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May-10-12
 | | Phony Benoni: I'm almost sure I remember a Tiger doing that a few years ago, but I may be dreaming, wishing they still had Matt Joyce. |
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| May-12-12 | | Jim Bartle: Curious description of the play-by-play in the first innning of last night's Angels-Texas game: "Hamilton hit an infield single to center, Andrus to third." http://cnnsi.com/baseball/mlb/gamef... |
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May-12-12
| | Phony Benoni: <JB> Hamilton has hit something like 8 home runs in his last 17 at bats. Why bother playing guys in the outfield? |
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May-12-12
 | | WannaBe: I don't know, why does Ruth or Bonds play outfield? Why does Pujols play first? |
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May-12-12
 | | playground player: <Phony Benoni> Our esteemed colleague <nimh> seems interested in the computer analysis of baseball statistics, so I told him to drop in here and consult you and <Jim Bartle>. Asking me about anything having to do with computers... well, you might as well ask the cat. One of these days there's a Strat-O-Matic project I would like to do: replay the 1927 Yankees' entire season, replacing their pitching staff with the 1962 Mets' pitchers--Roger Craig, Alvin Jackson (not that awful, really), Jay Hook, et al. Then we'll see just how good Waite Hoyt and Herb Pennock were! |
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| May-12-12 | | Jim Bartle: Related somehow to that, in his early years Bill James asked which team would win: a lineup of Bench, Gehrig, Morgan, Wagner, Schmidt, Williams, Cobb and Ruth with a 1962 Mets/1987 Cleveland pitching staff, or Mario Mendoza-type at every position (or should I just say the 2011 SF Giants lineup?) and a rotation of Grove, Johnson, Koufax, Spahn and Mathewson? I can't remember what he decided, if he did. But a lot of All-Star games filled with great hitters have ended 2-1 or 3-2 in extra innings. Those are single games, though. One thing James and others have said is that a lot of what we think of as good pitching is actually good defense, and I think that's true. You really notice this when you see games live rather than on TV. So if the Grove/Johnson team had brilliant fielders everywhere (you know, Pettis and Stanley in the outfield, Dick Green at second) they might be a tough team even if averaging only two runs a game. |
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May-12-12
| | Phony Benoni: <playgournd player> That would be amusing, but I don't think it would turn the Mets staff into Hall-of-Famers, or even All-Stars. While the Yankees scored more runs on the average than the Mets gave up (6.29 to 5.89), the Mets pitchers would probably fare worse since overall league scoring was better in 1927 (about 5 runs a game to 4.5). I'll tell you what would be fun. Have the 1927 Yankees with the 1962 Mets pitching staff play a series against the 1930 Phillies--at Coors Field. Now that was a team. They scored almost as many runs as the 1927 Yankees, but allowed 250 <more> than the 1962 Mets--about 7.7 per game. http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... |
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| May-12-12 | | Jim Bartle: Josh Hamilton is slowing down. Only one home run today, so far. The Rangers color guy is Eric Karros, who hit behind Shawn Green in Green's four-homer game. He complained that he never had any RBI opportunities because the bases were always empty when he batted. |
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| May-12-12 | | Jim Bartle: PB: Or they could play that game at the LA Coliseum, though that would be better for right-handed hitters: http://www.google.com.pe/imgres?um=... |
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May-12-12
| | playground player: <Phony Benoni>, <Jim Bartle> It so happens I have the 1930 Phillies in my SOM collection. My wife drafted some of their pitchers for one of her teams, expecting they'd do better with some decent outfielders behind them. Poor <Mrs. PGP>! Snipe Hansen, alas, was still Snipe Hansen. I'm sure the 1927 A's would not let the Yankees win the pennant with the 1962 Mets' pitching staff. The '27 A's could put seven Hall of Famers in their lineup on a given day--Grove, Simmons, Cobb, Cochrane, Foxx, and Eddie Collins. |
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| May-12-12 | | Jim Bartle: Interesting. Though several may have been wheeled onto the field. (Sorry.) I looked at the A's roster and they had another Hall of Famer, Zack Wheat, as well. |
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May-12-12
| | Phony Benoni: Of course, stockpiling Hall-of-Famers is not always the key to success. Here is a team with four--and a host of other famous names--that finished dead last: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... |
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| May-12-12 | | Jim Bartle: Jocko Conlan was a player? I never knew that.
I see his player page looked to find some stat for his umpiring. So they counted up his ejections by year, 114 total. |
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May-12-12
| | WannaBe: News, Don Nelson <finally> gets his Bachelors Degree from Iowa. http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7... Reaction, You mean no one checked/verified his resume for the last 50 years? I bet that 'Hall-of-Fame' inductee thing is fake, too! |
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| May-12-12 | | Jim Bartle: And to think how close Nelson came to being a total washout in the NBA. He did nothing his first three years, averaged 2 points in 6 minutes for the Lakers his third year and was cut. Red Auerbach saw something nobody else did, signed him and he was a solid player for ten years. Nelson played a year with the Chicago <Packers> who became the <Zephrs>. I wonder if that's the only pro team in any sport that's changed its name while staying in the same city twice. They were later the Baltimore Bullets, then the Washington Bullets and now the Washington Wizards. They were even called the Capital Bullets one year. |
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May-12-12
| | Phony Benoni: Speaking of Herb Pennock, even if only tangentially, he once underwent Tommy Tooth Surgery for a sore arm: http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%... It didn't work. He missed the rest of the season, and was never the same pitcher over the rest of his career. |
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| May-12-12 | | Jim Bartle: And the second story on that sports page: "S.D. Factor Beats Horowitz in Chess/Lasker Keeps Pace With Chicago Star in National Tourney." (That was Edward Lasker.) Factor vs I A Horowitz, 1928 |
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May-12-12
| | Phony Benoni: <JB> The chess connection is how I found the story. I've been looking for information on Abraham Kupchik, who eventually won the tournament. Did you see the Ripley cartoon about the "Reading Club" who went 31-129 in the International League in 1926? My first impulse was to think they were a Book Reading Club; it took a moment to realize they meant Reading, Pa. |
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May-12-12
| | Phony Benoni: And here are the 1926 Reading Keystones in all their glory: http://www.baseball-reference.com/m... The pitchers' W-L records actually add up to 54-172, but 226 games seems a bit much. A little checking showed that some of the pitchers played for more than one team, but their records as given here were not separated by team. |
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May-12-12
| | WannaBe: Wow, Celtics pulled one out! |
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| May-12-12 | | Jim Bartle: Those are some horrendous won-lost records for Reading: 1-15, 10-29. And not horrid ERAs. |
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May-12-12
| | WannaBe: A starting pitcher started a game yesterday, and got tagged with the loss, today he started again, and got the win. Has this ever happened before? A starting pitcher got decisions on consecutive days <AS A STARTER>?! The trivia question now is, who is this pitcher? |
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May-13-12
| | Phony Benoni: <WannaBe> Oh, that used to happen all the time. In fact, back on August 1, 8, and 31 of 1903, "Iron Man" McGinnity started and won both games of a doubleheader. http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... Recently, however, due the increasing wimpiness of pitchers and their selfish desires to prolong their careers, it rarely happens. The most recent example is apparently these two games: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... In the first game, the Baltimore starter hit Ivan Rodriguez in the top of the first. Rangers starter Steven Myette retaliated by throwing two pitches behind Oriole lead-off Melvin Mora, and was promptly ejected. Todd Van Poppel pitched two scoreless innings for the win, before Joaquin Benoit came in for a seven-inning save. And if that's not a record, it ought to be. Myette came back the next game, but was awful and took the loss. However, he didn't get the decision on consecutive days as a starter--but then, neither did C.J. Wilson today; the Rangers tied the score after he left. I'm not sure, but the last starter to get decisions in consecutive games might be Wilbur Wood: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... However, that was a doubleheader. Consecutive days is quite another matter. |
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May-13-12
| | WannaBe: <Phony Benoni> D@ng it, you are right... CJ Wilson did not get the win... Drats. |
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May-13-12
| | Phony Benoni: It's good to know the Celtics are still winning after all these years: http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%... |
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