Comments on: The lovable, anachronistic bullpen phone

By: cshearing

cshearing — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:06:00 +0000

That’s exactly what I thought when I was reading this.

By: dmccarrie

dmccarrie — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:01:01 +0000

Ironic that this was posted before last night’s bullpen communications debacle.

By: unclemosesgreen

unclemosesgreen — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 10:31:51 +0000

Moe Drabowsky. http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060618/news_lz1j18drawow.html

Us Moe’s gotta stick together.

By: jwbiii

jwbiii — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 06:21:37 +0000

My wife is a 911 operator in the Chicago area. If you call from a cell phone and can’t/don’t give a location, it takes about a half hour to triangulate the signal. Obviously, during that time, your status may have changed from hospital case to coroner’s office case.

By: alexb64

alexb64 — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:29:43 +0000

No cell carrier would ever want that exposure for chance of the first nationally televised moment where a call to the bullpen was dropped & a pitcher’s tosses were delayed.

I worked for a talk show for a few years back & a cell carrier sponsored an interview segment on the show, they paid a pretty good amount for it but their insistence was no interviewee ever be calling in from a cell phone because they didn’t want people to associate their name with dropped calls. So its kinda funny, it would be like if Pepsi was doing commercials with people actually drinking but insisted that no one actually be drinking Pepsi in case they openly didn’t care for the taste.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:41:02 +0000

Watching baby beluga’s at Tadussac is not on my buckett list.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:07:13 +0000

Vífill Atlason. He was calling George Bush, but he got a wrong number.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:04:29 +0000

And on this day in 2011, the Jays play at the Rogers Center, and any member of the team who allows himself to be photographed using a land line may be exiled to Tadussac to dispatch whale watching day cruises.

By: thegonz13

thegonz13 — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:19:50 +0000

@ Panda Claus… I don’t care, I don’t have to!

By: WhenMattStairsIsKing

WhenMattStairsIsKing — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:14:46 +0000

I’m glad bullpen phones are still around as they are. It would be way too bizarre to see a bullpen coach being called by the manager on an iPhone or Droid.

By: Panda Claus

Panda Claus — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:14:31 +0000

If Bud Selig could get away with it, he’d install those crank-up phones and have every team hire a Lily Tomlin operator for each home game.

By: clydeserra

clydeserra — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:14:23 +0000

If the point is communication with one specific place, what is the problem? I guess skype to see into the pen may be useful, but as I recall MLB doesn’t allow video in the dugout.

Putting in wireless equipment may be easier with a new stadium, but since all the stadiums are already wired, is there a problem?

By: bloodysock

bloodysock — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:14:01 +0000

There’s an app for that.

By: kopy

kopy — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:08:57 +0000

This is a long shot, but does anybody remember a prank phone call where a retired pitcher called his former team’s bullpen and pretended to be the manager and told a reliever to warm up? The ex-pitcher was calling from his couch, and just happened to remember the bullpen phone number. The funny part was the pitcher on the mound was spinning a gem, and got a little rattled when he saw his bullpen prematurely get active.

I know it happened because I read it in some sports-for-kids book in the early 90s, so it probably happened in the 80s. I’m like 60% sure it was the White Sox. It’s been bugging me to find the specifics.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:04:49 +0000

Memo to Craig. On this day in 1992, the Blue Jays defeated Craig’s beloved Braves and won their first World Series. Joe Carter was playing first base and recorded the final out. He gave the ball to Mike Timlin who still has it. A year later, Carter scored the final run in the 1993 World Series in memorable fashion. In 1992, Timlin was a young pitcher in the Jay’s pen and eagerly awaited that phone call to the pen.

By: halladaysbiceps

halladaysbiceps — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:45:20 +0000

Reminds me of a parody done by Joe Conklin (Philly fans know this local sports vice impersonation), impersonating the voice of Charlie Manuel at a 2010 sports awards dinner in Philly:

Charlie Manuel: “I was hoping that when I called down to the bullpen I was going to get voice mail…..Brad Lidge was like 7-11, he never closes.”

By: scareduck

scareduck — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:42:54 +0000

s/remember/remind/. Gah.

By: scareduck

scareduck — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:42:15 +0000

People keep talking about how obsolete landlines are and how those of us who continue to maintain them are so many fogies. I would like to remember the finger-pointing cell-only folk that

1) Cellular 911, at least in California, is a jurisdictional nightmare, with the result that I have — without exaggeration — spent upwards of half an hour on hold waiting to talk to a human. (I was once in an accident where this happened, and a random black-and-white cruised into the scene before I hung up on cellular 911.)

2) It is a fact that living close to two freeways, during drive time there are times I can’t get a cell. (Thank you, AT&T.)

3) If you need to call 911 from a landline, they know exactly where you are. With a cellphone? Hopefully your GPS had a good view of the sky before you went indoors.

By: thegonz13

thegonz13 — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:38:42 +0000

They’re useful to order beer and fried chicken from the clubhouse…