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Category Archives: Baseball
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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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
Streaking
Like the proverbial first-small-step of the longest journey, record-MLB streaks begin innocently enough. Each captures the imagination of the public in different ways. The most enthralling streaks occur over the course of a season. A few, equally impressive, are accomplished … Continue reading
Posted in Baseball, Cricket, Right Off the Bat Book, Right Off the Bat Website, Yankees
Tagged 56 game hitting streak, All-Star Game, Babe Ruth, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Brooklyn Atlantics, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, closers, Cricket, Cricket Rules, Dale Long, Don Drysdale, Don Mattingly, Elias Sports Bureau, Eric Gagne, exit velocity, Ford C. Frick, home run, intentional walk, Joe Krakauskas, Joe Wilhoit, Kansas City Athletics, Ken Keltner, launch angle, Literature, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Mickey Mantle, Moneyball, Montreal Expos, National Association, National Baseball Hall of Fame, National League, New York Giants, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, OBP, Orel Hershiser, Pacific Coast League, Pete Rose, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsgurgh Pirates, relief pitchers/firemen, Roger Maris, Sabermetrics, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, San Francisco Seals, Ted Williams, Terry Francona, Wee Willie Keeler, Western League, Whitey Ford, Wichita Jobbers
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Home-run Boom in June
What gives? Has it something to do with $$$? Yuh think? Elias Sports Bureau registers 1,101 home runs slugged in the two major leagues during June 2017. That tops the one-month record (May 2000) by thirty-two. We at Right off … Continue reading
Posted in Baseball, Right Off the Bat Book, Right Off the Bat Website, Yankees
Tagged Aaron Judge, Alex Gordon, All-Star Game, Babe Ruth, exit velocity, Home Run Derby, Kansas City Royals, launch angle, Major League Baseball, Mark McGwire, Mickey Mantle, New York Yankees, Roger Maris, Rookie of the Year Award, Steroids, Yankee Stadium
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Come Together this Bloomsday
The 2017 Congressional Baseball Game takes on uncharacteristic heroic dimensions among the Legislative Branch of government tonight. Naturally enough, the US government itself and professional baseball at its highest level go way back to the institution of the reserve clause … Continue reading
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