Hot Dog Link
Posted: July 1st, 2008 | Filed under: Baseball, Media | 17 Comments »
I don’t often link to stories on the Internet here because, for one thing, I usually find those stories months and years and decades after everyone else. Then I say to my wife something like, “Hey, did you see this Jay Leno memo to America about being more positive?” And she will say, “That was debunked like TWO YEARS AGO, what have you been doing the last two years anyway?” And I’ll say, “Uh, writing blog posts about Duane Kuiper and my biggest newspaper screw-ups? And watching High School Musical 295 times?”
Anyway, I don’t often link to stories, but then again, it isn’t often that we have a big story on the Internet written by one of our own. Not trying to out anybody, but what the heck, our own Oddibe Kerfeld, who has been a brilliant reader of ours pretty much from the beginning, writes on Baseball Musings about his and a friend’s quest to find Bob Wood, author of the seminal “Dodger Dogs and Fenway Franks.” Fun stuff.
In the meantime, I realize that I’m late on Banny Log, and I have to get a post up about our Hall of Fame first class. But I’m in Florida this week trying desperately to get book work done, so I ask for your patience. And hey, I did get rid of that cross-hatch pattern on the comments, didn’t I? Huh? A little love, please? I’m working on trying getting a print option on the posts and on number the comments and a few other things but, alas, I’m also very stupid so this could take years.
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Re: Specific ERA+
Continuing on with Joe’s idea of an ERA+ that accounts for the quality of opposition:
The last time Banny faced the Cards, he had a total OPS opponent score of 2768, and an average opponent OPS score of 102.5. His ERA for the game was 2.57, and his Specific ERA+ was 2.51.
For this most recent game
Schumaker 3PAs x 116 OPS+ = 348
Miles 3PAs x 97 OPS+ = 291
Pujols 3PAs x 197 OPS+ = 591
Ankiel 3PAs x 120 OPS+ = 360
Ludwick 3PAs x 145 OPS+ = 435
Duncan 3PAs x 83 OPS+ = 249
Kennedy 3PAs x 73 OPS+ = 219
Larue 3PAs x 100 OPS+ = 300
Ryan 2PAs x 80 OPS+ = 240
Total opponent OPS+ = 3033
Total individual average opponent OPS+ for the game:
3033/26 (total plate appearances) = 116.7
[This is an interesting bit here. The last game Banny pitched against the Cards, the opponent average OPS+ was much lower, 102.5. A large part of that is because he didn't face Pujols last time, but it is also a product of some Cards OPS+ improving in the last couple weeks. Which also exposes a potential controversy with using a "Specific ERA+" calculation: is it fixed based on the opponent's OPS+ at the time you pitched against them, or does it float, so that we would have to go back and recalculate Banny's Specific ERA+ for that last Cards game he pitched.]
The inverse of 116.7 (for the purpose of calculating his game Specific ERA+) is 85.7
His ERA for the game was 13.49 (7 runs x 9/4.67 innings pitched).
His Specific ERA+ for the game is 11.56 [game ERA (13.49) x inverse of Average Opponent OPS+ for the game (ie. the inverse of 116.7 = 85.7)]
His Specific ERA+ for the two games against the Cards requires a different type of calculation:
His first game had a total opponent OPS+ of 2768. Add that to the total opponent OPS+ of 3033 for the second game (2768 + 3033 = 5801). To get the Average Opponent OPS+, divide by total plate appearances against (ie. batters faced): 27 + 26 = 53 => 5801/53 = 109.5. The inverse of that is 91.3.
His ERA for the two games against the Cards is 6.94 (9 runs x 9/11.67 innings pitched).
His Specific ERA+ for his two starts against St. Louis (when it is calculated as fixed at the time he faced the opponent) is 6.34 (ERA (6.94) x inverse of Average Opponent OPS+ (the inverse of 109.5, or 91.3)).
Loved that book! Read it several times in high school. What non-sexual fantasy could be more appealing to a 16 year old guy than road-tripping to every ballpark?
Congrats Oddibe.
Hey Joe -
Nothing to add to this post (well, other than the fact that I do love hot dogs. Which they ran out of at the Wiz game I went to…isn’t that weird? I mean, wouldn’t that be the one thing you made sure you had enough of, along with nachos, beer and napkins?) but I did want to say that my dad is at home recovering from his second knee replacement surgery, and I sent him your blog to help cheer him up (I also sent him your Buck book). Just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to write this blog, you really are the best, and I enjoy reading everything you put up here. Keep up the good work, dad and I appreciate it.
Eric
Thank you for posting the link to that story.
I discovered “Dodger Dogs” at my local library some time in the early-1990s, and it quickly became one of my favorite books. I always had it checked out. Just recently, I went back and checked it out again after close to ten years and re-read it, and fell in love again.
Even though many of the places listed in the book are gone (even by the time I first found the book New Comiskey and Camden Yards had already replaced their counterparts and Cleveland and Texas were close behind), the stadiums themselves were not really the point.
It is still probably my favorite baseball book (though “The Soul of Baseball” is close…), and I would love to see a new edition.
> And hey, I did get rid of that cross-hatch pattern on the emails, didn’t I? Huh? A little love, please?
I would happily accept a cross-hatched email from you, Joe. Or any other kind. The “complete absence of response” thing pales in comparison, although there is the Fonder Heart Factor to consider, I suppose.
Thanks for the link!
I think the NY Times did a piece about some guy’s quest for ballpark food. It’s better, thanks to the new shopping mall layouts of the new parks, but the best food is usually out of the way; behind the scoreboard, only available to lower level seats unless you show up for batting practice.
Roylz Stadium got high marks for the Gates & Sons’ barbecue. The crab sandwich sucks (surprisingly) at Camden Yards, but there’s something much better somewhere.
Good for Milwaukee for keeping up the bratwurst tradition of County Stadium. (One person told me the “secret sauce” is an exact fifty-fifty mixture of Welch’s grape jelly and French’s yellow mustard. Ewwww. Except it’s perfect with a ballgame handy).
The Seattle ballpark has good food, reportedly, but they pun all the menu items. The Ichi-Roll is supposedly good sushi, but who could order it with a straight face?
Smuggle in your own food to new Comisky Park (why is it I know the dimensions of Crosley Field but can’t remember the names of the new ballparks?)
I’ve heard the T-Bone sandwich is good eatin’ at the KCK minor league park, though I’ve never been there.
Thanks everyone. Hopefully Bob Wood will do a 25th anniversary edition where he hits up all the new ballparks. I think that idea is growing on him now. I know a lot of folks would enjoy reading it. Here’s a link to his blog at his school. Feel free to drop him a line.
http://blogs.muskegonisd.org/bwood/
Oddibe,
Or should we call you Holmes? – great detective work! Great post.
(Little correction – Darfur is in Sudan).
Joe- nice work on the cross hatch.
The KC Star has linked Joe’s blog. Prepare to be infiltrated by the rif-raf that hangs out on the comments page over there.
Oops. I should have known better on the Darfur error. Thanks.
Yay!!
List of things that make my brain hurt:
-Drew Barrymore
-Guys that play frolf without their shirts
-The Serpentine Belt on my car
-Liv Tyler
-People who confuse my Jayhawk bobblehead for a Cyclone bobblehead
-Maury Povich
No longer on that list:
-The comment section on Poz’s blog
Thanks for removing the diagonal lines, Joe!!
Best ballpark food: San Francisco
Best ballpark neighborhood bar: The Flash Inn, across the Harlem river from Yankee Stadium.
Speaking of links to good articles, the great Rich Sandomir of the Times has a story today that will be of interest to basically everyone who posts here.
Today is the 45th anniversary of a game in which Marichal and Spahn dueled for 16 scoreless innings:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/sports/baseball/02nohit.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin
“And hey, I did get rid of that cross-hatch pattern on the comments, didn’t I? Huh? A little love, please?”
You ROCK Joe! I also ordered your book!
Great story Oddibe
I still have my copy of “Dodger Dogs etc…” and I pull it out once in a while a pick a ballpark to read about. Nice to hear about “The Good Old Days” once in a while.