May Game Thread

soxhop411

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Dec 4, 2009
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Joe requested a bouquet of flowers be presented to him. Vain asshole.

View: https://twitter.com/JRFegan/status/1397375242293678080
Eh. I found it kind of funny
View: https://twitter.com/SandersLoriann/status/1397391948965625857?s=20

they need to bring back the San Diego chicken
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Chicken

also he has had an ongoing bit with him
On this night, the little chicks follow their leader past home plate umpire Will Little, but not before each stops briefly and lifts its leg, like a dog at a fire hydrant. A security guard picked up the last chick in order for the game to resume on time.


Thousands of children have served as little chicks through the years, most of them plucked randomly from the stands to participate.

Little chicks alumni include Tony Gwynn Jr. and sister Anisha. Giannoulas said he has had other ballplayers in addition to Gwynn come up to him to say they were once little chicks.

One of those players is former major leaguer Nick Swisher, whose 12-year career began in 2004 with Oakland.


“He’s the only player I’ve ever let pee on my leg,” umpire Joe West says with a laugh.

West joined the National League as an umpire in 1976, two years after The Chicken debuted at San Diego Stadium. They have developed a close relationship through the years, with West participating in bits on the field — and even offering suggestions for some of the on-field antics.

West is part of this weekend’s four-man crew for the Giants-Padres series. He was stationed at first base Saturday night.


The Chicken walked over to West in the middle of the sixth inning with a bouquet of flowers as the Petco PA announcer informed the audience that West has worked more than 5,000 major league games in his career, second only to Bill Klem in baseball history.

West accepted the bouquet, only to be left holding the stems when The Chicken pranked him by walking away with the flowers themselves. (The Chicken then returned to hug West.)



Behind the scenes, The Chicken took time to acknowledge someone who was instrumental in his career. He visited a suite to introduce himself to the grandchildren of Ballard Smith, the former Padres president who was the first person to suggest he actually go on the field to perform some of his routines.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/story/2019-07-27/padres-chicken-san-diego-ted-giannoulas-petco-park
https://duboiscountyherald.com/b/just-to-be-asking-the-famous-san-diego-chicken
 
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jon abbey

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Twins quietly digging out of a hole, they were 14-28 but are 6-1 since then and their next 10 are against the Royals and Orioles.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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Facing the Tigers can cure a lot of ills. Triston McKenzie was demoted Saturday with a 6.89 ERA. With Plesac landing on the IL, McKenzie was recalled today (so he's still never appeared in a AAA game) and shut out Detroit for 5 innings, only allowing a hit in his final inning. Of course, Cleveland's offense is no better and ran themselves out of two innings, so he'll get a no-decision.
 

VORP Speed

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Rays walk it off in bottom 10 vs KC to win 2-1. Glasnow threw 8 shutout innings before Feyereisen gave up tying HR in 9th.
Back to winning ways after dropping a 2-1 decision yesterday behind 8 innings, 13K from Hill.
 

bluefenderstrat

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Yasmani Grandal must have the weirdest line I've ever seen for a batter who's actually making a contribution--batting .136 with a .364 SLG but leads the league in walks with 38. So he's got a .391 OBP and 116 OPS+. Gallo's line is somewhat similar though his average is 70 points higher. Very 2021 I guess.
 

The Gray Eagle

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Rays beat Royals 7-2 behind solid Mclanahan + Wacha piggyback start
Every time you post about the Devil Rays winning again, it makes me hate them even more.

Not saying you shouldn't do it; they are your team and you should support them. But still, each time, it makes me hate them a little bit more (not that you should care.)





 
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soxhop411

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Ohtani was scratched due to traffic in SF. ANGELS blamed the SF Bart transit system.

the SF transit system clapped back and called them liars on Twitter
View: https://twitter.com/SFBART/status/1398075118857768962
First, wow, what an honor to host a baseball superstar like Shohei Ohtani on BART. We did not experience any issues on our end. We confirmed with Operations Control Center there was no delay for any Coliseum-heading train during the Bay Bridge incident.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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The game in Cleveland tonight might be the closest I've ever seen to a mercy rule. They are officially in a delay, but Toronto is up 11-2 in nasty weather... it was around 50°F at first pitch with damp and gusting winds all night. It never rained hard, but during the bottom of the 7th, the umpires seemed to randomly decide they've had enough and sent everyone off the field. They haven't put the tarp down because the wind would probably make it impossible (nearly everything in the air was an adventure) and it's not really needed anyway. As soon as they walked off the field it was blatantly obvious no one intends to resume the game.
 

BaseballJones

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Old friend Craig Kimbrel was an unmitigated disaster his first two seasons with the Cubs:

2019: 20.2 ip, 6.53 era, 8.00 fip, 1.60 whip, 67 era+
2020: 15.1 ip, 5.28 era, 3.97 fip, 1.44 whip, 83 era+

But he's found it again:

2021: 22.0 ip, 0.82 era, 1.52 fip, 0.82 whip, 464 era+

Good for him. I always liked him, even when he was struggling with Boston. (though to be fair, aside from the playoffs, he was generally pretty great with Boston: 2.44 era, 0.92 whip, 14.9 k/9)
 

nvalvo

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Ohtani was scratched due to traffic in SF. ANGELS blamed the SF Bart transit system.

the SF transit system clapped back and called them liars on Twitter
View: https://twitter.com/SFBART/status/1398075118857768962
Sounds like the Angels' buses got stranded crossing the bridge, so Ohtani hopped off and took BART.

As someone who lived in the Bay for grad school, I've always wondered why teams playing in Oakland would want to stay in San Francisco. The Bay Bridge has to carry 4 million cars a day, and can back up pretty badly at rush hour even *without* an accident.

I get it — I love San Francisco, too, but they have hotels and restaurants and night life in the East Bay. Reserve the entire upstairs at Chez Panisse for a team dinner.
 

MuzzyField

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Sounds like the Angels' buses got stranded crossing the bridge, so Ohtani hopped off and took BART.

As someone who lived in the Bay for grad school, I've always wondered why teams playing in Oakland would want to stay in San Francisco. The Bay Bridge has to carry 4 million cars a day, and can back up pretty badly at rush hour even *without* an accident.

I get it — I love San Francisco, too, but they have hotels and restaurants and night life in the East Bay. Reserve the entire upstairs at Chez Panisse for a team dinner.
4 million cars a day?
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Sounds like the Angels' buses got stranded crossing the bridge, so Ohtani hopped off and took BART.

As someone who lived in the Bay for grad school, I've always wondered why teams playing in Oakland would want to stay in San Francisco. The Bay Bridge has to carry 4 million cars a day, and can back up pretty badly at rush hour even *without* an accident.

I get it — I love San Francisco, too, but they have hotels and restaurants and night life in the East Bay. Reserve the entire upstairs at Chez Panisse for a team dinner.
Is it most likely a matter of the quality of hotel? I imagine MLB players want a 5-star spot. Are there such hotels on the Oakland side of the bay?

Probably a(nother) argument for the A's to find a new home, if that's the case.
 

MuzzyField

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Is it most likely a matter of the quality of hotel? I imagine MLB players want a 5-star spot. Are there such hotels on the Oakland side of the bay?

Probably a(nother) argument for the A's to find a new home, if that's the case.
Didn't NBA teams do this as well before the team took the bridge crossing out of the equation by moving to SF?
 

nvalvo

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4 million cars a day?
That's what I thought I had read, but now I can't find it, and it definitely seems high. So it looks like I misremembered the statistic — 400k people every day? 4 million people a week? 4 million cars a week? Something like that. My bad.

In any case, the bridge is busy, and a vulnerable bottleneck to the region's traffic. While looking, I saw that (pre-pandemic) ~400k people ride BART every day.

Is it most likely a matter of the quality of hotel? I imagine MLB players want a 5-star spot. Are there such hotels on the Oakland side of the bay?

Probably a(nother) argument for the A's to find a new home, if that's the case.
I'm sure the nicest hotels are in San Francisco, but if I were the traveling secretary for a sports team looking for East Bay accommodations, I'd look at this spot in Claremont.
 

MuzzyField

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That's what I thought I had read, but now I can't find it, and it definitely seems high. So it looks like I misremembered the statistic — 400k people every day? 4 million people a week? 4 million cars a week? Something like that. My bad.

In any case, the bridge is busy, and a vulnerable bottleneck to the region's traffic. While looking, I saw that (pre-pandemic) ~400k people ride BART every day.



I'm sure the nicest hotels are in San Francisco, but if I were the traveling secretary for a sports team looking for East Bay accommodations, I'd look at this spot in Claremont.
No doubt, it's busy and I'm glad I don't have to navigate it daily!

Four million cars just jumped out as such a huge number my brain ventured off into the movie Used Cars "mile of cars" storyline. It was a fun trip!
 

nvalvo

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No doubt, it's busy and I'm glad I don't have to navigate it daily!

Four million cars just jumped out as such a huge number my brain ventured off into the movie Used Cars "mile of cars" storyline. It was a fun trip!
I finally found a number, and it’s two million a week. So I was off by an order of magnitude.
 

CarolinaBeerGuy

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Runners on first and third with no outs in the top of the 10th, Altuve decides to go for the double play instead of getting the easy out of Hosmer at the plate. Let’s see how that works out.
 

ledsox

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Tatis with a 3 run home run to tie the Astros with 2 outs in the Top of the 9th.
Tatis should have been out and game over but the 1st baseman fanned on a foul pop near the stands.
Also earlier in the game Tatis swung 3-0 while down by 5 runs (bases loaded). That’s one I don’t really agree with but what a blast that was in the 9th.
 

jon abbey

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The Padres have to be the first team in MLB history to score in the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th, albeit with a huge asterisk from ManfredBall.
 

Brand Name

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Can’t confirm this is the only time across baseball but can confirm it’s the first in Padres history. Overall, I did a ton of hunting and found two times/team games that got close, just were missing the 10th inning run each: 1991 Philadelphia and 1994 Cleveland.

Bonus stat: Four straight extra inning games for the Padres. One short of the record, currently held by the 1908 Tigers.

Edit for @jon abbey: Confirmed to me by ESPN’s Stats and Info team to me just now that this is the first such time, nice call.
 

sean1562

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Blake Snell goes 3 IP, 5 hits, 7 ERs and 3 ks, season ERA of 5.55. Francisco Mejia has a 119 OPS+ and Luis Patino a 3.60 ERA albeit in 15 IPs. Maybe the Rays know what they are doing?
 
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VORP Speed

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Rays are tied for best record in MLB after the Padres loss. And 2 of their best players are still trapped in AAA for a few more weeks.