Latest news with #Isotopes
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Yahoo
Albuquerque Police, New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence to host gun buyback event
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The Albuquerque Police Department and New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence are hosting a gun buyback event this month, and people who choose to participate could get up to $250 depending on the gun they turn in. This will be our third safe surrender gun buyback event with this local organization and we've heard nothing but good feedback from our community,' said APD Chief of Police Harold Medina in a news release. 'We will continue to provide a safe outlet for people in our community to get rid of unwanted firearms that could have potentially gotten into the wrong hands.' Albuquerque man who robbed a South Valley Whataburger sentenced to federal prison The event will be on Saturday, May 17, from 9 a.m. to noon at APD's University Substation, located at 1009 Bradbury Dr. SE. Other sponsors of the event include Albuquerque Community Safety, Albuquerque Metro Crime Stoppers, the University of New Mexico Lobos, NM United and the Isotopes. New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence is providing cashback for all firearms and free tickets to Lobos, New Mexico United, and Isotopes games, according to APD. Participants can turn in as many firearms as they like, but they must be in working condition and unloaded. The amount of cash given is dependent on the firearm turned in: $250 for an assault weapon $200 for a semi-automatic handgun or semi-automatic rifle $100 for long guns, revolvers and pistols Participants will be required to stay in their car and, if possible, store firearm(s) in the trunk of the vehicle. Once the surrender is complete and cash is issued, APD personnel will review them to ensure they are not stolen. If a gun is determined to be stolen, it will be entered into evidence, and the rightful owner will be contacted to retrieve their property. The other guns will be dismantled onsite, and the scrap metal will be forged into gardening tools, musical instruments, and art pieces by high school students from RFK Charter School. NMPGV will also be providing gun locks to gun owners free of charge. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
KRQE Newsfeed: Wildfires, Zoning violation, Warmer and breezy, Asking for input, Mariachis game
New Coaches, New Challenges In Lobo Athletics UNM, NMSU international students visa records restored Roswell man sentenced for voluntary manslaughter Man sentenced to over 390 years for sex crimes in Otero County Community invited to meeting on Rio Bravo neighborhood projects Nine student-athletes sign from Albuquerque High What to know about the secretive process to elect the new pope [1] Fire destroys multiple homes in Grants overnight – Two wildfires recently sparked up in different parts of the state. The first is east of Socorro, now labeled the Otero Fire. That fire is still burning, but has not destroyed any structures. The cause of the Otero Fire is under investigation. Grants police say another fire, now labeled the Alamo Fire, started in an open field before moving to a nearby mobile home park. That fire destroyed some structures, but is now fully contained. Grants police are investigating the cause of the fire and believe it was human caused. [2] ABQ bookstore pushes back on plans to remove homeless camp – The owner of Quirky Used Books said he's trying to help people affected by homelessness. The business, between Nob Hill and the International District, also serves as a safe haven for a handful of homeless people living in tents. Gillam Kerley said he started allowing the tents almost a year ago. In July 2024, the business received a notice from the city's code enforcement that the camp is violating the zoning code. Kerley and his attorneys were in front of a hearing officer Monday afternoon to argue his case. A ruling is expected by May 9. [3] Warmer & breezier weather with more rain ahead – Daily chances for isolated showers and thunderstorms begin Tuesday afternoon. For Tuesday and Wednesday, rain chances will focus in western, northern, central, and eastern parts of the state. Drier air will move in for Thursday, but a chance for showers and storms are still likely in northern New Mexico along the Colorado state line. Temperatures will stay seasonable across New Mexico through the week, with a few breezy locations in the afternoon. [4] New Mexico officials ask for input on how to take care of aging population – New Mexico officials are asking for input on how to take care of the state's aging population. The state recently released a draft of it's four-year plan. The plan's three goals include expanding services to the elderly and caregivers, responding to social determinants of health by giving opportunities for community engagement and nutritional support, and reducing occurrences of abuse. The aging and long term services department is looking for public comment on its plan. [5] What do the Isotopes have planned for Sunday's Mariachis game? – Cinco de Mayo is right around the corner, and to celebrate, the Isotopes will trade in their jerseys to become the Mariachis. The Isotopes will host a Mariachis game on Sunday, highlighting Hispanic heritage and culture. It's a tradition the team has been taking part in for a few years, embracing their alto ego with unique jerseys, special menu items and more. Gates open at noon on Sunday with the game starting at 1:35 in the afternoon. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Times
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Sliders: For ‘The Simpsons,' MLB's gambling ties make a perfectly cromulent premise
Welcome to Sliders, a weekly in-season MLB column that focuses on both the timely and timeless elements of baseball. Nothing celebrates life's absurdities quite like 'The Simpsons,' the longest-running sitcom in television history. For nearly 800 episodes since 1989, it's been an animated masterpiece of satire, gleefully skewering pretty much every topic imaginable. Itself included. Advertisement 'It's hard to do, but we look at what's in the news and we make a comment on it a year and a half later,' said Joel Cohen, an executive producer. 'That's our policy.' A little over a year ago, the big news in baseball was the scandal involving Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter for Shohei Ohtani, who stole more than $16 million from Ohtani to cover his gambling debts. Inside the Simpsons writers' room on the Fox Studios lot in Los Angeles, an idea started to percolate. 'Matt Selman did a bit in the room where he was pretending to be Otani's interpreter, like misinterpreting everything Ohtani said to cover his own betting,' said Michael Price, another executive producer, referring to 'The Simpsons' show-runner. 'So he was like, 'Uh, yeah, yeah, everything's great!' We thought it would be really funny if Moe became that guy, and that's where the Macedonian part came in. Like, why would a (baseball star) want to come to Springfield? And then Joel had the idea that Moe was Macedonian, and it just sort of made sense.' In the Simpsons-verse, it's natural to picture Moe Szyslak, a scheming bartender with a sketchy past, entangled in a gambling scandal. Springfield does have a pro baseball team called the Isotopes (that's where the Albuquerque Triple-A team got its name), and if the show could break canon and make the 'Topes an MLB franchise … well, Price and Cohen knew they were onto something. That's the genesis of 'Abe League Of Their Moe,' which airs Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Jamie Demetriou voices Aeropos Walkov, who yearns to bring his two-way talents (.358 average, 2.03 ERA) to the majors. He studies hype videos from every team — Chris Rock promotes the Mets, Danny Trejo pushes L.A. — but only the Isotopes court him with an actual Macedonian speaker. Walkov chooses Moe, and a team with just two fans — Grampa Simpson is the other — suddenly becomes a hot ticket. Grandpa even convinces Bart to join him at the ballpark, which is covered in ads for gambling sites. Advertisement To Grampa's horror, Bart becomes hooked on sports gambling. To Moe's horror, Walkov does, too. When the repentant star calls a confessional press conference, Moe tries to cover it up with misinterpretations and winds up taking the fall. For Price, the co-runner for the episode, the Ohtani vehicle was a chance to comment on MLB's embrace of legalized gambling as a revenue source. The Ohtani/Mizuhara story has faded from the headlines, but the league has retained its partnerships with betting sites. (The Athletic has a partnership with BetMGM.) 'Gambling — like all things, I guess, is fine in moderation — but people get their lives destroyed by this,' Price said. 'And in the Ohtani deal, the official story is that Ohtani wasn't doing it, (Mizuhara) was — but even in that version of it, it's ruined this guy's life. It's a really horrible thing, and (the fact) that it's just promoted so baldly, I think, is not great.' It's been almost 15 years since the last baseball-themed Simpsons episode, 2010's 'MoneyBart,' in which Lisa uses analytics to manage Bart's Little League team. The show's famous softball episode, 'Homer At The Bat,' aired in 1992, and one-off jokes are peppered through the series — a comic book called 'Radioactive Man Meets The Kansas City Royals,' a ventriloquist's dummy who imitates Vin Scully, a barrage of pretzels injuring Whitey Ford, and so on. In Sunday's episode, random references abound. 'We had a goal when we first started writing it — Joel said, 'Let's aim for this to somehow have a joke about every one of all 30 teams,'' Price said. 'I don't know if we succeeded or not.' 'We stopped checking, but we think we might have hit every team,' Cohen added. 'If any team isn't offended, let us know and we'll send something up on Signal or something.' Besides Demetriou, Rock and Trejo, the episode features Fox's Kevin Burkhardt, MLB Network's Kevin Millar, SNY's Steve Gelbs — and me! The other guys have speaking roles. My character merely gasps, too stunned by Moe's chicanery to ask a question at the press conference. But that's me, all right, along with Anthony DiComo of who is also drawn into the press conference scene. Price — a diehard Mets fan whose brother, Bill, is a former sports editor of the New York Daily News — decided to animate some media members who are known to be fans of the show. For me, it's more than the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. It makes up for a gaffe I've never lived down. Advertisement About 12 years ago, I got an email from a producer for the movie 'Million Dollar Arm.' I opened it on my phone, scanned it too quickly and forgot about it. Turns out, the email was an invitation to actually appear in the movie. Other baseball reporters, including our own Jayson Stark and Ken Rosenthal, did just that. I let the pitch sail by. I've still never been in a movie, but now I don't care. This is better, even if my character didn't get to meet Homer. He's barely in this episode, however, and wouldn't remember me if he were. 'We wanted to really focus it on Moe and Grampa, so there wasn't a lot of room for Homer,' Cohen said. 'But I'll say this: Homer gets more drunk in this episode than he's probably ever been in any episode. So you could make that your headline: 'Homer Simpson, the drunkest episode ever.'' Griffin Canning was not expecting to win a Gold Glove in 2020. He made 11 starts for the Angels in that shortened season, going 2-3 with a 3.99 ERA, and didn't remember any spectacular plays. But because teams played so few opponents that season, Gold Gloves were determined strictly by analytics, without input from coaches. And the numbers said Canning was best, and they weren't wrong. Canning, now thriving for the Mets, also stood out for his fielding at UCLA. While he did not grow up playing multiple sports, Canning regularly shows his agility on comebackers and has an exceptional pickoff move, especially for a right-hander. Right back at Griffin Canning as he completes 6 strong innings! — SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) April 18, 2025 Canning went 6-13 with a 5.91 ERA last season, leading the AL in earned runs allowed (99), and the Angels quickly traded him to the Atlanta Braves for Jorge Soler. With Canning eligible for salary arbitration, the Braves let Canning go and the Mets signed him for $4.25 million. Now Canning is 3-1 with a 3.12 ERA in five starts, so he's been a good investment — good as Gold, perhaps. Advertisement 'I won a Gold Glove in college, too, so that's something I want to win every year,' he said. 'I was a finalist last year, but if you have a (lousy) year, you don't really get the favoritism to win.' Never lose the position player in you: 'Like most guys, I played a position in high school; I played all over — shortstop, second base, center field, third base. I went to UCLA and playing West Coast baseball, there was a lot of small ball, a lot of bunting, a lot of emphasis the inside game — stuff going on the infield, like getting over to first base, being able to field your position, being to get off the mound and field a bunt. It was just kind of my outlet once I got to college — not playing the field anymore, it was just fun for me to be able to do that. I just took it really seriously and prided myself on being able to field my position. I worked on it a ton in college, so kind of just something that got ingrained in me.' Never let a potential out get by you: I'm pretty twitchy, I can jump a little bit, (and) once the ball is off the bat, if you watch, I'm always reaching, trying to see if I can get that ball. It's just like a habit. Any way I can find an out, that's something I'm gonna try to do. I try and remind myself to kind of look behind me and see where we're playing, like the shifts and stuff. But for the most part, it's just instinctual to try to get the ball. Zack Greinke was a role model: 'I know early in his career he was a pretty dominating pitcher, but as his career got on he wasn't necessarily the biggest, hardest-throwing guy. He was just a pitcher — changed speeds, understood the game really well and fielded his position really well, too. He was just someone I kind of gravitate towards because I kind of compare myself to him.' Today's rules mean a renewed emphasis on fielding: 'Holding runners, all those little things I think have come back into the game a little bit more now with the pitch clock and the pickoff rules and stuff. You've got to be on top of holding runners a little more and being quick to the plate, stuff like that. But it's tough now with all the video out there now. Teams are really good at picking up little things you might do when you're going to pick over.' MLB's Gold Glove comes with a perk: 'It's pretty much the same trophy (as in college), but I get a gold label on all my gloves now, and you can only get this label if you win the Gold Glove. So that's cool.' A 30/30 season has long been the benchmark for power and speed. It's been done 72 times by 47 different players, including Shohei Ohtani, José Ramírez and Bobby Witt Jr. last season. But it happened only once before 1956, by a guy who never achieved either mark in any other season. He was Ken Williams of the 1922 St. Louis Browns, and he qualified for Tuesday's Immaculate Grid, which asked for a player with a 100-RBI season and a 6-WAR season. Williams met those thresholds easily (155 runs batted in, 7.9 WAR) while smashing 39 homers and stealing 37 bases. Advertisement The St. Louis Post-Dispatch was most impressed. Williams' SABR biography includes this poem from the paper's L.C. Davis: Whose name is on every tongue? Ken Williams Whose praises are now daily sung? Ken Williams Who is the rooter's joy and pride? Who gives the pesky pill a ride? And separates it from its hide? Ken Williams Who is our most admired youth? Ken Williams Who makes the fan forget Babe Ruth? Ken Williams Who is the guy so calm and cool? Who swings his trusty batting tool? And knocks the pellet for a gool? Ken Williams Williams' efforts helped the Browns to a second-place finish at 93-61, the best of their 52-year stay in St. Louis. And while 1922 was a career year, Williams had several more strong seasons and finished at .319/.393/.520. The problem, historically, is that Williams did not become a regular player until age 30, after serving in World War I. He collected only 1,552 hits and got almost no consideration for the Hall of Fame, roundly rejected by the writers in the 1950s and by a veterans committee in 2003. Still, Williams has a case. Of the 51 players who appeared in 1,000 or more games in the 1920s, Williams ranks fifth in OPS at .947, behind Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, Harry Heilmann and Tris Speaker. He's eighth in WAR for the decade, and everyone else in the top 14 has a plaque in Cooperstown. Thirty years ago on Friday, Major League Baseball finally returned after a devastating work stoppage that cancelled the 1994 World Series and bled into 1995, when owners tried to unilaterally impose a salary cap. The season nearly began with replacement players until future Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor — then a judge with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York — issued an injunction against the owners, bringing back the real players for a hurried spring training. Advertisement The first game took place in Miami on April 25, 1995, with the Florida Marlins hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers. A sold-out crowd of 42,125 saw the Marlins lose, 8-7, but it sure beat the 'exciting, competitive alternative' that 'Late Night With Conan O'Brien' had devised eight months earlier. A team of 8-year-olds faced off against a team of 80-year-olds including Carl 'Oldy' Olson, who hit a ball out of the infield but may have broken a hip. The Turbo Ninjas beat the White Stockings, 8-5, in a game that featured 26 errors and a bench-clearing brawl. 'They really went at it,' said O'Brien, narrating the action. 'This makes really young people look bad and really, really old people look bad. It doesn't do much for the game. I don't know, I thought the whole thing was shocking and very sad.' (Top photo from 'The Simpsons': Courtesy of The Simpsons™ and ©2025 20th Television)
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Topes Tuesday Notebook: The pitching at hitter-friendly Isotopes Park has actually been, well, not that bad
Topes Tuesday Notebook: The pitching at hitter-friendly Isotopes Park has actually been, well, not that bad Apr. 21—Jaden Hill heard all about it. Long before the 6-foot-4, 235-pound righty stepped foot in the Duke City or threw his first pitch in Isotopes Park, he heard the stories — things dreams are made of for hitters, but nightmares for pitchers like himself. Advertisement "It's kind of something you hear about before you ever get here — word of mouth, I guess. You know the ball is going to fly here, your pitches don't move the same, pop ups end up over the wall. You hear it all," Hill told a Journal reporter last week sitting in the dugout of the notoriously hitter-friendly Isotopes Park, only a few days ahead of his call up to the Major Leagues with the Colorado Rockies (his second after appearing in nine games with the parent club last season). "It's something you mentally prepare for as a pitcher, but, it really doesn't affect you until you get here." But, for all the horror stories about how pitching in the dry, thin air of Albuquerque could get in the heads of the best of prospects as he worked his way through the Rockies minor league system, it might surprise you what the first thing the 25-year-old former second round draft pick of the Rockies in 2021 remembers as being different at Isotopes Park compared to anywhere else he's ever pitched. "Probably the run from the bullpen to the mound that really gets you out of breath," Hill said after a momentary pause of recollection to his Triple-A debut in 2024. "That was something I noticed pretty early on, to be honest." Advertisement Yes, he eventually noticed it is also hard to pitch, not just run, at altitude. But so far this season, the reputation seems to be worse than the reality for Isotopes pitchers. If all you do is look at box scores, you'd might not realize that this pitching staff through 21 games has actually been, well, not all that bad. Through Sunday, the Isotopes' ERA of 5.60 ranked just 8th in the Pacific Coast League, as did their WHIP (1.70) and opponent batting average (.276). All manageable numbers for the team who annually ranks among the best in the Minor Leagues in offensive categories, in particular home runs hit. The Isotopes' 17 home runs allowed through 21 games also ranks 8th with only league co-leading Oklahoma City (14 homers) and near-sea level Tacoma (11 homers) allowing fewer. Advertisement And Albuquerque's run differential of minus-7 is competitive considering they lost the April 1 season opener 15-1. "We've definitely got some talented arms, and we got some guys that have some pitch ability," Isotopes pitching coach Chris Michalak said. "They're doing a good job of attacking the strike zone, and that's something that you have to do with this ballpark, you know? You've got to limit the free passes. Usually it's not the hits that hurt you, it's the guys that got on before the hits because of the free pass." Homers will happen in Albuquerque, pitchers have to accept that. But solo shots hurt far less than 2-, 3- and 4-run blasts thanks to putting runners on base first. So, why has it been better in the early part of the season so far? Advertisement "I think we got better stuff. I think we have better command. And not to take anything away from the guys that we had last year, but just unfortunately, there was no stuff," third-year Isotopes manager Pedro Lopez said. "There was no command. When you're playing in places like this, when you're playing in altitude, you gotta make sure that you execute your pitches." Know the foe The Isotopes (9-12, tied for seventh in the 10-team Pacific Coast League, Colorado Rockies affiliate) start a six-game road series against the Reno Aces (10-11, tied for fifth, Arizona Diamondbacks affiliate) at Greater Nevada Field, on Tuesday with the series concluding on Sunday. Advertisement Hill on a roll Outfielder Sam Hilliard has an RBI double in Sunday's Game 1 of the doubleheader, extending to 21 games his Triple-A on-base streak — a stretch that started June 11, 2024, during his short stint in the minors last season. Something to Taco-bout The improbable fast start for Salsa Jar to the 2025 chile race season at Isotopes Park continued over the past week with two more wins for the not-so-chunky speedster. Clear fan favorite Taco has yet to get on a roll and has been rather soft this season while Red and Green Chile don't seem to be in season just yet. Isotopes Park Chile Race standings through April 20: 5 wins — Salsa Jar 3 wins — Taco 2 wins — Green Chile 1 win — Red Chile Next homestand The Isotopes' next homestand is April 29 through May 4 against the Salt Lake Bees.
New York Times
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Weird & Wild: The 3-run walk, a bizarre strikeout and the baseball gods bless Manny Machado
Oh, man. What a week. There was a strikeout that hit the bat but never hit a glove. … There was a home run in San Diego scripted 100 percent by (who else) the baseball gods. … There was a pitcher who issued a walk after he'd gotten ejected. … And there was a guy who stole six bases in a game in which he forgot to get a hit. Advertisement But if you thought that was wacky, they weren't even close to being the Weirdest or Wildest things that happened in baseball all week. So let's get started, by taking … You know that old expression, you've got to walk before you run? Tell it to those Albuquerque Isotopes. What we learned from them this week was … You've got to walk before you score three runs. The Isotopes are the Triple-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. The big-league team can barely score any runs these days — on a walk, a hit or even (literally) an earthquake in San Diego. But enough about them. Back to Albuquerque. You have to see this play. And if you've already seen it, what's the problem? You can't possibly see it enough! THE ALBUQUERQUE ISOTOPES SCORED THREE RUNS ON A BASES-LOADED WALK AND THERE IS VIDEO [image or embed] — Codify Baseball (@ April 15, 2025 at 10:57 PM So if you weren't adding along at home, you just saw three runs scoring on a walk. And does that seem kind of rare to you? You should answer yes to that. 'I can't recall ever seeing three runs scoring on ball four,' said dulcet Isotopes broadcaster Josh Suchon … and also every other living human. When stuff like this happens in baseball, America seems to think this is what's known as a Weird and Wild kind of play. They're not wrong. And thanks for thinking of us, America. So we know what that means. It means there is lots to get to. But before we move along to bizarre questions like what just happened … and how do you even score a play like that … and how would somebody like Josh Suchon explain that play into a microphone in real time … You probably want some Weird and Wild tidbits. So here you go. So has this ever happened before? That's the question I asked Baseball-Reference's amazing Katie Sharp, because of course I did. Has there ever been a walk in a major-league game on which three runs scored? I'd have bet no — and I'd have been wrong! Katie actually found two of these in the Baseball Reference database: • Aug. 21, 1914: Should we even count this? It happened in a Federal League game between Tex Wisterzil's Brooklyn Tip-Tops and Biddy Dolan's Indianapolis Hoosiers. It's not totally clear from the play-by-play what happened. But it looks as if Brooklyn pitcher Ed (Don't Call Me BB) Lafitte muffed the catcher's throw back to the pitcher. Then the Tip-Tops started throwing the ball all over Federal League Park — and even the batter (Benny Kauff) scored, on a walk and two errors. Advertisement • July 11, 1983: This play — in a Cardinals-Dodgers game in L.A. — had actual living eyewitnesses. Fernando Valenzuela walked the bases full. Then in marched Dave Stewart to pitch to Tom Herr. Ball four was a wild pitch. Then the catcher, Steve Yeager, made a wild throw to the plate. And all three runners scored — even though Herr never made it beyond first base. Good times. So that's great knowledge, filled with exceptional name-dropping. But I still vote that the merry-go-round in Albuquerque was way more fun. However, there's one more thing. Meanwhile in Colorado … Have I mentioned that the Rockies have had a little trouble scoring recently? Over the first five games of their last road trip, they also scored three runs … in a span of 134 batters! And while that was going on, their triple-A team scored three runs in a span of one batter — who walked. But in other news … the rulebook says the Rockies also are allowed to walk with the bases loaded. They just don't do that much. They've scored three runs on walks … in their last 161 games combined! Meanwhile, their top minor-league team just scored three runs on a walk in a span of 20 seconds. Yes, the @ABQTopes scored 3 runs on a walk last night. Here's the longer clip with a replay from our elite @Windfire_pro crew that shows the "high home" angle of all the madness. Jackie Robinson would be proud of @RealSlimSchunky Cc: @jaysonst @CodifyBaseball @JomboyMedia — Josh Suchon (@Josh_Suchon) April 16, 2025 All right. That'll do it for the tidbits. Let's move along to … How'd you like to be the official scorer for a play like that? Somebody had to do that. And Frank Mercogliano was just the guy. He's one of America's ultimate students of all sorts of scoring decisions. So when this nuttiness broke out, he had a flashback. Advertisement He somehow remembered a Jose Bautista walk in 2017 in which the Mariners kind of zoned out … so Bautista ambled into second base. It took a couple of days but Bautista wound up getting credit for a steal of second — on a walk. And amazingly, Mercogliano recalled all of that. He just had to verify that recollection, with some assistance from Google and Retrosheet. 'I remembered that, but I wanted to make sure I found it,' he told Weird and Wild, 'so that if anyone asked me, 'Why is this a stolen base?' I could say, 'Well, it was done in 2017.'' So how did he score it? The runner on third (Austin Nola) scored on the bases-loaded walk. The runner on second (Aaron Schunk) advanced to third on the walk, then got credited with 'a straight steal of home.' And the runner on first (Jordan Beck) advanced to second on the walk, was awarded a steal of third and scored on a throwing error by bamboozled El Paso pitcher Omar Cruz. It all kind of makes sense, except the 'straight steal of home' part. WEIRD AND WILD: 'You used the expression, 'straight steal of home.' That's the least straight steal of home ever. … So it counts as a straight steal of home, even though he had to make a left turn?' MERCOGLIANO: 'Yeah, exactly. Straight steal of home. … He just had to make a left turn in Albuquerque.' This is what the scorebook looks like after that play and the wild game last night. — Josh Suchon (@Josh_Suchon) April 16, 2025 Got that, Google Maps? Great. Now let's ask: How'd you like to be the broadcaster for a play like that? I know you want to say yes. But first, let's hear Josh Suchon recount how he went about keeping his brain from overloading as all this was going on. First, you should factor in that it's Jackie Robinson Day, so everyone on the field is wearing the same number (42). And also understand that a broadcaster's normal instinct after every walk is not that The Bad News Bears is about to bust out, but just to write down that walk in his scorebook. So Suchon was doing just that. Except then, he said, he heard the crowd buzz. Advertisement 'Fortunately, our crowd is so great that I hear a commotion,' he said. 'So as I'm starting to write 'BB' in my scorebook, I look up and I just see the blur of somebody sliding headfirst into home plate. And that's when I realize something's happening here. And then you realize the pitcher does not realize this is happening here. And then his teammates are trying to get his attention, and he throws wildly to third. 'And so I'm just trying to keep up with it. Everyone's wearing No. 42, so I want to make sure that I don't misidentify anybody. And I'm hoping that I'm counting correctly — up to three.' Hey, mission accomplished on all of that. But also realize there's a surreal confluence of extreme events going on: • A savvy base runner in Schunk who detects immediately the pitcher has zoned out. • Another astute base runner in Beck who watches that second run score and realizes the pitcher still hasn't regained baseball consciousness. • And a pitcher in Cruz who is lost in his own brain space after what Suchon called 'the ultimate Jayson Stark inning.' By that, he means: a leadoff comebacker off Cruz's glove … two pitches heaved off the backstop … two ball-strike challenges … a throwing error by the third baseman … three other walks … then this fateful walk, after he'd jumped ahead in the count, 0-2. So was that a tipoff that Cruz was already reeling before that three-run carousel started spinning? Seems like it. But whatever happened, at least we got a three-run walk out of it that we can talk about for the next decade. Baseball! It's awesome. 'I think that plays like that reward people who truly love baseball and understand that something wacky can happen at any second,' Suchon said. 'So whether you're Aaron Schunk at second base, or whether you're a fan in the stands, or whether you're a broadcaster, or whether you're an umpire, whoever you are, you just always have to be alert for this once-in-a-lifetime, once-in-a-generation experience where something like that happens, right?' Advertisement Right! It was weird. It was wild. It was a carnival ride just to make sense of. But … 'But that's what makes it so fun,' Josh Suchon said. 'That's what makes baseball so great, is that these wacky things happen — and then Jayson Stark writes about them.' Thanks to that three-run walk and that conversation with Josh Suchon, we stumbled upon a fun theme to this week's Weird and Wild extravaganza: Broadcasters tell us about how they describe things that nobody has ever seen before … To people (on the radio) who literally haven't seen that thing! So let's just say you were the great Tom Hamilton, the radio voice of Cleveland baseball for 36 seasons and a man who is three months away from being honored on Induction Weekend in Cooperstown. Then let's just say the most bizarre strikeout of all time happened. And let's just say it looked like this. Thanks to that three-run walk and that conversation with Josh Suchon, we stumbled upon a fun theme to this week's Weird and Wild extravaganza: Broadcasters tell us about how they describe things that nobody has ever seen before … To people (on the radio) who literally haven't seen that thing! So let's just say you were the great Tom Hamilton, the radio voice of Cleveland baseball for 36 seasons and a man who is three months away from being honored on Induction Weekend in Cooperstown. Then let's just say the most bizarre strikeout of all time happened. And let's just say it looked like this. That's one way to do it 🤣 — MLB (@MLB) April 12, 2025 Yessir, just your standard strike three … in which the pitch somehow hits the bottom of the knob of the bat … and then the baseball miraculously caroms into that perfect spot between the forearm and the pads of the catcher (Austin Hedges). Um, what? I mean, he's out! So would it truly be accurate to say that Austin Hedges caught that strike three? Or did it catch him? Advertisement 'I know one thing,' Hamilton told Weird and Wild. 'Austin Hedges is as good a defensive catcher as there is in the game — but he does not practice that play.' And for good reason. After all, what were the odds of that happening — 9 quadrillion to 1? 'Just the fact that you and I are talking about it right now,' Hamilton said, 'tells us they're astronomical.' So how great is baseball? Think about how many baseball games Tom Hamilton has seen and called … and then this thing happens that none of us has ever seen and that seems almost impossible. And then … there it was. It was enough to make Hamilton think back to his first spring training in this job. He was driving back from a road game with his first partner, Herb Score. And Score pretty much warned him that some day, something this wacky was definitely going to happen — because on any day in baseball, you can see something you've never seen before and you'll never see again. 'He said that statement that I have lived for 36 years,' Hamilton said. 'It's just what you and I are talking about. How many times do you come to the park in what you think might just be another ho-hum day in a long season. … And then you're going to see something … and Jayson Stark is going to call you. 'And that,' Hamilton said, 'is the beauty of our game. That's why, to me, this never gets old, because no matter what kind of a team you're covering, something's going to happen that you and I haven't seen again. And the question is, will it be tonight? Will it be tomorrow? Or will it be four months from now? But it's going to happen again, where we're going to see something we've never seen before, and we'll have another story to talk about.' OK, let's do this one more time because why the heck not. Just suppose you were the radio voice of the San Diego Padres. And just suppose you were calling a game Tuesday night when Manny Machado lofted two foul balls onto the field of play in one at-bat … And that team on the other side — the Cubs — caught neither of them (for two errors). Advertisement Do you think you'd have the guts to say what the great radio voice of the Padres, Jesse Agler, said … into a microphone … where everyone could hear him? 'If you've watched enough baseball in your life,' Agler said on the air, as Machado's fifth-inning at-bat rolled along, 'you have a sense, deep down in your gut, about what's going to happen.' He said that. And then, on the very next pitch … yep. I think we all saw this one coming after two dropped foul pop-ups 😅 🎙️ @jesseagler — 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) April 16, 2025 'The most predictable, yet unpredictable, game in the world,' Agler said, while Machado was still in mid-trot. 'The Cubs dropped two foul pops in this at-bat, and the baseball gods reward the Padres with Manny Machado's second home run of the season.' You should know, if you're not a regular Padres radio listener, that Jesse Agler has a rep as a noted predictor of the baseball future. He even predicted the Padres' playoff-clinching walkoff triple play last September. Seems risky, right? But whatever! 'I think it's fun to throw stuff out there,' he told the Weird and Wild column. Oh, it's fun, all right. It's just that your chances of being wrong are so much higher than your chances of being right. And shouldn't we all know that logically — that the odds are totally against that home run? Let's prove that now. I asked my friends from STATS Perform to look into this. And you know how many other players, in the 52-season history of their play-by-play database, have ever done what Machado just did — hit a home run after the other team clanked two foul balls? None! Of course. So what is it about baseball that something that unlikely happens, and yet we actually find ourselves expecting it to happen? And then afterward, thousands of people are saying, 'Yeah, that made sense.' Do we even want to explain to them that no, that did not make sense? 'I mean, it makes sense in the context of the beautiful stupidity of baseball,' Agler said. 'It does not make sense in any other context. If you were going to run the numbers on it, there's no way it would make sense. But again, I think that's one of the things that draws people to this game in a deep, deep way, that is so uncommon in the rest of our lives.' Advertisement But what does the rest of our lives have to do with it? It isn't trigonometry. It's baseball. 'For those of us who are lucky enough to watch baseball professionally, with the amount of games that we see, there's no way that that should be happening on any kind of basis, much less a regular basis,' Jesse Agler said. 'And yet it seems like once or twice a week, you go, 'Man, I've never seen that before.' It's just the damnedest thing. It really is.' So remember that, OK? It isn't logic. It isn't science. It isn't normal. It isn't paranormal. It's just … Baseball! Poor Jose Miranda. There are a million things he hasn't done. But if this past week was any indication, just you wait. Just in the past week, the Minnesota Twins' third baseman was out even when he was safe. … And that got him shipped back to the minor leagues … where he headed off to Target … and wound up as the early leader in our annual Injury of the Year competition. So you know who's here to tell his story? We are! Let's hear a big hand now for … the cast (and chorus) of the Weird and Wild column. We don't know if history has its eyes on Jose. But we do. So in honor of his cousin — that Lin-Manuel Miranda guy, of 'Hamilton' fame — here's how we think the cast of 'Hamilton' would rise up and put Jose Miranda's week in its proper perspective. It was only last season that Miranda did something only three other players in history have ever done. He headed for home plate and got a hit in 12 at-bats in a row. So perhaps you thought that would have been enough to get him into the Twins' big-league (locker) room where it happens this season. But that was before he wandered onto the basepaths last Saturday … where this unfortunate thing transpired. Umpire called Jose Miranda safe, saying the fielder didn't touch the base to get the forceout. But then Miranda just walked away and got tagged out anyway. — Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) April 12, 2025 Oops! We think Lin-Manuel could have gotten a whole act out of that scene alone, featuring our chorus singing … • 'What'd I Miss?' • 'Wait for It' • 'Say No to This' • 'Stay Alive' And … judging by the stories on this game on our very site … that regrettable gaffe appeared to turn into … • 'The Story of Tonight' Advertisement Which then led to an even more unfortunate development for our hero … It never feels like a good plan for baseball job security to find a way to get yourself tagged out even when you're safe. But it's an even worse plan when you're 6-for-36, hitting .167/.167/.250 and have an OPS+ of (wait for it) 18. So what happened to Miranda after that Safe Wait No I'm Not Game? The Twins shipped him right on back to Triple-A St. Paul. And that inspired our Weird and Wild Chorus to launch into renditions of: • 'Take a Break' • 'The World Turned Upside-Down' And (with any luck) … • 'You'll Be Back' Except then, last Monday, Jose Miranda went shopping. And by the time he was through, he was … By now you probably have heard this story. But just in 'case' you haven't … According to the Twins, Miranda was zipping through Target and, because hydration is often the key to salvation, he grabbed a case of water off the shelf. Good idea, except … Those cases of water can get bulky and slippery on you — and this one attempted a daring escape from Miranda's hands. So he did what any great athlete would do at a time like that — try to … Catch it. But those cases of water are heavy, you know! So that didn't go well, either. Next thing we knew, Miranda was heading for the St. Paul injured list with a strained left hand … incurred in the most watery way possible. Twins notes from the minors: – Zebby Matthews starts for Triple-A St. Paul tonight, a week after his last outing. – Jose Miranda was placed on the Triple-A injured list with a hand strain before playing a game. – Brock Stewart begins a rehab assignment at Low-A Fort Myers. — Aaron Gleeman (@ April 15, 2025 at 2:46 PM We'd advise him to spend the next week heeding Aaron Burr's advice for Hamilton: Talk less, smile more. But that's going to be hard, when the cast of Weird and Wild is all around him, singing catchy tunes like: • 'Stay Alive' • 'Helpless' • 'How Lucky (You) Are To Be Alive Right Now' • '(Left) Hand Man' • 'Say No to This' And (accompanied by Rocco Baldelli and the Twins Singers) … • 'That Would Be Enough' Now this can still be a story of redemption, you understand. Miranda's season isn't over. Miranda's career isn't over. And this will not result in any ill-fated duels — with Ryan Burr or anyone else. So there will always be more chances for men talented enough to go 12-for-12. But … Yikes. What a week! Advertisement So Jose, the world's gonna know your name. And we're aware we just helped with that. But who lives? Who dies? Who tells your story? That can still be you, Jose. Unless you prefer to leave it to … the Weird and Wild chorus! And man, we sure hope not. After all this singing, our vocal cords are officially shredded. BEWARE OF ZOMBIES — While we're on this subject, how unstoppable are the Padres in San Diego? The Braves couldn't stop them. The Guardians couldn't stop them. The Rockies couldn't stop them. The baseball gods couldn't stop them. But you know who could? Those dastardly Zombie Runners. So on Tuesday, the Padres finally had their 11-game home winning streak end on a run scored by … a zombie runner. (Cubs 2, Padres 1, in 10 zombie-fied innings.) And thanks to Katie Sharp, we can tell you that no team has ever had any kind of single-season winning streak that long foiled by a Zombie Runner (a.k.a. that mysterious dude who gets to start every extra inning on second base). The Astros held the old home-streak record with 10 (ended in extras last July 13). The Rays got zombied after a nine-game road streak in 2021. And the Braves watched an overall nine-game win streak disappear in 2023 when they, too, were overrun by zombies. So zombie haters? This note's for you. CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER — The awesome voice of the Orioles on MASN, Kevin Brown, keeps going down that Weird and Wild rabbit hole, digging up new tidbits for us every week. Here's a fun one that caught his eye Tuesday. Let's recap Orioles center fielder Cedric Mullins' first three trips to the plate: Third inning — walk to break up perfect game. Fifth inning — single to break up no-hitter. Seventh inning — home run to break up shutout. Ced sent this one. — Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) April 16, 2025 On one hand, this has been done before — 43 times, in fact, in the Baseball-Reference database. And the list of players who have done this, according to Kenny Jackelen, includes Ted Williams, Yogi Berra and Joey Votto. Whoever they are. But now here comes the Weird and Wild part. Since the Orioles moved to Baltimore 71 years ago, this had happened only once in any Orioles game — for or against them. And that game was … Game 1 of the 1983 World Series, when a fellow named Joe Morgan did that for the Phillies against the Orioles (and their starter, Scott McGregor). Advertisement GROUND CENTRAL STATION — Those Kansas City Royals rolled into Yankee Stadium this week … and got swept – because of course they got swept. Does it feel to you as if those AL Central teams never win at Yankee Stadium? You wouldn't be wrong. I checked. The record of the five AL Central teams in The Stadium over the past five seasons? How about 15-50 … or 17-55 if you count the postseason. A team that played at that pace over a full season would win (gulp) 38 games. What's up with that, you ask? Must be pastrami-related! THE OLD 1-2 — I'm guessing this was Keith Law's favorite thing that happened all week: On the same day (Monday), Pirates rock star Pauk Skenes … • Became the first No. 1 pick in the history of the draft to pitch to a catcher (Henry Davis) who was also the No. 1 pick. • Finally got to pitch against not just his friend and former LSU teammate, the Nationals' Dylan Crews, but also the player who got drafted right behind him, at No. 2 in the country the same year (2023) that Skenes got picked first. All that's cool, but I'm not done. • So Skenes has now pitched to either the No. 1 pick (Davis) or the No. 2 pick (Joey Bart) as his catcher in four of his first 28 big-league starts. • And finally, there's this: Hitters who were taken with either the first or second pick in the draft have three times as many strikeouts as hits against Skenes. That group — Dansby Swanson, Spencer Torkelson, Alex Bregman and Crews — is a combined 2-for-10 against him, with six strikeouts (and no extra-base hits). THE REAL DRAFT KING — Speaking of the draft, Astros phenom Cam Smith only got drafted last July 16. He hit his first career home run in the big leagues a week ago. So it took him only 269 days to go from the draft board to a home run trot. And that seemed quick. I asked my friends from STATS just how quick. Advertisement Only six players in baseball draft history could beat that. Three of them went straight to the big leagues: Bob Horner (1978), Dave Winfield (1973) and Dave Roberts (1972). Horner went deep a mere 10 days after he got drafted! Three more got drafted that summer and were in the big leagues, hitting home runs, by that September: J.D. Drew (1998), Bo Jackson (1986) and Nolan Schanuel (2023). My favorite bet-ya-didn't-know-this tidbit from that list: Bo Jackson hit his first big-league homer before he scored his first NFL touchdown! So let's hear it for … Baseball! Cam Smith blasts his first career home run 👏 — MLB (@MLB) April 12, 2025 All this stuff really happened in the last week. I swear. • Nationals reliever Jorge López managed to walk a guy (and give up three runs) after he got ejected (three pitches into a messy Andrew McCutchen plate appearance Wednesday). Washington reliever Eduardo Salazar helpfully finished López's walk. • Braves bopper Marcell Ozuna hit two home runs in the same *day* — in two different cities (Atlanta and Tampa) … with a little assistance from a two-hour, 45-minute rain delay that turned the first of those homers into a 12:53 a.m. walkoff special last Friday — err, Saturday. • Nationals rookie James Wood got hit by a Paul Skenes pitch Monday — but it was the catcher (Pittsburgh's Endy Rodríguez) who wound up on the injured list. Apparently, that can happen when baseballs ricochet off the hitter's leg and head directly for your bare hand. #Pirates Endy Rodriguez left with an injured hand tonight. Likely headed to the IL per reports — Mike Kurland (@Mike_Kurland) April 15, 2025 • Since that Pirates-Nationals series was about as bonkers as it gets, of course Tommy Pham got thrown out at first base Wednesday on a single. … OK, so it would have been a single if he'd just been aware that the aforementioned James Wood didn't catch his line drive to left before it hit the ground. Confusion then reigned. The Pirates wound up with two runners dashing toward first. And when the throw from left beat Pham to the bag, he wound up as only the eighth hitter in the live-ball era to 'single' into a 7-3 out at first. Hat tip: Katie Sharp. WATCH: Tommy Pham with a groundout to…LEFT FIELD???#Nationals # — No Warmup The Pod (@nwthepod) April 17, 2025 · Bryce Harper hit a home run Tuesday in breeeezy Philadelphia with a 45-degree launch angle. Not to imply that's a rarity, but the league average last season on balls hit with a 45-degree launch angle (or greater) was a dazzling .019! And the last left-handed hitting Phillie to pull a home run to right field in that park with a launch angle that pronounced was … Ryan Howard … 10 years ago! Advertisement • And here's to Beloit Sky Carp outfielder Emaarion Boyd. He stole six bases in a game last week … despite the slight technicality that he didn't get any hits. So how many bases has he stolen this season in games where he actually got a hit? Right you are. That would be none! THE NAME RINGS A BELL — Baseball is better than science fiction, isn't it? Last Sunday, new Red Sox ace Garret Crochet made his first start against that White Sox team that traded him, right there in the park where he'd pitched his whole career. So how'd that go? He took a no-hitter into the eighth inning, naturally … only to have it broken up by … a guy he was traded for (Chase Meidroth)! Because America needs to know just how nutty baseball is, I asked Baseball-Reference's incredible Kenny Jackelen to look into this. And … Want to guess how many pitchers, in their voluminous database, had a no-hitter busted up that late in a game by a hitter he'd been traded for? As always, zero is a fantastic guess. How's that for your 3rd career MLB hit?!@whitesox No. 8 prospect Chase Meidroth breaks up Garrett Crochet's no-hit bid in the 8th. — MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 13, 2025 Nutty epilogue — Kenny did find a game in 1954 where Early Wynn lost a no-hitter in the ninth. Then, three years later … he was traded for the guy who got the hit, Fred Hatfield! RAIN ON ME — Welcome to one of the Strangest But Truest games in the history of the new Yankee Stadium. This was last Friday night, when the Giants and Yankees played baseball in the midst of approximately 2 billion raindrops — for five-plus innings anyway. There were a few walks! Yankees pitchers walked 11 Giants in this game — in 5 2/3 innings! And what's so Strange But True about that? They were the first team in the modern era to hand out that many walks without even getting 18 outs. And the last team to walk that many in six full innings did it as recently as 87 years ago (the 1938 White Sox). Advertisement The Stro Show! Then there was Yankees starter Marcus Stroman. He had quite a night, if only because he gave up five runs before he got an out — and then didn't make it through the first inning. On one hand, he's not the only Yankees starter on his own team who has given up that many runs before he got an out. (Carlos Rodón did it on Sept. 29, 2023, in Kansas City.) But Stroman did become the first Yankees starter ever to allow at least five runs before he got an out and not make it through the first inning in any version of Yankee Stadium. Well then. Robbie Ray broke the rules! And finally, how 'bout Giants starter Robbie Ray. He only went four innings — but he still got The Win. That's not actually allowed — in any other game. But did you know that in baseball, they let that whole five-innings requirement slide when it rains (and the winning team only pitches five innings)? Who knew it had happened five other times since that rule went into effect … 75 years ago. But baseball is inventive like that! SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS — Finally, how about Dodgers multipurpose man Miguel Rojas. Just as we all expected, he's pitched to more hitters in the big leagues this season than Max Scherzer, Alexis Díaz or David Bednar! That would be 14 of them. And he faced all 14 in a six-out outing last Saturday that played, let's just say, a pivotal role in the Dodgers' unprecedented 16-0 loss to the Cubs. But that's not even the Strange But True part. The Strange But True part is that in the eighth inning, Cubs rookie Gage Workman got his first career hit … against Miguel Rojas, position player. And then, in the ninth inning, Workman got his second career hit … also against Miguel Rojas, position player. So, how many players have gotten their first two career hits off the same true position player? Katie Sharp dug into that one. And that answer would be … none! In other words, no player in history has ever started his career like Gage Workman. But here's our advice. Gage, nobody will ever remember who that dude was who you got those hits against. So save that … Baseball! (Top photo of Manny Machado reacting after hitting a home run against the Cubs on April 15: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
