BTW: I suggest reading that book! Defensive Efficiency Ratio is a statistic used to evaluate team defense by finding out the rate of times batters reach base, on balls put in play. Basically, for every ball hit into the field of play, how likely is the defense to convert that into an out? The formula for Defensive Efficiency Ratio is: 1 – ((H + ROE – HR) / (PA –…
Game 3 of the 1965 World Series at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers are down 2 games to none to the powerful Twins. Their vaunted 1-2 punch of Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax had lost the first two games by scores of 8-2 and 5-1. Koufax had refused to pitch game one because it fell on Yom Kippur. The flight back to L.A. was tense. Claude Osteen, the Dodgers # 3…
That was a nice sweep of the Cubbies, but you have to consider that they are not a very good team and they are also young and not very sharp in the fundamentals. Still, the Dodgers should have swept them… and they did! In case you haven’t been paying attention, the Dodgers have the following players on the Injured List: Caleb Ferguson – Not progressing as quickly as anticipated on…
Suddenly, the Giants are four games behind the Dodgers, who are tied with the Yankees for the best record in baseball. They both have a .720 winning percentage, but the Dodgers lead all of baseball in runs scored per game with 5.08. To me, that is an amazing statistic in light of the fact that most Dodger players are not hitting. Look at their batting averages. Freddie Freeman is hitting…
In the immortal words of Mr. Cub himself, the great Ernie Banks is known for saying “Let’s play two!” Ernie Banks played for the sheer joy of it! He always had a smile on his face and played the game like a little boy. Ernie Banks has been gone since January of 2015, but you can still feel his presence above and around Wrigley Field… especially during doubleheaders. What the…
The Dodgers have more RH hitters than LH hitters, but it is close – 7 righties to 5 lefties. Of course, the ratio of LH to RH is not nearly as great, so in that respect, the Dodgers are unique. The problem is that at least three of the LH hitters are the same guy… at least right about now (Bellinger, Muncy, and Rios). Those three players are all hitting…
It was said, and I do not remember who exactly said it, that Manny Mota could wake up on a cold December morning, get out of bed, and hit a line drive. He was that kind of hitter. Manuel Rafael Mota Geronimo was born in the Dominican Republic on February 18, 1938. He was the sixth of eight children in a blended family. His mother, Fredesvinda, had four children with…
Last year the Giants won 107 games with a rag-tag bunch of never-were’s, some has-beens, and a few wanna-be’s. Players like Brandon Belt, Buster Posey (now retired), Brandon Crawford, and Evan Longoria (has-beens) all come back to play at a high level. Then, players like Lamont Wade, Jr. Wilmer Flores, Darin Ruf played out of their minds at times. If you went position-by-position, it would have been very difficult to…
Donald Lee Demeter, born June 25, 1935 in Oklahoma City. He was a tall, 6’4″ gangly man who played in the majors for 11 years. He was a man who had a deep faith and was a member of the fellowship of Christian Athletes. His father was a painting contractor, and his mother a housewife. When he was about 10, his family moved to Denver. But soon after, his mom…
There are two types of people. Those that make assumptions without any logic or proof and those that need proof before believing anything. Before I jump right into this, I am going to give you a quote from Dodgers’ GM, Brandon Gomes about Andrew Friedman: He’s an incredible leader. His ability to take in a ton of different opinions and bake them in, his ability to say ‘I don’t know’ is…