MLB 2021 season: Corn-Driven Humidity

Holy shit. Per Patrick Monaghan, about a year after he took a leave of absence from the Chicago Cubs, Ben Zobrist discovered his wife was having an affair with their minister. The minister was also accused of defrauding Zobrist's charity foundation, for which he worked.

Wowwwwww. No wonder Zobrist kicked Julianna straight to the curb.

 

The umpires checked Jacob deGrom for sticky stuff in the first inning of the first game of the day. I guess MLB wanted to show it's serious about this crackdown.

 

Well, it's not like this is the first time a Cubs shortstop has had a mental breakdown. Remember my nemesis, Starlin Castro?

 

Joe Girardi got himself ejected in a very bizarre incident yesterday. Max Scherzer had been checked for sticky stuff twice by the umpires, at Girardi's request, who found nothing. Girardi asked for a third check, which ticked Scherzer off to the point that he undid his belt and asked the umps if he needed to take his pants off.

After the inning, Scherzer shot a death glare at the Phillies dugout, which prompted Girardi to come storming out like an angry water buffalo, challenging Scherzer to fight him. Girardi then got summarily tossed. I have several thoughts on this:

1) This was clearly an attempt to rattle Scherzer, but Girardi's incredibly stupid to try picking a fight with Scherzer of all people. Scherzer is already a frothing lunatic on the mound; he's called Mad Max for a reason. I was half-expecting him to throw his jersey on the ground and elbow-drop it like Ric Flair cutting a promo.

2) The rule explicitly states that managers are not allowed to ask for a check on the pitcher in bad faith. Girardi should eat a suspension for that.

3) Pitchers are going start trolling with this. Don Sutton and Gaylord Perry were the masters of this back in the day.

Sutton once got searched by an umpire after a string of accusations. When the umpire reached into Sutton’s pocket looking for evidence, he found a note that read, “Not here, but you’re getting warmer …”

Perry would simply tell the umpires where to look, then start laughing once they started, because that’s where he was ticklish. He also told an ump once to check his back; when the umpire said he couldn’t find anything, Perry simply said he knew, but there was itch he couldn’t reach and needed help scratching it.

4) It's pretty hard to make a good-faith argument that pitchers' use of sticky stuff has curbed HBPs:



5) God help us all, I just had the thought of Tony La Russa in the World Series doing pitcher checks in the top of the inning, then pitcher matchups in the bottom of the inning; it'll take until December to finish the Series.

EDIT: On a change of topic, while I'm a day late, Fuck the DH, 50th Anniversary Edition. Worth the click just for the Harry Kalas calls alone.

 

I remember when the adage in the league was "You do not run on Yadi."

Age makes fools of us all.

 

Not as impressive as Ken Griffey, Sr., and Ken Griffey, Jr., hitting back-to-back home runs back in 1990.

Edit: Seriously, has anyone had as majestic a swing as Junior Griffey? It looked effortless.

 

If you don't run on the catcher, then why is CS% one of the key metrics in evaluating catchers?

(As a former pitcher myself, you absolutely run on the catcher. The pitcher has a role in it, most notably in the speed of delivery, but the catcher's ability to hop out of a squat and fire to the base--see the way Willson Contreras snipes people at first like ten or fifteen times a year--is where the rubber meets the road on stolen bases.)