doug sisk memorial links
(Actually, I’m pretty sure Doug Sisk is still alive.)
o Kottke breaks down the knuckleball using Josh Kalk’s PITCHf/x tool. The latter is amazing. Honestly, most of the math is entirely beyond me, but graphing the way a pitcher’s pitches break is a way to visualize a pitcher’s work, and is beautiful. It’s modern art, really, each chart somehow finding the truth of a particular player. Of course, the highly modern colors on the white background contribute, too.
o Slate‘s Matthew McGough on the golden age of baseball movies.
o Safeco Field in San Francisco has some kind of free live network for Nintendo DS users. Sounds fun, fersure, but such a strange platform to do it with. I mean, I guess DSes are popular and all, but wouldn’t it make more sense to develop it for the Blackberry or something? (Thx, VB.)
o The Mets latest 5th starter/hope, Nelson Figueroa, is the definition of the contemporary international journeyman. Born in Brooklyn (represent!), in the past year Figueroa has pitched in Mexico (all-star), Taiwan (Series MVP), the Dominican Republic (Series MVP), and the Caribbean (Series MVP). Definitely an Omar Minaya type of player. (via Metsblog)
o A whole mess of links about the 1964 World’s Fair which spawned Shea Stadium.
Awesome story about Figueroa. He went to Brandeis too. How many professional athletes went there, I wonder. I’ll be rooting for him all season, that’s for sure.
If you go to his baseball-reference page (http://www.baseball-reference.com/f/figuene01.shtml)
you will see a date in 2004 listed as his “FINAL GAME” in bold letters.
I love when players come back to the game after long hiatuses (hiati?). Jose Rijo was out of the game for 5 years, got a single HOF vote after the mandatory wait period, and then he returned to the game for two seasons.
He was eligible for the HOF again last year and received one less vote this time around.