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Are Playoff Radar Guns Blowing Smoke?

vtmet Oct 12 2006 11:52 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Oct 12 2006 11:58 PM

[url]http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/playoffs/2006-10-12-radar-love_x.htm[/url] New York Mets scout Bob Johnson, sitting behind home plate, looked up at the McAfee Coliseum scoreboard Tuesday night during Game 1 of the American League Championship Series, did a double take and burst out laughing. The radar gun reading flashed 97 ... for Oakland Athletics reliever Joe Kennedy. "That gun had to be soaked in greenies," Johnson says. "There was not a chance he was throwing 97. He tops out at 93 mph. He's never thrown that hard in his life. "Fans love velocity, but when you see some of these numbers, especially the screwy ones late in the game, all you can do is laugh." {a really long but good article, only put the first few paragraphs up}

vtmet Oct 12 2006 11:55 PM

IMO playoff radar guns have been tainted for years...I remember the first WS that the Marlins won, FOX guns had just about every Marlins pitcher hitting 95+ mph with even Dennis Cook hitting 98 mph...Tonight, every fastball from Mota & Wagner was showing 97/98/100 mph...and even Jeff Weaver and that lefty Johnson were throwing 93+ mph on every fastball...with 88 mph changeups...

Edgy DC Oct 13 2006 12:07 AM

Fans don't love velocity. The people who bring you Fox News at 11 ("Coming up... stuff that could fucking kill you!") love velocity.

Nymr83 Oct 13 2006 12:14 AM

i dont think its the playoffs, its a season-long thing. i've seen Wang clocked at 98 MPH at yankee stadium, give me a break.

Valadius Oct 13 2006 12:19 AM

Of course it's juiced, Fox loves it so much that they turn the radar readout orange when it gets, what, 97 or over?

Gwreck Oct 13 2006 01:11 AM

Wagner was shown at 97 on the Shea scoreboard, which is pretty consistent through the season. Haven't seen him top 97 anytime this year at Shea, and certainly not tonight.

Willets Point Oct 13 2006 01:19 AM

Edgy DC wrote: Fans don't love velocity. The people who bring you Fox News at 11 ("Coming up... stuff that could fucking kill you if you don't vote Republican!") love velocity.

Edgy DC Oct 13 2006 01:54 AM

I didn't write that. Wait, let me check...

Valadius Oct 13 2006 01:57 AM

Wagner definitely was shown as throwing 99 on Fox, and I believe they went up to 100 at least once.

Yancy Street Gang Oct 13 2006 08:00 AM

I think Joe Buck said something about the inflated numbers on their radar guns. I don't listen all that closely, but I think he made some kind of a skeptical wisecrack. Fans don't love velocity? Some do. I don't pay too much attention to the radar readings, but you can't say people didn't get a kick out of how fast Bob Feller and Nolan Ryan threw the ball.

Edgy DC Oct 13 2006 08:32 AM

That's relative velocity, and witnessable to the naked eye. Numbers on a gun lose meaning when everybody is throwing 98-102. When everybody's fast, nobody's fast. I guess what I meant is fans don't buy the crap.

Yancy Street Gang Oct 13 2006 08:34 AM

True. When I saw that Mota registered a 97, I didn't get excited, I got dismissive.

Frayed Knot Oct 13 2006 09:12 AM

]I think Joe Buck said something about the inflated numbers on their radar guns. I don't listen all that closely, but I think he made some kind of a skeptical wisecrack. He said, 'I think they got those guns from BALCO' (or something along those lines)

Johnny Dickshot Oct 13 2006 09:14 AM

That's also where Joe got his fake low voice. He's a phony. The game gave him an awesomely dramatic moment and he too-cool-for-schooled it.

Frayed Knot Oct 13 2006 09:19 AM

Meanwhile on the radio side, all those inclined to treat Gary's 2-inning drop in to the booth as a federal crime will be pissed to learn that the Beltran HR fell during his p-b-p inning and therefore it's he - rather than Howie or Tom - who has the signature call of the series so far. heh, heh, heh

seawolf17 Oct 13 2006 09:20 AM

There's something to that "fans love velocity" thing. Didn't Philly fans get all worked up every time Wagner hit 100 on the gun when he first signed there? I even think he made some comment about it.

MFS62 Oct 13 2006 10:11 AM

Velocity is nice. But we all know that chicks dig the long ball. Stu Miller would probably have registered 95 on that gun. Later

metirish Oct 13 2006 10:15 AM

]There's something to that "fans love velocity" thing. Didn't Philly fans get all worked up every time Wagner hit 100 on the gun when he first signed there? I even think he made some comment about it. They booed him when he didn't reach 100 on the gun....more on this in the Times http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/sports/baseball/13sandomir.html?ref=sports

Edgy DC Oct 13 2006 10:41 AM

I guess I wrote with far less nuance last night than I should have. I don't mean what I literally wrote, that fans aren't impressed by extreme performances. They are, of course. But fans of any reasonable sophistication pick up on it a lot sooner than entertainment purveyors give them credit for when they're getting played by a surfeit of artificial extreme perfomances --- juiced home runs, dialed up radar gun numbers, fake boobs, trend-chasing uniforms, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor's booze consumption in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. They're doing a dis-service if they aim the product at nine-year-olds and it's outré by the time they're 13. But wrestling never lacks for fans, so what do I know?

metirish Oct 13 2006 10:57 AM

Not surprising that the article in the Times claims that the FOX gun was generally 3mph faster than the scoreboard gun during the Tigers and A's series.