Fastballs&Curves

Tom Seaver was named on 425 out of 430 ballots for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Three ballots were blank as a protest against Pete Rose being ineligible. One was sent by a writer recovering from surgery who did not notice Tom Seaver's name on the ballot, and one never voted for any player in their first year of eligibility. In 2016, Ken Griffey Jr. was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, receiving 99.32% of the vote, breaking pitcher Tom Seaver's record of 98.84%, a record that had stood for 24 years. Tom Seaver is one of two pitchers, EVER, in the, "Triple 3" club. 300 wins/Sub 3 ERA/3000 strikeouts. Tom Seaver and Walter Johnson. That’s it!!!

"Baseball is different from any other sport, very different. For instance, in most sports you score points or goals; In baseball you score runs. In most sports the ball, or object, is put in play by the offensive team; In baseball the defensive team puts the ball in play, and only the defense is allowed to touch the ball. In fact, in baseball if an offensive player touches the ball intentionally, he’s out; Sometimes unintentionally, he’s out. Also: In football,basketball, soccer, volleyball, and all sports played with a ball, you score with the ball and in baseball the ball prevents you from scoring. Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game. Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle. Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park. The baseball park! Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium. Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life. Football begins in the fall, when everything’s dying. In football you wear a helmet. In baseball you wear a cap. Football is concerned with downs; What down is it? Baseball is concerned with ups; Who’s up? In football you receive a penalty. In baseball you make an error. In football the specialist comes in to kick. In baseball the specialist comes in to relieve somebody. Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness. Baseball has the sacrifice. Football is played in any kind of weather: rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog…. In baseball, if it rains, we don’t go out to play. Baseball has the seventh inning stretch. Football has the two minute warning. Baseball has no time limit: We don’t know when it’s gonna end – might have extra innings. Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we’ve got to go to sudden death. In baseball, during the game in the stands, there’s kind of a picnic feeling; Emotions may run high or low, but there’s not too much unpleasantness. In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you’re capable of taking the life of a fellow human being. And finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different: In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use the shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy’s defensive line. In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! I hope I’ll be safe at home! George Carlin. With his daughter Kelly.

"The finest stretch of pitching in baseball history began on June 6, 1968 when Bob Gibson shut out Houston on three hits to even his record at 5-5. From that night until August, Bob Gibson allowed three runs in 102 innings. THREE runs! In TWO months! And one of the runs scored on a wild pitch. "They called it a wild pitch," Bob Gibson corrects believing it should have been a passed ball and an unearned run. From the end of May to Aug. 23, Bob Gibson won 15 consecutive games and threw 10 shutouts. At one point he was 15-5 with a 0.94 ERA. When he shut out Philadelphia for 10 innings Sept. 2 to win his 20th game, he lowered his ERA to 0.99. Bob Gibson started 34 games and completed 28 of them. No team ever drove him off the mound. The only time he left a game was for a pinch hitter. Had Bob Gibson been given just a bit better support, he might have come close to 30 victories. As it was, the Cardinals scored only 12 runs in his nine losses and just four in his first five. He also was the victim of Gaylord Perry’s no-hitter." Jim Caple, "St. Paul Pioneer Press." "Bob Gibson" Art by John Hanley.