Posted on 09/12/2019 9:32:20 AM PDT by DFG
Major League Baseball’s remarkable home run surge has led to countless records being broken this season.
Now the biggest one has fallen.
When Jonathan Villar of the Baltimore Orioles launched a three-run home run during Wednesday’s 7-3 win against the Los Angeles Dodgers, it was No. 6,106 hit across MLB this season.
That breaks the previous record of 6,105 hit in 2017.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Big deal. They’re playing more games per year than in Babe Ruth’s era. Count how many in the same amount of games he played.
I’ll take home runs for my team, anytime. Go Alonso! Keep hitting them out of the park!
The seams are also not as high as they used to be. So the pitchers lack of grip impacts both placement and movement.
A friend works for Rawlings. This has been confirmed.
During the very early 1920’s as Babe Ruth really got rolling with his home run production, the Yankees manager Miller Huggins commented: “The American fan likes the fellow who carries the wallop”. Much later it was: “Chicks dig the long ball”. Fans want to see runs. But is gotten to darn crazy. Back in the day, a 450 foot shot made headlines, it was a big deal. Now that distance is very common, an every day of the season happening it seems like.
Exactly...
As of last season, there were more strikeouts than HITS in MLB. And that’s WITH the new baseballs.
This record will sustain this year as well. The reason being, every team has 5-6 guys obsessed with launch angle and lifting the ball. Every team has 3-4 Dave Kingman’s - strike out or hit it out. No in between.
Couple that with the fact that the league should contract by 2-4 teams and you have some AAAA clubs with awful pitching in the mix.
Look what the Yankees are doing? I bet you they’ll be eliminated by Houston. (3 good pitchers)
Could be. They should be moved in more.
MLB players save all kinds of balls connected to their personal careers. Pitchers, even old-timers like Bert Blyleven, can pick out balls by feel alone from this season compared to the past season or two.
Commissioner Manfred claims the ball juicing wasn’t done intentionally this year.
Note that bats are more high-tech, with a coating designed to help prevent bats flying apart, but making the bats have more spring.
MLB now owns Rawlings so they have total control over this.
It was fun watching Daryl Strawberry, Greg Luzinski and even Dave Kingman hit 500 footers
Not Fun: Watching 5’4” Jose Altuvie or 5’5” Manny Muchado hit 365 foot solo homeruns while playing on a little league field.
Fun: Watching Gooden, Randy Johnson, Nolan Ryan strikeout 13-15
Not fun: Watching Jason Vargas, +5 AAAA relievers you never heard of strike out 18 every night.
Earl Weaver’s philosophy without the pitching or defense, that is.
Agreed. Mostly. But MLB does have a problem. It’s hard core fans are older. And they’re not being replaced.
The people that go regularly care more about showing people they’re there, taking selfies and posting them on Instagram and eating. The more popular stadiums have become little more than upscale food courts with a game going on.
Pitch clocks, automatic umpires, etc... will do nothing. You need to shorten the game to really see an impact and that will never happen. The things that make baseball boring during the regular season - the slowness, etc.. are exactly what makes it amazing in the post season. The tension, moves, delays, etc...
If anything, it’s getting more like hockey. A meaningless regular season followed by exciting post season.
I would start to look for new types of PED’s that USADA and WADA haven’t found yet.
I have a friend whose nephew is a bench player in the American League. He plays sparingly. He has never been a home run hitter. He has 5 this season.
Hey, we won the world series....
“In 6 games”
:)
Same here. I can walk but no longer well due to nerve damage. I take my grown boys up deer hunting every year but walk around the immediate cabin area only. I sling a light rifle ‘just incase’ But mostly I live vicariously through my kids. Sold my fishing boat last month. Nobody was using it.
Used to shoot in competition but now I just go to the range and compete against myself to improve my technique.
That’s a good point. A lot of hitters have also stopped spraying the ball to all fields. Hence the move to adopt the shift in the first place.
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