Category Archives: Sports

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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THE BRYAN TWINS.

THE BRYAN TWINS. Dick Weisfelder sent me a link to this article about the Bryan twins, who have dominated tennis doubles for years and are only three tournament wins away from holding the all-time record for most doubles championships won. … Continue reading

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SELLING A CALL.

SELLING A CALL. One of my brother Elmer’s favorite baseball stories is about a call Ron Luciano made. Ron Luciano was an umpire in the majors from 1969 to 1979 who was known for his flamboyant calls. Luciano told the … Continue reading

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MY FAVORITE BASEBALL MOVIE.

MY FAVORITE BASEBALL MOVIE. My favorite baseball movie is still The Bad News Bears because of its truthfulness. But my favorite baseball segment in a movie—also because of its truthfulness—is from The Naked Gun. It’s the scene where Frank Drebin … Continue reading

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HARD TIMES FOR UMPIRES.

HARD TIMES FOR UMPIRES. Umpires have always been criticized, but umpires are in a worse position than they have ever been. Instant replay and special cameras for strike zones expose almost every bad call. TV announcers show those bad calls … Continue reading

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UMPIRES AS BUREAUCRATS.

UMPIRES AS BUREAUCRATS. I posted earlier in the week about the controversy over a veteran umpire’s harsh criticism of the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees because they take too long to play their games. This article confirms … Continue reading

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WISDOM FROM LEFTY GROVE [SIC].

WISDOM FROM LEFTY GROVE [SIC]. Lefty Grove [SIC] was a Hall of Fame pitcher who was much quoted. One story about him reflects how much time some pitchers could take back in the day. There were men on base in … Continue reading

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REVIEWING THE PERFORMANCE OF UMPIRES.

REVIEWING THE PERFORMANCE OF UMPIRES. I take the controversy over umpiring as supporting my repeated argument that the reviews of umpires and referees should be made public. Umpires basically have jobs for life, while players and managers are scored on … Continue reading

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SHORTENING THE BASEBALL EXPERIENCE?

SHORTENING THE BASEBALL EXPERIENCE. My father used to say when he read complaints about baseball games being too long that it was sportswriters who made the biggest fuss about long games because they wanted to get their work over with. … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Journalism, Sports | 2 Comments

WOK RACING.

WOK RACING. People continue to invent sports. I have posted about a couple games that playmates created when I was a boy. Adam Cohen reported on the new sport of wok racing in the weekend Wall Street Journal (March 27-28). … Continue reading

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