"The Invincible One" Verses "The Dominican Dandy" - The Greatest Game Ever Pitched

July 2nd of this year will mark the 50th anniversary of one of the most amazing feats in baseball history.

July 2, 1963 - the day in which the greatest game was ever pitched by opposing pitchers. Warren Spahn was the pitcher for the Milwaukee Braves and Juan Marichal was on the hill for the San Francisco Giants.  Here are some facts regarding that game:

• The game went 16 innings and both pitchers pitched the entire game!!
• The game was 0-0 until the bottom of the 16th when Willie Mays hit a home run against Spahn to end it.
• Despite the 16 innings, the game only lasted 4:10.
• Marichal's pitching line: 16 innings, 8 hits, 0 runs, 4 walks and 10 strikeouts
• Spahn’s line was  15 1/3 innings, 9 hits, 1 run, 1 walk and 2 strikeouts
• In the 1960s complete games were common but this game was far and above those standards making this game extraordinary.
• This April a book was published about this game, appropriately named - "The Greatest Game Ever Pitched"
• Here is the boxscore - http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN196307020.shtml
  

I wish I could get my hands on a video of this game.  It would be enjoyable to watch.

Thanks for reading

-Tom

"I Got It, I Got It" - Get your priorities straight

“Action expresses priorities.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

It's occurring more and more.  You see it in a game or on ESPN or on MLB Network.  It's the lack of attention to fielding priorities.  The season isn't only five days old, yet I think I've seen about five collisions.

Of all of the fundamentals a baseball manager can instill in a team, fly-ball fielding priority is one of the most time consuming to teach.  This skill takes team work and cohesiveness.  With the player turnover in the MLB these days, breeding a culture to carry out skills like this are difficult.  As you can imagine the players must be acutely aware of their teammates voices.  This is a skill that must be practiced as a team.

Here are some notes regarding fly-ball fielding priorities:

• In the outfield the center fielder has priority on all fly balls.   That includes infielders too.  If a ball is hit to an area in which the CF, LF and SS can get to a ball and the CF calls it, the LF and SS have to back off.
• The shortstop is the quarterback of the infield.  They have priority of all fly balls in the infield.  Again, all infielders should know each others voices, especially the shortstops.
• Next is the second baseman.
• Corner infielders are next.
• The Catcher is next on the totem pole
• Last but not least is the pitcher.

Remember, even though a player has priority, he must call for it.  In the recent White Sox / Royals game LF Dayan Viciedo and  SS Alexei Ramirez collided on a fly ball to short left.  At first glance you would think it was Viciedo's ball - and it was.  But, as the camera showed (and Hawk Harrelson reminded us all) Viciedo's mouth was not moving to call off Ramirez.  With Ramirez moving backward it would have helped for Viciedo to know the priority and more importantly yell "GOT IT"!!

So next time you are watching a game on TV and you see two fielders body-slam each other, you can show off your newly found "priority" knowledge and tell it like it was supposed to be

Thanks for reading.

-Tom

Surprises of 2012

Hey everyone.  Been a while since I posted.  Sorry about that.  A good way to get back in to the swing of things is to post my thoughts on the surprises of 2012.  So without further ado, here we go.

Typical Bobby V.

Boston Red Sox - The number one surprise has to go to the Bosox.  Experts from all across the baseball world were not only  picking them to finish in first place in the AL East, but some were even predicting them to go all the way.  This team surprised me for sure.  As a Yankee fan I was concerned that with this Sox team and the Rays, the Yanks would not even make the post season.   With a powerful lineup and a pitching staff with names like Beckett, Bucholz and Lester, they were a shoe-in.  Yeah, a shoe-in for their worst record in 30 years.  Oh, this just in - Bobby V is no longer the Manager - that should not be in this post since this is NOT a surprise.  My opinion - they're not going to be the same without Theo.

Baltimore Orioles - When I was young I had a love hate relationship with the O's.  I loved them because they were enjoyable to watch and a great team.  I hated them because they always seem to beat my Yanks.  Earl Weaver and his damn 3 run homer.  This team combined with the Rays make the Al East a new and exciting division which no longer belongs to Boston or NY.  Buck Showalter not only built a winner, but a team that is beaming with confidence.  The O's play some good ball.  I don't think there is a player on that team that does not hustle or know his role (and is darn good at it).  Well if there was, they would immediately be on Buck's you-know-what list.

Billy Beane

Oakland A's - Billy Beane's boys did it again. I'll bet the majority of casual baseball fans would not be too familiar with this crew.  Yoenis Cespedes - the Cuban defector who everyone predicted a lot of HR's but a dismal batting average seemed to manage to hit .292.  Josh Reddick traded from (none other than) the Red Sox, hit 32 dingers.  On the pitching side - the names Milone, McCarthy and Parker are not household names, yet they are pitchers that can bring the A's far in the post season.  Everyone said Beane's model was old and through.  I'm glad to see Billy zig when the rest of the league zagged.

Washington Nats - You may say - "any baseball fan could have predicted this one".  Yes, maybe, but 98 wins!!  This was a team built and bought - to win!  This successful team got even better throughout the season.  With the mid-season call-up of Bryce Harper, and Ryan Zimmerman finding his stroke in a big way simply added to the winning combo.  I still feel it was as bad decision to shutdown Stephen Strausburg for the season.  My opinion - they may miss Strausburg if they make the World Series.

Mike Trout

On the individual side of things there weren't many surprises. Some players performed above or below expectations, but that's not really a surprise.  The one player that took everyone by surprise was rookie Mike Trout.  Trout is a very exciting player who put up nice numbers (not only for a rookie, but a veteran as well).  If his head or PED's don't get in the way we may be looking at the next Mickey Mantle.





And those are my surprises.  I'm hoping to post more often with some history, stats, strategy, rules, observations and more.


Thanks for reading
-Tom

Musings of a Grouchy Baseball Fan

There are certain "implementations" the MLB has put in place which has caused some rhubarb among fans.  Here are some of my thoughts.  Now sometimes I (as a baseball fan) can come off as slightly irritable and "get off my lawn"-ish, but I really don't mean to - damnit. 

Ron Blomberg - The first DH

The Designated Hitter

The DH has been around since 1973.  I'm a Yankee fan but not as much aligned with the American League (never understood the reason fans do this).  I don't care for the designated hitter.  It just seems like every slow, washed up first-baseman is parking himself in the American League.  The DH takes away some late-game strategy that pertains to whether or not to remove the pitcher and who to put in his place.  Also, there is very rarely a double-switch (a future post) in the American League.   The sad thing is, the DH will probably never go away.

All-Star Game Decides World Series Home Field Advantage

I despise this!!  I truly believe this is one of the stupidest implementations in all of sports.  In the other three major sports (NHL, NFL, NBA), the all-star game is fun and trivial.  Now the MLB feels they are doing good by making it count.  What they are doing is possibly getting players injured.  Plus the strategy used in baseball all-star games do not align with winning.  If it did, when Justin Verlander pitches 3 perfect innings, he'd certainly be out there for a fourth.

Interleague Play

I guess I'm not the baseball purist I thought I was.  I really like interleague play.  It's such a nice new novelty.  The interstate/city (NY, CHI, LA, FLA, etc) games are exciting to watch.  It looks like there will be more interleague play in the seasons to come.

New Ballparks

Yet again I find myself unconventional.  I really like the "retro" look and feel of some of the new ballparks.  I know Camden has been around for a while now, but I love attending games at Camden.  Some of my other favorites are Coors, Citi and Nationals Park.


Fundamentals
This is where my "back in my day" will shine.  Now remember, I'm not talking about talent or athletisism here, I'm referring to fundamentals.  There will be many that disagree, but I feel fundamentals have degraded slowly since the 80's.   Some may say this is due to the more teams and players playing in the league and of course more visible coverage with Baseball Tonight or the MLB network.  I say hogwash.  What does more players have to do with kids learning fundamentals?  I'm seeing more and more outfielders hitting the cutoff man incorrectly (or not at all), fly-ball priorities just botched up royally, one handed catches and just lack of hustle on occasion.  There I said it.


Attire
I'm going to make this one short and sweet - "fix you hat and pull up your pants".
 

Umpiring
Many fans say umpiring is worse now then it was "back then".   The incorrect excuses used for fundamentals (above) can also be used to describe the umpiring differences of now and then.  I feel umpiring is the same now as it was then - no better, no worse.  I'm not saying umpiring is as good as it should be.  Like brussel sprouts - they were bad then and they are equally as bad now.


Hall of fame selection process
Years ago the baseball writers were the only people (other than the players themselves) who were very close to the game.  Today more than just writers are close to the game. Football HOF-selection has its issues, but I like the fact that there are no restrictions on the number of inductees.   Football also uses "media representatives" and not just the writers. There should be more individuals involved in the voting and a larger group of candidates.


Watching Home Runs
Some fans say "the batter likes to watch his home run so let him" and some say its rubbing it in the face of the pitcher.  Here's my take - Willie, Mickey and the Duke never did it.  Hank Aaron and Harmon Killebrew (two of the classiest players in history) certainly never did it.  Therefore it shouldn't be done.

Well, those are my rantings.  Take 'em or leave 'em.  I'm sure there are opposing views and I'd love to hear them - That what makes this country great.

Thanks for reading
-Tom

Book review - "Prophet of the Sandlots"

Are you getting tired of hearing about statistics being used more and more by front offices in baseball?  Sick of Moneyball?  Well I have a book for you - Prophet of the Sandlots by Mark Winegardner.   The author accompanies the affable scout - Tony Lucadello on scouting trips throughout the mid-west.   Tony was one of the best.  The only tools he used to evaluate players were his two eyes. 

"Prophet" was an interesting read.  Many of Tony's techniques are described in the book.  Tony is a loveable character who you can probably relate to an old uncle or grandfather.   I found it hilarious when Tony was scouting at a college or high school he had to take some time to look under the bleachers for loose change.  He ate the same meals every day and stayed in cheap hotels where he knew the workers.

Tony's Fedora

Tony never quite made it as a ball player, but he had an eye for talent.  Tony could recognize aspects of a player that statistics could not.  He could tell if a good player would fade or an average player could be a star.  He could see holes in a batters swing or verify if a pitchers motion would get him injured.  The book explains his take on the different varieties of scouts as  well as his "Lucadello System" for player development. 

Tony started his scouting career in 1942 with the Chicago Cubs where he discovered (among others) Fergie Jenkins.  Tony left the Cubbies and worked for the Phillies until 1989.  With the the Phillies his big prize was Mike Schmidt.  

If you can get your hands on this book, please do so.  You may be able to find it in your local library system or used from Amazon.com.  In case  you decide to read it, I won't tell you any more about the book or its ending.

Thanks for reading
-Tom

Stats - "Bogus" Stats - Batting

"What Jefferson was saying was, 'Hey! You know, we left this England place 'cause it was bogus; so if we don't get some cool rules ourselves - pronto - we'll just be bogus too!' Get it?"

 -Jeff Spicoli, Fast Times At Ridgemont High

Everyone likes the batting average stat.  You hear it all around - "What's his average?" people will ask.  It's sort of a measuring stick for a player.  Rod Carew hit .388 in 1977 - awesome!  Mario Mendoza had a .215 lifetime batting average - yikes. 

Batting average is just that - its how often a player gets a hit.  I would venture to say it's the single most popular offensive stat.  But sometimes you want more info when comparing players.  More info?  What kind of info?  Let's look at a non-baseball situation.  So  you're daughter is heading out for the evening.  "Who are you going out with"  you ask.  You're little darling replies with "just a friend".  Oh, just a friend huh?  "Sure go ahead" ... WHOA!! wait just a minute there Ma and Pa.  Who is she going out with??!!  Is it Lindsey Lohan or Mother Teresa?  Now that's lack of info huh?  As for batting average sometimes we need more meat in there.  For instance what kind of hits were they?  Were all of the hits singles or were there a good amount of doubles, triples and homers?  As we all know doubles, triples and homers are more valuable than just singles.  Also, what about walks? Drawing a walk is a proven skill that some players can perform better than others.   The batting average stat does not take into account walks.  We'll look at two stats - Slugging Percentage (SLG) and On Base Percentage (OBP).

When looking at SLG you need to know what this stat really means.  SLG represents, on average, how many bases a batter advances per at bat.  It may help to look at the formula:

SLG = 1B + (2*2B) + (3*3B) + (4*HR) / AB

SLG solves the "type of hit" problem and puts a weight on doubles, triples and HR's.  That weight being how many bases are advanced.  In 2011 the MLB average for SLG was .411.  The best was Jose Bautista at .608 and the worst was Jason Barlett at .307.

OBP is in essence batting average with walks and hit batsmen thrown in.  As discussed above, walks are important.  You can think of OBP as how often a batter gets on base.  In recent years getting on base has been recognized as an important skill.  In 2011 the MLB average for OBP was .339.  The leader in OBP was Miguel Cabrera with .448.  The lowest was Vernon Wells at .248.

Which of these two stats is a better?  It's been said that OBP is.  Teams with higher OBP generally produce more runs. 

There is another stat called OPS (On Base Plus Slugging).  That is simply adding OBP and SLG.  Frankly, I don't like it.   I'm not a big fan of combining as many stats as we can to create one big stat. Here's why.  Below are two players from the 2011 season

	OPS	SLG	OBP
Andrew McCutchen	.820	.456	.364
Nelson Cruz	.821	.509	.312

According to OPS they are the same player.  But a look at SLG and OBP show they are not quite the same.  McCutchen gets on base more than Cruz, yet Cruz appears to have more power.  This is not to say 'Cutch is better than Nellie, or vice-versa, but I just want to show you need to look more into stats.

One last thing regarding batting average, SLG and OBP.  Below are three graphs based on team stats.  Please excuse my shaky Excel skills.  The charts below all have runs (in blue) plotted in a line.  Either AVG, OBP or SLG scattered (in red) are individually represented on each graph.  As  you can see OBP and SLG are more tightly knit to the runs line than batting average is, thus telling us OBP and SLG are more related to producing runs than batting average is (in some years OBP is actually closer to the runs line).

fig 1 - Batting Average / Runs

fig 2 - OBP / Runs

fig 3 - SLG / Runs

In some upcoming entries about offensive stats I'll talk about some of the more advance stats like wOBA (Weighted On Base Percentage), ISO (Isolated power) and RC (Runs Created).  Hope you found this interesting.

Thanks for reading,
-Tom

Kenesaw Mountain Landis

"Don't go to those owners if you get into trouble, come to me. I'm your friend. They're no good." 

-Kenesaw Landis

Have you ever watched an action or superhero movie in which the hero makes a last minute rescue just in a nick of time?  Always seems to happen right?  That was the case with Kenesaw Mountain Landis.  He wasn't an action move hero or even a brave leader of a nation.  He was the very first commissioner of Major League Baseball.

There were times in baseballs' history where baseball needed "saving".  There was the 1994 players strike which left a bitter taste in a lot of fans mouths.  And recently there was (and in some sense still is) the steroid era.  But the event which Landis came to the rescue was the 1919 Black Sox scandal.

In a nutshell the Black Sox scandal was centered around the 1919 World Series.  A number of players for the Chicago White Sox fixed the games to allow the Cincinnati Reds to prevail.  There is much more to this story and we'll cover it in a future post.

Now, on to Kenesaw.  Regarding his name - Kenesaw Mountain.  Kenesaw Mountain was the site of a Civil War battle in which his father was injured and he gave his son that name.  As a boy, Kenesaw was a big baseball fan.  Landis dropped out of high school in 1885 (seemed to be the thing to do back then).   But, in 1891 he earned a Law degree from the University of Cincinnati.  In 1905 Landis was appointed as a U.S. District Judge by Teddy Roosevelt.

In 1914 a rival league known as the Federal League brought an anti-trust suit  against the MLB.  Judge Landis was asked to preside over the case.  Landis somehow manged to delay the case just long enough until the Federal League folded.   In 1919, following the Black Sox scandal, baseball needed to be saved and the owners knew exactly who the right man for the job was. The owners appointed Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the first commissioner of the MLB.

One of the first things Judge Landis did was ban eight White Sox players from baseball.  Throughout his tenure he imposed numerous suspensions and fines. The superstars of the league were not exempt.  He once hit up Babe Ruth with a suspension for barnstorming.  Some other improvements and implementations Landis was know for were: developing the minor league system, support of breaking the color barrier and making the All-Star game an official yearly event. 

In 1944 with his health failing, Landis died as the commissioner.  He was known as the man who restored integrity to baseball following the black sox scandal and ran a tight ship during his tenure.   To this day the MVP award has his name on it.

Thanks for reading

-Tom