Summary[]
Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the Glory Hole Recreation Area, solve the mystery of Bill Doaks, discuss archaic baseball language and how today's baseball writing will age, and touch on an odd double play and another byproduct of 2017's record home-run rate, then weigh in on the expansion of netting in ballparks and explore several ways in which MLB should borrow from baseball as it's played in Japan and Korea.
Topics[]
- Ballpark netting expansion
- What should MLB borrow from baseball in Japan or Korea?
- NPB batting practice
- Fan participation at MLB games
- Impact of shorter seasons on fan enthusiasm
- Pitch selection in Japan and Korea
- Korean baseball playoff format
- Roster flexibility
Banter[]
- Jeff's girlfriend is traveling in California and texted Jeff a picture from the 'Glory Hole Recreation Area'.
- Episode 1113 follow-up: A listener emailed in with box score details about Bill Doak's start in which he pitched three innings and faced 15 batters without giving up a run.
- Ben and Jeff review old baseball terminology (such as bingle) when reading a recap of Bill Doak's start. They wonder how their writing will age.
- Mike Moustakas hit his 37th home run, breaking the single-season record for a Kansas City Royal.
Notes[]
- Jeff is surprised at how few of the online reviews from the Glory Hole Recreation Area campground are jokes. Jeff predicts that listeners will send "a half dozen" emails on the subject, "two people who suggest things about it, never having been there, and four people who have actually stayed there." The mystery is solved in Episode 1115.
- Jeff is amused and sometimes baffled by the old timey description of Bill Doak's game. Runners were "on the sacks", they "died" on the bases, and the team "rapped out bingles".
- Ben: "Language evolves very quickly. This is not long ago. This is the same sport we are talking about. We can barely understand what is happening here."
- Jeff calculates that of the nine outs, Doak gets credit for only four of them. The others were caught stealing or baserunning errors.
- Ben looks up in a baseball dictionary that "bingle" was slang for a base hit. It derives onomatopoetically from "bing", the sound of the ball coming off the bat.
- Jeff thinks that today's writing is "less floral and thoughtful about the baseball, but it features a lot more existential dread."
- As of the previous week there were 19 MLB teams that did not have netting extend over the dugouts.
- In Japanese baseball batting practice is usually taken against live pitching.
- In the wild card round of the playoffs in Korean baseball the wild card team must win two games while their opponent only has to win one.