Versus
While I'm not going to do a song for this one, I will quote Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20 with, "Man, it was a hot one; like seven inches from the mid day sun". Speaking of Rob's, Rob Farah said between the first and second games that we could have our captain's meeting there on the field. between the four teams and all the subs and numerous people in attendance, I think we had a quorum.
The game. First off, big ups to Steve Ross for volunteering for a double header on a smoking hot night! He was one of four subs to participate in this game and the only one who wasn't a Grisslie. Farah was helping our the Brew Jays at 1st base while the Banshees had
I always like subbing from the stand point of seeing the dynamics on other teams. Frank has everyone knowing where their playing, very orderly, no confusion. That was very different from our team. We thrive on confusion. As much as I think everyone appreciated the structure, I do believe that the calisthenics before the game were a little over the top.
But you can't argue with success. The Banshees rolled out to a 4 - 0 lead after one inning as Anicete, Peters, Esau and Richards all scored. The score was stretched to 8 - 2 after three innings as Frank and I joined Esau and Richards who scored their second runs of the evening.
I wouldn't say the game ever really felt in complete control, but maybe we were a little guilty of watching the Blaine Richards show for a while. He was 4 for 4 with four runs scored. An offensive machine! The only problem is that you can't have that kind of night and NOT have a nickname. It just isn't right. Contributions to the Blaine Richards nickname committee can be submitted in the comment section at the bottom of this page.
Due to time, the game was shortened to six innings. The Brew Jays came up in the bottom of the inning trailing 13 - 7.
Queue the comeback.
Hargreaves leads off with a sharp line drive single to center. Lynn Foerster singles Paul to third base. He scores on a hit by Bo which moved Lynn to third. Lynn is cashed on an out by Bob Pearce before Roddy made a mess of things mashing a ball to right. Matt Foerster scored Rod with an out, before DeLand and Farah also reached (Farah with his 4th hit in four tries) completing the bat around inning. For good measure, Paul Hargreaves reached a second time in the inning with a walk. We finally escaped the inning with Lynn flew out to Peters.
Tie game. 13 - 13. But as was pointed by Mr. Hargreaves, that's not all their is to this story.
This was the second meeting between the Banshees and Brew Jays this season. The first game was also a tie. The score? I knew you'd ask.... 13 - 13.
Oh...and Rob Farah...4 for 4? Seriously? There are eleven Grisslies this morning saying, "what the hell?" Well, don't worry your pretty little selves over this...I've got it figured out. Rob, as many of you may know is Lebanese. Big deal? Here is what you need to know. Lebanon is 95% Arab, Rob is 100% Lebanese; therefore, Rob can be no less than 95% Arab. CLEARLY, he has acclimatized to the heat quicker than the rest of us. In fact, I don't recall him even sweating a little bit last night. Must be nice being unencumbered by the elements. I tried as best as I could to adapt to the weather, but I kept tripping over my Thobe (long cotton frock for the uninitiated) and eventually had to switch back to shorts. But the Thobe was MUCH cooler!
STATs
Everyone is clamoring for more stats!!! By everyone I mean Mark Doyle & Paul Piellusch. Although Paul "pretends" to not be interested...I know he's up all night with the calculator.
So....here is stat #1 one for today. It is a per game view of runs for and against with the standings resorted. FYI: This weeks games are NOT included. Explanation below.
How to read: The column titled "Runs For" is simply the total runs your team has scored divided by the number of games your team has played. The numbers from 1 thru 15 indicates where your team ranks in per game scoring against the rest of the league. The column titled "against" performs the same calculation with runs against. The third column titled "Total" is a sum of the numerical value. Example, the Dusty Cleats are 1st in runs scored + 4th in runs allowed for a total of 5, which is 3 points better than both the Wild or Lucky Stiffs. Their rank surprisingly is 1st overall.
You may look at this and think that its pretty much the same as our standings, but there are a few differences. a) The Grisslies are 4th in the standings; 6th in this list. b) Conversely the Beer Brothers move up 3 spots from 11th to 8th (Hmmm, poised for a run?). Another interesting point is that the gap between the Cleats and their nearest competition may not be quite as large as it seems in the standings.
Stat #2
So I did the Top 25 in Hits and ABs the other day (HERE) so no need to repeat that quite yet. However, I've come up with a new one that combines Hits and ABs. You might think that sounds a lot like OBA, but it also takes into account the number of games each team has played. I'm calling this Total Value because to rank you need to be there and play decent. You'll find a lot of the usual suspects here, but also some new faces. I'm not sure what this proves to be honest besides some measure of consistency and attendance. Neither are bad things. I've only included each teams top 3 in this category as the objective is not to embarrass anyone but highlight some contributions. To give you some perspective, the average score in this category over all league members is 5.41
So one more view of this stat is from the team perspective. Here is each team's rank and total below. Remember that sub stats don't count, so the more games played by your actual players, the better off you are.
![]()
So...what is interesting here? Well the first thing that jumps out is Wild (don't forget the ban on the definite article, they are not "The" Wild anymore). Wild, who are anywhere from 2nd to 4th depending on what has transpired this week are second last in this category. So it would look like a) they are using subs a lot and b) (I don't really have a "B", but it felt like there should be a list there) and C) see "B".
Also interesting are the Beer Bros. being so high. They've had their share of subs and I honestly expected them to be more middle of the pack. But their top 4 offensively (Doyle, Kolsen, Piellusch and Ross) are probably as good or better than any other 4 man unit in the league right now and are lifting the numbers....in my exceptionally humble opinion.
Okay, last look at this particular stat. We've looked at each team's top 3, and how each team ranks; now lets look at the top 25 overall.
So just in case you thought I was a little over the top of my description of the Beer Bros., dominance of this category....You'll notice that Steve Ross didn't make the top 3 on his own team, yet is number 11 overall in the league! I still don't know what exactly this proves...although there is no one on the list that I wouldn't love to have on my team. Oh sorry, I just noticed Neil. 24 out of 25 is pretty damned good though!
Its hard to come up with a category that the Cleats don't lead in...that makes it a little more difficult for me to come up with something compelling. But I've finally found a category they can't win.
The most popular letter for a team name to start with in our league is the letter "D". When looking at these teams only, you will notice something a little odd.
Now, when you sort alphabetically, the Dusty Cleats are clearly LAST! I believe our tiebreaker system works, Wins, Runs Scored, Runs Against and Then alphabetical order. So the Cleats aren't quite home and cooled out yet!
Now some quick stats on the BLOG. These are current through Tuesday July 19th. The 19th was the 200th day of 2011, which makes the math a little easier for a break point. So far this year there have been 22,824 page loads on the BLOG. On the same date last year we were at 7,714. Last year 22,824 wasn't reached until September 22nd, so we're almost 2 months ahead of pace.
In the first 200 days of 2011, the BLOG has been accessed more that 100 times in a day; in 105 of those days or 52.50% of the time. It has been accessed more than 200 in a day 42 days or 21.00% of the time.
From Jan 1st - July 19th, there has been an average of 114.12 page loads PER DAY!
Most page loads any given day. 984, September 22nd 2010 (Wednesday of the Playoff week)
Most page loads any given week. 4021, September 2010, (Playoffs)
Most page loads any given month 10,798, September 2010, (Playoffs)
Most popular posts all time 2,196 - Help The Kids 2010
Most popular page all time 1,073 - The Donini 3 Stars
Most common link to the BLOG 1,578 - http://www.tottenhamoldtimers.ca/
Most common search route 6,911 - Google
Most commonly searched word 249 - Mercat
Access by Country
Canada 25,051
United States 5,846
United Kingdom 1,079
Australia 389
China 237
Germany 196
Denmark 140
Italy 120
Netherlands 115
India 111
That's it for Stats....ideas welcomed. Comments about this being a waste of time are not welcome however. If you're not into it....don't read it. I won't be offended by your poor math skills.
Okay, never mind, nasty comments welcomed too.
Cheers.
No comments:
Post a Comment