Elsewhere 100 years ago, the Toledo News-Bee provides step-by-step instructions on how to make your own regulation league baseball at home. Anybody up for a fun challenge?

This is not a particularly good Birthday Team, but they will beat you at football.

C: Mike Difelice
1B: Pearce "What's The Use" Chiles
2B: Bill Doran
3B: Jhonny Peralta
SS: Rafael Landestoy
LF: Bill Barrett
CF: Jim Thorpe
RF/Manager: Kirk Gibson

SP: Bob Kuzava
SP: Daniel Cabrera
SP: Randy Martz
SP: Jim Middleton
SP: Steve Nagy
RP: Duane Ward

GM/League President: Warren Giles
Tragedy: Willard Hershberger
Eats Bugs: Mike Maksudian
Unable to beat out Landestoy, which says all you need to know about him: Steve Jeltz

There's an excellent profile of "What's The Use" here. Absolutely worth a read if you're interested in great scoundrels in baseball history. Seriously. It's excellent. Has everything I love about digging through old newspapers: Ballplayers with which I was previously unfamiliar, a great olde-timey nickname, bungled scams, creative ways to cheat, and mysterious people vanishing into thin air.

Why are the Rockies and Astros playing a split doubleheader Monday and then having an off day in the middle of their series Tuesday?

Also, the Dionne quintuplets were born on this day in 1934. Only Annette and Cecile are still alive on their 78th birthdays.

Game of the day (yesterday): Tigers 4, Twins 3. Detroit got things started early, with Quintin Berry (playing for the injured Austin Jackson, and leading off because that's what Jackson does... to be fair, his minor league numbers look OK for a leadoff guy) walked, and Andy Dirks singled; Berry moved to third, and Dirks to second on the throw. Miguel Cabrera then singled in a run; Dirks stopped at third, but Cabrera is listed as "out trying to advance;" according to the MLB game recap, "trying to advance" in this case means taking a normal turn around first, then sleepwalking back to the base and getting tagged out before arriving. Anyway, Prince Fielder walked, and Brennan Boesch hit into a double play to end the inning - but Dirks scored from third, because the DP was out of order, going 4-3-6-4, with Fielder getting caught in a rundown; why he didn't just staple himself to second base, I'm not quite sure (I suppose it's possible he hadn't made it to second yet; that would mean he was less dumb but more inexcusably slow). Regardless, that's two run-scoring plays in one inning that B-R gives a WPA value of 0%, one of which was a run-scoring, inning-ending double play, which seems like it should happen maybe a couple times a year.

From there, the game became relatively normal. Minnesota stranded two runners in both the first and third innings against Rick Porcello; Minnesota starter PJ Walters gave up a double to Fielder in the fourth, then helped the Tigers load the bases on a walk to Boesch and a HBP of Johnny Peralta before Don Kelly ended the inning by hitting into a double play. The Twins tallied their first run in the fourth when Ryan Doumit doubled, advanced on a groundout, and came home on an infield single by Alexi Casilla. Detroit put three runners on again in the fifth with singles by Ryan Raburn and Berry, a sac bunt by Dirks, and after a Cabrera popup, an intentional pass to Fielder, which paid off when Boesch struck out. In the bottom of the inning, Ben Revere singled and stole second with one out; Joe Mauer doubled to drive in the tying run, and Josh Willingham broke the short-lived tie by singling Mauer home. (Mauer, incidentally, is having a very nice rebound year, .300/.405/.418 so far for a 131 OPS+, which is just about his normal even-numbered year. His odd-numbered years are mostly worse, except for 2009, in which he was ridiculous; the standard deviation of his OPS+ in even years is 5, in odd years it's 31.)

Now leading for the first time, Walters followed much the same schedule he had all day: Get into trouble, get out of trouble. He gave up a walk and a single to the first two Tigers to bat in the sixth, but Kelly fouled out on a bunt attempt and Raburn hit into a double play. The Twins put two runners on as well, but the first was caught stealing before the second reached. The game was handed off to the bullpens from there, but continued in much the same fashion, as the Tigers left two more runners on and the Twins had Mauer reach, then get picked off. Both teams left a runner in scoring position in the eighth, and that brought in Matt Capps to pitch to the top of the Tiger order in the ninth. Berry singled and stole second; Dirks flied out, and then Cabrera hit an entirely different kind of fly ball to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead. Jose Valverde came in for the Tigers, who made their normal cavalcade of late-inning defensive shifts and promptly gave up a bunt single to Denard Span; Revere bunted as well, but popped it up. Span stole second with two outs and Willingham walked behind him, but Justin Morneau flied out to end the game.

Cabrera didn't drive in all of the Tigers' runs, but because the other one scored on a DP, he did have all of their RBI. Wonder how often that happens.

Game of the day (last year): Royals 12, Rangers 7 (14). This was very much a three-act game.

Act I: The early explosion. Texas starter Colby Lewis was greeted by three consecutive doubles (Alex Gordon, Melky Cabrera, Eric Hosmer); two outs later, Wilson Betemit singled in the third run of the inning. The Rangers responded promptly against KC's Nathan Adcock, starting with a leadoff homer by Ian Kinsler; one out later, Josh Hamilton and Michael Young hit back-to-back doubles of their own. Adrian Beltre reached on a K/WP, Nelson Cruz hit an RBI groundout to tie the score at 3, and David Murphy hit a 2-run homer to give Texas the lead. This lead lasted about as long as the last one; the Royals loaded the bases with nobody out on a pair of walks sandwiched around a sac bunt/error, Hosmer singled in a pair of runs to tie the game, and Billy Butler knocked in a third with two outs to reclaim the advantange. The Rangers closed out the first act by surging ahead once more in the bottom of the second, as Kinsler walked and Elvis Andrus singled... and that was pretty much the duration of the rally. On Andrus's single, Jeff Francoeur made a sufficiently egregious throwing error to allow Kinsler to score and Andrus to take third, from which position he came home on a Hamilton groundout, putting Texas ahead 7-6.

Act II: The middle drought. Lewis settled in significantly after what could generously be described as a rocky first two innings; over the next four, he gave up only a two-out single. Adcock, meanwhile, was lifted for Felipe Paulino after putting two runners on with two out in the third, and Paulino pitched through the seventh while also giving up a solitary single. The Texas bullpen came in for the top of the seventh and gave up a pair of hits, but Mark Lowe escaped by inducing a double play ball from Butler, then got the same result from Chris Getz to end the Kansas City eighth. Neftali Feliz came on to start the ninth, accompanied by quite a carousel of defensive moves (Craig Gentry comes in to play center, Murphy moves from center to left, Cruz from left to right, Mitch Moreland from right to first, and Young from first to the showers; Hamilton was the DH in this one). Naturally, with one out, Gordon obviated the defensive adjustments by hitting the ball where the fielders aren't allowed to go, tying the game at 7. Texas loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning against Tim Collins, courtesy of two walks and a hit batter, but Cruz fanned to send the game to extras, and the drought resumed. The Rangers left two on in the 10th, the Royals stranded one on second in the eleventh and one on third in the twelfth, but the game stayed tied through thirteen.

Act III: The denouement. Dave Bush entered the game to start the fourteenth for Texas, and struck out Gordon. Things did not get better from there, as Cabrera and Hosmer then hit back-to-back homers. After Francoeur grounded out, Butler singled and advanced to second on a passed ball. Betemit was then intentionally walked, bringing up Brayan Pena, who'd entered the game in extras. Pena ended the dramatic portion of the evening with a 3-run homer. (May all intentional walks be similarly rewarded.) Joakim Soria pitched the bottom of the inning, which was the lowest-leverage half-inning of the day.

The game had 19 runs. 18 of them were scored in the first, second, and fourteenth innings; the middle 11 innings saw only one, but it was arguably the most dramatic of the day. On balance, this three-act play grades out as the 10th-most exciting of 2011 to date.

Trivia, just in case there's anyone actually here today: Name the four youngest pitchers to reach 1000 career K's.

Felix Hernandez, Dwight Gooden, Bob Feller, and Bert Blyleven?

Well that went fast. 4/4.

EDIT I had Feller and Gooden at least.

Oh. Wow.

I'd actually be curious to see that list extended if anyone has the P-I wherewithal to do so. If it helps, Felix was the oldest of the group, and he did it at about 24 and 4 months.

[11]

Not exactly what you're looking for, but it's a place to start...

Spanning Multiple Seasons or entire Careers, From 1901 to 2012, Younger than 25, sorted by greatest Strikeouts
Player ages are computed as their age on June 30th

                                                        
Rk                Player   SO From   To   Age   G     IP
1          Bert Blyleven 1546 1970 1976 19-25 252 1909.0
2         Walter Johnson 1461 1907 1913 19-25 273 2070.1
3          Dwight Gooden 1391 1984 1990 19-25 211 1523.2
4           Sam McDowell 1384 1961 1968 18-25 223 1305.0
5    Fernando Valenzuela 1274 1980 1986 19-25 210 1554.2
6        Felix Hernandez 1264 2005 2011 19-25 205 1388.1
7           Don Drysdale 1236 1956 1962 19-25 271 1629.2
8             Bob Feller 1233 1936 1941 17-22 205 1448.1
9      Christy Mathewson 1198 1901 1906 20-25 249 1960.0
10          Frank Tanana 1120 1973 1979 19-25 193 1411.1
11         Hal Newhouser 1120 1939 1946 18-25 261 1609.0
12          Denny McLain 1098 1963 1969 19-25 213 1501.2
13         Larry Dierker 1080 1964 1972 17-25 236 1624.0
14        Catfish Hunter 1062 1965 1971 19-25 248 1586.1
15           Joe Coleman 1019 1965 1972 18-25 222 1416.1
16             Vida Blue  992 1969 1975 19-25 198 1367.2
17        Smoky Joe Wood  986 1908 1915 18-25 218 1416.0
18         Roger Clemens  985 1984 1988 21-25 140 1031.1
19      Dennis Eckersley  976 1975 1980 20-25 201 1346.0
20        Pedro Martinez  970 1992 1997 20-25 185  912.1
21            Don Sutton  958 1966 1970 21-25 188 1219.2
22          Sandy Koufax  952 1955 1961 19-25 216  947.1
23          Chief Bender  935 1903 1909 19-25 221 1549.0
24           CC Sabathia  933 2001 2006 20-25 185 1165.1
25           Jim Maloney  933 1960 1965 20-25 157  995.1

It's a pre-emptive answer to the question "What does this have to do with Frank Tanana?"

So looking through game logs where available and necessary, it looks as though along with the four answers given earlier, Johnson, McDowell, and Valenzuela broke 1000 before turning 25. Mathewson probably also did (if at least 121 of his 206 strikeouts in 1905 came before August 12). Tanana ended his start on July 1, 1978 with exactly 1000 career K's, and turned 25 2 days later, making him the cutoff point; that would be what this has to do with him.

[14] Tanana ended his start on July 1, 1978 with exactly 1000 career K's, and turned 25 2 days later, making him the cutoff point; that would be what this has to do with him.

The B-R event finder for Tanana gives a different answer:

                                                                                                                      
Cr#    Yr# Gm#       Date  Tm Opp       Batter     Score Inn RoB Out Pit(cnt)Sequence R  WPA RE24  LI Play Description
1000    63   1 1978-06-20 CAL MIN Bombo Rivera ahead 3-1  b3 ---                    1 0 0.02 0.15 .72        Strikeout

The B-R event finder for Tanana gives a different answer:

Crap, 1000-937 (his career total through the previous year) is 63, not 73. That would have been pretty cool if it'd been, you know, correct.

You'd think that with K rates going steadily up, the list would be dominated by recent pitchers, but of course the determining factor is more how heavily a young pitcher gets worked: hence all the young pitchers to get to 1000 in the 1970s. Makes Hernandez look that much more impressive, of course.

[14] From B-R Event Finder* and ESPN on the pitchers listed above:

    Pitcher      Birth     1000K Age(Days) Years Days (Approx Calc.)
     Feller  11/3/1918                        22   179

   Blyleven   4/6/1951  8/5/1974     8522     23   121 
     Gooden 11/16/1964 7/22/1988     8649     23   248 

  Hernandez   4/8/1986 8/25/2010     8905     24   139 
S. McDowell  9/21/1942 7/20/1967     9068     24   302 
 Valenzuela  11/1/1960 8/31/1985     9069     24   303 
     Tanana   7/3/1953 6/20/1978     9118     24   352  

Newhouser**  5/20/1921 7/23/1946     9195     25    64 
   Drysdale  7/23/1936 9/28/1961     9198     25    67 
     McLain  3/29/1944 6/20/1969     9214     25    83 
     Hunter   4/8/1946  8/1/1971     9246     25   115 
  

*From B-R: "Event data is complete back to 1973 and mostly complete back to 1950."

**Using Newhouser's game log at baeball-almanac.com indicates that he recorded his 1,000th strikeout on 7/23/1946, aged 25 years, 64 days

Why are the Rockies and Astros playing a split doubleheader Monday and then having an off day in the middle of their series Tuesday?

Can't find any special reason for it. Neither team would have violated any restrictions on playing consecutive days without an off-day.

-- MWE

 [17] You'd think that with K rates going steadily up, the list would be dominated by recent pitchers, but of course the determining factor is more how heavily a young pitcher gets worked: hence all the young pitchers to get to 1000 in the 1970s. Makes Hernandez look that much more impressive, of course.

Kerry Wood is the fastest to 1,000 Ks by games pitched (134) and IP (853), via Wikipedia.

*From B-R: "Event data is complete back to 1973 and mostly complete back to 1950."

**Using Newhouser's game log at baeball-almanac.com indicates that he recorded his 1,000th strikeout on 7/23/1946, aged 25 years, 64 days

The disclaimer is true, but things like 1000th K should be doable for B-R all the way back to 1918 now, because they have boxscore logs back to that point. (And using Newhouser's log confirms 7/23/46.)

College baseball tournament selection show was today (yes they do have one... at noon EDT on a Monday). Florida #1 overall seed. Congrats to Purdue for getting to host (and by extension, to their ex-players (like CBW) and fans (like Jimmy P) as well...). Biggest omission was Wake Forest (for whom bunyon works).
Bracket.

For the sake of comparison, the four pitchers with 4000 Ks:

Ryan: 1000th K on 7/3/73, 26 years, 5 months, 3 days old.
Clemens: 4/13/89, 26 years, 8 months, 9 days.
Carlton: 5/7/72, 27 years, 4 months, 15 days.
Johnson: 7/28/93, 29 years, 10 months, 18 days.

Not that this is news to anyone, but Randy Johnson was a ridiculously impressive late bloomer.

Spanning Multiple Seasons or entire Careers, From 1901 to 2012, From 1st season to 5th season, (requiring SO>=1000), sorted by fewest Games Played

                                                               
Rk           Player   G   SO From   To   Age  GS GF     IP   BF
1        Kerry Wood 142 1065 1998 2003 21-26 142  0  902.2 3824
2        Hideo Nomo 151 1031 1995 1999 26-30 150  0  960.2 4070
3      Tim Lincecum 156 1127 2007 2011 23-27 155  0 1028.0 4248
4     Dwight Gooden 158 1067 1984 1988 19-23 158  0 1172.2 4718
5     Mark Langston 166 1018 1984 1988 23-27 163  1 1124.1 4829
6        Tom Seaver 180 1155 1967 1971 22-26 175  5 1379.1 5482
7     Bert Blyleven 181 1094 1970 1974 19-23 178  2 1335.2 5429
8    Pete Alexander 236 1036 1911 1915 24-28 188 44 1715.0 6858

[23] Age based most similar players to Randy Johnson through Age 29:

 957  Kerry Wood
 952  Stan Williams
 946  Cy Seymour
 943  Kirk McCaskill
 941  Shawn Estes
 939  Bobby Shantz
 936  Chuck Finley
 935  Randy Wolf
 935  Walt Terrell
 934  Juan Guzman

Speaking of Ks, Chris Sale has 14 of them through 6 innings.

Sale finished with 15 Ks in 7 IP. While facing Sale, Matt Moore finished with 10 Ks in 7 IP.

Sale finished with 15 Ks in 7 IP. While facing Sale, Matt Moore finished with 10 Ks in 7 IP.

Now that's some exciting baseball right there!!

An oldie but a goodie, through age 28:

Randy through 28: 818 IP, 49-48, 9.0 K/9, 5.7 BB/9, 0.8 HR/9, 101 ERA+
Ollie through 26: 999 IP, 55-60, 9.2 K/9, 4.8 BB/9, 1.3 HR/9, 96 ERA+

HR/9 obviously a big difference but ... baseball is a funny game.

Biggest omission was Wake Forest (for whom bunyon works)

What hurt Wake Forest more than anything was Georgia Tech's winning the ACC Tournament from the #8 seed. Wake's resume was virtually the same as that of the Yellow Jackets entering the ACC tournament, and I don't think Tech would have made it without the automatic bid. Before the last-weekend sweep of Clemson, at home, Wake hadn't been particularly impressive since the early part of the season, and they won only eight games away from Winston-Salem all season. Getting swept at Boston College was also a killer for the Deacons, I think.

-- MWE

Congrats to Purdue for getting to host (and by extension, to their ex-players (like CBW) and fans (like Jimmy P) as well...).

Why is that referred to as the Gary Regional while the other regionals are named after the city of the host school?

Agree on the bc sweep, mike - but cw had them in.
I thought GT was definitely in w 1-2 acc wins - they made that moot.

Purdue's facility isn't up to host - so they're playing in Gary. ECU hosted in Wilson NC along similar lines once upon a time.

Purdue's facility isn't up to host - so they're playing in Gary.

That's kind of what I was wondering. I'd really like to check that out. I'll be there tomorrow morning for the Railcats' contest with Sioux Falls.

In terms of overall body of work, there really wasn't a dime's worth of difference between Wake and GT going into the ACC tourney. The committee cited Wake's 13-17 ACC record as justification for keeping them out - well, Tech was 12-18 (32-24 overall), and lost 2 of 3 at Winston-Salem. All else being equal, it would have been difficult to put GT in and keep the Deacons out, and I think that both teams needed a big effort in the tournament to get to the field.

John Manuel and Aaron Fitt do a college podcast every Monday on BA, and they've been making the point all year that teams from the power conferences who are on the bubble tend to be cut less slack than teams from lesser conferences when it comes to making the field of 64. The committee doesn't want the tournament to be any more SEC/ACC centric than it has to be.

-- MWE

I have no qualms with WFU's non-inclusion and saw little difference b/w GT and WFU. But, that's more than no difference as...
- GT ended the season hotter (which they care about)
- has a better pedigree (matters a teeny bit, and don't mention Texas)
- the Jackets had some return to health which could factor in seeding, though not enough to be a big deal
I thought they needed some wins - and they maximized that - but, given that they ended up getting a #2 seed (granted, the worst #2 seed possible), I think their position vis-a-vis a Wake Forest team that ended up not getting a bid was a little better than BA suggested.
(Smarter and more knowledgeable people likely have easy counters, like how BA nailed the GT seeding - suggesting both theat they know what they're talking about (they do) and that the committee simply overrated tourney success (which they also do).

Beyond that, BA - despite noting the bias against power teams on the bubble - agreed that WF is the biggest snub in the field (Michigan State, arguably the school that got that berth instead, has an unimpressive resume).

Why are the Rockies and Astros playing a split doubleheader Monday and then having an off day in the middle of their series Tuesday?

From the Rockies broadcast, the Rockies requested this and it was granted. Seems like they simply wanted to host two games on Memorial Day. You'd think the Astros would object but maybe they welcomed the extra day off.

If I'm running Houston, I'd want it on the grounds that it might be easier to split a road doubleheader than road games on back to back days. Not sure if there's anything actually there...

From the Rockies broadcast, the Rockies requested this and it was granted. Seems like they simply wanted to host two games on Memorial Day. You'd think the Astros would object but maybe they welcomed the extra day off.

If the Rockies request was because they thought that it would boost gate receipts to play the two games in this manner, then (from a financial point of view) it would also be in the Astros best interests, since visiting teams share in the gate receipts.

DB