Don’t you hate it when you get dirt in your pants? (It makes you do a funny dance…) And pants… ugh… they’re so oppressive.

Steve “Psycho” Lyons, a major league baseball player for the Red Sox, White Sox, and Expos, among others from 1985-1993, had quite the relationship with infield dirt, it seems. He is said to have gotten his nickname, “Psycho,” for playing tic-tac-toe in the dirt with his spikes during games. But what made Psycho a truly memorable baseball player, worthy of his very own Throwback Thursday post?

It happened one night in Detroit, 1990. Psycho slid head first into first base after a bunt. The ump called him safe, but he was out. So ump and coach went for it, naturally. And Psycho, for sliding, had some dirt in his britches… so while standing by the base, he casually unbuckled his belt and subsequently dropped trou to loosen up those pesky dirt clods.

The moon shone out brightly over Tiger Stadium. We all got a glimpse of his white under-things, until suddenly, Psycho Steve “realized” he had exposed himself to a crowd of 14,000 never-to-be-the-same-again men, women, and children, and Psycho Steve awkwardly pulled his culottes back up again.

No no, Psycho Steve, we do not take our pants off at first base. Maybe at third… but please, this is a family event, and what’s more, you’re on television (Not HBO).

You’re not going to believe it until you see it, so here it is…

Check out the video of the blooper here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhWEqWHllQA

And watch it again with commentary by Steve Lyons here:

Do you have a favorite baseball tradition? Is there a particular ghost of baseball past you would like to revisit? Ever wonder why they do what they do, and when they started doing it? If you have a suggestion, question, or submission for Throwback Thursday, contact Elise by tweeting @Elise_Myers.

So there was this guy once, and he pitched so well they named an award after him.

So let’s talk about the Cy Young Award in the American League for a bit here.

The three nominees on the junior circuit this season are people whose names are frequently bandied about when it comes to this award – although only one of them has won it before. Whether that man, Justin Verlander, will win the award again this season remains to be seen, as he’s got some awfully good competition.

That being said, however, let’s look at Verlander first, as he’s the reigning champion.

Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers: Verlander is a perennial Cy Young candidate due to being insanely good at baseball. The man seriously knows how to pitch. This year was no different – he went 17-8 with a 2.64 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP. He started 33 games and finished 6 of them, with one of those being a shutout. He walked 239 whilst only walking 60 over his 238.1 innings pitched.

Basically, Justin Verlander is a good pitcher. We know this, so the BBWAA decided that he should be a finalist, which happens nearly every year anyway. Somehow, he’s only won once, which was last year. This is because he’s often up against competition like this…

David Price, Tampa Bay Rays: Price is stiff competition. Over 211 innings he racked up 205 strikeouts whilst walking 59 batters and ended the year with a 2.56 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP. He started 31 games, completing two of them (with one shutout), pitching his way to a 20-5 record over 211 innings.

This may surprise you, but Price has never won the Cy Young before even though he’s now been around for a few years and has pitched well for pretty much all of them. He has a pretty good chance of winning this season, however, since he measures up well enough to Verlander. (Really, that’s how to win the Cy Young if Verlander is nominated – you have to basically equal him or beat him. There’s no option for not being as good.)

Jered Weaver, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: The dark horse candidate of sorts, namely because not too many people pay attention to the Angels on the East Coast and there’s this apocryphal thing called East Coast Bias which might actually be real. Weaver, too, went 20-5 this season, notching an ERA of 2.81, a WHIP of 1.02, and 142 strikeouts. He walked 45 batters over the 30 games he started, completing 3 of those games (2 shutouts). He totaled 188.1 innings pitched, which is the smallest amount out of the three nominees this season – but it puts his numbers in perspective, making him a strong candidate as well.

This race is pretty tight – there’s no clear winner yet. You’ll just have to wait and see when the Cy Young Awards are announced at 6 pm tonight!

Tigers starter Doug Fister was the losing pitcher in Game 2 of the World Series but that doesn’t change his status as a Designated Hotter. Fister was hit in the head with a linedrive in last night’s loss to the Giants and was expected to undergo more tests today. Let’s hope Doug doesn’t have any lasting effects from the incident and that he has a chance to get back in action during this World Series. I’m all for a seven game World Series.

Click on a picture to be taken to its source.

Image via Michigan.gov

I tell you a tale of the Third World Series. (Not Third-World Series) What follows is the abridged story of the 1887 World Series between the Detroit Wolverines and the St. Louis Browns.

I repeat: 1887.

Before the safety razor (1901). Before the Teddy bear (1902). Before Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (1905). Before Penicillin (1928).

Yes. Baseball was there. The World Series was there.

Obligatory understatement: The World Series was a bit different back in tha day before the turn of the century and all… Truth be told, (preach it!) the Pre-Modern Era World Series was a disorganized, fluctuating, and rapidly evolving misfit of a creature.

The “Original (OG) World Series” or “World Championship Series” first stole American hearts in 1884, after the American Association was founded out of necessity  in 1882. Before 1882, the National League was the highest tier of professional baseball in the United States.

In 1884, the American Association and National League first competed at the end of the season in a best-of-three-games “Championship of the United States” Series… the all-time lowest amount of games required to win the title.

Three years later, in 1887, the World Series was already drastically different from it’s humble origins. This Series was a contest between the champion St. Louis Browns of the American Association and the Detroit Wolverines of the National League. The Browns’ record that season was an impressive record-setting 95-40, and the Wolverines finished 79-45.

The 1887 Series was fifteen games long… Yes. Fifteen: the all-time crazy high amount of games required to win the title.

Not only was the Series ridiculously long-winded, (like, couldn’t we just call it a day after game 11…? No?) it was all over the place, quite literally. The games of the third-ever World Series were not only played in St. Louis and Detroit, but also in “neutral territory,” which, in essence, means every other major city in the United States: Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington.

And on October 26 1887,  the series ended in St. Louis, with Detroit 10 games to 5 over the Browns. For a game-by-game account of the series, check out BaseballLibrary.com and Baseball-Reference.com

Yes, I did write this entire post thinking the date today was October 26. Throwback Friday just doesn’t sound as nice.

Do you have a favorite baseball tradition? Is there a particular ghost of baseball past you would like to revisit? Ever wonder why they do what they do, and when they started doing it? If you have a suggestion, question, or submission for Throwback Thursday, contact Elise by tweeting @Elise_Myers.

Back in 1975, while playing baseball at Brevard Community College, Bruce Bochy was one of my roommates on road trips.  Actually, the school budget was such that Mike Gallagher and Greg Fairbanks were roomies as well.  Mike and Greg would go on to play ball for Eddie Stanky at South Alabama, and Bruce was in a quandary as to what he should do.

Boch’ had signed with Florida State, a powerhouse, which was a powerhouse way back when as well as today.  And he knew he would be drafted as well.  He asked us for advice, and I remember that I spoke of the importance of getting his education.  Well, he was drafted 24^th in the first round by the Houston Astros, and he made the decision to go straight to pro ball.   Good move.

After nine years bouncing around as a big league catcher, he wound up managing the San Diego Padres for twelve seasons before taking the helm for the San Francisco Giants in 2007.  He has taken his clubs to three National League pennants (one with the Padres), and a World Series Championship two seasons ago with the Gigantes.  This season, his club has won SIX straight elimination games to make it back to the Fall Classic.

It was obvious early on that The Boch’ was meant for the game.  His personality, demeanor, and understanding of the game made him look like managerial material way back when we played together.  He was a quiet leader, never got lost in himself, and lifted the game of those around him.  He was also equipped with a dry, cutting wit.  And I never played with anyone I respected more.

And then, there’s Prince Fielder with the Tigers.  I remember the first time I realized how special he was as a hitter.  He was a freshman at Florida Air Academy, and we were playing at John Carroll in Fort Pierce.  There was a breeze cutting across from the left-field foul pole to right.  And The Prince hit a screaming line drive out of the park to left-center at about the 380’ mark.  Going oppo that far is impressive enough, but against a breeze?  Absolutely crazy.

Prince went on to be a great leader through his three seasons with us at Florida Air (he would attend Eau Gallie H.S. his senior season, playing for Bob Collins, who had pitched for me when I was a JuCo assistant coach at Brevard – small world!).  While people spoke of his power, which was obvious, it was his power in the dugout and off the field that made him so important to our club.  The baseball ability was there for anyone to see, but what they missed was his ability to carry a team on his broad shoulders.  And he’s still at it today.  Do not underestimate the importance of his persona behind the scenes.  He’s a flat-out winner.

So, tonight I am going to begin watching a World Series that means a great deal to me.  A wonderful friend will be writing out the lineup for the Giants.  The number four hitter for Detroit is a young man that played hard and well for me for three seasons.  One will ultimately get the big ring.  One will lose.  But for me, it will be win-win.  And I feel blessed to know both of them.

I’ll be writing more about Bruce and Prince and the World Series again on Sunday.  I have stories – all good – to share about both.

Detroit is in “get-ready” mode, playing low-intensity intra-squad games in preparation for the World Series, and by the time this is posted, we will know who will be facing them in the Fall Classic.

For a baseball fan, this is the time of year offers the greatest intensity as well as the prospect of a winter that will be too long.  Beginning on Wednesday is the end of the annual major league grind.

The post-season saw baseball’s hottest team, Oakland, fall to Detroit, and possibly the game’s youngest, “what are we doing here?” club, Washington, bow to a classic “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over” team, the St. Louis Cardinals.  Meanwhile, the San Francisco Giants were handing the Reds their first three-game losing streak at home, coming from two-down to take their five-game National League Divisional Series.  The Yankees put away the upstart Baltimore Orioles in a hard-fought max-limit ALDS.

The Tigers took care of the Yankees with quality pitching – oh sure, you can say the Bronx Bombers simply bombed – in a four-game sweep.  The Pinstripes were obliterated by Jason Verlander and the rest of Detroit’s staff, save Jose Valverde, who allowed four of the Yankees six runs in only 2/3 of an inning.  Verlander was joined by Doug Fister, Anibal Sanchez, and Max Scherzer in silencing the Yankee bats.

» Continue reading “Ask The Coach: Looking Ahead To The World Series”

When Bud Selig and MLB came up with the new wildcard system for the playoffs, they couldn’t have dreamed of the first round we experienced this past week.

In all my years of being a baseball fan, I’ve always said that the five-game series is a crapshoot. The best teams don’t always win and that’s what makes baseball so great. Well, at least for the teams that win and advance to the League Championship Series.

Believe me, I’ve lived through many first round exits as a fan of the New York Yankees and it’s not fun especially when your team enters the series as the favorite which brings us to the first series we’re going to discuss.

» Continue reading “A Look Back At The Division Series Round: What A Week For Baseball”

The current NL standings via MLB.com

As of Friday, the MLB Playoffs officially begin! Last time, I went over what some of the Playoff terminology meant and how to actually get to the playoffs, but what about what’s happening right now this season? Well, here’s where we stand:

With the exception of the 2nd Wild Card team, the National League teams are all set.  We have the Washington Nationals representing the NL East (FYI…this is their very first division title as the “Nationals”).  Then we have the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Central (who are tied with the Nationals for the best record in all of baseball) and the San Francisco Giants in the NL West.

» Continue reading “Baseball For Beginners: So, Who’s Going To The Playoffs?”

The AL Central has always been noted as one of the worst divisions in baseball, but in the next month there could be a lot of AL Central talk.  With three of the five teams in the division close in record and conveniently all playing each other in the next few weeks, teams could be shifting daily.  For now, this how the AL Central stands.

Detroit Tigers

Dave Dombrowski and the Detroit Tigers made some huge moves before the trade deadline on Monday night on their off day while sitting in first place.

The Tigers picked up Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante from the Florida Marlins for pitching prospect Jacob Turner, who just picked up his first win as a Tiger a couple of days prior.

Omar Infante left Detroit five years ago after shifting to the Atlanta Braves and then down to Miami.  Infante was the second baseman years ago with Carlos Guillen at shortstop and Brandon Inge at third.  Needless to say a lot has changed in five years, but Infante is back at second base for the Tigers.

Since the All-Star break Detroit has come back hot, going 8-3.  Batters three through six in the lineup have been unstoppable.  Austin Jackson and Quintin Berry are getting on base and Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, Delmon Young and Brennan Boesch have been moving everyone around.

Detroit’s pitching staff is coming together a little more than during the first half.  Justin Verlander leads the squad with 11 wins, Scherzer has nine and Porcello has seven.

As long as the Detroit Tigers lineup stays hot and the pitching staff can keep striking out the opposing team like they have been best in baseball at doing, Detroit will be okay.

To keep up with the Tigers, visit Motown Lowdown.

» Continue reading “AL Central Recap: Let the Shakeup Begin”

If you’re a new baseball fan who enjoys attending games at the stadium, or if you have ever taken a noob to the ballpark, then you have probably approached this question from one side or another:

“Why is that kid wearing his baseball cap inside out?”

And like every other equally bizarre but equally precious baseball oddity, you could just shrug, and say:

“Superstition.”

Or, you could give a real answer, and explore the highly disputed history of the Rally Cap.

A rally cap. Photo by Alex Carson, via Public Domain

A “rally cap” is more than a baseball cap that is worn inside out. It is a time-sensitive  phenomenon that occurs late in a game, when the team one is root-root-rooting for is losing. The cap is worn in solidarity to “rally” the team to come from behind and win the game.

The best time to break out a rally cap might be during the seventh inning stretch, and likewise anytime after that point is fair. However, putting on a rally cap any time before the bottom of the seventh, I would argue, is entirely uncalled for and premature… and means you have probably already had too much beer, because, well, you put your hat on inside out, you sad, drunk fool.

» Continue reading “Throwback Thursday: Inside-Out & Outside-In, The Tale Of The Rally Cap”