Retrosheet

The Retro Sheet

Official Publication of Retrosheet, Inc.

Volume 7, No. 2 June 2000



Table of Contents

View from the Vault
Tax-exempt Status Finalized
Dodgers lose once in 9th, then again in 10th
Retrosheet Web Site a Four-Bagger
Wild Pitch Scores Three
Pilgrim's Progress
Opening the Vault Door We Find...
Contents of the Vault
Short Items
Hey, where’s the rest of my newsletter?

View from the Vault
David W. Smith, President

After a number of exciting developments in the first quarter of the year 2000 (see the last issue of TRS), it has been pretty quiet in the vault. Steady progress is being made on the data proofing front and we continue to enjoy good relations with some Major League teams, but it appears that the dramatic events have calmed down for the time being.

Remember that the Retrosheet annual meeting takes place during the SABR convention. Getting together with those who donate their time so selflessly to the RetroCause is always a highlight of my year and I hope to see many of you in West Palm Beach.

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Tax-exempt Status Finalized

In the last issue of TRS we announced that Retrosheet had received the initial approval from the IRS concerning our tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status. On May 20, Dave Smith received the official letter from the IRS approving our tax-exempt status. Better yet, they made it effective RetroActive to January 7, 1994, the date of our incorporation!

Donations to the organization now are tax-deductible. Please check with your tax advisor for more information, especially regarding any donations made in the past.

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Dodgers lose once in 9th, then again in 10th
That was the headline over the Dodger game story in the Los Angeles Times on September 13, 1987. Here's the story. Playing in Atlanta, with the score tied 9-9 and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th, Dodger pitcher Alejandro Pena hit Brave pinch-hitter Gary Roenicke on the right hand to force in the apparent winning run. The Dodgers left the field, the Braves came out to celebrate, home plate umpire Charlie Williams began walking off the field and the grounds crew came out.

However, Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda came running out of the dugout, claiming that Roenicke had swung at the pitch and asked Williams to appeal to first-base umpire John Kibler. Charlie finally did motion to Kibler, who ruled that Roenicke had indeed swung, making the pitch a strike, even though it did hit him. Roenicke and his manager, Chuck Tanner, argued to no avail and Gary returned to the plate. He took one more pitch for strike three to end the inning.

As the Times said about Roenicke: "He swore and motioned at Kibler, who ejected him. When he reached the dugout, Roenicke threw his bat at the umpire". The Braves scored a run in the 10th to win, 10-9.

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Retrosheet Web Site a Four-Bagger

Retrosheet’s official web site [www.retrosheet.org] contains many useful items for the baseball researcher. Our most important product is the game data that we have collected. Since the last issue of TRS, we have released the 1979 data files, bringing our public collection to five years. In addition, we have been allowed to release part of the collection that belongs to Baseball Workshop. Here is the current available file list:

		Data Files Available
	Retrosheet		1967 AL, 1979-1983
	Baseball Workshop	1984-1989

The 1990 BB Workshop data will be released by the All-Star Game and our 1978 data is close to release.

Also at the site is our Most Wanted Games list, which appeared in our last issue. The online copy will be kept up-to-date as we acquire new game accounts with an occasional mention in the newsletter.

Strange plays have been a long-time feature of TRS. The collection of these unusual events is available at the site. Those are always great for a laugh!

One of the records in our game data is a ballpark code. We have released a list of those codes that can be used to interpret the data files for park-specific data.

Related to that is the field location chart for batted balls. The official chart that is used by Retrosheet was developed for Project Scoresheet. A copy of that chart is available for download if you do not have one or have worn your copy out.

This is the 21st newsletter to be published by Retrosheet since October 1994. All editions have been made available in various formats through our web site so you can go back and read issues that you do not have.

If you want to know the power of our web site, go to your favorite internet search engine and ask for Retrosheet. On May 31, Yahoo yielded 85 and IWon.com 88 matches. There is even a web site devoted to the Seattle Pilots that has box scores and play-by-play accounts of their games provided (with credit) by Retrosheet. In addition, many sites have links to our location.

Thanks to the web site development team for a great job: Leanna Bush, Tim Cashion, Sean Lahman and Mark Pankin.

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Wild Pitch Scores Three

While inputting games from the 1945 Dodgers from the scoresheets of a New York sportswriter, Clem Comly came across an unclear inning in which it appeared that the team scored three runs and left the bases loaded. However, the inning summary showed that six runs scored. The following three paragraphs are from the game story in the New York Times, which explains what happened. A crowd of 16,329 was delighted with this Cincinnati scoring splurge, but the joy was dampened in the fourth inning of the second game. Frank Dasso had pitched a three-inning no-hitter when, with one out, Goody Rosen beat out a bunt toward third that started a six-run deluge, the final trio of Dodgers scoring on one wild pitch.

Eddie Miller made a costly error when he dropped Al Unser's throw as Rosen was trying to steal second. Clean singles by Luis Olmo and Frenchy Bordagaray followed the second out, then McCormick, Mesner and Unser clustered around Bill Hart's high pop between the plate and mound only to let it fall for a hit.

The wild pitch came with Art Herring at bat, two runners scoring on that. Andrews, who had been purposely passed with two strikes on him after Hart had pilfered second, tallied also when Unser made a wild throw to Dasso at the plate.

Comment from Dave Smith: This is clearly an exciting inning, but what I like best is the intentional walk with two strikes, just because the runner stole! Great managing!

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Pilgrim's Progress

This chart shows the gradual slowing of our game inputting as we run out of accounts.

Pilgrim's

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Opening the Vault Door We Find...

The annual report of our holdings reveals that we have 60% of all games played from 1901 through 1983. Now take a deep breath, go back and re-read that last sentence. We have 60% of those games. The first time we published a summary of the contents of the vault was in July 1995. That report was about games processed, not the games in hand. However, it is interesting to note that we had 15,704 games input at that time (that total is now 60,746.) The current input total is 53% of the games played and 87% of what we have. The one game in 1979 that is “not done” is a forfeit-Disco Demolition Night.

There are many more game accounts available that we have not collected. The chief source is afternoon newspapers that published play-by-play of the local team. We need volunteers to do two things: find these accounts and copy them from microfilm. Money spent on this can be reimbursed from the treasury.

One other note: we are collecting game data for the 2000 season and it will be available as soon as possible after the season.

Retrosheet

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Contents of the Vault

  Year  Played   Have  Done  Missing    %Have
  1901    1110    318   181      792       29
  1902    1115    257    24      858       23
  1903    1114    222    83      892       20
  1904    1249      2     1     1247        0
  1905    1237    176     0     1061       14
  1906    1228     18     0     1210        1
  1907    1233      2     0     1231        0
  1908    1244      3     0     1241        0
  1909    1240     10     2     1230        1
  1910    1249     74    74     1175        6
  1911    1237    754   690      483       61
  1912    1232    706    62      526       57
  1913    1234    157     1     1077       13
  1914    1256    159     0     1097       13
  1915    1245    163     0     1082       13
  1916    1247    162     4     1085       13
  1917    1247    303   117      944       24
  1918    1016    126     0      890       12
  1919    1118    163     7      955       15
  1920    1234    653   536      581       53
  1921    1229    923   922      306       75
  1922    1238    570   418      668       46
  1923    1233    719   529      514       58
  1924    1231    363   137      868       29
  1925    1228    862   844      366       70
  1926    1234    565   375      669       46
  1927    1236    255   249      981       21
  1928    1231    393   393      838       32
  1929    1229    420   417      809       34
  1930    1234    590   589      644       48
  1931    1236    402   293      834       33
  1932    1233    342   137      891       28
  1933    1226    463   191      763       38
  1934    1223    595   344      628       49
  1935    1228    453     0      775       37
  1936    1238    337   121      901       27
  1937    1239    197    78     1042       16
  1938    1223    112     0     1111        9
  1939    1231    100    50     1131        8
  1940    1236    213   155     1023       17
  1941    1244     78    29     1166        6
  1942    1224    236    94      988       19
  1943    1238     78    37     1160        6
  1944    1242    205   174     1037       17
  1945    1230    432   432      798       35
  1946    1242    379   207      863       31
  1947    1243    665   220      578       53
  1948    1237    502   302      735       41
  1949    1240    670   450      570       54
  1950    1238    841   601      397       68
  1951    1239    904   735      335       73
  1952    1239    998   470      241       81
  1953    1240    973   817      267       78
  1954    1237    974   871      263       79
  1955    1234    898   817      336       73
  1956    1239   1069   417      170       86
  1957    1235   1052   980      183       85
  1958    1235   1166  1009       69       94
  1959    1238   1222  1219       16       99
  1960    1236   1222  1222       14       99
  1961    1430   1430  1430        0      100
  1962    1621   1564  1548       57       96
  1963    1619   1572  1565       47       97
  1964    1626   1581  1575       45       97
  1965    1623   1570  1565       53       97
  1966    1615   1561  1561       54       97
  1967    1620   1542  1540       78       95
  1968    1625   1568  1568       57       96
  1969    1946   1870  1869       76       96
  1970    1944   1914  1914       30       98
  1971    1938   1869  1869       69       96
  1972    1859   1851  1851        8      100
  1973    1943   1929  1928       14       99
  1974    1945   1945  1945        0      100
  1975    1934   1934  1934        0      100
  1976    1939   1939  1939        0      100
  1977    2103   2103  2103        0      100
  1978    2102   2102  2102        0      100
  1979    2099   2099  2098        0      100
  1980    2105   2105  2105        0      100
  1981    1394   1394  1394        0      100
  1982    2107   2107  2107        0      100
  1983    2109   2109  2109        0      100
        115717  69524 60746    46193       60

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Short Items

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Hey, where’s the rest of my newsletter?

This is an abbreviated edition of The Retro Sheet for two reasons. The last issue was late and we are not inputting as many games now as we have in the past. That gives us fewer items to run in the newsletter. All contributions are gratefully accepted by the editor at GrandSlams@aol.com

Assistance provided by Shelley and Tim Vincent

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Copyrighted: Retrosheet, 2000