Oneil Cruz...he (physically) can hit the ball like Vlad did, but his OBP lacks too much...unpredictable.

I'd give 7:2 odds for Ohtani jacking one...Judge 4:1...PCA 9:2...(with three PA).

A "swing-off" to end the A-S game!?!  Maybe it's just me........but using batting practice to settle a baseball game is back-a**wards.  HR Derby was yesterday.  A soccer shoot-out is bad enough; this was worse.  They choose to further emphasize what they normally emphasize too much already to settle things?  This may not be news, but baseball has lost its way.  But apparently this current crop of fans doesn't care.  C'est la vie.  And those darn kids have refused to vacate my lawn, once again 😠.

Jonathan India warming up at Kauffman Stadium, (next door to Arrowhead) before a game July 11.

I was surprised when Cincy traded him...I think we've yet to see who got the better part of that trade, though...IF India and OF Weimer for SP Singer...(so far Reds have edge, I'd say).

Rachel Robinson...happy happy happy century plus three!

That's amazing - and wonderful.  

Aug 2. Bristol Motor Speedway hosts a game between Braves and Reds. Potentially the highest attended baseball game ever. Do not get tickets in right field. 

What turn # is that 🤣🙄?

Ronald Acuña Jr. made MLB’s throw of the year from deep right field...let me guess, ~335ft. throw?

The league leader in HRs and the NL leader in AVG are CATCHERS.

It's about time they earned their pay.

Who's the NL Batting leader who's a catcher?  I don't see that.

Edit:  But fairly surprised to see nobody hitting over .300.

LAD C Will Smith

He can't be far from 3.1PA/team's games played, to qualify.

Hmmm.  Yeah, I was gonna theorize it was a question of # of AB:

https://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/player/_/players/8/teams/8

The Erie Moon Mammoths:

https://apnews.com/article/john-oliver-erie-moon-mammoths-8909814abd7f3c6e9768200e858515cf

That entire article was fantastic. I agree with John Oliver -- the entire project was filled very good decisions and bad ones, typical of minor league baseball. And John Oliver. 

Yes, but................the whole article reads like this is a permanent re-brand.  But down near the bottom, it reads like it's only an occasional promotion.  I've read it three times now, and that isn't 'splained *at all*.  And why not full time?  The Savannah Bananas are full-time - but they apparently have more freedom(?), not being an official farm team of a MLB team:

About Us | The Savannah Bananas

In any event...........here's a look at their logo, etc., and tickets are 'only' $15-19:

Erie Moon Mammoths • Created by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver | SeaWolves

Give us a report, Snowguy!

Definitely temporary, like dressup night or Halloween. 

"In addition to July 19, the SeaWolves will play as the Moon Mammoths on Aug. 19, as well as on Sept. 12 and Sept. 13." 
   ---MLB.com

Fun stuff!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BznldrYNwRU

This is a shame. I saw a couple of games in this competition several years ago. It was well supported by the locals and well attended by the families of the international teams. 

https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/45823011/venezuelan-teens-denied-visas-senior-baseball-world-series

The Speedway Classic was last night, but the weather was uncooperative. The deluge forced a postponement to today. The game ended a bit ago with Atlanta winning 4-2 in a good game. The attendance was 91,000. No idea how the viewing was from the distant seats --- the viewing line from the outfield included spanning across the raceway. 

The event presented Atlanta a huge trophy for the victory. Green ribbons for the Reds?

Ohtani struck out 8 last night and became the seventh player in MLB history to have 1000 hits and 500 K. He and Babe Ruth are the only two after 1900. 

Jen Pawol became the first woman to ump in a MLB game today. It’s been a long time coming. 

A couple of summers ago, I was chilling in the stands of a minor league park and the third base umpire caught my eye. “Whoa! Is that  woman?” She was totally at ease and in control. A lot of the minor league umps are twitchy and nervous. 

I had no idea how common women were as umps in the Eastern League, and gave no further thought. When the chatter about Pawol making it The Show started to grow, I read up on her and found that a) she really paid her dues for years in the minors; b) she was the first woman to umpire in the Eastern League in 2003. 

Huh. 

I am going to wait for the Administration's take on this.

Did my post about that amazing catch today get removed?!?

Re-posting...........

UN-REAL HR rob:

http://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/45933125

I am going to wait for the Administration's take on this.

The Twins traded 40% of their roster by deadline? Imagine being a season ticket holder. 

Well...................attended my first MLB game last week in many years (last one was in Olympic Stadium in Montreal, actually).  Saw Brew Crew's team down the Braves in Hotlanta.  It was a "special event" I was involved in, so discounted(?) tickets of $40 - but that included $20 worth of swag or food.  Which didn't go very far except for some rather incredibly good hot dogs for $1.99.  Some sort of "loss leader"??  Kinda crazy.  Everything else was prohibitively expensive.  Beer was $11.  I partook of nothing but the dogs.  I wasn't there mostly for the game, but for the associated event.  And I have NO desire to go back.  The noise was deafening - and not from the sparse-ish crowd, but from the incessant - and I mean *incessant* - stadium-produced enviro-noise.  Yes, the entertainment-ification of baseball is pretty well full throttle there.  While I wasn't surprised at that............the degree of it turned me off completely.  'Twas hard to converse with my fellow attendees at virtually every point in time.  The PA guy says to "make some noise", but honestly one couldn't tell if the crowd added any or not.  I left quite hoarse, and it took my voice over a full day to recover.  Seriously.  Truly don't get how this situation has transpired, but one must assume it was gradual?  'Course since kids these days don't grow up playing the game, they don't know or understand the nuances and strategy involved.........so I guess no need to discuss same.   Another thing that shocked me was the scale of the site ("Truist Park" (for the time being, at least)).  Dozens - and I mean *dozens* of associated, on-site (but just outside the stadium), restaurants, bars, and all sorts of peripheral 'services' were apparently part of this planned development.   Give me old Tiger Stadium, Candlestick, or Fenway instead, please.

I have been watching a lot more baseball since acquiring the MLB.com app. I will watch with the sound down unless I follow firenze's_mother lead and watch mulitple games. I will have the video on the game of most interest and the audio from another game. (You can select which video stream you want (home or away) and often can choose to listen to the radio play-by-play. The radio version is my choice because they will fully describe the action.)

Anyway, back to the Atlanta experience: I have not watched a game from Atlanta yet. But, last night's games from Baltimore and Cincinatti were not the eardrum busting affairs you described. Between pitches, you would hear an occasional ditty from the organist or a quick sound burst over the PA (e.g., Harry Belafonte singing jsut the word, "Day-o" followed by the crowd response). The rest of the time was pretty quiet. 

I'm trying to recall my last experiences at Wrigley and Fenway. I don't remember any obnoxious piped-in garbage at Fenway, other than the seventh inning stretch "Sweet Caroline". (Why have Sox fans adopted a New Yorker's tune?)

Wrigley is definitely closer to your experience. They don't like silence, and crank up music pre-game and between innings. Too loud to carry on a normal conversation, but it subsides during play. 

We paid more than $40 at both venues. 

Cal Raleigh hit HRs 48 and 49 today to set the season record by a catcher. 

Whoa. (Checks calendar)........"whoa" some more.

Raleigh homers again to join Mantle as one of two switch hitters to hit 50 in a single season. 

… he is the first ever to hit 20 HR from both sides. 

Without checking whatsoever...........have switch-hitters become rare lately?  While never 'common', they sure weren't rare, "back in the day".

Oh …. I checked the number of switch hitters a couple of days ago, and it is declining. There are currently 62 with a plate appearance but only 15 with enough plate appearances to qualify. 

But the reason why I am posting today is to report that Kyle Schwarber had 4 HRs tonight and 9 RBIs. For the season: 49 HR and 119 RBI. 

Goodness gracious.   That's a man at work 💪.

[Addenda later:  9 RBIs is a Phillies all-time record; Schwarber was 0-for-20 going into the game.  He also had a chance for a 5th in the 9th inning, with a position player pitching for the Braves, but weakly flied out.]

Had no idea that one had to have a certain amount of PA to qualify as a "switch-hitter".  That's just too granular.  'Course I guess need to do *something* with all those NVIDIA chips. Next thing ya know, they'll be tracking launch angle, exit velocity, torque angular momentum on pitches, and spits and crotch scratches per AB.  Wonder who/how they decided on what number of PAs to qualify.  "Used to be"........a lot of switch-hitters were used as pinch-hitters when not in the regular lineup - for hopefully obvious reasons.  So a *true* switch-hitter might not qualify as one because maybe he only gets 150 AB for the year, yet be one of the purest switch-hitters in the game?  Or am *I* being too granular? [disclaimer:  although, sure, I've got chips implanted in my brainbone, pretty sure none of them (yet) are NVIDIA. 🤖.]

Phillies, Brewers clinch playoff spots. Phils clinch division. Cubbies’ magic number is three for wildcard slot. Heading down the final stretch. 

Raleigh tied Mantle for HRs by a switch hitter at 54. Schwarber is nipping at his heels with 53. Both are probably uncatchable in their respective leagues.

Raleigh and Schwarber couldn't hold Mantle's jock.

I am not finding that in the StatCast metrics. 

Give it time.

I am not certain any player wants to hold another player’s jock. That would be redefining the ball boy in a way no one wants. 

Raleigh hit a couple more last night. That puts him one jockful of HR balls ahead of Mantle. 

Raleigh is batting .247.  A one note wonder.

Kershaw announces retirement for end of season.

And look out for the Cleveland team some of us still prefer to call The Indians.  They were 15.5 games out of first, languishing in 4th in the AL Central on July 8.  Still 8 out just 2 weeks ago on Sept. 14.  But have since gone on a tear, with a 12-1 streak (including just sweeping the first-place Tigers), to climb to within 3.5 games of them - and only 1.5 games out of the final playoff spot behind the Bosox.  And they have 3 games left against said Tigers in Cleveland.  Oh.......and they have something like the 4th (or so) lowest payroll in MLB.  Love to see that, even if they turned their back on their legacy.

And.............previous to that, two nights ago........Ohtani throws 5 innings of no-hit ball, crushes his 50th dinger, and then his bullpen teammates give up 9 runs to lose the game.  So?  So that's the first time since *at least* 1906 that a team has had a starting pitcher throw 5 no-hit innings and then his team give up 9 or more runs.  And sure.......that's one of those "made-up stats"......but still pretty amazing.

And that's not to mention what this Raleigh dude is doing.......

After last night's game in which Ohtani hit another HR in Kershaw's last regular season start, Ohtani was asked for his reaction to the game. Through his translator, Shohei said, "I was honored to help secure a victory in Clayton's final start. As for my homeruns, pitching, and base stealing, I have not found a player of American baseball who is worthy to transport the brassiere for my man zone."