IdahoBert

I have a Henderson story. A friend of mine had front row box seats in Oakland in the pre- Bash Brothers era and we would take the BART and arrive early to the game. One time Rickey was standing near us and his eyes and mine locked and he stared me down because he was competitive in everything, even with a meaningless spectator like me. He was a pretty dominating guy on a personal level, let alone on the field. I think I inadvertently received this kind of treatment due to proximity because my friend with the season tickets would scream Ricky's name when he would take the field. RIK-EEEEEEeeeee and Henderson would always give him a dirty look until it became "a thing" between them...Sometimes Rickey would give him the look before the scream. Henderson also played his first season in Boise, Idaho, my fair city, in 1976 with the A’s Northwest League club and they played on the high school baseball field behind Borah High. Kind of an inauspicious way to start a HOF career. That was 11 years before I moved here and I don’t know anyone who went to those games and saw him play.

The guy played in the Mexican leagues. You don’t see that much often on a résumé. Doesn’t want to give up. If he does well, it would be a great feel good story.

I wonder what Torkelson’s off-season “training” interventions are like. Is it more mental than mechanical? If they can turn him from being like David Webb into Jason Bourne, I would be pretty much OK with that.

There is one about nine minutes away from where I live.

I have never considered myself a sentimental traditionalist, but if they make any of these weird changes to the game it’s going to piss me off so much I’m going to take the $3.99 a month I spend on MLB radio and spend it on fast food in protest. But not at McDonald’s.

Speaking of the omnipresence of cheating and how we kind of don’t care I was reminded of our much beloved Norm Cash and his alleged corked bat in 1961. He hit .361 that year and .249 the next.

Smokes just turned 80 a couple days ago. He is such a solemn looking guy I always thought he had to be a ton older than me, but in 2006 he was only seven years older than me which makes him nearly a contemporary of mine. I almost wonder if Jimbo was ever a child or if he came down the chute clutching a pack of Marlboro’s.

♬ King Tut ♬

Hoping the Mets and Soto will disappoint at Citi Field I asked Google if Citi was a home run ballpark and this is what its AI summary disclosed: “No, Citi Field is not considered a home run ballpark. In fact, it's known for being pitcher-friendly: Citi Field has a homer park factor of 91, which is in the bottom third of all parks. It also has the lowest park factors for singles, doubles, and triples in baseball. In May 2024, only 26.5% of fly balls with exit speeds between 100–105 mph at Citi Field were home runs, compared to 32.7% of MLB fly balls in that category.” it doesn’t reflect well upon me to be churlish about the good fortune of other teams, but I take some comfort in the fact that Soto may deliver less for the Mets then they would like.

Verlander would sure get people in the seats. It would make a great sentimental homecoming story. I’m capable of being unduly happy over this. Bergman? The people running this team are certainly smarter than me so if they’re willing to do it, sure. But I don’t know why I have to give a golly gosh darn oh my heck about what “oddsmakers” think.

I don’t think Scott Harris would’ve come here if that were the case. But it is definitely the case that if we have five guys who end up being so good the Tigers have to pay each of them in excess of $30 million a year and some of them $50 million-$60 million (and the price goes up every year) there’s no way they will ever be able to hold onto them. So there will never be teams where we can get attached to players long-term like we did with the ‘68 era Tigers or the ‘84 era team. Baseball doesn’t work like that anymore for anyone besides three or four clubs. We live in an era of deplorable inequality and spectacles which keep the masses sedated in a sentimental La La Land that gets increasingly harder to feel sentimental about. The game is certainly losing its Ken Burns feel about it.

You’re right. It seems he’s one guy on his own without a network of cohorts that could help him go into hiding. He went to a lot of trouble and planned things pretty well, but I don’t think he ever really expected to get away so once he was on the lam he had nowhere to go. He’s not as ambitious as DB Cooper when it comes to getting away, since he was more interested in making his point.

Only adjacent to baseball, and I’m only partially watching the Boise State UNLV game and a voice was sort of familiar and of course it turned out to be Jason.

Thanks. I come here exactly for posts like this.

I suppose there are statistics out there justifiably contending Comerica Park isn’t that bad of a hitter‘s ballpark, but I don’t know if hitters themselves feel that way and are tripping over themselves to come here. Nick certainly blossomed when he left here. of course that’s a small sample size. I’m not going all Lynn Henning in on this, but I think this place might be a tough sell for a hitter, even with changes made to the park. You’d really have to be all in on “the idea of the Tigers“ and the future and while that might work for us, I don’t know how that plays to hitters themselves. I could easily be wrong about this because I am clearly a moran.

It’s kind of interesting that two major league teams will be playing in minor league stadiums in 2025.

Congratulations to the 2025 World Series champion Sacramento Athletics.

I’m thinking the inclusion of something reminiscent of “Death Race 2000“ should be included during the seventh inning stretch just for entertainment purposes.

His swing is really a thing of beauty to behold. The way the force rises up from his feet and legs and spins around into that big Buddha belly of his then flows down his arms and concentrates into the barrel of the bat where the ball meets the sweet spot of the bat just perfectly. It’s just breathtaking to witness.

Maybe the golden at bat should be your best hitter, and you give them an aluminum bat or maybe one made out of something SpaceX has created. Whee! ‘Merica!

All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned,

No other posts in six hours? I guess this means our Black Friday is pretty meager.

That wasn’t pretty. But it counts.

I guess a win is a win is a win but after suffering through so many thanksgivings, an emphatic blowout in terms of scoring and not just offensive yards would be nice. There’s the old saying “God doesn’t give with both hands.” We’ll end up with a win in all likelihood, but it won’t be a dream win.

I never get what I want. Life is unfair.