The Toast Man Of The WV Power

At Appalachian Power Park, home of the West Virginia Power, may dwell the most unique heckler I have ever seen.  He is your average heckler in many ways; he's loud, he makes fun of all of the opposing players, he knows all of their stats.  He also knows all of the hometown players' statistics and has signs that use puns, phrases and baseball related terms to get the crowd to rally behind each player.

He is simply known as the Toast Man.  He wears a shirt that says "You are toast!"  As I stated before, he holds up signs for every home town player, and the one above is in reference to Matt Curry, the best player on the West Virginia Power, hitting a whopping .370.  His most famous taunt, however, has to be his toast.  That's right, toast: as in, bread from a toaster.  This is the most unique spin on a taunt I have ever come across by a non-mascot heckler at any sports event.

Whenever an opposing team's batter strikes out, he stands up, shouts his shirt slogan, "You are toast!" and then proceeds to throw pieces of toast to people in the crowd.  These are not ordinary toast either; they all have the West Virginia Power logo burned into them.  Did I mention that his toaster is located next to his season seat, and that it is embedded into the wall?  That means the Power are totally okay with this heckler's gimmick, and supplied the toaster space.

As far as anyone I spoke with knew, he was just an overzealous season-ticket holder who started all of this himself and may or may not have asked for the toaster with the special logo heating rod inside it.  Either way, this is a really cool thing he does, and he definitely earned my respect as the most unique and creative heckler I have ever encountered.  The next time I go to a West Virginia Power game, I will be sure to try to sit in section 108 or 109, so I can be near the Toast Man of West Virginia.

Here is a video of what he does after a strikeout: 

Yep, I caught that last piece of toast, the one in the above photo.  The Power lost 11-6, but the game was a lot more fun because of the Toast Man and all of the other great things that go on during Power games.  And really, we're talking about a piece of toast making the world a little brighter, and somehow, it does.

No Walks, No Hits, No Errors

Throughout the history of baseball, there have been many amazing feats.  One of the best, is a no hitter thrown by a pitcher.  Even rarer, is the box score of no hits, no walks, no errors.  This is known as the perfect game, when not a single batter reaches base in any way during a game against their opponent.

No hitters are not at all common, having occurred just 271 times in over 391,000+ games.  That's just 0.00069% of all MLB games.  A perfect game is also counted as a no hitter, so the 20 perfect games in MLB history are included in the 271 no hitter total.

Recently, many writers and fans alike have been stating that the no hitter has lost some of its luster, due to the recent influx of no hitters being thrown.  From 2007-2010, there were a total of 15 no hitters thrown.  Three of those were perfect games.  From 1996-2006 there were 16 no hitters thrown, three of which were perfect games.  This leads many to believe that the no hitters has been cheapened over the last five seasons.

Many pitchers of varying success have thrown  no hitters.  Nolan Ryan has thrown the most no hitters by a single pitcher, seven.  The very first professional no hitter was thrown by Joe Borden, who's team won 4-0.  It was a strange matchup in the National Association, the White Stockings of Philadelphia playing the White Stockings of Chicago.

As I stated before, no hitters have been thrown by pitchers of varying success in their careers.  Some no hitters have been thrown by pitchers who were not all that great.  The names that come to mind include Bud Smith(7-8, 4.95 ERA career), Juan Nieves(32-35, 4.71 ERA career) and Mike Warren(9-13, 5.06 ERA career).  Arguably the worst guy to throw a no hitter was Jose Jimenez(24-44, 4.92 ERA career) in 1999.

Some no hitters can look stunningly unimpressive.  AJ Burnett drew up the blueprints for what a bad no hitter should look like.  Start off by stating that he walked nine guys, threw a wild pitch and hit a batter.  He struggled with his command all game, throwing 129 pitches to record the 27 outs.  He struck out seven, but of his pitches: 65 were strikes, 64 were balls.  According to a newspaper article from Miami about the game, "It is truly amazing that nobody was able to score.  The Padres should have had 10 hits in the game if not for their impatience."

In 2010, Edwin Jackson of the Arizona Diamondbacks put his name in the mix for worst no hitter thrown of all time.  It took E-Jax 149 pitches to get through 27 batters, 79 strikes and 70 balls.  He walked 8 and struck out 6.  After the game, he had to skip his next start to rest from throwing this much.  It is amazing to me that in both of these no hitters, neither pitcher gave up a run or hit.

Conversely, perfect games always look amazing.  They are so rare, they are one of the true shining gems of baseball that really stand out.  The photo above is of Mark Buehrle after throwing his perfect game in 2009.  Perfect games make a no hitter look like fools gold in my opinion.  Both are great accomplishments, but there is something special about joining the perfect game club.

The youngest player to throw a perfect game is John Montgomery Ward(not to be confused with Alexander Montgomery Ward, of MW chain store fame), when he was just 20 years old in the 1800s.  Randy Johnson is the oldest pitcher to throw a perfect game, at age 40.

Armando Galarraga came as close as you really can to throwing a perfect game last year.  He got what appeared to be the 27th out to complete the perfecto, when Umpire Joyce called the runner safe.  He promptly got the next batter out for what many fans of the game will always consider the "28-out perfect game."  Maybe a poorer quality pitcher can throw a perfect game once in a blue moon.

Galarraga was traded to the Diamondbacks for minor leaguers.  This year he's 3-4 with a 5.91 ERA and Major League leading 13 home runs allowed.  Today, he was designated for assignment.  This really makes the story of what happened to him on the blown call even worse, because he doesn't even have the perfect game to take with him into the sunset.

All in all, a no hitter is really nice, but a perfect game is a masterpiece.  The list is so short, that it truly becomes a "club," who's members are lauded among the best pitchers in MLB history.  Only one really poor pitcher has thrown a perfect game, Charlie Robertson in 1922.  Other than Charlie, unless you count Armando's, the club includes exclusively great pitchers in MLB history.

No matter how many no hitters have been thrown recently, the perfect game has not been watered down as an ultimate achievement.  Whether or not the no hitter has lost some of its luster due to the high volume of recent occurrences, most if not all baseball fans will always revere the perfect game as highly as the accomplishment deserves.

Christy Matthewson vs Big Ed Walsh

Most baseball fans with at least a little knowledge of its' history have heard of Christy Matthewson.  They will respond that he is a pitcher from a long time ago who was probably really good.  People with more knowledge of the game will tell you that Matthewson was one of the greatest pitchers in the game's history.

However, most people, even some people with extensive knowledge of baseball history, will miss another great pitcher when asked.  His name is Ed Walsh and he pitched during the same time frame as Christy, but in opposite leagues.  Matthewson pitched for the New York Giants, while Ed Walsh played for the White Sox.

During Christy's career, the Giants were probably the best overall team in the NL.  They won the NL Pennant five times, finished in 2nd five times, and won a World Series title.  They lost in three other World Series, and did not play in the 1904 World Series, refusing to embrace that there was any other title to be won other than the National League pennant.  Over the span of 1900-1915, the Giants won over 90 games 9 times, with four 100+ win seasons.

Ed Walsh played for the White Sox, who were not nearly the class of the American League.  Despite winning the World Series in 1906, the Sox over Ed's career only won 90 games three times with no 100 win seasons.  They won just the won league pennant and had just one second place finish.  This being said, the wins each pitcher was able to rack up in their career are drastically different, but almost exclusively due to the teams for which they played.

	IP	CG	W	L	ERA	WHIP	K	K/9	H/9
Ed Walsh	2964.1	250	195	126	1.82	1.00	1736	5.3	7.1
Matthewson	4788.2	435	373	188	2.13	1.058	2507	4.7	7.9

As you can see, in non-accumulative statistics such as H/9, K/9, WHIP and ERA, Ed Walsh bests Christy Matthewson.  Christy wins all of the accumulative statistics, but mainly because he was on a better team and pitched a lot more innings.  Had Ed Walsh pitched for the Giants, it is likely that his win total would have been much higher.  It should be pointed out that Ed Walsh's career ERA of 1.82 is the lowest career ERA for any starting pitcher in MLB history.

When we break down great statistics each put up in individual seasons, we see that Ed has an edge on Christy in a lot of areas.  Both threw two no hitters, although one of Ed Walsh's no hitters was a 5 inning no hitter no longer counted by MLB.  Ed Walsh had a 40 win season in 1908; Christy won 37 that same year which was also his best season for wins.  In 1909, Ed Walsh didn't give up any home runs; Matthewson never had a no home runs allowed season.

Christy Matthewson gets credit for inventing or at least perfecting a pitch that at the least resembled a screwball.  He called it his fadeaway pitch.  While Ed Walsh didn't invent a pitch, he threw a nasty spitball that most in the league thought was right at the top as one of the best.  Neither player won a MVP, but both finished 2nd in MVP voting once.

Overall, I believe that we should throw out wins/losses and any accumulative statistics and just use the statistics that are based on what each pitcher does per-game or per-year.  ERA, WHIP, K/9, H/9, and when doing this, it becomes clear that Ed Walsh was a slightly superior pitcher to Christy Matthewson.

Christy will always get more accolades from baseball fans because his name is more well known, but Ed Walsh has him topped in my opinion and should definitely be as highly regarded as Matthewson.  I'm not saying Christy wasn't one of the greatest of all time, but that people should know that Ed Walsh was a little greater.  Oh and there should definitely be an Ed Walsh statue at US Cellular Field, since he was the White Sox' best pitcher ever and all.

White Sox: An April To Forget

So this isn't the start anybody wanted.  This is about as close to the worst it could have been.  The White Sox find themselves amazingly in only second to last place in the AL Central after going 10-18.  Somehow the Twins have managed to be worse than the Sox.  There were very few bright moments and a whole lot more of the negative variety.  To sum April up, I wrote a brief Haiku, which as you remember from grade school is a poem of three lines in a 5-7-5 syllable pattern.

Offense is inept

Dyslexia in standings

Please fire Greg Walker

These are pretty much my sentiments in a nutshell.  I mean how do we expect to win if we can't hit, we can't field and we can't run the bases?  It's been bad just about everywhere in the game it can be bad.  First of all, the bullpen has struggled.  Despite Santos and Crain pitching solid, Thornton and Sale have struggled.  Thornton has struggled more than anyone, and at this point we don't even know if he can get AN out when he comes in.

The starting pitching has been ok.  While they have had their share of poor starts, they've had a lot more good starts overall.  Starting pitchers have pitched a little over 6 1/3 innings per start with a respectable 4.34 ERA.  Poor Philip Humber has a 3.06 ERA, but just a 2-3 record to show for it.  Gavin Floyd is the only starter who is having success, somehow going 3-1 with a 3.60 ERA.  Buehrle and Jackson haven't been very good, going a combined 3-6 with a 6.68 ERA.  John Danks has been screwed by run support in 4 of his 6 starts, going 0-4 with a 3.92 ERA.  By screwed, I mean giving up 3 or less runs and not getting wins.

The hitting has been non-existent after the first 7 games.  Through the first 7 games, the White Sox scored a ML best 52 runs.  After, they have been at the bottom of the league in runs scored.  As noted in my last post, they are the worst in the AL in Potential Runs Scored %.  It's been really bad.  The Sox are hitting just .239 and are scoring just 3 runs per game.  To put it in perspective, the White Sox have scored 110 runs, and scored 15 runs on Opening Day.  The White Sox scored 13% of their season runs in that one game.

Yep, the season got off to a bang.  15 runs vs Cleveland.  Then the Sox beat Cleveland again the next day and won the series 2 out of 3.  Cleveland then shot off, and went on a tear going 17-6 since.  The White Sox have gone 8-17 since.  The Indians are in first place and really look good for a young team.  Nobody is really hitting all that special except for Travis Hafner who has rediscovered himself at the plate so far.

Cleveland is winning with pitching.  Josh Tomlin has a 4-0 record with a 2.45 ERA and microscopic WHIP of 0.909.  Justin Masterson is 5-0 with a 2.18 ERA.  Fausto Carmona has been struggling and inconsistent, but they have really picked it up for him.  Their bullpen has been steady, with 6 saves, a 4-2 record and 3.35 ERA.  Can Cleveland keep up this kind of pitching?  Who knows, but certainly no other team in the AL Central wants to jump up and take their top spot from them.

One player for the Sox who has been the biggest disappointment in my mind is Adam Dunn.  The Sox paid a lot of money to bring in the slugger who can put up big time numbers.  He has put up at least 38 HRs for the last several years, he has just 2 in April.  He had an emergency appendectomy, so I am inclined to cut him a little slack; however, he has really struggled before and after he was back.  

Dunn's batting line is .160/.300/.267.  Yeah, that's an OPS of just .567.  Omar Vizquel has a higher OPS(.633) with just 1 double, no triples and no home runs.  Dunn has been a complete waste at the plate, K-ing 31 times.  The next highest for the Sox is Beckham who has 20 Ks.  If you combine Quentin and Konerko's Ks, they only beat Dunn by 2.  I knew he would K a lot, but I also was under the impression that when he made contact, it would be good contact and it hasn't been.

Defense has been bad.  Defense has lead directly to more than a few of our losses.  Some in particular are blown saves by Thornton that were heavily related to defense by Juan Pierre and others.  Thornton has blown saves on his own but a few of his saves were defense related failures.  MLB.com has a newer statistic called Defensive Efficiency Rating(DER).  It's a bunch of computer calculations that conclude "expected outs" and then what we actually do and gives us a percentage of the time we get outs when we should.  White Sox are 28th in MLB at this with .6965 DER.  We're the worst in the AL.

The Sox are making me not want to watch baseball anymore.  I love baseball and I will watch, but not them.  I refuse to watch the White Sox until they win a series.  If they don't prove to me that they can win, I won't give them the satisfaction of my viewership.  It's not because I'm a bad fan, it's because I'm such a good fan that I am holding my team accountable for poor play.

This has really been an April to forget, maybe April showers will bring May flowers?  Just hope May doesn't bring Tyler Flowers, he sucks.  It will be a very long summer if this doesn't get turned around.