The Hardball Times

May 03, 2008

A venerable interview

Eric Seidman interviews former major leaguer Bill Werber, who is all of 99 years old.
Posted by: Dave Studeman

May 02, 2008

Happy 100th

Today is the 100th anniversary of the publication of Take Me Out to the Ballgame, the third-most popular song in America (behind Happy Birthday and The Star Spangled Banner). According to Craig Wright, Take Me Out to the Ballgame has been recorded by over 400 artists and musical groups and has appeared in over 1,200 movies and television shows. To celebrate, here are the complete lyrics...
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Posted by: Dave Studeman

April 03, 2008

Don Drysdale Scouting Report by Branch Rickey

Just in case you didn't see this yesterday, Dave Rouleau at Baseball Digest Daily unearthed an early scouting report of Don Drysdale by Branch Rickey (Rickey was working for the Pirates at the time). It's great reading. There's also a good Q&A about the document at Baseball Think Factory.
Posted by: Dave Studeman

January 24, 2008

Rich and Buster

Rich Lederer and Buster Olney have been debating the Hall of Fame qualifications of Jim Rice in an open manner, swapping points back and forth in their blogs. You can read Rich's latest post, which includes a fair rendition of Olney's arguments, at his blog. Their willingness to continue their debate in the open air of the Internets is valuable for all of us.

Now, I'm as sick of the endless Hall of Fame debates as anyone, but something in Olney's argument stopped me from working on the THT Season Preview for a couple of minutes to investigate something he implied: that Rice shouldn't be held accountable for his relatively low OBP because people didn't "know" that walks were so valuable when he played.

This implies a number of things that bother me. One, that a player like Rice could dramatically change his batting approach based on sportswriters' expectations. Two (and more importantly), that the game was somehow "different" back in the 1970s and 1980s, and a different set of skills was required to be successful. I'm not sure Olney meant to imply either point, but I think they're both wrong.

Yet I was curious as to his primary point: that teams and batters value walks more than they used to. If true, then might batters be walking more than in the past? That would seem to reinforce his point, wouldn't it? So I did a little digging...
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Posted by: Dave Studeman

May 28, 2007

Video Game Baseball

The Mariners lack of plate discipline has been mentioned before, but I am wondering if I just saw something historic. Leading off the top of the 7th inning of Monday's game against the Angels, here's the transcript:

Lopez   1st Pitch  1B
Suzuki  1st Pitch  1B
Vidro   1st Pitch  1B/FC
Guillen 1st Pitch  SacFly
Ibanez  1st Pitch  FC+Err

Five consecutive batters put the first pitch in play. So what is the record for most consecutive batters to do that? I don't know, does someone out there?
Posted by: Matthew Carruth

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History Articles

05/16/2008: Making contact in the early Live Ball Era (1920-1955)

05/15/2008: Hit ‘em where they ain’t—if you can

05/15/2008: Candles in the wind (Part 2)

05/12/2008: Book Review: The 1973 Story

05/05/2008: Putting pressure on the defense

05/01/2008: Candles in the wind (Part 1)

04/28/2008: Franchise Managerial Hiring Tendencies

04/25/2008: The Pujols Awards: Week 16

04/18/2008: Flying out of the gate

04/17/2008: April ciphers

04/14/2008: Cubdom’s great lost opportunity

04/07/2008: Book Review: Big Book of Baseball Legends

04/04/2008: More openers for the ages

04/03/2008: The worst pitches ever

04/03/2008: The B-Squad of the A-Team

04/02/2008: Those who do not learn from history…

03/31/2008: Baseball’s strangest and most amazing team pitching splits: 1957-2007

03/28/2008: Openers for the ages

03/20/2008: Sir Bert the Obscure

03/03/2008: 2007’s Most Historic and Impressive Team Splits

02/29/2008: Collusion and the no-risk free agents of 1988

02/25/2008: Homer tracker

02/21/2008: Prospecting through time: 1988

02/18/2008: The Gods and Dogs of Garbage Time

02/14/2008: Remembering Fred Lynn

02/01/2008: Grumpy Old Men revisited

01/21/2008: The 10 greatest Game Sevens in World Series history

01/18/2008: Grumpy old men

01/17/2008: Ten pitching seasons to forget

01/11/2008: Striped delight

01/10/2008: Measuring defense for players back to 1956

01/07/2008: Tomorrow’s Cooperstown election results today

01/04/2008: Ten best World Series Game Sixes ever

01/03/2008: Weird games

12/28/2007: Buck Weaver lives!

12/20/2007: Long game in Houston

12/17/2007: Ten Best Game Fives in World Series History

12/10/2007: Ten Best Game Fours in World Series History

12/07/2007: Does VC stand for ‘Validating Cronyism’?

12/04/2007: Interview: John Thorn

11/30/2007: Cooperstown needs a piece of “The Rock”

11/28/2007: The World Series’ Top 10 Game Threes

11/26/2007: Alex Rodriguez opts for free agency…

11/19/2007: 10 Best World Series Game 2s Ever

11/16/2007: The 300 Club

11/05/2007: Ranking the Recent Postseasons

10/29/2007: Forgotten upset: 1958 World Series

10/26/2007: Ghosts of World Series past

10/25/2007: Have pitchers become more fragile?

10/24/2007: Can the 1986 Brewers be salvaged?

10/22/2007: The Youth of America

10/15/2007: How to Pull Off a World Series Upset

10/08/2007: Willie survive?

09/25/2007: Revisiting the 1973 draft

09/24/2007: More tales from the team splits junk drawer

09/18/2007: BRUUUUUCE!!

09/10/2007: Best and Worst MLB Splits, 1957-2006

09/07/2007: Scream of consciousness

09/07/2007: San Diego Padres’ 1993 fire sale

09/04/2007: First impressions: Buchholz vs. Kennedy

08/27/2007: Forgotten pennant push: Jim Kaat, 1967

08/14/2007: Managing and the back of the bus

08/09/2007: Historical hitting by position

08/08/2007: How to fix the Pirates

08/06/2007: Sean Forman interview

08/03/2007: A-Rod traded to Blue Jays for Marcum and McGowan…

08/02/2007: The four greatest home run hitters of all-time: a video analysis of their swings

07/30/2007: SABR37 recap

07/27/2007: Discount da ringzzzz

07/16/2007: Looking for the perfect comp

07/16/2007: Is Barry Bonds really the home run king?

07/13/2007: Treating Barrynoia

07/11/2007: Strike Zone: Fact vs. Fiction

07/09/2007: Cream of the crap (Part 2)

07/06/2007: Selig inspiring Fehr …

07/02/2007: The cream of the crap (Part 1)

06/27/2007: Streaking

06/22/2007: Brainwashing by Boras