Take today’s baseball essay with a gunnysack full of salt because these days when I watch baseball I don’t keep score, don’t take notes and don’t pay attention to the often misleading analytics that baseball offers fans and I just realized I’m not even 100% sure I know what a “gunnysack” is.
The more I watch, the more I appreciate how hard hitting is. And since I'm usually just watching on TV, I don't see what the hitter sees. Thank you for this one, Lee. I always appreciate your baseball posts.
I'm going to talk with my spouse (we met studying classical Greek & Latin) about the origin of the word "gonad," whether it's Sanskrit "sack," or Greek, "seed." Or if ancient scientists put those meanings together for "seed sack."
We didn't talk about it much, but we did have a good laugh. But since Sanskrit and Greek and Latin are all Indo-European (are we still using that term, I don't even know!) languages, I like the idea of a "seed sack."
I'm not about to propose it to a scholarly journal or anything like that... unless its the Missouri Sack Association... nope, I will leave now... bye!
For a couple winters I worked out with Jerry Dipoto (now Mariners GM) and when he threw his mid-90s fastball you could actually hear a buzz as it went by. And I never hit one so they all went by.
I was once allowed to shag flies for a minor league team during BP and briefly considered going to the infield to catch some grounders, but as I got closer I realized just how hard they were hitting the ball.
Those guys might make it look easy, but for us mortals, it's not.
I will likely burn in Kansas City hell for having typed a few of these things, but:
I think Jason Kendall's 2,000 plus hits, multiple stolen bases and just being a badass in general make him as much, if not more than a candidate for Cooperstown. (Please tell Jason I said that so if I ever meet him in a dark alley he might remember it and not beat the $#!t out of me.)
Salvy is a dead weight in the middle of the Royals offense right now and if he values winning and helping his team (as much as he claims to) he will volunteer to move well down in the order.
How Salvy PULLED that well-outside pitch in the Wild Card game is one of the great mysteries in my life and qualifies more than anything else, ever, as a religious experience for me.
Jason has a couple things going against him: his power numbers weren't great (he played in an era when they still valued singles, stolen bases and run scoring) and he didn't kiss the medias' ass and those are the guys who need to vote for him.
Salvy has always been willing to chase pitches (it's amazing pitchers threw him enough strikes for him to hit 312 home runs) and after the Wild Card lots of people wondered if the A's were going to throw Sal sliders, why Donaldson was that far off the line.
The Royals don't have a lot of guys hitting well and Salvador's ability to hit homers (last time I checked he was tied with Bobby Witt Jr. for the team lead) might be why they leave him in the middle of the lineup.
The more I watch, the more I appreciate how hard hitting is. And since I'm usually just watching on TV, I don't see what the hitter sees. Thank you for this one, Lee. I always appreciate your baseball posts.
I'm going to talk with my spouse (we met studying classical Greek & Latin) about the origin of the word "gonad," whether it's Sanskrit "sack," or Greek, "seed." Or if ancient scientists put those meanings together for "seed sack."
It'll be a fun lunch topic.
Let me know that you find out.
We didn't talk about it much, but we did have a good laugh. But since Sanskrit and Greek and Latin are all Indo-European (are we still using that term, I don't even know!) languages, I like the idea of a "seed sack."
I'm not about to propose it to a scholarly journal or anything like that... unless its the Missouri Sack Association... nope, I will leave now... bye!
🧵Gunnysack, eh?
Well, glory be! I’ll be HORNSWOGGLED, 😉‼️
I'm more gobsmacked.
“It sounded like a fastball”
For a couple winters I worked out with Jerry Dipoto (now Mariners GM) and when he threw his mid-90s fastball you could actually hear a buzz as it went by. And I never hit one so they all went by.
I shouldn't read your columns while eating. The story about Seitzer getting hit made a mess...
If a liquid came out your nose at the same time you made my day.
Great post, Lee. Always appreciate the insights.
Jason Kendall: “All that other shit is hard to hit.”
Me: "Hell, I can't even see a fastball. It looks like a white supersonic BB."
They're pros for a reason.
I was once allowed to shag flies for a minor league team during BP and briefly considered going to the infield to catch some grounders, but as I got closer I realized just how hard they were hitting the ball.
Those guys might make it look easy, but for us mortals, it's not.
I will likely burn in Kansas City hell for having typed a few of these things, but:
I think Jason Kendall's 2,000 plus hits, multiple stolen bases and just being a badass in general make him as much, if not more than a candidate for Cooperstown. (Please tell Jason I said that so if I ever meet him in a dark alley he might remember it and not beat the $#!t out of me.)
Salvy is a dead weight in the middle of the Royals offense right now and if he values winning and helping his team (as much as he claims to) he will volunteer to move well down in the order.
How Salvy PULLED that well-outside pitch in the Wild Card game is one of the great mysteries in my life and qualifies more than anything else, ever, as a religious experience for me.
Jason has a couple things going against him: his power numbers weren't great (he played in an era when they still valued singles, stolen bases and run scoring) and he didn't kiss the medias' ass and those are the guys who need to vote for him.
Salvy has always been willing to chase pitches (it's amazing pitchers threw him enough strikes for him to hit 312 home runs) and after the Wild Card lots of people wondered if the A's were going to throw Sal sliders, why Donaldson was that far off the line.
The Royals don't have a lot of guys hitting well and Salvador's ability to hit homers (last time I checked he was tied with Bobby Witt Jr. for the team lead) might be why they leave him in the middle of the lineup.