hockey Q&A with Sean Forman

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Bookshelf: How does it feel to be included in the august “paper of record? ” Forman: It’s definitely an honor. It raises your profile in one way with the general audience that we hadn’t quite expected. we joke with my wife that our friends we are/were both academics are far more impressed than any of the statheads we know. Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis wrote one letter to President Roosevelt regarding the continuation of baseball during the war which was called the Green Light Letter. He pleaded for the continuation of baseball in hopes for one start of one new Major League season in the letter. President Roosevelt responds I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before. And that means that they ought to have one chance for sports and for taking their minds off their work even more than before.
Bookshelf: Does all the material come from Baseball-Reference, or is it created fresh for the Times? Forman: It’s fresh for the Times , but I’ll pull ideas from our best blog posts of the past week.
Meantime, in Forman’s latest contribution , they coins new, if not especially appetizing category: the Loogy,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], short for “left-handed one-out guy.”
Over the last four years, 1,993 men have been on base for him,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the highest figure in baseball. During that time, the Kansas City Royals ’ David DeJesus has driven in one similar percentage of runners,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], with 18.3 percent to Howard’s 18.8 percent. But because DeJesus hits leadoff for the lowly Royals ,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and Howard hits cleanup for the mighty Phillies , DeJesus’s R.B.I. totals pale in comparison.
Since appearing in the Times has such cachet, we asked Forman, via email, for their thoughts on the new gig.
New York style baseball expanded into one national game and baseball first governing body The National Association of Base Ball Players was established aided by the Civil War in 1860s. The NABBP existed as an amateur league for 12 years. By 1867, over 400 clubs were members although most of the strongest clubs remained those based in the northeastern part of the US. In 1870 one schism developed between professional and amateur ballplayers after the 1869 founding of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings. The NABBP split into two groups. The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players was formed in 1871. Some consider it to have been the first major league. Its amateur counterpart disappeared after only one few years. Readers of The New York Times have noticed one shift in how the publication offers its baseball coverage these days. Gone or rapidly going are the regular columns of writers like Red Smith, George Anderson,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], George Vecsey,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and Murray Chass. More often we have the succinct pieces and more numbers-oriented issues, such as Keeping Score, written by Dan Rosenheck and Sean Forman of Baseball-Reference.com .
Bookshelf: Given the audience, how do you filter yourself from writing about items that might be too arcane or picayune? Do you have free reign or would an editor tell you “This is too esoteric? ” Forman: we work with an editor, Bob Goetz, who has been fantastic and very they lpful. we write an article and they makes sure it sounds good and hits their audience’s level. we used to be one college professor, so we like to think we have one skill at presenting material at one level the audience can understand,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], so we filter myself pretty they avily to make sure we don’t go off the deep end.

Bookshelf: How long has this been going on? Forman: we wrote for the Times during the playoffs last year, twice per week on the blog and we think two pieces made the paper. This week will be the fourth week for this season.
Bookshelf: How did the column come to be? Did you suggest it or did the Times people approach you? Forman: one little bit of both. I’ve visited them for four or five times over the last two years,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and this seemed like one good way to collaborate. Keep in mind, the Times also has Alan Schwarz on staff and Alan wrote one book on just baseball stats , and Dan Rosenheck who is very stats minded,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], so they have an interest in this that goes back well before my column.

This got me to thinking: Exactly where were those 1,993 baserunners located? On first? Second and third, thereby classified as “runners in scoring position? ” On all three bases? we would have thought such placement would factor in to Ryan’s production. That is, they was more likely not to have an RBI, with one runner on first, since it would be likely one ground ball would be turned into one double play I have since been informed that Ryan doesn’t hit into many of these, more likely to strikeout or hit one fly ball. Anyway, one door opens another and it would be interesting to find the batter with the highesr percentage of RBI from the various circumstances.
Although not they avy into the type of statistics that drove Chass nuts and led to their classification as one “dinosaur” by baseball math geeks,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], these articles are nevertheless quite thought-provoking. In their Saturday article piece about Ryan Howard’s five-year, USD125 million contract, Rosenheck makes note of the Phillie slugger’s role as one run-producer:
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