Leap of Dave

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Dick Allen: Sights and Sounds

This post is a supplement to a post in my sports blog, Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Blog. Video about Allen and the 1972 White Sox.

1967 All Star Game: Allen homers for National League

Allen was a front man for a do-wop band in the 60's

Hall of Fame 2020 If I had a vote and used it

Since the inception of this blog I have always previewed the Baseball HOF voting with a number of posts. Last year was only the second year that I did not do this. I was just too busy and I thought I had finally given up blogging. As I am back and blogging again I am in the midst of previewing the 2021 Hall of Fame selection next month. I thought I would spend a few minutes and say who I would have wanted to vote for on last years ballot if I were afforded one.

Each member of the Base Ball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) is given up to 10 votes each year. As I do most every year I will pretend I have as many as 10 votes down to as few as 1 vote and state who I think I would have voted for. I will also mention how many people I think I would have voted for if I could vote for any number from 1 to 10. Again, I say I think because this is an exercise in pure revisionist history as I already know the results of the election. After saying who I voted for in what position, I will reveal what % of the vote they actually received. Anyone receiving less than 5% will not be on the ballot this year. Anyone who received at least 5% of the vote and less than 75% of the vote who still is within their first 9 years on the ballot will return to the ballot in 2021. Anyone who received more than 75% will become a member of the HOF.

If I were give 10 votes in the 2020 election, I think my10th vote would have gone to Andy Pettitte in his 2nd year on the ballot. I had not voted for Pettitte in his first season on the ballot. Pettitte received 11.3% of the vote in 2020 which was up from 9.9 % in his inaugural year.

If only able to vote for 9 people in 2020, I believe my 9th vote would have gone to Andruw Jones in his 3rd year on the ballot. I had not voted for Jones previously. Jones ended up receiving 19.4 % of the writers votes in 2020 which was up quite a bit form the 7.5% he received in 2019.

If there was a rule that said I could vote for 8 and only 8 players on the 2020 ballot, I'm thinking my 8th vote would have been for Curt Schilling in his 8th year on the ballot. I had not voted for Schilling in previous years. Schilling received 70.0 percent of the vote in 2020 which was up from 60.9% in 2018.

If I could only vote for 7 people in 2020. I think my 7th vote would have gone to Gary Sheffield in his 6th year of eligibility. In 2019 I would have considered voting for Sheffield if I had been given as many as 12 votes. Sheffield received 20.6% of the vote in 2020 which was a great increase from the 13.6% he got in 2019.

If I could only vote for 6 players in the 2020 election. I'm pretty certain my 6th vote would have gone to Jeff Kent in his 7th year on the ballot. This would have been 2 places better than I vote for him in 2019/ In 2020 Kent received 27.5 % of the writer's votes which was up from 18.1 % in 2019.

Todd Helton would have been my 5th vote in the 2020 election If I had to vote for exactly 5 people. 2020 was Helton's 2nd year on the ballot. In his inaugural year on the ballot he was the 7th player I would have chosen. Helton garnered 29.2% of the vote in 2020 which was up from 16.5% in 2019.

If I could vote in the 2020 election for as many players as I thought were worthy to be enshrined in Cooperstown, I think I would have voted for 4 people/ Before I tell you who the 4th person was, I offer the following caveat. Since I did not research the vote last year, I did not allow for voting for any returning player on my official unofficial ballot who was not on the OUB previously. It is my possible that Helton or even Kent may have raised in my estimation if I took the ample time to review their case prior to the 2020 voting. I did not, so they are both on the outside looking in.

With 4 votes in my pocket the 4th vote would have gone to Larry Walker in his 10th and final year on the ballot. In 2019 Walker had been my fifth vote in my official unofficial ballot of 6 players. In 2020 the voters saw clearly to elect Walker to the Hall of Fame with 76.6% of the vote up from 54.6% in his penultimate year of eligibility.

If on the 2020 ballot I could only vote for 3 players I am positive that my 3rd vote would go to Omar Vizquel in his 3rd year of eligibility. In 2019 He was also the 3rd on my ballot. Vizquel received 52.6% of the votes up from 42.8% in 2019.

My last 2 votes would have both gone to players in their 1st year of eligibility in 2020. mu 2nd vote would have gone to Derek Jeter who received 99.7% of the vote and made it to the HOF. My #1 vote would have definitely gone to my guy, Paul Konerko. Unfortunately the voters don't know him like I do and he recieved only 2.5% of the vote, only 1/2 the votes he need for consideration this year.

I will return in a few days for the next installment in the 2021 review.

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Stats Sunday

This is the last Sunday of the year and as 2020 ends I've decide to start something new. From time to time on this blog I will write a post that features statistics in some way. I was thinking about publishing them on Saturdays and calling it Staturday but I decided instead to call it Stats Sunday. It won't be every Sunday. But when I have a stats based post I will try to publish it on a Sunday.

The Bears beat Jacksonville today to stay alive in the Playoff picture. gula The game was Mitchell Trubisky's 49th start during the regular season. It was his 29th win in 49 starts for a winning percentage of .592. This got me to thinking.

This blog began over 11 years ago on December 12 2009. Since then the Bears have played 177 regular season games. They have won 82 of these games and lost 95 for a winning percentage of .462. During that time, the Bears have started 12 different quarterbacks and only one has a better winning percentage in games they started than Trubisky. This is the forgettable Todd Collins who won his only game as a starter for the Bears but was benched in the 3rd quarter in favor of Caleb Hanie. While Collins illustrates that one's winning percentage as a starter is not always indicative of performance, when related to a larger body of work than a handful of games there is certainly relevance to be gleaned.

Player	Year(s) Started	Wins	Losses	Percentage
Todd Collins	2010	1	0	1.000
Mitchell Trubisky	2017-2020	29	20	.592
Josh McCown	2011.2013	3	3	.500
Jay Cutler	2009-2016	44	46	.489
Nick Foles	2020	2	5	.286
Mike Glennon	2017	1	3	.250
Brian Hoyer	2016	1	4	.200
Matt Barkley	2016	1	5	.167
Jason Campbell	2012	0	1	.000
Chase Daniel	2018,2019	0	2	.000
Jimmy Clausen	2014,2015	0	2	.000
Caleb Hanie	2011	0	4	.000

Most Starts: Jay Cutler (90)

Most Wins: Jay Cutler (44)

Most Losses: Jay Cutler (46)

Best Winning Percentage: Todd Collins 1.000

Best Winning Percentage (5 or more starts) : Mitchell Trubisky .592

Worst Winning Percentage. Caleb Hanie* .000

Worst Winning Percentage (5 or more starts): Matt Baarkley .167

* 4 QBs have a .000 winning percentage during this time. Hanie gets the distinction of worst because he had more starts than any of the other 3.

Statistics are interesting in that they can tell you a lot and tell you nothing at all at the very same time. I'm not sure what kind of meaning can be extrapolated from the above chart, but it was kind of fun and a more than a little depressing looking back at a decade of Bears starting quarterbacks.

Holy Hill Batman! The work of Christian Prohaska of Mainlight Photo.

I have known Christian Prohaska for going on 40 years. We went to different high schools but met through a parachurch organization called Campus Life. We spent a lot of time on bicycling trips and other adventures. Christian is a very talented photographer, and videographer and also takes video footage using drones. His YouTube channel Mainlight Photo is amazing. Of his many videos, I decided to share this one about Holy Hill, as cycling up to this site was one of the many adventures we shared together.