Homer maintenance
Database tracks every big fly ever hit
Posted: Saturday September 26, 1998 03:59 PM
| |
Fans can keep up with home run progress on the scoreboard at Busch Stadium or a database of every homer in major league history AP |
SPRINGFIELD, Virginia (AP) -- Fans of Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire
have only to flip on their TVs this year to catch unforgettable moments of
power and grace.
For the numbers behind the numbers, the source to turn to is David
Vincent, who keeps detailed records of each home run ever hit in the major
leagues.
Using a database of about 196,000 home runs going back to 1871 -- the
first season of professional major league baseball -- Vincent can tell you
that Babe Ruth hit 10 inside the park, while Sosa has only hit one and
McGwire none.
Vincent can also track down who hit home runs on May 5, 1957, and
whether anyone ever led the league in home runs from wire-to-wire (the
answer, by the way: no).
"I really love the fact that no matter how bizarre a question is, I
can come up with an answer," said Vincent, a computer programmer who lives
in Woodbridge.
It's a resource appreciated by reporters and teams looking for some
perspective as balls fly out of the park. Vincent gets regular calls from
ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Baseball Weekly, Baseball America,
about half the teams and newspapers in nearly every major league city.
"David is the most knowledgeable person in the world on home runs,"
said Tim Hevly, director of baseball information for the Seattle Mariners. "He
either knows it or knows how to find out."
The database includes the batter, pitcher, teams, date, inning, number
of men on base and where the game was played. Vincent, 49, has been adding
position, number of outs, the score when the home run was hit and where in
the batting order the player appeared.
The record was started on paper decades ago by John Tattersall, a
Philadelphia businessman who worked from newspaper box scores. When he died
in 1981, the labor of love was taken over by Bob McConnell, a retired
engineer in Delaware.
McConnell worked under the auspices of the Society for American
Baseball Research, whose members are dedicated to the history of baseball.
In the early 1990s, the society wanted to get the information computerized.
Vincent volunteered to oversee the project.
It took a couple years for volunteers to type in all the information.
Updates are now provided free at the end of the season by Total Sports, a
statistics company in Kingston, New York.
Vincent spends more than 10 hours per week on the hobby and carries
the whole thing on a laptop as he travels for his job at EDS Inc., which is
coordinated with team schedules. He sees about 90 games a year.
When Vincent is home, he keeps score for the Prince William Cannons,
the local Class A team.
"I was always the guy who kept stats for the high school team,"
Vincent said.
He played four years of Little League but only because everyone on the
team had to play. "I'd get an at-bat and strike out."
Cannons public address announcer Trip Morgan said Vincent gave him a
list of players who hit home runs the day Morgan was born.
"It was just like a who's who of big name baseball players," Morgan
said.
Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Frank Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Roy
Campanella and Hank Aaron were among the 10 players who hit one over the
fence May 5, 1957. "I like seeing a guy hit a ball and run the
bases, not necessarily hitting 500 feet," Vincent said. "It's more exciting
to see an inside-the-park home run or a triple."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
| 
