Category Archives: Non-Baseball

The Lone Man to play in MLB and the NHL (and other MLB/NHL connections)

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Hockey is back!

(Crickets)

Well, anyway, there have been far fewer two-sport athletes in baseball involving hockey than there are basketball or football. In fact, there has been a grand total of one player who has spent time in the Major Leagues and the NHL. That player is Jim Riley, who spent some brief time with the St. Louis Browns and Washington Senators in the 1920s and spent a brief time with the Chicago Black Hawks (note the space) and Detroit Cougars (not yet the Red Wings) in the 1926-1927 season. Here’s what his top league statistics looked like:

In MLB:

Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards
1921 26 SLB AL 4 12 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 .000 .083 .000 .083 -78 0 0 0 /4
1923 28 WSH AL 2 5 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 .000 .400 .000 .400 13 0 0 0 /3
1931 Did not play in major leagues (Did Not Play)
2 Yrs 6 17 14 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 .000 .176 .000 .176 -52 0 0 0
162 Game Avg. 162 459 378 27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 81 81 .000 .176 .000 .176 -52 0 0 0
WSH (1 yr) 2 5 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 .000 .400 .000 .400 13 0 0 0
SLB (1 yr) 4 12 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 .000 .083 .000 .083 -78 0 0 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/14/2013.

In the NHL:

Season Age Tm Lg GP G A PTS GC +/- PIM EV PP SH GW S S% TOI ATOI
1926-27 31 TOT NHL 9 0 2 2 1 14
1926-27 31 CBH NHL 3 0 0 0 0 0
1926-27 31 DTC NHL 6 0 2 2 1 14
Career NHL 9 0 2 2 1 14
Provided by Hockey-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/14/2013.

Of course, Riley also played in the minor leagues in both sports. You can find his baseball minor league stats over at Baseball Reference, and you can find his hockey stats over at hockeydb.com.

Now, although Riley is the lone man to have played in both MLB and the NHL, he is not the only player who played both sports. Not even close. Take a look after the jump for other connections between America’s pastime and Canada’s pastime:

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Picture of the Day: Babe and a future president

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In the days leading up to the Presidential Inauguration, the Baseball Continuum will be posting pictures celebrating the relation between the presidency and baseball. These are not meant to be an endorsement of either side of the political aisle nor the policies of any of the men featured within, merely a celebration of the close connection between America’s leader and America’s game.

You’ve seen the picture before, but it remains a powerful image: An aged Babe Ruth donating a copy of his manuscript to Yale University, with them being received by the captain of Yale’s baseball team: George Herbert Walker Bush.

From the U.S. National Archives flickr account, no known copyright.

WBC Simulation: USA vs. Canada

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On Sunday, March 30, 2013, Team USA and Canada will play the final Pool D game at Chase Field in Phoenix. Canada will technically be the home team. It’s entirely possible that who has advanced in the WBC would already be decided, but the sometimes erratic tie-breaking procedures of the round robin first round make it unlikely that both would be decided, and it is entirely likely that this game would decide the fates of at least one of the teams playing.

So, how might it go down? Well, using Out of the Park Baseball, I am simulating it! Go after the jump for the rest.

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Now available for purchase: Joe Connor’s “World in a Ballpark”

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The Baseball Continuum is proud to offer for purchase the World Baseball Classic guide, World in a Ballpark: Baseball Goes Global, written by published international baseball writer Joe Connor. Connor is a world-traveling freelance writer who has written about baseball in more than 30 countries. His work has appeared on ESPN.com, NBCSports.com, MLB.com and other respected outlets. Connor has, since 2001, written a series of travel guides about baseball on many topics, including international baseball such as the World Baseball Classic and the Caribbean Series. World in a Ballpark focuses on baseball in countries all around the world, including all 16 participants in the 2013 WBC. It is available for purchase below.

World in a Ballpark: Baseball Goes Global

A 275-page guide detailing what’s happening on the ground across the globe, with scouting reports on the growth of baseball across six continents and in more than 100 countries. $24.99, PDF file will be e-mailed to you.

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The guide is also available for purchase on the “Joe Connor’s WBC Guide” tab at the top of the page.

Russell Wilson probably made the right decision

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Russell Wilson plays for the Seattle Seahawks today, but he once played in the Colorado Rockies organization.

Looking at his career .229 BA, I’d say he probably made the right decision.

Year Age Tm Lg Lev Aff G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB
2010 21 Tri-City NORW A- COL 32 143 122 18 28 4 4 2 11 4 6 16 36 .230 .336 .377 .713 46 4 4 0 1 0
2011 22 Asheville SALL A COL 61 236 193 40 44 5 4 3 15 15 2 35 82 .228 .366 .342 .708 66 2 7 1 0 0
2 Seasons 93 379 315 58 72 9 8 5 26 19 8 51 118 .229 .354 .356 .710 112 6 11 1 1 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/13/2013.

Off-Topic: Short NFL predictions for the weekend

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Okay, here we go:

Ravens at Broncos: It will be cold, yes, and Peyton Manning doesn’t do well in cold. However, I still think he’ll do well enough, barring the Ravens defense taking the ball away multiple times. In other words, Broncos win.

Packers at 49ers: This is a tough one, but I think the Packers have the advantage of momentum (they haven’t been sitting around for as long), and I’d rather have Aaron Rodgers playing at QB than Colin Kaepernick. Packers win.

Seattle at Atlanta: Okay, Seattle’s sleep cycles will be messed up, and Marshawn Lynch missed much of practice this week with an injury, but the Falcons have done about as well in the playoffs as the Braves did most of their years during their grand run of NL East title: losing early. Seattle wins.

Texans at Patriots: The Patriots will slaughter them. They are clearly the better team, by leaps and bounds. New England wins.

And now, another trailer for “42”

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While I’m not going to do the grand analysis of the first trailer, here’s the latest trailer for the Jackie Robinson biopic, 42, starring Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford. Keep an eye open for Christopher Meloni as Leo Durocher, Alan Tudyk as Phillies manager/racist dirtbag Ben Chapman, and Pee Wee Reese (Lucas Black) making a bit of a reference to how MLB now honors Robinson every season.

Random Video of the Undetermined Amount of Time: George Carlin talks about the differences between football and baseball

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(If the video doesn’t work, go here)

Short Predictions for the NFL Wild Card Round

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Nothing too deep, just quick predictions:

  • I see the Bengals upsetting the Texans, as Houston basically backed into the playoffs, which doesn’t exactly seem like a good omen for them, even if they are playing at home.
  • The night game on Saturday between Green Bay and Minnesota is tougher to predict. It’s only a week since their last game, which saw the Vikings win in overtime. This game, however, will be in Green Bay. Advantage: Packers.
  • I was until a few days ago thinking that the Colts could upset the Ravens. And then Ray Lewis announced he would be retiring. Given that, I feel like the Ravens are not going to be caught napping, and the defense will take advantage of Andrew Luck’s youth to make a few key turnovers to give them the win.
  • The last game of the weekend, Seattle vs. Washington, is probably the toughest to predict, so I’m going with my gut… and my gut says Seattle.

Suggestion: Count in terms of stadiums

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You occasionally hear of weird ways of measuring things. Perhaps the best baseball example is the Altuve, which measures things based on the size of Astros 2B Jose Altuve. But one baseball-related unit of measure I sometimes use when I envision things is based on the capacity of stadiums.

It works to help give yourself some context. Stalin is said to have once quipped that “The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic.” And, the sad thing is, that is more-or-less true: you may well cry your eyes out if you hear the story of a man dying of cancer, but when you hear that tens of thousands of people have died in a war, it’s far harder to quite grasp the magnitude. Thinking in terms of stadiums changes that, giving you an idea of scale, of just how many or how few of something there is.

For example, when one hears that there are, say 12 thousand Humpback Whales (I’m just guessing that number off the top of my head- it may well be fewer) left in the world, you have no idea of how many or how few that is. But when you consider that the top, standing-room-only capacity of your local AAA ballpark is only a little greater than that, you realize just how few Humpback Whales there are.  Suddenly, you have that perspective

Take a look at some of the numbers in the news recently, for example:

For example, the American economy added 155,000 jobs in December (source), which is sort of a weird number to think about. So, instead, perhaps it’s a better idea to imagine that as about three Yankee Stadiums worth of newly employed people (it’s actually a little more than that as Yankee Stadium’s baseball capacity is 50,287).

Between 600,000 and 800,000 are expected to attend the inauguration in Washington. Or, to put it another way, that’s between 14 to 20 Nationals Parks.

Of course, it gets a little more difficult the higher numbers go. 19 million people watched last night’s Big Bang Theory, and saying that that is the equivalent of a little more than 339 Dodger Stadiums doesn’t quite give a good idea of scope, does it? I mean, other than it saying that a lot of people watched it.

Still, a good way of getting your head around big numbers: use stadium capacities as a guide!