This is the most topical one of these I've done, since the Twins just signed a third baseman. I think I'm close to halfway done now? Good golly there are so many of these damn players. Anyway, let's not waste anymore time, you can catch up at the bottom, now onto the guy who I restrained myself from calling Dick Cunto.

Nick Punto

Bill James Hall of Fame Monitor: 1
Career bWAR (14 years): 15.4
Stats: .245/.323/.323, 798 H, 19 HR, 187 XBH, 421 R, 104 SB, 12.4 dWAR, 76 OPS+
League Leading Stats: None
Awards: None
Teams Played For: Phillies (2001-2003), Twins (2004-2010), Cardinals (2011), Red Sox (2012), Dodgers (2012-2013), Athletics (2014)
Let's start this off in the most cultured I can: quoting Urban Dictionary. "The Nick Punto Kid: That kid in your fantasy baseball draft who clearly has no clue that the draft is even taking place, let alone the fact that they just set their roster back years by drafting players who won't even start in their local softball leagues." I think that's a bit too harsh on Nick, who would probably start in his local softball league, but I can see where they're coming from. Nick Punto was, for a whole lot of his career, not paid based on his performance at the plate. But he still got paid, and for a good 14 years. And I'm here to tell you why.
Nick Punto was drafted in the 33rd round of the 1997 draft by the Twins. He said "no thank you, you guys just lost 94 games and I like money." He was then drafted in the 21st round of the 1998 draft by the Philadelphia Phillies, who have more money than the Twins, so he said yes. Punto spent his first year in A-, second in A+, third in AA, and fourth in AAA. All the while he was putting up some mediocre/poor hitting numbers, but was very effective in the field. He got called up in September of the 2001 season, just in time to see baseball get delayed due to the tragedy in New York. He still made five plate appearances, getting a hit in two of them. After another year in AAA with another cup of coffee, Punto made the 2003 Opening Day roster. He started slow, taking a couple trips to the minors in the first several months. They only further empowered him once he returned, and he finished the year having exceeded his rookie limit. Then in the 2003 offseason, in order to add some more pitching depth to their roster, the Phillies signed Billy Wagner and traded for Eric Milton. To get Milton, they sent Carlos Silva, a player to be named later, and Nick Punto to the Minnesota Twins. The team that Punto had spurned many years ago now laid claim to him.
Punto had been acquired for his fielding ability. He had hopped around the infield a bit on the Phillies, starting games at second, third, and short in 2003. He had certainly not been acquired for his bat, as with the Phillies he had garnered a line of .223/.273/.274, which I affectionately call "shitting the plate." The second baseman and shortstop on the Twins, Luis Rivas and Cristian Guzman, had not shit the plate in 2003 (.259/.308/.381 & .275/.309/.384, respectively), but had sucked in the field. The idea was that Punto would compete for both starting jobs by upping his bat, and the added pressure would help Rivas and Guzman get better at their positions. It actually worked pretty well, as Punto's offensive numbers went up, and both Rivas and Guzman gained over a win in dWAR. Minnesota wound up in the playoffs that year, and as is tradition, got their asses handed to them by the Yankees. Punto wouldn't get out of the dugout that October, but it was his first experience with playoff baseball, and ya gotta start somewhere. That year would be the last time Cristian Guzman was a Twin, meaning the competition for starting shortstop was on between Punto and recently promoted Jason Bartlett (whom some might remember well). Then Luis Rivas turned into hot garbage, and Punto went to second instead, still getting his knocks in at short every now and then between Bartlett and Juan Castro. The Twins fell to 83-79 and out of the playoffs in 2005, not the least due to having an infield who were having trouble at the plate. The Twins ended up moving third baseman Michael Cuddyer, the best hitting infielder at .263/.330/.422 (not too bad, but bad for the best in the infield) to the outfield and stuck Punto at the hot corner for the 2006 season. It would be his first as a regular member as a starter, so he had to make it count.
In 2006, Nick Punto, along with Bartlett, outfielder Jason Tyner, and second baseman Luis Castillo, would form what Ozzie Guillen called "The Piranhas." So-called because they got to you fast with contact hitting and base running, Punto and the Piranhas ate very well in 2006. It would be his best year at the plate, hitting .290/.352/.373 from the second spot in the lineup. He was also part of a Twins team that woke up after an early season slump and won 96 games. Justin Morneau found his bat and won the MVP that year for some reason, Johan Santana won the Cy Young for many very good reasons, and the Piranhas scored a combined 224 runs (with 144 RBIs) en route to the Division Series. Good news: it wasn't the Yankees! Bad news: they got swept anyway! The Athletics eked out a win off two Frank Thomas homers in Game 1, eked out a win off one Mark Kotsay homer in Game 2, and did more than eke out their 8-3 win in Game 3. Punto would only go 2-for-12 in the series, was always left on base, and never brought anyone in. And just like that, the Twins' season was over. They wouldn't repeat the next year, as the Piranhas went hungry. Punto bore the brunt of it, as he shit the plate again with a line of .210/.291/.271. Everyone else did their damnedest to keep the band together, but everyone's averages went down (especially Punto's), and Tyner's .687 OPS eventually lost him the DH spot. Bartlett and Castillo would try their very best to stick it out, but after Castillo was traded at the deadline, the Piranhas would be declared dead from starvation, and the Twins finished sub-.500. The Twins would enter the next season with just one former Piranha on their roster.
After reading the previous paragraph, you might be surprised to hear that that one Piranha was our friend Nick Punto. Bartlett got traded for the apple of many big league scouts' eyes in Delmon Young, and Tyner walked in free agency. Punto, on the other hand stuck it out. His defense was certainly marvelous, as he had 5.2 dWAR to his name over the past three years in Minnesota (no Gold Gloves though, because when do they do anything right), but perhaps the Twins figured 2007 was a fluke and he would get back on track. Somehow, the Twins were correct. 2008 Punto, with a line of .284/.344/.382, looked much more like 2006 Punto than 2007 Punto. His two months on the DL did nothing to pad his stats, but he contributed what he could. The bulk of his fielding was done at shortstop this year, as Brian Buscher and Mike Lamb (who were both real baseball players I swear) shared 3B duties for the Twins. Minnesota would miss out on the playoffs, though, as a game 163 was required for the AL Central crown, and in that fateful game, the White Sox rode John Danks and Bobby Jenks to a two hit shutout. The Twins fell one game short. The last game. It hurt. A lot. So much so that they came storming back the next year to tie for the division lead again, this time winning game 163 against Detroit. Punto, who in the offseason had signed to a new 2-year, $8-million contract with a third-year option, started 58 games at second and 56 at short. He wasn't his best self in the regular season, with 0.3 dWAR and a line of .228/.337/.284, though he would come alive in the ALDS. He went 4-for-9 with three walks, a double, and an RBI. Didn't help, as the natural order held true and the Yankees swept the Twins yet again. By the 2010 season, Punto was 32. His glove hadn't left him, but it wouldn't get many chances that season. Danny Valencia, Orlando Hudson, and J.J. Hardy proved to be better at putting the ball into play, and they played the positions that Punto had been signed for. Multiple visits to the DL that year didn't help his case either. Punto would finish the season watching from the bench as a 94-win Minnesota team experienced their annual Yankees ALDS sweep. That winter, the Twins declined his third-year option, and he was a free agent. Where would a 33-year-old infielder find work with numbers that would look slightly above average in the deadball era?
The St. Louis Cardinals lost a lot of middle infielders over the 2010 offseason. Brendan Ryan to the Mariners, Aaron Miles to the Dodgers, Gerald Nixon to Yokohama, and Felipe Lopez to just plain sucking. I made one of those people up, but nobody cared about the 2010 Cardinals outside of pitching and Pujols, so you probably didn't notice. They brought in Nick Punto on a 750K contract for 2011 to be a warm body on the infield. He'd be a good bench player to back up more middle infielders that nobody knew, like Tyler Greene, David Freese, and Daniel Descalso. His bat would show up again that year, as he would slash .278/.388/.421, which added up to a career high .809 OPS for his first and only year with an OPS+ above 100. As for the Cardinals, they were okay, but Pujols had a down year and Wainwright had Tommy John, so they didn't do as well as they could have and whoops they won a World Series. Punto contributed in his own way with a 1.000 fielding percentage for the playoffs, grabbing some RBIs in the NLCS, and starting all but two games in the World Series. There were other things that happened that postseason, but none of them involved Punto, so we'll be moving on now. You're welcome Rangers fans. The Cardinals, having given him a ring, bid him farewell that offseason, and he would hit the market after putting up 1.6 bWAR in 63 games.
Boston, who had just had a great season that everybody remembers as one of the best of all time, were seemingly having a hangover after such a terrific season. With the hope that he could keep the good times rolling, Nick Punto was brought in on a 2-year, $3-million contract. I might be exaggerating how great Boston's 2011 season was, as in reality boy was it a shitshow in September. Punto was to be a bench bat and/or a defensive replacement. The results would prove to be sub-optimal. He shat the plate again with a line of .200/.301/.272, though his defense was pretty good, at least for a 34-year-old middle infielder. Then, all of a sudden, he was not playing for Boston anymore. Superstars Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, and Carl Crawford weren't either. They were all shipped to the Dodgers in a literal blockbuster trade involving over $300 million in contracts going to Los Angeles. Of that, less than 1% was commanded by sweet little Nick Punto. Because of his overwhelming irrelevance compared to the rest of the players contained in the deal, the circlejerk name for this deal was, naturally, the Nick Punto trade. It was hilarious. Punto's role in LA was pretty much the same as it was in Boston. He'd stick with them for the duration of his contract, with a pretty great rejuvenation happening in 2013 when he hit .255/.328/.327. The Dodgers were ver thankful for him that year, when he covered for the oft-injured infield in 116 total games. After that, Billy Beane took a chance on the 36-year-old, handing him a 1-year, $3-million deal with a vesting option. Sadly, he would not perform to his pay grade, and he shat the plate one last time, going .203/.296/.293. That was good for 0.3 oWAR because infield offense in 2014 was dogshit. Even with that caveat, and even though he met the vesting option, the A's released him from his contract that December. Punto was invited to the Arizona Diamondbacks' spring training in February after having not signed a deal over the intervening period. He declined, saying he was taking a year off baseball, but not retiring. After that year off, he retired. For one, I think it was a good time, because I think the plate had too much shit on it at this point.
Nick Punto did what he did, and he did it well. His desultory coprological production at the plate was made up for by his deified play in the field. Though his playoff performance proved cheapjack, the final results doubtless left him corybantic. I think I'm gonna put the thesaurus down now. Nick Punto was pretty good, even if he was often bad at hitting. He was good as an infielder, and while his playoff performances could've been better, I don't think he'll be returning his World Series ring anytime soon. In all honesty, though, Nick Punto didn't deserve to be on the ballot. Mark Belanger didn't get into the Hall, and Nick Punto was certainly worse than him, so I think the Selection Committee were okay here. Now MARK ELLIS ON THE OTHER H- I'll stop.
For his 587 hits, 311 runs, and 8.6 bWAR with the team, Nick Punto would visit the Hall of Fame in a Twins cap. There, he would read about his three partners in trade falling off the ballot after their first year.
Oi! Moah stuff heah if'n ya got naffin be-'a ta do!
#1 Nate McLouth
#2: Kyle Farnsworth
#3: Ryan Ludwick
#4: Joe Saunders
#5: Jason Bartlett
#6: Mark Ellis
#7: Jamey Wright
#8: Marco Scutaro
#9: John McDonald
#10: Álex González
#11: Endy Chavez
#12: Lyle Overbay
#13: Scott Downs
#14: Jason Kubel

Grew up with a father who's life revolved around Cricket. I used to go to the park with him every Sundays as he played until I was 13, I'm 26 now. I stopped following since, I want to get back in the sport.

Better Know the Ballot #5: Kevin Youkilis

Amari Cooper and the Drops

In the past, Raiders fans have grown accustomed to first round disappointments. The past two drafts have really turned that around. Khalil Mack is bordering on absolute superstardom and 2015 first rounder Amari Cooper has been almost everything you could possibly want from a receiver.
ALMOST.
The only blatant weakness in his game were the number of drops that he had. In fact, the sheer magnitude of drops has caused a number of fans some consternation.
Non-Raiders fans that focus on the statsheets (eg., Fantasy Football fans) have taken particular note and that concern has turned to some lowering their assessment of him and even his future potential.
I am less worried.
Amari Cooper is a very smooth and natural athlete and his hands are equally natural; this is not a DHB-type player who seemed to just struggle with the ball each and every time. In reviewing and studying those plays, I'm even less worried. While there were lots of balls that went awry, it wasn't all solely on Amari and it appears that there's room to grow.
This is a long and painfully detailed piece. Here's the Tl;dr :
A lot of the drops were a result of sync problems between Amari and Derek. As that gets cleaned up and the chemistry grows, AC/DC is going to start having some huge plays

GENERAL

I took all of Amari Cooper's targets and studied the incompletions. (There was one target to Amari that was tipped and then caught by Donald Penn that I just ignored entirely). From those, I made notes, assessed them, and grouped into categories.
Here are some large scale stats :

53 total incompletions
23 uncatchables (out of bounds, mistimings, tipped passes, underthrows)
11 Pass Breakups

This leaves 19 incompletions that fall into the potential DROP category.
Of these, NON-EXCLUSIVELY*

11 had ball placement issues
6 seemed to have pace issues (thrown too hard)
5 had communication or timing issues
2 were caught out of bounds (and perhaps could have been caught inbounds)

* by "non-exclusively", I mean a play may occur in multiple categories. Eg., a play could have a ball placement issue as well as having a pace problem.

17 may be considered drops
7 are what I would call "egregious drops".

DETAILS

Here's a detailed, closer examination of each of those incompletions with my personal observations and notes.
Of course, all the GFYs are included for your own appraisal; some of you may have differing opinions, which may spur some discussion.

Pass Breakups (11)

	Week	Opp	Play#	Play	TV Main	TV Replay 1	TV Replay 2	Drop Note
1	1	CIN	6	1-10-OAK 20 (7:15) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper (A.Jones).	GFY			Timing Route and Pacman gets an arm in to break up the pass
2	2	BAL	69	3-7-OAK 23 (12:50) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete deep left to A.Cooper (J.Smith).	GFY	GFY	GFY	Sideline wheel and Cooper gets a couple of steps, but the ball is underthrown allowing the CB to breakup the pass
3	4	@CHI	9	1-10-OAK 24 (4:30) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper (T.Porter).	GFY			Ball may be a little late on the curl. Defender breaks hard and disrupts the play
4	9	@PIT	1	1-10-OAK 34 (12:53) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper (R.Cockrell).	GFY	GFY		Timing route, defender reads the route and breaks on the ball. Makes a play and bats ball away
5	10	MIN	50	2-10-OAK 43 (11:08) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper (T.Newman).	GFY	GFY		Timing Route and Cooper can't shake Newman. The CB to break on the ball and bat it away
6	12	@TEN	71	3-4-OAK 42 (13:08) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper (P.Cox).	GFY	GFY		Cooper on the screen that is well defended and the CB breaks past the blocking WR to disrupt the play
7	12	@TEN	85	2-8-TEN 36 (2:09) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete deep left to A.Cooper (P.Cox).	GFY	GFY	GFY	CB doesn't bite on double move and has Cooper well covered. Breaks up the pass
8	13	KC	38	3-5-OAK 19 (1:33) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY		Sean Smith has Cooper well covered
9	14	@DEN	15	1-10-OAK 35 (14:50) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper (C.Harris).	GFY	GFY	GFY	Timing route. Cooper sits down while the ball in thrown leading Cooper into the defender, who breaks up the play
10	14	@DEN	38	3-15-OAK 35 (7:56) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY			Screen pass is well defended, ball isn't defensed, but Cooper is bodied up and prevented to getting to the ball
11	15	GB	91	1-10-OAK 30 (2:00) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete deep middle to A.Cooper (M.Burnett).	GFY	GFY	GFY	Carr throws into triple coverage and the ball is batted away

And here's a gallery of the stills showing the breakup :
imgur

Uncatchables (23)

These are balls that I term uncatchable. I've only included balls that are clearly out of reach, like those that are well overthrown or out of bounds that there is no way for Amari to get near the ball.
In many cases, the ball is thrown so far above and beyond Amari, that it appears to be a throwaway, though it's always difficult to truly assess intent.
There are some clear miscommunications where the ball is thrown to a spot and Amari is not there.
Some of these are missed opportunities and when Carr and Cooper get the play cleaned up, they can convert this type of play in the future.

	Week	Opp	Play#	Play	TV Main	TV Replay 1	TV Replay 2	Note
1	1	CIN	7	2-10-OAK 20 (7:12) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY		Thrown away or missed time
2	1	CIN	58	2-9-CIN 48 (14:35) (No Huddle, Shotgun) M.McGloin pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY			Miscommunication perhaps throw away
3	2	BAL	63	1-10-OAK 47 (2:53) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper (C.Mosley).	GFY			Timing pattern almost perfect, but underneath LB tips the ball
4	3	@CLE	37	1-10-50 (9:04) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper.	GFY			Thrown away or missed time
5	3	@CLE	85	3-5-CLV 38 (2:38) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper.	GFY			Miscommunication. Cooper breaks open and Carr throws it away out of bounds
6	4	@CHI	58	2-8-OAK 22 (12:23) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY			Miscommunication. Carr expects Cooper to break the route off sooner
7	7	@SD	76	2-9-SD 47 (5:54) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper.	GFY			Cooper well covered and Carr's throw out of bounds
8	8	NYJ	1	1-10-OAK 22 (7:09) D.Carr pass incomplete deep left to A.Cooper.	GFY			Cooper gets open deep but the ball is thrown out of bounds
9	8	NYJ	60	1-10-NYJ 34 (14:14) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY			Throw away
10	9	@PIT	25	3-5-PIT 43 (10:59) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper. Coverage by #20 W. Allen.	GFY	GFY	GFY	Timing Route, Carr expects Cooper to sit into hole in zone while Cooper ran away from it.
11	9	@PIT	81	1-10-PIT 27 (5:32) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper. Pressure by #55 Moats.	GFY			Defender puts pressure on Carr and Carr can't get the ball to Cooper
12	10	MIN	27	1-10-MIN 12 (6:41) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper.	GFY			Cooper breaks open on the post, Carr throws to the out
13	10	MIN	66	3-4-OAK 35 (9:47) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY			Carr feels pressure, can't step into the throw. Ball falls short of open Cooper
14	11	@DET	29	3-13-DET 42 (2:57) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper.	GFY			Cooper covered and Carr throws it away
15	12	@TEN	2	2-3-OAK 45 (13:18) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper [D.Jones]. OAK-D.Carr was injured during the play. His return is Questionable.	GFY	GFY	GFY	Timing route with touch thrown ball. Cooper slips trying to drive back (rainy) and can't get to the ball
16	12	@TEN	27	4-2-TEN 36 (13:35) (Shotgun) D.Carr FUMBLES (Aborted) at TEN 41, and recovers at TEN 44. D.Carr pass incomplete deep right to A.Cooper.	GFY			Fumbled snap and rollout disrupts perfect 4th down play call
17	12	@TEN	55	1-10-TEN 12 (11:40) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY			Cooper covered and Carr throws it over him and OOB
18	14	@DEN	12	3-6-OAK 30 (1:14) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY		Double pump and then thrown OOB
19	14	@DEN	20	1-10-OAK 20 (4:29) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper (V.Miller).	GFY			Timing route and ball is tipped by Von Miller
20	14	@DEN	22	3-7-OAK 23 (3:50) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete deep left to A.Cooper.	GFY			Downfield route and the ball is thrown out of bounds. Safety is coming over so Cooper may not have been open if the ball is in bounds
21	14	@DEN	74	3-9-DEN 25 (5:17) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete deep left to A.Cooper.	GFY			Cooper is bracket-covered and Carr throws it away
22	15	GB	88	1-10-OAK 19 (2:25) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper.	GFY			Cooper is open on the sideline, but the throw is high and away
23	16	SD	29	1-10-OAK 49 (8:06) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY			Carr throws the out and Cooper slips and can't get to the ball

It's expected to have these communication mixups with 2 young players, but man, it can be tough to watch, especially all lined up like this.
Check out #5 v CLE where Amari makes a little move and then breaks wide open down the sideline, but Derek Carr throws it away out of bounds. Or #12 v MIN, where Amari breaks free on the slant and Carr throws the out.

Ball Placement (11)

Sitting on the couch and watching the TV, it can be easy to underestimate the difficulty of a catch, especially one that is off-target.
Try this little experiment :
You can be seated or standing, it doesn't really matter.
Part I : Basic
Face the computer monitor so that you are squared up to it. Feet, knees, hips, chest, shoulders, and hands. Now extend your hands (palms out) in front of you about 2' or so with your thumbs touching and your index fingers touching, making a loose Triangle (that points up).
Imagine that the screen is where the QB is and that the ball is coming right at you. As you track the ball, you'll move the Triangle around so that the point of the ball hits dead center of the Triangle. Easy catch, right? As long as the ball is inside the framework of your body, it should be fairly straightforward.
Part II : Reach
Without moving or changing your body's position or alignment, take that Triangle and reach as far to the left as possible, making sure to keep the top pointed UPwards. Don't let your palms turn to the left; make sure they still face the monitor (your QB). You may feel a little tug on your shoulder or your elbow as you stretch out. How far outside the framework of your body (basically, how far beyond your left shoulder) can you reach?
You want to reach farther, so try turning your shoulders. Keep your hips square to the QB, but now you can turn your shoulder towards the left. That should ease some of that tugging on your shoulder and elbow and now your reach increases. Now keep the Triangle pointed to the QB and you should find that your shoulders are squaring back up and you are losing reach. Interesting...
Now, break the Triangle and reach out to the left as far as you can with your left hand, keeping your palm facing the monitor. Now reach with your right hand (palm out, thumb down) without turning your shoulders. Obviously, the problem is that the hands are not together. Now turn your shoulders and bring the thumbs together and the index fingers together, but now the Triangle points sideways to the left.
Now, move that Triangle down to waist level or below, making sure to keep the palms facing the QB. The tip of the Triangle will angle down. You may start feeling a tug on your right side, like your ribs area or obliques, maybe up into your back and possibly in your shoulder. And your reach is cut down significantly.
Now flip your hands. Instead of thumb and index fingers together, the thumbs and index fingers points away and the edge of your pinky fingers are adjacent (actually, the part of the palm that connects to the pinky). Now reach to the left and below your waist. You should see an increase in reach.
The lesson is that if the ball is thrown inside your body's frame, you keep your Triangle up. If it's outside your body, turn your hands. If it's low, flip your hands over.
Hand position is important and you have to track the ball to quickly decide how and where you're going to place your hands (as well as adjusting the body, naturally). Obviously, it takes the most time and effort to flip the hands over and so low throw balls are the most difficult to adjust to. Also, the reach on low passes is the worst, making low thrown balls the most difficult adjustment.
Part III : Reach Behind
Now, turn your feet, knees, hips, and shoulders to the right, around 45-60 degrees.
Now try the same exercises as in Part II. Make the Triangle in your body frame. Move the Triangle to the left. Reach out one-handed to the left. Tip the Triangle sideways to the left. Lower the Triangle below the waist. Flip the hands and reach below the waist.
Significantly reduced, right? Now imagine running full speed and doing the same thing, esp with the velocity that Derek Carr puts on the ball.
So balls thrown behind a WR on the move can be VERY difficult to bring in even if the WR may get a hand or even both hands on the ball. Notice that you obviously had much greater reach to the left with just the left hand, but even Megatron would struggle to consistently bring in one-handed catches on bullet passes.
Just keep this in mind when you see off-target passes that ANY WR has trouble with. In our case, we'll look at some of these types of plays with Amari and where the ball is placed.
Having said that, Amari Cooper is not a normal human being and his physical skills, hand-eye coordination, body control, and overall athleticism will allow him to make these plays. And no WR ever gets to have every ball perfectly placed every time and the mark of a special player is how he can help out his QB.
Part of the evolution will be Cooper getting more experience, part of it is getting more familiar with Derek Carr's delivery and being able to anticipate where the ball may be placed. Part of it is going to be Derek Carr getting his footwork under control and delivering a better pass. And part of it is just the duo building their chemistry.

	Week	Opp	Play#	Play	TV Main	TV Replay 1	TV Replay 2	Note
1	1	CIN	1	1-10-OAK 20 (15:00) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper.	GFY			Timing Route (slant) and the ball is behind Cooper
2	2	BAL	4	1-10-OAK 30 (13:34) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short middle to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY		Timing Route thrown slightly behind Cooper, allows defender to swipe the ball out of Cooper's hand
3	3	@CLE	27	3-2-OAK 20 (13:30) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY		Mistimed on the underneath crosser and then thrown behind and with too much pace
4	8	NYJ	78	3-9-OAK 32 (3:10) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY		Timing pattern, ball is thrown on time, but behind Cooper
5	11	@DET	19	3-3-DET 47 (8:25) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY		Slant. Ball thrown behind Cooper with pace
6	14	@DEN	53	1-10-OAK 35 (:40) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY		Cooper is well covered and Carr tries to throw him open. The pass has a lot of pace on it and forces the diving attempt. Cooper can't bring it in.
7	14	@DEN	61	2-15-DEN 16 (14:35) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete deep right to A.Cooper (A.Talib).	GFY	GFY	GFY	Cooper is well covered and expects back shoulder throw, but Carr throws into the defender.
8	15	GB	70	3-10-OAK 43 (3:30) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete deep middle to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY		Cooper full speed on the slant and Carr throws expecting Cooper to sit down in the hole in the zone. Cooper puts on the breaks and tries to bring it in, but the ball has a lot of pace and Coop can't quite do it.
9	17	@KC	51	1-10-OAK 35 (5:07) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY		Screen play is well defended and the throw forces Cooper to leave his feet
10	17	@KC	56	1-10-OAK 22 (:18) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY			Throw is low and away and very difficult place to catch and catches Cooper midstride

Details and Notes
1 CIN Image
It's a quick slant against Pacman and as Amari gets out of his break, the ball is thrown high and behind him. Amari would like the ball chest high and just in front of him so he can catch and run. That's a really tough catch to try to make with the speed Carr puts on the ball combined with it being so high and behind Cooper.
2 BAL Image 1
Image 2
Ball placement isn't terrible, but it's not great. On the slant, Cooper again finds the ball thrown behind him; this time it's shoulder height and Cooper is able to stop his feet and reach back for the ball. But as he does so and brings the ball in, the DB is able to jab into Cooper's arms and knock the ball out.
Ideally the ball is out in front so that Cooper can catch and run; the ball placement slows Cooper's feet and lets the defender catch up to him.
You could also consider this a Pass Breakup.
3 @CLE Image
Cooper on the shallow crosser and Carr missed the initial opening when Cooper wanted the ball. Then Carr makes a strong throw that is well behind Cooper. Amari gets one hand on it and the ball bounces away.
Amari wanted the ball much earlier than this, right HERE: Image, while the DB is screened off of him. If Cooper gets it here and it's out in front of him, it's a footrace to get around the corner.
4 NYJ Image
Another slant, this time against #24 Darrelle Revis. As Cooper makes his break, again the ball is throw well behind him. All he can do is reach back with his left hand and get a piece of it. You can see Amari has to try to stop himself and flip his hips backwards to try to get the ball.
If he gets it out in front, he may split the defense and get a nice gain and a first down.
5 @DET Image
Another slant, another throw that is high and behind him.
6 @DEN Image
Amari sits against the CB and Carr tries to throw Cooper open by throwing it away from the defender. The ball is perfectly placed where just Amari can get to it, but he just can't bring it in.
It's a tough catch, but one that he should bring in.
What will make it easier in the future is the experience and understanding that this throw is coming. Cooper may have felt the coverage and thought that the throw would NOT come to him and relaxed a bit earlier on the play. If he's anticipating the throw, he may be working to that spot a split-second sooner and making it an easier play for him.
7 @DEN Image
This probably should have been called a Pass Interference play. The ball goes inside while Cooper is to the outside (fade). Cooper really had no chance on this play, but if the ball goes up over the outside shoulder Amari may have been able to basket catch it.
8 GB Image
On this play, Cooper was at full sprint from Right to Left and as the ball is thrown (again well behind him), Cooper puts on the breaks, slips on the grass and has to reach back to try to catch the ball. He can only get his right arm on it and the ball bounces away.
On this play, the problem was that Cooper misread the defense. Carr threw to the hole in the zone while Cooper ran thru it. Amari needed to sit down in that hole and then the ball would have been right to him.
9 @KC Image
This is the WR screen that worked so well early in the season, but that the defenses adjusted to later. Here, the Chiefs are ready for it and have blown it up. The play timing is off and the throw is off target and Amari has to dive to try to touch the ball.
10 @KC Image
Amari on the intermediate dig route; he's got the depth for the first down and a step on the defender, but Carr feels some pressure and doesn't follow thru. The ball just dies on the way out there and is low. Amari wants that ball out in front and up into his numbers so he can catch and try to outrace that CB. Instead, the ball ends up below his knees and a bit behind making it a very tough catch.
I love Derek Carr and he has some fantastic tools to work with, but right now, he's a young player and a work in progress. Notably, his footwork and pocket presence can be awkward and this can result in some erratic throws. Compounding that is his arm strength and it can be tough for a WR to have any idea of where the ball may be going at any given time. He's also young and excitable and as fans we can really buy into that, but during a play, that energy (and sometimes panic) can sometimes result in high velocity passes.
Consistency.
As Carr calms down, as he works out his mechanics, and as he grows increasingly comfortable the throws are going to be more natural and more consistent. As that happens, it will coincide with a significant reduction in drops.

Ball Pacing (6)

For WRs, tracking the ball is a key aspect of their game. The longer they can see the ball, the more they can sense the ball's trajectory is and so can predict where the ball will be and prepare for it. Mostly when fans talk about "tracking the football" the context is on deep, high-arcing passes and that's certainly important. But perhaps just as important (and much less often discussed) is the tracking of the ball on short routes.
One of Derek Carr's biggest gifts is the power in his arm and it's not just that he's got a great arm, but his hands and wrists are so strong that he's able to deliver a bullet without much arm motion. His release is so quick at times that the ball seems to just jump out of his hands with no windup; that's part of why he's able to throw the ball from such awkward and unorthodox positions sometimes.
It's fantastic because it's hard for the defenders to jump the ball and he can go from scanning the field to throwing the pass very quickly, making it tough on pass rushers.
But that same fantastic positive attribute can be a severe difficulty for the WRs, particularly on short routes. It's tough enough to try to catch a bullet pass, but when the ball comes out so fast, it can get on top of the receiver very quickly, not allowing much chance to adjust to the ball.
At the 2004 Major League Baseball All-Star game, fastpitch softball pitcher Jennie Finch famously struck out Albert Pujols, Brian Giles, and Mike Piazza. Jennie Finch v Albert Pujols, Youtube. Finch's pitches were 68 mph from 43' away (using the shorter softball diamond), which effectively equated to about a 90mph pitch from the regular MLB 60'6" distance.
But these three baseball players all looked totally helpless. Why?
David Epstein, author of the very interesting book The Sports Gene : Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance explained :

A typical major league fastball travels about 10 feet in just the 75 milliseconds that it takes for sensory cells in the retina to confirm that a baseball is in view and for information about the flight path and velocity of the ball to be relayed to the brain. The entire flight of the baseball from the pitcher's hand to the plate takes just 400 milliseconds. And because it takes half that time merely to initiate muscular action, a major league batter has to know where he is swinging shortly after the ball leaves the pitcher's hand -- well before it's even halfway to the plate.
The window for actually making contact with the ball, when it is in reach of the bat, is five milliseconds, and because the angle of the ball relative to the hitter's eye changes so rapidly as the ball gets closer to the plate, the advice to "keep your eye on the ball" is impossible to follow. Humans don't have a visual system fast enough to track the ball all the way in. A batter could just as well close his eyes once the ball is halfway to home plate. Given the speed of the pitch and the limitations of our physiology, it seems to be a miracle that anybody hits the ball at all.
...
Studies that track the eye movements of experienced performers, whether chess players, pianists, surgeons or athletes, have found that as they gain experience, they are quicker to sift through visual information and separate the wheat from the chaff. Experts swiftly discard irrelevant input and cut to the data that are most important in determining their next move. While novices dwell on individual pieces or players, experts focus more attention on spaces between pieces or players that are relevant to the unifying relationship of parts in the whole.
Most important in sports, perceiving order allows elite athletes to extract critical information from the arrangement of players or from subtle changes in an opponent's body movements in order to make unconscious predictions about what will happen next.
..
The theme of Abernethy's findings is that elite athletes need less time and less visual information to predict what will happen in the future, and, without knowing it, they zero in on critical visual information. Elite athletes chunk information about bodies and players' positions the way grandmasters chunk arrangements of rooks and bishops. "We've tested expert batters in cricket where all they see is the ball, the hand and wrist and down to the elbow, and they still do better than random chance," Abernethy says. "It looks bizarre, but there's significant information between the hand and arm where experts get cues for making judgments."
...
Since Pujols had no mental database of Finch's body movements, her pitch tendencies or even the spin of a softball, he could not predict what was coming, and he was left reacting at the last moment. And Pujols's simple reaction speed is downright quotidian. When scientists at Washington University in St. Louis tested him, perhaps the greatest hitter of his era was in the 66th percentile for simple reaction time compared with a random sample of college students.
No one is born with the anticipatory skills required of an elite athlete.

Emphasis mine.
Tl;dr Elite athletes rely on data from experience to predict what will happen; they quckly and subconsciously recognize body movements and associate that with other outcomes like where a pitched ball will be.
I find this tremendously interesting and very relevant to QB/WR play.
Amari Cooper's college QB was AJ McCarron. He was a fantastic NCAA QB and is in the NFL, but his arm is nowhere near Derek Carr's and McCarron certainly doesn't have Carr's release.
As David Epstein as informed us, elite athletes depend on predicting results based on familiar body movements. The problem is that Derek Carr's quick release can hide his intentions to throw the ball; in fact, he may have not even decided to throw until bare moments before he has thrown.
For a WR who is used to seeing his QB start a throwing motion, taking short distance, bullet passes from a no-windup QB like Carr can make things difficult and the resulting drops should not be surprising. In fact, many passes that go right between Amari's fingers make it doubly obvious that something of this nature is occurring.
And Amari wasn't the only victim.
Crabtree had a few also, for example, this one : GFY

	Week	Opp	Play#	Play	TV Main	TV Replay 1	Note
1	3	@CLE	27	3-2-OAK 20 (13:30) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY	Mistimed on the underneath crosser and then thrown behind and with too much pace
2	8	NYJ	78	3-9-OAK 32 (3:10) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY	Timing pattern, ball is thrown on time, but behind Cooper
3	11	@DET	19	3-3-DET 47 (8:25) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY	Slant. Ball thrown behind Cooper with pace
4	11	@DET	66	1-14-OAK 4 (7:54) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper.	GFY		Timing route and the ball is placed in front of him for catch and run, but quick release and pace and Cooper can't quite bring it in. Maybe it's just a touch too far out in front.
5	13	KC	18	4-2-KC 35 (:43) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short middle to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY	4th and short and defense playing tight means the ball has to come out fast. It's got a lot of pace and is a little bit high so Cooper can't body catch it. The ball gets past his hands and into his facemask.
6	14	@DEN	53	1-10-OAK 35 (:40) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY	Cooper is well covered and Carr tries to throw him open. The pass has a lot of pace on it and forces the diving attempt. Cooper can't bring it in.

1,2,3,6 are all from ball placement. I mention them here as well, because the speed that Carr puts on the ball makes it doubly difficult to make the catch. Of course, in the cases of a quick slant, the ball needs to be throw quickly and with pace.
4 @DET image
This is a beautiful play and the ball is almost perfectly placed; it is at the numbers and out in front for a perfect run-and-catch opportunity; he has a chance to split the defenders, turn on the afterburners, and go long. But he just can't quite bring it in.
Re-watch this and focus on Derek Carr's throwing motion keeping in mind what we learned from David Epstein.
Just notice how quick that ball comes out of his hand and how short and tight Carr's windup is.
Even though Amari is expecting the ball, it's just a bit tough to track it in the air. Carr's quick release makes the ball seem to jump at Cooper and made it a little tougher catch.
5 KC image
This is perhaps the single most devastating drop of the season, both for the situation and because of how easy the play looked.
This is a 4th and short against KC and with the defenders playing stick defense (guarding the first down marker), there's not much room and so the ball has to be a high velocity throw just to beat the defender to the receiver.
Amari makes the great move to get space and the ball is delivered right on time and on target.
The ball actually goes right between Amari's hands, hits the facemask, and then bounces to the ground.

Miscommuncation and/or Mistiming (5)

I'm not going to say much here.
These plays are where Amari and Derek Carr are either doing different things or where the timing is a little bit disrupted or off.
1,2,4,5 also appear on previous sections.
3 I did not put as "ball placement" because Carr threw to where he expected Amari to go.
These plays are going to naturally improve as Carr and Cooper work together. Most of this is fixed with experience and time.

	Week	Opp	Play#	Play	TV Main	TV Replay 1	TV Replay 2	Note
1	3	@CLE	27	3-2-OAK 20 (13:30) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY		Mistimed on the underneath crosser and then thrown behind and with too much pace
2	14	@DEN	15	1-10-OAK 35 (14:50) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short left to A.Cooper (C.Harris).	GFY	GFY	GFY	Timing route. Cooper sits down while the ball in thrown leading Cooper into the defender, who breaks up the play
3	14	@DEN	61	2-15-DEN 16 (14:35) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete deep right to A.Cooper (A.Talib).	GFY	GFY	GFY	Cooper is well covered and expects back shoulder throw, but Carr throws into the defender.
4	15	GB	70	3-10-OAK 43 (3:30) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete deep middle to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY		Cooper full speed on the slant and Carr throws expecting Cooper to sit down in the hole in the zone. Cooper puts on the breaks and tries to bring it in, but the ball has a lot of pace and Coop can't quite do it.
5	17	@KC	51	1-10-OAK 35 (5:07) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY		Screen play is well defended and the throw forces Cooper to leave his feet

Caught Out of Bounds (2)

I'm not sure if these plays get counted as Drops or not. Technically, Amari did not drop these, but he also seemingly could have/should have been able to make these as inbounds catches.

	Week	Opp	Play#	Play	TV Main	TV Replay 1	TV Replay 2	Note
1	4	@CHI	65	1-10-OAK 9 (6:41) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete deep right to A.Cooper.	GFY			Scramble drill and Cooper makes the catch, but can't stay in bounds. Perhaps loses track of his field location
2	9	@PIT	85	2-10-PIT 11 (4:37) (Shotgun) D.Carr pass incomplete short right to A.Cooper.	GFY	GFY	GFY	Perfect route and pass. Cooper can't get 2nd foot in bounds

Continued in Comments

Link

JaguarGator9's History of Halftime- Day 35 (Part II): Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show (Coldplay, Bruno Mars, Beyonce)

This is the one that you guys have been waiting for. After reading my thoughts on the halftime shows of the past 31 Super Bowls, I know a lot of people were anticipating my opinions on the Super Bowl 50 halftime show. I got so many username mentions during the show; I would’ve answered all of them, but about halfway through, the thread got locked, so I was unable to do that. Still, the fact that so many of you guys value my opinion and want to hear what I have to say about this halftime show is an honor, and it’s one of the reasons why I love posting here.
The reaction that I’ve seen from almost every publication has been mixed. I haven’t seen this pop up in the “best ever” conversation. I also haven’t seen this pop up in the “worst ever” conversation. I’ve seen reviews love the ending to the show, and I’ve seen reviews absolutely pan the ending. I’ve seen reviews love the addition of Bruno Mars and Beyonce, and I’ve seen reviews hate the addition. I’ve seen a split almost right down the middle on Coldplay at this halftime show. This is an interesting one to review, not just because it’s the most recent and it’s some new material to add to the halftime show catalogue, but because the reaction is so divided with this halftime show towards the middle. So, with that being said, let’s dive right in and take a look at the Super Bowl 50 halftime show.
NOTE: This is not a review based on one viewing. I have watched this show 8 times now from the live airing to this hour, so I have had enough time to analyze the elements of this halftime show, as well as develop an opinion not-emotionally based. Keep that in mind when reading- I binge-watched this show today.
Background Information
I’ll start this off by offering this post that I made on Saturday night about my predictions for the halftime show. There were some elements that I got right on the money, there were some elements that I got right that were pretty obvious, and there were some things that I got dead wrong (for better or worse). Without giving anything away in terms of my opinions, here’s what I got right: “Adventure of a Lifetime” leading into “Uptown Funk!”, “Clocks” going into “Fix You” to close out the show (somewhat accurate), “Paradise” being played, and “Uptown Funk!” being the one song that Bruno Mars performed. However, there was a lot that I got wrong; some were going with my gut instead of what the stats said (the stats said that Coldplay would open up with “Viva la Vida,” but I thought otherwise), and some were things that, based off of previous halftime shows, I don’t think anyone saw coming.
Anyways, let’s start way back at the beginning with this one. It started back on September 8, when it was reported that Bruno Mars was asked to curate the show. That part turned out to be partially accurate; he was in the halftime show, but he did not curate the performance. Then, in October, there was this report that Maroon 5 was going to get the halftime show. Normally, when a report like this comes out regarding a big band or a big artist, it’s a good sign going forward. Maroon 5 didn’t get the halftime show this year, but it would not surprise me if they got a halftime show in the next three years (Maroon 5 somewhere, Taylor Swift somewhere, and Prince for Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis- get it done, NFL). There was also this report from September that said that One Direction was going to perform at the halftime show; nothing ever came of that, and no major publication other than some gossip/entertainment ones reported it.
However, on November 26, the NFL reported that they would unveil the halftime show at halftime of the Thursday Night Football game between Green Bay and Detroit. That game, as you may recall, was the first Aaron Rodgers Hail Mary of the season (and the fact that I have to specify which one it was is mind-boggling). And then, at halftime of that game (although it got leaked about 12 hours beforehand), Coldplay was announced as the headlining act. I’m not going to link as many articles as usual about the same topic, simply because of how recent it is, and because there’s a lot to talk about (more so than usual, simply because it’s fresh in our minds).
Every halftime show in the Poly-Performer Era needs some supporting acts, and this halftime show had the purpose of celebrating the past halftime shows with moving forward (eerily similar to the Super Bowl XX halftime show theme, although significantly better, purely because it’s not Up With People). On January 8, Beyonce was announced as a halftime show act for the second time ever; she did the halftime show at Super Bowl XLVII. And, in the world’s worst kept secret, Bruno Mars was announced as a halftime show act in February. Coldplay posted a video which mentioned Bruno Mars, but the league still didn’t confirm it until 2 days before the Super Bowl. This marked his second time at the halftime show, as he headlined the Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show. Note that the first Beyonce and first Bruno Mars halftime shows were critically acclaimed, and are some of the best halftime shows of all-time (I have them at #6 and #3, respectively).
There was also a report that Beyonce would do a brand new song at the halftime show. This report came out the day before, and I dismissed it in my predictions thread. I dismissed it because setlist leaks are normally wrong; there was a leak about Destiny’s Child doing their brand new song, “Nuclear,” at halftime of Super Bowl XLVII, and when all was said and done, they never did it (wise choice). However, unlike the other setlist leaks, this one turned out to be 100% accurate. She released the song “Formation” about 36 hours prior to the game, and as of this writing, the song is not on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else besides YouTube. Interesting strategy there. You’ll see my thoughts on this self-promotion later in the review.
Of course, every halftime show needs a controversy, and this one… well, this one is just flat out stupid. There was the fact that Beyonce was supposedly paying homage to the Black Panther Party, which, based on the lyrics of the song, I can understand to an extent. However, Rudy Giuliani thought that the halftime show attacked police officers, and that it was an anti-police message. Where on earth did you get that idea? This is the definition of creating something out of nothing. I never thought that once in my seven or eight times of watching the halftime show. I like Rudy Giuliani- as someone who lived on Long Island, I thought he was a good mayor of New York City. That being said, this was just a flat out moronic comment on his end.
I know it’s only one day later, but how does this halftime show hold up? What were your reactions the first time you watched it, and did they change later on in future viewings?
The Show
Full Show
Before diving into the show, note that this was the best quality that I could find. A quick message to the NFL here- why are you taking down YouTube videos of the halftime show? I never understood why the league did this and couldn’t just follow the NBA model, where free publicity is a good thing (unless the videos are making money off of it). It’d be one thing if the league put the video of the halftime show up on their YouTube page, but they have not done that. It’d be one thing if the league put the video of the halftime show up on their website, but they have not done that; they’ve only put up snip-its of the show.
Note to the NFL- a big reason why you were able to do that tribute at the end of this halftime show was because people remember and re-watch those halftime shows. By taking down all high-quality videos of that, future fans are going to be deprived of this halftime show. My advice to the NFL is to put the full video of the halftime show up on their YouTube page, or if you’re not going to do that, allow people to post high-quality videos of the show. But by not putting the halftime show up on your YouTube page AND by taking down any other videos, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice, and you’re hurting the fans. Your move, NFL, because this strategy is not a good idea. Yes, I know that YouTube has had a lot of problems lately with companies just abusing the copyright system (there are plenty of videos of YouTube to take a look at), and I don’t like the fact that the NFL is doing the same to people posting the halftime show, simply because the NFL has not given us a way to watch the halftime show on YouTube. That’s my mini-rant, and it has nothing to do with the halftime show; just note that this video is the best quality that I could find. When something is cut off (and there’s really only one major thing that’s cut due to the framing at the very end; I’ll point that out when we hit that point), I’ll let you know; it’s disappointing, though, that this is the best quality because the league decided to remove every other video.
With that being said, let’s look at what we’ve got. You’ll notice that Pepsi is the sponsor for the fourth straight year and for the fifth time ever, and they decided to air a pre-show video. I’m a bit confused on the video. Why does it start with Madonna and then go into the Pepsi song? However, that’s irrelevant (I never judge the pre-show video if it does not take away from the performance; this halftime show is still 12 ½ minutes long, so it had no bearing whatsoever) in the grand scheme of things. We start the show off with the Pepsi logo being shown on the field, making this the second straight year that this occurred; remember that Katy Perry’s halftime show started off with that as well.
After that, it cuts to the field, where you see a sun rising as a card stunt. For the first time since Super Bowl XXXIX, you see a card stunt, and the card stunts work really well here. Remember how in my awards, I gave the best card stunt to Super Bowl XXVI? That was short-lived. If I could re-do those awards to reflect what happened after the Super Bowl 50 halftime show, this would win. The card stunts here are absolutely superb, and the color choices are incredible. What I love about this halftime show (and I’ll mention this now because it’s an overarching theme for the entire show) is that from day one, this show was at a disadvantage. This show was taking place in the sunlight, which is something that had not happened since Super Bowl XXXVII thirteen years ago. This means that any light shows or spectacles that you want to put on cannot occur. The Katy Perry halftime show probably would’ve been a disaster if it was held in sunlight; you would never be able to pull off the “Firework” number at the end. However, they use this disadvantage to their strength, and put on an absolutely beautiful and colorful halftime show in terms of the designs. They use the sun to their advantage, and that’s something that not many halftime shows can say.
Chris Martin is on the field singing “Yellow” to open up the show, and he only sings two lines of that song. You’ll notice a few things with this number. First off, Chris Martin is singing on the field; this is the first time since Bono performed “Beautiful Day” on the field as part of the U2 halftime show. You also see crowds of people running past Chris Martin here; that’s never happened before. It’s similar to the Super Bowl XXXV halftime show entrance, but it’s not, because instead of running away from the crowd, the crowd is running towards Chris Martin. It’s something that I’ve never seen before.
Another thing you’ll notice (and I’ll get this out of the way right now) is that the audio is awful. No, that is not because of the quality of the video; that is because CBS dropped the ball with this one… again. I used to really like CBS, but the only good things that I can say about their broadcast yesterday was that I liked the new graphics package, and that Phil Simms didn’t say as many stupid things as I thought he would. Man, did CBS drop the ball here. Mike Carey was 0-for-1 (unsurprisingly; funny story about that- at the party that I was at, nobody knew whether or not it was a catch; however, when Mike Carey said that it was a catch, we all simultaneously said that it was going to be ruled incomplete, and then cheered louder than any other play during the game when the referee upheld the call), the pregame coverage was either really boring (the most softball interview with the Obamas I have ever seen) or really awkward (the entire Buffalo Bills thing), the Late Show with Stephen Colbert after the game was highly disappointing (minus a few skits), CBS All Access wasn’t accessible in my market (so I couldn’t watch anything after the game live; I go to school in THE TRIAD, which is about an hour away from, I don’t know, ONE OF THE TEAMS THAT WAS IN THE SUPER BOWL; you’d think that you want to have the Charlotte market covered), the graphics glitched out at times (re-watch the end of the game to see what I mean in terms of the time), the pre-forced ads were awkward (there were 8 minutes on the clock in the first quarter when Jim Nantz said it was almost time for the halftime show), and, as you’ll see here, they dropped the ball on the halftime show.
Why does this bug me? Because CBS has had the halftime show five times since 2004, and there’s been a technical error on three of those. This means that they are batting below .500 on the halftime show from a technical standpoint. I trust DeAndre Jordan to make a free throw more than I trust CBS to get the halftime show right. At Super Bowl XXXVIII, you had the Janet Jackson incident. At Super Bowl XLVII, the mics for the other members of Destiny’s Child were off. And, here, the audio was atrocious. I had one person complain during the party that I was at that he could not hear the words; at first, I thought it was because he was talking, but then when his sentence was over, I realized that he was right. CBS had over 100 cameras for this game, but they couldn’t invest in some better technology from a sound perspective? I’ve never seen this happen on an NBC halftime show, and I’ve only seen it happen once on a FOX halftime show (The Black Eyed Peas at Super Bowl XLV, but there were a string of technical problems with that one). It’s consistently a CBS problem. Get it together, CBS, and stop ruining the Super Bowl experience for us fans.
Getting back to the halftime show, Chris Martin runs onto the stage after ending “Yellow,” and you see that the stage is shaped very similarly to that of the Super Bowl XXXV stage and the Super Bowl XXXIX stage. I’d almost say that this was an identical replica of the Super Bowl XXXIX stage, with the only exception being that the ends were flowers instead of just rectangles. It works; it’s not my favorite stage design, but the point is for the surrounding area to take over, with on the field stunts, card stunts, and fans on the field. From that perspective, it works. Also, there are fans on the field for the third time in four years, and much like Beyonce’s first halftime show, they’re all dressed in black.
Once Martin is on stage, we get into one verse and two choruses of “Viva la Vida.” The pacing on this song is really good, and if you notice in the background, you’ll see people waving the flags from every Super Bowl ever. I wish they focused on that a bit more, because I thought that was really cool. The vocal quality on this halftime show is good. I’m not going to say it’s the best of all-time, and I’m not going to call it great, but considering some of the other halftime shows of the past, it could’ve been a lot worse. Chris Martin sounded ok here; he never sounded mind-blowingly awesome, and he never sounded strong as a vocalist, but he didn’t make too many mistakes. The problem is that he got upstaged completely by his supporting acts, which we’ll get to later.
During the bridge of “Viva la Vida,” Martin has a message for the crowd that no matter where you are, we’re in this together. Considering the theme of this halftime show seems to be coming together and joining in a celebration for a special occasion, I like it. I also like the fact that he doesn’t stop the show to deliver the message; he does this at the bridge, when nothing is happening. I should point out now that Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) performed at this show, but I didn’t even notice. I liked their outfits, but I genuinely did not notice any musical changes with the addition of the orchestra. That part disappointed me. All I heard was somewhat more violin; whether or not that was by design or that was because CBS had no idea what they were doing with the audio, I’m not sure.
That song ends, and there’s a very poor transition from “Viva la Vida” into “Paradise.” This is easily the worst vocal performance of the show. Typically, low notes do not translate well at the halftime show; it’s only worked once before, and that was the first verse of “Beautiful Day” at U2’s halftime show. I didn’t like the transitioning from that song, and I don’t know what was happening on the field besides the band playing (there could’ve been some more things going on and some more color), but I liked the pacing of the song. One verse and one chorus is all you need from that song; the idea is to keep it moving. Stay on one song for too long, and most of the time, you’ll fall flat.
After that, you hear a pause, which leads into “Adventure of a Lifetime.” Again, the transitions at this halftime show are very clunky, but this was the part of the show where I was absolutely blown away by the on-field stunts. Remember how I criticized halftime shows of the 80s and 90s for filling the field just because, and not really adding to the show? This is the exact opposite of that- this is filling the field to enhance the show. This is filling the field to add to the colors. I love the flowers on the field, and I love the formation that the flowers form. I do think that there could’ve been fireworks in the chorus (at the “alive again” part both times), and I’m not a fan of the pacing of this song (one verse, one chorus, and the woo section at the end is all you need; you don’t need to tack on an extra minute). This part felt very reminiscent of an Olympics opening or closing ceremony, and I enjoyed it, mainly for what happened on the field. Chris Martin’s vocals are spotty, but I do like the energy that he brings to the performance. I think this song goes from a borderline hit to a legitimate hit after this performance; it’s the power of the halftime show.
But once that’s done, Coldplay’s set is done, and the first act of three at this halftime show is done. This next part of the show is incredibly risky, and has never been done before. You’ve never seen the two supporting acts going up against each other back-to-back. You’ve never seen a brand new song not even released on iTunes or Spotify performed at the halftime show. You’ve never seen an entire choreographed number take place on the field. You’ve never seen a literal showdown on stage or a dancing battle. Yet, that’s exactly what happened after “Adventure of a Lifetime” concluded. The result? For the most part, this really worked.
I’ll start with what happens immediately after Coldplay is done, and that is Mark Ronson interrupting the song to start off “Uptown Funk!”. At first, I wasn’t a huge fan of the transition; however, after listening to it multiple times, I think it works. It’s not the best (a lot of the transitions are clunky at this show), but it’s serviceable. Let’s just say this about this number- after watching what Bruno Mars did here, I’d like to propose a new rule. Every time that Bruno Mars has a hit single, he can come back as the guest performer to do that song. I think after going 2-for-2, he’s earned the right. From a pure entertainment perspective, I said that “Runaway Baby” was the best number performed at any halftime show; now, “Uptown Funk!” is a very close second.
Everything about this next number is flawless, and as a man that’s watched all of them, it’s rare that I say that. The musicality of the number is awesome; I love the pauses, and I love the remix that Mark Ronson puts on this number. The choreography is incredible; Bruno Mars and The Smeezingtons are incredibly in sync, and they’re right on the beat. The vocals are incredible; after his performance at the Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show, this should come as no surprise. The style of this song is incredible; it feels like something you’d see Bell Biv DeVoe do, or something you’d see on Arsenio Hall back in the 90s. This isn’t just a straight-from-the-track song; they change it up for the occasion, and it works. That breakdown at the end of the first chorus feels like an MC Hammer number, and I mean that in the best way possible. Seriously- when you get to the breakdown, sing the chorus of “2 Legit 2 Quit” over it, and it syncs up perfectly. They made “Uptown Funk!” into a new jack swing song, and it works so well here. On one hand, it’s incredible; on the other hand, the supporting guest just completely upstaged the headlining act for a positive thing.
I criticized the transitions, but the transition from the end of “Uptown Funk!” to Beyonce is really well done. I love the drums that take us into that song. That being said, you know my stance on self-promotion at this point. When I first heard “Formation” and saw the report, I hated it. I couldn’t get more than three minutes past the song when I heard it for the first time; I thought it just sounded like a complete mess. That being said, this performance isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. However, I do have a problem with the fact that she released a song 36 hours before the game and performed it at halftime. Give Madonna some credit- at least she released her song 2 ½ days before the game and put it on iTunes, where it was #1 on those charts for a bit. This song was literally unknown. Using the halftime show for that platform always disgusts me, and this is no exception. Could’ve been worse, but doesn’t change the fact that I hate the idea behind it.
What makes this worse is that there was another song that could’ve fit here. If there was no other song that fit that transition, then fine; go right ahead and promote “Formation.” However, it’s not like Beyonce has another song that starts out with drums, is better produced, is about empowerment, is suited for the halftime show but was not performed at her set three years ago, and was actually a legitimate hit. Oh wait… she DOES have a song like that. This transition could’ve worked just as well, if not, better, if she did “Run the World (Girls)” instead of a brand spanking new song that nobody knows. It makes the choice of this song that much more frustrating.
That being said, even though I hate the song and I hate the choice to include it in the set, I have to give Beyonce tons of credit on this- the choreography is superb. This doesn’t come as a surprise to me considering her halftime show from Super Bowl XLVII three years ago; however, this choreography was, once again, incredibly tight. In my awards, I said that Madonna’s halftime show had the best choreography, but that was because there were more things going on and a wider variety of things, from the men in the music jackets to the tightrope guy to the “Vogue” dancers straight out of Egypt. Beyonce’s halftime show, however, probably had the tightest choreography. This one, minus one fall that Beyonce has later on (that she recovers from incredibly well to the point where the first time that I watched the show, I didn’t even realize that she fell), is also really tight. I’m very surprised that she did not have to alter the lyrics to this song, seeing how she was allowed to say “Negro” twice (I would’ve thought that would’ve been the controversy from this show; turns out, that got brushed under the rug). This number turned out better than I was expecting it to, but it doesn’t change the fact that I hate the idea that the NFL ever approved of this to be in the set to begin with.
Then, we get to the part that nobody has ever seen before. It’s one of the biggest chances the halftime show has ever taken- have an all out battle between Beyonce and Bruno Mars (two supporting acts) for one whole minute. There’s a mash-up of “Formation,” “Crazy in Love,” and “Uptown Funk!”, and I’m stunned how well this works. I did not think I was going to enjoy this moment at all, but I walked away from this part highly impressed. It was the main image in my mind when the halftime show ended, and I loved it. The choreography between both sets of dancers was great, the showdown at the center of the stage seemed fun yet serious, and the way that the songs were mashed up together was unbelievably well done. This second act was the best part of the three act halftime show; most of the decisions worked, and I could even tolerate Beyonce’s self-promotion (which is more than I thought I would say after I heard that song for the first time). I’ve watched the halftime show seven or eight times now, but I’ve watched that middle section at least 12 times. It was that entertaining.
Now, we head into the third act, which, for the fifth straight year, is a slow song. Unlike previous years (for the first time since the Poly-Headliner Era; keep in mind that this halftime show still fulfilled the basic criteria of the Poly-Performer Era, so we’re still in the seventh era of the halftime show), all three artists come together to sing a variety of different songs; some are by Coldplay, and others are songs that were performed at previous halftime shows. We see a tribute video to previous halftime shows (which was a good idea; remember that I liked the Super Bowl XXXIV halftime show because it fit the occasion, and I like the tribute video here because it fit the occasion).
However, I have one major problem with the video. This video is meant to show the history of the Super Bowl halftime show. Every clip from that video came from a halftime show… except for one. There was one clip of Whitney Houston singing the national anthem. I am shocked that in all the reviews I read of the show, nobody else picked this one out. When it happened live, I noticed it, and was screaming at the television (because the clip appeared for a good five seconds; you couldn’t miss it). HOW DID NOBODY ELSE PICK THAT UP? The league had to approve that video. Every other clip came from a halftime show, whether it was Up With People, Paul McCartney, or Katy Perry. And then, you’ve got Whitney Houston singing the national anthem thrown in there. Did nobody else realize that there was a clip that wasn’t from the halftime show? How many people did that video have to go through to get final approval, and how many people didn’t even notice that mistake? I know it was only five seconds, but this is one of the most frustrating mistakes in the history of the halftime show for me, because I was visibly angry when this happened. If it was a “Greatest Super Bowl moments” video, different story. However, this was a video where every other clip featured the halftime shows.
And then, there’s Whitney Houston. Pathetic job, NFL (this isn’t on CBS). If you’re going to do a tribute and fit the theme, then don’t contradict the message. Do it right, and actually do some proof-watching on your halftime show. You care so much about your own legacy and about the history of the Super Bowl, yet don’t even bother to check history for yourself when we get to that point of the halftime show. You literally had one job. Please tell me I was not the only one to notice that.
Getting back to the actual performance, you hear “Clocks” go into “Fix You,” which then goes into “Beautiful Day,” “Purple Rain,” “Independent Women,” and “Just The Way You Are.” I like this part; I love how the songs intertwine with each other, and I like the tribute, considering the fact that all of those songs were performed at the halftime show at one point. The show ends with everyone coming together to perform “Up&Up,” which is a Coldplay song off of their new album, but was not released as a single. This isn’t self-promotion, but rather, falls into the category of performing an unknown song. You see colors on the field, from the flags of all 50 Super Bowls to the flowers to birds flying (very similar to the Super Bowl XXXIV halftime show). This number feels very “Heal the World”-esque, except it’s much better paced and actually has a purpose. The final card stunt at the end is cut off because of the quality, but in real life, it spells out “Believe in Love.” It’s a great card stunt, and overall, I think that this unknown song works.
My only question is that the NFL clearly did not care about Coldplay here. They were concerned about honoring the legacy of the previous halftime shows. Coldplay has the material to perform an entire halftime show, but they were on stage by themselves for about half of the show. That leaves me to ask this- why did the league get Coldplay in the first place? Why didn’t they just get past halftime show performers to each do one song, and then come together at the end to do something together (like a remake of “Heal the World”)? Some of the choices from this show were confusing, and some of the choices from this halftime show were chances that worked really well. When you combine them all and factor it together, you get a solid halftime show. Not great, but it met my expectations.
My Fix
That’s where this comes in. Remember that at this section, I have to change the halftime show to suit my needs. Normally, I’m not allowed to get rid of the headlining act, but can you even consider Coldplay to be the headlining act? Technically, they were, but considering they shared the stage for the same amount of time as Bruno Mars and Beyonce combined, it’s pushing it. Headlining act by name, but not in practice.
To keep things fair, I’m going to offer two solutions- one to this current halftime show, and one to what I would’ve done if they really wanted to go for the Super Bowl halftime show legacy. Coldplay starts the show off exactly the same, but eliminates the pause in between “Viva la Vida” and “Paradise.” After “Paradise,” go into “A Sky Full of Stars,” doing a verse and a chorus of that song; this then goes into one verse and chorus/woos section of “Adventure of a Lifetime.” You have time for this now because you eliminated the final minute of “Adventure of a Lifetime.” Bruno Mars then does “Uptown Funk!”, Beyonce does “Run the World (Girls)”, you keep the breakdown section, and you finish the show exactly the same way (except you update the video).
However, it felt like they were trying to fit too many themes into one show. This is my second solution, and I’m letting my imagination run wild here. First off, I get rid of Coldplay, but keeping Beyonce and Bruno Mars. I’m going all out with this Super Bowl halftime show legacy theme. I’m getting any and every act that I can to do songs at this halftime show that they did not perform in their original set. Picture the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, except a lot better, more organized, and less controversial. This means that I can likely bring four artists along for the ride. I’m getting U2 back; they were not on tour when this halftime show was going on, so bringing them back shouldn’t be a problem. Prince comes back as well, because his halftime show was almost perfect. I’m also bringing back Paul McCartney, as he is not on tour. And, I’m bringing back Bruce Springsteen; he’s on tour right now in the United States, but there was an unusually large gap in real life between his Boston show and his Albany show. He takes that time to fly out and rehearse his number, and everything works out in the end.
With that show, I’m doing songs by these artists that were not performed at the halftime show. Start the show off with U2 doing a mash-up of “Vertigo” and “Pride (In The Name Of Love),” doing one verse and one chorus of each song. After that, Bruce Springsteen appears, and he performs a mash-up of “I’m Goin’ Down” and “Born in the USA,” doing two verses and two choruses of “I’m Goin’ Down” (sped up), and two verses and two choruses of “Born in the USA.” Prince then takes the stage to do “Kiss” for two verses and two choruses (sped up, like he does in concerts). This transitions into Bruno Mars. He then takes the stage to perform “Uptown Funk!”. After that, go to Beyonce, who does “Run the World (Girls)”, and have that breakdown section like there was in real life.
The show ended in real life with a 3-minute tribute video/tribute to previous halftime shows. That still happens, but you’re now ending it with Paul McCartney joining everyone on stage to perform two verses, two choruses, the guitar solo, and the final chorus to “Let it Be.” I feel like this would’ve been a much more appropriate way to honor fifty years of the halftime show instead of shoehorning Coldplay in there when they have nothing to do with the previous halftime shows.
Conclusion
For what we got, it was good. My expectations were met. I never expected to get a halftime show on par with the previous three, and in fairness, I never did. There were some mistakes, such as the national anthem video and the audio. There were some rough spots, like some of Chris Martin’s vocals and Beyonce’s song choice. However, the parts that worked at this halftime show were magnificent. The colors and staging was great, “Uptown Funk!” was some of the most fun I’ve ever had at a halftime show, and that entire breakdown/showdown between Bruno Mars and Beyonce was a risk that worked and was a lot of fun to watch. Did it struggle with its theme at times? I’d say so. However, it was a solid halftime show. It’s not one that’s going to be remembered years down the road like we remember Michael Jackson, U2, or Prince, but it’s one that was good and entertaining. Not the best, but it was solid.
NOTE: I reached the 40,000 character limit, so the rankings will be in the comments section.

TribeBack Tuesday[TribeBack Tuesday] The 1980s

Welcome to TribeBack Tuesday!

Each Tuesday during the 2015-16 offseason we will present a decade of Cleveland baseball history.
Previous Decades
1870s | 1880s | 1890s | 1900s | 1910s | 1920s | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s

The 1980s

By BoosherCacow
SIDENOTE: If you haven't done so, please, please, PLEASE read MJMCP's write up the 70's before you read this. It is absolutely fantastic and serves as an unintentional set up piece to some of the more factual parts of this. Plus it's just very, very well written. It's also the decade in which I was born and remember some of it so it was a wonderful read for me.
When I think of my childhood, the most powerful memories I have are of my father and I at Municipal Stadium watching the Tribe play. We did go to a few Browns games, but dad was a baseball guy. In part because of that, I am a baseball guy. My childhood was all in the 80's, ages 5-15 bang in those formative years and he and I spent many, many summer days watching the Tribe play. Dad was born in Lakewood, like me. His was a lifelong love of the Tribe just as mine is and will be. When I saw this decade by decade history of the Tribe pitched by thedeejus, I knew I had to do the 80's. It's been a hard trip, writing this. Dad died back in 2011 and it's brought back a lot of memories that I had pushed down. Despite that I had an immensely good time researching and remembering for this write up. Because the 80's were (despite the lack of success in winning a championship) a really fucking fun time.
The 80's were a two fold story for the Tribe. It began as a story of a team mired in dysfunction and ended as a team in transition. Transition from the tradition of loss that had seen only 2 seasons with a winning record in the previous 10 into a team that would start the 90's with still some work to do but on the edge of being a perennial powerhouse, dominating the AL Central for the last half of that exhilarating decade.
Knowing the decade requires an understanding of what the city was going through as a whole. The devastation of local jobs (mostly in the steel mills but definitely not limited to that, very poignantly referenced in MJMCP's fantastic write up of the 70's ) begun in the 70's continued to decimate jobs that were once the best thing a kid out of high school could hope for: a hard working, decent paying steel job that he could raise a family on. My own dad started in a steel mill in 1971 only to lose his job less than a year later. He got extremely lucky to get on at Penn Central Railroad which was converted to a government entity briefly and renamed Conrail, a job he would hold until his retirement just a year before he died. People were literally and figuratively running away from living in Cleveland, and not just to the suburbs. Population continued falling in both Cleveland and the Cuyahoga County proper. The city was depressed. The entire city was a dirty and crime infested shit hole. We were a running joke (river fire, anyone?) and the Indians coming into the decade did nothing to help that image. Downtrodden and broke, most Clevelanders were all out Browns fans, rooting crazily for Brian Sipe.
The disinterest in the Indians was shattered in 1980, at least for that season. You could say the decade started with a bang in the form of a quirky, hard hitting rookie who gripped the attention of not just the city of Cleveland but the entire league for a time.
If you weren't there or not old enough to remember, or even more likely with this being Reddit you were not even born, it is hard to quantify in a reasonably understandable way what an absolutely gripping thing the Joe Charboneau experience really was. It was everywhere.
It was so pervasive I know of at least 5 of my friends from my elementary school in Lakewood who dressed up as as Charboneau for Halloween. Probably in their baseball T's made by Daffy Dan's. You'll note of course that Halloween is in October, a month that the Indians had not played in (other than Municipal Stadium Hot Dog Inventory Clearing Events) by this time in 26 years. Even though the season had ended (with another losing record, but just barely) we were all still nuts for “Super Joe” as he came to be known for that one wonderful season.
He made his major league debut April 11th, 1980 and was hitting .354 at the end of April with an OBP of .439 and a slugging of .563. Those aren't Barry Bonds numbers, but my imagination and the collective imagination of the whole city was captured by the fact that he had done this all after being stabbed by a crazed fan with a pen knife in an early March exhibition game in Mexico, a wound that struck a rib and penetrated 4 full inches into his chest. I remember mid season hearing about that from (are you ready?) Dick Goddard at of ALL fucking places, Fazio's supermarket on Franklin and (was it?) Warren Rd. Swear to God. (I can tell a few Dick Goddard stories if you want). He and my dad were casual acquaintances through my Uncle, a prominent Sheriff on the west side during that time. When he first said it, he was already tearing it up and I misunderstood him to mean he had just been stabbed in Mexico. Probably why I remember it so vividly. If you read Cormac McCarthy you know that pen knives are the weapon of choice in Mexico, especially for pimps and Vaqueros who have grudges against a gringo Jugador de beisbol. It's not clear if it was a gambling debt or a woman or even a case of mistaken identity that caused the stabbing, but it only added to the mystique around him.
When I say Super Joe fever was everywhere, I mean it was everywhere. A small personal example (true story, by the way) is the day my friend Brian and I were playing in the street in front of our house, probably in August or September, and a drunken Priest from the catholic school up the street came barreling down in his car. We made our way up to the sidewalk for him to pass, but he didn't; couldn't rather. He must have seen us on the tree lawn going up to the sidewalk and swerved wildly. He ended up crunching the rear driver's side door of my mother's '72 Dodge (it was even that same color!), putting his face into the windshield in the process. Before the ambulance arrived he got out and sat on the curb with a nosebleed, very intoxicated (I mean SHITTY drunk) and before asking for help or saying anything at all handed Brian and I each our very own Super Joe Charboneau Topps card. He had a pocket full of them and even tried to give my mom one. I wish I still had it.
“Super Joe is something else!” he told us. And boy was he.
Super Joe ended the season with a .289 avg, 23 HR and 87 RBI winning the AL ROY award. And that, as they say, was that. Like all things Cleveland that bring hope and joy it was short lived. He injured himself sliding headfirst during the next spring training and was never the same. He would be out of the game completely by 1984. But God damn it was fun for that year.
Super Joe was the beginning of the decade for us. The fun lasted a year and we became quickly mired back into that tradition of losing we had been stuck in since '54. From '81 to '86 there was no real reason to watch. The Browns were starting their amazing rebirth and Super Joe was completely forgotten in the wake of Bernie Kosar, our own hometown kid who came home to make good. There were some rays of hope in the mid 80's but we all know how those stories ended so I won't belabor this account with all that. I wanted to focus here on highlights and the general experience of being a Tribe fan.
Sidenote: One promise I made to myself is that I would only mention “The Baseball Bug” (later shortened to the Basebug) in passing. I remember it vividly from games with my dad and no words can express the horror I felt at that apparition from hell. It was horrible. Look it up at your peril but if you never saw it in person or even heard of it, consider yourself lucky. Whenever I roll my eyes at Slider, I remember The Bug and cut Slider some slack.
So what were the 1980's as a whole? They started with Super Joe. That was a pretty good start all things considered and the season was a relatively good one with The Tribe finishing at 79-81. As a whole here is how the decade looked by the most minimal numbers:
Team Record: 710-849
Highest finish: 5th place in 1986
I could have compiled all the numbers (Team BA, ERA and all the major pitching and hitting stats) but I feel like they would tend to obscure rather than shed light when taken over the decade as a whole. Rather, I don't think they fit with the theme I chose. If you have questions on specific stats I spent hours compiling most of them (only to scrap them from this), so just ask.
With the benefit of time and hindsight, in general terms the 1980's were a shitty decade for the Tribe. A dismal .455 winning percentage featuring the best season result being the strike interrupted 1981 (more on THAT shitter in a minute) season when we finished 52-51, just 7 games back. That 7 games back still left us in sixth place, our average end of season place in the division over the whole decade. If that's your best year, what's the point in looking at the numbers in great depth? On the flip side of that coin, we had 2 of the top 5 worst seasons in club history in that decade. 101 losses in 1987 and 102 in 1985. 1987 was a team with a good amount of offense (3 players with 30+ dingers and three with an avg of better than .300) and an absolutely horrid pitching staff, dead last in the AL.
I purposely started this with Super Joe because I wanted the focus to be on what it was like to be a Tribe fan in the 80's, what the experience was in general. Many of us remember what it was like to take the bus or the Rapid down the old Municipal Stadium. I like remembering it. The Madison Ave bus is a huge part of my memory of Tribe games. Was it the 26 bus? Shit, I don't remember, but I rode that fucker a thousand times. The Detroit Ave bus too. The Rapid from 117th all the way downtown. Of the hundreds of games we went to that decade, I don't remember ever driving. Not once.
On June 10th, 1981, the Tribe were at the tail end of a 4 game losing streak, but were still at a very respectable 26-24. Even without much help from Not So Super Joe who only played in 26 games and posted a miserable .210 average. We had Bert, Hargrove, Andre and Manning. I had real hope for that year. I remember being very confused about Mediocre Joe not playing and then playing very, very badly, but still, we put up some good wins. We looked respectable. Then June 11th came and shattered that. I was only six but very vividly remember the shock and disbelief I felt when my Dad had to explain what a “Strike” was. Surely not as bad as what was 13 years away but the realization that I wouldn't be going to any more games for a long time was very hard on me. It fucking sucked. Super Joe served up hope and the '81 strike served up reality. I believe in my heart that a team, even if made up of new players every year has a memory, a hivemind continuity that is very, very fickle. In the beginning of '81, we played like we remembered the joy of being a loved franchise again. The stoppage of '81 was the death of that hope and was a precursor of things to come.
As a five year old at the beginning of the decade and having my father as my perpetual companion to the games, there was nothing I would rather do than watch a ballgame with my dad. During the 80's we went to about 250 games at Municipal together, 99% of them with just us two. (That number is based on my Dad's collection of ticket stubs, of which he had 237 in a drawer at my Mom's house in Columbia Station. I never kept them and had no idea he did, but after he died I went out and we cleaned out his garage work area and found them all tucked away in a fire box under the mitre saw. For context on how much this decade meant to both of us, he had exactly thirty from the 90's and forward). He once told me that games without “Boots,” my childhood nickname, weren't the same and he had no real reason to go after I grew up and discovered pussy. His words, not mine. I think he inflated the extent of my “discovery”
For those of you who were too young to have gone or are from elsewhere rooting bravely, Municipal Stadium was truly an awesome (in the old sense, not the awesome duuuuude sense of the word) place. For some idea of scale, Progressive Field (which will from this moment on be referred to as The Jake because otherwise my mouth feels dirty) last year decreased seating by 5000 for a total of 37,675. By the time the 80's ended, total seating had been reduced twice since 1979 and the monstrosity still sat a whopping 74,483. Seventy four fucking thousand. I know we all know this and many of you were there, but if you were too young to have been there or too young to really remember, it was GIGANTIC. By the 1980's it was also a fifty year old run down shithole. You had to walk a mile and a half to get anywhere, the bathrooms were foul and reeking of piss and vomit, the concessions were frightening depots of something that may have been considered food at one time and unless you were drunk, everyone who worked the place was in a foul mood all the time.
Well, not everyone. There were some ushers there that were friendly and happy. My dad had a way of spotting the good ones, probably since he was such a happy guy and those people give off weird energy that others of their kind can spot somehow. The happy ushers would usually take a long look around the stadium and see nine to ten thousand people there and let you sit wherever the fuck you wanted. One time a big fat guy right behind the home dugout must have been having a bad day because he looked me dead in the eyes (I must have been 9 or 10) and said verbatim: “Fuck it, whatever.” Through the kindness (and apathy) of those ushers and the shameless behavior of my father (and later me) we spent 75% of our games there with upper deck cheap seats sitting just a few rows back from third base. My dad preferred those seats for some reason but there were plenty of games I got to yell at Julio and Brook Jacoby from right behind the home dugout.
SIDENOTE: One of my most intense memories from the 90's was the day my dad found out that the Tribe was switching the home dugout with the opening of The Jake from behind first to third. Lord God almighty how he raged for an hour. He was still young and healthy then, a six foot four man made of stringy muscle and always tan to the point of looking aboriginal. After he vented his spleen he told me (and this is the intense part, because it came true): “Maybe this is good. Maybe seeing the field differently will make them see it as a place where they are winners.”
There were also days that we sat right behind home plate and one cannot mention the Indians in the 1980's without mentioning Julio Franco and his one dedicated fan. He always sat directly behind home plate about 15 rows up if I recall correctly and whenever Julio was up he would ring a bell, like a giant handheld brass bell with a diameter of about 8 inches, and while he rang it he would almost sing in a strong tenor voice, “JULLLLLLLLLIOOOOOOOOOOOO.” When he did it you could hear him from the fucking bleachers. It was also clearly visible and audible on WUAB broadcasts. And the radio ones, too. Was it WWWE back then? We didn't do radio much. We were Herb Score guys. My dad fucking LOVED the Juuuulioooo Bell Guy and would throw back his head and laugh when he did it. He was an early version of The Big Dawg for the Browns or our lovable drummer John Adams but he was dedicated only to Julio and looked like a real life Super Mario if memory serves. I am pretty sure he had a sandwich board that said “Julio” on it, too, but I can't be 100% sure on that score. *On another sidenote, if someone can find video of the Franco Superfan, I will gild that comment and send you a birthday card. I looked and couldn't find one. That would make me so happy. *
SIDENOTE: Yes, I know John Adams was there pounding away on his drum in the 80's but I have literally no memory of ever seeing or hearing about him until the early 90's. To include him in this would be a gross misrepresentation, so he has only been referred to in passing and comparison to Julio Bell Guy.
Even when we couldn't manage to get good seats or when in high school we went up to the nosebleeders on purpose so we could drink from our flasks unmolested (those games were not my dad and I), there really wasn't a bad seat in the house. It was a good place to watch a ballgame, even if it was outsized for its time and never full except home openers and 4th of July games. Speaking from a personal view, most of the happy memories I have from that time and almost all of the good memories I have of my father were at that place. So despite its flaws, its smell and just how empty it always looked, I loved it there. I still remember it often and my wife is more than familiar with my frequent nighttime “Indians Dreams.” When it finally happened, I was very, very sad to see it torn down. I have been to many games at the Jake and do love it there, but I have almost no memories there that are as lasting or as special as I did at good old Muni. After it was gone it was like hearing the house you were born and grew up in burned to the ground.
So again, if we were to jump a decade ahead and be talking about the 90's (which I am super stoked to readthedeejus, by the way), we would be able to fill these pages with stats, numbers and mindblowing facts about the team that gave us all so much joy for those years. Since we are still in the 80's, I again want to concentrate on what it was like to be an Indians fan. What is more important to a fan than the players? So here is my list of standout players from the 80's. I compiled the list using a few criteria. WAR, impact, longevity, popularity and in at least two cases (Brook Jacoby and Mel Hall) if they were my favorite player at the time or has had an interesting life since. Super Joe was left off this list due to too many column inches already dedicated. This list is in no particular order, just how they came to my head. (I left off Duane Kuiper since he didn't play for most of 1980 and was a non factor in '81 before being traded).

Toby Harrah – Our regular 3rd baseman from '78-'83. Didn't hit for average or lots of power but was a hell of a player. Like a more talented Alvaro Espinoza without the humor. Could (and did) play shortstop and second base well. Fun to watch. He was also rated by Baseball Prospectus as the 25th best 3rd baseman of all time, a rating which surprised me to say the least.
Mike Hargrove – The Human Rain Delay. Truly agonizing to watch. Not your typical first baseman in that he could hit for average and didn't have a lot of power. Of course also our most venerated manager of the last 50 years. 5 division crowns and 2 World Series appearances.
Rick Manning – Centerfielder who fucked (and later married) Dennis Eckersley's wife. Also our current color man on TV broadcasts and one of the best in the business at that, for my money.
Bert Blyleven – Pissy and temperamental pitcher who in '84 and '85 put up some really amazing numbers. 19-7 2.87 in '84 and the most startling fact (one I didn't know until I started this) was that in 1985 he pitched 24 complete games. But Jesus he was a fat stupid crybaby and we hated him.
Ron Hassay – I just liked Ronny. Solid catcher, hit .318 in 1980, highest among all catchers. Is most known for being the catcher on the field for Kirk Gibson's HR in the '88 WS and as the only catcher in MLB history to catch 2 perfect games. Len Barker of course and El Presidente's in 1991.
Andre Thornton – Stud. Absolutely magnificent moonshot homeruns. I was dazzled as a kid, they just...kept...going. God damn I loved him.
Julio Franco – Possibly the most unique player on this whole list. Not only for the size of his bat or the oddly attractive batting stance but for all the things he did.
Brett Butler – Dad's favorite player of the time. He would always say how small Brett looked out there in center. And fast. I couldn't find any highlights of him in a Tribe uniform on Youtube but he was a decent hitter and fun to watch. He hit a career high .311 in 1985 with Cleveland.
George Vukovich – OF for us for 3 years '82-'85 notable for two reasons: first he was part of the trade that brought us Julio Franco and a few others all for Von Hayes (not a bad trade) and second for being the closest I ever came to getting a foul ball. He fouled one while we were sitting back behind third base that I got my fingertips on for one glorious second. It fell a couple rows behind me and some old guy picked it up. He didn't have kids with him. I was the only kid in the whole damn section. I was fucking ten years old and that stupid bastard kept the ball. Yes, it's been 31 years and yes I am still bitter. If by some miracle you read this and you picked up that ball, fuck you, old man. You were old in '85 so you're probably dead now. Jerk. That was my ball you heartless prick.
Brook Jacoby – Traded to the Tribe in '83 along with Brett Butler and Rick Behenna for aging perfect game pitcher Len Barker who aged rapidly and gave the Tribe one of their best trades in team history. Barker was ineffective for Atlanta and both Jacoby and Butler went on to be all-stars. Jacoby was stellar in '87 hitting .300 with 32 homers. The offensive woes of that awful season meant that with his 32 homers he only had 69 RBI. I loved him as a kid and always played third because of him going forward. I sucked, by the way. Bad. I am six foot eight and 250. Not exactly nimble. I should have just stayed in the damn outfield.
Joe Carter – Featured (along with Cory Snyder) on the infamous Indians Uprising SI cover prior to the disastrous '87 season. Suffered with us producing very well from '84-'89 becoming probably our most prolific hitter of the decade and arguably our best player of the decade overall. He was a real joy to watch, always smiling and happy even though he was playing with (for the most part) a shit show. Was unique since he regularly hit 30+ homers with almost as many doubles, had 100+ RBI and ALSO regularly stole 20-30 bases a year. I would be remiss if I didn't mention how god damned happy I was for him in '93. His World Series winning home run in 1993 remains one of my favorite baseball moments of all time despite it being a Blue Jays highlight. I was so swept up in the moment watching it live (I had a broken ankle that summer and was confined to my basement) that I cried like a baby and didn't even hear the iconic “Touch 'em all Joe!” until I saw the replay on TV the next day. All I could think was that there was never another player that deserved it more.
Tom Candiotti – Oh, Candy. Had we not had Neikro he would have been my favorite pitcher of the era. I have always had a weakness for knuckleballers. Very good control of the knuckleball attested to by his record during those awful times of 72-65 and not having a losing season once. Also fun because I lived in Arizona from 2006-2012 and he was the radio color guy for the Diamondbacks. He was much better at knuckleballs.
Mel Hall – Skinny motherfucker with jheri (Yes, that's how you really spell it and yes I had to look it up) curl and lots of speed. Not great on the field but awesome for bullying Bernie Williams into tears while he was with New York. Oh, and for being a rapist. I had no idea he was in prison until I started researching this. I only meant to mention him because of how unbelievably fast he was in the OF, and now I am hoping that prison has a lot of straightaways for him to run away from his potential karmic rapists.
Snyder – Great year in '87 with 33 dingers and 82 RBI. Most remembered in my house for the absolute cannon he had in the outfield. I can't find any videos but my young brain has it registered as the best arm I ever saw. BleacherReport.com has him listed as the 38th best arm ever. Yes, I hate slideshows too but look at that beautiful golden mustache.
Greg Swindell – About the closest the Tribe had to the Second Coming of Super Joe. After a sub par 1987 rookie year, he lit it the fuck up in '88 and started with 2 complete games, following that up with ten shutout innings in his third start. He was 10-1 at the end of April with a 2.11 ERA in almost 90 innings. He slowed down for the remainder but still went a respectable 18-14 with a 3.20 ERA and 12 CG. He had 180 K's vs 45 BB. That is a hell of a season.

Apologies if I didn't mention a certain player you loved. Mention one in a comment and I will amend this with a short write up on whoever you feel like I left out with no limit. The nature of this history for me makes it a living document, and it will probably never be finished in my eyes. I may just keep adding and editing for years. Just to remember.
Looking forward, the end of the decade brought changes that signaled the beginning of the end of the tradition of losing we had endured as fans since 1954. Charles Nagy was drafted in 1988, Baerga and Alomar traded to the Indians for Joe Carter. Also in 1989 the Indians drafted a temperamental and hard drinking outfielder named Joey Belle who would quit drinking (but keep the tantrums) and through therapy become Albert.
Perhaps the most important change for the future of the club came with 19 games left in 1989, right on the precipice of the end of this account, when manager Doc Edwards (show of hands if you actually remember Doc) was dismissed and replaced by a scout who would go on to become Director of Baseball Operations for two years and then GM in 1991. Of course I am talking about John Hart. The importance of this simply cannot be stressed enough as he was responsible for drafting the names that would make us great. Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, CC Sabathia, Brian Giles, Alan Embree, Jaret Wright and many others. He also made extremely shrewd and successful trades (Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel and Carlos Baerga were all acquired thus) that contributed to their success and was the brain behind the team that is going to make thedeejus's write up so damn fun next week.
Notable events for the Decade: 1. 1980 ROY Award, Super Joe Charboneau 2. Len Barker's perfect game (called here by the silky smooth Herb Score who I still miss terribly. His voice is another trigger of deep memories for me. 3. 1986, Pat Corales throws a kick at Dave Stewart and gets clobbered. This still cracks me up. 4. 1987 Sports Illustrated Cover featuring Joe Carter and Cory Snyder, making the Tribe another victim of the SI Cover Jinx 5. Also 1987, two 300 game winners pitch in the same game for the first time in history with Steve Carlton and Phil Neikro appearing in the same game. They were both gone before the season was over, Phil to the Blue Jays and Carlton to the Twins where he would win a world championship. 6. In the 1986 off season, the club was purchased by Dick Jacobs, signaling change, the winds of fortune shifting. He would lobby the city tirelessly for a new ballpark and finally get it in '93. I have always felt moving to the Jake was a catalyst for us. Put together with John Hart's amazing talents, we should have won five straight championships. 7. 1988 Terry Francona signed with the Tribe as a free agent. Along with him on the '88 club were four other future MLB managers, Bud Black, John Farrell, Charlie Manuel and Ron Washington. He established a relationship with the team even in one season with us that would bring him here and WILL bring us a championship.
I know there is so much here, so much to swallow, but I don't believe this would be complete without a list of things that strike me as intense memories from the 80's. These are my own personal reminiscences.

I was very young but the first time I saw Andre Thornton hit a home run. I am pretty sure it was in 1980. Based on the ticket stubs Dad had, it most likely was. It just flew and flew and flew out into those wonderful bleachers. In my memory it went 550 feet.
The old crusty black guy who scalped tickets outside the stadium right at the corner of God damnit, was it 3rd and Lakeside??? Looks right but doesn't sound right to my ears. He looked exactly like the guy on the Cream of Wheat box to me, but I mixed metaphors and called him “Uncle Ben. Not a racist, I promise. I was six or seven, cut me some slack.
Walking to the stadium from the rapid station. We walked everywhere we could in those days. Some great memories of meeting wonderful people. I loved taking us out of the way and walking past the museums and the Free Stamp) (fuck everyone, I did and still do love it) after that was built.
The time I was at Westgate Mall in '89 (my last summer before High School) and I met, of all people, Mel Hall. He was with the Yankees then, gone from us for a few years but I still fawned over him. As I recall he was with a woman who the most gigantic tits I had ever seen in my life. He was very nice to me (he couldn't get over the fact that I was only 14 and towered over him; I was 6'4” at that age) and signed something for me which I promptly lost before I even got off the bus in Lakewood.
The only game I remember from my early childhood that I didn't go to with my dad: '82 or '83 with a neighbor from down the street who was a superior court judge and had box seats for the game that day. His daughter (who will come up later in the memories) had just broken her ankle and couldn't go. It was weird. We lost to Toronto, 11-4. Have no idea how I remember the score of that game or if its accurate but that score has always clung to my brain.
The first outfield assist I saw from Cory Snyder. I don't remember what year it was but I remember being old enough to understand what an amazing throw I had just seen. From deep right to home without a hop and I swear to God the fucking ball never got above eight feet off the ground. I knew that it just hissed with danger, a cork filled ballistic missile.
Joey Belle. Enough said. I still haven't resolved my feelings on Albert. I lived in Chicago in '94 and seeing him in a White Sox uni did things to me.
How intensely I hated Pete O'Brien when he played with us in 1989. I don't know why I did to this day, but I wanted to smash his god damn face in.
How destroyed I was, I mean weeping with sadness when Joe Carter was traded away. Dad consoled me, and told me to wait and watch, those guys we got for him were grade A “Kiddos,” his name for standouts. Years and years later he told me he had never even heard of Baerga and mistakenly thought for a moment that we had signed the elder Sandy Alomar from the Padres minor league club (out of retirement no less) and was only trying to console me because I loved Joe so much. That didn't stop him from bringing up that god damn trade and lording it over me how right he was throughout the 90's. '97 especially when Sandy destroyed the league and touched up the untouchable in the playoffs (I am being vague to try not to steal any of deejus's thunder for next week).
And finally, the Judge's daughter. What a memory. I had known her since I was 4. We played together as kids. She threw right and batted left, something that still baffles me. She caused our first ever shifts in the outfield as a kid because she could flat hammer a ball. She would end up playing collegiate women's softball for a college in the southwest and do very, very well. But not until after she gave me my first ever handjob, yes you guessed it, in the deserted upper deck of good old Municipal stadium in the wonderful year of 1989. One of the few games I have literally no idea who we were even playing, let alone who won. Yet another reason I was so happy to write this. I get to think of her. We still talk every six months or so, and I just asked her in an email last week if I could put this in here. She laughed and said yes as long as I don't mention her name or what school she went to. She had never even heard of Reddit before, but she was there with me for the whole decade and I know she will be reading this. So here is to you, (REDACTED), thanks for the memories. And the squeezer. Love you and we will do The Melt when I am back home visiting mom.

So what does all this lead up to? For you reading it, I hope it's been a fun blast from the past or, if you're younger, a slice of what it was like in that wonderful, cocaine blasted mullet wearing decade (Yes, I had one. WARNING: POTATO QUALITY). For me it's obviously been much more.
The first couple of years after dad died I simply couldn't sit and watch a game by myself. I had to have someone there with me or it would overwhelm me. Baseball has been and always will be intimately tied to the memory of the best times I had with my father, something I am sure many of you can say. Who kept me company to push those memories aside? Mostly it was my oldest daughter. We live in Colorado and she was born here but she acknowledges only one allegiance in baseball and its for the good guys. She even has a little Tribe coin purse that she specifically asked for for her third birthday. Here is another example I posted to WahoosTipi six months ago. The need to be alone has lessened over time, but it still hits me every once in awhile.
I keep thinking as I write this that my oldest is that same age now that I was during the beginning of the 80's. She doesn't have a Municipal Stadium to sit in or a RTA rapid to ride, and her favorite player was Swisher (don't judge, she is young) and is now Brantley (I will have to post a video of her yelling “SMOOOOOOOOOTH” and my 3 year old imitating it) but we do have MLB.com and watch a crazy amount of baseball together. The experience will be different, less tactile and sensory (she will never know the smell of Muni's bathrooms, for example), but I hope for her it is just as intense and memorable as my baseball filled youth was.
I apologize for the length and the rambling and the crippling emotional burdens in this write up, but I had to do it this way. Deejus asked for a history of the decade, and all these things, the deep sense of loss I feel, the love for my dead father, the fun, that crack about Manning fucking Eck's wife, they are all part of that baseball history for me, as inseparable as Julio and his amazing stance. Baseball is more than those numbers, the wins, losses and home runs. It's unlike any other sport in that by its very slowness, the deliberate pace of the game allows conversation and interaction, reflection. Connections. Like the one I had with dad and the one I hope to have in the opposite direction with all three of my girls when they get old enough. Here's to the hope that in 30 years my girls look back on the twenty-tens with the same joy I felt as I wrote this and that they will have a Cleveland Indians world series win or two to remember as well.
If not, that will be fine. For me, anyway. I hope for my girls as well. Baseball has always been more than the wins/losses/home runs for me. It was the only thing that my dad and I shared intimately and that was an intense sharing for me. Both of us I think. I hope. I never asked him. He would have called me a giant pussy and winked. The 1980's were not a time for winning for us, and that was just fine with me. All I cared about was being there, smelling the popcorn and grass, being with Dad. I am not good at advice giving and have fucked up some really good things in my life, but there is one thing that I know without doubt: the game and everything it represents can be a cement between loved ones. Use it that way, if you can. With anyone you care about. The 80's for me are memories of Joe Carter, Julio and Super Joe, but more than that it is a fluid set of recollections of just sitting there quietly with Dad. And talking. And cheering like a set of wild men when someone would do something as mundane as a walk with two outs and nobody on. I can't experience that anymore with my father, but doing this write up has reminded me of things that needed remembering and I am pretty sure I will be a better father for it.
TL;DR: The Linear Approach: Joe Charboneau to John Hart, and so many great players and so much fun in between, all at the old Municipal Stadium.
Will Mr. and Mrs. Eckersley get back together? Find out next Tuesday, on.........TRIBEBACK TUESDAY!!

Women in The Bigs

softball batting stats meaning video

Although batting average doesn't tell the whole impact of a softball player, it is still one of the most important statistics in the game. Dividing the number of hits by the number of times at-bat calculates this seeming simple metric. However, what constitutes a hit or an at-bat isn't as obvious as it initially appears. Batting Average (AVG) Number of base hits per at bat. Naturally, a higher number is better. Formula: (Base Hits) / (At Bats) Bats (B) From the pitchers view, which side of the plate the batter stands. Base On Balls (BB) When a batter is awarded first base as a result of four balls being pitched outside the strike zone. GameChanger automatically calculates a wide variety of baseball & softball statistics for your players throughout the season. We also collect stats on opponents you've played. Below is a full list of our stats. A glossary for batting stats on Baseball-Reference.com. The player, team and league statlines are now dramatically different than when the site first launched, so a comprehensive list of the stats would take far longer and would likely be much less useful than previously. Some stats require basic math to calculate. For example, "ERA" stands for earned run average, which indicates the average number of runs the pitcher allows per game. "WHIP" represents walks and hits per innings pitched. The chief difference is softball games last seven innings while baseball goes nine. Batting Average: H / AB The percentage of At Bats (AB) during which an opposing team gets a Hit (H) against a given pitcher. OBP: On Base Percentage (H+BB+HBP) / (AB+BB+SF+HBP) On base percentage is a measure of how often a team reaches base via a Hit (H), Base on Ball (BB), or Hit By Pitch (HBP) against a given pitcher. College softball coaches evaluate a player’s athleticism based on arm strength and accuracy, speed, fielding range and the ability to hit for power and average. Softball recruiting guidelines enable prospects to compare their skill with athletes competing at the college level. I also love the ability to do a deep dive into our teams stats to better understand our performance. This resource also aids in problem solving and pregame strategy. Using 6-4-3 definitely gives our team the best analytical edge possible. ” DR. MEGAN BROWN Head Softball Coach, Longwood Softball. Softball Stats Tracker Fastpitch. The #1 Personal Softball Stat Tracking App on the App Store Over 15,000 Copies Sold! Track your batting, pitching, catching and fielding stats (over 90 stats) by game, season or career.

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What constitues a balk? - YouTube

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Better Know the (ones left off the) Ballot #15: Nick Punto

Nick Punto

Grew up with a father who's life revolved around Cricket. I used to go to the park with him every Sundays as he played until I was 13, I'm 26 now. I stopped following since, I want to get back in the sport.

Better Know the Ballot #5: Kevin Youkilis

Amari Cooper and the Drops

Amari Cooper and the Drops

GENERAL

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Pass Breakups (11)

Uncatchables (23)

Ball Placement (11)

Ball Pacing (6)

Miscommuncation and/or Mistiming (5)

Caught Out of Bounds (2)

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JaguarGator9's History of Halftime- Day 35 (Part II): Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show (Coldplay, Bruno Mars, Beyonce)

TribeBack Tuesday[TribeBack Tuesday] The 1980s

Welcome to TribeBack Tuesday!

The 1980s

Women in The Bigs

softball batting stats meaning video

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What constitues a balk? - YouTube