So the 2012 Summer Olympics have started in London. We at the VORG have great respect and admiration for the thousands of (mostly) amateur athletes competing. To show support for the Olympic spirit, here is the VORG’s “All-Olympic” team, with names of minor league and major league players: C: Alex Bike, Gary London, Bill Skiff … Read more
A.J. Griffin has had an interesting start to his career. The A’s rookie righty has made six starts, each of them lasting exactly six innings: Date Opp IP H R ER BB SO HR Pit Jun 24 SFG 6.0 3 2 2 1 4 1 104 Jun 29 TEX 6.0 2 0 0 2 4 0 109 … Read more
The Mets got off to a surprisingly good start in the first half of the season, sitting at 46-40 (.535) at the All-Star Break. Some suggested they were “playing over their heads”. Since then, they have dropped 11 of 12 (.083), including today’s 5-2 loss to the Nationals. Of course, many teams can go through … Read more
Its been a great seven months affiliated with ESPN’s SweetSpot network of blogs, and a great 15 months up and running overall. The blog is getting over 7,000 pageviews per month, and has been referenced by entities like SABR, Hardball Times, Baseball Nation and Baseball Prospectus. I thank you all for your comments, critiques, interest … Read more
In this age of 24/7 sportsradio, Internet, Twitter, Facebook and texting, good solid writing on time-sensitive topics tends to be at a premium. When the Baseball Prospectus annual book becomes available in late-February, its already at least six weeks behind the latest transactions. The forward-looking aspect in some team essays suddenly becomes obsolete. Furthermore, the … Read more
In our last post, we mentioned the ESPN Baseball Today podcast from last Friday, in relation to the question of whether there had ever been any lineup that included all 26 letters. That podcast also had an e-mailer offering up his “all-sitcom” lineup, featuring sitcom character names that are the same as Major/Minor Leaguers. The … Read more
Its nice to be gaining a reputation for certain kinds of analyses. Twitter followers, Facebook friends and the like point out to you that “this would be right up your alley” or “has this ever happened in a game?” Such was the case last Friday morning, when ESPN’s Mark Simon DM’ed me the following: Threw … Read more
Once upon a time, the “Seventh Inning Stretch” belonged to “Take Me out to the Ballgame” solely. Perhaps you would also hear/sing “God Bless America” on Memorial Day or the Fourth of July. Then 9/11 happened, and some teams responded by playing “God Bless America” during EVERY subsequent game. Given varying levels of patriotism, nationalism … Read more