Click here to launch the story from the NY Post in a new window

Apparently Keith Hernandez called out Reyes for his childish, unprofessional behavior on the field–throwing the glove like a kid during the play, possibly showing up his teammate.  And that’s the beauty of Hernandez, he’ll tell you what he thinks and he’s always right.  Hernandez is not afraid to say it early and often and it is so refreshing NOT to be treated like a kid.  Go Keith.  Call out the babied Reyes.  Rip him.

***
And speaking of childish and unprofessional, I have a link to a story about the Mets from one of the Yankee-centric writers at the Post.  Why a Met fan would EVER buy the Post, I do not know.  ALL the staff writers worship the Yankees like they are 12 year old boys and they go out of their way constantly to RIP the Mets any time they can.  Read the piece and see it dripping off of every word.  Why in the world are you attacking the Mets for being formed in 1962?  How is that relevant?  It isn’t relevant–it’s kids’ stuff; playground stuff.  The writing is a disgrace.  How it gets printed I’ll never know.  Have a look.

Click here to read really unprofessional, childish, Yankee-centric writing that is the hallmark of the NY Post

I recently had a not-so-good experience where a guy was being rude and sarcastic to me after my nephew gave up 4 first inning runs in the game. Balls were hit hard but some plays weren’t made, which is normal and I was feeling bad for my 8-year old guy and I was just thinking out loud about if “we only…” or “if only”. This person made fun of me and referred to scouts in the stands and I guess your kid doesn’t always do it and so on. Real a**h*** stuff. I was taken aback and then the thought of slugging this guy flashed through my head, but I was raised better than that. But of course, later I had to call this person out on that and it was not pleasant but had to be done.

The game ended on a K-looking for my little buddy with the bases loaded and the tying run on third. That’s one of the reason you get happy when things go well: because they don’t always go well and you savor those nice moments when the boy gets a key hit or pitches well. Anyway, he was crying and it rips you up to see that. But later, he soon forgets for the most part.

I had to tell this person that I don’t have any illusions of my nephew being some major leaguer or anything like that. I work at his baseball because he enjoys it and really, because I never want to see that look on his face. That’s what it’s about for me. It’s really unbelievable how people can be, you know? They see you throwing a lot down at the fields and they see your guy doing well and they automatically cast you as some stage-mother who drives the kid. Even members of my own family make these obnoxious comments. None of them realize that the baseball stuff is ALWAYS fun, or we don’t do it. If the boy doesn’t want to do it, we shut it down. He is never forced to do it and thus, he wants to do it. That is no accident. That is a carefully planned and orchestrated thing, trust me.

If I hear one more person make the crack that “…if my kid doesn’t want to play baseball, he’s in trouble”. No he’s not. He can do whatever he wants but you know what? He’s going to want to do things that he enjoys and that are fun, and I’m willing to bet that baseball will be fun for him and that he will enjoy it.

So tonight, I didn’t even really want to go to the game and considered quitting actually. I can’t get more specific, but trust me, a line was crossed and I have boundaries. But I went. And the weirdness was there. And I wasn’t that plugged in, I’ll tell you. Before going, while driving home from work, I realized that I was so worked up, that I had better go running to cool down. I took the soccer ball out and went nuts in the heat. I was killing the ball. Beckenbauer never hit it so hard. Ropes–and on goal, too. Felt great. Then I got a little TOO into it and tweaked the groin. So now I’m mad at that, but I know it’s my fault. And I head down to the field after a little talk with my wife.

At the game, one of the rec (this is travel) boys is on the bench. He was the kid who was craziest about baseball and he tried so, so hard. He was good but he missed out on travel by a little. I kept pumping him up all year that he should stick with it and then next year, he will make the team if he works at it. He ate it up. I had to caution him for over-celebrating on the mound–a Joba deal. I think I wrote a post about it too. He processed the info and made the adjustment. I also worked on his bad body language when he was struggling. He shrugged and stomped when he wasn’t feeling good. I told him, “…buddy, a pitcher should NEVER let the other guys know that he isn’t feeling too good out there. The difference between a good pitcher and a great one, is that the great one will battle and succeed on a day when he doesn’t have his good stuff. Even the best guys like Halladay go out there and feel lousy some days–pitching is really about dealing with THAT. ANYONE can pitch good when they feel good.”

Mostly I made sure to pump him up as much as was reasonable, because, you could easily read that he was a little insecure (who isn’t?) and that it went a long way. He ate it up. And we got a better pitcher out of it. And we needed him sharp to win the World Series and do you know, on that day, in the clincher, he wasn’t feeling his sharpest, but he battled and gave us all he had and kept us on track to win. The kid who first turned up at the start of the year wouldn’t have been able to do that. And it was a great experience for all and if I could help the kid get to that and grab him a piece of that, then I’d crawl on my belly if that’d help him.

So he hands me an envelope at the game. All taped closed and there’s something in it and it says, “Coach Fog” on the outside and I thank him and open it up and do you know what it was? Have a look:

A Dodgers keychain and a note:

This was the perfect thing that I needed at this time and here is was. Somebody was watching over me and you KNOW at that moment that every little thing happens for a reason. What a nice pick me up. Every word you say to a kid and even your inflection, means something; perhaps a lot, to that boy. What a responsibility. But what upside is there. What potential. How awesome was this?

I have been using a Mets keychain since 1987. This is my new keychain. Go 2008 Dodgers. Thanks buddy.

Submitted from Hoboken, NJ office: From the Yankees’ website:

What happens when an ambidextrous pitcher faces off against a switch-hitting batter?

This may sound like an abstract philosophical query along the lines of “If a tree falls in the forest…” but on Thursday night in Brooklyn, this baffling conundrum became all too real.

The Staten Island Yankees were leading the host Cyclones, 7-2, in the bottom of the ninth inning when Pat Venditte came in to close out the ballgame. Venditte, a 20th-round Draft pick who happened to be making his professional debut, is ambidextrous. The Creighton State product even uses a specially-made six-fingered glove that can be worn comfortably on either hand.

Pitching right-handed, Venditte induced a pair of groundouts to start the inning, and Nicholas Giarraputo then singled to center field to keep the game alive. This brought switch-hitter Ralph Henriquez to the plate, and that’s when the fun began.

Henriquez had been swinging left-handed in the on-deck circle, so Venditte switched his glove to his right hand in order to face the 21-year-old backstop. Seeing this, Henriquez instead came to the plate batting from the right side. So, Venditte switched his glove back to his left hand. Henriquez then decided to bat lefty, and Venditte switched his glove yet again.

And on and on it went. This rather absurd (and highly amusing) game of chicken ultimately led to a prolonged conference between the umpires and coaching staffs of both teams. After much debate, Manriquez was made to bat right-handed against Venditte throwing right-handed. Manriquez then struck out on three pitches to end the game.

Wow. I think that the batter should hit on the side he feels is his best shot at a hit/BB. He should also consider that maybe the guy is throwing righty and isn’t as loose lefty, so in that case you may go up Lefty to force him to switch to the “cold” hand. How does the pitcher keep loose with both hands all inning? hmm..

I think the batter ultimately, has to get set in one box or the other. The rules clearly state that if you switch sides DURING the pitch or while the pitcher is on the rubber, you are out. So batter chooses and there’s no prohibition on the pitcher’s glove switch so he can make the adjustment. So long as the pitcher can switch that glove while on the rubber and not balk (there’s about 13 different, distinct ways to balk), he has effectively “Frozen” the batter into either the left or right batter’s box.

***

Has anyone any ideas on good kids’ books?  Or a website that list such books?  I am thinking in the vein of 3rd and 4th grade stuff like James and the Giant Peach and The Great Brain.  Myself, I liked the Paul Bunyon, but that might not fly with today’s kids so much.

***

Video wise, the latest Kolchak phase has run its course and it joins the other DVDs in the pile along with Bullwinkle, Andy Griffith, Jack Benny, The Odd Couple, Green Acres and Arrested Development.

***

Random: This is from a long time ago and stuck in the drafts folder: Rolling Stones songs was the topic.  I laugh now at how much stock I put in those idiots when I was younger.  Still, some of their music has a certain something.  Someone asked me about it and we both agreed (Joe I think) that “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” is probably their best offering.  NOTHING else sounds or sounded like that.  And it’s pretty ambitious.  I’m not sure that anyone would set out to make a record like that now, you know?  Well, it was the 60’s.

Along those lines, I also always loved the totally Mick Taylor influenced “Time Waits For No One”.  Not even Jagger could ruin that one.  Great guitar work, just effortlessly tasteful playing and NO showing off.  You ever think Mick Taylor sits around and kicks himself for getting off that gravy train?  Hmm…

The entire album “Exile On Main Street” was an amazing thing for a big, heavy rock outfit to come up with.  I wore out several copies of it and it is the most played single album I think ever, for me.  Which track?  Well, all of them, really.  Like any great album, you don’t care where you put it on or how long it plays.  Maybe some tunes haven’t aged well.  I’ve heard Jagger refer to it as the album that the critics liked the most but he says, “…the sales don’t reflect that”.  Always having to be, you know, “cool”.  Doesn’t Jagger remind you of the most popular guy in high school, who you see at the reunion and he is still reveling in it all long after no one cares anymore?  Go fix your eyeliner, pal.

Jagger went on to say that the “mixing” of Exile was “terrible”.  Hmm.  Not sure I agree.  I do know that the song Hand of Fate on Black and Blue is possibly the worst mixed song I’ve ever heard.  If mixing can bury the hook and ruin a nice tune, that’s it.

Other noteworthies?  The backup singers on “Gimme Shelter” and really, that entire tune.  Brilliant little package of music.  Ditto “Honkey Tonk Women”.  Just tremendously done.  The sound on the guitar, the phrasing and the way it meshes with the drums.  Still sounds great.

I always loved “Can’t you hear me knocking”, but the words are typical Jagger nonsense and that hurts it.

Lately, I’ve been playing Some Girls a lot on my MP3 player at work.  The songs are well crafted in spots.  When the Whip Comes Down always sounds good but don’t pay any attention to the words–my goodness.  Listening to Lies under the headphones and I heard some interesting things being done on the guitar–not the main parts but some of the accents and stuff.  Is that Ron Wood?  If so, some of it is really deft.

By the way, anything after 1980 is complete trash.  And I couldn’t finish without a nod to “You gotta move” and “Love in Vain”.  I don’t think ANY other artist, with the possible exception of Jimmy Page, “got” Mississippi Delta Blues MORE than the Stones on those two numbers.  Oh, and “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out” is the best live rock and roll record ever made.  Nothing even comes close.

[ducking]

(Above: I took this in 1987 just before a Yanks-ChiSox game after having spent the day in the Wrigley bleachers.  I love this photo as it captures the look and feel of my favorite ballpark–Old Comiskey Park.  This place was so out of time it just felt like it had been there FOREVER, you know?  You want ghosts?  This place had the Blacksox and the first all star game and a lot of Negro League championship ball.  Jimmy Foxx hit balls over the roof.  Veeck patrolled the seats with the beer and the smokes and the stories.  Losing this joint for the place that followed was a true loss.  It was up there with Wrigley and Fenway, and, I suspect if the Palehose were better through the years, the romance would have been there and the place would still be standing and looking snappy like Fenway does now.  Oh the vissicitudes of baseball.)

The latest craze among Yankee fans has been to bash the Mets non-stop about firing Willie

Randolph, because [chuckle], he is a YANKEE, get it? The Mets dissed a Yankee and for that, they must be made to pay. It’s the same thing that those 12-year old boy, homing Yankee fan writers at the NY Post have been doing–bashing the Mets relentlessly for days and days and days.

Listen up, I was a Mets fan who jumped ship when the Randolph era bungled its way into expensively underachieving year 3. Firing this clearly in-over-his-head, incompetent manager was a GOOD thing! A step in the right direction. Now, Minaya must go and the Wilpons, who preside over this joke, must sell. THEN, things may turn around and for less than the piggy payroll that they have going now.\

Was Willy fired in a “bad” way? Hmm…he was fired, right? And he gets to collect his 4 million dollars for sitting home? Then I don’t feel bad for him. The team that is STILL paying him all that money has the right to fire him. And the funny thing is that Yankee fans, who are supposed to be all incensed, don’t seem to recall 5 hirings of Billy Martin and Yogi fired after 16 games. It pissed Yogi off so much, that he stayed away from Yankee Stadium for 15 years! THAT’S OK, got it? That’s George being George. And when George fired Torre after losing to Detroit and then took it back–THAT wasn’t rude or demeaning in any way. But let the Mets fire a nicompoop manager and we are the bad guys. This is major Yank bias going on people. Don’t swallow this kool-aid.

Look, I’ve said it before, Willie is a gentleman and everyone’s idea of a very nice guy. But he isn’t a major league manager! And he had 4 years and the biggest payroll in the NL for most of it to prove to us what he could do. What did he do? Blew the series to the Cards, a ridiculously inferior team. The Mets could easily be wearing those 2006 rings. Then in 2007, he presided over a collapse that had people taking about the 64 Phils and 51 Dodgers. For Pete’s sake, he was lucky to collect another 4 million from the Stems! He should hold a press conference and THANK them! Why was he back? He clearly lost the team a LONG time ago.

So, Yankee fans, next time you want to CRY (your favorite sport when you’re not beating up on a 30 million dollar team with your 200 million dollar team) about this, YOU HIRE HIM! Yea, that’s right, YOU hire Willie, if he’s so darn good! Plug him in, pal, I’d like to see it.

***

The other big Yankee Lie: Teams like the Pirates just pocket the revenue sharing and luxury tax money (Yank fans think this is THEIR money) and don’t spend it on the team and then finish in the 2nd division for 15 years straight. I heard this very comment from some grown men who should know better. All the Yank fans somehow have gotten this one from the mother ship.

Ok, I’m going to break it down for you. Here goes:

If a guy has a business and spends 50 dollars annually on it, and you hand him 10 dollars and tell him to spend it the next year and he spends somewhere around 50 dollars again the next year: How do you know he spent or didn’t spend, your money?

You ask him: “Hey, did you spend my 10 dollars on the business?”

He says, “Yes, those were the first 10 dollars I spent this year”.

How the heck could you ever dis-prove that? You can’t. No, no, you can’t. Stop that, Yankee fans. He says he spent it. What? You say that he should be spending 60 then? He tells me that he wanted to spend 40 and with your 10, he’s back up to 50 so thanks very much.

My point is, for those of you catching up, you can’t mandate how much another man can spend on HIS candy store. It’s HIS business. It’s HIS money.

Look at it from his point of view. He can spend 40 million and finish 5th or he can spend 50 million and finish 5th, ok maybe 4th, but his revenue stream will be the same. The extra cash isn’t enough to raise revenue streams because these clubs are in ridiculously small markets. They KNOW (and are right) that the extra money is basically THROWN AWAY. So you Yankee fans want to give a guy 10 million bucks and then tell him to throw it in the trash. Ain’t going to happen.

And you Yankee fans only want to give the guy the revenue share (well, you don’t want to give anyone anything, let’s be honest) so you can go out and spend 200 million and somehow claim that since they got 10 million to fight back with, then somehow what you do is sporting. What you do is horses**t–but it ain’t sports or sporting. It’s a rigged deck. A joke. An abomination. That guy in Pittsburgh is supposed to run out like a jackass and spend 10’s of millions of dollars and maybe, just maybe, every 10 years or so, he might make it into the playoffs where is sure to find, the Yankees–ready to bust him over the head with their 200 million dollar juggernaut. But somehow, that is the Yankee fan view of the world. Woo boy.

The only way to let the Yankees and teams like that (well, no team is ever really like that) spend the money generated by their ridiculously huge market, is to make them have to win more ball games. Adjust the standings for payroll. For every 7 million dollars over the league mean, you have to win 1 more game. Then, I’d say to Pittsburgh, sure, the 10 million in revenue share might make sense, but the way it is now? Stick it in the bank and tell George (and you’re not lying), “…sure, that was the first 10 million we spent this year.”

(Since they are playing 2 today, I will post this photo–the only homage to the Yanks I can muster: Freddy. Freddy is a cool guy and he came out this day–this last Joe DiMaggio Day (in 199 just after having a 5-way heart bypass. His doc told him not to, but Freddy wanted to be there and he was. And we had a lot of fun with Freddy on this day, out at the Caliope by the bat-smokestack at Yankee Stadium, by the lifesize Joe DiMaggio statue–which now resides in Seattle. Go figure. Long may Freddy bang that pot. Cowbellman has nothing on Freddy.)

Mets-Yanks twin bill tonight, split as it is between the two aging dumps called stadia in New York. The Mets did some keel-hauling in the first game. Lovely. I’m anti Met this year because of all the dopey money they have splashed around like pigs and Randolph and Minaya. But my hatred of the piggier Yanks trumps my disdain for the pathetic Met$, so I enjoyed it. And now I’m watching the night game at Shea and do you know that the “music” that they pump into the joint is so &^%$n obnoxious that it is managing to annoy me even at HOME through the TV??? Astounding. Hey Mets: Yea, you geniuses: Take a poll guys. Ask your PATRONS if they like being deafened by that noise you drown them in. Nobody pays big league prices to have that dumped on them. And that it is so bad, that it annoys you through the television? My goodness.

I recently was at a little league game and one field had another game for older boys going on adjacent and do you know that they pumped in rock and roll music at the stupid volume between innings? Is it ME? Are we all idiots? Guess you need to give the boys that big league deafness for effect. And I was laughing because one of the songs was the Ramones. 1976. In 2008. That’s, what? 32 years! That would be like them pumping Glen Miller’s String of Pearls from 1943 into my game back in 1975. Hahaha.

The Yanks sure dove on Ponson, didn’t they? And mark my words, they will have Chacon back soon as well. I think the Yanks would suit up Dillinger if he could give them 6. Yankee Pride…hahaha…don’t make me laugh. My wallet is full of Yankee Pride. There you have it, kids.

***

I had an idea for a theme park. You ready? Film Noir Land. Yea, that’s right. You go for a week or two into an urban setting and you get a fedora and a ‘39 Ford and a suit and some smokes and you live in Film Noir Land. The park is populated with other Film Noir’ees. Some are vacationers and some are park employees. While there, you might get mixed up in a scheme to rob a bank or you might be a PI, like Sam Spade and work an extortion case or a murder. There’d be no women there either: only dames and broads. Guys would walk up to you on the street and give you horse tips. There’d be poolrooms and racetracks galore.

Somehow or other, the park would arrange it so you get sucked up into some shady plan or scheme. There’d be nightclubs and every room would be a cheap hotel room with the huge, flashing red neon sign going all night right outside the window. Maybe there’d even be some disembodied voice narrating as you walk around your hotel room. You know, “…I couldn’t sleep, so I had a whiskey…it was raining as I walked over to the window for some air and a smoke…” and so on. I think it’d be a hoot. Logistically though, it might be a little expensive but I think it’s a winner. And they could work it into various levels, you know? If you pay for the platinum trip, you might get a Sidney Greenstreet lookalike to pal around with. Sidekick is extra, of course. Think about it.

Above: That’s Doc Maynard’s: Heart and soul of Pioneer Square in Seattle. You can also see the sign for the Underground Tour which kicks off there.

Below: This Victorian flatiron building was destroyed to make way for the parking garage below. This is an architechtural loss of staggering proporitons and it’s just this type of thing that the planning board is looking into regarding Safeco Field and its environs.

That group of people on the corner under the “prow” of the ship is the Underground Tour, for the moment, above ground. The building behind it is the Smith Building of Smith-Corona typewriters and Smith and Wesson guns. For many years that was the tallest building West of the Mississippi River.

And just in case you didn’t believe me when I said that I took those photos from the air in a biplane, here is the proof. No photoshopping on this one.

And here is the man who put Pioneer Square on the literary map: Carl Kolchak. He’s the one who cracked open the strangulation case. There should be a statue there to mark the phenomenon.

And this is the original iron pergola from 1912 in Pioneer Square. It was restored recently and they actually found the original company that built it, STILL in business. Amazing.

Here’s a view of Safeco Field in Seattle that I took myself in 2005 out of the open cockpit of a biplane I was riding in .  Below, is a street map of the area; The Pioneer Square Area.  My favorite square in all the world.  Herald Square?  Pffft, forget it.  Times Square?  Pulease.  Trafalgar Square?  It’s a zoo.  Give me Doc Maynard’s Saloon and the Underground tour and the totem pole and the Pioneer building and the vintage iron rain shelter…what do they call them?  Cupola?  Ahh, senior moment.  Anyway, Pioneer Square is it and that’s notwithstanding the fact that Carl Kolchak did his most important story (never printed of course) right there.

[For those of you who don't know, Pioneer Square itself is bounded by First, Cherry and Yesler.  First Ave is really the heart of the area though.  Did you know?  That in the bad old days, circa 1900, no persons of Chinese descent were legally allowed to go East of Occidental St. and "Occidental" means "Western", so that makes sense linguistically; in reality it is total insanity.  They were the gold rush times.  Life was harsh.  We have it good now.]

So anyway, Last year I had done a post on Camden Yards and the fact that a developer is building a hotel that will BLOCK the view of the Bromo-Seltzer Tower FROM Camden Yards.  I am normally very pro-business, but around a ballpark that is an icon of a city, you want to be careful, you know?  So I wrote my thoughts and here, a year after that was published, a law firm sends me a comment that they would like to use the photo of the Bromo Tower in their case re Seattle and the ballpark and what not.  Now I have no idea exactly what the rub is, I think I can back into it.  What if someone is looking to build big high rises between Safeco and Yesler, just behind Occidental Park?  Then Safeco’s gorgeous view of the downtown of Seattle is blocked.

And while I’d like to see that area a little more juiced up, I wouldn’t want it to change into Manhattan in the 50’s either.  I think that there should be a statue in Pioneer Square of Carl Kolchak–straw hat and blue Seersucker suit and all.  In fact, I told my wife that if called to testify in this case, I WOULD fly out to Seattle in a blue Seersucker suit, no question.  Life is strange sometimes.  Kolchak would be proud of me.

Dear Mr. Mirentz:

Re the blogpost: “Hello, I was hoping to get permission to reuse the first photo in your blog that shows the Bromo Seltzer building. Our law firm, K&L Gates, is helping the Washington State Major League Baseball Facility District submit comments to Seattle City Council opposing zoning changes near Safeco Field that will block views.”

Yes, you may have my permission to use any of the top 3 photos on the blog post: http://mcgonnigle.wordpress.com/2007/07/30/oriole-park-at-camden-yards-bromo-tower-baltimore/#comment-16887

Those photos I took myself—the others came from other sources.

I’d love to know a bit more about the specifics. The Pioneer Square area and the underground should be treated as historical places that need to be preserved, reasonably. Take the example of losing the flat iron building on Yesler to a pie-shaped concrete parking garage—total abomination. Views of the city from Safeco are also special and while quite intangible, are part and parcel of the signature of Safeco, a focal point of Seattle civic pride.

While you’d love to see the Pioneer Square area spruced up along the lines of “The Gaslight District” in San Diego, you’d prefer not to do it with high rises that hem in Safeco either. Surely, there must be some reasonable middle ground there? And I’m assuming that’s what this is about but I don’t know.

Thanks;

From Ann Coulter’s column Wed June 25:

Environmentalists are constantly clamoring for higher gas taxes as the cure-all to their insane global warming theory. Clinton proposed a 26-cent tax on gas. John Kerry said it should be 50 cents. Gore endorsed the Malthusian proposal of Paul and Anne Ehrlich in “The Population Explosion” that gas taxes be raised gradually to match prices in Europe and Japan.

Democrats have worked hard to ensure that Americans pay as much for gas as Europeans do. After a quarter-century of gas tax hikes, a ban on drilling for oil and a complete destruction of the nuclear power industry in America, I guess liberals can declare: Mission accomplished!

I meant to put the account of Max’s 9U game on the last post, but it became an epic so I didn’t have time.  It’s all I can do lately to go to work, beat the bridge, make Max’s game, go home and check fantasy while drinking Birch Beer and eating Cheese-Nips and then go to bed to do it again.  As soon as Max’s rec ended with the World Series, the 9U travel league kicked in with a vengance, and, the 8U’s begged him to come and play with them because he’s still 8 and is eligible, and so they put him on their roster to help with jam-ups.  In this case, the jam-up is that the town accepts all kids at 8U level and makes two, balanced teams out of the mob.  Other towns do not do this, so the effect is that blah-blah is playing a B-team, vs all these other towns’ A-teams.  I pity these kids ;oP

So yesterday would maybe have been an off day and there we were playing the 8U game.  Max did well and it made me appreciate the much higher calibre of 9U ball.

The day before, Max was the starting pitcher in his 9U game.  He is coming off the buzz of the Dodgers’ World Series win, so he’s fired up.  Do you know he went 4 innings?  80 pithces in 4 innings and he only surrendered 1 run.  That was a flukey run as well.  First and Third, 2-dead, and the catcher overthrows Max on the return throw (Mackey Sasser, anyone?).  Just out of his reach, it falls behind the mound and the kid on 3rd alertly scoots home because now we have these very liberal baserunning rules where the ball is basically live all the time and the stealing is unlimited.  I’m not much of a fan of that because what it tends to do is accentuate the difference between the two squads.  In our first game under the new rules, we played a team ranked #1 in NJ and they keel-hauled our boys 25-0.  Max was off winning the World Series and I was glad he didn’t have to take that beating, particularly on the mound.  The next game, we beat up a team 22-8 and it wasn’t even that close–the ump was “homing” by everyone’s account and gave our pitcher a saucer-sized strike zone while I watched Max get called out on a ball a full 8 inches off the outside black.  Blue was a nice guy, just ridiculously unfair.

So Max’s only run surrendered is this overthrow run and he comes up to me on the sideline and tells me that the run wasn’t an Earnie!  I almost fell over.  How does an 8-year old boy know that?  Fantasy baseball.  He plays in my league with some help from his dad and myself and he has become very knowledgeable about stats and what they mean and even on the PC as far as navigating; and that’s exactly why I wanted him to do it.  He finished 2nd last year and took $50 thanks to Jonathan Broxton of the Dodger giving up his only 2 jacks all year, the week Max was playing my boss (who had Broxton).  It was hilarious.  Fantasy will do that.

In his 81 pitches, he only threw 2 “changeups”.  The first was off the plate but the 2nd was textbook–nice and low and the kid came out of his shoes swinging over the top of it by 8 inches easily.  I was glad that he was confident of the fast ball and cutter and stuck with that.  His cutter is really amazing.  He discovered it by himself in his backyard on his pitchback.  He told me that he just moved his thumb over and it cut and you ask me, he controls it slightly better than his 4-finger fastball grip and so I always tell him to throw it.

It DOES cut.  In to a lefty as Max is a RHP.  If there’s no wind and he throws it perfectly and hard, it can cut 5 inches and the cut is a bit late and sudden, about 10 to 15 feet off the plate you really see it go.  If, as was the case in the pennant-clincher vs the Mets, there is a stiff 3rd-to-1st breeze, the ball will cut more than 5 inches.  The wind is a factor when you are looking at these boys throwing between 35 mph and about 43 mph.  How do I know that?  I bought a tennis-serve radar gun off ebay and it clocks the speeds and from time to time I break it out to alleviate boredom amoung the kids mostly.  They go wild over the radar gun and I get a good read on the relative speeds of the boys and who is catching up to whom.  “…So Mikey’s fastball is 41mph, hmm?”

Then, because you are sooo familiar with one boy’s fastball speed because you catch it every day, then you peg everything else you see off of that, and you have a pretty accurate picture of what is being thrown.  And by the way, balls thrown below 35mph don’t really move at all.  They have a pronounced “hump” to them.  North of 35mph, you will begin to see the ball move because it then has enough speed for the airflow around the stitches to do it’s thing.  When I was a kid (and even now) I would get sinker movement on my basic fastball (that’s in to a RHB from RHP).  It is amazing to me how so many of these boys’ balls have cut movement on them (away from RHB from RHP).  It is also amazing to me how many of these boys seem to be throwing a baby slider deliberately on the each pitch.  I see that little slider dot on so many balls that come in.  Some are trying in vain to throw a breaking ball in each pitch and in other cases, I think it is just a vagary of the shape of their hand.

Look at your hand.  The middle finger, ring finger and pinky, all descend in length so the ball SHOULD roll off the hand (right hander) to the pinky side on release.  Now on the fastball, most of the spin is backspin, but those shorter fingers favor the ball coming off slightly to the pinky side and that gives you the natural sinker-tail, in to a Right-hander from a RHP.  You pretty much have to TRY and get the opposite, cutter spin on the ball, dontcha?  I mean, hold it off center or put finger pressure on the right side of the ball, or turn your wrist?  I don’t get it.  But I don’t want to make them aware of any spin and wrist action.  Let them find out the way I did–behind the toolshed.  My guy, I take care of, but I can’t very well do that with OPK (other people’s kids).

What’s the takeaway on this pitching sidebar?  ALWAYS tell your kids to throw a 2-seamer.  Why?  Easy.  (1) It’s about 1.5 to 2% faster than a 4-seamer, because there is less wind resistance–only 2 seams cutting the air and not 4.  We’ve borne this out on the radar gun as well, by the way. (2) If the boy has any side spin on his basic fastball, be it cutter or sinker spin, the 2-seam will take advantage of that and give you a little movement once they start to throw harder than 35mph or 40mph.  –Fog

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