A look at Jefferson Burdick’s baseball card
A look at Jefferson Burdick’s baseball card collection which he donated the Met Museum in NYC. One downside to the collection: most of the cards are pasted into albums and so are in poor condition.
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Design and Fenway Park
One of the pre-conference events was a talk at Fenway Park followed by a tour of the ballpark. Janet Marie Smith, VP of planning and development for the Sox, kicked things off with how the team (especially the new management) works really hard to preserve the essential character of Fenway while at the same time trying to upgrade the park (and keep it from getting torn down). She talked about the advertisements added to the Green Monster, which was actually not a purely commercial move but a throwback to a time when the Monster was actually covered with ads.
Lots of talk and awareness of experience design…the Red Sox folks in particular kept referring to the “experience” of the park. One of the speakers (can’t recall who, might have been Jim Dow) talked about how other ballparks are becoming places where only people who can afford $100 tickets can go to the games and what that does to the team’s fan base. With Fenway, they’re trying to maintain a variety of ticket prices to keep the diversity level high…greater diversity makes for a better crowd and a better fan base and is quite appropriate for Boston (and New England in general), which has always been an area with vibrant blue collar and blue blood classes.
Janet also referred to the “accidental” design of the park. Like many other urban ballparks built in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, the placement of the streets constrained the design of Fenway and made it rather an odd shape….these days larger plots are selected where those types of restraints are removed. And over time, the game has changed, the needs of the fans have changed, and the fire codes have changed and the park has changed with the times. In the dead ball era, the walls of the stadium weren’t for hitting home runs over; their sole function was to keep people on the street for catching the game for free, so the Fenway outfield ran over 500 feet in right field — practically all the way to the street — where there’s now 30 rows of seats. Jim Holt observed that American butts have gotten bigger so bigger seats are called for. Fire codes helped that change along as well…wooden seats, bleachers, and overcrowding are no longer a large part of the Fenway experience (save for the wooden seats under the canopy).
The design talk continued on the tour of the park. Our guide detailed how ballparks are built around specific ballplayers. Yankee Stadium was the house that Ruth built but it was also seemingly (but not literally) built for him with a short trip for his home run balls to the right field wall. Boston added a bullpen to make the right field shorter for Ted Williams. Barry Bonds does very well at PacBell/SBC/WhateverItsCalledTheseDays Park. And more than that, the design of Fenway also dictated for a long time the type of team that they could field, which had some bearing on how they did generally. Players who played well in Fenway (i.e. could hit fly balls off of the Monster in left) often didn’t do so well in other parks and the team’s away record suffered accordingly.
Odd story of one astronomer possibly “stealing”
Odd story of one astronomer possibly “stealing” another astronomer’s discovery of a large trans-Neptunian object. The original discoverer alleges that the usurper looked at a couple of Web sites that detailed the discovery and where the discover’s telescopes were pointed…the astronomy equivalent of stealing signs.
Fun speculation on why golf is so
Fun speculation on why golf is so popular with men: they evolved an attraction to hunting in natural environments that are a lot like golf courses.
Jeff Ma, who was a key member
Jeff Ma, who was a key member of the infamous MIT blackjack team, notes the turn around of the Oakland A’s and the reversal of criticism directed toward GM Billy Beane. Even Steven Levitt, who thinks not too highly of Moneyball, has conceded that maybe Beane and the A’s are onto something.
A list of the NBA’s most overrated
A list of the NBA’s most overrated players, including Karl Malone, David Robinson, Charles Barkley, and Patrick Ewing. (via truehoop)
Fantasy Fashion League is fashion’s answer to
Fantasy Fashion League is fashion’s answer to fantasy football and rotisserie baseball. Pick your favorite designers and earn points when their fashions show up in magazines. (via E&N) Related: NY Times ombudsman Daniel Okrent helped invent rotisserie baseball?
The decline of the baseball card industry
The decline of the baseball card industry. I collected in the late 80s, early 90s. It became a lot less fun when the companies started releasing special editions in limited quantities just to drive up value and demand artificially.
The science of Lance Armstrong
The science of Lance Armstrong. Between 1992 and 1999, he increased his muscle efficiency by 8 percent, a gain previously thought to be impossible.
NY Times on professional miniature golf
NY Times on professional miniature golf. I won a mini golf tournament once and even have a trophy to prove it.
Jerry Rice and Sean Landeta are the
Jerry Rice and Sean Landeta are the only NFL players featured in Tecmo Bowl that are still active. And there are only 14 active players left in Tecmo Super Bowl.
Charley Rosen’s picks for all-time best NBA shooting guards
Charley Rosen’s picks for all-time best NBA shooting guards. Not surprisingly, Jordan tops the list.
Danny Way, a pioneer in distance and
Danny Way, a pioneer in distance and height skateboard jumping, will be attempting to jump the Great Wall of China on a skateboard tomorrow. He’ll trying to break a couple records along the way as well: height out of a skateboard ramp and speed on a skateboard.
Both baseball and softball voted out of
Both baseball and softball voted out of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
A list of mini golf holes based on movies
A list of mini golf holes based on movies. “Raiders of the Lost Ark: You must putt the ball precisely into the idol’s head, or a 15-foot-high, 1-ton golf ball comes rolling after you.”
Taking one for the team
Over on TrueHoop, Henry Abbott notes something interesting about Ray Allen’s just-signed contract with the Seattle Sonics:
Though the average yearly salary of the contract is $16 million, the starting salary for Allen has not yet been worked out. Allen’s side has given the Sonics the freedom to structure the deal however they choose in order to allow the team to surround Allen with talent, possibly by re-signing some of their own free agents or entering the free-agent market and signing top quality players.
Although I’m sure it freaks out the agents and laywers, that concession gives Ray Allen and the Sonics a much better shot at success.
I’ve always wondered why so-called “franchise” players on pro teams in leagues with salary caps (particularly in the NBA, where the number of players per team is so small) don’t do this type of thing more often. Well, besides the fact that their agents, who presumably work on commission, won’t let them. You get a guy like Kevin Garnett, who wants to win multiple championships, give him $3-4 million less per year than he could get on the open market (so he’s still making millions per year and much more in endorsements) on the condition that the #2-5 guys on the squad are also making below market level by a mil or two, and then spend that money on the bench or on a #3 guy who would be a #2 guy anywhere else in the league. Garnett wins championships, everyone on the team wins championships, everyone’s endorsements go up, the team makes more money, and the profile of everyone involved is raised (higher profile = increased future earnings potential). Of course it would never work, but what if it did?
A basketball fan couldn’t wait until next
A basketball fan couldn’t wait until next year, so he’s documenting 2005-6 Bulls season with NBA Live 2005. Looks like the Bulls lost their home opener.
The anti-white racism of the NBA
The anti-white racism of the NBA. “The NBA is not a league for black, white, red, blue, or green people. It is a league for winners.”
The career of major league pitcher Dock
The career of major league pitcher Dock Ellis, including how he pitched a no-hitter on acid.
Ben Wallace, superstardom, selling out, and race in sports
Ben Wallace, superstardom, selling out, and race in sports. “As racist as it really is, the fact that white people can walk around the Palace in fake black Afro wigs without black folks taking offense is a testament to the power of racial ‘go beyond’ that he has single-handedly generated.”
Track and field records: how are they
Track and field records: how are they measured and can we trust them?.
Dr. J remembers Magic Johnson’s star-making performance
Dr. J remembers Magic Johnson’s star-making performance in the 1980 NBA Finals.
Kirven Blount travels to Denmark to try
Kirven Blount travels to Denmark to try out for a Danish professional basketball teams. “You go to your local gym to play basketball. Some enormous foreigners arrive. They play very well. So do you. They tell you they are professional basketball players from Denmark, and that you should fly to Copenhagen for a tryout.”
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