Cannot thank you enough for all these gems, especially Uncle Rusty's bunting video.
I wish Rusty would adopt me so I could live him with and soak up baseball wisdom. Is it too late?
Please feel free to go on and on about baseball: I'd like to sue somebody in order to get Judging the Royals resurrected.
My favorite Yogi-ism, whether real or not: he was showered and dressed in the clubhouse after a very hot day game and the wife of one of the owners complimented him on his searsucker suit, saying he looked cool, meaning it should help cope with the heat.
After my men's amateur team won its first championship I called Clint Hurdle and thanked him because we used a lot of his advice. Clint said somebody taught me and I taught you and now you go teach someone else. Happy to do it.
I agree with Terry Payne—please feel free to go on and on about baseball. Your guide is excellent and insightful. Spending time on the back fields is so interesting. If you can hear what the coaches are saying it’s a graduate-level class in baseball. And, hanging around the backfields avoids the massive crowds at the field where all the major leaguers are. Many of the drills they do are the same ones that have been done for a hundred years. And really, they need to practice bunting more. Great video! Once, at a previous Spring Training, a small group of friends and I sat down to watch PFP. After about 5 min they were all ready to go see something else and I told them I’d meet up with them later. I was fascinated! I wanted to get out there and run the drill!
The world would pay big money to someone who would invent an asshole quantifier/qualifier. So useful.
Mandy; Thanks and I'm glad you enjoyed this. When I was a kid, if you sucked at baseball, they just benched you because nobody knew how to fix anything. As an adult (or adult-ish) it was a thrill to find out there was a right way to do pretty much everything and if you learned it, you might not be good, but you could be better.
And then the games got fascinating because you could see who was doing things right and who was screwing up.
I was lucky because I had a press pass and was writing about this stuff and the players and coaches wanted me to know what they were doing. One day the Royals ran a baserunning drill about making turns (there's a right way to do that too) and afterwards I asked Doug Sisson (he was the Royals first base coach at the time) what they'd been working on, so he brought me on to the field and we're talking about turns and it's hotter than hell and we're both sweating bullets and he stops and laughs and says:
"If you didn't love it, this would be torture."
You sound like one of the lucky fans who love it and they get way more out of baseball than sitting around waiting for a homer.
Leo Durocher supposedly said: "Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand." You're one of the few and as soon I can figure out that asshole metric I'll let you know.
Hit the arrow button too soon. What I meant to add was that I love shagging fly balls! At fantasy camp I would go back out or even to another field after my group was done.
When the ASG was at Dodger Stadium a few years ago, I tried to get in the group who shagged balls during BP and the HRD. But was told that was for damn little leaguers.
Age discrimination once again rears its senile head. Which is dumb because a well-hit ball travels at over 100 MPH and sooner or later some kid's going to get smoked at the Home Run Derby.
Also...
I may have figured out that A-hole metric, stay tuned.
Thanks for sharing little gems from conversations with some of baseball's greats. I have been to Spring Training games a couple times & it is so fun. It is quite a complex.
Cannot thank you enough for all these gems, especially Uncle Rusty's bunting video.
I wish Rusty would adopt me so I could live him with and soak up baseball wisdom. Is it too late?
Please feel free to go on and on about baseball: I'd like to sue somebody in order to get Judging the Royals resurrected.
My favorite Yogi-ism, whether real or not: he was showered and dressed in the clubhouse after a very hot day game and the wife of one of the owners complimented him on his searsucker suit, saying he looked cool, meaning it should help cope with the heat.
Yogi: "Thanks. You don't look so hot yourself."
After my men's amateur team won its first championship I called Clint Hurdle and thanked him because we used a lot of his advice. Clint said somebody taught me and I taught you and now you go teach someone else. Happy to do it.
Have to admit I was never impressed with him as a player, but I sure was as a manager and most definitely more so as a human being.
I agree with Terry Payne—please feel free to go on and on about baseball. Your guide is excellent and insightful. Spending time on the back fields is so interesting. If you can hear what the coaches are saying it’s a graduate-level class in baseball. And, hanging around the backfields avoids the massive crowds at the field where all the major leaguers are. Many of the drills they do are the same ones that have been done for a hundred years. And really, they need to practice bunting more. Great video! Once, at a previous Spring Training, a small group of friends and I sat down to watch PFP. After about 5 min they were all ready to go see something else and I told them I’d meet up with them later. I was fascinated! I wanted to get out there and run the drill!
The world would pay big money to someone who would invent an asshole quantifier/qualifier. So useful.
Mandy; Thanks and I'm glad you enjoyed this. When I was a kid, if you sucked at baseball, they just benched you because nobody knew how to fix anything. As an adult (or adult-ish) it was a thrill to find out there was a right way to do pretty much everything and if you learned it, you might not be good, but you could be better.
And then the games got fascinating because you could see who was doing things right and who was screwing up.
I was lucky because I had a press pass and was writing about this stuff and the players and coaches wanted me to know what they were doing. One day the Royals ran a baserunning drill about making turns (there's a right way to do that too) and afterwards I asked Doug Sisson (he was the Royals first base coach at the time) what they'd been working on, so he brought me on to the field and we're talking about turns and it's hotter than hell and we're both sweating bullets and he stops and laughs and says:
"If you didn't love it, this would be torture."
You sound like one of the lucky fans who love it and they get way more out of baseball than sitting around waiting for a homer.
Leo Durocher supposedly said: "Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand." You're one of the few and as soon I can figure out that asshole metric I'll let you know.
Ha!
Hit the arrow button too soon. What I meant to add was that I love shagging fly balls! At fantasy camp I would go back out or even to another field after my group was done.
There's an Austin Powers joke available right here and I hope you appreciate me not making it.
When the ASG was at Dodger Stadium a few years ago, I tried to get in the group who shagged balls during BP and the HRD. But was told that was for damn little leaguers.
Age discrimination once again rears its senile head. Which is dumb because a well-hit ball travels at over 100 MPH and sooner or later some kid's going to get smoked at the Home Run Derby.
Also...
I may have figured out that A-hole metric, stay tuned.
Thanks for sharing little gems from conversations with some of baseball's greats. I have been to Spring Training games a couple times & it is so fun. It is quite a complex.
As always, the credit goes to the players and coaches willing to share their knowledge. Glad you enjoyed it.