Category Archives: Baseball

Three Mookies

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There are lots of good baseball names.

Where else can you find a Yogi and Chipper and Moose and Boog?

(Spaceman and Satchel. And, Catfish and Goose. Campy and Crush. Oil Can and Babe.)

And, Mookie.

Mookie is beyond a good baseball name.  It’s a great baseball name. There are no Mookies in football. (If there are, there shouldn’t be.)

Mookie’s a good name for the kid who mows your lawn, the wiry old jazz musician who never caught a break, the mysterious water-witcher with no fixed address, and the guy who stops when your car breaks down, digs around in the back of his truck for a piece of cable, ties something up under your hood, makes your car start, and then disappears before you can say thank you.

Mostly, Mookie’s perfect for baseball.

Like Mookie Wilson of the New York Mets.

In the 10th inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, outfielder Mookie Wilson hit the ball that dribbled between Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner’s legs, allowing the winning run to score, tying up the Series, and leading to the Mets’ “destiny” win in Game 7.

To one Curse of the Bambino, add one dash Mookie. Stir and serve.

Watch …

mookie wilson buckner

“We shoulda lost that game.”

Oh, that Mookie Wilson.

You may think I’m sharing this simply to stick it to the pesky Red Sox who beat the Orioles Friday night 7-0, and then again last night 8-0.

I’m not. If I were sticking it to the Red Sox, I would share this video instead.

(But, I’m not. So don’t watch that second video. Really, I’m serious. Don’t.)

Mookie is known for his heart and his hustle, especially on the base paths.

Here he is with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show last year. Watch …

mookie on the daily show

“You were the one guy everybody loved and nobody ever worried about.” 

But, there’s another Mookie now: 22-year-old Boston Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts. (Update: A Los Angeles Dodger since 2020 … but still Mookie!)

A Mookie who does amazing things in the outfield.

mookie at the wall2

Like reaching into a bullpen to save a certain homerun.

Mookie excelled at baseball and basketball in high school. He’s 5’9” and can dunk.

Plus, he was named Tennessee Boys Bowler of the Year in 2010.

He bowls!

And, if all that weren’t enough, he does Yoga to warm up before games.

OK, sure, almost all of them do nowadays, but this photo of mine from last season is one of my favorites.

Mookie Betts Yoga

© The Baseball Bloggess

How can you not love a guy named Mookie who is so happy to be warming up? How can you not forgive him for being a Red Sox?

But, today there’s another Mookie.

When you live in the country, feral cats show up in your barn. Ten percent of the ferals are old tom cats, with crooked faces and matted fur. The tips of their ears are often missing and their tails take funny turns in weird directions. These toms are stealthy and you’ll usually only catch glimpses of their back ends in the mornings as they slink from your barn and disappear into the grass of the nearby pasture. They know they are squatters and they do their best to stay unseen.

But, 90 percent of the ferals that show up in your barn are pregnant females. They will have kittens in your barn and then dare you to kick them out.

You can’t. You just can’t.

And, when you finally start to catch the ferals, for fixin’ and re-homing, you wonder if one – just one – will be able to make that challenging jump from wild thing to indoor cat.

And, when one does … with purrs so loud that they rumble through the room like the freight trains that pass through the edge of town at midnight …

Mookie2

© The Baseball Bloggess

You name him Mookie.

Because, he seems so happy.

Just like Mookie.

My Metropolitan Dumpling

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I may be an Orioles fan, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate other teams and other players.

(Hey, not so fast there, Toronto Blue Jays. I didn’t mean you.)

I’ve made no secret that 42-year-old New York Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon is my little dumpling. Like here.

First, he’s 42. (I remember being 42. I promise you, it wasn’t that long ago.) He’s also pitched 170 innings this season which is more than any of the much-younger Orioles starters has done.

Second, he is built like a dumpling. His stats will tell you he is 5’11” and 265 pounds, but really, who knows?

Third, he doesn’t care what you think.

Fourth, he makes the occasional crazy play like this …

And, that is definitely worth a tip of the cap from me.

P.S. According to Associated Press, Colon is the first pitcher, in “at least” the past 100 years, to beat the same opponent while playing with seven different teams. (The seven teams: Indians, White Sox, Angels, Red Sox, Yankees, A’s, Mets.) The team that Colon beats … over and over again, no matter what team he plays for? The Orioles, of course. (Because, why else would I even mention this?)

“The Official Table of the Slaughter”

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Oh, for crap’s sake. Can nothing go right for the Orioles?

Yesterday, I shared one of those “On This Day In Baseball” stories. It’s here.

How, on September 3, 1897, two Baltimore Orioles – outfielder “Wee” Willie Keeler and first baseman “Dirty” Jack Doyle – both went 6-for-6 in a single game.

This, historians agree, would be the only time in baseball history that two teammates went 6-for-6 in the same game.

I checked the story out. I checked the box score. I knew that there was a very brief time that walks counted as hits in baseball. But, that was 1887. And this was 1897.

box score 9 3 1897 keeler 6 for 6

Keeler — 6 At Bats, 5 Runs, 6 Hits

I should have left it at that. I should have said, “Wow. Cool.” I should have walked away.

But, no.

Because, come to find out, box scores don’t always agree.

Especially box scores that are nearly 120 years old.

So, out of curiosity, I checked the Baltimore Sun’s report from the game.

And, wouldn’t you know …

Baltimore Sun Box Score 9 3 1897 Keeler 4 for 6

Keeler — 6 at bats, 5 runs, 4 hits

“The official table of the slaughter” that day shows Keeler with just four hits.

Not that this stopped the Baltimore Sun from also accepting the legend of 6-for-6.

In a 1997 story on Keeler, the Sun’s Mike Klingaman wrote:

“Seven times [in 1897], he got four hits in one game. Four times, he got five hits. Once, Keeler went 6-for-6.”

But, the Internet can be a wild and wonderful place, and I found this buried deep in its archives:

Joe Kelley Letter jan 3 1940

Robert Edwards Auctions, 2008

A letter from Orioles outfielder Joe Kelley about the 1897 game

(Kelley, you may remember, went 5-for-6 in that game. He was also known as a something of a cutie pie ladies man who would slip a comb under his cap, so he could tidy up in the outfield before flirting with the gals during games.)

In 1940, Kelley, then 68, responded to historian Albert Kermisch’s inquiry about the game:

“Your letter with the summary of game played in 1897 received and you are going a long way back on me to think and be right. But I am pretty sure that the Sun paper’s account is right and Billy Keeler did not make six (6) hits in that game. Frank Patterson was the Sun reporter at that time and am kind of certain but not real sure that he was the official scorer that season.”

(This letter, by the way, was authenticated and sold at auction for nearly $10,000 in 2008. It was, according to the auctioneers, an extremely rare handwritten letter from the future Hall of Famer.)

Keeler McGraw Jennings Kelley 1894

By BPL CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Orioles Keeler, John McGraw, Hughie Jennings, and Kelley, circa 1895 (clockwise from top left)

So, who’s right?

The general press account and box score of the game that appeared in newspapers throughout the country that show that Keeler went 6-for-6?

The Baltimore Sun’s “official table of the slaughter” that says 4-for-6?

Baseball Almanac that gives him six hits?

Or, Kelley, who, thinking about a long-ago game, is “pretty sure” it wasn’t six?

The Baltimore Sun’s report gives a somewhat clear rundown of Keeler’s day. Batting second, behind McGraw, Keeler:

  • Singles, steals second, and scores in the first;
  • Reaches first on a questionable play in the second that includes an error that allows the man on third to score. That error would not necessarily negate a single by Keeler, but it looks like the Sun believes it does. Keeler takes part in a double steal and scores on a double from Kelley;
  • Triples in the third;
  • Is hit by a pitch in the fourth, takes part in another double steal, and scores on a wild pitch;
  • Singles in the sixth; and
  • Singles in the eighth.

There you go. Keeler was on base in all six of his appearances. But, it looks like he reached on an error in the second and his hit-by-pitch negates his at-bat in the fourth.

Ergo, Keeler was 4-for-5. (I don’t know why The Sun reports six at-bats. Maybe they counted the hit by pitch as an at-bat, which we don’t today.)

Doyle’s 6-for-6 day checks out, by the way. But, Keeler’s doesn’t. Two major league teammates have never gone 6-for-6 in the same game.

But, I can tell you this. Keeler began the 1897 season with a 44-game hitting streak, a record that stood until DiMaggio. His 206 singles in 1898 was a record until Ichiro Suzuki broke it in 2004.  His .424 average in 1897 is the best for a left-hander, ever. Over his 19-season career he batted .341.

And, good grief! 22 runs, 28 hits, double steals. Must have been quite a game.

6 for 6. 6 for 6.

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The Baltimore Orioles are in the kind of late-season slump that makes you go …

Manny Machado August 2015

Manny Machado, August 2015 © The Baseball Bloggess

Yup, there goes your post-season.

When you were little, did you ever have someone hand you an ice cream cone and you greedily pushed your tongue into it and, just like that, the scoop of the best chocolate ice cream in the whole world, pure frozen perfection, the best thing you ever, ever tasted, just fell over off the edge of the cone and landed at your feet?

And, there’s a moment of stunned silence, when you think, like any five year old would, “What the f***?”

And, then you cried.

Not tears-rolling-out-of-your-eyes cried, but the shrieking, gulping, wailing kind of cry that only children can get away with, and that pretty much sums up how it feels to have your ice cream fall to the ground … the result of some lazy, careless adult who couldn’t take the two seconds to tamp the scoop firmly into the cone before giving it to you – a child – and who has now ruined everything because this has to be one of the worst things that could ever happen to anybody …

Until, years later, the Orioles fall over, just like that lousy ice cream and you realize …

Suckity, suck, suck, suck.

Not a single Oriole, not a single one of the 19 position players who have had at least one at-bat is batting better than .295 over the past 30 days.  Nine of the 20 – that’s 45 percent of them – are batting .208 or worse.

Compare that to the Toronto Blue Jays, who have six players batting .300 or better during the past 30 days.

That, along with porous, unreliable, hapless pitching, is why the Orioles have won just three of their last 16 games. They are 3-13 and 6.5 nearly impossible games away from that second Wild Card.

It makes you want to change the subject …

On this date, September 3, 1897, Baltimore Oriole right fielder Wee Willie Keeler went 6-for-6 in a game against the St. Louis Browns. (“Wee” because the outfielder stood just shy of 5’5”.)

His teammate, first baseman “Dirty” Jack Doyle, went 6-for-6, too. (“Dirty” because he was an aggressive baserunner, prone to brawls on and off the field, and was once arrested in the middle of a game.)

Left fielder Joe Kelley went 5-for-6.

1896 Orioles Team

The 1896 Orioles. Keeler is in the front row, third from the left (with his elbow on his manager’s leg). Doyle is in the front row, far left, holding a bat.  Kelley is in the second row, third from the left.

The Orioles defeated the Browns that day 22-1. Twenty-eight hits.

(Over their past four games, the 2015 Orioles have scraped together 26 hits and 12 runs. Total.)

Keeler and Doyle are two of only 98 major league players to get six hits in a regular nine-inning game. They are the only teammates to do it in the same game.

1897 Orioles Program

Baltimore Orioles game program, 1897

The Orioles would finish the 1897 season second to Boston. Keeler would lead the league with a .424 average.

Those 1897 Orioles did not evolve into the present-day Orioles. They share only the name. (The 1897 St. Louis Browns were renamed the Cardinals a few seasons later. Yes, those Cardinals.)

(Those Orioles are also not the 1902 Baltimore Orioles that, through a cruel twist of fate, became the New York Yankees.)

They were one of baseball’s greatest teams.

And, Keeler was one of the greatest batters. His secret? “I have already written a treatise and it reads like this: ‘Keep your eye clear and hit ‘em where they ain’t; that’s all.’ ”

And, hang on to your ice cream …

UPDATE: Maybe Wee Willie Keeler wasn’t 6-for-6 after all. Here’s where I revisit the “facts” and change my mind about things: “The Official Table of the Slaughter”

Free Baseball: 1-2-3 Edition

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One A’s pitcher – and former UVa Hoo — tells us about life on the DL.

Two Dodger’s pitchers you may have heard of.

And, three home runs – a dinger, a moon shot, and a slam – from a Met.

Here’s your Free Baseball* 1-2-3 Edition.

1. Doolittle on Doolittle

Sean Doolittle, Oakland A’s reliever, former University of Virginia Hoo, and native South Dakotan (that’s the fancy-pants Dakota), has spent much of this season on the disabled list.

But, he’s been checking in on Twitter …

And, his heartfelt piece on ESPN.com this week about life on the DL is a must-read – for baseball fans, of course, but also for anyone who has had to heal from a serious injury and has had to battle to get back the life their injury took away.

doolittle column

“I’ve found that in this game, all you can ask for is a chance,” he writes. Read here.

2. McCarthy on Greinke & Kershaw

Technically that’s three Dodger’s pitchers, but Brandon McCarthy is writing specifically about Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, and his piece this week on ESPN.com helps explain why they are two of the best pitchers in the world and we are not.

mccarthy guest columnist

Read here.

McCarthy, another pitcher who has spent much of this season on the DL, is a pretty sassy tweeter, too …

3. Yoenis Cespedes

I just wanted to see if I could spell Yoenis Cespedes without checking my work.  (Answer: Yes, I can. But, thank you, spell check for helpfully suggesting “Yemenis Cesspits,” anyway.)

Last night, the brand new New York Met, traded from the Tigers just a couple weeks ago, came through with three home runs against Colorado – a solo homer, a two-run homer, and a grand slam. If he could have mustered up a three-run shot, he would have hit for the Home Run Cycle. I’m not even sure that’s a thing.

That added up to seven RBI … and I believe he snuck a stolen base in there, too.

yoenis homers video

It was, he said, “the best night I have ever had.”

Watch here.

There you go … 1-2-3.

______________________________________

* Free Baseball refers to extra innings that come after a nine-inning game ends in a tie. Here it’s the extra things that don’t quite fit into my regular-sized posts.

 

Salad Days

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There are few things as wonderful as an egg salad sandwich on a summer Friday when you’re not working and everyone else is.

egg salad

Yum!

Today is, I thought, one of those “salad days.”

Because, as with many turns of phrases, I am using “salad days” incorrectly.

(I will occasionally say someone is “over the moon” when they are very, very angry, and I once advised a new mother not to “throw the baby out with the bathwater” which I thought was darned good advice.)

And, so I thought “salad days” simply meant good days.

Like seeing an Orioles walk-off home run against the Oakland A’s last Saturday … or, that whole egg salad sandwich thing.

crush

Chris Davis. Home Run Swing.

Turns out, these are not salad days after all.

“Salad days,” as Shakespeare meant it and as you probably already understand it, are the days of youthful naiveté when things were good and we were green – just fallen off the turnip truck.  (Fun Fact: “Just fell off the turnip truck”? Not Shakespearean, but popularized by Johnny Carson … so, Carsonian.)

Salad days are the frivolities of our youth.

So, today’s egg salad sandwich? Not a “salad day.”

But, maybe Baltimore’s four wins against the Oakland A’s last weekend – outscoring them 34-13 – were salad days after all.

Because, for a brief moment we O’s fans believed we had the post-season in the bag.

turnip

me.

Playing a worked-over, tired-out, reeling team like this year’s A’s will do that to you. You forget the worked-over, tired-out, reeling part and you just jump up and down every time you win.

Such carefree, naïve fans were we.

(Although a little credit here. Our salad days did include a win over Sonny Gray.)

But, not all teams are reeling and you can’t play Oakland every day.

In fact, the O’s have pretty much seen the last of the reelers this season. And, today, they’re a half-game back for the second Wild Card.

Ahhh … the Salad Days of last Saturday.

Look how happy we were!

jonathan schoop

Jonathan Schoop. Second Base.

Miguel Gonzalez Pitching First Inning

Miguel Gonzalez. Starting Pitcher.

Steve Pigtown Clevenger

Raise Your Hand If You Want To Go To The World Series. Steve Clevenger. Catcher.

And, Gerardo Parra, too!

Parra Does The Wave 1

Parra, the new O’s outfielder, is doing the Wave with the fans!

I know. I didn’t believe it either. That’s why I watched him do it two more times when the Wave came through the outfield bleachers. And, he did it each time.

Parra Does The Wave2

I love Mr. Parra. Can we keep him?

Watch the walk-off home run here.

walk off home run

And, what are salad days without pie? Meaningless.

pie2

Watch here.

as os box score 8 15 15

You know that egg salad? It wasn’t so great. First, the bread was sliced top to bottom, not on a diagonal, as perfect sandwiches are. And, it’s kind of made my stomach funny. Also, no pickle. What’s up with that? Although it was wrapped in deli paper, which is always a nice touch.

And, the Orioles?

Sure, they’ve only won one game since Oakland left town. Sure, there are some awfully good, surging teams that they will need to elbow out of the way to get into the post-season.

But, you know what they say – it ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings.

Not fat.   Not over.

 

Photos: Oakland A’s vs. Baltimore Orioles. Camden Yards. August 15, 2015. © The Baseball Bloggess

Home Teams & The Cap Game

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Do you root, root, root for the home team?

If you did last night …

Congratulations! Your team won.

Because last night, for the first time in baseball history (well, actually for the first time in any history), all 15 home major league baseball teams won their games.

And, for the first time ever, all 15 away major league teams lost.

(Stupid Baltimore.)

os mariners box

Because math is not my thing (in the same way that algebra, calculus, and trigonometry are not my things, inasmuch as they are math and, as I said, math is not my thing), I could not add up all the games that have ever been played to determine the average win percentage for home teams.

But, like always, I don’t need math. Because, Baseball Reference has already done all the mathy things required and found that, if you’re the home team, you are slightly more likely to win than lose your game. Home teams win about 54 percent of the time.

It’s just not likely that all you home teams will choose to do it on the same day.

All 30 major league teams actually playing on the same day doesn’t happen every day – because of off days and travel days and rain-out days and winter, not to mention the many decades when there were not 30 major league teams at all.

If your team won last night, please stop reading now. The rest of this post is not for you.

***

Dear Everybody Else, this is to cheer you up after your loss.

(Hey, winners, I knew you’d keep reading.)

One of the things that makes baseball spectularly better than any other sport is all the stuff there is to do when the game is at a break. Between innings there are songs to sing, games to play, mascots racing, trivia contests, and fan cams. So much to do!

There is the old favorite cap game. At Camden Yards in Baltimore it’s the Old Bay “Crab Shuffle”.

 

I just discovered that baseball has kindly put its cap game online so we no longer need to wait for a break between innings to play. Please forgive baseball’s abhorrently awful decision to use the Toronto Blue Jays cap. Play here.

toronto cap game

Baseball’s popular cap game is a family-friendly version of the old street con Three Card Monte.  Funny thing … Three Card Monte is expressly illegal in Canada.

So, I assume, is this cap game.

So, if you’re a Blue Jays fan in Toronto, please don’t play this game. (Also, if you’re a Blue Jays fan, your team won last night, why are you still reading this?)

 

 

Requiem for the Tigers, Brewers, Phils … (who have I missed?)

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Baseball’s July 31 trade deadline – Trade! Sell! Abandon Hope! – turns a perfect pastoral game into the dirtiest place in town. It’s the bathroom in a sketchy dive at closing time. (Step carefully, touch nothing, hold your breath as long as you can.)

And, so the Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies, … have I left anyone out? … Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Oakland A’s, and I can’t remember who else, sold or traded whomever they could, conceding the season, resigned to slide through the last 540 innings of summer as quickly and meaninglessly as possible.

Did your team just bleed out? Well, you’ll always have April, won’t you?

Hot teams feast on the bones of others, like vultures. But, vultures are pretty cool and, if you got to know them, you would find them sociable creatures who are simply recycling carcasses and protecting us from plague and terrible diseases.

General Managers are not vultures in the “pretty cool” sense.

They are cut-throat, not sociable at all. They move pitchers, swap batters, dump salaries, and make blockbuster deals like I change stations on the car radio (which is to say often and with little care).

Editor/Husband says I’m being too dark. “Remember Spaghetti Legs,” he says.

And, I smile wistfully, remembering the three heavenly months last summer with Andrew “Spaghetti Legs” Miller, the remarkable, shut’em down reliever, whom the Orioles greedily gathered up from the Red Sox, giving Boston in return a hot minor leaguer, who now is the Red Sox future, while Miller is now a Yankee.

andrew miller

© The Baseball Bloggess

Miller was a “rental.” By season’s end he was a free agent and the Yankees – of course, the Yankees – dangled pinstripes and bags filled with guilders, beads, and trinkets, and, just like that, Spaghetti Legs was gone.

But, not before he helped the O’s to the ALCS, which was amazing.

Sure, players expect to be jostled and juggled, wondering where they are going next.

Baseball has always done this. They sold and traded Babe Ruth, after all. Twice.

(Pitcher Octavio Dotel played for 13 teams during his 15-season career (1999-2013), making him the most travelled teammate in baseball’s modern era. Chances are he played for you.)

And, I like free agency that allows players to negotiate for their share of the millions that owners amass from their luxury boxes and $26 hot dogs.

“These are human beings, not pieces of meat. Really bothers me when I hear, ‘Are you buyers or sellers?’ Don’t use that around me. These are human beings that I am close with and I don’t look at them that way. I know it’s the reality of the business, but it’s not like we’re moving around slabs of bacon here. And I like bacon.” ~ Buck Showalter, Orioles Manager

I don’t like all the trading and moving people about like cattle at a stockyard, because it seems uncivilized and cruel – if making a few million dollars and moving from one comfy clubhouse to another can be deemed cruel.

What’s really cruel is the way it’s handled.

Orioles reliever Tommy Hunter was traded to the Chicago Cubs on Friday one minute before the 4:00 p.m. trade deadline.

Everyone thought it might happen. Baltimore’s bullpen is crowded, they need outfielders, and Tommy’s a free agent who’s having a not-bad season.

The trade deadline brought Hunter to the O’s in 2011. The 2015 deadline sent him on his way.

Tommy was gracious in his goodbyes.

But, here’s the thing.

The Hunter trade was leaked to reporters who promptly leaked it to Twitter, where I saw it scroll by on my feed at 3:59 p.m. … at the same time that … Tommy Hunter learned of his own trade through the same tweet.

Really? Tommy Hunter and I learn about his trade at the very same moment, from the very same source?

It seems a bit ugly and thoughtless. I don’t want to find out I’ve got a new job because my boss told a tweeter – and the rest of the world – before he told me.

And, Tommy’s not the only one.

On Wednesday night in the middle of a game, Mets shortstop Wilmer Flores learned he was being traded when fans in the stands who had seen Twitter rumors told him. He cried.

And, it broke my heart just a little.

That trade fell apart, which was just as well for the Mets since Flores hit a walk-off homerun for them on Friday night.

Good can come from trades. Some players now have post-season hopes – hopes they didn’t have a week ago. Some players find a change of scenery the spark they need.

Some players escape toxic clubhouses. And, some clubhouses escape toxic players.

(Good luck with Papelbon, Nationals.)

I just wish it didn’t seem so callous. So, cruel. So, business-like.

Goodbye Tommy Hunter. Goodbye Bud Norris. Thanks for the fastballs.

And, hello new Orioles outfielder Gerardo Parra. The O’s scooped you up from the Brewer’s fire sale.

Your first at-bat as an Oriole on Saturday night was a double.

Parra

It was a thing of beauty.

buck greets parra on friday

You may be a rental, but, like every teenage summer fling, we love you like crazy right now.

 

A Call To Arms

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No matter who you are – your gender, ethnicity, country of origin, or age – if you win something big, you will raise your arms in victory.

Doesn’t matter who you are … your arms go up. It’s hardwired in you.

(The scientists who study this would want me to tell you that the arm-raise often comes with a chest puff and a shout. They call this behavior the “dominance threat display.”)

Researchers studying the activities of blind Para-Olympians discovered the very same thing. They raise their arms, too.

Even though most of these blind people had never seen anyone else do it, they instinctively raised their arms with joy upon winning a competition.

The feeling of winning, it seems, is uniformly uniform.

In other experiences, we’re individuals. The foods we like, the people we’re drawn to, what makes us laugh. We’re all a little different.

Except when we win.

When we win, we throw our arms in the air.

So, on June 24, when University of Virginia pitcher Nathan Kirby soundly struck out Kyle Smith of Vanderbilt looking, ending the College World Series and bringing UVa their first-ever national baseball championship, Kirby did exactly what evolution told him to do.

Allow Nathan Kirby, now a member of the Milwaukee Brewers organization, to demonstrate the “dominance threat display.”

But, here’s the funny thing.

I was sitting a thousand miles away from Omaha, watching on television. And, I raised my arms, too.

(I may have also whoo’d. Can’t remember. Sometimes I skip the whoos because I don’t want to annoy the cats.)

You may wonder why it has taken me more than a month to tell you that UVa won the College World Series.

I’m not sure I know the answer.

I’ve never really had a team I follow win anything like this before, so I’m not sure how to throw my arms up in the air on a blog without sounding gloaty or pompous or just annoying.

I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

(Dear Vanderbilt fans, I’m very sorry the Hoos beat you.)

(Dear Everybody Else, I’m not really, but I just don’t know what else to say to them.)

UVa wasn’t expected to win. Heck, they weren’t even expected to go to the post-season. They barely made it to their own ACC tournament and, frankly, they were awfully stinky once they got there.

But, baseball is a funny game and on any given day a team can suddenly find the rhythm they’ve been missing all season.

If you still don’t believe how improbable this was, just take a look at the tee-shirt that the NCAA had to hastily doctor to celebrate Virginia’s win.

ncaa teeshirt

Thanks, Ron! :)

Yes, the UVa championship tee-shirt … features Vanderbilt gold.

vandy logo

UVa logo

Thanks, NCAA.

I know it was a month ago, but I still want to share three special moments from UVa’s post-season.

Because, like throwing your arms in the air, these three moments are universally wonderful, regardless of whether you’re a UVa fan, or a college baseball fan, or any baseball fan (except, maybe, Vanderbilt’s).

1) That Smack Down.

In Game 2 of the Super Regionals in Charlottesville on June 5, the Hoos entered the bottom of the 9th down 4-2 to the University of Maryland. It was must-win for Maryland. The Terps starting pitcher, who had pretty much shut down the Hoos all day, loads the bases. No outs. Maryland brings in their can’t-fail closer Kevin Mooney.  He walks in a run. 4-3.  And then, UVa freshman Ernie Clement does this …

ernie clement supers

Check out Clement after the hit (at 1:41). 

Former UVa Hoo and current Oakland A reliever Sean Doolittle helpfully provides the part I’d like you to watch again.

An exceptional display of victory arms, don’t you think?  The smack-down? That’s junior Kevin Doherty.

I believe this is a lesson for all of us. Throwing your arms in the air can feel really good if you’ve just won a trip to the College World Series. But, it puts you in a tough spot should a jubilant teammate wish to make you the flaky crust of a dogpile pie.

2) That Play.

UVa senior Kenny Towns has been “Old Reliable” down at third throughout his college career.

When the Angels picked him late in the 20th round of the MLB draft this year, I thought, wow, they just got themselves a player that’s much, much better than any scout realizes.

(When you see Towns and Trout in the same lineup someday, you’ll think back and say, “That Baseball Bloggess sure was right. I bet she’s cute, too.”)

After the Series I had more people email, text, and mention this play to me than any other. And, they’re right. I love amazing plays in the hot corner. And, this one was nasty, hot, and sweet like when you tell the waiter you want your vindaloo “Indian hot” and he believes you.

3) That Dogpile.

Baseball Prospectus determined that the first World Series dogpile – run, jump, fall into a heap – was done by the 1982 St. Louis Cardinals. 

Take a look … victory arms, dogpiling, fans swarming the field. Wait? Fans swarming the field? What kind of savages were we? Watch here.

Prior to ’82, there was a lot of running, hugging, and weird, awkward jumping around. But, no dogpiles. Prior to 1962, most winning teams didn’t even stick around to hoot and holler. The game ended and they simply ran off the field to party in the clubhouse.

So, celebratory dogpiles are younger than my little Metropolitan dumpling Bartolo Colon (look, I’ve mentioned him again!).

I’m not sure that this is the most perfect, wonderful dogpile in baseball history.

Wait. I’ve watched it again.

Yup.

It is.

 

July 24, 2012

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On July 24, 2012, the Baltimore Orioles faced the Tampa Rays at Camden Yards. The O’s lost, 3-1.

Adam Jones homered, the Oriole’s only run. Nick Markakis was in right and hit a double. Wilson Betemit played third. Manny Machado was still a shortstop in the minors taking grounders at third “in secret.”

In Los Angeles, the Royals beat the Angels. Mike Trout went 0-for-3.

In St. Louis, the Cards roughed up the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw for eight earned runs. The Mets’ R.A. Dickey gave up five to the Nats, ending his 11-game win streak. And, the Giants squeaked past the Padres with a walk-off single from Brandon Crawford.

Just another day in baseball.

And, I started this blog.

Don’t go looking for those first posts from 2012. I didn’t tell anyone about my blog at first, and now, looking at the early stuff, well, it’s cringe-worthy.

I’ve summed up my early blogging career here.

Today, 178 posts later, I have a patient Editor/Husband and the decency to share photos of cats.

stevie

Stevie!

Happy 3rd birthday, blog.

(You’ve outlived the average blog by two years and 11 months. Congratulations!)

And, happy 51st birthday, Barry Bonds. (People still don’t like you, do they?)

Third anniversaries require gifts of leather so, to celebrate, here’s a flash of leather for you …

flash2

Watch this.

A few things have changed for me since 2012. But, really, I still like the same stuff.

I like to win in the post-season.

(And, I’ve finally been to my first post-season games. The Orioles lost ‘em both.)

I like the College World Series as much as the big league one.

(The University of Virginia Cavaliers won the College World Series last month – their first national baseball championship since they started playing at UVa in 1889. Go Hoos!)

I like a quiet-eyed Starter and a Bullpen that plays with matches.

I like the Astros’ ‘70s-era uniforms, but not the Padres’.

I like baseball on grass, walk-up music, and night games under lights.

I like bobbleheads and minor league mascots and The Baseball Project.

otey the swamp possum

Otey the Swamp Possum, awesome official mascot of the Arkansas Travelers

(Editor/Husband: “You can’t go wrong with a swamp possum.”)

(Dear Little Rock fans, Pay attention. Otey’s a possum, not a rat.)

I like the edamame dumplings at Camden Yards and the “lucky” sodas from Mark’s stand at UVa’s Davenport Field. (They really are lucky.)

I like the Curse of the Andino and I especially like posting this a few times a year:

andinocurse

Watch me.

I like a neat scorecard, the Designated Hitter rule, and Jon Miller calling a Giants game late into the night.

I like a 4-6-3 double play slightly more than a 6-4-3 double play, but I can’t tell you exactly why.

I like Jonathan Schoop …

schoopy

… and, Willie Mays …

 

And, I’ll never like the Yankees.

So, whatever happened to those guys from three years ago?

Mike Trout, and his 10.8 WAR, was Rookie of the Year in 2012 and is Most Valuable Everything today.

R.A. Dickey went on to win the Cy Young, and, even on an off day, Clayton Kershaw continues to be better than most pitchers and leads the league this season with 185 strikeouts.

The Giants won the World Series.

The Orioles?

Following the debut of my blog in July, the Orioles went on to win the 2012 Wild Card play-off and lost to the Yankees in the ALDS. It was the O’s first postseason appearance in 15 years which can’t possibly be a coincidence.

In August, shortstop Manny Machado made his big league debut for the O’s at third. He’s still there and well on his way to being the Orioles MVP.

Wilson Betemit ended up in Tampa’s minor league system and is currently a free agent.

Nick Markakis is a Brave. (I still miss you, Nick.)

It’s July 24, 2015 and the Orioles are 4th — and seven long, difficult, frustrating, but not impossible, games back — in the AL East.

Sherman Hemsley

February 1, 1938 – July 24, 2012