In the beginning . . .
How to start? That was the question when I was first approached to write this blog –a blog, I’m told, that should relate to historical baseball. Sure, fair enough, sez I.
Once in a radio interview about the Diamond Legends historical simulation, I was asked, “Where does this all begin?” – meaning our obsession with baseball statistics. I can’t remember my exact answer, but in the back of my mind the immediate response was simple: baseball cards. I mean, that’s where all this fascination with numbers first springs up, right? Grasping the significance of a .300 average (later shown to be of less importance than we thought), 20 wins, 30 or 40 or 50 home runs (depending on when you started following the game), 100 RBI, 200 strikeouts etc. And much to the delight of our elementary school teachers, actually applying mathematical concepts that previously existed beyond the periphery of our interest. Unfortunately, too many of us failed to grasp the significance of the cards’ potential market worth, and retroactively bemoan the day Mom unwittingly disposed of them long before their value as collectibles skyrocketed.
If you were like me, you devoured any book relating past deeds on the diamond. The Holy Grail arrived in 1969, the day my father came home from work and handed me the first MacMillan encyclopedia, which introduced a whole new world of Baseball Past. Pete Browning! Big Sam Thompson! Dolf Luque! Pat Malone! Names I never heard of, some with superhuman numbers (165 RBI in 118 games? With a .394 batting average?). Who were these guys?
Well, the success of that first MacMillan opened the gates, in hand with groundbreaking works like Lawrence Ritter’s The Glory of Their Times and Only the Ball Was White by Robert Peterson. A cascade of publications dedicated to baseball followed. Later on, Bill James checked in with his Abstracts to tell us what all those numbers on the backs of our long-lost baseball cards really meant, and along the way, got together with STATS to create the first Classic Game in 1992. After a few short years, there followed the logical leap to the internet, and now here we are.
OK, good, intro done. So, let’s get rolling and talk baseball. Feel free to chime in with your our thoughts as I ramble on.
4D