Baseball: Barry Bonds, BGF, Kyle Gibson, The Art of Fielding, Baseball Caps

Last week, prosecutors (with knowledge of Judge Illston’s decision to let the jury verdict on the obstruction count stand) filed papers in federal district court stating their intention not to retry Barry Bonds on the remaining three perjury counts that had ended in a mistrial back in April. The above is obviously good and bad news for Barry Bonds. On the one hand, he will not face a retrial on any of the three perjury counts, including the “nobody injected me but my doctor” count, which the jury had voted 11-1 to convict upon. On the other hand, as of right now, he is a convicted felon. - http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/09/09/kallas-remarks-updates-on-the-roger-clemens-and-barry-bonds-cases  

When a manager plays a player out of position, the probability that the player playing out of position will be involved in a play within the next 3 outs. It is calculated as follows: 1/9 (the probability the ball will be hit to one of the 9 defensive positions) * 3 (the number of outs in an inning) * a league-specific factor to round out the number into a more palatable and accurate percentage for managers to interpret. For our purposes, the factor will be 2.95 for the AL and 2.91 for the NL. For the AL: (1/9) * 3 * 2.95 = 98.3% - For the NL: (1/9) * 3 * 2.91 = 97% - In conclusion, if a manager is to play a player out of position, it is 98.3% likely that that player will be forced to make a play within the first 3 outs of that inning, and 97% for the NL. So, if you are going to stick a pitcher in the outfield, you’d better make sure it’s Roy Oswalt. - http://mopupduty.com/index.php/new-sabr-stat-baseball-god-factor-bgf-1215  

Twins pitching prospect Kyle Gibson underwent successful Tommy John surgery performed by Dr. David Altchek in New York on Wednesday, Twins general manager Bill Smith announced Friday. Gibson is scheduled to head to Fort Myers, Fla., to rehab for the next year with Minor League rehab coordinator Lanning Tucker, as the recovery time is usually about 12 months. "It went well," Smith said. "He will start the standard rehab protocol, which is a good thing. There was nothing that came out of the surgery that will make it unusual about the rehab." - http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110909&content_id=24440286¬ebook_id=24440290&vkey=notebook_min&c_id=min  

Chad Harbach makes the case for baseball, thrillingly, in his slow, precious and altogether excellent first novel, “The Art of Fielding.” “You loved it,” he writes of the game, “because you considered it an art: an apparently pointless affair, undertaken by people with a special aptitude, which sidestepped attempts to paraphrase its value yet somehow seemed to communicate something true or even crucial about the Human Condition. The Human Condition being, basically, that we’re alive and have access to beauty, can even erratically create it, but will someday be dead and will not.” - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/books/review/the-art-of-fielding-by-chad-harbach-book-review.html  

Baseball caps: They are as quintessential, ubiquitous and indispensible an American apparel item as a pair of blue jeans, especially if you’re losing your hair. They are the greatest U.S. export other than democracy, jazz and stifling consumer debt. Travel anywhere in the world and you will see people wearing baseball caps, though unfortunately they occasionally bear Yankees or Red Sox logos (what, do no Belgians root for the Brewers?). They are worn by everyone from rappers to astronauts, from President Obamato Pope Benedict. And what is the first thing football players do at the start of their NFL careers? That’s right — they don a baseball cap on draft day. - http://garlicfriesandbaseball.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/the-baseball-cap-americas-greatest-export