Baseball DIY

Since my new thing appears to be piggy-backing on Colleen's posts instead of thinking of something on my own, I'd like to second her recommendation of The Numbers Game. I've read it two-and-a-half times (or so), and it's an enlightening history of baseball theory and statistics' growing importance in that field. After a while, the bios tend to blur together (Such-and-such played Strat-o-Matic as a kid, then grew up and worked for the Army/respected corporation/etc as a computer nerd, then used the Army/respected corporation's computers to run baseball simulation programs), but the chapter on Henry Chadwick (the Beatles of baseball stats, I'd say) and the picture of Bill James (to carry the metaphor too far, I'll call him the Ramones of baseball stats) are worth the price of admission by themselves.

The Numbers Game will definitely feature in my Baseball Theory 101 syllabus...once I find a school willing to let me teach such a class.

I am sure I don't fully appreciate just how significant statistics are to the game of baseball. Fantasty leagues are a bit beyond me because I like the experience more than tracking the numbers. I do find it interesting though how much stats have come to be part of the game and how significant they are to the fans. Alan Schwartz has a great book on the subject, The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics. It just came out recently in paperback and covers the subject all the way back to the mid-1800s.

Check it out!

I read the article linked below, and I felt compelled to respond (mostly because I'm tired of St. Louis finishing behind Boston in anything). I've never been to Fenway, I've never been to Boston, I've never seen the Red Sox in any other stadium where their fans might follow them and cheer them on...However, I find it hard to believe that Boston is actually better than St. Louis as far as baseball appreciation and experience go.

• I respect Fenway (and "ballpark" is where St. Louis, justifiably, loses points). Have you seen a game played at Busch (either in person or on tv), though? Everyone's wearing red (or robin's egg-blue, for the '80s holdouts). We have very nice decorative arches around the top of the stadium, and it witnessed (and pays homage to) the careers of Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Ozzie Smith, etc. They went back to grass in the mid-90s, and the manual scoreboard in the outfield is a thing of beauty, though not entirely up-to-the-inning.
• We gave So Taguchi a flippin' curtain call for hitting a home run in the fifth inning of a game played in June, when he was kind of going through a tough patch. Had this tough patch transpired while So wore a Sox jersey, he very possibly would have been booed whenever he came to the plate, because, you know, that helps.
• It's not unusual for the fans to applaud when an outfielder (on either team) makes a good throw to keep a runner from advancing a base.
• Have you ever heard Ernie Hays?
• It's hot. Really, really hot. Really, really, really hot. And people show up in droves.

I guess I can't be too upset, though, because I worry from time to time that StL fans will start taking this "baseball's best fans" business they hear on the radio and television too seriously. Before you know it, they're giving Dave Duncan a standing ovation for not tripping on his way out of the dugout and everyone has their face painted red.

It's just nice to be appreciated is all.

The Houston Chronicle has a great article up on the best and worst baseball towns in America. It's no surprise that Boston is champ...you had to love baseball to support the Red Sox for the last ninety years or so. But the surprise is how low Pittsburgh came in. It makes sense...think Pittsburgh and your first thought is Steelers, but still Miami and Tampa and Atanta all belong near the bottom since the South is pretty much always been football county. But Pittsburgh?

Does the name Roberto Clemente mean anything anymore??

Working in the (medical) periodicals biz for the last three years, I noticed that manuscript flow took a turn for the tortoise-slow in the summer months. That's what we're experiencing in the labyrinthine offices of Baseball DIY; we have a few things for the next issue, but we need a few or several more to really call it an issue. If you have something sitting around (or something you could birth in a week or so), let us know! Ninety percent of all BDIY contributors report a 65% increase in street recognition in the day or so following their publication, which makes the return to obscurity a little easier to take. Give us a shout at admin@baseballdiy.org!

If I weren't already spoken for (and she might come to her senses one of these days), I might make a run for Bradella Radke.

Randall: I don't appreciate your ruse, ma'am.

Customer: My what?

Randall: Your ruse. Your cunning attempt to trick me.

********

"Welcome back to Detroit," Buck said. "A lot of banners and signs around the ballpark. No surprise there. Somebody just unfurled a big banner behind left field."

You'll love the next bit, as Buck devolves into a second grader.

"H-H-R-Y-A. Tim, you'll have to tell me what that means. I am not sure, but someone went to a lot of trouble, obviously, to put it up out in left center field."

You'd think that would be the end of the stunt, but no. Fox returned to the action to see baseball's best pitcher Roy Oswalt face off against Johnny Damon. After one pitch, McCarver brought all the weight of his formidable intellect to bear on the puzzle:

"I don't know what that sign means, but 'hooray' is the first thing that comes to my mind."

Funny you should mention that, Tim. Hooray is exactly the sound Fox executives made as they cashed their checks from the largest advertiser of the day.

There's a sneak peak at CNN of the Mickey Mantle documentary that runs tonight on HBO. I'm intrigued by the tag line that he spent a great deal of his life "sad". The media so rarely exposes something like that about an athlete. They are either drugged out messes or rich and famous. It's worth watching to see what the writers have come up with here.

The St. Louis Cardinals have been on KMOX (1120 AM) for 52 years. They two sides are currently in negotiations for next season, and it doesn't look good.

Cardinals President Mark Lamping, unhappy with what KMOX has called its final offer to the team to retain its radio rights beyond this season, said the club no longer is focusing on that bid. Instead, the team is concentrating its efforts on deciding whether buying into KTRS and moving the broadcasts there, as has been discussed for months, is feasible.

Going to KTRS, of course, would be a mistake. Maybe not a huge mistake, but a mistake. You can pick up KMOX in Cincinnati at night. I know this because I've done it myself. You can't pick up KTRS in some parts of the St. Louis metro area at night.

This subject was discussed last week at baseballthinkfactory.org (which, I can't say enough, is just a fantastic site). Hey, look who has the first post on that discussion!

In related news, I'm seriously considering purchasing an XM Radio just for the baseball coverage. This subject, wouldn't you know it, was also discussed at baseballthinkfactory.org.

For more discussion on the case of IOC vs. Abner Doubleday, go here. Just a little of what you can expect:

Wanna know something, IOC? Baseball and softball are too damn good for your pathetic, corrupt, nasty little "games." So is America, and so are the other free nations of this earth, the nations that paid for your five-martini lunches with their blood.

Yep, everyone's keeping it in perspective.

Until I read this article, I had no idea that a sport could be voted out of the Olympics. They are still playing ping pong and badminton (I have no clue how to spell this) after all plus the whole horse/steeple chase thing which seems more of an event than a sport to me. (And don't even get me started on rhythmic gymnastics and that water dancing deal.)

But no baseball or softball? It's not like these are Western sports only; they're everywhere. I can't believe that baseball would be snubbed and to lose both of them blows my mind.

Does anyone have a clue what the IOC was thinking?

1) Albert, I'm sorry. I voted for you at work. A lot. However, I only used one e-mail address, even though the instructions clearly stated that you got 25 votes per e-mail address. I let you down, buddy. Please don't let this detract from your enjoyment of the All-Star Break.

2) I don't sing when I go to church, but you can't shut me up when it's time to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

3) We had Crown Club seats at the Royals game on the 4th (the wonders of knowing people who work for faceless corporations). Jill and I were out there two hours early watching the Mariners take batting practice. Guess who else was watching? Buck O'Neil!

4) During the aforementioned game, my third row seats afforded me a shot at a pop-foul. The thing must have gone 200 feet high. Instinctively, I stood up and held out my hands. Then, as it reached its apex and began its descent, I thought, "Oh, this is going to hurt. But I will not pull back. I will do this. This is mine!" The catcher caught it ten feet in front of me. Two outs later, I'd recovered from the adrenaline surge.

Been to a ball game lately? Watched one on the plasma? It's as if stadium personnel are distributing Nokias to the first 30,000 fans who pass through the turnstiles. Everyone has a cellphone and everyone is determined to call somebody, anybody – even if they have nothing to say.
Caller No. 1: "Dude, I'm here at the game!"
Caller No. 2: "Dude, I know – I'm sitting next to you."

ESPN.com decided to post something worth reading. Don't worry; I'm sure Skip Bayless's next column is right around the corner.

I'm a sucker for books on the original ballparks; I love the history of not only the team and the park but the surrounding city and how baseball affected it from the beginning. But there is something about Ebbets Field that pretty much any fan of baseball feels. Even if you don't particularly like the Dodgers you can't deny what they were to Brooklyn and what a tragedy it was when the disappeared into the night.

Bob Mcgee has a new book out about Ebbets Field and the Dodgers, how the field was built, what Brooklyn was like before, what the Dodgers hoped to accomplish. Sounds like a worthwhile walk down memory lane for anyone who loves the game.