I have a confession make, folks: I watched like 5 innings of baseball yesterday, total. One of those innings was the bottom of the ninth in the Yankees/Red Sox game where for one glorious moment I got to truly be a New Yorkian to some fellow PLers at the meetup who happened to be Yankee haters though, so that was nice. But the rest of my Saturday was taken up by hanging out with some of the crew that runs, reads, and supports this here best baseball site on the internet, so let’s get into some highlights from that, shall we?
Nastiest Pitches
I’m going to steal Ben Brown’s thunder here for a second to bring you some of the absolute filth that was being dealt during the PL Staffers Wiffleball game early on Saturday. Be sure to keep an eye on the PitchingNinja feed because I’m sure you’re gonna see these there soon.
Here’s Scott Chu getting Nick to whiff on a big looping breaker:
https://gfycat.com/cheaporderlyaddax
And here’s Ben Brown’s own nastiest pitch, a down and away fastball to get Chu swinging:
https://gfycat.com/uglysleepylhasaapso
Also please note I thought it was a good idea to get into a full catcher’s crouch behind home plate which was a very poor life decision, do not recommend, 0/10.
It’s All About Sportsmanship
But as we all know, not every pitch is nasty in a good way as Dave Cherman goes up and in to brush Pollack off the plate:
https://gfycat.com/magnificentunselfishdamselfly
Look at those reflexes! The type of split-second reaction times that you only see among the finest of baseball writers. Another note: this happened three or four times in a row, pitching a wiffleball is hard. I hit Josiah DeBoer no less than four times and threw fully behind him at least thrice in a single at-bat. But that may just be me.
And speaking of non-nasty pitches, here’s Dave giving up some hard contact to an impromptu friend of the site, Peter:
https://gfycat.com/shadowybreakablegordonsetter
Those line shots just sound different off the bat, you know?
Form Check
Yesterday marked the first time I really got to use the slo-mo video feature on my phone’s camera so let’s do a little breakdown on Nick’s fastball delivery here:
https://twitter.com/Low_rax/status/1418984659325751296?s=20
Look at that shoulder separation, that hip rotation on the landing, the pronation, and deceleration on the throwing arm, just chef kiss. For real, when I showed this to Nick at the bar after, he lamented his large arm circle and timing and specifically called out that he wasn’t “pushing off” well enough. Please know there was no mound or rubber to push off of. And even with those deficiencies, pro-Twitter-follow in addition to being pro-baseball-pitcher Robert Stock has faith:
Great spin axis. If you can up that spin rate/velo you’ll have great vertical rise!
— Robert Stock (@RobertStock6) July 24, 2021
Making Memories
If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Nick in person, know that he is functionally incapable of accepting credit even when it’s due, he pathologically deflects all compliments back onto the giver, so please enjoy this video of him being put squarely in the spotlight with no way to escape by Dave and Schwebsi, and forgive my messy camerawork at the beginning, I was trying to completely change my grip on the phone while not putting down my beer for some reason:
And for the sake of completeness, here’s a group shot of (almost) everybody who came out to hang:
Thanks to everyone who could make it to the PL meetup! What a fantastic day. pic.twitter.com/cA2S5t2U1b
— Nick Pollack (@PitcherList) July 25, 2021
Americana
And now, for one of the other innings I watched yesterday. I was standing at the outdoor ordering window at The Commissioner and I looked up to see the Mets game on with close captions just in time to catch this discussion of the newest addition to the Mets dugout:
https://gfycat.com/watchfulsimplisticboaconstrictor
In honor of the Mets booth and Pete Alonso, and because I need to go lay down for a while and listen to calm music to recover from the meetup, please enjoy this fine piece of classic rock:
Featured image by Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)