Random Baseball Posts

[papalawrence]

Speaking of the Tigers 19 game losing streak in 1975, I was able to figure out which game I was at. Loss #16 in a row, vs the Rangers on 8/11/75. For decades I tried to figure out the game where I saw first-baseman Jack Pierce drop a foul pop up right by first base. A ball most any little leaguer could have caught. Turns out that error was during this streak. Top of 8th, Toby Harrah popped up foul against Tom Walker. Pierce just dropped it. I can still see it. I don't think he had to move 10 feet. Just dropped the darn thing. Found this site, gives play by play for games that far back

https://www.backtobaseball.com/game/DET197508110/detroit-tigers/versus/texas-rangers/1975/august/11/lineups-and-summary/

 

[Tiger337]

I'm listening to Jon Miller broadcasting a San Francisco Giants game right now.  He has been broacasting for 50 years now which spans most of my time as a baseball fan.  He is 72 years old, still has a good voice and still sharp.  The only thing is he is not joking very much, so maybe he is getting a little bored.  

[1776]

22 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

I'm listening to Jon Miller broadcasting a San Francisco Giants game right now.  He has been broacasting for 50 years now which spans most of my time as a baseball fan.  He is 72 years old, still has a good voice and still sharp.  The only thing is he is not joking very much, so maybe he is getting a little bored.  

I’m listening to the same game. Miller is still one of the best. I was tuned in to follow Birdsong’s start…not so good.

[Tiger337]

19 minutes ago, 1776 said:

I’m listening to the same game. Miller is still one of the best. I was tuned in to follow Birdsong’s start…not so good.

LOL, I'm not happy with Birdsong either!

[casimir]

1 hour ago, Tiger337 said:

I'm listening to Jon Miller broadcasting a San Francisco Giants game right now.  He has been broacasting for 50 years now which spans most of my time as a baseball fan.  He is 72 years old, still has a good voice and still sharp.  The only thing is he is not joking very much, so maybe he is getting a little bored.  

Miller started broadcasting MLB games that young?  Holy smokes…..

[Tiger337]

11 minutes ago, casimir said:

Miller started broadcasting MLB games that young?  Holy smokes…..

yes, that surprised me too.  I thought he had to be older.  

[chasfh]

11 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I'm listening to Jon Miller broadcasting a San Francisco Giants game right now.  He has been broacasting for 50 years now which spans most of my time as a baseball fan.  He is 72 years old, still has a good voice and still sharp.  The only thing is he is not joking very much, so maybe he is getting a little bored.  

That’s incredible to me because I first became aware of him on the ESRN baseball broadcasts of the nineties (alongside Joe Morgan—good team), and I would have sworn Jon Miller was older then 40-ish at the time.

[CMRivdogs]

11 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I'm listening to Jon Miller broadcasting a San Francisco Giants game right now.  He has been broacasting for 50 years now which spans most of my time as a baseball fan.  He is 72 years old, still has a good voice and still sharp.  The only thing is he is not joking very much, so maybe he is getting a little bored.  

I liked him on national games. It was a travesty he got kicked out of Baltimore. 

[Tiger337]

6 minutes ago, chasfh said:

That’s incredible to me because I first became aware of him on the ESRN baseball broadcasts of the nineties (alongside Joe Morgan—good team), and I would have sworn Jon Miller was older then 40-ish at the time.

He started in 74 with the A's.  I first heard him do the Red Sox games from 80-82.  He was a geat announcer and hilarious.  I don't know why they let him go.  Then I heard him do Oriole broadcasts after that.  I agree Miller and Morgan were a good team.  I thought Morgan got unfairly targeted for being an old school analyst.  That's the way they all were back then (and a lot of them still are).    

[chasfh]

19 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

He started in 74 with the A's.  I first heard him do the Red Sox games from 80-82.  He was a geat announcer and hilarious.  I don't know why they let him go.  Then I heard him do Oriole broadcasts after that.  I agree Miller and Morgan were a good team.  I thought Morgan got unfairly targeted for being an old school analyst.  That's the way they all were back then (and a lot of them still are).    

I liked Morgan a lot at the time because he could articulate the nuances of the game on the field in the moment better than most. There was no SABR-versus-Old School thing at the time. Jon Miller was still with the team when I lived in Baltimore in 95-96. It was cool being able to hear him any time I tuned into an O’s game.

[oblong]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

I liked Morgan a lot at the time because he could articulate the nuances of the game on the field in the moment better than most. There was no SABR-versus-Old School thing at the time. Jon Miller was still with the team when I lived in Baltimore in 95-96. It was cool being able to hear him any time I tuned into an O’s game.

I saw Miller at Tiger Stadium when he was with the O's.  Getting a hot dog.  He was dressed like a clown.  I say that in a good way. 

 

[1776]

Miller has a pretty cool instagram. He’s got some interesting stuff on from time to time. He loves his “standup selfies.”

Two or three years ago he lost a lot of weight, a lot of weight! He did it proactively for health purposes. It was the buzz for while.

[chasfh]

So I just had an opportunity to have a brief exchange with a fella named Josh Ruffin, who works in analytics for the Minnesota Twins (I am up here for a conference).

I asked him, the information we can access on Baseball Savant, how close is that to the information they have in-house at the Twins, and is there a huge chasm? And to my surprise he replied that the Savant information is not all that far away from what they use. He specifically mentioned that the bat speed data that was recently added to Savant by Baseball was released to the teams and to the public at the same time. And of course, they have greater depth of information, such as Savant information for Dominican Rookie League, that we don’t, and they also have additional things that are proprietary such as biomechanics, which itself may come to Savant in a few years. But by and large, the information on a player’s Savant card is really close to the information they use, and he even said he occasionally looks up an opposing player’s publicly-available Savant card to get a quic overview on the guy.

 

Edited August 9, 2024 by chasfh

[Tiger337]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

So I just had an opportunity to have a brief exchange with a fella named Josh Ruffin, who works in analytics for the Minnesota Twins (I am up here for a conference).

I asked him, the information we can access on Baseball Savant, how close is that to the information they have in-house at the Twins, and is there a huge chasm? And to my surprise he replied that the Savant information is not all that far away from what they use. He specifically mentioned that the bat speed data that was recently added to Savant by Baseball was released to the teams and to the public at the same time. And of course, they have greater depth of information, such as Savant information for Dominican Rookie League, that we don’t, and they also have additional things that are proprietary such as biomechanics, which itself may come to Savant in a few years. But by and large, the information on a player’s Savant card is really close to the information they use, and he even said he occasionally looks up an opposing player’s publicly-available Savant card to get a quic overview on the guy.

 

That is great info.  I am surprised he was so open about it.  Some teams are so protective of their data that they will not tell you anything at all that might tip off what kind of info they have.  

[Shinzaki]

The 1975 Tigers were doomed once John Hiller got hurt...

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, Tiger337 said:

That is great info.  I am surprised he was so open about it.  Some teams are so protective of their data that they will not tell you anything at all that might tip off what kind of info they have.  

Well, he is a young guy and at the assistant level, so he probably has fewer barriers now than he will a decade from now.

[AlaskanTigersFan]

Whose got a .967 OPS over his last 7 games??????

 

This guy.....!

[CMRivdogs]

Really cool story. The Legend of Pinky Daras. Hopefully it's not paywalled. 
 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5703670/2024/08/16/little-league-world-series-pinky-deras/?source=freedailyemail&campaign=601983&userId=213687

 

 

[bobrob2004]

An AI generated country song about the Tigers mediocre season.

https://suno.com/song/012a7989-208b-4c9a-898e-03c763f3b49e

Edited August 26, 2024 by bobrob2004

[bobrob2004]

An AI generated song about Tigers prospects. 

https://suno.com/song/710f8cb6-8b34-4326-b444-ba483b43e928

[chasfh]

And here is why the ball will probably never be deadened, and why Baseball will never encourage pitchers to to reduce their pitch speed or lay up to the bottom of batting orders.

 

[RedRamage]

Pointless trivia of the day... did you know that the Cleveland Guardians actually originated in Grand Rapids? They were originally founded in 1894 as the Grand Rapids Rustlers with the Western League. in 1900 they moved to Cleveland and changed to the 'Lake Shores,' then the Bluebirds in 1901, the Bronchos in '02, the Naps from '03-'14, then became the Indians in 1915.

[papalawrence]

3 hours ago, RedRamage said:

Pointless trivia of the day... did you know that the Cleveland Guardians actually originated in Grand Rapids? They were originally founded in 1894 as the Grand Rapids Rustlers with the Western League. in 1900 they moved to Cleveland and changed to the 'Lake Shores,' then the Bluebirds in 1901, the Bronchos in '02, the Naps from '03-'14, then became the Indians in 1915.

Very cool. Wonder if there were any tobacco or other cards produced of them? A quick Google came up empty.

[papalawrence]

Did the Tigers have a bullpen cart in the 1970s? I don't recall seeing one. 

[papalawrence]

Anyone hear an update on how Austin Meadows is doing? Haven't heard anything in over a year