The Old Man and the Se--Baseball

For those who have already watched at least some sports coverage over the past 12 hours, some of you already know that some baseball history was made last night. Phillies starting pitcher Jamie Moyer, at the age of 47, has become the oldest non-knuckleball pitcher in MLB to throw a shutout. The last non-knuckleballer to do so? Satchel Paige...in 1952. Paige was 46 years, 75 days when he did this, and obviously he wasn't in the league for very long (he was stuck in the Negro Leagues forever because "white" people were stupid back then)--but that's another rant for a different kind of blog. Actually, this isn't the first time that Moyer has pitched a two-hit shutout, his first one occurring in 1986 against the Montreal Expos--24 years ago.

When hearing of his etching into baseball history, this was Moyer's response:
"Cool."
Made me smile. It did. Goes to show how modest the guy is. From a Philadelphia resident, seeing a guy from around the Philadelphia area make history (he's a St. Joe's product--I don't go there, but my cousin does) it gives a lot of people around here joy.


Okay, now with that all aside, I have a lot of questions and whatnot. Like these: "How do some of the Braves guys feel on getting two-hit by a 47-year old?" "How much did Bobby Cox swear last night?" "After a while, did the Phillies on the bench feel like spectators watching history?" Let's take a look at these from my perspective.

"How do some of the Braves guys feel on getting two-hit by a 47-year old?"
Watching Moyer pitch, you can tell he doesn't throw hard at all. I think his fastball amounts to around 80mph now, and his cutter comes in around 72-74mph, so obviously he's not a hard thrower, and supposedly he never really was even when he first debuted in 1986. Don't get me wrong, it's hard to hit a fast pitcher like Randy Johnson, but that doesn't mean it's easy to hit a slow pitcher like Moyer. Stuff on either end of the spectrum can really throw off your timing. Aside from getting brutally owned, I think that the Braves offense really respected and commended Jamie on his feat of making them look stupid last night. Shoot, Moyer actually had a three-pitch 2nd inning last night (leadoff base hit, first pitch 6-3 DP, first pitch groundout).
On Twitter, I read this about what Chipper Jones said last night after the game. I found it to be really funny: (From ToddZolecki's Twitter account)
"Jamie carved tonight. ... The guy is 87 years-old and he’s still pitching for a reason. ... That's about as well-pitched of a game by a guy who throws 80 mph that I've ever seen."
Hahahaha. 87. Silly Larry.

"How much did Bobby Cox swear last night?"








Now we all know that Bobby Cox can go from zero to sailor mouth in 1.6 seconds, but he thought that was quite a feat last night.
From Braves.com:
"I thought he was tough tonight, I really did," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "I know we don't have Escobar in there and Heyward and McCann, and Chipper is not real hot right now, but I thought he pitched great.
So let me get this straight, Bob, if you had your guys at their best, this wouldn't have happened? Okay...making excuses for your team is one thing, but you still commended him for "pitching great." Then again, it almost sounds like you're saying your team sucks and Moyer proved that last night. I don't know. I really feel bad that he has to do a lot of team rebuilding from the ground up in his last managing season.

"After a while, did the Phillies on the bench feel like spectators watching history?"
I don't care whether you're Charlie Manuel, Roy Halladay, Milt Thompson, Gary Matthews, Dan Baker, or the fat guy with the beer and obnoxious laugh sitting two rows behind you at seemingly every baseball game. Last night must have been cool to everyone watching it there. Kind of makes me jealous that I wasn't there to witness it myself. Even Roy Halladay doesn't think he'll be pitching at 47. He says he'll be "Fishing." I never fished. Anyway... Everything went right for Moyer last night, and everyone knew it. They just wanted to help him out and let him know how special he actually is.

I bet right now Joe Blanton's thinking that magic from last night will rub off on him too so that he can pitch the same this afternoon against Atlanta.

--AZ