This is Wally Pipp. He was an outstanding major league baseball player over a long period of time (1913-1928). When Pipp was a young boy, he suffered an injury playing hockey, which limited vision in his left eye and left him prone to bad headaches.On June 2, 1925 Pipp was suffering from one of those headaches and asked Yankees trainer Doc Woods for a couple of aspirins. One thing led to another and Pipp ended up taking the day off, allowing a young kid to have a shot that day. It should be mentioned Pipp wasn't swinging the bat well either, and the team was in a sour slump at the time.
Lou Gehrig was "the Kid" and had an immediate impact. A month later Pipp suffered a "brain concussion" and Gehrig stayed in the lineup for the next 14 years, becoming on the baseball's all time greats. He is one of two MLB players in the game's history to hit 40 doubles and 40 home runs in three different seasons (the other being Albert Pujols).
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Dean Arsene was called up today. The former Edmonton Ice defender gets another shot at the show, and is one of the good stories in this long, long season.
I don't quite get the reference. Is Arsene the Iron Horse?
ReplyDeleteIn any case, it's audition time for next year, and if he puts on a good show we might be looking at next year's 7th man. If Johnson goes elsewhere however, he may see even more ice-time than that.
dorito: Nah, I was just surprised that Pujols has a chance to beat a Gehrig record this season. He might be the best player I've ever seen (Schmidt, Bonds, Vladdy, Bench, Jeter) but it is still incredible when they begin reaching these levels of greatness.
ReplyDeletePurely as a hitter, he has few peers, active or otherwise. Overall, I'd take Bonds over Albert, and ARod over either, maybe.
ReplyDeleteGF: Yeah, A-Rod should have been included on that list.
ReplyDeleteExcept that ARod is such an ass. He can play ball but is he ever a dink. The best part of it is that he completely tops himself every year with another ridiculous revelation.
ReplyDeleteWhat a schmuck. Give me any of those other guys. Although Bonds of course is another kettle of fish.
Good for Arsene.
Pujols is an unbelievable player... and now he has protection. Gonna be a fun season.
ReplyDeleteNice for Arsene. Hope he's great in OKC next year and that he can play a game or two in the event -hopefully rare- of multiple injuries to the D.
ReplyDeletea "brain concussion"
ReplyDeleteGotta love old timey medical terms.
I still have a problem believing that Poo holes isn't on the steroids.
ReplyDeleteGotta love old timey medical terms.
Like a "pubic thing"?
Off topic,but a link was posted at HF today that some might find interesting
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hockeybookreviews.com/
I was expecting Motin as the callup,but good on Arsene for getting his chance.
I don't see how Bonds or A-Rod could be put over Pujols, Griffey Jr or even Frank Thomas for that matter. The chemical factor for both Barry and Alex can't be overlooked and until proven otherwise, Albert, Kenny and Frank have been playing it clean. It's sad too because without the single season home run record and the career home run record Barry Bonds would still be considered one of the all-time greats. His career didn't need a boost but he thought otherwise. Same goes for Clemens and we never really got to see A-Rod without the help because he started on them so young.
ReplyDeleteFrank Thomas doesn't belong on the list. Jeff Bagwell was a better player than Frank Thomas.
ReplyDeleteOne of the major differences with athletes today and athletes of yesteryear is the level of information we know about them.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure many have heard this apocryphal story about an event witnessed by many reporters but not reported:
Sports writers of his era usually hid character flaws from the public. In one spring-training story told now, but not then, Babe ran naked through a railroad car while being chased by a woman with a butcher's knife. Bigger than life, Ruth inspired tall tales. Some of them may have been true. Source
These days reporters are getting DNA tests on athletes kid's discarded slurpee cups to see if the kid is genetically his.
Its like when my 72 year old mother frets about another earth quake or tsunami.
Its not that its happening more often Ma, its just that you're hearing about every damn one of them and CNN makes them all sound like the end of the world.
More information does not always a good thing.
/rant
I'm personally tired of this stupid private life invasion on athletes. Let them live. What happens off-ice is none of our business, and shouldn't be.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see Arsene up. I imagine every game is critically important to the guy's pocketbook. I would love to see him get a full season as a 7th dman.
ReplyDeleteI hope this thread hits 397 posts re: Bonds/A-Rod, should be fun stuff.
ReplyDeleteThe Bonds late career surge is really strange, without question. I admit I have no idea how much using steroids would improve a ball player. One question I have is: If the benefit of using steroids is as large as Bonds' late career surge age 35, wouldn't we see more pronounced spiking in other players as well? And if the spike wasn't due to steroids (if Bonds used steroids at all, I have no idea and don't claim any insight), or entirely due to steroids, what caused the spike?
what caused the spike?
ReplyDeletePure dumb luck.
speeds: It's often ballpark effects. I don't remember when they moved into the new park but that might have helped. A lot of people read Hank Aaron's stats (he was an able HR hitter very late in his career) and don't realize the park in Atlanta was much friendlier than the Milwaukee park.
ReplyDeleteDarrell Evans too. Tiger Stadium helped.
Plus the pitching he was facing and the juiced ball and blah blah blah.
Wait, what?
ReplyDeleteWasn't the new Frisco Park a hitter's cemetary? Especially for LH batters, with that porch right on the bay?
Bonds was just flabbergasting. Was it Neyer wh wrote that the sad thing is, once he juiced and became Babe Ruth+, we all forgot about the fact we used to see him as the second coming of Willie Mays...
A lot to dislike about Bonds as a person but he was a terrific player before he even hit the juice. He could do it all and was probably going to be a HOF guy but it wasn't enough I guess.
ReplyDeleteSame as ARod.
But yeah Woodguy is right. Read Brunt's book on Orr or Ball Four. These guys partied like there was no tomorrow of course. Christ when I was in my twenties I was a madman - if you had given me piles of money plus all of the skirt I wanted, well, I couldn't even imagine the havoc I could have wreaked. Sure would have liked to get the chance though!
Curt Schilling had a great point about the advantage that steroid use gives to a ball player. Yeah, it makes them bigger and stronger but the real plus is that it keeps them fresher than the guy who isn't juicing. When you get to the dog days of summer and you've passed game 100, instead of dragging ass out there and not being able to turn on the fastball like you could earlier in the season, the guy's with the helper have a lot more energy.
ReplyDeleteBonds was an incredible player but he's tarnished his career forever in my eyes. Same goes for McGwire, Sosa, Palmeiro, Clemens and Ivan Rodriguez. All great players but you can't really tell how much assistance they had and it leaves huge blemishes on their careers.
Also, baseball more than any other sport cherishes it's career numbers and the steroid era has fucked with some of it's legendary numbers. What kind of numbers would Mantle have put up if he was able to stay healthier thanks to a little help? I'll take Greg Maddux's career over Roger Clemen's career any day.
I think the easiest answer regarding Bonds ability to do what he did at his age is he may be the most talented baseball player to ever juice.
ReplyDeletePlus he was super patient at the plate and that never hurts.
Pat: I would have went out every night until it caught up to me; which is sorta what I did anyway but I didn't get to do it in different cities and with piles of money:)
ReplyDeleteThere is no surer method for batting success than hitting strikes and not biting on balls. Make the guy throw it in there, or take your walks. If you can run the bases so much the better.
ReplyDeleteOf all the insane records Bonds set in his golden years that .609 OBP takes the cake in my books.
PJO:
ReplyDeleteI suppose it's possible, but it seems exceedingly unlikely. If it was one year, or even two, maybe. But 4 years in a row, from ages 36-39, where he just crushes his previous career best seasons in batting performance?
Again, possible, but I think it's reasonable to look for another explanation here.
LT:
My understanding is that OPS+ is supposed to adjust for park effects.
Bruce: That is pretty crazy. Obviously teams quit pitching to him, and I've never heard anyone claim that steroids give one a better eye, or improve your patience at the plate, but it sure seems like something quite different from a normal steroid boost was going on, whatever a normal steroid boost is. Then again, I'm just hypothesizing since I don't really know much about steroids...
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