SABR: Daly: The Baseball Biography Project: Evar Swanson

The Archdeacon of Doom is back! As Jon Daly does a bang-up job on speedster Evar Swanson.

On Sunday, September 15, 1929, there was a field day held at Crosley Field between games of a Reds-Braves doubleheader. The club offered $100 if anyone could circle the bases from a standing start in less than 13.8 seconds and beat Hans Lobert’s 19-year-old major league record. Among the participants were Swanson and outfield mate Ethan Allen. Like his teammate, Allen was a sprinter in college. Swanson was able to circumnavigate the bases in full uniform in 13.4 seconds. This tied a record that Maurice Archdeacon set eight years earlier at Rochester in the International League. (Marty Hogan of Indianapolis in the Western League was credited by some sources for circling the bases in 13.2 seconds in 1898. Ben Morgan of the National Association may have disputed that claim when doing a study of field day records.)

A sore shoulder shortened Swanson’s 1930 season. He missed much of spring training and part of the season and only appeared in 95 games. But he was picked up in November by Columbus of the American Association to be their center fielder in 1931. While in Columbus he was involved in another field day on September 21st at Neil Park in the Ohio capital. This time he circled the bases in 13.2 seconds. To this day that record stands, although there is an unverified claim that Cool Papa Bell broke the 13-second barrier during his career. Over the years some players have come close. Maury Wills circled the bases in 13.4 seconds in 1953. George Case and Cliff McClain did it in 13.5. But no one has bested Swanson’s record.

MLBlog: Torre’s Stories: A first time for everything

Uhh...like picking up an old James’ Abstract? Whatever. Joe Torre is now blogging (can Hugo Bezdek be far behind?). 

Well, here’s my first blog entry. I was a little nervous at first, but the guys who blog on MLBlogs said it was sort of like keeping an online diary, so I figured how hard could it be? Aside from the fact that men don’t usually have diaries; even the word “diary” brings to mind a little pink book with a heart-shaped lock and a label that reads “My Secrets” in lavender bubble letters. But that’s not really me, so I think a blog is a more acceptable “dude-like” version.

Some of the guys talk about their team or their swing, their away game trips, some even write restaurant reviews (thanks for the reco, Ethier). Me? I’m just a coach with a new team, a new city, a new life as a West-Coaster, and above all a new outlook on life.

First up, though, I’ll be figuring out this blogging thing since I’m a little behind the times. For example, I saw one of those little candy Valentine’s hearts printed with “LOL” and thought it was a typo right up until I started reading about blogs and Web acronyms. I mean, WTF(udge), right? Then there are “web smileys” like ;-) and :-( which frankly make me a bit >:-P (I just made that one up). But live and learn.

The Book Blog: Tango: Fixing VORP

Speaking of The Book Blog...(thanks to Barnald).

Then what exactly is stopping BP from making the necessary changes here and advancing its metric from the 1970s version that it’s using at its core?

Retorting for Murray Chass, here is an Open Letter to Baseball Prospectus:

Hi BP,

I write to you as one analyst to another.  Fix VORP.

Sincerely,
Tom
Baseball Schlub

That Guy who gave up number 756 fine with role in history

If you don’t know the name of the person who I am talking about, hand in your Baseball geek-card now.

Capital Times: Former Diff’rent Strokes star Gary Coleman to bat leadoff for Mallards

The Mallards hope to move on the bat of one leadoff man.

It’s official: Former child acting star Gary Coleman will bat Friday night for the Madison Mallards.

Vern Stenman, the general manager of the summer college baseball team, persuaded Coleman to take a turn in the batter’s box for a 7:05 p.m. Northwoods League game against Eau Claire at Warner Park.

Coleman, 40, who starred as Arnold Jackson in the 1980s sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes,” is expected to sign a contract at 6:50 p.m. and throw out the first pitch. He will then bat in the bottom of the first inning as a pinch hitter.

The Mallards are well-known throughout the baseball world for their wacky promotions and their public pursuit of Coleman, who initially intended only to sign autographs as part of the team’s season-long series of celebrity promotional appearances.

Their quest for Coleman has been tracked by ESPN News, reportedly due to heavy interest from eccentric anchor Kenny Mayne.

Nick Piecoro: D-Backs exec Dipoto a GM in the making

As the Diamondbacks’ director of player personnel, Jerry Dipoto deals in information and evaluation, and as such his conversations with the pro scouts he oversees tend to range more in hours than minutes.

“I call it being Dipoto’d,” Diamondbacks scout Tim Schmidt said.

The long conversations show that Dipoto can really talk - “No one’s ever left wondering what I was thinking,” he jokes - and illustrate the passion with which the 40-year-old executive goes about his job…

And as GM jobs pop up throughout the game, Dipoto’s name keeps surfacing in baseball’s rumor mill as a GM-in-waiting. Recently, industry speculation has connected Dipoto to the Seattle Mariners’ GM vacancy.

Baseball America: Hayhurst: Non-Prospect Diary: Gas Attack

You get the feeling Dirk Hayhurst could have pitched for Hunter Thompson’s “Down Valley Doughboys” softball team?

The bus rolled into the parking lot at 5 a.m. We left after our last game, traveling all night, riding in our minor league limo for eight hours. The sun was trying to break through the sky but I wasn’t in the mood for my day to start yet so I put my sun glasses on. Eyes hurting, head disconnected, I stepped off the bus with the complete confidence I looked as bad as I felt. My hair was reminiscent of Doc Brown and my collared shirt, the one team policy requires I wear to appear professional, looked like I just took it out of my wallet. 

As tired as I was, the worst part was the terrible taste in my mouth. 

One of the guys on board, a gentlemen forbidden by team rule to eat beans, ate beans. I can’t say it was his fault. The meal we had before leaving the last town was Chipotle burritos, and in the excitement of getting the trendy Mexican meal, we lost track of our bus trip diet laws. We filled our tummies, he downed his beans, and onto the bus we went oblivious to the storm that was brewing. 

Now, he-who-shall-not-eat-beans is no ordinary gas passer. Other guys on the team pass gas, but this young man, well, lets just say his toots are on par with the stuff Godzilla uses to blast Japan. And he sits right behind me. 

Det News: Green: Trade deadline gossip too often is sloppy, irresponsible

Jerry Green is a retired Detroit News sportswriter. Please read his Web-exclusive column ever Sunday at detnews.com....because nobody else will.

My aversion to trade rumors has resulted in an annual screed. I am offended by the trade-rumor quacks who disseminate this misinformation. They are let’s-pretend journalists. They possess no more credibility that the nonsensical Internet bloggers who toss out smidgens of guesswork (read B.S.) while hiding in their anonymity.

The quackery started with ESPN, that self-important worldwide leader in sports with its growing reputation for firing out false rumors.

...The worst offender is FOX, the wannabe rival to ESPN. FOX runs an Internet site entitled “MLB Rumors.” It has some journalism imposter named Ben Maller, who pirates the items rumored daily in newspaper sports sections.

...No rumors for me. Only the facts, the interviews, the analysis. Check out the rumors. If unproven, forget them. The old-fashioned way, the way I learned about proper journalism more than 50 years ago.

And to the faceless 21st-century bloggers who have criticized more for being too aged, this is not a rumor: I have not yet reached the ripe age of 130 years, but I’m well on my way.

PB Post: Fan has visited graves of 205 Baseball Hall of Famers

More fun than a staredown with Zandor Vorkov...it’s a neat look at SABR dude, Stew Thornley.

Thornley used to collect autographs, but that hobby took a turn for the worse when he was a sophomore at the University of Minnesota in 1978. He approached New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson after a game and asked him to sign a paddle from Delta Upsilon, a fraternity to which Munson belonged while a student at Kent State.

Munson apparently wasn’t in the mood to sign, the two exchanged words and, Thornley said, “He had me by the neck in a chokehold. (Yankees teammate) Fran Healy had to break it up.’’

“Neither one of us was on our best behavior,” Thornley said. “Something I’d rather forget.”

Thornley doesn’t hold a grudge. Munson, who isn’t in the Hall of Fame, died in a plane crash in 1979.

“I’ve been to his grave several times,” he said. “It’s very nice.”

USSM: Cameron: Trades I’m Rooting For

Mets fans will surely be disgusted with the Ibanez proposal, but this one is the kicker…

Yuniesky Betancourt to the Dodgers for Andre Ethier and Chin-Lung Hu

Myself, I’m rooting for the A’s to send Ryan Sweeney to Minnesota for Delmon Young and Alexi Casilla.

Morrissey: Guillen really does answer his e-mail (RR)

Ohhh, Ricky...you’re so funny. Jajajajaja!

I’ll admit it. I was feeling a bit sheepish about e-mailing him semi-anonymously. Each time he e-mailed me, I felt as if I were doing something illegal. On the other hand, what the hell.

I responded.

I’m going to raise one of them to be a baseball manager. It looks like easy money. What’s Kenny Williams’ e-mail address?

At 4:30 p.m., about 90 minutes before Saturday’s Sox-A’s game, Guillen replied.

Good, and he’ll have to deal with stupid people like you. Jajajajaja.

If he thought I was going to stand for Jajajajaja, whatever that meant, he was wrong.

N.Y. Times: Glanville: Doubleday and Darwin (RR)

Inherit the Windup...the latest dandy from Doug Glanville.

There are quantifiable skills that can make someone naturally compatible with the rules of the game, but it’s almost more important to be adaptable. Baseball can update pretty dramatically for a National Pastime. It has the ability to stay both classic and current, without contradiction. On the table of baseball rule changes for late this season is the instant replay, intended to help umpires on difficult home run calls. In the end, if it’s added to the rule book, the game will go on; players — and umpires — who don’t adapt won’t.

As the game changes, what is deemed “talent” changes right along with it. A player is discovered only in the shadow of these rules — rules that were invented and that have matured over time.

If I were to make my baseball experience the basis of answering the question about discovery vs. invention posed by my high school math teacher, I’d say that math was discovered . . . through the lens of our invention.

Neville Hobson: Baseball for dummies (Video)

Meet the next Commissioner of Baseball...Wolfgang Luenenbuerger!

As you may imagine, an Englishman watching a baseball game in America without understanding it much - and which, to underscore my ignorance, I referred to as a ‘match’ - is a potential setup for some amusement, perhaps akin to the stuff we tend to dish out to visiting Americans about cricket.

Add a German to the mix and the potential for amusement gets quite large.

Luckily, my fellow European Wolfgang Luenenbuerger and I had the benefit of the wisdom of our host, Marshall Manson, who ably explained how the game works.

And I captured it all on video.

Along with Wolfgang’s and Marshall’s fellow Edelman colleagues Rick Murray, Monty Lutz and Erin Caldwell - also stars of the video - I was in Chicago to participate in Edelman’s New Media Academic Summit 2008.

Deep Left Field: Hutcheson: La vida SABR

Sam Hutcheson with the gris-gris on Chris-Chris, Rey-Rey and SABR.

Enter Chris Dial.

Dial loved him some Rey Ordonez. Don’t let that faux-shocked “Who, me?!” fool you. Rey Ordonez was the dreamiest player that Busey ever dreamed to dream. Well. Kind of. See, back then, no one really believed defense was important. I mean, no one important. Just, like, scouts and general managers and ####. No one on Usenet. Except Dial. Chris believed. Oh, how Chris believed. He held his hands wide and clapped and clapped and clapped. Certainly it was true. Defense was important damnit, and Rey Ordonez was a defensive god damnit, so therefore everyone was wrong and Chris was right and SHUTUPSHUTPSHUTUPSHUTUP! It was like that in the land, sometimes. But no one would listen Chris, how ever loudly he clapped. It was like that in the land sometimes, too.

So here’s what Dial did. Short version. Dial grabbed everything he could find about defense in major league baseball and he shoved it through about twenty-three different spreadsheets. He rangled. He finagled. He conjoled. He did math. Complicated math. And in the end, he came up with a protean sludge that would eventually evolve into his vaunted defensive methodology.

Turns out Rey Ordonez actually didn’t have much value. Turns out even after accounting for his defense he was basically worthless, a flashy showboat with a knack for highlight reel plays but otherwise unspectactular in any aspect of the game. The fact that he couldn’t so much as lay down a sac bunt in the most important at bat of his career, effectively eliminating his team from the playoffs singlehandedly? Cake. Turns out Rey Ordonez really did suck.

The Joe Sox Conspiracy (Are Joe Morgan’s Chats Rigged?)

We know the following:

1. ESPN does, in fact, employ young people, some of whom probably read sites like FJM and Deadspin and the like.

2. Joe Morgan probably does not do his own online chats.

3. JoeChats are only fun when Joe is stupid.

4. Joe, or Fremp, momentarily got smarter.

5. Ken Tremendous basically threatened to quit doing JoeChats.

6.Immediately after this threat, Joe became extremely stupid and completely insane.

7. JoeBaiting is so obvious at this point that only the worlds dumbest person would not notice it.

Conclusion: There is only one obvious conclusion. Bill Fremp, the ESPN employee charged with writing JoeChats, ostensibly representing what Joe Morgan would think and say, is actually a reader of FireJoeMorgan, and is writing the JoeChat specifically for comment by Ken Tremendous. I think Fremp was so horrified at the Prospect of FJM ceasing to comment on JoeChats that he decided to go all out with his Joe Morgan-inspired craziness. After all, if you were charged with writing JoeChats, which contain no insight and are largely pointless on their own, and you learned of the existence of FJM, which suddenly brings meaning to your work, and turns it into a sort of postmodern work of art, you would also probably fight to keep FJM interested in what is an otherwise dull activity.

SABR convention welcomes congregation of baseball’s most devoted - Cleveland Sports News

Here’s an account of the SABR convention without cracks about attendees living with their mothers.

The Columbus Dispatch : Rob Oller commentary: Baseball geeks revel in trivia

Bone white legs? Check. Spiral-bound notebook? Sorry the younger, hippier whack jobs in the BBTF crew carry around Blackberries and notebook computers. So, Mr. Smarty pants reporter, please get your head out of a notebook once in a while and put a little more effort to get your facts straight.

Is there some kind of law that says baseball stat geeks must have bone-white legs and carry their suitcase-sized spiral-bound notebooks the way a snooty maitre d’ carries dinner menus? Normally one to use a pint-sized notepad, I switched to a jumbo size just to fit in. When in Rome ...

It would be easy to stereotype and make fun of the SABR attendees, very easy, and to avoid doing so would be a disservice to those who appreciate the powers of (obvious) observation. But there also is something almost endearing about these people—“whack jobs” as one hotel employee whispered to me—who are so passionate about baseball that they spend up to 20 hours per week researching the history of the game.