Dueling Lapses of Reason

Perfecto Wiff weather today for the inaugural game on the new Map-o-the-States outfield.  The Halen Five plated three, then gave one back and it felt a lot like that would hold.  But in last inning dramatics the Van Four came roaring back after a costly fielding error to pull ahead by two of their own.  Undeterred, the feisty Halens loaded the bases and nearly stole things right back.  In the end however, all that came of it was one gift run on a woopsie double play attempt that did produce the first RBI strikeout in over 100 years.  But one isn't two and that was the ol' ballgame, Home Team wins it 6-4.  

Andy, Bob, Mark, Pete - 6 runs, 20 hits

Adrian, Dewey, Hans, JD, Eric Z - 4 runs, 13 hits

HR - none

Upgrades at Nance Bradds Field

Those wanna-be's in the majors, they put all kinds of fancy pictures mowed into their grass. They think their pretty special:

Quite nice, sure. But they have nothing on the OW&AC...

From now on we'll be pitching from just east of Puerto Rico. Alaska is now "Big Fly" country. Hawaii is very foul.

Obviously, this creates many new possibilities for new rules. Stay tuned.

Crankin' it UP!

With Krash safely ensconced in an undisclosed overseas location, the commish broke out the big black bats, and the wifflers responded with an offensive explosion (which Kurt would indeed find offensive).

Ironically, Peter was the primary victim of this decision as he suffered through a 7-run onslaught while pitching in the bottom of the fifth. Philosophy professors have a word for that, but there weren't any philosophy professors playing today. Homers (YES! ACTUAL OVER THE FENCE HOMERS) were supplied by J.D. "Jacked Deep" Whitlock and Andy "I'll show you a REAL Grand Slam" Evans.

The visitors mustered a single run early and then watched eight unanswered cross the plate on an increasingly hot morning.

Interestingly, the losing team had 4 players with batting averages over .400, whilst the winners had a mere 1. What that goes to show you is that stats have nothing to show you. Baseball - it's a strange game.

You'll note that in the 8th inning we inadvertently opened twin portals to Beelzebub's (a dive bar in the 8th ring of the Inferno - as counted from the outside) and the Gamma quadrant. As best can be discerned this was caused by the simultaneous occurrence of: 1) Andy's wicked fastball splitting chalk atoms on the outside corner as 2) Zamonski randomly babbled the ancient incantation, backwards, in Latin.

Adrian, Bob, Hansoo, Peter, Eric Z. - 1 run, 11 hits
Andy, Chris At., JD, Matt, Tim Y. - 8 runs, 16 hits

HR: Whitlock (1), Evans - Grand Slam (2)

Dig into some stats

Table 1 shows the team batting averages of the Winning Teams and the Losing Teams from all 14 OW&AC league games this season:

	Winners	Losers	Run Diff
Game 1	409	389	5
Game 2	374	427	2
Game 3	406	385	9
Game 4	479	356	5
Game 5	440	372	3
Game 6	406	339	5
Game 7	384	391	4
Game 8	325	415	2
Game 9	423	404	1
Game 10	387	396	6
Game 11	387	369	1
Game 12	415	321	6
Game 13	322	371	2	Hoop
Game 14	421	350	2
	398.4	377.5

In only five of the 14 games did the team with the higher team batting average lose, and one of those was "hoop-aided." Batting averages matter. Winning teams have an average of .398, losers: .377.

The average margin of victory this season has been 3.7 runs. Winning teams with lower batting averages have exceeded this margin only twice. There is a significant correlation between Average Differential and Run Differential. Trust me, don't make me publish the scatter plot.

Some notes:
1. This data was assembled with the players' BA as of today - not as of the day of the game.
2. These are not weighted averages so someone's .400 average from going 2-for-5 all season is weighted the same as someone else's 396 over 90 ABs.
3. The averages at the bottom are averages of averages of averages, so they are likely meaningless, but they help me make a point, so they are included.
4. I am a nerd.

Wiff's List

Brad "Don't call me Eric" Nance has an extra left arm available - $17.50 O.B.O. As we all know Brad uses that left wing for neither hitting nor pitching, so why not unload it and add to his liquidity? Come check it out on the front porch of his place in Walnut Hills. CASH ONLY.

In a similar vein, Andy Evans finds himself with extra RIGHT arm - $45 firm. Seems like an odd problem to have but when you throw too hard, it can crack your balls. As an example, Andy pitched three scoreless today, so we can vouch for the QUALITY. It's a bit of a drive but if you need a few extra feet on your fastball, this is a bargain. You'll find it on his porch in Centerville (if they have porches).

Krash Mosser offers one Tank Killabrew trophy (mint, new in box) which he won't be needing after this season. And by "after this season" we mean "starting tomorrow" as today was his last game for the season (in North America, at least). A season he ends three ABs short of qualifying for the batting title (not to mention many more than three hits shy). The mighty but diminutive Tank can be inspected on Krash's porch - look for it behind the large jugs of water - through Wednesday. Don't miss this chance at immortality. 3,400 Renminbi or a few beers.

Hansoo Ha has an extra 12 hours to offer - free for the taking. Grab some extra lag time on his beautiful porch / photo studio.

Finally, Stats has a big pile of losing he's finally ready to part with. This was tough for him. It's like driving-in-your-team's-only-run-for-the-second-game-in-a-row-tough. THAT is tough so go easy on him as you take some losses off his REALLY BIG porch. Losing is the new black, so don't miss your chance to be a loser, like Matt.

Andy, Hansoo, Mark M, Mark W - 3 runs, 15 hits
Chris At, Eric Z, Kurt, Matt, Pete - 1 run, 9 hits

HR: none

From JD

The rain gods threatened, but the whiffle gods prevailed as the Commish, Kurt, and Chris Athmer squared off against Andy, Tim, and JD. The whiffle gods' first intervention was to rob JD of a single by flinging a grounder in fair territory off a drain grate at a 90 degree angle to turn it into a foul ball. Second divine intervention was when Chris fouled off a grand slam -- nothing but net baby. This 4-dinger carried the day as Andy, Tim, and JD could only muster two runs off a lotta hits, whereas the victors had a total of 3 hits in fair ball territory. The losers claimed a small moral victory by getting a run off of Kurt in a 4 hit team effort -- just going to show that even on the very rare occasions when Andy loses, he still kind of wins.

Andy, JD, Tim - 2 runs, 15 hits
Chris, Kurt, Pete - 4 runs, 4 hits

HR: Atherton (1)

It has come to my attention..

Five on Five for wiffle today on the extra-hot, extra-black, black top of Nance Bradds Field. Nine blistering innings, ending in a 7-1 blow out, whatevs. First six innings were scoreless and then both teams busted out in the 7th: the visitors scored one on a clutch two-out double by Stats, the home team scored 7 on a parade of singles and a bases loaded triple by the Commish.

Nothing new for me because I almost always lose.

Do you know how I know that?

No, you do not, because you have not been looking deeply enough at the stats.

So, do me a solid and click on this link: LINK

Now look down at the bottom where there are 2 tabs. One tab says "Season" the other says "Win/Loss". Click on the one that says "Win/Loss". What you'll see here is a tally of each time a player was on the winning team, each time he was on the losing team, and each time he went to Theory. There is also a calculated field for his winning percentage.

You're welcome.

Adrian, Jeff, Kurt, Matt, Tim - 1 run, 12 hits
Andy, Bob, Eric, JD, Peter - 7 runs, 21 hits

HR: none

In deference to blog readers' attention spans, this picture just shows innings 7 through 9. And a piece of 6. Whatevs.