Gimme Five!

 

 

What a fun baseball card. There's Tom Paciorek, scoring a run at Shea Stadium, wearing those classic Mets uniforms, and giving a high-five to his waiting teammate. (Wally Backman, perhaps.)

 

And whether it's on the baseball diamond or anywhere else, exuberant high-fives like this one never really go out of style, do they?

 

That being said, get ready to give this blog a high-five. . . 

 

. . .because it's turning five years old!

 

I started this blog in late December of 2018. Time sure does fly.

But it's been another good year here at Nine Pockets. I was able to complete a few more card sets from my childhood era (1980-81 Topps hockey, 1981 Topps baseball, and 1988 Score baseball), and I created a bunch more custom cards, including a set of 1980s movie cards and even some Nine Pockets wax packs!

 

I also managed to post something here on the blog every Sunday yet again, keeping the streak going for the fifth straight year. It was a busy time personally (new job, new home, among other things), but I'm happy I pushed myself from January through December to come up with content that I hope you readers have considered engaging and entertaining. 

Interestingly, the sidebar on the blog shows 53 total posts for the year instead of the standard 52. After some investigating, I found that the first Sunday of 2023 happened to be January 1st, and today, the final Sunday of 2023, is December 31st. So the calendar managed to squeeze in just enough room for the bonus post.

 

As for year six? Well, I think it's similar to how I felt last year at this time. A big part of collecting is still about nostalgia for me: The memories and good feelings that trading cards bring about. The energy and excitement that comes with hunting for the next cards you want for your collection. I haven't felt that as much lately. I didn't really add a whole lot of cards to my collection aside from completing a few sets. I didn't trade very much at all on TCDB, or with fellow bloggers and collectors. I didn't comment as much on other trading card blogs. And so I want to try to get a little zeal back for the hobby. 

 

I'm not sure how much of that will happen this coming year, but if nothing else, I'd like to sit down and take a look at my collection, and which types of cards make me the most happy and nostalgic. I'm pretty sure the answer to that is vintage cards, plus oddball and food-issue stuff from the 1980s. And maybe some vintage non-sport stuff, too. So let's see what happens.

Regardless, I've got a lot of good ideas for upcoming blog posts, and a pretty big list of custom cards to work on. So I'm not going anywhere. Stay tuned for some fun content and potential giveaways. 

 

Thanks to all of you for reading, commenting, and most importantly for inspiring me through your blogs and your collections.

Here's to another great year of collecting!

Baseball in French, Lesson 11: Le Marbre

Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 11. Previous lessons can be found here.

 

Today's term is le marbre.

 

In English, that translates to "the marble". (As in the metamorphic rock that is often found in fancy classical sculptures. And countertops.) 

 

What's the baseball translation?

Home plate.

I suppose it's similar to some English-language terms for home plate, like dish or platter. (Are there such things as marble dishes and platters?) Regardless, it makes me think of catchers. They spend plenty of time right behind the marble, after all. And when it comes to Expos catchers in particular, there's one guy that comes to mind above all others.

 

Here he is on his 1981 O-Pee-Chee card.

 

 

 

It's "The Kid", Gary Carter, sporting those great powder blue uniforms underneath all that gear, getting ready to protect home plate. 

 

And imagine that home plate were an actual slab of high-quality marble. A catcher would definitely want to protect that marble from the other team trying to cross it and score a run. So maybe that's the French line of thinking.

As for Carter, there are plenty of reasons why he's the right choice.

The Hall-of-Famer was an 11x All-Star, 3x Gold Glove award winner, 5x Silver Slugger award winner, and a 2x All-Star MVP—not to mention one of the prime players on that 1986 Mets team that won the World Series.

Mr. Carter played the first 11 of his 19 MLB seasons with Les Expos, and finished up his career with one more season back in Montreal. His totals with the team: 1,427 hits, 274 doubles, 24 triples, 220 home runs, 823 RBI, 707 runs scored, and a slash line of .269/.342/.454.

Behind the marble for his career, he posted a .991 fielding percentage, and threw out 810 would-be base stealers (23rd on the all-time list as of this writing). He led the National League in caught-stealing totals in 1979 (66), 1982 (70), and 1983 (75). He led the National League in caught-stealing percentage in 1976 (50.0%), 1981 (46.8%), and 1983 (46.6%). Currently, he's 7th on the all-time list for catcher putouts with 11,785. And he was the first catcher ever to record 10,000 putouts.

Yep, that's a guy you wouldn't mind taking care of the priceless little slab of marble between the batters' boxes at your home stadium.

What other catchers would you put on the list? And what do you think about the French-language term for home plate?

Leave a comment below, and thanks for reading!

2023 Softball Season Review (a.k.a. Moving Up to Double-A)

Well, another softball season is in the books. This was my first year in a new league (my wife and I moved to another part of New York back in March), and it was quite a good experience. 

 

However, there was a challenge. 

 

Playing in this new league felt like the equivalent of moving up a class in the baseball system, like from Single-A to Double-A. Defenses are smarter and more skilled here. Hitters are better overall. More on that in a bit. First, some numbers.

 

 

Batting (Career)
Year	Club	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SLG	BB	SO	AVG
2018	Acorns	3	9	2	4	1	0	0	1	.556	0	0	.444
2019	Wolfpack	13	32	11	20	2	0	1	7	.781	0	0	.625
2021	Wolfpack	23	68	31	42	2	1	0	8	.676	3	0	.618
2022	Wolfpack	25	68	28	42	2	5	1	23	.838	4	0	.618
2023	Stunners	29	86	34	42	1	1	0	26	.523	7	1	.488
Totals		93	263	106	150	8	7	2	65	.677	14	1	.570

 

 

2023 Fielding (Third Base)
Year	Club	Pos	G	Inn	Chances	PO	Asst	Err	DP	Fld%
2019	Wolfpack	3B	4	11	7	5	1	1	1	.857
2021	Wolfpack	3B	17	92	52	27	22	3	2	.942
2022	Wolfpack	3B	24	123	83	39	39	5	3	.940
2023	Stunners	3B	18	107	31	16	13	2	2	.935
Totals			63	333	173	87	75	11	8	.936

 

 

2023 Fielding (Second Base)
Year	Club	Pos	G	Inn	Chances	PO	Asst	Err	DP	Fld%
2023	Stunners	2B	9	40	34	14	17	3	0	.912
Totals			9	40	34	14	17	3	0	.912

 

 

2023 Fielding (Catcher)
Year	Club	Pos	G	Inn	Chances	PO	Asst	Err	DP	Fld%
2023	Stunners	C	10	37	0	0	0	0	0	–
Totals			10	37	0	0	0	0	0	–

 

 

Batting and Fielding Stats

You can see that my batting numbers were down a little compared with the past few seasons. Most of this is a result of that tougher competition. Over the course of the season I definitely had a few hits taken away by excellent defensive plays in the infield and outfield—plays that might not have been made in my previous league. Team defenses were also just generally smarter, and paid attention to opponents and their hitting tendencies. 

 

Just to give you one example, at the start of the season, teams would often put the "lefty shift" on me during my first couple of at-bats (I bat left-handed, throw right-handed). But as soon as I'd slap a single through the big hole created on the left side of the infield, the shift would end. When I got my next at-bat, the infielders would chat it up and play me more straight-away. And because there were only 8 teams in our division all year, we played the same teams over and over. After a few months, many of the guys on the other teams immediately recognized me—the only lefty in the lineup most of the time—and recalled my tendency to hit to the opposite field. So a lot of those "free" singles I was accustomed to racking up in my previous softball league were suddenly not so free. I still managed to put up some decent RBI numbers and runs scored, which is good, but I have a lot of work to do.

 

As for my fielding stats, I managed to play decently at second base, despite it being my first season at that position and feeling a little awkward on the right side of the infield. It was also my first season behind the plate, which was rather uneventful, as you can see. My numbers at third base, where I feel most comfortable, were comparable to years past.

 

 

A Deeper Dive

Back to hitting: Something fun I did this year was to keep a basic spray chart. Have a look.

 

 

 

 

The chart shows a good amount of line drives (55% of my total hits). I like that. Overall, there were many more grounders than fly balls, but I'm not too concerned because I'm the type of hitter who will sometimes try to smack a grounder through a hole somewhere in the infield just to get on base, and allow the bigger hitters to drive me in. I do know that when I make a bad swing, I tend to get on top of the ball, so maybe that's a little something to work on during the off-season.

 

Okay, analysis over. Now here are a couple of positives I'm going to take from the season.

 

I Adjusted to the New Softball

In my previous league, we used a softball called the Clincher (see the white ball in the photo above). It's got a relatively soft leather cover that helps it "stick" in the glove when you catch it, along with raised seams that help you get a good grip when you throw it. This new league, on the other hand, uses a different ball (see the yellow ball on the right in the photo above). It's the same 12-inch circumference as the Clincher, but the cover is noticeably harder and slicker—especially in wet conditions—and the stitches are woven much tighter to the ball. Toward the beginning of the season I committed a few throwing and fielding errors as a result. However, I did clean it up as the season went on, and feel much more natural fielding and throwing this ball now.

I Regained Some Defensive Mojo

On a related note, our team has some excellent fielders. The regular shortstop and second baseman in particular? Really good. And somehow I let that faze me for the first half of the season, especially after making a few mistakes early on—some were fielding errors, and others involved me not being in the right positions for throws and cutoffs. If you're not careful, this kind of thing can cause you to lose confidence and be a little bit apprehensive. And that's what happened to me. Gradually, however, I began settling down and making some good plays, including some nice picks and diving stops at second and third base, and by the end of the season I'd gotten some defensive mojo back. I feel good about that, and I want to keep that going next season.

 

Now here are some things I'd like to work on for next year.

Learn How to Pull the Ball Again

Over these past few years of softball, I've gotten a little too accustomed to hitting the ball to the opposite field—so much so that I'm just not very good at pulling the ball to right field anymore, even when the situation really calls for it (e.g., runner in scoring position, no outs). I've got to change that. Pulling the ball would also help me be more of an "all fields" hitter, which would keep defenses a little more honest against me. After all, with four outfielders instead of three, and only 65 feet between bases instead of 90, hitting is all about placement.

Stop Lunging at Short Pitches

I'm decent at reading pitches that miss the strike zone inside, outside, or deep (high). However, the short pitches are tempting for some reason, and I lunge forward and swing at too many of them—especially with two strikes in the count. Most often this results in me hitting the top of the ball, which produces an easy 5-hopper to an infielder. I think next spring I need someone to pitch dozens of balls to me while I just stand at the plate and watch them come in, paying attention to where they land. Hopefully that'll help me develop an eye for pitches that are going to land in front of the plate, and instead of lunging forward to swing at them, I'll let them go and wait for a better pitch. (Or take a walk.)

 

Figure Out a Way to Produce on Bad Days

Now this might simply be a product of getting older (I'm firmly entrenched in my mid-40s), but there are certain days when I just don't have it out there on the field. Not at all. My swing is off. I hit pop-ups or poorly hit grounders. And in the field, my defense is off. I don't even want the ball hit toward me. I hesitate. I bobble the transition. I look for the shortstop to catch a pop-up down the third base line instead of going for it myself. To be fair, I do also have days when I turn back the clock a little bit and play very well. And then there are plenty of average days in between. But those bad days? Yeesh. I have to figure out what to do on those days to stay in the game and avoid feeling like I should just be sitting on the bench. If any of you fellow 40-somethings out there have some advice, I'd be grateful. On the other hand, it might just be time for me to join a 40-and-over league, but I'm not sure I want to concede to that just yet.

So that's my season, and that's my assessment. Overall, I enjoyed the year. I got out there and met some new people. There are a lot of good guys on my team, and in the league. The higher all-around skill level pushed me to try to be a better player.

 

It'll be fun to check back on this post at the end of next season to see if I did make some of the improvements that I laid out here. For now, I'm going to enjoy a little time off this winter.

Thanks for reading along and following my experiences. If any of you play softball too (or any other sport, for that matter), feel free to share some of your own experiences in the comment section.