«“Spending the night with a beautiful girl doesn’t cause any problems for any baseball player. What is terrible is spending the night looking for her»… Casey Stengel.
Like every Wednesday, today is Mail Day. Please, send me your full name and the town or city from where you are writing, or I won’t be able to reply. Thank you very much.
Romo Disépolo, from Caracas, asks…: «Is it true that two Major League teams played three games in one day?
Friend Ro…: Not once, but three times. On September 1, 1890, Brooklyn won all three games against Pittsburgh; on September 7, 1896, Baltimore won all three games against Louisville; and on October 2, 1920, the Reds won two and Pittsburgh won one. These games were not scheduled that way, but rather forced by postponements. That’s history.
Rayana Céspedes M. from Cancun asks…: «Who votes, like you, for the Hall of Fame inductees each year, how many Latin Americans and Venezuelans vote, and what are the requirements to be an elector?»
Friend Yana…: To start voting, they require that you have covered no less than a thousand Major League games in the press boxes, not on television, in 10 seasons. In my time, we were given a one-week course, after which we took an exam that had to be passed in order to start voting. I am proud to have been the first native Latin American elector. Now there are several of us, which is better for me, and in the group there is another Venezuelan, Luis Rangel. Every year, around 400 of us vote throughout the Union.
Jesús Jones, from Maracay, asks: «Does the WAR statistic compare players within the same position on the field and in the batting order?»
Friend Chucho: WAR stands for «Wins Above Replacement,» meaning the total contribution of a player to his team, including hitting, fielding, base running, and pitching.
Carlos Castro, from Baruta, asks: «Since you have written that you don’t vote for designated hitters for the Hall of Fame, a commentator said that the closer pitcher is equivalent to the designated hitter. What do you think about that?»
Friend Chalo: With which designated hitter can they be compared and achieve good results, Rich (Goosse) Gossage and Mariano Rivera? But baseball nonsense abounds daily in this battered world, especially from some who consider themselves «commentators,» even though they don’t know how to comment.
And you didn’t send me the name of the author of that nonsense. Wow, what a nonsense it is!
Thanks to life that has given me so much, including a reader like you.»
