Girl Pitcher Strikes Out Ruth and Gehirig, but Yanks Win

"She uses an odd, side-armed delivery, and puts both speed and curve on the ball. Her greatest asset, however, is control. She can place the ball where she pleases, and her knack at guessing the weakness of a batter is uncanny .... She doesn't hope to enter the big show this season, but she believes that with careful training she may soon be the first woman to pitch in the big leagues." The Chattanooga News, March 31, 1931

"The Yankees will meet a club here that has a girl pitcher named Jackie Mitchell, who has a swell change of pace and swings a mean lipstick. I suppose that in the next town the Yankees enter they will find a squad that has a female impersonator in left field, a sword swallower at short, and a trained seal behind the plate. Times in the South are not only tough but silly." The New York Daily News, April 2, 1931

"I don't know what's going to happen if they begin to let women in baseball. Of course, they will never make good. Why? Because they are too delicate. It would kill them to play ball every day." Babe Ruth

"Cynics may contend that on the diamond as elsewhere it is place aux dames. Perhaps Miss Jackie hasn't quite enough on the ball yet to bewilder Ruth and Gehrig in a serious game. But there are no such sluggers in the Southern Association, and she may win laurels this season which cannot be ascribed to mere gallantry. The prospect grows gloomier for misogynists." The New York Times, April 4, 1931

A few days after the exhibition game, Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis voided Jackie Mitchell's contract, claiming that baseball was "too strenuous" for a woman. Major League Baseball formally banned the signing of women to contracts on June 21, 1952.

The interest of John Kelly, in The American Game: etc.
Not in the issue of exclusion of women.
Not in the issue of whether Ruth and Gehrig
actually tried to or not to strike out
(i.e. were they paid off?),
Kelly is not interested in this
except so far as to point out
on pages 18-20 how it was odd
how she was brought in to the game
an exhibition match between the Chattanooga
Lookouts and the Yankees as the Yankees
traveled up from florida
where they had kept their butts clean.
I mean would you take money
to strike out intentionally?
how much?
But Kelly is not interested in this
but in the switch. Clyde Barfoot started
pitching for the Lookouts. He faced
two batters and was moved to the outfield.
Mitchell was then brought
in to face Ruth and Gehrig
who both k'd and then she walked
Tony Lazzari and then
Mitchell sat and Barfoot
resumed on the hill for the Lookouts.
"Her job was done", according to Kelly.
"So, what was her job?"

Kelly begins his book with three
baseball trivia questions.
Mitchell is the answer third,
and all involve Ruth & Gehrig striking out
in non-regular season games.
The answer to the second
is Eiji Saewamura, a 17 year-old
at the time just out of Japan's
High School Baseball tourney.
The answer to the first
is Carl Hubbell in the
second "all-start classic" in 1934.
Hubbell was 31.

According to Kelly
the three incidents work in concert
to strengthen the notion of U.S. national baseball
as the world's only authentic baseball.
After the Saewamura strikes out Ruth & Gehrig
the commish (Landis) bans players under his
control from 'barnstorming' or playing in winter leagues.
This works in concert with the nullification
of Jackie Mitchell's contract
and is enhanced by Hubbell's performance.
The all-start game starts to mean something.
The best players in the world play one another.
Kelly's argument is that Landis
acting in the best interests of baseball
never wanted to see u.s. major league players and teams
beaten by women, japanese,
negro, cuban, etc players and teams.

"A vision of the best interests of every game
is always instituted."

the price of major league baseball
goes up in the market
while the world series
continues to have less and less
to do with the actual world.

disco sucks

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon
was one of the best albums
to have sex with.
That and Led Zeppelin IV
among other rock albums
that were voted best albums
to have sex with.
I suck at dancing in all forms.
Like music that has testosterone
takes you places and have fun.
Dancing is stupid.
Rock and roll had sex appeal.
Hip hop and rap is dead.
House music you dance
like a reject on drugs
just like disco
three decades before.



The comments I read here
are just ridiculous
and clearly based on ignorance.
If you did not live in Chicago
and were in your late teens
at this time then
you have no basis for commenting.
I was at this event
and it is one of the greatest things
that has ever happenned at Comiskey Park.
It was not targeting Gay Culture...
there WAS no visible Gay Culture
in Chicago at that time.
It was NOT targetting black musicians...
the BeeGees and John Travolta
were the faces of Disco
at that time.



We were simply Heavy-Metal
fans who felt
that it was our responsibility
to hasten the death
of a musical genre
whose time had past.
Disco Demolition did
indeed mark the end
of Disco music
until it was later revived
(in a minor way)
by popular Gay Culture.
It is also a fact
that the White Sox were 22 games
out of first at the All Star break.
Having an event between double-header games
and making the entrance fee $0.98
was the only way to fill
this ballpark in those days.



"Ben Eastman observed while we watched a second round game in San Juan that we won't fully understand the euphoria of the fans dressing in national team emblems -- game jerseys or t-shrits, with flags or team names blazoned, hats with country flags or replica flags -- until we can connect their particular intensity with the events on the field and their relations to those events. Without reviewing the history of crowds (for a strong and probing discussion see Stanley Tambiah's Leveling Crowds), sports crowds have, I think, a longing for rapture. Fans hope for the moment of unity, collected will, that dissolves mundane concerns and limits. The crowd heightens the experience of the fan, especially in the roar when a key event changes their team's fortunes, or caps them with significant victory. The commodious inner world of the ballpark has somehow gained a particular poignancy for a national imaginary hungry to affiliate with victory."

John D. Kelly The American Game:
Capitalism, Decolonialization, World Domination, and Baseball
p139

spaceman

i heard bill lee played in the baseball league i'm in.
45 & over.
bay area mens senior baseball league.
the cubs got him for a game against the firebirds
and the cubs got a rare victory.
lee struck out 11 walked one gave up a run
and picked off three guys.

i heard ray say
that the sidewinders
which is my team
could have got lee for a few
games if we had let eliot be on the team.
ray at the time thought eliot was full of shit
that guy talks too much.
he probably still thinks that.

bill lee stats

Rickey Speak

Speech and me don't get along
sometimes. I'm not a doctor
or professor so for me to go
and write a speech
or read a speech
it's kind of like putting
a tie too tight around my neck.

It helped me a lot.
I had a lot of fun with it.
I never thought I could
come back to class and have fun.
But it gave me a chance
to do something different
and work on some things.

I talk so fast
and my tongue kind of takes off
sometimes. What he really tried
to get me to do was slow down.

I'm always going to try
to be my best at whatever
I do but I've never really
taken the time to go out
and do speaking. I can
get a mike and
answer your questions all day long.
I can get in a group
and they think I'm
the most talkative one
of all of 'em. But if you ask me
to get up in front of people
and say something ...
um, I don't know.

People ask me
'Have you ever been
nervous out there playing ball?'
I say no. I don't feel the nerves.
But if you ask me
if I have been ever up there
to speak and been nervous, yes,
I've sweated to death about it
and then wondered why.
I knew what I was supposed to be doing
but it just wasn't my thing.
Shoot, I was scared the first time
I got up and read to the class.

I've always had this problem
sounding out my S's.
When I was writing it
and my buddies and I
were going over it
they said I wasn't
sounding my S's.
So Fred brought me down
to Earl and Earl
brought me to his class.

Earl told me a bunch of times
'Rickey you get in the habit
of talking about something
and go off
and you don't know how to come back.'
So he taught me how to do that.
If you get stuck
just stop for a moment
and you'll think of something.

Manny being manny

stances

Boston Manny

1 onion, diced.
1 Shallot, diced.
1 can plum tomatoes (or some freshies if you like)
2 handfulls fresh oregano
1 handfull fresh italian parsley
2 handfulls fresh radiccio
2 handfulls fresh basil
oil, butter, salt, pepper, cheese, ...

add oil, butter, salt, pepper.
heat med.
add onion and shallot and cook till somewhat "crispy"
but not too carmelized. just baby carmelized.

add tomatoes. cook down on high for 10 minutes.
add oregano and parsley.
turn heat to med. 5-10 minutes.
add radiccio. cook 5 minutes.
add basil. cook 2 minutes.
serve with parmesan or equivalent to taste.

The Bunt

Jeremy Hermida of the Florida Marlins attempting to bunt.
19:46, 3 August 2008. Photo by Chrisjnelson

Notice anything missing? ...
In the (opposite) sense that you were 10 years old
and sitting in the dentist's office
reading (anti) Highlights.

It's not the net.
It's not the image work on the outfields walls.
It's not the strange ruffliness of the gut of the second base umpire.
. . .
It's the lack of the second baseman.

what you need to know to be a good base coach

Baltimore Orioles Gregg Zaun is congratulated by third base coach Juan Samuel after hitting a solo home run against the Washington Nationals in the second inning of a baseball game Saturday, June 27, 2009, in Baltimore.

(tips)



Third base coach Ron Washington congratulates Milton Bradley of the Oakland A's after his two-run home run in the bottom of the third inning in game two of the ALCS vs Detroit, October 11, 2006. Photo by Darryl Bush



“Advance on a ground ball”
“Go half way on a fly”
“Pick up the 3rd base coach on a base hit”
“Freeze on a line drive”
“Make sure the bunt hits the ground before you run”
“Be alert for passed balls”
“Check the position of the outfielders”
“Get a good secondary lead”

curl

After Ebony magazine ran a feature in 1973 on Ellis' "Superfly" hairstyle, Ellis became the darling of U.S. hairdressers. When Ellis walked onto the field in hair curlers during pre-game workouts, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn sent a letter to the pitcher ordering him to cease and desist wearing curlers onto the field. After declaring, "They didn't put any orders about Joe Pepitone when he wore a hairpiece down to his shoulders," Ellis reluctantly shelved the curlers. Following his 1999 Shrine of the Eternals induction, Dock Ellis donated to the Baseball Reliquary all his hair curlers and permanent rods.

(npr)



(reliquary)

ray

Photographer: Jonathan Daniel
Caption: DETROIT - OCTOBER 14: Magglio Ordonez #30 of the Detroit Tigers hits a walk-off 3-run home run against Huston Street #20 of the Oakland Athletics during Game Four of the American League Championship Series October 14, 2006 at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan. The Tigers won 6-3 to advance to the World Series.



A leaping Ivan Rodriguez and the Tigers wait at home plate for Magglio Ordonez after his walk-off homer in the ninth. Photo by Michael Maloney

(chronicle)

Nick Esasky's career ended by Vertigo

I've begun to hit again.
I still see ghosts trailing after the baseball
as if it was on a bad TV set.
I'm sorry for my optimism.
I'm only hitting against a BP pitcher.
I really won't know much
until I see the real thing this spring.
Especially not in high-speed traffic
where people are changing lanes
coming from the left and the right of me.
I couldn't take all the information
in front of me.
It was hard enough to decipher
how fast the other guy was coming.
Is he coming all the way over?
It was like a ground ball.
I see it coming
but I see it coming slower
than it really is. Yogurt.

I thought I had the flu.
And I figured once I got back home
out of the sun
I'd start feeling better.
But the season started
and things got worse.
I was having problems reacting.
I didn't feel coordinated.
It was like I was in slow motion
and everything else
moving very quickly around me.
That's where I became really concerned
about being able to catch the ball.
I had been catching balls without knowing how I caught them.
I started missing balls that I should have caught.
Pickoff throws. I thought they were here
but they were a fraction of an inch over there
It wasn't a major thing
but in baseball
if you miss it by a little bit
you're missing the whole thing.

I got concerned
that I was going to get hit
in the face by a ball.
So when we went to the next series
in Cincinnati I went in and told the team
that something was going on
that I didn't know what it was
but that I needed to get checked out.

I saw a hypnotist to see
if we could just block it out by mind power.
That didn't work.
Hocus-pocus doesn't do it.

I came back from the Mayo Clinic
and said, O.K.
we went to the best place you can go
but we still don't know anything.
Now what do we do?

We decided to do nothing
to see if it would go away.

The hardest part is the uncertainty.
If it was a broken arm
there would be a time frame
for it to heal
but you can't rehab
inside your head.

Thanks a lot.
I was already sick
when I walked in here.
This seems kind of silly.
These exercises look silly.

Right now, maybe I'm 50 percent better.
Some days I'm better than 50 percent.
But there hasn't been one day
when I've felt 100 percent.
And I may never get to 100 percent.
But if I can get to the point
where I'm still able to play
whether it be at 75 or 80 percent
of what I was before
then that's what I'll have to do.

I'd look up for a fly ball
and I'd see three or four balls
and I was just hoping to catch the right one.
It was the worst feeling I've ever known.

There have been a lot of things
cured by God or sheer willpower,
There have been miracles
that no one can explain.
So that can happen.

They joke about it.
They'll ask me if this bothers me.
But they care.
If you can't laugh about it
it will wear you out.

Some people say
they can't get out of bed
for three days.
Some are totally incapacitated.
One said I went to all these doctors,
I went out of the country
I spent $50,000
and I'm still having this problem.
If you ever find what can help you
please let me know.
Here's my name and address.
Another guy wrote to say
he's had this problem for many years
he has to live with it
but he has a positive outlook.
So some of the letters
have made me feel like I can handle this
others make me feel like man
this thing could last all my life.

(in 1989 Nick Esasky hit 30 home runs, batted .277
and knocked in 108 runs in 564 at bats.)

(in 1990 Nick Esasky hit 6 singles, batted .171
and knocked in 0 runs in 35 at bats.)

(Nick Esasky's career ended by Vertigo)

Willis back on DL with anxiety disorder

I feel pretty good.
My arm is still on
so that's a good thing.
I know I have the ability
to do it. I just have to
put it together consistently
and I haven't been doing a good job
of being consistent enough for them.
That's the bottom line.
I have to work a little harder
to be consistent. I know I can
do it because I did it
a couple weeks ago.
I just have to continue
to stay on track.
As far as the anxiety
I have no idea about it.
I don't feel like
I have any nervousness out there.
I'm just a guy who really cares
about being competitive
and that's the bottom line.

I feel like it is.
I feel like it is.
I've got so many moving parts
if one is out of whack
from time to time it happens.
I'm not a conventional guy.
I've never been a conventional guy.
I've had it happen before. ...
This is not the first time
I've had control problems.
I've been able to overcome it.
I'm not worried about it.
I just have to continue
to get a chance to go out
there and be able to overcome it.

(Dontrelle Wayne Willis, born January 12, 1982, in Oakland, California, nicknamed "D-Train" and "D-Money," is a starting pitcher for the Detroit Tigers.)

(hit a grand slam off Jose Lima of the New York Mets on July 7, 2006.)

(hit two home runs in one game against the Mets on September 20, 2006.)

(Willis back on DL with anxiety disorder)

instruction

using binoculars
observe any group of uniform wearers signaling.

1) catcher to pitcher
a) pitchout
b) pickoff
c) walk
d) lateral setup
e) vertical setup
f) fingers

2) shortstop to 2ndbase with runner on first who's covering on a steal
a) open mouth (yours) yoooooours
b) close mouth (mine) mmmmmmmine

3) pitcher to catcher
a) nod
b) no
c) start over
d) warmup pitch gesture
1) straight
2) change
3) curve
4) slider

4) 3rdbase coach to batter and/or runner(s)
a) bull shit happens (bunt steal hitandrun)

5) manager to catcher
a) various

6) manager to 3rdbase coach
a) various

7) catcher to infielders
a) pickoff
b) bunt
c) double steal 1st & 3rd

8) pitcher to shortstop and/or 2ndbase with runner on first
a) you've got comebacker

translate the gestures in some manner, e.g. a spoken conversation, name three presidents

(tips)

update from chris harrington:

"i was looking at your blog -- the absent second baseman while Hermida is bunting -- and it reminded me of watching Thomson's HR in slowmo and noticing that there were extra guys standing against the outfield wall.

bobby thomson's shot

After doing research I found that the Polo Grounds were the only stadium with a bullpen on the field, in fair territory! wtf? Actually it's part of the controversy involving stealing signs. Supposedly Thomson knew a fastball was coming -- it kind of looks like it from the swing he takes. The book that explores the whole thing is called The Echoing Green by Joshua Prager. It's fairly convincing -- at least some kind of system was in place. Who knows if he actually knew fastball for sure. Anyway, I've watched that video frame by frame, and more than anything else I love Berra's spastic dance at third. Someone from the dugout runs across the infield before Thomson is even to second and gives him a huge bearhug. Part of Berra's dance involves extricating himself from the bearhug to get to home plate. I like the guy with the cigar. Also Willie Mays's back, 24, in a few frames."

[substitute 'durocher' for 'berra' up there.
he's number 2.
and why does he appear to have a mitt
on the ground that he picks up?
presumably as manager, he was coaching third.]

and some background from the wikipedia:

Sign-stealing

In February 2001, Joshua Harris Prager of the Wall Street Journal reported that the Giants had positioned coach Herman Franks with a telescope in the Giants' clubhouse during the latter half of the season, including the game itself, and had stolen the pitching signs of the Dodger catcher, Rube Walker, subbing for the injured Roy Campanella in the playoff game. Prager concluded that the spy had signalled pitches to the Giants' batters, including Thomson, thus enabling Thomson to know in advance what pitch Branca was going to throw him. According to Prager's research, Franks was hidden in Giant manager Leo Durocher's office, which was positioned in the Polo Grounds center field and offered a line-of-sight view of the catcher. A buzzer system was installed so that Franks could signal a player in the Giants' bullpen, located on the field of play in deep left field. The player would then signal the batter as to what pitch was coming.

However, acknowledging that sign-stealing was not made a violation of rules by Major League Baseball, and that it had been a part of baseball since the inception of signs as a means of communication between pitcher and catcher, Prager in an interview with CNN on February 3, 2001, left it to readers to determine if the sign-stealing, which Thomson denied, diminished the stature of the event. While the Prager article said that MLB had formally outlawed sign-stealing in the 1960s, his followup book in 2006, The Echoing Green, notes that the major leagues to this writing have not outlawed the practice.

The burden of uncovering sign-stealers is consigned to the opposing team, typically the visiting team. The fact that the visiting teams won the first two games of the playoff series raises the question of how effective the alleged sign-stealing really was. Nonetheless, Prager points out in The Echoing Green that Thompson hit over .100 higher after the sign stealing scheme began in July 1951 and "no doubt" received advanced notice of the two fastballs Branca threw at him that day.

instruction

go to a baseball card shop
and purchase an oversize
baseball card (typically 4 x 6).
make a collage.
bring it to the game and share.

the defacer

instruction

create a short phrase or poem and get a player to write it on a ball (provided) and autograph it.

examples from interviews here
and here
and here
with dock ellis
better known
as the first militant
of professional baseball.

kasey:    How do you feel about autographs?

dock:    Autographs?

kasey:    Ya.

dock:    Do I like to sign em?

kasey:    That and how do you feel
about athletes charging for autographs?

dock:    If they're going to pay you, sign em.
I'm coming out with a new ball
you know like Pete Rose' say
he's sorry he bet on baseball.
I'm putting on my ball
I pitched a no hitter on LSD.
$325 blow em out.
Then I'm gonna blow some out
for $125 say
Acid No Hitter.

baseballs

Dazed and Confused

I've become convinced that Lincecum
is telegraphing his curve ball
to right handers. He leans back
more than when he throws the fastball
or the change. He also cocks his
head slightly to the left.

1972 As team photo

1972 oakland vs cincinnati world series dot mp3

monte more dot mp3
tells a tale of two cities
with al michaels and jim simpson

1972 oakland vs detroit al playoffs dot mp3

monte more dot mp3
tells a tale of two cities
with jimmy piersall and jim woods