The Westport Cardinals Baseball Club: Videos, Baseball Facts & Stuff
Cardinals @ New Canaan Cannons 7-19-09
The Westport Cardinals playing the New Canaan Cannons at Mead Park 7-19-09. Pitcher is Bill Thornton, Bill Hanrahan Catching, Chuck Hite at First, Josh Garey at Second, Dave Casale at Short, Brian Arsenault at Third, John Buchbinder in Left, Mike Lasko in Center, Vito Pepe in Right.
Who's on First?
Greatest Catch in MLB post-season history!!
Dubious Doubleday
Abner Doubleday's credibility as the inventor of baseball wasn't helped by the 67 diaries he wrote after retiring from the U.S. Army in 1873. Neither the diaries nor the Doubleday obiturary that appeared in the New York Times 20 years later made any reference to Baseball.
Alexander Cartwright: Father of Baseball
The First League
Lopsided Scores
Early handicaps on hurlers helped hitters immensely. Forest City, based on Cleveland, beat the Brooklyn Atlantics 132-1 in a five-inning game in 1870. In another game that year Forest City scored 90 runs in the first inning and had the bases loaded with nobody out, when rain halted play at Utica, New York.
Spaldings Sensational Season
In 1875, one year before the formation of the National League (and several years before modern pitching rules were established), A.G. Spalding of Boston (National Association) posted a 57-7 record using only fastballs and curves.
A Towering Achievement
On August 25, 1894, Chicago NL catcher William Schriver became the first player to catch a ball thrown from the top of the Washington Monument.
Worst Team
The 1899 Cleveland Spiders of the National League won 20 and lost 134 for a .130 percentage the worst ever recorded.
10 Reasons Why Wood is Good
Top 10 Reasons Why WOOD is GOOD:
1. Economics:
The 'best argument' for metal has always been that it is cheaper than wood since it doesn't break. Hmmm... this may have been true when metal bats first came out and were priced at $40 or so. Now, metal bats generally cost $120 to $240 or more, and while they do not break, they do wear out from use. The barrel of the bat becomes mis-shapen and goes out of round just from hitting the ball. This causes the bat to lose its livliness, and generally metal bats are good for one season's use before going dead. Wood bats cost from $20 to $40 - so you can buy 6 wood bats for the cost of one metal bat. Unless Mariano Rivera starts pitching in MSBL, six wood bats should be enough to last a player a full season. If you break more than 6 bats per year you, as a hitter, are doing something very wrong, and you need to correct it. If a hitter breaks less than 6 bats per year, then wood is cheaper. Also, you can have some variety in your bats (different weights, lengths, handles) if you like. You can use your wood bats next year, too.
2. Safety:
Because wood is heavier, reducing bat speed, and because the sweet spot is smaller on a wood bat, and wood has less of a trampoline effect, the ball comes off the bat with less velocity. Metal makes it more likely that a batted ball is going to hit a player and do physical harm. In this league, we all have to go to work on Monday. Wood is safer. Especially for pitchers, third basemen, and first basemen. This alone should be sufficient reason to switch to wood. 'nuff said.
3. Fewer Cheap Hits:
Metal produces more hits because you get cheap, unearned hits off the handle and end of the metal bat. Maybe that's a 100 point difference in batting average. However, if all hitters have to use wood, there is nothing inherently unfair about this. If you get a hit with wood, you earned it.. It is real. What is real about a .400 average using metal?
4. Fewer Home Runs:
Since the sweet spot of a wood bat is maybe 3" long, and the sweet spot on a metal bat is about 8" long, and because modern metal composites have a trampoline effect, there is no doubt that a hitter will get more home runs with metal. However, a strong player who muscles out a homer off the upper or lower ends of the metal bat's sweet spot doesn't truly deserve it; the strength is there, but not the skill - it takes both to hit a legitimate home run, otherwise, it should be a double perhaps, or just a long fly ball. There will be fewer home runs with wood. If you hit a home run with wood, you earned it. It is real.
5. Shorter Games:
Our experience is that wood bat games are played in less time. This is especially nice on double-headers. Last Sunday we played from 9AM to 3PM to get our two 7 inning games in, using metal. More hits = more men on base = more time to play the games. Our wood bat games have been on average about 1/2 hour shorter.
6. Closer Games:
When a top team plays a lesser team in metal bat games, these often turn into blow-outs which are no fun at all for the losing team, and also kind of boring for the winning team. What's the point of playing when you are winning (or losing) a game 11 to 3 in the fourth inning? We played New Canaan three times a couple of years back, when they were clearly much more talented than we were. They beat us all three games, but the metal bat games were blowouts. The scores were like 15-4, and 12-2. We were out of the games by the third or fourth inning. The 9 inning wood bat game was 8-3, with two runs scored in the last inning, so we were "in it" the whole way. It is harder to blow out a team - or to get blown out - using wood.
7. Hitting:
Wood teaches you how to hit properly because each time you hit the ball on the wrong part(s) of a wood bat, you feel it in your hands. When you hit the sweet spot using wood, you can also feel that. With metal, only the balls hit very close to the hands give negative feedback through the hands. The better feedback from wood gives each player the means to improve their skill level.
8. Fielding:
The sound a wood bat produces tells you how well the ball is hit. This sensory input to fielders aids their play of the ball. Metal sounds like ...well, like metal.
9. Aesthetics:
There is just no comparison. Wood makes the right sound. Metal does not.
10.Tradition:
The game has always been played with wood bats. Your father used wood, and his father used wood. Its what the pros use.
Have another "High Life" Wade!
