Category Archives: Baseball

A PLAYER CALLS FOR ROBOT UMPIRES TO CALL BALLS AND STRIKES.

A PLAYER CALLS FOR ROBOT UMPIRES TO CALL BALLS AND STRIKES. Ben Zobrist complained the other night about what he felt was a bad third strike call. As this article by Jesse Rogers on the ESPN website reports, Zobrist said … Continue reading

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VERY LARGE PITCHERS.

VERY LARGE PITCHERS. I texted to Annalisa: “I have a long history of large pitchers I like. I think they are generally underrated. I think extra weight on a pitcher is like extra weight on an opera singer.” Annalisa responded: … Continue reading

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A DISCUSSION WITH ANNALISA ABOUT BASEBALL.

A DISCUSSION WITH ANNALISA ABOUT BASEBALL. Annalisa texted me the other night that she was enjoying a game and that “the very large pitcher is wearing laughably large clothing. It looks like he rolled out of bed and decided to … Continue reading

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JUSTIFICATIONS FOR THE BIZARRE EXTRA INNING RULE.

JUSTIFICATIONS FOR THE BIZARRE EXTRA INNING RULE. I have seen justifications in several places for trying to eliminate long extra inning games in the minor leagues. One is that minor league pitchers are young with vulnerable arms, and a long … Continue reading

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WINNING A BASEBALL GAME WITHOUT GETTING A HIT OR A BASE ON BALLS.

WINNING A BASEBALL GAME WITHOUT GETTING A HIT OR A BASE ON BALLS. I posted here in March, 2017 about a rule change that baseball was planning to implement. (I called the proposed change “bizarre”.) If a game is tied … Continue reading

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BASEBALL DREAMS—FRANK THOMAS.

BASEBALL DREAMS—FRANK THOMAS. Annalisa dreamed about Frank Thomas two nights ago. She texted Nick a description of the dream, and he posted the description on the Baseball Prospectus/White Sox site. Here it is (I have omitted a couple of emojis): … Continue reading

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BASEBALL DREAMS—REGGIE JACKSON.

BASEBALL DREAMS—REGGIE JACKSON. One of our family stories is about how Mary Jane (who was a huge Reggie Jackson fan) dreamed one night in October 1977 that Reggie Jackson was hitting home run after home run. She told me about … Continue reading

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BASEBALL AND COMPROMISE.

BASEBALL AND COMPROMISE. Gerald Seib in the Wall Street Journal (July 17) quotes George Will: “I always thought baseball was the right sport for democracy because there is so much losing….Democracy is the system of the half loaf. Nobody gets … Continue reading

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BASEBALL IS NOT THE BEAUTIFUL GAME.

BASEBALL IS NOT THE BEAUTIFUL GAME. I have never heard anybody refer to baseball as “the beautiful game”. Indeed, back in the 1980’s the White Sox won a division title, and, during the year, a rival manager said that the … Continue reading

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REPLICATION FAIL FOR A STUDY USING BASEBALL CARDS.

REPLICATION FAIL FOR A STUDY USING BASEBALL CARDS. During the baseball offseason the Economist reported on the replication of a psychological study of the hypothesis that people who smile more intensely tend to live longer. The original study was done … Continue reading

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