This is an article at baseballhalloffame.org I found when I typed '"warning track" history' into Google.

Full article at http://tinyurl.com/s8vcj.

So it seems that warning tracks have maybe been around since at least 1910? But I don't have anything more than that.

Whatever the case, I too suspect the 'warning' aspect was a secondary benefit, and perhaps simply called a warning track because of its later function (indeed, outfielders may have coined the term--this is a pure speculation).

How is it that 80-something year old Bob Sheppard can recover from a hip injury, and return to Yankee Stadium in a fraction of the time it takes Carl Pavano's dumbass buttock injury to heal?

They played the 1994 season in Winnipeg Stadium.

http://tinyurl.com/geucq

So the description from 1910 does make sense.

Hmmm...perhaps the warning track was designed as a barrier of sorts betwen the players and the fans...

In retrospect, many early ballparks didn't have outfield walls at all, so maybe you're on to something in 8 42YrOldRookie.

http://tinyurl.com/ka9j8

Which makes your point 4 all the more funny, Sliced!

Though, in fairness to Pavano, it sounds like the Voice of God's hip injury was easy to fix, given that it was his artificial hip that had the problem. Perhaps Pavano needs to get an artificial butt. ;)

"Beseiged by legal and financial problems, Von der Ahe moved his club to a larger park in 1892. He surrounded the place with amusement park fun, including water rides, an artificial lake, a beer garden (of course), and a horse track that rimmed the outer perimeter of the outfield. The horse track was hated by outfielders and the league office, for slightly different reasons.

(Old Chris may have inadvertently been the inventor of the outfield warning track. The thought of all those horses running around the perimeter of the inside-the-park wall also inspires what could've been a great trivia question back in 1892. - How do Browns outfielders know they've reached the warning track? Answer: They check the bottoms of their shoes.)

The press called the new facility "Coney Island West" - and they nicknamed Von der Ahe as "Von der Ha Ha." Under the heavy losses he incurred from his grand scheme and lack of support all around, Von der Ahe was forced into selling his best players to stay afloat. - This, of course, would become a way of life in the years ahead for the new Browns as well."

http://tinyurl.com/ha49q and scroll down to April 7th

The Forbes valuation of the Yanks at 1 Billion also includes these interesting tidbits:

1) [The] rule that teams pay 34 percent of their net local revenue to help make poorer teams more competitive, is the reason why the Oakland Athletics, Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals increased in value by more than 20 percent.

2) The Yankees and the Red Sox lost $50 million and $18.5 million, respectively, before interest, income taxes and depreciation. By not using their subsidies to boost player payroll (which was the intent of revenue sharing), the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Royals and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays each earned more than $20 million.

3) [A] visit by the Yankees can increase a home team's ticket sales by as much as 25 percent. And the Yankees account for 27 percent of all league merchandise sales, the profits of which get shared equally throughout the league to the tune of more than $3 million per franchise. In effect, much of the league operates as subsidiaries of the Bronx Bombers.

RE: Rob Gee's comment #14 part 2, I find it amazing that the poorer teams aren't required to invest their revenue sharing money into payroll. Why wasn't this written into the agreement? Did MLB just assume that team owners would do the right thing and not just pocket it?

The idea of outfielders mingling with livestock makes me think of Sheffield punching out a horse, bare-knuckled, like Mongo in "Blazing Saddles."

Sheppard's 95? That's amazing. I love Jeter's idea to have him record his introduction and have it played after Sheppard retires.

http://tinyurl.com/mwl8f

Giambi may sit tonight because of a bruised forearm. Hopefully this means more Andy and less Cairo.

Even if there are restrictions on what a team does with revenue sharing, do you think Selig is going to enforce that against his pals in KC, Detroit, Florida, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, etc? Not bloody likely, IMHO.

I do know for a fact that the MLBPA has always been against a salary floor, as they believe imposing a salary floor will ultimately result in a hard salary cap.

As for a 'salary floor', there already is a de facto floor, since players are paid a minimum salary. But I guess mot people mean a floor higher than 25xminimum in order to "guarantee" a team's commitment to winning. I wonder if this would work, or if it would just encourage owners to spend a gob of money on one or two high profile players, milk their images for as much $ as possible, and still not really try to win with the rest of the roster.

" The dirt and finely-ground gravel (as opposed to grass) area bordering the fence, especially in the outfield. It is intended to help prevent fielders from inadvertently running into the fence. 1950s and 60s broadcaster Bob Wolff used to call it the "cinder path". The first "warning tracks" actually started out as running tracks in Yankee Stadium and Cleveland Stadium. True warning tracks did not become standard until the 1950s, around the time batting helmets came into standard use also."

She also had a stumper that I've been trying to work on ever since. Maybe someone else knows this...

What is the longest at-bat ever recorded, based on the # of pitches?

I would imagine the answer would also coincide with the record for most pitches fouled back.

It would also make the mid and end of season a lot more exciting for smaller clubs. Who's gonna stay up? The D-Rays or the Royals in a relegation battle! And if you really don't want to spend money or you're in a small market, then you are in the lower division playing against other smaller clubs so it remains competitive. In Italy, no one in their right mind expects Venice to compete with Milan, and no one whines about how Milan spend so much money.

It will never, ever happen here, but its fun to think about it.

http://tinyurl.com/l2m5g

I do remember reading something a long time ago, at BP I think, on what effect long at-bats have on pitchers vs. hitters, and the longest AB in their tables was I think 22 pitches long. There were very, very few ABs longer than the 10-12 pitch range.

By the way, BP concluded...(sound of conventional wisdom being punctured)...that long ABs generally result in the batter making an out, and do not help the batters who follow the marathon man get a hit.

What's the record for most pitches thrown to one batter?

...Luke Appling, who played for the Chicago White Sox from 1930 to 1950, seems to be the frontrunner. His anecdotal pitch counts range from 19 to 24...

http://ask.yahoo.com/20050923.html

My girlfriend is rarely satisfied by things that don't sparkle and cause credit card debt, so I kind of knew it was a tough task to begin with.

From my limited observations it seems that the 10-12 range is certainly the typical upper limit. But I'm sure there must've been a time (perhaps involving Paul O'Neill) where an at-bat lasted into the 30+ pitch range.

And it certainly seems that Mr. Sheffield's experience in Minnesota lends to that non-conventional wisdom that long AB's lead to outs.

BTW,
the Clippers are in town this weekend. Anything special I should look for?

She then asked me what "in the hole meant" So I told her it referred to a batter who would hit third in the inning or is two batters away from being up. She wanted to know where that came from so I told her it was a poker expression referring to a third card being turned faced down or being "in the hole" and I explained (I thought quite neatly) that ball players love poker so it's kind of natural. She looked at me a little skeptically but I thought she bought it.

A little later someone shot a ball "through the hole" so I had to explain the difference between that kind of 'hole' and the other. I brought up Willie Keeler and the "hole being where they aint" thing and probably made up a bunch more crap. This went on for a while when she stood up to leave and asked me if someone has to be an asshole like me to love baseball or can anyone watch? I wasn't sure.

Can anyone help me with this?

I'm curious if:

a) Duncan looks as overmatched as his numbers indicate
b) Melky is as locked in as his numbers indicate
c) Rasner's K rate b/c his stuff is overpowering or more a matter of trickery
d) Mitch Jones has developed an eye
e) Bean looks recovered from the knee surgery
f) Pena's defense - overated or legit

Thanks!

It just makes them so damn cute....yes, dear, it's 1 - 3 good guys.

Once over dinner, my wife (my fiance at the time) asked me how a pitcher gets a win. I was able to explain the whole convulted thing clearly, a rare event when my wife askes me a baseball question. Her response - "You've GOT to be kidding. That's so stupid! How does that tell you anything about how the pitcher really did in the game? And people really care about this?!"

At that time, I had only recently learned the stupidity of the win stat myself. I immediately realized that, despite having watched fewer than 30 baseball games in her life to that point, my wife intuitively knew more about baseball than many people employed to write or talk about baseball. Her common sense applied to baseball sometimes leads to some crazy ideas, but a lot of times, she amazes the crap out of me.

Asshole that I am, I responded "Why does a pedicure cost $75?"

She also thinks I'm an idiot whenever I refer to a baseball game as a "matchup" between two pitchers. It usually comes up if I'm trying to explain why it's important that I view every pitch of a particular game. For example, "It's Schilling vs. Mussina, Mich, gotta watch." She'll ask (knowing the answer) "Is Schilling pitching to Mussina?" "No, cupcake, but he's pitching against him," I'll argue. She'll counter, "No, dear, Schilling's pitching against the Yankees, in fact, he's pitching against almost every Yankee not named Mussina."
The argument always ends with me scratching my sides, jaw protruding, like the baseball lovin' chimp that I is.

4 The best part for history: We can always looks up photos of Meat laughing his dumbass off while injuring said dumbass. This is a man of Yankee lore.

For what it's worth, most of Becky's questions tend to be of the "what's the most/least ____" variety, especially now that her understanding of the game is getting fine tuned (she's very proud that she knows what a LOOGY is). Funny, just this afternoon (I'm working from home today), I dug out the scorecard of the first game she and I ever attended together. Jim Abbott hurled a complete game to beat Jamie Moyer and the Orioles. Meatloaf sang the National Anthem. Dig:

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B08130NYA1993.htm

By the way, the thing that drives me nuts is when my mom calls every Yankee run a "home run." "The Yankees got another home run!" No, ma, they . . . oh never mind.

But it's a start....