Four-seamer, 2-seamer, change-up, curveball, slider, split-finger, forkball, knuckleball. I ran into this 1-page pdf file from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer from a few years back. You get photos of exactly how to grip the ball, and a description and diagram of how to throw it and what each pitch does. It definitely cleared up some questions for me ... maybe for you, too?

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/pdf/pitchingpage.pdf

There was a diary several weeks ago about the worst trades in MLB history. I believe this one was mentioned deep in one of the posts, but it just doesn't get the credit, and in my personal opinion, I consider it truly horrific, the worst trade the Indians ever made ... and, of course, it was a Frank Lane special, way worse than trading Rocky for Harvey Kuenn (although that was bad enough).

After the close 1959 pennant race, where the White Sox edged out the Indians, on Dec. 6, 1959, Lane pulled a gem. He got John Romano, Bubba Phillips, and Norm Cash from the White Sox for Minnie Minoso (nearing the end of his productive career), Dick Brown, Jake Striker, & Don Ferrarese.

Even without Cash - Romano & Phillips made that a great trade for the Tribe. And, of course, it WAS without Cash. Because on April 12, 1960, 5 days before he traded Colavito to the Tigers, Lane sent Norm Cash to Detroit in exchange for Steve Demeter.

So Cash never played a game for the Tribe. He played first base for Detroit for 15 years, hitting 373 homeruns with 1087 RBI. He had 1025 walks and 1082 Ks in his years with Detroit. His career OBP was .374 ... this by a guy as slow as Colavito. He finished as high as #4 in the MVP voting (1961), and he was in the voting 6 times.

Demeter played 4 games for the Indians, 5 ABs, no hits, and his major league career was over.

Maybe Lane's focus was on his income tax return. He sure had a helluva bad week. You really can't top this one.

Sometimes it seems the Indians are pretty unlucky. It hasn't always been that way.

I was watching "The Monty Stratton Story" on AMC this week. Gene Bearden appeared as himself, having once pitched against Stratton. I remembered a bit about Bearden. Curious, I went to baseball-reference.com.

Did you know ...

1948 was Bearden's rookie season. He won 20, lost 7. He struck out 80 and walked 106! For his career (6 years), Bearden struck out 259 and walked 435. He won 1 WS game against the Braves. As I recall, his 20th win of the season was the playoff game against the Red Sox.

1948 was Bearden's only winning season in the Majors. He never again won more than 8 games, which is easy to believe with his BB:K ratio.

We talk a lot about how unlucky the Indians are. You can certainly make a case that they used up all their luck in 1948, winning the WS with Gene Bearden as their star pitcher.

Baseball has stats for everything else. How about "most homeruns hit against your former team the first game after being traded"?

Choo probably finishes 2nd.

First (that I know of) was Dick Williams, who later won 2 or 3 World Series managing the A's. In midseason of 1957, he was traded from the Orioles to the Tribe.

And, of course, they were playing each other. So in his first game, Williams - who had 7 homeruns for the whole season - hit 2 homers against the Orioles.

He didn't do anything the rest of the year, but he sure made a great first impression. He was traded again after the season.

Hopefully, Choo gives a better return long-term.