Warning!! Danger!! Annual Off-topic Baseball Thread '07!! Beware!!

[Mark Dexter]

Spam on the baseball page?

That's un-American!

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by Mark Dexter

You might want to check your calculations, Mick. I'm guessing the 386' distance is as the crow flies. Since most homeruns will travel in a parabolic arc, the ball actually travelled further than 386 feet and was going faster than 75.2 MPH.

- Mr. Annoying Ex-Physics Teacher Guy

The longest home run I ever saw hit in person was back when I was a kid playing in our city's version of Little League (a Park District league). I was 11 years old and Pete Ward, then with the White Sox, came to our field to put on a clinic. This was in Chicago Heights, where I grew up (physically, not mentally). He hit a ball not only completely out of our park (not too great a feat, actually), but it landed across the highway in the parking lot of a gas station down the road. Later that day, one of the dads (who was in construction) went out and measured it with a tape. He measured it went just over 470 on the fly. BTW - Ward hit it off a relatively slow pitch from one of our teenage coaches. I'll never forget that.

[Dan_ref]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/sports/01cage.html?hp

btw, I saw Reggie Jackson hit a line drive into the back of the bleachers at Yankee Stadium.

Most impressive HR I ever saw.

[Mark Dexter]

Originally Posted by Dan_ref

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/sports/01cage.html?hp

Pretty good story. Especially loved the line below.

"Two and a half years ago, the Willitses produced a bat boy, their son, Jaxon."

[Jurassic Referee]

A fashion statement by Mrs. A-Rod yesterday at the stadium.....

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07022007...avid_k__li.htm

Mother of the Year...the woman is all class.

[ChuckElias]

Hargrove's out as manager in Seattle. Wow. Just when they're starting to get hot. Just walking away. That's hard to figure. Jerry Narron is no longer the Reds' manager, although not by his own choice.

I'm starting to get a little frustrated with the Sox offense lately. Manny and Papi are just not getting anything done when it counts. Two men on with two outs and the two of them are useless lately. Hope they turn it on after the break. Maybe Manny just needs to recharge his batteries in the Dominican for a few days.

Sox and Yankees both lost yesterday. In fact, the whole AL East lost yesterday. As a division, the AL East is on a 16 game losing streak. The Sox don't even have the best record in the bigs anymore. That's the Angels. Boston's only a half game better than the Indians right now. Not good times.

[ChuckElias]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

A fashion statement by Mrs. A-Rod yesterday at the stadium.....

That's pretty amazing.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by ChuckElias

Manny and Papi are just not getting anything done when it counts. Two men on with two outs and the two of them are useless lately. Hope they turn it on after the break. Maybe Manny just needs to recharge his batteries in the Dominican for a few days.

Manny is supposed to be going to the All-Star game in Frisco. Wonder what excuse he's gonna use this year to get out of it? And Papi got voted in at 1B. He's played ...what?.....2 or 3 games there this year. He's getting ready to start there though; he's having the cracks in his glove welded.

How about this? The White Sox won the series 2 years ago. They had 6 or 7 on the AL All-Star team last year. This year? One! And Jenks was a manager's choice. And St. Louis won the World Series last year. They have one player on this year's NL All-Star team--Pujols. And he isn't a starter. Wierd.

[Mark Dexter]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

A fashion statement by Mrs. A-Rod yesterday at the stadium.....

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07022007...avid_k__li.htm

Mother of the Year...the woman is all class.

Maybe it was directed at A-Rod in regards to his "friend" up in Toronto.

[mick]

The Philadelphia Phillies, who played their first game in 1883, are approaching a milestone that speaks of futility and longevity: With 9,995 losses, they are on the verge of becoming the first pro sports franchise to record 10,000 losses. Behind them are the Atlanta Braves (9,675) and Chicago Cubs (9,421). Most of the Phillies' defeats came early, with them losing at least 90 games in a season 20 times from 1921-45. However, they did win a World Series in 1980. - usatoday.com

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseb...Phillies_N.htm

[mick]

Oh, my !

July 3	Cleveland	7:05 p.m.
July 4	Cleveland	7:05 p.m.
July 5	Cleveland	1:05 p.m.
July 6	Boston	7:05 p.m.
July 7	Boston	7:05 p.m.
July 8	Boston	1:05 p.m.

[ChuckElias]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Manny is supposed to be going to the All-Star game in Frisco. Wonder what excuse he's gonna use this year to get out of it?

Doesn't matter. I'd rather see him take the time off. Manny's been in Boston for 7 seasons and has been selected to the All-Star team each year.

Wierd.

Nice of you to remember.

[ChuckElias]

I don't know how many of you saw this, but PBS ran a concert that celebrated Paul Simon winning the first Gershwin Award for Popular Song, from the Library of Congress. It was a great concert, for the most part. They had various singers do their own versions of Paul Simon songs interspersed with old clips of Paul's earlier performances. Occasionally, they would have somebody come out and say a few words about him, as well.

One of the old clips they showed was Paul Simon in center field of Yankee Stadium singing "Mrs. Robinson" shortly after Joe DiMaggio died. Then Bob Costas told a story about Simon running into DiMaggio in a San Francisco restaurant and asking him about the song. According to Costas, DiMaggio thought that the song was basically "a bunch of hippies making fun of him". Simon explained that it was definitely NOT making fun of him and apparently put DiMaggio's mind at ease about it.

Nice story, and pretty amazing clip of the song. There was definitely some dust flying around the Yankee dugout that day.

[Mark Dexter]

Even as a Sox fan, I liked that clip.

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by Mark Dexter

You might want to check your calculations, Mick. I'm guessing the 386' distance is as the crow flies. Since most homeruns will travel in a parabolic arc, the ball actually travelled further than 386 feet and was going faster than 75.2 MPH.

- Mr. Annoying Ex-Physics Teacher Guy

If you really want to discuss this, I believe that you are incorrect. I believe that the average speed is the same if the object travels in a two-dimensional plane or if it makes a parabola, due to the force of gravity.
Think about it. The g would lower the velocity on the upward part of the arc, but equally increase it on the downward part for a net change of zero. Plus the force of gravity has no effect upon the horizontal vector, only resistance from wind/air would change that. Thus the total distance traveled should be the same according to the laws of physics.