Read Online The New Ballgame: Understanding Baseball Statistics for the Casual Fan by Glenn Guzzo - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Glenn Guzzo
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routine, for a family to attend a big-league game. With infrequent visitors outnumbering
the regulars at any given game,
team owners see themselves in the entertainment business as much as the
baseball business.
If you are a casual fan, you'll be surrounded by people like you. Those
oddballs-the fans who insist on coming to the park for the baseball-are easy
enough to spot. The tell-tale signs are especially evident between innings.
When the rest of the crowd is cheering for their favorite bratwurst in
the sausage race, the serious fans have heads down, updating the statistics on
their scorecards.
When the rest of the crowd is trying to guess which helmet is concealing the baseball in the scoreboard version of a shell game, the serious fans are
checking a different part of the scoreboard-the scores of out-of-town games.
When the rest of the crowd is trying to guess the gender of the improbably costumed mascot, the serious fans are trying to figure out the baseball trivia question of the day. Was it Rogers Hornsby, Stan Musial or Tony
Gwynn who led the National League in hitting six straight years? (Hornsby.)
When the rest of the crowd is singing "YMCA," the serious fans are
checking out the stats of the relief pitcher taking the mound.
If this makes the serious fan sound too, well, serious, remember that
these folks can be your best friends when the game is on. These are the fans
you can turn to when an umpire confuses you by sending a runner to the next
base without a pitch being thrown (balk), awards a batter first base on a pitch
he swung at and missed (catcher's interference), or calls a batter out even
though an infielder dropped a popup (infield fly rule). These are the fans who,
because they are keeping track of how many pitches have been thrown, can
explain why the manager just pinch hit for the starting pitcher who seemed to
be doing just fine.
So, if you enjoy group participation, go ahead-sing, laugh at the mascot's antics, and cheer for your favorite sausage. But if you'd also like to
enjoy the baseball more, there are a few fairly simple statistics that will help
you feel like one of the gang with the serious fans anticipating and secondguessing the strategy on the field.
The statistics are handy-you'll find them in bright lights on the giant
electronic scoreboard and possibly on a paper insert inside the glossy magazine sold as a game program. These statistics on display at the ballpark are
basic: the "primary statistics" familiar (at least in name, if not in significance)
to casual fans. For batters, these are the "Triple Crown" stats: home runs, runs
batted in, and batting average. For pitchers, these are wins, losses, and earned
run average. Add saves for relief pitchers.
BATTING STATISTICS
Batting average (BA or AVG)
Though steadily losing stature as a benchmark for evaluating a player's offensive skill, batting average has endured as the shorthand to describe a hitter's
productivity and general reputation.
For more than a century, dating to the days when home runs were rare
and walks were harder to come by than they are now, hitters have been labeled by their batting average. In the shorthand, "He's a .300 hitter" is high
praise, referring to the standard of excellence. A.270 hitter is merely reliable,
a .250 hitter is barely acceptable, and a .220 hitter has a short baseball life to
live. As for the batter who comes to the plate sporting a batting average beginning with .1, he'd better be a pitcher.
Since batting average really is a three-digit percentage (.321 means
getting a hit 32.1% of your at-bats), this stat is subject to wild fluctuations
early in the season, when a player has had few at-bats, but minor change
late in the season. By September, a player with 500-plus at-bats who gets a
hit typically will improve by two batting average points (e.g. .276 to .278),
while making an out will cost him one point.
The difference between a .300 hitter
and a
the regulars at any given game,
team owners see themselves in the entertainment business as much as the
baseball business.
If you are a casual fan, you'll be surrounded by people like you. Those
oddballs-the fans who insist on coming to the park for the baseball-are easy
enough to spot. The tell-tale signs are especially evident between innings.
When the rest of the crowd is cheering for their favorite bratwurst in
the sausage race, the serious fans have heads down, updating the statistics on
their scorecards.
When the rest of the crowd is trying to guess which helmet is concealing the baseball in the scoreboard version of a shell game, the serious fans are
checking a different part of the scoreboard-the scores of out-of-town games.
When the rest of the crowd is trying to guess the gender of the improbably costumed mascot, the serious fans are trying to figure out the baseball trivia question of the day. Was it Rogers Hornsby, Stan Musial or Tony
Gwynn who led the National League in hitting six straight years? (Hornsby.)
When the rest of the crowd is singing "YMCA," the serious fans are
checking out the stats of the relief pitcher taking the mound.
If this makes the serious fan sound too, well, serious, remember that
these folks can be your best friends when the game is on. These are the fans
you can turn to when an umpire confuses you by sending a runner to the next
base without a pitch being thrown (balk), awards a batter first base on a pitch
he swung at and missed (catcher's interference), or calls a batter out even
though an infielder dropped a popup (infield fly rule). These are the fans who,
because they are keeping track of how many pitches have been thrown, can
explain why the manager just pinch hit for the starting pitcher who seemed to
be doing just fine.
So, if you enjoy group participation, go ahead-sing, laugh at the mascot's antics, and cheer for your favorite sausage. But if you'd also like to
enjoy the baseball more, there are a few fairly simple statistics that will help
you feel like one of the gang with the serious fans anticipating and secondguessing the strategy on the field.
The statistics are handy-you'll find them in bright lights on the giant
electronic scoreboard and possibly on a paper insert inside the glossy magazine sold as a game program. These statistics on display at the ballpark are
basic: the "primary statistics" familiar (at least in name, if not in significance)
to casual fans. For batters, these are the "Triple Crown" stats: home runs, runs
batted in, and batting average. For pitchers, these are wins, losses, and earned
run average. Add saves for relief pitchers.
BATTING STATISTICS
Batting average (BA or AVG)
Though steadily losing stature as a benchmark for evaluating a player's offensive skill, batting average has endured as the shorthand to describe a hitter's
productivity and general reputation.
For more than a century, dating to the days when home runs were rare
and walks were harder to come by than they are now, hitters have been labeled by their batting average. In the shorthand, "He's a .300 hitter" is high
praise, referring to the standard of excellence. A.270 hitter is merely reliable,
a .250 hitter is barely acceptable, and a .220 hitter has a short baseball life to
live. As for the batter who comes to the plate sporting a batting average beginning with .1, he'd better be a pitcher.
Since batting average really is a three-digit percentage (.321 means
getting a hit 32.1% of your at-bats), this stat is subject to wild fluctuations
early in the season, when a player has had few at-bats, but minor change
late in the season. By September, a player with 500-plus at-bats who gets a
hit typically will improve by two batting average points (e.g. .276 to .278),
while making an out will cost him one point.
The difference between a .300 hitter
and a
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