Calcaterra: Happy 40th Birthday, Derek Jeter!

Happy Birthday, Paul Molitor with an interlocking NY thingamajigisup!

Today is Derek Jeter‘s 40th birthday. I have not done a ton of research into the matter, but based on the columns and tributes I’ve seen coming out of New York, I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say that Jeter is the first Major League Baseball player in history to turn 40-years-old. That’s a pretty great accomplishment and we should all talk about how classy and winning a strategy turning 40-years-old really is.

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Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 6-26-2014

Milwaukee Journal, June 26, 1914:

The baseball fans of Washington will probably hereafter enjoy a supply of cool drinking water, furnished by spigots throughout the local ball park, thanks to a bill introduced by Representative Howard of Georgia…
...
Mr. Howard is himself a baseball fan, but has no taste for soda pop. For a time he was able to get drinking water from one hydrant at the Washington ball park, but finally the soft drink interests broke the handle off the faucet.

In other words, the ...

Twitter: Mitchell Lichtman

I seriously can't believe that anyone with a baseball IQ over 50 would defend a claim that Lincecum is still a good pitcher.

— Mitchel Lichtman (@mitchellichtman) June 26, 2014

Going back to old stance paying dividends for Jackie Bradley Jr.

He has to do something.

Bradley has changed the position of his front foot from a straight-on approach to more of an open stance — a noticeable change when the team arrived in Oakland. It’s seemed to work, as the outfielder is 6-for-20 on the trip.
What Bradley has done is essentially go back to the stance he employed until his first exposure to the major leagues in 2013. Bradley’s struggles at the big-league level at the beginning of last season — he went 3-for-31 to start his career ...

Vanderbilt wins College World Series

Party at David Price’s house. Don’t forget to bring some kibble for Astro.

OMNICHATTER 6-26-2014

We have gone [0] days since the last time Tim Lincecum no-hit the Padres.

Purdy: Why Tim Lincecum Is Our Elvis

The Bay Area needs no new summer theme park thrill rides. It still has Tim Lincecum.

The Giants’ pitcher, who has been spectacularly up and down in terms of success over the past few seasons, was at the very peak of his freaky-geeky powers Wednesday at AT&T Park.

His fastball worked. His off-speed stuff worked. His hipster-hurler mojo worked, like, totally. And after nine innings of all that, Lincecum had thrown a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres – his second no-hitter against ...

Price Fielder poses nude for ESPN the magazine

Twenty-two athletes will be featured in the ESPN The Magazine Body Issue, which will hit newsstands on July 11.

The keystone to the issue is the “Bodies We Want” section, where athletes will be featured in tasteful nude poses.

“Insert punch line”

A’s finalize 10 year lease extension for O.co

Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig issued the following statement today regarding the lease extension of the Oakland Athletics:

“I commend the Oakland Athletics and the JPA for their efforts in reaching an extension for a lease at O.co Coliseum. The agreement on this extension is a crucial first step towards keeping Major League Baseball in Oakland.
“I continue to believe that the Athletics need a new facility and am fully supportive of the club’s view that the best site in ...

Adrian Beltre raps 2,500th career hit

Beltre is the sixth player who played the majority of his career at third base to reach the 2,500-hit level. The others are George Brett (3,154), Wade Boggs (3,010), Brooks Robinson (2,848), Chipper Jones (2,726) and Buddy Bell (2,514)

I feel like Beltre is going to have a really interesting HOF case in a few years, especially if he keeps up what he’s been doing for the next couple years. He’ll also make the trivia question of “Who are the four active players in the MLB with 2500 hits” a ...

Rays’ David Price in ‘bad mood’

“I mean, obviously I think about it,” Price told reporters on Tuesday. “That’s why I’ve been in a bad mood the last week and a half. I think about it. You guys know that. And it’s nothing I really want to talk about.
“I don’t have an answer for you guys. I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t know when I’m going. So there’s nothing I can really comment on.”

So much for standard cliches about not letting it affect him.

MLB tweaks wording on force plays (at home plate)

Major League Baseball took a formal step Tuesday to clarify a portion of the new rule governing unnecessary collisions between baserunners and catchers at home plate.

In a statement sent to the baseball operations departments for all 30 teams, MLB said umpires have been instructed not to apply Rule 7.13 to force plays at home plate. The directive came several days after Joe Torre, MLB’s executive vice president of baseball operations, said the rules were interpreted incorrectly to overturn an ...

Native American group planning 9 billion lawsuit against Cleveland Indians

A Native American group is planning to file a $9 billion federal lawsuit against the Cleveland Indians and their “offensive” Chief Wahoo logo, according to CBS Cleveland. The suit is expected to be filed next month

WaPo: Ryan Zimmerman’s homer in 16th inning against Brewers caps longest game in Nationals’ history

A true deathmatch.  Personally, I’m disappointed: if the game had gone only one more inning, Adam LaRoche would have made his Major League pitching debut for the Washington Nationals.

MILWAUKEE — More than five hours after Tuesday’s game began, Miller Park nearly empty and only a handful of souls left to watch, Ryan Zimmerman’s monstrous swing mercifully put an end to the longest game in Washington Nationals history. Zimmerman’s two-run shot off reliever Mike Fiers in the top of the 16th ...

Davidoff: This is no time for Derek Jeter to be showing his age

Forget Sergeants..No Time for Captains!

Back on Feb. 27 at Steinbrenner Field, Derek Jeter stood in front of his locker and vowed to be relevant until the imminent end of his glorious career.

“If I ever felt that I wasn’t important,” the Yankees’ captain declared, “then I would have left a long time ago.”

Well, he’s still important, all right — maybe even more important than he has been in a few years, given the paucity of production around him. And because he’s so ...

OMNICHATTER 6-25-2014

The “Sorry-About-The-Last-Few-Days” OMNICHATTER

Weigel: Who Does Bill James Think Will Win the College World Series?

BEHOLD!

Bill James, the father of sabermetrics, created the 10 Commandments of Baseball, which are listed below. These serve as a guide for teams on how to best play the odds and are not an exhaustive list of proper strategy nor are these principles true all of the time, but as general rules of thumb, following these rules can help a team win a lot of baseball games.

6. Thou Shalt Not Count to the Credit of the Pitcher That Which Is Done by His Fielders or by His Hitters, nor Charge Him with ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 6-25-2014

Pittsburgh Press, June 25, 1914:

A jury in [Springfield, MA] Superior court awarded a verdict of $14,000 to Edward Collins in his suit against the Holyoke Street Railway Co. Collins, who is aged 10, lost his right leg as a result of a collision between trolley cars in June, 1912. The railway company admitted liability, but argued that artificial legs have been so perfected that the loss of a leg is no longer a serious handicap.

Attorney William P. Hayes, for the plaintiff, called attention to ...

New Trial in Sluggerr Hot Dog Lawsuit

BBTF, the go to site for Mascot Jurisprudence:

The Supreme Court ruled that the trial judge made an error by instructing jurors to decide whether the risk of injury from the hot dog toss was “an inherent risk” of watching a Royals baseball game. That was a question that the judge should have decided, according to Tuesday’s ruling.

The jury instead should have been asked to decide whether Sluggerrr injured Coomer by hitting him with a hot dog and whether that constituted negligence.

Big league power highlights rosters for 2014 Sirius XM All-Star Futures Game | MLB.com: News

Meet the Futures Game players.

Kernan: Alderson’s Moneyball plan yet to work as well as Beane’s

Them boys in their high stirrups. Ah, Sandy, their uniforms are so white…and green…and gold.

Sandy’s Mets were supposed to be Billy’s A’s.

They were supposed to become low-budget wonders of the baseball world.

The A’s, under Billy Beane, are just that, again, posting the best record in the majors at 47-29. They have scored the most runs (389) while surrendering the fewest (254).

The Mets were 21st in the majors with 294 runs scored, three below the Yankees, going into Monday ...

Sherman: Garrison Keillor figures out Cubs problem: It’s a Lutheran thing

Or: The Junior Lake Wobegon Effect (106 OPS+ last year - 88 OPS+ this year).

Keillor, 71, still has his fastball. He played to the Chicago audience by giving his version of why the Cubs haven’t won the World Series since 1908. It makes about as much sense as anything else.

If you want to listen to the audio, the Cubs segment occurs at the 1:11 mark of the show.

Keillor said:

It’s the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field in Chicago, which was built in 1914 on the site of the old Chicago ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 6-24-2014

Milwaukee Journal, June 24, 1914:

Baseball was today rejected as one of the sports at the Olympic games, to be held in 1916 at Berlin. James E. Sullivan, head of the American delegation, requested that baseball be included, but the president, Baron Pierre De Coubertin, reminded him that it was necessary, in order to have baseball considered an international sport, that six countries should play the game.

Same as it ever was.

Not that it mattered. As you might imagine, Berlin was far too busy ...

Feinstein: Jeff Passan: ‘Tim Hudson Not A Hall Of Famer’

Fabulous Hudson hornet’s nest.

Is Hudson a Hall of Famer?

“I think that’s a little much,” Yahoo! Sports columnist Jeff Passan said on The John Feinstein Show. “I think he’s one of those guys who has been very good and would be a first-ballot Hall of Very Good player, but Hall of Fame is a little too much. He’s never been the best pitcher in the league, and I think part of that is due to the fact that what he does is really under-appreciated.”

“I think we’re just starting to ...

David Ortiz apologizes for bashing official scorer; call reversed

In any event, Ortiz got his hit, as official scorer Bob Ellis on Monday switched his ruling from an error to a hit.

Let the baby have his bottle.

VIDEO: 17-year-old female knuckleballer throws BP to Rays

Chelsea’s knuckleball is real. She hit Longo in the back. I loved it. With that pitch & her composure she can compete

Not bad at all.  Joe Maddon seems like fun.

Carlos Gomez Symbolic Pursuit

this is a fine article.  it really captures the ‘essence’ of carlos gomez

Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins looks for the next Great White hope

Well, it ain’t James J Beattie and it sure as hell ain’t Jim Beattie.

The latest Great White North snub is Larry Walker. The seven-time Gold Glove winner from B.C. slipped down and received 10.2 percent of the HOF votes in his fourth year on the ballot. He earned 21.6 percent of the votes in 2013. Players need 75 percent to get in.

It looks like Walker’s best chance to get a bronze plaque will be by the Veteran’s Committee, a group that selects players ineligible to be picked by the ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 6-23-2014

Pittsburgh Press, June 23, 1914:

Pete Standridge, the [San Francisco] Seals’ only survivor from the defunct California league, says he has perfected what he calls his “fork ball”...Standridge puts the ball between his second and third fingers before heaving it, then puts all the speed he can back of it and the result is something weird. The ball takes a more peculiar shoot than does the spitter and his harder to hit. As soon as Standridge gets rid of a charley horse he will try out his discovery ...

Rapoport: Kershaw’s gem was great, but batters feared Nolan Ryan

Hey, Rapoport! I haven’t read you in ages.

Ranking no-hitters may seem like a fool’s errand. Greatness is greatness and this sort of example doesn’t happen very often. Why not leave it at that?

But when a pitcher ascends toward the upper echelon of strikeout potential and pitches a no-hitter as well, the temptation to match him against those who came before becomes irresistible. And since claims are being made that Clayton Kershaw’s no-hit victory over Colorado on June 18 is the most dominant ...