4.0 DELI SCRUBS

[GoBigRed]

There’s an old saying: “Put a spoonful of wine into a barrel of sewage and you have a barrel of sewage. Put a spoonful of sewage into a barrel of wine and you have a barrel of sewage.”

In the past two weeks, I’ve been contacted twice by one of our team’s top-shelf players, pointing out that several of his statistics were wrong. That major items were missing. In checking it out, I’ve found that he was absolutely right both times. A missing hit, a missing RBI. Both were in the book, neither made it to the on-line stats. What is worrisome is that there are very likely other similar omissions. A lot of good stats. A few bad ones. The spoonful of sewage in the barrel of wine.

So what does this mean for the Scrubs? I’ve worked in the broadcasting industry my entire adult life. Broadcasting lives and dies by statistics. Audience ratings, market research, music testing, focus groups and the like. You learn during your rookie year that it’s better to have no statistics than bad ones. Bad stats lead to bad decisions. Having no statistics at least gives you a fighting chance to guess right. It’s evident to me that we have bad statistics. There are mistakes; we just don’t know how many or where they are. I no longer trust our stats, and I’m sure that player who’s numbers have been wrong two weeks running doesn’t either.

I know, it’s weekend rec ball. Nobody is going to be sent down to the single A franchise in Visalia over his stats. Still, if they are not trustworthy, there is very little point in spending the 60 to 90 minutes after each game preparing them, building them into the web site, finding out about the errors, then preparing them and updating the web again and hoping nobody else e-mails another mistake. I’m doing this baseball stuff for exactly the same reason you all are. You play ball because it’s fun. I do what I do because I’m not a player but love the game, and the whole package of what I do is my Sunday fun. Turning out a product that is of very limited usefulness is not fun.

For now, I have taken the stats and leader board off-line. Both are known to be incorrect. I am going to consider for a bit whether to fix them and put them back on-line. If I conclude that it's pointless to produce something that everyone considers suspect, I will leave them off-line, give Scott hard copies of the season so far (mistakes and all) and leave it up to him what, if anything, to do about statistics.

Either way, I will still do your book, rake the infield and maintain the website at least through the end of the season. But evidence so far indicates that I am incapable of getting these stats done properly. And that’s the only way I’ll do them.

-Doug Herman

[GoBigRed]

Tuesday morning -- I have enlisted the help of a fellow baseball fan at work. We're going to use lunchtime today to conduct a survey of the season's stats. It should tell us whether the two problems that have surfaced recently reflect the quality of the data as a whole. We will randomly select five player lines from each of the games to date and compare them to what is on the stats system for the selected player. If they all match, I'm satisfied that we're "good enough" and will put everything back on line. Check back later in the day to see it all turned out.

-Doug

[GoBigRed]

Tuesday 12:45pm -- We got an early start and we've randomly audited about one third of all the player lines in the book over the 14 games the Scrubs have played this season. We found only one minor discrepancy, a plate appearance that was entered as on base on a fielder's choice and should have been entered as on base on an error. Since that doesn't change anything, we're leaving it alone. As far as we can tell, we're pretty clean, so maybe this has been a false alarm. But I wanted to be fairly confident that we're not all looking at garbage numbers before we went forward from here.

The one error I was called on this week is fixed and it's all back on-line.

Thanks to my friend and co-worker for helping me dig through this.

See you Sunday (when and wherever the schedule sends us, whenever it comes out).



-Doug

[Sperminator7]

Ok, listen ALL fuking haters about your gay stats,...If Poppa Herman missed a base hit, or gave you a fielders choice when he shouldn't have DEAL WITH IT. He is turning out a great product for us by not only keeping the book, which NOBODY would be doing, and then goes home a enters the stats and post them on a fabulous website. He doesn't have a little helper who aids in all this work. If you're batting average suffered 0.002% due to the "human" error come cry to me about it, I'll listen to your sobbing, and then serve you with an elbow sandwiches till your ungratefulness improves. Maybe removing the stats altogether is a good idea,...that way we can all say we are hitting .500 and not stress about who should be hitting where based on a fairly unimportant stat---batting average. Runs produced is the only important offensive category.

Dad, you are amazing,...you don't need to rake the field, keep the book, do stats or keep the web site up. But you do cause like you said: Its your Sunday fun. But what isn't fun, is going unappreciated for going beyond the call of duty which is none. I know you don't do half-ass work, and are proud of turning out quality jobs. You are a HARD worker. You are doing a great job, and should be very proud of the product you are putting out. The Scrubs "TEAM" should be grateful to have you on it. Next you'll be blamed for not smoothing over a area of the infield that 'caused' an error

[CoachShane]

Mr. Herman I've almost known you for about 14 years now and I just want to say when I see you Sunday you will receive my normal handshake and thank you in one hand, and with the other you receive one big ol' bottle of jack liver lotion, my treat! THANK YOU for BEING YOU.

[GoBigRed]

Shane, thanks for the compliment. Bottle o'Jack not necessary, but the thought is much appreciated. Dan Herman, all I can say is if I ever end up in a fight or a tight spot, I can't think of anybody I'd rather have right there beside me.

[Sperminator7]

Thanks, If you ever need me for the battle, I'm there. Ask Coach Shane about some fools we have served over the years. My favorite was at the Super Cross when Shane Dogg and I had to fix this dudes problem by kicking the sh*t out of him and his buddies. The best part was when we tried pushing the guy over the railing,...did I mention we are sitting in the View Section of the Q. That Potato Bowl ring you had was like a brass knuckle!!!

[matty]

Mr. Herman you are awesome! I very much appreciate seeing you at every game and making sure the umpires have everything under control. We all know how important you are and especially with the umpires forgetting how to do their job. We love seeing you there even if you weren't doing the stats and running the web-site and supporting us and how many other things do you do for us. I think there is at least ten. Thank you for everything you do. Your presence and help is much appreciated by me and by all.

[CoachShane]

Dam DHerm your right I have forgotten that we have a life-time ban from our hometown stadium the Q. That's right I SAID LIFETIME BAN BOYS. That was the last place I ever thought we would be in hand cuffs. Try to never visit the jail cell at the bottom of Qualcomm gentlemen it's very hard to see the field from there. Although I would it was pretty hilarious watching a grown man pee down is leg when Dherm has one ankle and Coach Shane has the other trying to shake the dudes change out of his pocket upside down from the nose bleed section....ahhhh those were the days. I would say his two friends got the worse end of the deal though with one catching a flying hay maker in the temple for a TKO from Herman the German and the other taking a Super Bowl Ring in the Eye Socket for ONE HITTER QUITER.

[Sperminator7]

Well said Shane,...remember, we got arrested twice there, once for sneaking in a 12 pack of beer, getting plastered and running around the outfield perimeter with our shirts off trying to start the wave. When we tried to make our get-away a dozen yellow jackets security guys surrounded us and off to the holding area we went. Since we were getting arrested anyway, we should have made a V-line for the field, hopped the railing and ran foul pole to foul pole. It was the ass whooping of those desert rats that landed us the life time ban. I felt like Tony Soprano trying to collect some money dangling that fool halfway over the railing. His friends couldn't help him, they were to busy sleeping.

[CoachShane]

Well said x2 Dherm, I forgot about the 12oz can that rolled out of you pant leg on the way through the turn style, LOL. That's all right we were just pouring out some for the homeys baby. By the way it's fairly hard to get the wave going at the East County Super Bowl you know...the fan's are not that receptive.