Reader Responses
While checking through the comments section today, I noticed a very thoughtful response to the DirecTV post from “Glenn in Denver”:
I feel so sick [that] cable might lose the MLB EI package. I have loved baseball so much and can’t get enough of it, even in the off season since I was a little boy growing up near Wrigley Field.
I live in Denver now and I love [that] I can get the Cubs, Reds, Royals, and White Sox on the package.
If this deal goes through and we lose out on the package, my love for the sport I grew up with is going to die. I will not buy a dish so I can get my teams (that is going along with the monopoly).
Every game I go to or watch from home, I keep score to. Score keeping has been the one thing that keeps me as a part of the game. If that goes, so does my love and as anyone knows that loosing a loved one is very hard to take!
If this deal is a must for MLB, you have lost a fan! MLB is America’s past time, not DirecTV future! I have to plan on boycotting games and score keeping if this happens or until it comes back to cable (but that might be to late).
If someone at MLB can just listen to the fans or do you need me to get fans to sign a petition that we don’t want this deal to go through because our out of market games would be lost to the die hard fans!
Now I don’t think Glenn’s case is a common one, since I don’t think that this move is going to cost baseball any fans in the long term, but I think he’s made an excellent point. MLB doesn’t listen to its own fans.
The only way that MLB can be held accountable for its actions is by using the only leverage we have against it, the anti-trust exemption. I’d suggest writing to our representatives, if only to make MLB understand that this action is hostile to the average fan.
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With all of the work I did on umpire stats and graphs, someone was sure to notice, right? Well, I was pleased to see that Tom Tango had run across my humble little site, and left me a note.
I’m guessing you are looking at all strikes, not just called strikes? That is, swing-and-miss strikes, foul strikes, and balls in play, are included?
As well, the next step would be to adjust for the quality of pitcher.
Nonetheless, great job in representing the data.
You can see an in-depth discussion of all the umpire data at Tom’s site.