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Beau Vine

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Posts posted by Beau Vine

  1. Daughter is a soph EE at Mines.  I thought she waited waaaaay too late to apply for internships (I don't think she applied for one until late April), but she interviewed for a couple during finals week and last week got offered a $24/hour internship at Suncor in Denver.  

    I'm starting to be OK with her turning down the full scholarship to Trinity.

    And again, a hearty FUCK YOU to the UT admissions people.  

  2. NCAA D-II and D-III tournaments started today!

    All of the Texas D-II teams are in the South Central Regional in Canyon...

    1. West Texas

    6.  Tarleton State

     

    2.  Colorado Mesa

    5.  Kingsville

     

    3.  St. Ed's

    4.  *THE* Colorado School of Mines

     

    And Mines just bitchslapped St. Ed's 11-3 in the first game of the day.  #helluvaengineer

     

    In D-III... How in the fuck is this bracket created?!?!?

    Texas-Tyler is in the Saugut, Illinois Regional, playing... Aurora?  Wayne's World!  Wayne's World!

    UTD, Concordia, and TLU are in the Spokane Regional.  Concordia and TLU play in the first round.  UTD plays Redlands.

     

  3. Holy shit, this is great, from Eno Sarris theathletic.   Not sure if everything is going to paste...

     

    Quote

    I’ve been talking to Joey Votto for a while, and sometimes I figure we’ll just have a normal conversation about his back, or some little quirk in his production, and my understanding of baseball won’t shift fundamentally. That hasn’t happened yet.

    It definitely didn’t happen when we talked this week. Yes, much of this links up with other conversations we’ve had over the years, but there’s one part — about plate coverage — that puts a lot of his revelations from the past in a new light. Rather than highlighting that part and writing it up separately, I wanted to keep the context that the rest of our conversation provides.

    So, yes, Joey Votto said something funny and mind-blowing. He also talked a lot about his different choices in the past and why he made those choices. So here it is all together, in roughly the order in which we talked about these topics this week. Hopefully, it helps you better understand how the best first baseman of our time sees the game.

    Eno Sarris: One thing that’s interesting is that, after a four-year stretch where you were at your worst with your glove, you’ve had your best two-year stretch the last two years, by some defensive metrics.

    VottoD18.png

    We talked once about the different physical things you have had to do to improve your defense, but what about the mental? Have you changed your approach, your positioning? 

    Joey Votto: Yes, positioning is huge. It requires effort, you have to really play harder. You have to play farther from the base in order to be able to cover parts of the infield that lead to hits, but then you also have to be able to get back to the base.

    Back to hitting. Looking at your early season splits, since you’ve said you don’t get your good swing until May—I know that these sort of things aren’t supposed to be meaningful for players, but it still looks like you almost have a little trouble lifting the ball early in seasons. Your fly ball rate maps with your rolling offense. Is that what you mean, that you don’t get your power swing until May?

    I had a double in Milwaukee that ended a two-month stretch where I did not hit any sort of long line drive or balls over the fence. I do feel like there’s been some progress. I do sacrifice a little bit at the very beginning of the season, trying to find my swing and trying to find my timing. It’s not intentional, like I’m not intentionally trying to give up at-bats, but I do recognize that over the last few years it’s been a hard process.

    Votto's 15-game rolling offense (wOBA, blue) maps well against his 15-game rolling fly ball rate (FB%, red).
     
    Votto’s 15-game rolling offense (wOBA, blue) maps well against his 15-game rolling fly ball rate (FB%, red). Both generally improve as the season goes on.

    “I’m trying to get that good feeling,” maybe more than worrying about the outcome of that single at-bat?

    There’s three parts to hitting. There’s the skill of reading the ball, then there’s also the skill of discerning balls and strikes, but there’s also being able to swing with a powerful stroke, for line drives and home runs. If I have 60 feet and 6 inches, I feel like I’m working in a really small window of adjustments —

    Which you are —

    Which I am — to be able to create exactly what I want with the ball so that I can do that as often as possible over the next sixth months of the season.

    I was wondering if this sort of early-season work, if this was about physicality and your body or if it was more about approach and timing. As you get older, is it harder to get going?

    No. It just takes more time. I still think I want every year to be a peak year. I’m stubborn, but I still think, This is what it’s going to take to get exactly what I want. For me, it’s taken longer each year than it has in previous years. But as long as I’m doing the essentials — making contact when I swing, swinging at strikes, and making sure my direction is right.

    I made a sacrifice with my exit velocity over the years.

    Joey Votto’s Exit Velo    
    Year Average EV Percentile
    2015 89.6 78
    2016 89.6 73
    2017 87.6 61
    2018 90.3 69

    I have normal exit velocity and that’s a product of my approach. Getting older, but also being more balanced through the strike zone.

    You’re swinging at more strikes

    I’m swinging at more strikes.

    Over the years, Votto has swung at pitches outside of the zone less (red, O-Swing%) and has also swung at pitches inside the zone more (blue, Z-Swing%)
     
    Over the years, Votto has swung at pitches outside of the zone less (red, O-Swing%) and at pitches inside the zone more (blue, Z-Swing%).

    I liken my style to José Altuve. Look at his exit velocity and it’s very balanced — he’s 85-90 mph in virtually every part of the strike zone. You look at Mike Trout and it’s anywhere from 95-105 in good parts of the strike zone, and there are a couple — not holes, but, softer parts of the strike zone.

    Courtesy BaseballSavant and Statcast, here are the 2017 exit velocity heat maps for Mike Trout, Joey Votto, and Jose Altuve. Note the steady nature of the heat maps for Votto and Altuve.
     
    Courtesy BaseballSavant, here are the 2017 exit velo heat maps for Trout, Votto and Altuve. Note the steady nature of the heat maps for Votto and Altuve.

    It almost sounds like you have different swings. Do you have different swings to deal with different parts of the zone?

    I’m not sure. I’ve definitely adjusted my swing over the years. I can’t use my old swing, the one I used to use.

    I was more upright and I was just trying to hit for power.

    I was a better low ball hitter, but now I’m a better high ball hitter. I used to hit balls on the outer part of the plate better than I do now.

    Votto's batting average on balls in play was more concentrated on low and away in 2012 (left) and more diffuse -- especially high in the zone -- in 2017 (right).
     
    Votto’s batting average on balls in play was more concentrated on low and away in 2012 (left) and more diffuse — especially high in the zone — in 2017 (right). Source: FanGraphs.

    It’s a reaction to how you were being pitched, too, right?

    Yeah.

    You used to be busted inside a lot and you tried different ways to deal with that until you showed them you could handle it.

    Yeah.

    In 2015, Votto was busted inside with cutters and four-seamers more often. He responded by busting out.
     
    In 2015, Votto was busted inside with cutters and four-seamers more often. He responded by busting out. Source: FanGraphs.

    So much of exit velocity and launch angle comes from plate control — which pitches you swing at — and you’re obviously elite at that. But you’re swinging at more strikes and striking out a little bit more this year. Are you swinging at bad strikes, at too many strikes?

    I want my scouting report to read: very balanced. I never ever want to let on that part of the strike zone is pitchable. I’ll give up something to mask weaknesses, whether it’s connected with away, up and in or whatever.

    [Laughing] I asked you a question about that once! You said you didn’t try to muck with your scouting reports intentionally, that you weren’t trying to set up or alter your scouting reports early in the season. I guess this is a little different. You’re saying, ‘I can do that.’

    It’s a little bit different. All I want to tell them is I can handle anything. I want to show pitchers I can do anything.

    Batter Hot Zones
    Daniel Murphy 40
    Salvador Pérez 40
    Robinson Canó 39
    Carlos Gonzélez 38
    J.D. Martinez 38
    Eduardo Núñez 37
    José Altuve 37
    Manny Machado 37
    Marcell Ozuna 37
    Brandon Crawford 36
    Buster Posey 36
    Adam Jones 35
    Adrián González 35
    Christian Yelich 35
    Corey Seager 35
    Freddie Freeman 35
    Justin Turner 35
    Khris Davis 35
    Matt Kemp 35
    Mookie Betts 35

    [This table shows how many ‘hot zones’ a hitter has within the strike zone from 2016-2018. Minimum 1000 Plate Appearances, 64 maximum possible zones. A zone is a three inches by three inches square, and it’s designated as ‘hot’ if the hitter produces an above-average weighted on base average per pitch in that zone (.115 wOBA). Joey Votto (26) is tied for 95th with batters like Anthony Rendon, Kyle Seager, Miguel Cabrera and Starling Marte. Note José Altuve’s ranking.]

    Here's Joey Votto's wOBA per pitch heat map since 2016, where you can see his 26 hot zones.
     
    Here’s Joey Votto’s wOBA per pitch heat map since 2016, where you can see his 26 hot zones.

    You want to show that you can handle anything in the box. If you did show a weakness, they’d go straight to that constantly.

    They’d exploit it. And I don’t want that.

    Has anything changed about how you deal with big velocity pitchers over the years? 

    I stopped caring about velocity a few years ago. I don’t care what number shows up. the only thing I care about — and this is probably sharing too much — the only thing I care about is how I perceive the velocity.

    How you see it coming out, how easy it is to track. Would it change if I asked you about high perceived velocities? Would you shorten up? 

    It’s more about I never want to be exposed. So the guys that have better fastballs, that’s an adjustment that I have to make. But the league has changed, I think it’s a fastball league now in some ways. And I’ve changed. Things are different now.

    Especially as a left-handed hitter, the strike zone has changed. It was quite a bit longer, and balls on the other side of the plate were called more often.

    ZoneLefties-2.png

    So that’s why you first changed your swing, when you had that first big a-hah moment, that you had to be able to take that low and outside pitch and drive it the other way. 

    Yes, especially as a lefty.

    And now there are strikes on the hands more often. And you’ve been talking about what to do with that inside pitch and been choking up more

    Yeah, those high fastballs and those close-and-in fastballs have been called more. Also because I’m getting older and slower. Almost for sure that reason, without a doubt.

     

    • Like 1
  4. I would love to see that little assclown telling Clayton Kershaw that he's not going to know if there's a DH or not until the home team manager turns in the lineup card at the plate.  

  5. 16 hours ago, spystud13 said:

    I almost screenshot’d his OPS in the box score during Sunday night’s game for Beau to highlight the immortal Daniel Descalso having an OPS 150 points higher. 

    Descalso has to be the next guy popped for PEDs.  He now has a 140 wRC+, which is probably understated because I think it uses last year's (pre-humidor) park affect numbers.  His ISO is .259, which is more than double his career average.  

  6. Here are the details:

    Quote

    “These are things that could help make the game better and more exciting for a new generation of fans who demand excitement in small doses and 30-second clips,” he said. “And that’s an issue. The way people are digesting baseball in those little clips hurts attendance and hurts ratings.”

    So what he’s aspiring to create, he said, is a sport that will “get people involved in the experience” of going to a baseball game, not just luring them there once with Dollar Dog Night. And that means trying stuff that’s not just different but dramatically different. So how different is it all? Let’s run through his big ideas.

    THE 9TH INNING WILD CARD AT-BAT

    There is an epic moment from the 2003 World Series that is stuck in Samson’s memory bank. It happened in the final inning of the final game of that World Series. As he watched Josh Beckett eliminate the mighty Yankees at Yankee Stadium that night, Samson’s eyes stopped at the sight of Derek Jeter – because you know what Jeter wasn’t doing in that moment? He wasn’t playing. Or hitting. Or even fiddling with a bat in the dugout.

    “I looked at Derek Jeter, leaning on the rail, and he was watching the game – the same way I was,” Samson said. “And I was totally struck by that. I thought, ‘What a crazy game. It’s Game 6. His team is about to be eliminated. It had one last chance. And their best player was doing what the team president (of the opposition) was doing. Watching.’”

    Most people in the game would have seen that and said, “Well, that’s baseball.” What David Samson thought to himself, however, was: Why are we just accepting that? Why can’t we change it?

    He reflects on what makes the other sports so magnetic in moments like that. It couldn’t be clearer. What sells crunch time in the NBA finals? The ball is in the hands of LeBron or some megastar like him. What force pulls you into the final minute of the Super Bowl? Tom Brady has one last opportunity to drive the Patriots up the field.

    Now think about baseball. Nobody sees the downside of having the World Series come down to the 7-8-9 hitters in the ninth? All right, maybe there’s someone out there who does. But this is the first we’ve heard of anyone trying to address it.

    “This came up in the competition committee, but only as an outlier,” Samson said. “Impossible. Never could happen. Let’s dismiss it before we dive into it. It wasn’t originally my idea, but I loved it. I couldn’t get any conversation generated about it, and I was very serious about it from the moment I heard it.”

    Before you write it off as crazy, do Samson a favor. Try to envision the scene as Aaron Judge hops up the dugout steps in that spot. Or Bryce Harper. Or José Altuve. It’s the equivalent of giving LeBron the ball – except with a whole new strategic debate attached.

    “The level of excitement would be staggering,” Samson said. “And you’d get something the NBA doesn’t get, because in the NBA, you expect that if the game is tied at the end, LeBron is getting the ball. But in baseball, imagine the conversation. Imagine the strategy. When will you pull the trigger on that one wild-card at-bat you’d have? It would be unbelievable.”

    HOME TEAM PICKS THE DH RULE

    What fueled this idea, Samson said, is his concern that the home team doesn’t have enough of a home-field advantage in baseball, compared with the other sports. Sure, it’s cool that the home team gets to bat last. But if you want to give it a whole ’nother sort of advantage, why not give it a chance to choose the rules it wants to play by that day?

    “Every game,” he said, “we’d let the home team decide if it wants to use the DH or not. Maybe the other team has a big-time DH you want to get out of the lineup, and that puts them at a big disadvantage. Maybe you have a pitcher who can really hit…But my idea was, what can we do to make the home team’s advantage stronger?”

    In an era where very few teams have a Nelson Cruz or Victor Martinez, almost full-time DHs who play the field as little as possible, this idea actually might have less impact than in the past. But Samson would spice up the drama by allowing the home team to keep its choice secret until the exchange of the lineup cards. So the road team would actually have to prepare two different lineups, one for each set of rules.

    And in the meantime, he would pair this concept with …

    THE DESIGNATED FIELDER

    We’ve already explained this idea. But in essence, it would create a lineup with two DHs – one hitting for the pitcher, another for the Designated Fielder.

    “I just feel like it’s a fun concept that helps with action,” Samson said. “And it’s lack of action that’s hurting the game. It’s just one more idea to try to have more people in the game with the ability to put the ball in play.”

    THE TWO-PICKOFF LIMIT

    This is an area that the competition committee once explored extensively to streamline pace of play. But it mostly talked about a four-pickoff limit, not two, before the whole notion died.

    “The reason it was dismissed,” Samson said, “was that, with any number we chose, the impact on the game was that no one would ever get to within one (pickoff) of the limit, because once you got one away, everyone would know – the runner included – that you wouldn’t throw over anymore. So he would be able to take larger leads. And I said, ‘What’s wrong with that?’”

    The more he thought about it, the more he thought that unleashing the running game is a jolt of energy the sport could use. So his goal with this proposal was to pretty much eliminate all pickoff throws. By setting a limit of two, “it was really like zero,” for the reasons we just laid out.

    If the result is that runners can take longer leads because they have virtually no fear of being picked off, he wondered, why is that inherently a bad thing for the game? It could mean more base-stealing (which is at an all-time low). It could mean more runners going first to third on singles. It could mean closer plays at second on what are now routine force-outs.

    Yes, it penalizes the defense. But in the bigger picture, with the rise of shifting, the defense is now at a greater advantage – in virtually all other respects – than ever before.

    “So this is not even about the stolen base,” Samson said, “as much as it’s about putting the game in motion. And that’s exciting.”

    THE CROOKED NUMBER RULE

    We’re not sure how many folks out there are on board with any of this. We’re guessing there aren’t many of you. But if there is anyone left who loves it all so far, there’s an excellent chance this is where you’ll be leaping off this roaring train ride up the slopes of Mount Innovation.

    Samson’s proposal would go like this: Any time you allow a team to put up a crooked number of any size or shape (in other words, two runs or more) in any half-inning, your hitters would start the next half-inning with a rally already in progress. Runner on second. Nobody out.

    Before you yell “Blasphemy,” at least listen to his logic. His thinking is that nothing is less entertaining than a blowout. So theoretically this is an idea that could keep the game interesting, even after a team starts to blow it open.

    “Ask yourself this,” Samson said. “What makes people leave the ballpark? It’s when you give up five runs and a 3-0 game becomes an 8-0 game… So what this does is give a team the ability to score runs after giving up runs.”

    When we objected to the whole concept of penalizing a team for scoring runs, Samson responded: “It’s not unfair. They only get one runner on second, whether you scored eight runs or two. And if the other team scores two runs, then you get a man on second yourself.”

    But the real selling point, he said, is that “it’s must-see TV. There’s stuff happening. You don’t have to worry about starting a rally. You’ve got a rally as soon as you come to bat. It keeps people watching.”

    Of course, it wouldn’t just keep people watching. It also would keep people screaming – about gimmicking up the sport to tweak ratings or sell a few more hot dogs. But Samson said he’s ready for all the screaming and all the criticism that he has no doubt these deep-thinking ideas will inspire. Heck, he can probably already hear it.

    “Look, any time you say something different than most people say or you think something different than most people think, you’re susceptible to criticism,” he said. “I’ve been down that road for 18 years. I’ve never shied away from that.”

    Hey, it’s a good thing. Does he expect people to agree with all of this? How could he? Does he expect the sport to act on any of this? It never did when he was actually working inside baseball. Why would people in the sport listen to him now?

    “For me,” Samson said, “my issue with the game is a lack of desire to change. Rob (Manfred) has done an unbelievable job of trying to start that process. But too many people in the game are too worried about making significant changes from what’s been done in the past. They’re so busy wanting to save baseball as the National Pastime that they’re missing the fact that they’re in danger of losing it as the National Pastime.”

    In a world where change has to be approved by a three-fourths vote of 30 owners (i.e., 23 votes) and then has to be negotiated with the players’ union, there are already built-in obstacles to clear that are taller than the Green Monster. But one of these days, Samson believes, baseball needs to summon the will to make the kind of significant changes the other sports make on a regular basis.

    “What baseball needs,” he said, “is 23 (owners) who realize that change is inevitable and who also have the courage to be wrong. What’s wrong with making real change and then realizing, three or four years down the road, that it didn’t happen the way you thought and fans aren’t happy, so you change back or adjust back? Baseball is very worried about never being wrong.”

     

  7. David Samson wants to fix MLB.  You might remember David Samson as the assclown lackey who was president of the Marlins only because Jeff Loria was his father-in-law.  For some reason, Jayson Stark wrote a column about his ideas:

    Once in a game, and only in the ninth inning, a team could do what the Angels did in the scenario we sketched out earlier – send up its best player to hit in any situation if it’s trailing, even if that player had already hit in that inning.

    To DH or not DH? That would be a question decided by the home team every day before the game – in the AL and the NL. If it’s MadBum Night, the pitcher obviously hits. But if it’s a Wei-Yin Chen start (2 for 62, with 24 whiffs), what better time for an NL game to feature the DH?

    Or how about a Designated Fielder? Samson thinks that’s worth a try, too. Does your team have an Alcides Escobar kind of guy, whose bat doesn’t match his leatherwork? Or maybe a backup catcher who hits .153 but has a special rapport with your ace starter? Perfect candidates for a Designated Fielder – also the home team’s decision.

    A two-pickoff-throw limit – for any runner at any base? That’s another of Samson’s proposals. Would it speed up the game? Would it be likely to make baserunning a bigger part of the action every night? He would say: Yes and yes.

    If you hate the idea of minor-league games that put a runner on second base to start every extra inning, you’ll definitely need an antacid for Samson’s companion plan – to combat blowouts by allowing every team that gives up a crooked number in one half-inning to start the next half-inning with a runner on second. He’ll explain!

    And finally, he sees one more way baseball could mirror the other sports – with a nightly “halftime.” That would dictate shorter between-inning breaks to keep the flow moving, but also a 12-minute “halftime” in midgame that could be used for entertainment, pizza-stand runs, selling ad time, etc. You know that drill.

  8. Fucking hell...

     

    Boston Red Sox reliever Carson Smith suffered a subluxation of his right shoulder when he threw his glove in the dugout Monday night, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told reporters Tuesday.

    Smith was placed on the 10-day disabled list Monday, but Dombrowski said there was no timetable for his return.

    Dombrowski called the injury "unfortunate" and said Smith is seeking a second opinion.

    "It's got the potential of being a major injury," he said.

    Smith said he's concerned.

    "Any shoulder injury isn't a good injury," the right-hander told reporters. "Elbow's one thing, but a shoulder is something you don't mess with. Yeah, I'm concerned."

    Smith allowed an eighth-inning home run to the Athletics' Khris Davis in Boston's 6-5 loss Monday night. When Smith left the mound he threw his glove in frustration, causing the injury.

  9. We really need a "crazy celeb wives and the stupid shit they do," but Imma put this here for now:

    0515-krista-glover-mug-1.jpg

     

    Quote

    PGA Tour player Lucas Glover was attacked by his wife during the Players Championship, according to police reports. Following the tournament's third round, Krista Glover was arrested and charged with domestic battery and resisting arrest.

    Police arrived to a residence rented by the Glovers on Saturday night due to a disturbance 911 call. A document from the St. Johns County Sheriff's department states Lucas was berated by his wife for his poor play (he shot a third-round 78 for a MDF—made cut, did not finish). In the report. Lucas told deputies "when he plays a bad round of golf, Krista proceeds to start an altercation with him and telling him how he is a loser and a p***y, how he needs to fire everyone, and how he'd better win or her and the kids would leave him and he would never see the kids again."

    The police report said Lucas was tired of these altercations, but simultaneously tried to dissuade officials from arresting Krista.

    Police noted multiple lacerations to both Lucas and his 62-year-old mother, who had blood on her shirt and said she was hit in the chest. Krista told police she had been attacked by Lucas' mother, but police reported no visible injuries.

    Police officials noted in the report that Krista resisted them, refusing to get in the squad car by "blocking herself from sitting down." She reportedly attempted to wrap her legs around the car door, but deputies were able to push her in. Krista reportedly damaged the inside of the vehicle by kicking the door.

    During the transportation process, the report states Krista's handcuffs were loosened and she attempted to flea. Two lawmen were able to re-handcuff her.

    The report also states Krista berated the police, using threatening language.

    Lucas informed officers that Krista had been drinking. The altercation allegedly occurred in front of their children.

    On Tuesday afternoon, Lucas posted the following message on Twitter: "On May 12, my wife and mother were involved in an argument to which the police were called. Everyone is fine. Regrettably, although Krista was charged, we are comfortable that the judicial system is able to address what actually happened and Krista will be cleared in this private matter. We thank you for respecting our privacy as we work through this unfortunate situation."

    Glover, who won the 2009 U.S. Open, married Krista in 2012. Glover is not in this week's AT&T Byron Nelson field.

     

  10. 2 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:


    Why is that? His suspension who be up at game 120. That’s in August.

    You get busted in season, you're ineligible for playoffs.  That's the rule.

  11. I was fortunate enough to take an "English literature" distribution class from the legendary David McHam called "Literature of Journalism" my senior year in college that is still my favorite class ever.  It was me and 20 journalism majors.  I found Tom Wolfe there. 

    Amazing career, not because of the volume of the work, but because he was a pioneer, and because when he hit a home run, it went 500 feet. 

    Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test was literally the first book I ever read for fun that wasn't about baseball.  The Right Stuff was... well, it was the right stuff.  (I did think Bonfire of the Vanities kinda sucked.)

    Quote

    In a career that spanned more than half a century, Tom Wolfe wrote fiction and nonfiction best-sellers including The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and The Bonfire of the Vanities. Along the way, he created a new type of journalism and coined phrases that became part of the American lexicon. Wolfe died Monday in Manhattan. He was 88.

    Wolfe didn't start a novel with a character or a plot, but rather, with an idea. In 1987, wearing his signature white suit, Wolfe told me how he began his first novel, a panoramic story of New York Society:

     

    "I looked at the whole city first," he said. "I wanted to do New York High and Low. I figured Wall Street could stand for the high end, and also some of the life on Park Avenue. And at the low end, there would be what you find caught up in the criminal mechanism in the Bronx. Once I zeroed in on these areas, I would then find the characters."

    The novel that grew out of Wolfe's research — The Bonfire of the Vanities — was the tale of Sherman McCoy, a wealthy bond trader who loses everything after a wrong turn in the South Bronx with his mistress in the passenger seat. It was a huge critical and commercial success. Wolfe had written the novel from the same "you are there," stream-of-consciousness, first-person perspective that he pioneered in his nonfiction 20 years earlier.

     

    "I've always contended on a theoretical level that the techniques ... for fiction and nonfiction are interchangeable," he said. "The things that work in nonfiction would work in fiction, and vice versa."

    Wolfe began working as a newspaper reporter, first for The Washington Post, then the New York Herald Tribune. He developed a unique style, incorporating literary techniques — interior monologues, amped-up prose and eccentric punctuation. It was called the "New Journalism."

    "When Tom Wolfe's voice broke into the world of nonfiction, it was a time when a lot of writers, and a lot of artists in general, were turning inward," says Lev Grossman, book critic for Time magazine. "Wolfe didn't do that. Wolfe turned outwards. He was a guy who was interested in other people."

     

    Wolfe was interested in how they thought, how they did things and how the things they did affected the world around them.

    "He showed us how to walk into a cocktail party, a NASA training center — how to walk down the street and see in front of us this incredible drama of amazing richness, and amazing significance," Grossman says.

    In 1979, Wolfe published The Right Stuff, an account of the military test pilots who became America's first astronauts. Four years later, the book was adapted as a feature film.

    "The Right Stuff was the book for me," says Grossman. "It reminded me, in case I'd forgotten, that the world is an incredible place."

    In The Right Stuff, Wolfe popularized the phrase "pushing the envelope." The title of Wolfe's nonfiction essay (later published as part of a book) about Leonard Bernstein's fundraiser for the Black Panthers, Radical Chic, became a catchphrase for leftist liberals. In a New York magazine article, Wolfe dubbed the 1970s "The 'Me' Decade." Grossman says these phrases became part of the American idiom because they were dead on.

    gettyimages-507588392_custom-a98df74d7c4
     

    Wolfe — in his signature white suit in 1966 — coined or popularized phrases that became part of the American lexicon, such as "radical chic" and "The 'Me' Decade."

    Jack Robinson/Condé Nast/Getty Images

    "He was an enormously forceful observer, and he was not afraid of making strong claims about what was happening in reality," Grossman says. "He did it well, and eloquently. And people heard him. And they repeated what he said because he was right."

    To get it right, Wolfe said he first did extensive research, then he made an exhaustive outline — and then he started "having fun."

    "I like to use the technique of what I think of as a controlled trance," he explained. "I'll actually sit in front of the typewriter, close my eyes, and then try to imagine myself into the particular scene that I'm going to write about. Once you know what you're going to say — I give myself a quota each day of 10 triple-spaced pages on the typewriter. And that comes out for me anywhere from 1,600 to 1,800 words. That's not all that hard to do."

    All those words started a revolution in nonfiction that is still going on, says Grossman.

    "Everything that bloggers have done for journalism — and I personally think they've done a lot — Wolfe did it first, he did it 30 years earlier, and he did it better," Grossman says. "And I think we're still catching up to him."

     

    • Like 1
  12. 7 minutes ago, TheStoicPaisano said:

    It’d be interesting if Cano got popped while in the hospital after that HBP broke his hand.

    No, the case was pending before that.  It's why he gets to count the DL stint as part of the 80 games.

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