Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
Seamheads.com has their list of SS with the best careers. They base their list on a couple of esoteric stats which pretty much derive from career win shares.
The highest ranked non-active shortstop not in the Hall?
Bad Bill Dahlen at #9. Dahlen, who debuted with the Chicago Colts in 1891, is to be considered for induction by the Veterans committee this year. We’ll find out December 8 whether he gets in.
I’ve launched a new blog centered around the sports tabletop game APBA.
If you play APBA (either in a league or solitaire), please take the time to go to The APBA Blog. With the help of Teddy Ballgame and Cluke and probably others in the the future, The APBA Blog will hit topics like leagues, replays, APBA product releases and innovations to the game.
I’m excited about the project that deals with the game I’ve played since I was a kid. The site is in its infancy so check back often for updates.
-tbz
Search technology expert (and baseball fan) John Battelle writes on his website Searchblog about his attempt to search on Google for the NLCS schedule.
Results were mixed depending on the search words he used. And sometimes the best result was a paid link.
Some might find this kind of thing a bit esoteric and techy but I eat this stuff up.
In the “not baseball-related” category, it’s Homecoming Weekend now at the University of Illinois. As tradition with our family, we attended Friday night’s Homecoming Parade.
Lots of fun as usual. Some photos:
Game time is at noon and it will be televised on ESPN.
Go Illini! Whack the Gophers!
In his post-playoff interview with WGN’s Steve Cochrane, Cubs manager Lou Piniella encouraged Cubs fans to stay with the team in 2009.
His latest weekly interview with the flagship station started out rather routinely with Lou and Steve discussing the Cubs picking up Rich Harden’s option and looking toward next year as far as the Cubbie pitching staff was concerned.
But as the interview wore on, Piniella began to wear his heart on his sleeve. It is apparent losing the playoffs meant a lot to Lou and more importantly, he knows that the ones it hit hardest were the fans.
That said, Lou encourages fans to come back next year. "Don’t abandon ship", he said.
You can hear Steve Cochrane’s interview with Lou Piniella (the last regular one of the year) at WGN Radio’s web site.
This segment by the always funny John Oliver of the Daily Show is quite hilarious. But for me, the real punch line (and what makes it relevant to this this forum) came at around 1:35.
And I laughed in spite of myself.
George Vlosich uses his talent with an Etch-a-Sketch to commemorate the year (albeit not the playoffs) the the Cubs had.
Pretty impressive. He has other baseball related sketches, too.
Vlosich is apparently a Cub fan. This sketch was done prior to the playoffs which explains the smile on his face.
You can see more of Vlosich’s work at gvetchedintime.com.
Please tell me Alfonso Soriano didn’t strike out on that pitch. I guess it was appropriate as it was indicative of the Cubs’ whole series against the Dodgers and especially Soriano’s 1 for 14 performance.
The headline on the sports page of our local paper on Sunday read "ALL IS WELL" in big letters. I know it wasn’t a Cubs fan who came up with that headline. "All is Well" was not in reference to baseball, of course but to University of Illinois football team’s 45-20 drubbing of Michigan on Saturday (btw, nice going guys). Yet, for any Cub fan to wake up to that headline, it was insult on top of injury. I’ll bet it was a Cardinal fan that fashioned that line.
Aside from the costly errors, it was timely hitting that hurt the Cubs. In some ways, the overall stats between the Dodgers and Cubs were comparable. Hitting (LA’s .250 to Chicago’s .240) and ERA (LA’s 3.68 to Chicago’s 3.87) were not out of line. The Dodgers did have 3 more extra base hits (12 to 9) and three more homers but the key stat as it usually is was runs scored. LA scored 20 to Chicago’s 6.
Derrick Lee who hit .545 for the series (6 for 11). Out of all that, Lee could only produce two runs which is more indicative of the batters around him than anything. Credit is due to Mark DeRosa, error notwithstanding, for his 2 runs and 4 rbis.
Unless you are a Cub fan (been one since I can remember) you can’t understand what it’s like. But this year was supposed to be different. We actually had a good great team.
Goat Riders of the Apocalypse are already looking towards 2009, something I can’t quite do yet. They’ve got a list of 9 Reasons the Cubs will Shine in 09.
The Cup is still half-empty for me.
It may be purely academic in a couple days but here’s a graphic compiled by Duane, a friend at work, comparing this season’s Cubs with the 1969 Cubs.
No surprise here. We see the decline of the 1969 Cubs around September 10 whereas the 2008 Cubs actually picked up a bit.
On Wednesday, Jill Howe, an Elgin High School student was asked to take her FUKUDOME jersey off and replace it with her gym shirt. Apparently, school officials had not heard of Kosuke Fukudome and thought it was an obscene word.
After Fukudome’s oh for eight performance in the first two games of the playoffs (including 5 LOB), a lot of Cub fans who know very well who Kosuke is may be taking his jersey off.
Last night, before heading out with my buddy Larry to catch the Cubs-Dodgers game, I watched the first inning at home. When Big Z got the Dodgers one-two-three, I told my wife "this will be his game. I know it." I probably should have waited for the second inning before making my proclamation.
Not that Zambrano can be held totally responsible for the collapse that happened in the second inning. The fielding miscues didn’t help and only served to unravel Zambrano.
Lack of patience at the plate has been the reason for the Cubs’ woes. The Dodgers have been able to work the count and our guys haven’t. And when the Cubs have hit the ball. They’ve hit it hard. Only right to Dodger fielders.
A day of rest and Rich Harden brings his best on Saturday against LA’s Hiroki Kuroda.
As for Jill Howe, common sense and decency prevailed. The High School principal intervened and declared that as long as Fukudome was a legit name, she could wear her jersey…
…if she really wants to now.