The Starr Insurancers did their part by reliving the 2022 trade of Jordan Montgomery for Harrison Bader-Ford. Monty pitched six shutout innings for Texas. He would have been our Number 2 starter, if Cashman hadn't traded him.
Tampa made a statement for its incredible Game One home attendance: 19,704 - that's nineteen thousand, seven hundred and four - which, fun fact, is a few more bodies than the population of Owego, NY, a town famous for being driven by on Route 17, when heading to Binghamton. It's as if the Rangers and Rays played before the entire town of Owego, plus a few gate-crashers from, say, Endicott. The excitement had to be so intense that the Tampons forgot to bring their bats.
Of course, there's good reason for Tampa's low attendance: All the biddies stayed home, to go through the high school history texts to make sure "slavery" doesn't get a bad rap, while their hubbies were suing Disney World for treating gays like everybody else, and gramma worked on new recipes for python steaks spiced with red tide. Another dome? Yikes.
Nineteen thousand for a playoff game. Yikes. Lowest attendance for a non-Covid playoff game since 1919, year of the Black Sox briberies.
But don't worry: The political oil cans of Tampa-St. Petersburgh have a new scandal of their own.
Yesterday, the Saint Pete town fathers raised a Rays flag at City Hall, signifying the new 30,000-seat stadium that shall be built for the franchise by the same taxpayers who balk at student lunch programs. The team will put up $600 million. Saint Pete and Pinellas County will cover the rest, figured to be at least another $600 million. If costs run over, the taxpayers will come to the rescue.
They still must figure out a set of secret hotel taxes to fund the monstrosity, but - hey - when the wheels of progress are greased by Randy Arozarena, the money will be found. (Of course, the Rays will soon probably dish off Arozarena, who is about to turn 29 - too old. And someday, when he turns, say, 36, he'll be a Yankee.)
The Tampons hope to break ground on the new stadium this year, shortly after the Rays raise their world championship flag. I wonder if they'll draw another Owego? Maybe they should shoot for an Elmira!
Posts
24 comments:
Not to mention--30,000-seat stadium? Isn't the ballpark in Las Vegas going to have a similar capacity? We've pretty much given up on the idea of the live fan experience in favor of ever-fracturing simulacra of said experience--streaming, Apple, Amazon Prime, online gambling--haven't we?
Pocono Steve, you are spot on.
Read that the last A's playoff game that allowed fans, attendance was 54,000.
At first I read the town as Oswego. Who knew there was also an Owego in NY?
For $1.3B, couldn't they add a sliding roof? Not like it would be groundbreaking, and you might get more that an Osmond family sized crowd.
Plus, I think it's actually easier to get to Yankee stadium than the tropical monstrosity.
They’d draw better on the Tampa side.
But do I care? Not one damn bit.
Just look at the monstrosity we play in.
And hey, how ‘bout those Giants?
You can call them Rays, or you can call them Bay Rays, or you can call them Tampa, or you can call them Tampa Bay...
Everyone talks about how great the Rays' system is of small payroll and competitive teams. How many World Series have they won? I'm waiting...
Wait a tick……did someone mention the Osmond family?
Here…..on this blog?
Wasn’t that one of the final incantations meant to trigger the beginning of the apocalypse?
Now we’re all doomed.
Oh well
AA,
We were already doomed.
And apparently, you've never been to rural Utah.
...but you doesn't have to call them Johnsons
Roof Roof,
Perhaps, maybe then I misunderstood the teachings of the great Toomgis.
Perhaps by mentioning the Osmonds you have reversed the Doomsayer’s curse and have protected all of us blog members here from the end of days.
Nice work!
Oh and to address your other point - Mitch Romney and I used to hang out at the Orem Chuck E. Cheese tossing back soft drinks whilst strategizing a better America
I finally completed my bean counting for the #2 hitter strategy. How many times did batting your "best hitter" in the #2 slot get him one more at bat? Here are the results for the 2023 Yankees:
The #2 hitter got up as the last potential Yankee out of the game a total of 23 times. It happened twice in the same game on 9/10/2023, 9th inning and 11th inning. It was Judge 14 times; Rizzo 3 times; Stanton 3 times; Torres 2 times; and Cabrera 1 time (as a defensive replacement hitting for Stanton).
It happened 16 times when it "mattered", meaning the score was plus or minus 3 runs. But one of the 16 times, the #2 hitter had been relieved for a defensive replacement (7/15/2023 Cabrera for Stanton).
Out of the 23 total times, there were 9 walks and 14 outs. Yes, that's right, not once did the strategy result in a hit!!!
Out of the 16 times when it "mattered", there were 7 walks and 9 outs. 5 of these 7 walks were intentional walks.
So all of the things that we talked about were on exhibition. In big situations, the other team was not likely to pitch to our "best hitter". The intentional walk was a huge weapon. In late game crucial situations, the other team was likely to pitch its best relievers, which resulted in a big ZERO for us at the plate. It exemplified why it is more difficult to hit in clutch situations. It showed the importance of taking the lead earlier in the game.
There had been talk about the #2 hitter getting 50 more at bats over the course of the season. That didn't happen here in 2023. It was only 23. But for those 23 at bats, of which only 16 were "important", you reduced the chances of your best hitter coming up with men on base in the 1st inning over 162 games!!!
So how much did this strategy hurt them in the 1st inning? Well, I only bothered to count the home runs by the #2 hitter in the 1st inning. There were 13 home runs by Yankee #2 hitters in the 1st innings. 9 by Judge; 2 by Stanton; 2 by Torres.
Of Judge's 9 homers, 7 were solo. 1 by Stanton was solo. Both Torres homers were 2 run homers.
It only illustrates the stupidity of putting your biggest home run hitter in the #2 slot. 7 out of 9 homers by Judge were solo!!! I don't know how many 3 run homers Yankee hitters got this year during any part of the game, but it couldn't have been many. That's a lot of wasted power in 162 1st innings, turning potential 2 or 3 run homers into solo homers. And this is just counting the home runs, not the base hits.
And the Putz Yankees GM should be shamed. He is to arrogant.
Great work, Hammer! And I completely agree.
Re> The Osmonds, the only song I kinda like is their apocalyptic disco inspired monstrosity Crazy Horses LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXQVSTfhoRo&t=82s
As to the new Tampa park...
Hmm, let's see:
—State with endless sunshine. Check.
—State filled with Hispanics, particularly Cubans and Dominicans, the most fervent baseball fans around, and communities that are the source of most major-league stars today. Check.
And so you decide to build...a domed stadium seating 30,000.
Hey, lots of faith in the future of your business there!
Of course, we really know what's going on, which is the same thing that happened in Queens and at Yankee Stadium III, which at 46,000-plus in capacity is over 35,000 down from peak capacity of O.G. Yankee Stadium, including standing room. (That's right, we've shut out almost an entire Fenway Park's worth of Yankees fans.)
What's going on here? Well, surely Pocono Steve is right about MLB going to the model of online gambling. Also, that extra room is needed to fill the ballpark with luxury boxes and upscale bars. Has nothing to do with the baseball experience anymore.
Thanks for that work Hammer. You’ve put to rest this absurd notion of back-end timing.
I’ve no doubt the strategy of batting Judge #2 came from the depths of the Yankees analytics department.
Dopes all of them. Baseball people none of them.
“Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.”
Thank you Hammer Man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIXJEpLOkeg
Rays are ELIMINATED....
Horace, Fl is indeed filled with Hispanics but they wisely don't pay to watch. I spent my first forty-five years in Miami, not happening. The Marlins have never drawn, even after the Public paid a fortune for a new stadium in Little Havana. I live less than ninety minutes from Saint Pete, every game that I have gone to (only Yankee games) has only Yankee fans in attendance. Seemingly. I have come to believe that baseball teams have to have a large fan base that go back generations. And they had better win. FWIW, I find it sickening that fans get fast talked into paying for the infrastructure of billionaires. Always the same rap, economists brought in talking about "money multipliers", bought and paid for "community organisers" talking about good jobs and business development. Ttlfcknbllsht.
Hammer, thanks for your research. Maybe all this new learning about predicting outcomes using sheep's bladders will melt in a corner of The Brain's bathroom...
I was involved in economic development discussions regarding the minor league Yankee stadium on Staten Island. I heard all of that ridiculous nonsense about how much knock-on business a stadium would generate. I called it out. How much did it add to the local economy? Nothing. Nobody had a beer in the local bar or went to a nearby restaurant after the game or even stopped in the local convenience store. Employment was seasonal, poorly paid and only for 26 games.
But they also ignored their own economic plans to develop a nightlife strip from the SI Ferry, down Bay Street to Bailey Seton Hospital. It was once a bustling nightlife scene, with over 90 bars and restaurants, that Giuliani killed, by ringing it with police checkpoints that checked everyone coming and going for alcohol consumption, instead of improving public transportation. THAT scene generated economic activity, provided employment, etc. The stadium was just a boondoggle at the taxpayers expense that generated income for nobody but the Yankees and free Yankee tickets for the local politicians.
They also wanted to build a NASCAR track in a black community. But the rich folks on the hill killed that idea because the noise would have traveled to their lovely decks overlooking the harbor.
We all know there are sports team owners that have reputations for being very bottom-line driven. That's business. And we know that the Oakland A's are headed to Vegas, the third professional sports team to leave Oakland in five years, due to lack of support. You can't blame team owners for moving a team to a different city when you see this kind of attendance in Tampa for a playoffs game. I've been told that a lot of Canadians like vacationing in Florida. Maybe Tampa should move to Montreal. Two Canadian teams in the American league would make for a good rivalry.
You're all very welcome! I confess that I had to do it for my own sanity. Had to see how much of an impact that putting your best hitter in the #2 slot had on the back end of games.
What a pain in the ass going through 162 box scores and full play by play lists was! Next year, I am just going to keep a journal. After every game, I am just going to note whenever the #2 strategy "worked" and what the result was.
Yankee management is so stupid that I doubt they even realize that the #2 hitter strategy never resulted in anything positive this entire year. In 23 plate appearances, 9 BB, and 0 for 14. Yeah, that's really knocking down those fences! Amazing how many more runs we scored as a result of this great strategy!
@ Doug K., A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!!! Love it!!!
Post a Comment