Davey would appreciate this on more than one level

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One of my favorite players/managers of all time is Davey Johnson. Last year when he passed away I gave him a more complete profile, but coming upon the one-year anniversary of his death I thought I would take a further dive into one of his more amazing stats.

The man did appreciate the numbers behind the game.

In 1973, his first season in Atlanta, Johnson hit 43 home runs. (He was one of three Braves to hit 40 that year.) His next-highest season total was 18. Quite the jump.

I wasn’t around in 1973, but people my age will always point to Brady Anderson’s 1996 season as a statistical anomaly for home runs, assuming steroids, of course, for the juiced-up stats. (No steroids back in ’73.) But Anderson three years later had 24, and equaled or bettered Johnson’s 18 half a dozen times. The ratio here is 2.08, whereas Johnson’s highest/next-highest ratio (43/18) is 2.39. Sure, we could take this to ridiculous extremes, say where someone once had three home runs in a season but never had more than one otherwise and was therefore tripling his total, but that’s one of those equations where a percent difference isn’t actually the best comparison.

A fun hunt, no?

Wade Boggs hit 24 home runs in the “rabbit ball” year of 1987 while his second-highest was 11; that’s a 2.18 ratio. Then of course there’s 1980 AL Rookie of the Year Joe Charboneau, who had 23 home runs that year but a total of six the rest of his career, kind of the ultimate one-hit wonder but sort of a different set of circumstances compared to the above.

Luis Gonzalez hit 57 home runs in 2001 for the World Series-winning Diamondbacks (still pains me to say that) and his next-highest total was 28 (a 2.04 ratio), but he did hit at least 15 homers in 12 different seasons.

New season at school and already starting on what sounds like a new chapter to From Box Scores to Test Scores.

Mystery revealed

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Last Wednesday I teased the subject of today’s episode of Math and Musings, writing that the Pennsylvania cities of Lancaster and York have several things in common.

Still stumped?

There are two big ones.

One, both cities were at one time temporary capitals of these United States.

Related, they are two of the 10 cities that have housed the Declaration of Independence.

As of last week Franklin and I had been to eight.

We’ve now been to all 10.

Yeah, nerdiest vacation of all time.

Enjoy!

Ted bringing it in Season Four

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Since it “ended” in May of 2023 I’ve worried that a Season Four of Ted Lasso would somehow mar the original trio of seasons and make me question the entire affair.

Oh, Mike, ye of little faith.

My fears were allayed with a single episode last Wednesday, Ted in full Ted mode though this time in America, Kansas City to be exact.

I’ll render judgment on the remainder of Season Four as we proceed, but for now I must note the O’Connell connection to Wednesday’s offering. Among the small number of states I’ve never been to are Kansas and Missouri. That Kansas City is sort of in both of those states actually came up several times in the episode to comedic effect. I’ve wanted to go to Kansas City for years to take advantage of this two-for-one deal, and also visit two of what no doubt are the most O’Connell-friendly museums on the planet: the American Jazz Museum and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

And one Leslie Higgins, in Wednesday’s episode, travels to both! (Sort of seeing only one but that was beside the point.)

Nothing like starting the day being jealous of a fictional character.

And now I’ve got one more reason to visit Kansas City.

Larry’s final note hits perfectly

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I haven’t posted at all this summer about Larry David’s new show on HBO Max, Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness… mostly because it just hasn’t been that good. Sure, there has been a funny sketch or two in there, but on the whole it’s light-years from Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm. I saw it promoted for months and I really looked forward to it… then I watched the first episode. And I had to curb my enthusiasm.

Ha.

But then came last Friday’s finale. Final sketch of final episode, and Larry’s got a famous co-star. Not really known as an actor, one Barack Obama was sharing the set with LD, and most of the seven or eight minutes of hilarity is just the two of them. Obama’s an executive producer on the show and presumably fills that title well, but it was his acting chops that had me impressed Friday night. Yeah, give credit where credit is due… Obama was funny on screen with Larry David. He’s clearly doing the Larry part, saying Larry lines in Larry tones, but hey, it works. Not everyone can do this, and not everyone can make fun of himself as the former president does here, making hay of his infamous press conference a dozen years ago at which he committed the unforgivable sin of… wearing a tan-colored suit. The other sideplots in the recreation are about as ridiculous as worrying about the color of a jacket, and they all end up being kind of hilarious.

Well done, Barack Obama, and well done, Larry David…

eventually.

From the road: Old Forge, NY

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Today on Math and Musings Franklin and I are in upstate New York again (separate trip if you can believe it), taking in the old sights in Old Forge. I say old because every point of reference I have in those parts goes back at least two decades or so. Luckily not one thing has changed since my many visits as a kid.

Highlight of the trip of course was the famed Enchanted Forest Water Safari, featured today on the pod. If you’re from upstate New York I don’t have to tell you that not one thing has changed there because you already know…

At Enchanted Forest…

the fun never stops.

PA bound

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Over the next 48 hours my son and I will travel to and spend nights in the Pennsylvania cities of Lancaster and York.

These cities have several things in common, and one of particular interest to me and Franklin. Can you figure out what it is?

Stay tuned.

Cent’ Anni, Tony Bennett!

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He’s gotten his due on Math and Musings, he’s gotten his due on this blog something like 16 times, and his voice was a constant on Domestic Melodies, long before I knew what a podcast or blog was.

Today we celebrate, yet again, the legendary, incomparable, (insert well-deserved adjective here) Tony Bennett.

Tony would have turned 100 today, and darned if he didn’t make it nearly that far performing. It was only five years ago that Tony was onstage at Radio City Music Hall, performing with chart-topper Lady Gaga of all people, proof that the man had bridged not only generations but the entire breadth of human civilization.

At this point I’m not going to add anything about Tony Bennett that I haven’t noted before, but I am pleased to announce I’m doing it in a different format this weekend if you’re in the D.C. area. This Saturday, 2:00 at the Cascades Library in Sterling, Virginia, I’m leading a performance showcasing a full century of Tony’s artistry. There will be music, there will be stories, there will be trivia.

If you can’t join us… you know what to do today: playlist.

From the road: Batavia, New York

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This Friday’s episode of Math and Musings will feature O’Connell family exploits north of the border to Niagara Falls and vicinity.

But Niagara Falls was actually a sidequest to the real mission about 50 miles east: Batavia, New York, home of the Batavia Muckdogs.

Muckdogs, yes, glad you asked.

Last year I read a book called Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America. (When “fight” and “soul” and “America” are in the title you know it’s got to be an important book.) I’d heard the author, Will Bardenwerper, on Doug Hill’s podcast, Conversations with Sports Fans, had to get the book, and then had to see the protagonists, jointly the Muckdogs players and the townspeople of Batavia. Bardenwerper uses Batavia as a sort of stand-in for all rust belt cities, not unlike the one I grew up in, and the parallels between Batavia and Binghamton are striking. Run down and past its prime, for sure, but still with a certain spark and certain charm. When Batavia lost its minor league baseball club in 2020, the aforementioned townspeople rose up and brought a certain dignity back to old Dwyer stadium with the new Muckdogs, members of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League. Perfect Game is the Cape Cod of Western New York, and the husband-and-wife team that runs the club in Batavia, Robbie and Nellie Nichols, are the true heroes of Bardenwerper’s story.

But there are so many more characters profiled than the Nicholses.

One of them I got to see on the field at the game I attended. Not a player or coach or owner but superfan (among other things) Dr. Ross Fanara. Dr. Fanara is 85 years old and has been cheering on the Muckdogs for decades. And I know his age because it was announced at the game… as we celebrated his birthday. Doc’s great-grandchildren (who also get mentions in the book) were there throwing out ceremonial first pitches to great fanfare, as everyone in the crowd knew who they were, and that Doc and his wife are raising them… in their eighties!

It was one charming moment of many at the park that night, one in which I saw not only small-town charm, small-town soul, and a certain amount of small-town fight, but a win as well!

Seeing it with my wife and son?

Even better.

Niagara Falls was okay too.