Market Power

"Epic Rain Delay Theatre"

The Western Kentucky and Flrodia Atlantic Baseball teams recently experienced a lengthy rain delay in one of their games.  But they made the best of it by putting on some creative and humorous skits.  Here, for your enjoyment, is Rain Delay Theatre.

I like the wrestling match.  Here's the FAU website with the video.  Via Mike Moffat.

Pat Venditte - Switch Pitcher

You may never have heard of Pat Venditte.  Pat is a "switch pitcher" for the Creighton Blue Jay baseball team.  He grew up in Omaha and is the little brother of one of the guys I hung around with during my time in Omaha back in the early 90's.  Here's his Wikipedia entry and here's a snippet:

One of four children of Pat Sr. and Janet Venditte, Pat Jr. was born on June 30, 1985 in Omaha, Nebraska (Tooley & Shields 2007, p. 25). Pat Sr. noticed his son's ambidexterity when Pat Jr. was three years old, and encouraged vigorous ambidextrous athletic training throughout Pat Jr.'s childhood. Toward this end, the Venditte backyard included astroturf, a batting cage, a radar gun, and a pitching machine (Nicholl 2007). In addition to training both arms from a young age, Pat Jr. practiced punting footballs with both legs in order to establish the leg motion needed when pitching with each arm (Tooley & Shields 2007, p. 25).

I remember the batting cage being built across the street from his house, in a vacant lot his father had bought.  In 1990-1991 or so, Pat's brother asked me if I wanted to catch his little brother (Patty, they called him) and I thought, "Sure.  What the hell.  What can a little 4 (5)-year old throw?  It'll be kind of cute."

WHACK!  OW!

Cute, my ass.  That little kid had a good arm, good enough for the Yanks to draft him 15-16 years later.

College Baseball Making a Comeback at Oregon

On the heels of two College World Series titles won by their instate rivals, Oregon State, the University of Oregon is bringing back its baseball program.

Quick questions:

1. How much weight should we put on OSU's recent success in the decision to bring baseball back to OU?  Are Duck boosters just nutty over the fact that the Beavers are having great success in baseball while the ducks can't even swim in the same pond?
2. Is this an overall sign that college baseball is as healthy as ever?
3. How much credit should we give to the current playoff format, a format that gives northern teams a fighting chance at winning championships?
4. Will Iowa State and Colorado bring back their college baseball programs?

A Test of the Bradbury - Drinen Effect

Louisville has forced a deciding game against Missouri in their NCAA tournament regional.  The issue was forced when Louisville 3rd baseman/pitcher Chris Dominguez hit a game-winning 2-run shot in the 8th inning.  But it wasn't the home run that forced every issue, especially the Tigers being hot under the collar.  That issue was forced by Dominguez 's behavior as his celebration became rather external:

Louisville third baseman Chris Dominguez beat the Tigers with a two-run eighth-inning home run deep into Missouri’s left-field bullpen. Then Dominguez, throughout his trot around the bases, verbally taunted the Missouri players. He turned backward. He hopped up and down. He gestured toward a Missouri team straining to stay on the top step of its dugout.

...When Louisville took up its defensive positions for the bottom of the eighth, Dominguez was apparently still on the offensive. Suddenly, the Missouri dugout, located just a short sprint from Dominguez at third base, erupted in a collective roar.

In a recent paper that appeared in Economic Inquiry, (a discussion of which is in JC Bradbury's excellent book The Baseball Economist), Bradbury and Doug Drinen. found evidence that the price of throwing at batters is an important determinant in the number of hit batsmen.  Pitchers were more likely to hit batters when the price of doing so was low.  For example, if the Cubs are up by 9 in the 8th inning and their bullpen is fresh, hitting a batter puts a runner on base and it could get the pitcher tossed out.  But a 9-run lead is hard to over come in general, let alone after the 7th inning.  One extra runner doesn't mean much and there are plenty of fresh pitchers in the bullpen. 

But today's game between Louisville and the Tigers is do-or-die and the stakes are high.  The winner advances.  The loser goes (or, god forbid, stays) home.  So if retaliation is going to occur, it will occur when the "price" of doing so is low, if the game is out of reach in the late innings. 

There may be other things that happen throughout the game that can be retaliatory:  a player going spikes up into second, close inside pitches, an extra hard slide into home.  But if Louisville or Mizzou is up big late in the game, Mr. Dominguez may want to watch his chin when he comes up to bat.

Cross-town Rivals Cooperate to Bring Regional to Town

The University of San Diego has teamed up with San Diego State to host a regional. USD's stadium is small, with 1,200 seats and it does not have any lights.  Tony Gwynn stadium is larger (3,000) seats and is considered by some to be one of the best college ballparks in the nation.  Like Mizzou, however, high school baseball play was scheduled at SDSU's ballpark during the times of the regionals.  Although I couldn't find confirmation online, like Mizzou, it appears the conflict has been resolved.

The payoff for USD is obvious:  they get to play a regional in San Diego.  For SDSU, they get to showcase their stadium and, probably just as important, they get rental payments from USD.  Yes, Virginia.  Even cross-town rivals have reservations prices.

 

Winning in Strange Ways

The Missouri Tigers have won their fourth straight game against the perennial powerhouse Texas Longhorns.  This one was weird: weirdly gruesome for the 'horns, weirdly wonderful for the Tigers.

Texas left the winning run on third base in the bottom of the ninth after Clark hit a two-run, two-out single between first and second base to tie the game at 6.

         

But it was Clark who believed he cost the Longhorns the game in the 11th.           

         

With Missouri's Kurt Calvert on third and two outs, Clark had just caught a strike from pitcher Randy Boone. He tossed the ball back to Boone, as he had thousands of times before.

         

This one sailed over Boone's head, landing just past the pitcher's mound.           

         

Texas second baseman Travis Tucker picked up the ball and fired it home, but Calvert slid in safely before Clark could get the tag down.

And the final play.

...The play began with Van Hook on first, and Jordan Danks hitting a line drive to right field.           

         

Van Hook took off on contact, and Tigers right fielder Ryan Lollis dived for the ball, which bounced out of his glove and rolled away.

         

Lollis reached the ball as Van Hook was rounding third.           

         

"I didn't think he would go home, that's why I wasn't running to the ball that fast," Lollis said. "But I looked up and he was going, so luckily I threw a good ball to the plate."

         

...The ball was there, Missouri catcher Trevor Coleman was in front of the plate and so Van Hook was tagged out inches from scoring the tying run for Texas in the 11th inning on Friday night.

Goes in as a W in the record books.

RIP Rod Dedeaux

I hadn't heard of this until today, but the great USC baseball coach, Rod Dedeaux, died on Jan 5th.

Legendary former longtime USC baseball head coach Raoul "Rod" Dedeaux, who led the Trojans to a record 11 national championships, coached nearly 60 future major leaguers and was an ambassador for baseball's international popularity, died Thursday (Jan. 5) in Glendale, Calif., of complications from a stroke that he had suffered on Dec. 2. He was 91.

What Was He Thinking?

From ChannelOklahoma.com:

The University of Oklahoma will wait until after the season to begin seeking a replacement for baseball coach Larry Cochell, who resigned for using a racial slur while praising a black player.

Sunny Golloway, an assistant under Cochell, will act as interim head coach, associate athletic director Kenny Mossman said Monday.

ESPN reported Friday that before a Tuesday telecast of the Oklahoma-Wichita State game, Cochell, in describing a freshman outfielder, said "There's no n----- in him."

It also reported that he said in a separate interview:      "There are honkies and white people and there are n------ and black people. (My player) is a good black kid."

What was he thinking?  Now former coach Cochell has more time to think about other things, like the blockage in his arteries.