- In modern baseball, starting pitchers don’t usually throw much more than 100 pitches. This is thought to preserve their ability to throw through the season, and career.
- “He’s got good range” means he is qualified to play in the major leagues as a fielder.
- The shortstop, and 2nd basemen are usually the most athletic people on the team. They are the best fielders, and they also are involved with the most plays over the course of the game.
- The shortstop, and 2nd basemen may be on a team despite having a low batting average because of their exceptional skills at fielding in defense.
- Baseball teams may hire players that are suited to their stadium, thereby giving them a home field advantage. For instance, a baseball stadium that is well suited for hitting home runs, will hire sluggers.
- The infield is called the diamond because of the four bases.
- “Cactus league” usually means spring training, because the baseball teams train in places like Arizona.
- “Bush league” means the what ever happened wasn’t to the high quality expected in the Major Leagues. Bush league literally is a minor league. A minor league is a baseball league that consists of players that wish they were good enough to play in the major leagues.
- Professional baseball was heavily concentrated on the East Coast of America before the television era.
- The “live ball” era in contrast to the “dead ball” era began early in the 20th century when better techniques were used to make the ball harder. This also had the ability to hit the ball further, and that is when the home run became a bigger part of the game.
- “Swinging for the fences” means the batter appeared to be trying to hit a home run.
- A “good cut” means the person swung the bat in a non-horrible way.
- Jackie Robinson’s number was 42. He played on the Brooklyn Dodgers that later moved to Los Angeles. He was the first black player brought into the current era of the major leagues. Prior to the 1880s, baseball leagues were integrated.
- Barry Bonds never played on Sundays at home which greatly frustrated me.
- The bullpen is the area where pitchers warm-up their arms.
- “On deck” means a batter is next up in the rotation. There is even an “on deck” circle where batters are required to stand before batting.
- The “sweet spot” of the bat is the center of the bad, about a foot from the tip.
- Batters, and base runners wear hard hats to protect their heads.
- A given player can only play a given position once per game.
- According to my dad, he could have been a major league baseball player.
- I could have been a major league baseball player, but I chose programming, and I stuck with it.
- The Chicago Cubs might be called that because there is the football team, the Chicago Bears. The Bears use to play in Wrigley field for sometime as well.
- Tactically, teams may pretend they are trying to steal a base simply to distract the pitcher, and force the opposing teams defense to have to shift their fielders for defense.
- A “sinker” is a type of pitch that goes down quickly as it approaches home plate.
- A “whiff” is when a batter swings, and misses a ball resulting in a strike.
- A “no-hitter” is a game where the pitcher has not allowed a hit. This is rare, but it happens a few times a year through out the league.
- A curve ball or slider is a pitch that is spun in a bit, and causes it to trail away, or towards the batter through out the flight of the pitch. With proper placement it can appear that the pitch is a ball, but then curve over the plate fooling the batter, or vice versa, it can exit the strike zone.
- “Kiss that one goodbye” is actually a good thing if your team is at bat. It means a home run is being hit.
- A “solo shot” means there was a home run with no base runners besides the person hitting.
- Expansion teams are the latest teams that have bee added to the league.
- Babe Ruth was the original home run king. The first person to really stand out from the crowd in the home run category.
- Hank Aaron is usually considered to be the current home run king, but only because Barry Bonds is widely believed to have used performance enhancing drugs during his career.
- No matter what, Barry Bonds is still one of the greatest hitters to have played. Pitchers would purposely walk him with the bases loaded, causing a run to be scored rather than pitch to him. Consider that Babe Ruth didn’t compete against an entire race of people. It’s not like drugs didn’t exist before the 1990s. Most likely other people have abused other things. People are widely known to have used stimulants like “bennies”, and other things.
- Wrigley field is in Chicago, and it is a little over a 100 years which put it in the classical period of America.
- The base positions all have an ordinal: 1) pitcher, 2) catcher, 3) 1st baseman, 4th) 2nd baseman, 5th) 3rd baseman, 6th) 3rd shorstop… no one knows the order of the outfielders. Well, I guess they are 7th) left field, 8th) center field, 9th) is right field
- You will often hear the announcers say, “that was a 6-5-2 double play” which refers to the order of the fielders that made the play. It’s captivating.
- Minnesota Twins -> Twin Cities
- San Francisco Giants -> Came from New York, not sure about the name
- Seattle Mariners -> Lots of maritime up there on the sound
- Los Angeles Dodgers -> Came from Brooklyn, named because people in Brooklyn had to dodge street cars
- Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves-> America has a long history of racism
- Oakland Athletics are the American League team in the Bay Area
- Cooperstown is city in New York that is famous for having the baseball Hall of Fame.
- If you are really fast, you can score an “inside the park” homerun. That happens when you hit the ball in play (not into the outfield stands), and successfully round all bases.
- A Cy Young award winner is the the best picture from each league for each year. Cy Young was one of the original great pictures.
- The the rubber in the pitchers mound is 60 feet 6 inches from home plate. The picture must have one of his feet touching the rubber until he releases the ball during a pitch.
- Know your box scores. According to Marilyn Vos Savant, you should know a little bit about last nights baseball game because it is a very common topic of discussion.
- Pretty much the only other places that play baseball are south of our border, and in Japan, but we don’t have any major league teams there. There are however many players from there.
- In 1989 the World Series was between the Giants, and the Athletics. It’s a famous World Series because just before the first game started, there was major earthquake. That earthquake is why we don’t have a highway over the Embarcadero anymore. Seriously, go watch some old Dirty Harry movies.
- Baseball teams usually play 3 game series against other teams through out the season.
- Sometimes if there is a rain-delay the game will be made up on a later date by playing multiple games on the same day. That is called a “double header”.
- The Giants own a the territorial rights to the peninsula.
- The All Star Game is played in July, about midway through the season. It is played by a fan selected list of players from each league. The National League plays the American League. The winning team decides which league gets the four home games advantage in the World Series.
- Hitting for “the cycle” means that you hit a single, double, triple, and home run in a single game.
- Btw, if they steal a base, but the defense doesn’t even bother to try to throw them out, they don’t get credit for a stolen base in the statistics. It goes down as defensive indifference.
- Pine tar is used to increase a batters grip on the bat. It’s legal to use for that purpose. Sometimes pitchers use it to grip a ball as well, but that isn’t legal, so they have to sneak it.
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