G-Fafif

Edgy MD wrote: Watson and Chambliss get me crossed up all the time. Teammates on Joe Torre's quite likable 1982-1984 Atlanta Braves.

Just the other day came across Donn Clendenon monologuing 1969 in 1997 in a video posted in 2014. The team leader stuff really comes across in his telling. https://youtu.be/R9hGF77SqfEhttps://youtu.be/R9hGF77SqfE

From the BBWAA site: Kaegel received 183 votes from the 374 ballots, including three blanks, cast by BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years' service in becoming the 72nd winner of the award since its inception in 1962 and named for the first recipient. Spink was a driving force of The Sporting News, known during his lifetime as the “Baseball Bible.” The late Marty Noble, a staple of New York press boxes for more than four decades, received 115 votes. Allan Simpson, the former minor-league executive who founded the influential publication Baseball America, got 73. We could clearly use a little New York bias up in here.

Just learned the late Marty Noble is a finalist for the Spink Award. He not only deserves it, he deserved when when he was alive.

This year must have set a record for most fans losing their Favorite Players. Jayson Stark with a lovely tribute to his. So I'm writing this tribute now because Dick Allen was more than just my favorite player as a kid. He was the first favorite player I ever had. He's a big reason I fell in love with baseball. And I guess that means he had a lot to do with the path that led me to write about baseball for all these years. I'm just sorry I never had a chance to tell him thank you. https://theathletic.com/2245972/2020/12/07/stark-remembering-the-greatness-of-dick-allen-and-what-might-have-been/https://theathletic.com/2245972/2020/12/07/stark-remembering-the-greatness-of-dick-allen-and-what-might-have-been/

Edgy MD wrote: Bob Watson and Dave Dombrowski are certainly still around. 1-for-2. https://www.mlb.com/news/bob-watson-obituaryhttps://www.mlb.com/news/bob-watson-obituary

The above was written by Allen's biographer Mitchell Nathanson, who has also published a rueful reflection on how Allen was screwed over by the Golden Era committee. After being summarily ignored by the writers when he was up for enshrinement in the 1980s, Allen's case for the Hall gained traction in the last several years as his advanced metrics screamed in black-and-white what fans who were paying attention decades earlier could have told you: that Dick Allen was one of the greatest hitters of his era. In 2014 he found himself on the Hall's “Golden Era” ballot and missed by one vote (12 were required for enshrinement). Closer examination of that vote suggested that something smelled. One of the committee members – Bob Watson – didn't show up and was replaced at the last minute by Dave Dombrowski. At least according to another committee member, Jim Bunning, the entire process was shrouded in confusion and secrecy. "Bob Watson didn't make it. They never told us why,” Bunning to the Daily News's Stan Hochman in February 2015. “If he'd been there, it might have made a difference for two guys, Allen and Tony Oliva, who also got 11 votes.” Maybe Watson simply got sick. Maybe he missed his plane. Who knows. Well, somebody does. But they're not talking. And this -- this secrecy, this tight-lipped arrogance -- is itself an injustice. Still, Allen missed by just a single vote and the next scheduled meeting of the Golden Era committee was scheduled for 2017. Until it wasn't. When the various veterans' committees were reformed and rejiggered, the now “Golden Days” era committee wasn't scheduled to meet until December 6, 2020. Until, again, it wasn't. Citing the pandemic, the Hall announced that it was simply impossible for the Golden Days era committee to meet in one room and hash things out. True that, but for the fact that the rest of the world had discovered the wonders of Zoom back in March. https://www.sportstalkphilly.com/2020/12/the-last-betrayal-of-dick-allen.htmlhttps://www.sportstalkphilly.com/2020/12/the-last-betrayal-of-dick-allen.html His number was indeed retired with as much ceremony as could be mustered by the Phillies this past season.

Allen's first go-round in Philly was legendarily stormy. His second? Kinda crazy in its own right. Here's a sentence I didn't expect to read. The Broom Closet Incident was likewise rehashed, with Tug McGraw stating in a team meeting that “some of us white guys” were wondering “where all the black guys were.” https://sabr.org/journal/article/dick-allens-second-act/https://sabr.org/journal/article/dick-allens-second-act/

Denis Menke, 80, twice an All-Star infielder for the Astros, later, as a result of the Joe Morgan deal, an overlooked cog in the Big Red Machine (started Games Three and Four of the 1973 NLCS at third). As a young Brave, Menke found himself in an unlikely faceoff, so to speak, during the notorious Pier Six Brawl of 1964, an undercard to Ron Hunt scrapping with Ed Bailey at County Stadium. George Vecsey remembered it in 2000: In the confusion, the Mets' 73-year-old manager wound up underneath 23-year-old Denis Menke of the Braves, who had this horrible thought: ''Oh, my God, I've killed Casey Stengel.'' He didn't.

Tom Verducci on why Sam McWilliams attracted such a tall order of interest: Supported by data from the Rays and Zombro, McWilliams decided in 2020 to change how and what he threw. “I had thrown two- and four-seamers my whole career,” he says. “After last year I just felt both had become inconsistent. Throwing the two-seamer, it made the four-seamer inconsistent, causing me to get almost on the side of the ball. “So that winter going into 2020 I decided to scrap the two-seamer. I just worked on getting behind the four-seamer and commanding it. We had talked about it with the Rays before, as to what gets the best results. The data showed that the two-seamer was average to plus sometimes, but it wasn't anything to generate whiffs. “My main goals going into camp were to make the slider as hard as possible while still getting that glove side cut, and with the fastball it was all about chasing that vertical movement while getting behind it as much as possible to get true backspin.” Analytics have changed pitching. They have transformed pitching from a horizontal game (in and out) to a vertical game (up and down) to combat the Launch Angle generation of hitters who chase slug, not batting average, by getting the ball in the air with backspin. The Rays are the masters of modern pitching to defeat the Launch Angle game: high-spin fastballs up to get above swing planes, followed by premier breaking balls down to get under them. https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/12/08/new-york-mets-pitcher-sam-mcwilliamshttps://www.si.com/mlb/2020/12/08/new-york-mets-pitcher-sam-mcwilliams

Roger Moret, the nifty lefty for the Red Sox of the ‘70s, 71, from cancer.

Monster slugger, ultimately beloved by two bands of fans — three, counting those of us who considered him among the coolest players of our youth,

Chris Young (the pitcher) who didn't want to leave the Dallas area to become Mets GM, stays in the Dallas area to become Rangers GM.

Broken.

Steve Cohen seeks fan input on non-tendered players. You know, like the Wilpons would.

Guillermo Heredia sticking around as well.

Matzie tendered. Gsellman will be, too. Shreve not so much.

Dramatic shot of the ballpark is very powerful, but the overly explanatory deck (“weeds keep growing”) kills the mood for MLB 2020. The other one is kind of a mess, but that seems appropriate for the season in question. At least it's a giddy mess.

Three ex-Mets are named to coach for Tony La Russa in Chicago: Miguel Cairo (bench); Daryl Boston (first base); Joe McEwing (third base).

The unicorn is on a rampage.

Non-Met Bob Miller, 94, who was the penultimate surviving 1950 Phillie, making Curt Simmons the last of the Whiz Kids. https://ripbaseball.com/2020/11/30/obituary-bob-miller-1926-2020/?fbclid=IwAR0RtqG4QmyjwWCq9e3oNcT57ImL2Ye1QJnn4J05PBcY_ZCB_9FqO_2AHWghttps://ripbaseball.com/2020/11/30/obituary-bob-miller-1926-2020/?fbclid=IwAR0RtqG4QmyjwWCq9e3oNcT57ImL2Ye1QJnn4J05PBcY_ZCB_9FqO_2AHWg

Pat Cawley, almost nightly State Farm Agent of the Game on SNY telecasts, 55, from pancreatic cancer. https://www.manganofh.com/obituaries/Patrick-J-Cawley?obId=19099838&fbclid=IwAR1scrfJic2fpGnZpCiATlTv1zpKmFt60KAkRx_bTFaAdCGUxq-9wwc_xIshttps://www.manganofh.com/obituaries/Patrick-J-Cawley?obId=19099838&fbclid=IwAR1scrfJic2fpGnZpCiATlTv1zpKmFt60KAkRx_bTFaAdCGUxq-9wwc_xIs

Once-futuristic Rogers Centre — aka ye olde (or Doug Ault) SkyDome — is no longer new enough for the Toronto Blue Jays. https://www.thestar.com/sports/bluejays/2020/11/27/weve-paid-enough-the-blue-jays-might-get-a-brand-new-ballpark-to-replace-the-rogers-centre-but-public-funding-is-a-touchy-subject.html?rfhttps://www.thestar.com/sports/bluejays/2020/11/27/weve-paid-enough-the-blue-jays-might-get-a-brand-new-ballpark-to-replace-the-rogers-centre-but-public-funding-is-a-touchy-subject.html?rf