Hey Gang,

For those of you following the Sports in Perspective blog, I’m moving to the EricksonTribune.com. You can get directly to my blog site by going here. All of our eChronicles blogs are moving under the Tribune.com umbrella, so stop by and see us all!

Talk to you soon!

Gerry Fey

Have you ever heard of Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn? Neither had I until driving to the airport last Saturday. While in the car, we were listing to an NPR reporter talking to author Edward Achorn about his new book Fifty-nine in ‘84, the story of a tough, moody, driven pitcher in the dawning age of baseball in 1884. He played for the Providence Grays, and the more Achorn talked about this guy, the more intrigued I became. Here’s a discription of Radbourn and the book:

In 1884, Providence Grays pitcher Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn won an astounding fifty-nine games-more than anyone in major-league history ever had before, or has since. He then went on to win all three games of baseball’s first World Series.

Fifty-nine in ‘84 tells the dramatic story not only of that amazing feat of grit but also of big-league baseball two decades after the Civil War-a brutal, bloody sport played barehanded, the profession of uneducated, hard-drinking men who thought little of cheating outrageously or maiming an opponent to win.

It is the tale, too, of the woman Radbourn loved, Carrie Stanhope, the alluring proprietress of a boarding-house with shady overtones, a married lady who was said to have personally known every man in the National League.

Now, I consider myself a student of baseball, but this guy Radbourn I’d never heard of before. So I started doing some digging. In 1884, Radbourn pitched 678 2/3 innings, started 73 games and won 59 of them. As Achorn explained on NPR, 678 innings is more than three times as many innings pitched as even the toughest pitchers in today’s game.

Obviously, baseball was a different game back then. In fact, they didn’t even use gloves. Even the catcher only wore something to protect his palms, leaving his fingers exposed, if you can believe that.

Though baseball in 1884 was totally different than it is today, I thought it would be fun to compare some numbers to see just how different it was. Many consider 1968 to be one of the best years for pitching in the history of baseball. Seven pitchers had ERAs below 2.00, including Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA. So how does 1968 compare to 1884?

At first glance, you look at those numbers and think, “Wow! Those boys could pitch in 1884.” Well, not so fast my friend. Those raw numbers are inflated because 1884 pitchers started about twice as many games as pitchers in 1968. When you look at win-loss % and strikeouts per 9 innings pitched, things start to even out a lot more.

What’s the takeaway from all this? Well:

1. While the game has changed dramatically, pitchers in 1884 had to be pretty darn tough to start that many games in a season.
2. Strikeouts are a bigger part of the game today than they were in 1884.
3. Pitchers like the ones back in 1884 could probably have adapted pretty well to present-day baseball.

I’m definitely going to read Fifty-nine in ‘84 by Edward Achorn and come back with a review down the road.

If you want to find out more about the book, check out this video and this website.

By the way, in 1884, Radbourn started 73 games and finished every single one. In comparison, last year, American League Cy Young award winner Zack Greinke started 33 games and finished 6.

I just got back from my fantasy baseball draft, and that always starts to get my juices flowing for the coming season.

The first (and best) fantasy baseball book I ever purchased. Written by the inventors of the game.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with fantasy baseball, it is a game where you act as a virtual owner of your own baseball team. You compile a team made up of actual major league players in a draft.

Then, when the season starts, you take the real-life statistics from the players you picked for your team and compare them to the other “owners” in your league. At the end of the season, the team with the best cumulative stats wins your fantasy league.

Well, this year marks the 30^th anniversary of when fantasy baseball really first began. It’s hard to believe it’s been around as long as it has. It’s grown into a game that 30 million people play across the country. I’ve been in my league since 1997, and it’s always a great time to get back together with friends for the draft every year.

Our league started while I was working in Fort Lauderdale, so every year I fly down for our draft. Yes, it’s nerdy and lame, but hey, I’ve accepted that fact, and I’m fine with it. More than anything, it’s a chance to gather with other lovers of baseball and stats to just talk about the game and have a good time. Other owners said my team is the favorite to win this year-the kiss of death, which clearly means my partner and I will finish at the bottom of the standings.

If you want to read about the beginnings of fantasy baseball, check out this article and this one.

And if you’ve ever wondered if the 2009 Yankees could have beaten the 1927 Yankees, you can go to whatifsports.com and find out. This baseball simulator will run the matchup through its simulation program to determine who would win the game. Then it provides a box score and play-by-play for the game. It’s pretty cool stuff with a lot of detail. And in case you were wondering, the 1927 Yankees swept the 2009 version 4-0 in a seven-game series.

The other thing you can try on this site is called SimLeague Baseball. What this involves is being the ultimate owner, where you can draft any player from 1885 to now, from any season. So, let’s say you wanted Babe Ruth’s 1927 season. That would cost you a certain amount of money against your fantasy salary cap, and you would build your team from there.

After drafting your team, you can start a season and play against other pretend owners with their ultimate fantasy teams. The downside on this website is you need to become a member. So go here, click on Free Trial on the right side, and then sign up. You can try this free for ten games of simulation, meaning you can draft your team and see how they do in ten games. Each game comes with its own box score and play-by-play. If you like it enough to play more, you can pay $12.95 for 50+ days of playing.

So have some fun picking the ultimate baseball team, and let me know the players you drafted and your ten-game results! Did you take Bob Gibson’s 1968 season when he had 22 wins and a miniscule 1.12 ERA, or did you grab Roger Clemens’ 1997 season when he led the league in wins, ERA, complete games and shutouts?

A tough call, but I’ve got to go with Gibson. Let the arguments begin!

Patchy bead work? Beaded patchwork? I can’t really explain what this next project is, nor can I foresee how it will turn out! After being inspired by the last two artists I blogged about, I felt the urge to work with seed beads and make patterns on cross-stitch fabric like patchwork. I’m really having fun with this. It makes me feel like I’m being productive while sitting on the couch and relaxing at the same time. Is there such thing as productive relaxation? The best part about this is it’s such a low budget project. Five dollars can go a long way when it comes to buying seed beads. At craft stores you can choose plastic or glass beads depending on how much you want to spend. I lucked out when I went to Beadazzled in Baltimore. All of the Czech seed beads were 25% off. I think mixing nice beads with some of the cheaper ones isn’t such a bad thing. It’s kind of like wearing a shirt from Old Navy and carrying a Coach purse!

Spring Training is in full swing, thank goodness, and baseball’s regular season is just around the corner. No offense to you big NFL fans out there, but this is truly the best time of year.

Could this be the matchup in this year's Fall Classic? Nah!

We’ve come out of the cold, and the green grass and warm air is beckoning us to the ballpark. And the best part about Spring Training is that fans of every team (well almost every team) can think that this is the year they can win the World Series.

Looking at the latest Spring Training standings, the Giants and Indians have the best records in the National and American leagues respectively. But what exactly does it mean to finish the spring with the best record? Everyone knows that these records don’t count, and most teams are concentrating more on practicing and evaluating younger players than they are winning. You also have pitchers trying out a new pitch and hitters experimenting with their swings.

So Spring Training records are pretty meaningless, right? Maybe not. Here is a chart looking at spring records for World Series teams, as well as the worst regular season teams every year going back to 2004:

*Angels tied with Giants

What do we find? Well, the Giants and Indians are not destined to face each other in the World Series, which everyone pretty much knows.

The more interesting thing, though, is not the World Series participants every year. When you look at the teams who finished the regular season as the worst team in the league, none of them finished with a record above .500 during the previous spring. The other interesting thing is when you look at the teams that finished with the best spring records. Out of those six teams, four won their divisions that year and the lowest finish was third place.

So what does this mean? Well, if you’re a fan of the Nationals (5-14-0), you better hope they go on a tear the rest of the spring or it could be another long season. On the other hand, Giants fans should feel good that they can battle for the NL West title. And Indians fans, this could be hope that the season may not be as bad as some experts predict.

Good luck to everyone who believes that this could be the year for their team!