In recent years both the National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) has changed rules to pretty much ban any blow to the head regardless of intent.
The Major Baseball League (MBL) has not. Why not?
The primary example of such a blow is a pitcher releasing a ball traveling faster than 90 miles per hour (MPH) from about 55 feet away and the ball hitting the batter in the head. Probably the next most frequent occurrence would be a base runner crashing into a catcher at home plate.
Both of these situations could easily be addressed by making them against the rules with severe penalties such as:
- first incident: one month suspension
- second incident: one year suspension
- third incident: lifetime suspension.
One of the charges being presented against Alex Rodriguez today at his hearing is that Rodriguez frustrated the commissioner, Allen Huber "Bud" Selig. Rodriguez was suspended 121 games in August: the remainder of the 2013 season and all of the 2014 season. Rodriguez appealed, which is why there is a hearing. Given that Rodriguez is already 38 years old and that he did not start to play until August because of his second major hip surgery, such a penalty would be a baseball death sentence.
Blow to the head versus frustrating the commissioner. Which is worse?
Stimulating, provocative, sometimes whimsical new concepts that challenge traditional baseball orthodoxy. Note: Anonymous comments will not be published. Copyright Kenneth Matinale
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Monday, September 30, 2013
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Playoff tiebreaker rules had there been a three way tie.
Tampa and Texas finished in a tie for the last American Conference wild card spot in the tournament. However, had Cleveland lost there would have been a three way tie, for which the league provided the following:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/ article.jsp?ymd=20130904& content_id=59527184&c_id=mlb
On Friday, Major League Baseball revealed what will occur should all three finish in a tie, which would require two tiebreaker games -- one on Monday and one on Tuesday -- ahead of Wednesday's AL Wild Card Game.
The bottom line is this: The Indians would host the Rays on Monday, with the winner earning one of the berths. The loser would play at Texas on Tuesday for the final spot.
That schedule is the result of the Indians having the best combined record (7-5) against the Rays and Rangers and therefore having the right to choose to host the first game. The Rays' combined record is second (7-6) and they chose to go on the road on Monday rather than host a game on Tuesday. The Rangers (5-8) were left with only that option.
___________________________________
I read this three times and still don't understand why Tampa "chose to go on the road on Monday rather than host a game on Tuesday". It seems that Tampa could have played at home Tuesday against a team that had just lost on Monday.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/
On Friday, Major League Baseball revealed what will occur should all three finish in a tie, which would require two tiebreaker games -- one on Monday and one on Tuesday -- ahead of Wednesday's AL Wild Card Game.
The bottom line is this: The Indians would host the Rays on Monday, with the winner earning one of the berths. The loser would play at Texas on Tuesday for the final spot.
That schedule is the result of the Indians having the best combined record (7-5) against the Rays and Rangers and therefore having the right to choose to host the first game. The Rays' combined record is second (7-6) and they chose to go on the road on Monday rather than host a game on Tuesday. The Rangers (5-8) were left with only that option.
___________________________________
I read this three times and still don't understand why Tampa "chose to go on the road on Monday rather than host a game on Tuesday". It seems that Tampa could have played at home Tuesday against a team that had just lost on Monday.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Why does Florida have teams and other comments on attendance.
Tampa and Miami are last in their respective conferences in attendance per game. See earlier post:
Saturday, September 28, 2013 Attendance: 1963 v. 2013 - shocking differences.
That post contains numbers for this season and for 50 years ago. It's just the numbers. This post has some comments. Attendance in 2013 is based on tickets sold.
Miami has an excuse: the worst record in the National Conference (NC). Tampa is tied with Cleveland for the two American Conference (AC) wild card spots in the upcoming tournament with Texas one game behind and two games remaining. What gives with Tampa? Miami, when it was still called Florida, won the tournament in 1997 and 2003 only to disband both times and leave its fans with losing teams.
Cleveland has the second worst AC attendance. Kansas City, only recently eliminated, is fourth worst. The Yankees are first.
Yet the Tampa attendance of 18,464 is better than that of Minnesota (17,366), which led the old American League (AL) in 1963; Yanks were second. In 1963 San Francisco was second in National League (NL) attendance with 19,399, a little more than Miami in 2013: 19,260. In 1963 the Los Angeles Dodgers drew 31,341, which in 2013 in the NC would be 8th.
Top attendance in 2013:
Los Angeles 45,973
St. Louis 41,518
San Francisco 41,080
Yankees 40,489
Top attendance in 1963:
Los Angeles 31,341
San Francisco 19,399
St. Louis 14,451
Minnesota 17,366
Yankees 16,362
See a pattern? Pittsburgh, which last made the post season in 1992 led by Barry Bonds, will host the NC wild card play-in game against Cincinnati. Their 2013 NC attendance ranks: 11 & 10. 1963 NL attendance ranks: 8 & 7.
Sunday, March 29, 2009 Super League
I really don't care whether Kansas City has a MLB team. Nor Toronto. Nor Pittsburgh. I'm tired of junk like small market teams and revenue sharing. There's a reason it's called MAJOR league
____________________________________
Saturday, September 28, 2013 Attendance: 1963 v. 2013 - shocking differences.
That post contains numbers for this season and for 50 years ago. It's just the numbers. This post has some comments. Attendance in 2013 is based on tickets sold.
Miami has an excuse: the worst record in the National Conference (NC). Tampa is tied with Cleveland for the two American Conference (AC) wild card spots in the upcoming tournament with Texas one game behind and two games remaining. What gives with Tampa? Miami, when it was still called Florida, won the tournament in 1997 and 2003 only to disband both times and leave its fans with losing teams.
Cleveland has the second worst AC attendance. Kansas City, only recently eliminated, is fourth worst. The Yankees are first.
Yet the Tampa attendance of 18,464 is better than that of Minnesota (17,366), which led the old American League (AL) in 1963; Yanks were second. In 1963 San Francisco was second in National League (NL) attendance with 19,399, a little more than Miami in 2013: 19,260. In 1963 the Los Angeles Dodgers drew 31,341, which in 2013 in the NC would be 8th.
Top attendance in 2013:
Los Angeles 45,973
St. Louis 41,518
San Francisco 41,080
Yankees 40,489
Top attendance in 1963:
Los Angeles 31,341
San Francisco 19,399
St. Louis 14,451
Minnesota 17,366
Yankees 16,362
See a pattern? Pittsburgh, which last made the post season in 1992 led by Barry Bonds, will host the NC wild card play-in game against Cincinnati. Their 2013 NC attendance ranks: 11 & 10. 1963 NL attendance ranks: 8 & 7.
Sunday, March 29, 2009 Super League
I really don't care whether Kansas City has a MLB team. Nor Toronto. Nor Pittsburgh. I'm tired of junk like small market teams and revenue sharing. There's a reason it's called MAJOR league
____________________________________
Labels:
Attendance,
Conduct,
Philosophy,
Rules,
Stats,
Tactics
New York Team Attendance: 1903-2010
Written March 2011. Click this link to view the entire document. Here is a summary:
Attendance will be evaluated per game ...
Following the 1957 season the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and the Giants moved to San Francisco.
1962-2010 average combined attendance per game NY (Yankees and Mets) v. CA (Dodgers and Giants):
CA 57,952
1962-2010 average combined attendance per game NY (Yankees and Mets) v. CA (Dodgers and Giants):
CA 57,952
NY 54,883
-->Years | Yankees | Mets | Giants | Dodgers |
1903-2010 | 20,197 | 15,782 | 21,993 | |
1903-1957 | 12,569 | 10,145 | 9,135 | |
1947-1956 | 23,921 | 13,943 | 16,466 | |
1958-1961 | 20,295 | 19,094 | 25,806 | |
1962-2010 | 28,751 | 26,132 | 21,839 | 36,113 |
The numbers speak for themselves. The Giants fail to lead in any of these eras. Dodgers win 3 of 5. Yanks 2 of 5. The so called glory years 1947-1956 have considerably less attendance for ten years than the 48 years 1962-2010. This despite the fact that in 7 of those 10 years 1947-1956 both World Series teams were from New York and in the other three one New York team was in the World Series. 1947-1956 Giants were outdrawn:
Yankees 41.7% (23,921 - 13,943) / 23,921
Yankees 41.7% (23,921 - 13,943) / 23,921
Dodgers 15.3% (16,466 - 13,943) / 16,466
A case could be made that if the Giants had remained in New York and gotten Shea Stadium they would have had the Mets attendance, 4,293 and 16.4% higher than what they drew in San Francisco. Some may say that NL would have not permitted the Dodgers to move to LA without another NL team on the west coast to make the relatively primitive commercial air travel at the time more manageable but LA would have gotten a team around that time and New York was becoming a two team town. Maybe the Chicago Cubs would have gone to San Francisco. In 1956 and 1957 only the Giants prevented the Cubs from being last in NL attendance. At least one New York team had to move and it wasn’t going to be the Yankees...
The Dodgers have been by far the most successful of any MLB team after moving. Since leaving Brooklyn for Los Angeles, the Dodgers have had much better attendance than the Yankees, Giants or Mets as described above.
A case could be made that if the Giants had remained in New York and gotten Shea Stadium they would have had the Mets attendance, 4,293 and 16.4% higher than what they drew in San Francisco. Some may say that NL would have not permitted the Dodgers to move to LA without another NL team on the west coast to make the relatively primitive commercial air travel at the time more manageable but LA would have gotten a team around that time and New York was becoming a two team town. Maybe the Chicago Cubs would have gone to San Francisco. In 1956 and 1957 only the Giants prevented the Cubs from being last in NL attendance. At least one New York team had to move and it wasn’t going to be the Yankees...
The Dodgers have been by far the most successful of any MLB team after moving. Since leaving Brooklyn for Los Angeles, the Dodgers have had much better attendance than the Yankees, Giants or Mets as described above.
________________________________
Attendance: 1963 v. 2013 - shocking differences.
1963 American League:
American Conference 2013:
______________________________________________________
National League 1963:
National Conference 2013:
Tm | Attendance | Attend/G ▾ | BatAge | PitchAge | BPF | PPF | #HOF | #A-S | #a-tA-S | Est. Payroll | Managers |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MIN | 1,406,652 | 17,366 | 27.2 | 26.7 | 102 | 100 | 1 | 4 | 0 | Mele | |
NYY | 1,308,920 | 16,362 | 27.9 | 26.7 | 99 | 97 | 3 | 6 | 0 | Houk | |
CHW | 1,158,848 | 14,132 | 27.2 | 28.5 | 98 | 96 | 2 | 2 | 0 | Lopez | |
BOS | 942,642 | 11,783 | 27.9 | 26.3 | 103 | 104 | 2 | 4 | 0 | Pesky | |
DET | 821,952 | 10,148 | 28.4 | 28.5 | 103 | 103 | 3 | 2 | 0 | Scheffing and Dressen | |
LAA | 821,015 | 10,136 | 27.4 | 27.9 | 94 | 94 | 0 | 3 | 0 | Rigney | |
BAL | 774,343 | 9,560 | 27.4 | 28.0 | 96 | 95 | 3 | 3 | 0 | Hitchcock | |
KCA | 762,364 | 9,412 | 28.2 | 27.4 | 106 | 108 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Lopat | |
CLE | 562,507 | 6,945 | 27.2 | 28.2 | 99 | 100 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Tebbetts | |
WSA | 535,604 | 6,695 | 28.6 | 28.2 | 100 | 103 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Vernon, Yost and Hodges |
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/27/2013.
_________________________________
Tm | Attendance | Attend/G ▾ | BatAge | PitchAge | BPF | PPF | #HOF | #A-S | #a-tA-S | Est. Payroll | Managers |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
NYY | 3,279,589 | 40,489 | 31.8 | 31.8 | 101 | 101 | 0 | 2 | 14 | $224,675,750 | Girardi |
TEX | 3,019,430 | 38,711 | 29.5 | 27.9 | 104 | 103 | 0 | 3 | 15 | $112,477,200 | Washington |
DET | 3,083,397 | 38,067 | 29.9 | 28.4 | 106 | 105 | 0 | 6 | 10 | $147,574,500 | Leyland |
LAA | 3,019,505 | 37,278 | 27.8 | 29.2 | 94 | 94 | 0 | 1 | 8 | $121,057,500 | Scioscia |
BOS | 2,833,333 | 34,979 | 29.7 | 30.3 | 103 | 103 | 0 | 3 | 13 | $150,325,500 | Farrell |
TOR | 2,431,491 | 31,173 | 29.1 | 31.0 | 101 | 102 | 0 | 4 | 10 | $125,125,100 | Gibbons |
MIN | 2,392,183 | 30,669 | 28.3 | 28.3 | 99 | 101 | 0 | 2 | 4 | $79,095,000 | Gardenhire |
BAL | 2,245,991 | 28,795 | 27.8 | 27.9 | 105 | 105 | 0 | 5 | 12 | $84,361,500 | Showalter |
OAK | 1,809,302 | 22,337 | 28.3 | 28.3 | 95 | 93 | 0 | 2 | 5 | $58,407,500 | Melvin |
SEA | 1,703,700 | 21,842 | 28.6 | 28.1 | 92 | 92 | 0 | 2 | 5 | $80,252,400 | Wedge |
CHW | 1,699,071 | 21,783 | 29.2 | 27.1 | 107 | 107 | 0 | 2 | 7 | $116,913,500 | Ventura |
KCR | 1,750,754 | 21,614 | 27.0 | 28.9 | 102 | 103 | 0 | 3 | 9 | $80,078,625 | Yost |
HOU | 1,544,656 | 19,803 | 26.0 | 27.2 | 99 | 102 | 0 | 1 | 3 | $19,139,800 | Porter |
CLE | 1,572,926 | 19,419 | 28.6 | 27.4 | 93 | 94 | 0 | 2 | 9 | $75,998,833 | Francona |
TBR | 1,510,300 | 18,646 | 29.6 | 29.1 | 96 | 95 | 0 | 2 | 7 | $59,448,500 | Maddon |
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/27/2013.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
National League 1963:
Tm | Attendance | Attend/G ▾ | BatAge | PitchAge | BPF | PPF | #HOF | #A-S | #a-tA-S | Est. Payroll | Managers |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
LAD | 2,538,602 | 31,341 | 27.4 | 26.5 | 92 | 91 | 2 | 4 | 0 | $321,500 | Alston |
SFG | 1,571,306 | 19,399 | 28.2 | 28.8 | 99 | 97 | 5 | 5 | 0 | Dark | |
STL | 1,170,546 | 14,451 | 28.8 | 29.1 | 110 | 108 | 3 | 5 | 0 | Keane | |
NYM | 1,080,108 | 13,335 | 27.4 | 27.6 | 100 | 105 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Stengel | |
CHC | 979,551 | 12,093 | 25.8 | 28.5 | 106 | 107 | 4 | 2 | 0 | Kennedy | |
PHI | 907,141 | 11,199 | 28.3 | 27.4 | 99 | 98 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Mauch | |
CIN | 858,805 | 10,603 | 26.4 | 29.2 | 103 | 101 | 1 | 2 | 0 | Hutchinson | |
PIT | 783,648 | 9,675 | 27.6 | 28.7 | 100 | 100 | 3 | 2 | 0 | Murtaugh | |
MLN | 773,018 | 9,427 | 27.6 | 28.1 | 99 | 98 | 3 | 3 | 0 | Bragan | |
HOU | 719,502 | 8,883 | 27.0 | 29.4 | 94 | 96 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Craft |
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/27/2013.
_________________________________________National Conference 2013:
Tm | Attendance | Attend/G ▾ | BatAge | PitchAge | BPF | PPF | #HOF | #A-S | #a-tA-S | Est. Payroll | Managers |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
LAD | 3,585,885 | 45,973 | 30.5 | 28.1 | 96 | 95 | 0 | 1 | 17 | $211,472,000 | Mattingly |
STL | 3,238,411 | 41,518 | 28.7 | 26.9 | 99 | 98 | 0 | 6 | 11 | $113,683,000 | Matheny |
SFG | 3,245,307 | 41,080 | 28.7 | 29.6 | 89 | 89 | 0 | 4 | 10 | $139,845,667 | Bochy |
PHI | 3,012,403 | 37,190 | 30.0 | 28.7 | 101 | 102 | 0 | 2 | 10 | $166,860,000 | Manuel and Sandberg |
COL | 2,793,828 | 34,492 | 27.7 | 28.3 | 117 | 117 | 0 | 3 | 6 | $81,540,500 | Weiss |
WSN | 2,652,422 | 32,746 | 27.8 | 27.7 | 102 | 101 | 0 | 2 | 11 | $110,152,250 | Johnson |
CHC | 2,642,682 | 32,626 | 27.9 | 28.7 | 104 | 105 | 0 | 1 | 6 | $103,073,000 | Sveum |
MIL | 2,531,105 | 31,248 | 27.9 | 28.8 | 104 | 104 | 0 | 2 | 8 | $85,242,000 | Roenicke |
ATL | 2,429,603 | 31,149 | 26.8 | 27.2 | 104 | 102 | 0 | 3 | 9 | $87,638,750 | Gonzalez |
CIN | 2,371,103 | 30,794 | 28.5 | 27.6 | 103 | 102 | 0 | 3 | 9 | $101,310,000 | Baker |
PIT | 2,256,862 | 27,862 | 27.9 | 28.7 | 94 | 94 | 0 | 5 | 13 | $75,187,000 | Hurdle |
SDP | 2,166,691 | 26,749 | 28.1 | 28.8 | 91 | 92 | 0 | 1 | 5 | $70,773,600 | Black |
ARI | 2,043,665 | 26,201 | 28.1 | 27.6 | 102 | 102 | 0 | 2 | 9 | $88,975,000 | Gibson |
NYM | 2,039,164 | 26,143 | 28.3 | 29.0 | 94 | 95 | 0 | 2 | 4 | $73,979,935 | Collins |
MIA | 1,502,265 | 19,260 | 27.7 | 26.0 | 102 | 103 | 0 | 1 | 3 | $33,290,500 | Redmond |
Labels:
Attendance,
Conduct,
Philosophy,
Rules,
Stats,
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