By FAR, the coolest thing that Cargo does is hit a laser line drive that leaves the infield low and reaches the wall in one or two hops. They get there so damn gast. I have seen Matt Kemp hit these type of lasers since the AZFL. I have seen Miguel Cabrera hit these kinds of lasers with regularity throughout his major league career.

Cargo's go faster. I am almost sure Hit/fx would confirm that if we had access.

I left my Unwritten Rules Manual at work so I can't look up exactly what defines hotdogging, but baseball would not be harmed at all if more if its players had personality.

I left my Unwritten Rules Manual at work so I can't look up exactly what defines hotdogging

From my recollection, it's pretty much exactly as the author describes Carlos Gonzalez. If a guy likes to make sylistic basket catches and stare longingly at his home runs, that's some textbook hotdogging.*

* This isn't a complaint, mind you. As you note, baseball isn't harmed in any way by the presence of these guys.

The best "laser homerun" I've seen so far this year was This Bautista shot. Was out of the park in like .2 seconds. It would be cool to track "time to leave park." Hit tracker does list "speed off bat ", where that homer is second to a Giancarlo Stanton blast off (of course) Jamie Moyer.

It looks to me like Gonzalez uses an unusually large bat, and he's at his best when he's hitting everything down off the end of that bat. Simple physics tells us that this would generate tremendous bat speed, and the ball just shoots off his bat when he hits it right.

I can't really think of anyone else who hits like that.

Keep bringing this energy, this attitude, this passion.

If you do, McCarver's going to prescribe Tone It Down pills.

Just wanted to give you fair warning.

DB

Lowest apex on a non-inside the park HR this year was one CarGo hit on 4/29 off Frank Francisco--reached a top height of 46 feet. It was 5th in speed off the bat. I wonder how hard these guys are hitting the line drives that don't go out.

1.264/.824 OPS

Is the humidor really broken this year? The difference in Carlos's home/road splits recalls the huge splits of the Coors Field of yore, with the 120+ home park factors. (checking...)

Holy crap! 121 this year, after the humidor drove it down to the 105-110 ranges.

That .824 road OPS looks decent (a 119 OPS+ if my math is right), given average NL road OPS of .693 this season. But it's actually a little better than that, given that Carlos isn't allowed to hit in the league's best hitting road park or against the leagues 2nd worst pitching staff.

Road teams are hitting .857(!!!) in Coors Field this year, without Coors the league average road OPS is about .682. But in NL West parks road teams are OPSing .606 in Dodgers Stadium, .596 in 3Com Park, .791 in Chase, and a robust .638 in Petco, for a terrifically awful .658. Not sure how much of CarGo's road line is made up of NL West games, but it's reasonable to think the road OPS in parks he's hit in this year average a bit below .670, if not close to .660. Which would put his road OPS+ is closer to 125 (again if I did the OPS+ math right, which I probably didn't).

I've never understood our cultural appreciation of stoicism in sports.

In this country, this really seems to break down across racial lines and in a lot of cases, complaining about hotdogging players is probably thinly veiled racism. "Oh, look at that so-and-so, act like you've been there!"

A few years ago, the Harlem Little League team made it to the World Series and people complained about them acting like it was fun to play baseball. 12-year-old kids, mind you!

In other countries, celebrations by soccer players and fans are totally over the top, and of course, in hockey, every goal is a major celebration.

In this country, this really seems to break down across racial lines and in a lot of cases, complaining about hotdogging players is probably thinly veiled racism. "Oh, look at that so-and-so, act like you've been there!"

Honestly, I've always preferred the act like you've been there approach, primarily because most celebrations strike me as "Hey, look at how great I am," which has never appealed to me. I didn't think it was racially motivated, thinly veiled or not, but I suppose you never know.

Now, celebrations that are more inclusive (we just scored, rather than I just scored) are a different story. I like those.

SOOOoooooooo glad I made Lincecum my final offseason keeper over Gonzalez this year...

"Hey, look at how great I am," which has never appealed to me.

I was watching the rugby tournament last night at some bar and as they cut to commercial they had a slow motion clip of some guy doing one of those mighty roars after a try. It made me realize I've never felt the urge to do that about anything and it also made me wonder what do you do after the roar.

Football players (especially in the NFL) reacting to tackling the running back for a one yard loss as though they just personally took Iwo Jima drives me batty. (Naturally the NFL, being super-smart as they are, ignores this and punishes players for celebrating touchdowns.) But baseball is way too far on the hyperprofessional end. Basket catches, fistpumps after strikeouts, admiring your home run for a few seconds or flipping your bat with a flourish, none of that stuff bothers me. In fact I kind of wish some players engaged in it. It would be more entertaining. You can be entertaining without being obnoxious, no matter what the Guardians of Professional Conduct say.

The mysteries of who gets the "hotdog" tag and who gets the "colorful" tag will never be solved. Personally, I despised Pete Roses's "hustle" of running to first on a walk (talk about an obvious act) and all the head-first dives (which might have been "natural" and useful) but I was unusual at the time in that respect.

But at least the guy isn't blaming one of the team's best players ... nor recommending shifting CarGo to 1B.

It depends on context. It's awesome when someone scores an OT winner and is totally stoked about it, of course. But football players dancing about a QB Sack when they're down 45-7 is a bit annoying.

Edit: Basically I agree with Zeth in [13].

I didn't think it was racially motivated, thinly veiled or not, but I suppose you never know.

yeah I don't think, for a lot of people, that racism is the root cause but rather, as I said, some cultural value that happens to break down along racial lines.

I've never heard of a black fan or TV analyst complaining about such things. I could be wrong, but even crotchety old guys like Bob Gibson and Hank Aaron have a lot of complaints about younger players but it's mostly about how much tougher it was in their day or whatever. Is there a guy like McCarver complaining about hotdogging or needing a "tone it down pill" who isn't white?

The clearest example that I can think of is the difference between Negro League ball, which was widely reported as being much, much flashier and full of colorful players, and the majors in the 1940s-1950s. Another example is the Harlem Globetrotters, pretty much a unique sports entertainment product built around style over substance.

The best "laser homerun" I've seen so far this year was This Bautista shot. Was out of the park in like .2 seconds. It would be cool to track "time to leave park." Hit tracker does list "speed off bat ", where that homer is second to a Giancarlo Stanton blast off (of course) Jamie Moyer.

This is on my short list of favorite home runs ever. Between Bautista's epic swing and swagger, the fact that it was a low line drive that (as you said) took practically milliseconds to leave the park, and the fact that it ended up in the second deck anyway, I just can't stop smiling when I watch it. And it wasn't even a bad pitch from Kuroda!

Yeah thanks Shock for the Bautista link - as a Jays fan I particularly enjoyed that. He got so much of that pitch I'm surprised the ball stayed fair.

If you ever played football, the feeling you get when making a defensive stop like that is quite emotional. Dancing and choreographed stuff is not spontaneous and I dont go for that, but fist pumping and spontaneous stuff is very understandable. the game is very emotional, your emotions ride up and down almost on each play.

Baseball seemed different to me at least at the pony league level. You had to keep your emotions somewhat in check as most skills are based on one vs one action, pitcher vs batter etc. YOu get a lot of flakes in baseball, probably because you are so wrapped up in your own head; adjusting your swing, adjusting your grip. etc.

Another example is the Harlem Globetrotters, pretty much a unique sports entertainment product built around style over substance.

And Gibson played for the Globetrotters. So did Fergie Jenkins.

Of course the early Trotters were a bit more like the Negro Leagues -- i.e. serious basketball with entertaining touches rather than pure schtick as it was the only place for great black players to play. From our friends at Wiki:

The Globetrotters were perennial participants in the World Professional Basketball Tournament, winning it in 1940. Once one of the best teams in the country, the Globetrotters were eclipsed by the rise of the National Basketball Association, particularly when NBA teams began fielding African-American players in the 1950s.

Apparently they've been playing more competitive games over the last 10-15 years, including several against D I schools. They also offered Lionel Messi a roster spot. :-)

And here's an odd tidbit ... the Harlem Globetrotters are from ... Chicago. They didn't play a game in Harlem until 1968. :-)

It's weird: in softball, I love making good defensive plays much more than good hits. I'd rather make a great play to end the game for the other team, than to make a game-winning hit, for example. But it's never occurred to me, ever, to spike the ball, or dance around, or whatever football players do, when they do defensive football things.

Football players are literally risking their lives and sacrificing years to play the game. Defensive players don't get to score touchdowns very often so making a big stop or getting a sack, which you might do 20-25 times combined on the year (for good players), out of maybe 900-1,000 plays of getting the crap knocked out of you, is a pretty big deal.

Well, if we go by my intramural touch football experience (which is clearly comparable!), intimidation is a much bigger part of football than baseball (with the possible exception of batter-pitcher). Now personally I think I'm much more intimidating when I'm quiet than when I'm celebrating so for me it was more about the intense stare or the serial killer smile at odd times. Anyway "I just planted you in the ground" is part of football.