http://thepastime.net/index.php baseball thoughts and analysis Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:56:00 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en this is a test, since the site is acting oddly. http://thepastime.net/index.php/2008/07/23/test/ To cap off SABR 38, roughly 15 of us went out to Public Square in downtown Cleveland for a game of Wiffle Ball. It was epic. Among the players were myself, Kyle Eliason, Kerry Smith, Aaron Gleeman, Ben Jacobs, some Minnesotans whose names I've forgotten (sorry), and a few other SABR members. After ... http://thepastime.net/index.php/2008/06/28/sabr-wiffle-ball/ David Smith, the wonderful man who gave the world Retrosheet, just gave a nice presentation about the importance of strike one. It was the second part of a study he started at last year's convention in St. Louis, and just as stuffed with interesting info and just as interesting. As it ... http://thepastime.net/index.php/2008/06/28/sabr-38-day-three-stats-stats-stats/ Sitting in the auditorium before Mark Shapiro and Mike Veeck were due to speak, I ran into a couple entertaining SABR members. Howie Siegel (Victoria, BC) and Joel Schwartz (Del Mar, Calif.) are two of the more animated guys I've ran across at the convention, and we had a nice ... http://thepastime.net/index.php/2008/06/28/sabr-38-day-three-mark-shapiro-mike-veeck/ This morning, SABR members were treated to a special screening of a new documentary. "Base Ball Discovered" is a production of MLB, and goes into the origins of the game. As they were filming in England, the producers unearthed a new document that helps push back the origins of baseball ... http://thepastime.net/index.php/2008/06/28/sabr-38-day-three-a-film-some-authors-and-tornado-damage-back-home/ Another presentation I watched at SABR 38 was about the 1935 barnstorming tour of the Tokyo Giants. The baseball team toured North America in the summer of '35, playing over 100 games over the course of 120 days. They went 74-31-1 playing minor-league, semi-pro and club teams from the U.S., ... http://thepastime.net/index.php/2008/06/27/japanese-barnstorming-in-north-america-including-nebraska/ The first presentation I went to today was the analysis of steroid use in baseball by Jeff Swtichenko of Emory University. Switchenko was one of the under-30 members at last night's meeting. Emory's biostatistics department put together a dense, thorough study of the collective effect of steroid abuse on performance in ... http://thepastime.net/index.php/2008/06/27/sabr-38-day-two-steroid-statistics-and-does-cleveland-really-rock/ The player panel started out with a bit of a disappointment, since Len Barker couldn't make it due to a prior engagement. The former Indians players that did make it were Joe Charboneau, Dave Burba, Kevin Rhomberg and Vern Fuller. As is so often true, the first few questions asked were awkward ... http://thepastime.net/index.php/2008/06/27/former-player-panel-at-sabr-38/ I just returned from the first Under-30 group meeting at the convention, and it was sure nice to meet up with other people my own age that are as fascinated by baseball as I am. There were eight others there, from locations as diverse as Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, ... http://thepastime.net/index.php/2008/06/26/under-30-at-sabr-baseball-reference-partnership-sabr-39-in-the-atl/ I just got back from the Wade Park Oval here in Cleveland, where I had a chance to play in the vintage 1860 rules Base Ball game. I've got to say, it was a blast. A big thanks goes out to Ed Shuman, of the Canal Fulton Mules, for getting ... http://thepastime.net/index.php/2008/06/26/vintage-base-ball-at-sabr/