*** VD 13 Commentary Thread ***

[Bene Futuis]

Meh, this might as well be the mock discussion now.

So, as I was saying, you guys just plain suck at this. You shoulda been drafting studs like Gene Garber and Mark Lemke and Biff Pocoroba.

[revo]

Meh, this might as well be the mock discussion now.

So, as I was saying, you guys just plain suck at this. You shoulda been drafting studs like Gene Garber and Mark Lemke and Biff Pocoroba.

I did a write-up on Biff Pocoroba in my old "Let's Remember a Guy" thread. It's amazing how baseball has changed from the 1970s. Teams actually used to use a roster spot or two on 3rd string catchers and pinch hitters, and ol' Biff made a career out of that. He'd never survive today.

[Bene Futuis]

I did a write-up on Biff Pocoroba in my old "Let's Remember a Guy" thread. It's amazing how baseball has changed from the 1970s. Teams actually used to use a roster spot or two on 3rd string catchers and pinch hitters, and ol' Biff made a career out of that. He'd never survive today.

Yet, strangely, he's the 2nd best player on the Braves behind only Adeiny Hechavarría.

[revo]

Yet, strangely, he's the 2nd best player on the Braves behind only Adeiny Hechavarría.

Apparently he owns and operates "Sausage World" in Norcross, Georgia and it gets great reviews, too!

He also holds the record for the longest MLB career for anyone named "Biff."

[heyelander]

I did a write-up on Biff Pocoroba in my old "Let's Remember a Guy" thread. It's amazing how baseball has changed from the 1970s. Teams actually used to use a roster spot or two on 3rd string catchers and pinch hitters, and ol' Biff made a career out of that. He'd never survive today.

That was one of the best threads on the site. Miss that one

[heyelander]

#31 Greg Maddux

[Kevin Seitzer]

#31 Greg Maddux

Indeed he was.

[The Feral Slasher]

Apparently he owns and operates "Sausage World" in Norcross, Georgia and it gets great reviews, too!

He also holds the record for the longest MLB career for anyone named "Biff."

Southern Abe Froman ?

[Bene Futuis]

Apparently he owns and operates "Sausage World" in Norcross, Georgia and it gets great reviews, too!

He also holds the record for the longest MLB career for anyone named "Biff."

And then he told Seitzer to make like a tree and get outta here!

[heyelander]

I guess if you want to learn confidence, it's good to study under someone who has navigated life with the name Dick Pole.

Then he got off to such a bad start at spring training in 1988 that he couldn’t even sleep at night. In Maddux’s mind — and this is important to know when looking at his career — the words “pitching” and “confidence” were practically synonyms. He never felt like he was throwing baseballs out there. He was throwing confidence. Each pitch in his mind was measured not so much by movement and location as by conviction.

He worked through things in spring training, and by Opening Day he did feel more positive and self-assured. He threw a three-hit shutout to kick things off in Atlanta.

“I’m just more confident out there,” he told the press after that one.

Then he went to St. Louis and pitched well again. And yet again, he felt better about himself. During the offseason, he’d gone down to pitch in Venezuela and he had worked with pitching coach Dick Pole on a more devastating curveball. He had grown to like that pitch a lot.

“Last year, if I threw 100 pitches, I’d throw five curveballs,” he said after the St. Louis game. “This year, if I throw 100 pitches, I’m throwing between 20 and 30 curveballs. I just have so much more confidence in that pitch.”

...

But Maddux legends? They’re a whole other thing.

There is a legend that once Maddux was sitting in the dugout watching the game closely. And then, suddenly, he turned to a teammate sitting next to him and said, “Watch out.” The next pitch was lined foul directly at the teammate’s head, and he ducked out of the way just in time.

There is a legend that in 2006, his Dodgers teammate Brad Penny, who was coming off a game where he got badly roughed up by the Mets, asked Maddux if he would call the pitches for him from the dugout the next time out. Maddux did. The game was against the Cubs. Penny threw seven shutout innings, striking out six and walking nobody.

There is a legend that, while watching José Hernández batting, Maddux noticed a slight shift in the batting stance. “We might have to call an ambulance for their first base coach,” he told a teammate. The next pitch, blam, a line drive smashed into the chest of Dodgers first base coach John Shelby.

There is a legend that once, when asked to intentionally walk a batter, Maddux told manager Bobby Cox, “Why would I do that?” He then explained that he would throw three pitches, and on the third one, he would get the batter to hit a pop-foul to third.

Do I even need to tell you what happened?

There’s a legend that once when he was with the Cubs, Maddux just started screaming at Atlanta’s David Justice for no apparent reason. After Justice struck out, he was enraged. He never forgot it. Later, when they were teammates, Justice asked Maddux why he did that. “Why do you think?” Maddux said. “To get in your head. And it worked.”

There’s a legend — my favorite legend, not least because it’s definitely true — that after he won his 17th Gold Glove, breaking Jim Kaat’s record, he got a congratulatory message from Kaat. But, Kaat pointed out that he still held the record for oldest modern pitcher to ever steal a base. Kaat was 41 in 1980 when he swiped a base against the Pirates.

In July that year, when playing for the Padres against the Braves, Maddux knocked a single off Charlie Morton and then, yep, stole second base. He was 42 years old.

I mean, I have no idea how Maddux isn’t everybody’s favorite pitcher ever.

[heyelander]

So seriously... where the fuck did Pauly come from? How did he end up here, and more importantly, where did he go?

[heyelander]

I need to know this because if random people are going to start popping in here I really need to stop shit talking about random people from the board.

[Pauly]

So seriously... where the fuck did Pauly come from? How did he end up here, and more importantly, where did he go?

Wow...nice to meet you too

[heyelander]

Seriously though... no, actually I'm seriously concerned I need to stop shit talking people, but other seriously, Hey Pauly... welcome to the friendliest (me aside) thread on the board... stay a while. There's a new game (supposedly) winding up... come play.

[Kevin Seitzer]

I always thought one of the benefits of having 8000 posts in here about Amish toothpaste is that outsiders would die of boredom before running across the shit we talked about them.