What does it mean to have piled up a .338 batting average over a 20-year career, over 9,288 at-bats? It means Tony Gwynn would have had to go 0-for-his-next-1,183 to get his average to fall under .300 (and even then, it would have “plummeted” to a mere .29997). We kid you not.
Lordy.
Saying Good-bye As the Braves Leave Atlanta for ‘Atlanta’ – Grantland.
Nothing in this message is a lie, or even exaggerated, once you realize who the audience is. This message isn’t directed toward the Atlanta city-dweller. The “you, our fans” is not targeted at a person who lives in the city of Atlanta. It’s targeted at everyone in that dark-red blot that lives in the city’s northern suburbs. If you’re a fan who lives in these suburban areas, today is a great day. It has long been a hassle to get to Turner Field — because it involves going all the way to Atlanta to see the Atlanta Braves.
Corresponding to the umpire-as-instrument idea is External Realism. According to External Realism, there are umpiring-independent facts of the game — balls are really fair or foul, runners are either safe or out — and the questions we face are merely epistemological, how best to determine the facts, how to find out.
Corresponding to the umpire-as-player idea is Internal Anti-Realism. According to Internal Anti-Realism, umpires don’t call them as they see them; umpires, through their calls, make it the case that a pitch is a strike or a ball, a runner safe or out. There are no umpire-independent facts in baseball.
The Sultan of KO
July 5th, 1924. In a game against the Washington Senators, Babe Ruth was knocked unconscious when he collided with a concrete wall while chasing down a fly ball. Out cold for five minutes, Ruth was awakened by the Yankees trainer and insisted on staying in the game. Despite a bruised pelvic bone and most certainly battling post-concussion syndrome, Ruth hit a double in his next at-bat and went 3-for-4 the next day with two doubles and a home run. (Damn.)
In the 1920s, you couldn’t keep a grown man from ballin’.
1992 NLCS: Sid Bream’s Mad Dash. Just remembered the greatest sports highlight of my first 9 years of life: Sid Bream chugs around third, scores the winning run, and the Braves head to the 1992 World Series.
The winner by a country mile is Pittsburgh’s PNC Park. More than 80 percent of reviewers gave it the top, 5-star rating, and its average score was 4.77 points. It is followed by Boston’s Fenway Park (4.59 stars), San Francisco’s AT&T Park (4.57), Minneapolis’ Target Field (4.53), and Baltimore’s Camden Yards (4.47).
I have a suspicion based on zero personal experience that Pittsburgh is one of America’s secretly great cities.
Mark Larson 