Answers to fantasy baseball questions (and much more) since 1996
The scandal here is that Rick Sutcliffe went to a Pods game with Bill Murray, and maybe he had a few beers too many. There are French philosophers who would say that he’s thinking hard about his (and his daughter’s) role in the world. Rick Sutcliffe? Philosophy? Isn’t that beautiful?
On top of that, the story ends with Bill Murray tackling Mark Bellhorn and giving him appreciative noogies, simply because Bellhorn was once a Cub. I find that charming.
File this one under: Everything is News.
I’m not sure just how much David Gassko’s new pitching measures tell us, especially since they give varying rankings of everyone once you get past Clemens, but this is a fun question that highlights just how many angles there are to questions of talent, value, accomplishment and such.
The stupidest argument of outrage in re the steroids era is the one about the defilement of baseball’s great records. Bob Ryan does a fine job demolishing it in this story in the Boston Globe.
Cleveland 91-63 at Kansas City 52-101 7:10pm ET
In the Guide I wrote about Cleveland farmhand Jason Stanford: “He was arrested in September for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, and then missed his court appearance. It’s too bad, since control was always one of his bests qualities.”
Today Stanford called the magazine’s publisher and said he hadn’t missed the court date. The Baseball Think Factory page above has links to Cleveland Plain Dealer stories about the original arrest (JS made disparaging comments to a man wearing a pink shirt, apparently, which led to a bit of a brawl) and the court announcing after Stanford apparently missed his court date that they’d written the wrong date on his appearance ticket. So it wasn’t his fault. The links don’t work, however, so I’m basing this on the postings on the BTF page.
I’m certainly sorry for drawing on the mistaken AP story originally and am happy to point out the error while wearing pink (actually salmon) slacks.
Good pictures from the 60s and 70s, up close and bushy haired. Bobby Murcer and Soupy Sales!?! Didn’t Soupy get in trouble telling the joke that starts, “When my wife and I go to a baseball game, I kiss her on the strikes, she kisses me. . . .?”
Major League Baseball : News : Major League Baseball News
I mention this only because yesterday, when Chris Shelton tripled twice in one game, I wondered how often that had happened. Last year’s triples leader, Jose Reyes, had 17 triples. That’s one every 10 games or so. Today we learn that it’s been 50+ years since someone tripled twice in the same inning, a much more difficult feat.
Dream teams – The Boston Globe
I could read roto reminisces all day long (and in fact on many days I do), and even this piece by Peter Keating didn’t get me to stop reading. But all sorts of red flags waved. This isn’t a lively or even very interesting history of roto, Keating relies on buckets of cliches to move the story along, and abandons his beknighted friends along the way. I mention it here because it’s proof that not all baseball writing pushes our receptive buttons, even if I could read it all day long.
calendarlive.com: SUNDAY BOOK REVIEW
A friend in LA turned me on to this lovely essay by Arnold Hano, about the writing and afterlife of his classic, A Day in the Bleachers. I’m embarrassed to say that I haven’t read it, but I will now.
A few years ago a regular scanned all of the non player profile pages of Alex Patton’s roto ouvre. They were posted for a time at rototouts.com, but when I let that site lapse I didn’t get them reposted until this week. They’re classic, funny, smart, sometimes exciting and sometimes aggravating. I can’t think of a better place to get into the murky theoretical issues in fantasy baseball, and haul them out into the daylight. Prosit.
I love it. A completely different perspective on the nature of the game of baseball. I’ve long thought that basketball might become a much better game if they dumped the transition and the game became a series of set plays launched from scrimmage, like football. No tackling, though, I don’t think. Stevenson’s thought experiment recasts the nature of the baseball schedule, and suggests how it might change our perceptions of the role of luck and small differences. Good stuff.