April 7-12, 1905
Senior A.B. Bradsher of Trinity College (Duke Univ.) struck out 53 batters in 3 games covering 33 innings without recording a victory. Bradsher’s hurling feat started on April 8, 1905 in Macon by striking out 22 Mercer batters over 10 innings, tossing a no-hitter that was called on account of darkness with the score 0-0. Three days later (Apr. 10), Bradsher would lose a 12 inning thriller to Georgia Tech in Atlanta by a 3-2 score while striking out 16. Two days later (Apr. 12), Bradsher would strike out 15 at Clemson yet lose 4-3 in 11 innings. Duke’s baseball media guide lists Bradsher as the school’s career strikeout leader with 501. His 1904 and 1905 seasons rank first and second on the season strikeout list. Interestingly, no record exists of Bradsher ever pitching professional baseball at any level.
Apr. 15, 1885
Professional baseball made its regular season debut in the South with the start of play by the Southern League. Organized under the auspices of Atlanta Constitution editor Henry Grady, the league consisted of 8 cities: Atlanta, Augusta, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Columbus (Ga), Macon, Memphis and Nashville. Gus Schmelz interrupted a 10 year major league managerial career to direct the 1885 Atlanta team to the pennant in the inaugural season. Opening day results were: Atlanta 10 Augusta 1; Nashville 11 Columbus 9; Macon 4 Chattanooga 2; and Birmingham 8 Memphis 3.
Since I know how excited you all are about the Yale vs. UMass-Lowell Frozen Four game, it’s streaming on WatchESPN right now: http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index
I really enjoyed that podcast posted here last week. Have more episodes been made? Is it on ITUNES yet?
As always, go Bulldogs.
We’re working on getting more episodes out. It is a bit of a technical hurdle to get them edited up right now.
I love this new feature. Will it be ongoing?
Yale is up 2-0 in the 2nd period, but the River Hawks are about to start their first power play of the game.
The Captain, Riley Wetmore, puts UMass-Lowell on the board just after the power play ended, with a nifty backhanded score.
And another River Hawks goal 17 seconds later! Tie game, 2-2.
Still tied 2-2 at 2nd intermission.
Overtime
From previous thread: I like the unbalanced schedule. I want to beat the Mets more, and more often, than the Diamondbacks. Playing the Phillies never gets dull to me.
Crap. Andrew Miller wins it for Yale in overtime. Congrats, JonathanF!
Wait…I’ve only been half paying attention to this Yale hockey stuff on here, but this means they’re playing for the national championship, right? I thought JonathanF downplayed them as good but not great when he was starting all of this! Crap, this whole bit worked so well for them that I guess we’d better prepare for Stu to write a full update on every freaking Vandy baseball game starting with the SEC Tournament.
Gotta admit, the NL adopting the DH would probably kill MLB for me. I loathe AL baseball, and I think I’d probably stop watching if, God forbid, it comes to the NL in ten years.
It’s certainly not coming anytime in the near enough future for people to be mentioning the idea of McCann and Gattis together.
The DH is an abomination before all that is holy.
1. DH
2. Astroturf
3. domes
in that order.
This could get interesting for a certain Nats pitcher…
http://tinyurl.com/cs62enq
Yep. one game left in the college hockey season and my team… our team… is in it. On Saturday night they play Quinnipiac, the #1 team in the country who they’ve already played 3 times, losing all three fairly handily. I was sitting tonight immediately behind the Yale coach’s wife, and after Yale won, before we know QPac would win, I said to her: “So, fourth time’s the charm?” She smiled and said, “If you’re only going to beat them one time out of four, you should win the last one.” I’m flying high, and believe me, I feel for you The Flying Bernard — the playoffs are a crapshoot, as Braves fans know only too well.
In baseball news, I’m going to see the Pirates-Reds game tomorrow night while waiting here in Pittsburgh. Always like seeing a new park.
And that ballpark is really cool.
Quinnipiac plays hockey? Who knew? I thought they just conducted polls. (2 CT schools in the final–not bad.)
Ha!
Hard to side with the Dodgers in a bench-clearing-brawl situation when they employ both Ted Lilly and Josh Beckett…
But, honestly, who hasn’t hit Carlos Quentin with a pitch at least twice by now?
Turns out, Greinke broke his collarbone. For LA, that was one expensive fight.
The umpire said that Greinke was ejected because he was the “instigator.”
Poor Dodgers
@23 It looked like retaliation for SD throwing ball over Kemp’s head.
@25 Retaliation in a run run game on a 3-2 count?
*ONE run game, my apologies. No excuse for that with the edit feature.
To the batter that was hit. No one else.
Greinke wasn’t throwing at Quentin. It was a 1-run game and a 3-2 count; plus, the latter led the league in HBP last season while only playing in half the games. Quentin is an asshole.
Quentin was hit and it hurt. Batters do not bail out quickly on 2 strike counts. He reacted and did not reflect. Crap happens.
#TeamQuentin
I blame the DH rule. No other way to retaliate.
Quentin is a ball bag. You lead the universe in HBP, you take your base.
Chipper Jones played 19 seasons, and was hit by 18 pitches in 10,614 PA. Never more than 4 in a season. Fred McGriff: 39 pitches in 10,174 PA. Topped out at 5 in a single season.
Carlos Quentin: 2,793 PA, 115 HBP. That’s a 162 game average of 26.
If you don’t want the free base, you can get out of the way.Take your base.
I blame Andruw.
Torrential rain in DC right now, but hopefully tonight will be fine. People in the city are pumped for this series.
Quentin is in the wrong. No way he was throwing at him there.
If I were Donny Baseball, I would call up the biggest dude in the minors and have him pitch to Quentin. The first pitch would be a fastball to the ribs.
Greinke broke his own shoulder by leading with it to block Quentin. What did he yell at Quentin? Kidding about DH, but Greinke was at 88 pitches and would not bat again.
@36 What was Greinke supposed to do in that situation? If you’ve got a guy who’s going to run into you, you’d lead with your shoulder too. His only other options would have bee to stand square shouldered and take it or turn and flat out run away, and either are just as likely or more likely to lead to an injury.
@37, he could always break out a little judo on Quentin. It’s perfect for dealing with charging maniacs. 😉
What if this happened to the Braves?
El Oso Blanco would have eaten Quentin like a salmon from the stream.
El Oso Blanco is quickly replacing Chuck Norris in the mythology dept.
I bet he’s a better actor, too.
Yeah, where was the Dodgers’ catcher?
Carlos Quentin is a scumbag. I agree with Mattingly; he should be suspended until Greinke is healthy, but it won’t happen.
His swings and misses have been known to
extinguish forest fires three states away.
He once hit a single, just to see what it was like.
His pitchers shake him off, but only because they want him to come to the mound so they can bask in his radiance.
El Oso Blanco IS the Most Interesting Catcher In The World.
Having broken the same collarbone twice, i would say it would be unlikely that he broke it on the initial contact, more likely it happened when he fell, or in the ensuing pileup.
Having said that I agree with Paul @30. both guys reacted, sometimes stuff like that happens. If you’re gonna lean over the plate, you’re gonna get plunked, if you’re gonna pitch inside, you’re gonna plunk a guy or two. It’s just gonna happen.
Haha @44, there’s one for the ages.
Carlos Quentin may be a scumbag, but Zack Greinke is a diva asswipe. Maybe I’m cold hearted, but I am finding it impossible to feel sorry for Greinke. Besides, knocking the Dodgers down a peg improves our own post-season chances.
Doesn’t mean the guy should be charging the mound. What a tool.
I don’t have a problem with Greinke. One basic thing with his social anxiety is that he has a tendency to say out loud what many people would politely lie about. Quentin’s the idiot who bum rushed the mound.
If we can’t outwin the Dodgers, we don’t deserve to be in the playoffs. They have some top-heavy talent, but the rest of the roster is a bunch of scrubs.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9152045/it-took-fortune-assemble-2013-los-angeles-dodgers-take-many-more-millions-turn-championship-caliber-team
Evan Gattis can palm a medicine ball.
@48, Interesting article. Probably makes me feel even less sorry for the Dodgers, and it still doesn’t make me feel sorry for Greinke. Social anxiety or not, he’s still an overpaid ass.
@50 Shame on him for taking market value for his talents.
Slugworth, why do you have it in for Greinke?
I wonder how much I could get for a pack of incriminating documents on Craigslist…
Just watched video – Quentin is a redass who should get 50 games. No love for Greinke, but that was just barely over the batter’s box inside stripe, which Quentin was hanging over.
Even worse, after running out there and instigating a brawl,he proceeds to just bump shoulders and play grab ass. Throw a punch if you are that angry, p****y. I seriously hope he got slugged multiple times at the bottom of the pile.
Apparently, it didn’t end on the field. Matt Kemp confronted Quentin in the parking lot.
http://tinyurl.com/bsk87hk
Heyward, Gattis, and Uggla would destroy anyone in a brawl. Kimbrel could probably unleash some vicious punches as well.
I was at the game when Nolan Ryan beat up Robin Ventura.
After he was done with Ventura, he went after Jack McDowell. Bo Jackson pulled McDowell away.
However, it should be known that Ryan was throwing at Ventura on purpose and did not get tossed from the game.
Gattis yes. Uggla maybe. Jason Heyward has shown that he has the ability to get broken by a slightly angry moth flying into him. He’s not Mr. Glass but he’s not far from J.D. Drew levels of frailty either. He’s not the guy who’s going to dominate a brawl.
#54: My! Such bloodlust! You’d think you were me suggesting Cody “The Shrimp” Ross get a change-up to the hind quarters!
I attended that ridiculous Yankees/Orioles brawl in ’98.
We were sitting behind the O’s dugout, about halfway up the section, so we could really hear everything. Oddly, we were having a fairly animated conversation/debate about Miles Davis when Bernie Williams hit a 3-run bomb off Armando Benitez to take the lead in the bottom of the 8th. IIRC, the thing landed in the portal of the RF upper deck, an outrageous blast.
But, with his very next pitch, Benitez hit Tino Martinez in the back between the 2 and the 4 & the impact was so loud, you could hear the thump resonate throughout the Stadium.
Then all hell broke loose, and it went on & on & on:
http://tinyurl.com/cuh9yv3
Few remember this, but immediately after order was restored, Tim Raines hit the very next pitch for a 2-run HR. Place goes nuts again.
So, after everything dies down for an instant, my friend turns to me and says, “So, anyway… I think ‘Sketches of Spain’ is really overrated…”
@59, don’t start shit for kabuki purposes if the rest of your team is putting itself out there to back you up and risking a very real response. I hate headhunting, and I hate throwing at players in general. This was neither, and I don’t advocate hitting with a pitch in retaliation. I just wanted Quentin to get some of the fight he started, and with someone his own size.
If that initial contact did break Greinke’s collar bone, he’s a tough bastard. For several minutes after breaking mine, the only response I could muster was to sort of roll around on the ground and moan. I certainly wouldn’t’ve been squaring up to fight a bigass athelete.
Hah! I always liked Sketches of Spain. Frankly like it better than Ole Coltrane, though I always liked the song Aisha.
@44,58 LOL! An example of why I spend too much time on this blog.
All my friends here in Ohio are congratulating me for the Braves fine start. I say well, yeah, but Phils, Cubs, poor effing bastards with the worst owner in baseball. Don’t get me wrong I’m stoked but I want so see us kick the crap out of the Nats before I REALLY get excited.
It’s funny in the footage of that Orioles-Yankees brawl how the announcers, coaches and players all immediately recognize that Darryl Strawberry is the lunatic that most needs to be kept under control.
#61: So it’s not violence and bloodthirstiness on the diamond that are the problem, just the instances in which they are deployed. I’m just trying to figure out how high the moral high ground is you’re trying to occupy.
I will say that I think it’s odd that ballplayers start “brawls” in which they just grab and shove each other around instead of you know, brawling.
@66, I am not really getting you here, but it seems to be something personal, so I think I’ll just say “You are right and I am not” and concede victory to you.
#66: No, no, not too personal. I just sat up when I read your visceral, violent comments directed towards Quentin. They’re a stark contrast to the high-moralizing sanctimony you directed toward me and others who wished Cody Ross would get a brushback to the ribs for disrespecting the game/Braves with his p***y bat flips. Figured it was worth noting, if only in the hope you don’t get equally sanctimonious the next time we face Cody Ross and I start rooting for the Braves do something far less savage than you had in mind for Quentin.
Who the fuck is Cody Ross?
My quote from then
“I was not taught to resort to violence to resolve issues that do not threaten my safety. Threatening someone’s career and health over some perceived affront to pride is just cowardly and juvenile, and to listen to advocates of this method imply that it’s actually some mark of masculinity, “professionalism” or personal fortitude is positively Orwellian. Really, pitchers that throw at hitters are the worst sort of p*ssy. Go slug the guy if you are such a badass. Taking advantage of your position to accomplish what you don’t have the sack to do face to face is pretty revelatory of the amount courage required.”
Seems to pretty much be consistent with my quote from today. I despise “codes”. I despise “tough guys” who hide behind them. If Quentin was so aggrieved that violence was necessary, go f***ing fight the guy. If Ross has pissed you off that badly, go get a piece of him. Doing it with a baseball, or counting on the rest of your team to bail your ass out is exactly the same cowardice. If it suits your moral code, well fine. But I never played post-little league baseball, so I defer to your experience.
Don’t start none, there won’t be none.
Drilling someone because they watched their 480 ft bomb for a few seconds too long has always seemed ridiculous. If you don’t want to be “disrespected” or “shown up” then maybe try pitching better.
Charging the mound after getting hit in the upper arm with a glancing blow is also just as lame.
My experience has been that baseball players are generally towards the top-end of the douchey scale anyways, so this is what you get I guess.
#71: “But I never played post-little league baseball, so I defer to your experience.” Thank you!
Douche athlete scale, from most to least douchey:
Tennis
Baseball
Golf
Football-mostly quarterbacks and wide-outs
Basketball
Wrestling
Hockey
Quite welcome. I freely admit my experience was limited to 3 years of D-1 collegiate rugby, which is quite the pink tea compared to HS baseball.
Apparently Gattis is playing first today.
@ajcbraves #Braves lineup:
Simmons ss,
Heyward rf,
JUpton lf,
Gattis 1B,
BUpton cf,
Uggla 2b,
CJohnson 3B,
Laird
c Teheran p
Gattis has a total of 7 games logged at 1B, all at Single A
They also apparently didn’t practice him at 1st at all this spring.
#76: Rugby is indeed a lot tougher than baseball. I certainly couldn’t play it because I don’t like taking hits. It’s why I ducked out of football after seventh grade. I preferred baseball because of its elegance, strategy, and relative civility.
I guess I take a very dim view of preening – whether it’s conspicuously admiring something you did successful as opposed to failing the other 7 out of 10 times, or moral sanctimony. If I saw my kid showing up one of his peers like a snotty douchebag, I’d be tempted to give him a smack on the rear, too.
C-Mart on the 15-day DL with a shoulder sprain.
Perhaps I should put quotes around that: “shoulder sprain”.
@75, you forgot lax, bro.
Evan Gattis will win the NL gold glove at 1B. And it will be presented to him in a ceremony before tomorrow’s game.
If you don’t want to get shown up, play better. Using a ball or a bat or a size disadvantage or your teammates to make up for your failures in the game is the mark of a sissy. Perhaps that’s why rugby, despite being an extremely physical sport, so rarely has fights.
75- Anyone who would put Hockey at the bottom of such a list can’t have ever lived in Canada. The density of douchery in your average men’s league is comparable to a black hole.