Archive for Uncategorized
Fun with Elementary Number Theory! The Ruth-Aaron Pair
You know Henry Aaron, who was born on this very date in 1934, for his legendary assault on the most cherished record in baseball. You know Carl Pomerance, who was born in 1944, for his legendary quadratic sieve algorithm and his nearly-as-legendary Adleman–Pomerance–Rumely primality test. But did you know that the lives of these two legends are forever intertwined? Consider:
“We Have Players!”
The Royals announced their 2013 slogan on Monday: “Come to Play.” Inspiring. SB Nation has a post that collects some of the most ridiculous slogans over the past 15 years. “Come to Play” was also used by the 2004 Rangers, who actually didn’t play so badly. The historically bad ’03 Tigers: “We Come to Play.” Okay then. The 2002 Orioles: “Give us an O!” The 2001 Brewers: “It’s All Here Under One Roof.”
Made me want to try and invent some of my own. Add yours in the comments and we’ll vote on the best later in the week!
“We Have Players!”
“There Will Be Games!”
Delmon Young’s Best Shape
Recently, NotGraphs’ own Jeremy Blachman drew attention to the “best shape of their lives” cliché that’s bandied about at the onset of every spring training.
Mr. Blachman enlightens us as to what shape a player is when he’s in the best shape of his life, but for some players, their own best shapes — let’s call it their “spirit shapes” — break the mold. One of those players is Delmon Young. His best shape is…
Walk Up, Walk Tall
Here is a list of the current walk-up songs used by the Tampa Bay Rays, to the best of my knowledge.
Ben Zobrist: “Behind Me” – Julianna Zobrist
Desmond Jennings: “Mercy” – Kanye West
Evan Longoria: “Down and Out” – Tantric
Elliot Johnson: “Foxey Lady” – Jimi Hendrix
Jose Lobaton: “We Are Young” – Fun
Matt Joyce: “I Can’t Stop” – Flux Pavilion
Sam Fuld: “Electric Feel” – MGMT
Sean Rodriguez: “I’m A Believer” – Tedashii
James Loney: “Wild Boy” – Machine Gun Kelly
Yunel Escobar: “El Animal” – Gente De Zona
Kelly Johnson: “Bulls on Parade” – Rage Against The Machine
Jose Molina: “Suave y Lentel” – Jowell and Randy
Luke Scott: “Rock You Like a Hurricane” – Scorpions
These are lame, as I’m sure you will agree. In fact, the vast majority of walk-up songs in Major League Baseball are lame. This is not surprising; baseball players are paid to play baseball, not to cultivate sophisticated aesthetic tastes. They need help, and I propose to give it to them, via a campaign I call “Walk Up, Walk Tall: Purging Illiteracy in Music from Professional Sports (PIMPS).” Because the Rays, with their reputation for studious innovation, seem like especially promising candidates for assistance, I am kicking off this campaign in Tampa.
Now, one of the basic tenets of my philosophy is that in the interest of solidarity, major league lineups should share a musical theme. For the Rays, the theme I suggest is “Rays.” Where I need your help, readers, is in pairing each hitter of Tampa Bay with the most appropriate song by a Ray. The sampling of tunes below should get you off to a running start.
Ask NotGraphs (#33)
Dear Abby,
I’m sick of this ridiculous baseball offseason. Can we just invent time travel already so that we can skip this whole ordeal??
Eager Man in Eagan, MN
Managers Prepare for Spring Training
With the hot stove cooling off, and with pitchers and catchers reporting to training camps in just two weeks, Major League skippers have begun tweaking their cliches, flushing their last few Marlboros down the toilet, and shaking the dust out of their fogey folds.
The NotGraphs Quote-Gathering Seals, an elite, highly-trained yet unpaid team of erstwhile Humanities majors is on the job, surprising managers in their foyers, cars, showers, and storage facilities to gather the most inane candid quotes possible regarding each manager’s preparations. Here are a few choice selections:
Bruce Bochy, World Champion San Francisco Giants
Bochy:
“One thing that was successful for us last year was a clean bullpen. We had a no-tobacco/no-candy wrapper policy in the bullpen last year, and Sergio [Romo] developed into a star. He’s a very tidy guy; it helped him mentally.
“This year, we want to bring that to the dugout, too. A big boy’s pants are a clean pair of pants. We want to set an example for the younger guys.
“This, ah, whole cleanliness thing, though — it doesn’t apply to the manager’s office. Now get out of my Pert-Plus!”
Breaking Down 2013’s Top 100 Prospects
Breaking down MLB.com’s recently released list…
HUMAN… 94
ALIEN… 6
GENETICALLY MALE… 92
GENETICALLY FEMALE… 8
