Thoughts Before The Alarm Sounds

      As I write this, the nation is celebrating its number two spectator holiday: the baseball playoffs and World Series. (Number one is the Superbowl.)       In addition to being the national pastime, baseball has at various times been called a game of inches, a game of skill, a game of strategy, etc., etc. But at its major league level, baseball consists of a bunch of young millionaires playing a boy's game: hitting a round ball with a round stick.       (I don't understand a new thing which has sprung up in the past several years. In football and basketball the teams high-five each other at the end of the game, but in baseball the winning team high-fives itself. Is this a new form of sportsmanship?)       Anyway, I love baseball, and I like to think of it as a game of reconciliation. Whether one is liberal, conservative, libertarian or green; whether one is Protestant, Catholic, Jewish or Mu...

      On June 2nd, umpire Jim Joyce called Cleveland Indians’ runner Jason Donald safe when almost everyone in the stadium, as well as the entire TV viewing audience, knew he was really out by at least a full step. The exceptions were Joyce and Detroit Tigers’ pitcher Armando Galarraga, who was covering first base on the play. Joyce was wrong and Galarraga wasn’t sure. He had been called up from minor league team Toledo only 16 days earlier.       It was a bad call, but it would probably not have been the object of undo excitement if it had happened in another game; they happen all the time. But this game was special, the call cost Galarraga a perfect game – 27 batters and 27 outs.       In the entire history of major league baseball, there have been only 20 perfect games. Even Nolan Ryan, who threw seven no hit-no run games, never pitched a perfect game. Unbelievably, two of them occurred earlier this season. ...

      If you think baseball is a game of statistics, you haven’t seen anything yet. Sportvision, the folks who brought us the yellow first down line in football, and the pitch locator (the one with the crosshairs) in baseball, are busy in the off season installing their FieldFX camera system in major league ballparks. Up to four cameras will be located on the light standards along the first and third base lines.       On every play, the cameras will report the position, movement, direction and speed of every player on the field. It will also track the flight of the ball. In fact, not just the flight, but the position, angle, speed and who knows what all at every instant.       All of these will feed into a computer which will output things like “only 27% of the players in major league baseball could have made that play,” or “Joe seemed a little slow on that play; he was running at 15 miles per hour, but he gene...

A few days ago the Philadelphia Phillies won their third straight National League East championship; a feat they also managed in 1978. The playoffs start in a few days. Although they were ahead most of this season, the team’s sometimes iffy performance had their fans on pins and needles much of the time. They have always had great fans. Rowdy and raucous, they were always ready to cheer good performance, and also to ver-boo-ly let the team know when performance was not up to expectations. But their loyalty never wavered. And how has the team repaid them? They have won the World Series twice: once in 1980 and again in 2008. It’s not hard to stick with a winner, but the Phillies fans deserve a special tribute because of some of the more trying times. A few examples follow: 1.)                           Phillies fans are forced to listen to sportscaste...

Major league baseball is a game of specialists. Each position is manned by a rich young man who is an expert in one facet of a kid’s game. In the American League there is even a player whose only job is to hit. Usually the only generalists on the team are utility infielders and outfielders. This specialization is most apparent in the pitching staff; there are starters, long relievers, middle inning relievers, short relievers and normally one closer. The closer is a breed apart from the other pitchers. When his team is leading by not more than three runs, it is his job to get in and “save” the game. He does this by throwing nine or ten pitches and shutting down the opposing team by not allowing enough runs to win the game. I think his arm falls off after twelve pitches. When his team is leading by two or three runs, it is almost a sure bet that the closer is going to give up at least one run. I believe that the secret agenda behind the closer is to keep the fans on the edge of th...