On some baseball-related CD I own, I have a song that goes:
“Hooray, hooray, the time has really come.
Hooray, hooray, the time has really come.
Cleveland’s got Larry Doby, Brooklyn’s got Jackie Robinson.”
Jackie Robinson’s contribution to baseball, and to society, has been well documented, especially with this being the 60th anniversary of him breaking the game’s color barrier back in April. But I was watching Sunday Night Baseball this week, and there was a discussion suggesting that perhaps Larry Doby being the first black in the American League, at least in the modern era, was as tough as or tougher than what JR went through. An interesting theory, that. Jackie DID go through the Dodgers’ minor league system, whereas Doby, who died four years ago, came straight from the Negro Leagues, without a Branch Rickey to advise him along the way. And while Jackie integrated the one league, I suspect there were those who were holding out hope that the AL would remain lily-white. So when he showed up, well, there goes the neighborhood. (Which, strangely, reminds me of some song I haven’t heard in years by the Bus Boys, NOT the Molly Hatchet or Sheryl Crow or Body Count song with the same title.)
***
Oh, speaking of Sunday Night Baseball, I know about “the book”, but really, why does a manager pull a starting pitcher who’s thrown less than 85 pitches, who’s given up zero runs on six hits, stranded a runner on third with no outs, in favor of a “closer” with an ERA of over 6.00?
***
From my in-laws’ local paper: Baseball can be a microcosm of American society, State University College at Oneonta history professor William Simons said.
***
I bought a book this week: The SABR Baseball List & Record Book: Baseball’s Most Fascinating Records and Unusual Statistics. It’s a fun book.
Who threw the first no-hitter at Shea Stadium? Jim Bunning, now a member of Congress.
Who hit the first grand slam at the LA Coliseum? Willie Mays.
Most years together for 9 teammates? 10 years, by Detroit Tigers of 1964-1973. The team also has the record for 8 teammates together (11 years), 7 teammates (11 years), 6 teammates (12 years) five teammates (12 years), and tied for 4 teammates (13 years).
Plus all sorts of base-stealing, pitching, and batting records. Recommended for baseball stats junkies.
***
The June 29 Wall Street Journal (p. W9C) is hot on something called BOP (bases over plate appearances), which is the total number of bases + hit by pitches + walks divided by plate appearances. I was curious how many of the top 10 guys are on the All-Star roster:
Alex Rodriguez (NYY) .732 starter
Barry Bonds (SF) .701 starter
Jack Cust (Oak) .680 not on roster
Magglio Ordonez (Det) .677 starter
Carlos Pena (TB) .667 not on roster
Prince Fielder (Milw) .664 starter
Chipper Jones (Atl) .649 not on roster
David Ortiz (Bos) .643 starter
Jim Thome (CWS) .634 not on roster
Ryan Howard (Phil) .633 not on roster
I wonder how it would have turned out if they were playing in an American League city, where the designated hitter is in the lineup, rather than in San Francisco. Cust and Thome are both DHs. Pena and Howard are at the crowded first base position. Third baseman Jones has been injured a lot this season.
***
Off topic, ADD recommends something called The Simple Dollar. I was particularly intrigued by the July 1 post, extensively reviewing a book entitled The 12 Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back. Looks interesting.
ROG
Category: baseball
The National Soccer Hall of Fame
Considering the fact that my in-laws live in Oneonta, it’s rather peculiar that it took Carol and me nearly eight years to visit the National Soccer Hall of Fame in the small city. Carol and I, with baby Lydia, made it to the Basketball Hall of Fame in the summer of 2004 in Springfield, MA; I think Lydia was unimpressed.
Anyway, one might ask, why the heck is the Soccer HoF in Oneonta anyway. On the very first display in the Hall, that question is addressed. The colleges there, the State University College at Oneonta and Hartwick College both had had successes in the 1970s in soccer. OK, but still, why Oneonta? Because of its approximation to Cooperstown, some folks expected that they could make it another destination in the region.
Yes, I don’t know soccer, but my wife doesn’t really know basketball, either. While she loved that hall in Springfield, she and I were pretty bored with this place. At least until we got to the second floor, when we got to compete in some interactive games. Still, if it wasn’t for the fact that she got in free (it was Mother’s Day weekend), and I got in at 10% off with an AAA card ($11.25 instead of $12.50), it would have been an EXPENSIVE boring visit.
Of course, it can’t compete with the charm of Cooperstown. My father-in-law and I, as usual, went to the game last month, between the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays. Here’s a description of the game, where minor league Brian Boch got 2 HRs, one a grand slam, and a double to lead the Orioles over the Blue Jays. My best recollections: off-key renditions by a barbershop quartet of BOTH O Canada AND The Star-Spangled Banner; four of the eight homers landing in our section, including one that hit just to my right, hit a concrete facing, then careened to the left in front of me.
Our favorite sport, though, is begging the center fielder for the ball. This is an annual event, where after the warm ups between half innings, the sections make as much noise as possible so that the player will toss the ball to their section. No one played this as well as Toronto outfielder Vernon Wells, who really knew how to milk the crowd. One time, he hid one ball while taunting the crowd with another. When he threw it to the one section, the other section moaned, until he produced the second sphere. Great theater for the three innings he stayed in the game.
ROG
Nik Experiences the New Zealand Winter
One of the great things about knowing people who live in other places is that you get perspectives from those other people. For instance, I’d be inclined to say, today is the first day of summer. Or not. But Nik, who I should note I’ve never met personally, only through his writings, is an expat American about to experience winter in the Southern Hemisphere.
Which is a roundabout way of saying: it’s time for my summer/winter solstice edition of (drum roll, please)… Ask Roger Anything, in which you can, well, query myself, er, about any topic. Ask me about the two times I got to shake Nelson Rockefeller’s hand or how many Supreme Court justices I’ve met, or anything about sports or race or politics or religion or music or television or being a librarian. Well, anything except the Dewey Decimal System; that’s as deep dark secret.
You may ask a maximum of 16 questions apiece, except for Gordon, who can ask as many as he wants; bring ’em on, Piscean!
But DON’T ask me bizarro trivia questions, such as the one I saw on Ken Jennings’ blog this month:
Consider the universe of baseball statistics. Forget about ones that are averages, and thus a player’s score can go up or down over time — batting average, ERA, slugging percentage, and the like. Focus on the ones that accumulate. Also, forget about statistics that nobody tracks, like ground rule doubles in extra innings under a full moon on astroturf. Stay with statistics that people have actually heard of.
Now consider that among such statistics there’s the concept of one category being a special case of another. If you do one, you necessarily do the other, but not vice versa (otherwise two statistics would be called “synonyms”). A perfect game is a special case of a no-hitter. A double is a special case of a hit. An at-bat is a special case of a plate appearance. A save is a special case of a game played, but a hit is not because you can have any number of hits in a game.
At last, the question. There are two statistics, one of which is a special case of the other. The career leaders in the two categories — the guys who did each the most times — are different men with the same first and middle names. Who are they?
Oy. I barely understood the QUESTION, let alone had any idea what the answer was.
Anyway,
the
answer
is
Henry Louis (Hank) Aaron holds the record for career home runs (755) and Henry Louis (Lou) Gehrig holds the record for career grand slam home runs (23).
Of course, Barry Bonds is in a well-publicized pursuit of Aaron’s record (currently at 748), and Manny Ramirez, last I checked, stood at 20 Grand Slams. Bonds, BTW, is the career leader of a statistic with his initials: Bases on Balls.
So don’t ask me questions like that.
Sporting News
I went to the local CVS drugstore this week. The clerk asked me if I wanted to contribute a dollar for fighting ALS. I said OK.
The clerk said, “It’s called Lou Garry’s disease.”
I said, “It’s Lou GEHRIG’s disease.” He looked puzzled.
“You know, Lou Gehrig. Played in the greatest number of major league (baseball) games in a row until Cal Ripkin, Jr. broke his record.”
“Who did he play for?”
“The Yankees. Played with Babe Ruth.”
“The Yankees? I HATE the Yankees!”
“But Gehrig was a good guy. Gary Cooper in ‘Pride of the Yankees’: ‘I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.'”
“Yeah, I think I heard of that. But I HATE the Yankees! I think I’ll stop asking (for ALS donations). Hope my manager doesn’t notice.”
Detroit Tigers outfielder Gary Sheffield apparently believes there are more Latin players, and fewer black players, in MLB, because Latinos are more “manageable” than blacks. Some sports writer suggested ed that it was a Don Imus moment. I disagree; I think it was an Al Campanis moment. Campanis was the Los Angeles Dodgers executive who infamously said on Nightline in 1987 that blacks did not have the “necessities” for managing a baseball team. I actually watched that episode of Nightline, in real time – those were the days – and Ted Koppel was gently trying to get Campanis to change his statement. It was a peculiar moment: Koppel, who admittedly knew little about baseball, breaks this big story on a show ostensibly honoring Jackie Robinson. Campanis was soon fired by the Dodgers, and MLB has made an effort to get teams to at least interview minority candidates. The strange thing about the Sheffield incident is that I hadn’t heard about it at all until I read it in the column.
That minor league manager’s meltdown, a big hit on You Tube, is part of a larger story on ABC News Monday night about hot-headed managers. The piece suggests that you not try these tactics at your own job, as tempting as it might be.
ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark notes that “racial issues are front and center for many Americans as (San Francisco Giants outfielder) Barry Bonds chases the all-time home run record.” A recent survey found that 52 percent of fans hope Bonds doesn’t break the record, while 37 percent of fans want him to surpass Hank Aaron’s mark, set in 1974. “However, race plays a unique role. Black fans in the survey are more than twice as likely to want Bonds to break Aaron’s record (74 percent to 28 percent), and 37 percent of black fans think Bonds used steroids, compared to 76 percent of white fans.
“Blacks are nearly twice as likely to think Bonds has been treated unfairly (46 percent to 25 percent). Why? The survey found that 41 percent of black fans think this is due to the steroids issue, 25 percent think it’s because of his race, and 21 percent blame Bonds’ personality. For whites who think Bonds has been treated unfairly, 66 percent blame steroids. Virtually none blame race.”
The Sports Illustrated Box Seat survey yesterday asked: “Are you rooting for Barry Bonds to break Hank Aaron’s Home Run record?” It was an ongoing online tally:
Yes 11.9% 53
No 68.2% 304
Don’t care 20% 89
It’s generally agreed that Barry Bonds is selfish, moody and uncommunicative. I posit that that may be why he’s more popular with some blacks; that he’s selfish, moody and uncommunicative, and doesn’t care what The Man says. In any case, I don’t recall such a disparity over a sports figure since the O.J. murder trial.
All this talk about whether the commissioner of baseball should/will show up at when Barry Bonds hits home run #756, then Bonds goes on a homer drought, and he’s stuck at 746, with one dinger in 51 at-bats. Will he actually break the record, or not?
I don’t really follow NHL hockey, but I was rooting for the Buffalo Sabres; that didn’t take. So now, I’m rooting for their old opponent, the Ottawa Senators. I’ll always pick a cold-weather team over a team named for a Disney movie, the Anaheim Ducks. Naturally, the Stanley Cup goes to California.
I’m also not that hot on NBA basketball, but I’m pulling for Cleveland, even though Lebron James is the only player I can name on the squad. While the San Antonio Spurs have won championships in 1999, 2003, and 2005, the city of Cleveland hasn’t won a title of any kind since 1964, when the Cleveland Browns won the NFL Championship (pre-Super Bowl era). The Cleveland Indians last won the World Series in 1948 and the Cleveland Cavaliers have never won the NBA Finals, or played in them until 2007.
A Potpourri of Questions
Please answer any that strike your fancy.
1. Mr. Burgas found this article about a library dropping the Dewey Decimal System in favor of shelving “by topic, similar to the way bookstores arrange books”. This hurts my head, not because I’m married to Dewey – my library actually uses Library of Congress – but because shelving by DDC or LoC IS arranging by topic. But maybe I’m missing something here.
a. How are the books, etc., in the libraries you use arranged?
b. How would you prefer they be arranged?
2. Several folks have linked to the story about e-mail bankruptcy, i.e., to say, “My e-mail’s overwhelmed me. I give up. Let’s start over.”
a. On average, how many e-mails do you get a day at work? At home? How many sit in that limbo-land at any given time, waiting for some sort of action? For me it’s about 150 at work, 30 at home. Occasionally, I’ll get rid of work e-mail at home. At any given time, I have between 60-150 work e-mails and 10 home e-mails waiting for me to do SOMETHING. Sometimes, it’s posting on a blog. The solutions in the article, phone calls and Instant Messaging would not work for me AT ALL; they’d be too distracting. How about for you? And how’s your spam content? The so-called king of spam was arrested this week. About 2% of my work e-mail and 10% of my personal e-mail is spam in a given week.
3. The Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez ticked off some people when as a runner, he misled an opposing fielder, noted here. Was this OK, or out of bounds? Deception has always been a part of the game. A pitcher’s pickoff move. Hidden ball tricks. An outfielder pretending to catch a ball to keep runners at bay. Phantom double plays, where the middle infielder’s foot is in the general vicinity of second base. The A-Rod incident didn’t bother me at all.
***
Prove the world is flat. Win $5,000!
ROG