The New Ballgame

The New Ballgame: Understanding Baseball Statistics for the Casual Fan, by Glenn Guzzo (ACTA Sports).

A brief review of a brief book.

Guzzo does a nice job explaining the key stats to newcomers to the game who want to enhance their experience by adding that numerical component, rather than “just watching.”

He also offers an explanation of fantasy baseball, for those who just don’t get what all the fuss is about (present company included). But by adding an histroical perspective — that simulation games have been around for decades, including the popular Strat-O-Matic — Guzzo makes the phenomenon a bit more reasonable. So, were newer statistics such as Runs Created, WIn Shares, and VORP (Value Over Replacement Level) created for fantasy baseball, or vice versa? Either way, it’s another way of looking at the game, so what could be bad?

The author has a nice sense of humor, expecially when he chides broadcasters for using ridiculous factoids ad nauseum during the course of the game. To wit, and quoted at length:

The New York Yankes joined the 1992 Toronto Blue Jays and 2003 Seattle Mariners as the only team since 1976 to win heir first eight day games. Seatle started 17-10 in the daylight that year….

Wow. Drop everything to make it to the stadium today or risk missing the extension — or tragic end — to that streak of daytime wins. Talk about drama…. I mean, if the Yankees can win just nine more consecutive games (emphasis original) …they’ll be just the second team since way back in 2003 to win at last 17 day games in a row. [Writer’s Note: Guzzo mentions that there are many more night games than day games, which somewhat reduces the impressiveness of the feat.]

That sort of statistical noise isn’t even worthy of the term trivia.

The publisher, ACTA Sports, also produces The Hard Times Baseball Annual, The Fielding Bible, and Strat-O-Matic Fanatics: The Unlikely SUccess ofa Game That Became and American Passion, also written by Guzzo.