OT: A Zappa-ism?
- Thread starter RULoyal
- Start date
He could hit without thinking, I couldn’t.
Every time he came up with men on base his thinking was this pitcher is in trouble, he had no fear of failure.
Jackie Robinson told me we could pitch to Mickey, he told me we couldn’t walk your dad, we couldn’t strike him out, we had no idea what to do with him.
Every time he came up with men on base his thinking was this pitcher is in trouble, he had no fear of failure.
Jackie Robinson told me we could pitch to Mickey, he told me we couldn’t walk your dad, we couldn’t strike him out, we had no idea what to do with him.
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Great stuff & coming from Jackie no less.
Shouldn't talk about myself but here goes anyway. Reminds me of a game against CW Post.
Don't know if anyone remembers Sid Gordon. Excellent ballplayer with the Boston Braves & NY Giants. We were playing a double header against Post & Gordon's son Mike was catching for Post. I was hitting everything on the screws & came up late in the second game & Mike says to me from the crouch "we don't know what to throw you". Mike Gordon subsequently played 3 years in the Minors.
If I remember right your dad was known as a bad ball hitter.
He didn't care if it was in the strike-zone or not, if his bat could reach it, he'd hit it
( don't think if he could reach it he'd hit it is my words, think when a kid heard an announcer ,Mel Allen?, said that after Yogi reached out and wacked one that was far out of the strike-zone)
Bottom line:
The defense knows!
I’ll blow my own horn, I led the National League in intentional walks in 1983.
Now there's telling stat. With regard to your Dad, I know he didn't strike out. Looked him up once & I seem to remember something like 28 K's being a lot for him.
Read an article on the kid from Miami, Aseez or something like that--hitting around .400 all year. Article stated that at the time of the article he had seen almost 1,100 pitches & had swung & missed something like 25 or so. Now there's a stat. See what can be done when you're not swinging from your *** & trying to lift everything over the fence.
found this article about Yogi and amazed about the lack of striking out only 12 times in 1950
Yogi Berra best career moments
3. Clutch hitter
Regarded as one of the best "bad ball" hitters of his era, Berra was never a comfortable at-bat for any pitcher. He slugged the first pinch-hit home run in World Series history, in 1947 off the Dodgers' Ralph Branca. He was also near-impossible to strike out; Berra struck out only 414 times in 8,359 career plate appearances. In 1950, he had 12 strikeouts (and 55 walks) in 151 games.
https://www.mlb.com/news/yogi-berra-best-career-moments
No it doesn’t.
I suggest you look up the stat year by year and see who my company is!
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I did a quick check, so could be wrong, looks like you were batting 8th most of the time leaving the picture on deck when you were at the plate.
19 Intentional walks , to me, is amazing considering the picture bats next.
1'st base open ?
We never walked 8th hitters because we wanted the pitcher to lead off the next inning.
Every time they walked me with men on we got the pitcher out of the way.
So hard to compare stats between eras... but when Yogi played they had smaller strikezones that shrunk in the 70s and later to boost offense. Also, AL had lower strikezone than NL.. this story from 1994 suggests it had to do with how umpires stood or crouched (AL home plate umps had an inflatable chest protector and they stood). So Dale and Yogi's eras had larger strike zones... easier to strike out.
And Yogi... cannot be easy to be a catcher and crouch all the time and then come up to hit and run. He actually was called upon to be a pinch runner 3 times. He started 1888 games and played in 2120. Played outfield 262 times (but I cannot seem to find a way to determine how many of those were starts.. though he did pinch-hit 217 times).
Says he played catcher 1696 times. If he started 1888, that means he started as an outfielder 192 times. Which means he did not start in 232 games. A ball-park figure would be Yogi got a game off from catching 1 in 9/10 games.
Great hitter at a tough position in an era favorable to pitchers... and... he lost his early career to WWII... wiki has interesting info on 1942 to joining the Yanks in September 1946.
How about this... Yogi threw right, but exclusively batter left. I read this si more common among pitchers... but 32% of the best hitters ever did this same thing... while only 2% of baseball players fall into this category.
And Yogi... cannot be easy to be a catcher and crouch all the time and then come up to hit and run. He actually was called upon to be a pinch runner 3 times. He started 1888 games and played in 2120. Played outfield 262 times (but I cannot seem to find a way to determine how many of those were starts.. though he did pinch-hit 217 times).
Says he played catcher 1696 times. If he started 1888, that means he started as an outfielder 192 times. Which means he did not start in 232 games. A ball-park figure would be Yogi got a game off from catching 1 in 9/10 games.
Great hitter at a tough position in an era favorable to pitchers... and... he lost his early career to WWII... wiki has interesting info on 1942 to joining the Yanks in September 1946.
How about this... Yogi threw right, but exclusively batter left. I read this si more common among pitchers... but 32% of the best hitters ever did this same thing... while only 2% of baseball players fall into this category.
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When Yogi played the strike zones were larger. That letter high pitch was a strike.
I read your reply and said.. isn't that what I said?
Sure enough.. no, it wasn't. I used the words "smaller strike zone" but everything I described said "larger".. without saying it.
wow.. my bad. BTW.. say say a HIGHER strike zone in AL vs NL.. not larger. Higher because the home plate Ump stood more upright in the AL and his angle over the catcher's shoulder caused the higher strike zone calls.
No idea if that was true or if the strike zone was larger too... but is what I read.. in one of those links in my post.
You can easily google intentional walk leaders by year hoquat.
It’s interesting to look at because the great majority are third and fourth hitters throughout history.
My walks differ because the majority were with 2 outs.
I have to believe the middle of the lineup intentional walk were mostly 1st base open with less than two out to put the double play in order
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I guess it all comes down to a teams strategy. If I were a manager, I think I would agree with the strategy you cited earlier, if there are two outs get the #8 hitter out and you get the pitcher to lead off the next inning. Of course with DH that no longer applies. I guess some managers prefer to put # 8 on and get the almost sure out from the pitcher. Anyway you know a bit more than I do, since my highest level of coaching was recreation league softball.