One of the things I find to be missing from MLB compared to European sports, and even the KBO & NPB, is the lack of chants about the players coming from the stands. The word play involved in these chants
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Tag: Baseball
The Worst Called Strike of the First Half
As I mentioned in my first piece of this series, I miss the semi-season articles that Jeff Sullivan used to do for FanGraphs on the worst called balls and strikes. In the last piece we looked at called balls and
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The Worst Called Ball of the First Half
We are a few weeks beyond the half point of the season and on the weekend I went in search for one of my favourite articles of each season. But after a few minutes of searching I realised that it
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The Called First Pitch Strike – Why?
I have a few bugbears when I watch a game of Major League Baseball, I feel most of these are derived from the fact that I have never been taught how to play the game or faced something being thrown
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Will there be a London Series after 2020?
You might think it a little premature and probably quite ungrateful to be talking about baseball in the UK beyond 2020. We literally just had a series in London for the first time ever and the only thing I care
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An Analytic Glance at the first “Half”
We have just started the second “half” of the MLB season. The reason for the air quotes is that the definition of half a season in MLB is determined by if a game was played before or after the All-Star
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Shrimp, Turtles and Baseball
Welcome to Bat Flips & Nerds, Rob Pritchard… It is three decades since Kevin Costner first introduced a British audience to the magic of Minor League Baseball, first as ‘Crash’ Davis in Bull Durham, then, a year later, as Ray
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A Different Kind of Baseball Fandom
Welcome to BFN, denizen of British baseball’s worst podcast, Jon Mackenzie… Hello. My name is Jon and I have embarked on a late-night love affair with thirty-something-year-old thicc men. It’s 1:34 in the morning and I’m watching Daniel Descalso on
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Can We Play You Every Week
“Can we play you, can we play you, can we play you every week. Can we play you every week.” Those of you more familiar with British football will recognise this chant. It is one that the fans will sing
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How I got into baseball – Mark Buckton
My first baseball experience came in August 1994, almost… Working for a few weeks on Nellis Air Force Base just outside Las Vegas, Nevada as part of an RAF Harrier squadron, we had been told an MLB team would be
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