Before there was Baseball Prospectus or Bill James or computers that didn’t take up nearly a city block, there was Earl Weaver and his note cards.
Weaver, the legendary Orioles and Hall of Famer, kept track of how each of his pitchers and hitters fared against the rest of the American League on a series of note cards. After a while, he became more sophisticated and had a member of the Orioles’ public-relations department type that day’s batter/pitcher matchups on a sheet of paper that he always kept next to him on the dugout bench.
“I was the first guy ever to do that kind of stuff and I found it very helpful,” Weaver said Tuesday night before being one of nearly four dozen Hall of Famers who took part in the All-Star Game pre-game ceremonies at Yankee Stadium. “We won our share of games because of that. The numbers would tell you a lot of things about different players. I used it to my advantage many of times.”
Yastrzemski was 5-for-31 (.161) with no extra-base hits against Flanagan. Kelly was 6-for-8 (.750) with four home run against Rozema.
“I don’t know necessarily why this is but some hitters are more comfortable against certain pitchers and others who aren’t comfortable,” Weaver said. “The numbers will tell you that. They did then and they do now.”
While there is a multitude of other statistics available to managers now, Weaver said he would only concentrate on a few.
“On base percentage and slugging percentage, beside the batter/pitcher stuff, are the two most important statistics in baseball,” Weaver said. “You need to get on base and you need to drive those guys in. I always said when I managed that there was nothing better in baseball than the three-run home run and I still believe it today.”
0 comments have been left for this post.
