Brave New World

Hey all--

I'm trying out a new blog format so that I can post new Bases Produced happenings to the world at large a little more efficiently. You can let me know what you think by posting comments to this site, among other things.

Anyhow. This is an exciting time to be alive. After failing to get the tenure-track job at the U of I , I got down in the dumps over winter break, but then I got myself out by finally sitting down and trying to convert Retrosheet play-by-play data into the natural language play-by-play descriptions that my stat tabulators can handle. It was remarkably easy to do so; I think it took me about a week to set up the conversion script. There are usually a few problems in each game that I have to fix by hand (annoyingly, retrosheet does not specify which bases are produced by errors after a base hit or out on a ball put into play), but I can apparently take care of an entire season's worth of those problems in about a weekend's worth of time.

Long story short, I was able to parse the play-by-play data for the 2002 season last weekend, and then I figured out how to post it all to the database on Friday night. It's tremendously cool. You can expect more seasons to be forthcoming throughout the rest of the semester. Ideally, I could get 15 or so done by the beginning of May. In reality, my goal is to get through the 1998 season, which is the year for which I first tried to create Bases Produced stats, nearly a decade ago. I've never succeeded in doing so, however.

Anyhow. That's one exciting news item. The other is that I figured out how to make year-by-year leader pages for particular stats. Here's an example for the Major League leaders in Bases Produced, since 2002:

Bases Produced Leaders

Allright. The external world is calling, but hopefully I will be able to post more later. I still have to tell you all about Chuck Wepner.

Until next time,
Steve