Cube Notes

Who Likes the Foreigners?

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:56:00 +0000

The ratio of Americans to foreigners at the major league level has risen from 3% in 1903 to 26% in 2008. International scouting is more important than ever as there is a high probability that one out of every 5 players on your team will have learned the game somewhere other than in the US.

Some teams and general managers have shied away from foreigners but others have embraced them; to a point where 50% of their players were born outside of the States or Canada. Omar Minaya and Ned Colletti are stocking their teams with imports more than any other General Managers in recent years. Omar Minaya made his presence felt immediately after being hired to lead the Montreal Expos in 2002. Though they already had a large % of foreigners on their team (40.4% in 2001), Minaya quickly boosted it up to 44% and after taking over the New York Mets in 2005, he raised their ratio of foreigners from 23% in 2004 to 47% in 2006. Does this translate to winning? Well, it didn't necessarily result in a World Championship for the Mets but how about for other teams?
Consider the % of foreigners on the last 10 World Series winning teams:

2008 PHI  15%
2007 BOS  33%
2006 STL  24%
2005 CHW  32%
2004 BOS  22%
2003 FLA  28%
2002 ANA  20%
2001 ARI  19%
2000 NYY  30%
1999 NYY  31%

It would be very difficult to correlate championships to the ratio of foreigners on a given team but in general, the % does not deviate much from teh average.

Its also important to note that for the purpose of this study, a foreigner is classified as a player whose birthplace is anywhere other than the United States or Canada. The study does not take into consideration the location of upbringing for a specific player and so players such as Bruce Bochy (France), Jeff Bronkey (Afhganistan) and Keith McDonald (Japan) are deemed foreigners.

The top 15 teams with the highest % of foreigners


2004 Los Angeles Dodgers 51.2%
2006 New York Mets       51.0%
2005 Los Angeles Dodgers 47.7%
2005 New York Mets       47.6%
2007 New York Mets       46.9%
2008 New York Mets       46.0%
2002 Montreal Expos      44.2%
2003 Montreal Expos      44.2%
2006 Los Angeles Dodgers 44.0%
1997 Toronto Blue Jays   43.2%
2003 New York Yankees    42.9%
2005 Baltimore Orioles   41.3%
2008 New York Yankees    41.2%
2001 Montreal Expos      40.4%
2004 Baltimore Orioles   40.4%
2005 Seattle Mariners    39.6%

By Franchise (Data since 1980):


Arizona Diamondbacks   25.7%
Florida Marlins        24.9%
Los Angeles Dodgers    24.2%
Pittsburgh Pirates     21.4%
Colorado Rockies       21.4%
Tampa Bay Rays         20.8%
Washington Nationals   20.5%
Toronto Blue Jays      20.1%
Cleveland Indians      18.7%
New York Yankees       18.4%
Baltimore Orioles      18.0%
Seattle Mariners       17.4%
New York Mets          17.3%
Atlanta Braves         16.9%
Texas Rangers          16.3%
Cincinnati Reds        16.3%
St. Louis Cardinals    15.9%
Chicago Cubs           15.8%
Chicago White Sox      15.6%
Milwaukee Brewers      15.5%
Houston Astros         15.4%
Los Angeles Angels     14.6%
Kansas City Royals     14.3%
Boston Red Sox         14.2%
Detroit Tigers         14.2%
San Diego Padres       13.9%
Minnesota Twins        13.6%
Oakland Athletics      13.6%
Philadelphia Phillies  13.4%
San Francisco Giants   12.8%

By Year:

1903 3.3%
1904 4.2%
1905 4.2%
1906 4.3%
1907 3.6%
1908 4.0%
1909 2.8%
1910 2.4%
1911 1.8%
1912 2.7%
1913 2.6%
1914 3.7%
1915 2.3%
1916 3.4%
1917 2.9%
1918 3.4%
1919 2.1%
1920 2.1%
1921 1.9%
1922 1.4%
1923 0.8%
1924 0.7%
1925 1.3%
1926 1.1%
1927 0.7%
1928 0.8%
1929 0.9%
1930 0.6%
1931 1.2%
1932 1.1%
1933 0.8%
1934 0.6%
1935 1.0%
1936 0.8%
1937 1.0%
1938 0.9%
1939 0.9%
1940 1.1%
1941 0.9%
1942 1.5%
1943 2.2%
1944 2.8%
1945 3.1%
1946 1.3%
1947 1.4%
1948 1.4%
1949 2.6%
1950 3.1%
1951 3.4%
1952 3.0%
1953 3.8%
1954 4.2%
1955 5.0%
1956 5.5%
1957 5.7%
1958 6.1%
1959 6.8%
1960 9.0%
1961 7.5%
1962 7.4%
1963 7.9%
1964 8.8%
1965 8.7%
1966 9.3%
1967 10.1%
1968 10.4%
1969 11.5%
1970 11.2%
1971 10.2%
1972 10.7%
1973 11.2%
1974 11.1%
1975 9.7%
1976 11.4%
1977 10.4%
1978 10.3%
1979 10.4%
1980 11.2%
1981 10.5%
1982 10.6%
1983 11.9%
1984 11.2%
1985 11.1%
1986 11.0%
1987 11.9%
1988 13.5%
1989 12.5%
1990 13.1%
1991 14.4%
1992 14.2%
1993 14.5%
1994 15.0%
1995 16.6%
1996 17.9%
1997 21.1%
1998 19.9%
1999 21.3%
2000 22.4%
2001 24.1%
2002 25.4%
2003 25.0%
2004 26.7%
2005 27.1%
2006 27.2%
2007 26.2%
2008 26.2%

The South Coast League

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:43:00 +0000

+ Not sure why I didn't notice but the South Coast League did not play in 2008. I grabbed the 2007 stats and so there are duplicate stats for all players participating in this league.

I'll have that updated on the site soon.

2008 Independent Statistics

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:48:00 +0000

+ I have added stats for the following Independent Leagues.

American Association
Atlantic League
CanAm League
Continental League
Frontier League
Golden League
Northern League
South Coast League
United League

Two interesting names pop out.

A new player named Rich Lawyer
Former NHL hockey player Theo Fleury played in 2 games for the Calgary Vipers.

+ My next project will be to work 100% on the new site design which will hopefully be ready sooner than later. Once that is done, I can go back to my data projects.

Minor League Fielding Statistics

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:10:00 +0000

+ I'm not sure how much value people put on fielding statistics but in case you are interested, I have finally updated minor league fielding stats for all affiliated leagues between 2006 and 2008. The only exception is that I don't have pitchers fielding stats or DH appearances. As always, for minor leaguers, outfielders will simply appear as "OF" instead of the specific position.

+ At one time, The Baseball Cube was littered with ticket advertisements by competitive ticket companies trying to use link placement as a means of getting higher rankings in the search engines, i.e. Google. Over the last year, Google has made some adjustments to their search algorithm that now penalizes ticket companies and sites that show these ads with respect to search rankings. And so the trend on the Cube is that there are not only less ticket ads but there will likely soon be none.

That provides the opportunity for a site redesign since much of the current design is built around making room for these ticket ads. You can expect to see something new in the next couple of weeks or months. It will be a more vertical display that will require a lot of scroll down but all of the same information will still be there and there may even be a few new surprises.

Baseball Studies Online

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:24:00 +0000

+ I've started a section on Baseball Studies which thus far only includes the Organization Stability post that I made last week. I have more studies on the way and if you have any interesting "studies" that you'd like to see me complete, don't hesitate to contact me.

2008 Major League Stats

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:10:00 +0000

+ We're up to date with Major League Stats for 2008. The data products will be completely updated by tomorrow.

Minor League Playoff Data

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:33:00 +0000

+ I've updated the Minor League Team Pages to now include playoff results for 2008.

+ I should have Major League Stats online next week and by extension, all of the data products for 2008 should be available.

+ I have happened on a new band called Kings of Leon. Brilliant straight-ahead gutsy rock. "Arizona" is my new favorite song.

Organizational Stability

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:49:00 +0000

There is no other sport with as many pro minor league levels as Baseball. There's AAA, AA, High A, Low A, Short-Season A, Rookie ball and the latin-american leagues, each with own distinct characteristics. Each organization has the hefty task of managing its players among its 6-8 teams as if it were a jigsaw puzzle of talent. A team must stock its team with about 150 minor leaguers, each with their own career aspirations that must be balanced with the team's goals. With all this movement from year to year, I wondered how much turnover each company (team) goes through each year.

The short answer: Organizational stability is 60.42%

60.42% of players remain in an organization from year to year. That means that 2 out of every 5 players will either move to a different team, retire or be injured. Its a very high turnover rate by the standards of the company that you or I work for but in baseabll, its business as usual. My analysis started in 1978, the first year that I had access to full organizational data which does not include the latin-american leagues.

Stability can be judged as good or bad, depending on the depth of talent within the organization. There are a myriad of factors that go into this data, most of which cannot be quantified and so there's likely no functional use of this data. Still, it can be deemed as interesting.

Here are some facts about Organizational Stability/Turnover, all using data since 1978:

Most stable team: Boston Red Sox 64.15%
Least Stable team: Texas Rangers 57.23%
Most Stable team/season: 1986-1987 Boston Red Sox 78.57%
Least Stable team/season: 1988-1989 Cleveland Indians 42.11%

Stability by Franchise 1978-2007:

ARI 59.96%
ATL 61.32%
BAL 59.62%
BOS 64.15%
CHC 58.74%
CHW 60.89%
CIN 59.37%
CLE 59.00%
COL 58.53%
DET 58.34%
FLA 58.66%
HOU 62.88%
KC 59.98%
LAD 62.41%
MIL 60.05%
MIN 64.06%
NYM 59.67%
NYY 60.58%
OAK 62.77%
PHI 59.88%
PIT 58.95%
SD 58.78%
SEA 60.66%
SF 61.73%
STL 60.92%
TB 57.75%
TEX 57.23%
TOR 63.69%
WAS 57.56%

Stability by Season 1978-2007:

1978 62.86%
1979 65.73%
1980 62.36%
1981 64.63%
1982 63.11%
1983 64.26%
1984 61.44%
1985 62.04%
1986 63.54%
1987 63.47%
1988 60.85%
1989 57.03%
1990 59.57%
1991 61.90%
1992 61.34%
1993 60.77%
1994 64.33%
1995 56.53%
1996 60.33%
1997 59.90%
1998 59.92%
1999 58.92%
2000 58.32%
2001 57.10%
2002 59.32%
2003 55.98%
2004 58.12%
2005 56.18%
2006 60.19%
2007 60.72%

Sacrilegious Logo Theft

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:59:00 +0000

+ Working on a baseball project today, I came across the St. Cloud State Huskies logo and was mortified at their lack of originality. A native Montrealer, I grew up with the Montreal Canadiens as religion and it remains that way into their centennial year.

Surprisingly, I cannot find any reference to this similarity on the Internet either because nobody cares or nobody knows who the heck the St. Cloud State Huskies are.

But no worries. I found some comfort when I saw the name of the St. Cloud baseball field.

Finally. An Update.

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:08:00 +0000

+ 2008 Minor League Stats are now available on the site.

+ I've added "Signed By:" for as many players as possible. Signed by is the scout that was credited with signing a particular player. Though it might be disputed at times by the scouts themselves, I've gone by what I could find in official team documentation and through Baseball America. Though on its own, the signed by field doesn't mean much, when I have enough data, I will link each scouts signings together and provide the first database of a scouts signing, their highest level etc.

+ Another new feature of the player pages is the Prospects section. At this point, it will give you an idea as to where players figured in Baseball America's yearly organizational and league-wide rankings. I've included the top 10 team rankings as well as the top 100 MLB rankings.

+ There are many other projects on the way including the massive update of player profile information. If you have any old media guides lying around and you'd like to lend them to us, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Division 1 College Statistics

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:23:00 +0000

+ From the College World Series winning Fresno State University Bulldogs who to the 4-52 Coppin State Eagles, Division I college statistics are now available on The Baseball Cube.

Enhanced High School Section

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:48:00 +0000

+ Did you play high school baseball in 2008? Is there absolutely no chance of you making the major leagues like about 99.5% of all high school baseball players? Well, you might now be listed on The Baseball Cube.

I've been adding high school records and rosters for teams one conference at a time, in no particular order and about 2400 US high schools will now have their 2008 record and [possibly] their roster. The long-term plan is to not only post yearly high school data but to link players from the roster to their TBC player page [if it exists].

And if you're a player listed and you'd like to have your own player page with your college stats and biographical information, please send $10 through paypal to us and we'll make the effort to create a page for you and include you in the search.

+ I've also enhanced the high school pages with some additional information. I've added more nicknames and links to web sites as well as the school colors for a bunch of teams. The team's yearly record [2008 only] may also appear on the page with a link to the roster or to the conference standings.

Finally, for many schools, I've included a list of notable alumni that attended the school. These lists are usually debated quite heavily as there will be omissions and corrections for all lists as well as what constitutes notable.

Currently, the "Update High School Information" link does not work so use the contact us form for any corrections until I can get it fixed.

I think this will be a fun and nostalgic section for players and fans in the years to come.

Baseball Lists Updated for 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:11:00 +0000

+ If you have any ideas for new baseball lists, please don't hesitate to send them my way.

2008 Draft Results

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:59:00 +0000

+ The Devil Rays took Tim Beckham #1 overall for their 4th #1 pick since 1999. The years of futility are finally paying off Pittsburgh Penguins style as the Devil Rays find themselves battling for the AL East lead with the Red Sox.

TBC now has draft results and player pages for all 1504 drafted players.

+ So where have all the updates been? As always, big projects are happening behind the scenes and this time, I'm focusing on high school baseball. You should see some results from this section before September.

2007 Disabled List Data

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Fri, 23 May 2008 02:31:00 +0000

+ One of the features that sets us apart from other web sites is our inclusion of disabled list data. I have updated the database for players who were active in 2007 so we now have 2001-2007.

Debuts, Deaths and Disney World

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:41:00 +0000

+ The database has been updated to include player deaths and debuts for major leaguers for the 2007 season. The new layout, up until today, did not include this information. Debut dates are linked to the game boxscore from the player page. Death information is for major leaguers only and displays the date of death. For minor leaguers and other players who have passed away, you can send along the date of death for inclusion. For non major leaguers, date of death may be absent as its more difficult to track.

+ I've also added 2008 salaries to the salary database. This is only for players who started the season on a major league roster or on the disabled list. I'll update the rest of the players at the end of the season.

+ Spring training statistics are no more. Not only do they take up space on a player's page, they take up database space and are fairly insignificant. I might try to replace them with more significant statistics like fall/winter Leagues or other International leagues. I've had requests for Mexican League data as well.

+ Disney World was a success for our family. 10 days of non-stop park hopping between the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM), Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Laggon and Downtown Disney. Our kids are 5 and 3 and they had a good time but they were more likely to enjoy the pool or the arcade at the hotel instead of Small World or Astro Blasters with Buzz Lightyear. I would recommend to any family that if you are planning to go to Disney only once, wait until your kids are all 48 inches or taller (so they can ride on most any ride) and are at least 6 or 7 years old. My favorite Disney rides:

Test Track
Aerosmith's Rock n' Roller Coaster
Splash Mountain
Primeval Whirl
Expedition Everest
Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters
Tommorowland Speedway

Current Season Statistics

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:36:00 +0000

+ Sorry for the lack of updates. Sometimes life gets in the way and sometimes you accidentally overwrite your "site build" program and have to rebuild it from scratch.

Current season statistics are now available on player pages. They were updated late last week, before the disappearance of my site building program. I'll try to update the stats at least twice a week so that each player's page gains more relevance. You might notice that for now, the team statistics pages for 2008 are not available. I'll be updating those next.

Oh, and the stats are for the majors and affiliated minor leagues.

The TBC Journey Continues

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:06:00 +0000

+ You might have noticed an update to the layout of the site within the last couple of weeks and at the time of publication, I liked them but upon review, I have decided to redesign once again.

Today, you will notice that the player pages are updated and looking very different. The data is organized differently and the width of the page is compressed into 1024 pixels making design easier and hopefully overall, the site easier to read. Any feedback is appreciated.

2003-04 NHL Boxscores

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 21:02:00 +0000

+ Recently updated on The Hockey Cube. Includes player logs, player stats analysis, team logs, a calendar, a daily view with daily standings and leaders and finally, the boxscores. Faceoff data was not available for 2003-04 but I'll try to insert it retroactively when I find it.

2002-03 is already underway.

Player Transactions - Baseball - Dec 2006 to Feb 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:14:00 +0000

+ Once again, sorry for the lack of updates on the blog. As is always the case, I get wrapped up in a large project and I neglect all others. Though I am still entrenched in designing a new site layout that will clean up the inconsistencies and control the ads a bit better, I have started in on some of the smaller projects that are on my to-do list.

+ The first project on that list was for player Transactions between December 1,2006 and February 28,2008. One of the new features of the Transactions, going forward, is the inclusion of length of contract. I don't have dollar figures but on Johan Santana's page, for example, you'll see he signed a 6-year contract with the Mets after being traded there.
As with every player update, expired sponsorships have been removed and profiles have been updated as a result of visitor updates submitted.

+ I'm headed back to Disney World at the end of April and I am betting that there is snow on the ground here when I leave. Today is the first day of spring and Montreal is celebrating with more snow. My bet is that if the groundhog could get his head out of his little hole and through the 10 feet of snow above it, he would look outside and say six more weeks of winter before jumping back to his hole and his HD television. Ideally, when I leave for Disney, I would like to see a few inches of snow still on the ground so I could at least feel like I was leaving winter behind and heading directly to summer. I'm still wondering why my ancestors decided to settle up in Canada when there were so many tropical climates available.

Page Sponsorships - Hockey Cube Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 02:40:00 +0000

+ Another new feature on The Hockey Cube (THC) as it slowly morphs into my ideal web site. I have added the ability to sponsor a player page. Unlike The Baseball Cube, The Hockey Cube will account for almost all revenue on the hockey site.

I say that THC is morphing into my ideal web site because thus far, it is clean, informative and very fast. I know the design sucks but until I hire a person who has some style, this is what you get.

So if you're a frequent visitor to THC, please consider a Page Sponsorship.

+ SNOW DAY! I woke up to sleet rocketing off my window this morning and pulled the garbage can through about 10 inches of little ice pellets. The office was closed today but being the keener that I am, I worked from the dining room table at home, in front of a toasty fire while the children raced around the downstairs like little race cars. Chick and Lightning McQueen to be exact.

Montreal is on pace to have the most snow since they started keeping track and its still only early March. To make matters worse, the snow came early this season and I haven't seen grass since November. Its so bad, my brother-in-law, who had committed to shovelling his own 6-car driveway (crazy) all winter called me up this morning to find out the number of our snow removal guy. He undoubtedly saw the weather forecast.

+ I know this song was released in 2005 but Dakota by the Stereophonics is my new favorite song followed closely by Comin' Home by City and Colour. The name of the latter artist is for a Canadian from St. Catharines, Ontario whose name is Dallas Green. Probably not the same as this Dallas Green. The moniker "City and Colour" comes from "Dallas" being a city and "Green" being a colour.

+ I haven't forgotten about The Baseball Cube. I have several projects in the pipeline for it in the next few weeks but since its hockey season and there is so much to add to the hockey site, you'll likely see many more updates for THC than you will for TBC in the next little while. There's enough passion for both!

NHL Milestones

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:42:00 +0000

+ A new feature on the Hockey Cube's front page is Milestones. For THC, a milestone is a significant statistical achievement for a player during a given season or for his career. Usually, our milestones will be a player reaching an even-number stat total. 300 goals or 1400 penalty minutes. The career milestone intervals are based on the frequency of the stat. Shots on goal will be every 500 while goals, assists, points and penalty minutes are for every 100. For career stats, we'll also track a player's 1st of any given stat.

For season stats, we're tracking every 10 of goals, assists and every 25 points while we're counting every 100th shot. There are other stats involved but you get the gist.

The Milestones data will be available moving forward only and there are plans to add milestones for every game day going back to 2005 and might actually happen this week.

You'll also be able to see the milestones on a particular game date. Scroll down past the day's standings.

I might separate season and career statistics since I find the career milestones much more interesting and there are many more season milestones listed. Let me know if you have any thoughts.

Sponsorship Prices

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:09:00 +0000

+ The player pages were updated today. As part of the update, each player page now has a new sponsorship price. I created a formula where each page started at $7 and then I added to the price based on certain criteria such as years in the majors, awards won, whether they were active, their highest level reached and then I added the last number of the phone number of the first person they kissed, their social insurance number divided by 300 and then I took their weight, multiplied by Pi and...well, you get the idea.

Remember, sponsoring pages in bulk entitles you to at least a 10% discount, depending on how many pages you sponsor. There are currently close to 1500 pages sponsored on The Baseball Cube. Don't be left out

+ The NHL Trade Deadline has come and gone and my 4th place (in the conference) Canadiens traded away one of their #1 goalies, Cristobal Huet. The deadline comes complete with an 8-hour broadcast on TSN. I'm one who thinks deadline deals in hockey are overrated since they tinker with team chemistry and for every happy player on that team, there will be just as many unhappy because it means their best friend just left or their ice time has been decreased. As much as we think that all these players only care about winning, I have to believe that most of them care about themselves playing well first and when that has been achieved, the success of the team. Call me a cynic.

Hockey Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:52:00 +0000

+ For tomorrow's hockey update, historical hockey awards will start appearing on player profile pages. I've tried to find the major awards for all North American Leagues that I track (Minor, Junior, Pro) and if I miss any, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Stats+ and my Hockey Injury

noreply@blogger.com (Gary) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:36:00 +0000

+ One of my favorite features at The Hockey Cube is Stats+. THC builds a Stats+ page for every NHL player/season since 2005-06 (so far). Its Hockey Splits mixed with the interesting and the unusual. For example, did you know that Dainius Zubrus has been in on 76 goals with Alexander Ovechkin? or that Saku Koivu has taken 42 hooking penalties in the last 3 years, 3 times more than any other penalty type.

Here are some of the goodies:

Win-Loss Record: A player's win-loss record when he is in the lineup. Gives you an idea on how much team success he has seen throughout his career and it also gives you an indication as to how important he might be to his team.

Home-Road Stats: Points and other stats on the road vs the comfort of home.

Stats by Month: Does he start off strong and then fade? Or does he get hot in January. Includes the current season and career to date.

Stats by Opponent: Another traditional split-type stat. All major stats broken down by opponent. Ovechkin loves playing the Thrashers.

Successful Linemates: A compiled list of the top ten linemates a player had during the season and career-to-date. In other words, who also received a point on a goal with this player. This year, Nicklas Backstrom has been on goals with Ovechkin 21 times. Over Ovie's career, Zubrus has been in on 76 goals with Zubrus. Chris Clark and Alexander Semin are far behind.

Shootout Attempts: A log of shootout attempts with opposition and even what # shooter the player was.

Penalty Shots: Same as above

Penalty Types: Ovechkin gets caught for high-sticking more than any other penalty but not by much. He has 10 high-sticking penalties over his career. Referees should be notified!

Fights: Includes fighting opponent and a link to the game. Its not quite HockeyFights.Com but it at least will provide you a complete list. Jared Boll has 18 of 'em.,

Note that all career-to-date data is dependent on available data in our database. At the current time, we only have 2.5 seasons of boxscore data. 2003-04 should be available in about 2 months.
So far Stats+ only tracks special stats for skaters but there are plans to create a goalie Stats+ in the future.

If you have any suggestions for this page, please don't hesitate to send them our way. tbc at thebaseballcube dot com

My Hockey Injury
+ Every Sunday afternoon between 2 and 4, I head downtown to play ball hockey with my goalie-friend. We use a whiffle ball with a rag stuffed in the middle. The ball is also wrapped in some tape. Getting the ball off the body doesn't usually hurt. But yesterday, that ball hit my body hard and it hurt worse than anything I had ever experienced playing ball hockey, or any other sport.

I play defense and I don't wear a jock. The other team has pressure in our zone and the ball is thrown back to the defenseman at the point (the point is about half-court. Under attack, the player circles back a little bit and finds himself with space. I am standing to the right of my goalie, 6 feet off the net. I am watching a winger to my right. The man at the point is small but he has a hard, straight slap shot. It is literally like a bullet. He has already put a red welt on my goalie friend's neck and he came within iniches of injuring a player on his own team earlier in the day, his face saved only by the buttend of this player's stick. His shots tend to rise and sometimes are out of control. But they are hard. He's faking passes and his teammates scramble to get open and suddnely, he must see a lane to the net. He takes 2 steps and instead of continuing along, he decides to shoot. He is about 30 feet from me so I don't think to cover the jewels. I assume the ball is going on net and that I will handle the rebound. Afterall, I am not between he and the net. The shot comes in straight and it comes in hard but its not on net. It seems to be on me. It happens in slow motion. My first reaction is to freeze and I'm not sure why. My body and brain fight over how to defend. The brain wants to run. The body wants to use hands. The debate never ends as time runs out. The ball has already hit my jewels dead on. I go down hard. Harder than I have ever gone down. If there were religious Christians on either team, they probably didn't appreciate the subsequent prose. I might have thrown some expletives towards Jesus in the aftermath. It was a blur. The words kinda just flowed out. I heard the collective oohs and aahs from around the gym admist, ironically, splatters of chuckling. I remembered the week before when a similar incident occured and Steve, the guy next to me on the bench said "I don't know why I always find that funny. But it just is."

Now, I am running (skipping/wallowing/crawling) to the gym door exit. I don't know why I am leaving. I think my instinct is to just be alone with this pain. I walk through the halls of the YMCA and the pain is still strong. In my head, I am already at Sports Experts buying a jock-strap. And 3 minutes later, I fold upwards and stand up straight and the pain seems to be gone. Its run its course. Everything seems A-1 again and I proudly strut back into the gym, ready for my next shift and I play the rest of the game at 100%, as if nothing happened, except for my tendency to turn to the side for every shot on net. We blow a 6 goal lead and I'm sure it has something to do with my now-wimpy defense.

I know it happens all the time in sports but until it happens to you, with that velocity attached to it, I don't think any guy can really understand that type of pain. But yesterday, I understood and from now on, every time I see a fellow player go down, I will grimace in understanding, shake my head in sympathy and then, of course, laugh.