baseball Page 300 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Greg Maddux Taught Me How To Watch Baseball
Having purchased a Hall of Fame ballot, which we filled out in accordance with the wishes of our readers, we're reviewing the merits—and relative lack of merits—of all 36 players on this year's ballot. All entries in the series can be found here....

A Decade After <em>Moneyball</em>, Have The A's Found A New Market Inefficiency?
Originally published on Baseball Prospectus....

MLB Teams Will Soon Bid On The Latest Touted Japanese Pitcher
It's happening. Masahiro Tanaka, the right-handed pitching sensation from Japan, will be starting an MLB career after being posted by the Rakuten Golden Eagles. The only question is, which team?...

Rafael Palmeiro Was The Ideal Steroids Scapegoat
Rafael Palmeiro was going to stroll into the Hall of Fame. It's sort of unbelievable to remember this fact, as we try to gaze back over the ruptured fault line between the Steroids Era and the Steroids Recriminations Era. There wasn't really anything to argue about, back then. He was in....

A Christmas Carol For White Sox Fans
Christmas Carols always bring to mind an old family friend who passed away a few years ago. Sam was a long-suffering Cubs fan—is there any other kind?—who used to sing a variation of "Adeste Fideles" that paid tribute to the Go-Go White Sox. ...

These Guys Sucked In The Playoffs. Should That Matter To HOF Voters?
Having acquired a Hall of Fame ballot, which we'll be filling out in accordance with the wishes of our readers, we're examining the merits—and relative lack of merits—of all 36 players on this year's ballot for the purposes of better informing the electorate, i.e., you. All entries in the series can...

Deadspin Loses One Hall Of Fame Vote, But Gains Another
Recently, as you know, we announced that we had purchased a Hall of Fame ballot from a veteran baseball writer, with the intention of turning it over to Deadspin readers. The idea was to give a bit of power to ordinary baseball fans, and to draw attention to the increasing absurdity of the Hall of F...

W.C. Heinz's Short Story: One Throw
Here's a treat—W.C. Heinz's 1950 short story, "One Throw":...

When Chickens Play Baseball, We All Win
"Casey Number Two, who is more temperamental than her colleagues, jumps on the playing field to peck at the first baseman, who has blocked her hit."...

Kenny Rogers, The Gambler Who Embodied Suffering And Abject Failure
Having purchased a Hall of Fame ballot, which we'll be filling out in accordance with the wishes of our readers, we're examining the merits—and relative lack of merits—of all 36 players on this year's ballot for the purposes of better informing the electorate, i.e., you. All entries in the series ca...

Hall Of Fame Voters Are Pickier Than They've Ever Been
Dave Cameron at FanGraphs has discovered something fascinating. Breaking down the number of men to play in the major leagues and the number of Hall of Famers by their birth year, he found that HOF electors have been remarkably consistent in the percentage of players they elect—roughly one percent to...

Jack Morris Voter Hates What He Doesn't Understand (Numbers)
You want to list Jack Morris on your Hall of Fame ballot? Fine. You want to vote for Jack Morris and not offer a public explanation? Go for it, it's your vote! But when a BBWAA member announces his vote for Jack Morris, citing as a sabermetrics flaw a specific thing that sabermetrics do very well, t...

Edgar Martinez Murdered Baseballs Forever
Having purchased a Hall of Fame ballot, which we'll be filling out in accordance with the wishes of our readers, we're examining the merits—and relative lack of merits—of all 36 players on this year's ballot for the purposes of better informing the electorate, i.e., you. All entries in the series ca...

Richard Ford: Stop Blaming The Game
In 1993, the acclaimed novelist Richard Ford wrote a piece for the New York Times called "Stop Blaming Baseball."...

Love Song to Willie Mays
Joe Flaherty's love song to the Say Hey Kid. ...

The Atlanta Braves Are About To Get Teabagged
Originally published at Bloomberg View....

Was Sammy Sosa Really All That Great?
Having purchased a Hall of Fame ballot, which we'll be filling out in accordance with the wishes of our readers, we're examining the merits—and relative lack of merits—of all 36 players on this year's ballot for the purposes of better informing the electorate, i.e., you. All entries in the series ca...

Hall Of Fame Expert Predicts Only One Player Will Make It This Year
Bill Deane is a former senior research associate at the Baseball Hall of Fame. For more than three decades, he's been predicting who'll make it into the HOF, who won't, and what their vote percentages will be. On borderline cases—those within 10 percent of the 75-percent cutoff—he's batting .806. So...

