Giant Panda

wOBA is considered one of the best stats to quantify batting performance. But what is most likely to contribute to wOBA? Is it more important to have a strong BB/K rate or to produce on balls thrown in the strike zone that are put into play? Is production when hitting fly balls more important than hitting ground balls and if so by how much? In order to determine this, I used 2013-2015 data from ESPN Stats and Information and Pitch FX to see what correlates best with overall wOBA. The first test…

Raelyn Hoffmann Davis Purple 1 20 April, 2016 Mark McGwire Breaks the Home Run Record September 8th, 1998; many of you may remember this date by a birthday or an anniversary, but this day was more than that. This date was a great day in history where a hero was born and a legend was created. September 8th, 1998 represents the day that Mark McGwire broke the record for the most home runs in a single season. “The 1998 Major League Baseball home run chase in Major League Baseball was the race…

The Lifelong Journey To World Championships Albert Bluford “Rube” Walker was born May 16th, 1926 in Lenoir into a poor family. His father would bring home string every day from his job and wrap it around a golf ball until it was the size of a baseball so the children would have baseballs to play with. Despite not having a legitimate, so to speak, baseball to play with Walker showed potential in his childhood. Walker grew up a hardworking individual working on his family’s farm in order to…

Photo Walk-offs used to mean only home runs. But when Joe Panik won a game for the Giants last October, it was called a “walk-off double.” Credit Monica M. Davey/European Pressphoto Agency More than a decade ago, some were already sick of the term. In 2000, Sports Illustrated wrote, “Like crab grass invading someone’s lawn, walk-off has…

Baseball is in my blood. Like the light hair and eyes I inherited from my father, and the hot Italian temper I got from my mother, through my veins a love of baseball runs. Until recently, where my passion for the sport came from I was not sure. Sometime, I thought it began long ago, on summer trips to Fenway Park, when my family would drive in our oversized Chevy to Boston, park in a garage near Government Center, and take the T out to the ballpark. As I grew older and more accustomed to our…

Baseball was segregated between blacks and whites. Since the beginning of baseball in the United States, blacks and whites have been playing in different leagues. Many blacks wanted to play in Major League Baseball but didn’t have the opportunity because of discrimination. Jackie’s thought about it was, “I guess you'd call me an independent, since I've never identified myself with one party or another in politics. I always decide my vote by taking as careful a look as I can at the actual…

In the novel, Mexican Whiteboy, by Matt de la Peña, a baseball obsessed half-Mexican and half-white teenage boy, Danny, visits his father’s family in National City, California. In the beginning, Danny, dressed in a Billabong shirt and Vans, meets all of his cousin’s friends. His cousin, Sofia, and all of her friends are joking around while Danny makes some observations. He feels that he is not Mexican enough to be in National City, but he also feels he isn’t white enough to be at the private…

Individuality is quality or character of a particular person or thing that distinguishes them from others of the same kind, especially when strongly marked. In the "Babe Bows Out", Nat Fin shows that whether you're weak or can barely move that you can still accomplish what you want. Fin uses focus, contrast, line. Focus, the focus in this picture is on the main person in this case the great bambino the best player in baseball in the 1940. The background with the crowd is out of focus making the…

Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia on the date of January 3, 1919. Breaking the color barrier, Jackie Robinson turned into the first ever African-American to play in Major League Baseball. The most youthful of five youngsters, Robinson was brought up in relative destitution by a single parent. He went to John Muir High School and after he attended Pasadena Junior College, where he showed his skills playing four sports: baseball, track, football, and basketball. In 1938 he was…

PEDs has always been in the mix when it comes to professional sports. Many athletes go to extreme levels to maximize their performance. The fans go to a sporting event to see an amazing home run, an incredible football tackle or the fastest sprinter in the world. One of the main reasons why PEDs are prohibited in professional sports is due to the fact that it's going to create an unfair advantage over the opponent. In my opinion, I think most athletes will use PEDs if they can get away with it.…