Not in the Hall, but Al Hrabosky had quite the reputation. However, checking the stats, he hit only 13 batters in 722 innings. Victor Zambrano of TB/NYM hit 63 in 706. He hit 51 in a 3 season span.

I assume modern, over 6′ batters don’t need to get as close to the plate–but they’re also bigger targets with more inertia.

Pitchers are very possessive of the plate. They believe that it belongs to them, not to the batter. If a batter is leaning over the plate, he is invading the pitcher’s territory and trying to shrink the strike zone. So the batter is a legitimate target, to the pitcher’s mind. Bob Gibson said that he usually wasn’t trying to hit the batters he plunked; it’s just that he didn’t care if they got plunked or not. He was just protecting his strike zone.

“… tied for Nicest are Sandy Koufax and Lee Smith.”

Lee was listed at 6’5″ 220 lbs; size matters. Also mattering but unfortunately unavailable are pitch speeds from the 20th century — I surmise that I’d prefer getting plunked by a Niekro knuckleball than by anything Smith threw. Koufax broke Lou Brock’s shoulder blade with that single intentional beaning, so credit both to Koufax for yet another exemplar of his on-mound efficiency, and to Brock for recovering to build his incredibly ballsy .391 World Series batting average over close to 100 WS plate appearances.

This discussion always evokes surprise over how few hitters Bob Gibson HBP’d. Gibson’s surliness was primarily made manifest through his refusal to be friendly with opposing hitters during spring training games, All-Star games, and the like — he dreaded giving away any edge. He used to love talking about how then-Cardinal-previous-Giant Orlando Cepeda would go to dinner with Giant great Juan Marichal to open every STL-SF series … and then fatten his batting average upon facing Marichal that series.

Always fun to read these posts and dig a little further into the backstories. The sound was so loud, Mays thought it hit Chapman’s bat and threw him out at first. Reminded me of my last softball game playing third base. I misplayed a ball and it hit me in the face and flew 40 feet on the air and was caught for an out. It chipped two BACK teeth but no broken cheekbone which was good. We didn’t have enough players and I couldn’t leave game so I moved to right field. I was fairly distraught but didn’t want to forfeit. Anyway, the NEXT batter hit a screamer right at me in right field!! I caught it but realized this wasn’t my sport…which I should’ve realized twenty years earlier. Baseball even softball takes a specific type of courage/coolness that not many people have. RIP Roy Chapman – he was a good man whose last words exonerated Mays.

“Greg Maddux didn’t hit all that many batters, but more than you’d expect considering his otherwise superb control.”

A great story about Maddox was during his first full season with the Cubs. He was struggling and was warned that if he didn’t get a win in his next start he’d be sent down. They were playing the Padres and were winning when one of their pitchers hit Shawn Dunston or Andre Dawson sometime in the middle of the game, resulting in benches clearing and warnings. Knowing he’d get ejected and possibly lose the opportunity to get the win (and certainly get sent down), he retaliated anyway and hit one of the Padres players the next inning. He was sent down, but not right away, and was brought back up after only a couple starts in the minors.

I’d guess Maddux probably only hit batters when he wanted to.

Love the story about when McCarver came to the mound to discuss pitch selection with Gibson and Gibson told him to go back to the plate (“what do you know about pitching?”).

Wow, this is coincidental.

I live in the Boston area. The other day I was chatting with plumber (middle-aged white working-class guy) doing some work on our water heater system and we talked about athletes and celebs we’ve run into out in public here in the Boston area. Among the people he mentioned meeting was a Pedro Martinez whom he said was the nicest guy. Allowed him to take a selfie and treated like a friend he hadn’t seen in a while.

I think some adjustment needs to be made for pitch location, though it seems like a lot of work. One should distinguish between ‘bottom half of the zone’ pitchers like Rivera who don’t really scare anyone and the ‘upper half of the zone’, high heat pitchers who do.

I looked for Roger Clemens on the list, and then realized that it was limited to Hall of Fame members.

Don’t know about hit batsman but Juan Marachial hitting Dodger catcher John Rosenboro in the head wit a baseball bat shoots him to numero uno. Another wild man was Cincy reliever Pedro Borbon, must be something about Dominicans. And who can forget the classic Robin Ventura vs. Nolan Ryan slobberknocker. The much younger Ventura charges the mound only to be lassoed in a headlock by the balding aged Ryan who repeatedly fisted Robin’s head in one of baseball’s more comical brawls.

Having faced quite a few 90mph+ pitchers myself, I can tell you the scariest pitchers aren’t the hard throwers with great control but rather the ones who are wild. There’s nothing worse than stepping into the batters box against a wild flamethrower, because you have no idea where the next pitch is going and neither does he… these guys don’t typically get anywhere close to the HOF though.

-Rooster

Jim Bunning was known to have an abrasive personality off the field as well. I liked him as a Senator.

I wonder how the modern trend of batters wearing armor on the sides of their bodies which face the mound will work out with HBP numbers. Will it encourage HBPs on the theory that someone wearing armor and crowding the plate knows what he is doing? Or will it discourage HBPs because they’re not effective?

It does seem that even with the batting armor, batters’ broken wrists and hands following HBPs are trending upward. But perhaps I’m just noticing it more because it affected more notable players.

Randy Johnson was justly feared for his erratic speed. And with his gangling build he looked every inch of his reported height.

Funny how Pedro’s HBP went up after going to the American League. It’s weird how bad behavior increases when there are no consequences! The AL was like the Floyd effect of professional sports.

Yuck. If I were hit with a Burleigh Grimes pitch, I’d head straight for the shower. Then get a shot or two.

There are five Puerto Ricans in the HOF, none a pitcher. Ivan Rodriguez had a notable arm, but from the other end of the battery. Puerto Rico and arms are in the news today because AOC slammed the ADL for excusing Elon’s NSDAP salute. But even the ADL has its limits. Musk’s “salute” is about as “Nazi” as ADL’s own siding with Bakke way back when.

She called beating the CSA and the NSDAP our “foundational” events, which is ridiculous. Beating the British– back when we were British– is our foundation. She should take Acela to Lexington or Independence Hall sometime.

But as a peacemaking gesture, for atonement Trump should issue an EO granting the “floating island of garbage” her independence.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5097676-elon-musk-defended-salute-criticism/

OK, now Steve’s just fucking with us.

The world’s greatest musical Hey-I’m-Messing-With-You…..

Video Link

How many pitchers with only 165 wins are in the hall of fame? Why is Koufax there? If Koufax is in, David Cone, 194 wins, should be a shoe-in. Something strange there.

Nice touch to put George H. “Babe” Ruth in there as a pitcher. Although he was not elected to the Hall of Fame as a pitcher, he is the only ballplayer in the history of the game who is provably of Hall of Fame caliber as both a pitcher and a hitter. The word is “provably”, and that is based on actual performance on the baseball field, not speculation. Ruth can be projected to have had 350 to 400 career win potential as a pitcher.

Barring injury, and his career as a position player proved his durability, he would have been well into the 200s in career wins by the age of 30.

Because he was the nicest pitcher of all time.

Mike “Moose” Mussina will always be an Oriole.

Everyone who knew Don Drysdale considered him a heckuva nice guy.

Years after he retired, an interviewer asked Drysdale about that apparent contradiction. “Don, how could a nice guy like you try to bean Hank Aaron or Willie Mays.” Don started talking with a smile, but as he talked, his whole demeanor changed. “Well, you have to remember that we didn’t make big money in those days. We really wanted that World Series check. Some of us were counting on it to pay the mortgage or to put our kids through college. So, here comes Hank Aaron. He’s trying to beat me. He’s trying to keep me out of the World Series. That son of a bitch wants to steal my money.”

I swear, Drysdale was in his late 40s by then, but he made himself angry enough to bean Aaron on the spot.

Don Newcombe was a mean SOB who legend has it sued a teammate for dumping champagne on him while celebrating the Dodgers winning the National League pennant.
Early Wynn was another cantankerous pitcher who while pitching batting practice to his son knocked him down after the kid drove a couple balls over the centerfold fence.
The stories are probably hyperbole but illustrate the real mean natured character of both pitchers.
The new age players may be better, but they definitely are less entertaining.

Sabbathia was a beast. recall when he was with the Yankees, had a bonus for innings pitched that he was very close to achieving in his last start vs. the Rays. But when a Yankee was beaned by a Rays pitcher, Sabbathia had no problem hitting a Ray batter next inning knowing it could cost him achieving the benchmark bonus, upon his ejection. Yankees were rumored to have paid the bonus anyway.

It’s not really fair to lump relievers and starters together in these categories. Relievers are usually pitching in situations where they can’t afford to put a guy on just to intimidate people.

One guy who should be mentioned in the Greg Maddux class of picking your spot to make a statement is Lew Burdette, a very good pitcher for the Milwaukee Braves in the ’50s, though not quite a HOFer. Like Maddux, he was noted for outstanding control, with 1.8BB/9 during his career. On your combined rankings, he would be tied at 23 with Maddux. He didn’t throw many wild pitches (especially for a spitballer), ranking 19th in wp/bb. But his hbp/bb was a whopping 2.43, which would place him 4th on the list. Among his more memorable incidents were breaking Dick Groat’s wrist with a pitch during the Pirate’s 1960 pennant stretch run, and a notable fight with Roy Campanella (after knocking him down twice, Burdette yelled “Get up and hit, Ni**er”, whereupon Campanella charged the mound). He was also noted for bench jockeying, being particularly fond of baiting St. Jackie Robinson, although he was an equal-opportunity insulter. Burdette didn’t throw very hard, and part of his game was pissing off opposing hitters so they would try to clobber his junk and end up hitting grounders to short.

Burdette was about as hillbilly as you can get, making J.D. Vance look like Cole Porter. His hometown of Nitro, WV was literally founded as an explosives factory, and basically spent most of it’s existence as an American Viscose Chemical company town. His on-field vocabulary was laced with various racial and ethnic slurs and uncomplimentary terms. However, Hank Aaron in his autobiography stated that whenever opposing pitchers threw at him or any of the other Braves black stars, Burdette immediately put a stop to it by knocking down the other teams big hitters. And in Boys of Summer, Campanella said that Burdette was practically the only opposing player to visit him in the hospital after his accident.

Burdette’s big moment, of course, was the 3 victories (2 of them shutouts) in the 1957 World Series, won by the Braves. The late ’50s Braves were one of the all time great underachieving teams of all time, with three top-tier HOFers (Aaron, Mathews, Spahn). Spahn, Burdette and Bob Buhl formed one of the great Big 3 starting combos ever. However, they only had 2 pennants and 1 WS to show for it (which still puts them ahead of the early ’60s Giants, who had Mays, Cepeda, Marichal, Gaylord Perry and the Alou brothers on the team all at the same time, and only won 1 pennant and 0 WS).

Interesting point. The data for this probably exists only for the last 5-10 years or so, whenever Statcast became a thing. Pretty sure that now, pitch location data is collected for every pitch.

Would almost certainly be impossible any earlier than the 1970s or 80s, I’m not sure when video of every game first became available.

So WHY did Koufax bean Brock?

It’s a legitimate point. On the other hand, Koufax’s star burned extremely bright over roughly a five-year period, and he was on a World Series winner. He had four no-hitters, including a perfect game. And he pitched in a huge market. In any event, not many pitchers go 27-9 in their final season. Too bad they had not yet invented Tommy John surgery in 1966.

Musk’s “salute”

LOL :

https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-controversial-salute-image-beamed-tesla-factory-berlin-2019279

Anna is correct:

This is one of the funniest times to be alive

— Anna Khachiyan (@annakhachiyan) November 9, 2024

You’ve been phoning it in for weeks, Sailer, and with everything going on these days, the best you can come up with is this lame crap about pitchers? You really have become irrelevant.

Henceforth, all prospective employees of Tesla will be required to complete the following exam:

1. The ___ cries out in pain as he strikes you.

A. French Canadian
B. Philadelphian
C. Jew

2. The ___ cries out in disgust as he s**ts on you.

A. Cuban
B. Kardashian
C. Jeet

3. Elon Musk is ___.

A. Awesome
B. Amazing
C. Autistic

Video Link

I wonder what happens if you just search for the frequency over the years of the term “beanball” or “headhunter.” My guess is that you would find that there used to be more of that. Now there is more showboating. (And more wearing ostentatious jewelery.)

They say hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in professional sports. I don’t doubt that is true. What no one ever mentions though is that what is so hard about hitting a baseball is that you don’t know where the ball is going to be. To that point I would argue that the gap between C Ball, where they use pitching machines that put the ball in the same place everytime, and A Ball, where the batter faces real pitchers for the first time, is actually greater than the gap between Tee Ball and C Ball.

By the way, Stan Evans, who was, according to my father, something like the funniest man who wrote for a living to never write humorously, once made a joke about George F. Will, who, of course, annually or periodically writes his solemn column about the national pastime: “I’m thinking about writing a colmn about baseball. A column about baseball as a metaphor. Baseball as a metaphor… for softball. Think of it: you’ve got the field: and the field. You’ve got the players: and the players. Etc.

Koufax was 165-87, won the pitcher’s version of the triple crown three times, won Cy Young Award three times, was a 7 time all star in a career in a career that only lasted from 1956-1966. Koufax also posted a career ERA of 2.76. Cone is not even in the same league. There are people who questioned the choice of Mussina even, who had 76 more wins than Cone. The high ERA of Mussina and Cone can be permissible due to the era they played in but Cone doesn’t deserve the nod imo, while Mussina certainly did.

Musk’s so-called Nazi salute is done often by opera singers at the end of a performance. They touch their heart and then extend their arm out towards the audience.

They lie to us, we know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying, but they keep lying to us,

Interesting about Pedro Martinez: he was only 5’9″ and began his career in the NL in the 90s, when pitchers were still batting (hurts to say that last part now). And yet he was still known as a headhunter then.

So he was risking (1) retaliation during his own at bats; and (2) having some 1990s 6’4″ ‘roided-up monstrosity charging the mound at light speed to spear tackle him when he was just a hotshot young nobody.

And yet Pedro hit people anyway. And I believe his rate didn’t go up when he got to the AL and was a protected star. Shows you what kind of guy he was right out of the gate.

How many pitchers with only 165 wins are in the hall of fame? Why is Koufax there?

There are some guys who are in the Hall of Fame, and my reaction is ‘what’s so great about this guy?’ That’s not my reaction with Koufax:

‘…Koufax’s retirement ended a five-year run in which he went 111–34 with a 1.95 earned run average and 1,444 strikeouts. During that run, he led the Dodgers to three National League pennants and two World Series titles, in both of which he was named the series MVP. He won Cy Young Awards in each of the pennant-winning years and also won the NL Most Valuable Player Award in 1963.’

How many pitchers with only 165 wins are in the hall of fame? Why is Koufax there? If Koufax is in, David Cone, 194 wins, should be a shoe-in. Something strange there.

The answer is the universal specific; Jewish privilege, of course. If ‘Cone’ were ‘Coen’ he would have been a unanimous selection.

OT — Watch a Haitian get deported.

Video Link

OT — The outcome of the AI experiment may be the clarification that Chinese are objectively superior to pajeets. The claims at this link are not only amazing but portentious for our desperately wrecked military and high technology research fields; if this is true, it would force action from Trump, and hopefully generate much-needed reforms.
https://www.teamblind.com/post/Meta-genai-org-in-panic-mode-KccnF41n

In the top of the 3rd Eric Show hit Andre Dawson, the Maddux retaliated by hitting Benito Santiago in the bottom the 3rd. The Cub manager at the time was Gene Michael while the pitching coach was Herm Starrette. After the game Maddux had an ERA of 4.46 but he wasn’t sent down until his ERA ballooned to 5.47. Down in AAA Iowa Maddux made 4 starts and regained his form going 3-0 with a 0.98 ERA before rejoining the Cubs in September. While he went 0-3 after that he became Greg Maddux the following year as the Cubs left the NL East basement (and won the division the year after that)

The late Bob Uecker once went to visit Gibson on the mound when the latter snarled at the former “What the hell do you want?” Uecker replied that he was just taking a stroll to talk to Curt Flood in center field 🤣

As an aside, Uecker and Gibson were teammates for two years on the Cardinals: 1964 and 1965. Considering the Cardinals regular catcher then was Tim McCarver, does anyone want to guess what Gibson’s record was with Uecker as his catcher?

460 in a day and a half?

Lessee…that comes to about one out of every forty thousand.

Assuming we seal the border, we should have this wrapped up in…two hundred years!

Of course, that’s if there’s no natural increase in the population.

‘I’ve never seen anybody more knowledgeable look into this, but as a pitcher, Ruth’s rate of striking out batters per 9 innings declined from about 1915 onward. He was still quite successful, but perhaps he got serious about his hitting because he was aware that his arm was fading?’

On the other hand, my impression is that with the passage of time, pitching has come to be more valued than hitting.

If Ruth came up now, maybe he’d just have kept pitching?

Carlos Zambrano was the meanest, at least to his catchers.

In a game from around 1992 that you can find on YT, Ralph Kiner said he was once on the most exclusive golf course in Palm Springs with Drysdale, and said to him, “Don, if we were playing today we could afford to live here.”

Musk’s so-called Nazi salute is done often by opera singers at the end of a performance. They touch their heart and then extend their arm out towards the audience.

True; it was started by Wagnerians at Bayreuth.

The Burdette origin story is even better. He was Yankee property, pitching for the San Francisco Seals in 1951. A Hollywood Stars player, after striking out, went back to the bench and told the manager, “that guy has the best spitter I’ve ever seen.” The manager was friends with Braves owner Lou Perini and passed on the news. When the Yankees wanted Johnny Sain from the Braves for the stretch run, the Braves said we’ll take Burdette.

On the other hand, Koufax’s star burned extremely bright over roughly a five-year period, and he was on a World Series winner. He had four no-hitters, including a perfect game.

Cone also pitched a perfect game for the Yankees, fwiw. Koufax won an MVP, Three Cy Youngs, and 3 pitching Triple Crowns (Ks, ERA, and Wins). Cone won 1 Cy Young.

I can tell you the scariest pitchers aren’t the hard throwers with great control but rather the ones who are wild. There’s nothing worse than stepping into the batters box against a wild flamethrower, because you have no idea where the next pitch is going and neither does he… these guys don’t typically get anywhere close to the HOF though.

Dock Ellis, throwing his no-hitter … sky-high on LSD … no idea whether the batter was left-handed or right-handed …

Ahh – that explains the HOF induction of Dizzy Deanowitz.

Video Link

In the AL he didn’t have to worry about batting and getting thrown at. He could be more proactive protecting the inside corner.

Sportswriters biases? SK has slightly better postseason numbers in less appearances, but DC was great in playoffs, as well. SK has 30 less wins, but in 100 less starts. If Koufax never existed does Cone deserve enshrinement?

Follow-up to this: possible corroboration. Anon claimed,

Deepseek CEO [= Chinese], who released a cheaper and better version of chatgpt, says JEET immigration is not necessary because they can just invest in their people and cultivate talent themselves.

This is a must-read interview if you follow AI.https://t.co/8ouWpC4VVd

DeepSeek is one of the top LLMs in the world and its inference costs are a tiny fraction of competitors' bc of architectural innovation, sparsity of weights, etc. DS v2 caused a huge price war in LLM… pic.twitter.com/CtFfM3Q8av

— steve hsu (@hsu_steve) July 21, 2024

President Trump Announces new agenda items for the ATF.

Video Link

The US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, holds arm ban challenge from Hawaii to be moot but a powerful dissent by Judge Lawrence VanDyke takes exception to parts of majority’s ruling.

Video Link

William Kirk, discusses what might become a tipping point for many lawful and responsible gun owners in this State under HB 1504, a bill that will require insurance on each firearm that you own and if you don’t want to get the insurance, then you can just pay $25,000 per firearm to exercise your right.

Video Link

.@elonmusk is being falsely smeared.

Elon is a great friend of Israel. He visited Israel after the October 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. He has since repeatedly and forcefully supported Israel’s… https://t.co/VkBptanDmp

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) January 23, 2025

🚨BREAKING🚨

GOF, @GunOwners, @GunOwnersCA, @CRPAnews, & @2AFDN have secured a Preliminary Injunction allowing all members of these organizations to apply for a nonresident carry permit in the state of California.

This order goes into effect in 90 days. pic.twitter.com/JsGZbluANb

— Gun Owners Foundation (@GunFoundation) January 24, 2025

😎 https://t.co/h4q0OJyjrq

— AmmoLand News (@AmmoLand) January 23, 2025

Longevity should count for something. He had some great years, but so did a lot of players. Luis Tiant had 229 wins, Tommy John had 288, Mickey Lolich had 217, hell, Denny McLain pitched for 10 years and went 131-91 and was the last man to win over 30 games, something Koufax couldn’t do, even on those great Dodgers teams. More to it, I think.

The year Koufax won the MVP Hank Aaron hit 44 HRs and batted .319. Sandy won 25 games, but a lot of pitchers have won 25 and not been gifted an mvp. Weird, right? He won all 3 of his Cy Youngs unanimously, all 3, only 2 other pitchers have ever been given the Cy Young unanimously. I don’t know, smells fishy to me.

…after the kid drove a couple balls over the centerfold fence.

Imagine what AI might do with that sentence…

Google isn’t much help.

Duckduckgo is slightly better.

Imagine a white man writing this in today’s Britain:

If Axel Rudakubana were a white teen who had killed three girls of ethnic origin – there would be no debate

And then the Hapless Cubs traded him rio ATL.

Thanks Cubs!!!

I think it was George Sisler (correct me, perhaps Rogers Hornsby?) that said “Ruth made a mistake becoming an everyday player, as he was sure to have a 20 year career as a pitcher.”

Thanks for fleshing that out. I guess the only way I could explain it is that (at least as far as I remember it) Koufax was pretty much regarded as the BEST pitcher in baseball during that five-year period, whereas Cone was just very good.

(Chuckle). You beat me to it!

Not sure about that at all. Strikeout totals could be affected by how his catcher called his pitches, by how his manager told him to pitch, how the batters approached hitting against him, what teams he came up against in the rotation, by his own inherent level of effectivness, and even dumb luck.

Through 1917, his last season as a full-time pitcher, he had 67 career wins at the age of 22. No one knows what he would have done if he had continued as a full time pitcher, but win totals were high in that era for top pitchers. If he had averaged only 18 wins over the next ten years, he would have had 247 career wins at the age of 32. Knowing that he did have durability, you have to project him as at least a marginal Hall of Famer as a pitcher, barring an arm injury.

I have always enjoyed it that Steve intersperses his political blog posts with other posts about topics like baseball, Bob Dylan or David Lynch. Sometimes you just want to get away from politics and think about something else.

I frequently watched the Tonight show with Johnny Carson. While Johnny was likely a liberal, he wanted a broad audience and did not evince strong hostility to the right and his show was entertainment oriented. All the late night talk show hosts are now noticeably unfunny leftists hostile to Republicans except for Gutfeld, whose show is funny but also political.

It used to be sports figures did not heavily push their political beliefs either. I first saw a shift when Michael Jordan was criticized for telling people to buy his sneakers instead of who to vote for.

Well that’s something pic.twitter.com/UQm21Mukrt

— Moist Hegel (@Dialectiks) January 24, 2025

Let us not forget the 196o’s Twins; one of the great underachieving teams of all time. A team with people like Camilo Pascual, Jim Kaat, Harmon Killebrew, Earl Battey, Tony Oliva Rod Carew, among others only managed to win one pennant and two division titles; while winning only three postseason games – oh and losing the pennant on the last day in 1967…

OT, but just out of curiosity…

What do you think will really be going through Joe Biden’s mind, during his first 30 seconds in Hell? You know, the part when he finally realizes that Hell is actually real, and he’s actually in it, forever, and that guess what, there are no presidential pardons in Hell?

You’re there forever, Joe. Screaming and screaming, and then screaming some more, and then screaming and screaming for yet another 20 seconds, pleading for mercy and getting none, mocked and laughed at by the demons sent to guard and torment you, and then swallowing yet another throat-full and lung-full of stinking, boiling, flaming human shit, and then screaming again, and then more screaming, and no escape. Ever.

Enjoy. You’ll deserve every second of it.

Joe Biden. Hell awaits you.

Pay for his substack!

Are you a poor???

Regarding among MLB’s nastiest pitchers, where is Dock Ellis? Don’t see his name on the list.

“That kid throws GASSSSS!!!” – Joe Morgan commenting on Billy Wagner

“Babe Ruth was a great American because he didn’t listen to what other people told him he should do.”

“I ran away from home at 16, lied about my age, and joined the Marines, because everybody told me not to.”

— my uncle, who later personally designed and built half of Agoura Hills and Thousand Oaks

“We are who we pretend to be; so we had better be very careful about who and what we pretend to be.”

— Kurt Vonnegut Jr., preface to “Mother Night”

That bird who got hit by Randy’s pitch should have been awarded first base. Not that the bird would have appreciated it.

Imagine that in 1965 the top HR hitter on the Dodgers only had 12 home runs, but Hank had 44? Bats .319 and doesn’t win an mvp? In 1972 the Phillies won 59 games, Steve Carlton went 27-9, and he didn’t get a sniff at mvp. Koufax was a media darling. He was a very good pitcher for a few years during the expansion era, but he’s borderline hall of fame, at best. Unless there’s a few other pitchers with only 165 wins that I missed.

It would probably be very difficult to get a list of the names of the BBWAA members who voted for those awards, but their website does list past presidents and secretaries.

The three presidents’ names from his CY winning years were Hal Lebovitz, Joe McGuff and Bob Wolf.
The secretary from 1957 – 1966 was Hy Hurwitz. Make of that what you will.

Regardless, Koufax probably was the best pitcher in baseball during that stretch. But as has been established here and other places favoritism (Jackie Robinson) and anti-favoritism (Curt Schilling) absolutely exists in the MLB front office and among their media lackeys.

IIRC Maddux was a free agent, but yes the hapless Cubs couldn’t get a deal done. Big mistake.

Yes, Carlos, was an actve volcano, but the guy I mentioned is Victor.

Interesting, I suppose if you’re hyper focused on the strike zone and have “good stuff” that day, probably doesn’t matter much what side the hitter is on.

-Rooster

The ADL and Netanyahu rushing to say, “Elon did nothing wrong” was curious

Cone’s stats are comparable with guys like Mike Cuellar and Dave McNally as far as the win-loss column. Cone’s ERA is much higher. McNally and Cuellar had multiple seasons where they achieved 20 or more wins. McNally won 20 or more for 4 straight seasons, Cuellar pulled off the trick for 3 straight from 1969-71. Cuellar shared the CY Young Award with Denny McLain in 1969. These guys were imo better than Cone BUT they are not worthy of the HOF by any means and neither is Cone.

Yeah, I’ve seen that video. As Mick notes, he LIKED Drysdale and vice versa. But Drysdale wanted to win so badly, he didn’t mind beaning even a friend.

Compare Pedro Martinez best 5 consecutive years to Koufax. Closer than people realize. Clemens? Gibson? No pitcher ever has had only, a great 5,6 years and gotten into the HOF.

He won’t pitch on a staff where an, if healthy Kershaw, is the 5th or 6th starter.

Their front office could be dumb and they win the West by 10 games. Commissioner should not allow all that deferred money in best interest of baseball.

Ralph Kiner had a small strain of Jewish blood 🩸, but he was the hitting version of Koufax at least as far as hitting home runs. Kiner only played from 1946-55, but still managed to hit 369 home runs and produce over a thousand runs batted in. That’s averaging nearly 37 home runs per season. Dave Kingman blasted 442 home runs ( despite the name I don’t know if Kong was a Jew) but he played from 1971-1986. Kingman wouldn’t be in anyone’s HOF. Lol.

While we’re at it, let’s take issue with some selections versus those not selected.

CC Sabathia
SUMMARY
Career
WAR 62.3
W 251
L 161
ERA 3.74
G 561
GS 560
SV 0
IP 3577.1
SO 3093
WHIP 1.259

Curt Schilling
SUMMARY
Career
WAR 79.5
W 216
L 146
ERA 3.46
G 569
GS 436
SV 22
IP 3261.0
SO 3116
WHIP 1.137

I am a Phillies fan, so Schilling has a special place in my fan-heart. We all know why he is NOT in. Sabathia has 3000 ks so he deserves it. Schilling postseason should have guaranteed entrance. Jack Morris is in probably due to his postseason heroics. Schilling goes in eventually.

That bird who got hit by Randy’s pitch should have been awarded first base. Not that the bird would have appreciated it.

Whereas anyone who attended games in Exhibition Stadium, mere feet from the lake– was it “metres” yet?– would have appreciated Her Majesty’s bestowal of one of the Empire’s many medals on Dave Winfield for removing at least one of those nasty gulls.

Pay for his substack?

Can’t you hack?

Are you stupid?

Anyway, it’s the same old stuff. You can have your favorite AI write an iSteve column on whatever you like. Maybe Sailer already does that. Gets him out of the closest and gives him more time to go for walks with his dog and play golf.
It’s a grand age we live in.

Did they rate pitching above hitting? Ruth had similar anthropometry to Sam Snead and I’m guessing was also double jointed, so they may have been right?

They should pitch him once a week, something he is familiar with since that is the Japanese system. Both his hitting and pitching would destract less from each other. The Dodgers have the arms to work around this and not go to a six man rotation, although considering the history of their starters a six man rotatation would make the most sense.

Speaking about not posting statistics, we eagerly await your next unz.com article regarding Trump’s blitzkrieg to dismantle government statistics. Certainly as our alleged pattern expert it is most disconcerting given that you rely on that data for your NOTICINGS.

https://www.npr.org/2025/01/24/nx-s1-5250264/unemployment-rate-cpi-inflation-census-bureau-labor-statistics

“The duration of what, however, was never quite specified.”

Speaking about things not specified, perhaps it’s time for you to clearly and concisely define and provide examples of “anti-white”. I understand that’s the cagey narrative you spin, but after three decades, the public seems ready for a change.

McCarver also was HOF P STL/PHI Steve Carlton’s favorite catcher during the late 60’s and throughout the 70’s.

This is similar to Jim Bouton’s Ball Four, where he states that as a younger pitcher on the Yankees during the early 60’s during contract negotiations, they would remind him that he would receive in addition to his salary a WS share of 10k.

But they never would agree to put that 10k in his contract guaranteeing it, should NY not make the WS (or win it).

Keep in mind that prior to the lively ball era beginning in the 20’s, the vast majority of MLB hitters didn’t strike out very much. It was extremely rare for hitters back then to have 100 or more K’s per season. Even striking out 50 or 60 times per season was considered a bit too much.

So the fact that Walter Johnson during his career recorded over 3,500 career K’s when he played most of career during the Dead Ball Era (when very few hitters struck out a whole bunch a lot), and that it took until Nolan Ryan to best his career K total in 1983 (56 yrs after Walter retired), is simply amazing. Especially since Ryan played his career when many hitters in MLB struck out over 100 times per season–there were plenty of strikeouts in MLB to be had, then as now, and Ryan was more than fortunate enough to beat Steve Carlton out for the all time K total.

In other words, it was far more impressive for Walter Johnson to strike out 313 hitters in 1910, than it was when Nolan Ryan struck out 383 batters in 1973 (especially since Koufax had struck out 382 batters in 1965). By that time tons of batters were striking out a whole bunch a lot.

Not the case in Walter’s time.

Basically prior to say, 1960, other metrics should be used besides K’s when judging how good or great a pitcher was in MLB (like W’s or ERA’s per season).

That’s a good one – hadn’t heard it. I remember hearing one about another ’50s pitcher (Preacher Roe, maybe?). He unleashed a hellacious spitter, which broke so much that the umpire (who had been desperately trying to avoid getting involved in a controversy) finally had to demand to look at the ball. Of course, the catcher rolled it back to the mound. The ump went out to look at it, and Roe immediately started protesting loudly about how offended he was that the umpire would even suspect him of such a dastardly act. The ump finally gave in and turned around to head back to the plate, whereupon Roe said loudly, “That last one was sure a beaut though, wasn’t it?”.

Yeah – I think bad managers in both cases. The ’59 Braves lost the pennant to the Dodgers, who basically had Drysdale, a few fading pieces from their Brooklyn club (Snider, Hodges, etc.) who were way over the hill, and half a season of Maury Wills. Koufax was pre-Koufax, and the big power threat was Wally Moon, whose game was hitting 260 ft pop flies that just cleared the ridiculous LA Coliseum left-field fence. The Braves got great seasons from Aaron (MVP) and Mathews, but down the stretch, the manager (Fred Haney, who I believe was the Hollywood Stars manager in the mel belli Burdette comment) decided to pull a Gene Mauch and ride Spahn and Burdette exclusively. As a consequence, instead of both of them going 20-10 as they had the year before, they both went 21-15, with the extra losses coming as they tired from overuse. Also, Haney insisted on platooning at first base. So 2/3 of the time, instead of having righty Joe Adcock (.292 BA/ .535 SA, 25 HR) in the lineup, he had lefty Frank Torre (Joe’s brother, .228 BA/.304 SA, 1 HR).

The Twins should have dominated the league for a few years there. Especially in ’67 – Killebrew had a great year, Bob Allison was still real good, deep pitching staff headed by Dean Chance. My guess is that Sam Mele and Cal Ermer were just not great leaders of men. By the time Billy Martin took over and got things sorted out, the Orioles had put together a juggernaut and it was too late.

It might have been Earl Weaver who said the manager can’t do much to win games, but he can sure lose them.

The US Supreme Court granted cert today in multiple cases but not on the 2A cases of Snope or Ocean State Tactical.

A federal district court judge has entered a preliminary injunction allowing members of certin gun rights groups to apply for CCW in California.

William Kirk sits down with Mark Manely of Maryland, who you may recall from a previous video, was raided by the ATF.

William Kirk sits down with Kerry Sloan of We the Female to discuss creating more inviting onramps for women to arm themselves and becomes 2A advocates.

The DOJ made the same argument in a couple anti-gun cases where they claimed laws that barred Native Americans and freed slaves from owning guns were examples of "historical precedent" that allowed them to do the same in 2024. https://t.co/B1pcaxvBfo

— Feni𝕏 Ammunition (@FenixAmmunition) January 24, 2025

What the fuck is this, Neal? You hypocrite.

The former Governor of Louisiana, who served from 1868-72 later confirmed in his memoir that the 1865 law "of course, was aimed at the freedman." (Henry Clay Warmoth, War, Politics, and Reconstruction: Stormy Days in Louisiana, 278… https://t.co/IGdejjgDvY pic.twitter.com/ZQTyC9InOA

— Kostas Moros (@MorosKostas) January 24, 2025

All pitching stats from 1963 to 1968 should have an asterisk.

Or a star of David

Schilling will never get in because baseball writers are lefty nerds that were shoved in lockers by guys like Schilling

‘OT, but just out of curiosity…

What do you think will really be going through Joe Biden’s…’

Meh. This is like people who think Obama was the antichrist. Joe Biden is certainly a scum bag, but one of a decidedly pedestrian, mediocre variety. We’ve all dealt with his type over the years: the dishonest tradesman, the guy who makes a pass at your daughter, the used car salesman you realize you do not want to buy a car from…

That sort may well go to hell, but they’ll have lots of company.

The ones I reserve my ire for are his handlers, the ones who chose him and fed him his lines. Where should they go?

The ADL and Netanyahu rushing to say, “Elon did nothing wrong” was curious'

Musk did kowtow. Plus, he’s powerful enough that the Jews may not want to make an enemy out of him. No doubt he’s scared of the Jews — but maybe the Jews are scared of him. Worried enough that they don’t want a cage match, anyway. Even if they won, they might lose.

What about Fernando Valenzuela … inducted into the HoF in 2014 … one hell of a pitcher for 17 years …

Steve, I still think you are sabotaging yourself by paywalling so many of your Substack posts. I notice you remain stuck at 5-6,000 subscribers. But why would you expect otherwise when you insist on hiding your light under a bushel? If people who are unfamiliar with you can’t read your best stuff, why would they subscribe? Where are your new subscribers going to come from? But if you work on maximizing the number of your readers (as opposed to subscribers), and impressing them with your insights, many would be willing to pay for the privilege of commenting, or seeing occasional hidden posts, or just to support you, and there would be the potential for growth. Other bloggers do it that way, so it’s a viable model. At minimum you should unpaywall posts after some period of time.

I’ve contributed maybe $500 to your panhandling drives over the years, but making occasional voluntary donations is different from autopay. I haven’t subscribed to your Substack, because there are so many worthwhile sites out there demanding monthly payment. I can’t pay for all of them, and I’m unwilling to start down that road, so I don’t pay for any. So yes, it’s a little frustrating for me personally that I can’t read your paywalled posts.

But what bothers me more is that you are limiting your reach. When you came up with the Sailer Strategy your posts were easily accessible to influential public figures, and you had an impact. Do you really think those same people are going to reach into their pockets and commit to monthly subscription fees so they can read you on a regular basis? Even the ones who’ve read you in the past probably aren’t going to do that, they’ve got a lot on their plates. (Plus they might worry about being doxxed contributing to a crimethinker). No, these are people who regularly get emails saying “hey, you should read this, it’s good”, and if they click on the link and it’s paywalled they are going to just move on. So, do you want them to be able to read your “this is good” posts or not?

Very important observations, Steve. Take away Koufax, and the Dodgers were a mediocre team. Drysdale was himself most seasons a mediocre innings-eater (e.g., 19-17, 18-16).

Drysdale got into the HOF via an implicit package deal with Koufax. There was a package deal when they played, too. During the 1960s they would negotiate their respective contracts together, which had to hurt Koufax.

All of the great Dodgers, the “boys of summer,” of those amazing teams when they were “the bums” who went to the World Series every year, and with one exception (1955) lost every year to the Yankees, were gone or over the hill by the early ’60s. And yet, they won it all in ’59, ’63, and ’65. Koufax carried the team during the ’60s.

Something I’ve mentioned before: I have a friend who is retired from a career as a major mid-market daily sportswriter, who spent significant time as a MLB beat writer. Over all a good guy, but extremely liberal- makes Keith Olberman look like “literally Hitler”. He told me flat out that he left Schilling off his ballot because he didn’t like his politics

The Giants had a pretty good player who hit 52 dingers that year, and who won the MVP.

“All of the great Dodgers, the “boys of summer,” of those amazing teams when they were “the bums” who went to the World Series every year, and with one exception (1955) lost every year to the Yankees, were gone or over the hill by the early ’60s.”

But also keep in mind that during the late 40’s and throughout the 50’s, the Dodgers home field was Ebbets Field. Ebbets was by this time a bandbox, where it was easier to hit HRs as compared to say Yankee Stadium (which was more of a pitchers ballpark during this time).

One of the few things that I tend to concur with Sabermetrics, is the idea that ball parks can be skewed toward more HRs, R’s scored, whether or not they are more hitter or pitcher friendly, that sort of thing.

By contrast, Dodger Stadium, at least in its earlier years, tended to be more of a pitchers ballpark. Either that, or for some reason LA didn’t bother to draft many power hitters during the 60’s.

Regarding Sandy Koufax, one thing that has to be considered. For the most part, Koufax benefitted playing his prime years during the 1962-68 era when the strike zone was raised to the top of the shoulders (P’s would consistently get the high strikes called as opposed to post ’68). We see this with the culmination as 1968, the Year of the Pitcher, when HOF BOS OF Carl Yaztremski lead the AL in batting with a .301 average (even though Pete Rose won the NL batting title with .338). Drysdale pitched 58 and 2/3 scoreless innings, Gibson set a MLB record for ERA with 1.12, and Dennis McLain won 31 games.

The point being, is that Koufax benefitted by pitching during the 60’s. His first few years (1955-61) didn’t particularly demonstrate the consistent greatness that he would soon possess. Even the first few years in LA, pitching in the Colessium, Sandy didn’t show any traces of greatness.

It was only when LA moved to Dodger Stadium in 62, which coincided with the new pitcher friendly higher strike zone when Koufax really took off.

Sometimes wonder in the case of Koufax just how great he would have been had he played his prime years post 1968, when the strike
zone returned to previous ’62 levels. That’s a fair observation regarding his career.

Fifty years to the day after Richard Nixon’s resignation, newly-unearthed documents show Watergate was a scam from start to finish. Geoff Shepard saw it happen. The parallels to what’s currently happening to Trump are remarkable.

(0:51) Who Is Geoff Shepard?
(2:22) What Was… pic.twitter.com/4UhKsfI3Q6

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 8, 2024

You start with the hardened criminals and the non-criminals begin to contemplate their existence. Perhaps some of those self-deport. Anyway, this is better than open flood gates.

Lefty Carlton was 5th in MVP in 72, 77, and 80, all Cy Young years.

Sam Altman doesn't deserve $500b of compute.

He's the reason we lost to the Chinese. It's all ego for him. Suchir. Annie. Ilya. Mira. Jan. Evan. Daniel. Logan. Leopold. Karpathy.

Deepseek didn't do this on their own. They stole the tech while actively delaying American… pic.twitter.com/pcGCeQMefn

— bone (@boneGPT) January 24, 2025

I can’t explain it, but I give fellows like Steve and the Zman $100 through snail mail every now and then, but I have no desire to spend a lesser amount on a subscription to their substacks. Weird, but there it is.

Thanks, Brutus. Never thought much of CC, but maybe it was my fatistism. I’d take Tommy John over CC or Roy Hallady every day.

Pitchers should probably wear those softball face masks that you see women softball players wear. I have seen pitchers “beaned” by some nasty comebackers over the years. Mike Mussina took a shot straight to the face which broke his nose. I saw an Atlanta Braves pitcher get popped by a bullet that bounced off his forehead a couple feet in the air, immediately this large hematoma formed on this guy’s noggin. He walked off the field after being examined but I imagined he had quite the headache. Imagine the impact and speed of a ball smoked right back to the mound only 60 feet away.

A travesty that Sal “the Barber” Maglie is not in the Hall, a man about whom Bill Madden, sportswriter for the New York Daily News, wrote that Maglie would never be a Hall of Famer unless “there’s a Hall of Fame just for pitchers whom you wanted to have the ball in a game you had to win”. One of my Dad’s favorite pitchers.

On a related note, the youngest person who was alive when the Dodgers, Giants, and Yankees all played in NYC is now 67 years old.

O Tempora! O Mores!

“They lie to us, we know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying, but they keep lying to us,”

Yes, Musk, Theil, and the other billionaires do that. So why do you continue to believe that they will look out in your best interests?

Don’t be fooled by Carlson.

https://lawliberty.org/book-review/maximum-john-versus-tricky-dick/

—However, while it makes sense to trace Sirica’s injudicious behavior to his friendship with Williams, actual evidence is lacking. As Shepard is the first to admit, there is no record of what was actually said during the documented ex parte meetings, much less what may have occurred during undocumented ones. All that exists, really, is the suggestion of untoward, extrajudicial influence.

Another kind of problem crops up when Shepard describes what he considers unethical ex parte meetings between attorneys from the Watergate Special Prosecution Force and Sirica. The author draws inferences from a record that is admittedly scant and entirely circumstantial. He leaves out the context in which these meetings occurred, and the unprecedented substantive and procedural issues that were at stake. Could a sitting President be indicted by a federal grand jury for obstruction of justice? Or was impeachment the only proper recourse for presidential misconduct in office? Shepard also apparently made no effort to interview the lawyers who are still around who participated in these meetings. That makes his account read like a legal brief alleging improprieties rather than a fleshed out revisionist history, as much as one is needed.

Even if one were to accept parts or even most of Shepard’s argument—that Democrats’ single-minded pursuit of Watergate represented a partisan and ideological effort to overturn the 1972 election and “get Nixon,” regardless of the truth or consequences—his premise about what constituted the “real scandal” does not hold up. Regardless of Sirica’s bias and agenda, or the Senate Watergate Committee’s political cast, the June 17 break-in and the White House-orchestrated cover-up of that crime remain the genuine article. No one knew this better than Nixon, with his three decades of experience in national politics. He had no illusions about how Washington worked behind the scenes, and knew just what his political antagonists would try to achieve if he gave them cause.—

Cricketers are occasionally killed by fast bowlers. Here’s an example from about a decade ago.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/30219440

Right. Because pitchers shouldn’t win an MVP. They get the Cy Young.

A couple of points.
Steve can decide what does and doesn’t get paywalled.
The quality of the conversation over there is much better. None of the childish exchanges and score settling. I’m sure that will change as people get off their wallets though.
Choosing not to subscribe to one Substack because you can’t subscribe to all those you like is like refusing to subscribe to a magazine or newspaper for the same reason. People make choices on what to spend money on all the time.
It’s sad that maybe there isn’t as much free ice cream as before, but I’m happy to pay for quality writing and thoughtful opinion.
Steve absolutely deserves to get paid.

I think the stat is that about 10% of pitchers who have Tommy John surgery come back and pitch well. Saying he would have come back is far from a certainty. Just a way to justify a below borderline pitcher getting in. There aren’t any other 165 game winners in the hall, are there? If injury justifies letting a player in, where are Don Mattingly and David Wright? Great players who would have had even greater careers if a surgery for their back issues was invented.

Saying who is the best player in a particular sport in any particular era is difficult. I do not follow baseball, mainly because I grew up in Indianapolis and we did not have a major league team. They did have a competitor to the NBA back then, the ABA. The ABA Indiana Pacers were the top team in that league and were popular enough here that the NBA took them in when the ABA folded.

The Pacers, the Bobby Knight led IU teams and my small town high school team going to the state finals got me interested in basketball. The pro team that was winning the most titles when I started my interest were the Boston Celtics. You would have to say, based on that, Bill Russell was the best player. It is possible, though, that he just had a group of players around him that complemented him best. Wilt Chamberlain never really had that until his early seventies Lakers teams.

Joe Biden is certainly a scum bag, but one of a decidedly pedestrian, mediocre variety. We’ve all dealt with his type over the years: the dishonest tradesman, the guy who makes a pass at your daughter, the used car salesman you realize you do not want to buy a car from…

Yep, a mildly corrupt Delaware pol. Not the epitome of evil. Just dumb, lazy, and dishonest.

Greatest postseason pitcher ever? Greater than HOF Whitey Ford, who has the most WS wins, with 10? Yeah, okay.

Difficult personalities abound in the HOF so that can’t be a major reason entirely.

Does it really come down to Schilling being a Trump supporter? If it’s simply that then that’s really petty to keep him out of the HOF.

Also, Schilling is nowhere near 300 career Wins. David Wells has more career Wins, for example, and he’s not going into the HOF anytime soon. It might also have helped Schilling’s case if he’d won a Cy Young Award during his career.

But then, I don’t entirely understand why Mike Mussina was inducted into the HOF. Except there was a Baltimore Sun reporter who later found fame with FOX and is a HOF voter, who wrote many times that Mike was among his favorite pitchers.

So perhaps it really does come down to various sportswriters have their personal favorites and those that they can’t stand. So borderline players had better find a way to be extra great, or else it’ll be a long time coming until they receive the call from Cooperstown.

He really told you that? Wow. I understand that pettiness does occur in sports, but to tacitly admit to this level just takes the cake.

‘You start with the hardened criminals and the non-criminals begin to contemplate their existence. Perhaps some of those self-deport. Anyway, this is better than open flood gates.’

Indeed — but I’m skeptical it will be enough. You can already see the road ahead: ‘the media says we’re deporting women and children — but it’s just the bad actors we’re arresting!’

…and the implication of that is all the cuddly women and children get to stay.

…and they will, and that’ll wind up being another ten million new ‘Americans’ — and still more corrosion of the national fabric. And they’ll create pressure to somehow bring in their sister, and their sister’s family, and…

And it repeats the lesson of the 1980’s amnesty. Just get in, and somehow you’ll get legalized eventually. That’s what happens. I know a family of about ten siblings — and their spouses, and their children. They mostly came in illegally, then got legalized…somehow. They’re all citizens now.

Well, that’s mighty fine, or at least water under the bridge. But this has to end. If it doesn’t, there’s not going to be a recognizable America left.

We need massive, sweeping, immediate deportations. Volunteer, and you get a thousand dollar check! And you don’t have to wait in a barbed wire pen! The plane awaits!

This is a mess, and it has to be cleaned up. It’ll be unpleasant, but…

Bob Gibson-another negro racist with a White wife.

The Atlanta Braves around the Millennium had the greatest pitching staff over a long time,

The pitching staffs of the circa-1970 Baltimore Orioles and the early-mid 1950s Cleveland Indians (also 3 HOF pitchers) would like a word with you.

The great Walter Johnson was one of the nicest people in baseball, and one of the hardest throwers. He was terrified of accidentally hitting a batter, and never really threw at max power for that reason, in case he lost control by letting it rip. Ty Cobb and other savvy batters exploited Johnson’s niceness by crowding the plate at bat-knowing he’d never brush them back.

Ray Chapman-Carl Mays: terrible tragedy, compounded by a number of things. Chapman was universally beloved by teammates, fans, and opposing players-even Ty Cobb liked him. Mays, who lived a terribly hard life since childhood, was not sociable at all-to anyone. His strange pitching motion made it hard for batters to track the ball as it came at them–and he was a known spitball pitcher, which sometimes caused control issues, plus he didn’t not hesitate to brush back batters. All this was widely known, of course–and when Chapman was hit, all the ill will Mays had accumulated was vented at him tenfold.

Babe Ruth was prouder of his 29+ scoreless innings in the two World Series that he pitched in than any of his batting stats. Ruth was always extra amazing in October–pitching-wise, he was 3-0 with an 0.87 ERA with 31 innings pitched. 2 complete games-including one of 14 innings.

I can tell you the scariest pitchers aren’t the hard throwers with great control but rather the ones who are wild.

Two words: Ryne Duren–hell, he once hit a batter in the on deck circle–I think it was Jimmy Piersall. Talk about an all time baseball eccentric summit meeting…

President Trump’s powerful statements at Davos about debanking concerns will have great and positive effects upon the 2A community.

Don’t take stuff meant for non-humans!

middle aged vet said: That is a question for SABR guys and I am not one – but I do know Ruth really really liked to eat as much he wanted (for people who do not know his backstory, he had a deprived childhood at an orphanage, and nobody should blame him for wanting to make up for lost time). Ruth had to have noticed, in the years Sailer is talking about, that pitchers 5 years older than him that did eat as much as they wanted were at the end of their careers while hitters that did that were able to remain productive after putting on a lot of pounds. (Yes, Boomer Wells and the Falstaffian (Ronny Darling’s term) Bartolo Colon are counter-arguments… but for every two Boomers and Bartolos you have twenty literally obese men hitting fourth or fifth in the lineup on very good teams).

Drysdale and Koufax were childhood idols. Orlando Cepeda said the key to Drysdale was hit him before he hits you. Drysdale had some funny sayings. Why walk a batter on four pitches when you can hit him with one? Hit one of my guys and I’ll get two of yours and they won’t be .220 hitters either.

“Babe Ruth was a great American because he didn’t listen to what other people told him he should do.”

Just like Biden? How about Jordan Peterson? Or how about Jews?

Wait, it’s Trump in hot eyes. Although…

—A recent Wall Street Journal poll showed the public would prefer a more restrained Trump. Most voters say, for instance, that only undocumented immigrants with criminal records should be deported, and longtime residents who entered the U.S. illegally should be protected. Most voters in the poll expressed skepticism of Trump’s plans to replace career civil-service workers, and 57% opposed pardoning those convicted in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.—

Completely OT- worth watching

“…Watergate was a scam…”

Really? No kidding?

Follow-up to this:
>There are basically two ways that LLMs are improved today:
>1) You can train the spreadsheet better, using improved training data, reward functions, and methodologies.
>2) You can add code to “drive” the underlying LLM.

>(1) is what DeepSeek R1 does
>(2) is what OpenAI is doing

>What makes R1 so interesting is that it demonstrates that ultimately, OpenAI did nothing more that “improve the spreadsheet” in a complicated, expensive way.
>That result is shocking to basically all researchers outside DeepSeek—everyone believed you need to up the complexity.
>The conceptual mistake has to do with misunderstanding human reasoning.
>OpenAI (and everyone else) hold a “mystical” view of reason and rationality—they believe it “emerges” with scale and complexity.
>DeepSeek R1 refutes this Less Wrong-style “rationalist” view of reason.
>DeepSeek R1 demonstrates that reasoning is literally just trained token output, nothing more.
>It’s not reasoning in the way that a proof checker like Inria’s Coq reasons.
>It’s not emergent, but rather TRAINED.
>It’s pure, unadulterated next token prediction.
>As long we take a mystical view of human reason, seeing it as a “capability” being “expressed” or “learned” instead of what it actually is: reason “LARPing” via next token prediction, Western researchers will continue to fall behind.
>Humans don’t reason, period.
>There is no “capability to reason”—it’s all next token prediction (which can be trained). There’s no separate capability, just longer (and longer) reason-like predictions.
>If you want actual reason, use a tool like Coq—it does reasoning (logical implication) correctly.
>If you want reason-like abilities, keep training LLMs like you would humans and keep in mind that it’s not ACTUALLY reason—it’s LARPing reason—but that’s good enough for many, even most tasks.
China really cooked:

There are basically two ways that LLMs are improved today:

1) You can train the spreadsheet better, using improved training data, reward functions, and methodologies.

2) You can add code to "drive" the underlying LLM.

(1) is what DeepSeek R1 does
(2) is what OpenAI is doing /1

— Anti-Federalist Caesar (@hyperliberalism) January 24, 2025

I am glad to say that Angel Blue sang beautifully in today’s live broadcast of Aida from the Met in NYC.

Several of the singers at the end of the opera put their hands on their hearts, but none followed up with an outstretched arm. I guess they all got the Don’t be a Nazi memo.

Judit Kutasi, who played the bad girl Amneris, was so overcome by the applause for her performance that she teared up. Well worth $22.

WDCB.org’s Those Were the Days for today is dedicated to the Barrymores, in case anyone is interested.

Availible on their two week archive.
https://wdcb.org/archive

SATURDAY, JANUARY 25
BARRYMORES ON THE AIR

MAYOR OF THE TOWN (3-3-43) Lionel Barrymore stars, with Agnes Moorehead as Marilly. A young man who joined the Navy at the Mayor’s suggestion is lost at sea. Rinso, NBC. (29 min) Read the article about Lionel Barrymore in the Winter 2025 issue of Nostalgia Digest.
STORY OF DR. KILDARE (9-28-50) Starring Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare, Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie. Blair Hospital is disrupted by a distraught expectant father. With Virginia Gregg, Ted Osborne, Bill Tracy, Sharon Douglas, Georgia Ellis. Syndicated. (28 min)
SCREEN GUILD PLAYERS (10-7-46) “The Old Lady Shows Her Medals,” starring Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in a radio adaptation of the play by J.M. Barrie. During the first World War, an English cleaning woman with no children of her own “adopts” a young soldier. Cast includes Verna Felton; Truman Bradley announces. Lady Esther Cosmetics, CBS. (29 min)
JOHN BARRYMORE AND SHAKESPEARE (8-24-50) The fourth and final show of this 1950 series features Barrymore playing both Malvolio and Sir Toby Belch in an abridged version of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, about two twins who are separated in a shipwreck. Sustaining, NBC. (30 min)
RUDY VALLEE SHOW (12-19-40) With John Barrymore, announcer Art Ballinger, Bea Benaderet, Lurene Tuttle and guest Orson Welles, who joins the cast for a sketch, “The Life of John Barrymore.” Later, John and Orson perform a scene from Julius Caesar. Rudy sings “Love of My Life” and “We’ll Meet Again.” Sealtest, NBC. (30 min)
HALLMARK HALL OF FAME (11-21-54) “A Tribute to Lionel Barrymore,” hosted by Edward Arnold. A special program produced a week after Barrymore’s death, with recollections and observations from Gene Fowler, James Stewart, Helen Hayes, Louis Calhern, Dore Schary, Bing Crosby, Hallmark president J.C. Hall, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, announcer Frank Goss. Hallmark Cards, CBS. (30 min)

It used to be sports figures did not heavily push their political beliefs either. I first saw a shift when Michael Jordan was criticized for telling people to buy his sneakers instead of who to vote for.

IIRC, Michael Jordan said, “Republicans buy sneakers too.”

Twere I a world famous athlete/movie star and someone asked me what I thought about [insert crucial topic here], I would simply say. “Why are you asking me? I play ball/pretend to be someone else for a living!”

Schilling will never get in because baseball writers are lefty nerds that were shoved in lockers by guys like Schilling.

LOL and Agree.

I don’t know much about baseball, but even I remember the bloody sock. What more do you want from a guy?

And yes, the baseball MSM is a bunch of liberal jock sniffing pussies.

“…Watergate was a scam…”

Really? No kidding?

It’s in the Bible. Nehemiah 8:1.

And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel.

Kiner amassed triple the WAR of Kingman in 1200 fewer Plate appearances. Kiner led the league in HRs 7 consecutive years and had a lifetime OPS+ of 149. Kingman led league in HRs twice and had lifetime OPS+ of 115.

“Two words: Ryne Duren–hell, he once hit a batter in the on deck circle–I think it was Jimmy Piersall. Talk about an all time baseball eccentric summit meeting…”

Agreed with all points, except…

In an interview with Tim Russert ca.2003, HOF NY C Yogi Berra was directly asked about Duren’s wildness, to which Yogi replied “Nah, Ryne did that on purpose. Mind you, he was a bit wild when he first come up (to MLB) but afterwards he was fine….It was mostly an act.”

“Kingman blasted 442 home runs ( despite the name I don’t know if Kong was a Jew) but he played from 1971-1986. Kingman wouldn’t be in anyone’s HOF. Lol.”

If they can induct Rice, and now Allen, then they can induct Kingman. Perhaps what hurt Dave the most was not being well liked by the sportswriters who cast the HOF votes. If he had been well liked, he’d be in.

IF Giambi hadn’t been caught with PEDS…he’d be in, and the media almost universally loved him up that point (prior to public admission of PEDS).

Little by little, Cooperstown is really turning into the Hall of Very Good, of “yeah, well, what the hell, let’s put that dude in too as well.” type of thing.

An unguarded moment…

Jordan Peterson is Canadian.

I was looking for the Roman salute and was disappointed. Both the divas went to their knees at the applause. I’ve not seen that before.

“Jordan Peterson is Canadian.”

Yes, I know. You don’t get sarcasm, do you? Or the overall point I made. Then again, you’re from Mexico, so you are oblivious to things American.

Say Hey!

I remember a game where Pedro Martinez was cruising through the Yankee$ with pinpoint control, and Gary Sheffield decided it was a good time to pull a Mike (The Human Rain Delay) Hargrove and then step out during Pedro’s windup. Pedro calmly drilled him between the numbers. Oops.

Take a look at Mike Cuellar pitching in the 1971 Series. Seems like if he hit you there wouldn’t even be a bruise.

Little by little, Cooperstown is really turning into the Hall of Very Good, of “yeah, well, what the hell, let’s put that dude in too as well.” type of thing.

I think the induction of Harold Baines pretty much clinched the deal.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/baineha01.shtml

As they should forever be in my opinion. Throughout the history of baseball, the large majority of the rules that have changed over time were for the benefit of the hitter. For when left alone, the pitching slowly begins to dominate or find a way to be more effective within the rules. There are so many changes over the history of the game but I will list a few more recent ones:

Lowering the mound, allowing hitters to wear more and more armor, lighter, more dangerous bat specifications contributing to higher exit velocities, putting the pitcher’s head at even more risk since it is difficult to pitch effectively with a helmet on. Most pitchers don’t want to hurt anyone, but to compete at the highest levels, you need to take advantage of ever edge you can get. Intimidation is one of those tools, but so is being able to utilize the inner-half.

Currently, even though players these days are in better physical shape than ever before, carry more muscle on average than ever before (except maybe for the steroid era), and can utilize a juiced ball (yes, it is still juiced, just not as much as a couple of years ago) the fences at the major league stadiums now resemble high school fields and in some cases they are even smaller than this. So the total acreage that fielders have to cover is forever shrinking, while the league tries to find out why averages keep going down.

While some of this is surely due to the fact that pitchers are averaging over 94 M.P.H. in the Majors for the first time ever, I believe you could easily raise the number of hits if you simply had a more size appropriate playing surface like you could find in the past when individual ballparks had much more character and more unique dimensions.

Remember when Camden Yards started the new era of retro parks that were supposed to be great for the game because they are unique and no longer saucer shaped? Well, in 2025 the ballparks are more uniform than ever before, and baseball is poorer for it.

Thank you for this interesting article, sorry for the rant.

Speaking of Piersall and Yankees hitting batsmen, there’s another Piersall story in that vein. On this particular day, the Yankee pitcher was being particularly aggressive about claiming the plate, and had already hit two guys. Piersall came to bat and told catcher Yogi Berra (the pitcher’s name is not recorded in the anecdote), “If you knock me down, I’m going to hit you over the head with this bat, then plead insanity. And I’m the one guy that can get away with it”. To which Yogi replied, “Don’t worry, Jim. We don’t knock down .230 hitters”.

Koufax was my first sports hero, and still the greatest.

A car accident in Orange County broke my right arm and made me a lefty, right when I was admiring Sandy.

I still have my kindergarten scrapbook, complete with an LA Times article I cut out: a photo of Sandy with his arm in a locker room sink after a game. That was when he retired; and I nearly cried!

I am happy to read, from you, Steve Sailer, that my first hero was indeed a good man, a fair player who did not try to hit batters.

Thank you.

The picture that broke my 6-year-old heart:

‘…“Babe Ruth was a great American because he didn’t listen to what other people told him he should do.”

Just like Biden? How about Jordan Peterson? Or how about Jews?

Wait, it’s Trump in hot eyes. Although…’

You know, sometimes I read a post without noticing the name. I wonder ‘who is this idiot?’

Then I glance up to see who wrote it, and…

Not always, but a remarkably high percentage of the time.

“Jordan Peterson is Canadian.”

Yes, I know. You don’t get sarcasm, do you? Or the overall point I made. Then again, you’re from Mexico, so you are oblivious to things American.

See above.

RC, you’re hopeless.

“You don’t like our freedom, fine, I do not shake hands with white enslavers.” Gustavo Petro 75th and current president of Colombia since 2022.

If they can induct Rice, and now Allen, then they can induct Kingman. Perhaps what hurt Dave the most was not being well liked by the sportswriters who cast the HOF votes. If he had been well liked, he’d be in.

All of those players are incomparably better than Kingman. The worst of them , Jim Rice had almost triple the WAR that Kingman amassed (47.7 to 17.8). By WAR Kingman is around the 1600th ranked player in MLB history.

As racial and ethnic diversity increases, birth rates decrease.

If you want Americans to have more babies, stop importing the 3rd world and prioritize the American people. https://t.co/VGnt1F5pyH

— Unfiltered Truth (@UnfiltdTruth) January 27, 2025

Don Drysdale was nice to Greg Brady.

Hey, you brought up the long-forgotten Watergate circus the very day that verse was in a reading at Mass. It was irresistible.

Steve of course has a right to decide how to run his site. And I have a right to try to convince him that some of his decisions aren’t in his best interest and should be reconsidered. I notice that you didn’t address any of the points I made.

Whitey Ford 10-8 (22 starts) with a 2.71 ERA. 6 of the 10 WS his ERA was over 4.10.
Schilling 4-1 (7 starts) with a 2.06 ERA. Likely would’ve had a 5th win if B Hyun Kim had not wet the bed. 11-2 overall postseason record. Dude was money.

No hablo Español, gilipollas.

Didn’t Shepard say in his interview with Carlson that the substance of the Sirica meetings is contained in Jaworski’s notes, recently recovered, and that he planned to reveal them in his next book? I didn’t follow-up about the book.

Dude,

Fertility has collapsed in line with coupling.

If you want a resurgence in loving partnerships, it may help to reverse the rise of solitude: people are spending more time alone, on their phones.

Big Tech seems unlikely to deliver MAGA's baby goals… https://t.co/EnizEE9K7Y pic.twitter.com/5NBIN9Flnp

— Alice Evans (@_alice_evans) January 25, 2025

WAR isn’t the be and end all of HOF induction. There are other means as well.

For example:

3k career H’s

500 HR’s

For a hitter, both HR’s and H’s are based over a lengthy career. They are also individualized stats. Whereas WAR, while quite useful, can only tell so much. After all, all those games won that can be directly traced to a hitter…then how directly does that affect his team’s W/L record for a specific year? Very hard to break down with 100% accuracy.

However, for a starting pitcher, WAR can definitely and directly be traced to the player, especially since the W per season is a major big time stat.

Like, having won 300 games over a career, of which Schilling for example, does not have.

Yes, but was Don equally as nice to Jethro, Ellie Mae and Granny? And…was Don respectful to MR. Drysdale at his bank?

Uh, so was Whitey Ford.

Google AI, can you supply some additional context?

“Whitey Ford’s career winning percentage was .690, which is the highest for pitchers with at least 200 wins in the modern era. ”

“Likely would’ve had a 5th win”

Shoulda, coulda…but didn’t. Ya don’t get extra credit for shouldas. It doesn’t work that way.

Schilling pitched in 3 WS, Ford pitched in 11 WS. Unlike Schilling, For won the Cy Young Award (back when both leagues competed for a single Award).

Talking about money…Ford pitched 33 1/3 scoreless innings in the 60-61 WS. That’s about as money as you can get (since it happened during the WS).

And Ford has more career W’s than Schilling. Ford would’ve been first ballot, but was inducted into the HOF his second year so that he could go in with his teammate and good friend, Mickey Mantle.

With Ford, NY won 6 WS Championships. Schilling has 2, and 6 is a bigger number than 2.

Here are the provinces in the 2026 census if we model out immigration/births/deaths since the 2021 census and forecast the 2023 immigration number unto 2024 and 2025 and 4 months of 2026.

Between 2016-2021 immigration was 17% White and 456K more Whites died than were born. pic.twitter.com/FRmMJQwTI1

— Nicholas White (@nicholaswhite77) January 27, 2025

Okay. Thanks for the nerd snipe guys. I spent the day learning exactly how DeepSeek trained at 1/30 the price, instead of working on my pitch deck. The tl;dr to everything, according to their papers:

— wordgrammer (@wordgrammer) January 27, 2025

Just willing to sell out his fellow whites. More than willing, eager. Good old Joe Biden. He has his quirks but who doesn’t?

> No, these [influential public figures] are people who regularly get emails saying “hey, you should read this, it’s good”, and if they click on the link and it’s paywalled they are going to just move on.

One point to consider is that Substack subscribers get (or can opt in to getting) paywalled posts sent to them as emails. These can be forwarded. Your points are valid, presumably this is an effort by Substack to straddle the “freemium” line.

Schilling pitched in 4 WS and has 3 rings.

OT, but a developing example of a longstanding iSteve theme.

Twitter, Jan. 26, 2025 at 5:21 PM:

So, Biden’s staff didn’t double check the ACLU’s list of “nonviolent drug offenders” and gave clemency to a drug lord in Connecticut who murdered an 8 year old boy and his mother to stop them from testifying.

CT Sen. Blumenthal : “someone dropped the ball… This was a really vicious murder that changed our laws.”

Just now:

You made your case for why you think limiting posts to Substack is a bad idea for Steve and the larger world. I made a case for why it’s not such a bad thing. I don’t feel the need to make a point by point rebuttal. There is merit to your position without a doubt, but there are also positives to Steve’s current way of doing things.

Gosh, things must be bad when a battle-hardened Green Beret like Blumenthal drops the ball.

“Didn’t Shepard say in his interview with Carlson that the substance of the Sirica meetings is contained in Jaworski’s notes”

About that, from New York University School of Law Professor Stephen Gillers.

–The two principal sources today for judicial recusal in the federal system are the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges and 28 USC section 455. The former was adopted in 1973 (and amended since) and the latter was enacted in 1974, with minor amendments thereafter. The Code, at least, would have been applicable to Judge Sirica’s 1974 meetings. That aside, there was, even before the Code and the statute, an understanding that in our adversary system ex parte meetings between a judge and fewer than all parties (or their counsel) was forbidden with some exceptions and for reasons described below.

The first ex parte meeting that Shepard describes (on December 14, 1973) cannot be the basis for criticizing Sirica. There is no indication of the substance of the discussion. So Shepard is left to speculate about what the first meeting “could not have been” about and what “seems quite likely” was Sirica’s purpose. I have argued elsewhere that ex parte meetings with judges, when permitted, should be held on the record. But that was not then and is not now required in federal court.”–

The fact of the matter is that Nixon covered up the dirty tricks operations of the men who served him to gain an advantage of their political opponents.

Like, having won 300 games over a career, of which Schilling for example, does not have

You have cited his lack of 300 wins numerous times as a reason Schilling does not belong in the HOF. Justin Verlander is 38 away. The next most wins by an active player is Max Scherzer at 216. Kershaw is 212. Nobody else is even close (Gerrit Cole at age 33 is barely halfway there at 153 wins).

Other than maybe Verlander, it is likely that there will never be another 300 win pitcher. So by your logic, there will never another SP that deserves to be in the HOF?

WAR isn’t the be and end all of HOF induction. There are other means as well.

Agreed that it’s not the end all and be all, but it’s a good proxy for overall value. Kingman had low value. His lifetime win total is barely ahead of Rob Deer, another one trick pony with great power and little overall value, and Kingman had nearly twice the plate appearances. In addition to his batting deficiencies (.236 BA, .302 OBA) he was a true Dr. Strangeglove butcher in the field with a -17 career defensive WAR.

Indeed, and, pace Yojimbo’s point, even Baines was more than twice as valuable as Dave Kingman.

I agree. The reason I bring up Dave Kingman is that he’s a proxy for what the HOF has become, namely, that it’s no longer about induction of the top 1% within the top 1%, the best of the very best, the greatest players to have ever played the game. The quality of the HOF is becoming diluted with second tier level players. Granted, some if not many of these inductees would indeed be part of the top 1% of those to have played in MLB; but they’re not within the greatest of the greatest level to have played the game. And in that sense, the quality is becoming more and more diluted. Especially with the Veterans Committee getting to have direct input on inductees.

I would state that the concept itself is not needed. The idea that fans and sportswriters alike had absolutely no idea that such and such a player was relevant UNTIL about a decade ago, and newer Sabermetric based states declared them to be so…OR that the players on the Veterans Comittee had former teammates and decided to push hard for their inclusion…is mind boggling to say the least. And it should stop.

“Other than maybe Verlander, it is likely that there will never be another 300 win pitcher. ”

Neither you nor I have a crystal ball. Never say never again. It’s always possible. It isn’t a particularly difficult stat to reach over a career. Granted, that over the last decade or so there are becoming some new challenges, but again, anything is possible.

“So by your logic, there will never another SP that deserves to be in the HOF?”

Yes and no. Certainly newer SP’s careers should be measured vs their past counterparts.

Also, having 3k SO’s isn’t so difficult a milestone to reach, as opposed to 300 W’s. So, perhaps, make it a bit more challenging, say, 3,500k SO’s would be the benchmark for HOF induction.

MLB for at least since the 50’s/60’s, has been in a heavy strikeout era, where batters accumulating 100 + SO’s per season aren’t hard to find. For the most part, most HR sluggers accumulate this feat every single year of their career. Thus, SP’s who are even above average can accumulate SO’s without even much of an effort.

That’s what made someone like a Walter Johnson much more effective–he recorded 200-300 SO’s in a season back during the Dead Ball Era, when few batters struck out on the whole. It just wasn’t a major thing like it is in every single game in MLB played today. But…Walter Johnson also won games as well.

In fact you don’t start to see P’s challenge Walter Johnson’s career SO total until the 60-80’s era, because SO’s for batters as a whole greatly increased in MLB where it remains today.

So SO’s as a stat are excellent, but what else is going on? ERA then as now is definitely a most important stat.

And so are W’s, because then as now a team is greatly interested in which SP’s are most effective for their teams overall W-L seaonal totals.

I also don’t think Baines should be in HOF. Nor Jim Rice, nor Dick Allen, and unfortunately, nor Parker. But again, other factors come into focus when the HOF voting occurs.

Koufax’s first positon as a boy, if you can believe the young adult biography I read as a teen (some of those can be fictionalized in part, especially concerning the subject’s childhood), was catcher, like Ruth before him. One of those two, Koufax I think, took a standard mitt apart and resewed it lefty. The other made do on the wrong hand.

Koufax’s dad was truly ambidextrous. He could write with both hands, in opposite directions, simultaneously. Not much call for that skill in the real world, though. A “parlor trick”. When people still had parlors.

Nothing to disagree about–I never implied his antics didn’t have elements of intentional theater involved. His top end fastball was legit 100 MPH, and at that speed, control is dicey for the best of pitchers. He was wild, but nowhere near as wild as his actions implied.

Duren played it up, with his coke bottle glasses and his well-earned rep for being a blackout drunk. He’d warm up, peering at the catcher like a blind man with a bad hangover, then rip a fastball 10 feet over the catcher’s head. Batters on the other team took notice. Duren was six-one and about 190–same size as Walter Johnson and Bob Gibson.

The idea of “menacing” or “mean” pitchers is nonsense. It was often said that Lee Smith was an imposing figure on the mound, yet he is at the bottom of the list of nasty pitchers. Billy Wagner, just voted into the HOF, often hit 100 on the radar gun even though he was just average size (5’10” and 180 lbs.). Lucky for him, he was a lefthander. If he’d been a righthander, most scouts would have said he was too small to be a big league pitcher. If there is such a thing as privilege in baseball, it belongs to left-handed pitchers. There are fewer of them so they are more valuable. Also, they supposedly mature slower than right-handers so teams are more patient with them during their early years. Koufax, for example, certainly didn’t set the world on fire during his early years. But the Dodgers stuck with him and he paid big dividends.

While baseball pundits often opine that Koufax’s bonus baby years in Brooklyn would have been better spent in the minors, he would not be in the HOF if he had spent those seasons in the minors. To be eligible for the HOF, a player has to log 10 seasons. Koufax spent 9 years in LA. Without those 3 Brooklyn years, he wouldn’t be in the HOF no matter how dominant he was in LA.

I got to see Sandy Koufax in his last regular season appearance in Philadelphia in 1966. Of course, at the time I didn’t know he was going to retire. Maybe he wasn’t sure either.

You mean like yourself who wants to bring back Jim Crow to your local community? Yes, that’s next level idiocy.

How’s that coming along, Boss?

“No hablo Español, gilipollas.”

Your Colombian accent and bleached skin ain’t going to fool immigration officials, Cochise. Get the hell out of my country.

William Kirk: the Non-Resident Handgun Purchase Ban, a piece of Federal legislation that has been around only since 1968, is now the subject of a challenge by the Firearms Policy Coalition.

President Trump is cutting off federal funds for the personal security of several former government employees. Mark Smith Four Boxes Diner discusses why this helps 2A.

So where are we with all of the firearms bills curently kicking around in Washington State?

New York Lawmakers Weigh Background Checks, Waiting Periods on 3D Printershttps://t.co/JYfyd5jCiF

— Bearing Arms (@BearingArmsCom) January 25, 2025

What people miss re: birthright citizenship is that the debate isn’t between jus soli and jus sanguinis. It’s that even under jus soli, the alien had to have at least a temporary “allegiance” and “obedience” to the sovereign: he must have entered into the social contract with the… https://t.co/i6g1u5sELs

— Ilan Wurman (@ilan_wurman) January 27, 2025

The Center for Immigration Studies released a 2018 report finding that in 2014, one in five births (791,000) in the U.S. was to an immigrant mother (legal or illegal). They thought that legal immigrants accounted for 12.4% (494,000) of all births and illegal immigrants accounted… pic.twitter.com/zVZXPoSsQF

— Crime Prevention Research Center (@CrimeResearch1) January 26, 2025

President Trump’s announcement that Denmark must transfer sovereignty over Greenland to the US has caused a transatlantic diplomat spat which has just become more complicated when Denmark revealed a 1917 agreement made with Britain concerning Greenland’s future.

Dude, Vance married a Hindu and has three mixed kids who smell like curry. That is as anti- white as it gets, or so I’ve been told. And Trump the supposed white champion of MAGAland put him second in command. Isn’t that race betrayal, you hypocrite?

JUST IN – Volkswagen is prepared to let Chinese electric carmakers take over production lines in its struggling factories — Telegraph

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) January 27, 2025

Wow.

How many businesses would have to be robbed blind before re-instution of Jim Crow were justified? As a believer in rationalism, you must have some objective figure in mind.

I have a similar story. In college, I was playing for the university’s club team. Our last game of the season was the week after the semester had ended, so a lot of the guys on the team had already headed home, especially the out-of-staters, so we only had nine for that game. I had gotten on base in one of the early innings; the pitcher attempted a pick-off, and as I was diving back, I dislocated my right shoulder. (To add insult to injury, the pick-off attempt was successful.) Our catcher popped the shoulder back in (people kinda gasped when he yanked on it really hard to pop it back in, to which he responded: “Don’t worry, I’m pre-med”). Since we only had nine I had to keep playing, but I couldn’t throw anymore, so I moved from third to first. I could still swing a bat without too much pain, and I somehow managed a hit in my last at-bat of the season (though it was basically just a weak dribbler up the middle that got by everyone).

Agree baseball can be scary, especially if you’re playing the hot corner. The other sport I’ve played a lot of is hockey, and I find baseball more nerve-wracking/scary than hockey. I’ve also gotten injured more playing baseball/softball than I have hockey.

Dude, Vance married a Hindu and has three mixed kids who smell like curry . . .

Corvy the innumerate strikes again. Here’s a thought exercise: which practice results in more White babies as a percent of the population going forward, increasing births by the current population (Vance policy) or waiting for Whites to catch up with non Whites as a greater share of the immigrant, legal or otherwise, population?

“You mean like yourself who wants to bring back Jim Crow . . .”

Unz needs a yawn button.

Off topic, but the nastiest incident in cricket was the decision to bowl a gentle underarm delivery at the end of a one-day game between Australia and New Zealand. What is most unfortunate is that it was completely unnecessary, as the Melbourne Cricket Ground is the biggest cricket venue in the world, and a batsman as poor as McKechnie had almost zero chance of hitting the ball over the fence for the six runs required for a tie. No sixes had been hit in the game up to that point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtaWtAxHVsw&ab_channel=cricket.com.au

OT — Unz sells bumper stickers to Michigan kulaks?

How long an exit ramp will Mr. Sailer be allowed to run here?

Dude, Vance married a Hindu and has three mixed kids who smell like curry.

I know you are a Biden admirer, but I think we can all agree that the sniffing thing is a bridge too far.

Talking about money…Whitey Ford’s postseason record is mediocre 10-8.

If you compare the regular season numbers to the postseason numbers, Schilling was money. Ford actually underperformed.

How many businesses would have to be robbed blind before re-instution of Jim Crow were justified?

How many instances of kitchen staff seasoning diners’ lunches with gooey spittle before total colonization were was* justified? If you’re close enough to smell them, it’s not segregation. It’s hierarchical integration.

Any surprise that life expectancy and other health indices were lower among whites with many black neighbors? Still are.

*NB: I’m not correcting your grammar, just switching out of your more theoretical subjunctive. Derb can explain it better than I.

Ha nice! I played linebacker and tight end in football, wrestled, and never felt I was in danger as opposed to playing baseball…or even softball. Some baseball playing friends of mine didn’t like the physical contact of football which always surprised me but to each his own.

Ford was great and not great in WS. 61 MVP with a Cg SO. 2 starts against PIT in 60, both CG SOs. Schilling had one bad start in the WS, game 1 in 93. Toronto’s lineup was ridiculously stacked (Alomar, Henderson, Olerud, Fernandez, Devon White, Molitor, and Joe Carter) and Schilling threw a CG SO against them in game 5. Against the mighty Yankees in 01 3 starts, 21.1 IP 4ER 2BB 26K.

Completely OT, and OC (off-colour), Canadian consumers are being treated to Jesus with a black beard. Her lips could qualify for that Jim Crow museum in Big Rapids, Mich.

Below the fold for reasons of taste.

Future historians will say that this was the most important and revealing interview of our time. pic.twitter.com/myl1oEppSi

— βόρειος βαρύς (@BorealBaron) January 28, 2025

The quality of the HOF is becoming diluted with second tier level players. Granted, some if not many of these inductees would indeed be part of the top 1% of those to have played in MLB; but they’re not within the greatest of the greatest level to have played the game. And in that sense, the quality is becoming more and more diluted. Especially with the Veterans Committee getting to have direct input on inductees.

Indeed, just to make a hadran on iSteve themes, HOF voting has become the sporting equivalent of ‘family reunification immigration’. I.e., it functions as a one way ratchet to lower the average human capital involved. Every Jim Rice brings in his wake a Harold Baines; lather, rinse, repeat and we arrive at our Hall of the Pretty Good.

“which practice results in more White babies as a percent of the population going forward, increasing births by the current population (Vance policy)”

Can you f— read? Vance clearly stated “I want more babies in the United States Of America”. NOTICE he did not say “white babies”. NOTICE he did not say offer a stipulation like “except babies who of a mixed race”. Furthermore, why are you endorsing the policies of a race mixer like Vance?And, of all women, a f— Hindu, the Jews of South Asia, right? Or so I’ve been told by the posters here on this fine opinion webzine.

Your southron ancestors are rolling in their graves. Pathetic.

Clearly, you are NOT a believer in rationalism, as you blindly assume that today’s American businesses are being “robbed blind” as a result of the dismantling of Jim Crow. Blame the southrons way back in the day for outright refusing to abide by the “separate but equal” doctrine as espoused in the Plessy decision. If you want to talk about being “robbed blind”, it was the patently offensive manner by which the rights/liberties of southern blacks were

‘You mean like yourself who wants to bring back Jim Crow to your local community? ‘

? Why would we need Jim Crow here?

No blacks, you see.

Maddux’s major league debut is available on YT – Astros at Cubs (WGN) 9/2/86. He was the last player available to pitch the 18th in a game continued from the previous day, darkness. What happened next did not presage a HOF career.

Never forget when DEI hire Karine Jean-Pierre thought she was logged in to Biden's X account and accidentally posted this from her own. pic.twitter.com/9dguEzxQC6

— Gain of Fauci (@DschlopesIsBack) January 28, 2025

William Kirk discuses SB 25-003, Colorado’s latest attempt to disarm its citizens with an unconstitutional gun ban.

The Gun Owners of America were denied in their efforts to collect a $400,000 attorney fee in their successful work in challenging ATF’s bumpstock case.

There's been some frequently asked questions I've seen a lot of since our order on nonresident CCW permits was issued in CRPA v. LASD. As the order does not take effect for 90 days from when it was signed, it gives us time to clear things up. Most of these questions can be…

— Kostas Moros (@MorosKostas) January 29, 2025

DeepSeek AI collects, stores US user data in China – sparking eerily similar national security concerns that forced TikTok crackdownhttps://t.co/ieO3Iho83o

— John R Lott Jr. (@JohnRLottJr) January 28, 2025

"The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LACSD) committed wholesale abuse of sensitive criminal justice databases in 2023, violating a specific rule against searching the data to run background checks for concealed carry firearm permits.

The sheriff’s department’s 6,789… pic.twitter.com/87eeasGn2E

— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) January 28, 2025

Lmao, absolutely hilarious.

If you wanna brighten up your rough day, here's 35 seconds of some little bitch hyperventilating into the microphone that gun stores and gun owners have completely ignored their recent restrictions.

Dude's blood pressure must be insane. https://t.co/aVK8sTRLMl

— Feni𝕏 Ammunition (@FenixAmmunition) January 28, 2025

The “Aha Moment”: AI’s First Glimpse of Self-Awareness?

Sec 2.2.4 & Table 3: DeepSeek-R1-Zero spontaneously rethought its reasoning steps. No script—just RL incentivizing accuracy.

Is this the start of AI metacognition? Could models one day critique their own logic? pic.twitter.com/2PMv4ZDnPS

— Vedang Vatsa FRSA (@vedangvatsa) January 26, 2025

Exactly, so Schilling wasn’t perfect in all his WS. Ford wasn’t either, but as he was viewed as the best starter on one of the greatest dynasties in the 20th century, well, it’s like comparing an above average pitcher to one who is considered among the greatest to have ever played the game during his era. Viewed with the full context, it’s not a difficult call to make.

“If you compare the regular season numbers to the postseason numbers, Schilling was money. Ford actually underperformed.”

Let’s talk about the regular season numbers, since that’s like, 99% of a P’s career, or what is the vast majority of making his case why one should be in Cooperstown.

Ford won the Cy Young Award (back when both leagues competed for the award), Schilling won the Cy Young Award zero times.

Curt Schilling’s career ERA = 3.47

Whitey Ford’s career ERA = 2.75

Curt Schilling’s career W total = 216

Whitey Ford’s career W total = 236 (and Ford missed two prime seasons due to serving in Korean War)

So two major stats, ERA and W’s, including one P winning the Cy Young Award and the other P not winning it ever, and Schilling comes up short to Ford (during regular season).

Examples of all time greats underperforming in WS…

Willie Mays career WS batting average was .239, 6 RBI’s and 0 HRs.

Ted Williams had a . 200 batting average with 5 hits, an RBI and 2 runs scored in 7 games in the World Series in his career

Boy that really sucks, for two of the all time greatest to have ever played the game, let’s take these dudes out of Cooperstown–oh wait, it’s about the entire career, and not just a few games that decide ultimate induction.

“Other than maybe Verlander, it is likely that there will never be another 300 win pitcher. ”

Neither you nor I have a crystal ball. Never say never again. It’s always possible. It isn’t a particularly difficult stat to reach over a career.

Lol

Also, having 3k SO’s isn’t so difficult a milestone to reach,

And we’re done here

With the final rejoinder…

In today’s MLB era, where batters constantly and continually strike out, and amass seasons of 100 + SO’s per season, it is definitely more doable for a strikeout based pitcher, who hangs around awhile, and is considered quite dominant for well over a decade to amass 3k career strikeouts over one’s career. Prior to 1970’s-80’s, when MLB pitchers started to record 3k career SO’s, only Walter Johnson amassed over 3k SO’s for a career. After Johnson, it took 50 years for the second MLB pitcher to amass 3k SO’s for his career (Gibson). It took an additional ten yrs before Johnson’s career SO record was passed (Nolan Ryan, in 1983).

Since 1973, 18 additional pitchers have amassed 3k SO’s for a career. 18 MLB pitchers in a fifty year span. What changed? The rate of batters striking out as opposed to Walter Johnson’s time (1900-1930, when batters striking out was relatively a rare occurrence).

While 300 career W’s is a challenge (just as it has always been) it can be done, just as it has been done for well over a century, and, barring something in the crystal ball that is totally unforeseen by anyone, it will occur yet again sometime in the future.

Don’t know if Walter Johnson was “nasty” or “nice” on Santa’s/Steve’s list, but you can hear his voice here, about a minute and a half into it:

https://ghostsofdc.org/2014/02/12/what-did-walter-johnsons-voice-sound-like-listen-to-this-1939-senators-broadcast/

Now there are no more “Senators” or “Indians”. Sad.

” It isn’t a particularly difficult stat to reach over a career. ”

If that’s the case then it shouldn’t be a factor in HOF consideration.

Difficult enough, but not impossible. Of the two stats, it’s becoming relatively easier to record 3k SO’s over a career since many batters in MLB
SO more than 100 times per season.

Since over the last half century there have been close to 20 pitchers who have 3k+ SO’s for a career, that stat appears more attainable for pitchers as opposed to getting 300 wins, especially since most MLB hitters strikeout more then 100 SO’s per season. Since winning 300 games appears to be a harder career stat to attain (but not impossible) W’s are of a greater factor than SO’s since fewer pitchers are attaining that stat. Even though for most of MLB’s history most of the greatest pitchers of all time managed to record the 300 W stat (most, but not all).

With the final rejoinder…

If only.

While 300 career W’s is a challenge (just as it has always been) it can be done, just as it has been done for well over a century, and, barring something in the crystal ball that is totally unforeseen by anyone, it will occur yet again sometime in the future.

And until then, per your logic, no other starting pitchers will belong in the HOF. Except maybe Verlander, if he manages another 38 wins.

That’s the whole point of WAR, it enables comparisons of players within their context, which has varied considerably over the past 125 years. A closely related idea is to use Z-scores for various player stats. If a guy is several SDs better than his peers, he’s probably worth considering for the HOF. I don’t know exactly where the cutoff points should be, but that can be estimated from the historical record. But your main point is right–we may never see another career 300-game winner in the next 50 years, if ever. It’s ridiculous to say that, therefore, no pitchers should qualify for the HOF.

“And until then, per your logic, no other starting pitchers will belong in the HOF. Except maybe Verlander, if he manages another 38 wins.“

And the light bulb went off, I do believe he gets it.

The one stat that has defined MLB starting pitchers for over 130 years is games won. No matter the era, the one stat that’s comparable and can be looked at across generations is games won.

ERA is another stat up there as well, but since the lively ball era and with offenses getting more and more breaks rule changes, bringing the OF fences and power alleys closer to help benefit hitters, obviously ERA’s aren’t going to be what they once were a century ago. Thus allowances have to be made for pitchers who have ERA below 4.00; wouldn’t be surprising if in a decade from now a starter who’s considered great and dominant is below 5.00.

Since the 60s at least, the strikeout has proliferated among hitters, with many having 100+ per season, and thus more and more pitchers accumulate SO’s over their career as opposed to their historical counterparts (when strikeouts were relatively a rare thing).

But the ONE stat that IS comparable across generations—remains games won.

Imagine arguing that winning games is no big deal, or, that it’s way too difficult to attain when for over a century it was not only done but was considered to be a major hallmark, an indicator of how great and dominant a pitcher in MLB was.

Not very impressed that Walter Johnson has 3,509 K’s; AM impressed that he won 417 games.

Nolan Ryan has the all time SO record with over 5,700K; he won 323 games (though he only won 20games in a season twice in his career and never won the Cy Young Award—perhaps due to his relatively lower W during his prime seasons).

Steve Carlton’s Cy Young Award season in 1972 he won 27 games; PHI won just 59 games the entire season. That’s how valuable and difference maker a pitcher can be to his team—he wins games.

If sports isn’t primarily about winning—then the individual doesn’t understand sports.

Do you factor in Ford played for the fucking Yankees? Schilling for the 92-00 Phillies. Garbage teams other than 93. Team never reached 80 wins in those 8 seasons. Schilling isn’t in HOF for 1 reason only.

Phillies are my all-time favorite team. But Carlton winning 27 or 22 or 17 for a shitty team isn’t really relevant. The team still sucked. He followed up with a 13-20 record in 1973. Ken Brett and Wayne Twitchell were better pitchers that season. Team won 71 games. His 1977 and 1980 teams made the playoffs and partially due to him. 1977 NLCS 0-1 (2 GS) 6.94 ERA. Carlton, to his credit, did have a great 1980 post season. However, he was an average post season guy. 2 rings (one as a key guy, the other 67 STL not so much). Carlton wasn’t well liked by sportswriters and vice versa, but we didn’t have social media. Schilling isn’t in the Hall for one reason only. Schilling is still playoffs money, regardless of what a bunch of homo sportswriters think.

Verlander, Scherzer, and Kershaw are obviously Hall of Fame Pitchers.

Agreed. They are all HOF’ers, as is Schilling. Though of the four, only Verlander has a shot at 300 wins.

Jumbo Ozaki (and his 2,000 word posts) seems unaware of stats such as WAR, WPA, etc.

Compare Vida Blue to Catfish Hunter, there isn’t much difference in their Win-Loss count and their ERA is nearly identical. Hunter is in the HOF and Blue is not. Hunter was good and he had quite a 5 year run but was he HOF material? Imo, no. World Series rings are fine but the HOF is about individual achievements.

Other than Joe Niekro has there been a pitcher that won over 200 games and also lost over 200 games. Not counting the Cy Young or Walter Johnsons who had over 200 losses but a couple hundred more wins but someone’s who had nearly the same number of wins vs. losses and won at least 200 games. Tried Wilbur Wood but no dice. Brother Phil was 318-274, so he had a shot at the 300-300 club.

“But Carlton winning 27 or 22 or 17 for a shitty team isn’t really relevant”

Correction. Uh, it’s damn fucking relevant. IF Carlton didn’t pitch for PHI in 72, its more than likely that most of those 27 W’s that Carlton won wouldn’t have been won–and the 62 Mets record (at the time) would’ve been surpassed by the 72 Phillies.

“Carlton wasn’t well liked by sportswriters and vice versa”

But the sportswriters recognized his greatness. That’s how it works. 4,100+ SO’s, 329 W’s, 3.22 ERA, 4 Cy Young Awards.

IF PHI is your all time favorite team, then Carlton, as PHI’s all time greatest southpaw pitcher, should be among your top PHI pitchers, bar none.

Not putting Curt Schilling and Steve Carlton in the same sentence. Carlton is one of the greatest pitchers to have ever played in MLB, and the other is a very excellent and good pitcher, and that’s it.

Postseason records are a good metric, but they aren’t a career. By that measure, Mays and Ted Williams, who had poor postseason stats shouldn’t be in the HOF. A player can only contribute to a teams getting to the postseason (which 100% depends on the regular season, duh); after that, it’s anyone’s game as to who will step up and have amazing stats in the postseason. Bobby Richardson was the MVP of the 1960 WS (only player to win WS MVP for losing team). Is Bobby Richardson in the HOF?

Example: Freddy Freeman was MVP of 2024 WS. Did Freeman’s regular season totals compare with Ohtani? Of course not. Can’t predict who steps up in the postseason, and who doesn’t.

And you seem to be unaware of games won. That’s a major stat and has been so for over a century. Why should the HOF dumb down the inductions and put in second tier levels? Oh, cause the WAR which is what—WINS above replacement.

So I’m getting really tired of you MFCS’s mocking. Especially when you toss a major world salad like, “WAR is sooo important, but..WINNING GAMES is no big deal at all.” Kamala Harris would be jealous of that world salad spewing out yer mouth.

That is such a dumbassery thing.

Cause IF you say that winning games is important, and then the rejoinder is “Ok, so the benchmark is 300 career Win’s, which is basically has been for several decades now” and then it’s suddenly “Ooohhh noooo, that’s WAY TOO HARD A STAT to reach. Couldn’t possibly ever reach THAT ONE.”

But then the word salad continues with “Wins above replacement, which means a pitcher truly is dominant if he wins games, and the value he has to his team.”

So winning games. Over a career.

As in 300 W’s per career?

Crickets chirping, cause it shows that some pitchers aren’t truly all that dominant over a career. Otherwise they’d have attained the career stat (like their historical counterparts did all down through the decades of MLB).

“Scherzer, and Kershaw are obviously Hall of Fame Pitchers.”

Have to be consistent. IF they are as dominant and can be compared to their historical counterparts, then winning 300 games shouldn’t be so difficult for them to attain. They’re very good, even excellent. Can they reach 300 W’s? If not, why not? That’s a fair question.

“I’d vote for Greinke too, who was an excellent hitter and fielder as well as pitcher.”

Oh for goodness sakes, Steve.

Yeah, hitting and fielding, that’s exactly the things one primarily expects from a dominant pitcher.

“Do you factor in Ford played for the fucking Yankees? ”

Do you factor in that HOF Walter Johnson pitched for the fucking Senators (who didn’t win shit for Johnson’s first 17 yrs). See, the great ones still get it done. Johnson pitched for mediocre teams for most of his career, and STILL he won over 400 games. Carlton pitched for some very inferior PHI teams as well until they started to get better. There were many years that Nolan Ryan pitched for mediocre teams as well.

This makes my point even more. The great ones manage to still get it done on a personal stats level.

“Schilling for the 92-00 Phillies. Garbage teams other than 93. Team never reached 80 wins in those 8 seasons. ”

Johnson’s Senators had similar fates during 1907-23. You don’t get bonus points for playing for mediocre teams.

AND…Schilling could’ve used free agency and gone elsewhere if he wanted to during that time. Unlike Johnson when free agency didn’t exist.

“Schilling isn’t in HOF for 1 reason only.”

Cause he doesnt have 300 Wins, no Cy Young Awards. Close, no cigar.

“A couple more decent seasons and he will be a lock for the Hall of Fame.”

Decent? Seriously? That’s all it takes for the HOF? I heard the first part of the sentence. Freeman’s top five. My original point, that oftentimes some mediocre or mid players have awesome, even great postseasons remains.

For example:

Billy Martin had 12 H’s in the 53 WS

Bobby Richardson won the MVP for the 60 WS (only time a player from the losing team in the WS to win MVP). Richardson had 13 H’s in the 64 WS.

David Eckstein won the 06 MVP for STL.

These dudes aren’t in the HOF by a long shot.

Also,

Ted Williams and Willie Mays had poor WS stats. Babe Ruth had a dreadful 1922 WS as well. Yet thankfully, they’re not judged on a few games at the end of the season but for the entirety of their careers. That’s how it works.

If Freeman’s all that and then some, then it’s reasonable to expect him to have some traditional stats before he retires, like say…500+ career HR’s or 3,000 H’s to go along with that WAR.

“Probably”

is a guess, and does not directly bear either way on the facts. There’s a reason that for the most part in MLB history, pitchers batted last. Aside from legitimate hitting pitchers, like Babe Ruth and Ohtani, the others are at best, decent, but certainly not great.

Johnson won because of his fastball, great control, and was a dominant strikeout pitcher in an era where SO’s as a whole were very low (compared to today). Hitting is totally irrelevant for pitchers. Also, apparently Connie Mack ca.1905 wanted MLB to adopt an early form of the DH (because of his dominant pitchers poor hitting skills), MLB at the time turned his idea down. Even if Johnson was all that and then some with the bat, keep in mind that for most of his career he played for mediocre teams, so its a more reasonable guess that his pitching prowess kept WAS in the games and his pitching was the dominant factor in winning games.

Grover Cleveland Alexander (373 W’s) and Greg Maddux (355 W’s), Eddie Plank (305 W’s) were both considered poor hitters. Yet they’re in the HOF.

“And you seem to be unaware of games won. That’s a major stat and has been so for over a century. …”

And it is now known to contain a lot of noise making it an inferior measure of ability. For example if you want to predict a pitcher’s future win/loss record you are better off looking at his past ERA rather than at his past win/loss record.

“Cause he doesnt have 300 Wins, no Cy Young Awards. Close, no cigar.” That checks off for Jack Morris as well.

And you seem to be unaware of games won.

There are “wins” the statistic, and there are wins. I’m sorry you can’t tell the difference.

So I’m getting really tired of you MFCS’s mocking.

So stop with the interminable silly posts, Jumbo.

when you toss a major world salad like, “WAR is sooo important, but..WINNING GAMES is no big deal at all.”

I didn’t write that, you did. Stop with the Jack D stuff.

“Ooohhh noooo, that’s WAY TOO HARD A STAT to reach. Couldn’t possibly ever reach THAT ONE.”

I didn’t write that, you did.

As in 300 W’s per career…Crickets chirping, cause it shows that some pitchers aren’t truly all that dominant over a career. Otherwise they’d have attained the career stat

This whole back and forth started by me noting that, by your standards, Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw are not Hall of Famers, because neither will reach 300 wins. You are defending yourself by …noting that by your standards, Scherzer and Kershaw are not HOFers. Also by your logic, Mariano Rivera is not a HOF’er, because there is no other pitching stat other than wins.

I get it, that’s what you think. I think that you’re wrong. You’re just going to have to deal with that Jumbo.

Also, try a text editor before you post. You could chop out 30% of the words and still get the message across.

You don’t like Schilling I guess. He and Lefty are nearly identical in WAR and Lefty pitched 2000 more innings.

“500+ career HR’s or 3,000 H’s to go along with that WAR.” Three that come to mind that don’t have either are McGriff, Baines, and Rolen. Freeman is better than all three.

“it is now known to contain a lot of noise making it an inferior measure of ability. ”

That’s BS. A team winning games is not an inferior measure of ability. The 27 Yankees with 110 Wins isn’t an inferior measure of their greatness.

“For example if you want to predict a pitcher’s future win/loss record you are better off looking at his past ERA rather than at his past win/loss record.”

Not necessarily. ERA’s can’t be compared across generations. After all, during the Deadball Era, for example, dominant pitchers often had ERA’s below 2.00. That looks amazing now, but that was actually fairly common among the most dominant pitchers of the time. A “mediocre” or “middling” pitcher during the Deadball Era might have a “poor” ERA of say,…2.75 or 2.90. Today that kind of ERA would get a pitcher a major megagazillion contract.

Since the Lively Ball Era (starting ca. 1920) ERA’s have changed over time, and MLB has experimented not only with the ball, but with the OF fences and poweralleys, and of course introducing the DH now in both leagues in order to raise the total runs scored per game and favor the offenses. Therefore in an offense ridden era, a dominant pitcher’s ERA is going to be high, especially compared to historical counterparts. A pitcher with an ERA under 4.00 would be considered to be dominant, whereas only 20 yrs ago or so that would be considered fairly poor.

In another decade, don’t be surprised if an ERA under 5.00 for starting pitchers will be considered fairly reasonably good, even dominant (“Well, at least it isn’t 6.00 or 7.00 like his teammates”–possible rejoinder)

So the point being that ERA’s change over time as to what is considered to be dominant and very good, especially as MLB has tinkered in the past and continues to tinker with ways on how to increase more offensive production and higher runs total/more runs scored.

If anything, winning 20 games per season is going to soon be considered a premium and definitely a most dominant pitcher.

ERA’s change throughout the generations; winning games remain
constant and the foundation the true measure of just how dominant a starting pitcher can be, just as winning games per season is vitally important to a team. More games won = a team’s chances of making the postseason are even greater.

And the lightbulb went off. Good.

“Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw are not Hall of Famers, because neither will reach 300 wins.”

You don’t know that. Perhaps they will reach 300 wins. After all, it’s been done before, and perhaps they’re the ones who will reach it.

Mariano Rivera is a closer, duh. I’ve been talking about starting pitchers, and that’s been it.

“There are “wins” the statistic, and there are wins.”

Wins Above Replacement, or how valuable an individual player is to his team. For starting pitchers, the most dominant pitchers, those who win the most games year after year for their teams amounts to essentially the same. Example: Walter Johnson played on some very poor mediocre teams. When he started, however, the Senators managed to win more times than they lost (yes, Johnson had a couple losing seasons, on the whole, however, he didn’t). It’s reasonable to conclude that Walter Johnson had a direct impact on his team over his career, and that his individual value WAR (166.9) was a very good thing.

So for starting pitchers, their games won stat does fairly correlate to their career WAR, especially since pitchers aren’t valued for their offensive abilities. Their defensive abilities are important, but they would still pale by comparison to the pitcher’s ability to actually…pitch in a dominant fashion. Also, the big contracts for MLB starters have traditionally gone to those who also have won a ton of games. “Do we have a chance to win the game whenever…Clemens, Carlton, Ryan, Alexander, both Johnsons, Koufax, Maddux etc etc…take the mound?” Has been the question among others that GMs ask before offering a big contract. And for the most part, the HOF pitchers have compiled tons of wins, which can only help with their career WAR as well. Obviously a pitcher’s WAR will tend to suck if they lose more games than they win.

Here’s the thing. I do edit my writing. But everyone here is different some go on and on, some don’t and others are in the middle. Really isn’t your business, nor my business regarding the length. After all, I’m sure you’ve written quite a bit on your posts over time, and,…it’s no one else’s business.

You do you.

“Three that come to mind that don’t have either are McGriff, Baines, and Rolen.”

Interesting to note that McGriff, Baines, nor Rolen were not a first ballot HOF, so apparently as time has gone on, all three players’ stats suddenly have improved post-retirement, and now they’re considered to be among the greatest to have ever played the game. But perhaps this is another example of the Veterans Committee having influence on some of the induction of three players, because, when they were first retired and first year of eligibility, they weren’t inducted unanimously (or ca.75-85% of total votes from sportswriters) as HOFers.

“Freeman is better than all three.”

Then it should be no problem for him to attain one or both career stats. Or else there’s always the Veterans Committee to help his induction, should it take 20 or 30 yrs post retirement. Just hang in there, Freddy, and the Vets will help you out, should it take longer than 10, 15, and 20 yrs post retirement. Hope that it doesn’t play out in that situation.

Because IF you turn around and say, “Well, keep in mind that Freeman was 2024 WS MVP”, that didn’t help PIT 2B Bill Mazeroski for hitting what most consider to be the greatest walk off HR in MLB history (7th game of 60 WS to win the championship) for nearly 30 yrs. And during his era, Maz was considered to be the greatest, or one of the greatest defensive fielding 2B in NL history.

“And the lightbulb went off.”…that Morris is a HOF and Schilling is better than him.

Other than Joe Niekro has there been a pitcher that won over 200 games and also lost over 200 games (?)

Gaylord Perry was 314-265.

Good old Vida Blue…I remember his great 1971 season. He made just over the league minimum. His salary was $14 grand that year–which is equal to $108,000 now.

If nothing else, he’s the answer to a great baseball trivia question–he’s the last switch hitter in baseball to win a league MVP award.

Ted Williams and Willie Mays had poor WS stats. Babe Ruth had a dreadful 1922 WS as well. Yet thankfully, they’re not judged on a few games at the end of the season but for the entirety of their careers. That’s how it works.

World Series aren’t really “games at the end of the season”. They’re postseason.

Ruth had one bad WS–1922. He was in 10 WS overall and won 7. Mays was 1 for 5 in WS championships.

Ruth had a .326 WS career avg. Mays was .230–if you only look at Ruth’s 7 Yankee WS appearances–even with the bad 1922 Series–his average was .351. He never batted below .300 in the WS for NY other than 1922.

On top of that, Ruth set scoreless innings records for pitching with Boston in his WS appearances with them. 3-0 with a sub 1,00 ERA.

In short, even taking into account 1922, he’s the wrong guy to point to as being mediocre or worse in the WS. Overall, Ruth and Gehrig were among the greatest WS players ever.

Regarding your post on why today do so many zillionaires like, say, Sergey Brin of Google want to be on Trump’s good side, it’s simple—Like most corporatist elites, they favor lower taxes, deregulation and access to cheap labor,

Furthermore…

—Jonathan Taplin, director emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab, captures this vision in his 2023 book “The End of Reality: How Four Billionaires Are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto.” Taplin outlines their dreams: Zuckerberg’s metaverse, the notion that people might spend something like seven hours a day wearing a virtual reality headset; Musk’s colonization of Mars; untraceable crypto wealth, which exists beyond the control of the state; and Thiel’s quest to reverse aging (or at least live to be 160).

The consequences of these ambitions could be profound. And while there’s not enough room here to unpack all of the potential implications, Taplin argues that they undermine foundational democratic principles, such as Thomas Jefferson’s ideal that “all men are created equal.”

In a world of transhumanism, where wealth determines lifespan and genetic advantages, equality could become meaningless.—

You’d think someone like yourself would come to NOTICE the obvious—the tech barons are in it for themselves at the expense of the regular guy and girl, and that includes you as well.

So much for family formation policies the natural way.

“You don’t like Schilling I guess. ”

Ya guessed wrong. Nothing personal. He doesn’t measure up in the key stats that have been used for HOF induction for decades.

“He and Lefty are nearly identical in WAR and Lefty pitched 2000 more innings.”

I assume you mean Carlton and Not Lefty Grove.

Schilling had about 16 shutouts during his career.

Carlton had 66 shutouts during his career.

Schilling career complete games = 80

Carlton career complete games = 254

Perhaps that’s why Carlton had more IP, cause…he pitched complete games (like dominant pitchers before him tended to do on a regular basis).

Schilling career W’s = 216

Carlton career W’s = 329 (over 100 Games Won in a career, and definitely earned as he pitched more complete games).

For those who tend to think SO’s are the be and end all of starting P’s.

Schilling career SO’s (in an an ERA where batters tend to strikeout a lot) = 3,1k

Carlton career SO’s = 4,7k (about 1,6k more than Schilling, including season with 300K’s)

Schilling never won the Cy Young Award in his career (a key marker of dominance for starting pitchers, akin to the MVP Award). Carlton won the Cy Young Award 4 times.

Sportswriters may not have liked Steve Carlton personally, but they inducted him first ballot into the HOF, and he won the Cy Young 4 times.

Who is the last switch hitter to win the AL MVP?
Vida Blue

Oooo, doubles. Well, if he has 3k career HITS, then it should be a slam dunk.

“He projects out to be a pretty average Hall of Famer”

Woah, woah, woah, hold it, hold it, hold it.

AVERAGE for the HALL….OF FAME? Like, once you’re inducted, that means that officially you’re among the greatest to ever have played the game. And…we should be able to compare players by putting each name together in the same sentence.

Is Freeman as good as….Babe Ruth? Ted Williams? Rogers Hornsby?

But see, Ohtani and Judge, IF they continue their prodigious stats, those two names WILL be placed in the same sentence. At present, I can definitely place Ohtani in the same sentence alongside Babe Ruth, and Ted Williams. And that’s what most sportswriters have made the comparison. Same thing with Judge, IF they continue their trajectories, then they are definitely the greatest of their era.

I’m pretty sure you do know this, Steve. The ESPN interview that Deion Sanders gave is correct and it stands. The greatest of the greatest names, period. That’s what the original standard was for Cooperstown. Why all of a sudden its become too hard to reach the standards that for decades most inductees were able to reach without a problem is baffling.

“which is a good thing to be.”

‘Here dude, here’s your trophy for being average second rate.’ ‘Like, totally awesome dude! Just what I’ve always wanted, to be, what my whole career was aspired to, to be just average!’

I tend to think you’re pulling the leg here.

Doubles are nice. Career Hits are even better. 600 2B’s but only 2,1k H’s ain’t cutting it, unless there’s like, 500 HR’s to go with those doubles.

If we can now dumb down the HOF with mediocre players, who while they’re in the top 1%, are nowhere near the greatest to have ever played the game…then by all means should be pushing Dave Kingman even more. Dave was in the top 1% in HR’s during his career. If the precedent is being set for just average top 1%ers and not greatest ever to have played the game, then…Kingman by all means.

“that Morris is a HOF and Schilling is better than him.”

Uh, no. That neither Morris nor Schilling should be in the HOF.

“Like most corporatist elites, they favor lower taxes, deregulation and access to cheap labor,”

Except that they already get these things from both parties. A Harris administration wouldn’t have put up any significant roadblocks to these aims. BOTH parties have sold out the working man and woman decades ago. As if to argue that the Democrats don’t have a number of billionaire donors either, is asinine and ridiculous.

Also, suggest you read some of the posts on Unz regarding how China has just beaten the US to AI and is practically giving it away, while the US is going to charge tons (and its still a ways from being completed).

This really could be the Chinese Century and not an American one.

“Taplin argues that they undermine foundational democratic principles, such as Thomas Jefferson’s ideal that “all men are created equal.”

Taplin apparently doesn’t understand the full context of Jefferson’s five words in the Declaration, which, to be fair, in the later part of the 20th century has caused so much confusion primarily among intellectuals and educators alike.

Or, to quote from Inigo Montoya regarding people using Jefferson’s five words to make some larger philosophical political point: “”You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means”

Nor Trammell, Walker, Baines, Rolen, Ozzie, Scooter, Sutter, Pee Wee, Bunning, Roberts, Gomez, L Smith, Boudreau, Lazzeri, Rice, E Martinez, Helton, Halladay, Mauer, Minoso, Oliva, Parker, and probably 25 other guys. Negro Leagues, what to do with them? Let’s see what people think when Chase Utley gets in in 4 years.

Carlton had 4100 Ks. It’s Ryan 5700, Unit 4800, Rocket 4600 and then Lefty. I recall that Carlton was ahead of Ryan in Ks after the 1983 season. But 1984 to 1988 Carlton crashed and burned, and the Ryan Express kept going.

Damn, I see you beat me to it with Vida Blue. Thanks for the stat on Gaylord Perry. The Niekro brothers broke the Perry brothers record for most total wins if I am not mistaken. Blue probably took the MVP award in 1971 because it was not an outstanding year for hitters. Bill Melton (who?, lol) led the AL with only 33 home runs and only 6 guys hit above .300.

The choice in the last election was between Trump and his supporters and Harris and her supporters. Overall, I thought the Trump team would be better than the Harris team and voted for Trump. That does not mean I agree with every single thing that Trump, Elon, Vivek, RFK Jr. etc. says. It just means I think the alternative would have been worse.

There are some commenters here who make complaints about Republican policies on topics like immigration but did not spend the same amount of time on similarly bad policies by Biden. They likely want to create dissension among conservatives in order to split apart the Republican coalition so the Democrats can get back in power.

On the important immigration issue, we have just recently started getting a large influx of Hispanic immigrants here in Indianapolis. While many of them do not seem like bad people, a lot of them do not bother to learn English, use up government benefits while paying little in taxes and seem more crime prone. I have always had a problem with people mistakenly thinking I have drugs on me and then want to buy them off me. I look like the actor James Woods, who convincingly played a drug addict in one of his movies, the Boost. Hispanics are more likely to ask me if I have drugs to sell than Whites are.

‘Regarding your post on why today do so many zillionaires like, say, Sergey Brin of Google want to be on Trump’s good side, it’s simple…’

…and I was looking forward to seeing what pearls of wisdom you might have to share regarding criteria for admission to the Hall of Fame.

What do you think will really be going through Joe Biden’s mind, during his first 30 seconds in Hell?

Nothing, since it’s not a real place.

,,,where is Dock Ellis?

Not in the Hall of Fame, a requirement to be on the list.

The ADL and Netanyahu rushing to say, “Elon did nothing wrong” was curious

Doesn’t strike me as “curious”. The high-profile calling people Nazis isn’t something you want discredited if you engage in it.

Bobo Newsom, 1935-53.

W 211 (which is 5 games less than Curt Schilling, btw)

L 222

“When the president comes to see Ol’ Bobo pitch he ain’t gonna let him down.”

By most accounts, Newsom was a nice guy.

“If nothing else, he’s the answer to a great baseball trivia question–he’s the last switch hitter in baseball to win a league MVP award.”

Hold up.

Pete Rose won the MVP in 1973.

“World Series aren’t really “games at the end of the season”. They’re postseason.”

The point was, that WS aren’t the only or even the main metric of which to judge a player’s career. After all, Ted Williams batted .205 with one RBI and no HR’s.

“Mays was .230”

So he sucked in the WS.
Fact

Ty Cobb sucked in the WS, (compared to what else he did offensively during his career).

Another fact: There are great players who suck in the postseason, and there are players who are mediocre who have a great postseason. And of course there are great players who are great during the postseason, and sucky players who suck in the postseason.

Point being, it can’t be predicted with 100% accuracy. It happens.

“he’s the wrong guy to point to as being mediocre or worse in the WS.”

Uh, no, it was part of the point that–it can’t be predicted who will have a great postseason and who will not.

“Overall, Ruth and Gehrig were among the greatest WS players ever.”

Uh, no, both Ruth and Gehrig are among the greatest EVER to have EVER played in MLB, EVER, whether during the season or postseason it doesn’t matter.

But the original point stands. Just cause a great player over his career in MLB doesn’t automatically mean he will be great during the postseason. Doesn’t work that way.

Sometimes great players suck in the posteason, and sometimes mediocre players have great postseasons. It has happened throughout MLB history and will continue to happen.

For example: BOTH Judge and Ohtani in the 24 WS, didn’t perform up to their usual expectations of greatness. But that won’t be held against them when its time for their possible induction into HOF (assuming that they continue to remain dominant for the rest of their careers).

Just concede, the point remains.

“Nor Trammell, Walker, Baines, Rolen, Ozzie, Scooter, Sutter, Pee Wee, Bunning, Roberts, Gomez, L Smith, Boudreau, Lazzeri, Rice, E Martinez, Helton, Halladay, Mauer, Minoso, Oliva, Parker, and probably 25 other guys.”

You’re not hearing any arguments. Sounds like the lightbulb is going off again, and that’s a good thing. Point is made.

Seriously. Are the guys you’ve just named, do they really belong in the same sentence with…

Ruth, Gehrig, Cobb, Speaker, Wagner, Foxx, Mantle, Aaron, Mays, Clemente, Williams, Reggie, Schmidt, Brett (George), Henderson, both Johnsons, Young, Alexander, Mathewson, Ryan, Seaver, Carlton, just to name a few?

Answer: Not by a damn sight.

“Negro Leagues, what to do with them?”

If you take them out, then you’re a racist. Racist, racist, racist. There’s a specific reason that they’ve been inducted in the HOF, cause racism.

“Let’s see what people think when Chase Utley gets in in 4 years.”

The perceptive ones will nod and go, “Oh, okay, they’re running out of legit inductees, because of the PED era, and they’re biding their time, until they can induct legit candidates such as Pujols, Cabrera, etc”

“Carlton had 4100 Ks”

Typo (so “only” about 1,000 more K’s than Schilling, and over 100 more W’s than Schilling)

“But 1984 to 1988 Carlton crashed and burned”

It’s called age, as Carlton was about 3 yrs older than Ryan. Carlton won the 82 Cy Young Award when he was 38, which isn’t too shabby.

“and the Ryan Express kept going.”

In some interviews (but not in his book Juiced), Jose Canseco comes VERY close to implying that Nolan Ryan during the final couple yrs of his career was using PEDS. That actually would make sense, as Ryan finished up his career in TX, and Canseco went to TX in 92, so he was Ryan’s teammate in 92-93.

But then again, who’s to say that Ryan didn’t take PEDS before Canseco became his teammate? I’m NOT stating that he took PEDs throughout his career. I AM stating that for the last few years of his career..well…anything is possible and can’t be naive that even the greatest players during late 80’s and early 90’s weren’t juicing.

Certainly would definitely make sense IF it is shown that Ryan was juicing for the last few yrs of his career, and would explain how in his mid 40’s he could still pitch at a fairly dominant level.

“and the Ryan Express kept going”

Ryan’s pitching coach in TX 1989-93 was Tom House, former steroid user during the 1970’s into the 80’s. After all, by the time Ryan joined TX, there was nothing anyone could teach him about pitching, but there was something that House could help Ryan with obtaining.

And again, this would help to explain Ryan’s late career surge and why he could keep on going, (e.g. leading AL in SO’s toward end of his career while in his mid. 40’s). But since it’s Nolan Ryan the legendary pitcher, few ever ask these types of tough questions.