Jaybird's Jottings

*NO* ASTERISKS

History is composed of facts. Facts should be accompanied with explanations. Explanations should engender insight. Insight should produce understanding. Well-intentioned but wrongheaded asterisks and ignorant statistical book-burnings add nothing to the historical record and demean the history of our beloved game. - Gary Gillete, 24-7 Baseball.

No matter where you stand on Barry Bonds and/or steroids, baseball fans should read this excellent primer by Gary Gillette. It’s a great read on the controversies surrounding other home run records.

House of O’Rourke

“I’ll take 19th Century Baseball for $200 Alex.”

“This Hall of Fame outfielder cracked the first hit in the National League, was nicknamed “Orator Jim” and built a house in Bridgeport Connecticut that’s still standing.”

If Jeopardy wants to use that one, they better hurry. Developers in Bridgeport have a bulldozer aimed at the property O’Rourke built in 1891. The Victorian house sits by itself on a patch of land on Steel Point Peninsula. Located on the east side of Bridgeport, the area is set for mixed-use development.

In an excellent article in this past Friday’s Washington Post, Les Carpenter details the story. A year after he hit .360 in the Players League, O’Rourke built the house. He lived there until he died in 1919.

Bernard Crowley, a long time SABR member and author of O’Rourke’s biography (SABR, Baseball’s First Stars), is working with Michael Bielawa to save the house. The two citizens of Bridgeport formed The First Hit, a non-profit organization “dedicated to preserving the memory of James H. O’Rourke, Bridgeport’s only Baseball Hall Of Fame member.” The website has information on the cause and contains Crowley’s excellent bio on O’Rourke.

O’Rourke was an excellent player with a 134 Adjusted OPS. He played for nine pennant winners, including the Giants in 1888 and 1889. In addition to his 2643 ML hits (this includes four seasons in the N.A.), he collected 1158 with Bridgeport of the Connecticut League for a total of 3801.

A Sermon for the Giants

For the longest time, the Giants' official site had an underwhelming top bar. Sure, they wanted to showcase the quirky aspects of the ballpark and the uniquely defining waters of McCovey Cove. But that rendering was uninspired.

I kept thinking of the irony. San Francisco must have the greatest concentration of talented web designers but the Giants haven't bothered to hire one.

They’ve finally done something about it. The new one looks a lot better with the bridge and the skyline and some players. (Grant over at McCovey Chronicles must be thinking, hey, I think I’ve seen something like that before!)

As I was thinking about how the only thing wrong with the look now is the threadbare and too much in the way "YOUR SF GIANTS" part, I couldn’t help but think of an episode of The Andy Griffith. "The Sermon for Today" was one of my favorites. After a visiting preacher gave a sermon about how everybody was always in a hurry and should slow down and take it easy, the gang was spread out and relaxing on Andy's front porch. Stuffed full from one of Aunt Bee’s delicious Sunday lunches, they somehow got inspired to have a band concert that night. Barney came up with the idea for a sign and showed it Andy.

BARNEY
Poster I made to put on the back of
the squad car. You know--let folks
know.

Andy turns poster around and reads:

"CONCERT TONIGHT-

RELAX TO

MUSIC UNDER THE STARS."

BARNEY
Ya like that? I made it up.

ANDY
Good...
(looks up at sky)
Might be cloudin' up, though.

BARNEY
Well... I could change it to "Music
Under the Clouds"?

Andy shakes his head.

BARNEY
"Music Under the Sky"?

ANDY
It's outdoors... That's obvious.

BARNEY
How about I just leave that part out
altogether?

ANDY
Well, what have ya got left here:
"Concert Tonight Relax To"?

BARNEY
How about just "Concert Tonight"?

ANDY
When they hear the music, they'll
know it's a concert.

BARNEY
And they'll know it's tonight too,
right?

ANDY
Right.

BARNEY
Forget the poster, huh?

ANDY
I would.

Roots of the Rivalry

"We will never play you again. Your players constantly stall and complain.” - Giants owner John Day to Brooklyn owner Charles Byrne, October 23, 1889.

Before the start of Sunday night’s Giants-Dodgers game on ESPN, Jon Miller talked briefly about the history of the rivalry. I didn’t catch exactly what he said but I think it was something about how the two first started playing each other in 1890. The mike men don’t usually go that far back so it was good to hear.

In terms of regular season play, the two franchises did first meet in 1890. Their first meeting, however, came in the post season of 1889. (Actually, the first game against each other was an exhibition match on April 18, 1884. Andrew Goldblatt, The Giants and the Dodgers).

The Dodgers franchise got started in the minor league Interstate Association in 1883. The following season they joined the American Association. (Donald Dewey and Nicholas Acocella, The Ball Clubs). In 1889, Brooklyn and New York both topped their circuits. Both races came down to the final game.

This set up a post season series between the two clubs. The winner would take home the coveted Dauvray Cup, awarded to the winner of the best of 11 series, earn the title “World’s Champions” in the dailies and own some serious bragging rights.

There was much excitement in the press. The New York Times noted, “Tomorrow afternoon the Giants and the Bridegrooms will begin the great diamond-field struggle to determine which is the champion club of the year.” The Brooklyn Eagle said it would be the “most exciting series ever played in New York and Brooklyn.”

As exciting as these games were, they were not very well organized. The lack of procedures allowed Brooklyn to use stalling tactics to their advantage. The main one was arguments with the umpire.

Game One was at the Polo Grounds. A good crowd of 8,848. The Bridegrooms asked the umpire to call the game due to darkness, got the favorable ruling and won 10-8. The players carried Darby O’Brien, their captain, proudly off the field.

In Game Four, Brooklyn once again stalled with the lead and had the game called on account of darkness (Goldblatt observed that Day had made a lousy selection for the umpire, one that favored Brooklyn). At the end of the game, Day fumed over the trickery. The next day his complaints led to the games starting an hour earlier and the players were not allowed to dispute calls.

Attendance for the series was a mixed bag. A crowd of 16,172 at Washington Park watched Brooklyn win Game Two. This figure topped previous post season marks and was the second most ever in the City of Churches. Some of those cranks were Giants fans who made the trip over the Brooklyn Bridge. The late October dates (18th to the 29th) were a problem. Some of the games had diminished attendance due to rainy and cold weather.

Overall, the Giants had poor pitching but poured it on from the plate. Stars were speedy John Ward (417) and sluggers Jim O’Rourke (389) and Roger Connor (343).

Brooklyn grabbed a three games to one lead over the favored Giants. New York roared back, winning games 5, 6, 7 and 8. Game Six’s pivotal victory at the Polo Grounds was very close with New York scoring a run in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game at one. They won it with a run in the bottom of the 11th.

In the ninth inning of the clincher, with the Giants leading 2 to 1, the Bridegrooms put the potential tying run on first. Catcher Buck Ewing then nailed O’Brien trying to steal second for the final out. Several thousand fans ran onto the field to celebrate.

A few weeks later, the Dodgers joined the National League. The two arch rivals have fought for many a pennant and bragging rights, but only that once in the post season. Those inter-league showdowns in the 1880s were not always stellar events, but the one in 1889 was pretty special and marked the beginning of a storied rivalry.

Sources:

A Tale of Four Cities, Jean-Pierre Caillault
The Giants and the Dodgers, Lee Allen
The Giants and the Dodgers, Andrew Goldblatt
The BallClubs, Donald Dewey and Nicholas Acocella
The New York Times

Fantasyland

My transformation started in 2004 when I joined a national "expert" Rotisserie league called Tout Wars. Even then I didn't do this to change my life -- I was more interested in trying to make a point. I'd convinced myself that a complete fantasy novice like me could beat the statisticians who ruled the Rotisserie world by using my access to major-league locker rooms and front offices to collect "human" information that would trump the raw data... - Sam Walker, The View from Fantasyland.

Fantasy baseball is big time. According to Maury Brown, something like 6 million played last year (This looks like a good explanation on the types of fantasy games). One estimate put spending at a billion dollars.

I’ve thought about playing from time to time but have yet to take the plunge. That might change now that I have read Sam Walker’s fantastic book on the subject. In Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball’s Lunatic Fringe, Walker, a sports columnist for the Wall Street Journal, deliciously details his rookie effort to win the American League Tout Wars. This is the cream of the crop, a select group of rotisserie fanatics such as Ron Shandler who has a fantasy website and publishes The Baseball Forecaster. Starting at the top like that seems mighty foolish. But Walker figured that his journalistic connections would give him an edge.

He also knew he could not ignore the sabermetric approach so he hired Sig Mejdal, a NASA scientist (Walker noted that Sig attended Giants games) with a knack for running regressions. Sig did have some disdain for the subjective approach so there's some conflict when Walker hires Ferdinando Di Fino (Nando) for the humanistic side. Walker was open to anything that might give him an edge and even consulted with an astrologer.

This book is one of my favorites in quite a while. The fantasy players are interesting characters. The author provides some great stories about them and all the preparations he does to get ready for the season. Walker worked his butt off, taking a lot of trips and doing a lot of interviews. The chats with some of the players are funny and insightful. For example, Randy Winn revealed he is into the fantasy thing.

After reading the book, I wondered if Walker had had it with all the work and the grind. Or was he hooked?

Turns out he jumped right back in the saddle and has even started to write about his 2006 Tout Wars season with a column in the Wall Street Journal.

Good luck Sam. You got t-shirts again this year?

What About the Game after the Opener?

The Nationals had a somewhat disappointing crowd for their Home Opener on Tuesday. 40,530 was about 5,000 short of a sell out. The local media made note of it while locals got out their laundry list of good things that should happen once a new owner is announced. Uh, sorry. Let me rephrase that. After Bud Selig gets off his sorry you know what and makes a decision.

We went to the Nats' home opener and it was puzzling to see the empty seats. The weather was great so no excuses there.

I got to thinking that another way of looking at this is how the major league teams fared on the day after their opener.

Here are the numbers. The obvious caveats apply. Music provided by Buffalo Springfield.

Game after Opening Day

CLE at CWS 37,591 Tue April 4
FLA at HOU 36,448 Tue
ATL at LAD 36,249 Tue
NYY at OAK 31,284 Tue
BOS at TEX 29,442 Tue
CHC at CIN 27,287 Wed
SFG at SDP 23,721 Wed
STL at PHL 20,557 Wed
LAA at SEA 20,051 Tue
WAS at NYM 19,557 Wed
AZD at COL 18,553 Wed
MIN at TOR 18,156 Wed
TAM at BAL 16,083 Wed
PIT at MIL 15,515 Tues
DET at KCR 11,265 Tue

Game after Home Opener

NYY at LAA 44,044 Sat April 8
KCR at NYY 41,448 Wed April 12
MIL at STL 40,648, Wed
STL at CHI 40,182 Sat
ATL at SFG 39,737 Fri
PHL at ATL 37,107, Wed
TOR at BOS 36,378, Wed
NYM at WAS 29,985 Wed
MIN at CLE 25,107 Sat
OAK at MIN 22,603, Wed
COL at AZD 18,664, Wed
LAD at PIT 17,420 Tue
CWS at DET 12,601 Wed
BAL at TAM 12,600 Tues
SD at FLA 8,994, Wed

Mets' New Ballpark

“The Albany nine, who always play a close and exciting game with the Metropolitans.... succeeded in defeating the “Mets” yesterday afternoon on the polo grounds in the presence of about 800 spectators.”

New York Times, Aug 31, 1881

The New York Mets franchise is connected to the Giants and Dodgers in several ways. Two of the most prominent are the team colors and their nickname, which harkens back to the New York Metropolitans of the 1880s. (When the National League owners met in 1882 to create a New York National League franchise, they thought owners John B. Day and Jim Mutrie were going to transfer their minor league New York Metropolitans team into the National League. Instead, Day and Mutrie entered the Metropolitans into the American Association. The new franchise was the Giants (they picked up their nickname in 1885).

The homage paying got a little bigger yesterday with the unveiling of computerized drawings for their new ballpark. Where some of the retro parks tip their hat to the past in subtle ways, this one does it in a distinct way. The facade will resemble that of Ebbets Field.

Another planned feature is Coogan’s Landing in left field. No details have been given on that aspect.

Additional reading

Neil deMause’s Field of Schemes

Maury Brown’s Business of Baseball

The Day Jack Roared Back

Though few may remember the date itself, any golf fan over the age of 30 surely can pinpoint where they were when Jack Nicklaus improbably won his final Masters. - Nicklaus' Masters victory in 1986 was one for the ages, By Jeff Shain, Miami Herald

We’re in the midst of one of the great weeks in sports with Opening Days, college hoops crownings and The Masters. This one seems a little extra special with the 20th anniversary of Nicklaus winning the 1986 Masters.

I do remember when Jack rocked the golf world with his fantastic comeback win at Augusta. I wasn’t a big Nicklaus fan until later on his career. I started pulling for him and always tried to make sure I watched on TV whenever he would walk up to the 18th hole at a tournament and get such a warm welcome from the gallery. But, more and more, that was happening on a Friday afternoon. Jack always had a pleasant look of appreciation on his face but you could also see disappointment. The greatest golfer in the world had seen better days.

Then in '86, the 46-year old with 19 majors wins and 19 second place finishes, who admitted yesterday that he hadn’t prepared like he should have, started draining putts on the back nine. The clip they show the most is Jack's tricky, downhill birdie putt on 17. The Golden Bear raised his putter in anticipation, the ball disappeared into the cup, Vern said, “Yes sir!!” and the gallery and Jack fans everywhere went nuts.

At that point, we’re thinking that Nicklaus has a chance for a sixth green jacket and a 20th major. He had the lead but the cream almost always rises to the top at The Masters and there were still a handful of very good golfers left standing in the way of the storybook finish.

Nicklaus provided us with a handful of highlights that day. Shain didn’t forget it in his article but when you hear folks recounting this one, the one hole that tends to be forgotten about is 16. The golfing gods were drunk by then and Jack damn near made an ace. He settled for birdie to move to within one of the lead.

Nicklaus was asked yesterday what moment from ’86 was his most memorable. The whole back nine, the great one said.

I have two. The birdie at 17 to give him the lead and then at 18 when he walked off the green arm in arm with son Jackie. Hollywood shook its head because it knew it could not come up with anything better than that.

Jack had carded a six under 30 on Augusta’s famed back nine and was the clubhouse leader. Now came the waiting and the hoping. That birdie putt Kite had on 18 to tie was not that long, about a 12-footer IIRC. When it slipped by, a legion of fans, old and new, started breathing again.

One more left. The Shark had been on a roll with four straight birdies and came to 18 tied with Nicklaus. I’m thinking, please don’t let Norman spoil it. He didn’t. His approach flew way right. Bogey. Get the jacket ready for our man Jack.

Sometimes sports fans and writers can get a little sappy. But sports does that to you. Like Baird said.

"Something like that puts you into another stratosphere, to where you're not just the greatest golfer ever, but you're a god. That guy's a god."

Amen.

More on the lovely gifts from Japan

We went to see the cherry trees yesterday morning. Lots of folks already out by 10 am. Looked like the blooms were starting to get past peak. Thursday and Friday were perfect for the viewing. Saturday morning did bring a brief shower and then the cool winds came in early afternoon. If you were there during that time, you saw, I’m guessing, a nice show of pedals in the wind.

I found some more resources. Too late for this year but maybe it will help for future planning. All the links can be found in this Washington Post Web Watch article by Frank Ahrens.

And now it’s time to settle in to the gloriously long season of baseball. The steroid stories are really dragging things down but the game has always rescued the fans.

Play ball! Go Giants!!