New to Baseball (Questions, etc)

[AdmiralsFan24]

Who are eligible for the MLB First Year Players Draft?

High school players, junior college players (regardless of how many years they've played there), college juniors and seniors and 4 year college sophomores as long as they turned 21 45 days before the draft.

 

[Ziggyjoe21]

This is probably a stupid question but why do some people keep score? Why can't they just check the box score online?

Also, can someone explain Fenway park to me? I was in Boston last year. Fenway is noticeably old, outdated, and tiny relative to the city/fanbase. Yet, some people talk about it like it's some baseball gem.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Scorekeeping predates the internet, so people like the old-timey-ness of it. It's clearly a dated concept today, but some people like to do it to stay engaged in the game.

And people like outdated things. So they like Fenway, Wrigley...and scorekeeping!

 

[robert terwilliger]

because it is a baseball gem.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

This is probably a stupid question but why do some people keep score? Why can't they just check the box score online?

Also, can someone explain Fenway park to me? I was in Boston last year. Fenway is noticeably old, outdated, and tiny relative to the city/fanbase. Yet, some people talk about it like it's some baseball gem.

For me, especially at the Minor League level, I enjoy scorekeeping because it helps me remember which future MLB stars I got to see. I also found that it helps keep me focused on the game and if something truly spectacular happens, it's tangible proof I was there.

As for Fenway, all the things you mentioned are precisely why it's a gem. There's all the history that happened there, the things that set it apart from other parks - the Green Monster, Pesky's Pole, and The Lone Red Seat - that it's the oldest park in MLB, and built in a different era when ballparks were built to the weird city blocks they often occupied. There's also the fact that it and Wrigley are the last two classic parks. At one point you still had Tiger, Yankee, and Comiskey in that group, but with it just being down to Fenway and Wrigley they're sort of exactly that - rare gems.

 

[Ziggyjoe21]

For me, especially at the Minor League level, I enjoy scorekeeping because it helps me remember which future MLB stars I got to see. I also found that it helps keep me focused on the game and if something truly spectacular happens, it's tangible proof I was there.

As for Fenway, all the things you mentioned are precisely why it's a gem. There's all the history that happened there, the things that set it apart from other parks - the Green Monster, Pesky's Pole, and The Lone Red Seat - that it's the oldest park in MLB, and built in a different era when ballparks were built to the weird city blocks they often occupied. There's also the fact that it and Wrigley are the last two classic parks. At one point you still had Tiger, Yankee, and Comiskey in that group, but with it just being down to Fenway and Wrigley they're sort of exactly that - rare gems.

This actually makes a lot of sense. Thanks. Sounds like history has a lot of significance in baseball. Do you think it's because there is a lot of "older" people who watch it? I keep reading that the baseball fan base keeps getting older and older, and its having a hard time attracting the younger generations. (This is especially true in Pittsburgh, I knew literally zero people my age who liked or watched the Pirates until 2010. But to be fair I grew up in the midst of the Pirates 22 straight losing seasons.)

In terms of the bold, 2 separate people in this thread mentioned that keeping scores helps them stay "engaged" or "focused" in the game. Is this a common thing to need help to stay interested during the game? From my own perspective as a hockey and football fan, I've very rarely lost interest in a sporting event to the point where I lost focus. Usually if it's a boring game or a blow out.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

This actually makes a lot of sense. Thanks. Sounds like history has a lot of significance in baseball. Do you think it's because there is a lot of "older" people who watch it? I keep reading that the baseball fan base keeps getting older and older, and its having a hard time attracting the younger generations. (This is especially true in Pittsburgh, I knew literally zero people my age who liked or watched the Pirates until 2010. But to be fair I grew up in the midst of the Pirates 22 straight losing seasons.)

In terms of the bold, 2 separate people in this thread mentioned that keeping scores helps them stay "engaged" or "focused" in the game. Is this a common thing to need help to stay interested during the game? From my own perspective as a hockey and football fan, I've very rarely lost interest in a sporting event to the point where I lost focus. Usually if it's a boring game or a blow out.

I think it's more because baseball is to America what hockey is to Canada - it's the sport that is ingrained in our national consciousness (even if football is where it's at now). In baseball you have a sport that just about anybody could play - instead of kids playing shinny on a frozen pond you have kids playing stickball in a vacant lot. You can romanticize it more so than you can romanticize football or basketball and so the bygone era of the game becomes a cherished cultural memory. You have the noted poet Walt Whitman speaking of baseball in glowing terms

I like your interest in sports ball, chiefest of all base-ball particularly: base-ball is our game: the American game: I connect it with our national character. Sports take people out of doors, get them filled with oxygen generate some of the brutal customs (so-called brutal customs) which, after all, tend to habituate people to a necessary physical stoicism. We are some ways a dyspeptic, nervous set: anything which will repair such losses may be regarded as a blessing to the race. We want to go out and howl, swear, run, jump, wrestle, even fight, if only by so doing we may improve the guts of the people: the guts, vile as guts are, divine as guts are!

and

Baseball is the hurrah game of the republic! That's beautiful: the hurrah game! well—it's our game: that's the chief fact in connection with it: America's game: has the snap, go, fling, of the American atmosphere—belongs as much to our institutions, fits into them as significantly, as our constitutions, laws: is just as important in the sum total of our historic life.

The quote I love best though, is from Terrance Mann (James Earl Jones' character in Field of Dreams):

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again.

As for the Pirates, bingo - you had the misfortune of being born in the midst of a lost generation for the Buccos. I was born in '82. I'm a Pirates fan and it was tough growing up, especially in Braves country, during those long, lost years. Simultaneously you had one of the worst owners who really didn't care about marketing the team - the new shiny that was PNC was all that was needed, right? So it's not so much that it's an older fanbase - especially at the MiLB level I see plenty of people in the 30 and under crowd.

As for my comment on staying focused I should explain that I sometimes have trouble tuning out conversations going on around me - to the point where the person sitting behind me talking about their kid's ballet recital will annoy the crap out of me. Keeping score helps me shut that out. I have the same problem in other events I go to as well, (heck even in restaurants my wife will sometimes realize I'm tuning into another convo and having trouble tuning it out) so it's not a "baseball is boring so I must do something to keep my mind occupied" sort of thing. I do find, however, that it has helped me a better baseball fan though. If I look back and see that a batter has been squeezing ground balls through the gap between short and 3rd, it helps me understand why the infield has shifted. Or that the reason why a batter is being intentionally walked is because the guy batting behind him has gone 0-for the series, takes first pitch strikes like they're going out of style, and once he's behind in the count he doesn't come back from behind.

 

[BigMac1212]

Why in the world of Rollie Fingers does the Athletics have the DSL Pirates in their farm system?

 

[hoglund]

This is probably a stupid question but why do some people keep score? Why can't they just check the box score online?

Also, can someone explain Fenway park to me? I was in Boston last year. Fenway is noticeably old, outdated, and tiny relative to the city/fanbase. Yet, some people talk about it like it's some baseball gem.

It's because of it's history and all the baseball greats have played there. It's been renovated a few times, there are now seats behind the green monster and the grass there is better shape than most stadiums.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Why in the world of Rollie Fingers does the Athletics have the DSL Pirates in their farm system?

Probably nothing more than a coding error.

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

I have a question:

What constitutes a clown pounding? Or how do you know when it is a clown pounding?

What if the other team comes back?

 

[darko]

I have a question:

What constitutes a clown pounding? Or how do you know when it is a clown pounding?

What if the other team comes back?

Being up 10 runs or more (Marc may disagree).

 

[BigMac1212]

What's the purpose of Summer Collegiate Baseball leagues?

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

What's the purpose of Summer Collegiate Baseball leagues?

Scouting. Seeing how guys perform with wooden bats.

 

[Jackets Woodchuck]

Scouting. Seeing how guys perform with wooden bats.

Players in those leagues also benefit from familiarity with wood bats before going pro.

 

[BigMac1212]

What happens when a pitch is a "concrete mixer?"

 

[rangerssharks414]

What happens when a pitch is a "concrete mixer?"

I have never heard that before. I have heard of a cement mixer, though. That is another term for a hanging breaking ball, and those can go a long way.

 

[Oscar Acosta]

Scorekeeping predates the internet, so people like the old-timey-ness of it. It's clearly a dated concept today, but some people like to do it to stay engaged in the game.

And people like outdated things. So they like Fenway, Wrigley...and scorekeeping!

Staying engaged is a huge part of why I would guess. For a couple summers in college I would work for the Edmonton Cracker Cats because I thought I was a huge baseball fan but it wasn't until I was tasked with being the official scorekeeper that I realized how much of every game I was missing. I had to pay attention to everything and my interest in every pitch went up substantially as a fan because of it. I don't keep my own score now but I can see why people would.

Best part of the job was doing all the post game writing for the team I tried to write articles like I was a scribe from the early 1900s and tell a grand story. Had to listen to away games on the radio and write as I went for the website. I made Joe Jiannetti sound like the great Babe Ruth due to his power. Had teams other fans from around the states comment they would follow our website just for the league stories I would write. Best job I ever had and imagine ever will.

Wonder what ever happened to Big Joe Jiannetti. Guy was clutch and in that low level pro league hit bombs. Still miss pro baseball in Edmonton no matter how small time it was.

 

[kingsholygrail]

So if a catcher drops strike 3, he has to tag the batter right?

Also, how does the foul tip deal work where the batter is still out?

 

[darko]

So if a catcher drops strike 3, he has to tag the batter right?

Also, how does the foul tip deal work where the batter is still out?

If a catcher drops strike 3 he needs to either tag the batter/runner or throw to 1st base.

If the catcher catches the foul tip it is considered a strike. So obviously in 1-1 count if that happens it becomes 1-2 count. In 2-2 count it's strike 3 and the batter is out.

 

[darko]

What happens when a pitch is a "concrete mixer?"

Never heard of it but this is what I found.

A baseball pitched with the intent to break out of the strike zone that fails to break and ends up hanging in the strike zone; an unintentional slow fastball with side spin resembling a fixed-axis spinning cement mixer, which does not translate.

 

[kingsholygrail]

If a catcher drops strike 3 he needs to either tag the batter/runner or throw to 1st base.

If the catcher catches the foul tip it is considered a strike. So obviously in 1-1 count if that happens it becomes 1-2 count. In 2-2 count it's strike 3 and the batter is out.

Thank you for the clarification.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

If a catcher drops strike 3 he needs to either tag the batter/runner or throw to 1st base.

If the catcher catches the foul tip it is considered a strike. So obviously in 1-1 count if that happens it becomes 1-2 count. In 2-2 count it's strike 3 and the batter is out.

In addition if the batter is out on a foul tip, the ump will signal it accordingly

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

I have never heard that before. I have heard of a cement mixer, though. That is another term for a hanging breaking ball, and those can go a long way.

Not just a hanging breaking ball, but any pitch that has simple, straight movement that is slower than a typical fastball. Some fastballs end up being cement mixers. Madson's ball to Valbuena on Friday is a good example.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

If a catcher drops strike 3 he needs to either tag the batter/runner or throw to 1st base.

If the catcher catches the foul tip it is considered a strike. So obviously in 1-1 count if that happens it becomes 1-2 count. In 2-2 count it's strike 3 and the batter is out.

Catcher doesn't have to catch the foul tip in order for it to be a strike. He does have to catch it for it to be strike 3 though.