=== That '70's Show, Dept. ===
Almost the first thing Bill James ever did, was to underline road splits for players and teams. He wanted to look past illusions and see the reality of underlying ability, and he did this by lining up road performances for his readers. We remember his doing this with Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams ... one slugged .610 on the road for his career, and the other .615. Bill wrote, "Joe was a great player. But it is fair to say that, in most other times and most other places, he would have been an even greater player.
I got your road splits right here, b'wana. In 1981, Bill James would have loved to have published this road split:
| ROAD BATTING |
Seattle 2012 |
Texas 2012
|
| HR's |
51 |
43 |
| Games |
43 |
38
|
| HR per 162 road games |
202 |
183
|
| AVG |
.259 |
.279 |
| OBP |
.310 |
.342 |
| SLG |
.420 |
.437 |
| Runs |
211 |
191 |
Bill would have certainly have concluded that the 2012 Mariners and 2012 Rangers had roughly equal ability offensively. He would have published a lead article about Safeco Field, and he would have chastised anybody who failed to see past the Mariners' context and failed to realize that the Mariners were a quality hitting team in 2012.
.
=== Are We Having Fun Yet?, Dept. ===
Dr. D might not have ever actually worked in a coal mine, but he did once see Coal Miner's Daughter on TV. And he slept at a Holiday Inn Express last week, so permit him to educate you in coal labor.
A short time back, say, a hundred years ago, Loretta Lynn's daddy would swaller coal dust by the bucketload but he knew he wouldn't die of asphyxiation. They would compassionately bring a caged canary down with them into the mine. The canary was more sensitive to toxic gas, such as carbon monoxide. When the canary fell off its perch, well, there you go. The toxin levels were rising and it was time to get out of the mine.
................
John Jaso made a remark today that had, for Dr. D, a rather canarylike feel to it. Geoff Baker asked John Jaso about the dreary games at Safeco Field:
Mariners catcher John Jaso had some interesting insights. Jaso had his team's only scoring on the day with a solo home run off Parker in the second inning.
I asked Jaso why the Mariners turn into a different offensive team at home than on the road. He politely told me I should check out what the A's did offensively -- the point being that teams don't exactly light it up at Safeco Field.
"It's hard because no team that plays here really has the production that they would somewhere else,'' Jaso said. "You look at Texas and how many runs are put up on both sides when we go play at Texas.
"I mean, they are different places. But this still is a great place to play,'' he added. "And the challenge is doing the best with it, knowing things like, if you hit that fly ball, it's not going to go out.
"So, you concentrate on hitting low line drives, hitting grounders and that's what will beat the other teams that are coming in thinking the fly balls are going to go out. So, it's kind of a mental swing, kind of a different approach.''
The Mariners have been saying things like this all year. And they've been doing things like this, like throwing their helmets on the field after they get a fly ball caught. We knew that they were frustrated with Safeco.
This is the first time, that I've noticed, that they've said that they've GIVEN UP ON their normal hitting games, what little games those might be, when they're home at Safeco.
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=== Excuses, Caveats, and Quid Pro Quo's Dept. ===
Somebody else says, Bah humbug. Don't give me any excuses. Don't worry about the horse, just get the hay in the wagon (John Madden).
