Jim Palmer

Piecing together an understanding of autism

2011-07-26T14:56:15Z

A few eagle-eyed MASN viewers have written to ask about the puzzle-piece lapel pin worn by color analyst Jim Palmer during recent broadcasts. In this edition of his MASNsports.com blog, Palmer explains the special significance of the accessory.

It's for autism awareness. My stepson is autistic - actually, Aspergers, which is supposedly a higher functioning form of the autism spectrum - and they're trying to figure out what causes autism. Nobody knows. It used to be one out of every 70 boys, but that number's come down. One out of every 110 kids; that number's come down. So it's much more prevalent. The puzzle (piece) is that they're looking for an answer.

I have a wonderful wife and anytime you're dealing with autism or Aspergers, it's 24/7 - it doesn't go away. Spencer is a little savant. He has a photographic memory and knows more about trains, or as much about trains, than anybody in the United States. He could go give a class - he could actually do that.

You know those Dos Equis ads about the most interesting man in the world? Well, I always say we have the most interesting 14-year-old boy sitting in the back seat, entertaining us. He can memorize dialogue, he can do impressions. But their brains are wired a little bit differently. ... They live in the world of autism, their own little world.

In Spencer's world, he can run an engine on his computer. Yesterday he was on the MetroLink (in California) - every Thursday, he goes from Fullerton to the downtown Los Angeles station and back. But they have new railroad cars so he actually went up into the engine and got to meet the engineer. He goes to Disneyland and Disneyworld because he knows all the engineers and knows about the trains. I do ESPN Weekend for Disney and ESPN in Orlando and I told them I'd do it if they got me in the roundhouse where they keep all the trains. ... We went back there and they were remodeling a 1950 train and he knew all the parts and he was discussing it with the engineer. They were laying on the ground and he was telling the guy, "That goes there," and so on.

He's a special little kid.

Hall of Fame pitcher tries "to tell them who I used to be"

2011-07-23T00:03:37Z

Because he's a MASN broadcaster, Hall of Famer Jim Palmer is often found in the home and visiting clubhouses at Camden Yards. In this edition of his MASNsports.com blog, Palmer explains what he's doing when he chats up pitchers and players - from visiting clubs or the O's - before games.

I used to be young. It's hard to believe, but I see Orioles and visitors' guys going through the same things (I did). My style of broadcasting is - obviously I work for the Orioles - but when I do games, and I did national games ... you watch a lot of TV (to scout). I taped Tuesday night's game and watched (Wednesday's) game live. I know (Los Angeles Angels manager) Mike Scioscia and played against him in spring training and it's just a way of staying in touch with the game and what you're trying to do. Knowledge is power, whether it's the Orioles or not, and you try to keep abreast of what's going on.

I'm not sure they always really know who I am. I always try to tell them who I used to be. I met (Boston's) Alfredo Aceves, who's from Mexico ... and somebody, when I was talking to him, said, "He used to pitch and he was good.'=" I sent him over a "Reggie ball" - Reggie Jackson used to have "Reggie Jackson, #44, Hall of Fame, Mr. October" - everything. So when I go up there to do games, we'll see if I run into him and he maybe knows now who I used to be.

When Cincinnati came in, I was talking to Dusty Baker when I did the Sunday game and (Edinson) Volquez had really struggled. He happened to walk by when I was talking to Dusty and we were talking about him and I said, 'He's got good stuff, but he just has trouble commanding his fastball or trust it, or maybe doesn't think it's as good as it is.' Dusty called him in, he sat and we had a conversation. We talked about how you try to establish command.

I probably talk sometimes more to the opposition because they seem to be more readily willing to have them talk to the pitchers. Buck (Showalter) has talked about that. I had a conversation with Brad Bergesen the other day because I really want him to do well. I talked two springs ago with Jake Arrieta. It would be kind of interesting to see how he goes about preparing for his starts. But nobody's ever asked me, so I just observe.

The best story is (Toronto catcher) J.P. Arencibia. I just introduced myself when they were here and we went up to Toronto the next week and he says, "I want to apologize. I Googled you and I realized you were really good."

What happens when pitchers struggle

2011-05-13T20:16:07Z

When you're trying to figure out what's wrong with a pitcher, the most important thing is who the pitcher is - what kind of experience he has, what kind of stuff he has, what kind of windup he has, emotionally what he's made out of. There are so many things that go into pitching that it's just hard to really look at somebody, unless you really know them, and know what's wrong.

This is the fifth year Jeremy Guthrie has pitched here. He struggled against Tampa Bay the last time out against them. I think sometimes you get caught up in the game and you forget what you do best. For Jeremy, he's smart enough to know that. He didn't get the result he wanted last Saturday, when he pitched against Tampa Bay and Hellickson, and now he gets to pitch against him today.

Everybody says the hardest thing to do is to pitch back-to-back starts against the same team. But I think that premise is based on the fact that you did well. To me, I think you always learn whether you win or lose. For him, I think his lesson is to make better pitches, he's got to stay down in the zone and very judiciously pitch to Evan Longoria and not let him be the guy that beats him.

When I look at Jeremy, he just gets around some of his pitches and the radar gun, for him, doesn't always tell the story because he was throwing 93 to 95 mph; it's just that his stuff was flat. He was just under everything and around everything. When the ball stays on the same plane, the ball doesn't have that extra sink or that extra life and it's just that much more hittable.

Brad Bergesen allowed a run, maybe more than a run per inning, against Tampa Bay because Rays manager Joe Maddon threw in seven lefties in the lineup and Bergesen doesn't get lefties out. He doesn't have the experience Jeremy has, but this guy competes. He holds runners well.

When Terry Crowley was the hitting instructor here, they'd go over the game plan, do all the drills and then from the on-deck circle to home plate, it was like there was a fog bank and you were in San Francisco and the fog's just come in. Some guys can walk through the fog and when they get up into the batter's box, they can clear the fog. Visibility is good and their thinking is good. The same thing applies to pitchers. Some guys get caught up in the moment and they speed up the game when they should really try to slow it down. They panic, they get afraid of contact.

A perfect example for a young pitcher is Zach Britton. He's off to a good start, but there have been some situations where, even in wins, he's gotten hit not for any long duration, but hit pretty hard. It doesn't deter him from making some adjustments and moving on. Other guys might be very tentative and walking guys.

I played for a manager, Earl Weaver, whose biggest complain about pitchers was bases on balls. A lot of guys say you can't defense home runs; well, you can't defense walks, either.

O's Britton knows he has to work at refining his craft

2011-04-21T15:53:54Z

When Zach Britton was going to pitch in the first spring training game MASN did, I stopped at the minor league complex in Sarasota and talked to Dave Schmidt, the Orioles' coordinator of Sarasota operations and a former minor league pitching coordinator. Dave had seen Britton throughout and said that even when he was struggling, he figured it out at all different levels. In his first year in the minor leagues, he was 0-4 at Rookie League Bluefield, if you remember. But he just seems bright and like a great talent. It's just a matter of getting out there, not getting hurt, using your natural talent and kind of evolving as a major league pitcher.

He's got a very simple windup and he repeats it. He's not afraid of contact, which for young pitchers can sometimes be a problem. You get hit around. I always thought that coming up here and learning was that you make bad pitches and they're usually going to hit them. I had Robin Roberts to tell me that, and Harvey Haddix and Dick Hall and people like that. But I think Britton is a very aware young man with great ability. It's just a matter of staying healthy and getting out there.

We've seen him at his best, too, for the most part. In Cleveland, he had a four-run inning where they didn't hit that many balls hard and there were a couple of plays that could have gotten him a couple of quicker outs. He didn't overreact to it. He just went out there. He got behind Travis Hafner, threw him a 2-0 fastball and he crushed it. The next day, Britton said that's pretty much what you'd expect , that Travis Hafner, when healthy, is a pretty good hitter and hits left-handed pitching well. I think he's an aware kid.

What I get from him is that he doesn't think that just because he has talent, he's going to be successful. He thinks he's going to have to work at his craft. When I look at him and I look at Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, Scotty McGregor and Mike Flanagan - some of the better left-handers I had a chance to pitch with - I see they were very competitive, were very good athletes. I haven't seen Britton enough to see if that's the case, but he looks like he's a pretty good fielder. It's just good to see this kind of talent level come up through the minor leagues - that type of arm and those kinds of mechanics that it looks like he's going to be able to repeat.

I probably didn't know a lot about pitching to contact until I hurt my arm. I remember sitting in the stands at Memorial Stadium when I was hurt in 1968 and I was pretty much hurt for most of 1967 and 1968. I'd come to the games and couldn't really do anything and would come to the games and watch Dave McNally pitch. He kept the ball in the middle of the plate and they'd hit the ball, but the holes would close. We had Brooks Robinson at third base, Mark Belanger at short, Davey Johnson at second base, Boog Powell at first and Paul Blair in center field. It was a pretty mobile defense. But it dawned on me. I watched Pat Dobson come over in 1971 and saw him go through Oakland's lineup, and they had a terrific lineup. The first time he'd finesse them, the second time he'd blow them away and the third time, they had no idea what he was going to do.

It wasn't just about striking people out. It was about making good pitches and limiting the size of the field by fastball command. You can play a guy a couple of steps, not way overplay him, and if you have a mobile defense, when he does hit the ball, he's going to hit it into the teeth of your defense. It's kind of like the baseball version of a prevent defense in football. Otherwise, you pitch to the whole field and it makes it much harder to pitch.

Hardy, Markakis make a positive impression

2011-04-11T12:34:20Z

What we're seeing is the Orioles are winning games that last year they would have lost. The starting pitching has a lot to do with it. The hitting has been there on occasion when they needed a bunch of runs. All in all, the buzz is back and this should be a better team. How good they're going to be is, as long as we play this game, up to them.

A lot of guys stand out, but J.J. Hardy looks like he's going to be a pretty good shortstop. I saw him three days in Milwaukee and I saw the 24 home runs, 26 home runs in back-to-back years. Then he got off to a slow start last year and was hurt, but he looks like a pretty good defensive shortstop with a better arm than I thought he had. I think he's going to give us some offense at shortstop. When you play in the American League East, or you play in the American League with the DH, you need to have a shortstop that can be an offensive player. That's nothing against Cesar Izturis, who had a Gold Glove season last year, but when you're not scoring a lot of runs, it's real important.

The other guy is Nick Markakis. He had a much better year than people give him credit for. And I think he feels much more comfortable. He can go out and just be Nick Markakis. He can be underrated, should have won a Gold Glove and all those things. He can just do his thing and help this team win a lot of games.

Markakis had a heck of a year last year. Everybody is worried, but he hit well over .330, .340 with runners in scoring position. People complain that he only had 60 RBIs, but it wasn't because he didn't hit well with runners in scoring position. He just didn't have the opportunities. Hopefully that'll change. It looks like it's going to be a balanced lineup. If you look at the American League East last year, you had the Yankees at 5.2 runs (a game), you had the Red Sox with all those injuries at 5.1, Tampa was at 5.0 and Texas was fourth. Then you had Toronto that led the world in home runs last year. Four of the best offensive teams in the American League are in the American League East. Now, all of a sudden, the Orioles who averaged a little under four runs a game and hopefully that number will come up.