Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The New Worst Ballpark in Major League Baseball

Congratulations, Tampa Bay Rays and St. Petersburg, Florida! With the advent of Target Field in Minneapolis, Tropicana Field replaces the HHH Metrodome as the Worst Ballpark in Major League Baseball.



As far as I'm concerned, they can't blow this dump up soon enough. While they're at it, they can "contract" the Rays, too.



©2010 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The 60/60 Rule

I'm not sure whence I first heard this adage - it may have been from George "Sparky" Anderson - but it goes like this:

Every team will win 60 games, and every team will lose 60 games. It's the remaining 42 games that separate the first place teams from the last place teams.

That's pretty amazing, when you think about it. It usually holds true, as it did this year, if you employ a slight fudge factor. The Yankees only lost 59 games, but they won six more games than the next-winningest team. The pathetic Nationals only won 59 games, but they lost three more games than the second most-futile team, the Pirates.

What I take away from this is that there are no unimportant games. I hear a lot of alleged baseball pundits talk about September games "that count." This is, of course, absurd. Games in April and May count the same as every other game.

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Box Score Revelations

After writing my previous post about my encounter with Bill Veeck, I took a closer look at the box score from that game in Wrigley Field on September 21, 1981. A couple of Cubs players jumped out at me:

- Bobby Bonds I didn't realize that I saw him play, and I'd forgotten he'd played for the Cubbies. I always think of him as a Giant, but he also played for the Yankees, Angels, White Sox, Rangers, Indians and the Cardinals. After I saw him that day, he only played eight more games in the Major Leagues.

- Jim Tracy I'm guessing I'm one of a thimbleful of Colorado Rockies fans that saw their current manager play in the Majors. In his career, Tracy only had 213 plate appearances, and I saw one of them when he walked that day. Jim had only four PA's in the bigs after that. His base on balls on September 22 was the last time he reached base. Tracy then played a couple of years in Japan before hanging up the spikes.

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

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