SEAT LICENSE RENEWALS It's almost spring
when a young man's thoughts turn to... those expensive
seat licenses. An online cash advance can help relieve the anxiety.
Behind the subscription wall, our partners at ESPN Insider have launched a new blog called TMI (The Max Info). Baseball Prospectus is contributing to it, as are writers from Fangraphs, Tom Tango from the Inside the Book blog, and folks from within ESPN's Stats and Info department, a couple of whom I had the pleasure of meeting when I went to Bristol for a big baseball summit a few weeks back. It's an all-out slide rule war. Well, not really, since I don't think you're going to see the future of sabermetrics settled over 250-500 word posts delivered by otherwise competing entities.
Today I made my debut with a short bit on the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw. Back in June, the 21-year-old southpaw introduced a slider into his arsenal. His numbers from that point onward are eye-popping, and can stand with both league's elite hurlers, albeit with the caveat that his age limited his workload:
Player GS IP ERA K/9 BB/9 HR/9 Clayton Kershaw 20 115.0 2.03 10.2 4.6 0.2 Felix Hernandez 23 167.1 2.10 7.8 2.7 0.5 Tim Lincecum 22 160.0 2.25 10.0 2.8 0.5 Adam Wainwright 23 161.0 2.29 8.6 2.1 0.6 Jon Lester 21 138.0 2.35 9.9 2.6 0.6 Chris Carpenter 23 163.2 2.53 6.4 1.8 0.4 Javier Vazquez 21 149.0 2.54 9.2 1.7 0.9 Jair Jurrjens 23 149.0 2.60 6.8 3.1 0.7 Zack Greinke 22 147.1 2.75 9.4 2.4 0.7 Roy Halladay 21 157.0 2.87 8.0 1.4 0.9
Seven of the players on that list received Cy Young votes. Kershaw did not, but if he keeps pitching like that, he will soon.
The Baseball Prospectus 2010 book promotional tour starts in earnest this weekend. On Sunday, February 28, I'll join Cliff Corcoran, Steven Goldman, Kevin Goldstein and Christina Kahrl for a panel discussion at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center at Montclair State University in New Jersey (if you need directions just know that when you come to a fork in the road, take it). First pitch is at 3 PM. You really don't care whether the US wins the gold medal in hockey, anyway, right?
On Monday, March 1, the law firm of Goldman, Goldstein, Kahrl and Jaffe will be at the Barnes & Noble at 18th Street and 5th Avenue in Manhattan starting at 6 PM. We'll answer questions and sign anything except veal cutlets, because as Casey Stengel liked to say, his ballpoint pen slips on veal cutlets. Me, I'll be packing a Sharpie in an attempt to surmount such obstacles.
Also, on March 9 Steve, Kevin and I will be appearing at Washington, DC's legendary Politics and Prose bookstore. More details on that one as the date near; see BP's events page for further details.
• • •
Saturday's radio hits:
• Another Wisconsin hit, this one on WFAW 940 AM at 8:30 AM Central, streaming here.
• Out in Dodger country, I'll be appearing on KCAA 1050 AM at 8:40 AM Pacific, streaming here.
More to come on Monday. I'm also booked for another appearance on the Fox Strategy Room streaming webcast at 1 PM Eastern that day. I'll be working overtime to get my mustache in shape for all of this action.
• Already in the can is a taped interview with Manchester, New Hampshire's WGIR 610 AM, which will air tomorrow morning, time TBD.
• At 4:35 Eastern, I'll be doing my usual weekly spot with Toledo, Ohio's WLQR 106.5 FM, a local ESPN affiliate. It's always great to talk baseball with host Norm Wamer. Streaming here.
• At 5:15 Eastern, I'll be on Madison, Wisconsin's WTSO 1070 AM, the local ESPN affiliate, streaming here. Rescheduled to run at a similar timeslot on Friday.
• At 5:30 Eastern, I'll be on Green Bay/Appleton, Wisconsin's WSCO 1570 AM, streaming here.
• At 6:20 Eastern, I'll be on El Paso, Texas' KROD 600 AM, streaming here. I've been on the air with host Steve Kaplowitz several times in the past, and I'm pleased to announce that this is going to be a recurring spot for me during this baseball season.
I'll have Milwaukee and Seattle hits for tomorrow...
• First up is Salisbury, Maryland's WOCM-FM at 7:45 AM. Streaming here.
• Next is Philadelphia's WIP 610 AM at 8:05 AM streaming at here.
• At 8:45 AM, I'll taping an interview for "Inside Pitch" on the Cincinnati Reds Radio Network. It will air as part of a future pregame show next weeekend.
• At 9:15 AM, I'll be taping an interview for Albany, NY's "Don Weeks and the WGY Morning News" on WGY 810 AM. This one will air on Thursday or Friday via here.
• At 12:05 PM, I'll be on Sirius/XM's "The B-Team" show with Bruce Murray and Bill Pidto, which runs on, uh, the Mad Dog Radio Channel, 123.
• At 4:10 PM, I'll be on Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida's WQYK 1010 AM, streaming here.
Wednesday's lineup has me doing Manchester, New Hampshire, and Madison and Green Bay, Wisconsin. More info as it emerges.
Both quilts feature autographs of players which Rothmeier then embroidered. The "Stars" quilt has over 300 of them, along with 44 fabric "portraits." Numerous players represented on that one are in the Hall of Fame.
Both quilts were bought by Phyllis LaPlant, Rothmeier's niece who was responsible for arranging and promoting the auction. "The more I promoted it, the more I fell in love to it," said LaPlant, who plans to ask the National Baseball Hall of Fame to display the quilts again. All of the quilts sold, mostly to family members, with the average cost of the other ones around $1,200. The proceeds will be distributed among some surviving family members as well.
• First up is Providence, Rhode Island's WBSM 1420 AM at 8:25 AM. Streaming here.
• Next is Tri-Cities, Tennessee's WJCW 910 AM at 8:45 AM. Streaming here.
• Baltimore, Maryland's WVIE 1370 AM at 12:35 PM. Streaming here.
• Cleveland, Ohio's WKNR 1540 AM at 1:00 PM to be rescheduled. Streaming here.
More to come for Tuesday and Wednesday, with Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Albany, Tampa, and the Sirius XM satellite network lined up for tomorrow. Colleagues Steven Goldman, Kevin Goldstein and Christina Kahrl are joining in the fun as well; hopefully we'll have a post up soon at BP Unfiltered to guide our listeners around the country.
One of the most prominent pieces of the exhibit is a 7' x7' quilt called "My Favorite Baseball Stars," created by Clara Schmitt Rothmeier, the daughter of a minor league ballplayer. (This photo of the quilt and the other photos I link to for this article were generously provided by Susan Flamm of the AFAM for the purposes of this review). Over a ten-year period from the mid-Fifties to the mid-Sixties, Rothmeier drew pictures of her favorite players, traced them onto fabric, appliquéd and embroidered each one, then sent them to the players for their autographs. Once a panel was returned, she would add it to her quilt, embroidering the signature as well. Midway into the project, she added a border of cloth baseballs, each featuring another signature that she'd collected. The finished quilt contains forty-four panels and about three hundred autographed balls. There are some heavy hitters among those portrayed: Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Casey Stengel, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Robin Roberts, Al Kaline, and a sleeveless Ted Kluszewski. Among the signed and embroidered balls are even more legends: Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Jimmie Foxx, Frankie Frisch, Dizzy Dean, Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, "Cool Papa" Bell, Bob Gibson, and Sandy Koufax. Yeah, some of those guys could play ball.
Here's Rothmeier's bio on the auction site, along with links to a few of the other quilts which are up for auction:
Born in 1931, hailing from Japan, Missouri, Clara Schmitt Rothmeier was certainly no stranger to the diamond.
Clara was an accomplished baseball player as well as a quiltmaker. Her father played minor league ball in the Pittsburgh organization, and her five brothers and four sisters had all played on traveling baseball and softball teams. Clara herself played first base for a traveling softball team from Springfield, Illinois. While on the road, she started sewing to keep busy. Her "My Favorite Baseball Stars" quilt took more than 10 years to complete, has 340 actual autographs, and was exhibited in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in 1959-1960.
She has also made quilts commemorating the 1951 and 1956 St. Louis Cardinals (her favorite club) [here and here], the major league teams of 1948, and Jackie Robinson's 1955 World Champion Dodgers [here], and the "Major League Baseball Stars" quilt [here] containing 537 actual autographs.
Also via the auction site, here's a bit about her most famous quilt's trip to Cooperstown:
This quilt graced the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY from 1959-1960. Clara took the quilt to the offices of J. Taylor Spink, editor of the Sporting News in St. Louis to see if she could have a picture of the completed quilt put in the paper so that those who had contributed their names would be able to see the finished quilt.
The picture of the quilt, and Rothmeier and Spink, ran in the Sporting News in March of 1959. Sid Keener, director of the Hall of Fame, saw the picture and made arrangements with Rothmeier to have the quilt displayed in Cooperstown, where it was on public view for almost one year.
The president of the Hall of Fame invited her to go to Cooperstown to see it on display, and arranged for her to see the Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs play at Doubleday Field. "After the game there was a tea party where I met the entire Cubs team including Ron Santo," Clara adds, unable to restrain her obvious love for the game. "Nobody could throw it like him!"
In addition to meeting the Cubs, Clara was able to meet many other baseball greats because of her exposure at the Hall of Fame. One such player was former Yankee great Joe DiMaggio. "I loved Joe DiMaggio the moment I met him," said Clara. "He got a lot of autographs for me, and interviewed me on his Fan in the Stands show. When he asked me if I'd do it, I was really unsure about it, and told him I wouldn't know what to say. He said, 'That's okay, nobody listens to me anyway.' Talking with him you felt like you'd known him all your life."
Also up for auction besides the quilts are autographed pictures, autographed baseballs and other memorabilia, and 10,000 baseball cards. I imagine this stuff will fetch a pretty penny — according to one of Rothmeier's nephews, the main attraction has been valued at "anywhere from $10,000 to six figures" — and am hopeful some high roller will step in and purchase the quilts, then loan or donate them to the Hall of Fame for exhibition so that they can be shared with the widest audience possible. This stuff is simply too cool and too unique to not to be shared.
