Category Archives: Baseball

SUGGESTIONS FOR BASEBALL BROADCASTS.

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Philip

SUGGESTIONS FOR BASEBALL BROADCASTS. First, an improvement I would like to see on televised broadcasts of baseball games is an establishing shot when each batter comes to the plate to show how the defense is set up. The new shifts … Continue reading →

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WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG FOR BASEBALL TO START USING ALL THOSE SHIFTS?

Posted on June 1, 2014 by Philip

WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG FOR BASEBALL TO START USING ALL THOSE SHIFTS? I posted here on the dramatic increase in the use of shifts in the positioning of fielders, depending on who is at bat. There were 8134 … Continue reading →

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A SMALL VICTORY FOR WHITE SOX FANS.

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Philip

A SMALL VICTORY FOR WHITE SOX FANS. Tom Ley at Deadspin.com reports here about how the Cubs have celebrated the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field by placing large painted murals of Wrigley Field history on an outside wall of Wrigley … Continue reading →

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THE CATBIRD SEAT—THE BLOG.

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Philip

THE CATBIRD SEAT—THE BLOG. Hawk Harrelson, the long-time White Sox announcer—has a distinctive phrase—“the catbird seat”—which he uses a lot. It describes the desirable position the batter is in when the pitcher throws the first two pitches for balls. The … Continue reading →

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THE “INTERESTING ACTION” BETWEEN PITCHER AND BATTER”.

Posted on May 10, 2014 by Philip

THE “INTERESTING ACTION” BETWEEN PITCHER AND BATTER”. When Brian Costa claims that the “interesting action” in baseball comes when the batter hits the ball, he is dismissing all the action that takes place between pitcher and batter—intensely interesting action for … Continue reading →

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ARE THERE TOO MANY STRIKE OUTS IN BASEBALL?

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Philip

ARE THERE TOO MANY STRIKE OUTS IN BASEBALL? Brian Costa in the Wall Street Journal (May 3-4) argued (here) that baseball is too slow and takes too much time. He points out that the length of the average baseball game … Continue reading →

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SMALL SAMPLE PROBLEMS—AND MONEYBALL.

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Philip

SMALL SAMPLE PROBLEMS—AND MONEYBALL. The article by Jerry Adler reports that Joseph P. Simmons—who calls for much stricter standards for psychology experiments—had “at one point recommended requiring a minimum sample size of 20, but has since walked back from that … Continue reading →

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REPLAY CAN’T COUNT BALLS AND STRIKES CORRECTLY.

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Philip

REPLAY CAN’T COUNT BALLS AND STRIKES CORRECTLY. When I first posted about a major league baseball game in which everybody lost track of the pitch count, I thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of occurrence. I posted here about several … Continue reading →

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PITCH FRAMING—WHAT ABOUT THE POOR BATTER?

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Philip

PITCH FRAMING—WHAT ABOUT THE POOR BATTER? The batter often has a difficult instantaneous decision to make. Will the pitch be a strike? If pitch framing is important, than whether or not the pitch is a strike depends on something that … Continue reading →

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HOW IMPORTANT ARE UMPIRE ERRORS ON BALLS AND STRIKES?

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Philip

HOW IMPORTANT ARE UMPIRE ERRORS ON BALLS AND STRIKES? In his article, Todd Lindbergh cites studies by sabermatricians that estimate the average value of turning a single ball into a strike at 0.13 runs. I posted here about a study … Continue reading →

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