Houlihan Park Tour and Snagging Analysis
So that was that. I hope you enjoyed it. And here is that poll I promised you about which person you’d like me to write about for the “Characters of Observing Baseball” entry that I’ll write about two entries from now:
I left off ushers and family off, but if you’d like to see me include them or any other people, let me know before you vote.
MLBlogs Top 100- Number 20!
In the craziness that took up pretty much my entire weekend that was Observing Baseball Trivia, I didn’t get to write an entry about an awesomely awesome thing: I made top-20 on 2012 on MLBlogs!
That was a whole nine-spot jump from 2011′s list. That may not seem like much, but: it was a third of my 2011 ranking that I jumped up by, there were a ton of great new blogs that started up in 2012 (there were some GREAT blogs that stopped writing in 2012, but they’re still on the list up top.), and each spot gets harder to jump as one goes up closer to the top of the list. I’m also enjoying this one because I know it will be a lot harder next year since there are two blogs that produce great content–that I got a head start on in 2012–that will probably leap-frog me in 2013 by the names of Three Up, Three Down and Ballparks on a Budget. You know, because people like to read good content instead what I throw up here every few days.
Thank you for reading. It’s been a pleasure writing. And I plan to try to make it an even better 2013. How you say? Well, I wrote about my goals for 2013, which is pretty much the same. So you can go check that out for details. And because of me being at this spot in the MLBlogs scene, you may notice the addition of the badge over in the sidebar. Speaking of the sidebar…
For the next few days I’ll actually be taking care of some general maintenance-of-the-blog stuff. That includes, but is not limited to
- Completely re-doing the sidebar- I was in the middle of doing this when Observing Baseball Trivia came around, so you can see some of it already up as of when I publish this entry.
- Deleting and “privatizing” entries- A ton of the entries I’ve written–especially before my Twitter account–just don’t make any sense out of context. That, and a ton of them are just bad. A lot of the times before Twitter I would post an entry simply to tell readers why I was behind on writing or other updates like that. So, I will be deleting the entries that make no sense out of context and saving the other ones as drafts that I just don’t like in general. Don’t worry, though. I won’t get rid of any that are a part of entry series, but any that I just think are awful and were meant to stand on their own (there are a bunch of them) I will delete or save them as a draft if I want to keep them for information’s sake. I will, however, keep them as a part of my “Words Written” stat, because I don’t feel like recalculating that stat. I will also edit entries if they contain an update-y part of the entry so it’s just the content of the entry itself is showing.
So again, thank you for reading and may your 2013 be an awesome one.
And finally, even though I know I wrote right above this that I would be pulling down/making private entries like this one once the context for these entries’ time has passed, with Observing Baseball Trivia, yet another poll item has been crossed off the list, so it is time to include the updated poll as well as the already-done ideas:
Here are the entries I’ve done:
1. Ballhawk Interviews- 33 votes
2. Stadium Profiles- 26 votes
3. Ballhawk Profiles- 33 votes
4. Dissect (a) Baseball(s)- 26 votes
5. Tour Target Field when there’s snow on the ground- 26 votes
6. Weird Observing Baseball Facts and Records- 28 votes
7. New Observing Baseball Icon- 17 votes
8. MLBlogs I Recommend- 33 votes
9. Observing Baseball Trivia- 32 votes
And I would do the remaining items in order of number of votes, but it appears the poll for some reason decided to make sense all of a sudden and put them in this order automatically when you look at the results now. Although, I will say this: many of the top items can’t be done until I get back to Minnesota, so if you see me go out of order, that’s why.
Proofread.
239,179 Words Written so far…
Observing Baseball Trivia
Since I can’t write “Ballhawking Gear” until I get back to Minnesota in three weeks, here is your next-most-voted-for entry: Observing Baseball Trivia. Here’s how it will go:
- 100 Questions total
- 10 on Historical Baseball Stuff, 10 on Contemporary Baseball Stuff, 30 on Ballpark Trivia, 10 on Ballhawk Stats, 10 on Name That Ballpark, 10 Trivia about the content of the blog itself, and 20 on Moments in Observing Baseball History.
- Each question will be multiple choice.
- You don’t need to write out the question, but please include the number to the question in your answer.
- Each person only gets to take one guess for each question. If a person takes a guess at a question that is wrong, they can no longer answer that question. They will, however, be allowed a guess at any subsequent questions.
- I will try to post a question on every hour or half-hour that I am up between today and Monday.
- The contest will be taking place not just here on the blog, but also on my Twitter account, the Observing Baseball Facebook page, and on the newly-made Instagram account (because EVERYone said I should make one. Well, not everyone, but family, people on Twitter, and people in the comments of this blog). Twenty-five of the hundred questions will appear on each medium. I won’t announce which questions will be on which, but every set of four questions will have one question on each medium. In other words, you will always be able to predict on which account the fourth, eight, and so on questions will be one, but you won’t be able to predict the three questions preceding
- The questions won’t close until someone answers question #100.
- The people credited with answering the question will be decided by *my* time stamp. I’ll try update the standings below as I get the results.
- Only one person can get credit for answering the question correctly. The person to get it is the first person to answer it correctly.
- I’ll post questions from other places on here after they’re answered.
- Correct answers will be bolded.
- To be accredited with the right answer one needs to answer on wherever the question is… unless you let me know before the question is posted that you don’t have an account on any of the sites listed above. In that case I’ll allow you to answer by commenting on this entry. So, to be clear, if I post the question on the blog, comment the answer; if I post the question on Twitter, reply to the tweet (or one tweet in the series of tweets containing the tweets, since I probably can’t fit a whole multiple-choice question in 140 characters) with the answer; if the question is on Facebook, comment on the post where I ask the question with the answer; and if the question is on Instagram, comment on the picture I ask the question in.
- The winner of this contest will get their choice of *one* of these four prizes. And for every ten people who submit an answer throughout this contest, I’ll add on an extra winner (i.e. If more than ten people submit an answer, I’ll give away two prizes. If more than twenty people do, I’ll give away three prizes etc. If more than forty people submit an answer–which I *highly* doubt–I’ll pick some more prizes for them to possibly pick from.) Anyway, here are the prizes:
1. Rollie Fingers-signed baseball:
2. Yankees 2009 Commemorative World Series DVD (unopened):
3. Mr. Met Bobblehead:
4. Radar Gun:
Rankings:
1. Nick Badders- 29. Received: Radar Gun.
2. Paul Kom- 24. Received–by winning the tie-breaker 3-2-1: Rollie Finger autographed baseball.
3. Quinn Imiola- 24. Received: Mr. Met bobblehead.
4. Kimberly Imiola- 8
5. Jared Serre- 3
6. Sean Bigness- 3
7. Joey Orr- 2
8. Danny Chojnacki- 2
9. Brendan Weingarten- 2
10. Pascale Badders- 2
11. Tony Voda- 1
12. Matt Huddleston- 1
And here is the first question:
1. Who received the highest percentage of votes in the Baseball HOF’s inagural class? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
a. Walter Johnson
b. Ty Cobb
c. Babe Ruth
d. Honus Wagner
2. (on Facebook) What year was Fenway Park’s construction finalized? ANSWERED (by Bredan Weingarten)
B. 1924
C. 1909
D. 1918
3. (on Instagram) What is the date of the longest time I’ve spent “at the ballpark”? ANSWERED (by Matt Huddleston)
A. 8/24/12
B. 7/4/11
C. 10/2/10
D. 7/17/12
4. (on Twitter) Who is the only ballhawk in mygameballs.com history to have four consecutive 400+ ball seasons? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Nick Pelescak
B. Zack Hample
C. Garrett Meyer
D. Erik Jabs
5. (on Facebook) Name That Ballpark! ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Rogers Centre
B. Tropicana Field
C. Tokyo Dome
D. Metrodome
6. (on Twitter) Which pitcher lead the league in 2012 in K/9? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Max Scherzer
B. Justin Verlander
C. Lance Lynn
D. Zack Grienke
7. At Target Field, Harmon Killebrew’s longest home run ever (at Metropolitan Stadium) is the spot of______? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. A Mini Donut Stand
B. A Gold Glove
C. A Plaque Commemorating the Home Run
D. His Statue
8. (on Instagram) The Brewers mascot, Bernie the Brewer, slides down the slide in left field every time… ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. A Brewer hits a home run
B. The Brewers score a run
C. An opposing batter strikes out
D. All of the above
9. What is the single-season record for Balls Per Game on mygameballs.com? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. 8.83
B. 8.65
C. 9.33
D. 9.5
10. Who tossed me my 100th baseball? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Chris Perez
B. Rick Ankiel
C. Jeremy Hellickson
D. Jaime Garcia
11. (on Twitter) Which stat comes at the end of the “stats” portion of each ballhawking entry? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Streaks
B. Competition Factor
C. Time Sent On Game
D. Balls Per Game
12. (on Facebook) What was the original name of the New York Yankees franchise? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Washington Yankees
B. New York Knickerbockers
C. New York Highlanders
D. Baltimore Orioles
13. (on Facebook) In 2007, the Arizona Diamondbacks dumped which color scheme in favor of sedona red and black? ANSWERED (by Brendan Weingarten)
A. Normal red and white
B. Purple and turqouise
C. Gray and black
D. Gray and teal
14. (on Instagram) Name That Ballpark ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. New Yankee Stadium
B. U.S. Cellular Field
C. Old Yankee Stadium
D. Citizens Bank Park
15. (on Twitter) Who hit the first foul ball I snagged that I wrote about on this blog? ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. Angel Pagan
B. Luis Hernandez
C. Nate McLouth
D. Justin Morneau
16. Marlins Park was built on the site of which former building? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Miami-Dade County Courthouse
B. Miami Hurricane’s Mark Light Field (baseball stadium)
C. Pro Player Stadium
D. Old Orange Bowl Site
17. (on Twitter) My first Observing Baseball-documented snags came as a result of a loan from which ballhawk? ANSWERED (by Danny Chojnacki)
A. Zack Hample
B. Ben Weil
C. Greg Barasch
D. Avi Miller
18. (on Instagram) Before Marlins Park, what was the only ballpark with a pool? ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. Tropicana Field
B. Chase Field
C. Minute Maid Park
D. Safeco Field
19. Which of the following are true concerning my 200th career ball? ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. It was a ball hit in the second deck of Nationals Park
B. I out-ran an usher for it
C. I gave the ball away
D. All of the above
20. Which of these is not a feature of the Rogers Centre? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. Its outfield measurements are in meters
B. It only has three levels of seating
C. It is next door to the CN Tower.
D. There are hotel rooms in the outfield
21. (on Instagram) Which of the following *is* a seating section at Busch Stadium? ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. Right Field Porch
B. Outfield Redbird Club
C. Diamond Club
D. Bank of America Club
22. What was the original name of the Atlanta Braves organization? ANSWERED (by Kimberly Imiola)
A. Boston Red Stockings
B. Boston Braves
C. Milwaukee Braves
D. Milwaukee Brewmasters
23. I snagged my first Observing Baseball-documented commemorative baseball at which stadium? ANSWERED (by Kimberly Imiola)
A. Nationals Park
B. Citi Field
C. Oriole Park at Camden Yards
D. New Yankee Stadium
24. (on Twitter) Name That Ballpark! ANSWERED (by Jared Serre)
A. Nationals Park
B. Citi Field
C. Target Field
D. New Yankee Stadium
25. (on Facebook) PNC Park leads the next-highest ballpark on mygameballs.com by how many baseballs?ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. 1,367
B. 730
C. 579
D. 1,504
26. This Ballpark has a see-through fence in one of its outfield walls so that people can see the field from outside the stadium. ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. Oriole Park at Camden Yards
B. AT&T Park
C. Minute Maid Park
D. Chase Field
27. (on Instagram) What month and year did I upload my first–admittedly awful–video for Observing Baseball? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. December 2011
B. March 2012
C. October 2011
D. January 2012
28. (on Twitter) Which gate at Citizens Bank Park opens earlier than all of the rest? ANSWERED (by Tony Voda)
A. Third Base Gate
B. Center Field Gate
C. Home Plate Gate
D. Right Field Gate
29. (on Facebook) Which of the following is *not* in the top-5 active pitchers in terms of WAR? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. Mariano Rivera
B. Roy Halladay
C. Justin Verlander
D. C.C. Sabathia
30. What was the date of my first ever Observing Baseball-documented minor league game? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. 3/29/12
B. 9/13/11
C. 4/29/12
D. 4/11/12
31. (on Twitter) Which of the following ballparks moved in its fences for the 2013 season? ANSWERED (by Jared Serre)
A. Citi Field
B. O. Co Coliseum
C. Petco Park
D. U.S. Cellular Field
32. (on Instagram) Which of the following does not have the majority of its seats green? ANSWERED (by Kimberly Imiola)
A. Target Field
B. Oriole Park at Camden Yards
C. Citi Field
D. Marlins Park
33. (on Instagram) Which of the following is in the top-5 active leaders in terms of OBP? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. Adam Dunn
B. Joey Votto
C. Kevin Youkillis
D. Joe Mauer
34. (on Facebook) Who hit the walk-off hit in the game I caught Trevor Plouffe’s game-tying home run? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Denard Span
B. Josh Willingham
C. Ben Revere
D. Justin Morneau
D. Justin Morneau
35. What year did Roger Maris break Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record? ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. 1961
B. 1958
C. 1949
D. 1965
36. (on Twitter) What date did I first encounter the “Tomahawk Chop”? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. 7/6/11
B. 4/14/11
C. 7/4/11
D. 8/15/11
37. (on Facebook) Who leads mygameballs.com in Balls Per Game? (minimum 10 Games) ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Jaycob Porter
B. Donny Haltom
C. Zack Hample
D. Joe Faraguna
38. (on Twitter) Which of the following ballparks doesn’t have a standing room-only section in the field level of the outfield? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. AT&T Park
B. Progressive Field
C. Oriole Park at Camden Yards
D. Fenway Park
39. I caught what sequence of baseballs in my three games in Miami in 2011? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. 8, 7, 2
B. 5, 5, 5
C. 7, 6, 2
D. 7, 3, 6
40. (on Instagram) Name That Ballpark! ANSWERED (by Kimberly Imiola)
A. Target Field
B. Sun Life Stadium
C. Citi Field
D. Nationals Park
41. (on Facebook) Senator George Mitchell is a part of which baseball organization? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola and Paul Kom)
A. New York Yankees
B. Los Angeles Dodgers
C. Milwaukee Brewers
D. Boston Red Sox
A. AT&T Park
B. PNC Park
C. Citi Field
D. Oriole Park at Camden Yards
43. (on Twitter) Who was the first president to throw out a ceremonial first pitch? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. Woodrow Wilson
B. Herbert Hoover
C. William Howard Taft
D. Calvin Coolidge
45. (on Facebook) What percentage of balls have I given away since I started Observing Baseball? ANSWERED (by Joey Orr)
A. 34%
B. 21%
C. 29%
D. 26%
46. (on Twitter) How many ballparks have I been to? (MLB) ANSWERED (by Kimberly Imiola)
A. 10
B. 15
C. 16
D. 18
A. AT&T Park
B. Turner Field
C. Miller Park
D. Coors Field
48. What was the date of my first double-digit game? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. 7/29/11
B. 8/12/11
C. 7/23/11
D. 6/24/11
49. Which of the following is not true about my 300th ball snag? ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. I caught it on the fly
B. It was hit by a Yankee
C. It was on Derek Jeter’s birthday
D. I ran into a tunnel to get it.
50. (on Facebook) Which of the following doesn’t have a double-decker bullpen? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Target Field
B. Citizens Bank Park
C. Citi Field
D. Oriole Park at Camden Yards
A. Oriole Park at Camden Yards
B. New Yankee Stadium
C. Citi Field
D. Sun LIfe Stadium
52. (on Twitter) What is oldest ballpark in the AL Central? ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. Progressive Field
B. U.S. Cellular
C. Comerica Park
D. Kauffman Stadium
53. (on Twitter) What was the date when I tied for most baseballs snagged in the inaugural Ballhawkfest? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. 7/7/11
B. 6/9/11
C. 7/13/11
D. 7/23/11
54. (on Instagram) Which Ballpark was top in the league in 2012 in terms of HR Park Factor? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Oriole Park at Camden Yards
B. U.S. Cellular Field
C. Coors Field
D. Miller Park
55. (on Facebook) Which is the third oldest ballpark in the AL East? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. New Yankee Stadium
B. Tropicana Field
C. Oriole Park at Camden Yards
D. Rogers Centre
56. On what date did I snag my first career home run? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. 9/13/11
B. 9/12/11
C. 9/13/12
D. 9/14/12
57. (on Twitter) Who is the Yankees’ career RBI leader?ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Lou Gehrig
B. Babe Ruth
C. Mickey Mantle
D. Joe DiMaggio
A. 8/5/12
B. 9/15/11
C. 7/7/12
D. 6/24/12
59. (on Facebook) Who holds the record on mygameballs.com for most home run snags in a season? ANSWERED (by Kimberly Imiola)
A. John Witt
B. Rick Gold
C. Tim Anderson
D. Shawn Bosman
60. Who is the active leader in WAR? ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. Albert Pujols
B. Chipper Jones
C. Manny Ramirez
D. Alex Rodriguez
61. (on Twitter) Where can you find a “Cuban Sandwhich”? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. Marlins Park
B. Tropicana Field
C. Citi Field
D. Petco Park
62. (on Facebook) How many home stadiums and cities have the Oakland A’s had? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. 4, 4
B. 3, 3
C. 4, 3
D. 5, 3
63. Which current MLB stadium has the highest Seating Capacity? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Dodgers Stadium
B. New Yankee Stadium
C. Coors Field
D. Rogers Centre
64. (on Instagram) Name That Ballpark! ANSWERED (by Jared Serre and Quinn Imiola)
A. Turner Field
B. Metrodome
C. Tropicana Field
D. Miller Park
65. (on Twitter) How many *numbers* have the Yankees retired? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. 14
B. 16
C. 17
D. 20
66. When was the first time I was let into the stadium over a half-hour after I should have? ANSWERED (by Danny Chojnacki)
A. 8/24/11
B. 5/18/11
C. 8/13/11
D. 8/23/11
67. (on Facebook) What’s the newest MLB stadium? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. Target Field
B. Citi Field
C. Marlins Park
D. New Yankee Stadium
68. (on Instagram) What game did I snag this baseball? ANSWERED (by Sean Bigness)
A. 7/2/11
B. 6/24/11
C. 7/4/11
D. 7/5/11
69. What were the dates of my first consecutive games with one game ball? ANSWERED (by Kimberly Imiola)
A. 7/5/11, 7/6/11
B. 7/31/11, 8/1/11
C. 8/13/12, 8/14/12
D. 7/22/12, 7/23/12
70. (on Instagram) What stadium is this from? ANSWERED (by Sean Bigness)
A. Oriole Park at Camden Yards
B. Nationals Park
C. Citi Field
D. Target Field
RULES FROM THIS POINT ON:
We will do the normal question every 30 minutes until we reach total question. After that, we will take a break and I will post the remaining 25 question on the blog in a free-for-all comment war. I will only post this group of 25 questions on an hour (so 1:00, 2:00, etc.) it will not be on any random time like 3:49 and won’t be on the half-hour either. It will most likely go up tonight, but if I can’t finish the list by 12:00 AM EST, the list will wait until Monday (tomorrow) and go up between 6:00 PM and 12:00 AM EST, again, on the hour. I’d say we’ll resume the “regular” 30 minute trivia at around 6:00 EST today. If it doesn’t resume by then keep checking back every half hour on either Facebook or Twitter, since those are the only two remaining possible mediums for questions 71 and 72.
71. (on Twitter) Which book did I review in March of 2011? ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. Watching Baseball Smarter
B. The Baseball
C. Moneyball
D. The Extra 2%
72. (on Facebook) What year did the Giants and Dodgers come to the west coast? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. 1951
B. 1949
C. 1955
D. 1957
73. (on Instagram) Which player has hit the most home runs in this stadium? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. Alex Rodriguez
B. Babe Ruth
C. Curtis Granderson
D. Mickey Mantle
74. Name That Ballpark! ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. Nationals Park
B. Turner Field
C. AT& T Park
D. Miller Park
75. (on Twitter) Where can you find “The Beach”? ANSWERED (by Sean Bigness)
A. Dodgers Stadium
B. Marlins Park
C. Petco Park
D. AT&T Park
76. Where might one find “Greene’s Hill”? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington
B. Busch Stadium
C. Kauffman Stadium
D. Angels Stadium
77. In getting the hitter’s Triple Crown, Miguel Cabrera was the first player since whom to do so? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Stan Musial
B. Carl Yastremski
C. Don Mattingly
D. Hank Aaron
78. Which notable ballhawk has been my next-door neighbor for 18 years? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. Zack Hample
B. Ben Weil
C. Greg Barasch
D. Rick Gold
79. Which player was responsible for my first ever batting practice baseball? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. Prince Fielder
B. Barry Bonds
C. Andy Pettitte
D. Ryan Howard
80. Which ballhawk has the lowest Ball Per Game average on mygameballs.com? (Min 100 Games) ANSWERED (by Pascale Badders)
A. Leigh Barratt
B. Tony Bracco
C. Rick Gold
D. Don Chilcote
81. The renovations to Kauffman Stadium were completed by commencement of what season? ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. 2005
B. 2009
C. 2007
D. 2008
82. In this entry I wrote about the process Ruben Amaro Jr. undertook to get three aces on the Phillies rotation. What was the name of the entry? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Good boy, Roy
B. A Plethora of Pitchers
C. Pure Genius
D. The Phantastic Phillies
83. Who lead the National League in Strikeouts in 2012? ANSWERED (by Pascale Badders)
A. Clayton Kershaw
B. Gio Gonzalez
C. R.A. Dickey
D. Adam Dunn
84. Which of the following ball totals would get one number 10 on the mygameballs.com career totals? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. 1,252
B. 1,138
C. 967
D. 1,504
85. What detail was first overlooked in the renovations of Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum by the Oakland Raiders? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Installation of bullpens
B. A room for grounds crew materials
C. Foldable seats to stow away for baseball games
D. Shatter-proof glass in outfield boxes.
86. The usher who lets me into his section at Nationals Park works in which part of the ballpark? ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. Lower-level right Field
B. Lower-level left field
C. Behind the third base dugout
D. Foul ground left field
87. Which of the following franchises originated in Milwaukee? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Atlanta Braves
B. Baltimore Orioles
C. Oakland Athletics
D. Milwaukee Brewers
88. Name That Ballpark! ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. Riverfront Stadium
B. County Stadium
C. Crosley Field
D. Sportman’s Park
89. When did I ask Josh Thole to return an item to me and he did? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. 7/23/12
B. 7/30/11
C. 7/17/12
D. 8/26/11
90. What ballpark was supposed to host the 2000 All-Star game? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. Angels Stadium
B. Wrigley Field
C. Sun Life Stadium
D. Safeco Field
91. Which stadium used to be called Pac Bell Park? ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. AT&T Park
B. Chase Field
C. Sun Life Stadium
D. Petco Park
92. Which of the following didn’t happen on 4/21/11? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Zack Hample caught Mike Nickeas’ home run
B. I got my copy of The Baseball signed
C. I got Nelson Figueroa to take a “self-shot” with my camera
D. I got reprimanded for trying to get too many “Pepsi Max” samples
93. Who lead Major League Baseball in WAR in 2012? ANSWERED (by Nick Badders)
A. Miguel Cabrera
B. Buster Posey
C. Mike Trout
D. Andrew McCutchen
94. What was the best Ball Per Game average in 2012? (Min 10 games) ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. 8.00
B. 8.65
C. 9.33
D. 7.00
95. Where would someone encounter the “Tomahawk Chop”? ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. Progressive Field
B. Turner Field
C. PNC Park
D. Minute Maid Park
96. Who accompanied me on the night of my first home run snag? ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. Sean Bigness
B. Chris Cositore
C. Jonathan Mueller
D. Alex Pistolesi
97. Who is the all-time leader in WAR? ANSWERED (by Paul Kom)
A. Denton Young
B. Babe Ruth
C. Barry Bonds
D. Walter Johnson
98.Name That Ballpark! ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. Turner Field
B. Target Field
C. Citi Field
D. Nationals Park
99. When did I first come to Target Field? ANSWERED (by Paul Kom and Nick Badders)
A. 8/28/12
B. 8/09/11
C. 8/10/11
D. 9/8/12
100. Where is McCovey Cove a main attraction? ANSWERED (by Quinn Imiola)
A. AT&T Park
B. Fenway Park
C. PNC Park
D. Marlins Park
Not proofread.
238,481 Words Written so far…
Resolutions/Goals for 2013
So typically I post an entry on or around the new year setting out my goals for ballhawking the next year like this and this. Well, given this is the definition for resolution:
the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.
2012 in review: Observing Baseball
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. That was a sentence automatically inserted. But this here is me, Mateo, writing. With this year of 2012–during which a ton of people mistakenly interpreted the end of the Mayan calendar to say that the world was going to end (the Mayans never predicted anything near that)–closing, I’d like to thank everyone who reads, comments, and generally supports this blog for doing so. It’s nice to see that people wan to read my junk, and I do appreciate it.
Anyway, what you are about to read is a statistical breakdown of what happened here at Observing Baseball in 2012. First I must whore my own entry, though, so if you want to check out the same thing from last year, click this link. The amount that the blog itself, and thus the numbers of the blog, have grown is absolutely ridonculous. And that’s not me–or at least I hope it’s not me–that viewed the blog five more times than in 2011 and commented way more times. (Well I did comment way more times, but it was because you guys were commenting way more times and I was replying to them.)
Now that I’ve done that, let me tell you that I’m not the only blogger who got this report and wanted to share it with the world. Here are the blogs that I follow or could find that have made their reports public. (Yes, I actually did go through MLBlogs’ top-50 trying to see who had made their reports public.) First let’s start with the blogs I follow that published an entry about their report. (If you click the name of the blog, you will be taken to their entry about the report):
1. This is a Very Simple Game…- I was the number three commenter on her blog in 2012 with 29 comments. Woo-hoo! If you think I’m lying you can double-check it by checking out Kristen–that’s the name of the author–’s report 
(I had to add in a bit of her style to make this a true “Simple Game” plug.)
2. Dodger Blue World- Number three again. This time it was with 25 comments. (If I left 29 comments on Emma’s blog, I would have been tied for top-commenter on the site. But, alas, the year was fleeting and I can only be so obnoxious with my over-commenting streaks.) Si piensas que no fui numero tres en terminos de comentarios, puedes asegurar lo en la entrada de Emma. (Again, had to throw some Spanish if I wanted it to be a true Crzblue [her nickname is Crzblue on account of her love/healthy obsession with the Dodgers] plug.)
And here is a stat report I came across because I follow the blog’s author of Twitter:
3. 9 Inning Know It All- I actually just started following Mr. Randolph. I saw that he posted a comment on the “Latest Leaders” entry in the MLBlogosphere page asking if there were any other bloggers out there who were on Twitter or anything like that.
Finally, I have the link to this last one because the author, Nick Badders, told me he was going to publish his entry today. I don’t have the link to the actual entry he plans on publishing about it–nor do I want to ask him for it since he’s probably asleep right now–but I figured he had already made his stat report public, so I got the link to link to. If you want to check out his entry when it comes out today, here’s the link to his home page and you can just keep checking back until he publishes the entry. Update: Nick has since posted his entry, so if you want to check that out, the name his blog is now linked to that:
4. 7000 Coliseum Way- I actually didn’t make Nick’s top-commenter list, but I assume I was just on the cusp of it. If you want to check out the entry where I talked about the radio show I did with Nick, link to that here. Oh, and by the way, the entry that Nick posted is by far the longest of any of these. How long? I have never written an entry that has more words than the one he just published.
And here are a couple of blogs that have posted the annual reports since I wrote this entry:
5. A View From the Bullpen- This was one of the two blogs written by Wayne Peck that I talked about in my last entry, remember?
6. Ballparks on a Budget- Go check it out; it’s free. (See what I did there? I’m such a dork.)
And now here are two more that published after I made that last edit. The latter of which isn’t technically his annual report, but Tony Voda did do his 2012 year of blogging in review:
7. My Serendipitous Life as a Baseball Wife- Yay for the use of multi-syllabic words and rhyme in the titles of baseball blogs.
8. Plouffe’s New Hairdo- I’ve referenced Tony several times in the past month, but if you didn’t catch any of them, he is a fellow Minnesota-based ballhawk.
And another blog entry that has since been posted, which I came across as a result of me following the author on the Twitterverse:
9. If You Write It, They Will Come- It isn’t the actual stat report, but Brad goes over his 2012 season in baseball and such. He was one of the proud few Fan Cave applicants who were selected to go to Arizona, so it really is something to check out.
And yet another one of the blogs I subscribed to has posted an entry, so here’s yet another addition:
10. Minoring In Baseball- I just barely made it onto Mike’s top-commenter list, but I was only two comments away from the number 3 commenter.
And yet another update. Wayne published the annual report from his first blog, so here’s that link as well:
11. Collection of Baseball- See description of number 5 A View From the Bullpen.
And another late entry comes to us from Chris Hernandez, who you may remember from various Yankee Stadium and Citi Field entries:
12. The Ballhawker- I came in third in terms of commenting by just one comment. ( I forgive him for using the wrong agent noun in his title.)
Here’s an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 40,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 9 Film Festivals
Click here to see the complete report.
Again, thank you, and I hope you have the awesomest 2013 you’ll ever have.
Proofread (I’ll explain this in my next entry, which, by the way, is about New Year’s Goals/ Resolutions and will be up tomorrow when it is 2013.)
230,787 Words Written so far…
New Observing Baseball Icon (Part 2)
If this isn’t your first time reading this blog, you’ve probably seen my “Observing Baseball Icon”. You know, the one I designed and wrote about in this entry. But…for those of you who are too lazy to click the link for whatever reason, here’s the icon I’m talking about:
Now, let me clarify the thing that everyone I have talked about the icon in person with has asked me: “Mateo, isn’t that a logo.” No, it’s not the logo. The unofficial logo for Observing Baseball can be found *within* the icon (it’s the circle with the “OB” in it), but this image itself is not the logo.
Anyway, I liked this icon when I made it during my high school’s senior internship, but now that I look back at it, it’s really cluttered and is too “me, me, me” for my taste and probably everyone else’s. So, with the new year coming up, I decided I have excuse enough to remake the icon. I thought of the basic idea for the logo pretty quickly, so while we were filming the “How to Dissect/Deconstruct a Baseball” video, I explained to Jonathan what kind of picture I wanted him to take for the logo. He failed:
So then I took a picture of him showing him how I wanted it to look–which also ended up being a failure of a picture, but he got the idea:
Anyway, we took the final picture that I ended up using right after that:
I knew I wasn’t going to write this entry until about Christmas, but the day I was supposed to leave to San Francisco for Christmas, I remembered that I don’t actually have Photoshop on my laptop, so–almost an hour later–I had the new icon edited and ready to go:
Then I thought, “How would it look if I went with black instead of white?”:
The I thought, “You can’t see my hand in that one; let me change the angle of the color gradient.”:
Then I thought, “My two favorite colors are orange and green. Why don’t I make those the two background colors?”:
Then I thought, ‘Well, I might as well see what would happen if I used an all-bright-colors background.”:
Then I thought, “Why don’t I make it Christmas colors for fun, since that’s coming up soon.”:
Then I realized that I probably should have darkened the red in the logo, because red and green are complementary colors, so I did that:
And then I thought I should go to bed and stop messing around with color schemes in the computer lab.
So, I ask you, my dear readers: Which would you like to see the most as the icon for Observing Baseball moving forward? Vote for your favorite in the poll below:
And as always, vote for which entry(s) you would like to see next if you haven’t. ( I know it’s annoying, but it’s just in case someone new comes along whenever. I don’t want them to have to go back like five entries just to be able to vote for the entries of their choice.):
And here’s the link to where I explain what these different entry types mean.
I guess I should mention that with this entry coming out, there will be still three more entries coming out between today and January 1st. They will be published three days straight. So they will go December 30th, December 31st, and January 1st. The last one, however, will just be me publishing the stat report that WordPress sends out at the end of the year. It should be interesting for all of you guys regardless, though, if you’re into that kind of stuff.
228,527 Words Written so far…
Weird Observing Baseball Facts and Records
Ah weird numbers: my specialty. So, it was completely natural for me to write this entry. What better to do than find arbitrary statistics about my blog and place meaning in them. Just call me the Tim Kurkjian of the MLBlogs world. (Kurkjian still does the “Kurk-gems” segment, right? I’ve pretty much stopped watching Baseball Tonight in favor of MLB Tonight on MLB Network.) Here goes some of the random numbers.
Words:
First, let’s start off with the big one: number of words total. Over the course of this blog, I have written 225, 518 words. That’s a lot of words. I am astounded by this number personally. With the number of entries I currently have up, that works out to an average of 823 words per entry. However, you’ve got to keep in mind there are certain kinds of entries that are way under and over this average. For example, none of my “Re-view of the Preview” entries even reached this number. I don’t think any of them even surpassed the 600 word plateau. With the average for the thirty of those being 200-300 words, it brings the average way down. If I had to guess, my average ballhawking entry is probably in the 1,400 word range. My longest entry ever is 3,631 words. You can check that out here. It was when I met up with the Cook family in Washington D.C., so I decided to take up Todd Cook’s style of writing for a day and over-document. It wasn’t my longest entry by a mile, though. The next closest entry in terms of words was my informal tour of Citi Field where I covered a lot of ground in general with a guest by the name of Alex also joining in with me. (And for the record: no, he didn’t accompany me on my mini-tour of Citi Field. He entertained himself in the club level while I ran around the stadium for five minutes.) You can check out that entry if you’d like by clicking these words I have typed in this sentence. That entry was 3,344 words long. The least amount of words I have ever written in an entry is 19 words. The reason for it was because the entry itself was pretty much a video entry, so the 19 words were the introduction the video. Click here for the link to that entry. I believe it was my first video filmed with a high-quality camera. And by high-quality, I mean not a webcam. As for the quality of the video…Eh, I made an unsuccessful attempt at a homemade teleprompter that is very obvious when you watch the video. It’s pretty bad looking bad at it. But hey, cut me some slack; it was my third video ever.
Baseballs given away:
Next fact: The past two years I have snagged 384 baseballs. Of those, I have given 110 of them away. For those who don’t have a calculator, that is 29% of the baseballs I have snagged I have given away. Whenever I talk to people and they ask me the question everyone asks ballhawks: “What do you with all of the baseballs?” I tell them that I give about a third of them away. So that’s pretty accurate, right? In 2011, I gave away 34 of 161 snagged (21%). The most I gave away that year was 4 baseballs in a game. I can’t remember when that was, but to me now, that’s a low “high” number. I think my lack of giving stems from the fact that I was snagging baseballs at a ton of different stadiums for my successful period of ballhawking in July, so I didn’t have to worry about pleasing any ushers for later games. I was planning to give the majority of my baseballs towards the end of the year when I wasn’t as mobile. When this happened, however, I hit an absolute cold streak where I wasn’t snagging more than three baseballs at a game that often at all. As such, I didn’t have that many baseballs to give away. As a result, the middle of the summer remained my peak for giving away baseballs. In 2012, I gave away 76 of 223 baseballs (34%). This was lead by games where I gave away a ton of baseballs. The most I gave out in a game was 7 baseballs ( I snagged 9, I believe that day). However, it was one of three games where I gave away 6 or more baseballs this year.
Pictures:
In my entries I have used a total of 4,545 pictures. That averages out to 16.5 pictures per entry. That’s a lot higher than I would have guessed. Although, I guess the list is top heavy with ballhawking entries bearing the brunt of the load. The most pictures I’ve used in a single entry was the same as the entry where I wrote the most words ever with 80 pictures.
Commemorative Baseballs:
I have snagged 30 commemorative baseballs since I started this blog. I snagged a Citi Field commemorative baseball in 2010, but besides that, all of my commemorative snags have come this past year. My record for snagging commemorative baseballs in one game is 7. This came–I believe–when the Nationals were using nothing but Shea Stadium and Nationals Park commemorative baseballs.
Time Spent On Game:
I have roughly spent 40,882 Minutes on the 85 games I kept track of either the “Time at Game” or “Time Spent On Game” stat for. That’s over 681 Hours I have spent on baseball games. If you don’t know how the stat works, it is the time I spend at the ballpark itself plus the time I spend traveling to and from the ballpark. For the games where I only had the “Time at Game” stat, I added a round amount of hours (usually 2 hours for local games) to the total I had in place to account for transportation time. For those without calculators, the average amount of time I spent on a game was 481 Minutes or just over 8 Hours.
Video:
As of late I have been incorporating videos a little more than before, but I have been using videos in my entries for over a year now. As a result, I have uploaded 6074 seconds of video to YouTube for this blog. Why seconds? Because have you ever tried to add up times when they’re in this format: 6:51+ 4:26? No, because it’s annoying as heck. Also, I do have other YouTube videos out there (I’ll get to some of those in the next entry), but these are the videos made for the purpose of incorporating them into a blog entry. If you’re wondering what that seconds mark translates into in the 0:00 format, though–First of all, get a calculator; I’m sick of doing all of the math for you–it is 101 Minutes 14 Seconds. If you divide that by the number of videos, it is an average of 6:20 per video. However, I should include the caveat that the shortest video I have put on YouTube is 6 six seconds, which kind of throws off the average (and can be found in the entry I’m linking to here). Meanwhile, the longest video is 16 Minutes 2 Seconds. That was the entry where I took apart a baseball a couple weeks ago.
That’s all I have for you for now. Surprisingly–even though it doesn’t appear that way–this entry is over 1,000 words. However, if you have any obscure stats you think of and would like for me to include, leave your suggestions down below in the comments, and if it doesn’t take an eternity to calculate like these almost did, I will calculate it and add a section below that last one right above this paragraph.
I realize I have been off schedule lately, but the holiday/finals time threw a wrinkle in my plans. So, to make it up to you, I plan to have published three new entries (in addition to this one) by/on January, 1, 2013. While it is pretty set in stone what those three will be, you can keep voting on which entries I will write after those in this poll down here. I will include all of the already-used ideas below it as well as the rankings of the remaining categories:
1. Ballhawk Interviews- 33 votes
2. Stadium Profiles- 26 votes
3. Ballhawk Profiles- 33 votes
4. Dissect (a) Baseball(s)- 26 votes
5. Tour Target Field when there’s snow on the ground- 26 votes
6. Weird Observing Baseball Facts and Records- 28 votes
And here are the standings for the remaining poll items as they stand while I type these words:
T1. Observing Baseball Trivia/MLBlogs I Recommend- 28 votes
3. Ballhawking Gear- 27 votes
T4. My Favorite MLB Players/Characters of Observing Baseball- 25 votes
6. Ask a Statistician- 24 votes
T7. Salute to Up-and-coming Blogs/10 Minutes with 2 GMs- 23 votes
9. Instructional Videos- 22 votes
10. My Favorite MLB Teams- 21 votes
T11. Gate Opening Times of MLB Stadiums/Complementary Tickets!- 20 votes
T13. Blast From The Baseball Past/ Battle of the Retreival Devices- 19 votes
15. Reference Guide to Ballhawk Terms- 18 votes
16. Evaluate and Critique Ballhawk Statistics- 16 votes
T17. New Observing Baseball Icon/Look at MLBlogs Themes- 15 votes
19. Format of the Entries- 12 votes
If you’re confused as to what all of these names mean, here is the link to the entry where I explain nearly all of them. And here is the entry where I explain the other two.
Also, you can vote which of the remaining days you’d like to read an entry on. I don’t know, for example if people are more or less likely to read something on Christmas, so here you can tell me that. Unlike the other poll, though, you can only vote for three days and not as many times as you’d like:
227,100 Words Written so far
Tour Target Field in the Snow
Here it is. It was cold. I hope you appreciate it:
Here is the poll if you want to keep voting on which entries you want to see:
Particular attention be paid to “Weird Observing Baseball Facts and Records” and “MLBlogs I Recommend”, since they are tied for the top spot as I write these words.
1. Ballhawk Interviews- 33 votes
2. Stadium Profiles- 26 votes
3. Ballhawk Profiles- 33 votes
4. Dissect (a) Baseball(s)- 26 votes
5. Tour Target Field when there’s snow on the ground- 26 votes
And again, here’s an explanation of all of the items on the poll if you have no idea what any of them mean.
Dissecting/ Deconstructing Baseballs
A long video, but I wanted to be complete with this video rather than rush it and get it out on time. Enjoy my incompetence:
Keep on voting for the entries you’d like to see. If you’ll notice, I’ve taken the parts of the poll down that have already been written about, but I’ll include at the end how many votes they had when I took them off:
1. Ballhawk Interviews- 33 votes
2. Stadium Profiles- 26 votes
3. Ballhawk Profiles- 33 votes
4. Dissect (a) Baseball(s)- 26 votes
If you have no idea what ay of these ideas mean, here’s the link to the entry where I explained them.
Also, the newest “Latest Leaders” entry came out on the MLBlogs’ Central blog and here I am:
Yeah, I’ve visited a lot of MLBlogs (all of the ones in gray). But more importantly, thank you to all of you guys for reading. Really, thank you. If you want to check out the full entry with links to the other blogs and all that good stuff, here’s the link to it.
Another thing is I was thinking of making a blooper video for this particular video, so you can vote for that here. I got a request from my camera man and guest star to do so, but I want to know if that’s something you’d actually be interested in:
Two more ideas
Have you read my last entry yet? If you haven’t, **HERE** is the link. (Yes, I am aware of the typos in the video; I was since before I published the video, but they are already embedded into the video, so I can’t change them.)
This entry is to add to items onto the end of that poll that I thought of the day after I published the video and entry.
1. Ten Minutes with Two Future GMs- (It’s a working title, okay?) This would be myself and myself and my friend Sean. You may remember him from my 9/12/12 Game. Yes? No? Here’s his picture for those too lazy to click the link:
I know this doesn’t sound like the pitch of the century, but it would be us two baseball-crazed individuals talking about the offseason happenings. Sean is one of those people who is ridiculously knowledgeable about the offseason, so if it counts for anything, *I* really like this idea. And yes, I already ran the idea past Sean, so we’re good in that regard.
2. Complimentary Tickets!-I recently got a complimentary ticket to a certain event for taking pictures last year, and I was wondering if you readers would like to read my blabbing about this stat/sports-geek event for 500-1,000 words.
Anyway, here is the updated poll with these two new items on it:
Also, as of this entry, “Stadium Profiles” is the top choice for type of entry. So, I made a couple of polls for which stadium you readers would most like to read/watch about:
Recent Comments