New Scaratings

Why was Lou Proctor's one game, and only major league appearance for the St. Louis Browns in 1912 deleted from "The Baseball Encylopedia" in the 1980's? He had been credited with a walk as a pinch hitter against the Boston Red Sox in his only time at bat.

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"The game is afoot."

The Pirates will have a non-losing season after winning thier 81st game of the season...EGADS!!!

http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Lou_Proctor

"Proctor was supposedly a telegraph operator in Cleveland, OH who inserted his own name into a Boston Red Sox box score on May 13, 1912, walking once as a pinch hitter for the St. Louis Browns. However, research in the 1980s revealed that the plate appearance actually belonged to Pete Compton."

The answer is that he never played major league baseball, and never got that pinch hit walk.

p.s. Some think that Liljol might have had something to do with this.

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"The game is afoot."

I'm not getting excited about the Red Sox yet, but they're hanging in there. Boston Red Sox fan that I am, I have learned to never get too excited about them, no matter how well they are doing. I know that it is never too late for them to dash the hopes of their fans on the rocks of yet another heartbreaking loss on the way to winning the big one.

However, the Bosox are still looking pretty good. Could this be another miracle year for them, or are they just setting me up for dismal disappointment once again?

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"The game is afoot."

It's officially a winnning season for the Pittsburgh Pirates, as they recorded win number 82 against Texas last night.

Now they will try to hang on to one of the wildcard spots...

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liljol, still residing in a humble lil abode in Buzztime's Backyard, San Diego County, in The Horribly Site-Poor Golden State, California...

<--805 NTN Buzztime sites visited as of 11/13/2018...

F CUBS!!!!! FBOSOX!!!!!

FPDRES!!!!! FCHGRS!!!!!

Pittsburgh still has seven games left against the F CUBS & four home games against some team from Southern California. We have tickets to see Jed Gyorko on the Thursday 12:35 game...dependent on him being healthy & how many steelhead fishing days I take off from work before the trip to Pulaski to salmon fish.

Of course, the six games against the Reds will probably be the deciders to see if the Bucs make the playoffs.

If? The Bucs are 8 games up for a wildcard slot with 19 to play. 98.7% chance according to espn.com. Good chance those 6 games against the Reds mean zilch as far as making the playoffs goes, but they could mean everything as far as winning the division.

19 to play equals 19 they could lose and back to being a very bad joke.

Don't really care about the espn stat, but do agree with the Reds statement.

How do you feel about them apples now?

Thanks, BO.

Stayed up last night to watch something I hadn't seen in a LONG time. Back in the early 90s, I could go to as many Pirates' games as I wanted (my buddy had season tix from the radio station he worked at) and did go often.

That was 1 undergrad degree, two Master's degrees, a minor in European Studies from Maastricht University, two ex-wives, three dogs, and pre-fly fishing ago...EGADS!!! (Lost count of quarts of moonshine)

Even if they lose the play-in game, it has still been a fun summer of baseball for this long suffering Buccos fan...Raise the Jolly Roger!

Duplicate post.

Let's go Bucs!

There are several guesses as to where the term "bullpen" came from, but I just heard an explanation of it on the radio that I like.

Back in the very early days of baseball most baseball parks had large Bull Durham Tobacco signs, where relief pitchers warmed up behind. Anyone got a better answer...?

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"The game is afoot."

No good, Cloudy.
The term predates Durham signage.
I had heard two possible origins:
1. that it originated from a park with a pen that held actual cattle.
2. in the days preceding large grandstands, fans were cordoned off from the perimeter of the field and jammed together like cattle. The ropes were moved back and folks crowded back even tighter so that relief pitchers had some room to warm up. This led to the idea that relief pitchers were using the fans cattle-crowded viewing section, or "bull pen".

I'm not sure if there is a concrete answer for this one.

Original baseball artwork by Cloudy, Circa 1990

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"The game is afoot."

Probably there is NO answer that we can ever know to be true. I actually Googled it after listening to what the guy on the radio said. He was wrong from the get-go, when he said it was "Red Bull" signs. The site I found had several other possible explanations, but said that nobody really knows. So pick the one you like, and nobody can ever prove you wrong.

p.s. Even though "Red Bull" was wrong, the site I found had the same story with "Bull Durham Tobacco" instead.

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"The game is afoot."

All true baseball aficionados have heard an easy pop fly called "a can of corn".

Here's a trivia question, which I am pretty darn sure that I know the answer to:

Why is an easy pop fly called a "a can of corn"...?

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......................................... "Damn, a can of corn. This will never make ESPN's highlights of the game."

p.s. SPOTES, I know that you know the answer to this, but I ask you to give everyone else a chance to come up with the answer. I'd say that 24 hours is reasonable.

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"The game is afoot."

Back in the day, if a grocer wanted a canned vegtable from a high shelf, they would use a stick to bring down the item and make an easy catch. I guess corn was high on the shelves then

Nomar, you are absolutely correct... Great answer...!

Back in the day, there weren't any supermarket grocery stores. There were just little mom & pop stores scattered about towns and cities. With the limited place they had in their stores, grocers would place their parishables down low and put canned goods on higher shelves. When a customer wanted a canned good, the grocer would get his long stick, knock the canned good off the high shelf, and catch it in his grocer's apron as it fell straight down into it.

p.s. I need to apologize to SPOTES, whom I am sure knew the answer also, for asking him to wait 24 hours before answering it. I didn't think anyone would come up with the correct answer as fast as Nomar did.

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"The game is afoot."

I'm a little disappointed that nobody has commented about the GREAT baseball cartoon that I created.

I was expecting that somebody would have trashed it, and made fun of me. However, I was also hoping that somebody would have given me kudos for creating a wonderful piece of baseball artwork.

p.s. Yes, it is a self portrait.

p.p.s. I expect this will give Liljol yet another reason to ban me. Let's see if it he does...

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"The game is afoot."

Something my Dad told me many years ago may be wrong.

Supposedly, after the Chicago Black Sox scandal there was a new rule put into place, that said that baseball players in the World Series would only be paid for the first five games of the series. (Maybe four?) This was to discourage players from throwing games, when their team was about to close the series out early, so they could pick up a couple more pay checks.

I have never heard this from anybody else or any source other than my Dad. Seeing that I was very young at the time, I may have misunderstood what he was telling me.

Does anybody know if this is true or not...?

p.s. Got a feeling that SPOTES knows if there is any validity to this vague memory from the distant past of my childhood.

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"The game is afoot."

Okay, the World Series is getting close. Stick your neck out and pick which team will win it.

I'll go first and predict that the Boston Red Sox will fight off the curse once again, and take it all.

Seeing that time is growing short, I will be most disappointed with any of you, who hang back and pick a team after more have been eliminated. I think two days is enough time for you to post your team. I don't want to hear any predictions after October 4, 2013.

If I don't hear anything, I guess that I will have to assume that everyone else also thinks that the Red Sox can't be beat.

(Damn, why the heck did I do this...? Liljol will hang back, and rip me to shreds, when Boston blows it, and bows out early.)

p.s. To rile Liljol a lil' bit, I've got to add the "Tessie" song to this post. Here's the link to it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVC9b0K1Iis



p.p.s. Just for Liljol, I'm gonna post another link to where he can listen to this wonderful song one more time, and see the Celtic punk group Dropkick Murphys band that recorded "The Offical Anthem of the Boston Red Sox" cavorting around Fenway Park, while singing "Tessie".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR4tTQVjHUI

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"The game is afoot."

Pirates eliminate Reds...EGADS!!!

At least the Bucs will get to play in a real series, regardless of the outcome.

FWIW--both Pirates & Pens play this Thursday.

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liljol, still residing in a humble lil abode in Buzztime's Backyard, San Diego County, in The Horribly Site-Poor Golden State, California...

<--805 NTN Buzztime sites visited as of 11/13/2018...

F CUBS!!!!! FBOSOX!!!!!

FPDRES!!!!! FCHGRS!!!!!

Come on Liljol, and pick the team that you think will win the World Series.

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"The game is afoot."