OT/ Had a strange Baseball feat

[Creaghorn 10]

sorry for those who are not familiar with baseball. but for those who are it's kind of a comical feat.

we had a game the other day where we won 7:2.

i had 5 RBI's without having a single official at bat.

at my three first plate appearences i had a sacrifice fly each.

then i drew a bases loaded walk and at the last plate appearence i had a bases loaded hit by pitch.

it's quite cool to get 5 RBI's and additionally not having done anything to spoil my batting average .

[Olham 164]

??? ???

Edited May 23, 2011 by Olham

[Slartibartfast 153]

Baseball isn't that something like cricket old chap...??? don't know what your on about there though... Saying that don't play cricket either...

Edited May 23, 2011 by Slartibartfast

[Hasse Wind 46]

You could have written that in Croatian and I would have understood it equally well. That is, not at all.

 

Whatever it was, it's good that you enjoyed it.

[Shiloh 12]

I know baseball and that's pretty amazing. The chances of getting 5 RBI in that manner are highly unlikely.

Edited May 23, 2011 by Shiloh

[Creaghorn 10]

hm. how to explain it.

 

of course no real comparison, but just to make a bit more understandable.

imagine you are in a sortie with full gunload. and imagine it would have been really important how high your shooting accuracy is. and you hunt an enemy, but you realize your guns are jammed. and so you are on his six and outmanouver him in such a way that he lands in enemy territory and giving up and getting in prison, although you haven't fired a single shot at him. so you didn't spoil your shooting percentage, but have nonetheless a victory more on your list. .

[Creaghorn 10]

tch, comparing baseball with cricket.

that's like comparing rugby with soccer

[Shiloh 12]

I'd like to elaborate on your analogy creaghorn although I'm only expanding on what you already said.

 

Let's say that an RBI = an aerial victory.

 

You usually get an aerial victory by shooting your opponent down and you get an RBI in baseball by getting a hit and driving a run in. Now let's say you fly a mission and get 5 victories. But instead of shooting them down let's say you collide with one, force another one to hit a tree, clip another one's wing, force one into a building, and pursue a guy so aggressively he flies into the ground. You still got 5 victories but none were in the most typical way. And it's not that impressive that you got 1, 2 or even 3 in this manner - but 5? Wow.

 

Does that make sense?

Edited May 23, 2011 by Shiloh

[Olham 164]

hm. how to explain it.

 

of course no real comparison, but just to make a bit more understandable.

imagine you are in a sortie with full gunload. and imagine it would have been really important how high your shooting accuracy is. and you hunt an enemy, but you realize your guns are jammed. and so you are on his six and outmanouver him in such a way that he lands in enemy territory and giving up and getting in prison, although you haven't fired a single shot at him. so you didn't spoil your shooting percentage, but have nonetheless a victory more on your list. .

Now, this is an explanation I understand! Why didn't you say this earlier?

Congratulations, Creaghorn - this was definitely a very rare thing to achieve!

[Creaghorn 10]

I'd like to elaborate on your analogy creaghorn although I'm only expanding on what you already said.

 

Let's say that an RBI = an aerial victory.

 

You usually get an aerial victory by shooting your opponent down and you get an RBI in baseball by getting a hit and driving a run in. Now let's say you fly a mission and get 5 victories. But instead of shooting them down let's say you collide with one, force another one to hit a tree, clip another one's wing, force one into a building, and pursue a guy so aggressively he flies into the ground. You still got 5 victories but none were in the most typical way. And it's not that impressive that you got 1, 2 or even 3 in this manner - but 5? Wow.

 

Does that make sense?

 

atta boy

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Congratulations on your feat, Creaghorn. I hope the HBP didn't bother you too much. Then again, you are a catcher, so you have to be tough! Catcher is probably the most important, and least appreciated, position in all of baseball.

 

Just yesterday, a guy in a major league baseball game had five walks. Almost everytime I go to a game, I see something I haven't seen before. One time, although this was on TV, I saw the pitcher get the ball that had been hit back to him stuck in his mit. Rather than allow the base hit, he threw both glove and ball to the first baseman. The umpire ruled it an out! Another time, an outfielder named Jose Canseco failed to catch the ball and it hit off the top of his head and over the fence for a homerun! In a minor league game, an outfielder was so intent on catching a long fly ball that he crashed right through the outfield fence!

 

You never know what you might see in a baseball game.

[Shiloh 12]

You are right about that Herr Prop-Wasche. I have seen a few of the ones you are talking about. This is by far the most amazing thing I have ever seen in a professional baseball game.

 

 

The extra stuff on this video is kinda' funny.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Oh gosh! I had forgot about that one! Imagine being that poor seagull struck by a 100 mph fastball.

 

Didn't someone threaten to prosecute him for cruelty to animals?!!

[Shiloh 12]

I'm sure PETA charged him with something but that is the darndest thing I've seen. I'm sure that seagull didn't feel a thing - it was over quick.

Edited May 23, 2011 by Shiloh

[Creaghorn 10]

Congratulations on your feat, Creaghorn. I hope the HBP didn't bother you too much. Then again, you are a catcher, so you have to be tough! Catcher is probably the most important, and least appreciated, position in all of baseball.

 

Just yesterday, a guy in a major league baseball game had five walks. Almost everytime I go to a game, I see something I haven't seen before. One time, although this was on TV, I saw the pitcher get the ball that had been hit back to him stuck in his mit. Rather than allow the base hit, he threw both glove and ball to the first baseman. The umpire ruled it an out! Another time, an outfielder named Jose Canseco failed to catch the ball and it hit off the top of his head and over the fence for a homerun! In a minor league game, an outfielder was so intent on catching a long fly ball that he crashed right through the outfield fence!

 

You never know what you might see in a baseball game.

 

@thank you all .

 

thanks HPW.

not at all. hit me on my left forearm with a hanging and off slider and didn't hurt at all. but the next game i got hit between the numbers with a fastball. that hurt much more but of course there is no rubbing or showing of any pain . but it wasn't intentional so no benches cleared or something. actually in the last two games there was also in each a bang bang collision at the plate which made me a bit dizzy (of course also no showing any sign of pain ).

similar to this pic

but you are right. with catchers it's similar as with umpires. the better they are, the less often you'll notice them. although on my last defensive performance i was making notice of myself with having 3 steals against me with one throwing error to third base causing a run.

usually after a game i look about this.

 

getting slowly old for that stuff

 

p.s.

as you mentioned things you have never seen in a ballgame yet. some years ago with rather dull weather one guy hit a catchers popfly. me starting the catcher popfly dance as usual. i looked up, saw the ball and was astonished how towering the ball was hit. just a small dot in the sky. i placed myself where i supposed the ball is going to come back. i was waiting and wondering why the heck the ball doesn't come back. suddenly i noticed something falling some feet away from me to the ground. what the...i looked up again and then i realized i was mixing up a very high balloon with the hit ball. that's a way for one to look foolish

[JFM 18]

Interesting that the benches clear in German baseball, too.

 

Edit: Forgot to say your first post made perfect sense to me! Pretty cool.

Edited May 24, 2011 by JFM

[Creaghorn 10]

Interesting that the benches clear in German baseball, too.

 

Edit: Forgot to say your first post made perfect sense to me! Pretty cool.

 

 

yes, and mostly for the same stupid reasons as usual. high spiking, plunking somebody hard and therfore you have to retaliate to show presence, unnecessary hard tags, exchangin words etc.

usually you know before the game something like that might happen because something else happened the game before etc.

although the different thing is, the umpires in germany usually doesn't warn both benches immediately but let the heat go up a while until something happens. the other thing is that punches are relatively rare thrown because the suspensions are very tough compared to the us. then you migh be suspended for 10+ games and high fees etc. so usually it's not so dramatic. mostly changing words and pushing, and of course then both teams have to show presence on the field.

[JFM 18]

I've not noticed so much of that here but definitely head-hunting or too many "accidental" beans will do it.

 

My father played minor league ball as a pitcher in the 1960s (on the Tampa Tarpons with a guy named Pete Rose, who my dad said gambled frequently, even back then) and hit a guy who then charged the mound with the bat! Fists are one thing but an angry man with a bat is another; my dad was smart and took off. They got to center field before the guy was tackled and disarmed.

[Creaghorn 10]

I've not noticed so much of that here but definitely head-hunting or too many "accidental" beans will do it.

 

My father played minor league ball as a pitcher in the 1960s (on the Tampa Tarpons with a guy named Pete Rose, who my dad said gambled frequently, even back then) and hit a guy who then charged the mound with the bat! Fists are one thing but an angry man with a bat is another; my dad was smart and took off. They got to center field before the guy was tackled and disarmed.

 

yes. you are definitely right. it is as in hockey. fists and nothing else. usually you don't see that often with somebody coming with a bat. that happens maybe once a century. although, i played once with a pitcher who in wintertime went to southafrica to play ball and he said that there it happened they run on the field with knives. but i think it was an onetime experience and not the rule.

but usually you won't ever see anybody armed in brawls. mostly it's similar. maybe somebody was hitting a dinger and was showing off the pitcher or somebody tried to take a glimpse on my signs i'm giving or sometimes simply because one is 5 for 5 every time you play against him etc. then of course you plunk or bean him just to make him think more at the plate. and vice versa. and if there is a retaliation the next inning, then it might start. sometimes after the retaliation of the retaliation. sometimes nothing at all happens. but mostly you know can feel it pretty soon if some brawl is in the air.

 

cool your dad played in the minors. didn't know that. how about you? usually the talent is something which can continue with the children

[Shiloh 12]

That's a great story there JFM. Taking into account Creaghorn's sig and love for baseball, here's a baseball story for you guys.

 

My uncle was a 2-sport star at Notre Dame in the late 1940's, basketball and baseball. He was drafted to play in the minor leagues (baseball) as a shortstop and had a somewhat promising career ahead of him if he could just stay healthy and keep improving. The minor league baseball parks in the United States at that time were not all that nice.

 

One night in 1950 or so, (yes occasionally they played night games) my uncle was playing a game and the lights at the field where he played were very bad. You couldn't much call them lights as they barely lit the field enough to play but nonetheless the game went on. While my uncle was playing the field, he saw a very strong young man walk up to the plate to hit. He described the kid as being "strong as a bull" and said he stood out from most by appearance alone.

 

The kid got up a few times and on his third time up at the plate he took a few pitches, then calmly stepped back in the batters box. The pitcher threw one right down the middle and my uncle heard the crack of the bat but couldn't see the ball. Because it was hit so hard and due to the poor lighting, he "felt the ball" whiz by his head but never saw it. He said later if the ball hit him in the head, he thought it would have killed him.

 

The kid made it to second base with a stand-up double and my uncle went over to give him a pat on the butt and said "nice hit kid". He later found out that the kid was none other than a young Mickey Mantle. My uncle never did make it to the big leagues as he had a catastrophic shoulder injury that held him back but he always did love telling that story and I will never forget it.

[Creaghorn 10]

i love stories like that, thanks for sharing.

 

one can't imagine how hughe generally big leaguers are. one is used to see them on tv, see them playing the game looking easy etc. but if you play yourself, maybe even in a decent league, and you see permanently people with decent arms and batting ability and power or good defensive skills, also minorleaguers, you think how good the players are you play with or against. but if you then see a big league game in real, then you'll realize how good the major league players really are. what really a rocket arm is, what unbelievable batspeed and power they have. what amazing skills they have and that it is indeed a league of their own high above anything else. like a whole geschwader filled with hundred richthofen clones.

and then there are those century players like mantle or dimaggio who stand even above that.

 

a little story fell to my mind, although i can't confirm it if it's true or not.

a fellow catcher i played with some years ago once was in some springtraining organisation with the baltimore orioles. and he told me what B.J. Surhoff, the catcher of the orioles in those days has told him.

cal ripken, who is holding the record of playing the most consecutive games without missing a game, once almost broke his series by coming weigh too late to a homegame. they tried to delay the homegame as good as they could, by switching off the stadiumlights, pretending to have a current issue etc. desperately waiting for him to finally arrive. otherwise they would have to start the game without him and his series would be snapped.

ripken arrived just in time to be in the starting lineup.

reason why he came too late was that he found his wife in bed with kevin costner, and so he grabbed him and beat the sh..t out of him,

 

as i said, don't know if true, but a nice story

[Shiloh 12]

I had heard that one as well Creaghorn. I worked at ESPN for 5 years and I heard many times that this was true from people who would know (Directors/Producers/Coordinating Producers) as they are often connected with the athletes. I can't confirm one way or another but it makes for a great story.

 

So do you play minor league ball there in Germany?

[JFM 18]

 

cool your dad played in the minors. didn't know that. how about you? usually the talent is something which can continue with the children

 

Yes, my dad played for a few years with several franchises in the early and mid sixties. As I said he was a pitcher (lefty) but a rotator cuff injury ended that and so he became first baseman. I don't remember the year but he got called up and a chance to sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, Willie Stargell was their first baseman at the time and he knew there was no way in hell he'd ever play an inning with that guy there. Also, my brother and I had come along and you know how life changes with some hungry munchkins running around in diapers. So, he went back to the steel mills and studied broadcasting through a mail-order school, of all things. Became a radio DJ and then went into television broadcasting as a sportscaster on the news, so he was always involved with sports. He did that for 30 years. He's retired today and spends his time coaching high school and external organizational baseball.

 

No, I was a mediocre ballplayer. Sportscasters back then (pre-ESPN, internet, yadda) actually travelled around a lot and interviewed/covered big teams. For instance my father, who worked in Madison Wisconsin at the time, produced a special about an Ali/Frazier fight; travelled to the training camps, interviewed them, then the TV stationed pre-empted prime time network shows to play it. He did that with Hank Aaron, Bart Starr, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Rose, Mike Schmidt, etc. Unfathomable today. Floyd Patterson is (was) my Godfather. Anyway, my dad was gone a lot and so baseball was never stressed in our house at all. However, my parents divorced and he has a whole new crop of kids. Being retired and a coach, my half-brother has received all the baseball knowledge from him and as a sophomore was good enough to make the high school varsity team and is just tearing it up.

 

Cool story, Shiloh! I wouldn't want a Mickle Mantle ball to hit my noggin!

 

Kevin Costner? He must've been a sight after Ripkin got through with him.

[Creaghorn 10]

So do you play minor league ball there in Germany?

 

oh no. i played the last decade in first german division, so called baseball bundesliga. the level of the first division is maybe comparable to some lower a-ball. depending of how good or bad the team is, some have maybe "just" college level. there are lot of minor leaguers and even some former major leaguers and j-leaguers playing, but i'm not playing in this league anymore since a while. also there are not too many players who can make a living just with playing. most of them have also at least parttime jobs.

in germany, as in any other sports league the last teams in the standings drop into the second division and the first teams of the second division rise into the first division. unlike in the us where a team can be really bad on last place and still remains in the league.

some years ago the team i played in went into the playoffs and reached the finals, which we lost. after that year we reached the playoffs again. so we regurlarly played rather on the upper half for winning the championsship. suddenly the sponsorship broke apart, the club couldn't efford the salaries anymore, the best players went to other teams and just a few members and a lot of rookies left. i also left and the club dropped into the second division. the year after the club fell into third division.

then i got married and i had offers to get a shot to play for one of the first division teams in munich because their catcher was good, but quite young without any leadership. so they wanted me to be his mentor and to be a teamleader. but since i have a fulltime job, and i also have a baby now, there is no more space anymore to live my life how baseball dictates, but vice versa.

that means now i'm playing for a local 4th division team (still a good level though), trying to rise into the third division. so currently i'm a little bit bigger fish in a small pond. the glory days are gone. but although i'm still not old, i'm also not young anymore and don't have the possibility to switch teams and towns as i wish. now there are more important things in my life.

[Creaghorn 10]

Yes, my dad played for a few years with several franchises in the early and mid sixties. As I said he was a pitcher (lefty) but a rotator cuff injury ended that and so he became first baseman. I don't remember the year but he got called up and a chance to sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, Willie Stargell was their first baseman at the time and he knew there was no way in hell he'd ever play an inning with that guy there. Also, my brother and I had come along and you know how life changes with some hungry munchkins running around in diapers. So, he went back to the steel mills and studied broadcasting through a mail-order school, of all things. Became a radio DJ and then went into television broadcasting as a sportscaster on the news, so he was always involved with sports. He did that for 30 years. He's retired today and spends his time coaching high school and external organizational baseball.

 

No, I was a mediocre ballplayer. Sportscasters back then (pre-ESPN, internet, yadda) actually travelled around a lot and interviewed/covered big teams. For instance my father, who worked in Madison Wisconsin at the time, produced a special about an Ali/Frazier fight; travelled to the training camps, interviewed them, then the TV stationed pre-empted prime time network shows to play it. He did that with Hank Aaron, Bart Starr, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Rose, Mike Schmidt, etc. Unfathomable today. Floyd Patterson is (was) my Godfather. Anyway, my dad was gone a lot and so baseball was never stressed in our house at all. However, my parents divorced and he has a whole new crop of kids. Being retired and a coach, my half-brother has received all the baseball knowledge from him and as a sophomore was good enough to make the high school varsity team and is just tearing it up.

 

Cool story, Shiloh! I wouldn't want a Mickle Mantle ball to hit my noggin!

 

Kevin Costner? He must've been a sight after Ripkin got through with him.

 

i'm sure you are using your best talent for your living (writing etc.), and that's the best thing a one can achieve. but unfortunately the story with your father is a good example how stressing sports or lot of travelling etc. can be for a marriage. especially that's the case with baseball.

 

that floyd patterson was your godfather is simply amazing. i imagine you as a kid getting into trouble with the schoolbully, and you tell him who your godfather is. really intimidating :yes: .