04/19/24
December 09, 2002
The Oracle of Baseball:
A new feature just added to the wonderful Baseball-Reference.com, it's just like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. This one tells you the link between any players in MLB history. You can also find out how "connected" a player is and how many teammates he's had.
Great link. Cool example too. I imagine the links are dominated by guys like Eddie Murray who played ~20 years for a number of teams. Which leads to the question: is Eddie Murray the Kevin Bacon of baseball?
posted by yerfatma at 10:12 AM on December 09, 2002
Kevin Bacon isn't even the Kevin Bacon of films... Christopher Lee is the Center Of The Hollywood Universe. I would definitely be curious to know who that person is for baseball. [Would be interesting to include managers too.]
posted by tieguy at 11:15 AM on December 09, 2002
Early Wynn seems to have the lowest score found so far. Other notables are Minnie Minoso (who kept making token appearances to claim he played in 5 straight decades), Harold Baines (but only in the AL) and Phil Cavaretta (but only with one team). Oh, and I should note that Rickey Henderson is also the current leader for most different teammates in a career: 687
posted by grum@work at 12:23 PM on December 09, 2002
wow. just, wow. cool link, grum.
posted by Ufez Jones at 01:37 PM on December 09, 2002
Be careful though. If you don't pay attention, you can spend hours playing around with the database. Fun games to play: 1) Connecting different generations of baseball players (Bobby & Barry Bonds, the Bells, the Boones, etc.) 2) Trying to make the longest connection through just one franchise (all Phillies). 3) Trying to make the longest connection through the most different franchises (my record is 10, which also seems to be the longest link period). 4) Trying to find the shortest link between the 1800's and the 2000's. 5) Trying to find the longest Hall-of-Fame-only link. Work has been impossible to concentrate on since this appeared....
posted by grum@work at 03:07 PM on December 09, 2002
I'm sort of curious who the runner up to Rickey is in 'most different teammates in a career'. I wonder if anyone has half that number.
posted by tieguy at 04:02 PM on December 09, 2002
My favorite: Moonlight Graham to Eddie Gaedel here.
posted by JawaKing at 09:37 PM on December 09, 2002
Bwahaha. I should have mentioned this over dinner- had it with the guy who wrote the software. I should have known it was him, since he wrote the Oracle of Bacon. I just hadn't noticed the Acknowledgement line until now.
posted by tieguy at 09:44 PM on December 09, 2002
How about two sport athletes? Danny Ainge to Jim Thorpe Danny Ainge to Deion Sanders Deion Sanders to Jim Thorpe
posted by grum@work at 06:47 AM on December 10, 2002
Example: Moonlight Graham (of "Field of Dreams" fame) to Franciso Rodriguez (of 2002 playoffs fame) Moonlight Graham (1905-1905) played with Roger Bresnahan (1897-1915) for the 1905 New York Giants Roger Bresnahan (1897-1915) played with Bob O'Farrell (1915-1935) for the 1915 Chicago Cubs Bob O'Farrell (1915-1935) played with Phil Cavarretta (1934-1955) for the 1934 Chicago Cubs Phil Cavarretta (1934-1955) played with Minnie Minoso (1949-1980) for the 1954 Chicago White Sox Minnie Minoso (1949-1980) played with Rich Gossage (1972-1994) for the 1976 Chicago White Sox Rich Gossage (1972-1994) played with Dennis Cook (1988-2002) for the 1989 San Francisco Giants Dennis Cook (1988-2002) played with Francisco Rodriguez (2002-2002) for the 2002 Anaheim Angels