This report evaluates the career of Roger Clemens, one of the most successful pitchers in major league history. It examines both the quality & quantity of his pitching over the course of his 24-year career. As of the 2007 season, Clemens was one of 28 active major league players who were at least 40 years old. Of those 28, 18 were pitchers, & 12 of those were starting pitchers. Charts & tables.
A fascinating look at Roger Clemens, in the words of those who have had to face him at various times in his career, from All Stars (Cal Ripken, Jr., Torii Hunter) to rookies and even Clemens' eldest son.
The twelve-time All-Star catcher describes the inspiration he gleaned from his self-made father, his early career with the Dodgers, his memorable 2000 World Series with the Mets, and the controversies that have marked his career.
New York Times Bestseller: Mets starting pitcher Ron Darling reflects on his role in the dramatic World Series tiebreaker in this candid personal memoir. Every little kid who’s ever taken the mound in Little League dreams of someday getting the ball for Game Seven of the World Series. Ron Darling got to live that dream—only it didn’t go exactly as planned. In Game 7, 1986, the award-winning baseball analyst looks back at what might have been a signature moment in his career, and reflects on the ways professional athletes must sometimes shoulder a personal disappointment as their teams find a way to win. Darling’s memoir breaks down one of baseball’s great “forgotten” games—a game that stands as a thrilling, telling, and tantalizing exclamation point to one of the best-remembered seasons in Major League Baseball history. Game 7, 1986 is a book for the thinking baseball fan, a chance to reflect on what it means to compete at the game’s highest level, with everything on the line. “A departure from the typical sports narrative.” —New York Daily News “What makes this book so interesting is how Darling puts the reader into his head as he stands on the mound in Game 7. ”—The Tampa Tribune
It typically takes 20 years of consistent excellence for a baseball player to reach the coveted milestone of 3,000 hits or strikeouts. Some of the great players to accomplish this feat are well-known: Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Walter Johnson, Nolan Ryan. But who are the other men who've reached that epic 3,000 milestone? This book goes into detail about each of these players, describing how each player collected his historic hit or strikeout and how old he was at the time. Discover the pitchers who gave up a 3,000th hit and the victims of a 3,000th strikeout. Determine where these players were born and the stadiums where the events took place. This book covers the near-miss men--the ones who almost made it to the milestone--and predict which players might reach 3,000 hits or strikeouts next. This comprehensive volume tracks all players who have reached this impressive achievement, all who missed it by a hair, and some who might be poised to claim the title.
Butterworth argues that baseball cannot be viewed as an innocent diversion or escape and that by promoting myths of citizenship and purity, post-9/11 discourse concerning baseball ironically threatens the health of the democratic system. Instead, he highlights how the game on the field reflects a more complex and diverse worldview, and he makes a plea for the game's recovery, both as a national pastime and as a site for celebrating the best of who we are and who we can be. --Book Jacket.
With its flexible capabilities and open-source platform, R has become a major tool for analyzing detailed, high-quality baseball data. Analyzing Baseball Data with R provides an introduction to R for sabermetricians, baseball enthusiasts, and students interested in exploring the rich sources of baseball data. It equips readers with the necessary skills and software tools to perform all of the analysis steps, from gathering the datasets and entering them in a convenient format to visualizing the data via graphs to performing a statistical analysis. The authors first present an overview of publicly available baseball datasets and a gentle introduction to the type of data structures and exploratory and data management capabilities of R. They also cover the traditional graphics functions in the base package and introduce more sophisticated graphical displays available through the lattice and ggplot2 packages. Much of the book illustrates the use of R through popular sabermetrics topics, including the Pythagorean formula, runs expectancy, career trajectories, simulation of games and seasons, patterns of streaky behavior of players, and fielding measures. Each chapter contains exercises that encourage readers to perform their own analyses using R. All of the datasets and R code used in the text are available online. This book helps readers answer questions about baseball teams, players, and strategy using large, publically available datasets. It offers detailed instructions on downloading the datasets and putting them into formats that simplify data exploration and analysis. Through the book’s various examples, readers will learn about modern sabermetrics and be able to conduct their own baseball analyses.
Cheney fans 21 in 16 innings. In 1962, Washington Senator's pitcher Tom Cheney set a major league strike-out record: twenty-one batters in a sixteen inning marathon. These events and much more are collected in a comprehensive and compact compendium, The Best Book of Baseball Facts and Stats. Information packed, this book records all the important players, teams, games and statistics, and: Profiles of more than one hundred current and all-time great players Charts the Major League franchises from their beginnings to their current standings Details every World Series since 1903 and many other key games Highlights the contributions of the best managers and how they shaped the game Celebrates the great stadiums like Fenway's Green Monster and Wrigley Field Discusses the facts behind the notorious scandals and controversies Lists comprehensive statistics for each position: single-game and single-season leaders for both the regular season and championships Lists award winners, MVPs, rookies of the year, and Hall of Fame inductees. Do you know the 1954 American League MVP? Want to read the most famous Yogi-ism? Enjoy reading the extraordinary achievements of the baseball's finest players? The Best Book of Baseball Facts and Stats is the ideal reference for baseball fans of all ages.