It’s that time once again, kids!  Happy Pete LaCock Day!

Oh, don’t tell me you forgot…

In what could possibly be the funniest baseball blog post of all time, Flotsam Media comes up with a statistical formula to measure that most Ecksteinian of descriptions: gritty.

After Tim McCarver’s month-long David Eckstein sploogefest that was October 2006, a serious investigation into ‘grit’ was long overdue. Despite the penchant of sportswriters and broadcasters to throw the term around willy-nilly, I was hard-pressed to locate a firm definition of grit in the baseball sense. Using lots of laptop science stuff, I think I’ve improved the definition, which isn’t really saying much, since there wasn’t one to begin with.

…

RESULTS
Across 13,249 player-seasons, the data appears to have a relatively normal distribution. The data shows a range of about -50 to +50 with one outlier at -90.011 (see below), and a mean and median extremely close to 0. These numbers are promising for the prospects of GRIT as a statistic, as they suggest that the average player is neither extremely gritty, nor extremely talented.

Check the link for actual GRIT statistics. I believe this is a nerdy mcnerderson statistic that people like Joe Morgan could get behind. via Fire Joe Morgan.

Join the CWAMB staff in the funk, as we wish a Happy Birthday to former major league outfielder Oscar Gamble, born December 20, 1949.

Gamble got to the majors as a 19-year-old in 1969, and hung around the majors until 1985, playing for the Cubs, Phillies, Indians, White Sox (twice), Yankees (twice), Padres, and Rangers. He hit .265 for his career with 200 home runs and 666 runs batted in. He was never an All-Star, but he did put together a great season for the White Sox in 1977, batting .297 with 31 homers and 87 RBI.

It takes a lot of talent to get to the majors, much less hang around for the better part of two decades, but we don’t remember Oscar Gamble for being fleet of foot (47 career steals) or good with the leather (a subpar .977 fielding percentage), and the annals of major league lore are clogged with average-to-good hitting outfielders. However, we remember Oscar Gamble for the greatest photograph in the history of bubble-gum cards.

Baby, do you feel my funk now? Awwwwww, yeah… (image courtesy of baseball-fever.com, as well as the Topps 1976 “Traded” Series)

When I was a kid, my dad took my brother Rob and I to Yankees Bat Day a couple of times. The first year, which I believe was 1982, the bats that were handed out had players’ names written on them. Both of the bats that came home with us had Oscar Gamble’s signature on it. My dad was a little leery of them… Gamble was a part of the Yankees squad that had lost the World Series in 1976, spent the Yankees’ World Championship seasons of ‘77 and ‘78 in Chicago and San Diego, respectively, and was back for the heartbreaking loss in the 1981 Fall Classic. Of course, we were too young to know any better about such superstitions then, but we had the baseball card pictured above, so he was something of a hero to us based on his hair alone. He wasn’t quite in the Irizarry Household Yankee Parthenon, with Thurman Munson, Don Mattingly, Dave Winfield, Willie Randolph, Reggie Jackson, Ron Guidry and Lou Piniella, but he was certainly a lesser god on that Olympus, where he remains with the Mike Pagliarulos and Rick Cerones.

The only question left unanswered by the legacy of Oscar Gamble is: how the hell big is that hat?

Happy 58th, Oscar.

… that you’re not Chantai Thongbai.  ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark explains in his latest “Rumblings and Grumblings” as to why:

That recently completed World Cup baseball tournament isn’t going to go down as Thailand’s finest sporting hour. The Thais went 0-7, got outscored 108-7 and produced this epic stat line by reliever Chanati Thongbai:

6 IP, 22 H, 24 R, 19 ER, 9 BB, 1 K, 1 WP, 4 HR. If you forgot to calculate along at home, that computes to a 5.17 WHIP, a .537 opponent batting average, a .608 on-base percentage and a 1.584 OPS. Youch!

On a positive note, if I can get a little more movement on my curveball (i.e., “actually throw a curveball”), there may be a future for me in the Taiwanese Leagues.

On a side note, the 2007 Baseball World Cup was won by the United States team, managed by ‘86 Mets skipper Davey Johnson.

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

Are you kidding me?

Funny what happens when you price your boy out of the market., isn’t it? Regardless of how this shakes out, all of sports owes the Yankees (and A-Rod) a pat on the back for handing Scott Boras some of his teeth.

KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!! (image courtesy of nytimes.com)

As the sports world continues its Foundationsesque 2007 pattern of building me up just to let me down, I’m going to continue in my happy world of denial by presenting the Complete Home Run List For Players Primarily Known As Bubba:

• Bubba Trammell, 82
• Bubba Phillips, 62
• Bubba Morton, 14
• Bubba Crosby, 4
• Bubba Carpenter, 3
• Bubba Church, 3
• Bubba Floyd, 0
• Bubba Harris, 0

HAIL KING BUBBA!! (image courtesy of beisbolprofesional.net)

(It should be noted for posterity’s sake that Mssrs. Church and Harris were pitchers; Bubba Church is the All-Time Winningest Bubba, with 36 career wins. Harris had six.)

What inspired this bit of escapist lunacy? Bubba Trammell’s 36th birthday (which I actually missed by about half an hour, but what can you do?). Happy Birthday, King Bubba.

This post is wholehearted sponsored by Earth Chief Bubba!!  Or it would be, if I knew how to ask him.  I’m sure of it.  Pretty sure. (image courtesy of news.cornell.edu)

Things’re gonna turn around one of these days.

It’s been a long week or three in the world of sports.

With the World Series out of the way, the Boston Red Sox can now begin their off-season charity work, like Hug An Old Person Week.  (image courtesy of boston.com) 

Meanwhile, I root for a team with no manager (more on this when the dust finally settles), and an MVP third baseman who apparently doesn’t want to have the biggest contract in the sport’s history offered to him.  Good riddance.

So, yeah, it’s been more than the sinuses keeping me away.  I, a “professional” sports blogger, have pretty much refusing to watch sports.  But hey, there’s always next year.

(You see that?  I’m like a damn Cubs fan now!  Urgh…)

According to SI.com, the Dodgers’ second baseman went off in the clubhouse last night. Los Angeles continued its slide from playoff contention and lost its fifth straight game, 9-4 to the Colorado Rockies, and Kent “cast a wide net” to cast blame to unnamed individuals in the organization.

Kent, 39, is hitting .298 with 20 home runs and 78 RBI for 2007 as of Friday, although his 14 errors at second base aren’t helping the Dodgers much. He is also the only man in baseball that makes Lamar look like the non-asshole he thinks he is. (image courtesy of giantswin.com)

There’s no questioning Kent’s skills. He’s the greatest offensive second-baseman of the live-ball era. In 16 seasons, he’s accumulated 365 homers and over 1,400 RBI. He’s got a .290 batting average and .504 slugging percentage for his career. He was the National League MVP in 2000, despite playing on the same team as Barry Bonds. If he’s not a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer, then the whole selection process needs to be scrapped.

Sadly, it’s always been about Jeff Kent and only Jeff Kent to Jeff Kent. Throwing an injured and undermanned Dodgers team under the bus (even within the confines of the locker room), despite its game attempts to stay in contention, is pure bush league. The team needs Kent now more than ever, but he’s too busy covering his own backside and pushing blame around to be bothered.

Two thoughts spring to mind:

1. Whose clubhouse is he going to poison next year?
2. James Loney, Russell Martin, and Andre Ethier should help him wash his truck this time.

… “Pap Smeared.”

‘Cause they’re that kind of classy.

Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon reacts to surrendering the game-breaking grand slam as seemingly hundreds of Blue Jay runners scamper home in Toronto’s 6-1 win Wednesday.  (image courtesy on espn.com)

I may have to name an as-yet unborn child after Russ Adams, as he’s gonged the Sox twice in two nights.  “Big Hurt” was already on the short list of names, so we’re covered from Monday.  To that end, I will also need to find an extremely patient woman… sports fandom necessary.  No New Englanders, unless defection is a possibility.  Inquire at the service desk.  But I digress.  My first two Airtight Baseball Predictions for 2008 are:

1. Russ Adams will be a Yankee.
2. Barring #1, Russ Adams will be a member of the Red Sox, just so they don’t have to pitch to him.

One game.  If you had told me this on Memorial Day, I’d have slapped you stupid.

Mike Hargrove, who retired from coaching the Seattle Mariners after stating that he had “lost his passion for the job”, has apparantly found that passion again. Hargrove will be the manager of the Liberal, Kansas Semi-Pro Baseball team the BeeJays, starting with their next season.

Sophomoric jokes aside (and let’s be honest, the only reason I am posting this is for the headline), I’m happy for Mike Hargrove. He clearly still had a hunger for the competition of baseball, but just couldn’t face up to the schedule the Majors demanded without burning out completely. I’m sure that coaching the team that gave him his start some 35 years ago will be just what the doctor ordered.