Tag Archives: baseball

A New Strangest Stadium: The Alamodome

Posted on by
2

Earlier this year, I did a blog post about the strangest stadiums ever used in baseball.

There is now another one to add to the list: The Alamodome in San Antonio, which will play host to exhibition games between Texas and San Diego next spring.

What’s so weird about that? Well, the Alamodome was created with basketball and football in mind, not baseball, so the dimensions will be weird. The RF line will only be 280 feet, center will be 395, and left will be 340. The right field fence will be 16-feet tall to make sure there aren’t as many cheap home runs.
Strange!

World Baseball Classic Qualifier Preview: New Taipei City (Taipei, Phillippines, Thailand, New Zealand)

Posted on by
Reply

The “Asian pool” of the World Baseball Classic qualifier takes place in Taipei, and the home team should be able to easily win it, and surely that is what the tournament’s organizers expect, since it has already been announced as a host for the WBC in the round of 16. The other three countries playing, while interesting, have nowhere near the pedigree that the Taiwanese have, nor- with the exception of the individual player here and there- the talent. In fact, the only reason the other three countries will have any chance whatsoever likely will be because of the so-called “passport players” that the lenient WBC eligibility rules will allow them to bolster their rosters with.
Head below the jump for a pool preview:

Continue reading →

Random Video of the Undetermined Amount Of Time: Chicks Dig the Long Ball

Posted on by
Reply

The 90s. Clinton was president, Super Nintendo was awesome, MTV still showed music videos, people were all fascinated by this new “internet” and, of course, there were a ton of home runs.

Nike knew this, and made a commercial to honor this age of homers. Of course, we now know that the long ball may not have been because of the shoes, but because of something else. But anyway, from the 90s, here’s the classic Nike commercial: “Chicks Dig the Long Ball”.

The More You Know: What is the Posting System?

Posted on by
Reply

One of the big things in the baseball news today is that the Dodgers are the winning bidder for the rights to negotiate with Ryu Hyun-Jin, one of the best pitchers in Korea.

This is the result of the posting system between MLB and the baseball leagues of Asia, most notably the NPB but also the KBO, where Hyun-Jin is coming from. Essentially, it is a way to compensate Asian teams when their players head to America. It also benefits the player. You see, while a player in Asia can go wherever he wants if he is a free agent, it takes longer there to become a free agent, so the posting system allows them the chance to come to America while they are young and presumably in their prime.

It works like this: the team has to decide to post a player. Whether they do so is up to them, although the player can ask to be posted. There is then a period of blind bidding for the player: every MLB team can theoretically bid for the player, but they have no idea what the other teams are bidding.

When the bidding is over, the MLB team is then able to negotiate with the player. If they reach a deal before the deadline, the money they spent with the bid is sent to the Asian team, and the player comes over to the USA to play with the agreed upon salary. If there is no deal made, then the player goes back to Asia and nobody gets any money.

The posting system is controversial, as it puts a lot of risk to the teams (if they make a mistake, they’ve drained a ton of money into that mistake) and favors the big market teams in America (it’s highly unlikely you will ever see, say, the Kansas City Royals, get the services of a top play through the posting system). However, for now, it is essentially the only way for young Asian players to come to our shores.

And now you know!

Some presidential quotes about baseball for Election Day

Posted on by
Reply

In the spirit of Election Day, a bipartisan collection of quotes about baseball, with a quote from every president since Taft, with the exception of Wilson, Harding and Lyndon Johnson, who didn’t have good baseball quotes. A big ups to the Baseball Almanac page on Presidents and baseball for being the source of most of these quotes:

“Saturday’s game was a fine one, but several times when a hit meant a run, the batter was ordered to bunt. I believe they should hit it out. I love the game when there is plenty of slugging.” – President William Howard Taft

“I do not suppose all the youth of America would care to be big league ballplayers, but I know they all would profit if the character of Walter Johnson was emulated by them.” – President Calvin Coolidge

“Next to religion, baseball has furnished a greater impact on American life than any other institution.” – President Herbert Hoover (who also was once notably serenaded with chants of “We Want Beer!” by Prohibition-era Philadelphia fans)

“I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going.” – President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (in the Green Light Letter)

“May the sun never set on American baseball.” – President Harry S. Truman

“When I was a small boy in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishing and as we sat there in the warmth of the summer afternoon on a river bank, we talked about what we wanted to do when we grew up. I told him that I wanted to be a real major league baseball player, a genuine professional like Honus Wagner. My friend said that he’d like to be President of the United States. Neither of us got our wish.” -President Dwight D. Eisenhower (who may have played in the minors under an assumed name.)

“They said that I was too young to be president and you were too old to be playing baseball. We fooled them!” – President John F. Kennedy (to Stan Musial before the 1962 All-Star Game)

“I never leave a game before the last pitch, because in baseball, as in life and especially politics, you never know what will happen.” – President Richard Nixon

“I had a life-long ambition to be a professional baseball player, but nobody would sign me.” – President Gerald Ford (who did have a chance to become a professional football player, but who didn’t sign)

“For at least five generations, our family members have been avid baseball fans. We were particularly proud of Ty Cobb, a fellow Georgian, and simply let the negative aspects of his character fade into relative unimportance when compared to his achievements on the diamond. It was with mixed emotions that we observed Pete Rose getting his 4,192nd hit on Sept. 11, 1985, breaking one of Cobb’s seemingly invulnerable records. But we recognized Rose’s extraordinary spirit and determination. Few players ever made greater use of their natural talents or brought more enthusiasm to the game.” – President Jimmy Carter, in a 1995 editorial calling for Pete Rose’s reinstatement

“There were several other stations broadcasting that game and I knew I’d lose my audience if I told them we’d lost our telegraph connections so I took a chance. I had (Billy) Jurges hit another foul. Then I had him foul one that only missed being a home run by a foot. I had him foul one back in the stands and took up some time describing the two lads that got in a fight over the ball. I kept on having him foul balls until I was setting a record for a ballplayer hitting successive foul balls and I was getting more than a little scared. Just then my operator started typing. When he passed me the paper I started to giggle – it said: ‘Jurges popped out on the first ball pitched.’” -President Ronald Reagan, reminiscing about his time as a announcer for the Chicago Cubs (working from telegraph reports to recreate the game)

“Once, after an especially strong day at bat in a game at Raleigh, North Carolina, I was 3 for 5 with a double and triple, and a scout approached me as I left the field. That the first and last nibble I ever got from the pros.”- President George H.W. Bush (who met Babe Ruth when he visited Yale at the time Bush was the baseball team’s captain)

“Clearly they are not capable of settling this strike without an umpire.” – President Bill Clinton (on the strike of 1994)

“The most exciting way for a World Series game to end would be with a great throw from the outfield to nail a runner at home. The play would require three players (the outfielder, an infielder and the catcher) to make a good play.” – President George W. Bush (former owner of the Texas Rangers)

“Now, it’s been nine years since your last title, which must have felt like an eternity for Yankees fans, I think other teams would be just fine with a spell like that.The Cubs, for example.” -President Barack Obama, noted White Sox fan, to the New York Yankees during their visit to the White House after the 2009 season

WBC 2013 Projections: Dominican Republic Version 2.0

Posted on by
4

My previous projections for the Dominican Republic are now rather out-of-date due to injuries, etc. So, here are new projections, taking into account new developments as well as injuries that might take out certain players. Like the USA projections, this is a ground-up rebuild, and not simply a cut-and-paste with changes.

The usual rules:

  • Any player coming off a major injury or who has a history of injuries is unlikely to participate. This is especially true for the pitchers.
  • Players that will be on new teams are less likely to participate, but shouldn’t be completely ignored, with the exception of pitchers.
  • Teams are made up of 28 players, of which 13 of them must be pitchers and two of them catchers.
  • The pitch count rules make relievers extremely important.

So, after the jump, my projections for the Dominican Republic WBC team:

Continue reading →

When small cities had MLB teams, Post-1876 Edition

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday, I talked about how some of the teams in the National Association, the first Major League (according to some), were from very small cities, cities which were in some cases smaller even than modern-day stadium capacities. Well, once the National League started in 1876, there never again would be super-small cities (like Keokuk- apologies to Keokuk) hosting MLB teams. Sure, there were cities that today would seem unlikely to host MLB teams- Troy, New York, for example. But they were big cities for their time: Troy was the 29th largest city in America in 1880, and it was very close to Albany, which was the 21st largest city. That there were teams at one point or another in Louisville, Rochester, Providence and other such cities are similar cases: back then, they were amongst the larger cities in America.

But, there have been some example, mainly because of one organization: the Union Association. Formed in 1884, the Union Association was, briefly, the third major league, to go alongside the National League and American Association. It was unique in that it didn’t have a reserve clause… and because it probably wasn’t a major league, even though it usually is counted as such. You see, the league’s founder, one Henry Lucas, showed much favoritism to his hometown St. Louis team, leading it to essentially be a Major League team in a Minor League. It went 94-19 during the 1884 season. Four teams folded and were replaced by minor league clubs. For example… (jump)

Continue reading →

When very small cities had MLB teams…

Posted on by
1

Major League Baseball’s history is long and often full of twists and turns. And in the earliest days of professional baseball, it wasn’t organized very well. As a result, some cities, so small that they make the current small markets look like Metropolises, had teams.

The first Major League, according to some, was not the National League (formed in 1876) but rather the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (notice how it says “players” and not teams or leagues- this was before owners had lots of leverage). It was a haphazard enterprise formed in 1871. Teams could buy their way in, schedules weren’t set in stone, gambling was rampant, and the level of play fluctuated greatly. For that reason, some organizations such as the Hall of Fame and MLB’s official record books don’t consider it a major league. Others, such as SABR and Baseball-Reference, do. As a result, there are some very small cities that show up on baseball-reference.com. And I don’t mean “small” as in “Hartford, Connecticut”… I mean “small” as in “they were smaller than the capacity of modern-day ballparks”.

Take a look (after the jump):

Continue reading →

The 2012 Baseball Continuum Awards

Posted on by
2

No prestige! No fancy trophy! No publicity! It’s time for the 2012 Baseball Continuum Awards, where I honor the best of the 2012 baseball season! Of note is that I’m not going to split it by leagues, instead focusing on the league at large.

So let’s get going (after the jump):

Continue reading →

Coming this offseason on the Baseball Continuum

Posted on by
1

So, baseball’s season may be over, but the Baseball Continuum never is quiet. Here are some things to look forward too over the next few months:

  • World Baseball Classic projections and coverage
  • The return of “Bizarre Baseball Culture”, where I view some of baseball’s more unusual appearances in Popular Culture.
  • An expansion of my Baseball Continuum theory, including a map of the Baseball Continuum
  • More “Great Predictions in History”
  • The occasional foray into non-Baseball stuff
  • And more!