so you think you know baseball............

Not trying to step on anyones toes...It has been great reading all of your posts...
But I have been trying to find the correct time to jump in and ask this question. If you guy's let me.

Who was the last legal spitball pitcher?

 

I got this. Great name for a spitter pitcher...Grimes. To this day, guys are still trying to doctor a ball with spit, they just have to be a little more creative now.

 

you mean burleigh grimes?

what about gaylord perry? he was known to cheat and won 300+ games and is in the hall of fame?

 

Will wait and see if Alf says Will is correct......I was going to say I went to a combined no-hitter and I think my sons and possibly me (I have so much junk I'm not sure) still have the tickets from a Pirates game at 3 Rivers Stadium. Might be the last no-hitter thrown by the Pirates. I forget the names of the 2 pitchers but I think both were Mexican. I will look up the 2 names and get back. I always wanted to try and get both pitchers to sign the ticket but I never really pursued it.....

 

1st guy I thought of was Gaylord Perry......But it was probably somebody after him not as well known.

 

But Gaylord (haha), pitched in the 60's, 70's and early 80's...by then the spitball was long timed classified as illegal. When Grimes did it, there wasnt any specific rule against it, i believe.

...and Gaylord certainly had tons of company when it came to doctoring a baseball. There has been some pretty good and creative attempts, a lot successful ways to do it too. Ive seen the stitches cut, scuffed, and actually removed in some small spots. There's spit, pine tar, rosin, guys with sand paper in there pockets and on there gloves. Hell, the whole world would watch when Kenny Rogers during the post season would continually go to the bill of his cap and pick up some rosin.

Fun stuff.

 

It was 10 inning no hitter. Mark Smith (pinch hitter) hit a 3 run homer in the bottom of the 10th to win it against the Astro's in 1997. Francisco Cordova (SP) and Ricardo Rincon, the reliever, pitched the no hitter....

 

I think I may have been to about 2 games since then, haha.....Went to 1 at the newer park and probably another at 3 Riverrs since, I think? I like watching the games on the tele. Food and beer is in the fridge , couch is comfortable, don't have to fight traffic and pay an arm and a leg by the end of the night....Although if I do go I like the better seats rather than the outfield or high behind home plate.....

 

Quite right -- Burleigh Grimes was the last LEGAL spitballer, but he wasn't the last to throw one, and Perry wasn't either. As long as there's baseball, there's going to be what's considered "acceptable" shenanigans: attempts to scuff the ball or otherwise deface it using rosin, pine tar, whatever ... batters using cork, rubber balls, whatever ... stealing signs ...

 

I am all over the place. NHL, MLB and the Steelers giving comments. So if you don't see me for awhile, you know where I am, haha. And I will be back, or not, haha........

 

dont leave us igloo. who will ask up pittsburgh questions? haha

 

will is correct!

legal the key word from axe.

 

how is perry in the hall of fame is beyond me!

 

The Washington Post called Perry's bid for the Hall "dubious" also Fish. He won over 300 games but pitched for 22 seasons so it would be pretty hard not to win 300 back then compared to all of the relievers today. He won 2 Cy Young's and was the 1st to win one in each league. Some of the catchers he pitched to said they couldn't throw the ball back and went out and handed it to him on occasion. Perry notified Vaseline for an endorsement and Vaseline said no, "We make the product for babies, not for doctoring baseball". One baseball publication has him as the 50th something best ever and The Sporting news has him ranked at 97th.......Quite a wide disparity of an opinion on him, even by the writer's.....This according to WIKI.....

 

bonds cheated. clemens cheated. palmeiro cheated. mcgwire cheated. sosa cheated.

perry knowingly doctored baseballs - that's cheating. how is it any different? i think it's worse as he didn't try to hide it. he cheated in plain view.

and pete rose still isn't in. if only i was commissioner!

 

Would he be in if you were? ...and why?

 

If I was commissioner, Rose wouldn't get in until he died. Lifetime ban means LIFETIME.

 

i typed out 5 paragraphs and erased them. you won't like my answer and will debate it and beat me up over it and im not getting into a pissing match about pete rose or shoeless joe jackson and the hof. sorry.

 

if lifetime means lifetime, when is shoeless joe going into the hof?

 

I think he has to be in because he's the leader in hits in a career. I also think some things are worse than others. Such as betting on other games or football games is not as big of an offense as using steroids. Unless of course you are on the field and knowingly doing it. I don't think there is any evidence Rose was throwing his own teams games. If he was, the players would know it also and come out. So there is a bit of difference and room for argument. My feeling is he should be in and so should Shoeless Joe Jackson as the evidence towards Jackson points toward his batting average and play in the field. It shows he tried to win the games. He was banned for not saying anything basically. But how can you keep him out forever for not ratting on his teammates and friends? The one thing I have against Rose is he never really convinced me he he shouldn't have done it and lied about it more than once. Compared to what Jackson did? Jackson should definately be in....He was one of the best hitters of all-time and even Babe Ruth said he tried to model his swing after Jackson's because he was the best hitter he ever.....