last day of the season

Seems to me that baseball's last game of the season is being pushed back farther and farther every year.  Wednesday's World Series match up was postponed a day due to rain, meaning the 2011 season is guaranteed to last until October 27.

With the help of Baseball Almanac, I decided to take a look back at the final day of the baseball season from 1915 through 2010 in 5-year increments.  By final day, I mean the final game of the World Series.

click on table to enlarge the data

As you can see, the last game of the season has generally been before the midway point of October from 1915 to roughly 1970.  There is a lot of data to dig through.  A better analysis would've been to look at the first World Series in 1903.  It is not depicted in the chart above, but the last date was October 13.

Early on, the World Series ended earlier in the calendar year simply because there were two teams in the playoffs.  The winner of the National League would play the winner of the American League in the World Series.

Starting in 1969, each league was divided into two divisions.  The winner of the divisional match ups would then play each other in the World Series.  The last game of the World Series was now at least a week or more later in almost all instances from the previous era.

In 1995, baseball had implemented a system where there were three divisions per league, plus a wild card.  This scenario added another round of playoffs.  As you can see in 2010, the final game of the season was into November.

With the data presented above, you can see the 3 distinct eras of baseball.  One going from 1903-1968, another from 1969 - 1993, and the final going from 1994 - present.  In the meantime, there is talk of a 2nd wildcard joining the playoffs in 2012 and beyond.

Finally, in looking at the box score, I thought it would be interesting to glance at the time it took to play each of the World Series games in each of the eras.

Although you can blame TV for making games long, the specialization of the game, and the mannerisms of the current ballplayer has added roughly more than an hour to each game over a 100-year timespan.

the height of an NFL quarterback

In watching Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson almost lead Wisconsin back to victory against Michigan State on Saturday, a lot of people wonder if he could be this successful in the pros.

Russell Wilson goes up against Michigan State
Photo by Mark Cunningham/Getty Images

The biggest thing holding back Wilson is his size.  Traditionally, NFL teams are looking for quarterbacks who are tall enough to see their receivers above the height of the linemen who are protecting him from the opposing pass rush.  If you can't see your receivers downfield, you won't be successful.

Wilson is listed as 5'11" in the Wisconsin player bio (71 inches tall).

Of the 32 quarterbacks starting in Week 7 of the 2011 NFL season, the average height listed on nfl.com is 75.25 inches (about 6' 3").

Two notable NFL starting quarterbacks are on the smallish size; New Orleans' Drew Brees and Philadelphia's come in at 6' tall.  However, each of those players have an unique skill set that sets them apart.  Brees has one of the strongest arms in the NFL, while Vick is the fastest and most agile quarterback in the league.

This doesn't mean that Wilson won't get a shot at the pros, but it does really stack the deck against him.

where the pitch really is

If you've watched some baseball playoffs on the TBS Network, you no doubt were interested in the little box they had in the lower right hand corner that displayed pitch locations.

Pitch Trax in the lower right corner

photo courtesy of TBS

How accurate is this?  The creators of this graphic say the actual pitch location is accurate to within 1/2 inch.  This is completely amazing.  The system uses two cameras mounted in the stadium to track the flight of the ball toward home plate.  To test the system, the engineers placed a piece of foam at the front of home plate.  With this, they were able to gauge where the ball hit the foam, and where the PitchTrax system placed the ball.

Baseball has not had many technological innovations that help television viewers through the years, other than the ubiquitous score in the upper left hand corner of the screen.  I would expect this PitchTrax system will be a mainstay for TV broadcasts in 2012.

watching the game with your smart friends

No doubt if you've ever gone to a bar to watch a sporting event, you end up talking to the annoying guy, or even worse, the guy who speaks a lot of truisms, such as "they need to play better defense" or "their offense is not good."

The guy who says "the team who scores the most points will win this game" is not very helpful.

This is where Twitter comes in really handy.

watching baseball and monitoring Twitter

With Twitter, you can pay attention to the game on TV, as well as get additional information from the people whom you really respect by following on Twitter.  It's like watching a game on TV with your friends, except your friends are going to say something interesting, and you don't really have to listen to them.

Nebraska in the Big 10 (12)

So my wife was confused about why Nebraska playing Wisconsin on Saturday night in football is such a big deal.

I had to explain to her that this is Nebraska's first game playing in the Big 10 conference, which kind of felt like to her, "you mean I have to memorize another team in the Big 10?"

Camp Randall in Madison, WI at night
photo credit to ESPN

She knows the irony of the Big 10 having 11 teams prior to the arrival of Nebraska, and yes, after about 5 minutes, she was able to successfully name all 12 teams.

Nebraska is more less in the Big 10 because of a public spat that many teams in the Big 12 conference are having with the University of Texas.  Nebraska left the Big 12 earlier this year because of the development of the Longhorn Television Network, which will reward Texas with revenue that they will not share with other teams in the Big 12.

In the Big 10, all television revenue is shared equally between all 12 teams, which makes everyone rich, even if you are the University of Minnesota, which embarrassingly lost a football game to North Dakota State on Saturday.

Later on, I had the nerve to tell her that the conference known as the Big 12 has 10 teams, which prompted an eyeroll.

My Moneyball Thoughts

Went to see the Moneyball movie with my wife this weekend.  I thought it was an absolutely fabulous movie about how baseball's Oakland A's figured out a way to compete successfully against teams with large payrolls in the early 2000s.

the movie Moneyball is adopted from a book of the same name

The basis of Moneyball was to find a new way to figure out what makes a player valuable, rather than how baseball traditionally valued a player.  The Oakland A's used new computer generated statistics to measure the value of a player.  Other teams were caught using the same archaic statistics baseball had used for the previous 100 years to value and pay players.  Oakland saved money because they saw value in a player where the other teams did not.

The movie is a success because of what Oakland did on the field in 2002.  The ragtag team that Oakland had put together won a major league record 20 games in a row.

However, the movie does have its flaws as it didn't recognize the fact that Oakland had 3 tremendous starting pitchers in the prime of their careers: Mark Mulder, Barry Zito, and Tim Hudson.  Pitchers who have each made over $100 million in career salary, and now are obviously not playing in Oakland.

Another big miss is the fact that steroid usage among baseball players in the San Francisco Bay Area was incredibly rampant in the early 2000s.  In 2003, the federal government raided the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) on suspicion of steroid distribution to world class athletes, many of which played baseball in Oakland and San Francisco.

My thoughts are that the movie was terrific, and opened up a new statistical analysis of baseball that many teams have adopted in some way or another.  However, steroids and the omission of Mulder, Zito, and Hudson, had a lot to do with the success of the 2002 Oakland A's.

the unknowns of the NBA Draft

The NBA Draft occurred on Thursday night.  I remember when the NBA Draft was a really exciting moment because you could always remember the top college players, and were excited to see where they were drafted and who their new professional teams would be.  The reason you knew the players well is because you had seen them play in college for 3 or 4 years.  Now it seems like the players are either foreigners, or spend 1 year in college before declaring for the draft.  Therefore, they become unknown professionals that the casual fan doesn't know.

With that, I thought I'd take a quick look at the Top 10 selections of 2011, 2001, and 1991.

Overall Pick/Player/Years in College

2011

1. Kyrie Irving - 1 year
2. Derrick Williams - 2 years
3. Enes Kanter - 0 years
4. Tristan Thompson - 1 year
5. Jonas Valanciunas - 0 years
6. Jan Vesely - 0 years
7. Bismack Biyombo - 0 years
8.  Brandon Knight - 1 year
9. Kemba Walker - 3 years
10. Jimmer Fredette - 4 years

total years = 12

2001

1. Kwame Brown - 0 years

2. Tyson Chandler - 0 years

3. Pau Gasol - 0 years

4.  Eddy Curry - 0 years

5. Jason Richardson - 2 years

6. Shane Battier - 4 years

7. Eddie Griffin - 1 years

8. DaSagna Diop - 0 years

9. Rodney White - 1 year

10. Joe Johnson - 2 years

total years = 10

1991

1.  Larry Johnson - 4 years

2.  Kenny Anderson -  2 years

3. Billy Owens - 3 years

4. Dikembe Mutombo - 4 years

5. Steve Smith - 4 years

6. Doug Smith - 4 years

7. Luc Longley - 4 years

8. Mark Macon - 4 years

9. Stacey Augmon - 4 years

10. Brian Williams - 3 years

total years = 36

A lot has changed in 20 years.  One reason players come out of school early is that there is a feeling that if they stay in college too long, that there must be something wrong with them.  Therefore, if you come out after 1 year in college, you still have potential.  If you stay in college for 3 or 4 years, you no longer have superstar potential because everyone knows what type of player you will be.  That's the rationale of coming out as quick as you can.  The 2011 overall #1 pick Kyrie Irving was injured in his freshman year, and played only 11 games.

winning on the road

So I read a book recently that stated that there really is no such thing as home field advantage.  Home field advantage basically means that a home team should win more often while they are at home because they are used to playing there, much like you are more comfortable in your own home.

The book stated that for professional athletes, very little about their performance changes, no matter where they are playing.  However, home field advantage is real.  The book went on to state that home field advantage exists because the umpires or other officials are more prone to make calls that favor home players.  In baseball, you can see this in the strike zone.  It may not happen often, but a couple calls against the road team can definitely reduce their chances of winning.

In the graphic below, you will see that when Milwaukee was on the road at Chicago, the Milwaukee pitcher did not get a called strike on the 2nd pitched ball, even though it clearly appeared to be in the strike zone. Instead of an 0-2 count, the Brewer pitcher is in a 1-1 count.  Playing everything out, you see that Ramirez swings and misses on the third pitch, which could've been a strikeout.

Of course, who knows how the scenario plays out if the umpire had indeed called a strike on that 2nd pitch.  In the end, Ramirez grounded out to the pitcher, and no damage was caused.  But what happens when this small favor is repeated throughout the game for the home team?

so what's good?

So my previous blog was about baseball statistics.  To many people they are just numbers.  But what's a really good number?

First off, I want to note that not all players can have good all around numbers.  For instance, a guy that steals a lot of bases (a fast guy), isn't going to have the muscles to hit 50 home runs.

With that, here's a quick primer on what's a good statistic to have at the end of the season.

Average - 0.300 is a good average

At Bats - no real good answer here.  To qualify for a batting title, you need to have almost 500 at bats.

Runs - 100 runs scored is a good year

Hits - 200

Doubles - 30

Triples - 10

Home Runs - 30

Runs Batted In - 100

Bases on Balls - 80 (one every other game)

Stolen Bases - 30


The other statistics are easy to figure out.  Obviously you don't want to get caught stealing or make any errors.  The amount of sacrifices really depends on what situations you are presented with in the year.

reading a stat sheet

There are a lot of numbers in baseball and abbreviations that may appear somewhat cryptic if you don't know a lot about baseball.  The acronyms are not really complicated, but I want to go over a stat sheet to explain every piece of minutiae.

Here's the Milwaukee Brewers batting statistics prior to their game on Sunday (6/12)

On the left you see player names, sorted by the highest batting average.

Avg - Batting Average.  At the top you see Wilson at 0.400.  I don't know why it happened this way, but in layman's term, you could say Wilson will get on base about 40% of the time.  In baseball, they say his batting average is "400."  To figure out batting average, take the hits (H) and divide by at-bats (AB).

AB - At-bats.  Wilson has 10 at bats so far this season.  In the course of a season, a player that plays every day will bat around 600 times.

R - Runs.  Runs scored is the amount of times the player has crossed home plate and scored a run for his team.

H - Hits.  Hits accounts for anyway a player gets on base.  It does not count though if you reach base on a walk (bases on balls) or an error.  Hits is total hits, be it singles, doubles, triples, or home runs.

2B - Doubles.  The amount of doubles in a season.  The league leader in doubles will have around 50 doubles in a season.

3B - Triples.  Ten triples in a season is a lot of triples for a player.  Normally only the very fastest players will get a triple.

HR - Home Runs.  Thirty home runs is a good number for a player.  The league leaders will normally have around 40 home runs in a season.

RBI - Run Batted In.  When a player is directly responsible for scoring a teammate or himself, he gets credit for a run batted in.  If a hitter hits a grand slam (3 men on base), he gets credit for 4 runs batted in.  He gets credit for the 3 men on base, and himself.

SH - Sacrifice Hits. A situation where the hitter deliberately, in the mind of the official scorer, has hit a ground ball to advance a runner that is on base.  An easy example is when a hitter bunts to advance his teammate from first to second base.  In essence, he sacrifices himself so his teammate can move up a base.  This is not counted as an at bat.

SF - Sacrifice Fly.  A situation where the hitter deliberately, in the mind of the official scorer, has hit a fly ball to advance a runner that is on base.  An easy example is when a hitter hits a deep fly ball to advance his teammate from third base to home.  In essence, he sacrifices himself so his teammate can score.  This is not counted as an at bat, but the hitter does get credit for an RBI.

HP - Hit by Pitch.  The number of times a player has been hit by a pitch.

BB - Bases on Ball (walk).  The number of times a player has reached base as a result of a pitcher throwing him 4 balls out of the strike zone.

SO - Strikeouts.  The number of times a player has been struck out by opposing pitchers.  A strikeout is routinely called a "K."

SB - Stolen Base.  The amount of times a player has stolen a base.  Stealing a base is when a runner advances a base without a ball being hit.  A player can steal 2nd base, 3rd base, or in rare instances, home plate.

CS - Caught Stealing.  The amount of times a player is caught trying to steal a base.  The general rule is that if you can't steal a base 70% of the time, you shouldn't steal.

E - Errors.  The amount of fielding errors a player has made on defense.  Due to difficulty at the position, shortstops will have the most errors.  Many outfielders can go years without an error being made.

OBP - On Base Percentage.  The percent of times a player gets on base.  This will always be greater than or equal to the batting average since it includes BB (bases on balls).  Elite hitters will have an on base percentage of greater that 0.400.  To calculate this, you add up H and BB and divide by AB.


This stat sheet separates the batting averages from the everyday position players at the top and the pitchers at the bottom.  Since pitchers don't play every day, they have a lot less at bats.

home field advantage

So I just read a book that stated there's no such thing as home field advantage.  By that, I mean that if one team were playing another team with identical players, that each team would be expected to win about half the time.  We all know though that home teams win much more at home than on the road.

However, it wouldn't be tough to say that in an individual sport, that tennis player Rafael Nadal has a home field advantage on the French Open's clay courts.  Nadal defeated the history's greatest men's tennis player, Roger Federer, to win the French Open on Sunday.  Nadal has only lost a match in the French Open once, making his career record there 45-1.  He has 6 French Open titles.  The courts there are clay, a surface that Nadal has excelled at.

Rafael Nadal celebrates his 6th French Open title
Alex Livesey/Getty Image

The next major tennis tournament is Wimbledon in London, which is played on grass. Nadal has won there 2 times, while Federer can claim his own home court advantage, as he has won Wimbledon 6 times.

where you need to finish

So my wife asked why I was happy today.  I told her the Brewers won another game, and are playing well.

Wife, "So what place are the Brewers in?"

Dan, "2nd place."

Wife, "No, I mean what place in the American League?"

Dan, "The Brewers have been in the National League since 1998, and their place in the league doesn't matter."

My point with this conversation is that the Brewers need to make the playoffs, that's all the matters for the regular season of 162 games.  There are three divisions in the National League, the East, Central, and West.  The winner of each of those divisions goes to the playoffs, as well as the 2nd place team with the best record.

Where the Brewers finish in the National League is irrelevant.  They just need to fall within the scenario above to have a successful season.

basketball game this weekend?

You may have heard that the Miami Heat defeated the Chicago Bulls last night.  With that win, the Heat advance to the NBA Finals to play against the Dallas Mavericks......on Tuesday night.

LeBron James shouts in celebration after the Heat win
photo from Associated Press

With that, we have 5 days to stew over who has the upper hand in this rematch of the 2006 NBA Finals.  To many who are anticipating this matchup, this is a huge letdown.  I know the NBA has scheduled the Finals for May 31 since the season started, but many people still have basketball on the mind, and would love it for Game 1 to be on Sunday night.

football on Sunday

At this moment, the National Football League (NFL) owners and players are having trouble agreeing on a new collective bargaining agreement to run their sport for the future.  As a result of this impasse, the owners have locked out the players from workout facilities, and contact between players and coaches is off limits.  The start of the season on time is in question.

So what are you going to do without professional football on Sunday?  How about some college football?

Andrew Luck of Stanford could be playing football on Sunday in 2011
photo from Sports Illustrated for Kids

With professional football being the biggest spectator sport in the country, the Pacific 10 (normally called the Pac-10) conference has started the process of scheduling some of their games on Sunday, hoping to draw in some of the eyeballs that would normally be watching the NFL.  If the NFL does come back, the Pac-10 can easily switch back to Saturday football.

why they don't want people on the field

One moment that absolutely made me chuckle this past week was the sight of a fan running onto Houston's Minute Maid Ballpark, and escaping the authorities by jumping over fences and scaling parts of the ballpark until he was out of the ballpark.  The link to watch the escape is here: http://youtu.be/X7B4gic1-qU

While this might seem amusing, there have been a few instances where the athletes and other officials on the field have been victims to fan attacks during a sporting event.  Tennis player Monica Seles was stabbed in the back on the court in 1993.  In 2002, Kansas City Royals coach Tom Gamboa was attacked on the field by a father and son.

Tom Gamboa being attacked in 2002
photo from ESPN

Since officials don't know the intent of fans, drastic actions, such as the tasing of a fan in Philadelphia might become more common.

a Philadelphia fan getting tasered
photo by Matt Slocum

a lasting tribute to Killebrew

Baseball Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew died today at the age of 74.  Killebrew hit 573 home runs in his major league baseball career, most of it being with the Minnesota Twins.

One of the lasting tributes to Killebrew is a seat that you can find bolted to the wall at the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN.

seat on wall of Mall of America at right
photo from Yahoo! Sports

At the site of the Mall of America was the previous home of the Minnesota Twins, Metropolitan Stadium, which was demolished to make room for the shopping mall in the 1980's.

The site of the seat bolted to the wall at the Mall of America is the location where the longest home in Metropolitan Stadium history landed, which was hit by Killebrew in 1967.  The estimated distance of the home run is 522 feet.

The estimated distance of Killebrew's 522' home run
photo from Yahoo! Sports

being bad for a long time

I saw an interesting stat about the NFL today.  It stated that in the past 20 years, there have been 13 different Super Bowl winners.

The sport of baseball is the opposite, and is marked by some teams that are always competitive, and some that are historically just awful for long stretches of time. 

One of those horrible teams is the Pittsburgh Pirates.  The Pirates have not had a winning season since 1992.

The Pirates win a game in 2011
Photo Credit: Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

One of the most interesting news stories from the Pirates this week is the fact that right now they have a winning record for the first time in May in 7 years.  There are certainly many more games to play in this season, but normally at this time in the season, the Pirates have fallen way to the bottom of the standings.

what is a no hitter?

This year, it appears that the pitchers are doing much better at their job that hitters are doing at theirs.  The case could be made when this past week there were two no-hitters thrown.  A no-hitter is when the opposing pitcher doesn't allow a single, double, triple or home run to any opposing players.

On Tuesday, Minnesota Twins pitcher, Francisco Liriano managed to walk 6 Chicago White Sox hitters, but didn't allow a hit to record his first no-hitter.  On Saturday, Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander threw a no-hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays.  It was Verlander's 2nd career no-hitter.

Justin Verlander throws a no-hitter on Saturday
photo courtesy of Toronto Globe and Mail

For a pitcher, a no-hitter is a tremendous accomplishment, as there have only been 271 no-hitters in the history of baseball going back to 1875.

The next best thing for a pitcher is to throw a perfect game, which is when a pitcher doesn't allow anyone on base.  This means the pitcher can't issue any walks, and no errors can be made by his teammates.  It would be a situation where the pitcher faced 27 batters, and retired all of them in order.  This has only been done 18 times in baseball history.

two balls

So my wife asked me the difference between baseball and softball today.  I know she probably knows many of the differences, but how would I know what she doesn't know?

The obvious difference is the size of the ball.  A baseball easily fits in the palm of any adult, whereas a softball is much larger.  A softball also doesn't fly as far as a baseball.  Centerfield in a baseball park is normally around 400', whereas the deepest part of a softball field is around 300'.

a baseball and a softball

With the smaller field comes shorter distances between bases.  In baseball the distance is 90' between each successive base.  In softball, the distance is 60'.

Another big difference is that a softball is pitched underhand, and a baseball is pitched overhand.  There are two types of softball, one being fastpitch, and one being slowpitch.  The difference is that in slow pitch the pitcher arcs the ball, trying to hit the plate or mat behind the plate to get a strike call.  In fastpitch, the pitcher throws the ball fast to hit a strike zone defined by the umpire.

These are some of the major differences I could think of offhand.  There are a few other ideas that are popping into my mind right now, but the point of this blog is to not get lost in the minutiae.

getting it done - everyday

Without a doubt, the story of the 2011 baseball season so far has been Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier.

Ethier currently is in the midst of a 27-game hitting streak, meaning he has gotten at least a single, double, triple, or home run in every single game he has played in this year.  This is a great start by Ethier, and if he reaches base on Monday night, he will be exactly half way to Joe DiMaggio's all-time record of getting a hit in 56 consecutive games, which he did in 1941.

Dodgers rightfielder Andre Ethier

I expect that once Ethier gets past 30 games that he will start to receive national attention.  There have been a lot of 27 game hitting streaks, but once you get to 30, you start making history that people will remember.  Only 35 players have hitting streaks of greater than 30 games.

fox box

For the past 15 years or so, there's been something on TV screens that allows you to know exactly what is going on with the game.  It is called the Fox Box, named after Fox television which was the pioneer in the field of constant information during a game.

In the past, the score of the game was never really given unless you were at the end of the inning.  Now, whenever you need it, you have the score, inning, and what not else.

The Fox Box in the upper left hand corner

So what information can you get from the Fox Box?  Most importantly, you get the score.  In this instance, the score is STL (St. Louis) 3, and ATL (Atlanta) 2.

You also know it is the 9th inning, which is indicated to the right of the "STL."  The little down triangle below the "9TH" indicates it is the bottom half of the inning.

To the right of the "9TH" is the location of the runners.  In this instance, there was a runner on 1st base.  If there were runners on other bases, they would be highlighted.

The count on the batter was 0-1 (0 balls and 1 strikes).

There are two outs, as you can see there are two highlighted circles below the 0-1.

With this information, you can tell a lot of information about the game, rather than having to bug a stranger if they "knew the score?" like you had to for many years prior.

"best round ever"

The first round of the NFL Draft is occurring now as I am writing this blog.  The draft is how the NFL disperses talent from the college ranks to the professional level.  The worst team in the league drafts first, followed by the 2nd worst, and so on until all teams have drafted.

The title of the blog is the name of a contest Bud Light is sponsoring for tonight.  Bud Light is awarding $10 million to anyone who can correctly predict all 32 picks of the first round of the draft.

All I've heard in the past few weeks were the predictions that only two quarterbacks would be predicted in the first round.  In the first nineteen picks in this draft, there have already been 4 quarterbacks selected.  There will likely be a few more selected before the round is completed.

Number 1 overall selection Cam Newton is drafted by Carolina

There is a 0% chance that anyone in America will correctly predict all 32 selections.  Team general managers play games, and are all basically trying to mislead each other with false information, and no one really knows how each team is evaluating each player.  In effect, Bud Light basically got free publicity.

figuring out an earned run average for a pitcher

One of the best measures of the effectiveness of a pitcher is their earned run average, or as it is commonly called,  an ERA.  The ERA is the average amount of earned runs a pitcher will give up if they pitch 9 innings, or a complete baseball game.

So how do you calculate an ERA?  I've always created a simple proportion to solve this.  For instance, Twins pitcher, Francisco Liriano pitched 3 innings Wednesday and allowed 7 earned runs.  You take the 7 earned runs x 9 innings in a regulation game, divided by the number of innings pitched, which was 3.  With that, you get Liriano's ERA of 21.00 for today's game.

Francisco Liriano did not have a good Wednesday

Twenty-one is not a good ERA.  Today's performance lifted Liriano's season ERA to 9.13.  In today's game of baseball, I would consider anything less than 4.00 to be pretty good.  Under 3.00 is excellent.

how far behind are you?

One incredibly common thing that is talked about in baseball is the amount of games behind a particular team is out of first place.

I might guess that most die hard fans can't easily figure it out.  For instance, we can look at the NL Central Standings from April 26.  It has everything I would like to explain.

As you can see, St. Louis leads the division by 1/2 game ahead of Cincinnati and 1 game ahead of Milwaukee (games behind is the GB column).

Each game that each team plays counts as 1/2 game in the standings.  For instance, if St. Louis lost their game tonight and Cincinnati weren't playing, they each would be tied for 1st place with a 12-11 record.

We can also play a real life scenario with Milwaukee.  Milwaukee is 1 full game back, and is playing Cincinnati tonight.  If Milwaukee beats Cincinnati and St. Louis loses their game against Houston, Milwaukee would move into a tie with St. Louis, each with that 12-11 record.

Now how do you figure out how many games Houston is out?  The easiest way I've used is to analyze the absolute difference with respect to the 0.500 mark (the games above or below a team is to having won and lost the same amount of games).

St. Louis' record is 12-10, which is 2 games above 0.500.  Houston is 8-14, which is 6 games below 0.500.  The absolute difference between these two teams is 8.  Take 8 and divide by 2, and you get Houston as being 4 games behind.

Try this method whenever you see the standings.  It is more fun to try in September when some team is 25.5 games out of first place.

the big tease

So I went to my first baseball game this year....kind of.  I was in St. Louis on Friday night.  I didn't have tickets to the Cardinals/Reds game.  It was a decision that I made simply because there was doubt if the game would be played on Friday night.

There was a tornado that had gone through town that had delayed the start of the game.  Since our hotel was close to Busch Stadium, where the Cardinals play, I decided to take a walk down to the park in search of some really cheap tickets when the game resumed at 10PM.  I thought it might be a good game to attend since the park might be half full after a 2.5-hour delay.

When I found out the cheapest ticket was $21, I decided to watch part of the game from the seat seen below.

my centerfield "seat" on Friday night

You can see part of the game, but only when no one is walking in front of you.  I could see both the pitcher and the batter at the time this picture was taken.

There are a few other stadiums where they allow a sneak peek at the game.  I'm not sure if they do this to tease the potential patron, but it's always neat to see what a major league baseball stadium looks like, even if there isn't a game.

Ironically, the best view of Busch Stadium is from much farther away from the top of the St. Louis Arch.

the view from 630' above

 

getting people to the ballpark

Teams normally do promotions to get people to the ballpark.  Very popular promotions have been the Beanie Baby promotions of the late-90's, to the Bobblehead promotion which has been very popular for the last 10 years.

One promotion that I thought had gone away was the reduced price on beer nights.  There was a promotion in 1974 called "Ten Cent Beer Night."  It was held in Cleveland to help with sagging attendance.  The game was forfeited by the Indians because of fan's unruly behavior from excess Stroh's consumption.  If you want more info, the Wikipedia link does fine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Cent_Beer_Night .

A fan participating in Ten Cent Beer Night on the baseball field

However, one of the big stories of the 2011 season was the beating San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow took while attending a Giants/Dodgers game in Los Angeles on April 4.  Stow was beaten in the parking lot, and is still in a coma.  The assailants have not been found despite a $100k reward.

In response to this brutal beating, the Dodgers have agreed to cancel six planned half-price beer nights for the 2011 season.  It looks like after 37 years, teams are still using reduced beer prices to increase attendance.

With this incident, the Dodger's are becoming more known for this incident than what actually happens on the field....

catching a game on the go

Not so long ago, the only way to catch a baseball game was to either be at the game or to listen to it on the radio.  That normally meant pulling out your best radio with the special antenna to get radio stations from hundreds of miles away.  In the Midwest, you could normally do well getting radio stations of teams that were in between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachians.

Today things are different.  I wasn't able to directly listen to today's Brewers game, but I was able to follow it on my phone while running errands with my special someone.

I was watching the Brewers tonight on the MLB At Bat 2011 app.  It's not television, but it is a simple simulation of what was happening during the game, pitch-by-pitch.

Watching Prince Fielder hit a home run on At Bat 

The picture above shows a Prince Fielder home run.  The perspective is behind the plate, and Fielder hit the blue ball with the number 2 on it out of the park.

Below you will see what the home run looked like on TV.  

Watching Prince Fielder hit a home run on TV

The new technology of taking the baseball game with you really is a game changer.  You can be on vacation, and you can still follow your favorite team like you are still at home.

going in head first

The baseball injury everyone is talking about today is the broken arm reigning AL MVP Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers received while sliding into home plate.

Josh Hamilton breaks his arm on this slide into home

Many players like to slide head first because instinctively it is much easier to do.  It is the same slide kids do every day.

However, baseball players are taught the feet first pop-up slide.  This type of slide allows the player to slide in feet first, and quickly pop back up.  It keeps the player safer than sliding in head first, where you are putting your wrist, elbow, arm, collarbone and head at risk should the slide not go well.

Hamilton performing a pop up slide

The irony of the situation is that had Hamilton slid in feet first, it is unlikely he would've avoided the tag of the catcher, and been ruled out.  So, Hamilton scored the run and broke his arm in a game the Rangers ultimately lost.


He said it best in his post game quote, "It was just a stupid play," Hamilton said. "I definitely shouldn't have done it."

why 162 games?

Major League Baseball plays a long season of 162 games.  So how did they arrive at that number?

Prior to expansion that occurred in the early 1960's, there were 8 baseball teams in each of the American and National League.  Each team played the other 7 teams 22 games a piece, which made for a season of 154 games.

When the American League expanded with two more teams for the 1961 season, it meant that the new American League would have 10 teams, meaning there were now 9 opponents.  The American League would need to find a new amount of times that each team would play each other that would be close to the number of games they had been playing previously.  If each team played each other 18 times, that would mean the season would consist of 162 games.  That number of 162 has been used for the past 50 years.

Yankee Roger Maris was the beneficiary of a longer season

Ironically, 1961 was the year that Roger Maris would break the home run record for homers in a season with 61, which sparked controversy because he needed the additional 8 games to break Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs accomplished in a154-game season.

the immaculate inning

I've been following for baseball for many years, and thought I'd heard of almost everything, that was until I heard about a statistical feat that has only been accomplished 44 times.  It is called the "Immaculate Inning," in which the pitcher throws 9 pitches, all strikes, and strikes out all three batters. 

One wonders though that this feat could be accomplished many more times that it might become irrelevant if a pitcher tried for it every inning.  For a pitcher, you don't really want to throw strikes all the time.  If you did that, you might become too predictable, and the hitter may just always know that a strike is coming, giving them a better chance of getting a hit.

The game between the pitcher and batter is a game of deception.  The pitcher throwing fast or slow, in or out, high or low.  

Rays pitcher Rafael Soriano threw the 44th Immaculate Inning in 2010

Oftentimes if a pitcher has two strikes on a batter, but hasn't thrown a ball yet, commonly referred to as an 0-2 count, the pitcher will throw the next baseball in the dirt hoping the batter will swing at something they have no chance of hitting.  A pitcher knows that if he throws a strike, there's a chance he gives up a hit.  There's no chance of giving up a hit when you throw a ball in the dirt.  It is with that reasoning that a pitcher having a great inning isn't really hoping for the Immaculate Inning.

baseball day games make it easy on everyone

Out of the 10 Major League Baseball games on Thursday, only two were played at night.  That may strike you as odd since teams are more likely to draw larger crowds at night games.  It is after all, the reason night games were invented.

However, teams help each other out by scheduling day games at the end of a series to help the other team as they travel around the country.

For instance, the Atlanta Braves played a game at 12:40PM in Milwaukee on Thursday.  Their next game is in Philadelphia on Friday evening.  Getting out of Milwaukee by 4PM today helps give the team a break on Thursday night.  It is much better for Atlanta to get to Philadelphia at 7PM on Thursday night after the day game, rather than play the night game and arrive in Philadelphia at 1AM on Friday morning.

It also makes life easier for the stadium personnel as well.  One of the very interesting intricacies of baseball is the washing of the uniform.  The dirty uniforms that the Braves wore today in Milwaukee get shipped with the team to Philadelphia.  The players go to the team hotel, while the dirty uniforms head to the stadium and are washed by the Philadelphia Phillies guest clubhouse attendants.  This job can take a long time as they wash and dry about 40 uniforms of players and coaches.  They are then placed in the individual lockers in the opposing team clubhouse.

Braves catcher Brian McCann gets dusted up by Nyjer Morgan

These Philadelphia Phillies employees are quite happy that Atlanta's game in Milwaukee was an afternoon game too.

why do baseball games start when they do?

While getting ready to listen to the Brewers game tonight, I made a mental note that the game would be starting at 7:10PM.

Back in 1980s, I can remember Brewers night games starting at 7:30PM.  After a few years of that start time, they adjusted the time back down to 7PM.  That time was easy for fans to make their way to the ballpark, and hopefully get home before 11PM.

Now that almost every baseball game is televised, every game either starts at 7:05, or in the case of this year, the start time is 7:10 for Milwaukee home games.  This allows for a short pre-game show for fans at home as well as time for a short interview prior to the game.

Each individual team has the ability to create their own start time.  The St. Louis Cardinals night games always start at 7:15PM.  A little more TV analysis for a more rabid fan base.

7-11 sponsored the start of White Sox games from 2007-2009

The most interesting start time for games occurred when the Chicago White Sox signed a deal with convenience store 7-11 a few years back.  In that deal, the White Sox got $500,000 per year to start all their night games at 7:11.

why women are easier to predict

On Tuesday night, the women will crown their NCAA basketball champion.  The match up is between Notre Dame and Texas A&M.

The women's tournament doesn't offer the amount of surprises and upsets that the men's tournament does.  This comes about because men have better opportunities to play professionally for money after their first year.  This leads to players who are constantly getting used to their teammates as the season goes on.  Oftentimes teams get great recruits, but since the best players leave after a season, there isn't a chance for the men's teams to gel and become great.  Kentucky basketball might be unstoppable if their top talent didn't go to the NBA after one season in college.

Texas A&M battling Notre Dame for the title

Women athletes don't have great opportunities to play basketball professionally.  The WNBA, the women's equivalent to the NBA does not pay well, and many times women athletes play overseas to make money.  The lure is not enough to leave their collegiate careers, leading many women's teams to be strong for many years.

when hitting a home run is a bad thing

Milwaukee Brewers centerfielder Carlos Gomez' season started with a bang.  He had a home in his first at bat.

With that first swing on opening day, Gomez might now think he's a power hitter.  In 15 at-bats since then, Gomez has one hit, and has struck out 6 times.  Instead of looking to make contact, Gomez is looking to go deep.

Carlos Gomez celebrating his opening day home run

It is this attitude that has made Gomez an enigma to Brewers fans.  All Gomez really needs to do is hit ground balls.  If he hits a ground ball to either the third baseman or shortstop, Gomez, with his speed, has a great chance to beat the ball to first base.

Most speedy baserunners can make the trek from home plate to first base in less than 4 seconds.  Instead of utilizing this blazing speed, Gomez is trying to hit home runs.

still looking to catch Jack

 Like sports such as tennis and bowling, golf has four major tournaments in the calendar year.

The first golf major of 2011 is the Masters, which will be played at Augusta National in Augusta, Georgia.  The tournament starts on Thursday morning.

It is also another chance for Tiger Woods in his pursuit of catching Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major championships.  Woods is currently at 14 major championships, and has not won a major championship since 2008.  Woods has won at Augusta National four times.

Woods receiving the green jacket signifying his 1997 win at Augusta National

Meanwhile, defending champion Phil Mickelson is going for another win at Augusta.  Mickelson has won the Masters three times and has a grand total of four major golf championships.

Phil's four major championships has always reminded me of how tough it will be for Woods to catch Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors given the slump the 35-year old Woods is currently in.  To win 19 majors, he has to basically match Mickelson's four majors, and then win another one to become the most decorated golfer of all time.

the new modern media

Milwaukee Brewers relief pitcher John Axford blew a 3 run lead on Thursday afternoon and allowed the Cincinnati Reds to come back and win their opening day baseball game against Milwaukee.

Axford has become a very public person over this past offseason.  In part of a marketing move, and perhaps it is  John's personality, he has become a must "follow" for Brewers fans on Twitter.

In starting his season with a disappointing loss, I was wondering if John would say something on Twitter tonight, or if he would recuse himself and focus solely on the baseball season.

It looks like I have my answer....

Twitter is an incredible new forum for player and fan interaction.  I am happy that Axford actually sent out a message to his fans tonight.  It doesn't take much to say something out loud when things are going well, but definitely takes more guts to say something when things don't go as planned.

17 minutes times 162 games = thank you

Many people, myself included, are really excited for another 7 months of Major League Baseball starting on Thursday afternoon.  All teams with a 0-0 record, and all having dreams of winning the World Series, no matter how silly that may sound.

Then sometime during that first week, you realize following your favorite team becomes a huge time commitment.

good seats aren't enough to keep this fan's attention

Recently perusing the pages of ESPN Magazine, I came across something that I knew they were working on, but didn't realize they'd actually approved for the game.  College baseball now has a pitch clock.  The college rule is that the pitcher must throw the ball within 20 seconds of receiving it when no one is on base.  In games this year, that rule, combined with a rule about less potent aluminum bats, has trimmed 17 minutes off of college baseball games.  

For baseball fans who work a standard shift of 8AM to 5PM, this development is a huge deal.  Granted, it isn't in the Major Leagues yet, but whenever a game is going after 10:30PM, you have a choice.  You are either going to turn the game off, or decide to stay up and go to work the next day with a large cup of coffee.  

Imagine Major League Baseball adopting a similar rule.  You'd have a baseball game with roughly the time commitment of a long basketball game.  You might even see increased attendance and viewership among fans and casual fans.

The answer to 17 minutes times 162 games is about 46 hours saved.

why no one might win the NCAA Final Four

So we have our Final Four set for Saturday evening.

Butler will play Virginia Commonwealth in the first game.  Connecticut (UConn) will face off against Kentucky following that first game.

So how could no team win this Final Four?  Sometimes scandals follow particular coaches wherever they coach.  Kentucky head coach John Calipari is one of the best coaches around.  He's been to two Final Fours, and somehow, impossibly he has a 0-0 career record in those Final Fours.  You got it, look it up in Wikipedia and other sources.  Those appearances in the Final Four were vacated by the NCAA due to improprieties that occurred under Calipari's watch.  In other words, the games may have occurred, but no one recognizes that they happened.

Kentucky coach John Calipari

Meanwhile, UConn coach Jim Calhoun is ready to start serving a 3-game suspension at the start of next season for giving improper benefits to a recruit.

You never know what the NCAA could dig up on these schools a few years from now, meaning if either UConn or Kentucky wins this whole thing, we might have a record book that looks like this:

NCAA Men's Basketball Champions
.....
2008.  Kansas
2009.  North Carolina
2010.  Duke
2011. (vacated)

starting a new season

One thing that might catch the casual sports fan off guard is the arrival of the baseball season later this week on March 31.  I can't ever remember a season starting for most teams prior to April 1.

With three rounds of playoffs looming in the postseason, my thought is that Major League Baseball wants to avoid the embarrassment of having its games played after Halloween, when the weather could play a big factor.

However, to avoid November baseball, the season has to start earlier.  Early on, the schedule makers do their best to make sure games are played either at an indoor stadium, or in the south.  One can only imagine what a game at Minnesota's Target Field on Thursday and Friday would feel like.

weather forecast for the Twin Cities

Luckily for the Twins, they will be on a road trip to the SkyDome in Toronto and to New York City before they have to play their first game at Target Field on April 8.

adding it up

They say you can judge the strength of the Final Four by adding up the seeds.

This year, we have a #11 seed Virginia Commonwealth, an #8 seed in Butler, a #4 with Kentucky and a #3 seed belonging to UConn.  This adds up to a 26, which is the highest sum I can remember in quite some time.

In 2008, all #1 seeds advanced to the Final Four, which netted the lowest possible sum of 4.

This year is the complete opposite.  Even crazier is when after the NCAA committee originally selected Virginia Commonwealth to participate in the tournament, analyst Jay Bilas claimed that he wondered  "if some people on the committee know whether the ball is round." 

Virginia Commonwealth is considered to have been the last selection of the original 68-team field, and now they're in the Final Four.

Virginia Commonwealth's Jamie Skeen drives past a Kansas defender

Adding up the seeds doesn't necessarily mean that this year's Final Four is weak, but it just means some very unpredictable things have happened for a few weeks.

why do the last 2 minutes of a basketball game seem to take forever?

While watching the BYU-Florida game tonight, it reminded me how good basketball can be, but sometimes how painful it can be.

The end of the 2nd half of the game had great drama as the teams were tied at 68.  Each possession was meaningful and could change the result of the game.  The game ended up in a tie at the end of regulation.

BYU and Florida duke it out on Thursday

Overtime went Florida's way right from the get-go.  The overtime period is 5 minutes long, and about half way through, BYU needed a miracle, and turned to one of the oldest strategies in the book.  BYU started fouling the Florida players.  The hope was that Florida would start missing free throws and that BYU would start making the 3-point shots that would quickly close the deficit.  This strategy didn't work as Florida made free throws and BYU missed their shots or turned the ball over.  When BYU fell behind by 10 points in overtime, they finally threw in the towel and let the game clock expire.

In the end, the BYU fouling strategy probably added only 5 more minutes to the time of the game, but it always feels much longer to the casual fan who just wants the next game to start.

what will you be doing in the year 2022?

If you are Brad Stevens, the men's basketball coach at Butler University, you still would have your job.  Last year, Stevens signed a 12-year deal to stay as coach of Butler.  Stevens is 34 years old.

Butler Bulldogs coach Brad Stevens

This is a classic case of a university seeing a young coach, and wanting to lock him up to an incredibly long-term deal.  Butler certainly doesn't have the history of a great basketball team like Kentucky or Kansas, but with Stevens at the helm, they have a shot at a long run.  Duke was not very good until Mike Krzyzewski came along in 1980.  Now Krzyzewski is still the coach of Duke, and is on the verge of being the all-time winningest coach in men's basketball.

No doubt, if a good job comes up, Stevens probably has an out clause in his contract should he ever want to leave Butler.

The Stevens deal, while being very long, is not even half as long as the deal basketballer Magic Johnson signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1984.  That deal was a 25-year contract.  Johnson retired from basketball in 1991.

why baseball players are against safety

Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau has something that he wants for every major leaguer.  He wants them to be safe.

Morneau has not played in a baseball game since July 2010, after he took a knee to the head trying to break up a double play.  Morneau has also had multiple concussions as a result of being hit by pitches.  This spring, Morneau has become an advocate for a helmet called the Rawlings S100.  The S100 standing for the speed at which this helmet can give protection for (100 miles per hour).  The standard helmet that is being used by players today is rated to protect players at 70 miles per hour.  The new helmet may have also helped when Morneau took that knee to the head.

Most players have resisted this change because it isn't comfortable, it's too bulky, they might look like clowns, and they're just scared they won't be the same player with new equipment.

New York Mets 3rd baseman David Wright trying out the Rawlings S100 helmet