FIX IT!' - Myron Medcalf on Pete Alonso's denied potential go-ahead HR vs. the Yankees | First Take

...deflection from very very top foul pole, maybe...

Yogi...(highlights).

Yordan Alvarez...go go go! Triple Crown baby!

I'm unapologetic about wanting to see that kid cry.

It must learn, first.

Miz up against Sale? Worth way more than price of sold out tickets.

Like Caldwell against Guidry in '78, pretty much...

Iron Mike had 23 complete games that year, and three instances pitched ten...293IP.

October Has Come Early for the Atlanta Braves

"...possessing MLB’s best team on-base percentage at .337..." - from above post

Carl Yastrzemski...weird to be his grandson...never saw him play...but like a nine-year-old kid when he saw Ted Williams at ASG, '99.

It's clear: Luis Lara covers CF like nobody else around (PCA Buxton Caedella) so solid for Crew.

Ceddanne Rafaela...it's hard to believe Boston is so lucky to have this dude's superior play all over the place all of the time...

Whoa...CHC out in SEA for baseball enjoyment...

Happy (87th!) b-day, Yaz!

Will come back and tell a story (vignette) about Carl when I'm feeling up to it....................

Very near sellouts yesterday/today for Brewers/Braves.

Yaz had a very good press agent.

An attorney had married into our extended family (many decades ago).  Got to spend a decent amount of time with him, altho he's passed on now.  Anyway........we would quite often have a lunch or meal at their house.  So one day whilst waiting on the food to be ready, I was sitting in the "study" with just him, but at opposite ends of the room.  I think I was reading the paper, or something like that, trying not to eavesdrop.  He was on a moderately lengthy phone call with somebody, whose voice I could hear snippets of, and when he finally hung up, his wife came in and casually said, "who was that?".  "Oh it was just Carl", he replied - and you can figger out the rest of the name.  Took me awhile to gather (most of) the whole story.  But here's the greatest part of it......

His family was Catholic - while not totally rare around here, was quite uncommon back in those days.  His next-older brother decided to become a priest, and did so.  His first(?) assignment was to be a counselor at Notre Dame (the university in South Bend, not the cathedral).  And if you all know your Yaz history, he was a h.s. mega-star in *both* hoops and baseball on Long Island.  He wanted to play baseball straight out of h.s., but his family persuaded him to take the hoops scholarship offered by Notre Dame (among many others).  So he went to South Bend - but unfortunately wasn't very happy there at all.  (There is a book (biography of him??) that tells a lot of that saga, but I'm not gonna look it up.)  He was about to leave and go home, but the hoops coach urged him to go to a student counselor, who was actually in his dorm (I think?) to get some professional advice.  And that was the priest mentioned above.  Looong story short, he met with the priest/counselor, and stuck out that first year - or most of it.  I forget whether he stayed long enough to play the spring baseball season or not.  But thru that adversity, Yaz and my extended-family's brother priest and he became fast friends.  Yaz then went on to baseball glory rather quickly, but still maintaining a close friendship with the priest.  [Here's the part where there's a gap in my knowledge.........]  Somehow, during those early years, I *believe* while our family's attorney-to-be was in law school (Georgetown??), he also began hanging out with his brother and Yaz (somewhere up in the NE, but I don't know details).  Anyway............they just became great friends as well, and remained so, until the attorney's passing.  (The older brother had passed earlier.)  I'm pretty sure he came down and visited multiple times, but I'm not at all certain about that.  So...............that's that.  In retrospect, I kinda wish I'd asked him more details, but he was one of those matter-of-fact guys who could just as easily been talking to a king or president or whatever.  Very nonchalant about the whole thing.  They were just part of each other's lives - and had been for decades.

So.......................with that as background......................Yaz broke all kinds of L.I. basketball scoring records (and hit something like .510, too, in addition to throwing a no-no!).  (But always claimed his father was better than he was!)  He broke the career basketball scoring record of another famous athlete.  However, *that* particular guy *still* holds the ppg record, for his school (and maybe all of L.I.??), *as well as* other noteworthy accomplishments.  Who would that be?

The 1986 Mets...drunkenly rolling into WS history.

If you're guessing my question with those names - great guesses, but no.

NL wild card needs >10 over .500, AL wild card .500 even, cool.

Not Mikan or Russel or Maravich, but maybe Dr. Erving.

None of the above, but you're sorta in the right era.  But it's a well-known name; not obscure.

Hint:  Think of the book "The Umpire Strikes Back", by Ron Luciano.

[Edit:  that's actually more of a "meta-" hint, to be more clear.]

As far as all-time best Brewers team: this year might actually only be bested (so far) by '79, '82, '92, '08, '11, '18, or last year...but it'll soon be better than all just listed, vice two, maybe...

As of today, BOS wild card in NYY.

I think I've seen Arozarena hit five or six home runs, and take a couple away as well, last three days...

Looked like Rodriguez disrespected Robles.

Randy Arozarena...sixth straight 20/20 season.

I guees you mean Bobby Plump - as I've never seen 'that' movie.  But no, here's "the dude":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Brown

Read the "Early life" section.  And then see his lacrosse exploits within "College career".  We discussed same in some detail within the "Interesting sports tid-bits" thread (with you at least peripherally involved) back in May, 2023, if you want to check it out.

He was excellent in Ice Station Zebra...supposedly Howard Hughes had that movie running looped at his home cinema...I've viewed it at least 1/7 of the amount he did, as well as listening to 1/11 as much Beatles' White Album as The Family did (appreciable amount).

He was also excellent at literally anything that had a ball involved, too.  As an understatement. 

I recall some years back there was a poll: Greatest Athlete All Time...Jim Brown was all over it...others voted Bo Jackson...I voted Carl Lewis.

All worthy votes - as would be Jim Thorpe and Babe Didrickson Zaharias, altho those two comparisons are very difficult to quantify, obviously.  Chamberlain also would qualify.

mlb.com's 250 for 250.

*EVERY* time I see pics of Marichal's wind-up and delivery it blows my mind.  I mean......look at where his right hand is in that shot.  Unreal.  Like hard-to-believe unreal.

Mark Spitz - 1972 Olympics - Seven gold medals, all in world record time.

Runner up - Secretariat -  1973 Triple Crown all in record time, none surpassed to this day.

SATCHEL PAIGE Pitching Footage [With Commentary by Vin Scully]

CHC in ARI...good baseball to watch.

Some of the "old-timers" have said things like Ol' Satch would have likely won 500 games if he had been allowed to play during his prime years.  I think that's not at all unreasonable.  Heck - no telling how high his stats would have ended up.

Barry third base coach CHC seen by D-backs snitching signs, called for being out of coach's box...

Some nice big Mejican tetas in LLWS crowd.

Stat just seen: tonight Ronald Acuna Jr.'s 897th game with 199 HRs and 222 SBs...

Glasnow's curve looked almost as good as Barry Zito's.

Three good games at least in Eastern Time Zone today...

new york has bellinger back...but it is a big deal...