Category Archives: Baseball

THE ONLY GOOD ARGUMENT AGAINST INSTANT REPLAY IN BASEBALL.

THE ONLY GOOD ARGUMENT AGAINST INSTANT REPLAY IN BASEBALL. I posted here about the bad call by an umpire which cost Armando Gallaraga a perfect game as yet another argument for more use of instant replay in baseball. If you … Continue reading

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“…AND THE GAME GOES ON FOREVER.”

“…AND THE GAME GOES ON FOREVER.” T. Coreghessan Boyle wrote “The Hector Quesadilla Story” about a major league baseball player named Hector Quesadilla. Hector is on the downward arc of his long career, hanging on as a pinch hitter/utility infielder. … Continue reading

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WELL PLAYED.

WELL PLAYED. The great Isner-Mahut match was played at a very high level. You couldn’t have had such a long match if that weren’t the case. If either player had lost form or made mistakes, the set would have ended … Continue reading

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70 TO 68.

70 to 68. When a baseball game goes past about the 14th inning, it always seems to me that the intensity of the game increases. The players know as well as the fans that they are part of something special. … Continue reading

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DOMED STADIUMS AND PINBALL MACHINES.

DOMED STADIUMS AND PINBALL MACHINES. Kids, you may never have encountered Marshall McLuhan, but he was a very influential critic in the sixties. I always found him interesting. McLuhan was a professor of literature who became increasingly interested in the … Continue reading

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LOUD STADIUMS.

LOUD STADIUMS. The fans at the World Cup can be thankful that the stadiums are open air. In the United States, “domed” or roofed stadiums hold in the noise. Football fans take advantage of this by making lots of noise … Continue reading

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THE AESTHETICS OF INDUSTRIALIZATION.

THE AESTHETICS OF INDUSTRIALIZATION. De Botton asserts that the achievements of logistics (the distribution of goods in the global economy) are beautiful and neglected. He points out that premodern travelers would take a great interest in a new country’s “granaries, … Continue reading

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ARMANDO GALARRAGA—THE NEED FOR REPLAY.

ARMANDO GALARRAGA—THE NEED FOR REPLAY. Dick Weisfelder e mailed me to urge me to post on a baseball game that ended a short time ago. I have posted a number of times, including here, on the need for baseball to … Continue reading

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DOES THE STRIKE ZONE CHANGE WITH THE PITCH COUNT?

DOES THE STRIKE ZONE CHANGE WITH THE PITCH COUNT? John Walsh has another study here in The Hardball Times (a very important site). The study is based on 200,000 pitchers to right-handed batters. He concludes that the strike zone is … Continue reading

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DIFFERENT STRIKE ZONES FOR DIFFERENT BATTERS?

DIFFERENT STRIKE ZONES FOR DIFFERENT BATTERS? Today’s Wall street Journal (May 4) has an article by David Biderman about research by John Wolfe on whether the major league strike zone varies from batter to batter. The research uses the Pitch … Continue reading

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