More Unprecedented Fun

One last tidbit from the Red Sox's recent nine-game winning streak, courtesy of Paul at YFSF (June 13):

So the Boston Red Sox are on a huge roll, the best of any team so far this season. They've won nine straight, scoring at least five runs in each of them. A streak like that — nine games with five or more runs scored — isn't all that uncommon. It happens on average twice a season. But the Sox haven't just scored five runs a game; they have pulverized opponents for 83 runs in those nine games. That's a little more rare. ...

No Red Sox team has ever had a nine-game run in which they've won every time and scored 83 runs. The closest came in 1950, when the Ted Williams-led squad scored 80 runs over the first nine games of an 11-game streak. ...

So since the turn of the 21st century, the Red Sox are the third team to score this many runs while winning nine in a row - and the first Boston team ever to do it. And that's why we love baseball. Because every day, every week, is the opportunity to see something we might not have seen before.

MLB umpires are not getting any better.

Q: In How Many Ways Is This Hat Racist?

Chris Jaffe looks at the increasing add-on fees when buying a baseball ticket. Over the last five years, the Red Sox have been the worst offenders. (One thing that angers me is being charged to print your ticket(s) at home.)

Is Miguel Cabrera one of the best hitters that baseball has ever seen?

Links to a couple of good baseball pieces at Grantland, Bill Simmons's new ESPN-sponsored site: David Eggers on Wrigley Field and Chris Jones on John Lackey, and Jay Caspian Kang on Ichiro.