Baseball and Not Baseball
What I Learned This Week
Results by Pitcher Through May 24
Posted by on May 24, 2012
BASEBALL
I was going to post this monthly, but I don’t feel like grading papers or cleaning the house right now. The Tigers seem to be doing their best to give Fister a sense of déjà vu. Click the image to view it full size.
Results by Starting Pitcher Through May 24
Chapters 6 and 7 of the Power of Habit
Posted by on May 23, 2012
NOT BASEBALL
Chapter 6 is titled The Power of a Crisis. It tries to answer the question, “How can an organization implement habits that balance authority and, at the same time, chose a person or goal that rises above everyone else?” It gives examples of cultures that were not working:
- A Rhode Island hospital where doctors did not listen to other care givers
- The London Underground where different areas controlled only their sphere of influence
- NASA
In each case a tragedy allowed them to look at their operations anew and see the flaws in their system. The Rhode Island hospital had errant surgeries when doctors did not listen. The London Underground had a fire that raged out of control since different areas did not share clues about the fire starting. NASA had the Challenger explosion.
Just because you have a tragedy does not mean a leader will use it to convince people to improve. Someone must act to change institutional habits. A leader can also try to use an upcoming potential problem to play the role of the tragedy without actually having a disaster.
Chapter 7 is about how to predict and manipulate habits. Using shopping data Target could predict which of its customers were pregnant. But, it couldn’t let them know it knew this much about them. Customers might not like this. So they sent coupons for products they knew the consumer would desire mixed in with other coupons to make the amount they know about the customer less obvious.
This area seems ripe for college intervention systems. If we could find the right thing to count or measure and could convince the staff or faculty to record the data then it might be fairly easy to do intrusive, effecting interventions. The question is of course what to measure and how to make the data accurate in a system where the data comes from more than just the items purchased.
Pi Ratio Activity Turns Out Ridiculously Good
Posted by on May 21, 2012
NOT BASEBALL
This is the fairly typical activity you can do when studying ratios or circle geometry in a pre-algebra class. It never turns out this well- especially since students measured circumference by rolling their circle-like shapes. (Significant digits come later in this curriculum).
The Power of Habit Chapters 8 and 9
Posted by on May 20, 2012
NOT BASEBALL
My notes for Chapters 6 and 7 are at work so I am posting this out of order. I will make a post about Chapter 6 and 7 later this week if I catch up on other work or if I remember to take the notes home.
Chapter 8 continues Duhigg’s stretch of what a habit is. He talks about how social movements can be forwarded by someone with some strong ties to organizations that then themselves can convince others to participate via weak ties. Rosa Parks was popular in Montgomery. Many people in organizations of which she was a part boycotted to support her. Other members of those groups boycotted because of peer pressure within those groups. This latter peer pressure is what Duhigg calls the weak-tie effect.
Duhigg also describes how the Saddleback Church grew once the strong tie component was put in place with bible study groups. All the bible study groups were part of the broadser church which could be considered a weak tie.
In Chapter 9 Duhigg considers two cases. One man has night terrors and kills his wife thinking she is an attacker who has attacked his wife. Since during a night terror a person is not awake he is acquitted. He contrasts this with a woman who gambles away first her own wealth and then the money she inherited from her parents. She ends up owing Harrah’s $125,000 and when Harrah’s sues to collect she counter sues claiming that the types of incentives Harrah’s offers caused her to lose control of her habit. She lost. Duhigg at first says they both in some aspect were out of conscious control because a habit can be that powerful. Then he backtracks and says she could have done things to break her habit while the murderer could not. Overall I think the two anecdotes took too long to reach the conclusion that the woman should have changed her habits and that although it is hard to change habits it is not impossible.
True Result Pitcher!
Posted by on May 20, 2012
BASEBALL
It was 85 degrees today and Scherzer struck out more batters than I brought waters into Comerica Park. Scherzer gave up a walk and two solo home runs. But, he got 15 strike outs. 15 strike outs is the Comerica Park record and one away from the Tigers record held by Lolich.
Despite having 115 pitches it appeared Leyland would send Scherzer out for the 8th. A long Tigers rally in the bottom of the 7th ended those plans. Instead Dotel, Coke and Benoit finished the game.
It looked like Scherzer might take a tough loss as they trailed 2-1 after 6 1/2 innings. The Tigers had only had a Peralta home run. The Tigers scored 3 in the 8th capped by a two-run singe by Avila. With the infield drawn in he hit it just hard enough to avoid the pitcher and shortstop to score the Young and Peralta.
Over the three-game series the Tigers struck out 41 Pirates, breaking the Tiger record for a 3-game series.
My youngest daughter missed out a on a Phineas doll when the overtime, pick-a-number- tie breaker went against her team in the _____-inator game.
Mudhens Season Ticket Holder Autographs
Posted by on May 20, 2012
BASEBALL
The Mudhens let season ticket holder in an hour before the gates officially opened for autographs. At first I was a little worried about the event. They set up a second gate and allowed people who weren’t in the first line to queue up there. But, when the time came they opened the first gate for 2, or 3 minutes before the second so it was both quick to get in and fair for those who waited a bit longer. The players were a little slow to leave the club house so people who lined up at tables in right field eventually had to give up and move to left field first. There was plenty of time to visit every table though, so it did not prevent people from getting autographs from any player they wanted.
Every player was available except for the starting pitcher, Turner. My children got all 23 players. I had picked up a dozen baseballs at K Mart this morning for each of us to use as they saw fit. I have Oliver’s signature on one ball. Crosby, Ciriaco, Strieby, Bootcheck, Wilk and Weber are on another. Worth, Dlugach, Diaz, Holaday, Ortega, Hoffman, Henry, Frazier, Santos, Eldred, Patterson, Downs, Berry, Young, Waite and Brown are on a third. I gave my Ni signed ball to my daughter who did not get a late-arriving Ni’s signature when she visited his table.
We were able to leave and go eat and re-enter using the bracelets provided for the event.
Brown Warms
As for the game itself, well we were there, so the Mudhens lost. Turner did great through five innings. In the sixth he allowed 5 hits and a walk. This gave the Chiefs a 4-2 lead. The Mudhens would catch them in the bottom of the 6th, but Syracuse kept scoring and won 8-5.
Skelton, who the Tigers traded away after he was selected in the Rule 5 draft had a strange line for his first few plate appearances. He had 3 walks and was hit by a pitch. Young hit a long home run in the 5th to give the Mudhens a 2-0 lead in what at that point appeared to be a pitcher’s duel. Danny Worth had 3 hits in his first 3 at bats.
We also stayed for the fireworks. It is a much shorter show than Detroit as you’d expect. They do have some nice effects though that cover much of the sky above Monroe Street.
With the liberal ticket exchange policy and the special events like pre-sale on the Tigers-Mudhens game and autograph day we cannot complain about the entertainment value the Mudhens provide their season ticket holders. The only thing that would stop our renewal is if we find the drive is too much as the summer goes along. Of course if the team won once every few times we went that would help, too.
Sigh
Posted by on May 17, 2012
BASEBALL
P.J. Somebody pitched a mediocre game allowing 3 runs in 7 innings. That was good enough to allow the Twins to win and sweep the Tigers in Detroit.
Notable things:
- This was better than working from 1 to 4.
- The Tigers’ first three hits were solo home runs.
- The fourth and last run for the Twins scored as a result of a Little League triple that resulted from Fielder missing a Fister throw on a dribbler. Fister looked angry. The last out that inning came back to the pitcher and Fister threw it very hard at Prince’s midsection.
- In the first and second a high hop grounder and liner near the third baseline got by Cabrera. I’m not sure other third basemen make those plays. I’m not sure they don’t either.
Hopefully the Tigers defense improves some, or their scoring improves by a run or two a game. Otherwise this season may turn out to be very disappointing.
LOB vs. Runs
Posted by on May 13, 2012
BASEBALL
Just a quick report. Someone asked whether runs correlated well with LOB. I could see it going either way. It could be that more runners leads to more LOB and more runs both. Or, maybe worse teams strand a lot of their baserunners because no one hits them in. It turns out in 2011 in the AL runs only explained 36% of LOB.
Someone pointed out neglecting CS and DP’s LOB is essentially PA*OBP – RUNS. Since runs and OBP correlate well, however, it is hard to make much of that.
Anyway, here is the 2011 AL.
Runs versus Left On Base
Small Ball- Who Needs It?
Posted by on May 6, 2012
BASEBALL
We went to on-field phot day. I got good pictures of the kids with McClendon, Boesch, Laird, Cabrera, Elmon, Jackson, Dotel, Kelly and Smyly.
The game was an odd one. The Tigers had stranded 12 runners when I quit counting. The only runs in the 3-1 victory came from home runs by Dunn, Jackson (deep into section 148 or 149), Fielder (almost off Kell’s name in the deepest part of the park) and Dirks (insurance in the 8th).
Porcello seemed to have the sinker working and the balls seemed to find the fielders without them having to move far. Dotel, Coke and Benoit pitched pretty well. Valverde pitched well enough, but allowed 2 base runners and was 3-0 with Beckham, who ended up striking out to end the game.
Sunflower Seed the Children Speculated Was from Don Kelly
Haley Likes Her Tigers
Posted by on May 6, 2012
Setting- Left Center Field in Comerica Park near the rope separating fans from players for on-field photo day.
Time: 11:45
Security guy: is there a Haley here.
Me: ANYONE NAMED HALEY?
5 year old near us at rope: (Cheerfully) I’m Haley.
Security Guy: Are you separated from your dad?
Haley: (Cheerfully) Yes.
Me and Mom near me: She’s not with you?
Haley leaves with security.
