Double Dip

Tonight, prior to USA's dramatic comeback, MLB network's crew was settling into the ebb and flow of things in the bottom of the 3rd inning. After Kevin Youklis crushed a solo home run to right, Matt Vasgersian, Harold Reynolds, and Al Leiter got pleasantly chippy.

Harold Reynolds: He got a fastball in and, well, the swing speaks for itself. He got all of that one. You can tell that was a Fenway Park home run swing. That's hard to do. You have to get an arc on your swing and he's perfected that.
Al Leiter: You know, yesterday you talked about his unusual stance and that you said he never saw it or looked at it on video and I kind of questioned that. It's hard to believe he didn't know before. I talked to him about it and he said "That's right, you know, I didn't realize I was that exaggerated."
HR: Just following up on me?
AL: I said, "So you don't look at video?" He said, "No, I look at video for my swing. All I'm trying to be is short and make sure that I'm not pulling my front side out." Talking about that Fenway Park swing - that's his key - keeping the front side in and be very short on his front leg.
HR: How about that, Matt, he's checking up on me.
Matt Vasgersian: You got right hander Nelson Figueroa warming up in the bullpen.
HR: I'm bringing in a little conversation from the batting cage and he's following up on me.
AL: It's not follow up, I found it hard to believe. I even said it to you, that I thought it was unusual.
HR: It's okay, I'm joking. It's alright.
MV: You've had two months at the MLB Network, Harold, of nobody calling you out on anything. Like you and Larkin got all over Rickey Henderson for talking about his elbows on opening week of the network.
HR: [crude imitation of Rickey Henderson mumbling something about elbows]

Granted, they were laughing about it at the end, but it was kind of uncomfortable laugher.

During yesterday's spring training affair in which the White Sox hosted the Cardinals, Albert Pujols came up to the plate with a runner on 3rd and one out in the bottom of the 4th inning, prompting Jim Leyland to move his infielders in. Al Hrabosky treated us to this little tidbit.

I won't forget [what] my broadcast partner Dan McLaughlin [said]. One time [they] brought the infield in with Albert and he goes, "Aww I can't believe how close those guys are.' And I said, "Will you look at the pitcher? He's a little bit closer." He's ending up about 55 feet away when he makes that pitch. You learn to "charge" line drives.

You know, charge line drives like this. Yikes.

An article by Steve Marantz in The Sporting News back in 1998 went a bit more in depth into the unavoidable problems presented by this positioning.

If the ball doesn't come out of the umpire, you don't see it," Orioles manager Ray Miller says. "It's especially bad during day games. I've had infielders come in and complain. What's a pitcher going to do, 54 feet from the batter, standing on one foot, leaning forward?

Finally, the following part of the aforementioned article is not funny, so don't laugh.

Sometimes courage isn't enough. Reliever Josias Manzanillo had a testicle removed after being hit by a liner while pitching for Seattle last season. He never regained his effectiveness and eventually was released.

*snicker*