That’s One! (Can Anyone Else Smell a 34 game winning streak?)
by John J. Madonna
For those not aware, the Detroit Tigers have been the center of attention in the baseball world since last December when a series of huge trades left the Tigers stacked in offence. Of course, that focus shifted recently to the fact that they became the team that couldn’t (literally) buy a win, having gone 0-7. But yesterday they won! And decisively, too. Tonight, as we all prepare for Detroit’s Nate Robertson vs. Boston’s Tim “Knuckles” Wakefield, curl up with your favorite baseball book, whether it be about the game’s history, a work of fiction, satire, or hardcore analysis of the game.
I’m looking forward to reading the greatest poem ever written, the 1888 classic “Casey At The Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung In The Year 1888,” if for no other reason because it shows how one hundred and twenty years later, the game remains remarkably unchanged. I also think I’ll reread my favourite chapters of Baseball Between The Numbers: Why Everything You Know About The Game Is Wrong by the stat geeks at Baseball Prospectus. It has a wonderful chapter which actually uses Nate Robertson (and Jeremy Bonderman) as an example why a pitcher’s Win-Loss record largely has no bearing on his pitching ability (I seem to remember last year, Nate Robertson left a game winning against D-Rays 4-0 after 6 2/3, only to have Jason Grilli surrender a grand slam in relief. That’s called Nate’s entire career.)
Blog Post