Yes, that is a bit of hyperbole, but Red Sox pitcher Bob Stanley was durable enough over his career that he was able to start or relieve, and was able to pitch extended innings out of the bullpen. On May 22, 1983 Stanley pitched 10 innings in relief for the Red Sox, which was not that remarkable at the time given his track record. However, no other pitcher in major league baseball has pitched 10 innings in relief since then, so the performance has become memorable in hindsight.
I wrote about it for the SABR Games Project and it is now available online on their website.
The latest in a continuing series on the 1980s NBA, the 1983-84 Season Review section is now posted. The Boston Celtics win their 15th title (40 years ago), the Houston Rockets start rebuilding, the NBA coaching carousel hits a new gear, and more.
I continue to experiment with Datawrapper, and used it to try to replicate a chart from the article that was originally created using Microsoft Excel. The Datawrapper layout is a little different, but I like it too.
Today I posted a new edition (#11) of Barnstorming through New England: The Boston Celtics in the Preseason, 1946-1991. Thanks to the continued expansion of online newspaper archives, I was able to add 2 new box scores (10/3/1959 vs. Lakers, 10/5/1972 vs. Hawks/Maravich), to bring the total to 411 out of 426 exhibition games against pro competition from 1946 through 1991.
This edition also includes new sections containing 23 box scores for preseason games that the Celtics played against semi-pro or amateur teams, and intrasquad games that they played against themselves. Most are from the 1950’s.
There are also minor improvements to some box scores that were included in earlier editions, such as:
11/7/1947: score by periods now complete 10/11/1955: added FGA and FTA 10/10/1956: score by periods now complete 10/2/1971: score by periods more complete
Larry Bird and the Celtics win the 1984 NBA Championship, defeating Magic Johnson and the Lakers in a seven-game classic that elevates the NBA into a first-class pop culture phenomenon. The latest in a continuing series on the 1980s NBA, a summary of that series is now posted.
The latest in a continuing series. Red Auerbach drafts Larry Bird, trades for Robert Parish (and the pick that turned into Kevin McHale), swindles the Suns to acquire Dennis Johnson, and swaps Cedric Maxwell for Bill Walton. Boston had missed the playoffs two years in a row at the end of the 1970’s, but these moves like these resulted in three championships in six years during the early 1980’s.
As I wrote last month, I wrote a python script that uses the Retrosheet Event and Box Score Event files to build spreadsheets that include all of the umpire info for each game during one or more seasons. Output can be filtered by team and game location.
Retrosheet recently released their “Fall 2023 Update” on December 6, so I re-ran the script against the new data files, and the script still works well.
Bill Byron, George Hildebrand, Bill Klem, Bill Dinneen Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-B2- 3260-2 [P&P] https://www.loc.gov/item/2014697771/
Recently, while working on a project, I needed to find a list of all umpires who worked behind the plate at Boston Red Sox games at Fenway Park during a specific season. Retrosheet has umpire game logs on their site, which show all of the games worked by an umpire during a season. But I needed a list I could filter by team and game location.
I wrote a python script that uses the Retrosheet Event and Box Score Event files to build spreadsheets that include all of the umpire info for each game during one or more seasons. Since the Retrosheet files are organized by decade, the script can process a set of files and produce a single output file in .csv format that can easily be saved in Excel (.xlsx) or other spreadsheet formats.
Now that Tom Brady’s NFL career has come to an end, it is time for a look back. His record-setting career was defined by an unprecedented seven Super Bowl titles and his longevity: 23 seasons as an NFL quarterback, 22 as a starter. Brady was selected in the NFL Draft in 2000, yet continued to play through 2022, outlasting all of his fellow draftees.
The state of Rhode Island has not had a major league baseball team of its own since the Providence Grays of the National League folded after the 1885 season, but other major league clubs have made brief visits to the state to play exhibition games. During World War II, from 1942 through 1945, 28 games were played in the state. These games fell into two categories: games against military teams, which were very common during the war, and contests held at the new Pawtucket Stadium against the minor league Pawtucket Slaters. The rosters of the major league teams would become diluted during the war due to 4,500 professional baseball players serving in the U.S. Military, but their visits still brought plenty of excitement.
Pawtucket Stadium, renamed as “McCoy Stadium” a few years later, officially opened 81 years ago today, July 4, 1942. It became the home of several minor league teams, including the Pawtucket Red Sox, who hosted an (almost) annual game against the Boston Red Sox from 1973 through 1999. The Pawtucket Red Sox moved to Worcester, Massachusetts for the 2021 season, and McCoy Stadium is now slated for demolition, to make way for a new high school for the city of Pawtucket.
The latest in a continuing series on the 1980s NBA, the 1982-83 Season Review section is now posted. Julius Erving, with a big assist from Moses Malone, adds an NBA championship to his resume as the Philadelphia 76ers sweep the Los Angeles Lakers. The 76ers are still waiting to win another.
One example of how much the NBA has changed in 40 years: During the 2023 Finals the Denver Nuggets took more 3-pointers than the 1983 76ers attempted during their entire regular season. To be fair, the 76ers were next-to-last in the league in 3-point attempts that year; only the Lakers took fewer threes (96). Ironically, Andrew Toney of the 76ers used the 3-pointer more than most players, finishing the year tied for 7th in 3FGM (22) and 10th in 3FGA (76). But the rest of the team shot a woeful 3-for-33 beyond the arc.
