TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Friday, September 12, 2003

Has anyone been watching the Boston Red Sox lately? While I think that there are a number of teams surprising us with success (the Cubs, Royals, and the ChiSox also get my vote), the BoSox have one of the best lineups in the league. But that's a surprise in itself: Since when did Kevin Millar, David Ortiz, and Bill Mueller decide that they could become serious run producers? I guess when the core of your lineup is Nomar and Manny, other guys have to be able to step up. But the whole lineup is dangerous, one through nine. Their least threatening player in the lineup? Todd Walker, batting .278 with 74 RBIs. Scary stuff for the playoffs...if they make them. Theo Epstein definitely deserves Executive of the Year.

But I don't think the Mariners will catch the Sox in the Wild Card race. Gil Meche has had a heckuva year, but unless Freddy Garcia and Joel Pinero can pitch the team out of their recent struggles, the aged but effective Seattle lineup won't be able to save them for October. And of course I've jumped on the Red Sox bandwagon this year (with the Mets out of it since June, I need a team to root for!) - this is their best chance with the Yanks struggling, as I wrote a month ago.

posted by Charles Curtis 12:02 PM

Thursday, September 11, 2003

I just thought I'd post a photo of my grandfather's Internment Camp baseball team. Lots of emotions get riled up on 9/11, but it is important to look at our country's history and to avoid repeating past mistakes.

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Here are some guesses for when we will roll past 1,000,000 visits:

"Next week" Matt Wall
Feb 13, 2005 David Marasco
May 18, 2007 Bob Brigham (his 80th birthday)

The actual date was August 27, 2004

posted by David 4:56 PM

Tuesday, September 09, 2003

People Who Do and People Who Describe
Right now Ralph Riley has a pretty bad article on Barry Bonds over at the ESPN website. More or less he makes the claim that there are certain kinds of players that get the support of the baseball media, and then there are outsiders. Barry Bonds is one of those outsiders. While I like his contrasting the effect Bonds has on fans' memories of baseball by hitting walk-off home runs, as compared to the writings of Rick Reilly (with truck washin' Jeff Kent as his source) and David Halberstam, the Barry vs. the media thing has been done to death. Enough already.

But tonight I logged onto the CNN website, and there were two obituaries. Both Edward Teller, father of the H-Bomb, and Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's chief film propagandist, had passed. Stepping back, it makes me realize that sometimes the people who "do the work" do not always trump the ones who simply "tell the story". Both Teller and Riefenstahl had profound effects on their times.

Perhaps I take things too far. Triumph of the Will is a film that most of my friends in the Political Science and Film departments in college were required to watch. Riefenstahl was a master filmmaker, and a propagandist, not a journalist. Perhaps in the future people aspiring to learn the craft of sports journalism will be asked to read the likes of Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu but I don't think they'll have to read any of the current work on Bonds... Barry will no doubt get a front page obituary. So will Halberstam, although his writings on Bonds will not be mentioned. As for Rick Reilly and the rest, I wouldn't count on it.

posted by David 5:04 PM

Sunday, September 07, 2003

Logic and Team Records
One last thought I had about parity, or the lack thereof. Two of the most common analyses you'll see will revolve around parity and remaining strength of schedule. With a little thought, it should become clear that the two concepts run contrary to each other. If parity truly exists, then strength of schedule will have no predictive power whatsoever, it will be purely a historical record of the way things have happened to have fallen out. On the other hand, if you really put stock in strength of schedule as a meaningful indicator of how tough a team will have it in coming days, you are really tacitly rejecting the assumption of parity, or at least the version of parity where each team in every game has a 50% chance of winning (not adjusting for which team is at home).

Part of the problem may be that it will often be the case that potential wild card teams will be relatively evenly matched with each other. Certainly the cast of thousands in the NL wild card race lends the appearance of a formless grey void. But in focusing on the wild card race, that ignores Atlanta and San Fran, teams with 90 and 86 wins, respectively, with about 20 games left. That sure isn't evidence of parity OR mediocrity.

Also, it should be noted that many of the potential playoff teams are beating teams they should beat down the stretch. The Cubs swept 3 in Milwaukee. The Dodgers swept 3 in Colorado. Houston won 2 of 3 in San Diego. St. Louis took 2 of 3 from Cincy. Philly has beaten the Mets six straight times in the past 10 days, with a chance for a seventh as I write. The Marlins just took 2 of 3 from the Expos in San Juan. The Twins swept 3 from the Rangers, and the White Sox swept 3 from the Indians. Plenty of evidence of good if flawed teams beating weaker opponents when they most need to. They may more or less be as good as each other, and if that's what is meant by parity, so be it, but these teams are in many cases taking charge of their own destinies by taking advantage of breaks in their schedules as the season winds down.

posted by Tom Renbarger 6:33 PM

Safe(way) at Home
Weird fact... Old Seals Stadium in San Francisco was located on the corner of 16th & Bryant. Currently that is the home of a Safeway. Current Giants owner Peter Magowan made his money as a high mucky-muck at Safeway.

posted by David 11:31 AM