Category Archives: Baseball

HEARING THE BOOS.

HEARING THE BOOS. Bob Greene had a tribute in the Wall Street Journal (November 18) to Jim Brosnan, who died in June. Brosnan was a pretty good pitcher who broke tradition in 1958 by writing and publishing a book, THE … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Politics, Sports | 1 Comment

THE FIRST TIME I SAW TELEVISION.

THE FIRST TIME I SAW TELEVISION. The first time I saw television was in early October 1948 when I was 6. Our neighbors several houses down from us had acquired a television set. They invited all of the men on … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Sports, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

USING BASEBALL ANALOGIES TO PROVIDE A YARDSTICK FOR COMPARING PROBABLITIES.

USING BASEBALL ANALOGIES TO PROVIDE A YARDSTICK FOR COMPARING PROBABILITIES. I argued here that people are by now accustomed to using probabilities rather than words in understanding weather forecasts. When I was growing up, weather forecasts avoided numbers and only … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Politics, Sports | Leave a comment

IMAGINING AN AT BAT AS A COIN FLIP.

IMAGINING AN AT BAT AS A COIN FLIP. Nick finished his explanation of small samples by imagining at bats in the playoffs as coin flips. He took as an example Jayson Werth, who had one hit in 20 at bats … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Sports | Leave a comment

THE PLAYOFFS AS AN EXAMPLE OF SMALL SAMPLES.

THE PLAYOFFS AS AN EXAMPLE OF SMALL SAMPLES. It takes 162 games to determine the teams that make the major league baseball playoffs. The World Series is a maximum of 7 games. Nick had a good analysis of how the … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Sports | Leave a comment

MISSING A PITCH CALL BY A FOOT.

MISSING A PITCH CALL BY A FOOT. This article by Jason Epstein identifies the worst ball and strike call by an umpire in the 2014 regular season. The pitch was a strike one to Elvis Andrus in August which was … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Journalism, Sports | Leave a comment

THE STRIKE ZONE 60 YEARS AGO.

THE STRIKE ZONE 60 YEARS AGO. Kids, you will notice that the most dramatic thing about the image image of Ted Williams is the change in today’s strike zone from what it was when Williams was playing. The top four … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Sports | Leave a comment

TED WILLIAMS ON HOW LOW PITCHES ARE HARDER TO HIT.

TED WILLIAMS ON HOW LOW PITCHES ARE HARDER TO HIT. When I was a boy I was very conscious of an image of Ted Williams at bat with an image of his strike zone superimposed. The image came from his … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Sports | Leave a comment

CAMERAS LOWERED THE STRIKE ZONE.

CAMERAS LOWERED THE STRIKE ZONE. Derek Thompson points out that cameras not only led to more strikes but also lowered the strike zones. He writes: “Pitches between 18 and 30 inches above the plate, which are technically in the strike … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Sports | Leave a comment

HAS MAKING THE STRIKE ZONE MORE CONSISTENT RUINED BASEBALL?

HAS MAKING THE STRIKE ZONE MORE CONSISTENT RUINED BASEBALL? The most important change in baseball this season has been the continued decline in offense. End of the season assessments of the baseball season advance a variety of explanations. Derek Thompson … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Sports | Leave a comment