It was that kind of night for the St. Louis Cardinals. Look for more tomorrow, including the “Mr. Octobers” of tonight. Spoiler alert: Both of them were members of the Boston Red Sox.
Game 1 of the World Series summed up in one GIF
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Bizarre Baseball Culture (Book Review): “Brittle Innings” by Michael Bishop
In Bizarre Baseball Culture, I take a look at some of the more unusual places where baseball has reared it’s head in pop culture and fiction.
1816 was the so-called “Year Without a Summer”, as a series of events (including the ash from a very large volcanic eruption in Indonesia) caused temperatures around the world to plunge. Against this backdrop, a small group of English writers and poets had their summer vacation at the Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva ruined by record cold and wet weather. Stuck inside the Swiss manor, one of their members, Lord Byron, suggested they try their hand at writing ghost stories. One of them, a young woman named Mary Shelley, came up with an idea that would eventually become Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. It differed from other scary stories in one major aspect: instead of having the monster come from magic or religion, it was about a monster created by mankind, by science. In fact, some say that it invented science fiction as a genre.
So, perhaps it isn’t surprising that eventually Bizarre Baseball Culture would come across the Frankenstein Monster, but it is surprising that it comes in Brittle Innings by Michael Bishop, as opposed to a baseball episode of The Munsters or some sort of obscure comic. Because, you see, Brittle Innings, published in 1994, is an honest-to-goodness classy novel written for adults that doesn’t even advertise the fact that it’s unusual, and it’s premise is simple: what if Mary Shelley had merely been an editor of the tale of Frankenstein and his monster, and what if the Monster survived, moved to America, and took up baseball?
Okay, maybe that premise isn’t that simple. Depends on your definition of “simple”, I guess. Still, go below the jump for more:
Headlines from around the Continuum: October 23, 2013
Baseball-related headlines from the Newseum:
(Note that I try to copy the style of the paper as well, hence why some are in ALL CAPS while others aren’t. Also, I ignored extremely basic headlines like “World Series Preview”)
Story: World Series starts tonight
Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): RED TIDE RISING
Honolulu Star-Advertiser: WORLD SERIES FACE-OFF/THE PRIDE OF HAWAII (no doubt referring to Shane Victorino)
The Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL): Plenty of history in Cardinals-Red Sox matchup
Portland (Maine) Press: All eyes on Fenway as Sox host Game 1
The Sun Chronicle (Attleboro, Mass.): Wait until this year
Boston Globe: ONE BIG TEAM/Red Sox and bombing-scarred Boston rise together
Boston Herald: WELCOME TO OUR WORLD
Metro- Boston Edition: THE HUNT FOR THREE
Cape Cod Times: It’s hitting home
Standard-Times (New Bedford, Mass.): ALL EYES ON SOX
(The St. Louis Post Dispatch didn’t have a headline- just a big picture of Fenway Park above the fold.)
Buffalo News: Boston rises above horror
Providence Journal: LIVING THE DREAM
USA TODAY: CLOSE SHAVES IN THIS SERIES? NOT LIKELY (with pictures of bearded Red Sox players)
National Post (Toronto): ACES WILD (on the starting pitchers and others to watch in the series)
El Universal (Cartagena, Colombia): ¡Play ball!
El Informador (Guadalajara, Mexico): Retoman rivalidad (roughly translated as “Rivalry renewed”)
Vanguardia (Saltillo, Mexico): ¡Chocan los mejores! (roughly translated as “The best collide!”)
El Expreso de Campeche (San Francisco de Campeche, Mexico): QUE INICIE LA FIESTA (“Let the party begin!”)
De Volksrant (Amsterdam, Netherlands): Big in the U.S.A. (on Aruban/Dutch Xander Bogaerts being in the World Series)
El Nuevo Dia (San Juan, Puerto Rico): Choque de titanes en Boston (“Clash of titans in Boston.”)
El Nacional (Caracas, Venezuela): Fiesta mundial en Boston (Either “Global Party in Boston” or “World festivities in Boston”)
The 2013 World Series Preview/Prediction Spectacular
UPDATE!
Aside
I contacted Ben Blatt, who wrote the subject of yesterday’s post, and it turns out they are going to try and update it.
Huzzah!
The “Slate” tool to find out the connections between Athletes is WRONG!
You’ve probably seen this page pop up on your Twitter feed today. It’s a cool thing from Slate in which you can find how sports players are connected. For example, they use the example that Tom Brady and Kevin Garnett are within six degrees of each other, due to playing with people who had played with multi-sport athletes.
However, it is far from perfect. For example, it treats Jim Thorpe as two people (a baseball player and a football player), a grave error considering that he is one of the greatest athletes of all time. For another, there is an outright false statement that is seemingly also built into the tool. And I quote:
Hockey is the opposite, as there has never been a pro hockey player who also played top-level basketball, football, or baseball. As a result, hockey is a closed system. But once you get off the ice, it’s possible to link every pro baseball, basketball, and football star.
This is, of course, completely wrong, as there has actually been one player who played both baseball and hockey on the highest level. In fact, I wrote about him at one point: his name was Jim Riley.
Sadly, as of this writing, author Ben Blatt and Slate have yet to fix this. But, I can’t blame them, can I? I mean, Jim Riley is very obscure, and if not for the fact that he is the one person to play in both MLB and NHL, he would have been completely forgotten.
Still, I hope that they fix it. After all, I want to see how all of the ProStars connect together.
In which I sum up the retirement of Jim Leyland in one tweet:
Aside
The last of the cigar-smoking old school managers is leaving us. The world is a less colorful place.
— Dan J. Glickman (@DanJGlickman) October 21, 2013
Headlines from around the Continuum: October 20, 2013
Baseball-related headlines from the Newseum:
Story: Red Sox win Game 6, advance to World Series
Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT): A GRAND VICTORY
Honolulu Star-Advertiser: VICTORINO GRAND SLAM SENDS BOSTON TO THE WORLD SERIES
Boston Globe: The improbable dream team soars into World Series
Boston Herald: VICTORINO LAP!
Herald News (Fall River, Mass.): WE’RE BACK, BABY
Metro West Daily News (Framingham, Mass.): AIN’T IT GRAND
Cape Cod Times: GRAND FINALE
Detroit Free Press: SLAMMED SHUT
La Prensa (Managua, Nicarauga): Del sótano a la Serie Mundial (Roughly “From the basement to the World Series”)
(There were also plenty of other front page headlines, including some from Mexico, Venezuela and Asian countries, but they were all either rather generic or in a script that I can’t put into a Google translator. Oh, there was also some headline from Mexico that seemed to be about how a government official was in Boston watching the playoffs, but I wasn’t sure enough to include it.)
My Votes in Baseball Prospectus’ “2013 Internet Baseball Awards”
Baseball Prospectus runs the Internet Baseball Awards, the oldest such internet-voted awards in baseball, open to anyone with any type of account at Prospectus. Amazingly though, this is the first year I’m actually voting in them. I have no idea why. I think it may be because I never got around to getting one of the free accounts at BP. I am ashamed.
Anyway, here’s how I voted this year (using a combination of statistics, my own eyes, and a bit of my gut), and keep in mind that you too can vote:
AL MVP (in order): Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout, Josh Donaldson, Chris Davis, Robinson Cano, Max Scherzer, Evan Longoria, Manny Machado, Felix Hernandez, Ben Zobrist.
I pick Cabrera over Trout, Donaldson and Davis due to his importance to the team, despite the fact that under advanced statistics Trout and Donaldson both had better years, WAR-wise. In addition, I have to wonder how well Cabrera might have been if he was healthy all season instead of completely hobbled in the final weeks. Also, it’s what my gut says. And my gut is stupid like this.
NL MVP (in order): Andrew McCutchen, Paul Goldschmidt, Carlos Gomez, Matt Carpenter, Clayton Kershaw, Joey Votto, Yadier Molina, Jose Fernandez, Cliff Lee, Andrelton Simmons
This is far less based on gut and far more based on statistics. Andrelton Simmons’ place in 10th is more because of his great fielding play, by the way.
AL Cy Young (in order): Max Scherzer, Felix Hernandez, Yu Darvish, Hisashi Iwakuma, Anibal Sanchez
Not that much I have to justify here. Note: Iwakuma would have won the “Cy Underrated” award, if such a thing existed.
NL Cy Young (in order): Clayton Kershaw, Jose Fernandez, Cliff Lee, Adam Wainwright, Matt Harvey
Like the AL Cy Young, there isn’t much I have to justify here, especially at the very top. I was originally thinking of having Fernandez be four or five and perhaps Wainwright be two or three, but I’m feeling confident in this ordering and the stats more-or-less back me up. More-or-less.
AL Rookie of the Year (in order): Wil Myers, Jose Iglesias, Chris Archer, Sonny Gray, David Lough
The AL batch of newcomers this year was sort of “meh”, especially when compared to the National League.
NL Rookie of the Year (in order): Jose Fernandez, Yasiel Puig, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Gerrit Cole, Julio Teheran
Michael Wacha would probably be on this list if I included the postseason.
AL Manager of the Year (in order): John Farrell, Joe Girardi, Terry Francona
NL Manager of the Year (in order): Clint Hurdle, Don Mattingly, Mike Matheny
Manager voting is more-or-less based entirely on gut and impressions… so, uh, this is what my impression of how these guys did and what my gut tells me.
Mr. Octobers of Yesterday (October 19, 2013)
Yesterday’s Mr. Octobers are easy to pick: Shane Victorino, who hit the Grand Slam that ultimately gave the Red Sox their ticket to the Fall Classic, and Koji Uehara, who again shut down the opponent and won the ALCS MVP award.
Standings (PP= Position Player, P= Pitcher):
PP Carlos Beltran– 16
P Koji Uehara– 16
P Justin Verlander– 14
P Michael Wacha– 13
P Clayton Kershaw– 11
P Max Scherzer– 11
PP Shane Victorino– 11
P Zack Greinke– 10
P Adam Wainwright– 9
PP David Ortiz– 8
PP Jhonny Peralta – 8
PP Matt Holliday– 8
PP Adrian Gonzalez– 8
PP David Freese – 6
PP Miguel Cabrera– 6
P Anibal Sanchez – 5
P Hyun-jin Ryu– 5
PP Yasiel Puig– 5
P Carlos Martinez– 5
P John Lackey– 5
PP Austin Jackson– 5
P Doug Fister– 5
PP Mike Napoli– 5
P Sonny Gray-3
P Gerrit Cole– 3
PP Pedro Alvarez– 3
P Jon Lester– 3
P Mike Minor– 3
PP Hanley Ramirez– 3
PP Yoenis Cespedes– 3
P Jason Grilli– 3
PP Carl Crawford– 3
P Chris Capuano– 3
PP Seth Smith– 3
P Dan Otero– 3
PP Jose Lobaton-3
P Jake McGee-3
PP Juan Uribe-3
PP (Position Player) Russell Martin– 1
P (Pitcher) Francisco Liriano– 1
PP Desmond Jennings– 1
P Alex Cobb– 1
The Baseball Continuum 