The Dodgers are Going to the World Series!!!

The Dodgers beat the Mets in the 6th game of the National League Championship Series (NLCS), and we're now off to the World Series to face the Yankees!

This is the 12th time that Dodgers and the Yankees (our traditional rivals) are facing each other in the World Series, though it's the first time since 1981.

The Dodgers scored a record number (46) of runs for an NLCS (and the second-highest total for any league championship series), and — I think, if I understood the broadcast correctly — Shohei Ohtani reached base a record number of times for a postseason series.

The NLCS most valuable player (MVP) is Tommy Edman.

Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright Make their Record 325th Start as Battery-Mates

Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals started their record 325th game as battery-mates. They tied the old record last week. Take a look at the Wikipedia page for "battery (baseball)" to see the other top battery-mates.

The new record is going to stand as the record for a very long time, and I'm not sure if it will ever be broken.

Additionally, quoting the ESPN.com article above: "Only six current major league players — Albert Pujols, Nelson Cruz, Miguel Cabrera, Zack Greinke, Rich Hill and Justin Verlander — were active when Wainwright and Molina made their first start together."

Houston Astros Win 2017 World Series

Congratulations to the Houston Astros, an excellent team, a worthy opponent, and World Series champions for the first time in their 56-year franchise history.

As for us, this was our first World Series in 29 years. It was fun to get back (and get all the way to Game 7) after so many years. Hopefully we'll be back next year and try again.

This World Series had a lot of record-breaking. (Cody Bellinger's strike-out record was a particularly annoying one.)

This year was one of those rare years in which the two teams that I believe to be the two best faced off against each other in the World Series.

As a factoid, Brandon Morrow pitched in all 7 games in this World Series, the first pitcher to do that since Darold Knowles in 1973 and the second ever pitcher to do that. Today's Game 7 was the first World Series game 7 that was ever played in Dodger Stadium.

I assume that George Springer will be named the Most Valuable Player of the series.

Update: Yup, George Springer is the series MVP.

Update: And to top it off, Carlos Correa just did a live marriage proposal (it was accepted) while he was being interviewed.

New Technology: Playable Records Made from Oreo Cookies

I know this sounds nuts, but I'm serious! And I from a physics perspective, this seems eminently doable.

I know of a great song that would be perfect to turn this into a Caltech-themed prank...

Given these developments, we clearly need a DJ Cookie Monster to take proper advantage of this new technology.

New Minor League Baseball Stolen Base Record

Billy Hamilton has set a new professional baseball record for most stolen bases in a season. He now has 147 steals this year. The old record was Vince Coleman's 145 steals from 1983, and the Major League record is Rickey Henderson's 130 steals from 1982. Professional baseball players don't steal as many bases as they used to---the game is much more power-oriented than it was in the early 1980s---so this is even more impressive in the context of how the game is currently played.

Mariano Rivera Sets Saves Record: Arrrrrrrr!

Ahoy, Mateys!

Yankee relief pitcher Mariano Rivera, t' best Major League reliever ever, recorded career save number 602, which puts him ahead o' Trevor Hoffman for #1 on t' all-time list. And that doesn't even include his postseason excellence.

And in case you're wonderin' why I be writin' this way, it's because today I be celebratin' one o' t' most important holidays o' t' year.

Avast, ye Scurvy Dogs!

Update (9/20/11): Apparently, the Pirate Party did very well in the Berlin elections on Sunday. Arrrrrr! (Tip of the cap to Karen Daniels.)

Pitching is for the Young

This one completely snuck up on me...

Anyway, as Rob Neyer reports, the Tampa Bay Rays about about to break a seriously impressive record: most consecutive games started by pitchers under the age of 30. The record is currently held by the 1913--1917 Washington Senators.

Wow!

Records

There's a store near where I live that is either new or that I just noticed that sells a bunch of used stuff. Most intriguingly, this includes used records (as in 45 rpm vinyl records and so on), and that can be a bit distracting when I am trying to do lots of work---as I am today---because it's just so damn interesting to look through those albums. Additionally, I'm tempted to buy certain particular records just to frame them and put them on my wall.

Ah, the good old days... And, yes, I am old enough to have tried learning the trick of playing only the specific track one wants to hear from a record album without scratching the record in the process.

VINYL Recommendation

OK, now that is seriously awesome.

I got an item-recommendation e-mail from Amazon recommending that I buy a VINYL version of Depeche Mode's new remix collection. Now that's old school! I wholeheartedly approve! (And there is just something about this that makes me feel very happy.)

I already bought the collection as audio files on the day it came out, but now this makes me imagine, say, a victorian era automated recommendation system. Granted, those 1910 predictions of what the world might be like in 2000 (as discussed in my blog entry from earlier today) are still on my mind.

Thanks, Amazon!

New High Score!

Some demotivational posters really make me laugh. I approve!

Ichiro gets 10th Straight 200-Hit Season

Let me follow up Zifnab's lead by following up a negative post with a positive one (at least if you care about baseball).

Ichiro Suzuki extended his own record last night, recording his 200th hit this season in what has become his 10th consecutive year with at least 200 hits. That extends his own record for most consecutive 200-hit seasons. Ichiro's 10 career 200-hit seasons is the American League record; Ichiro is tied with Pete Rose for the Major League record. Wow!

Some more baseball records are possibly coming up. In particular, I am interested in whether Cliff Lee can break the Major League record for best single-season strikeout/walk ratio.

Ivan Rodriguez becomes all-time leader in games caught

The title of this entry basically says it all: Last night, Ivan Rodriguez became the all-time Major League leader in games caught.

Greg Maddux passes Roger Clemens in wins!

In yesterday's Dodger game, Greg Maddux got his 355th career win, to move him past Roger Clemens on the all-time win list. I don't know if Maddux will play next year---though I certainly hope he does!---and I am extremely pleased that whether or not he does that he has passed Clemens. I simply like Maddux a lot better. Amen.

In other baseball news, there AL Central and NL Wild Card races are still going. Today is the last official day of the baseball season, though there may be short playoffs to decide these races and the White Sox also have a rained-out game to make up.

In still other news, CC Sabathia is tied for the league lead in shutouts in each of the two leagues. That's just bloody awesome! I doubt that's ever happened before, though I haven't checked to make sure.

200 strikeouts in a season!

Yesterday, the Diamondbacks' Mark Reynolds struck out for the 200th time this season, becoming the first Major Leaguer to accomplish this "feat." As you can see here, several players have come close during the last few years and the Phillies' Ryan Howard might be joining Reynolds in a couple of days...

In other baseball news (besides the most important one about the Dodgers' clinching), the Brewers won in dramatic fashion to remain in a tie with the Mets for the NL wild card and the Twins finished a sweep of the White Sox to take over first place in the AL Central. I would definitely prefer for both the Twins and Brewers to make the postseason. I would love to have an Angels-Dodgers World Series (a so-called "Freeway Series"), and for the Dodgers to kick some ass!

K-Rod breaks Bobby Thigpen's single-season save record

Yesterday, the Angels' Francisco Rodriguez ("K-Rod") recorded his 58th save of 2008, breaking Bobby Thigpen's single-season mark. Bobby Thigpen---who has an awesome last name, by the way---was a decent reliever who had a couple of very good seasons, but given how many significantly better closers there have been (including Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, Billy Wagner, and Dennis Eckersley, to name just a few), it's nice that a much better reliever now has this record. (Just thing what it would be like if Juan Pierre held the record for most consecutive games with a hit. It's kind of like that, though not quite as bad.) Obviously a lot of luck is involved---being on a good team really helps for this particular record, for example---and the save statistic is rather problematic anyway.

Given this blog entry, the other thing I wanted to mention is the origin of K-Rod's nickname. Alex Rodriguez had the nickname "A-Rod" going back to before he entered professional baseball and because of him, basically every baseball player with the last name of Rodriguez was dubbed "\alpha-Rod", where \alpha denotes the first letter of their first name. However, K-Rod is the one exception to this rule and the only one of those nicknames that is in any way creative. K-Rod came up late in 2002 during the Angels' Word Series run and blew everybody away with lots of strikeouts (which are denoted "K" in box scores), and that's where the K comes from.

Anyway, with all due respect to Bobby Thigpen, I'm pleased that somebody appropriate now holds this record.

The Amazing Brad Ziegler

I meant to blog about this a while ago, but I have a few minutes now, so let me belated mention the amazing rookie season of Oakland reliever Brad Ziegler.

As I write this, one thing you'll notice among Ziegler's statistics is that he hasn't yet allowed a run (earned or otherwise) in his 35-inning Major League career.

As discussed in his wikipedia entry, Ziegler now holds the Major League record for most scoreless innings at the beginning of a career. The previous record had been set in 1907.

While this hasn't been the most prominent story in baseball this year, in my humble opinion, this is one of the best and most interesting ones.

Omar Vizquel sets record for most Major League games at shortstop

Omar Vizquel passed Luis Aparicio today to set the Major League record for most games at shortstop. You can see Vizquel's career statistics on this webpage.

I remember when I bought a ton of packs of 1989 Upper Deck baseball cards that included cards from the extended set. This particular baseball card set wasn't known for being well-collated, and there were in fact significant, noticeable correlations. In one box of 36 packs (which had about 15 cards each, with something like 2-3 cards from the 100-card extended part of the set), I got over 20 rookie cards of Omar Vizquel. I was really annoyed at the time because there were a lot more interesting cards in the set, and here I was getting a shitload of cards of a defensive whiz who couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat. Vizquel's card right now is either the most valuable card of the set (the extended part; it's not even close to true for the entire set, given that the base set contained rookie cards of Ken Griffey Jr., Craig Biggio, and several other luminaries) or close to it. He's certainly had the best career of any of the players whose rookie cards appeared in the extended set. (The set also included cards of people who changed teams.) I never would have called this one back in the day.

Vizquel will get some Hall of Fame votes, though I don't think he quite deserves it. He has a chance of getting in, so let's see what happens.

In other news, I am again having trouble sleeping. Damned jet lag. I won't get up at 2:30 pm again tomorrow, however, as I have set my alarm so that I can actually make my morning meeting. My body hasn't been in the correct time zone in close to two weeks. Maybe in a few days?

Caltech pitcher sets hitting record

As described in The California Tech, a Caltech pitcher recently set an NCAA hitting record.

How did he do this? Simple... he hit 13 batters in a 6-inning performance. I approve! :)

A baseball record that went under the radar

I've started to look more carefully at the final-season baseball stats to try to figure out who I think should win the various awards and just noticed that Jimmy Rollins had 716 at bats this year, establishing a new Major League record. That was lost amidst what his team was doing and all the more prominent records and milestones being achieved this year.

Also, Jimmy Rollins and Curtis Granderson each stole at least 20 bases and hit at least 20 of doubles, triples, and homeruns. That quartest has only been accomplished a handful of times and it's interesting that two guys did it this year. (Amazingly, the sports media focused almost exclusively on Granderson's attempt to achieve this milestone and Rollins' efforts to do so was almost completely ignored. I'm not sure what was going on there.)

Baseball box score of the day

Only in September do we see baseball box scores like this one, in which the Rockies set a National League record and tied a Major League record by using 10 pitchers in a nine inning game. (Similar things sometimes occur in early spring training games, but one typically also gets a lot of position player substitutions in those.)