Baseball:Like hitting a bullet with another bullet...

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Gitfiddlemann

Yes, but I was referring more to being able to hit one 60 feet away from Sandy Koufax or Bob Gibson...

According to Barrycode.com 245 major league players were born in Brooklyn...

As this is written there's probably some old-timer in Bensonhurst who never even made it to the minors, telling his great-grandkids about the day he whacked a three-sewer (the stickball equivalent of Mickey Mantle's 565-foot homer in 1953) off his old friend Sandy when they were both in sixth grade - and there's the time I took out a window in the third-floor school gym with a moonshot to deep right-center, in a schoolyard game against a buddy who later spent a few years in the NL minor league system...

The harder they throw, the further they go - and we didn't mess around where I come from...

[zuzu]

Originally Posted by redcrow

Not entirely on topic, but... There were 100's of bullets fused nose to nose on the battlefields of Gettysburg after the Civil war. Most of the projectiles used in that conflict were 50 caliber or greater and made of relatively soft lead.

Must have been hell on earth for the participants with fields of fire that dense.

I've been and highly recommend it! My biggest recommendation about it; Do Not go on the bus tour of the battlefield. They are fine, but for not much more money Do Get the tour that one of the foundation members drive you in your own car and explains the battlefield in depth for 2 hours. The guides are mostly retirees and ours was a life long student and acknowledged expert on the battle. When he found out my great-grandfather was there we ended up out with him for 3 hours, with him getting me to call my sister (the family historian) a couple of times, drilling for any info she could provide. He was very excited about it and once he found out my great-grandfather's unit (26th Wisconsin) he took us to every part of the battlefield those men had trod upon. Needless to say, that was the best historical tour I've ever been on. But, even without the personal history slant, it was excellent.

[ghostnote]

Like a lot of kids, all of us in my neighborhood played baseball constantly. It’s a very adaptable game - we had different rules depending on where we were playing on any given day, and for how many kids were actually on the field. It was very rare - unless it was an actual formal team with uniforms - to actually have nine kids per side as the “real” teams do. There were no adults around. We learned so much about life in general from playing baseball. We’d have to compromise about picking teams, about where the bases were going to be, about special rules we’d have to invent on the spot based on where we were playing and the number of kids playing that day. What’s going to be an out if there’s no right fielder? The definition of what a single, double, etc, changed according to the conditions of the day. Fights happened regularly, arguments happened every game. We settled all of it ourselves, without adult intervention. You learned the satisfaction of being one of the first chosen for a team, and the agony and patience of not being chosen. It was an eye-opener to find out that there were kids you couldn’t trust, and others that had your back ‘til the end. I’d never trade those days for anything - I learned so many things that I still use in daily life.

[mr. beaumont]

Originally Posted by GaryJ

60 feet 6 inches from the mound to home. With a long stride it's probably closer to 55 feet. At 95 mph the ball gets there in .425 seconds. And then there's the problem of hitting it squarely enough. Yikes!!

The other ball/bat sport related stat that blows my mind is that a fast-pitch 12" softball actually gets to the plate FASTER because the mound is closer!

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by ghostnote

Like a lot of kids, all of us in my neighborhood played baseball constantly. It’s a very adaptable game - we had different rules depending on where we were playing on any given day, and for how many kids were actually on the field. It was very rare - unless it was an actual formal team with uniforms - to actually have nine kids per side as the “real” teams do. There were no adults around. We learned so much about life in general from playing baseball. We’d have to compromise about picking teams, about where the bases were going to be, about special rules we’d have to invent on the spot based on where we were playing and the number of kids playing that day. What’s going to be an out if there’s no right fielder? The definition of what a single, double, etc, changed according to the conditions of the day. Fights happened regularly, arguments happened every game. We settled all of it ourselves, without adult intervention. You learned the satisfaction of being one of the first chosen for a team, and the agony and patience of not being chosen. It was an eye-opener to find out that there were kids you couldn’t trust, and others that had your back ‘til the end. I’d never trade those days for anything - I learned so many things that I still use in daily life.

Hey Jim,
Thanks for your post. I can identify with a lot of what you wrote and it brought back memories. We used to do the same kinds of things. We'd get a group of friends together, two of us would grab a bat and take turns gripping it. The hand closest to the top, where no more hand could fit, (3 or 4 fingers still counted as a hand ) would get first picking of a player. We probably played more softball though, it was easier for everyone. We had at times a wide age range.
As you know I grew up in Canada just north of VT, and in those days there were no Expos or Blue Jays. We were all Red Sox fans, so I never had to switch allegiances after moving down here. So many years ago now....

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

The other ball/bat sport related stat that blows my mind is that a fast-pitch 12" softball actually gets to the plate FASTER because the mound is closer!

I really enjoyed watching the US ladies play softball at the Olympics, and was bummed to hear the event won't take place in the upcoming 2024 games. Not sure why. I'm guessing the French don't have a suitable field, and don't want to build one...

[Bob Womack]

And remember, it is space, not the ball, that is moving.



Bob

PS. I think the term actually came from the "Star Wars" initiative, which guitarist Jeff Baxter worked on.

[mr. beaumont]

Originally Posted by Gitfiddlemann

I really enjoyed watching the US ladies play softball at the Olympics, and was bummed to hear the event won't take place in the upcoming 2024 games. Not sure why. I'm guessing the French don't have a suitable field, and don't want to build one...

Softball's a blast because of the smaller field, as a spectator you feel right on top of the action.

In Chicago, we play a lot of slow pitch 16" softball...it's really just an organized drinking game. But it's as fun as it gets.

[Mycroft]

And as a nod to the hitters is watching one with two strikes fouling off pitch after pitch...

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by Gitfiddlemann

In a past thread on sports I had made a dumb comment about football players being able to demonstrate the highest level of talent and skill in team sports.
Soon thereafter, AGF member Ray Sachs had "politely" pointed out that I should seriously re-think that statement, given what is involved in hitting a baseball.
Of course, he was right. Reading this article reminded me of that discussion.
This is for you Ray:
Hitting a baseball is the hardest skill to pull off.

Wow, I have no memory of that thread, but thanks for the retraction I guess… 😎

I was a pretty fair schoolboy athlete but the thing I absolutely couldn’t do worth a (expletive of your choice) was hit a baseball, even one that was pitched in a manner intended to be easy to hit, let alone in a situation where a pitcher was actually trying to get me out. I just sucked at it. I was a pretty fair tennis player and an OK-ish golfer, so it wasn’t that I lacked hand-eye coordination, but I didn’t have THAT skill even a little bit. OTOH, I had the privilege of being a Phillies fan for a number of years when John Kruk did color on Phillies TV games. One of the funniest guys in sports. I recall some occasion when someone asked him a question about what it was like being an athlete, and his response was something like ‘an ATHLETE?!?!?! - I wasn’t an athlete, I was a ball player’!

For my money, the greatest athletes I’ve ever watched are NBA players. To have the kind of body control, quickness, jumping ability, and ability to shoot a ball while moving at those speeds, and suddenly pull up for a jumper, with a guy equally quick and agile defending against everything you’re trying to do? To me, those are the ultimate athletes. But we obviously all have our own opinions.

-Ray

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by raysachs

Wow, I have no memory of that thread, but thanks for the retraction I guess… 😎

I was a pretty fair schoolboy athlete but the thing I absolutely couldn’t do worth a (expletive of your choice) was hit a baseball, even one that was pitched in a manner intended to be easy to hit, let alone in a situation where a pitcher was actually trying to get me out. I just sucked at it. I was a pretty fair tennis player and an OK-ish golfer, so it wasn’t that I lacked hand-eye coordination, but I didn’t have THAT skill even a little bit. OTOH, I had the privilege of being a Phillies fan for a number of years when John Kruk did color on Phillies TV games. One of the funniest guys in sports. I recall some occasion when someone asked him a question about what it was like being an athlete, and his response was something like ‘an ATHLETE?!?!?! - I wasn’t an athlete, I was a ball player’!

For my money, the greatest athletes I’ve ever watched are NBA players. To have the kind of body control, quickness, jumping ability, and ability to shoot a ball while moving at those speeds, and suddenly pull up for a jumper, with a guy equally quick and agile defending against everything you’re trying to do? To me, those are the ultimate athletes. But we obviously all have our own opinions.

-Ray

Basketball is boring.

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by frankmcr

Basketball is boring.

Maybe to you…

[tinnitus]

A sat and watch some golf for a while last week and eventually realized it had been on pause the whole time.

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by raysachs

Maybe to you…

1) Run to one end of the court, throw the ball at the basket

(a) miss, go to the other end & repeat

(b) score, go to the other end & repeat

2) repeat until the clock sounds time


Definitely to me.

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by frankmcr

1) Run to one end of the court, throw the ball at the basket

(a) miss, go to the other end & repeat

(b) score, go to the other end & repeat

2) repeat until the clock sounds time


Definitely to me.

At it's basics, yes. but like all games, there is more to it...