\u201cThe uphill plane \u2014 and, really, his ability to move like that with an uphill plane \u2014 is unique,\u201d Blank said. \u201cHe\u2019s able to actually create the upload point by getting down the mound and not compensating with his body to get there. That\u2019s the unique piece of it. So you still see that clean delivery, but he\u2019s somehow releasing it from a much lower height than normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opponents have hit just .147 off Woo\u2019s four-seamer this season. He\u2019s prone to home runs because he emphasizes high fastballs, but more often than not, that style helps him dominate.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe locates it extremely well at the top part of the zone, so he\u2019s elite at doing that one thing,\u201d Blank said. \u201cAnd then you add in the velo component, and he\u2019s 95-plus most of the time. A guy (like that) pitching at the top of the zone, he\u2019s going to get a good amount of whiff.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, the extra whiff that he gets, that\u2019s the part we don\u2019t understand fully. So that\u2019s the deceptive piece. And maybe it\u2019s because he\u2019s got a two-seamer that works in the opposite direction. It\u2019s hard to explain, but hitters feel it, and we\u2019ve seen it play out over and over.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Woo, the last component was convincing himself to be the type of pitcher he\u2019s become. Since Raleigh challenged him last summer<\/a> to find a better routine and last longer in games, Woo has embraced the persona completely.<\/p>\n Starting pitching may never return to the 300- or even 250-inning benchmarks of the past. But for how the job has evolved, going six or seven innings every start is a remarkable achievement.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s talked about enough now with pitching \u2014 going deep into games and innings,\u201d Woo said. \u201cA lot of it\u2019s just about strikeouts and velo and all that stuff. Being a workhorse is something that\u2019s hard to quantify beyond innings, but I think the team feels it, the staff feels it, the coaches, the bullpen. It\u2019s something that I take pride in.\u201d<\/p>\n A Hall of Fame name lives on<\/p>\n According to the United States Social Security Administration, the name Ryan was the 11th most popular for boys born in 1991. That summer, in St. Louis, Ryne Stanek\u2019s parents decided to change the spelling to honor Ryne Sandberg, the National League\u2019s starting second baseman in the All-Star Game that month.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were going to name me \u2018Ryan\u2019 regardless, but wanted to spell it like that,\u201d said Stanek, a veteran Mets reliever. \u201cMy dad just respected the way he played and liked him as a player \u2014 obviously didn\u2019t like the Cubs, but liked him.\u201d<\/p>\n It takes a strong reputation for a Cardinals fan to name his son after a Cubs superstar. But that was the appeal of Sandberg, the Hall of Famer who died last month<\/a>, at age 65, from metastatic prostate cancer. Sandberg\u2019s nephew, Jared Sandberg, was Stanek\u2019s manager with the Triple-A Durham Bulls. But he never had the chance to meet his namesake.<\/p>\n Ryne Stanek reacts during an appearance against the Brewers last month. (Brad Penner-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n \u201cAll you heard about him was nothing but great things,\u201d Stanek said. \u201cJust very much what people would consider now to be an old-school or a purist mindset is what I gathered: You play hard, you respect the game, you do the right things.\u201d<\/p>\n Only five players named Ryne have ever reached the majors: Ryne Duren<\/a>, a near-sighted \u201950s relief ace whose given name was Rinold; Sandberg (who was named after Duren); and three recent pitchers \u2014 Stanek, Ryne Nelson of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Ryne Harper, who pitched for Minnesota and Washington from 2019 to 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s cool to have something that you\u2019re almost attached to since birth,\u201d Stanek said. \u201cIt feels like destiny, a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n Nelson \u2014 who was also named for Sandberg<\/a> as a twist on the name Ryan \u2014 is having a solid year for Arizona (6-3, 3.58 ERA in 113 innings), and Stanek has pitched in two World Series across a workmanlike nine-year career.<\/p>\n But any future Rynes, Stanek said, will probably have to be named for Sandberg.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll go out on a limb,\u201d he said. \u201cNobody\u2019s probably naming their kids after me and Ryne Nelson.\u201d<\/p>\n Gimme FiveLife lessons from Clint Hurdle<\/p>\n The Colorado Rockies were the first team to clinch a losing record for 2025, naturally, but they\u2019ve quietly had a respectable second half. After winning just two series before the All-Star break, they won four of their first nine series after it. That won\u2019t lift the Rockies out of last place, but the modern benchmarks for futility \u2014 the 1962 Mets (.250 winning percentage) and 2024 White Sox (121 losses) \u2014 seem safe.<\/p>\n Clint Hurdle, the interim bench coach who managed the Rockies to their only World Series appearance in 2007, is a reminder of better times. He is also a new author, with \u201cHurdle-isms: Wit and Wisdom from a Lifetime in Baseball\u201d<\/a> published in February.<\/p>\n In an interview before a Rockies game earlier this season, Hurdle \u2014 who sends a \u201cdaily encouragement\u201d email to scores of friends around the game \u2014 shared five lessons to live by.<\/p>\n There\u2019s two kinds of people in life and in sport \u2014 those that are humble and those that are about to be. \u201cWe\u2019ve been humbled. But you have to have courage. Through the humility, you can build courage. And we\u2019re learning from that position of humility, which I think can provide you with a better foundation moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Shower well at the end of the night. \u201cHonestly self-evaluate what went right, what didn\u2019t go right, but then go and wash it all off. Because you\u2019re going somewhere \u2014 whether it\u2019s (with) your wife and kids, whether it\u2019s (with) friends and family \u2014 and the next day is a new opportunity. You\u2019ve got to show up fresh for that new opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019re hired to do the work now. \u201cWe\u2019re not promised to get to sit by the pool and sip lemonade at the end of the day. I\u2019m here to do the work now. I don\u2019t know what next year\u2019s going to bring, but I\u2019m not focused on next year. I\u2019m going to be the best version of myself, to coach, to lead, to do what\u2019s asked of me while I\u2019m here. And by modeling that example, hopefully that rubs off on the players. That\u2019s their responsibility as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Life\u2019s not fair \u2014 the only thing fair in life\u2019s a ball hit between first and third. \u201cAnd the thing that makes it fair is that it\u2019s not fair for everybody. How you react and how you adapt to what\u2019s not fair speaks to your integrity and your character.\u201d<\/p>\n Have a white-belt mentality and never stop learning. \u201cThe white-belt mentality comes from karate. I was the manager of the Rockies and my son wanted nothing to do with baseball. So he starts with karate. He was just a beginner, he was nine. He goes, \u2018Dad, I got the white belt. It\u2019s the best belt \u2014 you know why?\u2019 I said, \u2018No.\u2019 He said, \u2018Because it means I get to learn everything about this.\u2019 So that white-belt mentality really helps.\u201d<\/p>\n Off the GridBob \u201cHurricane\u201d Hazle \u2014 Braves\/.300 season<\/p>\n For the .300 season category on the Immaculate Grid, I often think of players who hit very well in partial duty \u2014 a guy who singled in his only at-bat, like Jeff Banister in 1991<\/a>, or a free agent-to-be who surged after a trade, like Mark Teixeira with the Angels in 2008.<\/p>\n So, on Monday, when the Grid called for a Braves player who hit .300, Bob \u201cHurricane\u201d Hazle<\/a> was the pick. (And not just because it\u2019s hurricane season.) Called up to the Milwaukee Braves in late July 1957, Hazle was an instant sensation.<\/p>\n A month after his promotion, Hazle was somehow hitting .507, with 34 hits in 67 at-bats. He slammed five homers and had an otherworldly 1.407 OPS.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem possible that anyone can keep up such a pace,\u201d teammate Red Schoendienst told The New York Times. \u201cBut right now the kid is Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams all wrapped in one.\u201d<\/p>\n The magic lasted right through the World Series. Hazle hit .403 in the regular season (54 for 134), and in Game 7 of the World Series, at Yankee Stadium, his single off Don Larsen sparked a four-run rally and sent the Braves to a 5-0 victory. It was their only championship between 1914 in Boston and 1995 in Atlanta.<\/p>\n Hazle \u2014 who got his nickname from the actual Hurricane Hazel, which had struck his native South Carolina three years earlier \u2014 faded as quickly as he arrived. In a 1958 season disrupted by two beanballs, he batted just .211 with the Braves and Detroit Tigers. He retired from the minors two years later, washed up at 29.<\/p>\n Thirty years after Hazle\u2019s indelible summer, writer David Lamb found him in South Carolina, working as a traveling whiskey salesman. The Braves had given Hazle a skimpy bonus for his 1957 heroics \u2014 just $1,000 \u2014 and he left the sport bitter. But while Hazle could never explain his moment of glory, he always treasured it.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t doing anything different; it was just that everything was working for me,\u201d Hazle told Lamb, in the Los Angeles Times. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to wake up. Gosh, that was a good life.\u201d<\/p>\n Classic clipBob Uecker and the \u201cMr. Belvedere\u201d All-Stars, 1989<\/p>\n The Milwaukee Brewers will celebrate the life of Bob Uecker on Sunday, when they host the San Francisco Giants at American Family Field. Among the attendees will be Uecker\u2019s co-stars from \u201cMr. Belvedere,\u201d<\/a> the ABC sitcom that ran from 1985 to 1990.<\/p>\n The first episode of the final season, which ran on Sept. 16, 1989, was a tribute to Uecker\u2019s clout. Only the most beloved .200 hitter could have assembled such a staggering guest list: Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Johnny Bench, Reggie Jackson, Harmon Killebrew, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays\u2026 and Robert Goulet (he owned the field, you see).<\/p>\n Those eight, plus Uecker, play a sandlot game against a bunch of kids. They\u2019re not especially spry, and the jokes are pretty painful. But if you thought \u201cThe Simpsons\u201d had the best single-episode collection of baseball talent in 1992\u2019s celebrated \u201cHomer At The Bat\u201d<\/a> \u2014 you\u2019re way off.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/USATSI_26582654-scaled.jpg\")
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