Archive for Audio and/or Visual

Some cursory Google-ing reveals no specific announcement on the matter from MLB itself, but, as David Pinto discovered ca. 48 hours ago (and the media on the present electronic page illustrates) video embedding is now available through MLB.com.

Here’s what the page for the above video looks like, for example:

As Pinto suggests — and which even more cursory investigation reveals — there doesn’t appear to be an embed option for the most recent videos. While that makes the discovery less than 100% satisfying, this certainly marks a step in the best direction for MLB.

This video is presented without comment, except to say that:

(a) This video has been made available to the world courtesy OMGreds.

(b) It (i.e. the video) was brought to our attention by Loyal -Graphs reader Randy.

(c) In lieu of personal glory, Loyal -Graphs reader Randy asks that you maybe aid and abet in destroying MS.

The image you see here is either (a) from the top of the third inning of Tuesday’s FS Southwest broadcast of the Rangers and Rays or (b) a recent painting by photorealist Chuck Close.

In either case, it’s definitely titled Two Cool Dudes.

To understand what’s happening in this finely crafted GIF, you need first to understand that, for reasons only Father of Capitalism Adam Smith can tell us, the Houston Astros play host to a promotion called the Taco Bell Hot Sauce Race. Given this video evidence, it appears similar to the sausage and president races one finds at Milwaukee and Washington, respectively, except sad.

In any case, between innings during Daniel Hudson’s most recent start, Border Sauce Mild apparently found itself out of position and, instead of taking the safe way around, challenged Hudson — and, one might say, the human spirit — to a singularly peculiar game of chicken.

This is the result.

What follows is a screenshot from the home page of my fantasy league, from maybe about 11:30pm CT last (Friday) night.

The bit in red there represents my inner monologue upon loading/gazing briefly at said page. (As always, clicking = embiggening.)

Note: if the reader is curious about which team belongs to the author, it’s actually the only one you can’t see there, on account of it (my team) is the first place one.

Nicasio reacts to news of his promotion.

Colorado Rockies’ prospect Juan Nicasio will make his major-league debut Saturday against the St. Louis Cardinals. As the above photo indicates, he is very, very surprised by the news.

Image courtesy Ed Andrieski – AP.

Webcomic xkcd cuts us all to the quick.

Total bro hug to Twitter-er Patrick McCaw for link.

This image is presented to the world courtesy British gentleman and graphic wunderkind Craig Robinson, whose every post at Flip Flop Fly Ballin’ we would steal if it weren’t for our commitment to Utmost Decency.

As the learned reader will already know, there exists in life two kinds of mystery: a mystery, and then a Mystery. The main difference between them, as anyone can see, is that the latter one has a capital-M.

It’s hard to say exactly upon which kind — a mystery or a Mystery — Phillies beat writer Ryan Lawrence stumbled yesterday, but that he did stumble upon one is as obvious as the nose above Steve Lake’s mustache.

For it was yesterday that Lawrence submitted the tweet you see skillfully embedded (and embiggen-able by clicking) at the top of this post. Nor, as the photographic evidence directly below these words indicates, was Lawrence lying even one bit.

Regard, from Bronson Arroyo’s Baseball Reference page:

In fact, Lawrence is entirely accurate: the words “Saturn Nuts” are written here, plain as day. The real question, however, is why those words appear there.

For that kind of information, I turned to the wild frontier of the internet. It was there that I learned, via the Sons of Sam Horn (SOSH) Wiki, that the sobriquet was assigned to Arroyo in a SOSH game thread by then-teammate Curt Schilling during the 2004 ALDS. Even more research brought me to the primary source.

Regard, Schilling’s own words, under the pseudonym of gehrig38 (a common handle for the former pitcher):

The reader can click on that image to embiggen both (a) the image itself and (b) the joie de vivre on all of Earth.

Once again, reader, we find that Great Moments in Spectacles and our industry-standard Mustache Watch come together in a single shining beacon of masculine masculinity.

The gentleman you see in these (very) collectible trading cards is ex-baseball pitcher Fred Breining, notable not only for posting consecutive two-win seasons in the early 1980s but for possessing a surname that’s also a gerund.

In the left-most photo, Breining models for us the Spectacles/Mustache Package Deal that’s captured our attention of late. Of the right-most photo, reader and muscled philosopher Joe P. makes this observation:

Adding to the glory of Fred Breining’s spectacles here is the “Oh, hey, I didn’t see you there” look on his face, as if we’ve interrupted his afternoon of reading Proust at the ballpark.

If nothing else, reader, you’ll have to agree that these images of Breining represent for us that singular pleasure provided by the remembrance of things past.