A new season meant a clean slate. A chance to start over for a different ending.
Then again, she didn’t need to wait until spring for that. And she wasn’t going to. She closed up her office and drove straight to the airport.
A new season was waiting for her in Minneapolis.
Glossary
Here are some of the baseball terms and phrases used in this book.
Ace – The best starting pitcher on the team and nearly always the first pitcher in the starting rotation.
Batting average – The average performance of a batter, expressed as a ration of a batter’s safe hits per official times at bat. It is usually reported to three decimal places and read without the decimal: A player with a batting average of .300 is "batting three-hundred." A point (or percentage point) is understood to be .001.
Blooper - A weakly hit fly ball that drops in for a single between an infielder and an outfielder.
Bullpen – The relief pitchers for a baseball team and also the area where relief pitchers warm-up before entering a game.
Double play - The act of making two outs during the same continuous playing action. In baseball slang, making a double play is sometimes referred to as "turning two" or a "twin killing.”
ERA – Stands for earned run average. The mean of earned runs given up by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number of innings pitched and multiplying by nine. An ERA lower than 3.00 is considered outstanding.
Farm system – Comprised of minor league teams affiliated with a single major league team. The teams are separated by division, from "Rookie" to "Triple A" (AAA). The purpose behind such a franchise system is to allow baseball organizations to train their own talent and to control the destination of that talent, either by trading valuable prospects for skilled MLB players from other teams or by moving players from the farm team up through the ranks into the major leagues.
On base percentage - A measure of how often a batter reaches base. The full formula is OBP = (Hits + Walks + Hit by Pitch) / (At Bats + Walks + Hit by Pitch + Sacrifice Flies). Batters are not credited with reaching base on an error or fielder's choice, and they are not charged with an opportunity if they make a sacrifice bunt.
OPS – Stands for on-base plus slugging. It’s calculated as the sum of a player’s on-base percentage and slugging average (total bases divided by at bats).
Range – The more formal term is range factor, and it is calculated by dividing putouts and assists by the number of innings or games played at a given defense position.
RBI – Stands for runs batted in.
VORP – Stands for value over replacement player. This statistic demonstrates how much a hitter contributes offensively or how much a pitcher contributes to his team in comparison to a fictitious “replacement player, who is an average fielder at his position and a below average hitter. To calculate VORP, one must multiply the league's average runs per out by the player's total outs; this provides the number of runs an average player would have produced given that certain number of outs to work with. Now multiply that number (of runs) by .8, or whatever percentage of average the replacement level is designated to be; the result is the number of runs you could expect a "replacement player" to put up with that number of outs. Simply subtract the replacement's runs created from the player's actual runs created, and the result is VORP. For example, if a hitter has a VORP of +25 runs after 81 games, he has contributed 25 more runs of offense to his team than the theoretical replacement player would have over the same span of games.
Wild card – Two teams in each of the leagues (American and National) that have qualified for the postseason despite failing to win their division. Both teams in each league possess the two best winning percentages in their respective leave after the three division winners.
Coming soon
Behind in the Count
A Portland Pioneers Novel
By Micah K. Chaplin
Derek Beaman had it all – a career in baseball, a marriage with his high school sweetheart, and a newborn daughter. When he suffered an injury that sent him into a downward spiral, he lost it all. After a break and some time to recover, he gets a second chance at his Major League Baseball aspirations with the Portland Pioneers. His future as a pitcher is bright, but he’s still contending with the demons of his past.
Zella Hansen is pursuing her lifelong dream of a career in baseball management. Her role in the Pioneers’ front office introduces her to Derek. Zella soon realizes her feelings are more than just an admiration of his talent, but Derek’s history may be enough to end the game early.
About the Author
Micah K. Chaplin lives in Des Moines, Iowa, where she works in the exciting world of insurance and spends many weekends running 5Ks, making fast runners look good. She’s also a lifestyle blogger who occasionally gets caught dancing by herself to good music, drinks locally-brewed beer, and has strong feelings for the Texas Rangers. Her other published works include You’ll Never Know, A Promise Worth Breaking, and Riffs of Regret.
Dropped Third Strike (Portland Pioneers #1) Page 27
