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[Vladdy Issues]

Kobe Bryant was better than all of them... “Meet Me in Temecula”

https://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2014/12/26/7449927/snottiedrippin-temecula-christmas-twitter-fight-kobe-bryant

 

[70runner]

A Ted Williams opinion, at least how my dad told it.  Dad pitched for the Marine Corps fast pitch softball team circa 1950.  They played (and lost) a couple exhibitions against Eddie Feigner, The King and His Court team of 4 players.  Feigner was a legendary softball pitcher who could reach 100+, sometimes from 2nd base.  Dad said Feigner told him there was no one in MLB (DiMaggio, Musial, Mize, et al) who could hit him except one guy he'd never pitch to, Ted Williams.  Feigner said Williams would sometimes show up at their exhibition games and Feigner would tell him to stay in the stands.  In 1967, at the age of 42, he stuck out Mays, McCovey, Brooks Robinson, Clemente, Maury Wills, Killebrew in order during an exhibition against MLB all stars...but always avoided Williams.

[Lou]

2 hours ago, 70runner said:

A Ted Williams opinion, at least how my dad told it.  Dad pitched for the Marine Corps fast pitch softball team circa 1950.  They played (and lost) a couple exhibitions against Eddie Feigner, The King and His Court team of 4 players.  Feigner was a legendary softball pitcher who could reach 100+, sometimes from 2nd base.  Dad said Feigner told him there was no one in MLB (DiMaggio, Musial, Mize, et al) who could hit him except one guy he'd never pitch to, Ted Williams.  Feigner said Williams would sometimes show up at their exhibition games and Feigner would tell him to stay in the stands.  In 1967, at the age of 42, he stuck out Mays, McCovey, Brooks Robinson, Clemente, Maury Wills, Killebrew in order during an exhibition against MLB all stars...but always avoided Williams.

So he was a pussy. 

[Lou]

^ Eddie, not your dad. 

[failos]

16 minutes ago, Lou said:

^ Eddie, not your dad. 

Nice save

[Taylor]

12 hours ago, failos said:

Nice save

Lou for closer.

[ten ocho recon scout]

The thing I keep coming back to, and maybe its a poor analogy, is MMA.

You go back and watch the early UFC. Gracie dominated. But that was essentially nobody having seen (at least the majority of the world) BJJ.

So within a few years, you had all these standup guys working ground fighting into their game. Now the sport shifted.

But the combo of guys who could do both meant the most dominant BJJ guy is going to struggle, because as good as he is on the ground, its negated by lesser guys who know what to look for, but are better strikers.

But the formula is more or less the same. High school / college wrestlers grow up, and train in striking.... now they are well rounded....

But theres still a large gap in between learning something in your late teens, early twenties, and learning it growing up. Kind of like learning a second language, with a proper accent.

Then UFC takes off.... and we come to the recent era, where instead of kids growing up doing "karate", then learning BJJ (or vice versa), kids as young as 5 are now training straight MMA.

The talent pool of that has created a far deeper class of athletes. Travel ball, former MLB players running clinics, the dominican academies, etc etc etc are producing far more kids with pro training than the old days could ever imagine.

[Adam]

1 hour ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

 

The talent pool of that has created a far deeper class of athletes. Travel ball, former MLB players running clinics, the dominican academies, etc etc etc are producing far more kids with pro training than the old days could ever imagine.

My kid is 9 and on two travel teams and those practices are more intense than the practices we had in high school

[ten ocho recon scout]

58 minutes ago, Adam said:

My kid is 9 and on two travel teams and those practices are more intense than the practices we had in high school

Exactly. Its no longer simply a game. Kids are being bred to play it as professionals now.

The difference between that, and the kids who grew up just playing neighborhood games and high school is huge.

[Slegnaac]

On 12/4/2021 at 10:29 PM, Lou said:

So he was a pussy. 

A Man has gotta know his limitations.

[Jay]

Yes but Ruth called his shot in the 1932 World Series.

So there's great, and then there's next-level great, which Ruth was.

 

[AngelsLakersFan]

On 12/6/2021 at 9:30 AM, ten ocho recon scout said:

Exactly. Its no longer simply a game. Kids are being bred to play it as professionals now.

The difference between that, and the kids who grew up just playing neighborhood games and high school is huge.

Makes me think of the time several years back when I went to this track at a high school. They have a football field with the goal posts up and right on the side line is this father with his roughly 10 year old son, in full pads. He has the kid kicking the ball not between the uprights but directly off the pole. Who knows how many times he had to do it before they went home.

Point is, the father saw the money in one of the more obscure talents in the sport. No one wants to be a kicker, but the money will drive competition. The same can be said about the talent pool in baseball. As the money increases the pool of people trying to get those spots goes up and the talent level along with it.