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Sean Forman's Blog
Sean Forman's Blog --
News, thoughts, and notes
Sean L. Forman, St. Joseph's University
My baseball-reference.com e-mail is not working right now, but you can get ahold of me in case of an emergency through my school e-mail. I hope to have the real address fixed soon.
--posted by Sean Forman at 9:00 PM EST /
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Tuesday, April 10
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MLB Real Broadcasts
I'm not exactly sure what the heck MLB.com is doing with their broadcasts, but you can still get to them without paying for anything. Also, I wouldn't be surprised to see
this taken down sometime in the next week.
Also, I know there are some MLB.com guys who read this site. Let me just say this. This page is all I would ever want for the broadcast page. If you could give me a page like this listing (very simple and direct) which added a notation for currently live games and a note about the teams playing each other. I would add $20 to my charge and be happy. I don't need the added features. I ONLY WANT DIRECT REAL AUDIO LINKS AS SIMPLE AS THIS!!
Thank you for your time.
--posted by Sean Forman at 8:57 PM EST /
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David Cornette's Projection Page
David hopes to update this site daily. It contains the pythagorean win-loss record for every team in the majors. Don't place those bets on a 135 win season for the Red Sox yet. Of course, if they played the Orioles every game they quite possibly would get close.
--posted by Sean Forman at 8:56 PM EST /
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Monday, April 9
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Baseball-Reference.com temporarily unavailable - Baseball Primer
Just in case you've tried to reach baseball-reference.com today. Suggestions?
--posted by Sean Forman at 9:01 PM EST /
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Postcard from Cinergy
My brother called me immediately after hearing Kenny Mayne's piece on Dmitri "Ballhitter". There is a real video link here, so you can hear the piece. I hope "Demolition" gets that $265 million he is asking for.
--posted by Sean Forman at 9:36 AM EST /
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Sunday, April 8
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Phillies lose as Bowa goes to quick hook once again
It is understandable that Bowa would be quick to the bullpen given the key off-season acquisitions of Jose Mesa, Rheal Cormier and Ricky Bottalico. With that crew, you are always in good hands.
--posted by Sean Forman at 10:26 PM EST /
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How to Hit a Home Run Off Pedro Martínez
Derek Jeter? Are you reading? You might find yourself needing to do this.
--posted by Sean Forman at 10:44 AM EST /
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Yahoo! Sports: NFL - Saints running back contacts Texas Rangers
This has got to be one of the silliest ideas I've ever read. The list of football to baseball conversions reads far longer than Drew Henson and Bo Jackson and most of that list resulted in failure. Williams couldn't hit a lick in rookie league when he was playing semi-regularly and now that he has taken a few years off, he would be lucky to crack .200 in A-ball.
It looks to me that this is purely about leverage. His agent (who worked for Puffy Combs) negotiated the worst deal possible when he was drafted and Williams probably isn't in the top 10 for his team in pay. He has since switched agents, but Williams still has five years to go on his contract. Williams likely is hoping that a flirtation with baseball will force the Saints to renegotiate his deal. However, the Rangers or Phillies would be idiots to offer him more than $50,000 and a standard minor league contract. You could likely go to any ballpark in the Dominican and find a couple better ways to spend your money.
--posted by Sean Forman at 8:07 AM EST /
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Saturday, April 7
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Yahoo! Sports: MLB - Chicago Cubs at Philadelphia Game Recap
I cut out of the office early yesterday (I don't teach on Friday's) and caught 2/3rds of the Phillies home opener. It was Dreary. The Phillies retired a couple of numbers. Grover Cleveland Alexander and Chuck Klein, who weren't there, and Sen. Jim Bunning, who was there along with his considerable progeny.
After the festivities, including a very impressive parachute jump by a group of Navy Seals, the Phillies decided to delay the start of the game by two hours. Thankfully, the rain stopped after the delay. But I already had evening plans, so I left at the end of the sixth inning around 5:00.
The Phillies have installed a new surface at the Vet, NexTurf and from where I was sitting it looks more like grass than any artificial turf I've seen. I believe the D-Rays have it already as do a couple of football teams including Nebraska (Go Huskers!). It actually has fairly long fibers and it has little rubber pellets that act as "dirt" and gives it added cushioning. If I could get to the game tomorrow, they would actually let us walk on the field, but I don't think I'll make it.
About the game, Randy Wolf wasn't informed of the delay decision and hence warmed up twice and was forced to leave in the fourth inning as his pitch count was too high. There was a group in the outfield with a banner proclaiming themselves "Burrell's Penthouse", right next to the "Wolf Pack". The latter group had highly choreographed hand signals to perform when their inspiration struck out a Cub.
Julio Zuleta hit a nice home run and Jimmy Rollins looked pretty good at the plate as well. With Hee Seop Choi on the way, the Cubs would be smart to forget Stairs and Coomer for awhile and see if Zuleta can play at the major league level. As Ray Knight would think, "He looks great in a uniform."
Julian Tavarez was consistently around 92 on the gun, while Wolf cracked 90 only rarely. Also, Doug Glanville played remarkably shallow at least in my opinion, and Pat Burrell did not get a good jump on a ball over his head, but still made the catch. When there is a hit and your head turns and you see the outfielder turning and beginning to run that is a bad sign. I hope to catch 20 or more games this year, so I'll try to post recaps as time permits.
Also, we are looking at a way to allow readers to submit clutch hits to the site, so you all could become bloggers here at some point. I know there is a lot of good insights here and we don't want to monopolize the discussion.
--posted by Sean Forman at 4:58 PM EST /
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Yahoo! Sports: MLB - High winds make for clamorous Miller Park
It is always amazing the little unforeseen things that cause problems. Especially, when you have a remarkably complicated structure like this one. I'm planning on attending a game there this summer, so I'll give a full report of my impressions when that time comes.
--posted by Sean Forman at 4:44 PM EST /
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Thursday, April 5
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Sugar Cain Statistics - Baseball-Reference
There was a pretty good run on the random player link at BR.com. First, I got Slats Jordan and now I was sent to Sugar Cain. There have been some problems with the player_search script at BR. I believe traffic has been too heavy and they have shut down the search features because it was taking too many resources. It's back up now, but I need to call them and Sylvia won't get off the phone.
This is a double-edged sword. On one hand, I'm getting huge amounts of traffic and I never thought I would, but on the other hand, I'm not really prepared to run my own server. 1) it costs too much money ($200-$300 per month plus the purchase of the server--at least that is my impression) and 2) it takes more time as you have to maintain everything. It would be much more customizable and it would also probably speed the site up more, but it would also be a big hassle, and I would likely want to hire someone part-time to do it, which would be $50/hour maybe an hour or two a week. It's a dilemma.
--posted by Sean Forman at 10:27 PM EST /
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Wednesday, April 4
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Yahoo - Baseball-Reference.com Hits a Home Run for Online Ease of Use
Excuse me while I take a bow. This made my freaking day!
--posted by Sean Forman at 7:42 PM EST /
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Yahoo! Sports: MLB - Leiter on the move again in six-player deal
It's sort of funny how a familiar name can make you the lead name in a trade. Of course, Leiter is actually the third or fourth best player in the trade.
--posted by Sean Forman at 7:37 PM EST /
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Baseball Primer NCAA Pool
Well there is no shame in finishing 8th, especially when one of your final four teams loses in the first round. The winner, Aluda Azida, had all the the final four selections correct and charged from the back of the pack to win it. Canadian James Fraser finished third. Do they even play basketball in Canada?
--posted by Sean Forman at 7:32 PM EST /
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Monday, April 2
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The Best Now vs. the Best Ever
ESPN.com is running a series that compares the best now to the best of all-time at ten positions. This parallels a thread that went forever on this site. Also, David Schoenfield thank you for linking to my site, I appreciate it.
--posted by Sean Forman at 12:27 PM EST /
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Opening Day! Opening Day! Opening Day!
Let us all rejoice and be glad at such a happy day. I'm excited, I'm giddy, I'm really happy that we now have real baseball. Real Baseball! Think about how long it has been since we could say that. Now I can listen to the Sox on the internet every day. I can listen to a Padres-Expos game and hear the announcers marvel at Vladimir Guerrero or talk about how Sean Burroughs is heating up in AAA. I can look in the paper and see a "4 2 2 2" line for Barry Bonds or watch a triple play on SportsCenter.
I can watch Pedro and marvel. I can watch Tom Glavine and wonder, "How is he so good?" I can listen to Skip Caray point out "a fan from Marietta in the concourse level caught that foul ball." I can watch Andruw Jones streak into the gap to flag down a lined shot. I can argue whether Troy Glaus, Eric Chavez or Adrian Beltre will be "the third baseman" for the next decade. I can gently tell my friends that "strikeouts aren't that bad for a hitter".
I can get up early and go to the Yahoo!Sports scoreboard before my wife gets up for the day. I can watch Bobby Abreu and Pat Burrell and think, "Maybe the Phils can win 90 games." I can watch Rey Sanchez calmly nab a ball up the middle and accurately throw to first. Maybe this year, I can even catch a foul ball, or see a no-hitter or get Nomar's autograph. Anything is possible.
And do you know why? Because it is Opening Day!
--posted by Sean Forman at 11:02 AM EST /
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April 1, 2001 - The Week In Quotes
Funny Stuff in Derek's TWIQ section. Note the date.
--posted by Sean Forman at 1:12 AM EST /
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