The Liberal Order

The Home Run Controversy Continues and Expands

CLEVELAND (AP) -- A company that uses computer imaging claims baseballs had a larger rubberized core and a synthetic rubber ring in 1998, including the ball Mark McGwire hit for his 70th homer.

Universal Medical Systems Inc. said Wednesday that with the assistance of Drs. Avrami S. Grader and Dr. Philip M. Halleck from The Center for Quantitative Imaging at Penn State, it took images of 1998 baseballs.

"Examining the CT images of Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball one can clearly see the synthetic ring around the core -- or 'pill' -- of the baseball," UMS president David Zavagno said. "While Mark McGwire may or may not have used illegal steroids, the evidence shows his ball -- under the governing body of the league -- was juiced."

Story here.

The Seemingly Easisest Job in Sports

It is the easiest job in football. Maybe in life.

"I work about four minutes a year," says Jennings. "The rest of the time I'm trying to have as good a time as possible."

Here's the story of Brian Jennings, the long snapper for the Forty-niners. The average salary for a long snapper is about $650,000 per year.

Ten (Moderately) Humorous Visits to the Pitcher's Mound

The best is #3 with Casey Stengel.

Casey Stengel was a purveyor of memorable mound quotes. One time, Tug McGraw begged Stengel to let him stay in a Mets game.

"Let me pitch to one more man," McGraw said. "I struck him out the last time I faced him."

Replied Stengel: "Yeah, but the last time you faced him was this same inning."

Another time, in a game against San Francisco, Stengel went out to talk to Mets pitcher Larry Bearnarth with two on, no outs and future Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda at the plate.

"Tra-la-la," was all that Stengel said before walking off, leaving a puzzled Bearnarth. On his next pitch, Cepeda grounded into a triple play to end the inning. Bearnarth couldn't wait to ask Stengel what "Tra-la-la" meant.

"Tra-la-la, triple play," replied Stengel.

Here are the rest.

Link via Fark.

And if you haven't been paying attention, there's not a team in the NL West with a record better than .500, and there's not a team in the NL East with a record below .500.  The once powerful NL West is  pitiful.

The All-Star Game

The MLB All-Star festivities (schedule here) are really interesting and it's unfortunate that I will not be able to attend any of them. There's the Fan Fest beginning on Friday at 9:00am. My ticket entrance time is (was since I can't make it now) Monday at 11:00am. I could have stayed there all day doing neat things. On Sunday it's All-Star Sunday, with the Futures Game at 4:00 and the All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game at 7:00. That would have been so cool. On Monday it's the Gatorade All-Star Workout Day; gates open at 5:00 and the Century 21 Home Run Derby begins at 8:00. And then, of course, is the All-Star Game on Tuesday. My ticket packages (2) included all of these events, all in Section 321, Row 4. Here's the view I would have had to all of the events.

Markets in Everything (A tribute to Tyler Cowen)

Jeff Feagles, the punter for the Giants, wore No. 10 until he sold it to the rookie quarterback Eli Manning last spring for a one-week vacation in Florida. Then Feagles switched to No. 17, which he sold this off-season to receiver Plaxico Burress for a new outdoor kitchen at his home in Phoenix.

Numbers for athletes obviously have significant meaning.

The Wall Street Journal also has an article on the significance to athletes of specific numbers. (Subscription required.)

That "such a subtle, meaningless thing" can trigger a visceral response reflects the power of tradition in baseball, says Tom Shieber, a curator at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. He compiled a history of uniforms for the Hall's Web site. Uniform numbers are "the one thing people associate with the players they watched as a kid," says Mark Stang, co-author of "Baseball by the Numbers," an encyclopedia of more than 50,000 jersey numbers from 1929 to 1992. (MS: Yep, Willie Stargell, #8.) "You don't always remember the guy's batting average." Players can get so attached to numbers they will buy them off teammates' backs; in 1989, Rickey Henderson of the Athletics bought Ron Hassey a new suit in exchange for No. 24.

The Florida Legislature Redeems Itself

As goofy as they normally are, the Florida Legislature did something right in rejecting the public funding of a baseball stadium in Miami for the Marlins.

Here are some of the remarks by players and management of the Marlins.

We are deeply disappointed in the Florida Legislature's decision, and we feel very bad for all of the baseball fans in South Florida,'' owner Jeffrey Loria said. ``We will now review our options, and not comment further until this review is completed.

I think it's a major mistake,'' said third baseman Mike Lowell, who grew up in South Florida. ``We're one of the few teams that has proven we can win a championship in this state, and it just seems not everyone is a big fan of us. 

It's very disheartening,'' said Marlins veteran Jeff Conine, who played in the team's first game 12 years ago. ``You go through the laundry list of things they've done with the team - they built us into World Series champions and made us competitive every year - and you'd think they would have all the ingredients to get the support to do that. But it hasn't happened.

It creates a $30 million hole,'' Book said. ``I don't know where they go to fill the hole. They have to explore the options.

How about by raising ticket prices. Jeffrey Loria, the team's owner, doesn't want to take the risk of plunking down a huge chunk of change and find that Miami residents still don't want to attend Marlins' games. The Marlins have one of, if not the worst, attendance records in the league. Even in their two years that the Marlins won the World Series they were near the bottom in term of attendance.

 

Wood vs. Aluminum

Are aluminum baseball bats too dangerous and should therefore be banned from use in league play?

On July 25, 2003, 18-year-old Brandon Patch, a southpaw pitcher for the Miles City Mavericks American Legion team, was killed after a line drive rocketed off an aluminum bat and struck him in the head.

Now, almost two years later and in an attempt to prevent future tragedies, his parents and others are on a crusade to see the national pastime, at all levels, revert to wood bats.

The data is inconclusive on the extent to which aluminum bats increase the risk of serious injury to pitchers and infielders relative to wooden bats. Testing has been limited to laboratories, and therefore does not address actual game situations (baseballs are pitched at 65 mph rather than 85, a more accurate speed for college pitching), fatigue, air resistance, etc. But there is no doubt that aluminum bats allow for faster bat speed (lighter bats and reduced moment-of-inertia allow for faster angular velocity), a larger sweet spot, and enhanced trampoline effect (the bat compresses rather than the ball, reducing the energy on the ball lost from impact with the bat) cause a pitched ball to come off the bat faster relative to a wooden bat. Here's one explanation of the physics of baseball bats. Here's some information submitted to the Consumer Product Safety Commission on baseball bat safety. (PDF file)

But it's not enough to answer that baseball is safer than other participation sports, and therefore aluminum bats are relatively safe. The question is whether aluminum bats sufficienty increase the risk of serious injury to pitchers and fielders from hit balls coming off the bat faster relative to wooden bats. This then has to be weighed against the added value from aluminum bats relative to wooden bats in terms of game dynamics (more home runs, more runs per game).  (The graph below shows the average distances of balls hit off of wooden and aluminum bats.)

The NCAA has increased regulations of aluminum and composite bats used in college baseball, but this was an effort to increase the defensive nature of the game and not to reduce the risk of injury to pitchers.

Addendum: Would I ban aluminum baseball bats? No, but as a coach I also would not allow kids younger than 12 to use them, and those older than 12 could use aluminum bats in games only. ("in games only" simply to take away the competitive advantage teams using aluminum bats would have. For kids younger than 12 I wouldn't care so much about the competition; I'm concerned more with player development and learning strategy.)

Far more suffer serious injuries from sliding head first and being hit with thrown balls than from hit baseballs.  The first is easily rectified: Sliding head first is not allowed in Little League and I would neither teach it nor allow it for high school-age players. The latter is simply part of the game and unavoidable without seriously altering the nature of baseball.

Age as a Barrier to Entry in the NBA

Jermaine O'Neal accuses the NBA of upping the age limit to play in the NBA as a barrier to entry against blacks.

``As a black guy, you kind of think that's the reason why it's coming up. You don't hear about it in baseball or hockey. To say you have to be 20, 21 to get in the league, it's unconstitutional. If I can go to the U.S. army and fight the war at 18, why can't you play basketball for 48 minutes?''
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The NBA's seven-year labor agreement expires after the season and NBA commissioner David Stern has asked for a 20-year-old age limit in the next deal, with incentives provided to players who defer their draft eligibility to stay in college. The union originally opposed raising the current age limit of 18, but has begun to waver.

A pretty good argument. And of course the players' union is agreeing to the change. Better protect insider's interests.

On a related note, via email a friend (whom shall remain nameless unless he lets me know otherwise) makes the following comment regarding why so few blacks participating in Major League Baseball.

As an athlete there is a much more certain return in baseball than any other professional sports league. There is no minimum education requirement (skipping college is common not the exception) and there are a lot more jobs with the minor league system. Then you look at  salaries, career lengths, and injury rates of baseball, and I can't understand why anyone would choose football (ever) or basketball.  Bo Jackson might still be DHing somewhere if he hadn't played football.  I would think that the economic returns in baseball would be a huge attraction for all those kids out there who go pro due to a "family financial situation."

Why does MLB and the NHL (which are comprised of predominantly white players) shun age limits while the NFL and NBA insist on them?

Why So Few Blacks in Baseball?

Blacks make up 76% of NBA players and 69% in the NFL. They make up only 9% in Major League Baseball, well behind Latinos, who make up 26%. The high for blacks in MLB was 27% in 1974, and has been declining steadily since.

"There are some that say baseball is boring," acknowledged Jeff Whitlow, 17, a senior at Detroit Country Day High who will attend Stanford on a baseball scholarship. "They don't have the appreciation for it. ... Anyone who is big and strong can play football. There's a finesse to baseball."
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"Most African-Americans like to play basketball or football," Gates said. "They like the physical sports. They like the attention. They think baseball is a soft sport."

That's an experience shared by Young.

"When I was growing up" in California, said Young, 31, "baseball was perceived as a white man's game. You know, only white guys play baseball and black guys play basketball and football.

I don't know what to say. I guess there's no bling-bling in baseball.

 

A Fixed Game

Certainly Pete Rose gambling on baseball is cause for concern, but as long as he is betting for his team at least the game isn't fixed. When a referee gambles on games in which he is supposed to be an impartial judge,  however, the integrity of the entire league is compromised.