Monday, September 3, 2007

The Gezer and the stick

Notice anything striking about the team batting statistics for the season?

Teams   G    AB     H     R    BB    SO    HR
Bet 41 1106 325 286 186 198 60
Mod 41 1092 297 218 157 192 52
Net 40 1063 295 185 113 182 17
Pet 40 1003 235 161 186 216 17
Raa 41 1059 277 196 159 240 21
Tel 41 1047 293 230 202 229 20


Two numbers virtually jump off the page: Bet Shemesh and Modiin's home run totals. They're about three times the league average. By coincidence, both teams share Gezer Field as their home field.

Or is it a coincidence? Did they rack up those homers because of something about Gezer, or were they just loaded with powerful sluggers who could hit well anywhere?

For a first cut at an answer, let's break down the season by venue.

Gezer:

Teams       G     AB      H      R     BB     SO     HR
Bet 24 648 213 190 105 99 51
Mod 27 711 198 147 96 122 41
Net 11 308 91 60 35 74 5
Pet 9 228 55 51 51 68 8
Raa 11 274 70 42 44 69 5
Tel 12 312 70 34 36 92 7


Sportek:

Teams       G     AB      H      R     BB     SO     HR
Bet 7 184 47 29 31 37 4
Mod 6 173 53 39 32 26 4
Net 13 329 88 54 31 52 5
Pet 9 216 51 27 31 41 3
Raa 8 234 79 58 34 37 7
Tel 19 454 136 106 90 82 9


Yarkon:

Teams       G     AB      H      R     BB     SO     HR
Bet 10 274 65 67 50 62 5
Mod 8 208 46 32 29 44 7
Net 16 426 116 71 47 56 7
Pet 22 559 129 83 104 107 6
Raa 22 551 128 96 81 134 9
Tel 10 281 87 90 76 55 4


Are you rubbing your eyes yet?

Bet Shemesh and Modiin each played somewhat more than half their games at Gezer. But they hit about 80% of their home runs there!

What's more amazing: only some of the teams seem to have had a power boost at Gezer. Let's look at the stats per game:



Oddly, only Bet Shemesh, Modiin and Petach Tikva had a home run boost at Gezer. Perhaps Bet Shemesh and Modiin got used to the field and learned how to hit there?

You can also see from this chart that both Bet Shemesh and Modiin hit more home runs at the other fields than any other team (except Raanana at Sportek), and that Modiin actually outslugged Bet Shemesh in away games. (But keep in mind the small sample sizes we're working with, especially at Sportek.)

New questions on my mind: Was the power boost restricted to specific batters? Did it increase as the season progressed (indicating a learning curve for the home teams)?

L'hitraot!

2 comments:

Soccer Dad said...

Would that sticks be carrot sticks?

iblemetrician said...

I was thinking more in terms of "carrots and sticks".