Donnie Baseball, Dave Bancroft, and pray for rain. Today's Birthday Team:

C: Ted Easterly
1B/Manager: Don Mattingly
2B: Tony Perezchica
3B: Mike Mowrey
SS: Dave Bancroft
LF: Todd Hollandsworth
CF: Tommy Dowd
RF: Charlie Hemphill

SP: Milt Wilcox
SP: Charlie Smith
SP: Masato Yoshii
SP: Jimmy Jones
SP: Johnny Wertz
RP: Sean Green

Golden Greek: Harry Agganis
Fun names: Ham Allen, Steamer Flanagan

Also in the newspaper 100 years ago today... The Pittsburgh Gazette Times reports on the fledgling United States League deciding on its team nicknames:

At a convention of league magnates and newspaper men at the local headquarters, the following names for the teams throughout the circuit were decided upon:

Pittsburgh, the "Filipinos;" Cleveland, the "Invaders;" Richmond, the "Old Heroes;" New York, the "Broncos;" Reading, the "Survivors;" Washington, the "Capitals;" Cincinnati, the "Katzenjammers."

I'm a Cleveland guy through and through, but I think I need a Cincinnati Katzenjammers shirt.

I also stumbled upon this while looking for an article about Fenway opening:

William Trayers...was fatally injured when a roll of paper slipped and fell on him last evening. His neck was broken and his chest crushed...He was at work at 272 Devonshire street, unloading the big rolls of paper from a dray when the accident occurred.

He should have used Senor Loadenstein.

I recall a while back someone posted a link to a video showing some ill Keith Hernandez fielding plays. I'd like to show that to my daughter, who has taken up first base for softball, but I'm having the devil's own time finding it...my YouTube-fu is apparently lacking (aargh, so much Seinfeld). Can anybody help?

100 years ago today, three ballparks made their debut. Can you guess what they were before clicking on this link to find out? Two of the answers are in the title and the third is listed in the second paragraph.

Can you guess what they were before clicking on this link to find out?

I did not guess the third correctly.

I'm pretty excited about the 100th anniversary celebration today. Part of it is obviously because I'm a Red Sox fan. But things like this... They're a celebration of baseball.

You know how old Fenway Park is? More than twice as old as Jamie Moyer.

[3] http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=3532893

From my post 73 here:

Here's a short video clip from mlb.com which includes 3 typical outstanding Hernandez defensive plays. (See 0:04, 0:32, and 0:40).

In Thread: http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/hartnett_don_mattingly_and_keith_hernandez_are_glaring_hall_of_fame_om

Here is another Fenway-related news item (as submission does not work on my Blackberry anymore):

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/04/fenway-parks-unlikely-100th-birthday/256139/

The Atlantic
Fenway Park's Unlikely 100th Birthday
Henry D. Fetter

The Red Sox's ballpark is hailed as a national landmark today, but 50 years ago it was almost torn down. ...

As to the complaint that Fenway's smallish seating capacity made it "obsolete" (especially in an era when 50,000-plus stadia were becoming the norm), such a concern dated back the ballpark's initial seasons. Just three years after its opening, the Red Sox shifted their "home" games for the 1915 World Series two miles west down Commonwealth Avenue to Braves Field, the newly built home of Boston's then National League team, to take advantage of its larger seating capacity. And they did it again when they returned to the World Series the next year, both times playing before more fans than Fenway itself has ever hosted. The attendance of 47,373 at Braves Field for Game 2 of the 1916 World Series must still be the largest "home game" crowd in Red Sox history. (You can make barroom betting money knowing that).

What saved Fenway back then? First, that the team was so bad in the early 1960s that there was no incentive to spend public money for a new ball park and owner Tom Yawkey was himself convinced that declining interest in baseball did not justify spending his own money on such a (fruitless) project. After all, only about 10,000 fans had bothered to come out for Ted Williams's last game in 1960 and season attendance dropped to 650,000 in 1965. And then just as a "Slow Death by Committee in Boston" was being pronounced (the title of the Sports Illustrated piece quoted above which appeared in June 1967) the "Impossible Dream" pennant of 1967 came out of nowhere (or rather ninth place in 1966) and suddenly "ancient, obsolete" Fenway Park was not inhospitable to winning—and profitable (attendance more than doubled)—Red Sox baseball after all. And so lived on to become a kind of template for the current style in ball park design which is characterized by idiosyncratic features and downsized seating capacities.

The half-century mark is a dangerous time for ball parks. That's when the original Yankee Stadium (opened 1923) fell victim to a "renovation" in the 1970s that stripped it of its epic grandeur. This year, Dodger Stadium is marking its 50th anniversary amidst speculation that the record $2 billion-plus price paid by the team's new owners only makes sense if the ball park's prime location is monetized through commercial development with the ball club relocated to a new downtown stadium (cue cruel irony—that the Dodgers who came west after plans for a downtown Brooklyn ball park failed would end up playing downtown after all—but in Los Angeles).

And not only for baseball's fields of green. The wrecking ball came to New York City's oft lamented Penn Station, which had opened in 1911, in 1963.

So, what can we learn from Fenway's centennial? That the hard part was making it past 50.

You know how old Fenway Park is? More than twice as old as Jamie Moyer.

HA!

Bram Stoker died 100 years ago today, as well (this is a major point in the latest SI issue, as Fenway, like Dracula, has a habit of rising from the grave).

The attendance of 47,373 at Braves Field for Game 2 of the 1916 World Series must still be the largest "home game" crowd in Red Sox history. (You can make barroom betting money knowing that).

That's a good way to lose money. The largest attendance at Fenway was between 47,627 and 49,000, on 9/22/1935, for a doubleheader between the 2nd-place Yankees and the 4th-place Red Sox.

EDIT: In case anyone were to guess Tokyo in 2008, (a) The Red Sox were the visiting team in both games there, and (b) both games had lower attendance than the 9/22/1935 game.

I thought there were something like 3 million people at Game 6 in 1975. Maybe I heard wrong.

After all, only about 10,000 fans had bothered to come out for Ted Williams's last game in 1960

His retirement wasn't announced until just 3 days earlier, after the team was eliminated from the pennant race. His final game was a midweek day game. Here are the Fenway attendance totals from that season, in midweek day games (non-doubleheaders) in chronological order:


Night games averaged over 22,000 in attendance, almost 34,000 if it were against the Yankees. Weekend games averaged close to 18,000 in attendance, almost 29,000 against the Yankees. Traditional doubleheaders pulled in 20,000 on average; separate-admission doubleheaders pulled in 15,000 per game. Midweek day games were only attended in the summer when school was out or otherwise when the Yankees were in. (Heck, look at the Yankees' attendance in 1939, Gehrig's last year. Sure they got like 4 million people there for his retirement party, on a holiday, in between games of a doubleheader, and announced a few weeks earlier. But the next game, a Wednesday day game, they couldn't even get 4,000 to show. 6,000 was a good crowd for midweek day games.)

That they managed to bring in 10,454 was a pretty good achievement, considering the other factors at the time.

I thought there were something like 3 million people at Game 6 in 1975. Maybe I heard wrong.

Nah, most of them missed it. They had to see about a girl.

That's a good way to lose money. The largest attendance at Fenway was between 47,627 and 49,000, on 9/22/1935, for a doubleheader between the 2nd-place Yankees and the 4th-place Red Sox.

I read the article, but I still don't understand why so many people showed up on that particular day. Also it is crazy to think of so many people crammed in there with no seating sections on the roof.

I read the article, but I still don't understand why so many people showed up on that particular day.

Babe Ruth retired earlier that season (1935). Maybe the Red Sox did something to honor him that day? (although I certainly would have expected the article to mention such a thing)

Thank you so much, bobm. I even checked that thread, but I guess I skimmed too quickly.

Babe Ruth retired earlier that season (1935). Maybe the Red Sox did something to honor him that day? (although I certainly would have expected the article to mention such a thing)

Maybe. They did have almost as huge crowds for his last games at Fenway as a Yankee the year before, I believe.

Here's a fun small-sample

Aroldis Chapman, 2012: 9IP, 3H, 0R, 0BB, 17K

10,880 Fri September 23 vs. NYY, (before Red Sox were eliminated from pennant race)
5,840 (after Red Sox were eliminated from pennant race)
10,454 <--- Williams' last game ---

The 1960 Red Sox finished 32 games out. I'm pretty sure they were eliminated well before Sep 23.

Game of the day (yesterday): Yankees 7, Twins 6. The Twins scored 4 unearned runs in the first; the Yanks stormed back with three in each of the first two innings, highlighted by Curtis Granderson's first two home runs of the day. Granderson hit his third consecutive longball in the 4th, pushing the lead to 7-4; Ryan Doumit's 2-run jack in the 6th ended the scoring. But Minnesota put the tying run in scoring position in the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings without bringing it home, and the Yankees also put a combined 5 runners on in the 6th and 7th, also failing to score. Good game, not a great one (the Cain-Lee duel from Wednesday would have beaten it, and it didn't win its own day).

Game of the day (last year): Blue Jays 6, Yankees 5 (10). This one, on the other hand, is fairly spectacular. Toronto took the lead in the bottom of the first, thanks to a home run from Jose Bautista. New York pulled ahead in the second on a walk-walk-single-GDP sequence, and the Jays re-tied the score in the third on a run that defines the term "manufactured": Walk, wild pitch, FC+error, sac fly. The teams traded mild threats over the next two innings before Mark Teixeria broke the tie with a 2-run shot in the 6th; the Yankees loaded the bases, but couldn't extend the lead further. Edwin Encarnacion doubled in a run for the Jays in the bottom of the inning, and they too loaded the bases before David Robertson came in and struck out a pair of hitters to escape the jam. Granderson homered (apparently April 19 is a good day for him) in the 7th, resetting the Yankee advantage to 2, and the game proceeded toward the inevitable Mariano Rivera save in orderly fashion.

Until Rivera actually entered the game, that is. Yunel Escobar led off with a double, moved to third on a groundout, and scored when ball 4 to Jose Bautista was also a wild pitch - the only WP Rivera has thrown since 2009, and one of only 13 in his career. Adam Lind singled, moving Bautista to third, and then John McDonald... bunted. Everyone was safe, including Bautista at home with the tying run. Jose Molina singled to load the bases with only one out, but Rivera defused the rally several batters too late by coaxing Corey Patterson into a double play grounder. In the 10th, the Yankees picked up a couple of walks, but not the hit they'd have needed to cash them in; Ivan Nova (making his only relief appearance of the year) pitched the bottom of the inning and gave up Travis Snider's walkoff 2-out RBI double to end the game.

All that adds up to the 6th-best game of 2011 to this point, and the best of 10 innings or fewer. Not bad.

Reusing yesterday's dugout...

Game of the day (yesterday): Giants 4, Mets 3 (11). Both teams threatened early (the Mets with first and second and one out, the Giants loading the bases with one away) before San Francisco broke through in the third. Angel Pagan led off with a home run, Buster Posey followed up with an RBI double, and Pablo Sandoval scored the third run of the inning on a wild pitch. The Mets picked up solo homers in the fourth (Jason Bay) and the fifth (Kirk Niewenhuis, whose name I'll never be able to spell without looking it up), and loaded the bases later in the fifth, but failed to bring in the tying run. The teams combined for one baserunner over the next three innings; the Giants managed to get a potential insurance run to second in the top of the ninth, but didn't score. In the bottom of the inning, Jason Bay led off with a single, moved to second on a wild pitch, staying there as Niewenhuis walked, and scoring the tying run on Josh Thole's single. Niewenhuis, whose name I'm copying and pasting from its first appearance, moved to third on the single, but was thrown out at home on a grounder, and the Mets ended the inning with the winning run standed at second.

In the tenth, Melky Cabrera walked to lead off the inning for the Giants, and stole second with one out. A fly ball and intentional walk later, Hector Sanchez singled to center, scoring Cabrera and, thanks to an error by Niewenhuis, putting potential padding runs at second and third. An Emmanuel Burris flyout ended the top of the inning, and the Mets started the bottom half with back-to-back singles from Daniel Murphy and David Wright. But after Ike Davis grounded out to put the tying and winning runs in scoring position, Jason Bay and Lucas Duda abandoned them there.

A solid game throughout, and it ended with three consecutive exceptional half-innings. 6th-best game of the year to date, #2 in the NL.

Game of the day (last year): Cubs 2, Padres 1 (11). The Cubs scored first on a protracted and weird rally in the third: double, grounder retiring lead runner at third, FC/ROE, force at second, RBI single, walk to load the bases, groundout to end the inning. Down by a run, the Padres put a pair of runners on in the fourth and one in the fifth, then loaded the bases with one out in the 6th before Matt Garza induced a double play ball from Brad Hawpe. In the 7th, with Garza out of the game, the Padres put together ROE-flyout-forceout-steal-walk-walk to load the bases yet again, but Sean Marshall escaped the jam by getting Chase Headley to ground out. After failing to threaten in the 8th, the Padres played small ball in the 9th against Carlos Marmol: walk, steal, bunt single, steal by the trail runner, sac fly to finally score and tie the game. Facing Jeff Samardzija in extras, San Diego put runners at second and third with one out in the 10th, then loaded the bases again with one away in the 11th, scoring neither time; Reed Johnson made them pay for that by leading off the bottom of the inning with a game-ending home run.

This game was both very good and very unbalanced in dramatic terms - more than 2/3 of the excitement came with the Padres batting. This is especially unusual because the Padres (a) were the road team, and (b) lost the game.

Three consecutive posts on one thread, over a span of three days? Sure, why not.

Game of the day (yesterday): Blue Jays 9, Royals 5. The Royals scored first... you know what, screw it. There are some days when I'd be able to argue for another game over a perfect game. Yesterday didn't have anything that was anywhere near that quality. The method I'm using grades games based on how volatile their win expectancies are, and assumes that to serve as a proxy for how exciting a game is; no-hitters and perfect games have other kinds of excitement to work with, certainly enough to overcome a game that was pretty good but also basically decided by the end of the seventh. (On the other hand, I would pick Jays-Royals and a few other games from yesterday over the 15-9 game, which had a good amount of drama packed into about one inning and was deathly boring for the other 8.)

Game of the day (last year): Dodgers 5, Braves 3 (12). This would be one I might (emphasis on might) have argued for over a perfecto. The Dodgers left the bases loaded in the first, and ran themselves out of 1_3 in the third. Freddie Freeman and Juan Uribe traded solo homers in the fifth and sixth, and Casey Blake gave LA its first lead with a 2-out shot in the seventh. With two outs in the ninth, the Braves loaded the bases on singles by Chipper and Uggla and a walk to Freeman, and David Ross smacked a 2-run single to put them ahead. The Dodgers countered in the bottom of the inning with a walk, wild pitch, and 2-out RBI single (by Blake again - .599 WPA in the game for him, which is nice). Both teams put the go-ahead run in scoring position in the 11th, but it took until the 12th for Matt Kemp to walk off with a 2-run homer (only his 4th of the year; by his own recent standards, he was slacking.)

The only other note of interest in the field of excitement measurement is that yesterday gave us the most boring game of the year so far - the Rangers ended the first half of their doubleheader in Detroit almost immediately, putting up 8 in the top of the first and leaving the remainder of the action thoroughly bereft of drama.

Average OBP of the major leagues is currently .315. Only two teams have OBP over .348.
Average SLG of the major leagues is currently .396. Only two teams have SLG over .452.

These seem like pretty low numbers.