Baseball Reference is now on Twitter.
From what I can tell they’ll be including updates to the B-R blog and their always interesting Stat of the Day blog.
Month: August 2009
Electric Violin Hits a Home Run
Glenn Donnellan, 39, a violinist for the National Symphany Orchestra, combined his two loves, music & baseball, and made an electric violin out of a baseball bat, Derek Jeter model, would it have sounded as good if it were a Brent Lillibridge model? Glenn delighted the fans at a recent game between the Nationals & the Diamondbacks in DC, by playing the National Anthem on his unique instrument. Yeah but could he hit a home run with his fiddle?
Berken is Good for the Birds
De Pere, WI native Jason Berken took the mound against the White Sox Sunday at US Cellular Field. The Orioles righthander won his debut the end of May against the Blue Jays, but winning has been a long time coming, 2-11 coming into today. He brought his own rooting section, about 25 vocal friends & family members were on hand to back up this cheesehead. They almost came on the field after Robert Andino & Melvin Mora, who committed first inning errors. But this rookie has learned to overcome adversity, coming to the majors after Tommy John surgery, and today was no exception, as he bested Mark Buehrle & the White Sox for his 3rd win of the year, 5-4. In addition to myself, Dick & Bea, Steve, Roland, Debbie & George, Nancy Faust, and Caramel Corn Mike, were all in the house, the sad house.
John Danks controlled the O’s lineup Saturday night, with a little help from Gordon Beckham’s robbery of a couple of Brian Roberts shots, despite walking six. I wasn’t in the bathroom for Carlos Quentin’s big fly, the three additional runs were the difference, as the bullpen (Matt Thornton, Octavio Dotel, & Bobby Jenks) held the lead for a 4-1 White Sox winner! I’d bought a ticket, even though Kevin had a freebie for me, the Sox box office refunded my error, very nice. Lisa, Dick & Bea’s dog groomer, was also there for the post game fireworks Saturday night, the fireworks & Lisa, both very nice!
My Dad doesn’t really follow baseball all that much, but asked me after the Sox lost 2 of 3 to Baltimore, aren’t the Orioles a bad team, in last place? Yes to both, shaking my head.
Big Elvis Was Not in the Building
Last night was Elvis Night at the Cell as the White Sox hosted the Orioles. Big Elvis was not there, but something you should see before you die is waiting for you at the Barbary Coast in Vegas. Jamie Aaron Kelley performed outside Gate 4 before the gates opened (then did the National Anthem & performed on the field after the game), all of his fans braved the raindrops as he sang Kentucky Rain, and thanked him very much before going inside the ballpark. Flying Elvises (or is it Flying Elvi) dropped out of the sky with the American Flag to America the Beautiful, quite inspiring, even to a non-patriot like myself. Then after the game there was a terrific fireworks display done to Elvis songs, the rain waited until after the game, but got quite wet while ewing & awing.
My friend Steve couldn’t make the game, but summed it up nicely. He was listening to the game on the radio, heard Thome’s homer, but then fell asleep, so did the White Sox. Big Jim’s Dad was sitting by us, high fives all around when his son went yard. Wore my Elvis glasses with chops, brought along a couple extra pairs, and got an Elvis photo with Minnie Minoso.
It’s nice to be back at the Cell, even though the baseball has been boring & less than inspiring. On Tuesday night versus the Royals went to the bathroom, missed Paul Knoerko & Carlos Quentin’s home runs, Sox lost, disappointing. I wasn’t really looking forward to going back for a day game Wednesday day, especially with Zack Greinke opposing Jose Contreras, but Rob loves going to day games, so we went, and they won, surprising. It was good to see Dick & Bea, and Nancy Faust.
Going back again Saturday night, at least there are post game fireworks, and a freebie ticket. And then Sunday I get to see Mark Buehrle, which is always a pleasure.
Digital archive of Baseball Magazine definitely a treat
I found a wealth of historical baseball knowledge in LA84 Foundation’s archives. They have digitized much of Baseball Magazine’s contents from the early 1900’s. I’ve spent a good hour just reading and browsing the material and it’s fantastic! Even the advertisements are great!
You can get a list of articles from 1908, 1909, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1917, and 1918 (click on each year and it will take you to their individual year’s archive). All articles are in pdf format.
I have some favorites already. There’s a preview of the 1912 Giants-Red Sox World Series. Then there’s The Art of Big League Trading by none other than John McGraw.
And no magazine is complete without ads and Jake Stahl is hawking Ide Silver Collars in the 1912 archives (“Your Collar is the “High-Light” of Your Dress”).
What I found amazing is that baseball media back in the early 1900’s was not so much different than it is now. As I said, I saw previews for important postseason series. There was an article comparing stats on all the NL secondbasemen in the league. Who’s whos, interviews, retrospectives, everything you would see in a pre-season baseball mag or maybe even say, a baseball blog.
I guess the technology has certainly changed but the tried, true formulas of good sports journalism has remained strikingly similar.
Anyway, this is indeed, a treasure trove, especially for those who love old baseball history.
Baseball shortened seasons
When comparing baseball stats between seasons, I sometimes catch myself when I come across a stat from maybe 1994 or perhaps 1981. Then one second before I realize “Oh yeah, the strike-shortened year” or whatever.
So for my own edification then anything, here are the list of baseball seasons that were shortened by labor strikes, lockouts, or whatever reason and the number of actual games played that season.
Disclaimer: The amount of games played indicated are approximate figures. Obviously in the cases of mid-season interruptions, some teams played more, some less.
1918 |
129 games played |
The season was shortened due to World War I.
1919 |
140 games played |
Team owners decided to shorten the season to 140 games in 1919 in anticipation of low attendance (because of WWI in the previous years). Attendance actually surprised them and was high and they turned a profit.
1972 |
156 games played |
Due to the 1972 Major League Baseball Strike.
1981 |
111 games played |
Due to the 1981 Major League Baseball Strike.
1994 |
117 games played |
Due to the 1994 Major League Baseball Strike.
1995 |
144 games played |
The 1995 season was abbreviated to 144 games because of the strike the previous year.
Also note that in the years 1901-1903 in both leagues, the seasons only consisted of 140 games.
Colbert’s Clouts Makes Him a Man of his Word
When Nate Colbert was a boy growing up in St. Louis his father took him to a doubleheader in which Stan Musial hit five home runs in a doubleheader in 1954. Young Nate turned to his father and said, “Someday I’m going to do that”.
Now fast forward to August 1, 1972, the San Diego Padres were playing a doubleheader against the Braves in Atlanta. Colbert, nursing a bad back, wasn’t going to play. But when he took batting practice with an old bat, he hit five balls out, and a couple of more that were long gone, but just foul. Nate’s manager decided his slugger would play, so Nate taped up the old bat, and used it in the first game. He hit two out in the first game and three more in the nightcap, leading the Pads to a sweep, 9-0 & 11-7, driving in 13 runs on the day, two more than Stan the Man. Nate finished the season with 38 homers (second only to Johnny Bench’s 40) and 111 RBI’s (highest percentage of runs driven in to a team’s total runs scored in MLB history).
I still remember this big day by this big slugger, even today, but don’t ask me what I ate for breakfast!
Bonehead Brett
In last night’s baseball game between the Red Sox and the Blue Jays in Toronto, rookie lefty Brett Cecil did something so stupid, Little Leaguers were shaking their heads. The umpires were so stupifide that they had to meet before deciding what to do. Cecil had just walked Jason Bay when he noticed a scuff mark on the baseball, so he wanted a new ball, most pitchers would rather just use the scuffed baseball to their advantage, making the ball do pretty much what they wanted it to do, but that wasn’t even the dumb part. Rather than asking the umpire for a new baseball and exchanging spheres with him, Brett simply rolled the live ball into the Jays dugout, without getting timeout. The umpires originally sent Bay to secondbase, but after meeting, decided he should be awarded thirdbase. Jason would score on a one-out single by Mike Lowell through a drawn in infield. Everything seemed to fall apart from there as Toronto committed three errors, as Boston went on to win 8-1.
If I Was Their GM
Although I am a diehard White Sox fan and have loved them for over forty years, I couldn’t help thinking about how a couple of trades might really help the Chicago Cubs. Kevin Gregg has been a disaster as the team’s closer, with Carlos Marmol not doing much better. Perhaps Angel Guzman should be given a shot, but what this team really needs is a proven closer. Enter Billy Wagner, the going nowhere fast, New York Mets just brought Billy the Kid off the disabled list, and he looked like he’s still got it. Only thing is, the Mets signed KRod as their closer in the offseason, and are paying Wags bigtime closer money, even though he’s not closing. It might be a gamble, trading away a good young arm, but I would trade Angel Guzman for Billy Wagner. Next I’d be knocking on the Cleveland Indians door looking for a proven lefty relief specialist. Sure Sean Marshall has looked okay in that role from time to time this season, and Rafael Perez has been lousy all year. But I’d trade Marshall to the Tribe in exchange for Perez & his lefthanded nasty stuff. Wondering what you Cub fans think of my proposed deals, if you agree, contact Jim Hendry. I can’t believe I’m actually trying to help the Cubs. Sheesh, what’s next, a snake & a mongoose sitting down to tea?
Cubs show reason not to give up
The Cubs managed to avoid a sweep and more embarrassment as Rich Harden pitched a gem of a game against the Padres. Harden only allowed a hit in seven frames.
The best part of it is that Cubs came through with some offense too. Milton Bradley and Aramis Ramirez both banged out homers for the good guys.
Bradley, though he gets a lot of flack, has improved over the season. His second half number are looking a whole lot better. Since the All-Star break, he’s hitting .301 and perhaps more importantly, his OBP is .431.
Wednesday’s win is just one game, yes, but I think if it was a loss, we’d be seeing a whole lot more about the Cubs in today’s sport columns. And it wouldn’t be a fun read.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been calls already by the sports media for this season’s demise for the Cubs . Some of it probably fueled by GM Jim Hendry’s statement to the press that sounded almost apologetic:
”If things don’t go well, certainly it’s my responsibility. ‘That being said, we’ve got a real good team. We just haven’t played up to our capabilities. It’s kind of a mystery to all of us. We’ve got a lot of guys that have hit their whole lives who haven’t hit. We’ve done a very, very poor job all year of hitting with men on base. So it’s frustrating.
Before Cub fans start pushing the panic button, they should consider this:
- The Cubs have a winning record in the second half of 2009 UNLIKE the first half.
- It was not two weeks ago that the Cubs finished their best run of the season when they went 14-6.
- The Cubs remaining schedule is full of teams they can beat up on. Washington, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St Louis (yeah, I said it, St Louis)
Right now though, the Cubs need to focus on the here and now. And the here and now is the Los Angeles Dodgers. Tom Gorzelanny will be facing Jeff Weaver tonight.
Interesting pre-game stat: Aaron Miles is 6 for 15 lifetime against Weaver.
Go Cubs!