OK, so before I get into some baseball talk, I did want to say that something exciting is happening here: We are closing in on 25,000 subscribers. I think we’re going to hit the big number by the end of the week. That’s mind-blowing stuff for me. As many of you know, I started JoeBlogs about 18 months ago in the hope that I could connect directly with you as readers*, and you have made it work beyond my expectations. Thank you, all.
So I read this story somewhere, maybe in Mickey Mantle‘s book. Pretty late in Mantle‘s career. He was facing Denny McLain. The catcher tells Mickey that Denny just wants to see how far Mickey can hit one. Fastball down the middle, Mickey takes it because he is not sure they’re on the level with him. He may take another fastball, I am not sure. after throwing those pitches McLean is putting his hands out like come on what’s going on? Then another fastball and mantle hits it a mile, the ball hits the stadium facade in the upper deck. Pepitone comes up next. Stick his hand out over the middle plate and yells out “right here”. McLain knocks him down. I always get a huge kick out of that story.
I really hope people don't make too much of winning the World Baseball Classic. It's a short series of exhibition games among teams widely varying in talent. Come on, the Czech team has ONE player with MLB experience! You cannot compare them to, for example, a team from Japan or Puerto Rico. Just enjoy the fun games and cool uniforms!
I’m a latecomer to JoeWorld. It feels like when I finished my first John Sandford book and realized that there were twenty more, ready for reading. All the old stuff is new to me. Congratulations Joe.
Any Joe...when you hit 25k subscribers, how about letting some of us JoeBlog subscribers who've been here for the past 18 months also have a shot at winning.
I was rooting SO hard for Bratt - it would have been a wonderful feel-good story (and who amongst us doesn’t need more of those in baseball?), give us something to look forward too in future Canada games (which perhaps now we won’t see after group play), and (top for me) have all but ended USA hopes in the Classic.
But you may ask, why don’t I root for USA, being a red-blooded American baseball fan? First, I have dual citizenship and so maybe dual loyalties... although this has l not been directly tested as Ireland is not a WBC team (yet! 2026, they might well knock off the Brits in the European play-in GB will likely face); second, I love the spirit of the Latin teams - DR, VZ, PR, Cuba, and the rest - and the fact their guys plus the JP and KR guys have always really *wanted* to play in the Classic and their fans root like crazy mad for them compared to fans in the States.
The genius of the flop is three-fold. The first is that because you go over the bar in a parabola, your center of mass stays well below the bar - as opposed to the old scissor kick style where your entire torso has to go over the bar at the same time. The second advantage is that because a jumper has to rotate to their back, they get to create rotational momentum generated at their last foot plant to more efficiently transfer energy moving in a horizontal plane into energy moving in a vertical plane, something that isn't as easily done with the old technique, the last is that is feels more organically natural than the other techniques. You can probably speculate that the introduction of foam landing pads contributed to the evolution of Fosbury's technique.
Joe, love your focus on Mitch Bratt! A great example of your talent for finding the ethos and pathos within the game. Our Canadian team, like others, is guilty of borrowing Hemingway’s fabled title, “Farewell
to Arms”, as a descriptor of a core obstacle to any hope of WBC success. In Bratt’s case, one can envision a pathway to something good. A good coach and a willing pupil, can cut down on a simpler delivery that will yield a more consistent release point. Of course, that will reduce walks. Unless, more experience and handling increases better spotted offerings, those walks last night would turn into more hits! Going forward, it will all turn on the character within. Was last night the beginning of the end for this kid? Or the end of the beginning? Joe, such a good story-tell that deserves a follow up in a year or two. Thanks🙏
In high school I was a (really bad) high jumper. Our landing pit was a bag of foam scraps that was barely as wide as the stanchions holding the crossbar. I would regularly land on the very edge of the bag with very little padding between me and the ground. Luckily I was young and much more resilient, but I can’t imagine flopping with no pad at all.
Is Mickey Lolich "Sandy Koufax without the regular-season awesomeness," then? The thing is, Santana has a lot of the same "peak" criteria that Koufax does: 4 WHIP leaderships, 3 ERA+ titles (Koufax has 2), 3 Strikeout titles (Koufax has 4), and a better career SO/BB ratio (but no leaderships, while Koufax has 3). But Santana has only one Wins title and no World Series appearances because he wasn't on teams as good as Koufax's Dodgers. So I would say the lack of "postseason heroics" wasn't entirely within his control.
David Cone didn't even make the list of qualifiers of the ten and while I consider Sandy Koufax brilliant and one of the top pitchers in the Post Season.
The Greatest Post Season pitcher of all=time? Like Michael Jordan in Basketball or Mohammed Ali in Boxing? Well, we can see the writers in the this century have a clear prejudice against first half of the 20th Century players and for the last half of the 20th Century players. That is the only way I can explain prefering Joe Morgan over Rogers Hornsby. But at least the post season pitcher had comparible statistics. Koufax was only 4-3 and pitched only 57 innings for his stint as the greatest. My greatest pitcher in the Post Season was 5-5 in 101.2 IP. My pitcher compared to Koufax in ERA - 0.95 to 0.97. Koufax's WHIP was 0.825 to 0.836. Koufax gave up 11 walks in those 57 IP while my guy only gave up 10 walks in 101.2. I'm a little less supportive of my guy in this comparison than I am about Hornsby and Morgan. But I do think an argument can be made for him...oh well.
Kobayashi is another example of an individual who changed everything about his event by inventing a new way to do it. In this case it's not a sport but rather competitive eating. His new way of eating allowed all the old records to be smashes (he doubled the old Nathans record in his first year which is similar to what Ruth did) and has now been perfected by Joey Chestnut.
Olga Korbut is another example. She essentially invented modern womens gymnastics at the 1972 games when no one has ever seen anything like her before or had any idea it was even possible.
RIP Joe Pepitone. The 1963 World Series is one of the earliest I recall. The following is a description of the Pepitone error I remembered because although I did not like the Yankees I liked Clete Boyer: "But in the bottom of the inning, Gilliam hit a high hopper to Yankee third baseman Clete Boyer; Boyer leaped to make the grab, and fired an accurate throw to first base. But first baseman Joe Pepitone lost Boyer's peg in the white-shirted crowd background; the ball struck Pepitone in the arm and rolled down the right field line, allowing Gilliam to scamper all the way to third base. He then scored a moment later on Willie Davis' sacrifice fly. Sandy Koufax went on to hold the Yankees for the final two innings for a 2–1 victory and the Dodgers' third world championship." (From Wikipedia) Although sad to think that's my memory of Pepitone (just like Buckner he should be recalled for more than this 1 error), it does evoke a baseball world where spectators wore white Oxford dress shirts to ballgames (and doffed their sport (suit?) coats at Chavez Ravine) and a pitcher like Sandy Koufax was able to start and finish 1-run complete game in a World Series.
So I read this story somewhere, maybe in Mickey Mantle‘s book. Pretty late in Mantle‘s career. He was facing Denny McLain. The catcher tells Mickey that Denny just wants to see how far Mickey can hit one. Fastball down the middle, Mickey takes it because he is not sure they’re on the level with him. He may take another fastball, I am not sure. after throwing those pitches McLean is putting his hands out like come on what’s going on? Then another fastball and mantle hits it a mile, the ball hits the stadium facade in the upper deck. Pepitone comes up next. Stick his hand out over the middle plate and yells out “right here”. McLain knocks him down. I always get a huge kick out of that story.
I really hope people don't make too much of winning the World Baseball Classic. It's a short series of exhibition games among teams widely varying in talent. Come on, the Czech team has ONE player with MLB experience! You cannot compare them to, for example, a team from Japan or Puerto Rico. Just enjoy the fun games and cool uniforms!
I’m a latecomer to JoeWorld. It feels like when I finished my first John Sandford book and realized that there were twenty more, ready for reading. All the old stuff is new to me. Congratulations Joe.
Any Joe...when you hit 25k subscribers, how about letting some of us JoeBlog subscribers who've been here for the past 18 months also have a shot at winning.
I was rooting SO hard for Bratt - it would have been a wonderful feel-good story (and who amongst us doesn’t need more of those in baseball?), give us something to look forward too in future Canada games (which perhaps now we won’t see after group play), and (top for me) have all but ended USA hopes in the Classic.
But you may ask, why don’t I root for USA, being a red-blooded American baseball fan? First, I have dual citizenship and so maybe dual loyalties... although this has l not been directly tested as Ireland is not a WBC team (yet! 2026, they might well knock off the Brits in the European play-in GB will likely face); second, I love the spirit of the Latin teams - DR, VZ, PR, Cuba, and the rest - and the fact their guys plus the JP and KR guys have always really *wanted* to play in the Classic and their fans root like crazy mad for them compared to fans in the States.
The genius of the flop is three-fold. The first is that because you go over the bar in a parabola, your center of mass stays well below the bar - as opposed to the old scissor kick style where your entire torso has to go over the bar at the same time. The second advantage is that because a jumper has to rotate to their back, they get to create rotational momentum generated at their last foot plant to more efficiently transfer energy moving in a horizontal plane into energy moving in a vertical plane, something that isn't as easily done with the old technique, the last is that is feels more organically natural than the other techniques. You can probably speculate that the introduction of foam landing pads contributed to the evolution of Fosbury's technique.
Joe, love your focus on Mitch Bratt! A great example of your talent for finding the ethos and pathos within the game. Our Canadian team, like others, is guilty of borrowing Hemingway’s fabled title, “Farewell
to Arms”, as a descriptor of a core obstacle to any hope of WBC success. In Bratt’s case, one can envision a pathway to something good. A good coach and a willing pupil, can cut down on a simpler delivery that will yield a more consistent release point. Of course, that will reduce walks. Unless, more experience and handling increases better spotted offerings, those walks last night would turn into more hits! Going forward, it will all turn on the character within. Was last night the beginning of the end for this kid? Or the end of the beginning? Joe, such a good story-tell that deserves a follow up in a year or two. Thanks🙏
“ The question is: Would anyone else have come up with the Fosbury flop if not for Dick Fosbury? ”
Debbie Brill did.
https://bcsportshall.com/curator-corner/debbie-brill-breaking-down-the-brill-bend-womens-history-month-feature/
In high school I was a (really bad) high jumper. Our landing pit was a bag of foam scraps that was barely as wide as the stanchions holding the crossbar. I would regularly land on the very edge of the bag with very little padding between me and the ground. Luckily I was young and much more resilient, but I can’t imagine flopping with no pad at all.
Is Mickey Lolich "Sandy Koufax without the regular-season awesomeness," then? The thing is, Santana has a lot of the same "peak" criteria that Koufax does: 4 WHIP leaderships, 3 ERA+ titles (Koufax has 2), 3 Strikeout titles (Koufax has 4), and a better career SO/BB ratio (but no leaderships, while Koufax has 3). But Santana has only one Wins title and no World Series appearances because he wasn't on teams as good as Koufax's Dodgers. So I would say the lack of "postseason heroics" wasn't entirely within his control.
RIP Joe Pepitone.
David Cone didn't even make the list of qualifiers of the ten and while I consider Sandy Koufax brilliant and one of the top pitchers in the Post Season.
The Greatest Post Season pitcher of all=time? Like Michael Jordan in Basketball or Mohammed Ali in Boxing? Well, we can see the writers in the this century have a clear prejudice against first half of the 20th Century players and for the last half of the 20th Century players. That is the only way I can explain prefering Joe Morgan over Rogers Hornsby. But at least the post season pitcher had comparible statistics. Koufax was only 4-3 and pitched only 57 innings for his stint as the greatest. My greatest pitcher in the Post Season was 5-5 in 101.2 IP. My pitcher compared to Koufax in ERA - 0.95 to 0.97. Koufax's WHIP was 0.825 to 0.836. Koufax gave up 11 walks in those 57 IP while my guy only gave up 10 walks in 101.2. I'm a little less supportive of my guy in this comparison than I am about Hornsby and Morgan. But I do think an argument can be made for him...oh well.
1. "pivotal World Baseball Classic game." That is funny stuff, Joe.
2. Just when I thought I was safe from Yuniesky Betancourt his name comes up again!
3. Joe Pepitone is best known for getting plunked by Kramer at Yankees fantasy camp. He was crowding the plate!
Kobayashi is another example of an individual who changed everything about his event by inventing a new way to do it. In this case it's not a sport but rather competitive eating. His new way of eating allowed all the old records to be smashes (he doubled the old Nathans record in his first year which is similar to what Ruth did) and has now been perfected by Joey Chestnut.
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-takeru-kobayashi-changed-competitive-eating-2017-7
Olga Korbut is another example. She essentially invented modern womens gymnastics at the 1972 games when no one has ever seen anything like her before or had any idea it was even possible.
RIP Joe Pepitone. The 1963 World Series is one of the earliest I recall. The following is a description of the Pepitone error I remembered because although I did not like the Yankees I liked Clete Boyer: "But in the bottom of the inning, Gilliam hit a high hopper to Yankee third baseman Clete Boyer; Boyer leaped to make the grab, and fired an accurate throw to first base. But first baseman Joe Pepitone lost Boyer's peg in the white-shirted crowd background; the ball struck Pepitone in the arm and rolled down the right field line, allowing Gilliam to scamper all the way to third base. He then scored a moment later on Willie Davis' sacrifice fly. Sandy Koufax went on to hold the Yankees for the final two innings for a 2–1 victory and the Dodgers' third world championship." (From Wikipedia) Although sad to think that's my memory of Pepitone (just like Buckner he should be recalled for more than this 1 error), it does evoke a baseball world where spectators wore white Oxford dress shirts to ballgames (and doffed their sport (suit?) coats at Chavez Ravine) and a pitcher like Sandy Koufax was able to start and finish 1-run complete game in a World Series.
onward & upward, Joe!
can't wait for the baseball season to start! Go Giants! (who, by the way, beat Team USA few days ago!)
RIP JP & DF, two unique originals for totally different reasons...
So Jesus Alou is a record holder of sorts!
I loved the Alou brothers, Felipe hitting 25 HRs as a lead off guy; Matty punching hits like Rod Carew; Jesus with the neck exercises at the plate…