TBT: Anomaly

Photo Attribution: Schyler-Wiki England

Today in 1908,  the Dodgers & Pirates played to a 8-8 tie.

Both had 38 at bats, 13 hits, 12 assists, 2 errors, 5 strikeouts, 3 walks, 1 pass ball & 1 hit by pitch.

Weird.

Though I'm not so certain such a thing is exceptional.

Like . . . if playing a game where each team had identical statistics was something to be coveted, like a perfect score on Donkey Kong or whatever, I can see this as pretty cool.

I don't wanna do the math, but I'm sure it's like flipping a coin and having it land on heads a thousand times in a row.

Which would be cool for like thirty seconds and then you'd move on to other things.

I also didn't know that baseball games ended in ties.

I had some foolish impression that they just kept on going and going and going until some one was declared a winner . . . like I sort of remember reading a record book that had the longest baseball game in history . . . thinking "wow . . . that's a lot of baseball."

Baseball games don't end in ties very often. Usually, if the game needs to be stopped for whatever reason . . . it will be continued at a later date.

That's a bit from Bull Durham "Sometimes you win . . . sometimes you lose . . . sometimes . . . it rains."

Good movie.

Back when the Dodgers played their statistically identical game against the Pirates in 1908, they probably called the game because it got dark.

Not a lot of night games back then.

They didn't have lights.

And when they brought in the lights, there was a lot of complaint, but I bet secretly the players were a bit relieved. It gets hot in the afternoon. Like real hot.

They did have hot dogs thankfully. No one has been able to nail down the exact date for the invention of the hot-dog, but it's very likely that spectators at the Dodgers Pirates game were noshing them down.

And now I'm hungry.

Anyway, the reason this particular anomaly caught my eye is because earlier this week I was listening to some sports radio (yeah . . . pretty sure it's just a guy thing) and seeing as how there is no basketball going on, nobody wants to listen to soccer, and there's only so much wind one can spend on Tom Brady's ball deflating suspension . . . most of the talk was about baseball.

The baseball talk was interesting to me . . . partly because I actually kinda like knowing what's going on in places where I am not . . . and the fact that I had no idea what they were talking about.

They were discussing an anomaly where all the home teams in a particular division won their games on the same day.

A thing which hasn't happened since . . . jeez . . . who knows.

And even the two sports casters were arguing over whether or not it had any significance.

One was like "It's just a thing that happened . . . it's not like a no hitter!"

The other was like "Yeah . . . but it's still kinda cool."

I found myself agreeing with both of them and wishing for the conversation to continue, but they had to switch over to basketball and talk about the upcoming schedule for the Sacramento Kings.

This year will be the last year the Kings play at the Sleep Train Arena, which used to be the Arco Arena, which used to be something else before that.

Does it seem weird that a mattress company outbid an oil company for arena naming rights?

Is the profit margin of mattresses really as high as oil money?

And if it is . . . I'm in the wrong business . . . and the last time you bought a mattress . . . you got jacked.

Those things are expensive, but I thought they were expensive because they were . . . you know . . . expensive.

Maybe I should go work for Sleep Train. Maybe it will be my ticket to a better night's sleep.

Anyway . . . I don't have much of a connection to baseball. I played one year of it. My son played one year of it. I accidentally bumped into Mark Maguire at a restaurant in Walnut Creek, which was a lot like accidentally bumping into a school bus.

Dude was big.

All I'm saying.

I love to go to the ballpark and watch games. I prefer night games, because, the sun is hot.

But I've never really followed the game, which seems odd to me because I love the kind of statistical anomalies that pop up from time to time. I love hearing about them . . . and I especially love listening to people talk about them and that moment when they try to remember when the last time such a thing happened.

Like someone will point out the this one team stole five bases in a single inning and the other guy will point out that that hasn't happened since the play-offs in 1989.

1989 was the year where the Oakland A's played the San Francisco Giants in the World Series.

It was called the Battle of the Bay.

One of the games was cancelled because the Loma Prieta Earthquake had cracked sections of the concrete in the Colosseum.

Which . . . as far as the first page of Google is concerned . . . is the last time a game was cancelled because of an earthquake.

There is a minor team in Rancho Cucamonga called the Quakes, but I doubt any games have been canceled due to them just showing up.

The initial point I was trying to make was that anomalies for the most part are meaningless. They are scientific outliers that people of real learning sort of detest, because the information can't be used in any meaningful way.

Unless you're a sports casters.

My other point was that they may be meaningless, but they're certainly fun, and can lead to other things.

Hot dogs, mattresses, and earthquakes, just to name a few.

And now I'm hungry again.