Yu Darvish: Five Pitches, One GIF -Flawless Arm Action On Each Offering | The Fantasy Fix

This is amazing.....

Yu Darvish: Five Pitches, One GIF -Flawless Arm Action On Each Offering

April 25, 2013

Watch this GIF, it is a blend of Yu Darvish throwing all five of his pitches.
Watch each pitch do their thing, yet Darvish's mechanics, motion, arm speed and action is the exact same for every pitch. That is the ultimate gift of a great pitcher, absolute perfect blend of deception and mechanical discipline. Click on the image to see it in action.

Parenting tips from Verlander's parents

Just passed a local bookstore hosting a book signing by Justin Verlander's parents. I wish I'd had time to stay a while to learn how to teach someone to throw 100mph and pick up Kate Upton.

Panoramic pics from an iPhone

Here's an interactive panoramic view of the Braves & Marlins playing a spring training game on 3/22/12 in Orlando, FL. I built the picture using Photosynth - a very excellent free app for the iPhone that intelligently stitches together multiple images of the same setting.

More of my panoramas - including those from my visit to the Kennedy Space Center can be found here.

Pics from the annual spring training trip this past weekend

This year in Florida. To view the album, click here.

Phils win! Phils win!

Unbelievable!

In case you haven't heard, my hometown Philadelphia Phillies won the 2008 World Series. I didn't grow up a Phillies fan (I rooted for the Big Red Machine of the Cincinnati Reds), but the Phillies grew on me after I moved out of the area.

After moving, the Phillies became not just a reminder of many pleasant baseball memories from growing up in the Philadelphia area, but also a metaphor for all that is great about Philadelphia - namely passion, dedication, and some fantastic people, like Richie Ashburn, Harry Kalas, Tug McGraw, Aaron Rowand, and everyone on the 2008 team.

Even from 250 miles away like I am now, I am very happy for the city of Philadelphia, and I smile knowing just what the Phillies win means to the approximately 3 million people living in the Philadelphia area.

I'm also smiling knowing that it was baseball that was responsible for all of the joy in Philadelphia. Just look at the highlights of Game 5 (below), and you can see in the players, fans, and coaches that baseball generates more and deeper emotions than any other sport. It is one more reason that baseball is special.

Congrats Phils!

St. Louis baseball fans

I've now seen major league baseball games in 17 ballparks in 14 cities, and can say without a doubt that the best fans are in St. Louis. (The best ballpark, btw, is San Francisco's AT&T Park. You can't beat the views, the experience, and vibe, and the fans are good too.)

The St. Louis fan experience starts before the fan even arrives at the park - everybody, from the youngest to the oldest fan dons some Cardinals apparel. Old fans wear Musial jerseys while teenage girls wear cut-off Rick Ankiel t-shirts. It really is amazing, even though I generally disagree that good fans dress up for their team. Still, when you look around the stadium, you generally only see two colors - cardinal red, and white.

The Cardinal dress code also shows that these fans are thinking about today's game from the moment their feet hit the floor in the morning.

You can feel this anticipation build in the hours leading up to the game. During the day, I overheard repeated references to the game, and was surprised when, for example, a woman behind a checkout register starting talking to a customer about that night's game against Pittsburgh. I also heard plenty of folks talking about the game while touring the Gateway Arch an hour and a half before game time.

Once in the stadium though, Cards fans excel. They're smart, cheering small things in nearly every at-bat, like a ground-out to advance a runner. You can also hear a nuanced appreciation for strategy, though their reaction is always positive and pro-Cardinal. I didn't hear any boos all night - imagine that in Philly (my hometown, btw.)

I also got the impression from the Cards fans that their first priority int he Stadium was the game itself. Sure, they ate and drank, bought souvenirs, and took their kids to the stadium playground, but I got the feeling a much higher percentage of fans never really left their seats during the game.

Oh, and as referenced before, all St. Louisans that I met were exceedingly polite. Even when I heard one St. Louis fan say something to a rival Chicago Cubs fans, all he said was "sheesh!" and shook his head no. I imagine that same conversation would involve several exchanges of curses, along with instructions about what to do with oneself.

Speaking of the rivalry, I'll be at a Cubs game tomorrow at Wrigley - a new experience for me that I am really looking forward to. I'll be looking to see if the Cub fans can take the crown of best fans from St. Louis fans, yet another way that these two rivals compete, but I suspect that baseball heaven is set in Busch Stadium.

David Price: Sell high, Ostroff!

Last night Kevin and I and my friends Scott, and Marcus who both live in Indianapolis, gathered to watch Ozzie's treasured prospect - and acknowledged top pitching prospect on the planet, LHP David Price, take on Indianapolis - Pittsburgh's AAA team.. Price was wild and largely ineffective, but so was John Jaso's bat.

Price lasted 5 innings, walking a bunch, and giving up 3 runs. All agreed that he was nothing special. He appeared to be throwing only 2 pitches (fastball & slider) and was hit hard by the likes of Jose Bautista and Rod's hero, Ronny Paulino.

Still, we had fun, especially Scott, who saw not one but two of his players homer. (unfortunately, AAA stats don't count.)

We even got onto the action, as Bulls catcher John Jaso launched bats on bad swings into the stands twice, one about 20 feet away from us, the other hitting me lightly. (apparently it was not only $1 hot dog night, but also total carnage night at Victory Field, as someone one section over from us also took a line drive off of his cocoanut.)

My tour continues - Kevin and I will see the Cards play Pittsburgh's other AAA team. And I'll catch a game at Wrigley Saturday with Karl Brewer.

Striking out.......

It's been an exciting week. On Tuesday, I committed to starting and running a new biotech company with two brilliant scientists at the University of Virginia. Our new company, Key Genomics, will develop and apply proprietary software to predict patient chemotherapeutic response. This is in the area of pharmacogenomics - how genetic differences affect drug response.


The sky is the limit for this company, and I'm very, very excited to be a part of making it happen. What makes this even more exciting is knowing that if successful, our technology will - through better (personalized) treatment decisions - improve the outcomes for many cancer patients.

It will be years, though, before our technology earns regulatory approval and is used in the clinic. Until then, we'll be swinging for the fences.



In spite of the big career move, I'd still say that the most exciting thing for me this week occurred Monday night, at the tail end of a meaningless baseball game.

For those who don't know, I'm a baseball nut and player. I have enjoyed continuing my post-college playing career in the local 18-and-over men's league, though at 38yrs old, I'm on the downside of my career.

For most of my career, I've been a catcher, though from time-to-time I've taken the mound to pitch. I think this may have less to do with having pitching talent, and more to do with my coach indulging every catcher who thinks he can pitch, possibly for a good laugh, possibly to remind said catcher how hard it is to pitch.

You can probably see where this going: I got to pitch in a game on Monday.

I took the mound in the last inning against the Orioles. I started off by walking the first hitter on 4 pitches - not good.

Next up was the cleanup hitter, and at this point, I realized that I had nothing in my arsenal except a fastball. I like to think I can throw a curveball, and on the sidelines I have a decent change-up, but for whatever reason - jitters, lack of talent, bad atmosphereic conditions (!?!), all I had was a fastball.

Fresh off the leadoff walk, I threw another ball. At this point, I was thinking this might be a short outing, as I'd told our coach Joe Hart that he ought to hook me if I walked 2 guys.

Luckily, while I didn't have great control, I had loads of movement on the fastball, and with nothing to lose, I just concentrated on pumping fastballs. I came back from the 1-0 count on the second hitter to strike him out swinging.

And then, unbelievably, I struck the 3rd hitter out (swinging), all on fastballs.

I was hoping when taking the mound to throw strikes and hopefully the hitters would put the ball in play on my terms - and with no expectations at all for a strikeout.

So, you can imagine my surprise, when I struck out the next hitter swinging too!


I sure won't win any awards for my performance the rest of the way, though. I went to two strikes on the 4th hitter, and then promptly plunked him. (I'll bet he's got a real nice bruise - I got him mid-thigh.) The 5th hitter hit a hard single to left, scoring both runners. The next hitter popped out to end the inning.

So, no Cy Young award for me, but loads of fun, and what a rush it was to strike out two hitters.


This is my last year of playing baseball competitively. I expect that age, injury, and my commitment to Key Genomics will take precedence next season, but I will definitely be replaying my strike outs against the Orioles over and over again in my mind for a long time, alongside some of the other great times I had on the field. I'll miss the game, but I'll miss my teammates even more. Check out some pictures of them in action here.

So, I have a few more games to enjoy this season. I doubt I'll get back on the pitching mound, but at the plate, and with Key Genomics, I'll be swinging for the fences.

Another baseball vid.....

OK, I'm definitely overdoing it on the baseball-themed YouTube vids, but take a look at this one:




If you haven't already figured it out, the vid was totally staged and the ballgirl had a lot of help climbing the wall. Still, it's pretty cool.....

Stupid baseball tricks.....

Check out this vid of a catcher pulling a fast-one on a homeplate umpire. It's not so nice, if you're wondering.


I did this once (less obviously) in high school in about 1987 when the homeplate umpire was our assistant principal who had just given me detention after the following exchange with my feminist American History teacher Ms. Wiest:

(Ms. Wiest babbling on about how hard it was to be a woman on the Plains in America in the late 1800's)

Tim (to person sitting next to me): how come we're spending more time on this than the Civil War?

Ms. Wiest (overhearing Tim). This is more important. If you don't agree, you can tell me in detention while writing about great American woman of the Plains.

Tim: (loudly) that'll take five minutes.


That was probably my first encounter with Political Correctness. My answer was a bit too chauvinistic, and I wouldn't today shoot back with the "five minutes" remark, but I would still push back against Ms. Wiest's agenda.

How NOT to play baseball

Easton created a series of commercials with big leaguers spoofing the immortal Tom Emanski training videos. Check out this great bit of instruction from the Big Z, Carlos Zambrano, on how to be hit by a pitch.

The carnage from rookie hazing week

Check out the link above to see the results of one of baseball's underheralded traditions: hazing the rookies by making them wear ridiculous outfits in public.

Typically, during the last game of a series, the rookies' regular clothes are taken from their locker and replaced with comical outfits. The rookies then wear the outfits from the stadium to their bus, signing autographs along the way, then to the airport, on the flight, and then to the team hotel in the new city, or beyond.

Here's Dice-K and Hideki Okajima as a Teletubby and a pirate, respectively.

3rd baseball team in NYC?

Having just read Andrew Zimbalist's book on baseball economics, I got to thinking about what we'll be seeing in the near future.

I think MLB will decide to expand in the next decade for a few reasons:

-with nearly every team in a new stadium, MLB will be looking for new spikes in revenue.

-realizing that MLB needs to compete more intensely with the NFL, NBA, and MLS, MLB will look to make a land grab to make sure that the MLB flag is planted in all of the major metropolitan markets.

-along the same lines of MLB realizing that raw interest in numbers is the best measure of health vis-a-vis the other sports leagues, total "fannies in seats" will become an increasingly important metric for both the owners and advertisers. Expansion could boost annual MLB attendance -currently in the 75M range - by another 4-6MM.

-MLB is also realizing how to take advantage of marquee marketing opportunities, like Daisuke Matsuzaka. Expanding by 2 teams would provide more marquee opportunities.

-with labor peace, the the next or the following MLB-player agreement will need a sweetner. Expanding by 2 teams would add another 50 jobs for the players union.

-adding 2 teams to the current 30 just makes sense. (2 leagues of 16, and probably 4 divisions of 4 in each league.) (I could see expansion beyond 32.)

-all of the traditional arguments about expansion (dilution of the talent pool) are becoming less relevant. It's been 10 years since the last expansion, and the addition of Asian players and an increased talent flow from Venezuela could easily provide enough talent.

And, as I'll explain in a moment, adding one team in the NYC area will provide roughly the same effect of extending revenue sharing.


So, expansion makes sense, and while MLB is famous for NOT doing things that make sense, they are changing that, as Zimbalist points out in his book.

I think that if baseball expands the 2 new teams will go to Portland, Oregon, and northern New Jersey.

Why North Jersey?

The New York MSA covers more than 18M people, while the median MLB city has 3.87M people. New York could probably handle 4 teams.

This surely hasn't escaped the notice of the other MLB owners. I think another driver of expansion will be the sentiments of the 28 other non-New York owners to bring the Mets and Yanks back to the pack, financially and competitively.

The amazing thing is, expanding to the New York area could theoretically happen without any interference from the Mets or Yankees, as a portion of Northern New Jersey lies outside of the teams' territories.

The Yankees' and Mets' territory includes New York City, plus Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and Rockland Counties in New York; Fairfield County south of I-84 and west of SR 58 in Connecticut; and Bergen, Hudson, Essex and Union Counties in New Jersey. This doesn't include Middlesex county, which while not particularly attractive in its' own right, IS adjacent to Staten Island and at the crossroads of several major roads.

In particular, I'd nominate this location in Woodbridge, NJ, which abuts the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike, and lies less than 2 miles from Staten Island.

This location would represent a very different market than the existing New York teams, perhaps even a new market. It'll take a while for this idea to take hold, but it makes too much sense. The only complicating factor could be the desire of an exisiting owner to move to this location prior to expansion.

For more, read the article linked above.....

Steroids double standard?

Great point from Jayson Stark's most recent ESPN column:

"Suppose a prominent and popular All-Star player on a two-time World Series champion were to get suspended for a quarter of a season because he got nabbed obtaining HGH (human growth hormone, a performance enhancing drug) . And suppose, at the same time, a coach on one of last year's World Series teams was also suspended for the same offense. How gigantic would the headlines be on every front page in America? How scathing would the columns be from all your favorite writers?"


The above scenario has actually happened in the last 2 weeks - in football. (Rodney Harrison of the New England Patriots, and Wade Wilson of the Dallas Cowboys.)

Where's the outrage? Why isn't the press working feverishly to figure out who Wilson was buying HGH for? Why is nobody asking "if a defensive back like Harrison is taking HGH, what do you think the bigger guys are doing?"

The whole Baseball ecosystem deserves loads of criticism for how they handled the steroids issue, (in fact, how they exploited it, if you tie the '90s fascination with HRs with tacit steroid approval by the leagues) and has gotten it's fair share of negative press, but why is football virtually untouched?

My 4 best guesses are:

1) football has many other more sensational off-field stories stealing the headlines, like Michael Vick's dog-fighting case.

2) football is considered by fans more entertainment than sport, and much like WWE fans not really caring that wrestlers take steroids to look the part, football fans in effect just don't care what wardrobe the actors wear.

3) fans aren't dumb, and already realize that the average NFL player is already a steroid-fueled freak of nature. (Geez, if an NFL kicker like Todd Sauerbrun took steroids, how about the 350 pound linemen freaks?

4) so much of the media has bought into football, that a foundation-jarring issue like rampant steroid use is soft-pedaled, in order to protect the media's investment in the NFL. (At present, ESPN, NBC, and FOX each have multi-billion dollar contracts to broadcast the NFL.)

Any careful examination of the trend in size and strength of NFL players clearly indicates rampant performance enhancing drug use, much like the rise of home runs in baseball in the 1990's illustrates the growth of steroid use. With the similar trends in usage of performance enhancing drugs, why the double standard in the press?

Map(s) o' baseball

Check out these 2 graphical representations of baseball fan geography, that is, what baseball team each part of the country roots for. Here's 2 representations:

One based on hard polling data, and

One more subjective...

Both seem to suggest that the Atlanta Braves have the most territory (and perhaps highlighting the opportunity in Charlotte, N.C.

I'm also really surprised (in the first map) by how much of the Washington/Baltimore area expressed a preference for the Nationals. Only Baltimore proper and very northern Maryland prefer the Birds.


If you like this, be sure to spend some time at the Strange Maps website.