Home Cooking

[9RoyHobbsRF]

Does anyone else notice how absurdly wet the Cardinals groundskeepers water down the area right in front of home plate, especially when one of their sinker ball pitchers is starting?

On the Giants pregame yesterday, they showed a long segment of about 8 groundskeeper guys around home plate watering and watering and watering and watering, JUST the area in front of home plate to slow down grounders

it was funny

[9RoyHobbsRF]

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this is from today, it was either yesterday or the day before it was 2-3 times as wet

[PlanetZoltan]

The defense to the ol' Baltimore Chop from the early days of baseball.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

I hasn't hurt the Giants tonight. They current lead 11-0 in the bottom of the 8th inning.

[Bulldog19]

Does anyone else notice how absurdly wet the Cardinals groundskeepers water down the area right in front of home plate, especially when one of their sinker ball pitchers is starting?

On the Giants pregame yesterday, they showed a long segment of about 8 groundskeeper guys around home plate watering and watering and watering and watering, JUST the area in front of home plate to slow down grounders

it was funny

In case you're unaware, we are under SEVERE drought conditions here in the St. Louis area. And oh BTW yesterday was the 20th day this summer we've been over 100 degrees too..

[9RoyHobbsRF]

In case you're unaware, we are under SEVERE drought conditions here in the St. Louis area. And oh BTW yesterday was the 20th day this summer we've been over 100 degrees too..

what does that have to do with ONLY (over) watering an area to benefit your sinker ball pitchers and not the whole field or whole infield?

[Bulldog19]

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Yep, it doesn't happen anywhere else for any reason. Just in St. Louis...

Wow.

[UnderPressure]

Those pictures couldn't be any smaller.

[dominik]

yes, this is home cooking.

such stuff used to be much more common in the earlier days.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Whats new, been going on for at least a hundred years.

[Gee Walker]

During Sparky's days with the Tigers, the stadium infield grass must have been at least three inches long. Supposedly this slowed down grounders so that the older Tiger infielders would get to them, but I also seem to remember that the grounders would slow down so much sometimes that they'd become infield hits.

The Tigers also did the soaking of the dirt in front of home back in the days before they had good pitching, and really used to water down the baselines when they were facing base-stealing teams. They'd water those areas again during the game, as far as I can remember after the fifth inning.

There was a rumor during Tom Kelly's days with the Twins that the A/C system in the Metrodome would only be turned on when the opposition was at bat. I guess it produced a little breeze heading towards home plate, and made the air a touch cooler to increase its density.

Roy - Buck Martinez was broadcasting for the Blue Jays the other day when they were in Oakland. He was saying that because it cools down so rapidly there at night, you'd better hit a home run before 8 pm, or else it will take a moonshot to go out. Any truth to this?

[9RoyHobbsRF]

Oakland has always been a better place to launch Home runs during day games than night games - almost two different stadiums

[SHOELESSJOE3]

No team, no fan should ever complain about a team or ground crew trying to gain an edge, over the years they've probably all done the same.

[UnderPressure]

Hard sinkers. That means the field has to be wet.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

During one game umpire Jocko Conlan noticed the ground from first base to second base, especially near first base was so wet, he delayed the start of the game. Had the grounds crew lay some sand in that area.

This was at Candlestick Park and the Dodgers and base stealing Maury Wills were in town. Giants were not alone, many teams used ploys to gain an edge.