My other tumblr circle doesn't like sports.

But baseball is good - 28

[baseballisabunchofweirdmen]

We need to stop these people naming every headline "Red Sox URGED to make trade" "blue jays advised to extend player" "twins make trade... in hallucinatory dream state our author had last night"

Like some guy breaking in while I'm reading baseball news to tell me it'd be craaaazy if the Phillies traded for Freddie freeman as I stuff him into my trash can.

[baseballisabunchofweirdmen]

Had this come to me in a dream, which is about as reliable as a Jon Heyman report, so here's the latest on Juan Soto:

- Soto says he will not go to the Angels because they have no fans and all smoke non addictive substances.

- He's not going to the Red Sox because his brother goes to school in Boston and it would be awkward.

- Soto was notified by his agent that the dodgers are good so he's going to consider them now. He was previously unaware despite playing against them in the world series 2 and a half weeks ago.

[baseballisabunchofweirdmen]

Thoughts on this typical Yankee fan behavior:

Hmm...I wonder why this person, luckily not snapping the wrist of one of the top 5 players in the MLB, was given hugs and high 5s on the way out of the park for obvious and intentional fan interference.

Is it a "bad apple"? I'd say the reception around the guy (outside of one stunned Yankees fan in frame) is pretty good evidence that's not true. Is it just a sports fan thing? Obviously it's not like Yankees fans are a monolith of evil hearts or something. I don't really recall seeing this sort of reaction before, and more importantly, as intentional and aggressive a fan interference before.

No, this is a result of the New York Yankees organization themselves. They fostered this environment very aggressive and obvious cheating.

Jeffrey Maier helped steal a possible playoff win from the Baltimore Orioles in 1996 in favor of the Yankees. This famous missed call by a right field ump, failing their one nightly call, resulted in one of the most infamous examples of the MLB refusing to implement replay under commissioner Bud Selig.

That in and of itself does not show a problem with Yankees fans. Every team has had fan interference and this was a child. It was just at a huge moment. The difference was the response: Maier was made a hero. He was offered tickets to have dugout seats at the world series, he was interviewed on New York and national TV stations, and was a folk hero for inadvertently cheating the Yankees towards an important playoff win.

It would have been easy for the Yankees organization to walk the line of not humiliating a child but also sending a clear message to fans that doing this is not fun or heroic. That this should not happen again.

Instead, they did not do that. And with this incident with Mookie, so much worse that it is, has resulted in a 2 game ban for these people. The "zero tolerance" policy the Yankees were talking up is for a game that for all intents and purposes, does not matter. The Yankees are not winning this series against a vastly better built LA Dodgers team.

The message is a slap on the wrist. Which is, granted, more than nothing as with Maier. It's amazing what 30 years in both age and calendar year does to a punishment. After inflation, the Yankees fans know the punishment: 2 days away from Yankees Stadium and hugs from your peers. What a price.

[baseballisabunchofweirdmen]

Willie "The Devil" Wells was one of the finest players to play in pre-integration black baseball leagues. A true five tool shortstop, Wells was one of the fastest runners in each league he played in, as well as one of the best defenders and possessing a fantastic bat.

Playing for multiple Negro League teams, he was known as part of the famous "Million Dollar Infield" in his time with the Newark Eagles. The infield included fellow legend Mule Suttles, as well as stars Ray Dandridge and Dick Seay.

As was common for non-white players pre-integration, Wells played in Mexico and enjoyed his time in the first years of the 1940s there. Compared to the brutal segregation and racist groups throughout America, Wells enjoyed the acceptance and freedom he found in Mexico. For the rest of his playing career he spent time in Mexico, US, and Canada until 1950.

Wells, besides being one of the biggest stars of black baseball, was also the first professional player to wear a being helmet while batting, something that would not be required until decades later.

Wells may not have the notoriety of arguably the greatest hitters and pitchers of all time, Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige respectively, but Wells career spanning from the early 20s to 1950 still carries a lasting legacy that earned him a spot in the hall of fame in 1997. Wells passed away in 1989, missing his induction, sadly all to common for former black baseball stars.

[baseballisabunchofweirdmen]

Buck Ewing was the first catcher to ever be inducted to the baseball hall of fame. Ewing was an early baseball star playing in the 1880s and 1890s for a few teams, most notably the New York Gothams, today known as the San Francisco Giants.

Ewing was an excellent catcher when it came to keeping base runners in check, and he himself stole over 350 bases, which as a catcher, would rank 1st, but he played every other position so often as well that he does not officially qualify.

Buck's time with the Gothams is speculated to have ended because of his leaving the National League for the new Players League in 1890 (which was a short lived League following in the footsteps of the 1884 Union Association which looked to abolish the reserve clause.) Because Ewing left for the New York team in the Players League and the league failed, Ewing was only let back on the Gothams (now renamed to the Giants) for a single year before being moved.

After a few more years with the Cleveland Spiders and Cincinnati Reds, Ewing retired as a player and continued the next few years as a manager.

Few catchers of the time could come close to Ewing's all around ability. Other contemporaries like King Kelly played other positions more commonly than catcher, and his closest peer in the conversation, Roger Bresnahan, only began playing in 1897, and was a star in the early 20th century.

Ewing would pass away at age 47 from diabetes in 1906 and posthumously be inducted to the fall of fame in 1939. He was one of the first 1800s players to recieve votes (along with Cap Anson) and among the first to be inducted.

[baseballisabunchofweirdmen]

Did you know the first baseball player to ever come out as gay (back in the 1970s) was also one of the two people to invent the high five?

Although homophobia from teammates saw him retire early, Glenn Burke still left a big mark on American sports.

[baseballisabunchofweirdmen]

People should probably stop saying the very arrogant American assumption that Japanese baseball players are unproven (Japan has one of the most impressive, popular baseball leagues in the world).

Sometimes players who are good regress or have their peak seasons early in their career. When it happens in America this is generally accepted as obvious. When someone from Japan or the KBO is signed for "big" money it shows they were unproven and couldn't handle the mighty American leagues.

There's a word for it, but sports fans would go crazy if it was said so. It's silly. How about that?

[baseballisabunchofweirdmen]

Ross Barnes (1850-1915) was the most dominant player in the short-lived National Association. In his 9 seasons between the NA and National League, he led the league in batting average 3 times, had an OPS over 1.000 4 times, and had an OPS+ 200 or more 3 times. Additionally, his glove was better than most in a era without gloves or modern understanding of defense. Though a .876 fielding percentage would be a worse second base than Dan Uggla on his worst day, this was about 40 points higher than the average second baseman over his career, and he had a range factor per 9 of about .6 higher than his competition.

But Barnes, despite being the most dominant player in the NA, is not in the hall of fame for a few reasons. One, his career was severely shortened by a nameless illness that made him only able to compete about 180 games for the last 5 years of his career (1877 to 1881). Even when he was able to play, he did not do so well.

Second, the short seasons of the NA resulted in his career counting stats being underwhelming to the rest of the players in the hall of fame. In his peak, Barnes could only play in about 45 to 80 games a year. His 27.7 bWAR is lower than players like Marquis Grissom, Martin Prado, and Terry Puhl. He accumulated under 900 career hits and under 1200 total bases (he had fewer total bases than Mark Reynolds if you only count his home runs, nevermind the rest of his hits). However, his rate stats are among the best of all time. Barnes has the highest runs scores per game (almost 2 per game), had a .360 career average (which would be 2nd all time if he qualified), and his WAR is actually very high if adjusted to 162 game seasons. In the National Association and his first year in the national league, if adjusted to 162 games each year, these are his seasonal bWAR totals: 11, 15.5, 13.2, 7.6, 10.8 and 14.7. Of course, there are several asterisks here, including that Barnes doesn't seem like he was particularly durable at any point in his career and so would be unlikely to play 162 games in a season, the fact that this may be more a failure of the calculation of WAR trying to evenly compare players among all eras with one stat (this is also glaring with 19th century pitchers having seasons approaching 20 WAR a season with 40 fewer games a season) among other issues.

Lastly, Barnes did not play 10 career years, the number needed to have consideration to be inducted into the hall of fame.

Barnes may have been one of baseball's first stars, but while the 1880s and 90s was defined by Cap Anson, the 1900s and 10s to Cobb, the 20s belonged to Ruth, and so on, Barnes illness and the limitations of early baseball held him back from the same glory.

[baseballisabunchofweirdmen]

Doug Allison (1845-1916), one of the original professional catchers in baseball history. The catcher for the original Cincinnati Red Stockings, Allison was mainly known for innovating catching in two ways: wearing a glove to catch pitchers, and being the first catcher to stand directly behind the plate.

While in the 1860s the run scoring in games was out of control, due to the horrible defense and catchers standing 25 feet back of home plate (in order to not lose their hands), Allison figured out baserunners were not as keen to steal against him. Instead of teams scoring upwards of 60 runs a game, Allison became a catching specialist, heavily limiting runs for his pitcher Asa Brainard.

When the National Association was formed in 1871, Allison would begin bouncing between teams for the rest of his career. He played for teams such as the Hartford Dark Blues, Providence Grays, and New York Mutuals. Despite his mediocre offense with a .271 average and 93 OPS+, Allison's innovations still make him one of the most important early catchers of the 19th century.