Lost in the chaos that surrounded the All-Star Game–and the spate of anti-marketing that followed it–was that the players did not set a strike date. They met, they authorized team votes on whether to walk, but no date was set, and none has yet been set.
Last year, I started messing around with something I call the Walk Gap, which is just the difference between a team’s walks drawn and walks allowed. Because we’ve spent so much time hammering home the importance of plate discipline and throwing strikes, I thought this might be a good indicator of team success.
Last Tuesday night around 9 p.m., my mother asked me how I was planning to write about the All-Star Game if I wasn’t watching it. I told her that I wasn’t writing my column while away, and that I wouldn’t write about the All-Star Game when I returned because no one cared about the All-Star Game past about 10:30 a.m. the next day.
You can’t make this stuff up, folks.
True story #1: A few weeks ago, I was talking with Chris Kahrl about the week I was planning to be on vacation. I made the comment that the All-Star week was a good one to be out of touch, because there were just four days of games and usually the days around the Midsummer…
I’m seeing a lot of Raul Mondesi/Jesse Barfield comparisons from Yankee fans. I guess there’s a resemblance: both are right fielders with great arms and high strikeout rates who came to the Yankees in midseason trades.
It’s far too hot to write, or read, anything longer than three paragraphs or so: I’m seeing a lot of Raul Mondesi/Jesse Barfield comparisons from Yankee fans. I guess there’s a resemblance: both are right fielders with great arms and high strikeout rates who came to the Yankees in midseason trades. However, given what I…
Over the weekend, I attended my first Society for American Baseball Research convention. It was the 32nd get-together for the organization, of which I’ve been a member for about three hours.
Over the weekend, I attended my first Society for American Baseball Research convention. It was the 32nd get-together for the organization, of which I’ve been a member for about three hours. Prodded by BP’s Jeff Bower, I joined and made the trek to Boston for this year’s gathering, which kicked off this summer’s "Sheehan Across…
In two weeks, we won’t remember who got hosed.
I’ve been a Yankee fan all my life. Despite that, the park I haven’t seen that I most wish to see is Fenway Park, and it has been ever since I crossed Wrigley Field off my list on a sunny day in July, 1993.
It’s 1:11 a.m. EDT, and I’m writing from the Park Plaza hotel in Boston, where the Society for American Baseball Research is holding its 32nd convention. There will be presentations, panels, Q&As, awards, a trip to Fenway Park, and all the humidity humans can stand. Maybe more.
But mostly, there will be 600-odd baseball fans hanging out and talking about the greatest game in the world. Even as I type this, the hotel bar is loaded with baseball lovers of all shapes and sizes, including a bunch of BP staffers�no one works a bar like Chris Kahrl�and some of the best baseball researchers on the planet.
I’m in for a fun weekend. It’s 1:11 a.m. EDT, and I’m writing from the Park Plaza hotel in Boston, where the Society for American Baseball Research is holding its 32nd convention. There will be presentations, panels, Q&As, awards, a trip to Fenway Park, and all the humidity humans can stand. Maybe more. But mostly,…
Four months ago, the Minnesota Twins were headed for extinction, told they couldn’t compete in today’s game, that they were a drag on the baseball industry.
Today, the Minnesota Twins have the largest lead of any first-place team, seven games ahead of the Chicago White Sox, and are one of the best stories MLB has to offer.
Four months ago, the Minnesota Twins were headed for extinction, told they couldn’t compete in today’s game, that they were a drag on the baseball industry. Today, the Minnesota Twins have the largest lead of any first-place team, seven games ahead of the Chicago White Sox, and are one of the best stories MLB has…
I was sitting in a restaurant with my wife Saturday afternoon when my cell phone jumped to life. Jonah Keri’s words�”Darryl Kile is dead.”�rang just as false as those boys’ words had on that August afternoon 23 years ago. Yet, it was true, it had to be true, because while children may joke about such things, adults know better.