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Author Archives: rightoffthebatbook
There Used to Be a Ballpark Again
“How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people!” (Lamentations) William Carlos Williams is the author of an epic poem about Paterson. It is one of the cities “left behind.” Maybe not anymore. In fall 2019, it was announced … Continue reading
Great Stadiums (11): Big Beautiful Shea Stadium
I (Evander) went wild first visiting the then-new home of the New York Mets (short for Metropolitans), something like 55 years ago at this writing. Ground was broken for “Flushing Meadow Park Municipal Stadium” on October 28, 1961. Shea was … Continue reading
Posted in Baseball, Right Off the Bat Book, Stadiums
Tagged Astrodome, Bill Shea, Houston Astros, Jane Jarvis, Joe Namath, Literature, Major League Baseball, Mike Piazza, National League Championship Series, New York Mets, Nolan Ryan, Pat Jarvis, Shea Stadium, Stadiums, Tom Seaver, World Series
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Great Stadiums (10): Daphne du Maurier Stadium (Oracle Park in San Francisco)
Daphne du Maurier wrote “The Birds,” a short story expanded upon by Alfred Hitchcock to a film of eco-psychology that features his greatest special effects, glamorous skulduggery on Mount Rushmore notwithstanding. Oracle Park—Pacific Bell, then SBC; after those corporate-naming auspices … Continue reading
Honoring Jackie Robinson on His 100th Birthday
“Back in the days when integration wasn’t fashionable, he underwent the trauma and the humiliation and the loneliness which come with being a pilgrim walking the lonesome byways toward the high road of Freedom. He was a sit-inner before the … Continue reading
Good-bye, Mel
One of my (Evander) heroes, Mel Stottlemyre, is gone. With a 2.97 ERA and possessor of one of the great sinker balls, Mel was headed for the Baseball Hall of Fame if not for shoulder problems. I remember his first … Continue reading
Baseball and Pythagoras; or, Finger Painting the Word Picture by Numbers
The Right off the Bat (ROTB) project was angled toward the hallowed halls of Cooperstown this week. Since we have rescheduled for 2019 or probably into the early 2020s (Then the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by endemic, would enter the picture: … Continue reading
Posted in Baseball, Cricket, Right Off the Bat Website, T20 Cricket, Test Cricket
Tagged analytics, BABIP, Baseball Prospectus, Beadle's Dime Base-ball Player, Bill James, Bob Feller, Boston Red Sox, CBA, Chicago Black Sox scandal, contact rate, DraftKing, Driveline Baseball, DRS, ERA+, EVA, exit velocity, FB%, FIELDf/x, gambling, Henry Chadwick, Hot Stove League, ICC, ISO, JAWS, Joe Nuxhall, launch angle, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball Players Association, National Baseball Hall of Fame, PECOTA projections, pitch tunneling, Reaction Analysis, Sabermetrics, Scoring Efficiency (SE), Scoring Load (SC%), secondary average, spin rate (SR), Statcast, Steve Pearce, UZR, wins above replacement, World Series
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Ripeness Is All
Relentlessly, the English medium-fast bowler James Anderson is climbing the list of all-time wicket takers (in Test cricket). At the time of this writing, he’s placed fifth (with 544), a mere 19 wickets below the great Australian quick Glenn McGrath, … Continue reading
The Thousandth Test
On March 15 1877, Charles Bannerman and Nat Thomson strode out to open the batting for Australia at Melbourne against an England team, in what is generally acknowledged to be the first “Test” match—a cricket game of two innings each … Continue reading
Posted in Australia, Cricket, England, India, One-Day Cricket, Stadiums, T20 Cricket, Test Cricket
Tagged Alastair Cook, Charles Bannerman, Joe Root, Keaton Jennings, Ned Thomson, Virat Kohli
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Tab, Joe, Joe, and Joe
The synchronicity of nostalgia. Events that rhyme in time. A circling of the sun. The revolution of the cold-blooded moon. Fantasy and fact orbit one another! It is 60 years ago today, July 21, 2018, that “Joe Boyd, a middle-aged real estate salesman, … Continue reading
Posted in Baseball, Yankees
Tagged 56 game hitting streak, American League, Damn Yankees, Joe DiMaggio, Literature, Mickey Mantle, Mike Trout, Milwaukee Braves, New York Yankees, The Natural, The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, Washington Nationals, Washington Senators, World Series
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Prospect Pipeline
As the 2018 MLB season dawns and hope springs eternal, it precedes the draft by nine weeks (June 4 to 6). Months before that and earlier in blooming careers, Perfect Game, once a term solely relating to pitchers mowing down … Continue reading
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