Note: My friend Dr. Stan has graciously invited me to expand on my earlier comment on this blog ( A Call for Amnesty, dated August 6, 2013), and I am pleased to do so. Baseball prides itself on being our national pastime, brightening even the darkest days of the Civil War. It is also a team sport …
This posting will use four baseball statistics, batting average (AVG), in-play batting average (IPBA), strike-out average (SOA) and home-run average (HRA). Their definitions are AVG = #H/#AB, IPBA = #H/(#AB−#SO), SOA =#SO/#AB and HRA = #HR/#AB. It turns out that AVG = IPBA*(1−SOA). The two figures below show these four statistics for the years 1901 thru …
The idea of the designated hitter was first suggested as far back as 1906 by Connie Mack. The real impetus came about from the pitching dominance in the late 1960s. In fact, Carl Yastrzemski led the American League in batting with a .301 batting average in 1968 and Denny McLain won 31 games in 1968. …