January 05, 2016

SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle:

A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.

posted by huddle to general at 06:00 AM - 8 comments

Old-school bat flipping, by Mickey Mantle.

(Linked from this tweet.)

posted by grum@work at 09:52 AM on January 05, 2016

There's also this, which I was reminded of when the big Bautista moment happened.

Different gear, different circumstances, but similar flair.

posted by beaverboard at 10:25 AM on January 05, 2016

Nice finds, guys. That bat flip is pretty sweet.

posted by NoMich at 11:10 AM on January 05, 2016

Cleveland just hired Paul DePodesta to be "Chief Strategy Officer", answerable only to the team president. Seems like a great return home for DePodesta, who was a scout and special assistant to the GM in the 1990s before Billy Beane hired him away. I'm sure he'll do great things for the Indians.

(whispering from off camera)

The Browns? Wait, no, he's a baseball guy. That can't be right...

posted by Etrigan at 12:32 PM on January 05, 2016

The hiring of anyone on a "strategy" basis in Cleveland is like the scene where they blew smoke into the room during the classic thriller The Invisible Man.

So they could outline his silhouette and prove that such a thing existed.

The Detroit Tigers did the reverse of this by hiring Schembechler away from the U. of Michigan to lend his special brand of intangibles to their organization.

I think it was only a couple of years after Schembechler (an Ohio man) fired Bill Frieder (a Michigan alum) for planning to bolt to Arizona State, accompanied by the legendary "Michigan Man" cri de guerre.

Schembechler's tenure in the Motor City did not go well or end well.

This is the best time of year to find yourself in jeopardy in Cleveland. If things go wrong, you can just head due north. There's only 30-40 miles of ice to cross till you get to the border.

posted by beaverboard at 01:27 PM on January 05, 2016

Ugh. "Isn't Bo the guy that told Ernie Harwell..."

posted by NoMich at 02:56 PM on January 05, 2016

This is the same Cleveland Browns who fired analytics-favouring Joe Banner sometime during/after his deep dive into the 2014 draft Quarterback pool said the Browns should target Teddy Bridgewater, while also rating highly Derek Carr and Blake Bortles. Banner's report put a red flag on Manziel.

Bortles went #3 overall, but the Browns drafted Manziel ten spots before Bridgewater and 13 spots before Carr. Banner was let go in February 2014 before the draft.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 11:25 PM on January 05, 2016

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