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Archives The Hardball Times 2004 Baseball Annual - Details and a Contest!
It's here!


The Hardball Times 2004 Baseball Annual has been published and is available for purchase at our sales site. Nearly 150 pages of articles on the 2004 season, and over 150 pages of detailed player and team stats including many unavailable anywhere else (batted ball types - GB/FB/LD - for batters and pitchers, Net Win Shares Value, Fielding Win Shares per 1000 innings) plus all-new graphs for every team and division. All-new articles on the playoffs and World Series, on each division, a "look back at 2004" from 50 years in the future by Steve Treder, and a lot more.

Plus, there's a groundbreaking essay by Robert Dudek on outfield defense, my own wrapups of the 2004 season in college ball and Japanese pro ball (we both also have other articles in the book), and even the essay "Ichiro's Edge" by the great Bill James. The book is 298 pages.

There's more details available at The Hardball Times website.

An e-book (available for download immediately) in Adobe format costs just $6.25 US, which is less than $7.50 Canadian.

A printed version costs $16.75 US, almost exactly $20 Canadian at today's great exchange rates, and with Fedex Ground Shipping (my recommended option) is $34.60 Canadian. But since the shipping rates are so high, I will be placing a bulk order and hopefully get the cost (including shipping) down to around $30 Canadian. E-mail me at cburley@hardballtimes.com if you want to get in on this (delivery will take a little longer) and let me know how many books you will want.

But you can get YOURS for absolutely free, today, as THT and Batter's Box are running a trivia contest to give away a FREE e-book version! The first set of correct answers posted in this thread will win the e-book (unfortunately, Batter's Box authors are not eligible for this prestigious award...)

Here are the questions :

1. What pitcher holds the record for most consecutive strikeouts in a single game?
2. Who were the first and second pitchers in American League history to lead the league in wild pitches, walks, and hit batsmen in the same year?
3. What two current American League teams have the worst cumulative franchise records (in terms of games above or below .500) in AL history?
4. What pitcher holds the record for the most wins in the opening game of the World Series?

Good luck!
Posted by Craig B on Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 12:49 PM EST.
The Hardball Times 2004 Baseball Annual - Details and a Contest! | 25 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
_David Goodwin - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 01:11 PM EST (#17879) #
Craig B:

Define what you mean by games above or below .500

eg. Jays = 2178 wins, 2233 losses

is that 55 games below .500?

Will the team with the lowest winning pct suffice?
[ Reply to This ]
_Brian W - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 01:12 PM EST (#17880) #
1. Tom Seaver (10)
2. George Uhle (1926), Victor Zambrano (2003)
3. Baltimore & Minnesota
4. Red Ruffing (5)
[ Reply to This ]
_Paul D - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 01:14 PM EST (#17881) #
1:
Tom Seaver versus the Padres, April 1972
2:
George Uhle and Victor Zambrano
3:
Tampa Bay and Texas
4:
Red Ruffing
[ Reply to This ]
_Jabonoso - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 01:16 PM EST (#17882) #
Very wild guesses coming!
1 Nolan Ryan
2 Phil Niekro and
3 White Sucks and Texas Rangers
4 Sandy Koufax
[ Reply to This ]
_Jason Robar - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 01:16 PM EST (#17883) #
1. Tom Seaver
2. George Uhle and Victor Zambrano
3. Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Texas Rangers
4. Red Ruffing
[ Reply to This ]
Craig B - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 01:24 PM EST (#17884) #
Awesome job, Brian W! Our very first entry nails the contest.

Tom Seaver struck out 10 consecutive Orioles on April 22, 1970, as detailed in Robert Dudek's essay Perfection Never Lasts Forever, one of the reprinted articles in the 2004 Annual.

George Uhle in 1926 and Victor Zambrano in 2003, as discussed by Matthew Namee in The Victor Zambrano Award, another THT article reprinted in the 2004 Annual. (Yes, some of the articles in the book are reprints as opposed to original material, but all the stats and half the articles are all-new).

The Twins and Orioles are both about 600 games below .500 over their franchise history, as detailed graphically in Studes' THT article Graphing The Past.

Finally, the last question wasn't THT-related but was a tough one. It is Red Ruffing with five wins in World Series Game 1s.

Congrats, Brian W (you are clearly the Google master of this group :)

E-mail me at cburley@hardballtimes.com and I will deliver the e-book to you!
[ Reply to This ]
_Mick - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 01:25 PM EST (#17885) #
What pitcher holds the record for the most wins in the opening game of the World Series?

Every single pitcher who won the first game of every single World Series is tied with "1". I find it hard to conceive of a pitcher getting more than one win in a World Series opener.
[ Reply to This ]
_Brian W - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 01:29 PM EST (#17886) #
The email has been sent. It helps to have lots of time on my hands and access to valuable resources such as Baseball Reference and Retrosheet.
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Mike Green - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 01:45 PM EST (#17887) #
My advice: go for the hard copy. If like me, you purchase both, you'll spend half of the rest of November reading the Annual and absolutely no work will get done.
[ Reply to This ]
_tangotiger - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 03:29 PM EST (#17888) #
I downloaded the ebook simply for Robert's study on fielding. I've been clamoring for someone (not me of course) to do a study on hang time, and here comes Robert doing just that. Hang time... why in the world are scorekeepers not keeping track of this? Robert does a smash-up job, and as a good researcher, he now opens up more questions that can be asked.

Play-by-play scorers: please, kick someone at your operations staff in the butt, and get them to include hang time.

Robert: any chance of making your data available at some point?
[ Reply to This ]
Mike Green - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 03:57 PM EST (#17889) #
I downloaded the e-book for the same reason. Robert's study is going to be talked about for a long time, and there will be many more studies arising from it.
[ Reply to This ]
robertdudek - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 04:03 PM EST (#17890) #
I plan to add some more pitchers into the study over the winter and write a follow-up article for THT (website). I'll release all the data I've collected then, but if tangotiger e-mails me, I'll send him what I have before then.
[ Reply to This ]
_tangotiger - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 04:11 PM EST (#17891) #
Thanks Robert, this is very exciting! I'll email you tonight.
[ Reply to This ]
_tangotiger - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 05:16 PM EST (#17892) #
Btw, for those printing PDF documents, and you want them double-sided, this is what I do (this will of course depend on the exact printer you are using):

1 - Select Print "Even Pages only"
2 - After 149 pages print take the bundle, and put them back into the tray, and ensure that page #2 is at the top of the bundle, and facing you
3 - Select Print "Odd Pages only"

My printer prints on the "underside" of each page.

The result is 149 double-sided pages, ordered, and properly formatted.

(Test it with 4 pages before you go all the way.)
[ Reply to This ]
_Paul D - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 05:46 PM EST (#17893) #
Well played Brian W!

I misunderstood the question about losingest teams, but you beat me regardless.
[ Reply to This ]
_Mark J - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 07:55 PM EST (#17894) #
Well, I just bought a copy. I picked the "Slow Boat with a Kick" option which claimed delivery in 1-2 weeks. $28.88 US with shipping.

I don't want to scare others off, because I am really looking forward to getting the book, but I was very unimpressed with that Lulu site. It won't let me "report a problem" via the web interface, they don't publish a contact email (or at least, I can't see one after 5 minutes of looking in the logical places), it requests that I login even though I am logged in, it incorrectly identified my credit card as a Visa although it's a Mastercard (which it should know from the first digits), and it put a different shipping option than the one I selected on the order summary screen. Deep breath.

I don't know what your publishing agreement is, but other distribution channels for obtaining the book would be a Good Thing, IMHO.
[ Reply to This ]
Craig B - Tuesday, November 09 2004 @ 10:45 PM EST (#17895) #
Mark, thanks very much for the feedback. We'll make sure that Lulu hears about it. I agree that Lulu isn't necessarily the best user interface, but they deliver a very high-quality end product (so I am told by Studes, who has been working on the publishing aspect) at a good price. So hopefully you'll be pleased with the end product.

We are developing alternative channels. Our Amazon.com listing should be up soon (with an Amazon.ca listing hopefully to follow). And we are very hopeful of getting the book into bookstores and having an announcement on that score soon.

For those of you who are going to order the print book (please do!), Fedex Ground shipping is available for about the same as the "Slow Boat with a Kick" option (I think the difference is six cents?). Or you can order through my bulk order - just drop me an e-mail - which will work out to being less, once I figure out how much it actually is! I'm hoping to get the price down to around $27-28 Canadian including shipping fees, but that's going to require a few more orders than I have now. So drop me an e-mail at cburley@hardballtimes.com (COMN) and let me know how many you want to buy!

The book makes a great gift for Christmas for any baseball nut.
[ Reply to This ]
_Ryan Lind - Wednesday, November 10 2004 @ 01:48 AM EST (#17896) #
Craig, I think I'm interested. But, uh, payment may be difficult (I don't own credit cards/cheques...heh.) I'm not sure how it would work either. How much money would it cost to ship out here to Kelowna, BC?

If your bank offers e-mail interac then maybe someone can send a copy to me and I can pay you that way? *shrug*

I don't know. The point is, I really want this book, but I don't really have any idea how I can get my hands on it.
[ Reply to This ]
Mike Green - Wednesday, November 10 2004 @ 09:44 AM EST (#17897) #
Ryan Lind, I'm sure that if you ship 3-4 bottles of fine Okanagan wine to the offices of Mr. Burley before December 24, you will discover the Annual in your mailbox before that same date. Ahh, the miracles of the season.:)

Seriously, I'll bet Western Union can help you with your dilemma.
[ Reply to This ]
Craig B - Wednesday, November 10 2004 @ 11:47 AM EST (#17898) #
Ryan, I sent you an e-mail re book purchases. No problem to do a purchase even without a cheque or credit card.
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Craig B - Wednesday, November 10 2004 @ 12:10 PM EST (#17899) #
I've got some approximate costs after checking out the Lulu bulk ordering process.

For those who want to get a book through my bulk order, if you want to pick your book up from me in Toronto it'll cost you about $24 Canadian - including taxes. Yes, taxes, sorry. For those who want it mailed anywhere within Canada, it will cost about $30 Canadian including the hated taxes.
[ Reply to This ]
_tangotiger - Wednesday, November 10 2004 @ 01:37 PM EST (#17900) #
Craig, SABR this year will be in Toronto, right? Does this mean that you will be there selling copies of the book? I'm thinking of doing that (going to TO and selling the way overdue book I've got with MGL.... we've got a chapter and a half written so far; we should have 4 chapters done by Xmas).
[ Reply to This ]
Craig B - Wednesday, November 10 2004 @ 02:01 PM EST (#17901) #
Well, I'll be there, but I don't know if I'll be selling books. Probably, but 2004 will be long gone by then. Still, if you've got a book we'll get the gang together and autograph it for you. :P
[ Reply to This ]
Craig B - Thursday, November 11 2004 @ 11:09 AM EST (#17902) #
By the way, today's your last chance to get in on the bulk order. E-mail me at cburley@hardballtimes.com to reserve a copy for less than you'd pay from Lulu.

I'll be placing the order this afternoon.
[ Reply to This ]
Craig B - Tuesday, November 16 2004 @ 07:59 AM EST (#17903) #
For those who have downloaded the e-book, or have ordered the print book, please note that there are some errata in the stats that have been corrected, including for the Blue Jays. The Astros section had the largest errors. All have now been fixed, and a .pdf is available on the THT site that has the correct stats.

Those of you who haven't bought the book can also download the errata, to give you an idea of what the team stats pages look like!
[ Reply to This ]
The Hardball Times 2004 Baseball Annual - Details and a Contest! | 25 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.