Everyone get their summer fun in before the end of the day!
29 thoughts on “September 21, 2022: Before It’s Gone”
Hey The Athletic subscribers, apparently Gleeman has a pretty good post mortem on the Twins season. Is there a way you can gift a free link to the article here?
There doesn't seem to be a way to share a link. But you can save to a PDF.
muchos danke
Thx.
The Poissonnière is counting down the days until her first Twins game. Earlier in the week she got a box of Cracker Jack (which is terrible, with crap “prizes.”) Last night we talked about the Seventh Inning Stretch, metal detectors, and bag screening. Only one of those existed when I went to my first game; fortunately, she watched me go through it at the airport this summer.
We’re going to try and get to the ballpark early so she can walk around a bit, hit the team store, and get settled. Since she takes piano lessons, I’d love for her to see the organ before we go to our seats (Section 109).
I’d hoped the team would be either already headed to the postseason or possibly clinching the division. Looks like we’ll be rooting for her favorite player to win the batting title.
O.k. A question for the masses here. Is the MLB single season homerun record 61, 70, or 73?
As others have said, just the difference in the amount of games played makes 61 to 70/73 as raw numbers an impossible comparison (then throw in all the other factors mentioned too)
Out of curiosity, here are the top 10 raw HR count seasons and I added a HR/PA column w/ rank too
Player
Home Runs
Year
PA
HR/PA
RawRank
RateRank
Barry Bonds
73
2001
664
0.109939759
1
1
Mark McGwire
70
1998
681
0.102790015
2
2
Mark McGwire
65
1999
661
0.098335855
4
3
Aaron Judge
60
2022
636
0.094339623
8
4
Sammy Sosa
66
1998
722
0.091412742
3
5
Sammy Sosa
64
2001
711
0.090014065
5
6
Sammy Sosa
63
1999
712
0.088483146
6
7
Roger Maris
61
1961
698
0.08739255
7
8
Babe Ruth
60
1927
691
0.08683068
9
9
Babe Ruth
59
1921
693
0.085137085
10
10
The home run record only counts if it is a Yankee.
Bonds and Mac never happened.
The record is 73. Whatever you think of Bonds, he hit real home runs in real games that resulted in real wins and losses. The home runs happened, we all saw them, and there's no point in pretending they didn't.
I'm about 85% of the way on this take.
This. Factor in pitchers using performance enhancing substances too, and I don't see any strong argument against it.
Ayyup.
See also: Greenies
See also: segregated leagues.
Contextualization matters for interpreting what the numbers mean and comparisons between eras, but the numbers are the numbers, and for home runs the number is 73.
What theses fellas said.
I’m with meat, Mike, cheaps, bS, Philo, free and Padre.
I think Judge breaking the Maris record of 61, from ‘61, 61 years later is super cool to be watching, and if Bonds and Mac hadn’t already demonstrated their ability to hit dingers without the juice, I’d be more inclined to think what we’re seeing is for some sort of “real” record.
I’d like to send Aaron Judge back in time to hit 85 mph mush balls in the dimensions of 1929 Yankee Stadium.
There are a number of reasons why reverting to a 154 game season would benefit MLB. Refreshing the context of single-season records to detour around the Steroid Era is one of them, but certainly not the only or more important. In an era where player workloads, fundamental rules & dimensions, and even scheduling continues to deviate from the past, I think the league would be well served by cutting a few games from its schedule to improve player health, and quality of play, and establish a new context for achievement. Rather than “innovate” at the margins in a way that erodes the historical significance of 60’6” or 90’ by moving the mound or inflating the size of the bases, Manfred could simply reduce wear & tear on the players over the course of the season. But the guy seems like he has actual disdain for baseball and there’s only one thing he cares about.
As others have said, just the difference in the amount of games played makes 61 to 70/73 as raw numbers an impossible comparison (then throw in all the other factors mentioned too)
Out of curiosity, here are the top 10 raw HR count seasons and I added a HR/PA column w/ rank too
Im guessing Mike Matheny will not manage them next season.
There is a very outside chance of it happening but Albert Pujols is 11 RBI from tying babe Ruth for second on the all time RBI list.
Best 10 billion dollars this country has ever spent
Hey Neptune. Did you ring? 👋
Webb’s latest image is the clearest look at Neptune's rings in 30+ years, and our first time seeing them in infrared light. Take in Webb's ghostly, ethereal views of the planet and its dust bands, rings and moons: https://t.co/Jd09henF1F#IAC2022pic.twitter.com/17QNXj23ow
Those rings haven’t been directly observed since 1989. Bonkers.
On a similar vein, I was thinking last night that it's been great seeing all the new JWST images, but I wish I could have been around for when the Voyager images started coming back. That must have been mind blowing.
(Also, this sent me down a Neptune hole yesterday. I learned that Triton could break apart in about 3 billion years creating a much more spectacular set of rings.)
Even before the Voyager flybys, I wanted to get into computer graphics after seeing the simulations of the Grand Tour -- the way that the best ground-based images of Jupiter, Saturn, and their larger moons were wrapped around a sphere and "rotated" behind the simulated probe, which gyrated through it's planned movements, left big impressions on this high schooler.
Hey The Athletic subscribers, apparently Gleeman has a pretty good post mortem on the Twins season. Is there a way you can gift a free link to the article here?
There doesn't seem to be a way to share a link. But you can save to a PDF.
muchos danke
Thx.
The Poissonnière is counting down the days until her first Twins game. Earlier in the week she got a box of Cracker Jack (which is terrible, with crap “prizes.”) Last night we talked about the Seventh Inning Stretch, metal detectors, and bag screening. Only one of those existed when I went to my first game; fortunately, she watched me go through it at the airport this summer.
We’re going to try and get to the ballpark early so she can walk around a bit, hit the team store, and get settled. Since she takes piano lessons, I’d love for her to see the organ before we go to our seats (Section 109).
I’d hoped the team would be either already headed to the postseason or possibly clinching the division. Looks like we’ll be rooting for her favorite player to win the batting title.
O.k. A question for the masses here. Is the MLB single season homerun record 61, 70, or 73?
As others have said, just the difference in the amount of games played makes 61 to 70/73 as raw numbers an impossible comparison (then throw in all the other factors mentioned too)
Out of curiosity, here are the top 10 raw HR count seasons and I added a HR/PA column w/ rank too
The home run record only counts if it is a Yankee.
Bonds and Mac never happened.
The record is 73. Whatever you think of Bonds, he hit real home runs in real games that resulted in real wins and losses. The home runs happened, we all saw them, and there's no point in pretending they didn't.
I'm about 85% of the way on this take.
This. Factor in pitchers using performance enhancing substances too, and I don't see any strong argument against it.
Ayyup.
See also: Greenies
See also: segregated leagues.
Contextualization matters for interpreting what the numbers mean and comparisons between eras, but the numbers are the numbers, and for home runs the number is 73.
What theses fellas said.
I’m with meat, Mike, cheaps, bS, Philo, free and Padre.
I think Judge breaking the Maris record of 61, from ‘61, 61 years later is super cool to be watching, and if Bonds and Mac hadn’t already demonstrated their ability to hit dingers without the juice, I’d be more inclined to think what we’re seeing is for some sort of “real” record.
I’d like to send Aaron Judge back in time to hit 85 mph mush balls in the dimensions of 1929 Yankee Stadium.
There are a number of reasons why reverting to a 154 game season would benefit MLB. Refreshing the context of single-season records to detour around the Steroid Era is one of them, but certainly not the only or more important. In an era where player workloads, fundamental rules & dimensions, and even scheduling continues to deviate from the past, I think the league would be well served by cutting a few games from its schedule to improve player health, and quality of play, and establish a new context for achievement. Rather than “innovate” at the margins in a way that erodes the historical significance of 60’6” or 90’ by moving the mound or inflating the size of the bases, Manfred could simply reduce wear & tear on the players over the course of the season. But the guy seems like he has actual disdain for baseball and there’s only one thing he cares about.
As others have said, just the difference in the amount of games played makes 61 to 70/73 as raw numbers an impossible comparison (then throw in all the other factors mentioned too)
Out of curiosity, here are the top 10 raw HR count seasons and I added a HR/PA column w/ rank too
Sigh.
Agents really need to get their young charges to go to charm school. So that they learn to STFU.
Going to my first Giants game next week, courtesy of The Boy.
Dayton Moore fired.
Im guessing Mike Matheny will not manage them next season.
There is a very outside chance of it happening but Albert Pujols is 11 RBI from tying babe Ruth for second on the all time RBI list.
Best 10 billion dollars this country has ever spent
Those rings haven’t been directly observed since 1989. Bonkers.
On a similar vein, I was thinking last night that it's been great seeing all the new JWST images, but I wish I could have been around for when the Voyager images started coming back. That must have been mind blowing.
(Also, this sent me down a Neptune hole yesterday. I learned that Triton could break apart in about 3 billion years creating a much more spectacular set of rings.)
Even before the Voyager flybys, I wanted to get into computer graphics after seeing the simulations of the Grand Tour -- the way that the best ground-based images of Jupiter, Saturn, and their larger moons were wrapped around a sphere and "rotated" behind the simulated probe, which gyrated through it's planned movements, left big impressions on this high schooler.