Baseball Trivia

[Rappster]

I recall someone writing that it was Billy Martin's basic paranoia which made such a great manager.

He was such a paranoid individual, that he was assumed every manager was going the extra mile to beat him. This caused him to constantly go through every strategy another manager might use to win any situation...way past the point of seeming absurdity.

By the time a situation came up, Martin had already thought it through a million times.

[jstraw]

<!--quoteo(post=63133:date=Sep 15 2009, 10:14 AM:name=Butcher)-->QUOTE (Butcher @ Sep 15 2009, 10:14 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=63132:date=Sep 15 2009, 10:10 AM:name=Bricklayer)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Bricklayer @ Sep 15 2009, 10:10 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=63052:date=Sep 14 2009, 03:20 PM:name=Kid)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Kid @ Sep 14 2009, 03:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->My favorite part of the Pine Tar Game:

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE <!--quotec-->MacPhail ordered the game resumed on August 18 (a scheduled off day for each team), at the point following Brett's home run with the Royals leading 5-4. Martin continued to protest the decision. On the date the game was resumed, before New York pitcher George Frazier could throw a pitch to Royals' batter Hal McRae, Martin challenged that Brett had not touched all the bases when he hit the homer, nearly four weeks earlier. The Yankees contended that the umpiring crew (which was not the same one that had officiated the original game), had no idea if Brett had circled the bases legally. Despite the clever move by Martin, crew chief Davey Phillips was prepared. Phillips produced an affidavit signed by the four members of Brinkman's crew, stating that Brett and the baserunner in front of him (Washington) had touched all the bases on July 24.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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Several years ago I had a Billy Martin moment playing softball. It was a work team playing in the local park district and all games were governed by standard ASA rules. Well, this one team we played had a guy who was using a baseball bat instead of an ASA approved softball bat. No one noticed, except me, but I didn’t say anything because I wanted to use it when would have made a big difference. As it turned out, it was the last inning and we were up by a run and this guy comes up with 2 on and hits a 3 run shot to take the lead. I then bring it up to the ump, he checks it out, calls the guy out and brings back the runners. Next guy flied out and we won.



That team hated me to no end.
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[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

Nicely done, my friend.
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Indeed. The differences between those two bats are NOT trivial.