Professional Rounders

[Foe]

Anyone been watching the World Series? I wasn't really a fan of baseball but over the last couple of weeks I'm the Houston area it's been difficult to avoid it. Watched a good amount of the World Series and actually quite enjoyed it once you start to pick up the game and tactics.

Altuve is such a don. Looks like he should be playing little league but Jesus fuck he's good.

[Giggles]

Nah, too much down to chance and the winners lose far too many games for it to be taken seriously.

It's just really really dull too.

[Baz]

Overly long, otherwise it’d be good. If they could figure out a way to 20/20 it up I’d probably be all over it.

[Jimmy Floyd]

As I mentioned the other week, I've really got into it recently. Great game if you can overlook the fact that it's mainly based on nostalgia and nothing must ever change.

The happenings in Game 3 were utterly bizarre though. Basically the Dodgers had a Japanese starting pitcher, and this guy hit him for an early home run (which started a game-losing meltdown by said Japanese pitcher), and the guy celebrated by doing a slitty eye gesture. Now, if that happened here I'm pretty sure the sky would fall in. Over there, he gets a 5 game ban NEXT SEASON (which is like a 1 match ban in football) and in the next game of the World Series, gets a standing ovation from his own fans.

I think Houston had to win Game 4, Kershaw will fuck them up next game.

[Disco]

There are too many games which makes watching any single one of them utterly meaningless. Plus every game goes on too long so again, individual moments are themselves almost meaningless.

[Foe]

As I mentioned the other week, I've really got into it recently. Great game if you can overlook the fact that it's mainly based on nostalgia and nothing must ever change.

The happenings in Game 3 were utterly bizarre though. Basically the Dodgers had a Japanese starting pitcher, and this guy hit him for an early home run (which started a game-losing meltdown by said Japanese pitcher), and the guy celebrated by doing a slitty eye gesture. Now, if that happened here I'm pretty sure the sky would fall in. Over there, he gets a 5 game ban NEXT SEASON (which is like a 1 match ban in football) and in the next game of the World Series, gets a standing ovation from his own fans.

I think Houston had to win Game 4, Kershaw will fuck them up next game.

The darvish meltdown was spectacular. The astros could have 7 or 8 on him in two innings.

Kershaw was something else though. I don't know much about pitching, but the Gulf in quality between him and all the others that have played is quite spectacular. As it should be when he's earning $33million a season. Altuve on under $4m/ season is a bargain.

The whole song singing around the 7th innings is a fucking shambles though.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Pitching is a great and wondrous mystery of the type we all need to discover later in life. When they pulled Darvish out and put in Kenta Maeda, the summariser on the radio feed I was listening to said it was a disaster because now Maeda (who's normally a starter anyway) would have to pitch 3 innings and so wouldn't be able to pitch again until game 6. Whereas the fatties in right field can apparently play 162 full games a year without even thinking about it.

[Spoonsky]

There are too many games which makes watching any single one of them utterly meaningless. Plus every game goes on too long so again, individual moments are themselves almost meaningless.

Yep, that's why I only watch the World Series.

There a couple of guys from Houston in my residence hall so I've been keeping up with it. The end of Game 2 was mental.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I think the idea is you can just dip in and dip out, and the show will be on the road and the stats being compiled ready for when you're next free. It's not like football (yours or ours) where every moment is MASSIVE, which for me is quite refreshing.

[Giggles]

Every individual moment is meaningless and next thing you're left with two teams.

[John]

I've been listening to a baseball podcast for about six months without actually watching any baseball. I listen to it because I like hearing Michael Schur talk nonsense for a bit, and at least half of the podcast is shit like him and his mate 'drafting' their favourite utensils, but it's nominally a baseball podcast and I've gained a bit of an appreciation for the statistical side of things.

The one thing that eludes me is how 'Wins' are calculated. In a three thousand game season it seems like a player getting about ten wins brings out the bunting.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I took ages to work that out but I think it's basically the earliest pitcher whose team never loses the lead again is given the 'win'.

Or to put it another way, the pitcher who pitches the inning just before his team takes the lead for the last time gets it.

[Disco]

Is that a particularly useful metric?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Not really, just a journal of record. The main one they use for pitchers is 'ERA' which is like economy rate in cricket.

They record literally everything though and have been, not changing anything to make sure records are comparable, since about 1905.

[Ian]

Yeah, I remember when reading an OOTP baseball review it saying the game has, largely, changed so little that when they introduced the feature to be able to start as any franchise in any year of MLB history it doesn't make a mockery of the engine or whatever. Whereas in Football Manager, say, it'd be impossible if you wanted to have it realistic for the time.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Game 5 was a lolfest and the Astros won in the 10th. I don't really like either of these teams but imagine Houston will do enough from here.

[mikem]

As I mentioned the other week, I've really got into it recently. Great game if you can overlook the fact that it's mainly based on nostalgia and nothing must ever change.

But that is what protects baseball, and to a lesser extent hockey, from the NBA / NFL curse of utter awfulness. The combination of the minor league system, the difference between following the regular season and the playoffs, how local so much of it still is, and the ability to get tickets make it the best professional sport here. Well, lacrosse is obviously better, but....

[Jimmy Floyd]

I'm with you, brother. Baseball and cricket could really benefit from a cultural exchange. We need better and more meaningful stats; you need sandwiches and to get rid of the fucking designated hitter because it ruins the fun.

[mikem]

The streaks and the tyranny of averages is the fun of following an 182 game season. Somebody is always on the verge of something. It is why people are still so pissed about the steroid era. Don't get me started on the DH; I was pissed when they moved the Astros to the AL.

Honestly, we need the variety of swings and not the sandwiches. We'd be building giant three story movable grills that make chipotle sushi pasta sliders and still nobody could hit a curveball or a slider.
Leave that for a sport designed entirely around the slow torturous denigration of the brain stem.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Fans of these things may wish to know the World Series start tonight (1.09am), a nice star-studded affair between the Red Sox and the Dodgers. Red Sox are the favourites but the Dodgers should have enough to trouble them. Game 1 is at Fenway and kingpin Clayton Kershaw is pitching for LA.

The main problem is the timings are just awful for the weekday games on this side of the Atlantic.

[Dan]

I stopped watching once the NFL/college season started, but haven't the Red Sox just been murdering everyone all year?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Pretty much. Mookie Betts has been a joke, as has most of their pitching. It was nice to see the Yankees have a 100-win season and still get whomped by them in both the race and the division series.

[Ian]

1.09?

[John]

American TV times are bonkers. You get shit like shows starting at 11.37 pretty regularly.

[Jimmy Floyd]

8.09 eastern. All the playoff games have had that nine minute gap, presumably it's to go through the 48 different taco offers on the broadcast.

'Enjoy 9 free tacos if Dustin Pedroia doubles in the bottom of the 4th! Brought to you by the Northern Ohio Rubber Co, smoothing your journey since 1984. God Bless America.'

[Dan]

Just got in & remembered that the London game is on.

Yankees lead 17-13 at the bottom of the 8th :cab:

[Giggles]

Where do they play London games of that? There's hardly a big enough ground is there?

[Dan]

It's at London Stadium - think I remember seeing it's 385ft in the centre. I'm not an expert, but that feels pretty short.

EDIT: Yep, apparently the league average is 402.6

[niko_cee]

I still don't really get the nuances of this game. When runs come in big gluts is that indicative of a pitcher having some sort of breakdown? Is there a point at which they are just there for the taking and can't be withdrawn/subbed/whatever they do?

Shame Boston didn't get a grand slam to tie it up when the bases were loaded in the 8th.

[Giggles]

The day I read that the pitcher was the 'offense' was the day I was done with it.

[Gray Fox]

Having not watched, having a short pitch says to me there's likely to be more home runs and therefore more runs in general.

Your aim is basically to get a hittable pitch. Anything that doesn't pitch the strike zone and is left, adds to the pitchers count. Pitcher gets 3 do overs and the 4th would allow everyone to walk around 1 base. So if you get to 3 with 0 strikes against you, you can bet the next pitch is going to be a bit slower and down the middle. Obviously it's not quite like that every time. Sometimes the pitchers throws a bad one and you smash it away and sometimes you'll get one that bamboozles you.

Probably similar to facing a fast bowler in Cricket. You've about the same time to decide how the ball is coming and if/how to hit it.

[niko_cee]

I also never get why fouls count against the 'batter'. I assume that's just a case of necessity/expediency as it takes long enough as it is and the game might never end if they weren't counted as strikes in the early part of the count. It's an odd game.

[Jimmy Floyd]

They count up until two strikes, and then they don't

The pitcher is the 'defense', although it's pointless delineating it that way.

[niko_cee]

They count up until two strikes, and then they don't


Yeah, but why?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Just to balance the game up I guess. If the third one counted then a pitcher could strike you out without ever missing the bat, whereas if they didn't go on the count at all then it would last for hours.

[bruhnaldo]

Conversely, if you try to bunt and it goes foul on your 3rd strike you're out.

[Lewis]

This 'sign stealing' thing being a massive scandal seems odd to me when they analyse literally every other aspect of the sport to death from a million angles. Why wouldn't you try to work that sort of thing out?

[Jimmy Floyd]

They are (sort of) allowed to work it out from on/around the playing area (e.g. a runner at second base will often try to do it), but the Astros set up a camera to record opposition signs and then sent someone down to bang bin lids to relay the findings. This was deemed to be too devious and co-ordinated a method of doing it. I don't think they've broken a specific rule with regarding to sign stealing, I think it just comes under general cheating or whatever.

Baseball is full of ridiculous 'unwritten rules' that make no sense to an outsider, but if you question them to a hardcore fan they scream at you for not knowing what you're talking about. For example, when you hit a home run, you're not allowed to watch it in the air, or show any sign of celebration before you're back in the dugout. You also have to make the home run lap a speedy one. If you breach this, then the pitcher will try to throw a ball at your head next time (or the next few times) and this is seen as morally legitimate.

[Lewis]

Where are you encountering these other fans?

[Jimmy Floyd]

I say 'you', I don't literally mean me. I read things.

[John]

https://youtu.be/3X_Efr749As

It's years old, but this is so good. The timing could not be better.

[Bob Sacamano]

After playing abit of the 'The Show' I'm really enjoying baseball at the minute.

Tatis Jr is just :drool:

[Jimmy Floyd]

I will lol quite hard if they beat the Dodgers, almost as much as I did when the Cubs got shat on by the Marlins.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The lid-banging Astros have come back from 3-0 down to be 3-3 in the 'semi-final' series - I have never seen so much seething in my life, it's hilarious. It's like the whole of America is Goodison Park.

[Pleb]

I have no idea what's going on but the Astros shitting their way to a World Series is fucking hilarious.

Looks like the other Championship game is going to a game 7.

[Bob Sacamano]

https://streamable.com/q2hldh

:D

[Jimmy Floyd]

One of the biggest single-play bottle jobs in the history of sport I think, this morning. Dodgers would have led 3-1 in the World Series but now it's 2-2. As this pitch was delivered Tampa Bay trailed by 1 in the bottom of the ninth.

1320263678562865152

[Shindig]

I'd appeal that shit and say the ball was tampered with.