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January 3, 2004

Random Jottings. The Red Sox made a play for 1B Mark Sweeney, but he decided to sign with Colorado. ... Steve Bechler and ephedra ... Newsday's Jon Heyman on the departed David Wells: "On the postseason stage, almost no one was more dependable." Games 1 and 5 of the 2003 World Series say Hi. ... The Baseball Crank looks at the Hall of Fame balloting and Paul Molitor.

BlogWatch: Most blogs are quiet this time of year, but I did find four new Red Sox sites: Buckner Was Framed; Fenway Hotdogs in October; TN Red Sox Fan; and Top of the Ninth. If any readers know of any others that are not linked at the left, let me know. ... Looking at the baseball blogs listed here, Boston and the Cubs have the most (22), followed by Seattle (12) and the Yankees (11). Every team is represented by at least 2 blogs and there are some unaffiliated blogs as well.

This is from late October, but I found it today. Diamond Mind posted a list of who got into scoring position most often in 2003 (By the way, I hate the term "scoring position." I know that the general meaning is the base(s) from which a runner can score on any kind of base hit, but it is a rather weak definition. A runner generally will not score from second on an infield single or even a shallow hit to the outfield. Sometimes runners have to hold at third on an infield hit. And you would think that in this era of power hitting, first base would be considered scoring position, too. Literally all bases and the man at the plate are "in a position to score." And as Allen Barra pointed out several years ago in a similar rant, that in addition to being more precise, "runners at second and third" uses one fewer syllable (and thus takes less time to say) than "runners in scoring postions.") (SB2 is steals of second):
Name                   2B  3B  HR  SB2  Tot

Alfonso Soriano 36 5 38 30 109
Alex Rodriguez 30 6 47 17 100
Nomar Garciaparra 37 13 28 19 97
Albert Pujols 51 1 43 2 97
Gary Sheffield 37 2 39 15 93
Bret Boone 35 5 35 16 91
Preston Wilson 43 1 36 11 91
Juan Pierre 28 7 1 54 90
Vernon Wells 49 5 33 2 89
Edgar Renteria 47 1 13 26 87
A much longer list is here (Oct. 30). Diamond Mind also looked at the times in scoring position per plate appearance. Here are the top 16 with some random players thrown in afterwards):
Name                   2B  3B  HR  SB2  Tot   PA  PerPA

Javy Lopez 29 3 43 0 75 495 .152
Corey Patterson 17 7 13 15 52 347 .150
Alfonso Soriano 36 5 38 30 109 734 .149
Richard Hidalgo 43 4 28 9 84 585 .144
Albert Pujols 51 1 43 2 97 685 .142
David Ortiz 39 2 31 0 72 509 .141
Carlos Beltran 14 10 26 35 85 602 .141
Alex Rodriguez 30 6 47 17 100 715 .140
Jim Edmonds 32 2 39 1 74 531 .139
Reggie Sanders 27 4 31 7 69 498 .139
Preston Wilson 43 1 36 11 91 661 .138
Gary Sheffield 37 2 39 15 93 678 .137
Barry Bonds 22 1 45 7 75 550 .136
Eric Hinske 45 3 12 10 70 514 .136
Milton Bradley 34 2 10 15 61 451 .135
Nomar Garciaparra 37 13 28 19 97 719 .135
...
Raul Mondesi 31 4 24 17 76 586 .130
Magglio Ordonez 46 3 29 8 86 674 .128
Vladimir Guerrero 20 3 25 9 57 467 .122
Trot Nixon 24 6 28 4 62 513 .121
Aaron Boone 32 3 24 20 79 656 .120
Bill Mueller 45 5 19 1 70 600 .117
Johnny Damon 32 6 12 30 80 690 .116
Jason Varitek 31 1 25 3 60 521 .115
Carlos Delgado 38 1 42 0 81 705 .115
Manny Ramirez 36 1 37 1 75 679 .110
A much longer list of these guys is here (Oct. 31).

Box of Soap. So who were the suspected terrorists on last week's cancelled Paris-US flights? Because the US used surnames only (and assumed any evil doers would be using their real names), three were a Welsh insurance agent, a child and an elderly Chinese woman who once ran a restaurant in Paris. ... Some reports said the 3-hour delay of British Airways 223 was "not terrorist-related." ... And more proof that the Keystone Kops are in charge or these alerts are nothing more than diversionary scare tactics: the cancellations were due to "very hard intelligence" from a source "whose credibility US officials have been unable to confirm." Whaa? ... By cashing in stock options before the market crashed, presidential brother Neil "Silverado" Bush made at least $171,370 in a single day. "My timing on this transaction was very fortunate," Bush said, adding that because his name was not Hillary, the liberal media would likely never mention it again. ... The investigation into the criminal leak of a CIA agent's identity is heating up. ... Pat Robertson is hearing voices again. ... And finally, a cartoon.

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