Seats of Gold
Sportswriter Wright Thompson tried out the “Legends” section at the new Yankee Stadium. The seats originally went for $2,500. Now they are mostly empty, even though the price has dropped to $1,250. In telling the story of how such an exclusive luxury section came to be, Thompson relates the changes in baseball with the state of the economy.
A recent poll discovered an unsettling trend emerging for the first time. American families whose household income is $75,000 or less now have zero dollars of discretionary income. According to Luker, that means about 75 percent of the country can never responsibly afford to go to a live professional sporting event. Franchises want them to be fans, to buy the gear and pull for their teams and watch the telecasts the leagues are paid billions for. But they don’t need them to come to their stadiums. There are, right now, plenty of rich people who love games. The prices reflect that. The reason sporting events cost so much now, Luker’s research shows, is because they are designed to be affordable only to those making $150,000 or more a year.
This wasn’t always true. Ten years ago, it was cheaper to go to a baseball game than to a movie in half of the big league markets (take away parking at the game, and it was cheaper in every market). Today, there isn’t a single city in America where it costs less to go to a major league game than to a movie. Everywhere we turn, we see examples of the collapsing middle class. This is where that issue lives in the world of sports, and it has predictable consequences.
You don’t have to be a baseball fan to relate to this story of a business choosing short-term profits over long-term growth. Link -via Metafilter
(image credit: Julie Jacobson)
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How Many Rings Did They Win?
Hey baseball fans! As we head into post-season play, test your memory of past World Series with today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. Do you know how many World Series titles each of twelve players earned? Keep in mind that some went all the way with more than one team. I scored 7 of 12, so any real baseball fan should beat that! Link
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Baseball in the Dark
For kids with xeroderma pigmentosum, sunshine is deadly. UV rays cause them to develop cancerous tumors. They stay inside and covered, except for rare occasions late at night. Patients travel to Camp Sundown in New York to meet others with the condition and enjoy activities designed to accommodate their needs. This year, those activities included a major league baseball game at Yankee Stadium.
Because they couldn’t leave until the sun was almost down, and because it was a three-hour drive, they knew they’d be able to see only the last couple of innings of the game. But then it rained, causing a more-than-two-hour rain delay. While the rest of the crowd cursed, the campers rejoiced. How lucky can you get? The bus arrived just before the first pitch. “It was almost like the game was waiting for them to show up,” Yankees GM Brian Cashman said. “That kind of gave us goosebumps.”
To get the kids out of the bus and into their VIP suite for the game, Yankees media-relations director Jason Zillo — the man who dreamed up the whole night — had to take them on a rat’s route of back staircases and tunnels to avoid any fluorescent lights. After the Yankees beat the A’s 6-3, the stadium lights had to be dimmed to 30 percent. Once they were, all the kids came running onto the field with smiles that could’ve lit up the Bronx.
“It’s cool to be part of this,” said [Yankee player A.J.] Burnett, whom Zillo forced to leave at 3:15. “And it’s kind of mind-boggling. I can’t imagine if I couldn’t take my children outside.”
The Yankees partied and played baseball with the campers until they had to leave at 3:30 AM to beat the sunrise. Link -via YesButNoButYes
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Four Scandalous Moments in Baseball
Today marks the anniversary of baseball’s infamous Pine Tar Incident, one of the most notorious cases of rule-breaking in MLB history. But it’s definitely not the only case, not by a longshot. Here are a few controversial moments in baseball (without steroids, no less), starting with the Pine Tar Incident.
The Pine Tar Incident
On July 24, 1983, the Royals were losing to the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, 4-3 at the top of the ninth with two outs and a runner on first. Much to the chagrin of the Yankees, George Brett hit a home run and turned the tables so that the Royals were now a run ahead of the Bronx Bombers. Except there was a problem: Yankees Manager Billy Martin sprinted out of the dugout to confer with the home plate ump before Brett had even completed his run. After some debate, the umpire laid the bat across home plate, seeming to confirm something, then pointed at Brett with the bat and signaled that he was out. Brett burst out of the dugout “like his pants were on fire,” according to MLB.com (he totally does – check out the video below) and had to be physically restrained from tackling the umpire.
It turned out that he had used an excess of pine tar on his bat. Pine tar is allowed – it’s sticky and allows for better grip – but only up to 18 inches from the end of the bat. Any more than that is illegal, but that rule is very seldom invoked – it’s kind of like those silly, obscure laws in small towns that declare things like, “Llamas are not allowed in bars after 1 a.m.” The rule, apparently, has less to do with batter advantage and more to do with the fact that the pine tar would mess up the ball if the two came into contact, causing too many balls to be used per game. It was a rule nonetheless, and Brett was called out, nullifying both runs and giving the win to the Yanks. The Royals protested and the A.L. President decided to overturn the out. On August 18th, the game resumed with the score 5-4, Royals, in the top of the ninth. No miracles occurred – the next batter struck out, and then the Royals’ pitcher struck out all three Yankees who tried to hit off of him in the bottom of the ninth. The game ended with the Royals win and the infamous bat now rests in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Here’s that video – it’s dispersed throughout the 37-second clip of George Brett moments, but you’ll have no problem discerning which clips I’m talking about.
Photo from Jamestown Distributors
The Black Sox Scandal
Now we travel way back to the 1919 World Series. Well, let’s travel back to just before the 1919 World Series. The Chicago White Sox were the best team in baseball at the time – or at least in the top two. However, they were also some of the worst-paid players. Charles Comiskey was notoriously stingy with his bankroll – he even promised the Sox a “big bonus” if they won the pennant, and when they did, he gave them a “bonus” of a case of crappy champagne.
After making some extra money by giving insider tips to a small-time gambler named Joseph Sullivan, Sox player Chick Gandil decided to really supplement his meager salary by offering to throw the World Series for $100,000. It wasn’t too difficult for Gandil to recruit other players for the scheme – many of them held personal grudges against Comiskey, not just for the small paychecks, but for reneging on bonuses and promises as well. In the end, at least eight White Sox players were in on the deal: Eddie Cicotte, Oscar “Happy” Felsch, Arnold “Chick” Gandil, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, Fred McMullin, Charles “Swede” Risberg, George “Buck” Weaver and Claude “Lefty” Williams. But things went awry, as they tend to in schemes like this. The gamblers didn’t pay the amounts they were supposed to pay after the Sox lost the first couple of games, and the players began to wonder if they had been had. It made sense to them that they should play to win the Series, because if they won, they would at least receive a $5,000 bonus from Comiskey. The Sox won the third game, but then lost the fourth and fifth. By today’s standards, four wins for the Reds would equal a title, but in 1919, the World Series was best out of nine games, not best out of seven. The Sox weren’t down and out just yet. They rallied to win games six and seven, giving them three wins and the Reds four. This greatly angered Arnold Rothstein, a gambler who had invested quite a bit of money on the Sox losing. He sent one of his “associates” to scare a little sense into Sox pitcher Lefty Williams. He said if Lefty didn’t start doing his part to throw the games, he and his wife were going to run into a little trouble. This threat was sufficient enough to scare Lefty into submission, and he made sure to throw poor and mediocre pitches all night. The Reds won handily, 10-5, and took the Series.
An investigation of the allegations got under way in September 1920 and two players, Eddie Cicotte and Shoeless Joe Jackson, confessed that they had helped throw the games (they later took back their confessions, and the signed documents ‘mysteriously’ disappeared). The eight players who were implicated were banned from baseball for life. The players who were found innocent were awarded $1,500 checks from Comiskey in the fall of 1920, which must have been quite the kick in the teeth to those who had participated in the scandal because he wasn’t paying them fairly.
Shoeless Joe Jackson’s level of involvement in the whole thing has since been disputed – he recanted his confession and maintained for the rest of his life that he was innocent. All of the players involved backed him up, saying that he had never attended any of the logistics meetings and refused to take the initial payment to entice him to throw the games. It’s still highly debated to this day. Photo from PascalMarco.com.
Pete Rose Gambling Scandal
Joining Shoeless Joe Jackson on the Banned from Baseball List is Pete Rose. After an impressive, record-setting career as a player, Pete Rose took a job managing the Cincinnati Reds from 1985 to 1989. In February 1989, Rose was questioned by the baseball commissioner in regards to some rumors that he had been illegally betting on baseball games. Rose vehemently denied the accusations, but lawyer John Dowd was brought in to conduct an in depth investigation on the matter. By May of the same year, Dowd had compiled a huge list of Rose’s wrongdoings, including statements from Rose’s bookies and bet runners and details such as how many games he bet on and what amounts he wagered. Rose continued to deny, deny, deny, even when he was permanently placed on the ineligible list. For 15 years he denied that he had ever bet on baseball during his tenure as a player and a manager, even when some other suspicious activity came to light: in 1990, he was found guilty of income tax evasion. Rose had failed to report income from selling autographs, memorabilia, and –yes- gambling. He served several months in prison, paid his back taxes, and agreed to perform 1,000 hours of community service.
Finally, in his 2004 autobiography, Pete admitted that he had, in fact, bet on sports – including baseball – while he played and managed. He swore that he had never bet against the Reds and only bet on them because he loved the team so much and loyal and believed in his team. He has applied for reinstatement, but to no avail so far.
Photo from Inside Athletics
The Black Mist Scandal
Corrupt players isn’t just an American trend. From 1969-1971, it was revealed that several really big Japanese baseball stars had accepted bribes from an organized crime family to throw various games. On October 7, 1969, somebody blew the whistle on Nishitetsu Lions pitcher Masayuki Nagayasu, who, as it turned out, had been purposely throwing easy pitches to opposing teams. Nagayasu sang like a canary, telling officials that not only did he take the bribes, the three other pitchers on the team took bribes, and so did the catcher and two infielders. All of them were suspended from play with two of them eventually being reinstated; Nagayasu was banned from the game for life.
Then, in April of 1970, an auto racer let it be known that a few prominent men had been in on a scheme to try to fix auto races: pitchers from two baseball teams and a member of the yakuza (organized crime). Another investigation was soon undertaken, which unearthed all sorts of dirty little secrets: by the end of the year, at least three more players had been banned for life, several had been arrested for the auto-racing incident, and more had received suspensions or benching for illegal gambling, driving without a license and having suspiciously close relationships with the yakuza. This whole series of incidents was known as the Black Mist that fell over Japanese baseball.
Drug busts of the ’80s? Corked bats? Women’s fertility drugs? What do you think is the most scandalous baseball moment? Share it in the comments!
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Map of the First Moonwalk Superimposed on a Baseball Diamond
NASA has created a map of Aldrin and Armstrong’s journeys on the surface of the moon to the scale of a baseball diamond. It helps put their activities at the landing site in perspective. Also, we know “Who’s on first?” It was Buzz Aldrin.
Link via Popular Science
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Bat Swinging
(YouTube link)
Since when is this possible? Long Beach Armada outfielder Josh Womack shows off a bit at training camp. Can I learn to do this, or would I just hurt myself? -via Reddit
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Optical Illusion - Why A Curveball Confuses Batters
A curveball will slowly shift by a couple of feet at most, but to the batter it seems to suddenly jump several feet. Watch this animation of the Best Visual Illusion of the Year winner to experience how this occurs.
In baseball, a curveball creates a physical effect and a perceptual puzzle. The physical effect (the curve) arises because the ball’s rotation leads to a deflection in the ball’s path. The perceptual puzzle arises because the deflection is actually gradual but is often perceived as an abrupt change in direction (the break). Our illusions suggest that the perceived “break” may be caused by the transition from the central visual system to the peripheral visual system. Like a curveball, the spinning disks in the illusions appear to abruptly change direction when an observer switches from foveal to peripheral viewing.
Link – via josephfosco
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The Curse of Colonel Sanders
The Hanshin Tigers baseball club won the Japan Series for the first and (so far) only time in 1985. Fans in Dotonbori celebrated by jumping into the local river. The story goes that the crowd called out the names of the players, and a fan who most resembled each player jumped in. However, no one looked like star player and Oklahoma native Randy Bass {wiki}. So the crowd tossed in a life-size statue of Colonel Sanders taken from a KFC outlet. The statue was lost in the river, and the Hanshin Tigers sunk into a slump. Urban lore says the Tigers performance is due to the lost statue.
Fast forward to 2009. Divers looking for unexploded bombs found the Colonel Tuesday night.
The upper body of the statue was discovered at around 4 p.m. about 200 meters away from where it plunged into the water in 1985. When the figure was being pulled up by the crane on a salvage barge, construction workers could be heard to say, “It looks like a corpse.” However, when Tigers fans such as the riverside project foreman saw the statue, they exclaimed, “It’s the Colonel!” Passersby also stopped in their tracks to take in the scene.
With the media and locals looking on, divers began their search for the lower body at around 8:50 Wednesday morning, and discovered the right hand some minutes later. About 10 minutes after that, the diver’s voice burst from a speaker on the salvage barge, saying, “It’s the lower body. There’s no mistake about it,” bringing on a cheer from reporters and workers alike.
Is the “Curse of the Colonel” over for the Tigers? Link -via Fark
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Casey at the Bat
Here’s a pleasant diversion for baseball fans! You know the poem Casey at the Bat by Ernest Thayer. Now see the entire poem rendered in an appropriate medium -baseball cards! Link -Thanks, Ben Henry!
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