No, he changed his approach after 2015 (according to something I read).
Well, he put up an MVP-caliber season last year. His slash rates were better (well, his AVG was down .003 from '14, but he still led the league), he led the league in average, his power was up, and his walks were up. He was also moved to 3rd in the batting order for 98 games, which likely accounted for a slight change to his approach. He was a tremendously fun hitter last year. Any time I can watch a 4’11" batter hit 3rd and slash .338/.396/.531 is a fun time at the park (or in my living room…).
When the Red Sox pitchers are on, you can reach that total pretty fast. 
Controversial umpire Joe West closing in on historic baseball milestone.
Jim Bunning has died.
At retirement, 2nd all time in strikeouts, currently 17th.
Two career no-hitters(one of them the 7th perfect game in history) and was the 10th pitcher to throw a nine pitch, three strikeout inning.
Elected to Hall Of Fame in 1996 by the Veteran’s Committee and his number (14) was retired by the Phillies in 2001.
Married 65 years at the time of his death and served 12 years each as a Representative and Senator from Kentucky.
Boston is breathing down the Yankees neck, (like I feared and expected, OK almost everyone expects them to win the division so no great forecast on my part). Baltimore may have begun their fade earlier then I expected.
CC has turned the corner nicely and Betances looks fine filling in as closer so far. If Tanaka can get his control back, the Yanks can make a serious run and winning the AL east this year. Nice to see the Yanks win with 3 runs on 2 hits. The 5 walks were a real help.
Oh, Joe West, this idiot should have been forced out years ago.
Just happened to tune into the Indians-Royals in the top of the first yesterday, in time to see both Eric Hosmer and manager Ned Yost get thrown out of the game.
The announcers (schooled in lip-reading) clarified that it is apparently OK to yell “fuck” at the umpire, but not “fuck you”.
A truly vile and despicable human being, may he rot in Hell. He’s a borderline case for the Hall of Fame as well.
From Wikipedia: Despite year in and year out putting up excellent numbers, Bunning rarely led the league in any pitching categories. He never led the league in ERA; the only year he led the league in wins (20, in 1957, with the Detroit Tigers) was the only year he ever won 20 or more games; he did, however, lead the league in strikeouts three times (with 201 in 1959 and 1960, and 253 in 1967). He never won a Cy Young Award; the closest he would come was in 1967, his best year, when at age 35, he came in second behind Mike McCormick. He finished with a middling 17–15 record, but posted a career-best ERA (2.29), and led the league in shutouts (6), games started and innings pitched (40/302.1), and strikeouts (253). It was the only year in his career he earned any Cy Young Award votes.
I’d say he’s more the Hall of Very Good in baseball. He did certainly deserve to be on the list of the 5 worst Senators, however.
I’ll second all of that. Granted a perfect game is quite an achievement, but I think that got him more fame as a pitcher than he deserved. As a Senator, he deserved out perpetual scorn and hatred.
I hope I’m not the only one who thinks the camo uniforms on every team for the entire holiday weekend is way overindulgent to the military worshippers out there. I can see playing Taps before the National Anthem the way the Indy 500 does and respectful pregame ceremonies but turning all the players into GI Joe wannabees for the entire weekend just seems way way way over the top.
I couldn’t agree more, I despise the over the top solider worship that has come to dominate in pro sports these days. Baseball players are supposed to wear UNIFORMS, not costumes as if they’re starring in a Tony award winning musical. A small tribute before the game on Memorial Day only is enough, and no stupid God Bless America either!
At least the Dodgers kept it muted by only camoing up the caps and the letters. I also don’t mind it when the Padres wear camo. As big a military town as San Diego is, and as crappy as the Padres are, I’m for anything that will get people to the park and maybe distract them from the lousy game they are watching. 
Three game lead! We only have to hold them off for 115 more games. 
If Price comes back healthy, it’s hard to believe Boston won’t win the division. But who knows? Maybe this will be the year that the rivalry gets intense again.
I’m hoping. Nice the team is competing in a serious way 1-2 years early. Even I thought we only had a real shot at a wild card this season.
Honbestly, I never heard a thing about him as a legislator, and I guess this isn’t the forum for that.
In terms of his HOF case I think he is pretty clearly under a borderline. Bunning was a very good pitcher who had a hell of a run with the Phillies, but if you run through the Keltner List he fails most of the questions. His career WAR, depending on source, is about 59. That’s excellent and better than some (ill-selected) Hall of Famers, but here are some pitchers with more WAR than that:
Mike Mussina
Rick Reuschel
Kevin Brown
Luis Tiant
David Cone
Tommy John
Curt Schilling (yeah, yeah, I know, he’s a jackass)
Andy Pettite
Bunning, to my eyes, is pretty clearly not a Hall of Famer. If he’d had another two great years, maybe.
Speaking of the Blue Jays, they’re only four games under .500, which ain’t too shabby considering how they started.
Night games on Memorial Day are a crime against humanity
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Wow, I could not agree more.
You know, I’ve been meaning to ask this question in our MLB forums and I keep forgetting, but now you’ve reminded me:
Why so many goddamn night games on weekends and holidays?
I will give the Toronto Blue Jays this; their weekend games are always day games. Always. Every single game Toronto plays at home this year on a Saturday or Sunday starts at 1:07. It used to be they started the Saturday game at 4:07 but they went to the 1:07 time for both at least five, ten years ago. It is obvious that this has no detrimental effect on attendance. People love going to the ball game during the day and soaking up sun and drinking beer. And if you’ve got the family with you your kids are getting home at a decent hour. Hell, it’s more fun to listen to on the radio.
Then they’ll go on the road and I’ll think “oh, it’s Saturday afternoon, cool, ball game’s on” but it’s not. It starts at 7. Why? Maybe in an incredibly hot place where there’s no roof, I can see this, but the Cleveland Indians have Saturday games at 7 PM. So do the Reds, Orioles, and Tigers, to name three teams I swear to God I picked at random. I don’t get it.
It’s hard to imagine that the clubs which start their Saturday games at 4:00 or 7:00 haven’t figured that those times are financially more profitable. I don’t know if that means better attendance or higher payments for their TV rights. I’m gong to guess maybe the latter.
Oakland plays a lot of night games on weekends because they then have fireworks after the games.
I can’t speak for the teams themselves, but from a personal point of view, i’m ambivalent about the timing of the games when it comes to my own attendance.
On the one hand, i love going to a nice afternoon game. You get a few great hours of baseball, you’re home in time for dinner, and you can even go out again in the evening, or sit around and watch a movie. On the other hand, if you don’t have a seat in the shade, an afternoon game in the middle of summer can be three hours of sweltering misery.
You mention the Orioles. Do you know how hot and humid it can get in Baltimore on a hot summer afternoon? I’ve been sitting in the stands at Camden Yards basting in my own sweat on a number of occasions, just wanting the game to be over so i could get home and take a cold shower. Baltimore’s average temperature at the height of summer is about 5[sup]o[/sup]C (9F) hotter than Toronto’s, with some miserable humidity, and on many days it gets considerably above the average.
Even here in San Diego, where the summers are much milder and much less humid, it still gets pretty warm sitting in the direct sunlight for three hours. The last few day games i’ve been to at Petco, i went out of my way to make sure that we were on the third-base side, in the shade. It was perfect. But being in the sun would have been less enjoyable.