Rookies of the Year

Four Rookies of the Year Who Ended Up Being Really Lousy

Tonight, Major League Baseball’s needlessly protracted awards season enters its final stretch with the announcement of each league’s Rookie of the Year. While the award has been won by future greats like Jackie Robinson, Cal Ripken Jr, and Derek Jeter,  its conferral is not always a sign of things to come. Just ask Bobby Crosby. But since this is baseball, a game

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Five Lesser-Known Mascot Races

We all know about the Washington Nationals’ tradition of racing presidents, the racing sausages at Milwaukee Brewers home games, and Pittsburgh’s racing pierogis. But a few other stadiums across the majors actually have similar traditions that are a bit more obscure. San Francisco Giants – Jotunrace The San Francisco Giants prove every game that Norse

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Baseball Is Weird, Part I: Lineup Calligraphy

Baseball is a great sport, but let’s be honest: so many of its traditions, unwritten rules, and idiosyncrasies are bizarre. In this series, which will run for somewhere between one and 3,000 parts, we will take quick looks at some of the sport’s most intriguing quirks. Look at the lineup card above. What happened there?

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The Definitive World Series Drinking Game

The World Series is here! We don’t recommend mixing it with alcohol, because it’s going to be a classic, and you’ll want to talk about it with your kids, and your kids’ kids, and random kids you meet on the street who have no blood relation to you. If, however, you insist on making adult

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MLB Playoffs Results Represent Scientific Breakthrough

The sabermetrics community, and the analytics community at large, rejoiced yesterday evening when the San Francisco Giants clinched the National League pennant and booked a date with the Kansas City Royals in the World Series. “We suspected it with Kansas City, and now the Giants have confirmed it: Wild Card teams are statistically more likely

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Keeping It Royal with Kansas City

I’ve never been within 200 miles of the state of Missouri, but that didn’t stop me from taking an interest in the Kansas City Royals’ playoff hopes throughout the summer. I didn’t exactly jump on the bandwagon, but I followed close behind it. A team poised to end a 29-year playoff drought is bound to

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