November 8, 2009
Order NowThe Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 is now in development and will ship in mid November! This year's book will feature articles by THT's staff as well as Bill James, Tom Tango and Craig Wright. If you use this link to purchase the Annual, you will be in the first group to receive it and you'll be supporting THT. ![]()
Rich Barbieri
John Barten Brian Borawski Craig Brown Evan Brunell David Gassko Jonathan Hale Brandon Isleib Chris Jaffe Max Marchi Bruce Markusen Harry Pavlidis Jeff Sackmann Dave Studeman Steve Treder Bryan Tsao Tuck! Dan Turkenkopf Colin Wyers Geoff Young John Brattain And here's the full roster.
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History Articles
Following are the one hundred most recent articles for the category
History
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11/06/2009: Cooperstown Confidential: The World Series, Oscar Gamble revisited, and Fred Brocklanderby Bruce Markusen11/05/2009: Offense/Defense number (Part 1)by Brandon Isleib11/04/2009: Players worth remembering, 1925-1946by Geoff Young11/02/2009: Managerial remarriagesby Chris Jaffe10/30/2009: Cooperstown Confidential: The story of Oscar Gambleby Bruce Markusen10/29/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: Oct. 25-Oct. 31, 2009by Richard Barbieri10/26/2009: 10 worst World Series games everby Chris Jaffe10/22/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: Oct. 18-Oct. 24, 1988by Richard Barbieri10/21/2009: Arizona Fall League 2001 retrospectiveby Geoff Young10/19/2009: Managerial Golden and Dark Agesby Chris Jaffe10/15/2009: TUCK! sez: Legendary inve$tment$?by Tuck10/12/2009: Ten greatest stadium closeoutsby Chris Jaffe10/08/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: Oct. 4-Oct. 10, 2009by Richard Barbieri10/08/2009: Why the Angels should face the Rockiesby Brandon Isleib10/05/2009: Eric Wedge’s firing in historic perspectiveby Chris Jaffe10/01/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: Sept. 27-Oct. 3, 2009by Richard Barbieri10/01/2009: TUCK! sez: Wait ‘til next year. And the year after that. And the year after. And ...by Tuck09/25/2009: Card Corner: Glenn “Bruno” Beckertby Bruce Markusen09/24/2009: Portrait of a reliever: Firpo Marberry, 1925by Brandon Isleib09/23/2009: Yes, but it’s an empty .300by Geoff Young09/21/2009: The 10 greatest games in Metrodome historyby Chris Jaffe09/18/2009: The Nickname Game: Lou Gehrigby Bruce Markusen09/17/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: Sept. 13-Sept. 19, 1853by Richard Barbieri09/14/2009: Ten greatest moments in recent Pirate historyby Chris Jaffe09/11/2009: Cooperstown Confidential: Running hard and running into old ballplayersby Bruce Markusen09/10/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: Sept. 6-Sept. 12, 1913by Richard Barbieri09/10/2009: Rubbernecking (Part 2)by Brandon Isleib09/09/2009: When .360 just isn’t good enoughby Geoff Young09/04/2009: Card Corner: Dick McAuliffeby Bruce Markusen09/03/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: Aug. 31-Sept. 5, 1945by Richard Barbieri08/31/2009: Well, Leo liked Leoby Joe Distelheim08/31/2009: Beloit College Mindset List: baseball versionby Chris Jaffe08/28/2009: Cooperstown Confidential: batting without a helmetby Bruce Markusen08/28/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: Aug. 23-Aug. 29, 2009by Richard Barbieri08/24/2009: Top 20 second half flops: Nos. 10-1by Jim Anderson08/24/2009: Are pitchers clutch when they try to avoid losing 20?by Chris Jaffe08/21/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: August 16-August 22, 1890by Richard Barbieri08/21/2009: Cooperstown Confidential: Tarzan Joe Wallisby Bruce Markusen08/20/2009: Rubbernecking (Part 1)by Brandon Isleib08/18/2009: The virtual 1961 Cleveland Indians (Part 2)by Steve Treder08/17/2009: Top 20 second-half flops: nos. 11-20by Jim Anderson08/17/2009: Managerial differentialsby Chris Jaffe08/14/2009: Cooperstown Confidential: Tarzan Joe Wallisby Bruce Markusen08/12/2009: Ten who hit 500by Geoff Young08/11/2009: The virtual 1961 Cleveland Indians (Part 1)by Steve Treder08/10/2009: Random great game: Cubs-Cardinals, August 8, 1990by Chris Jaffe08/07/2009: Cycling upby Craig Brown08/07/2009: Card Corner: Dave Cash and the Baseball Reliquaryby Bruce Markusen08/06/2009: What’d I miss?by Brandon Isleib07/31/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: July 26-August 1, 2004by Richard Barbieri07/29/2009: Players worth remembering, 1947-1968by Geoff Young07/29/2009: A story of Mickey and Jackieby John Walsh07/27/2009: Best of the second best (part 2)by Chris Jaffe07/22/2009: The gentle art of prospect promotionby Geoff Young07/20/2009: Best of the second best (part 1)by Chris Jaffe07/17/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: July 12-July 18, 2009by Richard Barbieri07/15/2009: Players worth remembering, 1969-1989by Geoff Young07/10/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: July 5-July 11, 1955by Richard Barbieri07/10/2009: Card Corner: Jim “Mudcat” Grant and the Baseball Reliquaryby Bruce Markusen07/08/2009: They might run more if they could walkby Geoff Young07/06/2009: MLB’s greatest game everby Chris Jaffe07/03/2009: A conversation with Crazy Horseby Bruce Markusen07/02/2009: Looking back at Satchel Paigeby Dave Studeman07/01/2009: Adrian takes a walkby Geoff Young06/29/2009: The 10 worst lineups ever no-hitby Chris Jaffe06/26/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: June 21-June 27, 1957by Richard Barbieri06/26/2009: Cooperstown Confidential: Defending the Hall of Fame Classicby Bruce Markusen06/23/2009: Evaluating managersby Matthew Namee06/19/2009: Cooperstown confidential: Here comes the Spacemanby Bruce Markusen06/19/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: June 13-June 20, 1982by Richard Barbieri06/18/2009: Adjusting steals for win valueby Dan Turkenkopf06/12/2009: Cooperstown Confidential: Dr. Strangeglove and Mr. Cooperby Bruce Markusen06/12/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: June 7-June 13, 1919by Richard Barbieri06/11/2009: Are veterans being replaced more often?by Brandon Isleib06/10/2009: All or nothing in overtime: Part 2, the unbreakable Indiansby Geoff Young06/09/2009: Historic comparables (Volume 1)by Steve Treder06/05/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: May 31-June 6by Richard Barbieri06/04/2009: A tale of two rolesby Dan Turkenkopf06/03/2009: All or nothing in overtime: Part 1, winless in Montrealby Geoff Young06/02/2009: Don McMahon (Part 3)by Steve Treder06/01/2009: Baseball’s most exciting playby Chris Jaffe05/29/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: May 24-May 30, 1968by Richard Barbieri05/26/2009: Backstopping and roaming wide (Part 3: 1970-2008)by Steve Treder05/22/2009: Stealing a runby Dan Turkenkopf05/22/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: May 17-May 23, 1962by Richard Barbieri05/20/2009: Pedro Feliz and the golden zapatosby Geoff Young05/19/2009: Don McMahon (Part 2)by Steve Treder05/15/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: May 10-May 16, 2009by Richard Barbieri05/14/2009: Culprit uno (1982-2008)by Brandon Isleib05/12/2009: Backstopping and roaming wide (Part 2: 1935-1970)by Steve Treder05/11/2009: Book Review: ‘78 by Bill Reynoldsby Chris Jaffe05/08/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: May 3-May 9, 1931by Richard Barbieri05/05/2009: Don McMahon (Part 1)by Steve Treder05/04/2009: Sundays in Brooklynby Chris Jaffe05/01/2009: This annotated week in baseball history: April 26-May 2, 1947by Richard Barbieri05/01/2009: Fear and loathing in Cooperstownby Jon Daly04/30/2009: Culprit one (1946-81)by Brandon Isleib04/29/2009: Crazy scoring streakby Geoff Young04/28/2009: Backstopping and roaming wide (Part 1: 1890-1935)by Steve Treder04/27/2009: Dazzy Vance tracerby Chris Jaffe<< Click here to return to the category list. |
![]() October 01, 2009Mr. LaRussa, meet Mr. McGrawEarlier today the Cards inflicted a considerable butt-whipping on the Cubs, 13-0. The big story was Chris Carpenter's 6-RBI performance. Not bad for a pitcher.Still, it wasn't the most impressive achievement on the day. That honor went to his manager, Tony LaRussa, who filled out the lineup card for the 4,769th time, tying him with John McGraw on the all-time leaderboard. Only Connie Mack has done more. Sure, games managed is a far from glamorous stat - but as many games managed as John McGraw?!? He (and Connie Mack) have been atop the career leaderboards for managers for so long I never imagined it was possible for anyone to catch either one. In three more years, LaRussa should pass him up in victories, too. Posted by: Chris Jaffe September 30, 2009Most recent mid-season managerial change for all 30 teamsWord is, the perpetually underachieving Indians just canned their manager, Eric Wedge.Question: When was the most recent managerial change for all 30 teams. Before checking the list can you guess which team has gone the longest without doing it? Longest in the other league? Well, here they are, bunched by fives for convenience sake. I look at games managed for tiebreakers when multiple teams appear in the same season: 2009 CLE 2009 HOU 2009 DCN 2009 COL 2009 ARI 2008 MIL 2008 TOR 2008 SEA 2008 NYM 2007 CIN 2007 BAL 2005 KCR 2005 PIT 2004 PHI 2003 FLA 2002 CHC 2002 DET 2001 BOX 2001 TEX 2001 TBD 1999 ANA 1998 LAD 1995 STL 1995 CWS 1992 SDP 1990 ATL 1990 NYY* 1986 MIN 1986 OAK 1985 SFG I would've bet anything Minnesota would come out on top, but no. I put an asterick by the Yanks because while B-ref lists it as the same guy for every season, I think Zim officially manged them for a month when Joe Torre had a health problem. It's not an official managerial change, but it was a midseason change nonetheless. (Heck, B-ref notes Pete Rose's month-long ump-bump suspension in its managerial record). Posted by: Chris Jaffe September 21, 2009What do hockey pucks from 1996 have to do with baseball in 2009?While doing some background reading for my 2010 Hardball Times Annual article, I ran across an interesting article about the development of the FoxTrax hockey puck in 1995 and 1996. The system was developed by Fox Sports to allow their TV broadcast to superimpose a blue glow around the hockey puck and add a comet trail to slap shots to help new American hockey viewers follow the action.What does this have to do with baseball, you ask? [Dora the Explorer-like pause for you to ask.] I'm glad you asked. Let me tell you. The development of the FoxTrax puck is part of the history that gave us PITCHf/x. The people involved in the FoxTrax development were expert engineers in fields like navigation electronics from Etak, radar systems from defense think-tank SRI International, and video effects from Silicon Graphics. Many of these people went on to found Sportvision, including current Chief Technical Officer Marv White, Sr. VP of Engineering Ken Milnes, and Chief Scientist Rick Cavallaro. One of the chief treats associated with my attendance at the 2008 PITCHf/x Summit was an hour sitting in Ken Milnes' office with Alan Nathan talking sports engineering. Among other things, Ken showed us a FoxTrax hockey puck and talked about its development. So I had some idea of the technical ancestry of PITCHf/x and the engineering challenges that Sportvision and its FoxTrax predecessor had tackled. But the interesting thing about this article by Rick Cavallaro was the detail with which he described the engineering challenges involved and how the FoxTrax team took on and solved each one. If you're interested in engineering and how it applies to sports, I highly recommend you read the whole article. I'll give just a few highlights here as they relate to PITCHf/x, HITf/x, and the upcoming FIELDf/x. The FoxTrax team had to learn about cameras--tracking the pan, tilt, and zoom of broadcast cameras and correcting for lens distortion. These lessons have direct applicability to tracking the orientation of the PITCHf/x cameras and reversing the effects of their lens distortion. They developed an x-y-z coordinate system for the ice rink and method for registering the location of objects detected by the cameras in this coordinate system. This registration system has been adapted for the calibration of PITCHf/x cameras to an x-y-z coordinate system for the baseball diamond. They also learned about the on-the-ground tricks required for wiring up systems at hockey arenas and connecting them up to their broadcast truck, lessons later applied during the PITCHf/x installations during 2007 and the ongoing maintenance of those systems. If this topic interests you, check out another telling of the same story and of Sportvision's history. Posted by: Mike Fast September 07, 2009Ichiro’s 2000th hitIchiro Suzuki recently gained his 2000th hit. According to this story, (hat tip, BTF he achieved that distinction in the second fastest time ever, 1,402 games - whereas Al Simmons did it in 1,390 games.That's nice to know, but it leaves me with a question. As I'm sure everyone out there in reader-land knows, Ichiro came to MLB a fully formed player in his prime. Usually, guys have to spend a couple years growing into the game and for the best players that's usually in their early 20s. Thus Ichiro should have an advantage in reaching 2000 hits if one measures it purely by games. Let's look at age instead. Ichiro was 27 in his rookie season and is age 35 now. Using, Baseball-Reference's Play Index let's see where Ichiro stacks up. I should note in advance doing it right now is actually a tad unfair to Ichiro, as his age 35 season isn't completed, but we can account for that after seeing the results. My own hunch is that if he's 2nd fastest to 2,000 hits in terms of games, he'll do worse when comparing him to others from ages 27-35. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw the results. Ichiro, even though he hasn't even finished his age 35 season is in first place, and not by a small amount. Not only is he the only guy to tally 2,000 hits in that time, he's the only one over 1,900 hits as well. Assuming he stays healthy and doesn't trail off too badly (both fair assumptions), only Pete Rose will achieve 90% of Ichiro's hits in these ages. I suppose that makes sense. The man is averaging over 220 hits a season and will probably end up averaging 225 when 2009 is all said and done. There's only been 62 times in all baseball history someone got that many hits in a single season, let alone averaged it for almost a decade. While I was right to note Ichiro missed the early warm up period, I forgot to account for the decline most players experience by age 35. Ichiro keeps on a-chooglin'. What I also find interesting in that list is that only 5 of the top 19 currently have 3,000 hits in their careers - I have to say currently because both Ichiro and Derek Jeter are legitimate shots to reach that plateau. All this leads to a new question: is this the most hits anyone has ever had in any 9-year period? Well, let's see: Most hits by the following ages: Ages 20 to 28: Ty Cobb 1,786 hits Ages 21 to 29: Joe Medwick 1,801 hits Ages 22 to 30: Willie Keeler 1,905 hits Ages 23 to 31: Paul Waner 1,860 hits Ages 24 to 32: Jesse Burkett 1,891 hits Ages 25 to 33: Jesse Burkett 1,882 hits Ages 26 to 34: Jesse Burkett 1,846 hits Ages 27 to 35: Ichiro Suzuki 2,000 hits Ages 28 to 36: Bill Terry 1,861 hits Ages 29 to 37: Pete Rose 1,837 hits Ages 30 to 38: Pete Rose 1,840 hits Ages 31 to 39: Pete Rose 1,833 hits Ages 32 to 40: Sam Rice 1,821 hits Ages 33 to 41: Sam Rice 1,762 I guess I could go further, but the point is clear: no one has ever had such a hit-terific 9-year stretch as Ichiro. No one has even come close. Well, one last question then: what may the future hold? He was Japan's annual hit-king and has lashed out base hits like no one else in the history of MLB since his arrival year. As an added bonus: he does a great job staying in shape. Barring an unexpected injury (which is always a possibility regardless of conditioning, especially as one ages), Ichiro has a good bet to get more hits from age 36 onward as anyone in history. With that in mind, here is the list of most hits by anyone from their age 36 season onward. Seven guys topped 1,000 hits, so I really like Ichiro's odds to crack 3,000. If two guys approached 1,500 hits, then I think Ichiro is a serious contender for 3,500 hits - provided again that he doesn't suffer from an injury (which is far from a given). After all, he should end this season over 2,030 hits. Posted by: Chris Jaffe July 15, 2009Warren’s WizardThis week I received in the mail a pre-publication, uncorrected page proof version of a new book: The Wizard of Waxahachie: Paul Richards and the End of Baseball as We Knew It, by Warren Corbett.Ordinarily, I would write a review of such a tome for THT. However, in this instance in all good conscience I can't review it, because I have no objectivity toward it. I've been closely watching and anticipating this ambitious project for several years. Warren even allowed me to edit one of the versions of his manuscript, for which he graciously credits me in his Acknowledgments. So, take this recommendation for whatever it's subjectively worth: the book is terrific. Paul Richards is one of the most significant figures in major league baseball history, yet no serious, comprehensive Richards biography had ever been produced. Until now: Corbett presents an impeccably researched, sharply observed, fluidly written account of this brilliant, flawed, and perplexing character. This is a must-read for any serious student of baseball history. The book's publication date is October, but you can pre-order a copy here. You will not regret it. Posted by: Steve Treder Click here for more THT Notes. |