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Category Archives: Cricket
Let’s Play Two
Ernie Banks’s enthusiasm was contagious as Covid as he declared, “Let’s play two!” Will the regularly scheduled doubleheader, the double-dip, make a comeback in Major League Baseball? Auguring this is a matter of time. Literally. Nice work if you can … Continue reading
Posted in Baseball, Cricket
Tagged analytics, Ernie Banks, Major League Baseball, Twinight Doubleheader
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Wait ’til Next Year
The drouth was over. It ended the only way it could. A rebarbative, plague-infected, player celebrated along with the still-healthy ones. After six games. Some fans were inside a gleaming hitherto-unused, untested (no pun in this “get-tested” era) stadium: the … Continue reading
Posted in Baseball, Cricket, IPL, Right Off the Bat Website, Stadiums
Tagged Al Kaline, Amed Rosario, analytics, Aroldis Chapman, Atlanta Braves, Babe Ruth, batting average, Bob Gibson, Boston Red Sox, Buffalo Bisons, Chicago Black Sox scandal, Cricket, designated hitter, doubleheader, exit velocity, Florida Marlins, Globe Life Field, Hal Chase, home run, Horace Clarke, Hot Stove League, Houston Astros, ICC, Joe Morgan, Justin Turner, launch angle, Literature, live-ball era, lively ball, Los Angeles Dodgers, Lou Brock, Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball Players Association, Mark Twain, Mendoza Line, Miami Marlins, minor leagues, National League, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Ronald Reagan, Sabermetrics, Sahlen Field, Spring Training, Steve Cohen, strikeout (K), Subway Series, Summer Olympics, Theo Epstein, Tom Seaver, Tony Clark, Toronto Blue Jays, Whitey Ford, World Series
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Great Stadiums (12): From Blueprints
Credit Rod Kennedy Jr. for a keen perseverance. Pursuant to the story linked to his name, Kennedy unearthed (the right word) the blueprints for Ebbets Field. This is where Kennedy lives in his memories (as all us fans of baseball … Continue reading
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
The Baseball Scene
Henry James, for whom no abstraction, no characteristic or gesture, was too subtle to be examined (and examined), qualified and qualified again, is generally credited with a fictional form that was actually pioneered by women, mostly Continental-women writers on to … Continue reading
Posted in Baseball, Cricket, Right Off the Bat Book, Right Off the Bat Website, Yankees
Tagged Babe Ruth, Bernard Malamud, Boston Red Sox, Charles Dickens, Chicago Cubs, Cricket, designated hitter, Don Bradman, Izaak Walton, Jane Austen, John Updike, Literature, London Stadium, Major League Baseball, Mark Twain, National League, New York Yankees, Ring Lardner, St. Louis Cardinals, Summer Olympics
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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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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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Right Off the Bat 