Baseball Zealot Radio

Show Notes for Episode 26:

Hosts: Tom and Shawn

Summary:   Alan Nathan is a professor of physics at the University of Illinois who lectures often on the physics of baseball.  During our interview with Alan, we cover the effects of spin on the flight of the baseball, wood versus aluminum bats,  and “Is there such a thing as a rising fastball?”.  

Definitely, take a listen to our interview with Alan as he has a unique way of looking at the game.  Afterwards, swing on by his website entitled The Physics of Baseball.  There’s a plethora of info related to his field. 

At the end of the show, Alan mentioned that MLB was making a lot of data from Gameday available to the public.  Alan provided me this link to an article on Friar Watch which explains how to access the data and how to use it.

Much thanks to Alan Nathan for his time.  I found the interview very insightful and hope you do too.

Thanks for listening!!

Time: 46:39

Date Recorded: 7/24/07

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Show Notes for Episode 25:

Hosts: Tom

Summary:   I had an enjoyable chat with Bryan Alaspa from Chicago Minor League Review.  Appropriately named, CMLR is a new site which focuses on all sports on the minor league level in the Chicago metro area. 

I think with the increasing interest in minor leagues across all sports, there is a lot of potential for CMLR.  Bryan certainly has big plans for the future of the website.  Take a listen to the show and definitely visit Chicago Minor League Review.

Thanks for listening!!

Time: 19:58

Date Recorded: 7/15/07

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Show Notes for Episode 24:

Hosts: Tom and Chuck

Summary:  We touch on a variety of issues including the All-Star Game, vintage baseball, Tom’s 1979 APBA replay, the upcoming APBA convention and the woes of the Chicago White Sox.

As we said during the show, sometime co-host Shawn Lee is busy with the vintage base ball team, Vermilion Voles.  For a couple years, he’s been the webmaster for them so check out their website. 

This year, he’s picking up the bat and playing on the team.  Shawn said he couldn’t make the show because the Voles had a game.  Later, he reported back and said the Voles split their double header.  Interestingly, the team they played are from my hometown, the Urbana Boneyards. 

Here is the link to Tom’s 1979 APBA National League replay that we talked about during the show.  Much credit goes to my friend Brando who was responsible for the NL West.  As I said, we only got as far as July 26 but enjoy anyway. 

The APBA Convention is next weekend.  For those interested, here is the link to register (if it’s not too late).  Chuck mentioned the APBA Between the Lines Forum during the show.  I’d highly recommend it to any APBA player who wants to chat with others who play the game. 

Finally, one more promised link… Soxcast.com is a good podcast for White Sox fans.  George Heidcamp does a fine job covering the team. 

Thanks for listening!!

Time: 1:01

Date Recorded: 7/15/07

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Hosts: Tom

Summary: The college baseball season is over but many college players are busy as ever. Across the nation, college summer leagues are well into their schedule.

BZR interviews Andrew Hartwell of Summer Ball, a website that is devoted to getting info out about college summer leagues. Andrew talks about what these leagues are all about.

Time: 26:41

Date Recorded: 6/24/07

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Hosts: Tom and Todd

Summary: It’s been a while but here’s Show #22. Todd does his usual Pirate update. Talking about the First-Player Draft leads into a discussion about overuse of young pitchers. Todd, who umpires high school-aged kids has some definite opinions on that subject.

We also get into the latest with the Cubs dugout action. Has it hurt or helped their winning ways?

Note: due to some technical difficulties, Tom sounds like he’s broadcasting from a tin can. Sorry about that.

Time: 58:41

Date Recorded: 6/10/07

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Hosts: Tom and Chuck

Summary: Mark Pankin takes some time to talk to us about what’s behind running Retrosheet.org as well as the philosophy behind their organization. He talks about the process of compiling boxscores and play-by-play accounts and talks about some of the other cool features of Retrosheet.

For those of you use Retrosheet, this is a must-listen.

Time: 34:59

Date Recorded: 4/26/07

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Hosts: Tom and Todd

Summary: This is our first podcast since the beginning of the season so we hit on a few of big topics. A few we take on: Jackie Robinson Day, Barry Bonds, the Pirates’ start out of the gate, Dice-K mania, Tom Glavine, and who’s hot and who’s not.

Tom also takes two minutes to update on the University of Illinois baseball team.

Time: 39:21

Date Recorded: 4/17/07

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Hosts: Tom

Summary: If you want information on Big Ten baseball, there is pretty much only one site out there that covers the conference wholesale (other than the Big Ten web site, of course). That site is Big Ten Hardball. Brian DeCaussin, who runs BTH, does a fantastic job keeping up with all the teams, news, and any pressing issues that the conference faces.

For this week’s podcast, I had a chance to chat with Brian about the Big Ten Hardball web site, who’s big in Big 10 baseball this year and the issues facing the sport of college baseball.

Time: 21:00

Date Recorded: 4/11/07

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Hosts: Tom and Chuck

Summary: We do our predictions for the 2007 season. With a Cub fan and a Sox fan doing the predicting, you know we’re not going to agree on TOO much. If you have your own ideas, feel free to email us at feedback@baseballzealotradio.com and maybe we’ll read your comments on our next show.

Time: 53:23

Date Recorded: 4/1/07

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Hosts: Tom

Summary: We get a chance to talk about the St Louis Cardinals as Larry Borowski from Viva El Birdos is our guest. Those of you Cardinal fans (or baseball fans in general) who haven’t been to Viva El Birdos should check it out. They have just recently been picked as the #5 baseball blog according to Sports Media Challenge.

Larry talks about the Cardinals’ World Series win in 2006 and gives his team analysis for 2007. We end with a brief NL Central division summary.

Much thanks to Larry for guesting on the show!

Time: 41:44

Date Recorded: 3/29/07

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