East Coast Bias and ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, Part 1

Posted on by
3

Over the past few months, I finished a project for school (the last project before I graduated!) on something of my choosing. I chose, as the title of this post suggests, to look at whether “East Coast Bias” existed in the selection of who was playing on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, and, if so, why.

I’m not going to bore you with the whole thing (although perhaps I’ll put it up as a download later), but I do want to summarize my findings.

In essence, it is true that teams on the East Coast (or at least the East divisions) do appear most often on Sunday Night Baseball. Here are the top ten teams in appearances from 2007 to 2011 on Sunday Night Baseball*.

1. Yankees (25 appearances)
2. Red Sox (24)
3(T). Cubs and Cardinals (23)
5. Mets (22)
6. Phillies (20)
7. Dodgers (18)
8. Braves (17)
9. Angels (12)
10. Tigers (11)

There really aren’t many surprises here. If you asked an average baseball fan to list the ten teams they think are on ESPN the most, they’d probably give you roughly this same list. However, you will note that half of these teams are in either the AL East or NL East, including three of the top five.

So, yeah, the East is dominant in Sunday Night Baseball appearances. But that only tells half the story. Stay tuned in the next few days when I cover why (hint: it’s a mixture of good teams and big markets- surprise, surprise), as well as what teams might have the biggest beef.

*By the way, note that, with the exception of times where Opening Night has been a Sunday, every team is allowed a maximum of five appearances per year on SNB. Just a few days ago, in fact, ESPN’s Buster Olney mentioned this after somebody accused ESPN of ignoring the Bay Area. (For the curious, the Giants were tied for 12th in most appearances).

 

Wednesday Link: Yakyu Baka

Posted on by
1

As I mentioned, the Baseball Continuum is far beyond just the majors, it is everything baseball related. And, since the internet is so amazing, the world of baseball is more accessible than ever. Our forefathers may have been stuck with newspapers, ESPN and such, but the many niches available online mean we can follow almost any type of baseball league.

One such league is Nippon Pro Baseball (NPB), which, as the name suggests, are the Japanese leagues. And one of the best places on the internet for news about baseball across the Pacific is Yakyu Baka. It has up-to-date standings on their leagues, as well as updates on former major leaguers and possible future ones. As baseball becomes more international with things like the World Baseball Classic, international ball no longer can simply be ignored.

So, in honor of bringing Japanese baseball to English-speaking fans, Yakyu Baka is being added to the Blogroll.

Putting Josh Hamilton’s 4 HR night in perspective

Posted on by
2

Josh Hamilton went 5-5 with 4 HRs and a double last night. Here’s some perspective on that:

  • It was only the 16th time in MLB history that somebody hit four homers in a game. By comparison, there have been 21 perfect games.
  • Hamilton is only the sixth player in American League history to do it. To put that into perspective, twice as many people have walked on the moon.
  • The 18 total bases Hamilton had last night, an AL record, meant that Hamilton traveled 1620 feet on the basepaths.
  • That is almost five-and-a-half football fields.
  • That distance is almost the walking distance between Camden Yards and Babe Ruth’s birthplace.
  • Babe Ruth, by the way, never hit four home runs in a game.
  • Hamilton’s 8 RBIs were greater than the run totals of all but one non-Texas Rangers team (Milwaukee)  last night.
  • It was more runs than were scored in five of last night’s games.
  • And, finally, it was only one less than the number of RBIs that Albert Pujols has had all season.

So, yeah, it was a historic night.

Welcome to the Baseball Continuum

Posted on by
Reply

The big block of text on the top of this blog says this:

“The Baseball Continuum is made up of every league, division, team, player and everything else baseball related, from the Majors all the way down to Little League. Ultimately, like a gigantic version of the Degrees of Kevin Bacon, everything in baseball ends up being connected to everything else. A player who you played in Little League might have played a person in High School who played a person in College who played a person in the Minors who then played somebody in the Major Leagues. And that person, ultimately, can probably then be connected in some way, shape or form to every other MLBer who ever played the game. And, of course, players sometimes go overseas, or play with people from overseas, expanding the universe of baseball beyond just the continent of North America to places in Asia, Latin America, Oceania, and even Europe and Africa. It all, in the end, is connected. And all of it is real. Some games might count more than others, some players may get paid more than others, and crowd sizes can be anywhere from zero to a hundred thousand, but in the end, it all is baseball. The greatest game in the world, a game as timeless as time itself. And, like time, we so often feels like we have too much but also too little of baseball. Some game can go on for hours upon hours, innings upon innings. But, yet, we want more. And more. And more. Those who complain should remember the words of Red Barber: “Baseball is dull only to dull minds.” So sit back, take a seat, and enter this, The Baseball Continuum, a blog by a young writer who has lived and breathed baseball since seemingly the day who was born, and who is fascinated by how everything in baseball is connected, no matter how different, no matter how popular or obscure. MLB, MiLB and anything below or to the side of it, this is The Baseball Continuum.”

Okay, so it’s a bit of a mouthful. But it sort of sums up what this blog will be about: baseball, baseball and more baseball, in all of it’s forms. While I will be the first to admit that there is probably no way I’d be able to truly cover everything that is baseball- apologies to the baseball players over in Iran– this blog will be one that isn’t just focused on one team, player or league, but whatever in baseball catches my eye.

So, welcome to the Baseball Continuum, I hope you enjoy your stay.