JimF
03-29-00, 04:13 PM
Computers, internet have impact on game
March 29, 2000 4:58 PM
AP
NEW YORK (AP) Bobby Valentine sat down at his desk and watched his future on a thin computer monitor in his office at Shea Stadium.
An up-and-down season that almost cost Valentine his job as New York Mets manager had boiled down to a high-tech form of scoreboard watching. How fitting that one of baseball's most computer-savvy managers learned his team was back into the wild-card race through pitch-by-pitch updates on the Internet.
"That was kind of radical," Valentine said, recalling the Oct. 3 day when Cincinnati lost to Milwaukee, allowing the Mets to move into a tie for the wild-card lead with one game to play. "In a few years we will look back at that and say, 'Can you believe we used to have to watch pitch by pitch?"'
Computers and the Internet have many more practical uses than giving instantaneous updates of games. Managers use hit charts to position defenders, coaches use computer models to detect flaws in swings, scouts deliver detailed reports on a player who has been called up from the minors, players communicate with the public on their own Web sites, and displaced fans can follow their favorite team from anywhere on the globe.
Computers have changed baseball like they have the rest of society. There is a new era in the game. Call it: Baseball.com.
"The NFL's been using computers for years, and I think major league baseball's just starting to catch up with the computers now," Red Sox pitching coach Joe Kerrigan said. "The things you can do with them are amazing. We're just scratching the surface."
Kerrigan, who heavily relies on technology, reels off odd statistics about his pitchers with ease: Pedro Martinez was 13-0 when he had an extra day between starts, gave up no triples last year, and all nine home runs against him were solo shots.
Kerrigan keeps a database on all his entire staff, tracking the number of first-pitch strikes, pitches per inning and other information he finds useful.
His boss, manager Jimy Williams, looks at the numbers but would rather rely on more old-fashioned methods, like his own eyes.
"I don't put that much emphasis on them because those stats are, in fact, after the fact," Williams said. "They're pretty good at hot stove dinners, baseball writers' dinners after everything's completed, but how about for the moment, for this moment, for this at bat, for this pitch?"
Valentine and his staff use them for more than dinnertime conversation. Valentine and hitting coach Tom Robson use a tool called biokinetics to turn video of swings into a computer model that allows players to see their precise movements in good and bad swings.
Valentine spends a few hours a day on the computer, reading out-of-town newspaper coverage of upcoming opponents, checking out reports from scouts, and studying hit charts to determine where to position his defenders.
"It is comforting," Valentine said. "It's better to be as prepared as possible for that one guy who asks the question so you can come up with the answer. It doesn't necessarily help winning that particular game but it sure helps with your credibility."
Getting computers accepted wasn't always so easy in a sport not so eager to change. Even today, Valentine complains that he can't hook his laptop up to the Internet in most parks on the road in most because of rules prohibiting outside phone lines in visiting clubhouses.
Tal Smith, in his sixth decade as an executive in baseball, was one of the first to introduce the new technology to baseball in the 1960s.
Tired of thumbing through thousands of scouting reports before the draft, Smith created a scouting report form for the Houston Astros that could be read by computers and sorted into a database.
The method was greeted with some skepticism, yet the efficiency of the new system helped win converts.
"To find out what was going on in the minors you had to call or wait for mail reports to come in," he said. "The statistics were always a week or two behind what was happening. The information wasn't at your fingertips. It has made all the difference in the world."
Smith acknowledges that there are still managers who are wary of using computers to tell them on what count an opposing manager is most likely to steal or pitch out.
But he says those holdouts are at a disadvantage for not using a tool that can turn thousands of pages of scouting reports into a few pages of useful information.
"There are still people who are gun shy," he said. "There is a lot of skepticism that they can tell you who can play ball. But it helps you make judgments by making info available complete and accurate."
Technology has developed from the slow, bulky mainframes used by Smith in the 1960s to the sleek laptops many managers and scouts take on the road with them every day.
Soon, video of a new pitcher called up from the minors could be instantaneously sent to a team on the road so players could familiarize themselves with his delivery.
But even the most computer-savvy people in baseball doubt that managers will be logging into the Internet from the dugout in the near future.
"I wouldn't say never. That's a long time," Smith said. "But there is certainly reluctance from the purists to do that."
------------------
"Just watching the game, having a Bud..."
Ansky39's Neighbor's Best Friend's 9th Cousin, Twice Removed.
March 29, 2000 4:58 PM
AP
NEW YORK (AP) Bobby Valentine sat down at his desk and watched his future on a thin computer monitor in his office at Shea Stadium.
An up-and-down season that almost cost Valentine his job as New York Mets manager had boiled down to a high-tech form of scoreboard watching. How fitting that one of baseball's most computer-savvy managers learned his team was back into the wild-card race through pitch-by-pitch updates on the Internet.
"That was kind of radical," Valentine said, recalling the Oct. 3 day when Cincinnati lost to Milwaukee, allowing the Mets to move into a tie for the wild-card lead with one game to play. "In a few years we will look back at that and say, 'Can you believe we used to have to watch pitch by pitch?"'
Computers and the Internet have many more practical uses than giving instantaneous updates of games. Managers use hit charts to position defenders, coaches use computer models to detect flaws in swings, scouts deliver detailed reports on a player who has been called up from the minors, players communicate with the public on their own Web sites, and displaced fans can follow their favorite team from anywhere on the globe.
Computers have changed baseball like they have the rest of society. There is a new era in the game. Call it: Baseball.com.
"The NFL's been using computers for years, and I think major league baseball's just starting to catch up with the computers now," Red Sox pitching coach Joe Kerrigan said. "The things you can do with them are amazing. We're just scratching the surface."
Kerrigan, who heavily relies on technology, reels off odd statistics about his pitchers with ease: Pedro Martinez was 13-0 when he had an extra day between starts, gave up no triples last year, and all nine home runs against him were solo shots.
Kerrigan keeps a database on all his entire staff, tracking the number of first-pitch strikes, pitches per inning and other information he finds useful.
His boss, manager Jimy Williams, looks at the numbers but would rather rely on more old-fashioned methods, like his own eyes.
"I don't put that much emphasis on them because those stats are, in fact, after the fact," Williams said. "They're pretty good at hot stove dinners, baseball writers' dinners after everything's completed, but how about for the moment, for this moment, for this at bat, for this pitch?"
Valentine and his staff use them for more than dinnertime conversation. Valentine and hitting coach Tom Robson use a tool called biokinetics to turn video of swings into a computer model that allows players to see their precise movements in good and bad swings.
Valentine spends a few hours a day on the computer, reading out-of-town newspaper coverage of upcoming opponents, checking out reports from scouts, and studying hit charts to determine where to position his defenders.
"It is comforting," Valentine said. "It's better to be as prepared as possible for that one guy who asks the question so you can come up with the answer. It doesn't necessarily help winning that particular game but it sure helps with your credibility."
Getting computers accepted wasn't always so easy in a sport not so eager to change. Even today, Valentine complains that he can't hook his laptop up to the Internet in most parks on the road in most because of rules prohibiting outside phone lines in visiting clubhouses.
Tal Smith, in his sixth decade as an executive in baseball, was one of the first to introduce the new technology to baseball in the 1960s.
Tired of thumbing through thousands of scouting reports before the draft, Smith created a scouting report form for the Houston Astros that could be read by computers and sorted into a database.
The method was greeted with some skepticism, yet the efficiency of the new system helped win converts.
"To find out what was going on in the minors you had to call or wait for mail reports to come in," he said. "The statistics were always a week or two behind what was happening. The information wasn't at your fingertips. It has made all the difference in the world."
Smith acknowledges that there are still managers who are wary of using computers to tell them on what count an opposing manager is most likely to steal or pitch out.
But he says those holdouts are at a disadvantage for not using a tool that can turn thousands of pages of scouting reports into a few pages of useful information.
"There are still people who are gun shy," he said. "There is a lot of skepticism that they can tell you who can play ball. But it helps you make judgments by making info available complete and accurate."
Technology has developed from the slow, bulky mainframes used by Smith in the 1960s to the sleek laptops many managers and scouts take on the road with them every day.
Soon, video of a new pitcher called up from the minors could be instantaneously sent to a team on the road so players could familiarize themselves with his delivery.
But even the most computer-savvy people in baseball doubt that managers will be logging into the Internet from the dugout in the near future.
"I wouldn't say never. That's a long time," Smith said. "But there is certainly reluctance from the purists to do that."
------------------
"Just watching the game, having a Bud..."
Ansky39's Neighbor's Best Friend's 9th Cousin, Twice Removed.