great great piece by glanville. yep, a world-class human.


but does anyone really believe he actually got a ticket that day

I'm in favor of a pitch clock but also reducing batter rituals. Number one for an enjoyment angle for me is eliminating extreme shifts.

As for the 3 true outcomes I sometimes wonder how the '85 Cardinals offense would compete today.

Bucky wrote:great great piece by glanville. yep, a world-class human.


but does anyone really believe he actually got a ticket that day

yes

I understand the running game has been sort of “debunked” by modern statistical analysis as well - that the value of a stolen base is small so you should only attempt it if the risk is correspondingly small - but its total disappearance is bad for baseball, and in any event expressing the value of an active running (and successful) running game purely in terms of the value of an extra base is to my mind one of the ways in which statistical analysis really does fail to take the whole picture into account. It’s not just the successful swipe of a bag, or the success rate, that counts. It’s also the disruption the threat brings, and while that can be harder to quantify, it is just as real. Against the Phillies, I and am sure many of you are still scarred for life by every time we played the goddamn 2003 Marlins. On everybody’s mind when Pierre and Castillo came up was “we have to get him out” because if we didn’t, a walk would be a guy on third with one out in the blink of an eye, and I am sure if WE thought that way, so too did the pitchers - and that this psychological weight explains a lot about the overall poor performance of the 2003 Phillies against those Marlins.

But in a more singular, concrete example that went for us instead of against us, look no further than the final game of the 2007 home sweep of the Mets. In that final inning, the fact that Wagner could not control the run game not only made scoring the winning run easier, it very clearly rattled him, successful or not (though it was successful in that case). Baseball, with its focus on individual performance, is, like golf, a game where the player can get dug inside his own head - because of things that are measurable, and things that are not. You don’t always have to steal a base to affect the outcome - but if there is no chance of stealing a base, there will be no effect.

All of this is to say: baseball might consider doing some rule change to encourage a return to teams taking the run game seriously, even if the value of an individual SB is low. It is exciting and it can drive pitchers to distraction, and distraction leads to mistakes, and mistakes lead to offense. Balanced against this, of course, is nobody likes incessant pick off throws, as they slow the game down.

Perhaps, then, for example, limiting the number of pick off throws per plate appearance to 3 would stimulate interest in the running game while not driving game time upwards.

I think we're somewhat influenced by growing up in the 2nd golden age of the stolen base.

This makes me relive my disappointment in the Lonnie Smith trade.

don't worry you'll fall over it

On the bright side we won both Johnny Callison trades. Just traded Oscar Gamble too soon.

CalvinBall wrote:I was at that game! Lots of fun. Only other colder game was the one the night before.

Same!

This was my first walkoff. Second game back after the 9/11 break, Rolen walked it off against Smoltz. I also had just started dating my now wife the week before and this was our first game together.

https://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-sc ... 0109180PHI

Bill McNeal wrote:This was my first walkoff. Second game back after the 9/11 break, Rolen walked it off against Smoltz. I also had just started dating my now wife the week before and this was our first game together.

https://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-sc ... 0109180PHI

Hard to believe that was 19 years ago. My father and I were at the day-back game, I think. I also know I was at the last game of that series. I feel like I might have went to all of them.

Bill McNeal wrote:This was my first walkoff. Second game back after the 9/11 break, Rolen walked it off against Smoltz. I also had just started dating my now wife the week before and this was our first game together.

https://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-sc ... 0109180PHI

Hard to believe that was 19 years ago. phatj and I were at that day-back game. My father and I went to a game at the end of that season, maybe the next night? I also know I was at the last game of that series, with my sister, because had they won they would have overtaken the Braves for first (they didn't, but they did win the first three). I feel like I might have went to all of them.

What I remember about the one with my Dad, whenever that was in 2001, was that we were headed up to the 700 level, as was our custom, and some Phillies employee was camped out in like a lawn chair on the ramp we were on up to the 700 and asked us if we wanted lower level seats. I remember hesitating because I was like "Wut" but they were legit tickets he gave us and we took them. They were trying to make sure the lower bowl looked good for TV after 9/11 I guess.

Never had that happen any other time.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxe ... 7090.shtml

I think this was the last (only?) walkoff I've seen. It was pretty crazy. Was also part of a 4 game sweep of the Reds where the Phillies had 3 walkoffs and won the other game 1-0. That was a different team...

Oh this is fun: what I am nearly 100% certain is Andy Musser's last game calling the Phillies. He had retired the year before, but came out of retirement to call games this weekend because Harry was being inducted:

TIL phatj is moz's father

Me too

Wolfgang622 wrote:Oh this is fun: what I am nearly 100% certain is Andy Musser's last game calling the Phillies. He had retired the year before, but came out of retirement to call games this weekend because Harry was being inducted:

I just completely randomly clicked at 1:32:20 of that game, and man was I heartily rewarded over the next few minutes.

joe table wrote:https://www.instagram.com/p/B_OqRcTpIXH/?igshid=174js9wnmk3lu

One of the least surprising things ever.

You’re not wrong