Monday, April 9, 2007

Opening Day

Today was the Dodgers' Home Opener. I had tickets to this game. But words -- the ones I write for a living -- got in the way. How does the song go? Sucks to be me.

I'm already upset enough, so offered here, without comment, are Juan Pierre's at-bats for today.

The comments will return tomorrow.

1. Lined out to third. Out #25.
2. Grounded to first. Out #26.
3. Flied to center. Out #27.
4. Doubled to center! Congratulations, Juan, on your first extra-base hit of the year!
5. Hit a sacrifice fly to left. With the bases loaded. Any non-out would have increased the Dodgers' chances of winning. Instead, you get to boost your stats -- chalking up an RBI and not counting against your batting average. But the OutWatch is watching... always watching. You made out #28.

This post edited to take away the congratulations the OutWatch initially offered Pierre for logging his first RBI of the year. Upon further review, we're still mad about that at-bat. We shall all tilt at our own windmills... but to the OutWatch's mind, Pierre's at-bats might be giants, if I may take a beautiful turn of phrase and torture it beyond all human decency.

2 comments:

Benjamin Miracord said...

Excuse me for being a little confused. Perhaps you can clarify.

In the section where you tabulate "Additional non-outs not counted (reach on error...," wouldn't reaching base on an error already be counted in your initial formula, since a plate appearance that results in a player reaching base on an error is counted against him as an AB?

I could be wrong about this, since I haven't actually kept score of a game since the "Score a Dodger Game with Scully" contest in 1965, which I did not win, by the way.

Thanks, Ben

Humma Kavula said...

The "additional non-outs not counted" is meant to be my way of pointing out some of the little things that Juan Pierre does right.

A player who reaches base on an error is charged with an at-bat, but not credited in any way, so his batting average and on-base percentages suffer.

In my opinion, that's not what should happen. I think some players have a skill at reaching on an error. If I'm going to do something as obnoxious as keep track of all the times Juan Pierre gets out, including his sacrifices, it's only fair to track the positive things he does that aren't counted in other ways. Those things are the "additional non-outs not counted."

Hope that helps.