Unlikely Words » Baseball

Happy birthday, Bo Jackson

aaron cohen — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:58:19 +0000

Today is Bo Jackson's 49th birthday, so I thought I'd watch a Bo Jackson video and then I watched about 10. The first video shocked me because I'm never ready for how big he is or how fast. And he was both.

Here are some videos and articles including football Bo, baseball Bo, Letterman Bo, Sesame St Bo, ect. The articles are interspersed with the videos. Make sure to watch the Tecmo Bo.

First mention of Bo in SI from 1982

The tackle that ended his career

Ralph Wiley suggesting Bo will have to choose

Bo on the go

On homering in first game back after injury

A hip injury

All Bo's SI covers

Maybe the first profile

Gammons

Bo Jackson, the Heisman winner

Where is he now, from 2003

Bo must choose

If Bo Jackson doesn't return

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I’M WITH TITO

aaron cohen — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:30:22 +0000

I don't think the Red Sox should fire Terry Francona so I asked Dave to make a picture I could use to show my support. Dave is awesome. So is Terry Francona. #TeamTito

Thanks to Thea for helping out.

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A collection of Red Sox related Tweets I liked on the occasion of their season being over

aaron cohen — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:08:59 +0000

The Red Sox have had a pretty up and down season. I'm still not sure what to say about it, but there's humor in pain. Especially other people are making fun of my pain. Anyway, I thought these Tweets were good.

@fivethirtyeight

@jazayerli

@joekinsella

@mickshaffer

@petersagal

Via Stellar

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Fan catches foul ball while holding kid

aaron cohen — Tue, 31 May 2011 19:05:48 +0000

Fans catching foul balls are awesome. Fans catching foul balls while holding children are even more awesome. It happens more often than you think, even if MLB doesn't want you to see any unauthorized video showing this.
Here are a few I found in a quick Google search:
With the baby strapped to chest.
On a bounce back.
Moms can do it, too.
With a few bobbles.
One handed.
Another one handed.
This guy didn't drop the kid, and the kid didn't drop the drink!

This post was inspired by a Mike Davidson Tweet that pointed to a guy at a recent Dodger's game who dropped his kid to catch a foul and then muffed the catch.

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This is insane

aaron cohen — Wed, 18 May 2011 00:32:52 +0000

UPDATE:
It's fake, but I still love it.
======
This is about the most insane thing I've ever seen, He wasn't even looking!

Via Stellar

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Crazy baseball fact

aaron cohen — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 02:58:59 +0000

The only American League player to hit at least one triple in each of the last 12 season is David Ortiz. I would have never guessed. That's 2 things on the blog today that no one would ever guess. ###Possibly related posts:The Economics of Minor League Baseball Baseball Inside Baseball ### Possibly related posts:

The Extra 2%

aaron cohen — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 22:37:46 +0000

Internet good guy and friend, Jonah Keri, is out with his first book, The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First:

In The Extra 2%, financial journalist and sportswriter Jonah Keri chronicles the remarkable story of one team’s Cinderella journey from divisional doormat to World Series contender. When former Goldman Sachs colleagues Stuart Sternberg and Matthew Silverman assumed control of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2005, it looked as if they were buying the baseball equivalent of a penny stock. But the incoming regime came armed with a master plan: to leverage their skill at trading, valuation, and management to build a model twenty-first-century franchise that could compete with their bigger, stronger, richer rivals—and prevail.

Check out an excerpt in GQ, and one on ESPN. Here's a bit about how the Rays missed on Albert Pujols even though one of their scouts loved him and they could have gotten him for a flyer.

They still worried about the player's build, as Jennings had earlier, and wondered what position he would play. This was especially odd, since the player didn't get much chance to try out at third base, his natural position, or first, where Arango thought he could also fare well. Many skeptics also wondered about his age: he was born in the Dominican Republic, didn't move to the United States until high school, and always looked old for the age he was supposed to be. Meanwhile, the player's agent was new to the gig, and that uncertainty raised fears that just signing the guy could become dicey, even in the later rounds. Besides, the Devil Rays had their targeted names up on the draft board, and the draft was flying by. Jennings wasn't ignoring Arango's projection per se. There was just so much other stuff going on that they didn't give it much thought. By the time you get past the tenth round, most players have no shot of ever sniffing the big leagues, let alone becoming productive regulars, let alone becoming the kind of superstar Arango envisioned. No big deal.

Congrats, Jonah!

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10 Things Chicago Athletes Aren’t Allowed To Do

aaron cohen — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:27:05 +0000

This list pretty much sums up my thoughts on the Jay Cutler fiasco. Click through for the rest.

10. Show too much emotion.
9. Show too little emotion.
8. Get injured.
7. Play while injured and make your injury worse.
6. Play while injured and try to avoid making your injury worse.

Somebody shared this in Google Reader, but now I can't find who.

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Inside Baseball

aaron cohen — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 04:18:07 +0000

The Baseball Hall of Fame just announced this year's class of inductees, and there were some notable names missing. Here's Nate Silver on the numbers. His point is basically that good baseball players today are better than great baseball players of yesteryear.

If you’re not willing to reserve a place for players who meet or exceed the statistical standards of the average Hall of Famers at their positions, however — players like a Larkin or a Bagwell — the discussion really ought to turn to which players we need to kick out. No Barry Larkin? No Travis Jackson. No Tim Raines? No Max Carey. No Jeff Bagwell? No High Pockets Kelly. No Trammell and Whitaker? That’s fine: let’s boot Tinker and Evers.

Barry Larkin and Jeff Bagwell, 2 players who didn't make it but should have, are indicative of how people vote now. Barry Larkin didn't make it because he was merely spectacular for close to a decade, not eye poppingly amazing, during an era of steroid use. Jeff Bagwell, on the other hand, had amazing stats, also during an era of steroid use. It seems like Larkin is being compared unfavorably in light of ballooning offensive stats, for not doing steroids. On the other hand, Bagwell is being punished for having those stats during the same era, even though there's never been evidence of steroid abuse.

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Lists on which you don’t want to be

aaron cohen — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:41:14 +0000

This is a list of the pitchers with the top 10 strikeout rates among starters 22 or younger with at least 50 innings pitched. See Washington National's phenom Stephen Strasburg on there at number 2?

1 Kerry Wood
2 Stephen Strasburg
3 Dwight Gooden
4 Mark Prior
5 Oliver Perez
6 Sam McDowell
7 Mark Prior
8 Scott Kazmir
9 Oliver Perez
10 Rick Ankiel

Thanks, Jonah

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Plaid is back

aaron cohen — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:10:19 +0000

Recently, the Tampa Bay Rays wore plaid blazers, or BRayzers, on a road trip.

Recently, Alan Cumming wore a plaid suit to the Creative Arts EMMYs.

Recently, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones went back on tour.

These can not all be a coincidence.

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The Economics of Minor League Baseball

aaron cohen — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:47:06 +0000

Basically, unless you're drafted in one of the fist several rounds, you don't make very much money. Depending on the state, most players make less than minimum wage, and that's only during the 4.5 months they're actually paid. Not very glamorous at all. Really interesting read.

But the biggest difference may very well be the money. The minimum annual salary in Major League Baseball currently sits at $400,000. Meanwhile, most players at the minor league level who haven’t reached minor league free agency are lucky to make $10,000 over the course of a season; a survey of players revealed that those in rookie ball make $1,250-1,300 a month while players in Triple-A, the highest level of the minors, can make roughly $1,000 more per month while under the contracted amount.

(Thanks, Jonah and Andy)

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Tasering at the Phillies Game

aaron cohen — Tue, 04 May 2010 17:00:27 +0000

Can you imagine if this kid had died after being Tasered for running on the field at a Phillies game? I have a feeling MLB is going to ban the use of Tasers for this type of situation in the future.

UPDATE:
Oops, this one came from The Daily What. My bad.

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Vomit on the Off-Duty Cop, Get Arrested

aaron cohen — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 01:45:36 +0000

Sometimes you wonder why people post mug shot photos, and sometimes you just know.

Matthew Clemmens was mad about his friend getting thrown out of the Phillies game for being unruly, so he made himself throw up on an off-duty cop. And his 11 year old daughter. You've got to not do that at the baseball game, folks.

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Joshua Sacco’s “Miracle” Speech at Fenway Park

aaron cohen — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 14:38:51 +0000

So this happened last night at Fenway.

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Charlie Brown’s Baseball Statistics

aaron cohen — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:26:39 +0000

If you were curious about Charlie Brown's composite baseball statistics Wezen-Ball has calculated them for you. They've taken the time to go through 2 decades of Peanuts comics to provide a detailed analysis of the 60s and 70s. It's glorious and compulsive documentation. I approve.V

Via Baseball Musings

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Bill Hall’s Expiring Contract

aaron cohen — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:59:39 +0000

In this article about the Red Sox' recent moves, Alex Speier touches on their trade of Casey Kotchman for Mariners' utility man Bill Hall. It's been said this offseason that the Sox are especially concerned about the luxury tax and are doing everything in their power to remain under the $170 million salary threshold. This threshold is determined based on the average annual value of a contract, Bill hall's 4 years at $24 million for instance would be a cost of $6 million against the luxury tax threshold. However, since his contract was structured differently, and since the Brewers were paying the Mariners almost the full amount of the contract, Bill Hall's expiring contract is actually worth around -$1.5 million against the threshold.

Expiring contracts have a significant trade value in the NBA, but I've never heard of any baseball trades being made for this reason. Bill Simmons goes so far as to suffix Expiring Contract onto the end of any player in the last year of a contract, so at the very least, we should refer to Bill Hall as Bill Hall's Expiring Contract for this season, right?

Hall is in the last guaranteed year of a four-year, $24 million deal that will pay him $8.4 million next season. The Mariners, according to a major-league source, will pay $7.5-8 million of his salary — essentially sending the Sox the same money that was given to Seattle by the Brewers when the M’s acquired Hall last summer.

Hall’s contract is evaluated for luxury tax purposes as being worth $6 million in 2010, based on its AAV. But the full amount of the cash transfer — call it $7.5 million — will be deducted from the Sox’ payroll as determined for luxury tax purposes. That being the case, Hall will actually reduce the Sox’ payroll in calculating the competitive balance tax by roughly $1.5 million dollars. Overall, then, the Sox were able to sign Beltre and add Hall and a player to be named at a cost (for CBT purposes) of roughly $2 million in 2010.

Via Dave.

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‘Moneyball’ Film is Back On!

aaron cohen — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:10:30 +0000

The on again, off again movie version of Michael Lewis' book, Moneyball, is back on. Bennett Miller, director of Capote, has been brought in to steer this ship home. He will, apparently, be taking the movie in a direction different, and more mainstream, than original director Steven Soderbergh.

Here's a video of Michael Lewis explaining the origin of The Blind Side. There's about 15 people in the theater when he does.

If it's pettiness you crave, here's a bazillion word, 2 part series on The Forgotten Man Of Moneyball, Eric Walker. In an interesting move assuring a constant bias, the author of the piece is that forgotten man, Eric Walker.

Lastly, I'd like to again ask why Liar's Poker has not yet been made into a movie.

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The Don Draper of Baseball

aaron cohen — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:36:49 +0000

The Tampa Bay Rays Executive VP Andrew Friedman doesn't have a contract for some reason. Thanks, Dave!

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The Griffey Card Part 2

aaron cohen — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:17:44 +0000

Sports Illustrated took a look back at Upper Deck and isn't too optimistic about the future of card collecting. Tucked into this ____ (what's the word for when a newspaper prints an obituary before someone is dead?) are a few interesting facts about Upper Deck like:

The image of Griffey that became part of collecting lore, with his blue turtleneck and 'fro-mullet tucked beneath his cap, was doctored. In his home office in Corona, Calif., 75 miles north of Upper Deck's headquarters, Tom Geideman hands me a Polaroid that had been sitting atop a binder of Griffey cards and says, "This—it's cut off a little bit—but this is the original photo." Griffey's wearing the navy-blue hat of Seattle's Class A affiliate, the San Bernardino Spirit, whose logo is a silver S over a red star. The picture was taken by the late V.J. Lovero, an Angels team photographer who shot Griffey and his father for a Sports Illustrated feature in 1988. Lovero sold one of his extras to Upper Deck, which airbrushed the hat royal blue, erased the star, made the S yellow and—ta-da!—completed the makeover.

And then there's this 'doth protest too much' rebuttal from the Upper Deck Blog. Though it seems some of the facts in the SI article were incorrect (and not checked for some reason), calling the article a 'hatchet job' is a little much. However, if you want to read 10 reasons the author of the Upper Deck Blog knows that card collecting is not dead, or see several comments from folks operating card shops, that's the link you'd click.

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