being here I’m reminded of a couple
things when I think about you know
Fenway Park and baseball and statistics
and analytics is the is a quote from of
favorite movie of mine the Field of
Dreams and there’s a scene where
Terrence Mann the character says there’s
one constant thing over the years and
that’s baseball America has rolled like
a steamroller the blackboards been
erased rebuilt and erased again but
baseball is always marked the time so
baseball marking the time and the
constancy of baseball is really
appropriate here at Fenway Park because
this is a place where history has been
made in baseball but again we have to
think about the other part of American
history over the last century 1912 this
opened okay that’s over a hundred years
ago if you think about what it was like
a hundred years ago they played baseball
here and the greats played here all the
greats Babe Ruth Ted Williams David
Ortiz Pedro Martinez Roger Clemens all
played for the Red Sox and they called
this home this was their home park okay
but history has marched on when the
ballpark opened up there was no federal
income tax women were not guaranteed the
right to vote the great Wars hadn’t
happened and another great event was the
Spanish Influenza
which followed a few years after the
opening of Fenway Park one to three
percent of the world population died
because of a virus right after the
opening of Fenway Park history has
marched on since the opening here and
that’s that’s just part of what baseball
and history American history just
specifically
are important with them historians have
always looked to baseball as a way to
mark the time as the constancy through
things and there’s a famous quote by the
historian from Colombia that to know the
heart and mind of America you better
know baseball and its rules and the
reality of the game
his name was Jacques Barzun and he’s
very famous quote around baseball also
ok so this is the constancy of the game
and if we time-traveled of like we could
time travel back to the opening day here
at fenway park 108 years ago things
would look the same we would see the
footprint of the field is virtually the
same we would see the pitcher’s mound
home plate there would be fans in these
seats the grandstand had it overhang the
blue seats grandstand had an overhang
the Box field box seats were open to the
air like they are now so all that’s very
similar it’s the same but so much has
changed too about the game if you looked
at the game itself in 1912 you’d see a
lot of the same things it’s essentially
the same rules there’s nine players
there’s three outs for every half inning
there’s nine innings all that’s the same
and that’s basically the fielders are in
the same positions ok that that would
look similar but technology and the
advancement of just knowledge and
science completely changed some of the
things you would see if you looked at
the fielders you would see their mitts
are nothing like today’s mitts this is a
modern mitt this is an infielders mitt
and this mitt has helped fielders field
better than they used to the old
technology the old mitts were awful the
number of errors in the first game here
there were 10 errors in the first game
here between the Red Sox and the New
York Highlanders actually they were
called that year was the last year the
Yankees were called the Highlanders
officially 1913 they become the Yankees
officially so the game between the Red
Sox and the Highlanders if you looked at
the mitts
you would see you’d see inferior mitts
fielding has gotten better because of
MIT technology ok if you would
look at the bats those players used the
bats those players used in 1912 were
longer heavier and they had thicker
handles today’s bats with the thinner
handles shorter lighter bats allow for
much better batting performance batting
performance went up because of bat
technology if you think about the other
part here of baseball training baseball
specific training is increased the skill
the skill development and training of
the players today is so much different
than the players you would see in 1912
totally different skill set now these
players in 1912 were great baseball
players they’d see some similar plays
made the other key feature that changed
since 1912 was the baseball itself I
don’t know how many talks you’ve seen
who and who’s talked about the
technology of the baseball but back then
it was the dead-ball era it was called
the dead-ball era because the ball
didn’t fly far off the bat bat ball
contact was really reduced they used the
same baseball throughout the game and as
you mash the ball during the game it
gets softer mushy ER and it doesn’t
travel as far so baseball technology’s
changed the game too all of these things
have improved the performance on the
field training ball technology meant
technology bat technology all of that
has improved the way we look at baseball
players and how well they do on the
field ok so that’s the that’s what you
wouldn’t see you wouldn’t see those
players in 1912 have the advantage of
the technology that I’ve just described
now beyond the technology you should you
should sort of see up here is this new
press box the next big technological
revolution this is this is there’s a
story here with the press box what I
would call the next big technological
revolution is the Moneyball revolution
the change in baseball analytics a lot
of you have probably seen Moneyball now
a key scene in Moneyball was filmed
right up here it depicted the owner of
the Red Sox interview
the protagonist Billy Beane to try to
get him to come to the Red Sox and the
interview took place right up here they
filmed it here I’m not sure John Henry
interviewed Billy Beane in the press box
but the movie showed it right up there
and you if you go back and watch the
movie you’ll see it
okay so Moneyball the Moneyball
revolution this change in baseball
analytics has massively changed the game
it’s another example of technology and
science
data science has transformed what we see
I’ll give you just one example if you’ve
watched a lot of baseball now you’ll
notice one third one third of all plays
of all plays by all teams have shifted
fielders the fields of fields are really
dynamically moving around they’re moving
around pitch by pitch the count changes
and they move somewhere else the data
associated with where to place the
fenders has just taken off and it’s
changed the way the game is played
it’s a much better game now if you’re on
the defensive side you’re taking
advantage of your knowledge of the data
you’ve acquired to place your fielders
in the best possible positions when
shifting started in 2010 it only
occurred about 2% of all the plays
imagine that 2010 8 years ago
2% of plays were shifted today 1/3 of
all plays are shifted massive revolution
now the game is played ok from what you
see today just even eight years ago big
difference and that’s part of what I
would call the baseball analytics or
Moneyball revolution now when you
consider Moneyball it leads to the sort
of the I’m trying to understand three
major periods of baseball analytics in
the beginning baseball collected lots
and lots of data they collected data for
every player’s season and this was
recorded and and and housed in the
offices of the American League
nationally in New York City and they
published records and there’s lots of
great records of the season data for
these players then a lot of analysts
came around and they wanted to measure
each event
they want they had more questions they
were curious they wanted they had
research questions so they started
recording event I event to try to
understand better things like the value
of a stolen base and the value of a walk
versus a single or making it out and
this kind of analytics is sort of xx
sent the 20th century analytics it was
done and and and championed by Bill
James and Bill James was mentioned in
that famous scene in the press box
between John Henry and Billy Beane John
Henry says something to the effect I
don’t know why baseball hasn’t hired
that guy the fact is in real terms in
2003 John Henry directly hired Bill
James to join the Red Sox so that the
movie depiction is says one thing but
the the actual the actual outcome was
John Henry hired Bill James now Bill
James sort of epitomizes this
twentieth-century analytics great
questions collecting the data that they
can but that kind of goes to 2005 2005 6
we have a revolution and we can sort of
see that as we look around the park in
2005 6 they put in one park to parks
three parks the pitch FX system the
pitch FX system you could see a camera
over here by the near the camera well
there’s one camera there there’s another
camera way out in the center field and
these are high-speed video cameras and
there’s one over on this side of the of
the field as well they’re trained on the
area between the pitcher’s mound
and home plate these high-speed video
cameras triangulate the position of the
ball during the pitch and during the hit
right off the bat and it’s it changed
baseball analytics you would you go from
excuse me the bill James kind of
revolution into a modern revolution to
better understanding pitching and also
better understanding batting it really
changed the technology of just
high-speed video cameras and a little
software changed our understanding of
the game and changed how
the game was played now beyond that just
more recently as something called
statcast
and statcast is if you can look over
here there’s a there’s a rectangle green
rectangle right up here that’s a radar
system I don’t know if you can see it
it’s again to the left of the camera
well that cam that radar system is able
to pick up the seams on a baseball in
other words as a baseball is thrown and
rotating the radar can understand
actually measure the seam and it
measures directly the spin the spin of
the baseball as it’s thrown or batted
and anywhere on the field to it not just
the pitch to the batter
but also the batted ball and where the
batted ball goes to a fielder it’s where
the fielder throws it to the next
fielder all the movement of the baseball
is directly recorded by this radar
system very extensive technology much
more advanced than even the pitch FX
video analytics so now we’ve got this
new technology radar technology
measuring at the ball everywhere now we
really have a measurement of the
strength of an outfielders arm Dwight
Evans back when he played great right
fielder for the Red Sox runners didn’t
run on Dwight Evans because his arm was
so good and some of the gray hairs in
the audience would like me would
remember that but Dwight Evans was a
fabulous right fielder with a great arm
with this radar technology I can measure
his velocity how fast he threw much more
direct measurements not relying on
eyeball observations and conclusions
like that so the the hole that the
flight of the baseball is now being
measured directly the other thing to
look at is right on this camera well
towards us there’s a green an olive
green box with three cameras I don’t
know if you can see it right here but
it’s facing us on this camera well you
go over here and and there’s three
little cameras there you look on number
12 if you look on section 12 further
down
is another set of three cameras these
cameras again are high-speed cameras but
they’re trained on all the players on
the field so now we get to measure
reaction time we you the cameras can
place any fielder in the right position
and then as the play happens you can see
how fast the players react you can
measure their movements you can see how
fast they’re running specifically so
technology again has advanced to see how
the players are moving how the how the
runners are running how the batter’s are
getting to first before Scouts used to
rely on this technology a stopwatch and
they would take they would actually
there’s a few key measurement scouts and
coaches look for they look for that time
to the plate by the pitcher it’s like
when the pitcher lifts his foot during
the wind up to the time it hits the
catcher’s mitt they’re always catching
that time the time to plate matters in
baseball because this when a runners on
base you can’t take a full wind-up
because the getting a stolen base would
be too easy so time to plate and pop
times another time that Scouts would
always get but they do it with stop
watches okay with having some amount of
error now part of being a good Scout was
to train yourself to do this correctly
and Scouts would train Scouts to do it
correctly so they’d be consistently
measuring the right time to plate and
then the right pop times but this all
related to some information that
baseball players need we have much more
precise and objective information like
this now through these camera systems
okay so technology in the 21st century
has changed dramatically to how the game
is played it’s improved the game just
like better bats and gloves and balls
have improved the game just like better
training has improved the game and
proved that improved the performance of
the players the 21st century technology
has improved the game too we have better
defense we have better knowledge what
pitchers can achieve in their pitches we
have better knowledge what batters can
do with their batter with their swings
and how they can perform
all of this is impacting all 30 teams in
Major League Baseball now it’s a
dramatic shift it’s the 21st century
shift in the game and it’s
revolutionized things and if you’re a
fan you’ve seen it you’ve heard it
talked about right now is a time of high
strikeouts and it’s a time of high
strikeouts because we know so much from
pitch FX and statcast we know so much
about the pitch that’s the first thing
that happens on a baseball field of any
event is the pitch the pitchers pitchers
know how to attack batters weakness is
much better than they used to and
they’re able to perform and train and
get pitches right the way they used to
so as I started with baseball has this
constancy through American history it
really aligns with so much of that
history that is our country’s history
it’s America’s game and you can look at
19th and 20th century technological
changes like I talked about gloves bats
and other things you can talk about 20th
century analytics and how it changed the
game all of that is true and it mark it
marks time it marks history but now
we’re in a whole new era a whole new era
of technology and a whole new era of
baseball history being generated
baseball truly does mark the time of
American history and I can’t think of a
better place that represents the
constancy the constancy of baseball
through time than this place right here
this place right here has seen the
greatest this place right here has
continually had great baseball it’s had
the fans and the umpires and everything
else around it is is here this spot the
constancy of baseball is represented by
Fenway Park in my view best place ever
to represent the constancy of baseball
and how baseball is important to
understanding who we are understanding
our spirit as people understanding our
intellect
our culture so that’s the big idea as
baseball represents the constancy of
American history and culture
technologies moved along with it and
it’s been fine because technology has
moved along with American history too we
have all representations of technology
changing the game and technologies
changing our lives
baseball is a wonderful wonderful
representation of America and this is
the best place for it thank you for your time right pre-k
things when I think about you know
Fenway Park and baseball and statistics
and analytics is the is a quote from of
favorite movie of mine the Field of
Dreams and there’s a scene where
Terrence Mann the character says there’s
one constant thing over the years and
that’s baseball America has rolled like
a steamroller the blackboards been
erased rebuilt and erased again but
baseball is always marked the time so
baseball marking the time and the
constancy of baseball is really
appropriate here at Fenway Park because
this is a place where history has been
made in baseball but again we have to
think about the other part of American
history over the last century 1912 this
opened okay that’s over a hundred years
ago if you think about what it was like
a hundred years ago they played baseball
here and the greats played here all the
greats Babe Ruth Ted Williams David
Ortiz Pedro Martinez Roger Clemens all
played for the Red Sox and they called
this home this was their home park okay
but history has marched on when the
ballpark opened up there was no federal
income tax women were not guaranteed the
right to vote the great Wars hadn’t
happened and another great event was the
Spanish Influenza
which followed a few years after the
opening of Fenway Park one to three
percent of the world population died
because of a virus right after the
opening of Fenway Park history has
marched on since the opening here and
that’s that’s just part of what baseball
and history American history just
specifically
are important with them historians have
always looked to baseball as a way to
mark the time as the constancy through
things and there’s a famous quote by the
historian from Colombia that to know the
heart and mind of America you better
know baseball and its rules and the
reality of the game
his name was Jacques Barzun and he’s
very famous quote around baseball also
ok so this is the constancy of the game
and if we time-traveled of like we could
time travel back to the opening day here
at fenway park 108 years ago things
would look the same we would see the
footprint of the field is virtually the
same we would see the pitcher’s mound
home plate there would be fans in these
seats the grandstand had it overhang the
blue seats grandstand had an overhang
the Box field box seats were open to the
air like they are now so all that’s very
similar it’s the same but so much has
changed too about the game if you looked
at the game itself in 1912 you’d see a
lot of the same things it’s essentially
the same rules there’s nine players
there’s three outs for every half inning
there’s nine innings all that’s the same
and that’s basically the fielders are in
the same positions ok that that would
look similar but technology and the
advancement of just knowledge and
science completely changed some of the
things you would see if you looked at
the fielders you would see their mitts
are nothing like today’s mitts this is a
modern mitt this is an infielders mitt
and this mitt has helped fielders field
better than they used to the old
technology the old mitts were awful the
number of errors in the first game here
there were 10 errors in the first game
here between the Red Sox and the New
York Highlanders actually they were
called that year was the last year the
Yankees were called the Highlanders
officially 1913 they become the Yankees
officially so the game between the Red
Sox and the Highlanders if you looked at
the mitts
you would see you’d see inferior mitts
fielding has gotten better because of
MIT technology ok if you would
look at the bats those players used the
bats those players used in 1912 were
longer heavier and they had thicker
handles today’s bats with the thinner
handles shorter lighter bats allow for
much better batting performance batting
performance went up because of bat
technology if you think about the other
part here of baseball training baseball
specific training is increased the skill
the skill development and training of
the players today is so much different
than the players you would see in 1912
totally different skill set now these
players in 1912 were great baseball
players they’d see some similar plays
made the other key feature that changed
since 1912 was the baseball itself I
don’t know how many talks you’ve seen
who and who’s talked about the
technology of the baseball but back then
it was the dead-ball era it was called
the dead-ball era because the ball
didn’t fly far off the bat bat ball
contact was really reduced they used the
same baseball throughout the game and as
you mash the ball during the game it
gets softer mushy ER and it doesn’t
travel as far so baseball technology’s
changed the game too all of these things
have improved the performance on the
field training ball technology meant
technology bat technology all of that
has improved the way we look at baseball
players and how well they do on the
field ok so that’s the that’s what you
wouldn’t see you wouldn’t see those
players in 1912 have the advantage of
the technology that I’ve just described
now beyond the technology you should you
should sort of see up here is this new
press box the next big technological
revolution this is this is there’s a
story here with the press box what I
would call the next big technological
revolution is the Moneyball revolution
the change in baseball analytics a lot
of you have probably seen Moneyball now
a key scene in Moneyball was filmed
right up here it depicted the owner of
the Red Sox interview
the protagonist Billy Beane to try to
get him to come to the Red Sox and the
interview took place right up here they
filmed it here I’m not sure John Henry
interviewed Billy Beane in the press box
but the movie showed it right up there
and you if you go back and watch the
movie you’ll see it
okay so Moneyball the Moneyball
revolution this change in baseball
analytics has massively changed the game
it’s another example of technology and
science
data science has transformed what we see
I’ll give you just one example if you’ve
watched a lot of baseball now you’ll
notice one third one third of all plays
of all plays by all teams have shifted
fielders the fields of fields are really
dynamically moving around they’re moving
around pitch by pitch the count changes
and they move somewhere else the data
associated with where to place the
fenders has just taken off and it’s
changed the way the game is played
it’s a much better game now if you’re on
the defensive side you’re taking
advantage of your knowledge of the data
you’ve acquired to place your fielders
in the best possible positions when
shifting started in 2010 it only
occurred about 2% of all the plays
imagine that 2010 8 years ago
2% of plays were shifted today 1/3 of
all plays are shifted massive revolution
now the game is played ok from what you
see today just even eight years ago big
difference and that’s part of what I
would call the baseball analytics or
Moneyball revolution now when you
consider Moneyball it leads to the sort
of the I’m trying to understand three
major periods of baseball analytics in
the beginning baseball collected lots
and lots of data they collected data for
every player’s season and this was
recorded and and and housed in the
offices of the American League
nationally in New York City and they
published records and there’s lots of
great records of the season data for
these players then a lot of analysts
came around and they wanted to measure
each event
they want they had more questions they
were curious they wanted they had
research questions so they started
recording event I event to try to
understand better things like the value
of a stolen base and the value of a walk
versus a single or making it out and
this kind of analytics is sort of xx
sent the 20th century analytics it was
done and and and championed by Bill
James and Bill James was mentioned in
that famous scene in the press box
between John Henry and Billy Beane John
Henry says something to the effect I
don’t know why baseball hasn’t hired
that guy the fact is in real terms in
2003 John Henry directly hired Bill
James to join the Red Sox so that the
movie depiction is says one thing but
the the actual the actual outcome was
John Henry hired Bill James now Bill
James sort of epitomizes this
twentieth-century analytics great
questions collecting the data that they
can but that kind of goes to 2005 2005 6
we have a revolution and we can sort of
see that as we look around the park in
2005 6 they put in one park to parks
three parks the pitch FX system the
pitch FX system you could see a camera
over here by the near the camera well
there’s one camera there there’s another
camera way out in the center field and
these are high-speed video cameras and
there’s one over on this side of the of
the field as well they’re trained on the
area between the pitcher’s mound
and home plate these high-speed video
cameras triangulate the position of the
ball during the pitch and during the hit
right off the bat and it’s it changed
baseball analytics you would you go from
excuse me the bill James kind of
revolution into a modern revolution to
better understanding pitching and also
better understanding batting it really
changed the technology of just
high-speed video cameras and a little
software changed our understanding of
the game and changed how
the game was played now beyond that just
more recently as something called
statcast
and statcast is if you can look over
here there’s a there’s a rectangle green
rectangle right up here that’s a radar
system I don’t know if you can see it
it’s again to the left of the camera
well that cam that radar system is able
to pick up the seams on a baseball in
other words as a baseball is thrown and
rotating the radar can understand
actually measure the seam and it
measures directly the spin the spin of
the baseball as it’s thrown or batted
and anywhere on the field to it not just
the pitch to the batter
but also the batted ball and where the
batted ball goes to a fielder it’s where
the fielder throws it to the next
fielder all the movement of the baseball
is directly recorded by this radar
system very extensive technology much
more advanced than even the pitch FX
video analytics so now we’ve got this
new technology radar technology
measuring at the ball everywhere now we
really have a measurement of the
strength of an outfielders arm Dwight
Evans back when he played great right
fielder for the Red Sox runners didn’t
run on Dwight Evans because his arm was
so good and some of the gray hairs in
the audience would like me would
remember that but Dwight Evans was a
fabulous right fielder with a great arm
with this radar technology I can measure
his velocity how fast he threw much more
direct measurements not relying on
eyeball observations and conclusions
like that so the the hole that the
flight of the baseball is now being
measured directly the other thing to
look at is right on this camera well
towards us there’s a green an olive
green box with three cameras I don’t
know if you can see it right here but
it’s facing us on this camera well you
go over here and and there’s three
little cameras there you look on number
12 if you look on section 12 further
down
is another set of three cameras these
cameras again are high-speed cameras but
they’re trained on all the players on
the field so now we get to measure
reaction time we you the cameras can
place any fielder in the right position
and then as the play happens you can see
how fast the players react you can
measure their movements you can see how
fast they’re running specifically so
technology again has advanced to see how
the players are moving how the how the
runners are running how the batter’s are
getting to first before Scouts used to
rely on this technology a stopwatch and
they would take they would actually
there’s a few key measurement scouts and
coaches look for they look for that time
to the plate by the pitcher it’s like
when the pitcher lifts his foot during
the wind up to the time it hits the
catcher’s mitt they’re always catching
that time the time to plate matters in
baseball because this when a runners on
base you can’t take a full wind-up
because the getting a stolen base would
be too easy so time to plate and pop
times another time that Scouts would
always get but they do it with stop
watches okay with having some amount of
error now part of being a good Scout was
to train yourself to do this correctly
and Scouts would train Scouts to do it
correctly so they’d be consistently
measuring the right time to plate and
then the right pop times but this all
related to some information that
baseball players need we have much more
precise and objective information like
this now through these camera systems
okay so technology in the 21st century
has changed dramatically to how the game
is played it’s improved the game just
like better bats and gloves and balls
have improved the game just like better
training has improved the game and
proved that improved the performance of
the players the 21st century technology
has improved the game too we have better
defense we have better knowledge what
pitchers can achieve in their pitches we
have better knowledge what batters can
do with their batter with their swings
and how they can perform
all of this is impacting all 30 teams in
Major League Baseball now it’s a
dramatic shift it’s the 21st century
shift in the game and it’s
revolutionized things and if you’re a
fan you’ve seen it you’ve heard it
talked about right now is a time of high
strikeouts and it’s a time of high
strikeouts because we know so much from
pitch FX and statcast we know so much
about the pitch that’s the first thing
that happens on a baseball field of any
event is the pitch the pitchers pitchers
know how to attack batters weakness is
much better than they used to and
they’re able to perform and train and
get pitches right the way they used to
so as I started with baseball has this
constancy through American history it
really aligns with so much of that
history that is our country’s history
it’s America’s game and you can look at
19th and 20th century technological
changes like I talked about gloves bats
and other things you can talk about 20th
century analytics and how it changed the
game all of that is true and it mark it
marks time it marks history but now
we’re in a whole new era a whole new era
of technology and a whole new era of
baseball history being generated
baseball truly does mark the time of
American history and I can’t think of a
better place that represents the
constancy the constancy of baseball
through time than this place right here
this place right here has seen the
greatest this place right here has
continually had great baseball it’s had
the fans and the umpires and everything
else around it is is here this spot the
constancy of baseball is represented by
Fenway Park in my view best place ever
to represent the constancy of baseball
and how baseball is important to
understanding who we are understanding
our spirit as people understanding our
intellect
our culture so that’s the big idea as
baseball represents the constancy of
American history and culture
technologies moved along with it and
it’s been fine because technology has
moved along with American history too we
have all representations of technology
changing the game and technologies
changing our lives
baseball is a wonderful wonderful
representation of America and this is
the best place for it thank you for your time right pre-k
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