This stuff would be funnier if it weren’t so viciously sad. I guess it’s nice that they have each other; probably it helps to have someone around as delusional as you are when you’re scrapping to stay divorced from reality.
If you’re unfamiliar, Taco In a Helmet is Digital Domain Park’s most legendary concession — and that’s saying something, because this place has a Tiki bar, funnel cake, decent-looking pizza and char-grilled hot dogs, hamburgers and pretzels. I’ll probably sample most of those things in the coming weeks, but only Taco In a Helmet merits a TedQuarters video exclusive.
If I seem distracted during the open, it’s because some friendly fellows just off camera were alternately chanting “TED! TED! TED!” and “TACO! TACO! TACO!” So that was awesome. Other distractions include: forthcoming Taco In a Helmet.
I just realized it’s the weekend and I haven’t had any notable sandwiches, but I’ll try to eat something impressive by tomorrow for Sandwich of the Week. I’ve got my eye on a bit of a road trip for a decent Cuban because I don’t think anyone’s that eager to read my write-up of the Captain Morgan Caribbean Conga-Line Chicken Sandwich from T.G.I. Friday’s. If you don’t see it here by tomorrow night, just wait longer.
I heard a strange sound coming from the Mets’ batting cages yesterday so I walked by to check it out. Jason Bay was in the box with a coach feeding tennis balls through a pitching machine. Bay wasn’t swinging much. The odd noise was the hollow tennis balls popping through the machine at high speeds.
I asked Bay about it during batting practice this morning. Turns out what he was using was the “ocular enhancer” machine the team agreed to lease as part of Carlos Beltran’s contract. The machine fires tennis balls with red or black numbers on them at speeds up to 150 mph. Players stand in the box and try to read the color and number on the balls.
“The eyes can be trained, like any muscle,” Bay said. “You can take a few cuts, but it’s mostly for tracking.”
Bay added that after watching pitches at 120 and 130 mph, a 90 mph fastball looks like it’s floating toward the plate.
I spoke to Beltran about the machine a few minutes later. He said it’s something he has been using since he was introduced to it in Kansas City, and that he uses it all season long.
Beltran said he can’t read the numbers when they’re coming it at 130, but when they slow down to 85 or 90 he can.
“It’s fun,” he said. “If you believe it can help you, it will help you.”
At the newest blog in this here SNY.tv blog network, Mike Salfino provides some reason for optimism about 36-year-old R.A. Dickey’s future in baseball.
Bob knows more about pitching than I do:
Every year at Spring Training, equipment manufacturers show up and set up displays outside locker rooms to try to sell players on their gear. I stopped at a table full of bats that looked cool.
The company works mostly in maple, and I got into a conversation with the representative about MLB’s new restrictions on maple bats, most of which are detailed here. The guy (who obviously has a horse in the race) seemed reasonably perturbed by the league’s decision to contract out its research to a company — TECO — that tests building timber but has no experience with sports equipment.
Among the more noticeable new maple-bat policies: All maple bats will have an ink dot on the handle to measure the slope of the grain on the wood. The grain should be as even as possible to prevent shattering, so if the ink bleeds too far diagonally, the bat cannot be used.
Also: Apparently every maple bat sold for the pro level must be tracked with an individual serial number so, if necessary, it can be traced back to its source sampling. The bat-company guy couldn’t figure out why that information might be useful, but it will be available. I guess for research purposes?
The guy said he thinks a big reason so many bats — maple and otherwise — break these days is that players grow up playing with thin-handled metal bats and expect the same in their lumber. He showed me how much more balanced a bat with more evenly distributed weight (and thus a thicker handle) feels, but said it’s a struggle to convince baseball players to commit to anything besides what they’re accustomed to.
Man I hope he makes the Nats. <3 Matt Stairs. Via Deadspin.
I had a chance to talk to Josh Thole and Mike Nickeas in the locker room this morning. I’ve noticed that none of the Mets’ catchers in camp use the new goalie-style catcher’s masks, which I’ve found way more comfortable than the traditional helmet-and-facemask combo in my limited experience.
Thole said he found the new mask a bit too heavy, and that he tried it out for a while after he had a concussion but didn’t think it made much of a difference. He said that getting hit in the face with a fastball is going to hurt no matter what mask you’re wearing.
Nickeas said he thought the goalie-style masks offered slightly better vision, but that — and this was something I hadn’t considered — their contours make a ball off the face ricochet back toward the backstop, whereas the traditional version is flatter and so tends to knock the ball forward.
So if you’ve ever wondered about that, there’s that.
Rich Coutinho sits down with the man:
Tedquarters 