BSUK fills gaps in national champs archive with nine missing artefacts

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The previous BaseballGB article in the Project COBB category demonstrated the historical stretch of the British baseball chronicling initiative by reaching back into the 19th Century, but this latest post illustrates the equally strong focus on recording more recent times.

BaseballSoftballUK (BSUK), the agency overseeing baseball’s development in Britain, has been diligent throughout its existence in retaining artefacts from British baseball history, and many of the digitized holdings on the Project COBB website come from the shelves of Ariel House, where the company is based.

The latest batch of materials that BSUK has been kind enough to scan in and supply (thanks go to Tim and Trevor for the hard work here) comprises nine missing artefacts relating to national finals from the current era of the game. The lists includes programmes from 1998 and 2001 through 2007, as well as a wonderful poster from 2002.

All of the newly added materials can be viewed via the Project COBB national champions archive.

MLB.TV 2012 prices coming soon

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It shouldn’t be too much longer before details of this year’s MLB.com subscription products are announced.

A recent tweet from the MLB Europe Twitter account confirmed what we already knew, that there will be no terrestrial TV coverage of MLB again this year, making the MLB.com and ESPN America offerings all the more important to fans in the UK.

Plenty of new features have been added to MLB.tv in recent years, from better quality video streams to personalised fantasy alerts, and there doesn’t appear to be much missing from the current service. It’s really the pricing structure, rather than fancy new features, that most fans will be interested in.

Prices have remained the same over the last couple of years: $120 for the Premium package and $100 for the standard MLB.tv. That makes me slightly concerned that we could be in for an increase this year, although to be honest if you watch a lot of games over the season then it would continue to represent excellent value. Still, seemingly with everything else going up in price, another freeze would be warmly welcomed.  Continue reading →

2012 British baseball season structure beginning to take shape

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The 2012 National Baseball League schedule has been released, revealing that this year’s competition will involve eight main teams, with the Great Britain Juniors gaining some valuable experience by facing the top-tier sides as well.

Goodbye Bulldogs, Farewell Flames

Eight NBL teams makes for two less than last year’s ten. The loss of the Mildenhall Bulldogs was perhaps to be expected after they were unable to field a team during the latter stages of the 2011 season; however losing the 2010 Champion Richmond Flames was more of a surprise. Hopefully both teams will rejoin the top-tier again in the future.

GB Juniors

No teams have taken the place of the Bulldogs and Flames, after three straight years of new teams joining or progressing up to the NBL. However, the introduction of the GB Junior team ensures that there will be a new dimension to the NBL season in 2012.

The GB Junior team will get involved on four Sundays when a venue will host three games. Two NBL teams will face each other in one game and will also play a game each against the GB Junior team. The first takes place on 22 April, featuring the Southampton Mustangs and Lakenheath Diamondbacks.

This looks like being an excellent way to strengthen the important link between the British baseball leagues and the national team set-up. The GB Juniors will not only get to test themselves against the top teams in the country, they will also gain valuable experience of playing alongside each other on a more regular basis. Add on the fact that it will produce an interesting triple-header of baseball and it should be a positive and progressive development for the game.

As the GB Junior team are not specifically an NBL team, presumably the results of the games involving them will not be included in the standings (that’s not officially been confirmed as yet).

Season dates set early

The BBF, particularly Nick Hadley, BBF Southern Senior Leagues Commissioner, have done a great job in getting the season structure and NBL schedule finalized by an early date this year. There’s no doubting that it’s a difficult task, but the delays and late revisions of the schedule in 2011 were far from ideal. Credit should go to all involved for putting that right this year. Hopefully the postseason structure will be finalized and announced before the start of the season as well.

The regular season will run from Sunday 1 April to Sunday 5 August, followed by a playoff round over the 18-19 August weekend and the National Baseball Championships over the 25-27 August Bank Holiday weekend. This is slightly earlier than last year so that the end of the domestic season doesn’t clash with the European Championships.

NBL Opening Day

The opening fixtures on 1 April will make for an intriguing start to the NBL season.

The defending NBL Champion Southern Nationals will immediately renew their burgeoning rivalry with the London Mets at the latter’s Finsbury Park diamond. The Nationals knocked the Mets out of the playoffs with a 7-3 victory last season and London will be keen to get some revenge at the first available opportunity.

Lakenheath Diamondbacks, the beaten finalists from last year, begin their battle to go one step further in 2012 with a double-header against the Southampton Mustangs. The Diamondbacks narrowly defeated the Mustangs 12-11 in the National Baseball Championship semi-final last year, so we can expect two fiercely competitive games between these two sides.

Herts Falcons were disappointed with their 4-20 2011 season and will look to start 2012 off on a positive note with two home games against the Bracknell Blazers, while the Essex Arrows aim to build on their 9-17 season, starting with two games hosting the Croydon Pirates.

Other leagues

Now that the NBL schedule has been finalized, attention will turn to the schedules of the other levels of play in the South and the structure of the North.

We shall not be lacking for teams, with a recent BBF tweet explaining that “56 adult teams have signed-up for the 2012 season of #BritishBaseball. In the south alone: NBL (8), AAA (7), AA (14), Midlands (5), A (8)”.

That would leave up to 14 teams in the north (some of the remaining 14 may well be independent teams based in the south but not actually playing in the above mentioned divisions) and there has been some talk of a return to a single Northern League, which we last saw in 2009, rather than separating out into separate divisions.

There are arguments for and against a single league. From a purely competitive point of view (i.e. not as someone actually involved and therefore dealing with the logistics of it all), I would always favour separating teams into divisions modelled broadly on experience and ability. Throwing everyone together will inevitably produce complete mismatches and they don’t do anything to help player development or enjoyment.

I’m sure the different merits of a single league or divisions will be fully debated and an agreement will be reached in due course.

The Dewar Trophy: Further evidence for British baseball’s grand beginnings

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I was generously sent a copy of the photo below by Dick Miller. Reading off the original, Dick could make out the words “Dewar Trophy” in the inscription, which almost certainly places the item as being from the 1890s. According to an article by James Wilson entitled “Baseball in England, and its rivals” that was published in The Strand Magazine in 1898:

The greatest supporters of the game in England [include] American business firms, such as the Messrs. Fuller, the great confectioners; Messrs. Dewar, of whisky fame;  [and] J. Earle of the Remington Typewriter Co. […]  These gentleman assist the game, both in a monetary sense and by personally attending the games and bringing their friends.”

The trophy is presumably one of the examples of the Dewar company assisting the game in a monetary sense.

In addition, all three business entered teams in the London Association competition of the mid-1890s. In fact, Dewars and Remingtons were involved in one of the early classic tussles of British baseball, a 12-inning belter of a contest at the Crystal Palace on 20 August 1895. The ebb and flow is evident from the linescore.

Remingtons…. 3 6 0 0 4 0 0 2 2 1 1 2 — 21
Dewars……….. 0 2 1 5 0 1 1 3 4 1 1 1 — 20

The Dewar Trophy was not unique in this early part of British baseball history. Other benefactors during the first wave of sustained domestic competition included Albert Goodwill Spalding and British Baseball Hall of Famer Sir Francis Ley, and both of these men are known to have donated trophies of similar splendour to commemorate champions.

 

Bill James Baseball IQ App

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Thanks to a recommendation on The Book blog, I’ve been playing around with the Bill James Baseball IQ App today while staring out at the snow.

It’s yet another product that reinforces my view that graphical representations of data are often the most engaging way to present stats, whether it’s a heat map of pitch locations to a specific hitter, a Win Probability graph of a game that swung like a pendulum or another brilliantly idiosyncratic Craig Robinson special.

I was following the Pakistan-England Test match this morning and turned to this Bill James app while thinking about bowling and pitching. 

Pacemen in cricket are always being told to aim for the top of off-stump and there’s a clear similarity in the way that a pitcher’s bread and butter pitch is a good knee-high fastball on the outside corner.

Roy Halladay is the current gold standard when it comes to consistently strong pitching and this heat map of his pitch locations from 2007 to present to right-handed hitters shows one of many reasons why. Continue reading →

MLB 2012 start times

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As we count down the days to the start of the MLB season like a five-year old dreaming of 25 December, there are lots of little moments that come along to mark the way.

One of those moments was passed on Monday as MLB announced the start times for the 2012 regular season games.

These are subject to change, but barring any weather-related postponements you can count on the times being correct for the early season fixtures at the very least.

A’s and M’s start things early in Japan

Competitive baseball will arrive earlier than usual this season thanks to a two-game series between the Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariners that will be staged in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday 28 and Thursday 29 March.

Neither team is likely to be a postseason contender in 2012 so ordinarily this match up from the AL West may not set pulses racing for fans of other teams. However, the lure of two MLB games after a long winter will prove irresistible to most and the two clubs do have some players that any fan would want to watch, not least of which being the M’s Felix Hernandez.

The two games in Japan will also create a role reversal for our friends on the other side of the pond as they will be the ones getting up early to follow the action, while we won’t need to sacrifice any sleep. However, you may need to devise ways to sneakily keep up with the action while at work/uni/college/school etc if you can’t arrange to be free of other commitments on those two days.

The first game on Wednesday 28 March is scheduled to start at 11.10 BST (6.10 a.m. Eastern Time in the States), with the second game on Thursday beginning one hour earlier.

Continue reading →

ATP Fantasy Baseball

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As Spring Training approaches, fantasy baseball leagues are looking for new owners and holding drafts ahead of a new year of competition.

If you’re looking to get involved in a league, whether as a newcomer or a seasoned player looking for a new challenge, then why not head over to ATP Fantasy Baseball. ATP stands for ‘Across The Pond’ and the site is designed to be “the premier UK website for all your fantasy baseball needs”, with leagues to join and message boards to chat about all things Fantasy Baseball.

Here are a few pointers to some current leagues that are looking for new players:

Real Life Value Fantasy Baseball League:
Please read through this thread (http://z13.invisionfree.com/ATP_Fantasy_Baseball/index.php?showtopic=208&st=0&#last).

Baseballfan.co.uk Fantasy Leagues:
The signup period for the Baseballfan.co.uk Fantasy Leagues is up here: http://z13.invisionfree.com/ATP_Fantasy_Baseball/index.php?showtopic=207&st=0&#last. There are no limits to the number of teams that can sign up as the aim is to create at least 2 leagues and have the promotion/relegation format return. If that does happen it will be first come first served with who’s in what division.

Ottoneu Fantasy Baseball:
This league is run by ‘Anglophillie’ and the thread is here: http://z13.invisionfree.com/ATP_Fantasy_Baseball/index.php?showtopic=187. Some of you might be aware of Ottoneu fantasy baseball leagues run through the Fangraphs website. It is suitable for year round serious players. You can find some info here: http://ottoneu.fangraphs.com.

Vuvuzuela Halos of Harold Wood WAR League:
This league is run by hamzen. It’s a points rather than Rotisserie league that is run on ESPN. The rules and scoring are located here: http://z13.invisionfree.com/ATP_Fantasy_Ba…hp?showforum=31. Let hamzen know of your interest here: http://z13.invisionfree.com/ATP_Fantasy_Baseball/index.php?showtopic=199.

We at BaseballGB are planning to run our Fantasy League competition again this season, on the same head-to-head, ‘seven category’ basis.  More details about the 2012 competition will be announced in due course.

The British Baseball Pavilion, a monthly community gathering: Be a part of it from the start of it

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For many sports played in Britain, such as football and cricket, the community spirit that can be fostered within a club bar is a crucial factor in the success of grass-roots activities. And in the baseball played on the continent, taking The Netherlands as one example, community clubs thrive through the social hub of a bar or clubhouse.

But in British baseball, it is often a battle just for clubs to secure a piece of land to erect a backstop on, and thus few outfits have a clubhouse or pavilion. There’s no doubt that this puts baseball at a disadvantage relative to competing sports on the British landscape.

As with many areas of British baseball, though, things do not need to be doom and gloom. We just need to be more creative. And so Joe Gray (Official Scorer, Southern Nationals) and Michael Jones (PR & Marketing Officer, Essex Redbacks) are proposing the start of a monthly gathering on a weekday evening for members of any clubs or other organizations associated with British baseball, and any new or established baseball fans. It will be called the “British Baseball Pavilion” and during the warmer months we hope that the gathering can begin with a friendly game of catch in a nearby park.

The primary purpose of the British Baseball Pavilion will be to add the opportunity for a regular social occasion to the British baseball calendar. However, it is hoped that the discussions that will take place as people unwind after a day at work would also lead to the sharing of local successes and the beginning of more cross-club and cross-organization collaborations. It is a bigger-picture view that we must take if baseball is to regain its rightful place on the British sporting map: the real competition is between baseball and other sports, not among individual clubs.

The first British Baseball Pavilion is scheduled for Wednesday 8 February, beginning at 5:30pm, at the Cittie of Yorke pub in Central London (less than half a mile down the road from British baseball’s first ever league offices, back in the 19th Century). To register your interest please get in touch with Joe via his contact page on the Project COBB website.

Among the various topics under discussion at the inaugural gathering will be the optimum format for the Pavilion, and the best choice of location and venue for future dates. So to have your say, we hope you can join us.

If, as is hoped, the idea does bear fruit, we’d encourage community members in other corners of Britain to set similar ventures going; hence, this will be the “British Baseball Pavilion (London and South East)” to leave the door open for duplication.

Ongoing sale of Dodgers produces two interesting football links

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An article has been published today on the BaseballProspectus website about the ongoing sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers that adds a couple of interesting football links to the process, neither of which being the football link that is the main focus of the piece (football in the American sense in respect of the St. Louis Rams).

The first football (as in association football) link is that Stan Kroenke is named as one of the finalists in the bidding process for the Dodgers. 

Kroenke has a finger in many sports-organization shaped pies, but the main one concerning British sports fans is his majority shareholding in Arsenal.  He started buying shares in the club in 2007 and has gradually gained more and more control during a share-buying battle with the Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov. Kroenke has been able to win over the Arsenal board members and became the majority shareholder last year.  

So far, his arrival hasn’t resulted in manager Arsene Wenger moving away from his cautious spending policy. It’s difficult to know for sure whether that’s due to a lack of available funds or Wenger simply wanting the club to live within their means on a sensible budget.  However, there would clearly be a measure of concern among Arsenal fans that Kroenke’s resources, potentially even his shareholding, could be reduced if his ownership bid for the Dodgers proves successful.  Continue reading →

Extra Wild Card for the 2012 MLB season?

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It now seems likely that MLB will introduce an additional Wild Card place in each league from this coming season onwards.

A final decision is still to be made, but MLB Commissioner Bud Selig has consistently stated that his preference is to expand the playoffs as soon as possible and his comments on Friday suggest that’s almost certain to be the case.

Such a decision would be controversial. There is an inherent unfairness in the current MLB structure and it will be exacerbated by the introduction of an additional Wild Card spot.

The new Wild Card playoff round

It has already been agreed under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement that the current postseason structure will be changed. Five teams from each league will make the playoffs rather than four, with the two non-division winning entrants from each respective league facing each other in a single game play-off – or ‘play-in’ as some are calling it – before the rest of the postseason unfolds in the same way as the current format.

There’s no doubt that the new format will produce two incredibly exciting contests while also correcting the current undesirable situation in which the importance of winning a division has been devalued.  There is sure to be occasions when a team is eliminated from the playoffs after losing a single Wild Card game to a team that won seven or eight games less than them over the course of the regular season; however, those hard-luck teams will know that they could have avoided such a fate if they had won their division in the first place.

On balance, therefore, the change should make the already-exciting MLB season even more dramatic. Once we have an equal competition consisting of six divisions of five teams, hopefully playing schedules of very similar standard, we can look forward to a fascinating new era in the Major Leagues.

The trouble is, that’s not going to be the case this year.

We will continue to have an uneven distribution of teams in different divisions (four divisions of five teams, one division of six teams and one division of four teams) and a subsequent ‘unbalanced schedule’ in which teams competing for the same prize (a Wild Card) can play schedules of quite significant variation in overall quality.

That’s already the case with the single Wild Card, but adding an additional Wild Card in each league without addressing the division structure and scheduling issues will only make it more likely that a team is able to beat another in the race for the postseason by taking advantage of playing more often against weaker opposition.

The Houston Astros will move to the AL West in 2013 to level the divisions up, although we don’t yet know if that will lead to a fairer schedule, with reports suggesting that a final decision on the fixture list structure is still to be made.

In any case, it would make much more sense to hold off from expanding the playoffs and introducing the changes in one fell swoop for the 2013 season.  Instead, it appears as though the extra Wild Card will be pushed through quickly.

It might not prove to be an issue, we’ll have to wait and see how the 2012 season pans out. However, it’s clearly not perfect and while some will say it’s only one season, that will be no consolation if it could have been the season for your team to win it all.

Other points

There are two other notable points from the news story linked to above that are worth considering further.

Don’t forget that the two Wild Cards in a league will be the two non-division winning teams with the best win-loss records, not the two best second-placed teams. It will therefore be possible for a division to produce three postseason entrants and a team that finishes third in their division could become World Series winners.  The AL East is the most obvious division currently where this situation could arise (and would have done in 2011 if the season had played out in the same way under the extra Wild Card system).

Secondly, the ESPN report confirms that if two teams have the same win-loss record at the top of a division, they will play a single-game tiebreaker to determine who wins the division rather than using the regular season head-to-head record between the two teams.

That’s a fair change considering the consequences of qualifying for the postseason as a division winner or a Wild Card will now be much greater.  However, it’s a reminder that the schedule has to include a gap to take this potential into account and that Game 163s, of which we’ve had a few in recent years, could become more common.

Selig has regularly voiced his opposition to the World Series extending into November and has made moves in recent years to stop this from happening, but a Game Seven in 2012 could well be scheduled that late in the year if the additional Wild Card round is hastily added for the upcoming season. It would also probably lead to a switch from the recent practice of starting the World Series on a Wednesday night.

That could mean the World Series begins on a Friday night – or potentially move back to the previous Saturday night start – which from a British perspective would make the early first pitch time for the Series opener easier to work around.

Still to be determined

While Selig’s comments make it seem almost certain that there will be ten postseason teams in 2012, we’re nearly into February and we don’t yet know for definite what the postseason format is going to be for the season ahead.

With details about the MLB.TV subscriptions typically announced in the first week or so of February (it was 9 February last year), the race is on to see if we’ll know how the playoffs will work before examining the prices and features of MLB.com’s 2012 offerings.