Month: November 2010

Local Kiwanis now taking registrations for 2nd annual Sports Trivia Championship

SportsTriviaChampionship.jpg.opt504x236o0,0s504x236 If you live in the East Central Illinois area, you might be interested in the 2011 Sports Trivia Championship put on by the Kiwanis Club of Champaign-Urbana.

Details are at the Kiwanis’ Sports Trivia Championship website but here’s the skinny:

  • Date:  January 30, 2011
  • Time:  2-5pm
  • Location:  Hilton Garden Inn, Champaign, IL
  • Entry Fee: $25

There will be prizes of course, with the winning entrant or team winning $1,000.  The Baseball Zealot entered a team in the Sports Trivia Championship last year and quite honestly, fared quite poorly.  Well, at least now there’s room for improvement. 

The deadline for registration is January 14th. 

Things always look better after an Illini win

I may have come off as a tad grumpy when I insinuated that the Big Ten modifications to Wrigley Field for the Illinois-Northwestern football game were a “joke”.  Funny what an Illini 48-27 win and a Mikel Leshoure 300+ rushing performance can do to temper one’s opinion. 

Bleed Cubbie Blue’s Al Yellon, who attended the game, had a more positive spin on the whole affair:

But when the Cubs, Northwestern, Illinois and the Big Ten put on a spectacle as entertaining as today’s 48-27 blowout by the Illini over the Wildcats, it shows off Wrigley to a national audience as the terrific place it is…

…For those of you who cried, "travesty", "joke" or "disaster" yesterday when the rule changes were announced, I say: kwitcherbitchin. Playing every offensive series facing the west end zone had absolutely no impact on the flow of the game. The officials seemed briefly confused the very first time they had to reposition the ball, but after that it all went smoothly.

Boy, it’s almost like Al’s talking to me.  I will indeed kwitmybitchin’. 

Rumor has it that there was a lot of good-natured Cubs-Sox trash talkin’ going on between the Illini players.  No word on which contingent was larger. 

Congrats to the Illini who are in line for a bowl bid for the first time since 2007. 

A closer look at World Series art

Seiler is a Chicago based artist who was commissioned by Major League Baseball to do some art for the 2010 World Series program.  That’s quite an honor!

On his blog, It’s Funny Because It’s True, Seiler writes about his experience but mostly breaks down each piece art (almost literally as he zooms in and shows segments of each piece art). 

If you’re a baseball art fanatic, this is definitely worth looking at.  For me as the old saying goes, I don’t know art but I know what I like.  And I kinda like this.

Cubs reacting to Wrigley safety measures by Big Ten

A last minute decision based on safety has turned the Illinois-Northwestern football game at Wrigley Field tomorrow into somewhat of a joke.  To put it simply, there will be one end zone and whenever there is a switch in possession, the teams will turn to the opposite direction so the offense will face that said end zone. 

The end zone is on the west side of the football field now desecrating Wrigley Field.

Maybe this Wrigley Field idea wasn’t such a great idea after all.

Wrigley Field was modified to Big Ten standards.  Earlier, Big Ten officials did a walk-through at Wrigley and didn’t raise a fuss.  Both of those points were raised in a rather terse even passive-aggressive statement issued by the Chicago Cubs organization after the Big Ten decided to make their changes:

“This game would not have been scheduled if it did not pass the strict and meticulous standards of everyone involved, a process that began more than a year ago. All are in agreement Wrigley Field is a safe venue to host a football game. Other baseball parks, including tomorrow night’s game in Yankee Stadium, feature similar football field-to-venue grid dimensions and rule changes are not considered for football games played in other baseball parks.

“We have reached out to the Big Ten to further discuss the playing field. While we are surprised by this morning’s last-minute statement, all agree that tomorrow will be an historic event and a wonderful experience for the fans, the schools and the student-athletes.”

Well, it doesn’t bode well to upset your hosts.  Play Ball! 

oh and Go Illini!

Changes in how we keep score

Piggy-backing on my last post about Cy Young winner King Felix and his dearth of wins, I thought I’d pass on this link to an article by Joe Posnanski entitled Talkin’ Baseball (Stats).  Here Joe suggests some changes on how we score the game of baseball.  In his view, let’s simplify them.

Number One on his list:  Wins

Simplify. I’ve never hidden my disdain for pitcher wins as a statistic, especially in modern times, when hardly anybody pitches a complete game, but if you’re going to use this stat anyway (and let’s be honest, it ain’t going away), fine. Just keep track of how often a team wins the game when the pitcher starts. That’s all. Eliminate the no-decision, which, if you stop to think about it, is actually a bizarre concept. There are no “no-decisions” in baseball. Somebody wins. Somebody loses.

Crazy idea and I’m not sure if even I agree but I like anyone who thinks out of the box. 

Really you should read his article.  His section on RBIs is quite interesting.  Actually come to think of it, Bud Selig should read it.

Felix Hernadez’ wins not a determinant factor in Cy Young: is this a trend?

King Felix didn’t run away with the AL Cy Young balloting.  David Price came close with 111 points to Hernandez’ 167.  Even CC Sabathia managed 102.  But the important stat:  Hernandez received 21 first place votes… much more than Price (4) and Sabathia (3).  In political terms, that’s a mandate.

Hernandez 13-12 record is certainly up for discussion as a Cy Young award winner.  His win total was 18th in the league.  EIGHTEENTH!  Can we safely say that win totals are becoming less important as a evaluator of a pitcher’s talent.  More precisely, is this mode of thought becoming more mainstream?  There’s no doubt that stat-heads and sabermetricians have been degrading wins as a statistic to quantify a pitcher’s ability.  So much so that one year ago, pitchers in both leagues won the Cy Young award over pitchers with better win totals (the AL’s Greinke with 16 wins and the NL’s Lincecum with 15).

If the writers are so willing to forgive Hernandez for his 13-12 record (granted, he was pitching for the last place Mariners), are they becoming more stat-savvy?  Or are we reading too much into this?  If we give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they’re putting some thought into this, why are we still using the save statistic to evaluate relievers?  The save, in my opinion, is a much more antiquated, misused, and manipulated stat that is very situation-based.  If there’s a grand movement among the baseball pundits to see the true value in baseball players, let’s re-evaluate the save statistic, overhaul it, or scrap it altogether.  But I digress.

I don’t dismiss wins as a stat.  It has a valued tradition in baseball and yes, it does have some value in telling baseball’s story.  I’m interested in seeing what will happen one year from now.  Will wins have a major factor in determining the 2011 Cy Young award winners?

Moyer ain’t giving up yet

48-year old pitcher Jamie Moyer re-injured his elbow in the Dominican Winter League.  Is his career over?  He doesn’t think so.

My plans are to get healthy and continue pitching," he said flatly.

What if the injury is worst-case scenario, so much ligament damage he needs Tommy John surgery and a year or rehabilitation?

"That wouldn’t change my plans," Moyer said.

I simply love Jamie Moyer.

Morgan, Miller not renewed for ESPN TV

ESPN Baseball will sound a whole lot different in 2011… from what I’m hearing from a lot of fans, for the better. 

The jist of it:  Joe Morgan’s contract will not be renewed and Jon Miller will be relegated to radio only. 

A buddy of mine had the best perspective on the situation and one many could empathize with:

Good riddance to Joe Morgan.  You can take him, McCarver and Harrelson and lock them in a room and seal the windows, doors and vents for all I care.  Although, it would have to be a very large room to fit their egos.

I liked Miller.

Harsh.

And yes, I do like Miller.  He just had the misfortune to be paired up with Morgan.

Breaking down pitchers’ homers

Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times breaks down the gopher ball pitchers of all time.  He ranks those pitchers who have given up homers of every type. 

It’s a fun read.  Don’t go in expecting to find low caliber pitchers on his lists.  These are hurlers who have gotten on these lists because they were good enough to last a long time in the bigs.  Similar to Pete Rose, who has the most hits all time but also has the most outs.  You’re out there long enough, you’re going to manage enough negative stats.

The most interesting to me was Roy Face.  He leads all pitchers in both walk-off homers and extra-inning homers.