Home MLB'Weekly' Hit Ground Ball Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Box scores and historic balls

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Box scores and historic balls

by Matt Smith

The second week of the MLB season brought another seven days of thrilling action.  This was accompanied by the landmark news of two new ballparks opening in New York and two much-loved members of the baseball family (Harry Kalas and Mark “The Bird” Fidrych) being taken from us. 

On the opening day of the British baseball season, there’s plenty of MLB news on which to reflect. 

The brilliance of box scores

Two weeks into the season and I’m firmly back into the routine of checking the box scores every day.  MLB.com is a great resource (to say the least), but they don’t have an easy way to look at all the box scores together, particularly if you want to print them out.  While Americans may be able to rely on the newspapers for their daily stat fix, we don’t have that luxury (the final scores two days later is the best we can hope for). 

So I was delighted to find The Rundown midway through last season.  It’s a handy two-page pdf containing the box scores from all of the day’s games, with all of the stats a fantasy player or general baseball fan would want.

When pouring over my print-out of the Rundown during Tuesday lunchtime (covering Monday’s games), I was struck by just how much information the box scores provide.

It’s true that they don’t tell you everything.  For example, you could see that Jermaine Dye and Paul Konerko had both hit a home run in the White Sox’s game against the Tigers, but you wouldn’t have known that they hit them back-to-back and that they represented both players’ 300th career bomb.

However a box score is a brilliant way to tell the majority of the game’s story in a quick and easy manner.  You can instantly recognise standout performances, such as Zach Duke’s complete-game shut-out of the Astros or the Cubs’ pitchers Lilly, Guzman, Heilman and Gregg combining to one-hit the Rockies (also telling you that the wind wasn’t blowing out at Wrigley that day).

There’s enough information to get beneath the surface of a player’s performance.  The seven walks Gavin Floyd dished out, and the seven runs Koji Uehara conceded, showed that their wins were the result of help from their teammates and a bit of good fortune as much as anything.  Similarly, Brad Lidge may have recorded his third save of the season, but the two runs he conceded in his single inning let you know that he put Phillies fans through the wringer along the way.

Most of all, box scores can surprise and entertain you.  I nearly dropped my half-eaten apple when I saw the name “Swisher” underneath the Yankees’ pitching section and thought for a moment that there must have been a mistake.  But no, that line of IP: 1.0, H:1, R:0, ER:0, BB:1, K:1, HR:0, ERA: 0.00, did belong to him. 

Lots of information and a smile: all from one double-side of A4.  

Nationals win with a little help from the Dutch

Sadly, there aren’t many reasons to look too long at the Nationals’ part of a box score.  2009 is shaping up to be another long lifeless season for the team in the U.S. capital and it was no surprise that they were the only side still seeking a win heading into Thursday’s game against the Phillies.  

An 8-2 victory finally put a ‘1′ in their win column.  That made the box score a treat not only for Nats fans, but also European baseball fans.   Two Dutch players contributed to Washington’s maiden win: starting pitcher Shairon Martis and outfielder Roger Bernadina.  The box score showed that Martis gave up five hits and two runs over 6.1 innings, while Bernadina walked, stole a base and scored a run after coming off the bench in the eighth inning.  After their excellent showing in the World Baseball Classic, the good news just keeps on coming for Netherlands baseball.

An example to others

We all knew it was only a matter of time before Gary Sheffield would join the 500 homer club.  The Tigers released him prior to the season with the slugger sitting on 499 career round-trippers and the Mets’ decision to sign him ensured that he would round off that number in their uniform.  It also left open the possibility that he could produce the first historic Met moment in the new Citi Field and he made this a reality on Friday night with his shot off Brewers’ pitcher Mitch Stetter.

The reaction of the fan who caught the ball was less foreseeable but greatly welcomed.  Rather than hold Sheffield to ransom or put the ball up for auction to cash in on his good fortune,   Chris Matcovich simply gave the ball back to Sheff in return for a few signed items.  The desire to exploit such a situation is somewhat understandable considering the value placed on these mementos.  However you would like to believe that a true baseball fan would feel that forever being part of a moment in baseball history is enough of a reward.  Good for you, Chris.

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1 comment

Matt Smith April 19, 2009 - 7:25 pm

Sadly, Roger Bernadina fractured his right ankle while making an excellent play in centre field yesterday against the Marlins. He’s likely to be out for a couple of months. That’s very unfortunate, coming just as Roger got the chance to prove himself as a Major Leaguer. Hopefully he makes a full recovery and gets back up to the Majors later this year.

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