Rocket Science vs. Barry Bonds 285
Ray Radlein writes "How about a good old-fashioned Sports story? With its multitude of different statistical measures, baseball has always had the highest Geek Quotient of any major sport. Alpha Geeks of Baseball have included former relief pitcher Rob Murphy, who put his Computer Science degree to good use writing software to evaluate thoroughbred race horses, and Boston Red Sox ace and probable future Hall of Famer Curt Schilling, who not only runs a company that makes hex-based war games, but once got embroiled in an on-field feud due to Everquest. However, Baseball Geeks have a new hero to look up to: Jason Szuminski, who on Sunday became the first MIT graduate to pitch in a major league baseball game. His degree in Aerospace Engineering must have stood him in good stead as he observed the ballistic trajectory of a Barry Bonds fly ball which just barely stayed inside the Padres' new stadium."
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Well... (Score:2)
-B
Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well... (Score:2)
Don't worry, you can take your games along too [gamespot.com].
Re:Well... (Score:2)
MIT Grads (Score:4, Funny)
He's only doing a case study.
Gravity (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Gravity (Score:2, Funny)
Can't argue with the facts.
What? You want a Prada? (Score:4, Funny)
"But what's the bag going to look like?" Szuminski asked.
Methinks this guy has been watching a little too much Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
Oh well, at least he's a pitcher and not a catcher.
sequence (Score:5, Funny)
2. get back at him by hitting two home runs
3. take down the espn servers by linking it to slashdot
4. ???
5. profit!
Re:sequence (Score:5, Interesting)
Go.com is the 21st most trafficked site on the web. [alexa.com] (Over half of that is for ESPN.)
Slashdot is 1000+ [alexa.com]
Re:sequence (Score:5, Informative)
Re:sequence (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:sequence (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:sequence (Score:2)
Re:sequence (Score:3, Funny)
There is a future in Baseball for Geeks (Score:5, Informative)
The generation of Moneyball [amazon.com] General Managers is here. Billy Beane, John DePodesta (Harvard), Theo Epstein (Yale) are paving the way for seamheads who know baseball and use statistical analysis to build their teams.
Now, there's hope for geeks with math and statistics degrees who want to break into baseball.
Re:There is a future in Baseball for Geeks (Score:5, Funny)
Now, there's hope for geeks with math and statistics degrees who want to break into baseball.
Let's face it, however, they still won't get laid.
Re:There is a future in Baseball for Geeks (Score:2)
Don't forget Allard Baird. (Score:2)
Re:Don't forget Allard Baird. (Score:2)
Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:5, Insightful)
You might want to check out cricket, www.cricinfo.org and Wisden for some serious stats.
Not to mention that with all the offshoring to India there's a huge cricket loving geek population there. Baseball's only a fairly minor sport in world terms.
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:4, Funny)
Baseball's only a fairly minor sport in world terms.
Quick, name the countries that have won Olympic gold medals in cricket.
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:3, Insightful)
So curling is a major world sport by that metric? Ice dancing too?
Come on now, that's the Winter Olympics. Additionally, since cricket and baseball are at least similar, it's a relevant comparison, unlike yours.
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:3, Interesting)
I define sport as: "a [physically] athletic recreation where defense can be played."
auto racing, chess, etc. lose on the first count.
Golf, figure skating, weightlifting, most track and field events, etc. lose on the second.
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:2)
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:3, Interesting)
And there have been, what, three summer Olympics where baseball was a medal sport and not exhibition?
Well, it will be 4 in a few months, assuming the Greeks can pull things together. Also, it would have become a medal sport back in 1940 during the scheduled games in Japan but there was this World War going on at the time and it kind of got lost in the shuffle.
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:2, Interesting)
Great Britain [cricinfo.com]. Idiot.
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:2)
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:5, Informative)
Actually a quick google search reveals otherwise [snopes.com].
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:2)
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:2)
How you got modded "informative" for continuing to spread what's commonly known to be a fallacy is beyond me.
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah (Score:2)
Re:Yeah (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:2)
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps it is you who needs to be enlightened. A brief look at the stats glossary [baseballprospectus.com] at Baseball Prospectus [baseballprospectus.com] might show you just how far out the geekier baseball fans are willing to go. Some other sites of interest include Baseball Reference [baseball-reference.com], which contains complete statistics for every player ever to appear in a major league game, and Retrosheet [retrosheet.org], an organization attempting to gather historical play-by-play information on every game in MLB history. The detail put into these things is frightening.
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:2)
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:3, Insightful)
In "world terms", there are only two major sports: soccer and basketball.
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:2, Insightful)
You'd better restrict that to major team sports. I think that you'll find that many individual sports- like track and field, golf, tennis, etc.- are fairly important on an international scale. Some people also count auto racing as a sport, and it clearly has significant worldwide appeal.
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:2)
Re:Most Geek Sport - I think not (Score:2)
Team Sports:
Volleyball (yes, volleyball -- played in a *lot* of countries)
Rugby Union (played in more places than you might think)
Motor Racing (particularly F1 and GP Bikes)
Individual:
Track and Field
Swimming
Cycling
How embarrassing... (Score:5, Funny)
Curt Schilling, -NOT- a HOF'er. (Score:3, Informative)
-dameron
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Curt Schilling, -NOT- a HOF'er. (Score:2)
Re:Curt Schilling, -NOT- a HOF'er. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Curt Schilling, -NOT- a HOF'er. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Curt Schilling, -NOT- a HOF'er - YET (Score:3, Insightful)
I disagree. [baseball-reference.com] Ryan is better than Schilling lifetime in many important statistics like ERA and SO. I could see a claim that Schilling at his best was as good as Ryan at his best (although Ryan's 1.69 ERA season of '81 is hard to beat), but you can't credibly claim that Schilling is a much better pitcher than Ryan.
Of course, these statistics aside, Ryan's No Hitter record combined with his longevity near the top make him a shoe-in for the HOF, things that S
Re:Curt Schilling, -NOT- a HOF'er. (Score:3, Informative)
His score of 33 on the Black Ink Test [baseball-reference.com] puts him in the company of Juan Marichal (34), Three Finger Brown (35) and Old Hoss Radbourn (35); once again, every eligible pitcher of the modern era with a B
What? (Score:4, Funny)
Like my father used to say (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Like my father used to say (Score:4, Funny)
o_O (Score:5, Funny)
Re:o_O (Score:4, Funny)
Baseball... moving? You do realize that most of baseball involves sitting still on a bench, or standing still in a field, right?
(sorry baseball fans who will now start flaming me:)
Re:o_O (Score:2)
Don't forget all the adjusting of atheletic supporters.
Hello, Bill James?!? (Score:2)
Re:Hello, Bill James?!? (Score:2)
Yeah, Whatever (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Yeah, Whatever (Score:2, Informative)
From Harvard's own website:
Harvard football has seen a tremendous resurgence in the number of graduates who have gone onto the professional ranks. Over the past four years, seven Crimson players have been drafted or signed professional contracts and six remain active heading into the 2001 season. Among them is Matt Birk '98, the starting center for the Minnesota Vikings who was named to the NFL's 2000 All-Pro Team.
This past April, Mike Clare 01, a First Team All-America at of
Re:Yeah, Whatever (Score:2)
But wait... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, Cricket is easy (Score:3, Funny)
Re:But wait... (Score:3, Informative)
"Bails", actually. But you have right idea.
BTW, it is possible to be called for a "wide" bowl in cricket, and the lines for that are almost as imaginary as the ones in baseball. That said, I'll take a good limited-overs cricket match (which does not experience a Halting Problem) over a baseball game any day.
I love baseball.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Happy Trails!
Erick
Re:I love baseball.. (Score:3, Informative)
Doug Glanville is THE alpha baseball geek (Score:5, Interesting)
Trip to africa - http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=17308
Astronomy club - http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=17719
What about Curt? (Score:4, Informative)
How about Curt Schilling himself, who carries a powerbook on the road and has quicktime clips and a database of hundreds of batters?
Reportedly he also spent time on a famous red sox chat board the night before he signed with the sox, trying to make up his mind whether he should sign...and convince everyone he really was Curt Schilling(he managed to, after instantly returning questions on his career stats that, according to friends, would have taken a "good baseball researcher" at least 5-10 minutes to find).
He finished up VERY late that night(well, morning) by saying essentially "Thanks, I've decided to sign with the sox, I've always heard red sox fans were the most knowledgeable, you guys have proved it". A few hours later(heh) at the press conference, John Henry(who also logged in at one point) joked(along the lines of) "and in Curt's contract is a clause prohibiting him from staying up past midnight talking on internet chat boards the day before a game."
Re:Doug Glanville is THE alpha baseball geek (Score:2)
Depends on how you define geek quotient.... (Score:3)
I'd say auto racing, with it's high degree of computerization, engineers/designers or mechanics, and use of the grand-daddy of geekdom - radios, would rate as high or higher.
A geek attempts to interpret baseball (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, like that episode of the Simpsons where the hammock makes clones of Homer?
after failing to connect for the fifth straight game
Then get a new dial-up service!
although he was intentionally walked
They're taking that Petco thing too far.
and scored in the five-run eighth inning
Look, let's keep that kinda thing private... but scored with who?
"I'd like to do it at home," said Bonds
<butt-head>heh-heh heh-heh, he said "do it"</butt-head>
got Bonds to fly out to left
Cool! Like what the flying chair everybody thought the Segway was going to be?
San Diego's bullpen fell apart in the eighth
They obviously didn't engineer that structure very well.
San Diego manager Bruce Bochy had his only lefty reliever
Sounds like my adolescence.
Classless (Score:2)
"How about a good old-fashioned Sports story? (Score:4, Funny)
It ain't just the players. (Score:4, Interesting)
Recommended baseball reading.... (Score:2)
Baseball may have highest Geek Quotient, but... (Score:2, Insightful)
I think baseball *seems* complex because it's actually fairly easy to observe the nuances of the game while you're watching. You can
Re:Baseball may have highest Geek Quotient, but... (Score:4, Interesting)
If you're up at, like, 3:00 AM or so during football season, ESPN has a show called Edge NFL Matchup, hosted by Suzy Kolber, Ron Jaworski, and, er, some other guy whose name has just flown out of my head. A lot of the show is stock football stuff, but every so often they will break down not just the execution of plays, but their design -- and it can be quite fascinating.
I remember watching them explain one play where they went over every last bit of it for like five minutes or so, explaining what every player on offense was doing, and what the expected defensive reactions would be; and the upshot of it was a play where, basically, every last player was involved in some specific set of actions designed solely for the purpose of getting the right cornerback to turn his hips slightly towards the inside of the field at just the wrong moment, so that the receiver could break off his move. It was so intricate, so meticulously planned, and so well explained, that I can't imagine any True Geek not getting a rush out of it. Their explanation, with the film, and the diagrams and arrows they superimposed, was like single-stepping through an elegant piece of code in a good debugging environment, watching all the variables change just so as everything falls into place.
I played at MIT as well... (Score:3, Interesting)
Better yet, there were no restrictions on who could play - anyone could make the team if they just showed up. My senior year, two guys on the team had *never* played before. Mix that in with a few good players and you have a really weird dynamic for the season. After being part of a really strong high school program, and garnering a decent amount of scouting attention, I absolutely know what he means by "playing down" to the level of your surroundings. It was sort of a letdown when I got there, but not really all that shocking - I didn't go there to make a career pitching.
I had a great time, but it definitely wasn't a place you go to nurture your athletic skills. I'm glad to see that someone stayed focused enough to make it though, if only so that I can live through him vicariously!
Re:What contempt they have! (Score:3, Funny)
I believe Ted Williams [cbsnews.com] beat you to the punch when he had his head cryogenically frozen so he could later be cloned. And you say you can't apply science to baseball.
Re:What contempt they have! (Score:2)
Little did Schilling know this would some day lead to him giving up two home runs to Glanville in a giant airplane hanger in Arizona. But it's true.
I think it is a little tounge in cheek about the true importance of baseball... they're both just games.
Re:What contempt they have! (Score:2)
Re:What a load of rot. (Score:2, Insightful)
Perhaps you get excited over clean code, or something else equally geeky, but let me tell you, there is very much a passion for a lot of us geeks out here in the sports arena.
As far as baseball players being unable to understand the rules, or even having seen a rule book, provide a link.
I can provide quite a few (search ESPN.com, or, even better, actually WATCH the game you profess so much loathing for) links for your reading pleasure. I'd rather you educated yourself though.
Of course,
Re:What a load of rot. (Score:2)
The idea isn't that players taken as individuals are strategi
Re:What a load of rot. (Score:2)
Right, but intense statistical analysis won't make the ants and bacteria any more intelligent, or affect how they perform. I'm not convinced that analysis has much, if any effect on the game. Steroids had a much bigger effect. It's still brawn, not brains, that makes baseball what it is.
Re:What a load of rot. (Score:3, Interesting)
Gee, this is only moderately offending.
not one single player had ever SEEN a rulebook let alone OWNED one, and none of them cared to even investigate rule changes.
Right, baseball players don't know what's going on. Obviously you've never heard of Questec [questec.com] and baseball's infinite wisdom to install these cameras to monitor
Re:What a load of rot. (Score:2)
Not likely. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What a load of rot. (Score:2)
The reason that baseball players don't need to see a rulebook is because the rules of the game are damn simple. You don't have to worry about what consitutes one of about 20 different "penalties" like you do in football or basketball. You don't have to worry about when you can or can't do stuff. It's cake. Throw a ball to the batter. Wait for batter to hit it. Get ball, and try to get the batter out. The rules only inovlve things like foul balls and an interference call or two. That'
Re:What a load of rot. (Score:2)
A foul is a strike, unless it's the third strike, which would make it an out, so it isn't, unless it's caught, so it's an out. Unless it's Tuesday, and...
You've made it too complicated.
A foul is strike, unless there are not already two strikes. In which case, the foul is not strike nor a ball. Any ball caught in the air, fair or foul is an out. So that arguement is already preceded by one of the basic fundamental rules, catch a fly ball, and there is an out.
Re:What a load of rot. (Score:2)
#1: What just happened?
#2: That was a double play and the inning is over because it's the third out.
A few minutes later:
#3: What inning is it?
#1: Double play.
Almost changed my opinion :-) (Score:2)
I was going to claim that the only sports I consider worth watching are when female sprinters (and Venus, of course) run around in tight dresses. And I might care for a bit of thai boxing and sumo wrestling.
I generally agree with HHGTTG about cricket and consider baseboll something similar. I was going to ask if you couldn't filter those subjects on /.
But this did seem like something for me:
Re:What a load of rot. (Score:2)
You forgot rich... they may be illiterate goons but some of them are making a hell of a lot more than me!
Re:WHAT AN IDIOT (Score:4, Informative)
The reasoning was: the runners had no chance to get out of a double play. The fielder could choose to catch the ball (and double up the runner) or drop the ball (and make an easy double play). The runner was damned if he ran to break up the DP or damned if stayed on base to keep from getting doubled up. Now the team in the field just gets one (automatic) out.
But I guess you probably weren't serious.
ROGER MARIS USES STEROIDS (Score:2, Informative)
Read this [go.com] for a better perspective on Bond's possible steroid use.
Roger Maris's HR totals go like this:
14, 28, 16, 39, 61, 33, 23, 26, 8, 13, 9, 5
Thanks to baseball-reference.com [baseball-reference.com].
Oh, yeah, 1961 was an expansion year. Nothing like a journeyman whacking away at diluted pitching to break Ruth's single-season HR record...
PS - Barry Bonds is about the same size and weight as Brett Favre...