Tag: baseball

New depths of nerd

Or maybe it’s new heights. I guess that depends on your point of view. I’ve been doing a little fooling around with some C++ with GCC. I’m doing a little baseball simulating, and it’s going well. If it continues to go well, I’ll eventually have a little executable that generates pages and pages of wonderful statistics that I can do all sorts of wonderful things with.

I realize I’m in a very small minority with my obsession with baseball statistics, but those of us here (And by ‘here’, I mean ‘In the crazy minority’) are really into it. The wife doesn’t really understand, but as long as I don’t sit here writing code and ignoring her while she’s talking, I think she’ll humor me.

I’m a little disappointed with Eclipse, however. It was slow, error messages were unhelpful, and code completion was iffy. And since code completion is one of the greatest things about an IDE, its absence is kind of a deal breaker.  It may be partly a function of my crappy computer, though.

So I’m currently coding in Gedit and doing command-line compiling. It’s fine so far, but I haven’t done anything really complicated.

Anyway, it’s fun.

Im on a roll with the sports stuff

The Soul of Baseball: First Base: Albert Pujols

For instance, a scout friend of mine called a couple of days ago and said that Manny Ramirez is an “underrated defensive outfielder.” Now, first of all, this may be true, in that MannyBeingManny is rated as “Putrid” defensively, and he’s actually “Rancid,” and “Rancid” is better than “Putrid,” so that would make him underrated.

I have to admit that anyone making fun of Manny Ramirez playing the outfield is likely to get on my good side, like people making fun of Condi Rice or Nickelback.  But this is funny, and it gets better from the quote above.

Drugs, cheating, and incompetent management

What the heck is going on with cycling? They can’t go a month without someone getting caught doping. I can’t believe the positive feeling about cycling in the US generated by Lance Armstrong is going to last much longer, especially with the controversy surrounding him.

I’m in favor of not only a one strike rule, meaning you get caught doping once and you get a lifetime ban, but also a one year team ban. If your teammate gets caught, your team sits out a year. Edited to add:  Looks like they did kick out the first guy’s teammates, as well.  That should do wonders for team unity.  Maybe next time they’ll do a better job of policing themselves.  Or maybe they’re all on drugs.  I’m guessing the latter.

Maybe they should implement that in all pro sports. Mandatory regular tests and lifetime bans should go a long way towards getting rid of the performance enhancing drugs.

It gets pretty tiring. And it’s not just the drugs. We have Michael Vick leading a pack of guys who just can’t be satisfied by adoring fans and millions of dollars and feel the need to break all sorts of laws. We have the gambling, point-shaving basketball ref, and if you’ve ever watched a basketball game and think this guy is the only one, you’re crazy. The NBA has been a little too quick and to insistent in stressing that he was just one “criminal”. And we have Bonds on the doorstep of asterisking himself past Hank Aaron and into first place on the all-time home run list, at least until A-Rod passes him. If we lived in a truly just world, he’d get indicted this week and end up going to jail before he can break the record.

Anyway, none of this means I’m not eagerly awaiting the beginning of football season, and constantly dreaming that someone in the Orioles organization will finally wake up and trade the entire team except for Brian Roberts and Erik Bedard, rebuild with prospects, and be the 2006 Tigers of 2012.

Computers, baseball, and a lot of free time

Uni Watch » Pete, Julie, and Linc

It’s safe to say that I spend more time creating uniforms for MVP 2005 than I do actually playing it.

If you aren’t reading UniWatch, you should be.

This particular post is by a reader who painstakingly recreates all sorts of historical baseball uniforms for MVP 2005, a really nice baseball video game.

I’ve never been that interested in uniforms, but I have definitely spent unreasonable amounts of time on introducing realism to video games and whatnot, so I can identify his obsession. It started with Tomy Pocket Baseball, a little handheld game. I had a league that went on for about ten seasons (A good chunk of my childhood). I still have all the stats, and periodically I get nostalgic for the game, and I’m tempted to go find it and play another season.  I used to spend hours in my room with that game.  And it was really more the stats that drew me in than the game.

Then there was penny soccer, invented by a friend.  I played at his house for a while, then created my own league.  There weren’t so many stats to go along with that, but we did NCAA football-style rankings, which was fun.  I always loved watching the unranked no-name upset the undefeated powerhouse.

I wonder what the wife would say if I pulled out the old Tomy Pocket Baseball.  She’d probably prefer it to me playing on the computer, but not to me cleaning the house or something.

Featured Complaint of the Week

Complaint: Dumbass Major League Baseball

There is no reason to freaking block a game because it’s on ESPN. IDIOTS!

So, one of my more obnoxious friends has been badgering me to upgrade the Your Complaints section of Complaint Hub for a while.  I haven’t done it because I’m lazy.  He wants to be able to reply to complaints.  I’ve told him to go to Ventbox, but he ignores me.

One of these days I’ll get around to it.  Probably not this week.  But one of these days.

Nicest thing hes ever said

ESPN.com – MLB – Bonds denies receiving amphetamines from Sweeney

“He is both my teammate and my friend,” Bonds said in a statement. “He did not give me anything whatsoever and has nothing to do with this matter, contrary to recent reports.”I want to express my deepest apologies especially to Mark and his family as well as my other teammates, the San Francisco Giants organization and the fans,” he said.

After my recent post bashing Barry Bonds, I feel some obligation to show the other side, as well – he actually said the right thing for a change.  I obviously can’t attest to the sincerity of what he said, but I can at least say that this is the first time I’ve ever read a quote from him and thought, “Assuming he’s sincere, that was the right thing to say.”

Of course, you may argue that he wouldn’t have had to apologize if he had never a) taken amphetamines or b) blamed an innocent teammate for giving them to him.  And you’d be absolutely right.

Bonds is a druggie, CEO of MLB players association a liar

SI.com – MLB – Caught speeding – Thursday January 11, 2007 3:09AM

“I can say unequivocally in my 22 years I’ve known Barry Bonds he has never blamed anyone for anything.”

So says Gene Orza.  A quick Google search for “barry bonds blame” turns up this:

“I’m tired of my kids crying. You wanted me to jump off a bridge, I finally did,” Bonds told reporters Tuesday, shortly after returning to training camp. “You finally brought me and my family down. … So now go pick a different person.”

So, maybe Orza was exaggerating a little.  Why do people make statements like that when they must know them to be false?

Anyway, Bonds is a jerk.  I don’t care how many home runs he hits or what his career stats look like when he finally retires.  He has made himself the poster child of everything that’s wrong with Major League Baseball.  It would make me very happy if he doesn’t break Hank Aaron’s record because he’s in jail for perjury.  That would be too awesome.

Nice job, Cal

Baltimore Orioles : News : Baltimore Orioles News

“He proved that a tall man could play shortstop, enabling players like Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez to follow.”

Cal Ripken was just inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, the first time he was on the ballot, with the third highest vote percentage ever.  Growing up in Maryland, following the Orioles ever since I was ten, it was a long time before I saw a live baseball game that he didn’t play in.  Well, not including my rec league games.  He got an honorary degree when my sister graduated from Johns Hopkins, and I walked past him at Preakness last summer.

I still remember coming home from work on September 6th, 1995, and watching him do his victory lap as he broke Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games streak.  I hadn’t really realized how much of a big deal it was until I saw that on tv.

I know that the exploits of a man who played a game for a living are pretty unimportant in a lot of ways, but in some other ways, they make a big difference to a lot of people.  There’s nothing quite like sitting in the bleachers on a sunny day, throwing peanut shells on the ground and watching a baseball game.  It doesn’t match the intensity of a lot of other sports, but there’s some magic there (I know, I’m being a little cheesy, sue me).

So, congratulations to Cal, and to also-deserving Tony Gwynn.

OMG two baseball posts in one day!

ESPN.com – MLB – Pen collection: O’s to add Williamson, Bradford

The Baltimore Sun reported that Bradford, who pitched for the Mets last season, will receive a three-year contract from the Orioles.

Chad Bradford, hero of a chapter in Moneyball, is going to be an Oriole!  This is cool.  Of course, they’ll probably pay him way too much, as they usually do.  But at least they didn’t blow $100 million on Carlos Lee.  And the Orioles generally don’t run into money problems.

Just like every other year, I get excited about the Orioles in the off-season.  They’re finally addressing a real need (the bullpen), and the young rotation could be on the verge of greatness (Or it could be on the verge of going back to the minors).  I guess we’ll see.  The Yankees and Red Sox were very beatable last season, so maybe next year we can actually compete.

This is probably all happening because I mentioned to some people that I was seriously considering abandoning the Orioles for the A’s because the Orioles haven’t been making a sincere effort to get better for years.

A fallen hero

SI.com – MLB – Poll: Big Mac in HOF? Don’t hold your breath – Monday November 27, 2006 9:01PM

The Associated Press surveyed about 20 percent of eligible voters, and only one in four who gave an opinion plan to vote for McGwire this year. That’s far short of the 75 percent necessary to gain induction.

In the late 80’s, before I became an Orioles’ fan, I loved the A’s.  I think I’ve mentioned it here before, but Mark McGwire was my favorite baseball player.  This skinny little first baseman who hit 49 home runs as a rookie, hit the home run that provided the A’s only win in the ’88 World Series, how could you not like him?

I was pulling for him to break Maris’ record.  That was a fun season of baseball.

But then the steroid allegations came out.  I know he’s never actually been caught doing it (Neither has Barry Bonds, but everyone knows he’s been on something), but it’s pretty hard to believe that he was totally clean.  I don’t trust Jose Canseco any further than I can throw him, and I believe that he would make up stories to sell books.  But there’s too much pointing to steroids, and McGwire never really did anything to clear his name.

I know the player’s union would kill him if he undermined the work they did by volunteering for steroid tests, but they’re going to shoot themselves in the foot.  What good is protecting the players’ rights if people lose faith in the integrity of the game and stop watching?

However, I think the whole thing may be moot.  Even assuming that McGwire was clean, I don’t think he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.  His career average was .263.  He had a total of four seasons where he played 100 games and hit over .280.  Yes, he hit a lot of home runs, but that’s all.  Generally, admission to the Hall of Fame requires a more well-rounded player.

So, we’ll see.  But I don’t think he makes it in, and I don’t think he deserves to.