Glove Prep

How did I forget Ed Walsh as a knuckleball pitcher? Career 1.82 ERA.

 

Jim Bouton actually developed a decent knuckleball.

 

A bit off topic but does relate to baseball equipment prep. At what level do they prep game balls with a mud rub? I know that they do it at the MLB level and I think at the Minor League level but do they do it at the college level anywhere?

 

I’ve never used it before. I always just rubbed the baseballs up the ol’school way. I would put a ball in my hands with the hide laying on both of my thumb pads and a long seam facing up in between my thumb pads. I would press hard on both sides of the cowhide while pulling counterclockwise with pressure on my right hand and pushing clockwise with pressure on my left hand. If you know what you’re doing you can actually raise the seams on the ball.

I honestly don’t know if pitchers today know how to take advantage of this or not…..

 

That is old school.

With the pitch clock you wouldn't get very far.

Baseball prep can be a science. Back in the 1960's when the White Sox were all about pitching, speed and defense they kept the game balls in a fridge and I heard that they had to wipe mold off the game balls.

 

Speaking of old school practices, catchers routinely ask for a new ball anytime a pitch is in the dirt. While I only played at the rec level as a kid and never pitched, I always heard that pitchers liked scuffed balls and some pitchers were expert at using scuffed balls to their advantage. Don Drysdale- one of my favorites- said that aflter home runs, Dodger catchers would throw the new ball to Peewee Reese to scuff or load, which meant Dodger pitchers never were caught with substances or tools. UF used to have ushers chase down kids to recover foul balls and, when they shifted to letting fans keep balls, they annouced that such and such company was sponsoring fouls that game.

I recently asked a dugout speaker about scuffed ball and he leaned too far into discussing rules against purposely scuffing balls. I certainly agree with conforming to rules and I always laughed at pitchers ejected when caught with emory boards or other equipment for cheating. However, I don't object to any player legally taking any advantage allowed within the rules. Has the legally scuffed ball gone the way of the knuckle ball- a lost art because no one teaches the technique?

 

Just my opinion here @TheBoss, but all of this analytics approach has pushed a lot of taught ol’school techniques to the back burner.

 

No analytics or money ball on Yankees. Ty’s entire lineup is hitting .200. Highly paid players that can’t hit.

 

Rebadged equipment has gone on for years in professional bicycle racing. Lance Armstrong's teams rode on Zipp wheels rebadged as Bontrager (a part of Trek) because Trek was a huge team sponsor. Eddy Merckx famously rode a Windsor badged frame when he set the hour record in Mexico City. Windsor was a Mexican bicycle manufacturer at the time and sold a lot of bicycles because of that ride. Too bad the actual frame was made by DeRosa in Italy. Ben Serotta, a great American frame builder, made the Murray and Huffy frames for the 7-Eleven racing team.

It goes on and on.

 

Lurk—

Who made the old Western Flyer?

 

That was the Western Auto store brand, could have been made anywhere in the world- early '60s I had a bike with a US label that was Czech made. Wikipedia says it was absorbed by Sears and later by Advance Auto Parts. I had not thought of that company for the better part of 60 years

 

Western Auto made me flash back to my youth getting cheap auto parts in Chicago. Many Saturdays doing "Will Call" at Wachowski Brothers on the Near Southside. The rest of the US bought parts from them via the J C Whitney catalog. I am guessing that J C Whitney played better the the South as opposed to Wachowski Brothers.

They were once a great source of obscure parts. I got a new convertible top for my 1965 Fiat 1500 Cabriolet from them pretty cheap and nicely made. The folks that I knew keeping up Model T's swore by them.

I wish that I had my old Fiat. The first car I ever owned and bought it dirt cheap from a guy coming home from a Vegas vacation that needed some quick cash. It took constant tuning especially with solid lifters that needed to be reset about every oil change to keep it running right. Dual rocker arm crossflow head. Weber two-barrel. Just a tad under 100 HP out of a 1492 CC engine stock. Four speed manual tranny, of course. FUN to drive.

Rebuilt the engine and it was hard getting parts before the Internet. Also put in a new clutch.

Sold it because after a while I was tired of being carless for months during the winter. I was a student away from home and my tools and it wouldn't run all winter without attention. Some times I could limp it home over Christmas break and fix it.

Bought an low mileage Opel Manta that was a POS but ran for me all through grad school and a few years into my tenure at UF.

 

Lurk I’m guessing if you put a new clutch in it you also put a new pressure plate and throw out bearing in it too.

 

I think that OJ wore Isotoners.

 

Great thread!
Curious what wing did with a new glove?? I picture him just spitting in it and punching it a few times with his left paw, and his glove was good to go.

 

Lefty’s usually just chewed on the rawhide strings hanging off the thumb or outside finger…

 

Pitchers back in that day would want a glove where you could hide sandpaper or Vaseline.

Very few were great fielders like Jim Kaat.

Maddox was also pretty good.

 

I was not an expert at using scuffed balls but I found that a slightly scuffed ball gave me better purchase for putting spin on a ball. I would grip it there.

And a really scuffed ball was like a super raised seam. You could get a lot more break.