That was awesome.

Dang, that Porsche that passed him was hauling ass.

WTF, half the people were no even wearing seatbelts. crazy ass people but it was fun to watch.

I like the latest comment.

BMW SAUBER FERRARI SLOW MO

^ My GF asked me if I was trying to annoy her when I was watching that. Guess she didn't like the noise of an F1 car in our living room?

Got Rice?

Those are the best cars I have ever seen in my life.

I like the one with the giant exhaust pipes coming out of the hood and shooting over the top of the car like antanae.

I just turned the sound on. Is that the song from the lion king? :lol:

Switch pitcher vs. switch hitter. This at bat created a new rule apparently. The video is 8 minutes long, and may only be interesting to baseball fans, but I found it incredibly amusing.

YouTube- Switch Hitter VS Switch Pitcher Pat Venditte

I heard about this but never saw the video.

What's the rule BTW? Isn't it something dumb like the pitcher has to declare his side two times, then the batter, and back and forth or something retarded?

IMO, the batter is the guy that has to be "ready" before the pitcher is allowed to throw, so the batter should always have to pick a side first. Then once the pitcher's picked his hand, they're not allowed to change for the length of the at-bat. That seems the most traditionally fair. Sure the batter's at a little bit of a disadvantage... but hell, he's facing a switch pitcher, he should be at a disadvantage! :lol:

Yeah, they can both switch twice in one at-bat or something like that, but not after the first pitch is thrown.

Actually I was reading that the pitcher has to unambiguously declare which arm he is going to throw from. The glove in one hand, and the ball in the other when stepping onto the rubber is good enough. The batter then decides. One pitch has to be thrown from that side, and then the they each have one option to switch during the at bat. After that, they can't switch sides.

There are other caveats for outlying circumstances.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Ven..._Venditte_Rule

That's dumb. The pitcher should get the picking advantage... but then no one should be able to switch during the at-bat. A switch hitter isn't allowed to switch mid-at-bat unless there's a pitching change... so this whole "one switch allowed" rule makes no sense.

I'm with Scott. I thought the sequence was...

Batter steps into the box, pitcher steps on the rubber, batter can call time until pitcher starts motion or something like that. Balk if pitcher stops motion.

I have no problem with anybody changing hands/sides between pitches, but if that is the sequence, then the batter should have to declare first.

Maybe this is MLB's way to somewhat negate the switch pitcher rather than letting the athletes/game progress.

Another thing this brings up is if Venditte's 4 finger and two thumbs/webs glove is legal, why hasn't there been any other apparent progression in glove design/materials? You can't tell me a classic leather glove is state of the art in catching a ball and transferring it to the throwing hand.

I think the only rule for a glove is its maximum length, which was done because 1st basemen were starting to wear comically massive gloves to make the throw to 1st base effectively shorter.

But there isn't really much that can be done to advance glove technology in a meaningful way IMO. Gloves need to be tough and impact absorbing. Leather already does that extremely well. The only thing I can think of would be something as strong and compliant at leather, but much lighter.

However, the only time a lighter-weight glove would really help is for middle infielders moving/diving for a ball at short notice... right now 2nd and SS use relatively small gloves which helps them move a little faster... a larger glove that's just a light might help them get to and stop more ground balls by extending their range without slowing them down. But then you run into the problem of turning double plays, where a large glove makes pulling the ball out harder... which is really the primary reason why they use the smaller glove. So the larger glove might not be an advantage in the long run if it makes taking the ball out harder

Really, since baseball is such a game of long-term statistic, little things like how light a glove is aren't going to make a useful difference over the course of the season. The number of times where it'd be an advantage is so far outweighed by the number of times it makes no difference that in the long run it's statistically unimportant. Kinda like a batter wearing a leg guard... sure he'd be a tiny bit faster on that close play at 1st base... but it happens so infrequently that the play is so close that the leg guard would have made the difference it's much better to wear the guard to prevent injury that would have a real long-term effect on the outcome of the season.

On the other hand... something like a lighter bat makes a world of difference because it improves your bat speed for *every* swing, which theoretically raises your chance of hitting a homerun some percentage for the whole season. Statistically, now were looking at raising the average number of runs for the season, which could in fact have an effect on your overall season standings.

So, long story short, I would guess that it's a matter of diminishing returns. Advanced gloves probably don't make a huge difference, so people use what's familiar and comfortable. It's actually kind of a cool topic I've never really considered.

Was I right on the sequence for the batter/pitcher process?

I would think a lighter, energy absorbing with just the right amount of flexibility/rigidity in the right spots and a way to direct/funnel the ball to a specific spot in the glove could be engineered.

You could engineer different shapes for different positions. Might make a difference over time after all.

Looking at just the at-bat part of that video, it looks like a slapstick movie, lol.

I watched it without the sound on... and heard the Benny Hill theme song in my head anyway. :lol:

The leather mitts already do almost all of that once they are properly broken in. Leather is a pretty amazing material, actually. After they are broken in, the glove is flexible and rigid in the appropriate spots. They balls also end up funneling themselves into the same spot automatically already (right to the palm of the hand, not counting the rare moment it gets caught in the webbing).

The main reason for errors is just getting a bad jump on the play, the ball taking a bad hop, or just simply not having the glove in the right spot at the right time. Short of putting micro circuitry on the glove to automatically extend/retract the fabric of the glove to put more of the glove in the right spot, I don't think there is much left to advance.

But, if you don't want leather there are alternatives, but most are using synthetic leather and aren't measurably better.

http://www.petamall.com/PLPShop.asp?RecordID=155

This one is kinda funny. For F1 and/or guitar fans.

YouTube- Fernando Alonso Bahrein 2010 lap on slide guitar - Vuelta de Alonso a Bahrein 2010 en guitarra

Nice, sounds like she's into Christian rap.

Damn that was funny! :lol:

^Hey Dean, long time, no....post. :)