Poster art from the forthcoming Le Champ Extérieur.

Periodically, the editors of NotGraphs compile a brief list of baseball-related films expected to appear in theaters at some point in the not very distant future. Below are five real and not fake examples of same.

Working Title: Outside Art
Synopsis: A quiet, shoegazing twenty-something dedicates his lunch hour everyday at an art-supply store to the development and perfection of a knuckleball. After a fortuitous encounter with a scout, he signs a contract, eventually has success in the majors, and also makes love to Marion Cotillard. Stars Michael Cera.

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It was neither the best, nor entirely worst, of times for Jim Thorpe.

A brief inspection of the internet — in particular the Baseball Reference part of it — reveals that today (May 28th) is the birth anniversary of famous and dead Native American athlete Jim Thorpe. A slightly less brief inspection of the internet reveals that Jim Thorpe endured probably both a miserable life and also not the most miserable life.

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Recently, the author introduced a nearly reasonable methodology for identifying the most glorious baseball pitches over any given interval of games. What follows is that same methodology applied to every relevant pitch since last Friday. Click here for more information on the definition of break. Click here for previous editions of the same exercise.

Fastball
Pitcher: Hector Rondon, RHP, Chicago NL (Profile)
Batter: Jonathan Lucroy   Date: Sunday, May 18th
Velocity: 96.8 mph   Break: 6.0 in.

Footage:

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Rod Steiger would not care to hear about your semester abroad.

Periodically, the editors of NotGraphs compile a brief list of team names that remain unused at any level of baseball, accompanied by some suitable hometowns and likely mascots — with a view, that is, to aiding any clubs (either extant or prospective) in search of same. What follows is such a list.

Team Name: Fighting Post-Structuralists*
Possible Locations: Berkeley, CA; The Main Quad of Hampshire College
Mascot: A gender-less, race-less creature to which each member of the crowd will inevitably attach his or her own associations, anyway.

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Dayn Perry and the present author are recording an Answer Time edition of FanGraphs Audio late tomorrow (Thursday) morning — a thing (i.e. Answer Time) not unlike Question Time, but also the exact opposite.

The reader is invited to submit an answer for Perry — who hasn’t made his bed, but is already preparing to lie in it — in the comment section below.

After beginning the latter’s first-inning at-bat with very much an inside fastball, Corey Kluber proceeded to strike out Miguel Cabrera on three breaking pitches to the outer half of the plate — the last of which pitch is depicted in the animated GIF embedded here.

Also depicted within the aforementioned GIF is a series of speech acts performed by the Detroit hitter. While no audio is available of Cabrera’s message to Kluber, NotGraphs’ Forensic Speechreading Expert Panel of Experts confirms the following dialogue:

“Falafels are never fun… Fun.”

A cryptic message, one notes — but terribly rich and even more compelling.

Because he is afraid both of answers and the truth, the author has not endeavored to confirm that the word Ydhwxactx — very clearly tweeted by former major-league left-hander Jamie Moyer — actually belongs to any of the Oto-Manguean languages. It seems to, however, and that — as America’s celebrities teach us — is what’s most important.

Last week, the author introduced a nearly reasonable methodology for identifying the most impressive baseball pitches over any given interval of games. What follows is that same methodology applied to every relevant pitch since last Friday. Go here for more information on the definition of break.

Fastball
Pitcher: Brandon League, RHP, Los Angeles NL (Profile)
Batter: Giancarlo Stanton   Date: Tuesday, May 13th
Velocity: 94.1 mph   Break: 8.1 in.

Footage:

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Click for a larger version.

It’s a matter of historical record that, while the technology to manufacture animated GIFs existed in 1949, it was the province only of select government agencies and utilized primarily to produce short videos of J. Edgar Hoover doing sex to the Articles of Confederation.

Had said technology been more widely available to the public, however — and had personal computers existed and also the internet — then an enterprising weblogger would almost certainly have captured the footage above of Satchel Paige’s marvelous windup and dispersed it to the people.