BaseballGuru.com's Braintrust Newsletter, May 2003
Friends
and Braintrust Subscribers,
MLB
On Tuesday, July 15, 2003,
the 74th All-Star game will be played at New Comisky Park
in Chicago, home of the White Sox. But, this years game has new meaning.
The winning team will now earn home field advantage for its league in the
World Series. This change really makes the all-star game important. So,
don’t expect to see tie like last
year! The N.Y. Times reported
that, “The home team for games 1, 2, 6, and 7 has won 15 of the last
17 World Series and the last eight Series that went seven
games.”
There are a number of changes.
Each team will be given expanded rosters of 32 players up from the traditional
30. The manager will no longer determine the back up players and pitchers.
It will be based on the results of the “Player Ballot,” where managers,
coaches and players all get to vote.
Here’s where to read more about it:
Vote your all-star ballot
online. Here’s the link:
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/events/all_star/y2003/index.jsp
In other news, through the
end of April, the Yankees won 21 games and the Tigers lost 21 games. Place
your bets as to which team will have the more extreme
season.
Minor
Leagues
Do
April showers bring May doubleheaders? If the game is snowed out it sure
does! Find out about this springs crazy weather and its impact on the minor
leagues. Here’s the link:
http://baseballguru.com/bunko/analysisbunko17.html
Pro
Yakyu
Please welcome Robert Kiyoshi
Shadlow,
RShadlow@baseballguru.com
and Josh Reyer,
JReyer@baseballguru.com, who
volunteered to take over posting the Japanese daily news for Gary Garland.
Robert has been following baseball in Asia for over twenty years and is worthy
of this task.
Robert and Josh don't have
bio pages up yet but have already begun adding material to the daily news
archives, so let’s welcome them. Robert has been posting game summaries
and standings for the Japanese and South Korean Leagues. And, Josh posted
a couple of box scores and will continue translating them from Japanese to
English a couple of times a week. Josh plans to post weekly leader boards
later this summer. We're lucky to have Robert and Josh step in they way they
have.
Gary might post new material
once the summer is over and he is settled in Japan, but will not likely resume
the daily game summaries. We wish him the best of luck in his new
situation.
I want to thank Michael
Westbay, owner of japanesebaseball.com (here’s the link:
http://japanesebaseball.com),
for sharing his baseball data with me at baseballguru.com. Together we are
building one cohesive Japanese baseball database that we will freely distribute.
He and I will keep separate versions, both set up as true relational databases.
His will likely be available to view
online. Mine will be available
as spreadsheets to download and will have a master lookup table to make it
easy to match the data from each season.
Anyone interested in helping
us build this database should email either one of us and volunteer. Our contact
info is: Craig Tomarkin from
baseballguru.com and
Michael Westbay from
japanesebaseball.com.
South Korea and
Taiwan
We
now have daily game summaries, standings and news coverage of the Korean
and Taiwan baseball Leagues thanks to Andrew Wong, our new Asian insider.
This is pretty special, because we think no one else provides English coverage
in newspapers, online or anywhere else. In fact, the games in Taiwan are
not even covered in their local papers in Taiwanese everyday, so you need
to read English to get coverage.
Here’s the link to the daily news:
http://www.baseballguru.com/archives
Since
it is likely most English speaking people have little or no idea about baseball
in these countries, the following articles will be a highly enjoyable and
informational read.
Andrew
Wong wrote an introduction to baseball in Korea. Here is the link:
http://www.baseballguru.com/andrewwong/koreanbaseballprimer.html
Even
though professional baseball in Taiwan is just beginning to take hold, Andrew
wrote a very interesting introduction for us. Here is the link:
http://www.baseballguru.com/andrewwong/taiwanesebaseballprimer.html
New
Guru!
Please welcome Andrew Wong,
our new "Other Leagues" foreign baseball expert. I am excited to report that
Andy will keep us all up to date on baseball in Taiwan and South Korea.
We now have thorough coverage
of Asian baseball in English. This really sets us apart and will ensure that
the daily news section of the site continues its fast growth. Here's the
link for any of you who may not have noticed it before:
http://www.baseballguru.com/archives
Andy grew up in Singapore
and being Chinese instantly became a big fan of Taiwanese baseball.
He also lived in South Korea for two years and went to high school in Vancouver.
Take a look at his baseball guru page for more. Here's the
link: http://www.baseballguru.com/andrewwong
Thanks again for your
contribution Andy. I'm sure that because of you, players and teams from the
Far East will become familiar to thousands of English speaking people who
had not previously been aware of
them.
Article
Submissions
Anyone
who would like to contribute commentary, photos, articles, experiences or
whatever may to submit them for online publication by
emailing me. You don’t have
to be a Guru to make a valuable and interesting contribution. Please see
the analysis page of the web site for article submission guidelines. Here’s
the link:
http://baseballguru.com/bbads.html
Herb
Rogoff's famous
ONEMOREINNING
monthly magazine!
Featured
on the web site this month was:
FATHER &
SON
Here’s
the link:
http://baseballguru.com/omi/FATHERANDSON.htm
How
Do I Subscribe to One More
Inning?
It's
$18.00 for a yearly subscription (12 issues) including postage.
Email
Us with “BaseballGuruOMI” as the subject. Include
your name, email address and mailing
address.
Past
issues are available for $3.00 per issue plus 50 cents for postage (no matter
how many issues you select as long as they are
shipped together).
Here’s the link to see list of past issues:
http://baseballguru.com/omi/OMIpastissues.htm
Analysis
Highlights
Ever
dream about being a general manager for a real MLB team? You have to strike
the right balance of players of different ages and do it all within a budget.
Eric Gartman updated his fascinating
Valuing
Free Agents article. Here is the link:
http://baseballguru.com/egartman/analysisericgartman04.html
What
are some strategies employed by GM’s? Which ones work and which do not?
Eric Gartman recounts some stories. Here is the link:
http://baseballguru.com/egartman/analysisericgartman05.html
Max
Blue, the king of all Phillies fans, is keeping a
Phillies
Journal, which will be updated roughly once a week. Here is the link:
http://baseballguru.com/maxblue/analysismaxblue06.html
Max
also had his novel published this month and one chapter from it is about
baseball and is available to read on his web page. Here’s the link to
chapter 10, Colonel Nishi and the Browns:
http://baseballguru.com/maxblue/analysismaxblue08.html
The
Guru’s Famous Game
If
you’ve never played the game before, you can print out the instructions
from the Free Cards Archive. If you want to learn more about the game,
here’s the link to the main page:
http://baseballguru.com/bbboardgame.html
You can support BaseballGuru.com
Do
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the search box on any page. It’s much appreciated.
So,
that's what's new. Keep on visiting, keep on emailing and tell your friends
about the most interesting baseball site on the web!
Sincerely,
Craig Tomarkin
BaseballGuru.com
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