Joe, I finally got around to reading this post of yours. I’d like to correct one misconception. Baseballs travel farther in humid weather, all other things being equal. That is because water vapor is actually less dense than dry air. However the temperature is a factor also. Warmer means less dense. So if it was hot and humid the ball will fly.
Back when I was 27, I was on a softball team (rec league) and we were playing a game and the left fielder was playing pretty shallow. I hit the ball over his head for a HR (no fences on this field). The next time up, the guy remembered me and moved way back. I cranked another one over his head. The next time I came up, he moved way, way back. And I cranked one over his head again.
Anyway, I still remember that. I never did anything like that before, and never did it again. It was 26 years ago, and I sometimes think of those hits like, "Remember that? Boy, was I good back then."
I wonder if Acuna will think about this HR in that way 20 or 30 years from now. He's only 25, though, so maybe he's got more impressive things on the horizon to fill his memory banks. I suppose Braves fans can only hope. But I bet he'll think about this one years from now when he's feeling nostalgic for the days when he was young and strong.
I formally request the discontinued saying that a baseball carries less in humid conditions. The baseball will more easily travel through humid air than dry air due to the lower density of water vapor molecules than N2 and O2 molecules. It was true that baseballs in humid conditions (late summer in much of the country and Oakland most of the time) would appear to carry worse, but they actually had absorbed moisture from the humid air while they sat around and since they were then "mushier" and a little heavier, they would have lower exit velocity and therefore not travel as far. Now the baseballs are stored in humidors at moderate humidity and temperature which removes storage conditions as a factor and leaves only game conditions. Thank you for your time :D
Acuna brings to mind Eric Davis, aka "Eric the Red." I just reviewed his stats from '86 and '87, when he was in his mid-20s:
1986: 132 games, with 27 homers and 80 stolen bases
1987: 129 games, with 37 homers and 50 stolen bases
Davis was caught stealing 17 bases, total, those two seasons, for an 88% success rate. (The norm back then was 65-70%).
What if Davis had played 150 games each year (allowing for a few games out here and there?)
He'd have been the Majors' first 30 HR-60 SB guy, at least once. Heck, he'd have been a 30-90 guy in '86! Injuries slowed him, but Davis managed to keep playing till he was 39 years old. Perhaps the most fitting snapshot of his career: in the '90 World Series, which Cincy won in a 4-game sweep, he lacerated his kidney diving for a ball in the outfield in Game 4:
Incredible clout. I've watched a lot of games over the years. But I don't think I've EVER seen a ball hit to that part of Dodgers Stadium.
More importantly, I've now watched that clip a half dozen times. And I SWEAR he hit that ball off the end of the bat!!! 121 MPH off the end of the goddamn bat??? What the hell?
That was my reaction too: it doesn't look like it hit the sweet spot.
That said, it was also a *terrible* pitch: 95 belt high, and while it was on the outside of the zone, it was also not moving very much. I mean, pitches like that get thrown all the time, and none of them are hit like that, so no taking away from Acuña. But it wasn't exactly strength against strength out there.
I'll stand on Ronald Acuna's coffee table and declare that the ball that Reggie Jackson hit at the 1971 AS Game was hit just as hard, if not harder. I only say that because I was there and I still can hear the crack of the bat
It’s funny, the announcer said “Ronald’s quickly become a villain out here in LA,” but that’s not what I heard from the crowd, and that’s not the vibe I’ve gotten chatting with Dodger fans. A feared opponent, sure. But I think everybody is in awe of what he’s doing, and you go to games against the Braves partly hoping to see just what he’s done.
That has not been my experience of Dodger's fans. The ones that I have met (mostly at Diamondback's home games) are rude, obnoxious, loud and pretend the Dodgers can't do anything wrong and the opposing team is complete crap. I get people root for their teams, but with other teams fans you can almost always have a nice conversation about baseball, including what is right or wrong with your team and their team. Not the Dodgers fans (that I have met). Makes me root for the damn Yankees when those two teams play.
The NL best record race and the MVP race are different for plenty of reasons but for this almost 40 Braves fan, it has me remembering 1999. The Mets came to Atlanta for a three game series, and it was a legitimately close race. Chipper decided it wouldn’t stay that way and just demolished the ball all series and won the MVP for it. I was lucky enough to go to two games and still relish how the Braves disappointed the large number of Mets fans at those games (this was in the heyday of the Sun Belt migration). This Braves-Dodgers series has been awesome.
Excited to pick up my copy of WWLB at the event in LA soon!
The scary thing here is comparing Acuna to Stanton.
To my mind, Stanton could be the biggest disappointment of the past several years, as his career has devolved from Annual MVP candidate capable of chasing Ruth to a guy who looks every single swing to be trying to knock over the Ruth Statue in CF.
In other words, Ronnie, baby, please don’t chase the StatCast numbers. I have seen the best bats of your generation destroyed by StatCast madness...
Im happy that Joe is getting the bestselling author treatment, but the push for the new book is only happening because of the success of the previous one. Publishers don’t bet on “unproven” authors anymore. It’s questionable how much difference it’ll really make. After all, The Baseball 100 was an enormous success a) without the major publisher push/book tour/etc, and b) even though 95% of it was originally published online.
I say this as a huge Posnanski fan that owns multiple books and has already pre-ordered the newest: I will be very happy when I am not being sold to, repeatedly, in every single blog post. Yes, the importance of pre-order sales has been explained, I fully understand the justification. But the relentlessness of the sales pitch-ing has turned into a negative of this experience.
Love your stuff, Joe. When you’ve made the sale, please stop selling. If subscribers to this blog don’t know about this book and all the ways they can order it by now, well, I’m not sure where they’ve been the last 6 months. Sales pitches can be utilized with greater effect elsewhere at this point, in my opinion.
Baseball, baseball, baseball! Enough is enough, am I right? Look, Joe, I am speaking for literally everyone here when I say that we are sick to death of baseball. Please, PLEASE get back to golf!
I'm guessing there are people who forward some of the subscriber emails to friends and family who don't subscribe. The book posts are for them as much or more as they are for the subscribers.
Plus, I've still found some good lines written in some of these posts. Even so, I often skip chunks of it to get to what pertains to me.
I disagree. Three reasons. First, it is beyond simple to skim past that portion if you want; far far simpler than writing about it. Second, YMMV but personally I enjoy the author’s enthusiasm for the speaking gigs and the product itself. Third, as a self employed person myself, I know that constantly selling yourself and your business is essential. Don’t worry about repeating the message; just sell yourself over and over and over again.
Again, I hear and understand the justifications here. I have skimmed past many, many portions of articles over several months before writing - this is cumulative. Overall, I am a consumer that does not enjoy or appreciate being sold to over and over and over again, in any setting.
The reminder of batting titles when I was a kid ... I turned 9 in 1976. Local hero Rod Carew had already won five, four straight. The ill fated Lyman Bostock burst upon the scene. Down in KC, team leader Hal McRae was having a great run. And the younger George Brett a breakthrough year showing he wasn’t a fluke. Bostock faded a bit in August but the other three separated by thousandths of a point going down the stretch.
In the final series, the Twins played the Royals. Carew went 7 for 12 to climb to .331. McRae 3 for 12 to drop to .332. Brett, 6 for 7 including 3/4 on the last day to win it at .333.
We even had a bit of a controversy akin to the Cobb - LaJoie race at the beginning of the century. McRae suggested that the Twins let some balls fall in for Brett due to racial bias.
Acuña married his longtime girlfriend in L.A., before Thursday’s series opener, the night he hit his 30th homer to become the only member of the 30-60 club and started this recent tear at the plate. After Friday’s game Matt Olson joked he was thinking about renewing his vows.
Joe, I finally got around to reading this post of yours. I’d like to correct one misconception. Baseballs travel farther in humid weather, all other things being equal. That is because water vapor is actually less dense than dry air. However the temperature is a factor also. Warmer means less dense. So if it was hot and humid the ball will fly.
Back when I was 27, I was on a softball team (rec league) and we were playing a game and the left fielder was playing pretty shallow. I hit the ball over his head for a HR (no fences on this field). The next time up, the guy remembered me and moved way back. I cranked another one over his head. The next time I came up, he moved way, way back. And I cranked one over his head again.
Anyway, I still remember that. I never did anything like that before, and never did it again. It was 26 years ago, and I sometimes think of those hits like, "Remember that? Boy, was I good back then."
I wonder if Acuna will think about this HR in that way 20 or 30 years from now. He's only 25, though, so maybe he's got more impressive things on the horizon to fill his memory banks. I suppose Braves fans can only hope. But I bet he'll think about this one years from now when he's feeling nostalgic for the days when he was young and strong.
I formally request the discontinued saying that a baseball carries less in humid conditions. The baseball will more easily travel through humid air than dry air due to the lower density of water vapor molecules than N2 and O2 molecules. It was true that baseballs in humid conditions (late summer in much of the country and Oakland most of the time) would appear to carry worse, but they actually had absorbed moisture from the humid air while they sat around and since they were then "mushier" and a little heavier, they would have lower exit velocity and therefore not travel as far. Now the baseballs are stored in humidors at moderate humidity and temperature which removes storage conditions as a factor and leaves only game conditions. Thank you for your time :D
Acuna brings to mind Eric Davis, aka "Eric the Red." I just reviewed his stats from '86 and '87, when he was in his mid-20s:
1986: 132 games, with 27 homers and 80 stolen bases
1987: 129 games, with 37 homers and 50 stolen bases
Davis was caught stealing 17 bases, total, those two seasons, for an 88% success rate. (The norm back then was 65-70%).
What if Davis had played 150 games each year (allowing for a few games out here and there?)
He'd have been the Majors' first 30 HR-60 SB guy, at least once. Heck, he'd have been a 30-90 guy in '86! Injuries slowed him, but Davis managed to keep playing till he was 39 years old. Perhaps the most fitting snapshot of his career: in the '90 World Series, which Cincy won in a 4-game sweep, he lacerated his kidney diving for a ball in the outfield in Game 4:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-10-23-sp-3255-story.html
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/daviser01.shtml
Unfortunately, the most important ability is avaiability.
Incredible clout. I've watched a lot of games over the years. But I don't think I've EVER seen a ball hit to that part of Dodgers Stadium.
More importantly, I've now watched that clip a half dozen times. And I SWEAR he hit that ball off the end of the bat!!! 121 MPH off the end of the goddamn bat??? What the hell?
That was my reaction too: it doesn't look like it hit the sweet spot.
That said, it was also a *terrible* pitch: 95 belt high, and while it was on the outside of the zone, it was also not moving very much. I mean, pitches like that get thrown all the time, and none of them are hit like that, so no taking away from Acuña. But it wasn't exactly strength against strength out there.
It was a great homer. Also glad that it gave you a (sort of) legitimate pretext to push your book again.
The 2017 Judge homer made me wonder if they track the speed off the bat of foul balls.
I'll stand on Ronald Acuna's coffee table and declare that the ball that Reggie Jackson hit at the 1971 AS Game was hit just as hard, if not harder. I only say that because I was there and I still can hear the crack of the bat
It’s funny, the announcer said “Ronald’s quickly become a villain out here in LA,” but that’s not what I heard from the crowd, and that’s not the vibe I’ve gotten chatting with Dodger fans. A feared opponent, sure. But I think everybody is in awe of what he’s doing, and you go to games against the Braves partly hoping to see just what he’s done.
That has not been my experience of Dodger's fans. The ones that I have met (mostly at Diamondback's home games) are rude, obnoxious, loud and pretend the Dodgers can't do anything wrong and the opposing team is complete crap. I get people root for their teams, but with other teams fans you can almost always have a nice conversation about baseball, including what is right or wrong with your team and their team. Not the Dodgers fans (that I have met). Makes me root for the damn Yankees when those two teams play.
I've lived all over the country and met just one Dodger fan that I liked.
English only please.
The NL best record race and the MVP race are different for plenty of reasons but for this almost 40 Braves fan, it has me remembering 1999. The Mets came to Atlanta for a three game series, and it was a legitimately close race. Chipper decided it wouldn’t stay that way and just demolished the ball all series and won the MVP for it. I was lucky enough to go to two games and still relish how the Braves disappointed the large number of Mets fans at those games (this was in the heyday of the Sun Belt migration). This Braves-Dodgers series has been awesome.
Excited to pick up my copy of WWLB at the event in LA soon!
That Acuna blast was almost literally a laser beam!
An atomic beam, almost!
;-)
The scary thing here is comparing Acuna to Stanton.
To my mind, Stanton could be the biggest disappointment of the past several years, as his career has devolved from Annual MVP candidate capable of chasing Ruth to a guy who looks every single swing to be trying to knock over the Ruth Statue in CF.
In other words, Ronnie, baby, please don’t chase the StatCast numbers. I have seen the best bats of your generation destroyed by StatCast madness...
Im happy that Joe is getting the bestselling author treatment, but the push for the new book is only happening because of the success of the previous one. Publishers don’t bet on “unproven” authors anymore. It’s questionable how much difference it’ll really make. After all, The Baseball 100 was an enormous success a) without the major publisher push/book tour/etc, and b) even though 95% of it was originally published online.
I say this as a huge Posnanski fan that owns multiple books and has already pre-ordered the newest: I will be very happy when I am not being sold to, repeatedly, in every single blog post. Yes, the importance of pre-order sales has been explained, I fully understand the justification. But the relentlessness of the sales pitch-ing has turned into a negative of this experience.
Love your stuff, Joe. When you’ve made the sale, please stop selling. If subscribers to this blog don’t know about this book and all the ways they can order it by now, well, I’m not sure where they’ve been the last 6 months. Sales pitches can be utilized with greater effect elsewhere at this point, in my opinion.
Baseball, baseball, baseball! Enough is enough, am I right? Look, Joe, I am speaking for literally everyone here when I say that we are sick to death of baseball. Please, PLEASE get back to golf!
I'm guessing there are people who forward some of the subscriber emails to friends and family who don't subscribe. The book posts are for them as much or more as they are for the subscribers.
Plus, I've still found some good lines written in some of these posts. Even so, I often skip chunks of it to get to what pertains to me.
I disagree. Three reasons. First, it is beyond simple to skim past that portion if you want; far far simpler than writing about it. Second, YMMV but personally I enjoy the author’s enthusiasm for the speaking gigs and the product itself. Third, as a self employed person myself, I know that constantly selling yourself and your business is essential. Don’t worry about repeating the message; just sell yourself over and over and over again.
Yup. Is there anyone left in the world who hasn’t heard of Coca Cola or McDonald’s? Have they cut their advertising budgets?
Again, I hear and understand the justifications here. I have skimmed past many, many portions of articles over several months before writing - this is cumulative. Overall, I am a consumer that does not enjoy or appreciate being sold to over and over and over again, in any setting.
The reminder of batting titles when I was a kid ... I turned 9 in 1976. Local hero Rod Carew had already won five, four straight. The ill fated Lyman Bostock burst upon the scene. Down in KC, team leader Hal McRae was having a great run. And the younger George Brett a breakthrough year showing he wasn’t a fluke. Bostock faded a bit in August but the other three separated by thousandths of a point going down the stretch.
In the final series, the Twins played the Royals. Carew went 7 for 12 to climb to .331. McRae 3 for 12 to drop to .332. Brett, 6 for 7 including 3/4 on the last day to win it at .333.
We even had a bit of a controversy akin to the Cobb - LaJoie race at the beginning of the century. McRae suggested that the Twins let some balls fall in for Brett due to racial bias.
Acuña married his longtime girlfriend in L.A., before Thursday’s series opener, the night he hit his 30th homer to become the only member of the 30-60 club and started this recent tear at the plate. After Friday’s game Matt Olson joked he was thinking about renewing his vows.