Ken Griffey Jr. goes into the Hall of Fame today. I had him number 4 on my list of favorite post-Cold War players (by the way, Kershaw has definitely jumped to number 1 since I wrote that in 2012). He's also starting in center on the All-Jim Team. So yeah, I'm a fan of Ken Griffey Jr. I am not a fan of Barry Bonds. Griffey got the highest percentage of Hall of Fame votes ever at 99.3%. I would say that it's deserved, but really it isn't. Why didn't Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Walter Johnson, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, or Hank Aaron get 100%? (And I realize you could possibly make the argument for Sandy Koufax not getting 100% because of his short career, but he's the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time and the second greatest pitcher ever so he deserved 100%.) This year Barry Bonds got 44.3% of Hall of Fame votes. That's 44.3% more than he should have gotten.
Anyway, this post was inspired by ESPN ranking the greatest 100 players of all time. They had Barry Bonds number 5 and Ken Griffey Jr. number 14. As much as I like Griffey, I think that might be a little high. I'd have really dig into the numbers, but I wouldn't immediately put him ahead of Joe DiMaggio, Sandy Koufax (DiMaggio and Koufax are 15 and 16 on their list, I probably would have had them in the top 10), Cy Young, Randy Johnson, Rogers Hornsby, Christy Mathewson, and Johnny Bench. But the idea of Barry Bonds being number 5 is completely absurd, especially because Ken Griffey Jr. was better than he was (and so was Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Stan Musial and lots of other players).
I know Barry Bonds has better numbers than Griffey. Of course he does. He has better numbers because he was the biggest cheater in the history of baseball. Bonds would have been a Hall of Famer without steroids, but the cheating disqualifies him.
But just for fun, let's consider Bonds without steroids. I grew up in the 1990s. Ken Griffey Jr. was the best position player in baseball and there was no debate about that. Bonds started taking steroids after the 1998 season because he was jealous of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Barry Bonds was 33 in 1998. So let's compare them through their age 33 seasons (it's worth nothing that Griffey's decline started at age 30, which sounds about right for a guy that wasn't cheating):
Bonds: .290/.411/.556, 411 home runs, 403 doubles, 63 triples, 3679 total bases, 1216 RBIs, 445 stolen bases
Griffey: .294/.379/.562, 481 home runs, 382 doubles, 36 triples, 3977 total bases, 1256 RBIs, 177 stolen bases
Now Griffey played in 16 more games and had 69 more plate appearances. Not much of a difference, and certainly not enough to account for and extra 70 home runs. But it is fairly close. Bonds has him beat in on base percentage, doubles, triples (by a pretty good amount), and stolen bases (by a lot). But 70 more home runs for Griffey is pretty important. Griffey has a pretty good lead in total bases also. If you want to give Bonds credit for stolen bases and add his stolen bases minus caught stealing to total bases, you end up with Griffey leading 4088-3994. So it's close in terms of hitting, but Griffey was better. And Griffey was a great center fielder. Bonds was a mediocre left fielder. Griffey was definitely better up to age 33.
If we look at age 23-29, you know, about the seven years when a baseball player should be at his best, it's not close:
Bonds: .296/.410/.557, 218 home runs, 216 doubles, 29 triples, 1979 total bases, 653 RBIs, 241 stolen bases
Griffey: .297/.387/.613, 311 home runs, 188 doubles, 18 triples, 2247 total bases, 808 RBIs, 107 stolen bases
Bonds still has him beat in some categories, but Griffey has a big lead in sluggling percentage, home runs, total bases, and RBIs. Any argument for Bonds being better than Griffey depends entirely on what he did after age 33, you know, when he went crazy cheating. Before turning 34, he had one season with more than 42 home runs. Then he hit at least 45 home runs every year from age 35-39 (for comparison, Griffey hit more than 30 once after turning 34, 35 when he was 35, and he was nowhere close to what he once was by age 38). Bonds does not deserve credit for that. That was the steroids. And before you tell me that pitchers were using steroids too, I know that. And it helped them, but it clearly helped hitters more. Pitchers didn't suddenly striking out 400 batters in a season. But you did have hitters suddenly hitting 60+ homeruns (something that's been done twice all time by guys who weren't cheating).
Before I finish, I have a quick tangent. I've heard people say that Mike Trout is the greatest hitter of the last 50 years. If you compare Trout to the rest of the league, what he's doing is pretty impressive. Obviously it's more impressive than what Griffey did compared to the rest of the league because the rest of the league was using steroids when Griffey was playing. But in fairness, Trout's numbers are better than Griffey's through their age 23 seasons (Trout is 24 right now, I used 23 since he hasn't finished his age 24 season yet). I'll just say let's see if Trout can keep playing at this level. He definitely has a chance to be better than Griffey, but he's got a lot of work to do (he has 158 home runs in his career, which is a great start, but again, he has a lot of work to do).
So congratulations to Ken Griffey Jr. He was the greatest hitter that I ever saw. Barry Bonds was just a cheating scumbag.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
No Cubs No
Last Wednesday, I made it to Wrigley Field for the second time (the first time was in April 2009). I wanted to get back later in the season when the ivy had grown in (and it does look a lot nicer in the summer). So I went last Wednesday. It was raining in the morning so I just stayed in my room and watched Wimbledon. Then I headed for the game for my first (and possibly only) afternoon game of the season. I took a lap around Wrigley before going in. They have some statues outside the stadium. I would probably prefer a statue of Will Ferrell as Harry Caray to a statue of Harry Caray, but that's just me.
I went in the stadium and got a free 1916 Cubs jersey. Both the Cubs and Reds were wearing throwback uniforms for the game. I'll probably give the jersey I got to one of my students in the fall. On that lower concourse, it is really packed and tough to move around. I did manage to get out to the seats and take some pictures from right behind home plate.
Then I headed up to my seat. I was on the first base side and there was a pole that prevented me from seeing first base. I can't kill Wrigley Field for that because you can have the same thing at Fenway Park. I don't think we had food there when we went last time because I had no memory of the fact that there's only one place to get food and drinks on the upper level. It's behind home plate. Think of the top of the Citi Field rotunda, only much much smaller. There are some beer stands along the ramps that go up to the upper level, but your options are very limited. So the lines were really long, but I was able to get a personal deep dish pizza before the game. The pizza comes from Giordano's, which is supposed to be a good Chicago pizza place. And it did taste good, but to call it pizza is a stretch. My friends from college will remember that I'm a pizza snob and I won't eat pizza outside of the Pizza Belt (which I think that article defines a little too liberally). But if I were to get pizza outside the Pizza Belt, it's likely that whatever place I went to would be trying to imitate New York pizza (and doing so poorly) because that's what pizza is. It's not this deep dish Chicago silliness. But I was in Chicago so I had Chicago "pizza." Again, it was pretty good, but it wasn't really pizza.
One drawback of Wrigley Field is the beer selection. I had a Goose Island Urban Wheat. It's a Chicago beer, but it's crafty Anheuser-Busch InBev. Get some real local craft beer in there. I mean seriously, this is a high payroll team in a major market and they don't have a good beer selection. Lame. The same is true for Yankee Stadium.
As for the game, Zack Cozart led off the game with a home run for the Reds, but it was looking good for the Cubs early. They were up 3-1 after six. And then it all fell apart. Trevor Cahill came in to pitch for the Cubs in the sixth and worked a scoreless inning, but he gave up three in the seventh. The Reds tacked on a run in the eighth and won 5-3. So I didn't get to hear that stupid Go Cubs Go song (hence the title of this post). Attendance was 41,262.
What I noticed after the game was that people just hung around inside the stadium. They didn't want to leave. I'm sure you had a lot of tourists there and the fact that it was a day game probably contributed to that, but you don't get that anywhere else except for maybe Fenway. I don't really remember Fenway because when I went last year, we left after eight. I went to day games in 2009 and 2010 with John and people probably stayed also and took pictures near the field (we did), but I don't remember it being as many people as you had hanging around at Wrigley.
The last time I did my stadium rankings, I was kind of unsure as to where to rank Wrigley Field. It's hard to compare Wrigley to anything other than Fenway Park. And Fenway wins that comparison. It has a better beer selection, it's easier to move around, and I love Fenway's weird dimensions. Also, Fenway kind of has the 360 degree concourse (I don't think the Green Monster is accessible unless you have a ticket there, or if you friend worked there in my case). I don't think you can access the bleachers at all at Wrigley unless you have a ticket there. I feel like there should be some way for them to connect the bleachers to the rest of the seats in their renovation. And maybe I'm wrong because I didn't feel like trying to get out to the bleachers because it was so cramped and hard to move around on the lower level.
So anyway, I had Wrigley Field 6th in my rankings. One of my other complaints in the past was the atmosphere. Well, with the Cubs being one of the favorites to win the National League, that has improved. And it really is beautiful on a bright summer afternoon with the ivy grown in. My rankings are very subjective and I don't have a formula that I use or anything. But here's how I would explain my rankings: if Major League Baseball was just starting now, but the stadiums were already built, where would I want my team to play? Now, the obvious answer to that would be Citi Field so that I could go see them whenever I wanted, but let's take distance from home out of the equation. Then pretty obviously, Fenway Park is number one and Tropicana Field is last. Using that as my way of ranking stadiums, I'm bumping Wrigley Field down one spot. I'd rather have my team play at Kauffman Stadium than Wrigley Field. That's probably not going to be a popular opinion, but Kauffman is absolutely beautiful, it's easy to move around, they have really good local craft beer, it's excellent. I might even move Kauffman ahead of Petco Park also. The location isn't great (it's surrounded by parking lots) and it doesn't look too impressive from the outside, but it is a fantastic stadium.
So there it is. There are two cities with two Major League Baseball teams (Los Angeles has one, never forget that the Dodgers are the only Los Angeles team). In New York, you have two stadiums that are kind of middle of the pack (I could see the argument for either one being better). And in Chicago, you have one of the worst (US Cellular Field) and one of the best. Yes, Wrigley Field is one of the best, but I don't like it as much as Kauffman Stadium.
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| It's a simple question: Would you eat the moon if it were made of ribs? |
I went in the stadium and got a free 1916 Cubs jersey. Both the Cubs and Reds were wearing throwback uniforms for the game. I'll probably give the jersey I got to one of my students in the fall. On that lower concourse, it is really packed and tough to move around. I did manage to get out to the seats and take some pictures from right behind home plate.
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| It is a nice looking ballpark. |
Then I headed up to my seat. I was on the first base side and there was a pole that prevented me from seeing first base. I can't kill Wrigley Field for that because you can have the same thing at Fenway Park. I don't think we had food there when we went last time because I had no memory of the fact that there's only one place to get food and drinks on the upper level. It's behind home plate. Think of the top of the Citi Field rotunda, only much much smaller. There are some beer stands along the ramps that go up to the upper level, but your options are very limited. So the lines were really long, but I was able to get a personal deep dish pizza before the game. The pizza comes from Giordano's, which is supposed to be a good Chicago pizza place. And it did taste good, but to call it pizza is a stretch. My friends from college will remember that I'm a pizza snob and I won't eat pizza outside of the Pizza Belt (which I think that article defines a little too liberally). But if I were to get pizza outside the Pizza Belt, it's likely that whatever place I went to would be trying to imitate New York pizza (and doing so poorly) because that's what pizza is. It's not this deep dish Chicago silliness. But I was in Chicago so I had Chicago "pizza." Again, it was pretty good, but it wasn't really pizza.
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| It might be made of dough, cheese, sauce, and pepperoni, but it's not pizza. |
One drawback of Wrigley Field is the beer selection. I had a Goose Island Urban Wheat. It's a Chicago beer, but it's crafty Anheuser-Busch InBev. Get some real local craft beer in there. I mean seriously, this is a high payroll team in a major market and they don't have a good beer selection. Lame. The same is true for Yankee Stadium.
As for the game, Zack Cozart led off the game with a home run for the Reds, but it was looking good for the Cubs early. They were up 3-1 after six. And then it all fell apart. Trevor Cahill came in to pitch for the Cubs in the sixth and worked a scoreless inning, but he gave up three in the seventh. The Reds tacked on a run in the eighth and won 5-3. So I didn't get to hear that stupid Go Cubs Go song (hence the title of this post). Attendance was 41,262.
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| My view for the game |
What I noticed after the game was that people just hung around inside the stadium. They didn't want to leave. I'm sure you had a lot of tourists there and the fact that it was a day game probably contributed to that, but you don't get that anywhere else except for maybe Fenway. I don't really remember Fenway because when I went last year, we left after eight. I went to day games in 2009 and 2010 with John and people probably stayed also and took pictures near the field (we did), but I don't remember it being as many people as you had hanging around at Wrigley.
The last time I did my stadium rankings, I was kind of unsure as to where to rank Wrigley Field. It's hard to compare Wrigley to anything other than Fenway Park. And Fenway wins that comparison. It has a better beer selection, it's easier to move around, and I love Fenway's weird dimensions. Also, Fenway kind of has the 360 degree concourse (I don't think the Green Monster is accessible unless you have a ticket there, or if you friend worked there in my case). I don't think you can access the bleachers at all at Wrigley unless you have a ticket there. I feel like there should be some way for them to connect the bleachers to the rest of the seats in their renovation. And maybe I'm wrong because I didn't feel like trying to get out to the bleachers because it was so cramped and hard to move around on the lower level.
So anyway, I had Wrigley Field 6th in my rankings. One of my other complaints in the past was the atmosphere. Well, with the Cubs being one of the favorites to win the National League, that has improved. And it really is beautiful on a bright summer afternoon with the ivy grown in. My rankings are very subjective and I don't have a formula that I use or anything. But here's how I would explain my rankings: if Major League Baseball was just starting now, but the stadiums were already built, where would I want my team to play? Now, the obvious answer to that would be Citi Field so that I could go see them whenever I wanted, but let's take distance from home out of the equation. Then pretty obviously, Fenway Park is number one and Tropicana Field is last. Using that as my way of ranking stadiums, I'm bumping Wrigley Field down one spot. I'd rather have my team play at Kauffman Stadium than Wrigley Field. That's probably not going to be a popular opinion, but Kauffman is absolutely beautiful, it's easy to move around, they have really good local craft beer, it's excellent. I might even move Kauffman ahead of Petco Park also. The location isn't great (it's surrounded by parking lots) and it doesn't look too impressive from the outside, but it is a fantastic stadium.
So there it is. There are two cities with two Major League Baseball teams (Los Angeles has one, never forget that the Dodgers are the only Los Angeles team). In New York, you have two stadiums that are kind of middle of the pack (I could see the argument for either one being better). And in Chicago, you have one of the worst (US Cellular Field) and one of the best. Yes, Wrigley Field is one of the best, but I don't like it as much as Kauffman Stadium.
Monday, July 11, 2016
Good Sandwich, Bad Stadium
I went to the city that I've probably flown to more than any other city last week. Although I've flown to and from Chicago many times, I haven't actually spent too much time there. When I go there, it's almost always Notre Dame related. I flew to and from Midway when I was a student and for many years after for football games. Since Southwest did away with their Islip-Midway flights, I've been flying to O'Hare for football games and this past winter for basketball and hockey. So here are all the times I actually spent any time in Chicago:
1. The 2005 St. Edward's Yacht Dance
2. A 2006 White Sox game when I was a student at Notre Dame
3. A 2009 Cubs game when I went to visit some friends at Notre Dame
4. Dinner at Gino's East with my brothers in 2010 the night before a Notre Dame football game
5. A night at the O'Hare Hilton so that I could watch Game 6 of the NLCS before the 2013 Notre Dame-USC game
6. Another night at the O'Hare Hilton before going to Notre Dame for basketball and hockey in February
And I think that's it. So this was the first time I was going to Chicago and it wasn't connected to Notre Dame in any way. I was going to get back to US Cellular Field and Wrigley Field for the first time in a long time. I had been to every other Major League stadium I had ever been to more recently than US Cellular and every stadium I've been to except US Cellular, Shea Stadium, and old Yankee Stadium more recently than Wrigley.
I got to Chicago on a Tuesday and left on a Thursday. That meant Wednesday afternoon was my only option for Wrigley Field because the Cubs had an afternoon game on Tuesday. I had a choice between Tuesday night and Wednesday night for US Cellular. I kind of wanted to do both in one day, but the forecast for Wednesday was looking a little ominous (it turned out to be fine) so I went to the White Sox game on Tuesday. That meant I saved the better one for last and I was still getting to both within 24 hours, so I was fine with it.
Before going to the White Sox game, I went to another Man vs. Food spot, Lucky's Sandwich Company (this post has all the Man vs. Food spots I had been to before this one). I walked over there right after I got to my hotel. It's actually pretty close to Wrigley Field. The Cubs game was in the 8th inning when I got there, so there was no crowd. I watched the end of the game, had a beer (I picked some random one that had a good description, but I didn't like it), and had their 2 Bagger Sandwich, which has corned beef, pastrami, cole slaw, and fries all on the sandwich. It was like Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh. Adam went to Lucky's for his Chicago challenge, which was to each three of their sandwiches. He won easily. There's no way I'd want to eat three of those (it was a pretty serious sandwich), but the one I had was very good. When Adam went there, there was a Notre Dame banner hanging behind him. I didn't see that, but they did have a Jets helmet above the TV behind the bar (and a Bears helmet also).
After relaxing for a bit, I took the train to US Cellular Field. The White Sox were playing the Yankees. I walked around the lower concourse. There's not too much to see. It's a boring stadium. They do have some statues in the outfield, but it's not like the White Sox have the greatest history. Everybody went crazy for the Red Sox in 2004. And then the White Sox won the next year, which ended a drought that was two years longer than the Red Sox and nobody noticed. And then there's the Cubs.
I went up to my seat on the upper level. I got a ticket for $15, which wasn't bad, but really I just should have bought the cheapest ticket I could and then moved wherever because the crowd was only 20,773. Whatever. I got barbacoa tacos from the 35th Street Tacos stand. They tasted good, but they were too hot, they were falling apart, and there was too much meat. I didn't finish them. To drink, I had an Eliot Ness Amber Lager from the Great Lakes Brewing Company. It was very good, but I was a little disappointed in the beer selection. The Great Lakes Brewing Company is in Ohio. Get some good local craft beer in there.
As for the game, the Yankees dominated. They had a guy thrown out at the plate in the first, but then they scored six runs over the next four innings. They added three more in the last two. They just kept getting hits. They had 20 for the game, with home runs by Chase Headley and Austin Romine. Masahiro Tanaka started for the Yankees and turned in an excellent performance. He went seven and two-thirds and gave up no runs on six hits, one walk, and six strikeouts. The Yankees won 9-0. It was a boring game. I wasn't paying close attention after the fifth or so.
As for US Cellular Field, I remembered it being boring and I was right. There's nothing exciting about it. It's like they said, let's make a 1991 version of Shea Stadium that's baseball-only (Shea had football early on, of course). When I last ranked the stadiums, I had it ranked ahead of only Rogers Center (as much as I want to call it SkyDome, I didn't, but I refuse to use a silly British spelling for "Center") and the two stadiums that I haven't been to (the reason I haven't been to either yet is that they're so crappy). Here's what US Cellular has on Rogers Center: grass, not being in Canada, and a slightly better beer selection. Rogers Center has a better location within its city and if they renovated it, put in grass (they did just add the dirt infield this year), and a better beer selection, I'd move Rogers Center ahead of US Cellular, but for now, I'm keeping US Cellular at 29th.
I'll cover Wrigley Field in my next post.
1. The 2005 St. Edward's Yacht Dance
2. A 2006 White Sox game when I was a student at Notre Dame
3. A 2009 Cubs game when I went to visit some friends at Notre Dame
4. Dinner at Gino's East with my brothers in 2010 the night before a Notre Dame football game
5. A night at the O'Hare Hilton so that I could watch Game 6 of the NLCS before the 2013 Notre Dame-USC game
6. Another night at the O'Hare Hilton before going to Notre Dame for basketball and hockey in February
And I think that's it. So this was the first time I was going to Chicago and it wasn't connected to Notre Dame in any way. I was going to get back to US Cellular Field and Wrigley Field for the first time in a long time. I had been to every other Major League stadium I had ever been to more recently than US Cellular and every stadium I've been to except US Cellular, Shea Stadium, and old Yankee Stadium more recently than Wrigley.
I got to Chicago on a Tuesday and left on a Thursday. That meant Wednesday afternoon was my only option for Wrigley Field because the Cubs had an afternoon game on Tuesday. I had a choice between Tuesday night and Wednesday night for US Cellular. I kind of wanted to do both in one day, but the forecast for Wednesday was looking a little ominous (it turned out to be fine) so I went to the White Sox game on Tuesday. That meant I saved the better one for last and I was still getting to both within 24 hours, so I was fine with it.
Before going to the White Sox game, I went to another Man vs. Food spot, Lucky's Sandwich Company (this post has all the Man vs. Food spots I had been to before this one). I walked over there right after I got to my hotel. It's actually pretty close to Wrigley Field. The Cubs game was in the 8th inning when I got there, so there was no crowd. I watched the end of the game, had a beer (I picked some random one that had a good description, but I didn't like it), and had their 2 Bagger Sandwich, which has corned beef, pastrami, cole slaw, and fries all on the sandwich. It was like Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh. Adam went to Lucky's for his Chicago challenge, which was to each three of their sandwiches. He won easily. There's no way I'd want to eat three of those (it was a pretty serious sandwich), but the one I had was very good. When Adam went there, there was a Notre Dame banner hanging behind him. I didn't see that, but they did have a Jets helmet above the TV behind the bar (and a Bears helmet also).
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| I took this picture after eating half the sandwich. I managed to finish the whole thing. |
After relaxing for a bit, I took the train to US Cellular Field. The White Sox were playing the Yankees. I walked around the lower concourse. There's not too much to see. It's a boring stadium. They do have some statues in the outfield, but it's not like the White Sox have the greatest history. Everybody went crazy for the Red Sox in 2004. And then the White Sox won the next year, which ended a drought that was two years longer than the Red Sox and nobody noticed. And then there's the Cubs.
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| Fine, Frank Thomas was a great player. |
I went up to my seat on the upper level. I got a ticket for $15, which wasn't bad, but really I just should have bought the cheapest ticket I could and then moved wherever because the crowd was only 20,773. Whatever. I got barbacoa tacos from the 35th Street Tacos stand. They tasted good, but they were too hot, they were falling apart, and there was too much meat. I didn't finish them. To drink, I had an Eliot Ness Amber Lager from the Great Lakes Brewing Company. It was very good, but I was a little disappointed in the beer selection. The Great Lakes Brewing Company is in Ohio. Get some good local craft beer in there.
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| My view for the first pitch |
As for the game, the Yankees dominated. They had a guy thrown out at the plate in the first, but then they scored six runs over the next four innings. They added three more in the last two. They just kept getting hits. They had 20 for the game, with home runs by Chase Headley and Austin Romine. Masahiro Tanaka started for the Yankees and turned in an excellent performance. He went seven and two-thirds and gave up no runs on six hits, one walk, and six strikeouts. The Yankees won 9-0. It was a boring game. I wasn't paying close attention after the fifth or so.
As for US Cellular Field, I remembered it being boring and I was right. There's nothing exciting about it. It's like they said, let's make a 1991 version of Shea Stadium that's baseball-only (Shea had football early on, of course). When I last ranked the stadiums, I had it ranked ahead of only Rogers Center (as much as I want to call it SkyDome, I didn't, but I refuse to use a silly British spelling for "Center") and the two stadiums that I haven't been to (the reason I haven't been to either yet is that they're so crappy). Here's what US Cellular has on Rogers Center: grass, not being in Canada, and a slightly better beer selection. Rogers Center has a better location within its city and if they renovated it, put in grass (they did just add the dirt infield this year), and a better beer selection, I'd move Rogers Center ahead of US Cellular, but for now, I'm keeping US Cellular at 29th.
I'll cover Wrigley Field in my next post.
Sunday, July 10, 2016
What's the Deal with Seinfeld Night?
I finally went to a professional baseball game in Brooklyn. I was just six decades or so late. Adam and I celebrated the real Independence Day by going to Coney Island to see the Brooklyn Cyclones host Seinfeld Night. I've lived here my whole life and this was the first time I had ever been to Coney Island. Our first stop was Nathan's, where they would have the annual hot dog eating contest two days later. We both had real Nathan's hot dogs. I think the last time I had Nathan's was at the St. Louis airport two years ago. The real Nathan's in Coney Island was much better. After that, we walked along the boardwalk for a little bit. Coney Island was pretty cool.
But let me go back to the hot dog eating contest for a minute. There's a lot not to like about the hot dog eating contest. It's not healthy. It's gluttonous. I'm opposed to people eating massive quantities of food without appreciating it. There are people starving in the world, but it's not like the Nathan's executives had a choice between having 500 hot dogs available for the eating contest or sending those 500 hot dogs to starving children in Africa. But if I was running Nathan's, I would make some pledge to donate a certain amount of food or money that is dependent on the number of hot dogs consumed in the contest. So the more people eat, the more Nathan's would do to help deal with world hunger. So while there's a lot not to like about it, I do like hot dogs and I do like competition. But I would definitely change some things. These changes all come down to being required to eat hot dogs like a normal human being. No dipping hot dogs in water. Buns and dogs have to be consumed together. I would like to have a mustard requirement, but I can live without that one. Joey Chestnut ate 70 hot dogs, but no normal person dips hot dogs in water. No normal person would eat the hot dog and bun separately (you might eat a hot dog without a bun, but if there's a bun, you're eating that with the hot dog). Let's see how many hot dogs they can eat if they're eating like a normal person. I'd say the number would be more than cut in half under my rules.
Anyway, we went to KeySpan Park for the game. KeySpan Park? You most likely know it as MCU Park, but it will always be KeySpan Park to me. It was the third annual Seinfeld Night there. I think the first two were on July 5 (the anniversary of the first episode), but this one was July 2 since the Cyclones were away July 5. July 2 was appropriate because it's Larry David's birthday. They were playing the Seinfeld theme in the stadium when we got there. We got Roger McDowell second spitter bobbleheads. Unfortunately, we ordered tickets too late to get the J. Peterman package, which would have included a J. Peterman bobblehead and a Make Kramerica Great Again shirt. They played some clips from the show before the game. I said they should have played Jerry's stand up routines between innings. There were contests before the game and between innings that had Seinfeld themes. After the game, there was an Elaine dancing contest. The real highlight was that J. Peterman was there. No, not the real J. Peterman, John O'Hurley was there. He threw out the first pitch and sang the national anthem. They announced that fans could meet him between the second and sixth innings. Unfortunately, by the time we tried to get on line, they decided that the line was too long and cut it off. So we missed our opportunity to meet J. Peterman.
The game had a wild start. The Cyclones scored four in the first off of Kyle Funkhouser of the Connecticut Tigers. I knew that name because he was picked last year by the Dodgers with the 35th pick of the draft last year. He didn't sign with them and then he was picked by the Tigers 115th pick. So that didn't work out too well for him. He only lasted the first inning. Connecticut scored four in the second and one in the fifth. And that was all the scoring for the game. Brooklyn had runners on second and third with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but the next two batters struck out to end the game.
During the game, Adam asked me how many baseball games I've been to in my life. Without giving it too much thought, I said about 200. Unless I'm counting wiffle ball games or little league games that I played in or went to watch my friends, that was an overestimate. So let's limit this to professional baseball. I know the exact number of Major League games I've been to outside of New York. It's 41. And I'm fairly confident that I've been to 19 games at Citi Field and six games at the new Yankee Stadium. My guess for the number of games I went to at Shea Stadium was around 50. And I guessed 13-20 at old Yankee Stadium, so let's call it 15. So that would be 131 Major League games. I think this was my ninth minor league game. I'm somewhat confident about that. So I've been to somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 professional baseball games.
So KeySpan Park was cool. It's a great location. You can see all the Coney Island rides in the background. There's a Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese statue outside the stadium and on the press box, they have retired numbers from the Brooklyn Dodgers and a thing for the 1955 World Series Champions. But they changed the field to artificial turf a few years back. I definitely don't like that decision. I only had a pretzel to eat since I had the hot dog before the game. I also had a Mermaid Pilsner from the Coney Island Brewing Company, which was pretty solid. They had a little stand where I was able to get those without much of a wait. But Adam had a pretty long wait to get nachos. After my last trip to a minor league game, I ranked most of the minor league stadiums I've been to. I think I'd slide KeySpan Park in at number 5 after Newman Outdoor Field.
I'll finish with some Seinfeld-related rankings. We drove to Hicksville and took the train from there to the game because it gave us more options to get back after the game. On the drive there and back, we listened to the Banished to the Pen podcast draft of minor Seinfeld characters. I won't give away anything from the draft in case you want to listen to it, but here's how my draft board would have looked if I had been part of this draft (in reverse order to build suspense):
13. Lloyd Braun
12. Bob Cobb
11. Morty Seinfeld
10. Mr. Kruger
9. Kenny Bania
8. Uncle Leo
7. Yev Kassem
6. David Puddy
5. Jackie Chiles
4. Frank Costanza
3. George Steinbrenner
2. Newman
1. Jacopo Peterman
They only drafted minor characters, but they should have done one round with unseen characters and one round with aliases. Here would be my draft board for unseen characters:
8. Harry Fleming
7. Cousin Jeffrey
6. Len Nicademo
5. Jay Riemenschneider
4. Corky Ramirez
3. Dr. Bison
2. Lomez
1. Bob Sacamano
And finally, my draft board of Seinfeld aliases:
9. Paloma
8. Colin O'Brien
7. Dylan Murphy
6. Kel Varnsen
5. Wanda Pepper
4. H.E. Pennypacker
3. Slappy White
2. Art Vandelay
1. Martin van Nostrand
 |
| Nathan's |
 |
| Coney Island |
But let me go back to the hot dog eating contest for a minute. There's a lot not to like about the hot dog eating contest. It's not healthy. It's gluttonous. I'm opposed to people eating massive quantities of food without appreciating it. There are people starving in the world, but it's not like the Nathan's executives had a choice between having 500 hot dogs available for the eating contest or sending those 500 hot dogs to starving children in Africa. But if I was running Nathan's, I would make some pledge to donate a certain amount of food or money that is dependent on the number of hot dogs consumed in the contest. So the more people eat, the more Nathan's would do to help deal with world hunger. So while there's a lot not to like about it, I do like hot dogs and I do like competition. But I would definitely change some things. These changes all come down to being required to eat hot dogs like a normal human being. No dipping hot dogs in water. Buns and dogs have to be consumed together. I would like to have a mustard requirement, but I can live without that one. Joey Chestnut ate 70 hot dogs, but no normal person dips hot dogs in water. No normal person would eat the hot dog and bun separately (you might eat a hot dog without a bun, but if there's a bun, you're eating that with the hot dog). Let's see how many hot dogs they can eat if they're eating like a normal person. I'd say the number would be more than cut in half under my rules.
Anyway, we went to KeySpan Park for the game. KeySpan Park? You most likely know it as MCU Park, but it will always be KeySpan Park to me. It was the third annual Seinfeld Night there. I think the first two were on July 5 (the anniversary of the first episode), but this one was July 2 since the Cyclones were away July 5. July 2 was appropriate because it's Larry David's birthday. They were playing the Seinfeld theme in the stadium when we got there. We got Roger McDowell second spitter bobbleheads. Unfortunately, we ordered tickets too late to get the J. Peterman package, which would have included a J. Peterman bobblehead and a Make Kramerica Great Again shirt. They played some clips from the show before the game. I said they should have played Jerry's stand up routines between innings. There were contests before the game and between innings that had Seinfeld themes. After the game, there was an Elaine dancing contest. The real highlight was that J. Peterman was there. No, not the real J. Peterman, John O'Hurley was there. He threw out the first pitch and sang the national anthem. They announced that fans could meet him between the second and sixth innings. Unfortunately, by the time we tried to get on line, they decided that the line was too long and cut it off. So we missed our opportunity to meet J. Peterman.
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| This was the best picture I got of J. Peterman. It's him and his son after he threw out the first pitch. |
The game had a wild start. The Cyclones scored four in the first off of Kyle Funkhouser of the Connecticut Tigers. I knew that name because he was picked last year by the Dodgers with the 35th pick of the draft last year. He didn't sign with them and then he was picked by the Tigers 115th pick. So that didn't work out too well for him. He only lasted the first inning. Connecticut scored four in the second and one in the fifth. And that was all the scoring for the game. Brooklyn had runners on second and third with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but the next two batters struck out to end the game.
 |
| Our view for the game |
During the game, Adam asked me how many baseball games I've been to in my life. Without giving it too much thought, I said about 200. Unless I'm counting wiffle ball games or little league games that I played in or went to watch my friends, that was an overestimate. So let's limit this to professional baseball. I know the exact number of Major League games I've been to outside of New York. It's 41. And I'm fairly confident that I've been to 19 games at Citi Field and six games at the new Yankee Stadium. My guess for the number of games I went to at Shea Stadium was around 50. And I guessed 13-20 at old Yankee Stadium, so let's call it 15. So that would be 131 Major League games. I think this was my ninth minor league game. I'm somewhat confident about that. So I've been to somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 professional baseball games.
So KeySpan Park was cool. It's a great location. You can see all the Coney Island rides in the background. There's a Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese statue outside the stadium and on the press box, they have retired numbers from the Brooklyn Dodgers and a thing for the 1955 World Series Champions. But they changed the field to artificial turf a few years back. I definitely don't like that decision. I only had a pretzel to eat since I had the hot dog before the game. I also had a Mermaid Pilsner from the Coney Island Brewing Company, which was pretty solid. They had a little stand where I was able to get those without much of a wait. But Adam had a pretty long wait to get nachos. After my last trip to a minor league game, I ranked most of the minor league stadiums I've been to. I think I'd slide KeySpan Park in at number 5 after Newman Outdoor Field.
 |
| Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson |
I'll finish with some Seinfeld-related rankings. We drove to Hicksville and took the train from there to the game because it gave us more options to get back after the game. On the drive there and back, we listened to the Banished to the Pen podcast draft of minor Seinfeld characters. I won't give away anything from the draft in case you want to listen to it, but here's how my draft board would have looked if I had been part of this draft (in reverse order to build suspense):
13. Lloyd Braun
12. Bob Cobb
11. Morty Seinfeld
10. Mr. Kruger
9. Kenny Bania
8. Uncle Leo
7. Yev Kassem
6. David Puddy
5. Jackie Chiles
4. Frank Costanza
3. George Steinbrenner
2. Newman
1. Jacopo Peterman
They only drafted minor characters, but they should have done one round with unseen characters and one round with aliases. Here would be my draft board for unseen characters:
8. Harry Fleming
7. Cousin Jeffrey
6. Len Nicademo
5. Jay Riemenschneider
4. Corky Ramirez
3. Dr. Bison
2. Lomez
1. Bob Sacamano
And finally, my draft board of Seinfeld aliases:
9. Paloma
8. Colin O'Brien
7. Dylan Murphy
6. Kel Varnsen
5. Wanda Pepper
4. H.E. Pennypacker
3. Slappy White
2. Art Vandelay
1. Martin van Nostrand
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Getting the Win
I finally got to my first two Major League games of the year. My dad and I went two weeks ago on a Friday and Sunday to see the Dodgers take on the Mets at Citi Field. Friday featured an unexpected Major League debut for Dodger prospect Julio Urias. And Sunday, the greatest in the world was pitching for the Dodgers.
Before I get to the games, let me review the food and beer. On Friday, I stopped at Chef Josh Capon's grilled cheese stand. I know Josh Capon from Bar Rescue so I had wanted to check out his place since last year, but I didn't get to it until this year. I had a short rib grilled cheese and it was probably one of the best tasting food items I've ever had at a baseball game. It was also $13.50. To drink I had a Common Sense Ale from the Upstate Brewing Company. I got it because I liked the name, but it turns out that it was quite good. Citi Field's beer selection for the general public is lacking a little bit, but I got this from a little New York craft beer stand on the upper level. It has a decent selection of New York beers (most of which I've never tried before) and there isn't much of a line. On Saturday, I was in Section 417, which gave me access to a few of Citi Field's clubs. I got a burrito from the Promenade Club, which was fine. I was tempted to go back to the New York craft beer stand and get something from Cooperstown because I was seeing Clayton Kershaw pitch and he's going to end up there someday, but I couldn't pass up a can of my favorite beer, Sam Adams Summer Ale, from the bar inside the Promenade Club. Drinking my favorite beer outside in good weather while watching my favorite pitcher pitch is a great combination.
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| Josh Capon does good work. I would love to see Jon Taffer do a baseball stadium. Yankee Stadium could use his help. |
So Julio Urias is the top prospect for the Dodgers (I think we're at the point where Corey Seager isn't a prospect anymore). Urias is 19 years old. And he looked like he was 19 years old. For the second straight game that I went to at Citi Field, I saw a Dodger rookie get roughed up in his Major League debut (it was Zach Lee last year). The Dodgers had a nice rally in the ninth and they tied it on a Chase Utley bases clearing triple, but Curtis Granderson won the game in the bottom of the ninth with a home run off of Pedro Baez. He hit it to right field exactly where I was picturing Chase Utley hitting a grand slam in the top of the ninth that would have given the Dodgers the lead. By the way, Chase Utley is not popular in New York. You know this already. But I'm going to say Mets fans are overreacting. They beat the Dodgers and got to the World Series last year. And Ruben Tejada isn't on the team anymore.
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| My view on Friday night |
Out of curiosity, I compared Urias's first start to famous Dodgers lefties. Urias went two and two-thirds, struck out three, and allowed five hits, four walks, and three runs. Sandy Koufax had two appearances out of the bullpen as a rookie at age 19 before starting his first game. In his first start, he went four and two-thirds, struck out four, and allowed three hits, eight walks, and one run. Fernando Valenzuela pitched 17 and two-thirds innings out of the bullpen at age 19 and didn't allow a run. The next year, he made his first start. His first eight starts were complete games (all Dodger wins) and five of them were shutouts. He allowed a total of four runs in the other three starts. That's ridiculous. Clayton Kershaw made his debut at age 20. His first appearance was a start against the Cardinals. He went six innings, struck out seven, and allowed five hits, one walk, and two runs. He took a no decision, but the Dodgers won. His next eight starts weren't great and he picked up three losses. It took until his tenth start to get a win (six shutout innings against the Padres).
Sunday was more fun. Ordinarily, I'd be opposed to the Sunday night game, but it worked out well since the next day was Memorial Day. It was the second straight year I've seen Clayton Kershaw vs. the guy everybody forgets took steroids. The Dodgers took the lead in the third when Justin Turner grounded into a force out at second and a run scored. Adrian Gonzalez drove in a run with a single in the fifth. The Mets got on the board in the sixth with a wall scraping home run by Asdrubal Cabrera (a routine fly ball out before they moved in the fences). Clayton Kershaw gave up a single to Kevin Plawecki leading off the eighth. He got two outs and then Dave Roberts brought in Adam Liberatore to face Curtis Granderson. Granderson tripled and the game was tied. Now Liberatore has been pretty good this year. And Clayton Kershaw was running out of gas and it would have been his fourth time facing Granderson. But he had Kenley Jansen warming up. I say you either stay with the greatest pitcher in the world (and the lefty-lefty match up) or you bring in your best reliever (even if you're sacrificing the lefty-lefty match up). So Kershaw was in line for the win, but he took a no decision. The Mets brought in Jeurys Familia for the ninth. The Dodgers loaded the bases with a single and two walks. Adrian Gonzalez singled to drive in Kike Hernandez and Corey Seager. And Kenley Jansen worked a 1-2-3 inning to finish it off. Kershaw ended up going seven and two-thirds while striking out 10 and allowing four hits, no walks, two runs (with an asterisk next to one of them). He was very good, but I've definitely seen him pitch better.
Let's go through a quick power ranking of the Clayton Kershaw starts I've seen in person:
7. April 24, 2010 against the Nationals. Six innings, six strikeouts, eight hits, three walks, two runs no decision.
6. April 23, 2013 against the Mets. Five innings, five strikeouts, three hits, four walks, two runs, no decision.
5. May 29, 2016 against the Mets.
4. July 7, 2009 against the Mets. Six innings, seven strikeouts, three hits, two walks, no runs, win.
3. August 17, 2013 against the Phillies. Eight innings, eight strikeouts, three hits, one walk, no runs, and an RBI double, win.
2. July 23, 2015 against the Mets. Complete game shutout, 11 strikeouts, three hits, no walks, win.
1. April 1, 2013 against the Giants. Complete game shutout, seven strikeouts, four hits, no walks, and the home run that gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the eighth, win.
Here are Kershaw's numbers in those seven starts: 50 and two-thirds innings, 4-0 (the Dodgers are 7-0), 1.07 ERA, 54 strikeouts, 0.75 WHIP, two complete game shutouts, and one home run as a batter. And in the last 14 Dodger games I've been to, they are now 5-9 (going back to 2012). They're 5-0 with Kershaw pitching and 0-9 with anybody else pitching (starts by Beckett, Ryu, Ryu, Haren, Greinke, Ryu, Lee, Anderson, and Urias).
So the winning pitchers in the two games I went to were Jeurys Familia and Adam Liberatore. Familia gave up the double to Utley to tie the game (not a good series for him) and Liberatore gave up the triple to Granderson to tie the game. Both winning pitchers made their team significantly less likely to win. This is one of the reasons why nerdy stat guys hate the win as a statistic. And I'm here to defend it. But I will definitely agree that wins for relievers are pretty much meaningless (losses, on the other hand, are not). But for starting pitchers, the win is a valid statistic. Sure pitchers don't go the distance like they used to, but check out the active leaders in win-loss percentage. The only one that's kind of surprising in the top ten is Jered Weaver, but he did have some very good years. If you look at the top 20, you're talking about most of the best pitchers in baseball. Felix Hernandez is only 20th (great pitcher on bad teams), but it's no coincidence that Clayton Kershaw is first. I agree that just looking at a win total for one season is silly (that's why R.A. Dickey got the Cy Young over Kershaw in 2012 when Kershaw was better), but if there's a strong correlation between a statistic and how good a pitcher is (and there is in the case of win-loss percentage), it's a statistic worth looking at. And all statistics lie. Zack Greinke had a better season than Kershaw last year (I would have voted for him for Cy Young), but Kershaw was still the better pitcher. Nerdy stat guys love strikeouts. Jake Arrieta was 40 strikeouts behind Max Scherzer last year. Scherzer had a good year, but Arrieta was definitely better. James Shields had 16 more strikeouts than Zack Greinke last year and Greinke was much much better than Shields. So wins and losses still matter for starting pitchers. Yes, you can pitch well and lose or pitch poorly and win, but with a large enough sample, they're still statistics worth looking at.
I wish Kershaw had gotten the win against the Mets. He deserved it. But the Dodgers got the win on Sunday night and I got to see my favorite pitcher ever pitch well so I'll take it.
Sunday was more fun. Ordinarily, I'd be opposed to the Sunday night game, but it worked out well since the next day was Memorial Day. It was the second straight year I've seen Clayton Kershaw vs. the guy everybody forgets took steroids. The Dodgers took the lead in the third when Justin Turner grounded into a force out at second and a run scored. Adrian Gonzalez drove in a run with a single in the fifth. The Mets got on the board in the sixth with a wall scraping home run by Asdrubal Cabrera (a routine fly ball out before they moved in the fences). Clayton Kershaw gave up a single to Kevin Plawecki leading off the eighth. He got two outs and then Dave Roberts brought in Adam Liberatore to face Curtis Granderson. Granderson tripled and the game was tied. Now Liberatore has been pretty good this year. And Clayton Kershaw was running out of gas and it would have been his fourth time facing Granderson. But he had Kenley Jansen warming up. I say you either stay with the greatest pitcher in the world (and the lefty-lefty match up) or you bring in your best reliever (even if you're sacrificing the lefty-lefty match up). So Kershaw was in line for the win, but he took a no decision. The Mets brought in Jeurys Familia for the ninth. The Dodgers loaded the bases with a single and two walks. Adrian Gonzalez singled to drive in Kike Hernandez and Corey Seager. And Kenley Jansen worked a 1-2-3 inning to finish it off. Kershaw ended up going seven and two-thirds while striking out 10 and allowing four hits, no walks, two runs (with an asterisk next to one of them). He was very good, but I've definitely seen him pitch better.
 |
| My view on Sunday night |
Let's go through a quick power ranking of the Clayton Kershaw starts I've seen in person:
7. April 24, 2010 against the Nationals. Six innings, six strikeouts, eight hits, three walks, two runs no decision.
6. April 23, 2013 against the Mets. Five innings, five strikeouts, three hits, four walks, two runs, no decision.
5. May 29, 2016 against the Mets.
4. July 7, 2009 against the Mets. Six innings, seven strikeouts, three hits, two walks, no runs, win.
3. August 17, 2013 against the Phillies. Eight innings, eight strikeouts, three hits, one walk, no runs, and an RBI double, win.
2. July 23, 2015 against the Mets. Complete game shutout, 11 strikeouts, three hits, no walks, win.
1. April 1, 2013 against the Giants. Complete game shutout, seven strikeouts, four hits, no walks, and the home run that gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the eighth, win.
Here are Kershaw's numbers in those seven starts: 50 and two-thirds innings, 4-0 (the Dodgers are 7-0), 1.07 ERA, 54 strikeouts, 0.75 WHIP, two complete game shutouts, and one home run as a batter. And in the last 14 Dodger games I've been to, they are now 5-9 (going back to 2012). They're 5-0 with Kershaw pitching and 0-9 with anybody else pitching (starts by Beckett, Ryu, Ryu, Haren, Greinke, Ryu, Lee, Anderson, and Urias).
So the winning pitchers in the two games I went to were Jeurys Familia and Adam Liberatore. Familia gave up the double to Utley to tie the game (not a good series for him) and Liberatore gave up the triple to Granderson to tie the game. Both winning pitchers made their team significantly less likely to win. This is one of the reasons why nerdy stat guys hate the win as a statistic. And I'm here to defend it. But I will definitely agree that wins for relievers are pretty much meaningless (losses, on the other hand, are not). But for starting pitchers, the win is a valid statistic. Sure pitchers don't go the distance like they used to, but check out the active leaders in win-loss percentage. The only one that's kind of surprising in the top ten is Jered Weaver, but he did have some very good years. If you look at the top 20, you're talking about most of the best pitchers in baseball. Felix Hernandez is only 20th (great pitcher on bad teams), but it's no coincidence that Clayton Kershaw is first. I agree that just looking at a win total for one season is silly (that's why R.A. Dickey got the Cy Young over Kershaw in 2012 when Kershaw was better), but if there's a strong correlation between a statistic and how good a pitcher is (and there is in the case of win-loss percentage), it's a statistic worth looking at. And all statistics lie. Zack Greinke had a better season than Kershaw last year (I would have voted for him for Cy Young), but Kershaw was still the better pitcher. Nerdy stat guys love strikeouts. Jake Arrieta was 40 strikeouts behind Max Scherzer last year. Scherzer had a good year, but Arrieta was definitely better. James Shields had 16 more strikeouts than Zack Greinke last year and Greinke was much much better than Shields. So wins and losses still matter for starting pitchers. Yes, you can pitch well and lose or pitch poorly and win, but with a large enough sample, they're still statistics worth looking at.
I wish Kershaw had gotten the win against the Mets. He deserved it. But the Dodgers got the win on Sunday night and I got to see my favorite pitcher ever pitch well so I'll take it.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Greatness
I haven't written a post about how awesome Clayton Kershaw is since October. I took a personal day today and Kershaw was dominant again last night (when the team really needed it after the bullpen pitched 12 innings the day before), so it seemed like the right time.
Here's his May so far: 5 starts, 5-0, 42 innings, 0.64 ERA, 0.52 WHIP, 55 strikeouts, 2 walks, 20 hits allowed, 3 shutouts, .144 batting average against, .156 on base against, .173 slugging against. The five games he started have lasted a total of 11 hours and 11 minutes (which would be pretty fast for four games). Jake Arrieta is off to a great start also, but Kershaw beats him in most statistical categories. I'm hoping Kershaw wins another Cy Young.
I was thinking about how Kershaw of 4.32 after his start on May 21, 2015. So here's what he's done in the last 364 days (from his next start last year to last night, including playoffs): 36 starts, 22-6, 267 innings, 1.48 ERA, 0.74 WHIP, 342 strikeouts, 36 walks, 161 hits allowed, 7 complete games, 6 shutouts, and I'm not figuring out the batting against numbers (Baseball-Reference did it for me for his May numbers).
For comparison, here's Arrieta's starts during that same time period: 36 starts, 28-3, 253.2 innings, 1.53 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, 265 strikeouts, 58 walks, 148 hits allowed, 6 complete games, 5 shutouts.
Arrieta has been completely ridiculous, and Kershaw is better in everything except for won-lost record (not his fault, obviously), and hits allowed.
The great Vin Scully has mistakenly called Kershaw "Sandy Koufax" a few times this year. He did it against the Mets without noticing. And he did it again last night twice, but caught himself both times. The thing is, it's not that ridiculous (at least for the regular season).
Here's what Sandy Koufax did his last six years: 211 starts, 129-47, 1632.2 innings, 2.19 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 1713 strikeouts, 115 complete games, 35 shutouts, 6.5 hits per 9, 9.4 strikeouts per 9, 4.16 strikeouts per walk.
Here's what Kershaw has done in the last six years (a stretch that began 50 years later, when Kershaw was two years younger than Koufax was throughout his stretch): 169 starts, 95-34, 1207 innings, 2.07 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, 1344 strikeouts, 23 complete games, 14 shutouts, 6.4 hits per 9, 10 strikeouts per 9, 5.44 strikeouts per walk.
A few things to note. We're less than halfway through the sixth season of that stretch for Kershaw. Koufax pitched with a four-man rotation and pitchers don't finish games today the way they did back then. So Kershaw has no chance to catch him in innings, strikeouts, complete games, or shutouts. And hitters do strike out a lot more today than back then. But It's amazing how close the rest of those numbers are. We might very well be talking about the two best left handed pitchers of the last 60 years.
The other lefty that deserves consideration is Randy Johnson. Now Randy Johnson had much greater longevity than Sandy Koufax. He also wasn't nearly as good at a young age as Koufax and Kershaw. So if Kershaw can stick around, I think he'll clearly have Johnson beat. Johnson had some good seasons early in his career, but I think his first great one didn't come until he was 31 (Kershaw is 28 right now). I would say that Johnson's best six-year run was 1999-2004 (starting when he was 35, which is pretty crazy). Here is what he did during those years: 192 starts, 103-49, 1389.2 innings, 2.65 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 1832 strikeouts, 36 complete games, 14 shutouts, 7.1 hits per 9, 11.9 strikeouts per 9, 5.10 strikeouts per walk. Now Randy Johnson was pitching when it was still the Steroid Era, so you have to cut him a little slack for an ERA that is really good, but not all that close to Koufax and Kershaw.
I have Koufax as the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time for two reasons. You can't convince me that there was anybody better when he was at his best and he was ridiculous in the World Series (7 starts, 57 innings, 0.95 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 61 strikeouts, 11 walks, 36 hits allowed, 4 complete games, 2 shutouts). Johnson was also great in the World Series, but he only had 17.1 World Series innings. From 1998-2001, he was great in the playoffs, but 1995 was the only other year that he was good in the playoffs. I can see making the argument for Randy Johnson based on how great he was for a long period of time (which you definitely can't say for Koufax). But if Kershaw has something like eight more great years (like close to what he's been for the last six years, which is possible but far from a certainty), he's probably going to be considered the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time, at least in the regular season. Hopefully he'll soon have a run in the playoffs like Randy Johnson had in 2001 to help his case even more.
Here's his May so far: 5 starts, 5-0, 42 innings, 0.64 ERA, 0.52 WHIP, 55 strikeouts, 2 walks, 20 hits allowed, 3 shutouts, .144 batting average against, .156 on base against, .173 slugging against. The five games he started have lasted a total of 11 hours and 11 minutes (which would be pretty fast for four games). Jake Arrieta is off to a great start also, but Kershaw beats him in most statistical categories. I'm hoping Kershaw wins another Cy Young.
I was thinking about how Kershaw of 4.32 after his start on May 21, 2015. So here's what he's done in the last 364 days (from his next start last year to last night, including playoffs): 36 starts, 22-6, 267 innings, 1.48 ERA, 0.74 WHIP, 342 strikeouts, 36 walks, 161 hits allowed, 7 complete games, 6 shutouts, and I'm not figuring out the batting against numbers (Baseball-Reference did it for me for his May numbers).
For comparison, here's Arrieta's starts during that same time period: 36 starts, 28-3, 253.2 innings, 1.53 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, 265 strikeouts, 58 walks, 148 hits allowed, 6 complete games, 5 shutouts.
Arrieta has been completely ridiculous, and Kershaw is better in everything except for won-lost record (not his fault, obviously), and hits allowed.
The great Vin Scully has mistakenly called Kershaw "Sandy Koufax" a few times this year. He did it against the Mets without noticing. And he did it again last night twice, but caught himself both times. The thing is, it's not that ridiculous (at least for the regular season).
Here's what Sandy Koufax did his last six years: 211 starts, 129-47, 1632.2 innings, 2.19 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 1713 strikeouts, 115 complete games, 35 shutouts, 6.5 hits per 9, 9.4 strikeouts per 9, 4.16 strikeouts per walk.
Here's what Kershaw has done in the last six years (a stretch that began 50 years later, when Kershaw was two years younger than Koufax was throughout his stretch): 169 starts, 95-34, 1207 innings, 2.07 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, 1344 strikeouts, 23 complete games, 14 shutouts, 6.4 hits per 9, 10 strikeouts per 9, 5.44 strikeouts per walk.
A few things to note. We're less than halfway through the sixth season of that stretch for Kershaw. Koufax pitched with a four-man rotation and pitchers don't finish games today the way they did back then. So Kershaw has no chance to catch him in innings, strikeouts, complete games, or shutouts. And hitters do strike out a lot more today than back then. But It's amazing how close the rest of those numbers are. We might very well be talking about the two best left handed pitchers of the last 60 years.
The other lefty that deserves consideration is Randy Johnson. Now Randy Johnson had much greater longevity than Sandy Koufax. He also wasn't nearly as good at a young age as Koufax and Kershaw. So if Kershaw can stick around, I think he'll clearly have Johnson beat. Johnson had some good seasons early in his career, but I think his first great one didn't come until he was 31 (Kershaw is 28 right now). I would say that Johnson's best six-year run was 1999-2004 (starting when he was 35, which is pretty crazy). Here is what he did during those years: 192 starts, 103-49, 1389.2 innings, 2.65 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 1832 strikeouts, 36 complete games, 14 shutouts, 7.1 hits per 9, 11.9 strikeouts per 9, 5.10 strikeouts per walk. Now Randy Johnson was pitching when it was still the Steroid Era, so you have to cut him a little slack for an ERA that is really good, but not all that close to Koufax and Kershaw.
I have Koufax as the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time for two reasons. You can't convince me that there was anybody better when he was at his best and he was ridiculous in the World Series (7 starts, 57 innings, 0.95 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 61 strikeouts, 11 walks, 36 hits allowed, 4 complete games, 2 shutouts). Johnson was also great in the World Series, but he only had 17.1 World Series innings. From 1998-2001, he was great in the playoffs, but 1995 was the only other year that he was good in the playoffs. I can see making the argument for Randy Johnson based on how great he was for a long period of time (which you definitely can't say for Koufax). But if Kershaw has something like eight more great years (like close to what he's been for the last six years, which is possible but far from a certainty), he's probably going to be considered the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time, at least in the regular season. Hopefully he'll soon have a run in the playoffs like Randy Johnson had in 2001 to help his case even more.
Saturday, May 7, 2016
Hi, I went to Delaware
It took me until May to get to a baseball game this year. In the last 11 years, I've been to at least one April game every year except for 2011 (when my first game was Dodgers-Mets on May 6). I had the four-day weekend for Ascension Thursday and took my nearly-annual Ascension Thursday trip. In 2012, I went to San Diego. I was in school on Ascension Thursday in 2013 to make up days because of Hurricane Sandy. In 2014, I went to Toronto. And last year, I went to Birmingham and Cincinnati. So this year, I went to ... wait for it ... Wilmington, Delaware! Why? Well, I'm nearly done with Major League stadiums and it's unclear whether I'll get to the two I haven't gotten to yet (Oakland and Tampa Bay), it was just a train ride away, and Delaware might have been the most questionable state as to whether or not I should get credit for have been to. I had been thinking about that. Of the 47 states I've been to, there were 14 that I had never spent a night in (in blue on this map). So let's go through those states:
Mississippi and West Virginia are probably the least questionable. I just went to both to see historic sites and spent several hours in both. There are several states that I've been to where eating a meal is pretty much the only thing I've done: New Hampshire (a year before the blog, but I also drove through it again on the way to Maine), Wyoming, Oregon, and Maine. I saw Mickey Mantle's house in Oklahoma and then drove north through Kansas and stopped at the place that inspired the movie Cars. I made a point of going to a Gulf War memorial in Nebraska and then drove north through South Dakota and stopped at a winery last summer. I've driven through Rhode Island a few times in recent years. I think the only time I've every actually spent time in the state was when I went with my brothers when they visited Providence in 1995 (I'm pretty sure we went right to Boston from there and didn't spend a night). So that one is getting a little questionable. I might take a trip there this season for a Pawtucket Red Sox game. That leaves Kentucky, Tennessee, and Delaware. Wilhelm, Jon, Dennis, Chris, and I drove through Kentucky and Tennessee on our way to and from the Notre Dame-Georgia Tech game in 2006. We stopped at an Arby's in Kentucky on the way there and Dennis was fascinated by the accent of the cashier. And we stopped somewhere in Tennessee to eat on the way back (it might have been a Waffle House, but I think we went to a Waffle House in Georgia, so I don't remember). And it took probably a couple of hours to drive through both of those states. So they might be a little bit questionable, but I'm counting them. But as for Delaware, I had only been there on my way to and from other places (usually Washington, DC). I had probably been to a rest stop or two in Delaware, but I had never really done anything in the state. So I was off and I hadn't been to a baseball game yet this season, so why not Delaware. I thought of this Wayne's World clip:
I got in to Wilmington around 2:30. The game was at 6:30. So I killed some time by walking around by the Christina River. Then I went to the Iron Hill Brewery, which wasn't far from Daniel S. Frawley Stadium. I had a Dunkelweizen and a turkey burger. I would have liked to have tried more of their beer, but I wasn't looking to drink too much. The beer and the food were solid. After that, I walked around a little more and then headed to the stadium shortly after the gates opened at 5:30.
The Wilmington Blue Rocks play high-A ball in the Carolina league. They're an affiliate of the Royals. They were taking on a Cubs' affiliate, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. The stadium is small. You don't have the 360 degree concourse. But you do have a great beer selection for the minor leagues. Seriously, they had a better beer selection than some Major League stadiums (I'm looking at you, Yankee Stadium). And there was a pretty good food selection too. Even though it was 55 degrees, I resisted the temptation to get a Summer Ale on tap. I got a Copperhead Ale from the Fordham and Dominion Brewing Company, which is located in Dover. I figured if I was going to be in Delaware, I should get a Delaware beer that I wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to drink. It was no Summer Ale (nothing is), but it was quite good and I would definitely drink it again if I saw it anywhere. And to eat, I got crab fries from Chickie's and Pete's.
Wilmington scored two in the first and two in the seventh. They won 4-0. Their starter pitched eight and gave up six hits, no walks, and had 11 strikeouts. Pretty impressive performance. The game only took two hours and 16 minutes and allegedly there were 3,919 people in attendance. Capacity is 6,404. There is no way that it was more than half full. I'm saying the real attendance was 1,000-2,000.
After the game, I walked back to the train station and I got home around 1:30 in the morning. So I still haven't spent a night in Delaware, but I made a point of going there. I hope to get to some other nearby minor league games this year. So far, I think I've been to minor league games at eight different stadiums (seven affiliated teams, one independent team. One was G. Richard Pfitzner Stadium, where the Potomac Cannons (now Potomac Nationals) play, back in 2003. I don't really remember that too much, but let's rank the other seven:
7. Dehler Park in Billings. It was a cool location and there was some really good food. But it was a rookie ball park and everything about it said rookie ball. It was small and you had goofy things going on between innings (which every minor league park has, but this was the goofiest). I'm ranking it last, but it wasn't bad (unlike US Cellular Field, which is just bad).
6. Arvest Ballpark in Springdale. It was named baseballpark.com's 2008 Ballpark of the Year, but it really wasn't anything all that special. Pretty good beer selection, not much of a food selection. It was fine, but I liked several others more.
5. Memorial Stadium in Boise. It's old and set up differently than every other minor league ballpark I've been to. There really is no concourse where you can see the field. The seats go up higher than other minor league ballparks (which I liked). But the food and beer were very good (the selection of Idaho beers I had was outstanding).
4. Newman Outdoor Field in Fargo. No 360 degree concourse, but it had a solid food and beer selection. And it had a Maury Wills Museum and the field had the same dimensions as Yankee Stadium.
3. Isotopes Park in Albuquerque. It's the biggest minor league stadium I've been to. I loved the Simpsons theme, but long lines were an issue, which was disappointing considering the stadium was only a little more than half full.
2. Daniel S. Frawley Stadium. The only drawback was the lack of a 360 degree concourse. But food and beverage options were outstanding and quick and easy (I guess it helped that the crowd was so small).
1. Regions Field in Birmingham. It was a little bit of a funky stadium, but it had a great crowd and a great beer selection. Very solid.
Mississippi and West Virginia are probably the least questionable. I just went to both to see historic sites and spent several hours in both. There are several states that I've been to where eating a meal is pretty much the only thing I've done: New Hampshire (a year before the blog, but I also drove through it again on the way to Maine), Wyoming, Oregon, and Maine. I saw Mickey Mantle's house in Oklahoma and then drove north through Kansas and stopped at the place that inspired the movie Cars. I made a point of going to a Gulf War memorial in Nebraska and then drove north through South Dakota and stopped at a winery last summer. I've driven through Rhode Island a few times in recent years. I think the only time I've every actually spent time in the state was when I went with my brothers when they visited Providence in 1995 (I'm pretty sure we went right to Boston from there and didn't spend a night). So that one is getting a little questionable. I might take a trip there this season for a Pawtucket Red Sox game. That leaves Kentucky, Tennessee, and Delaware. Wilhelm, Jon, Dennis, Chris, and I drove through Kentucky and Tennessee on our way to and from the Notre Dame-Georgia Tech game in 2006. We stopped at an Arby's in Kentucky on the way there and Dennis was fascinated by the accent of the cashier. And we stopped somewhere in Tennessee to eat on the way back (it might have been a Waffle House, but I think we went to a Waffle House in Georgia, so I don't remember). And it took probably a couple of hours to drive through both of those states. So they might be a little bit questionable, but I'm counting them. But as for Delaware, I had only been there on my way to and from other places (usually Washington, DC). I had probably been to a rest stop or two in Delaware, but I had never really done anything in the state. So I was off and I hadn't been to a baseball game yet this season, so why not Delaware. I thought of this Wayne's World clip:
I got in to Wilmington around 2:30. The game was at 6:30. So I killed some time by walking around by the Christina River. Then I went to the Iron Hill Brewery, which wasn't far from Daniel S. Frawley Stadium. I had a Dunkelweizen and a turkey burger. I would have liked to have tried more of their beer, but I wasn't looking to drink too much. The beer and the food were solid. After that, I walked around a little more and then headed to the stadium shortly after the gates opened at 5:30.
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| I haven't reviewed anything on Yelp in years, but I'd give it four stars. |
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| Outside the stadium |
The Wilmington Blue Rocks play high-A ball in the Carolina league. They're an affiliate of the Royals. They were taking on a Cubs' affiliate, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. The stadium is small. You don't have the 360 degree concourse. But you do have a great beer selection for the minor leagues. Seriously, they had a better beer selection than some Major League stadiums (I'm looking at you, Yankee Stadium). And there was a pretty good food selection too. Even though it was 55 degrees, I resisted the temptation to get a Summer Ale on tap. I got a Copperhead Ale from the Fordham and Dominion Brewing Company, which is located in Dover. I figured if I was going to be in Delaware, I should get a Delaware beer that I wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to drink. It was no Summer Ale (nothing is), but it was quite good and I would definitely drink it again if I saw it anywhere. And to eat, I got crab fries from Chickie's and Pete's.
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| This was my view for the first few innings. I moved down and closer toward third after a few innings. |
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| This seat remains unoccupied in honor of more than 92,000 unaccounted for American soldiers since World War I. That's a nice job by Daniel S. Frawley Stadium. |
Wilmington scored two in the first and two in the seventh. They won 4-0. Their starter pitched eight and gave up six hits, no walks, and had 11 strikeouts. Pretty impressive performance. The game only took two hours and 16 minutes and allegedly there were 3,919 people in attendance. Capacity is 6,404. There is no way that it was more than half full. I'm saying the real attendance was 1,000-2,000.
After the game, I walked back to the train station and I got home around 1:30 in the morning. So I still haven't spent a night in Delaware, but I made a point of going there. I hope to get to some other nearby minor league games this year. So far, I think I've been to minor league games at eight different stadiums (seven affiliated teams, one independent team. One was G. Richard Pfitzner Stadium, where the Potomac Cannons (now Potomac Nationals) play, back in 2003. I don't really remember that too much, but let's rank the other seven:
7. Dehler Park in Billings. It was a cool location and there was some really good food. But it was a rookie ball park and everything about it said rookie ball. It was small and you had goofy things going on between innings (which every minor league park has, but this was the goofiest). I'm ranking it last, but it wasn't bad (unlike US Cellular Field, which is just bad).
6. Arvest Ballpark in Springdale. It was named baseballpark.com's 2008 Ballpark of the Year, but it really wasn't anything all that special. Pretty good beer selection, not much of a food selection. It was fine, but I liked several others more.
5. Memorial Stadium in Boise. It's old and set up differently than every other minor league ballpark I've been to. There really is no concourse where you can see the field. The seats go up higher than other minor league ballparks (which I liked). But the food and beer were very good (the selection of Idaho beers I had was outstanding).
4. Newman Outdoor Field in Fargo. No 360 degree concourse, but it had a solid food and beer selection. And it had a Maury Wills Museum and the field had the same dimensions as Yankee Stadium.
3. Isotopes Park in Albuquerque. It's the biggest minor league stadium I've been to. I loved the Simpsons theme, but long lines were an issue, which was disappointing considering the stadium was only a little more than half full.
2. Daniel S. Frawley Stadium. The only drawback was the lack of a 360 degree concourse. But food and beverage options were outstanding and quick and easy (I guess it helped that the crowd was so small).
1. Regions Field in Birmingham. It was a little bit of a funky stadium, but it had a great crowd and a great beer selection. Very solid.
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