Last week, I played the part of Bill James’ scrivener, rendering into electronic print five haphazardly chosen, but still entirely notable, profiles from the 1993 edition of his Player Ratings Book.

In what follows, I do the same thing for the 1994 edition.

Regard, American literature:

Player: Steve Balboni, Texas
Notable Thing: Things plural, actually. The first is — if I’m reading this correctly — is that Jackie Moore’s real father is Steve Balboni. So that’s one thing. The second is this comment from James: “[I]sn’t an awful first baseman, but strikes out like a Deer and runs like a file cabinet.” That he (i.e. James) resisted appending the words “wocka wocka” to that statement represents an exercise in restraint.

Read the rest of this entry »

There are a lot more than 10 out there, of course. But if you’re building a list of essential baseball books, here’s a good starting point.

Veeck–As In Wreck: The Autobiography of Bill Veeck: The best sports autobiography I’ve ever read. Where to even start? Incredibly funny, brutally honest, politically incorrect, thoughtful, insightful, so much fun you’ll never want to put it down.

Ball Four: The most intimate look at life in the big leagues ever written. Pretty damn funny too. I think I might go re-read this right now actually.

Dollar Sign on the Muscle: The World of Baseball Scouting: Does a terrific job of documenting where the baseball superstars of tomorrow come from and how teams fight over them. Just as relevant today as when it was written more than a quarter-century ago. One drawback: Cheapest Amazon price is $37, used. Get someone to buy it for you as a gift, if necessary.

Read the rest of this entry »

If Izzy Alcantara’s parents had had the decency to relocate to Panama before the birth of their son — and not remain in their native Dominican Republic, as they so rudely chose to do — this post might benefit from a narrative complexity generally unseen on the internet.

As it is, it (i.e. the present post) is merely an attempt on the part of the author to participate in the totally planned-out and in no way impromptu On-Field Violence (Or Not as Much) Day here at NotGraphs.

While people punching people always makes for good entertainment, Alcantara’s forethought in the above-embedded melee is particularly noteworthy.

Believe everything Wikipedia says when it says the following:

On July 3, 2001, after being brushed back a second time by Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons pitcher Blas Cedeño, Alcántara turned around, kicking catcher Jeremy Salazar, karate-style, in the mask before charging the mound, throwing an unsuccessful punch at Cedeño before turning around as other players joined the fight until he was tackled by Kevin Orie. The incident cost Alcántara a six-game suspension and his spot on the International League’s All Star squad.

In Izzy’s defense, the Providence Journal offered this explanation: “What happened may have been simmering for some time. By his actions, it appears Alcantara knew something might occur that night. After the game Alcantara insisted Cedeño was throwing at him. Early in May, Alcantara slammed two home runs off Red Barons pitcher Pete Zamora, who later hit Alcantara with a pitch and was suspended and fined by the league. On July 2 Alcantara belted another home run off Zamora and may have, in Zamora’s view, hot-dogged it a little around the bases. In Alcantara’s mind, the July 3 eighth inning eruption was no innocent development and may have been planned as retaliation by Red Barons pitchers.”

Despite the fact that Alcantara was generally known as somewhat of a difficult character, it’s really impossible to feel anything but admiration for the extent of his forethought in this particular instance, it being generally the case that the catcher is the first player to reach a pitcher-ward batter.

Hail, Alcantara!

At least we have clothes on.

Read the pages of NotGraphs and you’ll know I’m a fan of silliness – specifically, getting dressed in funky gear. Over the years, I’ve used my follicular advantage to be outstanding versions of Bob Ross, Kenny G and Disco Stu. Maybe it’s some vain desire to go a little crazy with the afro that draws me to dressing differently.

My re-adopted hometown San Francisco has a tradition called Bay to Breakers. The website says “no alcohol or floats,” but the city is known for civil disobedience in such matters, and really the point is to look kooky and, maybe, run some. Well, for some, the tradition involves no clothes, but to each his own.

The link here is tenuous for sure, but this sort of thing – dressing strangely while performing a relatively normal task – seems like it could be brought to baseball. I know we are discussing ways to change or destroy baseball recently, and it did occur to me that baseball could have more one-off uniforms. Just look at basketball, which has Spanish-language uniforms for one day a season – we’re not talking patches here. The easiest entry point would be some sort of special uniform for Independence Day, but that’s pretty conventional and we’ve already got hats and patches for the Fourth. Though the military-inspired uniforms in San Diego are interesting, and on the right path, there should be more.

There aren’t too many summer holidays to take advantage of, but looking to other cultures might work. The Welsh harvest holiday called Gathering Day happens in early August and has all sorts of corn- and hay-based costumes. Some of the rites seem like fun. In particular, there’s one known as the caseg fedi or harvest mare, in which three men attempt to bring down the last corn sheaf of the harvest from afar. Then it gets good:

However, his task did not end with the cutting down of the sheaf; he was also expected to carry it into the house without getting it wet, past a team of women who would do all they could to throw water upon it. Often the reaper would hide the ‘mare’ under his clothes in order to get into the house past the women, and this could involve the men being disrobed as they tried to enter. If the man was successful, he would receive all the beer he could drink, or a shilling.

We’ve lost our train of thought. The point is – dressing up differently. And it doesn’t have to be by the players themselves (although that would be interesting). It can be about the fans, as we’ve shown with McCann’s Cans. Soccer fans have obviously figured this out already, but you might be surprised that the picture to the left is from a Caribbean baseball game. What if we were to spur some crazy fan fashion in this country by observing Halloween during the season some time? Award the best costumes with a t-shirt, commemorative picture, or, at the very least, some time on the JumboTron?

Going to baseball games is not hum-drum. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t be spiced up with a little sartorial zaniness.

This slice o’ genius over at DRaysBay is the best bit of Internetty-sportsy deconstruction I’ve run across since this … or maybe this.

Anyhow, this blessed little photo mash-up tells the story better than I can …

That, folks, is GomesRage, and despite what Reds fans might tell you, GomesRage is alive and well at the Trop. I don’t want to over-summarize and dull the wonders to be found within this featured link, but let’s just say the 2011 Rays, despite a talent exodus and budget so tight that a strategic default on a delivery pizza is a realistic possibility, can still throw the beefs. As you’ll see and savor, the post’s author, CBJones, proves it with fancy numbers, including Acronym of This and Any Other Millennium BRAWLFENSE. Even if it weren’t an acronym, BRAWLFENSE demands to be capitalized!

In a related matter, the NotGraphs Investigative Reporting Investigation Team has uncovered footage of the 2011 Rays at work and play in the mean streets of St. Pete:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXPiIuKBiVA

(Thanks to cherished reader Cooper Toledo and his awesome name for the heads-up. And, yes, it’s apparently On-Field Violence Day here at NotGraphs. Celebrate it with someone you loathe!)

File what you’re about to witness under Dayn Perry’s How to Improve Baseball.

Note the batter’s fine acting job after getting hit by an off-speed pitch, the double-360, and his eagerness in getting to the mound. Impeccable form, even though he went down in defeat.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m quite certain I’d find chicken fighting much more entertaining than the mostly underwhelming basebrawls we witness every summer. At the very least, it would guarantee everyone’s involvement in the proceedings. There’s nothing I hate more than watching the relief core’s walk of shame back to the bullpen after only words, and not punches, are exchanged.

And know this: Gandhi — whom the NotGraphs Investigative Reporting Investigation Team has learned was quite the baseball fan back in his day, Babe Ruth his favourite player, believe it or not — would have wanted it this way.

Hat tips: To Royals Review, and our baseball-loving cousins in the Far East.

Although people are used to the front office of the Kansas City Royals being on the cutting edge of, well, pretty much everything, it was still a bit of a surprise to read that they going to take entries from the “social media” to have the chance to interview General Manager Dayton Moore and a few others during the Royals’ Annual FanFest. The winners were announced last week, and it was nice to see that a fair number of respected members of the Royals’ Nerdosphere were invited.

If you ask me, even more exciting than the list people asking the questions is the list of people said to be answering them. Dayton Moore is one of them, of course, as is manager Ned Yost. But there were also a couple of players. One of them is probably the only Royals position player who could be considered close to being something like a “star,” Billy Butler. The other player picked to be part of this interview (conducted, remember, by a group of people generally considered to play close attention to non-superficial stats, who prefer performance over reputation, who don’t just buy the team’s fluff stories) will be…

…and this is not a joke….

Jeff Francouer.

No, I am not kidding.

Read the rest of this entry »

If there’s one thing that gets Carson Cistulli excited, it’s probably, like, fried cheese curds or unwatched episodes of Community or, of course, the ladies. But if there are, say, ten things that get Carson Cistulli excited, one of them is certainly the application of quantitative analysis to matters aesthetic.

Dave Dancis has submitted for the public’s consideration what likely represents an important step forward for this niche scientific field in his recent post on performance enhancing beards at Fantasy Baseball 101.

Below are the fruits of what one imagines were probably the entensivest of labors. However, in the spirit of serious peer review, I’ll also suggest that Dancis’s research might suffer from some sample-size issues.

Regard:

H/T: Sons of Steve Garvey

This was a home run

Luckily, Baseball-Reference’s blog was all over it.

As the B-R blog covers exquisitely well, Steve Balboni was not a very good baseball player. However, he was an extremely entertaining baseball player. For one, he looked pretty funny. For two, and most importantly, the dude could hit some home runs.

The reason that I care about Steve Balboni goes back to a game in which I attended in the womb: this June 4th, 1989 game between the New York Yankees and the Milwaukee Brewers at County Stadium in Milwaukee. My mom shares some of my love of baseball, and she shared her love of Steve Balboni with me, which, if I recall correctly, was born from this game.

This game featured a few collectibles, including a home run from Yankee Deion Sanders (off of the stalwart Bryan Clutterbuck) and a two-homer game from Jesse Barfield. However, it was Steve Balboni’s sole at-bat (replacing Don Mattingly in the field) which makes this game live on for my family. Balboni saw 12 pitches in that at-bat, and nine strikes. That means that Balboni fouled off at least 6 balls in a row (my mom described it as 17, which unfortunately can be struck as exaggeration from the B-R box score) before blasting a home run into the seats.

Sometimes, it takes a player’s skill or one magical postseason moment for him to live on in a fan’s mind. In this case, it was simply one heroic at-bat in a game between two bad teams in a Milwaukee summer. For that, Steve Balboni, we (specifically, my mom) thank you. And happy (belated) birthday, Steve.

If you squint and tilt your head and stay very quiet and have a heart as pure as driven snow, you can sorta kinda see Opening Day headed for us. That’s a blessed thing, of course, and, in keeping with the spirit of the season, the royal we here at NotGraphs would love for you to oblige us with your declarations of loyalties and disloyalties. Since you asked, I’ll start …

Read the rest of this entry »