Nerds on Sports

The Boston Red Sox are on a historic tear, 12 10 games ahead of the Yankees.  The fans have been behind the team with record support.  The bullpen’s contributing, the new call-up players are fan favorites.  And we’re 12 10 games ahead of the Yankees.  How sweet it is, right?

As of July 10th, 2007, the Boston Red Sox are 53-34, having gone 5-5 on their last ten.

As of last year’s All-Star Break (July 11th, 2006), the Boston Red Sox were 51-32, having gone 6-4 on their last ten.  They ended the season 11 games behind the Yankees, in a slump that most fans were ashamed to be seen watching.

The moral, as always: it ain’t over ’til it’s over.

When I did debate in high school, we’d play Hearts in the long idle hours between rounds.  Our debate coach Mr. Durkin taught us the game and he was never too big of a man not to whup our asses at the game soundly.  The trick to pro-level Hearts play is to count the cards (not hard with just one deck) and know what tricks are still out there.  He made it look easy.

In games where it wasn’t even close, Mr. Durkin would lay down his last five or six cards and just play them blind.  Flipping them over lazily one at a time, sending freshmen back to his room to grab beer out of the sink (”and I counted how many are in there”).  One or two of us would try the same stunt when we felt cocky, almost always blushing and fumbling the cards back up once we realized we’d counted wrong.

“You never play your cards blind,” Mr. Durkin reminded us, “unless you know how the game’s going to turn out.”

Let me remind Red Sox Nation, high on the thrill of an early lead, the same thing I remind them every time they end the summer down: they don’t play the World Series in August. Don’t start folding your hands behind your head just yet.  Don’t start buying that Jordan’s furniture.  Don’t throw your cards down and play them blind.

The season’s young.  Anything could happen.

Not to be outdone by Peiseresque’s Epic of Gil (ga) Meche, I have started my own crazy epic poem: The Youkisy. This is both a response to Peiseresque and a submission of sorts to Red Sox Chick’s contest.

Homer’s Youkisey

[1]Tell me, O Selig, of the man of many devices, who wandered full many ways after he had sacked the sacred citadel of Lowell. Many were the men whose cities he saw and whose mind he learned, aye, and many the woes he suffered in his heart upon the majors, seeking to win his own life and the New York-Penn League Crown of his comrades. Yet even so he saved not his comrades, though he desired it sore, for through their own blind folly they perished–fools, who devoured the kine of New York Yankees; but he took from them a many of skills. Of these things, god, daughter of Marie Huber Selig, beginning where thou wilt, tell thou even unto us. Read more »

A month ago today, fellow blog conspirator Willis invited me to the Mother’s Day game at Fenway Park. I gladly accepted; in addition to the opportunity to watching the Sox play, I would get to watch players use pink bats and start rumors that those who used the regular bats were in favor of spreading cancer.

Read more »

(This comes from a friend of Nerds on Sports who enjoys the Red Sox and Minor League. I thought I would share his views with all of you.)

I love minor league baseball. The MLB draft is an afterthought in the sports world. There are way too many washouts; the truth is most guys do not even make AA. Even the best of prospects usually need 1.5 seasons to make the big leagues… Craig Hansen anyone?

I, on the other hand, love the draft!! I want to know which college seniors the sox will take in order to field a team in Lowell. Which Bonus Babies the sox take a flier on in the mid rounds etc.

What follows is what the Red Sox did in 2007 plus some comments from my very novice scouting eye. I will spotlight the first 10 rounds plus those picks I found interesting in the later rounds. I also tried to include a likelihood of signing… it is just guesswork from what I have read, and the limited video I have watched. Read more »

Holy Crap!

Kevin Youkilis has a blog now!

Personally, I’m still waiting for the Manny Ramirez blog.

Don Orsillo can’t contain his laughter.

Manny pets Tavarez
Uploaded by bjs1234

EDIT: No Longer YouTube because MLB thinks they’re losing money… When I clearly sees TwinsBaseball.com and other ads showing. Also, I’m sad I missed this when it happened, and maybe I’ll watch tonights game hoping for more Don & Remy hyjinks. (Remember the pizza?). Update 5/22: Had to switch video sources again. The MLB Crackdown Team has extended their reach. I promise to use MLB.com or NESN.com hosted embedded video as soon as they have this clip available.

Update: I learned from Sox & Dawgs that Gordon Edes from the Boston Globe reported on why Manny was petting Julian. According to Edes, Julian was upset with Manny for not paying attention to the game. From what Julian said, when Julian is mad at Manny, Manny pets him to calm him down.

The Red Sox cable network (NESN) is making a new show (no, not a Cold Pizza spinoff — Warm Beer) called Sox Appeal. It is a reality show slightly based on the core demographic of your channel… it worked for MTV. (Does MTV show any music? I haven’t watched MTV since 2000.) It’s a televised version of speed dating. From the website:

Each episode a single fan (man or woman) is sent on three blind dates over the course of one Red Sox game. Everybody involved better bring their “A” game because each date only lasts two innings. During the seventh inning stretch, our single fan chooses the date he/she wants to continue dating. (And maybe, just MAYBE, they get to experience something at Fenway that most fans would kill for.)

Will our hero win and his choice join him for the rest of the game? Or will he suffer the agony of defeat. Alone. In his single seat.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that I would be willing to kill to date someone a second time, but I guess there are some rabid redsox fans. Also, why in the first paragraph did they say “he/she” but in the second paragraph go with his, him, and he? Read more »

Short one today, but I want some feedback: why doesn’t Boston build a new ballpark for the Red Sox?

First, some economics: let’s say an average Red Sox seat retails for $50¹. In practice, most of those tickets are scooped up by scalpers, who resell them for $100 and up. If I’m Theo Epstein, then every penny between the original $50 price and the final $100 price is a penny that I could have captured. This steams my britches.

Should I raise ticket prices across the board? Not necessarily. Baseball tickets are a luxury good, so they tend to have a higher demand elasticity. This means that people are more sensitive to changes in price than with other goods. Cigarettes and gasoline have very inelastic demand, by way of contrast: you can raise the price by 10 or 25 or 50 cents and people won’t buy less of it². But no one needs loge seats. And a ticket that might have looked perfect at $40 might suddenly seem too expensive at $50. Yes, it’s only another $10, but people are weird.

Further, the Red Sox have been raising ticket prices pretty regularly for years and the problem remains. Scalpers buy up as many tickets as possible, resell them for half again as much, and pocket the difference. It seems pretty clear that the issue with the Red Sox is fundamental: demand outstrips supply.

Fenway Park is the oldest baseball stadium still in operation. It seats 38,805 and is pretty rickety. While other stadiums have fewer available seats (PNC Park in Pittsburgh, for instance), there’s no franchise in baseball with greater demand and fewer seats. Given their tremendous history - to say nothing of their 2004 championship - the Sox can bet on drawing capacity crowds every time.

I would wager that the Red Sox can draw in more fans a season than the struggling Orioles³ (48,800 in Camden Yards) and at least as many as their rivals, the Yankees (56,500 in Yankee Stadium). By this logic, Fenway Park is at least 10,000 seats too small.

So what should happen? Should the Red Sox build a new baseball stadium, raise prices to a level where scalpers won’t be able to make a profitable resale, and start counting their future revenue?

Well, maybe not.
Read more »