Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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I took a lot of photos at the games I went to this year; most of them didn't make it to the web site. I thought I'd start posting some of the outtakes, maybe one a day, to help us get through the winter.
Here's the first one, of Akinori Otsuka, taken on April 16:
Akinori's balance looks perfect. That's interesting in and of itself, but I'm more interested in the umpire.
My question is this: why do umpires wear their pants too long? You always see them doing what this umpire does: pulling their pants up as they crouch into position, because otherwise, they might step on their own pants. Wouldn't it be better if their pants were an inch or two shorter?
Stand up. Bend at the waist and pinch your pants at the knee. Still pinching, sit or squat. See where your pinch is now? The habit of hiking up ones pants before squating is simply in anticipation that movement.
(I also think Rickey Henderson used to tug at the thighs of his pants when getting into his basestealing squat, and that had a big effect on me--though I also recall that he wore his pants skin tight, so I could be misremembering something)
He used to do the Nomar thing too - where he would lift his feet and bang his toes into the ground, while taking a lead.
I used to get a kick out of that.
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