What is your favorite thing in baseball? This is a pretty open ended question, so I'm hoping for a variety of answers. For me its several thing. 6. An entire at-bat of Nomar Garciaparra. His little obsessive-compulsive routing before he steps to the plate. His batting stance. Him always hitting the first pitch, and his being able to take a down and away ball and poke it deep to the gaps. 5. Watching Roy Oswalt pitch. Something cool about seeing a little guy work huge roided batters. 4. Watching Billy Wagner pitch. When he hits 100mph, man thats cool. When hitters start their swing so early they swing on ridiculous ****, thats awesome. 3. Watching Derek Lowe pitch. Its hilarious to see batters get worked by the sinkerball. Its comedy how good he is. 2. Watching a really good infield fielding play. Vizquel-Alomar double plays is one. Nomar's getting crazy balls behind 3rd base and firing across his body to first is another. 1. Watching Pedro Martinez pitch. He just dominates people. The single coolest shiver moment when I watch baseball, is his inside fastball against left handed batters. Its 98mph, starts inside about to hit the batter, and tails back out on the inside part of the plate. Holy **** that just ****s batters in the ass. Its amazing.
I have to agree with your #1, Nomar, because there's nothing better than watching a healthy, dominant Pedro Martinez pitch. Other players for whom it's a joy to watch pitch (at least for me) include Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson. Any pitcher at the top of their game and completely dominant for so long is always going to put on a good show, these two included. Gary Sheffield's swings of his bat before the pitcher throws the ball can be annoying, but it just wouldn't be the same without them. Craig Counsell's batting stance is another example of this. And Mike Fetters, just for being the bulldog that he acts like on the mound.
watching Randy Johnson pitch a complete game, still throwing gas in the late innings watching the yanks and red sox play each other, just b/c of the historical rivalry watching the small market Twins defeat clubs with payrolls 2x the size of their own
1. Cal Ripken Jr. at shortstop 2. Seeing Biggio and Bagwell in the starting lineup. 3. A homerun shot that wins a game, preferably by the Orioles or Astros. Or a strikeout by the closer to win the game. 4. The MLB Playoffs - bottom of the ninth 3 balls, 2 strikes, 2 outs. Man on second, down a run. 5. Sportscenter highlights. Overall I really enjoy the stats of baseball. I just like comparing RBI's/HR's/AVG/ERA/etc. across the league.
I have always been partial to the strike em out, throw em out double play. Gets me really excited. Walkoff homers, however, are about as good as I have ever seen. I went an Astros game a few years ago at home against the Braves in which Craig Biggio hit a walkoff homer....I've never seen a crowd so nuts as that one. It was great fun.
I used to hate baseball. I wasn't a fan til 96 maybe. I don't hate baseball, its just that it was boring. I played it out on the cul de sacs. I like when the manager of a team comes out to the home plate ump or the first base ump and just starts a shouting match. Lou Pinella is the freaking man at that.
Ooh, yes. Exactly. Rip, Rip, Rip. Junior at SS. Nothing like it. I love watching Octavio Dotel whip one right past a Sosa or Bonds for a striiiiike 3. Especially last year when he had that tremendous run going where he had like a .37 ERA for that certain stretch of games. Beautiful. The best thing that could ever happen in baseball...well, since y'all are predominately Stro fans: World Series, Game 7, bottom of the ninth. Lugo at third, Bidge at second, Berkman at first. Stros down to the Yanks 6-3. Riveria's got Bagwell at a full count. He takes a deep breath, sets his feet, and fires a 99-mph fastball right in the zone. With a mechanical swing, Baggy juices it 450 feet into the stands. The Houston Astros, Champions finally. I'd have to insert "Orioles."
Violence condescends the game of baseball. How dare you say that fights are one of the baest things in baseball. What about Barry - nah. How bout rivalr - nah. Hey, you can't forget perfect ga - nah. Hell, you're right.
I got to see Nolan Ryan's 7th no-hitter. That was pretty amazing... ...it's also pretty cool when you see an out-fielder haul back a would-be homer.
Once on TV I saw Glenn Davis golf a pitch that was inches above the plate for a home run. That was pretty cool. I really love certain defensive plays - infielders diving for grounders and throwing from their knees, or better yet diving for liners and somehow coming up with a ball that they had about .002 seconds to react to. Good thread, Nomar. Let me just give you "mad props" from here in my "crib," "homey."
I'd have to think about this, but : 6) Octavio Dotel's Fastball - When its on, its one of the best pitches in the game, it gets up to 95-96, and it breaks all over the place. Watching a batter just stare at that pitch as it weeble's its way right on the black for strike three . . . thats just good times. 5) Watching Ben Weber, Anaheim Reliever - He has this insane herky-jerky motion on the mound where he pounds his chest a couple of times . . . thats just fun to watch. 4) The Pedro Experience - Pedro's run, from 1997-2002, is the most dominant run by any pitcher. Ever. 3) Ricky Stone pitching out of the pen - He's been solid all year, he had a sub-2 ERA at the break, yet he gets no love from anyone. He's a damn good player, especially for a rookie. 2) Lance Berkman At-Bats - Watching a guy who just looks like he should be in the stands popping back some cold ones instead of at the plate, ripping a pitch to the gap for a double. 1) Roy Oswalt Starts - He pitches fast, he uses his pitches well, he has supreme self confidence, and the fact that his curve is practically invisible to Sammy Sosa.
6. Bagwell's 1st to 3rd plays on bunts. His aggressiveness was so awesome. I always love players thinking like that. 5. John Smoltz at closer. He throws 98, then has at least 2 or 3 other pitches he can locate whenever he wants. Hitters have no chance. Smoltz should finish out his career as a closer like Eck. 4. Bret Boone's Bat Flip. I just think that's the coolest homerun trot that anyone in baseball does. It just looks really sweet. 3. John Olerud's swing. It is so perfect and smooth and that's what makes him so consistent and one of the most underrated players in the game today. 2. Torii Hunter and Andruw Jones playing center field. Torii's catch at the All Star game was amazing and I like him more because Jones tends to nonchalantly play the game at times. Both are nightly web gems. And finally number 1. A Barry Bonds At Bat. Barry is my favorite Player and it's just so thrilling to watch a guy who can hit one out every swing of the bat. Imagine what he would do if he had teams not pitching around him so much and better offensive support like a team such as the Yankees. We could've seen perhaps the first Triple Crown winner in a long time. Also, I am so happy he owns the hr record over Mcgwire. McGwire for all of his career was purely a homerun hitter. Barry was a Gold Glove defender, stole bases, hit for avg, and power. He was the more complete player. And it just was so great to finally see him get some of the respect he deserves as a player last season.
#6. Lenny Dykstra. I know, he's been retired for a while. The guy was just so kooky, though. #5. Charging the mound. Everyone loves a good fight. #4. Vladimir Guerrero. He doesn't bother to wear any fancy gloves or elbow pads, he just goes out there and hits. He'll swing at anything too. I love watching him swing at a crazy outside breaking ball that would have landed in the dirt, and knocking it out of the park. The guy is unreal. #3. Randy Johnson's facial expressions. The guy just looks so surly. #2. Bunts, and not those wussy sacrifice bunts that the batter doesn't even bother to run out. I like real, honest to goodness bunts where the batter lays one down to catch the pitcher off guard and runs like a bat out of hell to beat the throw. It's like he's saying, "I'm so damn fast, I can get on base without even trying to swing." Ichiro, Furcal and Alomar are great bunters. #1. Pitching duels. It's awesome when two great pitchers are in the zone, and they go out inning after inning trying to match each other. Of course, Pedro was the king at this category. With his little cocky swagger, he seemed to love trying to not just outpitch the opposing batters, but to one-up the opposing pitcher.
batters that dont use gloves...moises coming to the plate bare handed and ripping the ball was always a treat to see... collisions at home plate are always nice too...
1) A tightly contested, drama-filled playoff series. If there is a rivalry between the two participating teams that's even better. 2) A good dugout-clearing brawl, as long as it doesn't involve the Astros. 3) Watching Billy Wagner pitch for a save, especially when he's on top of his game. 4) Roy Oswalt's starts. 5) Animated shouting matches between managers and umpires, or players and umpires. I agree with Kam; Piniella is one of the best at it. 6) Watching Ichiro Suzuki play. NOTE: If the Astros ever win a playoff series, that will become my new #1.
