Comments on: Kevin Millar, chemistry and the Cubs

By: Matthew C. Kriner

Matthew C. Kriner — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:45:11 +0000

Most articles you see these days are very poorly written and lack a sense of direction. This article on the other hand is very well written and on focus

By: search engine optimisation

search engine optimisation — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:25:48 +0000

Hello, nice post. I look forward to your next post. Thanks, Julie

By: willmose

willmose — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:59:01 +0000

You are all wrong! The Cubs do need chemistry. With just the right chemistry, the whole team could blow up!

By: TimberLee

TimberLee — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:19:05 +0000

… and I probably would have done better in high school chemistry if I’d had more baseball.

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:38:23 +0000

The bad chemistry in baseball occurs on teams that have either no feelings or repressed dislike. If it’s out in the open, it’s fine. But get into the dog days of summer, and it’s like any other job — your energy level is affected after months of repetitive work. And baseball is a surprising amount of work that most fans don’t see.

By: GimmeSomeSteel

GimmeSomeSteel — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 13:15:23 +0000

When you hinted at great teams with no “chemistry”, my non-New-York-centric mind thought of the early Seventies Oakland teams first. They literally fought each other in the clubhouse, but won five straight AL West titles and three consecutive World Series under two managers.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 13:11:28 +0000

You know, I think maybe since it is baseball we’re talking about, we should stop throwing the word “chemistry” around like this. I mean, haven’t we had enough trouble with…chemistry in this game? Well, yeah, if you want to bring up Wade Boggs and Margo Adams, or Peterson and Kekich, or the issue of strange in general, I guess you could say we’ve had some issues with biology as well. And of course, if we’re talking about the effects of oxygen depletion and decreased atmospheric pressure in places like Coors Field, I guess you could also say we’ve had issues with physics. And then there’s geology – just ask the Giants and Athletics about that. Nor should we forget meteorology – rainouts here in Macondo at Joeprodolsharklife Stadium aren’t due to some Santeria deity pissing on your head, you know?
.
When you get right down to it, the sciences have been nothing but trouble for baseball and its fans. Hell, the sabremetrics geeks are still scratching their heads trying to find that elusive even integer of Pi, and they’re sure it’s out there someplace. It’s too bad George W. Bush couldn’t have remained in office for another decade or two; his fundamentalist asshole advisers would have had the time to throw science into the dumpster altogether along with evolutionary biology. Then we’d be discussing all baseball-related phenomena in terms of angels in the outfield.

By: Phil

Phil — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:18:26 +0000

The Yankees lost much more than they have realized when Bernie Williams, Tino Rodrigues and Paul O’Neill left.
Yeah, but think of how much the got back when they traded for Alex Martinez.

By: Gordon & Barb Young

Gordon & Barb Young — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:13:10 +0000

I agree that team chemistry is very important, almost more important than talent. The Yankees lost much more than they have realized when Bernie Williams, Tino Rodrigues and Paul O’Neill left. Johnny Damon was a help, talent and chemistry wise, but he didn’t turn the Yankees around by himself. I think Nick Swisher and A J were the last pieces of the puzzle to improve the chemistry, then the talent could do the rest.

By: Bret

Bret — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:07:02 +0000

Don’t you mean if Dave Roberts was thrown out in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS?

By: APBA Guy

APBA Guy — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:00:05 +0000

Shockingly, last year’s A’s were said by many observers here to have had good chemistry. They guys appeared to get along great, aside from Holliday there was nobody there who obviously didn’t want to be there, and even he tried to get along by all accounts. Their record:
75-87.

By: YX

YX — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:58:31 +0000

I actually haven’t see any (non-pretend) sabermetic people say that “chemistry is meaningless”, just it hasn’t been quantified.
It’s common sense, really. If everyone at your work place are arseholes, you wouldn’t enjoy it as much and wouldn’t be motivated as much, productivity would suffer. The fact that they are paid millions to play a game doesn’t change that.