Baseball’s Top Ten News Items in 2011

2011 World Champions St Louis Cardinals

The media’s full of articles and videos of the most newsworthy items about baseball this past year.   You might think this would be those articles you and I found the most interesting and representative of baseball throughout the country, but not necessarily so.

I compiled a list from a survey today of the “top 10″ from USA Today, Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated, and ESPN.

Here’s the results and below that I’ve listed my own personal “Top Ten”.  How does your list compare?

TOP TEN FROM SURVEY

1. St. Louis Cardinals, World Series Champions
2. Justin Verlander,  AL Cy Young and MVP Winner
3. Game 162 collapse of the Red Sox and Braves.
4. Game 6 World Series between the Cardinals and Rangers
5. Derek Jeter’s 3000th hit
6. Ryan Braun’s Drug Test
7. Jim Thome’s 600th Home Run
8. Shannon Stone Fatal Fall at Rangers Stadium
9. Mariano Rivera all time saves leader
10. Bryan Stow beating at Dodger Stadium

“TOP BASEBALL PLAYERS OF PAST 60 YEARS!” A Mathematical Study.

This is the third year we’ve published this study by Dr. Don Davis.  It’s one of our most popular blogs and we’re happy to be able to share it again with you.  Be sure to link to his website  for additional information, changes and criteria he used in compiling his study.

“2011 Baseball Players Mathematical Study, written by Don Davis, Department of Mathematics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA., and printed here with his permission.”

Pos’n	First team	Second team	Third team	Fourth team	Fifth team
P,1	Roger Clemens, 266.0	Tom Seaver, 181.1	Bob Gibson, 140.4	Juan Marichal, 107.9	Curt Schilling, 85.1
P,2	Randy Johnson, 202.1	Warren Spahn, 167.5	Sandy Koufax, 137.8	Gaylord Perry, 102.8	Phil Niekro, 84.9
P,3	Greg Maddux, 197.5	Bob Feller, 157.6	Robin Roberts, 136.5	Roy Halladay, 102.1	Johan Santana, 84.6
P,4	Pedro Martinez, 187.5	Steve Carlton, 143.5	Jim Palmer, 133.2	Fergie Jenkins, 87.2	Nolan Ryan, 83.7
C	Johnny Bench, 111.2	Yogi Berra, 92.9	Gary Carter, 75.6	Mike Piazza, 74.8	Ivan Rodriguez, 71.0

Veterans Day and Every Day ….. Thank You!

Arlington National Cemetery

“But the mainstay of the big leagues was the reservoir of 4-Fs – males of draft age who had been rejected on physical grounds by the Armed Forces. Not since harem attendants had gone out of style were men’s physical deficiencies so highly prized. Ulcers, hearing defects, and torn cartilages were coveted by team owners.” – Frank Graham, Jr. in Farewell to Heroes (1981)

This and the following list of Hall of Fame Members Courtesy of  Baseball Almanac.

Baseball Hall of Fame Members  who Served in the Armed Forces.

The Civil War
Morgan Bulkeley	United States Army
World War I
Grover Alexander	United States Army
Happy Chandler	United States Army

The New Ted Williams Stamp ~ Finally!

Thanks to the efforts of fellow blogger Ernie Paicopolos and others, Ted Williams will be included as part of a set of baseball players to be honored on a U. S. postage stamp next year.

What I like best about the stamp, besides Ted Williams being one of my very favorite players, is that its a Forever Stamp.  So, assuming the price will still be .44 cents when it’s issued (good luck),  it’s value is the First-Class Mail stamp postage rate for a one ounce letter at the time of use.

"Take Me out to the Ball Game" Stamps

In 2007  I purchased five sheets of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” stamps at .42 per stamp.  They were issued in celebration of 100 years of “Take Me out to the Ball Game” the song.   I used the first four sheets at which time First Class postage was raised, which meant I had to add postage to use the stamp.  I framed the remaining sheet and added it to my baseball memorabilia collection for posterity.   I’ll probably do the same with my new Ted Williams stamp because even though it’s a Forever stamp, they’ll only issue them for a  limited time.

Here’s the original post from  Ernie Paicopolos over at ”Fenway Nation“.

It was a long time coming, but the U.S. Postal Service today approved a Ted Williams stamp—to be joined in a series with stamps for Larry Doby, Willie Stargell and Joe DiMaggio.

Thousands of fans from around the world helped in the effort to get this stamp approved, but none more than Bruce Donahue—past president of the BoSox Club. He deserves the lion’s share of credit for persevering through all the ups and downs of the approval process. Congratulations, Bruce!

Also, a quick thanks to all the readers of FenwayNation who took the time to sign the petition we posted supporting the stamp effort. Over a thousand signatures were gathered and sent to the Postal Service.

Most importantly, a great Red Sox player and a great American is finally being honored with a commemorative stamp.

Related articles

• Ted Williams to be honored on postage stamp (espn.go.com)
• The Brand New Joe DiMaggio Stamp (slidingintohome.blogspot.com)

Update: 2011 MLB Payrolls & Individual Salaries.

Courtesy TTF Baseball

Here’s the 2011 update to our 2010 Major League Baseball listing published November 22, 2010.  This comes to us compliments of USA Today.  If you’ll click the individual teams, you can access the individual players salaries.  It will be interesting to note the annual salaries of the teams that make the playoffs;  in other words, did they get what they paid for?

 TEAM                          TOTAL P/R             AVG SALARY       MEDIAN

New York Yankees	$ 202,689,028	$ 6,756,300	$ 2,100,000
Philadelphia Phillies	$ 172,976,379	$ 5,765,879	$ 2,625,000
Boston Red Sox	$ 161,762,475	$ 5,991,202	$ 5,500,000
Los Angeles Angels	$ 138,543,166	$ 4,469,134	$ 2,000,000
Chicago White Sox	$ 127,789,000	$ 4,732,925	$ 2,750,000
Chicago Cubs	$ 125,047,329	$ 5,001,893	$ 1,600,000
New York Mets	$ 118,847,309	$ 4,401,752	$ 900,000
San Francisco Giants	$ 118,198,333	$ 4,377,716	$ 2,200,000
Minnesota Twins	$ 112,737,000	$ 4,509,480	$ 3,000,000
Detroit Tigers	$ 105,700,231	$ 3,914,823	$ 1,300,000
St. Louis Cardinals	$ 105,433,572	$ 3,904,947	$ 1,000,000
Los Angeles Dodgers	$ 104,188,999	$ 3,472,966	$ 2,142,838
Texas Rangers	$ 92,299,264	$ 3,182,733	$ 1,251,000
Colorado Rockies	$ 88,148,071	$ 3,390,310	$ 2,318,750
Atlanta Braves	$ 87,002,692	$ 3,346,257	$ 1,275,000
Seattle Mariners	$ 86,524,600	$ 2,884,153	$ 825,000
Milwaukee Brewers	$ 85,497,333	$ 2,849,911	$ 1,050,000
Baltimore Orioles	$ 85,304,038	$ 3,280,924	$ 1,425,000
Cincinnati Reds	$ 75,947,134	$ 2,531,571	$ 825,000
Houston Astros	$ 70,694,000	$ 2,437,724	$ 467,000
Oakland Athletics	$ 66,536,500	$ 2,376,303	$ 1,400,000
Washington Nationals	$ 63,856,928	$ 2,201,963	$ 1,050,000
Toronto Blue Jays	$ 62,567,800	$ 2,018,316	$ 1,200,000
Florida Marlins	$ 56,944,000	$ 2,190,153	$ 545,000
Arizona Diamondbacks	$ 53,639,833	$ 1,986,660	$ 1,000,000
Cleveland Indians	$ 49,190,566	$ 1,639,685	$ 484,200
San Diego Padres	$ 45,869,140	$ 1,479,649	$ 468,800
Pittsburgh Pirates	$ 45,047,000	$ 1,553,344	$ 450,000
Tampa Bay Rays	$ 41,053,571	$ 1,578,983	$ 907,750
Kansas City Royals	$ 36,126,000	$ 1,338,000	$ 850,000

Related articles

• Guess Which MLB Team Has $65 Million In Salaries Sitting On Its DL Right Now (It’s Not Who You Think) (businessinsider.com)
• MLB Team Rankings and Updated Standings – Week 22 (stealofhome.wordpress.com)

Garlic Fries and Baseball: The Book

Update:  Now available at Amazon as Book and Kindle.

Finally it’s here!  My book’s been in the works since February and  it’s being published today.  It’s available for sale here first, and will be available on Amazon.com early next week and in Kindle form  soon thereafter.

The book’s a compilation of some of my favorite blogs, some in expanded form, with a few little ditties added in and formatted in such a way you’ll hardly recognize it!  I have to admit ~ writing a book is a great experience, but it’s much easier writing a blog!

Let me know what you think but please be kind.   This is my debut you know ♥   Ronni

Related articles

• Amazon Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Print Books (phx.corporate-ir.net)
• Amazon: Kindle ebooks Outsell Printed Books (mjperry.blogspot.com)
• Garlic Fries and Baseball: The Book (garlicfriesandbaseball.wordpress.com)

MLB Standings vs MLB Payrolls …. How do they measure?

Okay, so we’re maybe 25% through the 2011 Major League Baseball Season.  How is your team doing?  How is your team doing in relation to their total payroll?  In other words, are they getting what they paid for?

Here’s an interesting article published by Hayes & Taylor recently.  I’m always amazed at the amount of work some of these guys put into their daily blogs;  I mean who has time for this stuff?   In any event, this is a great chart and one of the better blogs and I wanted to share it with you.

“The Cleveland Indians are in first place in the AL Central. They have the fifth lowest payroll in all of baseball. Which got me thinking, how do the other teams in the MLB rank in the standings relative to their payroll. It turns out that the Indians aren’t even the best example right now.

The Tampa Bay Rays have the second lowest payroll in the majors. The are currently in first place in the power packed AL East. Ahead of the number one payroll in baseball the Yankees, the number three payroll in Boston and numbers 19 and 24 in Baltimore and Toronto. The Royals, Marlins and A’s are all over .500, and are all in the bottom ten payrolls in the league. Not to mention all are very alive in the playoff races.

If the season ended today, four of the eight playoff teams would come from the bottom eleven in payroll (Rays, Indians, Marlins, Reds). On the other side, only three would be coming from the top eight in payroll (Angels, Phillies and Giants).

What does this all mean? Talent wins in baseball and not always how much you pay for that talent. If money was how you win, the Yankees would win every year, but they don’t. That makes me very happy. I love to see underdogs win. I love the fact that some of the lower payroll teams won’t be trading away all of their talent this season to teams who will pay whatever it takes. Baseball is stronger than ever right now.

Click here to link to a chart that shows  where all 30 teams in major league baseball rank in payroll and where they are currently in the standings. Is your team over or under achieving?”

2011 Postseason Predictions!

The off-season flew by this year didn’t it?  When you’re playing into November, it doesn’t take long for Spring Training to arrive, and now here we are counting down to the season opener in two days! 

My friends over at “Diamondhoggers” have a little contest going to see who can come the closest to predicting the 2011 World Series winner!   Here’s my contribution to the cause.  Why not play along and see how you compare .  For sure I’m not making any wagers on my predictions since last years turned out to be a bust!    Maybe I’ll have better luck this year.  Good luck on yours!

AMERICAN LEAGUE:

• East Division Champions ~  Boston Red Sox *
• Central Division Champions ~ Detroit Tigers
• West Division Champions ~ Oakland A’s
• Wild Card ~ New York Yankees

NATIONAL LEAGUE:

• East Division Champions ~ Philadelphia Phillies
• Central Division Champions ~ Cincinnati Reds
• West Division Champions ~ San Francisco Giants *
• Wild Card ~ Colorado Rockies

WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS ~ SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS OVER BOSTON RED SOX!

 

 

Related Articles

• 2011 Preseason MLB Lester Awards (lesterslegends.com)
• 2011 MLB Predictions: Why the Boston Red Sox Will Win the AL East (bleacherreport.com)

Top Baseball Players of Past 59 Years!

“2010 Baseball Players Mathematical Study, written by Don Davis, Department of Mathematics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA., and printed here with his permission.”

(GFBB Note:  I found this  information fascinating and posted the 2009 study last August.  This is the 2010 updated version with a few variations.  You can view the entire study here:  http://www.lehigh.edu/~dmd1/baseball.html    It explains the  criteria used and the history behind the study as well as a wealth of other information related to it.  You can contact Dr. Davis directly for more information regarding the list@ dmd1@lehigh.edu )

Pos’n	First team	Second team	Third team	Fourth team	Fifth team
P,1	Roger Clemens, 266.0	Tom Seaver, 181.1	Bob Gibson, 140.4	Juan Marichal, 107.9	Phil Niekro, 84.9
P,2	Randy Johnson, 202.1	Warren Spahn, 167.5	Sandy Koufax, 137.8	Gaylord Perry, 102.8	Johan Santana, 84.6
P,3	Greg Maddux, 197.5	Bob Feller, 157.6	Robin Roberts, 136.5	Fergie Jenkins, 87.2	Roy Halladay, 84.1
P,4	Pedro Martinez, 187.5	Steve Carlton, 143.5	Jim Palmer, 133.2	Curt Schilling, 85.1	Nolan Ryan, 83.7
C	Johnny Bench, 112.9	Yogi Berra, 94.9	Gary Carter, 77.3	Mike Piazza, 76.6	Ivan Rodriguez, 72.7
1B	Albert Pujols, 158.9	Jeff Bagwell, 99.9	Eddie Murray, 91.6	Willie McCovey, 88.4	Harmon Killebrew, 80.8
2B	Joe Morgan, 140.6	Rod Carew, 100.5	Ryne Sandberg, 94.8	Jackie Robinson, 93.8	Roberto Alomar, 81.1
3B	Mike Schmidt, 184.1	George Brett, 120.9	Eddie Mathews, 112.2	Wade Boggs, 110.5	Brooks Robinson, 105.1
SS	Alex Rodriguez, 151.9	Cal Ripken, 121.6	Ernie Banks, 97.6	Robin Yount, 88.2	Derek Jeter, 83.4
OF,1	Barry Bonds, 270.7	Stan Musial, 208.6	Frank Robinson, 141.2	Al Kaline, 119.2	Reggie Jackson, 111.5
OF,2	Willie Mays, 243.2	Mickey Mantle, 208.3	Rickey Henderson, 138.4	Ken Griffey, 117.1	Pete Rose, 99.4
OF,3	Ted Williams, 219.8	Hank Aaron, 201.3	Carl Yazstremski, 131.8	Roberto Clemente, 112.1	Tony Gwynn, 97.1
DH	Frank Thomas, 101.0	Paul Molitor, 58.8	Edgar Martinez, 53.4

 

Related Articles

• By The Numbers: Rare Magic Numbers And The Hall Of Fame (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• Baseball’s Top 20 Players and Their Historical Counterparts (bleacherreport.com)
• By The Numbers: APBA Baseball (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• Sherwood Ross: How Affirmative Action Brought Willie Mays to the New York Giants (grantlawrence.blogspot.com)

This day in Baseball History ……fans at Fenway. Where’d they go??

“1965.   At Fenway Park in front of only 1,247 fans, Boston right-hander Dave Morehead no-hits the visiting Indians 2-1.  On the same day, the 100 loss bound ninth place Red Sox fire their GM, Pinky Higgins.” 

I found this statistic fascinating!   This day in history, 1965, your couldn’t GIVE away tickets to watch the Red Sox play at Fenway.   Only 1,247 showed up for the game!  Wow!   Times have changed and so has baseball.   I was in Boston in June and talked with a cabbie there, exuberant about the fact I got to see the game that day.  It’s  hard to get tickets to a game at Fenway Park these days.  On June 17, 2009, Red Sox fans were celebrating their 500th consecutive sellout at Fenway Park!  And this is a park with 33,871 night time seating capacity that had an average attendance of 37,811 in 2009!   Go figure. 

But on September 16, 1965, seating capacity for Fenway Park was 33,524.   Imagine going to a professional baseball game and you’re one of 1,247 fans.  That means there are 32,277 empty seats.  Whew!  You could even hear yourself holler, if there was anything to holler about.  I mean that season they ended up losing 100 games. 

It’s different now.  If you’ve ever been to Fenway you’ll get this.   Once you get nestled into your wood seat you don’t 

Fenway Park

dare move.   This is a small stadium and I’d estimate maybe 12,000 fans are mulling through the concessions stands and restrooms at any given time.  So once you leave your seat, figure about 45 minutes before you’ll get back again.  Best advice……do all your stuff before you sit!     So right now, today, Boston’s in 3rd place in their division, up and down this year.  But it really doesn’t matter.   Boston Red Sox fans are no longer fair weather fans.  They’ve had  winning seasons and  losing seasons since  1965 .  Not to worry.  They manage to sell those seats game after game, year after year.   And it’s one of the best stadiums in Major League Baseball!   I love Fenway Park.  I love the fans, the food, the team.  

Where’d the fans go?   They went right back to the park and that’s where they’ve been ever since, God love em! 

Related Articles

• Behind the scenes at Fenway Park (photos) (news.cnet.com)
• Boston Red Sox’s Fenway Park by Color (interbent.com)
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• 2011 MLB schedule features March start, Cubs at Fenway (tsn.ca)

Best Players in Past 58 Years ……. A Mathematical Study!

Roger Clemens

Greg Maddux

Randy Johnson

Pedro Martinez

Johnny Bench

Albert Pujols

Joe Morgan

Mike Schmidt

Alex Rodriguez

Barry Bonds

Willie Mays

Ted Williams

Frank Thomas

I came upon an interesting study a few months ago.  It was written by Don Davis, Mathematics Professor at Lehigh University, Bethleham, PA.   There’s a lot of criteria used in determining different aspects of this study, but for the most part the players names are all recognizable and only a few to make the list are surprises.   The following table lists the top five All Star Teams, using 4 pitchers per team.    It also lists the overall rating percentage by player.   Take a look:

Pos’n	First team	Second team	Third team	Fourth team	Fifth team
P1	Roger Clemens, 266.2	Tom Seaver, 166.9	Bob Gibson, 129.2	Jim Palmer, 106.4	Johan Santana, 85.4
P2	Greg Maddux, 203.9	Warren Spahn, 160.5	Robin Roberts, 128.3	Gaylord Perry, 96.1	Tom Glavine, 84.8
P3	Randy Johnson, 202.4	Bob Feller, 143.7	Sandy Koufax, 126.0	Phil Niekro, 96.1	Curt Schilling, 80.7
P4	Pedro Martinez, 185.7	Steve Carlton, 140.7	Juan Marichal, 109.5	Fergie Jenkins, 91.7	Bob Lemon, 79.9
C	Johnny Bench, 115.5	Yogi Berra, 97.2	Mike Piazza, 82.2	Ivan Rodriguez, 77.7	Gary Carter, 75.5
1B	Albert Pujols, 145.4	Jeff Bagwell, 103.2	Eddie Murray, 95.2	Willie McCovey, 92.1	Harmon Killebrew, 86.4
2B	Joe Morgan, 140.3	Rod Carew, 94.5	Ryne Sandberg, 92.4	Jackie Robinson, 82.4	Roberto Alomar, 81.1
3B	Mike Schmidt, 173.2	George Brett, 119.2	Eddie Mathews, 111.7	Wade Boggs, 108.0	Brooks Robinson, 88.4
SS	Alex Rodriguez, 145.4	Cal Ripken, 113.6	Robin Yount, 93.0	Ernie Banks, 90.7	Derek Jeter, 81.6
OF1	Barry Bonds, 270.7	Stan Musial, 205.2	Frank Robinson, 145.3	Ken Griffey, 114.2	Tony Gwynn, 100.3
OF2	Willie Mays, 226.8	Mickey Mantle, 198.3	Rickey Henderson, 141.5	Al Kaline, 110.1	Pete Rose, 99.7
OF3	Ted Williams, 213.4	Hank Aaron, 195.6	Carl Yazstremski, 127.5	Reggie Jackson, 108.9	Roberto Clemente, 99.3
DH	Frank Thomas, 115.0	Edgar Martinez, 64.4	Paul Molitor, 62.4	David Ortiz, 43.4

Are you kidding me?  Can you even begin to imagine a game with all of these guys on the same team?  What was particularly interesting to me is  that mathematically Roger Clemens is the highest rated pitcher and Barry Bonds is the highest rated batter.   These  ratings are through the 2009 season,  and personalities and private lives are not taken into account.   This is just  using good old fashioned baseball statistics.  

I found the study intriguing and spent a lot of time viewing the criteria used in coming up with the lists.  Rather than go into all the particulars here, you can view the study yourself @ Lehigh University   http://www.lehigh.edu/~dmd1/baseball.html  

 This information is being used with the permission of Professor Davis.

Whew! 7 Days of Baseball and 10 Different States…..

Who wouldn’t love this?   Never mind the early mornings, late nights, blisters, junk food and sunburns!   Looking back who’ll remember any of this stuff?   What I’ll remember is getting to sleep on the bus (our reward for getting up on time and actually making it to the bus) and those great movies (Corner Gas?  Who Knew?) and great food and the comraderie of great baseball fans gathered together for the experience of  baseball, ballparks, and ballpark food.    And that’s exactly what we did!   We could ask Dan anything and if he didn’t have the answer, our driver, Mark, did.  A pool of knowledge from these two!   And the best part was sharing their baseball experiences  with us.  The time flew by and now I’m safely home just in time to cheer my home team out of a 7 game losing streak ~ sure glad I could help!    There’s something very special about baseball fans.  When you’re sitting in a stadium with 40,000 fans cheering and clapping for whichever team, there’s a common bond that says it really doesn’t matter, just for today, what’s wrong with the economy.  And just for today I’ll let BP worry about that oil mess and I’ll let someone else solve the world problems because today I’m watching grown men throw baseballs around a field shaped like a diamond, hopefully hitting  more baseballs and scoring runs, just because they can.  Well, I can’t explain it, but there’s something very special about baseball fans!  

We’ve waited all winter, withstood snow and cold Thru free agent signings for millions in gold. “Play ball”, “Batter up”, the umpire will yell, Peanuts and crackerjaks the vendors will sell. Like Bogey has said with panache and glitz, “A hot dog at the ballpark beats roast beef at the Ritz!”

Baseball: ‘Ode to Opening Day by Mark H. Young ©