It's That Old-School Prestigious Way of Baseball [BASEBALL]

[El_Josharino]

Man, what the hell Royals? Humberto Quintero pulls the douche move of making the slant eye gesture during Bruce Chen's interview, then during same interview Chen admits that most of the team "Doesn't like the way that the KC Monarchs throwback unis look." Really dudes? Because I'd wear the shit out of this uniform:



That shit is badass. Who was Satchel Paige anyway?

[Dick]

Are you kidding me the monarchs had one of the best uniforms in the Negro Leagues, which had no shortage of badass uniforms.

Satchel Paige was the greatest pitcher in Negro League history.  He was an entire generation older than Jackie Robinson, but even well past his prime was still good enough to join the Indians in 1948, go to the world series, become the first black pitcher to take the mound in world series history & the oldest rookie in the history of major league baseball, win, post ridiculous stats for a pitcher who was then in his mid-40s, etc.

Through the twin draws of professional Japanese baseball and Negro Leagues arcana I'm edging closer and closer to becoming a fan of a sport -- something I've never experienced before.

[elpollodiablo]

What makes Japanese baseball more interesting than American?

[Dick]

Nothing intrinsic.  I just like Japanese baseball culture.

[El_Josharino]

(I actually know who Satchel Paige is, it was a sarcasm thing up there.)

I'd almost certainly follow NPB ball a bit more if a lot of the resources weren't in Japanese. Which, y'know, it makes sense for that to be the case, I just can't read it.

[El_Josharino]

Through the twin draws of professional Japanese baseball and Negro Leagues arcana I'm edging closer and closer to becoming a fan of a sport -- something I've never experienced before.

It's a beautiful game with unending lore. You'll love it.

[Thermofusion]

I watched all of the Royals-Pirates games this weekend but I didn't catch Quintero's antics, gladly. Just based on what I saw of their on-field play, that whole KC team is kinda knucklehead-y. You're inevitably going to see silliness whenever an AL team plays interleague in an NL ballpark and they start sliding their CIs and OFs around to accommodate a DH in a position slot (oh my god, Billy Butler looked like a buffoon at 1B) but I suppose the effect is exaggerated when the team in question is as bad as the Royals. Their defense belongs in a short season rookie league.

I liked the Monarchs uniforms too. In the same game, the Pirates were decked out in Homestead Grays threads. Pirates LHP phenom/all around badass James McDonald completely owned it:

[Dick]

awesome

[El_Josharino]

Yeah, I really love dudes playing outside of their natural positions. Maybe it's because I grew up playing sandlot games that were like 4 on 4 where you're essentially covering 3 positions at once, and as a result I kinda consider myself to be super-utility, or maybe it's just the novelty of it happening in the bigs, but Adam Dunn or Adrian Gonzalez playing in the outfield is a hoot to me.

And yeah, basically every Negro League uniform is better than any current uniform.

[El_Josharino]

Another reason Japanese baseball is great is that folks just strap a pony keg to their backs to deliver delicious draught beer to you, the jovial consumer:

[Dick]

(I actually know who Satchel Paige is, it was a sarcasm thing up there.)

I'd almost certainly follow NPB ball a bit more if a lot of the resources weren't in Japanese. Which, y'know, it makes sense for that to be the case, I just can't read it.

kind of figured that out after posting but decided to let the post stand as a testament to my boyish excitement.

'Mo'mo, Josh, what are some good resources for following baseball for a dude who's short on time.  Assume a decent general knowledge of the game but limited familiarity with current players etc.

[El_Josharino]

For me, if I'm in a hurry, I skim through box scores fairly quickly. Generally there's a section that lists all the scoring plays, which I read through. Then there are details on how each batter performed, which if I notice a dude's name in the scoring plays a few times I might note his line from there (hits/at bats, walks, steals, runs, RBIs). Then the lines for each pitcher, where I generally glance at how the starters performed (innings pitched, runs allowed, walks, strikeouts) and who finished the game for each team (particularly the winning team). If a game looks particularly interesting (close score, extra innings, odd descriptions of scoring plays, etc) then I'll read over the recap of the game. The box scores/recaps are pretty readily available at Yahoo, ESPN, MLB.com, etc, and the recaps are basically identical from one place to the next.

If you use a smartphone sort of device, there's an app I like a lot called ScoreMobile, which is really good for quickly glancing at box scores.

Generally, if I just look through the box scores I can get a decent idea of a day's worth of games in a matter of a few minutes. Granted, I'm pretty familiar with the players, but that's basically the same manner I used to keep up when I was a kid who only knew the starting lineup for my favorite team and a handful of superstars from the rest of baseball.

[Thermofusion]

You could also pick a team to follow and subscribe to a bunch of their fanblogs, that's what I did when I got back into baseball five years ago. In my case, I simply resumed following my childhood favorite team. BUT, I found my team's fanblogs so exhaustive w/r/t prospect discussion, stat analysis, trade hand-wringing etc. that it's only been in the past year or so that I've gotten around to following baseball on a "meta" level. But it's been very rewarding broadening a clinical one-team focus into a wider one, and I know I would've felt swamped and quickly lost interest had I just jumped back into baseball, as a whole, all at once.

If you adopted that approach, I think your local team could be a interesting place to start; they're about to jump leagues next season (only the second club since 1900 to do that) and their fans are not liking it. Promises to be a strange new adventure though!

Here are some general/sabermetric baseball blogs to follow, I think all of which were recommended by Josh:

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/
http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/
http://www.hardballtimes.com/

And I also read Big League Stew, which is Yahoo's Gawker-style (but not nearly that bad) baseball blog. Today's controversy: did Jose Valverde throw spitballs last night?

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/

[Dick]

You guys are the best.

[El_Josharino]

Goddammit. I've had about enough of Fredi Gonzalez and his quick hook with pitchers. It seems like his policy is to pull a guy as soon as he allows a baserunner after the 5th inning. He should have stayed with Minor through the 8th tonight, and he should have left Teheran in to finish at least the 5th if not longer against Toronto on Sunday. Both hooks just may have cost the Braves a win.

[davy]

Fucking frustrating game. Less so for me than for Minor, I'd guess.

[Ignatius]

Speaking of Pittsburgh Pirates prospects, my new hometown team is the Indianapolis Indians, who boast about their park a lot... I can say from firsthand experience that the site is great - in the middle of a really beautiful state park between the river they got here and this long canal with a repurposed, pedestrian towpath. 

I figure if I'm ever going to sit down and learn to appreciate watching baseball, it will be this summer.

[davy]

One of the really lovely things about sitting down to watch baseball is that you're also sitting down to enjoy a beer, or a nice day, or the company of your neighbors & friends, &tc.

Which isn't really something I'd say about most other sports. Maybe tennis?

[El_Josharino]

The legend of Bryce Harper continues:
http://blogs.thescore.com/mlb/2012/06/13/thats-a-clown-question-bro/

I'm going to start answering stupid questions at work with "That's a clown question, bro."

[Thermofusion]

One of the really lovely things about sitting down to watch baseball is that you're also sitting down to enjoy a beer, or a nice day, or the company of your neighbors & friends, &tc.

Which isn't really something I'd say about most other sports. Maybe tennis?

Man, definitely. It's weird, I love going to NBA games but don't really enjoy it on TV (same with hockey), hate going to NFL games but love it on TV, but baseball can be (not always) so magical in person and it has surprisingly little to do with the action on the field. It's all about the atmosphere and the dreamlike pace and the summer nights and the random conversations with friendly strangers around you.

Iggy the Indy ballpark gets effusive raves from every Pirates scout, beat writer and blogger who visits so it sounds like a perfect spot to throw back some brews and watch a game. I'll be in and out of Pittsburgh half of the summer and full-time starting in September, definitely wanna make a road trip to Indy to check it out for myself.

[distance]

still working my way through ken burns' baseball here and there.. i still love all the old footage.  one thing that really stands out is the fact that people used to go to games in suits, etc.   people are a bit less classy these days, i guess.   also no one wears hats anymore.

[El_Josharino]

Crap, I downloaded that a couple weeks ago and haven't started watching yet. I'll probably commit a lazy Sunday to it one of these weekends.

[El_Josharino]

Also, dudes, don't look now (or do) but Matt Cain has pitched 8 innings of VERY INTERESTING baseball.

[distance]

Crap, I downloaded that a couple weeks ago and haven't started watching yet. I'll probably commit a lazy Sunday to it one of these weekends.

each episode is like 2hrs, but if you wanna be super hardcore about it, go right ahead!

[Thermofusion]

Well I have to get up at 6 tomorrow and I just stayed up almost 'til 1 to watch a SF/Houston game in the middle of June. But, awesome day of baseball. Kudos to Cain and Dickey!