The World Series is underway and baseball fans that might be at the office during a game or want to casually follow the game without listening to play by play could do worse that booting up "Gameday"—an interesting animated web-based program found on MLB.com.
It's quiet, and it shows you a pitch-by-pitch animated version of the game with exactly what happened with each pitch insofar as the action of the pitch and the result. It includes something called PFX and BRK stats, which the TV and radio announcers don't include. Here is what that's all about (from a FAQ):
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Q: What are the PFX and BRK values? A: "Break" is the greatest distance between the trajectory of the pitch at any point between the release point and the front of home plate, and the straight line path from the release point and the front of home plate. "Pitch-f/x" is the distance between the location of the actual pitch thrown over the plate, and the calculated location of a ball thrown by the pitcher in the same way, with no spin. Or, in more common terms, this is the amount of "movement" the pitcher applies to the pitch. A faster, straighter pitch like a fastball will have a higher Pitch-f/x value than a slower, breaking ball like a curveball, which will have a higher Break value. |
Sheesh. Who knew?
Each pitch on the screen has a number, and if you click on it, you also get both the speed of the pitch and the release speed of the pitch. They must have radar guns pointed all over the place. And since baseball fans, if nothing else, are numbers and stats freaks, this page is great for giving you a running series of stats. These stats include the real-time ERA (earned run average) of the pitcher as he gives up run after run the way Cliff Lee did in game one of the World Series. It had to be somewhat rewarding to Giants fans who heard nothing all week except how great this guy was and how he never lost a playoff gave ever to see his ERA climb and climb as he was battered by the Giants hitting. That said, with all the money MLB makes gouging its customers for jerseys and t-shirts, you'd think it could have gone the extra inch on the site and actually animate the cartoon player standing at the cartoon plate. The only real animation is a colored arc indicating the pitch location. Even this arc is bogus and is always the same except for where it ends up.
What would it take to license some code from Electronics Arts in exchange for a link and money to give this site more oomph? Today's sports video games are getting so close to reality that some people are giving up on the real thing. Joining a good baseball video game with the Gameday site would provide some actual action to compete with the game itself and satisfy the needs of some people to follow the game at work or in remote places where you cannot see a game.
This would be particularly valuable during the regular season when you wanted to causally follow a particular game rather than listen to the sometimes maniacal/boring (choose one) announcers. Baseball fans would also be treated to a plethora of the kind of oddball stats they love, like the "Buster Posey becomes the first rookie catcher with a size 11 shoe to hit a triple in the fourth inning of any game while chewing gum" kind of thing. For some reason, baseball seems intent on coming up with odd stats and comparisons. Gameday could churn this stuff out.
Hopefully next year, this interesting technology will have improved. Until then, Go Giants! (Sorry, Texas.)
You can Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter @therealdvorak.
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