#14---CHN @ STL, 9/8/1998

This game is included here for both its historical significance and the fact that it illustrates how my scoring system had progressed by the end of the 1998 season.

Base hits now have both a location code (done by field position numbers, 7 for left, 8 for center, and 9 for right) and a trajectory code (F for flyball, L for line drive, G for groundball, B for bunt, W for a ball off the wall). So “-7G” is a groundball single to left field. Additionally, events that occur during at bats are now much more clearly timed. For example, in the top of the fourth inning, Gary Gaetti advanced to second on a balk. The balk is marked with “7aa”, meaning that it occurred during the at bat of the #7 hitter. The first a is for after, and the second a indicates that it was the first pitch. “2e” would indicate something that occurred on the fifth pitch to the #2 hitter. “4bfp” would be before the first pitch to the #4 hitter. “6lp” would be on the last pitch to the #6 hitter (since the pitch that concludes the at bat does not get a letter).

While the final score of the game is still not recorded, each inning has a line summary. For example, the St. Louis sixth is marked “5-3-1-0”, meaning 5 runs on 3 hits, 1 walk, no one left. You can see that I had a blind spot in my definition of left on base, as seen in the line score for the Chicago third, which shows a runner left despite the fact that the only baserunner, Mark Grace, was retired on Sammy Sosa’s double play ball. For some reason, I considered DPs to be a runner left on. One of course could define a category like “baserunners who reached but did not score” and that would be appropriate, but that is not what I was going for--I wanted LOB in the traditional definition.

The Cubs lost the game 6-3, and while they were in the hunt for a playoff spot (and would eventually beat San Francisco in a one-game wildcard playoff), the historical significance was Mark McGwire’s 62nd home run, hit to left in the 4th inning, and leading to a bunch of excessive notes jotted down by me on the top of the page. Tony LaRussa was batting his pitcher eighth, as he had for a decent part of the season, so that is a curiosity. Also of interest is the major league debut of JD Drew, who pinch hit for Kent Mercker in the sixth, striking out looking. He stayed in the game to play left, then flew to center in the seventh.