s and lasting all the way up to their 2005 ban, illegal amphetamines were the most widely abused drug in baseball. Pete Rose and Hank Aaron are two of the biggest names that have confessed to amphetamine use. In addition, Willie Mays and Willie Stargell have been linked to both the use and selling of those illegal little green pills. The use of amphetamines were so rampant during the 70s that it is said that there were 2 coffee pots in team clubhouses. But one of them wasn’t your standard decaf. One of the two pots was not laced with amphetamines. Plus, teams were lacing everything with them.
However it’s interesting to note that home run totals dropped more after the amphetamine ban in 2005 than they did when steroid testing began. It’s also interesting to note that Hank Aaron claimed to have only used them once while slumping in 1968. After 1968 he had an immediate resurgence at the plate. Was he taking amphetamines on a regular basis after 1968? Most likely he was. Would any of us believe Roger Clemens if he said he only took steroids once? Hell no we wouldn’t! The point I’m getting too is it impossible to speculate on how much a substance enhanced a player. It is quite possible that without the aid of speed Hammering Hank never would have became the All-Time Home Run Leader. But there is no way to prove that one way or another. It’s just speculation. we can speculate as much as we want but we’ll never know how good a player would have been without the aid of an illegal substance.
The game banned 71 different steroids. But they also banned 55 different stimulant drugs. And to my knowledge, none of that hit the 11 o’clock news. And they were around for over 50 years.
rwood
But normally if it is attached to a long salary.
rwood
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