Al Neiger: The Pride of Delaware

Al Neiger is one of the finest athletes to ever hail from Delaware. His athletic acumen is enforced by his enshrinement in both the University of Delaware Athletics and the Delaware Sports Museum Hall of Fames. Baseball was the sport in which he excelled, and while he did not play there long, he was good [...]

Christmas and Baseball

The Christmas season used to have a wonderful pace to it, much like a baseball season does. Santa didn’t arrive until the end of the Thanksgiving Day Parade, which was followed shortly thereafter by the arrival of the first Christmas card. The Grinch That Stole Christmas was broadcast–once–and your entire Friday evening revolved around that [...]

Negro Leagues DB Update: Cuban Summer League

The historical Cuban League everyone knows about was played in the fall and winter months, and so is often referred to as the Cuban Winter League.  Almost nobody remembers that, in the first decade of the 20th century at least, there was a Cuban Summer League, too, the Premio de Verano, or Summer Championship.  The [...]

Big Trouble at The Lambs for John McGraw: Part I

John McGraw’s legacy is that of a fiery, rough and tumble sort, whose pugnacious nature on the baseball diamond was matched only by how he acted off the field. He could cuss and fight with the best of them, and scrapped his way to a Hall of Fame career in baseball, first as a player [...]

Albert Pujols is a Bargain

In order to understand why the Los Angeles Angels are getting a bargain by signing Albert Pujols for $250 million over 10 years, it is important to stop thinking like a fan or a sabermetrician or even a general manager. In order to understand a contract like this, you have to think like an accountant. [...]

Poetic Justice

Following the winter meetings is like watching grass grow. Washington baseball fans are waiting anxiously to see whether Santa wraps Mark Buerhle up and places him in the Nationals stocking and if so, what else might there be under the tree. There is the issue of center field with so many options there that even [...]

Negro Leagues Database Update: 1923 Negro National League

We’re pleased to announce the addition of the 1923 Negro National League, compiled by Patrick Rock, to the Negro Leagues Database.  Patrick’s work was the first statistical compilation of a Negro league season to reach the levels of thoroughness and completeness that we’re aspiring to here, and has been a key inspiration for my own [...]

3 Men Forged 2 Decades of Labor Peace

Sometime early in Bud Selig‘s celebration of baseball’s new collective bargaining agreement on Wednesday, he wondered if the two sides had needed to go through the pain of 1994 in order to achieve the peaceful — and very profitable — coexistence they enjoy today. It was almost certainly meant as a rhetorical question. Selig answered [...]

NORMALIZING NEGRO LEAGUE STATISTICS

Most baseball fans are familiar with the concept of ‘normalizing’ statistics. For MLB statistics, the most basic adjustment is to normalize for park effects. The simplest park normalization calculation takes the impact of a team’s park on runs scored then divides that number, either positive or negative, in half, and then that calculation is applied [...]

What’s Going On With The Red Sox Front Office?

Inquiring minds want to know. What the hell is happening in Red Sox Nation? Boston fans became accustomed over the past decade to the belief that their team was one of the most stable franchises in baseball, both in finances and day to day operations. However, events that have transpired over the past couple of [...]

1889 Metropolitans: The Trials and Tribulations of an Independent Club

Since the early days of base ball, most professional teams have chosen to affiliate with others in leagues.  This offers them certain advantages, such as having a regular schedule of games, at the cost of a loss of autonomy.  Other teams have chosen, or been forced, to go it alone as independent teams.  This is [...]

Theo Epstein and Brian Cashman Discuss Their Biggest Regrets

On November 12th I had the distinct pleasure of attending “Going to Bat for Vermont,” a charity function put on by ESPN baseball insider Buster Olney and his brother Sam Lincoln, a farmer, to raise money for Vermont farmers impacted by Hurricane Irene. Held at Vermont Technical College in Randolph Center, Vermont, the event featured [...]

The Golden Era Hall of Fame Ballot

The Hall of Fame has announced that eight players (and two executives) are to be considered for induction into the Hall in what is being called the Golden Age Ballot. Sixteen individuals (including some Hall of Famers) will vote for the candidates on Dec. 5, 2011 at the Baseball Writers Winter Meetings and twelve votes [...]

Hawley and Joss Honored in Deadball Era Memorial Series

A double-header monument unveiling and dedication was held on October 8, 2011 at Wayland Academy’s Kris Boucher Field in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Former students and players Pink Hawley and Addie Joss became the 12th and 13th players honored in The Deadball Era Memorial Series. Joss is the first player with two memorials. Athletic Director Judy [...]

Why Albert Pujols Will Stay In St. Louis

We heard it a lot. At the end of September and during every playoff series, we heard “this could be the last time Albert Pujols has an at-bat in a Cardinal uniform,” sometimes tweaked with the last home appearance. So much so that someone made a chart out of how he did in those situations. [...]

Greensboro’s Cardinal Finally at Peace

GOSHEN COMMUNITY – Thomas Edison Alston is buried within sight of first base, resting peacefully after the tumultuous life of a baseball player who never quite lived up to his potential. At least, that’s how the story goes now. The story is a lot more complicated than that. Edison was the first African-American to play [...]

Happily Ever After

Once upon a time, there was a baseball team. This baseball team wasn’t the richest team, though it wasn’t poor by any means.  It wasn’t the strongest team and it wasn’t by any means the fastest team.  It wasn’t even considered the best team within its region, much less in all the land. This team [...]

Roy Smalley, Jr.—A Baseball Classic

This past week baseball lost Roy Smalley, Jr., another member of the World War II generation that has been rapidly slipping away in recent years. He was a player, a manager, an armed services veteran, and the father of Roy Smalley III, also a major leaguer. He was part of a vanishing generation that played [...]

El primero de la temporada (The first game of the season)

A la llegada de una nueva temporada es inevitable buscar en el calendario el primer desafío de los eternos rivales. Aún resuenan en mis oídos el tono de voz emocionado de mis hermanos y los cuadernos del liceo volando sobre las camas del cuarto. Felipe y Jesús Mario casi se olvidan de ponerle el seguro [...]

Negro Leagues Database Update: American Series in Cuba, 1904-1915

In the 1900s and 1910s, with Cuba newly independent from Spain but under heavy U.S. influence (and sometimes occupation), a baseball exchange formed between the two countries.  In the summers teams of the best Cuban players toured the U.S. as the “All-Cubans” or the “Cuban Stars”; in the fall American teams traveled to Havana to [...]

Graig Nettles , Una Pared En La Serie Del 77‏ (Graig Nettles, A Wall In The Series Of 77)

Estamos en tiempo de Serie Mundial. Los recuerdos de grandes momentos vienen a nuestra mente,revolotean una y otra ves.  Grandes batazos, espectaculares atrapadas, momentos inolvidables. la Serie mundial del béisbol de las grandes Ligas es para mi de lo mejor que puede suceder en el deporte y algo esperado todo el año. Una de esas [...]

Win a Copy of the iOOTP App for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad!

My good friends at Out of the Park Developments have given us three free copies of their iOOTP app to give away to you, our loyal readers.  All you have to do to qualify is subscribe to our Seamheads Outsider Baseball Bulletin e-zine and you’ll be automatically entered into three drawings, to be held at [...]

Fixing the 2012 Red Sox

The implosion of the 2011 Red Sox came as a surprise. It was an excruciating, agonizing surprise that played out over the course of a month, and left Boston fans at a loss for answers. The team that looked like it had an excellent chance at winning the World Series this year, went down in [...]

Former Pitcher Larry Burchart Reminisces

The Los Angeles Dodgers really, really wanted collegiate star right-handed pitcher Larry Burchart. In 1967 they took him in the first round of the June phase of the amateur draft. Since he was enrolled at Oklahoma State, he did not sign. This did not deter the Dodgers, who took him again in the third round [...]

Hall of Fame Honors Selig With Locked Door

When the press release was distributed by the Hall of Fame on August 18, it seemed like a cool thing–dedicating a library space to the archives of baseball’s nine commissioners. As the release put it, “Cooperstown will also now be forever celebrated as the archival home for the Office of the Commissioner following the Wednesday [...]

The Pitchers: The 4 Levels of Greatness – Part 2

The CAWS Career Gauge has identified only fifty-one (51) 20th century major league pitchers who have obvious Hall of Fame numbers. In Part 1, I introduced the thirty-nine (39) 20th century pitchers in Levels 1 and 2.  These were the pitchers identified by the CAWS Gauge as having posted HOF numbers during their playing careers [...]

Wildest Card Wednesday Looked Like Tournament Play!

Immediately, after Wildest Card Wednesday’s games had concluded, the folks at MLB Network and ESPN were saying that this was the greatest night of baseball in the game’s history. Now that we have a few hours’ perspective, it is clear that they were absolutely right. There has never been a night in which the numbers [...]

The Pitchers: The 4 Levels of Greatness – Part 1

In a previous series of articles, I presented the 5 Levels of Greatness for the 20th century position players who posted Hall of Fame numbers during their careers – according to the CAWS Career Gauge.  We saw that there are one hundred sixteen (116) such players. In this series of articles, I will present the [...]

Fun With Retrosheet: Come-From-Behind Batting Champions

Trent McCotter sent me a note yesterday pointing out that Matt Kemp has very nearly closed a recent 19-point gap in the NL batting race as part of his three-prong effort to capture the triple-crown. Which got us to wondering about the largest deficits overcome by batting champions. Since 1918, here they are: Days ToGo [...]

Ed Killian Plaque to be Installed at Horlick Field

I have been approved to have a plaque installed at Horlick Field in Racine, Wisconsin honoring former pitcher Ed Killian. Horlick Field was home of the Racine-Horlick Legions National Football League team in 1922, 1923, 1924 and the Racine Tornadoes in 1926. Later, it hosted one of the original All-American Girls Professional Baseball League teams [...]

The Hall of Famers: The 5 Levels of Greatness – Part 4

In this article (the last in this series), I will present the Level 5 players who posted Hall of Fame numbers during the 20th century.  In Levels 1 through 4, there were eighty-eight (88) position players who had a CAWS career score of at least 280.  In Level 5, we have the other twenty-eight (28) [...]

Wally Yonamine and the Integration of Japanese Baseball

A rock whizzed by Wally Yonamine’s head. Jeers and taunts followed. “Yankee Go Home!” “Go Back to Hawaii!” Some yelled insults in Japanese, while a few yelled the only English they knew, “One, Two, Three!” The abuse had begun the minute Wally took his position in Koshien Stadium’s left field. The home-town Hanshin Tiger fans [...]

Seamheads.com Launches Negro Leagues Database Powered by The Baseball Gauge

Welcome to the Seamheads.com Negro Leagues Database, powered by The Baseball Gauge. We are creating the first comprehensive statistical encyclopedia of the great black baseball teams and leagues that operated behind the color line in the days of Jim Crow segregation.  The database also collects a vast amount of biographical information about these players, much [...]

The Hall of Famers: The 5 Levels of Greatness – Part 3

In this article, I will present the Level 3 and Level 4 position players.  There were a total of thirty-one (31) players in Levels 1 and 2 – the position players with the best careers of the 20th century.  In Levels 3 and 4, we have the fifty-seven (57) next best careers of the century [...]

The Hall of Famers: The 5 Levels of Greatness – Part 2

In this article, I will present the Level 1 and Level 2 position players.  These are the thirty-one (31) major league players who had the best career numbers in the 20th century.  I think it is fair to say that there are few surprises on these two lists. Level 1  -  Players with a CAWS [...]

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