October 20, 2009

Spit Take

An accusation that Mariano Rivera spat on the baseball yesterday began at HalosHeaven* and a short video clip has been making the rounds.

This silliness got enough attention that MLB actually released a statement, saying it saw no evidence of misconduct.

gif uploaded to SoSH by ndame616 [Fox cuts away just as the spit flies]

I don't think anything worth mentioning is going on here.

The camera angle is inconclusive; you don't prepare to throw a spitball by actually spitting on the ball; and pitchf/x data showed the pitch after the supposed spitting had modest movement.

HalosHeaven breathlessly announces:
this is pretty conclusive evidence of why Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera is able to throw only one pitch that has unpredictable, yet precise movement.
If that were the case, Rivera would have been caught for something so clumsy back in 1995.

The Angels could tie the series at 2-2 tonight. The team's fans should be concentrating on that (and inflating their Thunderstixx and picking lint off their stuffed animals), not stockpiling inane "reasons" to whine their heads off if LA loses the pennant.

*: Reading this post and the ensuing comments will likely lower your IQ by at least 15 points. You have been warned.

6 comments:

allan said...

Ish first mentioned this in the Cy Young post.

Rob said...

Red Dot against Charleston Chew. Hmmm. Hope 3 days rest and bad managing will bite them in the ass.

Girardi's been looking like Gump, Jr. lately.

Rob said...

Not my nickname for him but its got a decent ring to it.

Beth said...

Jesus Christ, and this is when they *won* the damn game.

Dr. Jeff said...

And when your team is down 10-1, you don't have to worry about facing Rivera.

tas said...

If there's one thing Angels fans are good at, it's whining. In fact, that's about the only thing they're good at. If you want to drop a few more IQ points, goto Halos Heaven for their whining the umps giving the Yankees game 4. Because you know, when your team loses by 9 runs, it's gotta be the umpire's fault.