Baseball

[Talvenada]

Originally Posted by smc

I assume that by "The Professor" you mean me. Let's nip calling me that in the bud right now, please.

I may be old, but I wasn't even born when the Braves left Boston in 1953. I do know lots of people who were around then, though, and generally they say that when the Braves were here the breakdown was somewhat along the following lines (at least in the last decade of the Braves being here): fans for whom the Red Sox mattered most, 80%; fans for whom the Braves mattered most, 20% (a big part of why they left); baseball fans who followed both teams and couldn't get enough, 99%. People old enough to remember still talk about seeing Warren Spahn pitch.

I will say it again: there is no city where baseball is more popular than Boston.

I think Talvenada's explanation of the "old days in NY" is oversimplistic. One side of my family was in New York (the other up here in Boston), and so I spent a lot of time down there. My mother grew up in Brooklyn and was a Dodgers fan for the same reason most people were: a combination of geography (what makes a Phillies fan a Phillies fan, e.g., is proximity to Philadelphia) and a feeling of rivalry with "the city" (i.e., Manhattan). It didn't matter whether she was from a blue-collar or white-collar family (although it happens to have been the former). My grandfather, her father, had lived on the Lower East Side after coming to this country and was a Giants fan (and couldn't have been more blue collar). I can't speak for Yankees fans. Hell, I can barely speak to Yankees fans

SMC:

Thnx, for the info. I only have a very superficial knowledge of what happened in other cities in the late 40's and early 50's. My info comes from comments made about those days, which are few and far between.

I called you professor, because I though you taught college classes for PHD's.


It's nice to see one city get it right, and root for a team in each league.


TAL

[smc]

Originally Posted by Talvenada

I called you professor, because I though you taught college classes for PHD's.

I do (how did you know that?), but I just don't want to be known as The Professor online. It's complicated, but it just doesn't work for me. Don't worry about it, though.

Here's a little piece of trivia about old Braves Field in Boston, for all you baseball fans out there. It opened in 1915, and was so huge that the first home run that wasn't of the inside-the-park variety wasn't hit until 1925! The original distance to center field was 550 feet!

[Talvenada]

Originally Posted by smc

I do (how did you know that?), but I just don't want to be known as The Professor online. It's complicated, but it just doesn't work for me. Don't worry about it, though.

Here's a little piece of trivia about old Braves Field in Boston, for all you baseball fans out there. It opened in 1915, and was so huge that the first home run that wasn't of the inside-the-park variety wasn't hit until 1925! The original distance to center field was 550 feet!

SMC;

I'd bet that Rynosaur could hit 1 or 2 out after 2-3 years, because he has hit some monster shot onto Ashburn Alley on the fly and over a 25-30 foot batting eye at The Bank in Philly. That fence is 440' to dead center.

No wonder there weren't a lot of homerun hitters back 100 years ago. I wonder if other fences were that deep, except those that were shoe-horned into place, like PHL, BOS, CHC, CIN, etc. It makes me wonder if the bandboxes were the talked-about parks, while the rest were much bigger parks with more real estate to work with, or if Boston was the exception.

TAL

[smc]

Originally Posted by Talvenada

SMC;

I'd bet that Rynosaur could hit 1 or 2 out after 2-3 years, because he has hit some monster shot onto Ashburn Alley on the fly and over a 25-30 foot batting eye at The Bank in Philly. That fence is 440' to dead center.

No wonder there weren't a lot of homerun hitters back 100 years ago. I wonder if other fences were that deep, except those that were shoe-horned into place, like PHL, BOS, CHC, CIN, etc. It makes me wonder if the bandboxes were the talked-about parks, while the rest were much bigger parks with more real estate to work with, or if Boston was the exception.

TAL

I can't speak for Ryan Howard, but I'm pretty sure "1 or 2" would be the limit. I have seen some homers hit out of Fenway that go over the Green Monster, across Landsdowne Street, bounce on the parking lot on the other side of Landsdowne, and then go over the fence into speeding traffic on the Massachusetts Turnpike. That is a sight to behold.

My grandfather once told me that the outfield of the old Polo Grounds where the New York Giants played could have held every person in New York City if they stood straight and right up against each other. It was, of course, an exaggeration, but everything I've read confirms that (dimensions aside) the look of the place was like driving across Montana, but without the beautiful sky.

[Talvenada]

Originally Posted by smc

I can't speak for Ryan Howard, but I'm pretty sure "1 or 2" would be the limit. I have seen some homers hit out of Fenway that go over the Green Monster, across Landsdowne Street, bounce on the parking lot on the other side of Landsdowne, and then go over the fence into speeding traffic on the Massachusetts Turnpike. That is a sight to behold.

My grandfather once told me that the outfield of the old Polo Grounds where the New York Giants played could have held every person in New York City if they stood straight and right up against each other. It was, of course, an exaggeration, but everything I've read confirms that (dimensions aside) the look of the place was like driving across Montana, but without the beautiful sky.

SMC:

Just to add a point.

I should have been a bit clearer: the dead-center fence is 440', but the batting eye is 20-25 feet after the shrubbery. I don't know if you watched any WS games, because I know how it feels to have the season end sooner rather than later.


TAL

[smc]

John Lackey threw 40 fastballs off the mound on the very first day that pitchers and catchers were due at Red Sox spring training. 40! On the first day.

Every team in the AL should be quaking in fear!!!

[smc]

I'm guessing our Phillies fans are happy that Brad Lidge was able to throw 20 fastballs off a mound yesterday. Seems like he might come back very well from his surgery. The question, of course, is about his head. Thoughts, Jen?

[shadows]

Originally Posted by smc

John Lackey threw 40 fastballs off the mound on the very first day that pitchers and catchers were due at Red Sox spring training. 40! On the first day.

Every team in the AL should be quaking in fear!!!

The only knock on Lackey is that he started the past two seasons on the DL. He has stated that it wasn't something that he wanted to repeat, so he planned on doing things different this Spring Training. Not sure if throwing 40 pitches is something he used to do or not, but wouldn't you be worried that he was overworking himself so early?