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Category Archives: Baseball Musings

Philosophizing on the game, as player, spectator, writer, historian, and more.

Classic Red Sox

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Well, so much for my postseason prediction that the Red Sox would manhandle the Angels. The Red Sox strengths and Angels weaknesses should have matched up entirely in Boston’s favor. But ultimately it was necessary for several key Sox to perform up to expectations for it to work. David Ortiz’s oh-fer and Papelbon’s blown save […]

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If I Voted for the Cy Young Award

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Going into the final week of the season, I began to think about the major season awards. I’m a member of the recently formed Baseball Bloggers Alliance, and each member blog will be opining our picks for awards like MVP and so on, so I’ve been thinking about this more than usual. As of a […]

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Dodging a Rocky Road

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Oh, this time of year is fun. I’ve been getting vicarious thrills by rooting for the Rockies to win the NL Wild Card, and all of a sudden they are in Los Angeles playing the Dodgers with a chance to actually grab the NL West crown. Cool, eh? I like the Rockies for a number […]

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Do You SABR?

Friday, October 2, 2009

As any regular reader of this blog knows, I have found my tribe in SABR. Did you know that it takes no special credentials or secret handshakes to be in SABR? Just a love of baseball. Whether you love the history, or the numbers, or the history of the numbers, or anything that helps you […]

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September 27, 2009: Long Distance Runaround

Sunday, September 27, 2009

It’s always tricky trying to follow one’s team while traveling. In recent years I have found myself tempted to miss airplanes while watching in airport bars, watching broadcasts while ON planes (thank you, JetBlue), watching just the ESPN TICKER on planes when the local broadcast wasn’t on, carrying a portable XM radio with me, cartuning […]

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Jeter 2,721 – My Dad, 74

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Apparently, Derek Jeter got the memo about my dad’s birthday, he just got the details wrong. You see, my father and I (along with my brother and his son Owen–three generations of Tans at one ballgame!) went to the game on Monday at 1pm, Labor Day, to celebrate my dad’s 74th birthday, and also in […]

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Jeterian

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

I like to pretend that I can see into the future, but really I just have to wait until I get there like everyone else. Today I’m wondering if someday people will talk about Derek Jeter the way men of a certain era now talk about Mickey Mantle. You know the ones I mean, guys […]

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(Almost)-September Scoreboard Watching

Monday, August 31, 2009

It has become fun to watch the standings lately. The Yankees have the best record in baseball at 82 wins, and it’s not lost on me that the last time the won the World Series, in 2000, they managed only 87 wins on the season. That was back when the Red Sox front office was […]

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SABR in DC: Day Four

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Day Four of the SABR Convention

First up: Starbucks. Tea and coffee cake are necessary to get through the morning.
Second: Baseball’s Global Trend in Emergence of China
(Dominican) Player (Non-)Promotion in the Global Baseball Labor Market
Alexander Cartwright — mythologized much?
Awards Banquet Talk by an MLB Lawyer
Negro League Players Panel
The Rise & Fall of Greenlee Field
Grover Cleveland Alexander

(click title above to read whole post)

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SABR in DC: Day Three

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Day Three of the SABR convention in Washington, DC.

I am so not used to getting up this early every day. I got in from dinner last night and could barely keep my eyes open while blogging. I conked out earlier than I have in years, two nights in a row. But I’m still sleepy.

Despite this, I was up for the first presentation of the day. Today’s schedule:

Branch Rickey’s Wilberforce Speech
George Michael interviewing Frank Howard and Rick Dempsey
A Framework to Evaluate Managers
Do Pitchers Try Harder to Get Their 20th Win?
Baseball and Early Electro-Acoustic Technology
A Tale of Two Umpires (who were fired for union organizing)
Bus caravan to Camden Yards to see Orioles/Sox
(click title above to read entire report)

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