Observing Baseball

I grew up a Yankee fan, I favor Pitchers whenever possible, I am a stathead, and my dream job is to be a GM for an MLB franchise. In the summer, I go to MLB games and catch baseballs. In the winter, I write about what teams are doing to get better or worse. I try to be positive and unbiased in my writing, but that isn't always possible when evaluating teams truthfully.
  • About Mateo Fischer

Monthly Archives: December, 2013

  • Observing Baseball Trivia 2013-14 December 21, 2013
  • 2013-14 Winter Writing Ideas December 8, 2013
  • 2013 Ballhawking Season-End Review December 6, 2013
  • Thanksgiving Thank Yous December 4, 2013
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My Social Media Sites

  • Instagram Profile My Instagram profile, where I post some nice pictures of baseball or other life things. You can even see my four most recent pictures in a widget further down on this sidebar.
  • My YouTube Channel I highly recommend this over any of the other sites. Here I make content that sometimes overlaps with the blog, but is a medium like the blog in it of itself; unlike the other sites, which are just supplementary to both my YouTube channel and the blog.
  • Observing Baseball Facebook Page The Observing Baseball Facebook page, where in addition to being notified of whenever I post an entry (You have to “like” it first, though.) you can also get a behind-the-scenes look at all of the entries as I post all of the pictures I took during any gi
  • Twitter Account My Twitter account, where I keep you up-to-date on blog/baseball happenings. See below to look at some of my most recent tweets. tweets

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The last ten entries that I’ve published

  • 4/15/14 Blue Jays at Twins: Target Field August 5, 2015
  • 4/7/14 Athletics at Twins: Target Field- Twins Home Opener July 20, 2015
  • SABR Analytics Conference- Day 3 July 16, 2015
  • SABR Baseball Analytics Conference- Day 2 July 13, 2015
  • SABR Baseball Analytics Conference 2014-Day 1 June 30, 2014
  • MLB to Get Rid of Expanded Replay April 1, 2014
  • 10 Things I Learned at MIT Sloan Analytics Conference 2014- Day 2 March 15, 2014
  • 10 Things I learned at MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference 2014- Day 1 March 1, 2014
  • Dave St. Peter (President of the Minnesota Twins) Interview February 17, 2014
  • Twinsfest 2014 Extras February 16, 2014

Recent Comments

  • Curtiszema on Characters of Observing Baseball: Zack Hample
  • crochet on Pitching Aces in the Playoffs
  • Dyan on Observing Baseball Trivia 2013-14
  • ************@gmail.com on Zack Hample Baseball Drop
  • iOS 10 download on Pitching Aces in the Playoffs

Entries of Baseball Past

  • August 2015 (1)
  • July 2015 (3)
  • June 2014 (1)
  • April 2014 (1)
  • March 2014 (2)
  • February 2014 (2)
  • January 2014 (4)
  • December 2013 (4)
  • November 2013 (5)
  • October 2013 (5)
  • September 2013 (4)
  • August 2013 (22)
  • July 2013 (5)
  • June 2013 (18)
  • May 2013 (7)
  • April 2013 (12)
  • March 2013 (2)
  • February 2013 (7)
  • January 2013 (7)
  • December 2012 (7)
  • November 2012 (7)
  • October 2012 (4)
  • September 2012 (10)
  • August 2012 (10)
  • July 2012 (12)
  • June 2012 (12)
  • May 2012 (7)
  • April 2012 (9)
  • March 2012 (9)
  • February 2012 (14)
  • January 2012 (19)
  • December 2011 (15)
  • November 2011 (6)
  • October 2011 (9)
  • September 2011 (7)
  • August 2011 (9)
  • July 2011 (11)
  • June 2011 (5)
  • May 2011 (1)
  • April 2011 (25)
  • March 2011 (14)
  • February 2011 (2)
  • January 2011 (2)
  • December 2010 (1)
  • November 2010 (1)
  • October 2010 (2)

Game Entries from the Different Stadiums I've Been to

  • AT&T Park
  • Citi Field
  • Citizens Bank Park
  • Miller Park
  • Nationals Park
  • Oriole Park at Camden Yards
  • Sun Life Stadium
  • Target Field
  • Tropicana Field
  • Turner Field
  • U.S. Cellular Field
  • Yankee Stadium

Ballhawking Sites

  • 7000 Coliseum Way Nick Badders’ ballhawking/baseball blog. He’s a ballhawk from the Bay Area, by the way.
  • A Piece of The Game The second of the two newer Minnesota ballhawk friends, Paul Kom’s blog.
  • Cook & Sons' Baseball Adventures Although most ballhawking blogs are, Todd Cook’s narrative of his and his sons’ adventures going to ballparks is the closest thing there is to a father-son-baseball written reality show.
  • Hit Tracker An amazing tool that was responsible for my success at Yankee Stadium in 2010. See Season end review (Nov, 1, 2010) if you want to see the difference @ Yankee Stadium.
  • My Game Balls The ballhawking community’s mode of communication and competetion
  • My mygameballs.com account Specifically *my* account on mygameballs.com which has much more detailed stats than I have time to write about
  • Plouffe's New Hairdo One of my new Minnesota friends, Tony Voda’s ballhawking/Twins/music-in-the-offseason-but-sometimes-during-the-season-too blog.
  • Steel City Ballhawk A blog written by elite ballhawk, Nick Pelescak, about all of the games he attends, which is a ton since he is a season ticket holder at PNC Park.
  • The Ballhawker The ballhawking blog of a fellow New York ballhawk, Chris Hernandez.
  • The Inherent Dangers of Watching Professional Baseball The ballhawking blog of one of the most decorated ballhawks ever home runs-wise: Shawn Bosman.
  • Zack Hample (The Baseball Collector) Now If you are reading this blog there is a .00009 % chance that you haven’t visited this blog, but as a service to the reason this blog exists I want to have Zack add that .00009% to his viewership. It is the least I can do.

Games in Which I've Snagged a Game Ball

  • 7/23/12 Nationals at Mets: Citi Field Danny Espinosa foul ball.
  • 7/5/11 Rockies at Braves: Turner Field Nate McLouth foul ball snagged on the fly.
  • 8/1/11 Marlins at Mets: Citi Field Angel Pagan foul ball
  • 9/13/12 Royals at Twins: Target Field Trevor Plouffe’s game-tying ninth inning home run.
  • 9/14/12 White Sox at Twins: Target Field Justin Morneau foul ball.

MLBlogs I Recommend and Follow

  • Ballparks on a Budget Ever want to go to a baseball game outside of your local team but don’t want to empty the bank? Alicia Barnhart’s your girl with Ballparks on a Budget. She should know how to spend wisely in going to games because, well, she’s been to them all. Just last
  • Dodger Blue World Just a great blog written by dedicated Dodger super-fan Emma Amaya.
  • Minoring In Baseball A blog written by the father of just a family who are all fans of the West Michigan Whitecaps who is just a great guy in general: Michael David.
  • MLB.com Blogs Central As the title kind of suggests, this blog is pretty much the center of the MLBlogs unvierse. It apply sometimes goes by the moniker: “MLBlogosphere”
  • The Ballpark Guide A MUST-read for any MiLB afficionados, or even many MLB fans. Malcolm MacMillan goes to different ballparks all over and details his visit on the blog and writes tips for anyone going to that ballpark on his website (which can be found on the blog’s homep
  • The Next White Sox GM If you were a baseball mind growing up, you may have gotten a comment from an elder female family member (usually grandma) saying, “You should be the one to run the team with all the knowledge you’ve got about baseball.” Well, here’s a kid who might just
  • The Unbiased MLB Fan Matt Huddleston doesn’t root for the teams; he roots for the players. I wish I could say more, but I suspect any other explanation of his blog would be a multi-centennial-word ordeal.
  • This is a very simple game… A great Angels-centric blog Kristen Brown writes.
  • Three Up, Three Down One would assume not getting into the MLB Fan Cave is a sad experience. (Well, at least I would; I’ve never been old enough to apply.) However, this group of fans turned that usually-sad experience and turned it into a great blog where there are just a sl

MLBlogs I Recommend

  • Collection of Baseball and A View From the Bullpen

Observing Baseball Classics

  • "The Baseball" Book Review In this entry I reviewed/summarized the entirety of the book “The Baseball: Stunts, Scandals, and Secrets Beneath the Stitches” written by Zack Hample.
  • 10/19/10 ALCS: Yankee Stadium Sure I had no clue how to write it, but this was my first ballhawking entry ever and my only of 2010, so it falls under the category “classic”
  • Ballhawk Charities 2012 Where I went over the four ballhawk charities I had heard of at the beginning of the season as a way of helping them out by getting the word out.
  • Case Study on Morality in Baseball A research paper I did way back in the summer of 2010. I don’t necessarily agree with everything I wrote back then anymore, but it does add an interesting perspective to things especially in today’s steroid talk.
  • Collected Baseball Knick-knacks Quite simply: pretty much everything baseball-related that I had collected and managed to keep ahold of as of November, 20, 2011.
  • Dissecting/Deconstructing Baseballs I’ve taken apart several baseballs before, and it was fun, so I decided to make a video of me taking apart a baseball and adding tips for other people to do so too.
  • Favorite MLB Players I did probably one of my funner videos on who my favorite players were from the present day, when I first started watching baseball, and my favorite player that I never saw play at all.
  • Houlihan Park Tour and Snagging Analysis This is my high school, Fordham Prep,’s home field, which being the manager of the varsity team for three years, I spent proabably more games here than at any other baseball field. So when I returned to my high school for a day, I took a quick tour of the
  • Junior Ballhawk of the Year I won this award, and it was a great honor, so I wrote an entry about tthe fact that I won the award.
  • New Observing Baseball Icon Part 2 This is where I unveiled the icon that I use for…everything. Enough said.
  • Observing Baseball Trivia See the description of the link two links above, but modify it slightly so it fits this entry’s title.
  • Pitching Aces in the Playoffs My first ever “real” entry that I ever wrote back on the surplus of star pitchers in the 2010 playoffs. It was pretty good considering I knew nothing about blogging, or writing in general for that matter.
  • Pure Genius This is just me explaining how the Phillies got three aces of pitchers; nothing fancy. But it was me showing my first flash of general manager mind to the world, so that’s why I like it.
  • Sabermetrics (the explanation) This was me explaining some simple sabermetric statistics for the people of the world who have heard of the stats but never really knew what significance they had/have over the more common metrics. I take pride in this because it can potentially educate s
  • Survey of Adults Perception of Baseball I surveyed a bunch of my teacher as to which baseball player was there favorite; both in and outside of New York. It’s a bit more complex than that, but the only way to understand is to read the entry.
  • The Bergino Baseball Clubhouse The entry of my visit to an absolutely great New York baseball store.
  • Tour Target Field in the Snow Target Field is in Minnesota, so it only felt fitting that I should take at least one day to tour it while it was buried in the snow. And that’s what this entry was: a video of me going around Target Field while it was snowing and there was a ton of snow
  • Weird Observing Baseball Facts and Records I may yet do this every year…and it would then become its own link category–but for the meantime–there is only one set of Observing Baseball Facts and Records, so it definitely goes under “Observing Baseball Classics”.

Blast from the Baseball Past

  • 8/23/08 Dodgers at Phillies: Citizens Bank Park My first game ever at CBP, which I showed up in the third inning of because my dad could never get into the city of Philadelphia.
  • 8/24/08 Dodgers at Phillies: Citizens Bank Park My second ever game to CBP that ended with Pedro Feliz hitting a three-run walk-off home run while my dad and I were in the car because we had to catch a flight to Detroit seven hours later that same day in New York.
  • 8/25/08 Indians at Tigers: Comerica Park My first game ever at Comerica Park.
  • 8/26/08 Indians at Tigers: Comerica Park First video BBP.

Trips to Minor League Stadiums

  • 4/10/12 Fordham Prep at Elmira: Ticketreturn.com Field When my high school team got the chance to play at a minor league stadium in Myrtle Beach, SC
  • 4/11/12 Potomac Nationals at Myrtle Beach Pelicans: Ticketreturn.com Field My first ever “legitamate” minor league game as a semi-ballhawk (I wasn’t really interested in snagging baseballs as much as I was just trying to have fun with going to a game as a ballhawk). In other words, I wanted to try to ballhawk, but my measure of
  • 4/29/12 St. Raymonds at Fordham Prep: Richmond County Bank Ballpark My high school team got the opportunity to play at Richmond County Bank Ballpark (home of the Staten Island Yankees), so I figured I would write an enty about the game.

Anniversary Entries

  • 1-Year
  • 2-Year

Ballhawking Season-End Reviews

  • 2010
  • 2011
  • 2012

MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

  • 2012 Day 1
  • 2012 Day 2
  • 2013 Day 1
  • 2013 Day 2

Year in Review entires

  • 2011
  • 2012

Offseason Recap and Previews 2011

  • AL Central
  • AL East
  • AL West
  • NL Central
  • NL East
  • NL West

Re-view of the Preview

  • AL Central
  • AL East
  • AL West
  • NL Central
  • NL East
  • NL West

Stadium Profiles

  • Turner Field

Characters of Observing Baseball

  • Zack Hample

Ballhawk Profiles

  • Zac Weiss

Ballhawk Interviews

  • Robbie Sacunas

Top Posts & Pages

  • 4/15/14 Blue Jays at Twins: Target Field
  • 4/7/14 Athletics at Twins: Target Field- Twins Home Opener
  • SABR Analytics Conference- Day 3
  • SABR Baseball Analytics Conference- Day 2
  • SABR Baseball Analytics Conference 2014-Day 1
  • MLB to Get Rid of Expanded Replay
  • 10 Things I Learned at MIT Sloan Analytics Conference 2014- Day 2
  • 10 Things I learned at MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference 2014- Day 1
  • Dave St. Peter (President of the Minnesota Twins) Interview
  • Twinsfest 2014 Extras

Obsevers of Baseball

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