How much Blaine said

ere’s an outline of Blaine’s article from 9 January:

1. He agrees with my suggestion that the umpire belongs in B with a runner on third: 192 words.

2. He quotes statistics that he says prove most of the action is at first base; that is the main reason for starting in A: 202 words.

3. The base umpire needs to be in A to cover fly balls to right field: 184 words.

4. The base umpire needs to be in A to help with fair/foul calls: 71 words.

5. Starting in B is better for extra-base hits: 107 words.

6.Starting in B is better for overthrows: 102 words.

7. Don’t worry about the old man behind the plate: 54 words.

8. Conclusion: A is where you need to be: 69 words.

My rebuttal: Point 1

He likes my idea of going to B with a runner on third. So do I. (grin) As the genie says in Aladdin: "He can be taught."

My rebuttal: Point 2

(All figures are from MLB.) According to Blaine, last year there were about 64,000 outs in the infield, with around 43,000 at first. He argues:

Continued...