VIDEO: Jim Maloney's 1965 No-Hitter vs. Cubs

Click here to watch this great video posted SB Nation Bleed Cubbie Blue

Its 31 Degrees In Denver Right Now

The low is supposed to be 29. Accuweather also says "Snow flurries late tomorrow night." So its good that the World Series is not there. Minneapolis has 39 with snow before dawn. Low is supposed to be 32

Its 37 Degrees In Cleveland Right Now

They have a 50% of rain tonight and a chance of snow, too. If the World Series was there, they might not be able to play.

Cincinnati is also 37 with a low of 27 forecast. They have a good chance of rain and snow, too.

It is 40 in Pittsburgh. Wind is 14. Chance of rain and snow.

Weather In Some Major League Cities

With the World Series starting tonight, I wondered what the weather was like in other cities and what the conditions would be if the series was not in Boston or St. Louis.

Right now it is 35 in Minneapolis with a forecast low of 25 (according to AccuWeather). At least there is no snow. The wind is supposed to be under 10 mph all night.

It is 57 in Denver with a low of 35 tonight. Winds are light and no precipitation.

It is 41 in Chicago with 50% chance of rain. The low is supposed to be 33

It is 41 in Cleveland with a chance of rain and snow. The low is supposed to be 35.

Pittsburgh is at 39. They also have a chance of rain and snow with a low of 34.

Cincinnati is 40 with a low of 31

So things could be a bit worse than the 49 in Boston. It is 41 in St. Louis right now with a 40% chance of rain.

Is Ben Zimmer Right About Intangibles?

See I Can't Say What It Is, but He's Got It from today's Wall Street Journal. You might need to be a subscriber to read it. Excerpts:

"When Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell made the decision to keep light-hitting left fielder Jonny Gomes in the lineup against the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series this week, he acknowledged that his choice had nothing do with the numbers. "The one thing that we can't fully measure is the intangibles that Jonny Gomes brings," Mr. Farrell said.

Last week, another Red Sox outfielder was hailed in a similar way. Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon, whose team lost to the Red Sox in the first round of the playoffs, had this to say of Shane Victorino : "He just drips with intangibles.""

"The first player who was routinely praised for his "intangibles" was the scrappy second baseman Eddie Stanky, nicknamed "The Brat." In the words of Leo Durocher, who managed Stanky with the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants, "He can't hit, can't run, can't field... All the little S.O.B. can do is win.""

"When Stanky joined the Giants in 1950, he was keenly aware that his value to the team was hard to measure."

"Intangibles" have persisted in baseball despite the advent of complex statistical analyses that seek to capture all facets of a player's on-field talents. For stat-heads, talk of "intangibles" is a fuzzy-minded refusal to grasp empirical data. But until baseball is taken over by robots, there will always be a need to label natural gifts that elude quantification."

Luck or randomness will always play a role in baseball. The best team does not always win and then we start spinning to stories to explain why on team did win. Were the Mets better than the Orioles in 1969? Maybe. But the Orioles won 91 in games in 1968, 109 in 1969 and 108 in 1970 (winning the World Series). The Mets win totals were 73-100-83. They did not even win their division in 1970, let alone the Series.

The 1927 Yankees had a 4 game losing in streak in the middle of the season, all against teams with losing records (both at the time and at the end of the season). The two teams were the White Sox and Indians.

The article says Jonny Gomes is light hitting but he had an OPS+ this year of 111. 100 is average. Last year he had 142.

Victorino had a WAR of 6.1 this year, 9th best in the AL among position players. He was 10th in the NL in 2011. It seems like he looks pretty darn good based on quantitative measures.

Stanky is famous for not being good at anything but still helping his teams win. He had 4 top 10 finishes in WAR in his career, including a 1st in 1950. He had 7 top 10 finishes in fielding WAR. He had 5 top 5 finishes in OBP, including to 1st place finishes. Maybe back then getting walks was not recognized as a skill, but it sure is now. He led the league in walks 3 times and had a total of 7 top 10 finishes. Maybe he was not fast, but the numbers sure show what skills he did have that contribute to winning.

Branch Rickey did not think much of intangibles. Here is what he wrote in LIFE magazine in 1954:

"But somehow baseball's intangibles balance out. They reflect themselves in other ways. Over an entire season, or many seasons, individuals and teams build an accumulation of mathematical constants. A man can work with them. He can measure results and establish values. He can then construct a formula which expresses something tangible..."

Haven't We Seen This Movie Before?

A pitcher named Kelly is added to the St. Louis rotation and he plays a big role in their making the post-season.

That is basically what happens in the movie "It Happens Every Spring" starring Ray Milland.

In the video below, go to about 34:30 and then watch for about 20 seconds. You will see what a great pitcher Kelly (Milland) was and why his team won the pennant. Click here to go to a page where you can watch the whole movie

Bob Melvin Said Coco Crisp Is His Best Clutch Hitter

Or maybe he said favorite. This is what one of the announcers just said during today's game. Crisp then got a single to drive in a run in the 7th which put the A's ahead by one run. But here are his career splits from Baseball Reference. He does not look like much of a clutch hitter.

Split	AVG	OBP	SLG
RISP	0.286	0.347	0.415
None on	0.273	0.328	0.418
Men On	0.272	0.333	0.399
Late & Close	0.267	0.335	0.394