Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: AZRedhawk44 on July 15, 2009, 10:20:03 AM
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http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Obama-reps-Chicago-s-South-Side-delivers-first-?urn=mlb,176561
Watch the video.
The palmy-thrust up into the air, like he's not sure if he's shotputting or pitching, the high arc, and it still didn't quite make it over the plate.
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Check out the facial expressions on the guy driving the golf cart - especially when Obama shakes his hand.
stay safe.
skidmark
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Interesting to hear the rather subdued cheering and one could hear the boos.
Wouldn't it be fantastic to have a conservative latina throwing smoke as president? 'Specially in a short skirt and heels? (Oooops, where's my delete button, aaaaargghhh I hit enter............... =D :angel:
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Yeah, he does......I can throw better than that right handed, or left handed for that matter, I am ambidextrous.......chris3
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He's left handed too? How symbolic....
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I'm surprised that he didn't throw better. Considering his need to control his image, I figured that Obama would have had an expert pitching coach brought in to show the Annointed One how to throw.
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Obama is a reasonably good basketball player, so we know he has some basic athletic ability. Seems kinda weird that he can't figure out how to throw a baseball.
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I'm surprised that he didn't throw better. Considering his need to control his image, I figured that Obama would have had an expert pitching coach brought in to show the Annointed One how to throw.
He did.
You should've seen the "before" pitches . . . :O
=D
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Wouldn't it be fantastic to have a conservative latina throwing smoke as president? 'Specially in a short skirt and heels? (Oooops, where's my delete button, aaaaargghhh I hit enter............... =D :angel:
It certainly would.
He did.
You should've seen the "before" pitches . . . :O
Are you joking or do you know something we don't?
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I'll remind everyone that the general prohibition against pejorative, smarmy, or otherwise cutsie little nicknames in reference to politicians is STILL in effect at APS.
Any further references to Obama as anything other than Obama or the President will be summarily deleted.
We're (supposedly) adults here, not 4th graders on an elementary school playground.
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Any further references to Obama as either Obama or the President will be summarily deleted.
You mean "other than", right? :laugh:
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Seems kinda weird that he can't figure out how to throw a baseball.
You know the saying, "As American as baseball and apple pie."
It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he tended to shun both.
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You mean "other than", right? :laugh:
Yes, dammit.
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You know the saying, "As American as baseball and apple pie."
It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he tended to shun both.
What the...?
Is that a cute, but obilque, way of saying that Obama is anti-American at the core?
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You know the saying, "As American as baseball and apple pie."
It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he tended to shun both.
How the hell would that make him less of an American? Baseball is boring as hell to watch and takes considerable skill, luck, and practice to play effectively. Why should one play it if one doesn't enjoy it? Apple pie is awesome but I could certainly understand someone with an aversion to sweets abstaining from it.
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You know the saying, "As American as baseball and apple pie."
It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he tended to shun both.
I shun 'em too. :laugh:
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Oh! My bad. I was trying to follow this rule...
Any further references to Obama as either Obama or the President will be summarily deleted.
...not the updated one.
Apologies. Carry on. =)
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This reminds me of that funny Bud Light commercial http://thefuntimesguide.com/2005/04/throwfirstpitch.php
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I prefer chocolate pies myself. And hockey is way better than baseball.
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Yep, I suspect he has no affinity for either baseball or apple pie.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzFmMjkyZGM4MzllNjczYTc1MDRmNDNhNDdkYWJmMWY=
Meet Me in St. Booie! [Andy McCarthy]
Though it's not a widely appreciated fact, we right-winger sports nuts have long known that the sports press is among the media's leftiest precincts. So I suppose we shouldn't be surprised at how little was said (as in nothing at all) about the reception President Obama received last night when he came out on the field to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the baseball all-star game in St. Louis. It was a packed house (over 50,000 in attendance), and the jeers were easily discernible.
Don't get me wrong: There was more cheering than booing. But that's to be expected: It was a festive national occasion, and most of us who disagree intensely with Obama's policies would be more apt to stand and cheer our president respectfully. That's what made the booing all the more noticeable to anyone — other than a sports journalist — who heard it.
The media fawning really is so shameless it's become self-parody. Take ESPN, for example.
Put aside the unacknowledged booing for a moment. The other embarrassing fact is that my six-year-old throws a baseball better (far better, in fact) than Obama. Yet the media went out of its way to obscure that, too — no doubt wishing to avoid unfavorable comparisons to the strike President Bush famously fired from the mound at Yankee Stadium at the 2001 World Series. In its live broadcast, Fox (and remember, this is Fox Sports, not Fox News) covered Obama's first pitch at a very weird angle that conveyed his spastic motion but didn't do justice to how pathetic the toss was. But that's nothing compared to ESPN's laughable coverage. Here's the clip. Besides reporting only that there was a "standing ovation for the commander-in-chief," the announcer made a point of noting that Obama's pitch "didn't bounce" before reaching home-plate (though the announcer did cop to the "horrible camera work that made the trajectory of the pitch impossible to see).
Now, take a look at this clip from MLB.com, about 24 seconds in. It's the only decent footage I've seen, and it shows that Obama's first pitch did bounce. In fact, the pitch did not even reach home-plate — and they evidently knew it wouldn't. The player who was sent out to catch Obama's pitch (more on that in a moment) was crouching on top of home plate, not behind it where catchers always set up. And even so, he had to reach out a couple of feet in order to short-hop the ball, which otherwise might have bounced all the way to the backstop.
Now, about that player who caught Obama's pitch: It was none other than the Cardinals' great first-baseman, Albert Pujols. What does that matter? Well, the tradition is that the first pitch is tossed to the catcher, not the first-baseman — and, in fact, the starting catcher for the National League last night was the Cardinals' own Yadier Molina. But while Molina is popular, Pujols is like God in St. Louis (in fact, a fan in the stands either last night or the night before was holding a banner that said, "In Albert We Trust").
I think Obama's people knew he would get a very mixed reaction last night. His entrance was shrewdly orchestrated. The cheers and boos started as soon as he came onto the field, but he was steered immediately over to shake hands with Stan Musial — the most beloved player in the history of the Cardinals. No true St. Louis fan would boo Satan if he was shaking hands with Stan the Man. The president then went straight to the mound, where today's Stan the Man, the great Pujols, took good care of him — quickly embracing Obama right after making sure his heave looked borderline respectable . . . with a little help from the cameras. Finally, Obama moved was ushered quickly over to the third-base line, where Cardinal legends Bob Gibson, Ozzie Smith, and Lou Brock (among others) were there to share warm-handshakes.
In the box score, as reported by the Obamedia/Sports Division, it will read like a standing-O for The One as he hurled a bull's-eye before strutting off to warm waves of adulation. If you were watching, though, Obama looked like the guy who bowled a 37.
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But he can swat a fly rather well.
That didn't deserve media coverage though. In fact it was disgusting how much attention was paid to such a trivial thing.
This is different though.
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Throwing a ball to me is natural as my brother and I played T-ball and little league baseball and grew up throwing baseballs and footballs around. However, I can certainly understand someone who never played those sports not having good throwing form. IMO, it is a basic skill all kids should learn.
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At least he threw from the rubber. I recall a previous president (who owned a ML team) tossing it from the edge of the grass. =)
Even Troy Aikman one-hopped the opening pitch at a game the other day.
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Well, if you're gonna go that route, consider the age, too.
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It is 60' 6" from the mound to home plate.
If I was the president, my pitch would have made it past home plate, might have not been in the strike zone but it would have crossed the plate.
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But he can swat a fly rather well.
That didn't deserve media coverage though. In fact it was disgusting how much attention was paid to such a trivial thing.
This is different though.
Major media coverage != guys on teh intarwebs cracking jokes.
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Well, if you're gonna go that route, consider the age, too.
???
If that's a response to my post, are you referring to the age of Obama, G.W. Bush, or Troy Aikman? I don't consider any of them feeble old men.
Whether a president can throw a nice strike is pretty low on my scale of trivial non-concerns.
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How the hell would that make him less of an American? Baseball is boring as hell to watch and takes considerable skill, luck, and practice to play effectively. Why should one play it if one doesn't enjoy it? Apple pie is awesome but I could certainly understand someone with an aversion to sweets abstaining from it.
I agree that baseball is about as exciting as watching paint dry, and I haven't played baseball since I was in high school (and then only at an intramural level). Nonetheless, I could walk on a field tomorrow and at least manage to put a pitch into the catcher's glove. It probably wouldn't be a strike, but it wouldn't have a trajectory straight out of slow pitch softball, I can promise you that.
Did you watch his legs? He definitely throws like a girl. And not just any girl -- a girl who has never played baseball.
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How the hell would that make him less of an American? Baseball is boring as hell to watch and takes considerable skill, luck, and practice to play effectively. Why should one play it if one doesn't enjoy it? Apple pie is awesome but I could certainly understand someone with an aversion to sweets abstaining from it.
Even as a youngin' I wasn't particularly interested Baseball. I was scared that I would one day get shot on a battlefield as a spy for not knowing who won a particular world series or who plays SS for the Yankees. Questions like that were often depicted as the test used to ferret out spies in the old WWII movies.
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I hate baseball.
Never learned to play, never wanted to play. I throw like a girl.
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I hate baseball.
Never learned to play, never wanted to play. I throw like a girl.
Okay, NOW can we shoot JJ for being a Nazi spy ???
=D =D
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I hate baseball.
Never learned to play, never wanted to play. I throw like a girl.
Don't make me pull the Queen picture back out of storage, you abominated freak of nature.
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That is bizarre. I have long disdained sports, but even I can tell that his form is atrocious. He looks like he's not even trying. Bizarre. :|
Is that a cute, but obilque, way of saying that Obama is anti-American at the core?
Is that one of those things we're not supposed to say? Is there some chance he's not anti-American? ??? He IS a leftist, after all.
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I don't like Obama one bit but I can't throw to save my life either. Big deal. If anyone on this board wants to go for a run though...
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Any further references to Obama as either Obama or the President will be summarily deleted.
So what are we supposed to call him?......Merle?.... =|
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I also noticed the non-verbals the driver of the cart was putting out. He doesn't seem like the biggest fan of Obama.
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Don't make me pull the Queen picture back out of storage, you abominated freak of nature.
Don't hate. I've got a sugar mama, so I must be doing something right...
So what are we supposed to call him?......Merle?.... =|
That was a typo on Irwin's behalf, he's since edited it.
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How'd you like to see him at a NASCAR race?
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I have long disdained sports, but even I can tell that his form is atrocious. He looks like he's not even trying.
I disagree. I think it looks like he's trying too hard to imitate the pros. He did some spastic wind-up like he thought he could actually pitch.
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Okay, I finally watched the video. It wasn't that bad. It looked like he just didn't try.
I bet I would look pretty bad if I didn't warm up.
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That is bizarre. I have long disdained sports, but even I can tell that his form is atrocious. He looks like he's not even trying. Bizarre. :|
Indeed. You don't have to play baseball to know how to pull off a basic overhand throw.
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How'd you like to see him at a NASCAR race?
How'd you like to see a public relations disaster?
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That is bizarre. I have long disdained sports, but even I can tell that his form is atrocious. He looks like he's not even trying. Bizarre. :|
In my opinion, it looked to me that he just didn't care. He put no real effort into it. It was just another PR stop to him. It was all about looking good in the media. If his handlers had said missing the event wouldn't matter, he would not have been there.
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Check out the facial expressions on the guy driving the golf cart - especially when Obama shakes his hand.
stay safe.
skidmark
I had a good laugh at that, too. The guy looked like he smelled something bad the whole time the Prez was next to the cart.
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It is 60' 6" from the mound to home plate.
If I was the president, my pitch would have made it past home plate, might have not been in the strike zone but it would have crossed the plate.
*thread drift*
Just because it's something I didn't realize despite being a baseball fan for many years and only learned a very few years ago: It's not 60' 6" from the pitcher's rubber to the plate, which is what everyone means by "from the mound to the plate". It's that distance from the front of the rubber to the rear point of the plate. With the plate being 17" from front edge to rear point, it's actually 59' 1" from the rubber to the plate.
*end thread drift*
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*thread drift*
Just because it's something I didn't realize despite being a baseball fan for many years and only learned a very few years ago: It's not 60' 6" from the pitcher's rubber to the plate, which is what everyone means by "from the mound to the plate". It's that distance from the front of the rubber to the rear point of the plate. With the plate being 17" from front edge to rear point, it's actually 59' 1" from the rubber to the plate.
*end thread drift*
I didn't know that, either, but you're correct.
http://www.hksportsfields.com/images/pdf/hs_col_baseball_field.pdf