Archive for Audio and/or Visual

Excellent Interview with Charlie Morton

During the pregame show for WPGB’s broadcast of yesterday’s Dodgers-Pirates game, Bob Walk interviewed Pittsburgh starter Charlie Morton.

The interview is exceptional for at least three reasons:

1. Bob Walk asks interesting questions.

2. Charlie Morton is unusually insightful about the changes his new arm slot has forced him to make.

3. It becomes clear that no actor but Crispin Glover could possibly play Charlie Morton in a movie.

Audio courtesy WPGB-Pittsburgh.

With the increasing popularity of MLB.TV, MLB Extra Innings, and Stealing Games Off the Internet, it’s the case now that something close to a critical mass of baseballing fans have access, on any given night, to the full slate of games being played in the majors. This sort of access allows the enthusiast not only to follow specific teams or players in a way that was previously impossible, but also to participate in out-of-market broadcasts unlike before.

Accordingly, it’s become possible to see the different broadcasting choices that networks and clubs make. One of the more conspicuous of these choices is the placement of the center-field camera. While basically all 30 center-field cameras in use today allow viewers to follow the basic narrative of the game (i.e. the identity of the pitcher/batter, the umpire’s call, etc.), it’s also the case that some center-field cameras provide the viewer with a more intimate experience than others.

If we allow that the goal of the center-field camera shot is to capture the batter-pitcher encounter — and, in particular, to document as accurately as possible what a pitcher’s throwing and to where — then it follows that we might adjudge the league’s 30 center-field cameras using that as our criteria.

In what follows, I’ve endeavored to do just that. Below, you’ll find images for all 30 of the league’s center-field cameras, broken down into three categories: Bottom Five, Top Ten, and The Rest.

The reader will note that, with the exception of Minnesota’s contribution, straight-on shots constitute the most highly ranked of the center-field cameras. This makes sense, of course: straight-on shots portray lefties and righties in the same way and document pitch movement in a way that off-set cameras can’t.

The reader should also note that, of all the rankings I’ve given here, the most difficult was Minnesota’s. It has the advantage of being straight-on from center, but is also bizarrely high, making it difficult to gauge the depth of pitches.

Finally, if you believe I’ve erred in any of the screen captures here, don’t hesitate to make note of same in the comment section.

Bottom Five
30. Pittsburgh Pirates

Read the rest of this entry »

Father of Us All Bill James has (a) written a book called Popular Crime and (b) endeavored to promote said book via some kind of American television program.

You fill in the blanks.

Executive Summary: The KC Star’s Royals blogger, Lee Judge, recently criticized Wilson Betemit for not taking an 81-mph slider in the ribs with the bases loaded. In order to lend the heft of authority to his criticism, Mr. Judge then decided to see what an 81-mph slider to the ribs felt like. This is Mr. Judge’s superlative video tale of journalistic integrity and a large, red welt.

(Frog-punch in the arm: BBTF)

When he’s not playing minor league baseball for the Tampa Bay Rays, Emeel Salem sings “Katy Perry piano covers. You know, guy stuff.”

Me, I’m just glad I’m not the only one who enjoys Perry’s Teenage Dream. Massive tune, no matter what the haters say.

Enjoy. And make sure you thank Emeel on Twitter: @e_salem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9iJKKXldVc&

Piano-sized props out to Rays Index. And Emeel. Definitely Emeel.

In this space we are duty-bound to pass along great manager tirades. What follows, however, comes to us from the ivory towers of academia, where they call managers “head coaches” but still make them wear uniforms. Texas head coach Auggie Garrido has lots of success at the major-college level, and I’d like to think that’s because he has a mouth that’s dirtier than Pig Pen’s bedpan. (You have probably surmised that the following walking tour of the undesirable neighborhoods of the King’s English is not safe for work, unless your place of employment is just really great.) Behold, respectfully:

At this point we are, necessarily and in abundant awe, left to wonder: which of the following is the most rousing, most soaring, most eagle-winged speech, delivered to the college man in need of a guiding paternal hand, in the annals of time? Your candidates …

A. “Win one for the Gipper!”

B. “If it was a boxing match and each individual took the beating that we took here today, I wouldn’t have to be doing this. I’d just come and visit your ass in the hospital and say, ‘When you get the fu*king wires off of your mouth from the broken jaw, and you can see again because your eyes are swollen now, and you can walk again because the guy just punched you in the gut 55 fu*king times,’ all I’d have to say is, ‘With all that, when you get better, we’ll have a little chat about how this guy just fu*king destroyed you.’ Okay?”

C. “Totally fu*king stupid!”

D. Both B and C.

What better way to strike a blow against French colonialism and for delicious tacos than by watching Aroldis Chapman use his fastball to ritually abuse something at the bidding of science’s most adorable pink polymer?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8_1O89RxHc&feature=player_embedded

My only fear is that that was actual human gastric acid inside the piñata. Nonetheless: Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Almost as old as literature itself is the concept of the sequel. The great commercial success of the Iliad no doubt compelled Homer to hurriedly produce his Odyssey. Certainly, there would be no New Testament were it not for the widespread popularity of its Old counterpart. Modern Times™ gives us such franchises as Lord of the Rings and Star Wars — not to mention the Bill Cosby vehicle Leonard Part 6, whose creators ingeniously skipped parts one through five to give the impression of a successful run of films.

Lest the reader think even for a moment that NotGraphs is immune to the sequel, think not that, reader. For, with the widespread excitement surrounding yesterday’s post exploring the similarities between American ubermenschen Tommy Hanson and Timothy Busfield, we’ve not been able to restrain ourselves.

Accordingly, we offer you the above, a comparative study between Met knuckleballer R.A. Dickey and a Danny Concannon-era Tim (né Timothy) Busfield.

Is it as powerful a work as our original Busfield Lookalike post? That’s not for me to say, reader. But these bills for Cristal by the case and suites presidential or otherwise — they aren’t paying themselves, is what I mean to say.

Total noogie to Joe Pawlikowski for reasons I’m not at liberty to share.

Turns out Dick Allen, your hero and mine, once cut a single with a doo-wop outfit called the Ebonistics titled, “Echoes of November.” Please enjoy:

Yes, that’s Mr. Allen stretching out the pipes. And fine pipes they are. Dick Allen can hit and is tuneful!

Also: Allen performed the song live on at least one occasion. That occasion was at a 76ers game in 1969 on “Think Mink Night,” a promotion that entailed the bestowal of a mink coat upon one of Philadelphia’s leading and lucky ladies (I’m quite sure a male was ineligible to win the mink — after all, it wasn’t yet the 70s) and the opportunity to hear Dick Allen sing! Hosannas all around!

Sometimes, great accomplishments are the product of ceaseless toil. Othertimes, they spring forth effortlessly and fully formed from their creator.

The image you see above is the latter kind of great accomplishment.

Here we see two men: one, Atlanta Brave starter Tommy Hanson; the other, actor Timothy Busfield of Thirtysomething and West Wing and Revenge of the Nerds and Field of Dreams fame.

Here’s the thing, though: it’s impossible to tell which is which. Is that Timothy Busfield catching a fish? Is that a headshot of Tommy Hanson? We just don’t know.

I know what you’re saying. You’re saying, “Carson, it actually isn’t that hard to tell. Sure, both of these men have red hair, but they have different enough facial structure, hairlines, etc. that I can tell pretty easily who’s who.”

Humility, reader: practice it. That’s the purpose of what I’m saying now.

H/T Me and my thoughts.