Baseball by the Numbers
So I have decided to create a baseball blog. Actually, it’s about damn time. I’ve been an ardent fan of the National Pastime since 1962, when I was an inept little-leaguer living in Texas. During the previous summer the American League, after sixty years with eight teams, had expanded to ten, and the National League felt obliged to respond. So they added the New York Mets, to replace the departed Giants and Dodgers, and the Houston Colt .45s, to lay claim to America’s burgeoning fourth largest city, right here in Texas. I was in heaven. It didn’t matter that the 1963 incarnation of the Colt .45 had undoubtedly the most truly awful lineup in baseball history — the numbers don’t lie — yet they were my childhood heroes. And so they remain. With pride I can recite their names and their pathetic numbers.
There is no denying that this blog is all about statistics. I honestly don’t care who swapped wives, or who took PEDs, or the all the numerous suicides, or any of that sticky personal stuff (well, maybe just a little), but this blog is earnestly based upon numbers. And this is what sets baseball apart from so many other sports. Football, quite simply, is difficult to quantify, apart from players on offense who gain yardage or score points, or players on defense who record sacks, interceptions, or “tackles.” Line play, probably the most important factor in a football game, still resists quantification. Basketball certainly incorporates numbers — scoring, free throws, rebounding, and steals, but that is about it. Oh yeah, minutes played. Soccer might be the most difficult of the major sports to quantify; it is a complete blur. However, in baseball there seems to be no limit to numerical classifications, from the well known categories such as times at bat, hits, home runs, doubles, triples, runs scored, runs batted in, batting average, slugging percentage, walks, and strikeouts—not to mention more esoteric categories such as total bases, double plays grounded into, at-bats per strikeout, percentage of times caught stealing, intentional walks received, and sacrifice bunts laid down. And those are just for batters. Pitchers have their own world of numbers, such as wins and loses, saves, games pitched, innings pitched, batters faced, complete games, shutouts, earned run average, hits per nine innings, walks per nine innings, WHIP, strikeouts, wild pitches, and hit batters, to name just a few.
So, to start this blog let me begin with that most disconsolate of statistics — getting drilled. Taking it on the chin. I’m talking about getting hit by a pitch, or HBP in your program. And, of course, we’ll not only look at batterswho leaned over the plate, but we’ll also stare back at the game’s most notorious headhunters.
Some of the other topics to follow:
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Giving It Up: The Artifice of the Sacrifice
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Twin Killings: The Double Play
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Minimizing Damage: The Intentional Walk
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Thieves and Villains: Stolen Bases/Caught in the Act
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Public Rage: Managerial Ejections
My sources? Baseball Reference, an absolutely incredible digitized database.
