Category Archives: Sports

INCREASED DEFENSIVE SHIFTING IS CHANGING BASEBALL FOR THE BETTER. Shifting opens up a range of tactical questions which fans can think about and discuss from batter to batter in the course of a game. Where exactly should fielders be placed? … Continue reading →

INCREASED DEFENSIVE SHIFTING IS CHANGING BASEBALL. Recently there has a marked increase in the use of defensive shifts in the major leagues. Sam Miller in the second half of this article on the ESPN website shoots down Baseball Commissioner Rob … Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →