I got to the seminar around 8:35 and sat down at around 9. The highlights of the first half of that day were Dr. Chris Geary and Red Sox manager John Farrell. Geary, who is an orthopedic surgeon who has worked with the San Diego Padres, did a presentation on hip necrosis, comparing Mike Napoli's ailment with Bo Jackson. He talked about how necrosis can lead to different stages of bone death in the hip, eventually leading to a full replacement of the hip once it gets too severe. Despite the heavy-handedness of the topic he was talking about, he kept the mood light by injecting a fair bit of humor into his presentation by putting pictures of himself in goofy poses and his use of initial-isms. John Farrell talked about the role sabermetrics plays in his managerial decisions. To my surprise, he ranted and raved about Tom Tippett's contribution in giving him in-game info, especially since it seems like managers generally scorn anyone who's background is in number-crunching. He also talked about the difficulty about getting veteran players to go along with a defensive-shift and how, despite all the evidence to the contrary, how he prefers keeping relievers in strict roles such as "closers" or "set-up men."
After a lunch break, the second-half began. The highlights during the 2nd-half for me were Brian Bannister and Jason Lefkowitz's presentation. Brian Bannister, a former major league league pitcher who played primarily for the Kansas City Royals talked about how "average" or below pitchers, such as himself, can still contribute to the success of a team. He mentioned how in college and in the minors he had high strikeout totals despite the fact that he didn't have plus "stuff." However, when he got to the majors, he was unable to strike people out. He then turned to sabermetrics in order to change his approach, ala Brandon McCarthy, in order to stick in the bigs, and becoming more dependent on throwing a change-up to get batters. The coolest part to me, though, was the fact that he used tables copied from Fangraphs to make his point. It is refreshing, even in this day and age, to see players, both current and former, not only use sabermetrics to enhance their abilities but to also use the same sites that I use to get across my points to people. Lefkowitz, who is currently a scout for the New York Yankees, gave a presentation on scouting. He explained how the 20-80 scale works and stressed the importance of being able to explain and defend that grade either to the front office, especially if it's a high grade. His presentation was very informative on how scouting works, but I also liked it because he was a former assistant coach for the UC Santa Barbara baseball team (my alma mater).
After two other presentations, it was once again time for another round of student presentations, the 1st of which was mine. To prepare for the presentation, I skipped out of some of the presentations that I had seen before at the SABR Analytics conference to practice. I found a quiet space to rehearse in the hallway next to the women's restroom. As I was rehearsing, I 20-something girl walked by, and gave me an awkward glance as she went inside the restroom. I can only imagine what she thought when she saw me talking nervously to myself while I was next to the ladies room...
Anyway, when it was my turn to talk, I walked up to the front of the lecture hall and waited for Dan Brooks to give me the signal to go. Since I had the stomach flu on Wednesday I was unable really rehearse on that day, and since I was pressed for time (again we only 10 minutes long), I decided to read mostly from my notes. Overall, I think the presentation went well. I think the second part of my presentation needs more testing, but the first part is likely publishable (I'm told the slides will made available to the public soon). Unfortunately, since my presentation was late in the afternoon on Sunday, a lot of the attendees had already left while others took some time in the hallways to stretch and use the restroom. So that was a big downer for me.
After my presentation, I sat back down and watched the other 3 student presentations, which were actually pretty good. Unlike Saturday's presentations, I felt that the presenters on Sunday looked more prepared and stayed away from using to much statistical jargon in their presentation. I think my favorite was the last one, which was done by Ben Briggs. He actually created a website that allows you to simulate a team's offense in order to get the optimal batting. I can't really do justice in describing what it actually did, but I and most of the attendees thought it was really cool.
After a presentation from Dave Allen, the seminar ended with an extended Q&A with Dave Cameron & Ben Lindbergh, both managing editors of Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus respectively. After the Q&A, I walked up to both Dan Brooks and Chuck Korb respectively, thanked both for the opportunity to present at the seminar, and walked back to the hotel.
When I got back to the hotel, I hung around for an hour or so to relax, decompress, and let my cell phone recharge. After relaxing a bit, I decided to get some dinner. Since I still wanted to have at least one lobster roll before, and since my flight the next day didn't leave until the afternoon, I decided to try the Island Creek Oyster Bar, which was only a block or two from the Boston University. So at around 7:45, I left the hotel, walked over the Charles River, and crossed to the other side of Commonwealth Ave. As I was walking past Boston University, I was noticing an increasing swell of people wearing Red Sox and Yankees gear. And when I got the corner where the restaurant was near, the entire block was swarming with Red Sox and Yankees fans. Wondering why there were so many baseball fans converging on this intersection, I looked down the road (where most of the fans were walking) and there was Fenway, just a hop, skip, and a jump (over the turnpike) from the restaurant.
Anyway, I got to the Island Creek Oyster bar at around 8. The restaurant was pretty full, so I sat down at the bar. At the bar there were multiple flat-screen showing the Red Sox-Yankee game. Next to me was a big, meatheaded dude with a thick Boston accent and his group of 20-something friends. When Ryan Dempster nailed A-Rod in the back the meathead next to me started whooping up about it with his friends while I just shook my head. Luckily him and his friends weren't around for long.
Anyway, I ordered my long-awaited lobster roll, and about 10 minutes later it arrived. It came with fresh potato chips and a little cup of cole slaw. Everything, from the roll, to the chips, to the slaw was delicious. I took a picture of my dinner before I ate with my phone, but apparently my phone thought the picture was delicious as well and gobbled up the picture. So here's a stock photo of what I ate:
Seriously, if you're ever in Boston stop by and order one, it's worth it.
After eating dinner, I started walking back to the hotel when I came across the intersection that led to Fenway Park. Since the game was in progress now, the intersection was mostly quiet and unoccupied. I walked to the intersection, looked down the road at Fenway Park, and paused for a minute. It about 9:00 PM EST. I hadn't gotten any sleep during the past week or so, had spent the majority of the past 2 days listening to presentation after presentation, and had to walk a mile and a half in order to get back to the hotel. To say I was tired at that moment and time would've been an understatement. Plus, I had to make sure I got up early enough the next day to ride a cab to the airport so I wouldn't miss my flight. On the other hand, I reason for my visit was to discuss baseball, and despite talking and listening about baseball for 3 days, I had actually seen very little of it. And there I was standing on an intersection that was just a stone's throw away from the site where two storied franchises were going at it. I thought to myself "What the hell? I'm here on a baseball trip. A might as well, at the very least, take a few pictures of the ballpark while I'm here." So I started walking to the park.
I walked over the turnpike and snapped a photo of Fenway in the near distance (all while trying to crop out the idiotic mural asking for an assault weapons ban):
I crossed Lansdowne Street, and snapped another picture of Fenway:
I turned the corner and walked a little bit down Yawkey Way and took one last picture:
Feeling satisfied, I walked down Yawkey Way and turned the corner back on Brookline. As I turned the corner, a black wearing a dark jacket hollered "Got tickets? Want tickets? 40 bucks!" walked right past me. I took two steps and stopped dead in my tracks and remembered "Hey, I have 40 bucks!". I turned back around and told him that I had 40 dollars on me. He pulled out a ticket, and was about to give it to me, when he looked at the ticket and said "Oh wait, this is worth $60." I knew the guy was probably ripping me off (the ticket was actually worth $52.60 upon further inspection) and since about 1/3rd of the game had been played already played I probably could've haggled him down a bit. But I was too excited about getting in to really care, so I gave him $60.
The walk to the Yawkey Way entrance felt like it was in slow motion, I couldn't believe what was happening. When I handed over my ticket to the attendant, I was literally expecting the ticket to turn out to be a fake when she scanned it, leaving me to walk glumly back to my hotel. Instead, she scanned it and welcomed me inside the stadium. Walking through the concourse felt surreal, and even when I finally sat down in my seats in the RF corner, I still couldn't quite believe that I was in Fenway Park watching a Red Sox-Yankee game (even though I hate both teams equally). After getting my bearings, I finally got up enough nerve to take a picture:
The one thing that stood out for me at Fenway was how small it was. I knew that Fenway is the smallest operating ballparks in the majors, but on TV it always looked spacious on TV. It reminded me more of a minor league park (like the Epicenter in Rancho Cucamonga) then any of the other main ballparks I've been to so far. Then again, my main point of reference for ballparks is Dodger Stadium, which the largest operating ballpark in the world, so there's that.
Anyway, I got to my seats, around the middle of the 3rd inning, I saw 2 doubles off the Green Monster (courtesy of Shane Victorino and Jarrod Saltalamacchia), a home run into the bullpen by Wil Middlebrooks, and a ground-rule so some jazzed up Red Sox fan who was sitting about 10 to 12 rows in front. Since I hadn't gotten much sleep during the past week and had to catch a flight the next day, I decided to leave at around 10 PM. It was only the end of the 5th, but I knew that these games take a long time to end (Mariano Rivera was still in the process of closing it out when I went to bed around 12), and since I hated both teams I didn't really have any interest in the outcome. The only regret I had about leaving early was, as I was walking back through the concourse, I heard the entire stadium suddenly groan and boo. Curious to know what had happened, I looked up at one of the TVs they had and saw A-Rod circling. Damn it, I missed seeing A-Rod hit a home run at Fenway Park. Oh well...
Anyway, I made the 40 minute walk back to the hotel and went to bed at around 12. I finally was able to get some sleep that night, and made to both the airport and back to CA without much of a hitch. Overall, I must say I enjoyed my trip to Boston. If I had more time I'd probably would've scoped out the city more, but I had a really good time at the seminar, and to anyone who enjoys learning about the science behind baseball I highly encourage you to attend next year.
