Beer Leagues and Major Leagues

by Coltrane

In his New Historical Baseball Abstract (2001), Bill James lists 16 indicators that he believes can used to determine the quality of play in Major League Baseball.   He calls these “Peripheral Quality Indicia”, or “PQL for short.”  (An acronym that didn’t catch on, go figure.)  Using Bob Lemon as an example, James writes about the fact that hitting by pitchers has declined steadily over the history of major league baseball, and that this is because the overall quality of play has improved with the passage of time.

The List, make a mental note of the items that are in bold:

1.  Hitting by pitchers.

2.  The average distance of players, in age, from 27.

3.  The percentage of players who are less than six feet tall or more than 6’3″.  [Ed:  Percentage of players who differ from the ideal size for the sport.]

4.  Fielding Percentage and Passed Balls.

5.  Double Plays.

6.  Usage of pitchers at other positions.

7.  The percentage of fielding plays made by pitchers.

8.  The percentage of games which are blowouts.

9.  The average attendance and seating capacity of the game location.

10.  The condition of the field.

11.  The use of players in specialized roles.

12.  The average distance of teams from .500.

13.  The percentage of games that go nine innings.

14.  The standard deviation of offensive effectiveness.

15.  The standard of record-keeping.

16.  The percentage of managers who have 20 years or more experience in the game.

James’ list looks specifically at major league baseball.  I think that the items in bold apply to any sporting event.  Take for example– a bunch of 13 year-old kids playing basketball at the playground.  The kids are young and small, the rim’s probably bent and there are likely cracks in the blacktop, nobody is watching them play because nobody really cares who wins, and when somebody does win it might be by a score of around 15-5, and that’s if anyone is keeping score at all.  It’s not good basketball, and by extension it isn’t much of a sporting event.

Competition has increased in the NFL too.  It used to be that players were expected to play both offense and defense– to be “two-way players.”  Frank Gifford played Running Back and Defensive Back.  Pat Summerall played Tight End, Defensive End, and Kicked for good measure.  They both played for the Giants in the late 50’s.  The Giants had five positions covered by two guys in the “Greatest Game Ever Played“, the NFL Championship, in 1958.  (The game also featured Vince Lombardi as the Giants Offensive Coordinator, and Tom Landry as their Defensive Coordinator– 17 Hall of Famers in all.)   The NFL has now evolved to the point that in order to hold a job a player has to resemble whatever the idealized phenotype is for their position.

Where else can this be seen?  Notable achievements in “Low Competition” settings include:  Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak in 1941.  The UCLA Bruins basketball winning streaks in the 60’s and 70’s.  The UConn women’s basketball streaks (and their average winning margin of nearly 30 points) of the new millenium.

“High Competition” settings include:  The development left-handed relief specialists in major league baseball.  The explosion of sabermetrics and advanced statistics in baseball and basketball.  Football now has “3rd down backs”, “nickle” defensive backs, specialized punters and kickers, and players that only return those kicks.

Probably the quickest and easiest way to know if it’s competitive?  Look in the stands and see how many paying customers are at the event.  If the spectators are all kids — if the crowd sounds like a Justin Bieber concert– it tells you all you need to know.

Historical Baseball Abstract link here.

Bill James is from Kansas.  Here’s probably the strangest music video ever made entitled Kansas, by The Wolfgang Press.  Check out those creepy Kennedy masks!  The way the song is mixed it seems to me that it’s intended to be listened to loud.  Annoy the neighbors.