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The List

Roberto Clemente Day and 4 Fun Things From Wednesday

Brewers won by 19, Braves won by 20, but the day belonged to #21.

TC Zencka
Best MLB Moments 9/10/2020

Query a random selection of baseball fans to name the greatest Pirate of all-time and – as with anything – you’re likely to get a smattering of answers: Some casual fans will vote for Barry Bonds, glory hounds might value the heroics of Bill Mazeroski, a loyalist who grew up in the 70’s might stand by his man Willie Stargell, a post-millennial might sheepishly suggesting Andrew McCutchen, or a stats backer might nominate Honus Wagner, while the scampish among you might throw out a Jack Sparrow or Captain Hook – but there’s only one correct answer, and that’s Roberto Clemente.

Players and teams all around baseball payed homage to the legendary Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder on Wednesday. Clemente was a good-for-the-soul kind of superstar, and I had planned on using this space solely to recount the many feel-good moments that remembered one of the most important and influential stars in baseball history.

But then Jordan Yamamoto took the hill for the Marlins.

 

Braves Set an NL Record for Runs

 

By the time the Braves had 25 points – I’m sorry – runs, I thought for sure a Marlins’ position player or two would ride the bump. I even thought maybe we’d get a new level of slaughter-rule shenanigans, like seeing pitchers hit! Wouldn’t that be wacky…

But believe it or not, the Marlins managed to use only five pitchers to surrender 29 runs to the Braves.

There are so many facts and figures to pull from this game it’s hard to know where to start. But let’s go with Yamamoto and the obligatory dang-that’s-a-bad-outing angle:

Dang, that’s a bad outing. Surprisingly, we even got a dang-that’s-a-bad-outing angle on the Braves’ side:

We also saw Bryse Wilson holster his first career save in a memorable, if not particularly stressful fashion:

What else is there to say, really? I mean:

Shame on me. I almost forgot about Adam Duvall:

If they only counted the runs driven in by Marlins or Duvall, this game would be all knotted up at 9-9. Unfortunately for Miami — and this decisions just came down from the Official Scorer — they are going to count the runs driven in by other Braves players as well. Freddie Freeman’s six RBIs. Ronald Acuña’s five RBIs. Travis d’Arnaud’s three RBIs. So on and so forth, yeah, they’re counting them all.

Actually, we did get one run taken off the board…

 

Marlins’ Social Scores an 8/9

 

@Marlins put forth an admirable effort to stay engaged during this historic shellacking. It wasn’t a perfect night, but if I had to put a grade on it, I’d say they scored 8 out of 9.

They’d correct it, and really, Twitter is a lonely place to be when you’re down by 20. Props to @Marlins for hanging in there and putting out some good content:

Mad world.

Frame Job

 

Since Roberto Pérez sneak-attacked Yan Gomes to swipe the catcher-of-the-future tag from him in Cleveland, Pérez has been recognized as one of the better defensive catchers in the game. He was third in the majors with 12 runs from extras strikes in 2019, 9th overall with a 51.% strike rate.

He’s good no doubt, but he maybe think he’s a little better than he is.

Gotta respect his commitment to the craft.

 

YouTubeTV and the Amazing Brent Suter

 

YouTube’s free broadcasts of occasional baseball games can be great theater – but it all depends on your perspective. Three examples:

Example 1

Good if… you love to watch day baseball.

Bad if… you actually want to see what’s happening.

Example 2

Good if… you’re a Brewers fan.

Bad if… you’re a Tigers fan.

Amazingly, the Brewers managed to shut out the Tigers 19-0 and they still didn’t finish the day with the largest margin of victory.

Example 3

Bad if… you love commercials.

Good if… you love fun.

The highlight of the YouTubeTV broadcast is without a doubt the commercials, in that there aren’t any. Instead, they fill the inning breaks with highlights from franchise icons like Robin Yount and Miguel Cabrera, or the best play-by-play calls of the year, or a full-on montage of Christian Yelich’s Milwaukee tenure. But this is by far the best way they fill their inning breaks:

After looking these up, I realize I’m wayyy late to the game here: but they’re hilarious! Not just baseball funny either: these are legit funny. The Mean Girls spoof works. Like, it works.

Brent Suter, Josh Hader, and Jeremy Jeffress as mean girls. Yasmani Grandal in the Lindsay Lohan role as new girl in school. Yes, this is from last season. “Oh so you think you’re good?” Comedy gold! “On Fridays we wear pinstripes.” That’s great mapping!

I am retroactively heartbroken that Jeffress joined the Cubs so he can no longer be a Mean Girl. I suppose Devin Williams will inherit that role. Also, did everyone else know that Suter is, like, a super interesting and fun guy? He went to Harvard! He does a great Jim Carrey impression! Why have I not been rooting harder for this guy? I mean, his name is Brent and that sucks, but otherwise this guy is great!

 

Happy Roberto Clemente Day!

 

If you turned on any baseball game on Wednesday, you were treated to any number of charming and/or impressive Roberto Clemente anecdotes. You also would have seen a lot of players wearing #21. All of the Pittsburgh Pirates and any player from Puerto Rico were allowed to wear #21 on Wednesday, but lots of players took to social media to share their Clemente Day take. First, a highlight:

Before I leave you to enjoy Thursday’s slate of games, let’s use this platform to further broadcast what the players themselves had to say. Here are just a few:

 

 

Eduardo Escobar

 

Edwin Díaz

 

Nolan Arenado

https://twitter.com/MarlyRiveraESPN/status/1303865464695775232

 

Fergie Jenkins

https://twitter.com/fergieajenkins/status/1303716213214842880

Happy Clemente Day, everybody.

TC Zencka

TC Zencka contributes regularly to Pitcher List, and MLB Trade Rumors. Come say hi on Twitter.

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