A bat in the stands–
–now wrapped in leathery hands.
The secret vinegar murky in Canadian veins,
Something wicked has thawed from winter pains.
A raspy, throaty call, an elk in the distance?
Or the beast of silent knife falls?
The bat is yours. Swim three rows deep of Maple leaf
and rip it from this king’s claws,
or let it be.
A thousand thank yous to this unpronounceable man.
An acquaintance of the author’s recently suggested that the virtue of Brutalist architecture is how it reminds one constantly of the miseries extant in this life.
This footage of Marwin Gonzalez breaking up Yu Darvish’s perfect game after 26 outs is the same thing, probably.
As a service to the public, the author presents here footage of Yu Darvish’s first swinging-strike of the season — a ca. 90 mph cut fastball to Houston third baseman Brett Wallace from, like, 20 minutes ago or something (box):
Play this music:
Watch this GIF:
NOTE: If’n you look upon those barely-beclothed dancing women of the above-embeded musical video, I must here remind you these fair ladies are — most likely — your mother’s age, if not older. In fact, one may even be your very mother. Unless you are the rare elder statesman of NotGraphs.
Such is the majesty and mystery of time.
Dodgers prospect Yasiel Puig, flipping the bat even in his MLB.com profile image.
In today’s sporting journalism, there is all manner of coverage: injury coverage, transaction coverage, rumors coverage, steroids coverage. “Where is all the bat-flip coverage, though?” one is inclined to ask. To which question, the author would like to whisper the answer (i.e. “NotGraphs”) softly into all of America’s respective ears. Given the wild expense of such a project, however, and the implications it might have in terms of violation of privacy, etc., allow me just to present the three following animated GIFs of Dodgers outfield prospect Yasiel Puig — all captured shamelessly and totally sans shame from Puig’s media page at MLB.com.
Including this footage of Puig flipping his bat with the Cuban national team:
Walt Whitman, in his classic of the effing genre “Song of Myself”, declares that every atom belonging to him “as good belongs” to everyone else. One assumes, however — in light of the footage embedded here, from today’s Braves-Pirates spring-training game — that there are certain atoms belonging to Pittsburgh’s Michael McKenry that Whitman might let the catcher keep to himself. Like the ones in McKenry’s swimsuit area, for example.
It’s a matter of record that competitive fist-pumping was an event at the inaugural Olympic games held in 776 BCE, and was a fixture of said games for over 400 years. The choice not to revive the event for the modern competition has been criticized by voices as diverse as Anglo-American philosopher Alfred North Whitehead and also singer-songwriter Sade, probably.
During the fifth inning, though, of their WBC victory on Sunday night over Japan, Puerto Rican batterymates Jose De La Torre and Yadier Molina made an important submission to the annals of the fist pump, executing this elaborate but also spirited maneuver following the strikeout of Japanese third baseman Nobuhiro Matsuda.
Dear Haters,
This is why the World Baseball Classic exists. And it is bello.
Cordially,
Navin
P.S. This, and the Canada/Mexico brawl. That was bloody fantastic.
All praise be upon @MikeAxisa, The People’s Blogger, for the GIF.
According to PITCHf/x data at Texas Leaguers, Twins and Team USA catcher Joe Mauer posted a swinging-strike rate of just 2.4% against four-seam fastballs in 2012. As the footage here demonstrates, his swinging-strike rate against Pirates and Team Canada right-hander Jameson Taillon is higher than that at the moment.
After striking out 135 batters in 114.2 innings last year as a freshman, NC State left-hander Carlos Rodon entered the present season as one of collegiate baseball’s most notable draft-ineligible prospects.
Rodon’s first four starts of 2013 have been decidedly mixed: despite posting a 46:8 strikeout-to-walk ratio (for strikeout and walk rates of 47.4% and 8.2%, respectively) in 24.1 innings, he’s conceded four homers and 14 total earned runs — for rather a high 5.18 ERA.
Regardless of what might be to blame for Rodon’s difficulties — be it bad luck on home runs per batted ball, the lack of a third pitch with which to neutralize a right-hander’s platoon advantage, or some other cause — it’s manifestly the case that Rodon’s slider is still excellent.
Did, as fourth century theologian St. Athanasius contends in his De Incarnatione, “God [become] man so that man might become God”? It’s not for the present author to say. However, Carlos Rodon’s slider would be decent evidence on behalf of that argument.
Consider an example of same from this past Friday — in this case, to Clemson right fielder Steven Duggar:
