Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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On Wednesday, I'll be boarding a Southwest jet for the long trek from Los Angeles to Cleveland for the 38th annual SABR Convention.
My journey out will involve a stop in St. Louis, but no change of planes, so fortunately I won't run into the same problems that Lyle Lanley faced when his plane had a stop in North Haverbrook. The flight back will take the ever popular Cleveland-Nashville-Los Angeles route.
The convention starts on Thursday with some research presentations that I don't want to miss. Tim Wiles, from the Baseball Hall of Fame, will talk about a century of singing "Taking Me Out to the Ball Game." There are also going to be a couple of Cleveland-themed presentations, one on Tris Speaker and another on the Yankees-Indians rivalry of the 1940s and 1950s.
Friday is loaded with presentations ranging from Dr. Alan Nathan's examination of the Pitch/Fx system, a presentation by a 14-year old on the possible effects steroids would have had on Babe Ruth, and Yoichi Nagata's examination of the Tokyo Giants historic tour of North America in 1935. The day is capped off with a trip to Progressive Field for an all Ohio battle between the Indians and Reds. (Daryl Thompson vs. C.C. Sabathia is the scheduled pitching matchup.)
On Saturday, Phil Birnbaum will give his reexamination of the Hamermesh study on racial bias among umpires. Dave Smith of Retrosheet will continue to look at the importance of strike one. Dick Cramer and Pete Palmer will try to clear away some of the Bill James fog and attempt to see if baseball's legendary beast, the clutch hitter, actually exists.
In between all this, there is time for the best part of the convention, which is catching up with old friends and just talking baseball over beers (or in my case, iced tea or Diet Coke, the beers are metaphorical.) It's three days when you can walk around with a Nippon Ham Fighters jersey and not have people laugh at you.
Or at least not as many.
If you're in Cleveland this weekend, come by the Renaissance Hotel and say hi. You'll recognize me because it's a convention and they like us to wear nametags.
Think about how Ham Fighter Nation felt when they were denied admittance to the UN.
Thanks!
It is!
I bet you can get it in Ohio, too
You can't! My mystical internet sources tell me it is not distributed in Ohio.
I think a beer exchange program is in order.
Ahh...at least I'll have someone to hang out with in Cleveland.
See ya there, Bob!
One of these years I'll make it out to a Convention.
I often think I should just crash AA meetings since I don't drink and get me some free coffee.
He kindly refused since he does not drink and second and perhaps more to the point, they don't sell beer at the Rose Bowl for UCLA home games (though you can buy it when attending the Rose Bowl game).
Just like last year's UCLA-Cal game when two completely wasted Cal fans sat behind me and taunted my friend and I.
And it was a 12:30 pm kickoff.
They left in the third quarter in very, very, very bad shape. I felt no sympathy.
Drinking lots of beer in 95 degree heat...Brilliant!
It's $12.95 a day to use the internet in the rooms!
does that include the "adult" sites?
Will it be available online?
Is it because the (inaccurate) name Ham Fighters is just so cool? Was it being the underdog tenant of the Tokyo Dome, to the Yomiuri Giants? Are you a fan of the island of Hokkaido? Inquiring minds want to know.
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