Summary[]
Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan talk to Grant Brisbee of SB Nation about acceptable ballpark behavior, Madison Bumgarner, the Giants, and baseball's latest tests of unwritten (and written) rules involving beanball wars between the Tigers and Twins and the Orioles and Red Sox.
Topics[]
- Is it acceptable for a fan to shout "I got it" to confuse a player?
- Unwritten Rules
- Jacoby Jones hit in head by Justin Haley unintentionally and the retribution that followed
- The Manny Machado vs. the Red Sox fight, stemming from a hard slide by Manny on Dustin Pedroia.
Banter[]
- Should the Giants punt this year?
- Madison Bumgarner getting hurt on dirt bike and assorted other non baseball injuries and the lies to cover them up
Email Question[]
- Mike - "I've been down on a trip to Oakland to see the M's play at the Coliseum, we sat right behind the M's bullpen and got to meet all the Mariners bullpen pitchers etc, but we also noticed something. Whenever a bullpen pitcher for the Mariners and presumably any other visiting pitchers got up to warm up the whole crowd in that area of the stadium would start to shout in a concerted right before each pitch in a way to psych the pitcher out. They would yell whoop as the pitcher started his motion and the "whooping" sound crescendoed right at the release of the warm up pitch. You could tell it distracted the pitchers noticeably, especially the younger ones who did not expect it. The psych out worked especially on the pitcher Dan Altavilla who seemed to be thrown off a bit by the crowd noise while warming up. When he went out to pitch he coughed up, i think, 3 runs in an inning and it ended up costing the Mariners the game. They did it to Nick Vincent too, he seemed more prepared for it. When someone from the crowd asked the bullpen coach about it he said that the crowd whoops happened in both Oakland and in San Francisco stadiums but nowhere else that he was aware of, so it might just be a bay area phenomenon, are you aware of the whoop?"
Notes[]
- Twice, a Tigers outfielder messed up a catch because a fan yelled "I got it" at Tropicana Field. Is this acceptable fan behavior? Grant's ruling: "If you're in your 20's and drunk, anything goes. If you're a responsible dad with your child, then no."
- Mike Krukow frequently tells the story that when an opposing player chased a foul pop-up toward his dugout, he'd shout, "Watch out for the wheelbarrow!"
- The "whoop" sounds like a slide whistle increasing in pitch, climaxing when the reliever throws the pitch. The fans then do a reverse-whoop (decreasing in pitch) when the catcher throws the ball back.
- Ben: "I'm pretty sure that pretty much every single Major League Baseball player is engaging in highly dangerous activity during any sort of off day."
- Jeff Kent famously said that he fell off his truck while washing it, when really he broke his wrist popping motorcycle wheelies. Grant commends Madison Bumgarner for just coming clean about his injury.
- Jeremy Affeldt sliced his hand while trying to separate frozen hamburgers with a knife. Grant is convinced this was legitimate and not a cover story. "Affeldt's an idiot." He also injured his knee trying to pick up his four-year-old daughter.
- Grant says it's too early for the Giants to give up. "The 1951 Giants also started the season 6-13 and they came back. They won the pennant. They cheated."
- Ben observes that Eduardo Rodriguez got three chances to hit Manny Machado and missed all three of them, and Matt Barnes also missed. This shows that even MLB pitchers can't be counted on to hit their targets precisely.
- Jeff: "What if the catcher just like punched Machado in the butt? Like, you don't have to throw a pitch. You just lean forward and you just punch him in the butt."
- Barnes's pitch hit Machado's bat behind his head for a foul ball. Manager John Farrell then came out to argue that the ball was fair! Jeff: "What is the approximate volume of each of John Farrell's balls?" Grant calls it "A-grade trolling."
- Grant suggests that instead of throwing at the batter, the pitcher could throw the ball into the second deck and then glare at the batter.