BATTER UP!

[belfastboy]

Like when there are donuts in the break room?

I hated the polyester 70s and 80s uniforms, especially with the pullover tops. The only bad thing about being blessed to have the Big Red Machine to watch when I was younger is looking back at those uniforms. Ugh. Plus, so much happened in the cookie-cutter Riverfront Stadium on the Astroturf. Oh well, life ain't perfect, eh?

I played on a team sometime in the 70's and we wore Houston Astros replica uniforms.....now that defined ugly....but somehow we thought we looked sharp.

 

[Fading Fast]

Here's a real rarity -- 16mm Kodachrome footage of a game at Baker Bowl between the Phillies and Braves on May 29, 1935. At 2:20, you'll see fat 40 year old Boston left fielder Babe Ruth swing and miss. He would go one for two in this game, with one RBI, before being pulled for a defensive replacement, as the Braves beat Philadelphia 8 to 6.

This was Ruth's next-to-last game -- after misplaying a fly ball and allowing a run to score in the first inning of the following day's game, Ruth went back to the Braves bench and told manager Bill McKechnie he was done.

That right field wall really was as close as it looks. The right-center power alley was 280 feet from home plate.

Thank God he took care of himself - ate right, didn't drink or smoke, no late-night carousing or loose women - or he'd have never played the game for so long.

The actual cap Ruth was wearing in that clip. As he was walking off the field after his last game the following day, he spotted a two-year-old boy sitting in the stands with his father. Ruth, after waving the cap to the cheering crowd, handed it to the man and told him to save it for his child. That child auctioned it off for over $36,000 in 2009.

I have no real knowledge of the baseball collectable market other than what I learn here and from the occasional "high-profile" news story when something reasonably famous is sold for a lot of money, but if you hadn't told me what it sold for, I would have bet more than $36k. Was it that he is so associated with the Yankees that a Braves hat - even one with, seemingly, strong provenance and from his last game - just doesn't get the collectors excited?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Thank God he took care of himself - ate right, didn't drink or smoke, no late-night carousing or loose women - or he'd have never played the game for so long.

Given his well-documented habits, it really is an achievement that he managed to play twenty years in the major leagues, or nineteen and a half if you leave out his 1925 hospitalization and suspension. When you look at footage of him during his early days with the Red Sox, you notice he had a very impressive build -- he was a real athlete before he got fat, and the foundation must've remained strong even under all the blubber.

I have no real knowledge of the baseball collectable market other than what I learn here and from the occasional "high-profile" news story when something reasonably famous is sold for a lot of money, but if you hadn't told me what it sold for, I would have bet more than $36k. Was it that he is so associated with the Yankees that a Braves hat - even one with, seemingly, strong provenance and from his last game - just doesn't get the collectors excited?

I suspect that may be a part of it -- the Ruth Yankee cap that David Wells famously wore during a game some years ago auctioned for, I think, over $300,000. Probably would have sold for more if Wells hadn't stretched it out with his giant meaty head.

 

[Fading Fast]

Given his well-documented habits, it really is an achievement that he managed to play twenty years in the major leagues, or nineteen and a half if you leave out his 1925 hospitalization and suspension. When you look at footage of him during his early days with the Red Sox, you notice he had a very impressive build -- he was a real athlete before he got fat, and the foundation must've remained strong even under all the blubber..

Image what he could have done if he had taken care of himself like, say, your Tom Brady.

Given his well-documented habits, it really is an achievement that he managed to play twenty years in the major leagues, or nineteen and a half if you leave out his 1925 hospitalization and suspension. When you look at footage of him during his early days with the Red Sox, you notice he had a very impressive build -- he was a real athlete before he got fat, and the foundation must've remained strong even under all the blubber.



I suspect that may be a part of it -- the Ruth Yankee cap that David Wells famously wore during a game some years ago auctioned for, I think, over $300,000. Probably would have sold for more if Wells hadn't stretched it out with his giant meaty head.

Nice

 

[Ghostsoldier]

"Foundation stays strong, even under the blubber".

I've got to use that on the wife to defend myself, when she comments on how I looked 30 years ago when we married, compared to today, lol.

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

The strong foundation in action. Twenty-year-old Babe Ruth warms up before a game at Comiskey Park.

 

[HudsonHawk]

There is a popular image of Ruth as the overweight, lumbering sloth who could barely standup. And he may have been that way at the end, and when he played himself in Pride of the Yankees. But Ruth in his day was a terrific athlete. Not only could he hit, but he could run and was an excellent outfielder with a good glove and a strong, accurate arm. He was also a HOF-caliber pitcher. As far as all-around baseball players, they don't really come any better than Ruth.

 

[wallypop]

I agree! Plus- for what it's worth-I HATE big- baggy- long over the ankle - floppy pants most baseball players wear today! In MY day haha the more "white background" and "narrow slimness" you showed
in your stirrups ...... the better you looked!

 

[LizzieMaine]

He wasn't just a free-swinging slugger, either. Look at his batting average, especially in the early twenties when he was in his physical prime. Viewed in totality, his 1920 and 1921 seasons may be the most impressive two-year stretch of any player ever.

Of all his accomplishments, though, Ruth himself was always proudest of his pitching skill, especially his World Series scoreless innings record which lasted until the 1960s. And he never really lost that skill -- when he was thirty-eight years old, overweight, and way over the hill, he started the last game of the 1933 season, and pitched a complete game win against the Red Sox.

 

[Harp]

But the throwing arms would be equally thwarted aerodynamically, so maybe it all evened out.

Uniforms evolve which is fine and makes sense as clothing technology changes as do trends.

The game itself is inherently dynamic, a constant evolution; no more so than pitching velocity as solved inside the batter's box calculus.
During post season play in the season before last, the Mets bullpen led by their ace Harvey destroyed the Cubs so thoroughly that Joe Maddon
should have been nominated for an Oscar for his post game locker room press conference spin. Chicago had absolutely nothing to stave off the
Mets dominance. Today strikes can be thrown well above 100mph with NY Yankee hurler and ex-Cub A. Chapman able to touch 105mph; though his
is the extreme range; still the constancy is apparent.

 

[Fading Fast]

The game itself is inherently dynamic, a constant evolution; no more so than pitching velocity as solved inside the batter's box calculus.
During post season play in the season before last, the Mets bullpen led by their ace Harvey destroyed the Cubs so thoroughly that Joe Maddon
should have been nominated for an Oscar for his post game locker room press conference spin. Chicago had absolutely nothing to stave off the
Mets dominance. Today strikes can be thrown well above 100mph with NY Yankee hurler and ex-Cub A. Chapman able to touch 105mph; though his
is the extreme range; still the constancy is apparent.

I've gone to one game in person over the last three seasons as tickets in NY are stupid expensive, but fortunately, in the one game I did go to, Chapman came on in relief. Maybe it's the hype, but his pitches were intimidating in person - you felt their speed and, more so, their power and domination of the batter.

 

[Frunobulax]

I've gone to one game in person over the last three seasons as tickets in NY are stupid expensive, but fortunately, in the one game I did go to, Chapman came on in relief. Maybe it's the hype, but his pitches were intimidating in person - you felt their speed and, more so, their power and domination of the batter.

Saw him many times close for the Reds. I can see where he'd be intimidating.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I've gone to one game in person over the last three seasons as tickets in NY are stupid expensive, but fortunately, in the one game I did go to, Chapman came on in relief. Maybe it's the hype, but his pitches were intimidating in person - you felt their speed and, more so, their power and domination of the batter.

The hardest throwing pitcher I ever faced was probably low 90s...93, 94...you can hear when it whizzes by your ear. The hardest throwing pitcher I ever caught was about the same. It felt like catching a bowling ball. Like it wanted to go right through you. I've caught 100 mph pitches from a machine and the reaction time is scarily small.

 

[LizzieMaine]

But for a quirk of fate, this man, Ray Chapman, shortstop for the Cleveland Indians from 1912 to 1920, would be remembered in the same breath as Jack Barry or Everett Scott on the list of quality but unspectacular middle infielders of the 1910s.

But on a glowering, grey afternoon at the Polo Grounds on August 16, 1920, Chapman lost sight of a rising inside fastball from hardboiled Yankee submariner Carl Mays, and took its full impact in his left temple. The ball hit his head with such force that it ricocheted back to the mound, and in the gloom most players and fans in the park thought it had hit Chapman's bat. Mays fielded the ball and threw it to Wally Pipp at first for the out, but as he did so, Chapman swayed and collapsed at the plate, blood streaming out of his ear. Teammates helped him to his feet and tried to help him walk to the clubhouse, but he collapsed again. He was rushed to the nearest hospital, where doctors performed emergency surgery to remove a loose chunk of skull that had been pressed into his brain, but the injuries were too severe and Chapman died early on the morning of August 17th. He had been planning to retire at the end of the season, if the Indians won the World Series.

The Indians, wearing black armbands in his memory, did win the World Series. The following season the club erected a plaque in honor of Chapman at League Park, which later followed the team to Municipal Stadium, and still later to Jacobs Field, where it remains on display today.

In the wake of Chapman's death, a cry went up in the press for players to wear some kind of protective headgear, but the prevailing macho ethos of the times prevented any meaningful progress on that front. It took the near-deaths from beanings of Tiger catcher-manager Mickey Cochrane in 1937 and Dodger outfielder Joe Medwick in 1940 to finally force the idea to the forefront, and in 1941, the Dodgers began requiring all batters on their club to wear a hard protective insert in their caps while at the plate. These inserts gradually spread to other teams, and in 1953, Branch Rickey began a company to manufacture a full hard-shell fiberglass cap, covered with a fuzzy flocking compound to imitate the look of a regular cloth cap. Rickey, as GM of the Pirates, required his players to wear this headgear both at bat and in the field until the players complained, but the helmets caught on with the rest of baseball, and were in widespread use by the end of the fifties.

But they weren't compulsory, and some players still held out -- using either the cap inserts or no protective headgear at all. Finally, in 1971, hardshell helmets were made compulsory for all players entering the major leagues as of that season. There were by that time only two major leaguers who routinely played without hard hats -- Norm Cash of the Tigers and backup catcher Bob Montgomery of the Red Sox both were given the option of using cap inserts for the rest of their careers, and did so. When Montogmery retired at the end of the 1979 season, he was the last player to step to the plate without a hard hat, and his cap insert went to the Hall Of Fame as a relic of a more dangerous time.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I have one of those inserts. It doesn't instill a lot of confidence. It's pretty thin.

 

[HudsonHawk]

One of the "fuzzy" hard plastic helmets:

 

[belfastboy]

[QUOTE="HudsonHawk, post: 2297943, member: 29415"ardest throwing pitcher I ever faced was probably low 90s...93, 94...you can hear when it whizzes by your ear. The hardest throwing pitcher I ever caught was about the same. It felt like catching a bowling ball. Like it wanted to go right through you. I've caught 100 mph pitches from a machine and the reaction time is scarily small.[/QUOTE]
I was a catcher for many years and it was always amazing how each pitcher had a diff feel when caught. Some felt like catching a rock and no matter the padding used I would end the game with a swollen and bruised palm. Others, while throwing at the same MPH would land in the glove light as a feather. The worst was a pitcher I caught , thankfully just one season, threw a hard knuckleball. I would open my glove as wide as possible and try to at least stop it. I could never catch it in the right spot and invariably hit me right in the unpadded palm. It felt like catching a tumbling brick.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I was a catcher for many years and it was always amazing how each pitcher had a diff feel when caught. Some felt like catching a rock and no matter the padding used I would end the game with a swollen and bruised palm. Others, while throwing at the same MPH would land in the glove light as a feather. The worst was a pitcher I caught , thankfully just one season, threw a hard knuckleball. I would open my glove as wide as possible and try to at least stop it. I could never catch it in the right spot and invariably hit me right in the unpadded palm. It felt like catching a tumbling brick.

Some guys definitely throw a "heavy" fastball. I've caught a few knuckleballers, and I wouldn't recommend it. I think the old "wait til it stops rolling then pick it up" is the best way to catch the knuckler.

I remember one pitcher I caught who had a terrific overhand curve...a real 12-6er. If I had a nickel for every time it bounced and came up and hit me right on the inside of the forearm...It was a great pitch, but it left me constantly in bruises.

 

[2jakes]

1911 World Series

 

[2jakes]

[John McGraw (left) & Chief Meyers (catching)
1911 World Series

Honus Wagner