Film Review: The Natural

The difficulty with fiction is the writer often can't get away with the sort of outrageous coincidences that occur in real life all the time. Improbable survivals seem cliched, deus ex machina endings totally improbable. "The world's foremost neurosurgeon just happened to be travelling on the same plane - and they're second cousins!" God, it seems, can get away with plotlines no mortal writer worth his salt would touch.

In sports movies, however, it's easier to get away with seemingly cliched plots, perhaps because the structure of sports lends itself to fictionalization. There's already a drama to sport before you even begin to add layers of personal interest. Take yesterday's Super Bowl, won by the New Orleans Saints just five years after that city's devastation at the hands of Hurricane Katrina. The Saints' phoenix-like rise is summed up very well by Jason Fry on the Faith and Fear in Flushing blog in a post here. The fairytale reversal might have been dismissed as far-fetched had it not been true. Similar inspirational stories of overcoming the odds are abundant in all sports, which is one of the appeals to fans.

Baseball seems to lend itself to cliche more than other sports. Even with two outs in the ninth inning, a team can come back to win. More often than not they don't, but that's what makes the times they do all the more memorable. Walk-off home runs can and do happen, even in the most crucial of games.

Two outs in the bottom of the ninth is exactly the situation that Roy Hobbs finds himself in in The Natural, the 1984 film directed by Barry Levinson. Hobbs, played by Robert Redford, has struck out twice already, is battling an old stomach injury, and his team the New York Knights, are down by two with runners on first and second in a crucial tiebreaker game against the Pittsburgh Pirates to win the pennant.



After breaking his lucky bat, Wonderboy, Hobbs crushes a mighty homer which smashes the stadium lights, showering the field in sparks as Hobbs rounds the bases in slow motion. It's a scene which could be horrendously tacky, but the whole film is infused with such a magic that it seems a fitting conclusion. Set mostly in 1939, with opening scenes in the early twenties, there's a reverent nostalgia throughout the film, both to viewers looking back at baseball's Golden Age and to Hobbs himself looking back at what might have been had events turned out differently:

Hobbs: I coulda been better. I coulda broke every record in the book...And then when I walked down the street people would've looked and they would've said there goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was in this game.

The film seamlessly melds a number of themes, from the dangers of the pursuit of fame to celebration of individual talent. It only rarely feels forced, even in moments of heavy-handed allegory such as the moment that Hobbs' father dies and a lightning bolt splits the tree in his yard to yield the stump Hobbs uses to carve Wonderboy.

The flaw with the film is its apparent desire to remove anything that might get in the way of the magic of baseball and the saviour Roy Hobbs. As the film critic Roger Ebert put it in a damning review:

Why did a perfectly good story, filled with interesting people, have to be made into one man's ascension to the godlike, especially when no effort is made to give that ascension meaning?

In the book upon which the film is based, Hobbs doesn't hit the game-winning home run. Instead, he strikes out once again and is confronted, Shoeless Joe Jackson style, by a distraught young fan who asks 'Say it ain't so, Roy.' He breaks down and weeps and here the novel ends. It's a classic morality tale about the loss of innocence, sharply contrasting with the film's triumphalism. Even if the filmmakers were determined to change the ending, I felt that hitting the homer should have killed Hobbs, since that's what his injury seemed to be building to.

All in all, the film's simplicity works. It's about the glory and magic of baseball, not the bitter realities that fame, money and love can lead to. In an age where baseball fans have had their innocence crushed by the 'Steriods Era', such return to simpler times is a welcome change. Finally giving Hobbs the chance to prove himself, the manager, Pop Fisher says to him:

Come on Hobbs, knock the cover off the ball!

So naturally, Hobbs does.

Spring Training has begun

Well, for the Edinburgh Diamond Devils it has. The first indoor training session of the year for the Scottish capital's team took place on January 31st at Westwood's Health Club. It was my first foray into organised baseball, so the busy couple of hours spent fielding grounders and short-hops, batting practise and catching fly balls was all new to me.

Baseball has not been a big sport in Scotland for a very long time (if ever), and baseball clubs often struggle with funding and attendance. The 2009 season was thrown into some disarray by the collapse of the 'Strathclyde Falcons', leaving only the Edinburgh Diamond Devils and the Glasgow Baseball Association. This year looks like it will see a new team compete in the northern city of Aberdeen, but on the day of the first training, Glasgow informed the current manager of the Diamond Devils, Jason Derr, that they will be competing in the North of England league this season. The effort to set up a more stable Scottish league continues, and I will hopefully be a part of it in the near future.

Training in Edinburgh will continue throughout the spring. For dates, please visit the Diamond Devils website:
Diamond Devils

Resigned Jason Bay

An amusing article on the ever-funny Onion.com from last month, about Jason Bay's signing.

At an introductory press conference at Citi Field Tuesday, Jason Bay donned a blue and orange hat, sighed deeply, and announced that he was, indeed, a New York Met. "Well, here we are," Bay seemed to say to himself...

Thing is, I can just about believe that this isn't satire.

The Rise and Fall of Dwight Gooden

There's a great article on the BaseballGB website by Flynn Hagerty about the vicissitudes of the phenomenal Dwight Gooden. It shows the shallowness of my depth of knowledge of Mets history that I had no idea just how good he was in his first two years.

As a 19 year old, he made the All-Star team, turning in a memorable performance at Candlestick Park, striking out Lance Parrish, Chet Lemon and Alvin Davis in the 5th inning. He ended the season with 17 wins, 9 losses, an ERA of 2.60 and an extraordinary 276 strikeouts in just 218 innings. He finished 2nd in voting for the Cy Young Award. In an era where the strikeout rate was over 20% lower than it is today, Gooden’s strikeouts would have led both leagues in strikeouts in 2009. In one exceptional stretch in September 1984, Gooden pitched 34 innings with an ERA of 0.53, striking out 52 batters while walking 5. He had successive 16 strikeout games versus the Pirates and Expos. The boy was something special.

The next year I was amazed to discover he posted the second-lowest ERA of the live-ball era:

The youngest man ever to win 20 games, he went 24-4 with a 1.53 earned run average, the 2nd lowest ERA of the Live Ball Era (baseball post-1920). Only Bob Gibson’s 1.12 in 1968 was lower, and that was under conditions nearly as hostile to offense as pre-1920 baseball. He struck out 268 batters in 276 innings. He won the Cy Young Award unanimously. He didn’t give up an earned run for the month of September.

The entire article is well worth reading in full, not least for the Sports Illustrated cover of April 15, 1985 (six days before I was born) showing Gooden mid-pitch, arm bent like a supple willow branch.

1969 World Series and the MLB Logo

I was just watching Game 5 of the 1969 World Series, when the Mets clinched the championship over the Orioles. The moment when they got the last out was great, as fans swarmed the field down the outfield walls and over the dugout. It was no Chambliss and the 1976 ALCS, but it was the Mets and it was still something you don't see any more with policing so tight. I can't help but wonder when the last 'pitch invasion' in baseball was. Even the energy in the clubhouse was so spontaneous, or at the very least less sanitized than celebrations these days. But waxing nostalgic wasn't the purpose of this post.

I noticed the MLB logo on the sleeves of Jerry Koosman, which seemed strangely early and got me wondering when it was first designed. It turns out that 1969 was the first season it was used. It was designed by Jerry Dior (although that was a matter of some dispute until recently). It's a testament to the durability of the logo that it still seems fresh 42 years later; the red, white and blue of the States, the abstracted silhouette of the batter. As the Wall Street Journal says in an article published in 2008:

He adds that Mr. Dior's trademark works -- and has been widely imitated -- because it captures the sport's dynamic essence. "The Major League Baseball logo was a real breakthrough in sports because it's a very powerful graphic expression," he said. "It has set the tone for many of the brand identities that are being used by sports organizations around the world."

And the figure depicted in the logo? Pure design, says Dior. Not based on Harmon Killebrew or anyone else. That's from the man himself.

Baseball

Andy over on the 'Stat of the Day' blog on Baseball Reference made a post entitled simply 'baseball' in which he looks at why people love baseball so much.

Like most fans, there was a point in baseball history that turned me on to the game. It made me fascinated by the complex beauty of the game and ever since, I have loved every moment of Major League Baseball.

For him, it's events that I personally have never heard of or seen, but to read him describe them you can see why they would ignite a passion for the game. He invites readers to post their moments in the comments, and reading them is a pleasure - one of the reasons I first started to follow baseball was to try to understand the quintessentially american sport. It's worth reading through them for the individual stories, especially Comment #35 by 'BalBurgh', which feels like Springsteen should be writing a song about it:

I love the sport and I love my country, and it's darn painful watching them all fall apart.

I also like how many of the comments are about the Mets and 1986. Even before I knew baseball, I knew of Game 6.

Baseball Films

I have been using my Love Film account to get my hands on as many baseball films as I can, with a view to reviewing them on a weekly basis perhaps. So far my list includes the following, but I may well have missed some gems. Any suggestions?

• Angels in the Outfield (the 1994 version)
• The Babe (with John Goodman)
• Beer League
• The Bad News Bears (both versions)
• A League of Their Own
• Hard Ball
• Rookie of the Year
• The Natural
• Field of Dreams (I've seen it before, but didn't really follow baseball back then.)
• Mr. 3000
• The Rookie
  

Watching Baseball in the UK

Since Channel Five stopped showing late night American sports after the 2008 season, there hasn't been much choice for the casual baseball fan based in the UK who wants to catch an MLB game. There's ESPN America, which is subsciption only, and MLB.com, which provides every game archived for those whose bandwidth and computer can handle the load (mine struggled frequently with issues of streaming and buffering, but I'm aware that both problems were rooted in my pc and not MLB's fault.)

The British Baseball hub, BaseballGB, has a good retrospective of the viewing experience of 2009. Now the New York Times has an article looking at the future and at how ESPN is bringing American sports to the European market. It seems that despite the demise of Five's coverage, there has never been a better time to follow US sports:

Before there was North American Sports Network — it began in Europe in 2002 — and especially before there was ESPN America, a fan of football who lived in Europe had almost nowhere to go. Football meant soccer, Inter Milan against Juventus, not the Carolina Panthers against the Chicago Bears.

Now the network reaches 40 countries and 16 million subscribers, and that's just old-fashioned TV viewers. In an age of online media, more people will have the option of watching games online or on the move on smartphones. This is a trend that will continue as broadband cables and mobile networks improve their capability to hand heavy data streams. The article on the Times' website wonders how to avoid the self-promoting advertising that replaces the adverts on live US broadcasts.

One solution is to watch ESPN America’s reruns the day after they are played, when commercials are kept to a handful to fit shorter programs. If the viewer already knows the score, suspense is lost, but so are the interruptions.

Trying to avoid the score becomes more and more difficult in a world where you can have the results of games delivered live to your phone or inbox, but there is another solution. Pay a couple of pundits, lets call them 'Josh' and 'Johnny' for the sake of argument, to use that dead-airtime to provide the sort of commentary which deepens and enriches the European baseball fan's understanding of the game. It makes more sense that watching a blank screen or MLB adverts on MLB.TV, or ESPN adverts on that channel.

Back Once Again

Firstly, apologies for the long hiatus between posts. I was never going to pretend to post every day of the off-season, but it's only six weeks before we start all over again, and I thought it's high time to start getting back into the habit of posting. So happy 2010 and congratulations to the Yankees.

Looking Back

It goes without saying that 2009 is one to forget for the Mets, but now that the dust has settled I think the entire 2006 - 2009 stretch will make a good story to tell our grandchildren. "Oh yes, Jimmy, I was there for 'oh-six' to 'oh-nine'. It was terrible! Season collapses the likes of which baseball has never seen before; bad luck and bad management. Those were dark times. Not like the next couple of seasons. Those were the glory days for the Mets. perpetual Division winners, frequent National League champions and of course those unbelieveable three World Series wins in a row. Danny Murphy at first - Mets' first ever league MVP, Bay and Beltran in the outfield, Jose Reyes and David Wright at short and third. Good times, and all in pinstripes after they got rid of the black."

It would surely be nice to be able to tell my grandkids of the unbeatable Mets of the 2010s, but after a season like the last it's hard to find the faith. The Mets finished flat last in home runs over the whole of the majors, by 27 homers(!) That's one hell of a deficiency to ask Bay to fill. For all that, I've always been a bigger fan of the small game than the long game, and the Mets topped the NL for stolen bases. My highlight of the World Series was seeing Johnny Damon stealing two bases on a single play - that's the kind of heads-up playing which wins rings; the sort of playing which allowed Texeira to get home from first on Castillo's dropped pop-up. One hundred and twenty two steals with Jose Reyes only playing 36 games. Think what they can do without injury.

For all my disappointment, I must spare a thought for my brother, a strong Cardinals fan. To see such a strong team balls it up so suddenly was almost as back as the Mets season-long tailspin. At least I had lost any thoughts of the Mets winning the World Series before the All-Star break. He had to nurse those dreams right into October. Looking forward, I see the Mets have odds (on Betfair.com at least) of 25 to 1 of winning it all in 2010. Only, I can't decide whether that's pessimistic or optimistic...

Mets Uniforms 4: Throwback success

Since I last blogged on the success (or otherwise) of the Mets in their various uniform combinations, the Mets have pleased this fan at least by not wearing the full black uniforms (it's now 14 games since they last wore black; the season high no-black streak is 18, from 27th June to 18th July.) They also set a new season record of most games wearing pinstripes in a row - 2. Pretty dire for what is still officially the main home uniform; the snow-white jerseys are still the 'alternative home jerseys'.

Of course the main uniform news of the past week was the three games that the Mets wore 'throwback' uniforms, emblazoned with large NY across the front, to honour the New York Giants. The received wisdom in the Mets blogosphere is to expect some variation of these as an alternate next year. Best thing is that the Mets went 2-1 wearing them. Here's the updated table:

Uniform	times worn	Record	Win %	runs for	runs against
Road Grays / Hybrid Cap	43	17-26	0.372	4.00	4.91
Black / Black Cap	24	11-13	0.458	4.54	5.67
Home White / Blue Caps	24	15-9	0.625	4.63	3.71
Home White / Hybrid Caps	19	8-11	0.421	4.21	4.58
Pinstripes / Blue Caps	7	2-5	0.286	4.29	6.86
Throwbacks / Blue Caps	3	2-1	0.667	3.33	2.33
Pinstripes / Hybrid Caps	1	1-0	1.000	3.00	2.00
Overall	121	56-65	0.470	4.36	4.79

Photo credit: Ed Betz, AP

New York Times seems prescient

Last Wednesday, the New York Times had an article about the Rawlings S100, a 'new, safer batting helmet', and how it was being met with resistence from some players. It starts:

Three weeks after absorbing the potentially deadly impact of a 93-mile-per-hour fastball on his batting helmet, Edgar Gonzalez still feels dizzy whenever he lies down.

The S100 can absorb 100mph fastballs, hence its name. That sort of protection doesn't come without a little bulkiness, a bulkiness that some players find ugly. "In the eyes of some major league players, it is just too bulky, too heavy and too geeky-looking." Step up new Met Jeff Francoeur:

“No, I am absolutely not wearing that,” Mets right fielder Jeff Francoeur said with a laugh after seeing a prototype, as if he were being asked to put a pumpkin on his head. “I could care less what they say, I’m not wearing it. There’s got to be a way to have a more protective helmet without all that padding. It’s brutal. We’re going to look like a bunch of clowns out there.”

Ha-ha! You already look like an idiot any time you wear those hybrid batting helmets, Jeff. Might as well be safe. Also, it's "I couldn't care less." not "I could care less." That implies you do care about it, and have the capacity to care less than you do right now. Surely there's some player who will choose the sensible option and put his safety first?

“If it provides more protection, then I’m all for it,” said Mets third baseman David Wright, who last week dodged a Brad Thompson fastball traveling on a frightening vector toward his head. “I’m not worried about style or looking good out there. I’m worried about keeping my melon protected.”

There's a man who's using his noggin. Then the Times had another article on Friday about how players in the Aflac All-American High School Baseball Classic were going to be wearing the S100 (Does the Times have a deal with Rawlings? What's with all the coverage?) Then on Saturday, yet another, about how 'hard-headed athletes resist change'. Why choose the less-safe option?

Tradition, some have said. Play would be compromised, others have argued. Libertarian appeals have been made: Don’t trample our freedom. Aesthetics and vanity, too, have come off the bench: why make us look stupid?

Then, on Sunday, an article entitled 'Mets Don't Hesitate to put David Wright on the Disabled List with a Concussion'.

The Mets placed Wright on the disabled list with postconcussion symptoms Sunday, the day after a 93-mile-an-hour fastball from Giants pitcher Matt Cain hit him with such force that it knocked off his helmet.

Dammit! Wright's one of the good guys. He's started 812 of his first 830 games as a Met. He believes in protecting his 'melon'. Why couldn't Cain have beaned the hubris out of Francoeur instead?

Olympics tells baseball "You're outta here!"

The Olympics Committee Executive has recommended that rugby 7s and golf be included in the 2016 Olympics, meaning both baseball and softball have failed in their attempts to be reinstated. It isn't a done deal; the IOC Congress in October has to approve the recommendation, but it doesn't seem likely that it will be changed.

'So what?' you might say. Baseball's getting on just fine without being in the Olympics. Among the various selection criteria, says the BBC, is "the potential to develop... it's questionable how much rugby, golf and baseball need Olympic exposure."

Baseball might have deep roots in perhaps half a dozen countries, if that, but there's plenty of opportunity for development in the rest of the world. How much would British Baseball have benefited if the sport had been on the ticket for the London 2012 games? Now, Rugby 7s I can understand - I live in the Scottish Borders, where sevens was born and it's played around the world. It's a competitive team sport involving the need for peak physical condition. But golf? Come on. Next you'll be telling me that beach volleyball, table tennis and synchronized swimming will be made Olympic sports!

Mets Uniforms 3

Last week I blogged about the Mets' record wearing different uniforms, and it seemed pretty popular (thanks to reblogging it on Mets Police), getting mentions on Mets Blog and On The Black.

Since then there's been some regression to the mean, with the Mets losing two in their snow-white uniforms and winning one in the full black one. I've updated the research to reflect the last seven games, and have added columns for 'runs scored per game' and 'runs conceded per game':

Uniform	times worn	Record	Win %	runs for	runs against
Road Grays / Hybrid Cap	40	16-24	0.400	4.00	4.85
Black / Black Cap	24	11-13	0.458	4.54	5.67
Home White / Blue Caps	23	15-8	0.652	4.78	3.43
Home White / Hybrid Caps	18	8-10	0.444	4.33	4.67
Pinstripes / Blue Caps	5	1-4	0.200	3.80	5.80
Pinstripes / Hybrid Caps	1	1-0	1.000	3.00	2.00
Overall	111	52-59	0.468	4.31	4.59

As can be seen, the Mets score more runs and stop the opponent scoring as many when wearing white and blue. They give up the most (discounting the pinstripes due to small sample size) when playing in Black. Now it could be said that this is no surprise; you'd expect the team to perform better at home than in other ballparks. However, they wear the black both at home and on the road so it shouldn't be worse than the gray uniform, which they only wear on the road.

So to sum up what we've learned so far:

• The Mets win games when they wear snow-white jerseys with blue caps
• The Mets concede the most runs when they wear the black uniforms

Next week, perhaps, further stats - ERA, Home Runs, SLG...

In the meantime, it's been nearly a month since the Mets wore the home white jerseys with the hybrid cap. Maybe a change of policy there? Maybe I just jinxed that - they'll don them on Thursday against the Giants, no doubt.

Mets Uniforms bits and pieces

I blogged the Mets Uniform post of last Monday over at Mets Police, and it was mentioned on Mets Blog, which is nice - thanks for that guys.

Via Mets Blog I see that Gregg Girard at Uni Watch has been keeping a close eye on how the uniforms affect the Mets' performance:

In the three Santana in black starts (all on the road), he went 0-3 with a 10.06 ERA.

Ouch!

As to why the Mets prefer the black to the blue, Michael Ceserano at Ultimate Mets Database has the insider knowledge:

Even when the Mets pinstripe home uniform makes a rare appearance, it is often paired with one of the black alternate caps instead of the more traditional all-blue cap. It has been speculated that the reason for the scarcity of appearances of the all-blue cap is that the dugout jacket is black and as such does not go well with the all-blue cap. In order to minimize instances of players wearing the all-blue hat with the black jacket, it is rumored that the Mets try not to wear the all-blue hat in any weather except the hottest of temperatures, since almost no one will be wearing the jacket on an extremely hot day.

Ceserano also has a photo of the 'ice-cream' uniforms of 1997, which I was previously unaware of. It looks like they forgot to colour it in. I *almost* prefer the black. Almost.

Japanese Baseball roundup

Kamei helps Giants past Swallows
The only professional baseball game I've seen to date was between the Yomiuri Giants of Tokyo and the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. The Giants are kind of like the Yankees of Japan, having won the most Japan Series and dominating in the past to such an extent that they're sometimes nicknamed 'Japan's Team'. The two Tokyo teams have been playing a series the past couple of days, and it's been a good series for Giants fans as they swept the Swallows in three games; 10-7, 2-1, and 2-0. Koshiyuki Kamei was instrumental in helping the Giants. In game 2 he hit a 'sayonara' home run in the bottom of the tenth, his 3rd of the season. In game 3 he broke up a scoreless pitching duel with a 2-run homer. He also hit a walk-off homer against Hiroshima Carp on Tuesday.

Kobe 9 Cruise shaken by recent events
All is not well in the Kansai Independent League. Gwynar, over on Simcentral Forums, reports that they've held an emergency meeting to discuss the problems that have befallen Kobe 9 Cruise, the team who signed Japan's first female pro-ballplayer Eri Yoshida (who I blogged about back in March.) According to Gwynar:

Ever since the team fired Yoshihiro Nakata on July 29th, nothing good has happened for the Kobe 9 Cruise. First, Eri Yoshida announces that she's taking an indefinite leave of absence from the team. Then 4 players boycott a game. And now the fans aren't showing up to the games.

So the future is uncertain for the country's first female player, but she's still in demand. Kobe say they would like the knuckleballer back.

Bits and Pieces

• NPB Tracker noticed that in their extra-inning loss to the Yankees the Red Sox used three Japanese pitchers - Junichi Tazawa, Hideki Okajima and Takashi Saito. Another, Ramon Ramirez, has NPB experience. Tazawa gave up the homer to A-Rod which made the difference in fifteen innings.
• He might not like it but Shannon Shark, the Mets Police Chief, reckons Bobby Valentine will be managing the Mets in 2010. Perhaps he'll tell Omar Minaya about some of the Japanese talent he's seen in his time with the Chiba Lotte Marines.
  

Taliban baseball team

The satirical news site News Biscuit (like a British Onion) has previously ripped baseball with their amusing "America still making a big deal about rounders".

Now they've another funny baseball-related article, "Taliban Baseball Team expelled from World Series for 'ungentlemenly conduct'"

the Taliban have also been criticised for ... their wholesale execution of the St. Louis Cardinals for refusing to grow beards. ‘Such aggressive behaviour will not be tolerated,’ said a National League spokesman. ‘We suggest they go back to wherever the hell it is they came from. Either that or take up ice hockey.’"

Solution to Citi Field obstructions

Over at Mets Police, much is made about the lousy views afforded to fans unfortunate enough to get one of the obstructed seats. Now, I can't really comment on this since I've yet to visit the home of the Mets (though I did once see Shea on the drive from JFK.)

However, when I spotted this on the amusing There, I Fixed It blog, I knew it was the perfect solution. Simply provide these to any fans with obstructed views. Of course, it might cause problems for the fans behind them but that's their problem.

Mets Uniforms 2

Back in May I blogged about the uniforms the Mets had been wearing, bemoaning the lack of pinstripes. Now since then we've seen (via the Mets Police) that the Mets themselves have been tracking their record with the different uniforms. I've updated my research for the games up to August 2nd:

Uniform	No. of times worn	Record	Winning %
Road Grays with Hybrid Cap	36	15-21	0.417
Black with Black Cap	23	10-13	0.435
Home White with Blue Caps	21	15-6	0.714
Home White with Hybrid Caps	18	8-10	0.444
Pinstripes with Blue Caps	5	1-4	0.200
Pinstripes with Hybrid Caps	1	1-0	1.000

So Pinstripes have been avoided as if they've got leprosy. In fact they were worn twice in April, twice in May (including once with the hybrids), once in June and once in July. Meanwhile the all-black uniform has been worn 23 times, including seven games in a row between the 19th and 26th of July.

If we discount the poor Pinstripes due to small sample size, we can see that the only time the Mets have a winning percentage is with the white jerseys and blue caps. When the Mets won five straight at the end of last month, they won games 3, 4 and 5 of the streak wearing blue caps. Second game of the doubleheader against the Rockies, they don the Black again and Bam! The streak is over.

Even if Charlie Samuels prefers the Black and hates the pinstripes, as has been claimed, the fact that the Mets lose games when you put a black or hybrid cap on them and win games when you put a blue cap on them should convince him otherwise.

Robot Baseball

Via David Thompson's excellent blog (check out the weekly 'Friday Ephemera'), I present the future of baseball. If these dastardly humans can't be trusted not to use HGHs, let these guys take the field:



Researchers at the University of Tokyo created the robots to demonstrate the capabilities of high-speed industrial robots, and plans are afoot to improve on both the pitching robot and the batting robot. According to the Pink Tentacle:

The robot pitcher consists of a high-speed, three-fingered hand mounted on a mechanical arm. With superb control of nimble fingers that can open and close at a rate of up to 10 times per second, the robot can release the ball with perfect timing. Precise coordination between the fingers, hand and arm allow the robot pitcher to hit the strike zone 90% of the time.

In the demonstration ... the researchers placed the robot pitcher 3.5 meters (11 ft) away from the mechanical batter. The pitcher’s 40-kph (25-mph) sidearm throws posed little challenge to the batter, whose 1000-frame-per-second camera eyes allow it to see the ball in super slow motion as it approaches. The robot batter has a near-perfect batting average when swinging at pitches in the strike zone.

To make future contests more interesting, the researchers plan to increase the robot pitcher’s throwing speed to 150 kph (93 mph) and teach it to throw breaking balls and changeups. In addition, they plan to train the robot batter to repeatedly hit balls to the same target.

It's incredible stuff, but if they had developed a decent robot infielder that 'hit' would've been a easy two-hop ground ball. I look forward to the first robot league games.

Buehrle, perfect truck.

Via Home Run Derby, I see Mark Buehrle has himself a big truck. I wonder if that elevated ride and feeling of security is what gives you the presence of mind needed to pitch a perfect game and a half.