Josh Hamilton Strikezone Constellation: The Child Ninja

No one with anything resembling “sense” is pretending that Josh Hamilton’s 2013 season — his first with the Los Angeles Angels after signing rather a large contract with that club — was anything but a disappointment relative to his previously established levels.

What some people are pretending, however — like the present author, for example — is that certain of Josh Hamilton’s single-game strikezone maps from the past year are burning-hot universe stars which, when connected via a free graphics editing program, form nearly recognizable shapes and figures.

One finds, in this case, an entry from Hamilton’s September 13th game against the Astros (box). In said contest, Hamilton appears to have offered at 15 pitches during the course of the game, probably only about six of which fell within the regulation strike zone. The constellation which results bears more than a passing resemblance to a child, dressed in a probably racist Asian-type conical hat and traditional changshan, performing a probably racist martial-arts kick of some type.

Credit to Texas Leaguers for the strikezone plot.