Tag Archives: Casey Stengel

Weekly Update

Rob’s Update: Opening Day

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Week 30 of 2020

Greetings all

Finally! Today is the full opening day for baseball. They’ve had a couple marquee games already, like they do these days, but the first full day of baseball, which is usually packed from noon to after midnight is one of the great days of the year.

Interesting is, of course, the word to describe this year. Generally, a full-time hitter can expect to bat about 700 times in a given year. That might seem like a lot but it is still not enough to eliminate all the statistical biases of a small sample size. You need about 1100 to bring the plus/minus aspect down to small levels.

In 2020, a full time batter can expect about 300 times to bat. They’ve done some fun examples of what could happen in only 60 games, including batting averages not just above .400, but well above .400, even well past Nap LaJoie’s .426 in 1901.

So, yeah, expect some statistical anomalies.

And overall result anomalies, especially with 16 playoff teams. The playoffs are essentially about luck, as even the best team only slightly better than the worst playoff team in a single game. It will only take 2 coin flips out of 3 for the number 16 team to beat the number 1 team.

Fun stuff.

Made good progress on None Call Me Mother. Word count doesn’t really show much difference, but that’s because I’m cutting some of the dross as I go.

This last battle was always going to be a hairball, which is what I wanted. I’ve written several chunks  and plotted a number of others, but it’s a balance to get it all to flow smoothly. That’s most of what I’m doing right now.

The blocking is tricky, but to a certain extent, that’s what I have an editor for.

I think I’ll have the final draft next week, though, so I’m excited.

What I’m Listening To

Landslide, the Smashing Pumpkins version. Great version of a great song.

Quote of the Week

I don’t know that I’ve had a Casey Stengel quote here lately. Casey doesn’t get enough credit, I think.Yeah, he had a bunch of great ballplayers like Berra, DiMaggio, and Mantle, but even so he was a fantastic manager.

He’s certainly one of the great quote machines. This is what he said after getting fired from the Yankees, having ‘only’ won the pennant in 1960.

“They told me my services were no longer desired because they wanted to put in a youth program as an advance way of keeping the club going. I’ll never make the mistake of being seventy again.”
– Casey Stengel

News and Works in Progress

  • None Call Me Mother (134,151)
  • CB (8,418)
  • AOOE (1,030)
  • Cynewulf (8,642)
  • Gato (2,312)

Upcoming Events

Spotlight

Two from Chris Kennedy Publishing this week. One is Mark Wandrey writing in Chuck Gannon’s Caine Riordan world. It’s called Pearl and you can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Pearl-Murphys-Lawless-Book-5-ebook/dp/B08D72Q4ZZ/

Also, there’s another Fallen World novel, this one by J.P. Chandler. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/They-Call-Princess-Fallen-World-ebook/dp/B08DG84QYJ/

Today’s Weight: 372.2

Updated Word Count: 82,082

Shijuren Wiki: 874 entries

Let me know if you have any suggestions on the website, this email, or cool story ideas at rob@robhowell.org. Especially let me know of suggestions you have for the Spotlight section.

Have a great week, everyone.

Rob Howell

Currently Available Works
Shijuren
Four Horsemen Universe
The Phases of Mars
Short Stories

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