None of this is interesting to anyone I'm sure, and none of this has anything to do with sports. However, my habit of scanning the box scores of every MLB game every night is a bi-product of my love of numbers and routine, and I believe this particular habit is not just a mundane, slightly obsessive compulsive act. My box score analyzing illustrates all of the action of my favorite sport through numbers, increases my baseball acumen by supplementing the games I'm able to watch, and ultimately enriches my enjoyment of the game.
Enjoying a game that includes such a great visual aesthetic through numbers might not make sense to some, but today I'm fortunate enough to chat with a gentleman who understands what I'm talking about, Mr. Raymond Babbit (more commonly known as Rain Man). I'm joining Ray today at the Walbrook Institute in Los Angeles, and he seems to be receptive to my company, as his brother Tom Cruis... er, Charlie Babbit is busy studying the history of psychiatry, or postpartum depression, or something like that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwAaHbmF5S4
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| Always double down on 11! Wait, wrong movie. |
Scott Williams: Hi Ray, great to finally meet you, you're movie Rain Man is one of my favorites of all time.
Raymond Babbit: S-C-O-T-T. My main man.
SW: Ray, I seem to recall you're excellent with numbers, based on your ability to memorize large sections of phone books and count cards with your brother in Vegas.
RB: Definitely. Counting cards in Vegas, def.. definitely counting cards in Vegas.
SW: And you're a Dodgers fan right?
RB: Yeah. Go see the Dodgers play. Today's an off day.
SW: I just remember you getting excited about the thought of seeing Fernando Valenzuela pitch.
RB: He pitched Saturday. Not scheduled to pitch till Wednesday.
SW: I'm pretty sure Fernando is retired, but I think he's a Spanish color commentator for Dodgers games within the NL West. Maybe we could go see Clayton Kershaw pitch, he's been Valenzuela-esque, with one of the highest strikeout rates in the league.
RB: Kershaw pitched Wednesday, Ted Lilly scheduled to pitch today.
SW: Eww Ted Lilly.... you're right, we might as well stay home. Well when's Kershaw pitching next?
RB: Next scheduled start in Los Angeles, Thursday July 7 against the New York Mets. Jose Reyes and K-Rod.
SW: Ooh, Reyes is having an MVP caliber season this year with 15 triples through 78 games already, but I'll let you in on a secret Ray, K-Rod sucks. I hate that stupid dance he does every time he records a save, and he beat up his girlfriend's dad last year, which is certainly not something that Second City Chin Music endorses. Anyways, I wanted to talk about how useful box scores can be for fans who wanna stay up to date with what's happening in the MLB, cause it's hard to keep track of all of the games at once. I mean, there's usually 15 games a night right?
RB: (looking at the sky) Yeah. Yeah, 15 games, 135 total innings, 810 outs.
SW: That sounds about right, and that's without extra innings! So if the average baseball game lasts 3 hours, and each team throws an average of 145 pitches per game, than how many pitches are we looking at in a given day?
RB: Yeah. 6 minutes to Wapner.
SW: Ok, I know, I was just curious.
RB: (rocking back and forth) 45 hours, 1 day 21 hours worth of baseball every day. About 4,350 pitches per day... Definitely 4350 pitches....... of course, there's 5 minutes to Wapner.
SW: Can you imagine someone trying to watch every minute of every game? Even if you had 5 TVs, and another game blasting on the radio...
RB: 97X...BAM! The future of rock and roll! 97X........BAM! The future of rock and roll! 97X..........BAM The fut....
SW: Alright Ray, go watch Judge Wapner before I have to take up residency at the Walbrook Institute too.
Anyways, there's some unique things to look for when you're looking at box scores, certain patterns to look for, and an interesting aesthetic value to the visual of how certain performances translate to how the box score looks. This idea has been adapted by former Ohio State basketball walk-on Mark "Club Trillion" Titus, who got his nickname based completely on his standard box score. Since Mark typically entered games in the last minute of blowouts (like Brian "the White Mamba" Scalabrine), and didn't contribute any statistic to the game (no points, rebs, turnovers, etc.) his box score read across like the number one trillion: 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (the number 1 being in the minutes category which is listed first). Mark's blog is great, and I'm following it so you can find it in my profile, but this hilarious video is my favorite thing he's ever put out, and is well worth a watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V6FCitvRUM
Most avid baseball fans try to keep up with all of the activity throughout the league, and normally fans will rely on the highlights they see on ESPN or online. Highlights are great, but you completely miss out on the nuance of the game by only watching highlights. You might see a go-ahead 2 out 3-run HR on ESPN, but maybe you miss out on a couple of clutch 2 out hits to set up the 3-run bomb. And you won't likely see highlights of a dominant save, or a relief pitcher getting out of a jam. All of these storylines can be found withing the confines of box scores if you know where to look: you can tell how much a pitcher was laboring by checking his pitch count, how much an offense struggled with men on base by checking the LOB stat (or a couple of my favorites, the 2-out RISP or 2-out RBI stats). Extra base hits are easily accounted for in box scores, and the often elusive HBP and errors (elusive since HBPs don't count as an at-bat, but a "reached on error" is counted as an out) can be spotted pretty easily too. The point is, box scores can tell the full story about the events of a game in a way that highlights will never be able to. In a sport where a series of individual battles culminate into the ultimate team sport, the way we analyze the skills of the individual players becomes even more essential to understanding the game. This is why sabermetric analysis has been more vital for understanding baseball than any other sport, like basketball or football for example, where the events that take place are much more dependent on context and personnel than on individual ability. The fact that baseball can be so much more precisely measured and quantified than other sport is what makes box scores so relevant and fascinating to me.
ESPN's Jayson Stark is another writer who scans box scores for fascinating lines that will jump out (like when Vin Mazzaro gave up 14ER in 2.1 IP), and for storylines like that I like to check for the crooked numbers, more specifically, who got multiple hits/RBIs/runs scored, etc. They're easy to find with a quick scan through the page as the majority of the numbers in box scores end up being 0 or 1. Also, the box scores keep you in touch with manager tendencies; you can quickly detect batting order changes, and you also get acquainted with how a manager uses his bullpen. There are certain types of lines that jump off of the page, the same way certain performances will be more memorable, like if a hitter has more than one 1 hit, RBI, and run scored (lots of crooked numbers), or if a pitcher has significantly more Ks per IP, or significantly less walks+hits compared to IP. One of these days I'll come up with names for certain box score lines to distinguish them, but that's a blog for another time, especially since Wapner is finishing up. Let's wrap things up with Ray real quick.
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| I can't tell if this picture was taken in 1985 or yesterday. |
SW: Hey Ray, looks like Wheel of Fortune just started.
RB: Wheel Of Fortune. Look at the studio filled with glamorous merchandise. Fabulous and exciting bonus prizes. Thousands of dollars in cash. Over $150,000 just waiting to be won as we present our big bonanza of cash on Wheel. Of. Fortune.
SW: Yup, I just can't believe that Pat Sajak and Vanna White refuse to age. Anyways, let's look into tickets for that Dodgers game, about how much are tickets at Chavez Ravine?
RB: About $100.
SW: Well we don't need to get box tickets or anything, what about just some bleacher tickets and we can move up if there's empty seats?
RB: About $100.
SW: Ah yes, you're not into the whole "money" thing. Well are you still excited about seeing Jose Reyes and K-Rod?
RB: K-Rod sucks.
SW: Oh, I see.
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