I just watched one of the craziest at bats I’ve ever seen in a baseball game. Alex Cora, one of the weakest hitters in baseball, was facing Matt Clement, a pretty good pitcher. After the count ran to 2-1, Cora fouled off 14 consecutive pitches. After the first 7 the commentators were talking about how absurd it was to see all these consecutive foul balls. By 14 they didn’t even have any cliches left. The really surprising thing was that almost all the fouls were close to the lines – hardly any of them went into the stands.
Then on the 18th pitch of the at bat, Alex Cora, in one of the toughest parks to homer in in baseball, hit one into the bullpens beyond right field. Long at bats are fun to watch, but they often end anti-climactically. But Alex Cora hitting a home run, that was a nice ending. I do feel bad for the Cubs fans, because they seem cursed this game, but I’m pretty pleased I got to see something like that.
{ 12 comments }
iwishtheroyalssuckedless 05.13.04 at 7:10 am
A week or two ago Ken Harvey of the Kansas City Royals pulled a ball deep down the left field line, hooking, hooking–called fair by the umpire with the best view. But then the other umpires convened and overruled, suddenly it’s a foul. Next pitch, same swing and Harvey pulls it into the visitor’s bullpen. Replays showed the first one was foul, but still quite an at-bat. Baseball=awesome
Claire 05.13.04 at 8:39 am
Completely unconnected.
I’m trying to compile a list of 17th-century scholars homepages/blogs for a projected 17th-century group blog. If anyone’s interested in being a 17th-century blogger or sending me their homepage I’d appreciate it. Cheers.
ken 05.13.04 at 12:01 pm
Check out our “Philosophy Talk” episode on baseball here:
http://www.philosophytalk.org/pastShows/Baseball.htm
dmm 05.13.04 at 1:30 pm
He stole the premise from The Kid Who Batted 1.000.
andrew edwards 05.13.04 at 2:15 pm
Alex f–in’ Cora? Who would have guessed. I love baseball.
Bonds versus Gagne was the best at-bat of the year so far.
Giants were down 3-0, with one runner on, and Gagne decided to challenge Bonds.
The first pitch was a 98mph fastball up and in, and Bonds drove it into McCovey cove, foul. That is, he was ahead of it. Next pitch, Gagne comes right back at him, 99mph, up and in again, and Bonds, having apparently made the hudredth-of-a-second correction required, drove it again into the Bay, this time to left-centre.
Greatest hitter ever?
Reid 05.13.04 at 5:58 pm
Man Baseball is boring as it is, when I was watching it, I was going crazy! They should have just called the game and plowed the stadium and made it into a parking ramp, Baseball is like watching grass grow.
Robert Tagorda 05.13.04 at 6:05 pm
I, too, was impressed, though I have to quibble with your description of Dodger Stadium as “one of the toughest parks to homer in in baseball.” According to a three-year park factors study by Baseball Prospectus, Dodger Stadium is indeed a pitcher-friendly. But it suppresses primarily doubles and triples. For home runs, the park is actually around the league average.
J. Michael Neal 05.13.04 at 6:47 pm
Yeah, it’s easy for the rest of you to say it’s a great at bat. *You* don’t have Matt Clement on a fantasy team struggling to get out of the basement.
Dan 05.13.04 at 8:39 pm
Fortunately for myself, the game wasn’t on broadcast TV in Chicago and I don’t have cable/sattelite, so I didn’t have to witness that loss. At the moment, I have the pleasure of watching today’s game click-by-click on MLB Gameday.
Cubs 1, LA 0, bases loaded, no outs in the Cubs half of the second. Waiting for that next refresh…
Chris Marcil 05.13.04 at 9:45 pm
Saw it too and it was great. Even Vin Scully was amazed.
And the night before there was the Angel-Yankee game, where ace relievers Rivera, Percival, and K-Rod all blew the save. You won’t see that every day, either.
rdb 05.14.04 at 9:59 am
Baseball is like watching grass grow…
I remember watching (on TV) Colin Cowdrey (English criketer)
playing as nightwatchman in a Test in the ’70s where
the commentators gave up and discussed what the correct plural was for a group of seagulls.
H.D. Miller 05.16.04 at 11:26 pm
Speaking of “How to Bat 1.000” Check out this feel-okay story:
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/personalities/one_hit_wonder.php
“America’s taverns and softball fields echo with the voices of dreamers, men and women who would give anything for the chance to dig into brown dirt, take smooth ash in hand, and lock eyes with a big-league hurler standing his ground some 60 feet away.
Forty-five years ago this Sunday, Chuck Lindstrom got that chance, and he made the most of it.
He never imagined he’d get only one.[…]
Now in his mid-sixties, a successful businessman and father of five, Lindstrom is at home with his place in baseball history. ‘Anybody with any intelligence would understand that hitting 1.000 is fluky,’ he says with a smile. ‘You’re not gonna hit 1.000 if you get to bat many times.’ He is fiercely proud of all that his father accomplished, though he points out that Freddie is not the only Lindstrom to be honored in Cooperstown. In fact, he wasn’t even the first. In 1954, 22 years before his father’s enshrinement, 17-year-old Chuck Lindstrom was introduced as American Legion Player of the Year during Hall of Fame Weekend.”
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