There's a rigid familiarity to the presentation of baseball statistics, even among the inspired giants of the free online genre, like Sean Forman and David Appelman. As great (and as useful) as their creations are, it's a welcome pleasure to find a stats site pulsing with quirky content and an intense visual style. Craig Robinson's Flip Flop Fly Ball is such a place.
I came across it a year or so ago and only just returned to enjoy his marvelous "infographics", several of which may hold particular interest to Diamondbacks fans.
For example, here's Robinson's calendar representation of professional baseball in Arizona. It illustrates better than I ever did what an embarrassment of riches Arizona baseball fans already enjoy throughout the year - even though Robinson excludes ASU's extensive schedule.
Then there's his team-by-team take on 2009 Ticket Prices. A different way of looking at data that Derrick Hall and MLB incessantly want us to look at their way. Is this a definitive analysis? Hardly, but see if you can look at Robinson's chart and keep yourself from grinding your teeth a little, thinking about Hall's peppy "lowest prices in baseball" campaign.
Finally, here's a cute little story, just regular ol' prose this time, he wrote regarding one of Randy Johnson's many victims.
There's lots more, about baseball and other stuff.
Enjoy.
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4 comments:
That's a great site. Didn't know there were so many European players in the early days of baseball (and I find the graphic of Major League Fields disturbingly erotic).
Russell,
You are disturbed. There's no womb in the world for people like you.
I figured Euro-born players basically mirrored national immigration patterns and assumed many of the late 19th century and early 20th stars were Euro born. But after researching on b-ref, that's not the case. Very few of the early stars were born in Europe, which surprised me.
Far more common were "immigrant" ballplayers whose parents emigrated from Europe and had their superstar children born here. Which makes sense, since young kids in Europe wouldnt be playing baseball and therefore falling behind the competitive curve.
Perhaps the most reknowned Euro born major leaguers:
Bert Blyleven - Netherlands
Bobby Thomson - Scotland
Harry Wright - England
Jack Quinn -Austria/Hungary
Of course my soccer team Derby County were
champions in early UK baseball
and reading through that I was surprised that the game was so popular in the 1930's in the UK.
Thanks, I had no inkling of organized UK baseball, which survives to this day - or the "British Baseball" variation - which sounds more like a diamond shaped cricket.
Fascinating stuff.
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