“Who am I?” In my 9th year, and 3 years after being jettisoned by my original team, I currently have career highs in BA, SLG and OPS+.

@Cardinals 5, Marlins 4: Another Heath Bell crunch. Austin Kearns had put the Fish out front with a 3-run pinch-clout in the 7th, but the Redbirds scored 3 in the 9th to win. Rafael Furcal brought home the last two with a 1-and-2 single to left, as leadfoot David Freese slipped under a high tag. Furcal got his chance when Bell couldn’t finish .223-hitting Daniel Descalso, who battled from an 0-2 hole in a 10-pitch AB that ended with a walk.

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HHS reader with the moniker “Insert Name Here” was lamenting that a recent quiz was too easy, and was pining for something really challenging as in days past. So, just for INH, here’s something a bit harder.

The 12 players in this quiz have achieved a hitting feat related to the television series Seinfeld. This has been accomplished only 13 times in the game-searchable era, so one of the twelve has done it twice.

Can you figure out what that accomplishment might be?

Click on the link below to see the list of players and get started on your sleuthing.

Congratulations to Richard Chester! He identified that these are the only players since 1918 to compile a 0-0-0-0 box score line in a game with 5 or more PAs. Like Seinfeld, a game about “nothing” (at least as far as the box score is concerned).

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Saturday:

@Mets 3, Cubs 1: Ike Davis had the big hit — a 2-out (of course), 2-run, 0-and-2 HR on a splitter that never forked — but I think Mets fans (who’ve seen so many bullpen blowups) all agree that this was the play of the game.

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No, Roger Clemens is not holding an auction to pay legal defense costs.  I’m talking about the White Sox’ Chris Sale, who currently has the most  Wins Above Replacement (Baseball-reference version) of any pitcher in 2012.  Chris is a mere tenth of a point ahead of Justin Verlander in b-ref”s WAR calculation.  If you check the Fangraphs version of the current AL pitching WAR leaderboard, you’lll find that over there Verlander is first in the AL and Sale is second.  By either standard, Sale is having a brilliant season thus far. What caught my eye in particular is what Sale’s current pace represents in historical terms.  Details after the jump. Continue reading →

In any discussion of Hall of Famers or HOF candidates, you’ll usually hear the term “compiler,” a mild pejorative meaning a player who reaches career totals in counting stats like Hits, Runs or RBI, without having great individual seasons.

The term is often applied to two of my favorite players, who I think are among the most deserving HOF candidates not yet enshrined: Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell.

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@Angels 9, Orioles 7:

• One of our favorite things here at the Recap Research Megaplex is a box score combo that’s never been seen before. As far as we can tell, Mike Trout‘s bundle of 3 steals with 2 sac flies is unique. There are just two prior games of two SB and two SF, the first by … B.J. Surhoff???
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Orioles 4, @Mariners 2: In his season debut, Chris Tillman didn’t allow a man past 1st base until his last batter, with 1 out in the 9th.

• Adam Jones is on pace for exactly 40 HRs, but he doesn’t need that many to make a bit of history. Only one Orioles/Browns CF has ever hit at least 27 HRs in a season (Brady Anderson, 50 in 1996). We’re talking about an original AL franchise, folks. There have been 136 seasons of 30+ HRs by CFs, including 3 (by 2 different players) for a team that was born in 1998.
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Perhaps nothing is more quintessentially American as taking in a ballgame on Independence Day. Even better is if the game features some special and memorable plays.

After the jump, I’ll recount some heroic Independence Day performances at the ballpark.

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Fireworks Night at the ol’ ballpark!

@Brewers 13, Marlins 12 (10): They had it all the way. After blowing a 9-2 lead, the Crew fell behind in the 10th on a Jose Reyes HR, Miami’s 5th of the game. But they came back and rang the Bell: After a leadoff 5-pitch walk to Carlos Gomez (how could you?), the struggling-again closer got the next 2 men before Aramis Ramirez mushroomed an 0-1 pitch way out to CF for his first game-ending hit as a Brewer.

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Sunday afternoon, on the way home to NY from a family function in the Philly area, my grown nephew John and I stopped in Camden, NJ to see an Atlantic League game between the hometown RiverSharks and the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs.

Field level, behind the plate, day of game: $1,300 at Yankee Stadium; $13 at Campbell’s Stadium.
(And nice work with the cellphone camera, young John Autin!)

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