But we don't really you know, we hate baseball...

Canada has a long association with the game of baseball, going back to the earliest days of it's development - but hockey, and the big bucks the NFL generate up here dwarf the grand old game, even during the MLB postseason.

At the bottom of the MLB page that listed all the game dates and start times through the 2010 postseason there is this little note I found quite amusing...

In Canada, Rogers Sportsnet will broadcast all 2010 MLB Postseason games.
* if necessary

They're two separate items, but the way it's laid out ...

If you followed my scorecard keeping through the MLB postseason you know Rogers Sportsnet broadcast 29.5 of the 32 games played. One wasn't broadcast in favour Major League Soccer's home town Toronto FC, one in favour of Sunday Night Football, and one half of one because of a Toronto Maple Leafs game.

I guess it wasn't, "necessary".

:)

Toronto has always had a low opinion of itself - except when it has a too-high opinion of itself. So when the Blue Jays won the World Series in 1992 and 1993 the problem seemed solved. Suddenly we all walked with our heads high, when somebody said something critical about the city we took it to heart and tried to change - or else wrote it off to the ignorance of someone who should consider what they say before they say it.

But that has waned of late... to really be comfortable again with-in ourselves we need to win every single game, and every championship for as long as there is history.

So now, being interested in MLB - that we don't win - is only a part of an eminent strut, a put on, an attitude --- part of a post-modern understanding that we gleaned from when we were all happy with ourselves --- that if you act provincial, people will treat you that way. And it's not just Toronto, it's North American; we're all sluts for judgment, approval, acceptance.

In Toronto we pretend to like baseball still; and all (sic) the games are on TV, and the bla, bla, bla in the papers... .

But we don't really you know, we hate baseball. It's too slow, there's no hitting, nobody gets their bell rung every 60 seconds, it's boring - and now with the un-juiced ball, and the players off steroids - what's to watch?

At least with the NFL you can watch yourself watching the boring game - through the magic of betting in the pools that run in every bar - people spending all their money getting blotto, hoping to hit the jack pot so they can do it all again on Monday... and Thursday... and Saturday... .

Pretending to like baseball is something you do at work, in polite company, around girls you're trying to impress. In Canada, being openly baseball fan in a bar during hockey and football season is likely to piss someone off,

"RBI this, smart guy."

Thwack!



mh

A Comparison of the Symmetry of Tim Lincecum's and Cliff Lee's Scorecards in Game 5

Another in the ongoing Symmetry Series of post here at Baseball Blogs.

The final game of the 2010 World Series (weep) was all about pitching - as was the series in retrospect. The blow-outs in games one and two were, I think, aburrations caused by the pressure of the moment on young, inexperienced pitchers. These two line-ups are full of power and run scoring ability, but as we see in this chart once the pitching settled down the series became all about pitching.

Game    Matchup             Day      Date       Time ET
Gm 1    TEX 7 @ SF 11       Wed      Oct. 27    7:57 PM 
Gm 2    TEX 0 @ SF  9       Thu      Oct. 28    7:57 PM 
Gm 3    SF  2 @ TEX 4       Sat      Oct. 30    6:57 PM 
Gm 4    SF  4 @ TEX 0       Sun      Oct. 31    8:20 PM 
Gm 5    SF  3 @ TEX 1       Mon      Nov. 1     7:57 PM

So last night we finally get our 'year of the pitcher' World Series pitching spectacle for the ages. As such I wondered what a comparison between line drawing of the two starters might illuminate. Was there something to be seen in the metrics of simplification that might help us better understand the game, the series?

(All images are much larger on click)

Cliff Lee facing the San Francisco Giants line-up, 2010 World Series Game 5

(Screen shot from The Internet Baseball Scorecard Blog)

Tim Lincecum facing the Texas Rangers line-up 2010 World Series Game 5

(Screen shot from The Internet Baseball Scorecard Blog)

Below are two line drawings I made with Microsoft Paint. I filled in all the active at-bat boxes with colour, and then erased all the scorecard elements so you can see any patterns more easily.

Cliff Lee pitching to the Giants, batters faced per inning

Tim Lincecum pitching to the Rangers, batters faced per inning

On the left are the top and bottom of the 7th Inning; the top is Cliff Lee pitching to San Francisco, the lower is Tim Lincecum pitching to the Rangers.

I try to put aside my knowledge of the game when looking for patterns in the line drawings (I did after all, score it only 15 hours ago) and I notice that, just in the patterns, both pitchers hit their own kind of walls in the 7th inning. Both diagonal patterns break down there.

Lee's was the game breaking Hit, Hit, Homer inning where the Giants scored all 3 of their runs.

For Lincecum, a one run homer and a walk break up a nice smooth diagonal pattern in the drawing. He loses his bid for a shut out, and the momentum swings radically, to the Rangers bringing them right back into the game at the time.

There are 7 other post in this "Symmetry Series" here at Baseball Blogs.



mh

The Symmetry of Madison Bumgarner's World Series Game 4 Start

Here's another installment of The Symmetry Series of posts here at Baseball Blogs, where I illuminate the patterns that can be seen in scorecards of great pitching performances.

This one documents the San Francisco Giants' Madison Bumgarner's start in Game 4 of the 2010 World Series, against the Texas Rangers at Arlington Texas on October 31th 2010 - a game won by the Giants 4-0.

I'm using a scorecard I kept over at The Internet Baseball Scorecard Blog.

(all images are much larger on click)


The Pitching line's of Starter Madison Bumgarner - World Series Game 4
(and closer Brian Wilson - 3 outs)

Screen shot from The Internet Baseball Scorecard


Texas Rangers face Madison Bumgarner in World Series Game 4

Screen shot from The Internet Baseball Scorecard

This is a line drawing I made in Microsoft Paint where I've coloured in active at-bat boxes; it shows batters faced per inning:

Here's the same drawing with the scorecard elements removed so you can see the pattern better.

There are six other posts in The Symmetry Series.



mh

The Symmetry of Cole Lewis' World Series Game 3 Start

Here's another installment of The Symmetry Series of posts here at Baseball Blogs, where I illuminate the patterns that can be seen in scorecards of great pitching performances.

This one documents the Texas Rangers' Coby Lewis start in Game 3 of the 2010 World Series, against the San Francisco Giants at Arlington Texas on October 30th 2010 - a game won by the Rangers 2-4.

I'm using a scorecard I kept over at The Internet Baseball Scorecard Blog.

(all images are much larger on click)


The Pitching line's of Starter Colby Lewis - World Series Game 3
(and relievers Darren O'Day and Neftali Feliz - 4 outs)

Screen shot from The Internet Baseball Scorecard

San Francisco Giants face Colby Lewis in World Series Game 3

Screen shot from The Internet Baseball Scorecard

This is a line drawing I made in Microsoft Paint where I've coloured in active at-bat boxes; it shows batters faced per inning:

Here's the same drawing with the scorecard elements removed so you can see the pattern better.

There are five other posts in The Symmetry Series.



mh

Bigger Bullpen in Boston centre of off-season Bull session in Boston Media

The Boston's are thinking of widening their bull pens in right. And reducing the distance from the plate to a Home Run. Theo Epstein says it's his number one priority. That and finding a job after they fire him for saying things that make him sound like a moron.

That and letting the Blue Jays steal their pitching coach John Farrell, who will manage the Jays next year (that's a compliment).

Story via Joy of Sox, where folks were discussing how many extra homies would result...

David Ortiz spray chart. 'Fly Outs' 2010 shows 2 extra HR with new bullpen in right.

mh

2011 Scorecard: Bigger! Better!

Blogger code to widen your Blog, and code for the new easier to use 2011 Scorecard


Below in the scroll box is code for the brand new 2011 Internet Baseball Scorecard.

You can see an example of the new scorecard at The Internet Baseball Scorecard Blog. Also, I've kept score of all the games of both the NLCS and the ALCS, with the new scorecard. A page I've created has all those games, and the division series scorcards, linked in an easy to read "Play Down Tree": Road to the World Series - in Scorecards.

The code for the new scorecard has been Validated at W3C as a "HTML 4.01 Transitional" document. I've published it in a Google document at this link, where you can read it in a full page format, and below in the scrolling window from which you can copy and paste it into a notepad - or take it over to W3C and put it to the test.



As a result of the changes I've made, the scorecard is now almost 4800 pixels wide (Blogger default is 660px) - you may need to adjust your "View" settings. Firefox's zoom in or out feature: hold down 'Ctrl' and press '+' or '-'. Another browser? Your on your own. :)

I've made the Batter Line-up boxes and the "At-bat Boxes" 8 lines high and much wider, room for 26 lower case inputs. The pitch boxes beside each AB box can hold 32 key strokes of pitching notation. As well the "Batter Totals" boxes to the right of the AB rows can now accommodate at-bat data for 8 substitutions. This provides enough room for all the data - in it's proper placement - with-in the "Project Scoresheet Standards", outlined in Baseball Hacks by Joseph Adler (Google Books)

The next step in this project is to develop a method to "scrape" play-by-play data out of these score sheets - and transversely - create a way to digitally "lay in" data from any game that there is data for - according to the standard created by retrosheet.org - and available there at their "Play-by-Play Data Files" page. So far Retrosheet has play-by-play data files dating back to 1950 and new games update hourly. I'd like to build a way to populate the Internet Baseball Scorecard automatically with data from any game any time. For example, I think it would be neat to produce all the scorecards of every one of the 56 consecutive games in 1941 that Joe DiMaggio hit safely in. I expect that in the time it will take me to learn all that I need to know to make this functionality happen, Retrosheet and the rest of the "Sabermetricians" will have compiled data back to the war years - if it's possible.

Blogger Code to make your Blog Wider

Cut and Paste the code - from the scrolling box above or at this link - into your Blogger.com blog at the "Design" window in the "edit HTML" tab. This slightly edited blogger code makes the blogger window wide enough to handle the width of the score card. I've changed the sizes in "Blog Title Font" and the "Blog Description Font" and under 'posts' the h3 setting to 200% (that's the Post Title size, separate to the blogs font size).

I've also set everything that by default was set 'float: center;' to, 'float: left;'.

In the "Header" section I've imported a photo that I a re-sized for the Blogs Title Header Image and changed the header wrapper parameters to 1632 pixels (that wraps around the new pic).

You might want to adjust the following to create your blog's unique aesthetic: in "Variable definitions" section you can change "Blog Title Color" and "Blog Description Color".

Make your scorecard refresh automatically

You'll notice in the Google Document I've high-lighted some code - about 4/5ths of the way down. It's a "Refresh" feature for 'Live Blogging'. It can be set to any refresh rate you wish, currently it is set to refresh every thirty seconds (30000), so as I publish after each at-bat, the page people are viewing will up-date automatically. You can re-set the rate, for example '60000' is one minute. It is in the OFF position as it is.

To make your blog refresh, move the "-->" tag from the bottom of the highlighted code and paste it just after where it says STOP REFRESH . To turn OFF the refresh feature, just highlight and cut the "-->" tag and paste it back down at the bottom of the highlighted code (memorize where the tag was before you turn it ON!).

The Scorecard Code

Expand the scorecard for Extra innings

The code in the scrolling box at the top of this post produces a "Box Score" table along the top of the scorecard; a nine batter scorecard, 9 innings wide with "Batters Totals" boxes at the end of each batter's row, an "Innings Totals" row, and a "Pitcher Totals" table. (See an Entire two team scorecard here.)

All of these elements can be expanded for extra innings play though a simple copy and paste technique:

Add extra batters boxes

In Compose mode, high light an AB box and it's associated pitch notation box (four boxes - one on top of the other to the left of the AB box), left click and copy - then point with your cursor right beside the last batters box in the lead off batters row of AB boxes, and click. A prompt line should appear about have way down the box, right beside the box - with no space in-between - then just right click your mouse, and paste. A 10th inning batters box should appear in the lead off batters row. The extra inning AB box code is still in your mouse, so now continue down the column as before, clicking right next to the box, and paste for all 18 batter's rows. To complete the new inning add a number lable at the top of each teams scorecard. In the same place the '9' appears relative to the column of other AB boxes, type in the new inning number. Now your ready to score the next inning.

Add innings to the Box Score

To add boxes to the Box score table at the top, just under the Title of your post, or to the "Innings Totals" boxes along the bottom of each score card, use the same technique.

Add another pitcher

The same goes for the Pitchers Line table, just high-light one row, copy, and then point your cursor on the far left, just under the box with the last pitchers name in it click, a prompt will appear, outside of the last box - and paste.


Note: if you have a feeling the games going to go on, and on, and on, you can copy as many elements as you wish (as long as you copy horizontally) and paste them as before. The blog parameters are designed to accommodate an 18 inning scorecard. You can add nine innings to a batters row with one click of your mouse if you like. Just keep a copy of the scorecard in draft at your blog, go copy 9 batters boxes onto your mouse and Voila! 18 inning rows.

Trouble shooting the Scorecard

After you've pasted the scorecard table into your New Post window - twice, once for home team, once for visitors - then just switch over to "Compose" mode and start importing data.

Cut and Paste gremlins

Some boxes don't like cut and paste. Some of them decide to disappear when you try to cut and paste a players name into them! If this happens - Don't Worry - just stop what your doing and click 'edit' at the top of your browser window, then click 'undo' - the box will reappear. Then type the player name in - or - what I do is type three letters into the box, highlight them, then paste in the player's name. The same goes when cut and pasting team names, pitcher names, stats etc..

Another 'out' or 'fail safe' is to right click on the Firefox back button and choose and earlier "Edit Post" or "Publish Status" window. Amazingly, (to me) all your edits are saved in your browser for as long as the browser tab remains open.


Happy scorecarding. Any questions, suggestions, feel free in comments or email (top-sidebar).



mh

Did the Yankees Throw Game 6 of the ALCS?

After the Tiexiera injury in game 4 I saw a most dejected team.

Like there was now no point in contesting the rest of the game... the rest of the innings passing like the last hour of work on a Friday, just going through the motions, back at the real thing on Monday.

Then in game 5, as expected, they come back to life. the last game in New York, and with the veteran CC Sabathia on the mound - pulling every trick out from under his cap, his years baseball experience to find one last trick to fool just one more hitter - to find a way sans his 'A' game to keep the run happy Rangers at bay.

Then in game 6, after the 4 run 5th, the Yankees went back into their shell.

"Oh pitiful me! Oh, from want of will to live."

How fragile the Emperors, all the power but a mystique, a magic the court astrologers concocted that fooled us every time.

And now the team who play little ball quite well - from Texas, the biggest state in the Union - the unsophisticates, the know-nothings - they go right in and point it out to everybody, just like that. How regional, how provincial.


Can it be that simple? Some old myth repeated again, as just as they persist they must have some truth? That with out the spark plug Jeter, they are nothing?

Derek Jeter's Batting Line ALCS Game 6

Robinson Cano's Batting Line ALCS Game 6

So close to being normal, mere man-gods, that Tiexiera's being carried off the field on his shield destroys it all? What happened to these centurions? This mighty unstoppable army? The Empire at an end? Corruption eating at the core of the thing - the Senate fundamentally corrupted?

Surely there must be other logic; it must be 9 men out... the starting pitchers the key... then just a few at the top of the line-up... . The odds beyond cognition, the stake beyond dreaming.

Phil Hughes' Pitching Line ALCS Game 6

Did the Yankees throw the ALCS?

Or did the myth run out of magic. Did the chicken come home to roost? The ugly bleacher creatures and their homophobic delights too late to repent; the cock-sure interfere-rs too many; the Rodriguez cheats over years; the unabashed spending that has dwarfed any in either league - for so long.

Has the crash finally come? Have the Barbarians arrived at the gates? Has Faust come to account?


Or did they just do us one better? I'm wondering if the Yankees' threw the series.



mh