Share your interesting baseball reads here

[Judge Jude]

ex-Tigers closer Mike Henneman was raised by adoptive parents.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/...a14aul5mp52akj

"In June 2017, with Henneman’s now-wife Meredith encouraging him to find out more about his past, he took an Ancestry DNA test.

Putting himself out there and opening himself up to the possibility of finding out more about the unknowns — good or bad — in his past was a whole different ballgame. The DNA results arrived in about six weeks.

“Come to find out,” Henneman said. “I’ve got five brothers and two sisters.”

.................

and then the story gets even better

[chancellor]

Supreme Court denies MLB's appeal of Circuit Court ruling against MLB affording class action status to minor leaguers on their claim that MLB violated Federal minimum wage laws:

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/scotus-declines-to-hear-mlbs-appeal-on-ruling-of-milb-pay-lawsuit/

Naturally, I'm rooting for the minor leaguers to win this.

I agree with rooting for the minor leaguers to win, but I suspect it'll be something of a Pyrrhic victory.

[rhd]

I agree with rooting for the minor leaguers to win, but I suspect it'll be something of a Pyrrhic victory.

Or perhaps they'll reach some sort of settlement that gives the minor leaguers something at least.

[chancellor]

Or perhaps they'll reach some sort of settlement that gives the minor leaguers something at least.

I'll be very surprised if this is settled, or if this case is settled, MLB will almost certainly be hit again by someone who's opted out of the class action.

[Judge Jude]

https://www.mlb.com/news/eddie-robin...s-he-turns-100

celebrate Eddie Robinson's 100th birthday on the 15th!

"Born in Paris, Texas, on Dec. 15, 1920, Robinson made it to the Majors with the Indians in 1942. He missed the next three years while in the service during World War II -- and suffered nerve damage to his foot that nearly ended his playing career. He won the Indians' last World Series in 1948, played against Jackie Robinson and alongside Larry Doby. He was playing when Babe Ruth’s number was retired, was the GM of the Braves when Hank Aaron broke Ruth’s home run record, and was in the stands when Mark McGwire hit home run No. 62.

He started his career under the reserve clause and became an executive during the advent of free agency. He played in four All-Star Games and drafted players like Reggie Jackson, Vida Blue and Dale Murphy -- who all played in countless more."

[rhd]

Want some insight into why Trevor Bauer won the NL CYA last year? (Hint: he's not using pine tar):

This issue should be receiving more attention. Seems very hypocritical to vilify and punish PED users while doing nothing about using foreign substances on balls.

[The Feral Slasher]

I thought this was a really fun read, enjoy....

https://www.mlb.com/news/the-man-who-struck-out-27-batters

[rhd]

I thought this was a really fun read, enjoy....

https://www.mlb.com/news/the-man-who...out-27-batters

I've known about that game for years but it was a fun read. Good, humble, down-to-earth guy. Good to know he's still around.

[rhd]

Video by former minor prospect Matt Antonelli on his real reason why there are no lefthanded throwing catchers:

His main reason is that if a player has a good arm and throws lefty, he will be steered toward being a pitcher, not a catcher. Some former baseball players in the comments said that in their experience they thought this was true. I always thought that there were 2 main reasons why there are no left handed catchers:

1 - Most hitters are righties who stand on the left side of the plate so he would be in the way of a lefty-throwing C trying nail baserunners trying to steal. This video kind of debunks this reason, stating that, at least in the year he refers to, the CS % was the same whether the hitter was lefty or righty.
2 - The same reason there are no left handed throwing infielders (except occasionally 1Bmen), which is that, because the other IFers are righthanded, you would be throwing across the basepath, which makes it more likely for the ball to either hit the baserunner or be temporarily obscured by the baserunner, thus increasing the chance of a fielding error. If this is not the main reason for no lefty Cs, then why are there no lefty IFers?

Some of the commenters said that another big reason is that it is very hard to find a catcher's glove for a lefty. One guy said he gave up trying to catch for that reason.

[Kevin Seitzer]

Video by former minor prospect Matt Antonelli on his real reason why there are no lefthanded throwing catchers:

His main reason is that if a player has a good arm and throws lefty, he will be steered toward being a pitcher, not a catcher. Some former baseball players in the comments said that in their experience they thought this was true. I always thought that there were 2 main reasons why there are no left handed catchers:

1 - Most hitters are righties who stand on the left side of the plate so he would be in the way of a lefty-throwing C trying nail baserunners trying to steal. This video kind of debunks this reason, stating that, at least in the year he refers to, the CS % was the same whether the hitter was lefty or righty.
2 - The same reason there are no left handed throwing infielders (except occasionally 1Bmen), which is that, because the other IFers are righthanded, you would be throwing across the basepath, which makes it more likely for the ball to either hit the baserunner or be temporarily obscured by the baserunner, thus increasing the chance of a fielding error. If this is not the main reason for no lefty Cs, then why are there no lefty IFers?

Some of the commenters said that another big reason is that it is very hard to find a catcher's glove for a lefty. One guy he gave up trying to catch for that reason.

Good article on the topic:

https://tht.fangraphs.com/top-10-left-handed-catchers-for-2006/

[rhd]

Good article on the topic:

https://tht.fangraphs.com/top-10-lef...hers-for-2006/

Thanx for the article. It seems to say basically that there is no definitive answer. I found it interesting that neither this article nor the video mention what I thought to be the main reason for there being no lefty-throwing catchers.

[Kevin Seitzer]

The reason why there are no lefty infielders is because the throw to first is harder to make on plays going away from first, which are the situations where a strong throw is most important. Righties can plant and throw, whereas lefty infielders would have to first spin around and then plant and throw, thus losing precious time.

[rhd]

From RW:

Ken Rosenthal, Evan Drellich and Eno Sarris of The Athletic report that Major League Baseball proposed to the MLBPA on Wednesday that a player's salary prior to free agency be determined by Fangraphs' fWAR rather than arbitration.
As written in the report, "a player’s career WAR would be part of the calculation, weighted for recency" and "three-plus, four-plus, or five-plus years would affect the calculation," as well. Just as MLB proposed in August, players would be granted free agency at the age of 29 1/2. One player agent told The Athletic that the proposal as "zero chance" of gaining the union's approval. What the league proposed Wednesday "was not what would be considered a comprehensive economics proposal," as there are numerous other aspects which need to be ironed out.


Didnt see that coming. Interested to see what, if anything, becomes of this.

[rhd]

Didnt realize this about Terrance Gore:

Each ring w a different team.

[rhd]

I think this is hilarious as well as interesting. The boys at the YT channel "How Ridiculous" used a "Batcopter" (not THAT Batcopter - a Baseball Batcopter!) to set an apparent world record for longest batted baseball:

The record hit occurs during the 18:21-19:16 segment of the video but I think it's fun to watch the entire video. I actually thought a machine would be able to hit a ball even farther. The "bat" was spinning at 400 rpm, which they said equated to a "bat speed" of 189 mph.

The "bat" was 4 meters long (about 13 ft) but since it is a "rotor" bat only half of that length is generating the torque, so really effectively only about 6.5 ft. They didnt say what metal it was made of but I'm guessing aluminum. The bat developed a very noticeable dent at some point. They evidently hit some other types of balls w their contraption but that will be in another video.