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Question: Paul, what if our retroactive date occured in October of 1987, at Fenway Park. If we yell to Buckner: "Don't let it go through your legs, you idiot!" and he got the out, would the world as we know it be the same?
A related question: Could the general psyche of Massachusetts survive a Red Sox World Series victory?
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Elizabeth- Same rules apply. If the runner overran the bag, she must be tagged out. A force play is only active until the runner reaches the base and touches it. If she missed the bag, then a force out is still active.
Ela- The confusion could be over the understanding of the ground rules. Each stadium has its own set of ground rules, and some of them can be quite odd. Most stadiums do not have a rule for balls being stuck under the padding, so if the ball was stuck, then polanco should have been able to advance. However, the stadium this occured in could have such a ground rule, and the umpire correctly enforced it. A similar play occured at fenway park recently, resulting in an inside the park homerun. My suspicion is that the umpire enforced the ground rules incorrectly, or, alternatively, the phillies did not understand the ground rules.
For example, in wrigley field, a ball is a ground rule double if it is hit into the ivy and lost, but is NOT a ground rule double if the ball is hit into the ivy, visible, and stuck. Every 2-3 years, a ball gets stuck and is an inside the park homerun.
Before each game the managers and umpires go over the ground rules. The most common ground rule is that a ball bouncing over a wall is a double, but every park has its own unique rules based on structure, and sometimes whim.
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That would be a fun date... until bleeping buckner...
I do not think the collective psyche of new england could handle a world series win. The region would shut down for about a week, and its likely all that would be left is a smoking crater from the mass celebration. If the state survived, there'd be no curse to bemoan, leaving a state full of pessimists, without anything to be pessimistic about.
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Well, every stadium is designed differently. Fenway park doesn't need rules about balls hitting light structures over the field, while the Metrodome does.
Rules about balls being stuck under padding should be standardized, but I tend to think its one of the charms of baseball that each stadium is so different. Basketball, Hockey, and Football, all haev standardized playing fields. Baseball has much less conformity between stadiums, so going to different parks can be fun, just to see what, for example, camden yards looks like compared to Jacobs Field, compared to Wrigley, Compared to Yankee stadium, etc. Would baseball be the same without the green monster in fenway, the ivy in wrigley, the fountains in kaufman, or the ocean at pac bell?
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Okay, I have a question for you, Mr. SmartyPants.
Why did I receive this scandalous image/sticker (which I have scanned and increased in size) in my box of Cracker Jacks, which I had purchased not 24 hours ago, oh-so-innocently?
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Now, Ralphie, I shall not be baited into a discussion which takes the Spotlight of Lascivious Thought off of you, and onto me.
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Because thats a famous moment in baseball world series history, when DOn Larsen pitched a perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers, in the 1956 world series. Its the only no hitter in the playoffs, and it was a perfect game (no opposing players reached base safely).
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"Who is the best ballplayer of this generation?"
Barry Bonds is the best of the hitters, and Roger Clemens is the best pitcher.
We'll see where A-Rod is in 10 years, he's one of the all time greats as well. Sucks for him he moved from shortstop, especially since he's far better defensively then Jeter, because there's no question he was making a run at best shortstop of all time.
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PG said "About that, yes. Baseball isn't a game about perpetual action, its a game about perpetual mental battle. The pitcher doesn't WANT the hitter to hit the ball, his job is to make the hitter NOT hit it, or hit it badly.
Would you say basketball is exciting if the defending team let the offense do whatever it wanted?"
Although I'm not crazy about baseball, I can understand this kind of description of the game's appeal.
The thing that is so strange to me is how so many American sports gurus and fans lambast soccer for being boring, low scoring, etc., and still find baseball so fascinating for reasons like the above.
I find soccer completely captivating, but I imagine that's largely because I played it for a couple of years and I lived in Central America for a couple more. Exposure and familiarity and a little actual knowledge of the game makes all the difference.
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Paul, I think you are wrong about A-Rod. Derek Jeter is God's gift to the shortstop position. He can hit, bunt, steal, sacrifice, field, and cheer (did I mention he was team captain??) better than anyone. In fact, I heard from my brother's girlfriend's uncle's hairdresser's accountant that he even cooked and served (in the stands!) the best hot dogs on one of his off days.
Plus he has such a cute tookus.
-Bok, temporarily possessed by a Yankees fan
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Sorry, we're, I mean, I'm the only one who can ask questions here. You can only answer them.
Another question... Why do you all hate us so much? It isn't our fault that your team doesn't want win as much as the Yankees! I mean, sure, we have 10+ million people in our metro area, but why can't your cities just become more attractive for people to move to?
Not that any city is better than New York.
Oh, and don't you think Paul O'Neill a lock for the Hall of Fame? He had all the intangibles needed to keep the team together for the dynasty. He taught Jeter (the BEST SHORTSTOP EVER!!!) everything he knows about being a leader.
-Bok, "So this is what a lobotomy is like?"
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So what, exactly, is a "ball"? I know a strike is a mark against you, three strikes and you're out! But is a ball like a little wee stepping over the line? How many balls do you get? What happens when you reach the maximum number of balls?
Thanks for helping this clueless Jenny get a better appreciation for baseball!
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When the batter steps into the "batters box" (it's a chalk outlined area to the left or right of home plate, and is the place where you see hitters stand when waiting for a pitch), The umpire creates a mental "strike zone" for each batter. The strike zone is defined as the area, starting at the front of home plate, that is as wide as the home plate, and is designated height-wise as the distance between the letters on a batter's jersey and the bottom of his knees.
Okay, having described that, a strike is any pitch that passes through that zone, starting at the front of the plate, or a strike is any pitch that the umpire feels the batter made an attempt to swing at, regardless of whether the pitch ever actually is in a strike zone.
In reality, umpires have various eyes and abilities, so the strike zone is never exactly the regulation strike zone.
A "ball" is any pitch that is not swung at [EDIT: AND] that does not cross the strike zone. Four "balls" to a batter, and they are given first base (EDIT: This is what is called a "walk").
--- Bonds has 3-4 years, and given that time, he'll break the all-time home run record.
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A ball is a pitch that the batter did not swing at, and the home base umpire decided is outside the strikezone. If there are 4 of these in one at bat (before anything else like a hit or strikeout happens) then the batter "walks". Meaning that they just walk down to first base. It's like they hit a single without actually having to hit one, with the exception that no players on the bases advance unless they have to (runner on first needs to free up that base for the player who just walked so he would go to second). If the bases are loaded then a walk actually scores a run since each player needs to free up the base they're on for the guy behind them, other than that though, walks don't score runs.
The idea of the walk was implemented pre-19t century. Orginally the pitcher was just there to throw stuff to the batter, who could swing or not swing based on their whim (there was no "strike-zone"). But the games were amazingly slow so the pitcher became a player on the opposing team for a change, the batter only got 3 strikes and then they were out, and to keep the pitcher in check and the game moving smoothly, the 4-ball walk came in.
As a side note, there's another way to walk, if you're hit by a pitch then it's the equivalent of getting a walk.
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I think next year will be Bonds last, if this year isn't.
He's capable of playing longer, if he wants to. But I don't think he does. This, of course, is pure speculation, based only off of informal comments he has made that this is his last year.
He will probably end his career with between 690-730 home runs, unless he does decide that its important to break aaron's home run record of 755.
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If Paul O'Neil gets in the hall of fame, we should burn the place to the ground, because it will have outlived its usefullness.
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Paul, have you read Moneyball? I assume that you have given your answer to Oakland's success. I just finished it and as a stats person, I found it very informative.
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Is there any hope that salaries will drop to a level that will allow teams to not have to sell 80,000 tickets a game just to keep a team?
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Not any time soon. With the collective bargaining agreement in place, there's really no incentive.
Revenue sharing would be a great thing for baseball, but I don't see it happening within the next 5 years.
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St. Louis has great fans, but there aren't as many of them. The three teams above have nation-wide followings.
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