get your own baseball data

rogers sportsnet is in the midst of reliving the 1992 world series,
one game at a time.
in game 3 candy maldonado launched an opposite field,
half fly-half liner
into a drawn in atlanta braves defense.
oh yeh the bases were loaded and it was the bottom of the ninth in toronto
and the score was tied 2-2.

roberto alomar scored and the blue jays won 3-2.
the blue jays now lead the series 2-1
and that was 20 years ago
and i bet the vegas odds on a blue jays world series for 2013
are high right about now.
i like the way rogers arranges its tv programs in canada.

1992 was the first world series played on canadian soil.
dave winfield got the first hit in toronto's sky dome.
it was fittingly a turfy chop that sent pendleton racing back
and by the time the ball came down from flight,
even winfield at 41 years young was safe on first.
winfield mighta been 41, but pat gillick signed him as a free agent
and the guy drove in 108 runs.
that musta pissed off george steinbrenner.

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i like tim mccarver.
he knows what the fart he's talking about.
it's not just what he said prior to luis gonzalez jamming
that mariano rivera pitch over a drawn in infield to win the 2001 series,
but it's his advice on radar guns that i heard for the first time today
while listening to the 1992 world series.

"study the relationship between the pitcher and hitter," he suggested
"see how messed up the batter is on a fastball and
you'll know how fast it's going...real fast."

i see john axford's high fastball after one of his curves
and see the batter being noticeably late
and don't need to know how fast he's throwing.

in 1992 there were no speed read outs on every pitch,
no pitch trackers to know if it was really a ball or strike...
there wasn't nothing but the game
and i think it's under those conditions
where the next statistical breakthrough will emerge,
where someone tracks their own data.