Baseball has marked the time

Update: My top tens

In a post two weeks ago, I listed my top ten movies, books, albums, comic books, and restaurants. I ended by asking if there were any other top tens you'd like to know. Smamy asked for my favorite sports venues.

In no particular order but grouped by sport...

• Seymour High School (high school basketball)
• I spent a number of March Saturdays in the Seymour gymnasium, often watching three games in a day, something that doesn't happen in the Indiana state tournament any more, sadly. I sat courtside. I sat in the highest extremes. I saw Bobby Knight in the stands. I saw Damon Bailey break the state scoring record. I saw New Albany win, and I had my heart broken.
• Southport High School (high school basketball)
• I've only seen a game and a half there, both in the same day when New Albany was undefeated and headed to an obvious state title - only they weren't because of Brownsburg High School and Gordon Hayward.
• New Castle High School (high school basketball)
• New Castle's gymnasium is the largest high school gymnasium in the country with seating for 9,325 rabid fans. I've never seen it full, but I love going to the Hall of Fame tournament whenever I can.
• Dayton Arena (college basketball)
• Five games are played there in a day for the Ohio high school basketball tournament, and they're pretty good games since it's the round of 32 for the state. I've never managed my dream of seeing all five even once. I have seen Princeton play there a number of times in the lucky years when the team is good and the tournament draw is right. I also got to see Indiana edge Temple in the second round of the NCAA tournament last year - admittedly in slightly worse seats.
• Assembly Hall (college basketball)
• Indiana's gymnasium is the first place that I saw a college basketball game, and at this point it's the last one I've seen one. Throughout the years I was taken there by my parents, and I've come to make a pilgrimage there once a year as an adult. I love the place.
• Cintas Center (college basketball)
• This is another place where I've seen Princeton's state title hopes end unsuccessfully and thankfully stay alive a number of times. It's often where the first few rounds are played and always where the Cincinnati area's final four representative is decided. Once since I've been at Princeton that representative was that Vikings.
• PNC Park (baseball)
• The Girl and I have made a number of rounds to various major league ballparks over the years, not having visited a new one for a long while now, though. The Pittsburgh stadium, at the confluences of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers is absolutely the perfect stadium. It's marvelously well designed and gorgeous.
• Wrigley Field (baseball)
• Without romance, without beauty, without the marvels of baseball, this is an aging, outdated, cramped stadium. With the romance, with the beauty of the ivy, with the marvelously picturesque, it's near perfection.
• Mud Hollow (soccer)
• Sure, this is because I lived in the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house and was able to watch a soccer game on our land, haranguing the visiting goalie from over his shoulder - we weren't allowed to stand right behind the goal. Once we were even told by the university that we were being too nasty and negative and had to move to the sidelines. I'm not proud of it, but those were some good times.
• Little Giant Stadium (football)
• For the homecoming games and parades and beauty pageants alone... 

I've been two NFL stadia - the Hoosier Dome and Paul Brown Stadium (only from the concession stands, never seeing an actual game).

I've been to a number of major league baseball stadia...

• Atlanta - Turner Field 
• Baltimore - Oriole Park at Camden Yards
• Chicago - Wrigley Field, US Cellular Field
• Cincinnati - Great American Ballpark, Riverfront Stadium
• Cleveland - Jacobs Field
• Detroit - Comerica Park
• Miami - Sun Life Stadium
• Milwaukee - Miller Park
• Minneapolis - Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome (now torn down)
• New York - Shea Stadium, Yankee Stadium (both now torn down)
• Philadelphia - Citizen's Bank Park
• Pittsburgh - PNC Park
• St Louis - Busch Stadium (now torn down)
• Washington, DC - Nationals Park

...and a few minor league ballparks - Durham, Indianapolis, Louisville, Dayton.

I've seen big-time tennis in two cities - Cincinnati and Indianapolis, including the Davis Cup in the latter.

I've seen one major league soccer game - the Columbus Crew when they were playing at The Horseshoe on Ohio State's campus.

I've seen high school basketball in dozens and dozens of other gymnasiums - mostly in Indiana and some in Ohio.

I've seen a couple of minor league hockey games - in Cincinnati and Indianapolis.

The Hall of Fame...the only one that matters

I don't know why I care so dang much about baseball.

I don't really like watching the games. Yeah, I go to a couple a year, but I'm there as much for the social aspect as I am for the beauty of the game.

I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the day-to-day standings during the season. Yeah, I follow the Reds a bit, but I'm not checking every day until the last couple of weeks of the season, and then only if the Reds are in contention.

I certainly never played the game more than my very infrequent visits to the batting cages, a couple of homerun derby games, and some Wiffle ball games.

For some reason, though, I care far more about Baseball than I do about baseball. See, there's a distinction there for me. I love Baseball, the capital B kind, the Game, the history, the legends and stories, the records...all of it. Just because that doesn't translate to a total love of baseball doesn't mean I love Baseball any less.



I blame James Earl Jones and W. P. Kinsella and Annie Savoy and Crash Davis and Bill James and Rob Neyer.

Because of all this, though, I care about the baseball Hall of Fame far more than I should. In reality, the Hall of Fame is a dumb, arbitrary, collection of some of the best (and some of the not-quite-so-best) players in major league baseball history. Today's voting announcement won't really matter in the scope of the world. Some players who I think should get in will probably get in. Some players I think should get in probably won't. Some players who I think shouldn't get in just might get in anyway.

But still I care, and I'll be following today's 2pm announcements like nobody's business because I care.

That also means I'm paying a lot of attention to the announced ballots, ballot analyses, and predictions in advance of the announcement.

I particularly enjoy Chris Jaffe's predictions article on The Hardball Times. He sees Greg Maddux, Frank Thomas, Tom Glavine, and Craig Biggio going in. I'd be fine with those choices.

The IBWAA sees the same four going in, though with Glavine ahead of Thomas.

Honestly, Joe Posanski's thoughts are pretty close to mirroring mine. There are more deserving candidates this year than there are spots on any ballot. And there are players who deserve to get in and won't because of PED issues and rumors. I don't know that I agree with his #13, but I do think there are fourteen Hall-worthy players on this year's ballot.

The Baseball Hall of Fame continues to matter, and I'm thrilled to have read Bill James's The Politics of Glory (now published as Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?) for my understanding of the history of the Hall. Give it a read if you have any interest in the Hall's past, present, or future.

Quick links...

Bit busy today, so I merely offer up two blogs that I've skimmed and want to spend more time reading soon... They're of a kind in that they both take a subject and treat it with semi-obsessive levels of scholarly consideration.

First, Law and the Multiverse in which real world lawyers address the legal issues if superheroes were operating under real world, American laws. For example, how would the law handle Johnny Storm's marriage to a Skrull posing as Alicia Masters? Is the Rocketeer guilty of murder? Could the Scarlet Witch use the insanity defense against House of M-related charges? It's fascinating stuff, but I do warn you that these are serious legal guys, and they go through the legal issues in pretty serious depth.

Secondly, there's the Physics of Baseball which takes some of the new technological marvels - super slo-mo,  long-term pitch data, play-by-play recounting - and uses it to analyze what's going on with the motion and forces in a baseball game. Check out, for example, the exploration of Hunter Pence's double where his bat made contact with the ball three separate times in one swing. He also offers up a HUGE selection of knuckleball articles, a particularly curiosity of mine.

Back next week with something a little more substantive.

It's God Given!

Calen sent me the link to this first video, suggesting that her boy might be hiring Domingo Ayala of Domingo Beisbol Academy as a hitting coach for their kid.

Today's sports bits

Indiana 73-72 over the #1 ranked Kentucky Wildcats! Much happiness...

Kansas 78-67 over the #2 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes! Not much either way...

Wyoming 3 22-11 over the Sharonville Eagles! Minor sadness but lots of room for improvement, at least. We've clearly only got up to go from here.

The Bearcats and Muskies did what they could to get just about their whole teams suspended.

Mt Union 28-21 over Wesley, UW Whitewater 20-0 over St Thomas to get the same two teams to the Stagg Bowl (DIII championship game) for the seventh straight year. Three wins each so far.

Ryan Bruan, current National League MVP tests positive for performance enhancing drugs.

And Robert Griffin III rightfully wins the Heisman tonight.

Solid outing, guys...solid

Oh-for-twenty-seven...thanks guys...

As redemption, Ty Wiggington did actually hit a home run. With Wiggington's game tied at 2-2 in the 9th, the team is now 1-for-29

See the ballists ginger up

Come out and join me this Saturday at the Queen City Festival showcasing some of the best vintage base ball (spacing intentional there) at Heritage Village in Sharon Woods. The games will get underway at 10am, and play will continue until around 3pm.

Check out some of the details over at the Cincinnati Buckeye's website.

It's kinda like this...(which you can see more of here)...

Fantasy team...in case you wanted to know

I'm not going to take any time to tell you about my fantasy baseball team this year. Talking about fantasy teams is like talking about your dog.

Yes, you care.

Yes, I'm sure it's interesting/cute/fascinating to you.

Nobody else cares.

That being said, in case you wanted to know...

I'm in first place after three weeks, and here's my team.

That is all.

Rob Neyer's new home

I'd mentioned before that Rob Neyer had found a new home at SBNation.com. He's apparently their National Baseball Editor, whatever that title means.

What we can see him doing is writing a column or so a day and posting a number of quick comments about baseball articles around the web.

Here are some of the more interesting that I've noticed him post of late...

• Greatest Living Player for Each Franchise - Neyer gets this one wrong, though, as Bench was greater than Rose
• MLB's Hat Rankings - one man's opinion
• Spring Training Question about the Reds - It's a series with one for each fanbase.
• Amazing Mariano Rivera facts - #3 + #4 = #1?...wow, that's dominance...

I don't know that Neyer is doing anything with nearly the level of analysis that his Sweet Spot columns had, but it's a start to have him still writing.

ESPN will miss Rob Neyer

Rob Neyer has apparently written more words for the ESPN website than anyone else ever has.  He's been on the site writing quasi-daily columns for fifteen years now, but it looks like he'll be sailing into the ether of the interwebs as today he announced that he'll be departing ESPN - or at least his Sweet Spot Network.

He said goodbye in his usual, casual form...

A Quick Programming Note ...

Fifteen years ago, I moved to Seattle to work for a company called Starwave. The company did a lot of things, but I was hired -- and this might surprise you -- mostly to edit fantasy-related content for a website called ESPNet.SportsZone.com; a few years later, we became the ESPN.com that everyone knows and loves so well.

Frankly, it's a minor miracle that I've been here ever since. I was the new guy, didn't know how I was supposed to behave, and somewhat routinely ran afoul of my bosses and their bosses. I owe a great deal to their good graces, and I'm sorry I can't thank everyone who's allowed me to do what I love for so long. I will toss extra hosannas to Geoff Reiss, David Schoenfield, and David Kull, for reasons they know only too well. Collectively, they're No. 2 on the all-time list.

You're No. 1.

Whether you've been reading my ramblings since 1996 or just since last week, you have my profound, impossible-to-express-in-words gratitude. There is not a working writer on Earth who's more grateful than I for his readers. Without you, I would have nothing.

Today, I hand off this space to whoever's next. I don't know yet who is next, but I'm highly confident that this blog and the SweetSpot Network will soon be in excellent hands.

Meanwhile, I'll be around. The kids tell me it's all about search these days. You won't have to search real hard to find me, if you want.

Happy trails, until we meet again.

I'm looking forward to finding out what that next thing is 'cause Rob's been a fun presence on ESPN.com for a long while now. (Current web rumors suggest tomorrow we'll find out where Rob will pop up next.  Assumedly, there will be a mention of that new home over on his website.)

How baseball's dropping the ball

This past week's Bill Simmons NFL preview column had the following sidebar about baseball's possible expanded playoff plans:

Dear Bud Selig,
I love your proposal for two more playoff teams, and not just because it guarantees that the Red Sox will make the playoffs every year for the rest of my life. It's a shrewd idea, I have to say. With your playoff ratings steadily dropping and the 162-game regular season already feeling like a waste of time because anyone can catch fire for four weeks and win a World Series now (see: Giants, San Francisco), it's crucial that we stretch the postseason into mid-November and make the playoffs even more random and haphazard. Some believe the only way an extra round makes sense is if we also returned the regular season to 154 games, but that would be dumb -- we wouldn't be able to risk the health of starters who already throw 220-240 innings and now have to potentially pitch in four playoff rounds.

And look, I know your critics believe an extended playoffs dilutes the impact and importance of every postseason game, but in my opinion, casual fans will totally want to watch a steady deluge of four-hour marathon games for six solid weeks. We have nothing better to do, and it's not like you're going head-to-head against the NFL, NBA, NHL and college football or anything. You have your finger on the pulse of American attention spans in 2010, Bud Selig, I can tell you that much. And if anyone disagrees with your brilliant plan? Just tell them to man up.

I'm going to have to agree with Simmons here.

I love baseball.  Love it.

Baseball is America's sport.  I've said it before.

But baseball isn't on the rise in America.  It's on the decline.

The sidebar up there made me think back to a column that Simmons wrote this past July about his thinking for the reasons behind the decline of his interest in this past season's Red Sox team.

He breaks things down this way...

• 10% injuries
• 5% front office
• 15% hangover 
• 5% bandwagon fans
• 5% steroid era hangover
• 5% decline in baseball in general
• 55% length of games

Here are some excerpts from that column...

We're feeling the effects of two solid decades of World Series games ending well after the bedtime of any prospective young fan.

Shouldn't baseball worry that the onslaught of new ballparks (20 since the Skydome in 1989) caused an ongoing attendance bump that's soon coming to an end?

...attendance will hinge on the same thing it always did: winning. Especially in the 65-Inch HD Plasma/DirecTV Package/"Screw It, I'd Rather Just Stay Home and Flick Channels" Era 

Nobody wants to spend 3½ hours watching anything on television. Not even porn.


[H]ave you ever looked around during a baseball game these days? It's 35,000 people texting or writing/reading e-mails while they wait for something to happen. BlackBerrys and cell phones were either the best or the worst thing that ever happened to baseball. I can't decide.

1975 Red Sox
2 hours or less -- 12 games
2:01-2:30 -- 62
2:31-3:00 -- 63
3:01-4:00 -- 18 (4 extra innings)
More than 4 -- 2 (both extras)


1978 Red Sox
2 or less -- 1
2:01-2:30 -- 57
2:31-3:00 -- 72
3:01-4:00 -- 27 (11 extras)
More than 4 -- 5 (all extras)

1986 Red Sox
2 or less -- 1 (6 IP)
2:01-2:30 -- 30
2:31-3:00 -- 71
3:01-4:00 -- 58 (9 extra innings)
More than 4 -- 2 (2 extras)


1999 Red Sox
2 or less -- 1
2:01-2:30 -- 18
2:31-3:00 -- 92
3:01-4:00 -- 49 (6 extra)
More than 4 -- 2 (both extra)

2002 Red Sox
2 or less -- 1
2:01-2:30 -- 29
2:31-3:00 -- 82
3:01-4:00 -- 45 (6 extra)
More than 4 -- 5 (5 extra)


2007 Red Sox
2 or less -- 0
2:01-2:30 -- 11
2:31-3:00 -- 48
3:01-4:00 -- 97 (5 extra)
More than 4 -- 6 (2 extra)

2010 Red Sox (101 games)
2 or less -- 0
2:01-2:30 -- 1
2:31-3:00 -- 41
3:01-4:00 -- 53 (7 extra)
More than 4 -- 6 (4 extra)


I'm the same guy who once created the 150-Minute Rule for all movies, sporting events, concerts, even sex -- if you edge past 150 minutes for anything, you better have a really good reason. 

I'll readily admit it: I love baseball much more than I actually love baseball games.

I love the stats and the look and the idea of baseball much more than I like watching a game, more than I like following a 162-game full season slog.

I love going to baseball games but not necessarily watching that games themselves.

And I would consider myself a decent baseball fan.

Football is the most popular of the professional sports in America right now.

Maybe baseball is second, but I'd guess that a number of measures would put basketball in second and baseball a fading third.

I would think that the first step in righting that ship would be for baseball to get the length of games shortened.

If they don't take care of that, I'm thinking they might be slipping from third soon.

Three things...quick things...

First, Rob Neyer has a post up today in which he chooses the greatest living player at each of the baseball positions.  First base shocks me but is interesting.

Second, Kanye's new album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is apparently perfect - or not.  (Either way, I already have it on hold at the library.)

Third, I apparently have a new list to listen my way through.

That is all for now.

Rob Neyer earns his paycheck

In "Letter to a 43rd round draft pick", Rob Neyer has penned some of his best prose yet.

Take a read and figure out why this jersey is important.

Baseball bits...

I love basketball - high school basketball especially.  I've only ever shown even a lick of talent in playing tennis.  But baseball is America's sport.  Its draw to me is spectacular.  I don't find myself reading about the stats and history of basketball like I do for baseball throughout the long, hot summer months.

• Re-examining 300 - back in 2004, on the eve of Greg Maddux's 299th win, Hardball Times looked at what it takes for a pitcher to get to 300 wins.  At the time, Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemons were the only new 300 game winners since 1990 with Maddux about to join them.  Randy Johnson and Tom Glavine have since joined the club in spite of the article's doubts about their chances.  The article's conclusion is that pitchers need to be at 75 wins by age 25 and 150 wins by age 29.  At the time, the only pitcher who looked to be on pace was CC Sabathia (54 wins at age 23).  Looking at the current active leaders, the only pitchers who look to have any chance are still CC Sabathia (150 wins and counting at age 29 and maybe Felix Hernandez at 65 wins and counting at age 24).   Looks like it could be a long, long while until we get another 300-game winner.  That generation of Maddux, Glavine, Randy Johnson, Clemons, and Smoltz was pretty phenomenal.
• Rob Neyer's SweetSpot Blog - On Tuesday night, three straight entries from Rob Neyer dealt very directly with the Reds - Is Prince Albert still king of first basemen?...Reds' Brandon Phillips calls out Cardinals...Mike Leake's roller-coaster ERA...All three are moderately interesting reads (I particularly enjoy Brandon Phillips's...um...enthusiasm, I guess, which seems to have lead to a bit of a donneybrook in Tuesday's game) but the story to me is that the Reds are worthy of stealing three straight posts there.  The last time the Reds bounced up like this from one season to the next was - as Rob Neyer points out in another post - pretty amazing.
  
  
  
  

  I just got this great new book about the 1990 Reds, and was reading the story about shifting Norm Charlton from the bullpen to the rotation in the middle of the season. Charlton had been a starter as a rookie in 1988, pitched OK but nothing special. Moving into a relief role in '89, Charlton went 8-3 with a 2.93 and became one of the Nasty Boys. He got off to a fine start in 1990, and when the Reds needed a starter in the second half, Charlton got the nod, and went 6-5 with a 2.60 ERA in 16 starts.
  
  Did it have to work? Hardly. But as the authors write, "The move was just another in a year when everything seemed to work."
  
  We know it didn't have to work because the Reds were not, in that period, an outstanding franchise. The year before they won the World Series, they went 75-87. The year after they won the World Series, they went 74-88. Same manager in 1991 as 1990. Same general manager. Many of the same players. It was just one of those years.

• Will A-Rod Make Hall of Fame? - That's a stupid, stupid question.  I've written my opinions on steroids before, but to put a quick summary on that post: "I don't care."  There was (I hope not still is) an era of major league baseball - from the early 1990s through the mid 2000s when a large percentage (we have absolutely no clue what that percentage is as estimates place it anywhere between 10% and 100%) of major leaguers were taking performance enhancers - steroids, HGH, something.  The offensive numbers during those years are comical.  (For example, of the 41 times that a player has hit 50 or more home runs in a season, 17 of those came between 1995 and 2007.  The six highest single-season totals all came in 1998-2001.)  All of the numbers from that era - from every batter and pitcher - are equally suspect and at the same time equally valid.  They were earned in the conditions of that era.  Major league baseball was tacitly - if not actively - permissive of the conditions and culpable in creating them.  Chicks dig the long ball.  We all dig the long ball.  The best players during that era - Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, Tom Glavine, Roger Clemons - deserve to be in the baseball Hall of Fame because they were the best of that era.  Babe Ruth doesn't deserve to be taken down a notch because he didn't play against black players.  Hank Aaron isn't a lesser player because he didn't play against Asian players.  Pete Rose isn't a lesser player because he gambled.  Alex Rodriguez shouldn't be denied the Hall of Fame because he came up in a permissive era.  Deny him being a first ballot Hall of Famer on some weirdo protest vote?  Fine, whatever. They've denied Mark McGwire so far, and they'll probably deny Barry Bonds the same way.  But they're both among the greatest of this era - as is Alex Rodriguez, and they deserve their plaques.

Congrats to the West Siders

Looks like the Hamilton West Side American Little League (a mouthful of a name) team will be heading back to the Little League World Series.

Their pitcher on Saturday threw a complete game, one hit shutout and went 3 for 3 with a 1st inning home run.  Don't know if he's that good or just had that good of a night.  Either way, good luck to the Blue.

Browsing the references

I've sung the praises of Baseball-Reference before, but I just want to take a few moments to remind everybody out there about just how cool the best baseball reference site on the net is.  I tend to use it two or three times a week throughout the baseball season, and I continue to realize that there are hundreds of aspects of this treasure trove of a website that I haven't even explored.

• Andy Pettite's most similar pitcher at age 37 is Mike Mussina.  Both are pitchers who belong solidly in the Hall of Very Good.  Both pitchers have spent their careers on excellent teams pitching very well.  Both have a single second-place finish in the Cy Young voting but have never finished about fourth otherwise, having earned about .9 of an award for their career.  Both are well below Hall of Fame quality if measured by black ink (times leading the league in anything), but both measure well in Hall of Fame Monitor - a measure of overall career length/strength.
• If you combine the top five players (ARod, Jeter, Manny Ramirez, Barry Bonds, and Randy Johnson) in terms of all-time career money earned playing baseball, they've earned over a billion dollars.
• The three highest OPS+ seasons of all time belong to Barry Bonds - 2001, 2002, 2004 - with 2002 being the highest.  He had a .609 on-base percentage as a 39-year old man.  'Roids or no 'roids, his performances during the first half of this decade are just cartoonish.
• Carlos Delgado is the best player to have been born on June 25; Tommy Corcoran the best player to die on this date.
• Four players have played more than 2000 games playing only for the Reds in their career (Bench, Larkin, Concepcion, and Bid McPhee).  Mario Soto is the only pitcher to throw more than 160 (he pitched 297) games and only pitch for the Reds.  Nineteen players played one game for the Reds - their only MLB game in their career - and never got to bat.
• Billy Herman - a Hall of Famer - is easily the best player to have been born in The Hometown.
• Pete Rose is the most unique player in baseball history based on similarity scores.  Ricky Henderson, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Barry Bonds are rest of the top five.  Typically, I would say that the more unique a player is, the greater a player is, but Pete Rose is the outlier here.  He is nowhere near the same quality as the other four on that list.  He's the 13th highest on Hall of Fame Monitor, #59 on Hall of Fame Stanadards,  15th on black ink list, and 24th on gray ink.  Rose was a statistical freak, but he's not an inner-circle Hall of Famer by any means.
• The most-searched for player on Tuesday (the day before I was writing this) was Jamie Moyer who tied the record for most HR allowed in a pitcher's career.  I was one of those searches.
• Rafael Palmeiro played 2831 games - more than anyone else - without reaching the World Series.  Ken Griffey, Jr was second with 2671 when her retired last week.  Ernie Banks played 2528 without ever making the playoffs.  Go Cubbies!
• Nolan Ryan and Cap Anson played 27 years - the most ever.  Jamie Moyer is tied for 10th place with 24 seasons and isn't showing much sign of slowing.
• I hope that Matt Stairs plays for a new team next year so he can break the record for most teams played for in a career.  He's currently at 12, tied with Ron Villone and Mike Morgan.
• Julio Franco holds the records for most games, HR, doubles, total bases, at-bats, plate appearances, extra base hits, sac flies, intentional walks, caught stealings, double plays grounded into, and outs made at or after the age of 43.
• Hank Aaron never won the Hank Aaron award.
• The Reds have had the third most players hit HR (706 players) for their franchise - behind the Cubs and the Braves.
• The baseball-reference blog is kind of geekily awesome.
• We're close to the highest ratio of strikeouts to walks in the history of the game.

I'm thinking that we're at - or near - the death of the print sports encyclopedia.  There's just no way that a print encyclopedia can keep up with this kind a website.

Mackey Sasser returns

Jarrod Saltalamacchia is a record holder.  The man is legend for what's on the back of his jersey.

At the moment, however, he's a liability because of what's above the jersey, between his ears.

Something went wrong last year with Saltalamacchia.  There was a collision and a shoulder injury followed by a couple of surgeries.  Once Saltalamacchia returned from the injuries, however, something else had mysteriously gone wrong.

He'd become unable to make the simplest of plays for a catcher, the throw back to the mound.  After three years in the bigs and hundreds of games at all levels, after making that most routine of throws thousands of times in his life, Saltalamacchia suddenly started missing. 

He would throw the ball into center field over the head of the pitcher.  So the next time he would over compensate and throw it into the grass well short of the mound.  He shifted his release point, started throwing side arm, over the top, around the world, whatever, anything just to get back to routine.

At this point - a year after the problem first appeared - Saltalamacchia is down in AAA Oklahoma City mashing the ball and missing the mound.  In Friday's game, Saltalamacchia missed five throws in the first inning and twelve throws over all.  Apparently his throws to first or second are all just fine, but his throws to the pitcher - the ones where he has time to think about his motion - are adventures.

It's amazing just how much professional athletes run on muscle memory, on not thinking about what they're doing but rather simply clearing their minds and relying on instinct and repeating motions that they've made millions of times before.  Once they start thinking about that motion, however, instead of just making it, something goes wrong.  They become Steve Blass, Mackey Sasser, Steve Sax, Chuck Knoblauch, and now Jarrod Saltalamacchia.  They consult doctors, hypnotists, voodoo priests, anyone who might be able to help them.

I wish Saltalamacchia luck in coming back to the majors.

Elegance in presentation

There are few things that delight me more than does the elegant visual presentation of numerical information, so today I present to you the Score Tracker.

I don't know that it'll ever catch on - or whether it should or not - but it's so pretty and well presented.

Check out the other examples over on the Hardball Times page.

The non-inevitability of immortality...from Rob Neyer

The man in flannel has an outstanding piece up on his blog today about Nomah Gahciaparra's retirement today, and there might not be a better bit of writing out there to remind us that there's reason to take all the spring training news with a major grain of salt.