This is what pisses me off about the “you have to watch the game!” crowd (okay, maybe just Yankee fans with a huge man-crush on Jeter). It’s the players that make it look effortless that are the ones to watch. The ones that look like they’re charging around and baaaaaarely making the throw/tag are the ones that struggle.
Did I mention that my favorite player ever is Frank White? (I managed to catch a “Spring Training Preview of the Kansas City Royals” on Fox Sports Net the other day - and I’m in Indianapolis. Totally made my day when they showed a clip of Frank showing the rookies how it’s done.)
If you ask me, the question asks for different answers than what has been given. (I recognize a few names, and I’m not trying to steal their thunder.)
“Game Breaking” baseball players?
1.Pete Rose - Broke the game on Betting suspicion. (I’m 26. And I don’t follow baseball THAT well. I’m not fully clear on the deets here.)
2.Jackie Robinson - Broke the game’s color barrier
3.Jose Canseco - Broke the secret of baseball and steroids [Most public player to attribute recent Steroids discussion on. (Others took steroids, sure, and I’m not sure if Canseco did, but he wrote his book. He gets the honor.)]
Anyway, people like this, is what I think of when I hear “game breaking” baseball players.
I will defer to the rest of the posters to tell me who single handedly caused a rule to change.
-They would automatically get placement on my list. They did break the game.
(I’m guessing Ricky “Man of Steal” Henderson, Nolan Ryan, or som other A list player would fit the bill here.)
You could put Barry Bonds on that list as well (with a nod to Jeff Bagwell) as they managed to get the “you can’t wear armor while in the batting box” rule implemented.
Right. I mean, I understand how most people are answering the question, but, I think that sense of the question allows for multiple opinions and “me too!” responses. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, sure, but, can the boad handle the load?
I mean, I don’t want to discredit the others, but I think we can a lot more fun and creative growth out of the way I read it.
Nice idea there, Meeko; thanks. The idea applies off the field as well as on, sure. I agree with your choices, and would add Roberto Clemente for his own racism-breaking work. And whoever invented the DH rule (he’s best left anonymous) - many would say that broke the game too.
Not sure I’d agree that Gibson got the mound lowered single-handed; BA’s and ERA’s were out of whack MLB-wide by then. But his 1968 performance is probably what tipped the decision.
George Brett got the pine tar rule changed, IIRC. Gaylord Perry gets credit for some adjustments to the ball-doctoring rules.
I’d have to chime in with those who point out that it wasn’t just Gibson. In the league he DIDN’T pitch in, the league batting average was .230, the batting champion hit .301, the Yankees hit .214 and the highest-scoring team batted .235. Even without Gibson, things had gotten a bit ridiculous, and the game was getting incredibly boring… even though you couldn’t get hits, they weren’t stealing very many bases, so it was pretty much just a case of which team would hit two solo homers and which would hit one.
Admitedly, I saw the post for both ways. I just played the way no one else did.
Yeah, I wikied Gibson, and I read his pitching to the inside was stellar. (Like Glavine does? Or some other former Brave right?)
I couldn’t find what he ““broke”” in the wiki though. (Like I said, I don’t follow baseball THAT much, but I follow baseball and basketball a lot more than I do football. Except for the superbowl. Go commercials!!)
I just thought of this today, and decided to share:
Lenny Dykstra, in his short prime, was the only guy I ever saw who changed a game while making a non-sacrifice out. I remember a game in 1990, the year he hit .325, where leading off in the late innings of a tie game, The Dude got down 0-2 to some young reliever, and then proceeded to foul off something like 12 pitches while working the count full. He finally wound up hitting a routine deep fly … but the pitcher was clearly rattled by the whole experience, gave up a first-pitch double to the next hitter (Herr, IIRC). He scored, and the Phillies won.
Only time I ever saw a bases-empty fly ball break the game open.
In 1968 Bob Gibson put up one of the more ridiculous pitching lines MLB has seen. 304 IP with a 1.12 ERA and 13 Shutouts. As mentioned above offense was down league-wide as a whole and in order to balance the game the mound was lowered from 15 inches to 10 inches above home plate.
And luck or not, you’d be hard pressed to find many guys with more impressive postseason hitting records; 32 games, 10 home runs. In the 1993 World Series he hit four home runs, stole 4 bases, scored 9 runs, drove in 8, and walked seven times, all in six games. It’s a testament to how bad the Phillies’ pitching got beaten up that they could lose that series.
It’s unfortunate that he’s been implicated in the steroid scandal but he was one hell of a fun player to watch.
I seem to recall that there were steroid rumors around here even back around '93 with Dykstra, Daulton, Incaviglia, Danny Jackson and Dave Hollins and so on, actually, only back then it was kind of a part of the gritty, dirty, hairy animal charm of the team. Certainly, at least, the idea that they were maybe cheating a little didn’t seem out of character at the time. They really were a bit of a despicable bunch.
I seem to recall debate though, that it gave Bonds an unfair advantage, boiling down to physics, his elbow gaurd went above and beyond “fixing” whatever condition he had.
That in short, his elbow gaurd alone, allowed him to break the HR record.
Do I have this right?
I’m not sure if he was the first pitcher to not have both hands, and I’m fairly certain he wasn’t the last, but did
Jim Abbot
get special rules on how he could / could not pitch?
And the rule against body armor wasn’t because Bonds’s armor somehow made him a power hitter, but the perception that players with armor could crowd the plate and take away the outside corner. As usual, the sports league took the stupid, back-asswards solution - prohibiting equipment that prevents injury - rather than the simple solution; enforce the rule about staying in the batter’s box and, if need be, move it away from the plate an inch or two.
Oh, yes, absolutely. I never heard of Jackson, but the rumors were definitely there about all the rest being juiced. And they were almost certainly true IMO.
We fans knew all along that steroid use was rampant in MLB and the NFL, right? Let’s not kid ourselves. There was no shortage of reporting as well as rumors. There were several high-profile players (e.g. Ken Caminiti, Lyle Alzado) who even died from it.
It was a bit distasteful to see so many people say they were shocked, *shocked * at the revelation when Canseco finally rubbed everyone’s noses in it. As much of a clown as he could be and often still is, let’s give him credit for “breaking” that aspect of the game. Everything he’s said has checked out, and he did it in a way that was finally effective. That makes up for everything else, and more.
But it also means you can’t be sure that any player from that period was really clean, regardless of his claims or anyone else’s. There are guys we thought were clean for whom the evidence just hadn’t surfaced yet (A-Roid). There are guys who juiced who didn’t have the stereotypical juicer body and whose denials we therefore believed (Palmeiro). We just can’t ever untangle that mess. It’s almost useless to name names either way - let’s just give blanket amnesty.