Monthly Archives: January 2009

Twitter and British Baseball

1 Reply

As well as here at BaseballGB, you can now get a British perspective on baseball via Twitter.  Both Joe and I have created accounts.  If you are already on the Twitter network, please feel free to ‘follow’ us.  If you’ve not joined up yet, why not take the plunge?

Joe’s page is: http://twitter.com/gbbsa

My page is: http://twitter.com/mattbaseballgb

There has been a lot of media coverage dedicated to Twitter in recent weeks, not least due to the ‘tweeting’ exploits of celebrities such as Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross.  My natural reaction to the latest social networking phenomenons is to avoid them like the plague, but the more I read about Twitter, the more I thought that it could be a great asset to the British baseball community.  Continue reading →

You Are the Scorer: Number 13

Leave a reply

YouAreScorer

Scenario: The first two batters of an inning strike out. The third hits a home run. The fourth draws a walk. The fifth hits a pop-up to the first baseman for an easy catch in foul territory but the ball is dropped, causing the first baseman to be charged with an error. The next pitch is drilled over the fence in centre field for the second home run of the inning. The sixth batter flies out to the left fielder.

As the official scorer, how many of the 3 runs do you charge as earned runs against the pitcher?

A – 0.
B – 1.
C – 2.
D – 3.

Highlight the text below to reveal the answer:

Answer: B – 1.

Rule 10.16 states:
… In determining earned runs, the official scorer shall reconstruct the inning without the errors …

Without the error, the inning would have ended with the first baseman taking a catch in foul territory for the third out, at which point only 1 of the runs had been scored.

Mixed reports on World Cup progress

Leave a reply

The IBAF have announced “impressive” early ticket sales for the Baseball World Cup, to be staged across Europe this September.   Over 8,000 tickets have been sold in forty-eight hours for the Pool E games based in Regensburg, Germany.

The news is a welcome source of optimism for the year ahead; however Regensburg is the only venue currently selling tickets.   Little information has been published about the organization of the tournament in recent months and, according to recent reports from Mister-Baseball.com, this lack of progress is causing concern.  Continue reading →

Has Boras messed up Manny’s deal?

5 Replies
It seems as though the standoff between Manny Ramirez and Scott Boras and the Dodgers is showing no sign of ending any time soon.
 
Months after the Dodgers made a contract offer – $45m for two years seems to be the most widely reported figures – Manny is still without a team.
 
Even in a very slow free agent market, I was expecting the Manny market to pick up after Mark Teixeira signed with the Yankees, but little has changed.
 
You have to wonder if Boras has an ace up his sleeve to get teams bidding against each other, or themselves.  Continue reading →

If I Never Get Back by Darryl Brock

6 Replies

(Ballantine Books, 1991), 470 pages.

The Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869 have an important place in the history of baseball.  As the first all-professional team, they can be said to be the pioneers that paved the way for the multi-billion dollar industry that exists today.  The team and the early days of pro baseball are brilliantly brought to life in this extraordinary novel that combines expert historic detail with a gripping story. 

Continue reading →

Q&A with Alex Malihoudis

3 Replies

GbAlex Malihoudis has been a GB Senior for the past 14 years and has also enjoyed domestic success, most recently as a London Met in their championship-winning seasons of 2007 and 2008. In 2008, he won the best shortstop award and led the league in hits and in runs scored. Through a combination of natural talent, determination and hard work, Alex has capitalized on his good fortune of developing an interest in baseball as a youngster while happening to live in Tonbridge, a town that had one of the country’s best youth programmes.   

Thank you to Matt for his help with the questions and to Alex for talking to BaseballGB.
Continue reading →

Stephen Jay Gould: a “learned Harvard professor and baseball-loving everyman”

2 Replies

Life’s Grandeur by Stephen Jay Gould, (Vintage, 2002) 272 pages.
(The book Life’s Grandeur does contain some baseball; however, it is included here not to recommend it as a “baseball book” but rather to set up a discussion of Gould’s only book that featured baseball and nothing else – Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville – and to describe the part that his writing played in developing my interest in the sport.)

I was bought my first Stephen Jay Gould book, Life’s Grandeur, as a birthday present in April 2002. I was studying for a degree in biology at the time and Gould’s writing on evolution featured prominently on the reading list. Less than a month later, and before I had got a chance to start the book, Gould passed away at the age of 60. Continue reading →

You Are the Scorer: Number 12

Leave a reply

YouAreScorer

Scenario: While facing the first batter of game, the home team’s starting pitcher suffers a knee injury and has to be replaced. The batter has a full count when the new pitcher enters the game.

As the official scorer, you must choose whether the original pitcher’s statistics or the new pitcher’s statistics will be affected, based on what the outcome is of the plate appearance. Which of the following is true?

A - A strike-out and a walk would be assigned to the original pitcher.
B – A strike-out would be credited to the original pitcher but a walk would be charged to the new pitcher.
C - A strike-out would be credited to the new pitcher but a walk would be charged to the original pitcher.
D – A strike-out and a walk would be assigned to the new pitcher.

Highlight the text below to reveal the answer:

Answer: C – A strike-out would be charged to the new pitcher but a walk would be charged to the original pitcher.

Rule 10.16(f)(1) states:
If, when pitchers are changed, the count is
2 balls, no strike,
2 balls, 1 strike,
3 balls, no strike,
3 balls, 1 strike,
3 balls, 2 strikes,
and the batter gets a base on balls, the official scorer shall charge that batter and the base on balls to the preceding pitcher, not to the relief pitcher.

Rule 10.16(f)(2) states:
Any other action by such batter … shall cause such a batter to be charged to the relief pitcher.

Combination Signs courtesy of the MLB Network (and another reason to save ‘MLB on Five’)

Leave a reply

If you haven’t seen it yet, I would highly recommend watching a recent video published on MLB.com about ‘combination signs’.  These signs are used by a catcher to relay the selection of pitches to the pitcher in a coded way, making it harder for the runner on second base to work out what is coming the batter’s way.  TV directors like to show close-ups of catchers flashing fingers down at blistering speed and if you’ve always wanted to learn a bit more about exactly what systems they might be using, this recent video is a great place to start.  Continue reading →