14 Comments

I'm a Rockies fan. The fans of the visiting team being louder than the home fans has always been part of the experience, to an extent. But I distinctly remember feeling deflated when I heard the roar of Red Sox fans in Coors Field for the first time. It probably stands out in my mind because I didn't see the actual play. We were running late, so I was on the concourse. I only knew that the Rockies were pitching, the Red Sox were batting, and it was loud after someone got a hit.

Expand full comment

I wonder if attending the game blindfolded would produce the desired effect. There’s the issue of safety, and completely shielding yourself from the results of the game on bathroom breaks might be difficult, but you’d definitely be more attuned to the lower tier sounds

Expand full comment

I always wanted to write about a home run derby sitting in the bleachers blindfolded. My editors were not impressed by my risk assessment.

Expand full comment

What editors? Now’s your chance!

Expand full comment

Without worker's comp!?!?!

Expand full comment

Ha! This is awesome, and so reminds me of random crap I'd do with my friends. Gotta turn everything into a competition. Imagine under different circumstances (say an October game outside Citizens Bank Park) may make it a bit easier to tell what's happening.

As for the not seeing aspect, kind of reminds me of when we'd play Madden football. To make it more interesting, we'd play "blind" Madden, where we'd close our eyes, randomly move around to select plays, having no idea what it was. It was always great when you had first and goal and called for a punt.

Expand full comment

I noticed this summer at one of my kid's travel tournaments (at an enormous complex in Indiana) I can generally tell what's happening on the other field without looking: offensive team upset about close play at first, pitcher getting pulled for not being good, tying or go ahead run scores, etc. Obviously there are far fewer things interfering with my hearing, but it amused me that parents from all over the country have learned to basically sound exactly the same as a group when Billy gets yanked off the mound after walking the bases loaded.

Expand full comment

Sam. You picked an Arraez WALK? I mean, I guess it shows your integrity in this project because you clearly weren’t using your judgment about the likelihood of outcomes!

Expand full comment

Later in the game I picked an Arraez STRIKEOUT! It was very disorienting being out there.

Expand full comment

🤯🤯🤯

Expand full comment

Very fun experiment, and I'm curious about some of the details!

1. Did your predictions "keep score" for the game? I.e. did you predict full game-state data like who was on which bases with how many outs, or did you keep it simple and just predict the outcomes listed in the datawrapper?

2. Did you require your predictions to be internally consistent? For example, if you predicted that the first batter grounded out, but then you suspected that maybe he got an infield single because it sure sounded like the next batter grounded into a double play, did you let yourself predict GIDP for the second batter? Or were you forced to predict that the second batter had a regular groundout?

Expand full comment

We did keep score, and we both commented about how getting something wrong at the start of the inning really messed us up for the rest of the inning. The volume of a cheer might mean something very different to me (if I thought the first batter singled) than to him (if he thought the first batter lined out, or even doubled).

We *tried* to require them to be internally consistent, but declaring something a triple play just because we needed to end an inning felt wrong. So there were occasionally innings that we didn't end up accounting for three outs in our guesses. But, in an effort to stay internally consistent, we definitely had more inning-ending double plays than was reasonable.

At one point I was certain that a runner had advanced on a SB or WP, but I couldn't do anything about it, because I didn't have any runners on.

Expand full comment

Sam,

I really enjoyed reading your post about being outside at the ball park when Ramos hit the ball into the cove. You also said that Mike Krukow knows everything about baseball. I'm pretty sure that Duane Kuiper does too! Do you know those guys? I am also curious if you know another ex-player, coach, manager, and maybe scout, Tony Muser? I knew him in junior high in Lakewood, Ca. We played in the same Little League and even on the same team in Pop Warner football! He used to get us free tickets to baseball game at Oakland A's games when his team came to town.

p.s. I listened to one of your Pod Casts the other day and always look forward to these Pebble Hunting articles!

Dick Reynolds from MHPC

Expand full comment

Sadly, I don't know Kruk or Kuip. I got to edit Dave Flemming, so that's pretty cool. And Jon Miller, appearing on the NPR show Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, once made fun of something I had written.

Expand full comment
Error