The World Series

Hi All,

The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Houston Astros are playing in this years' World Series.  So far the series is tied 1-1.  

Click here for the schedule for the rest of the World Series. 

Click on this link to get the box score, summaries, video and more of all the recent World Series Games.  And to get more information about the two World Series teams click this link for the Dodgers and this link for the Astros.

For a blog post like this, believe it or not, Wikipedia is  useful for this type of entry....Wikipedia has an extensive entry on the history, rivalries and players for each of the two World Series teams.  Click here for the Dodgers and here for the Astros. 

Finally for some awesome statistics that cover the two teams, click on this link to Fangraphs for the Astros and this link for Fangraphs for the Dodgers!

Enjoy the links and the World Series!

Regards,
Stu

Best Second-Screen Apps For Watching Baseball

Hi All,

TechHive.com has come out with an article titled 'Best Second Screen Apps For Watching Baseball on Your Phone'.

The article lists and discuses the seven best second-screen apps that you can use on your smartphone or tablet to watch baseball - well, to watch the baseball post-season now that the regular season ended.

Note that each 'review' on the site is fairly in-depth.  Pro's, con's and major features on the apps are discussed. 

The seven apps (with links) are MLB At Bat, MiLB First Pitch, ESPN's App, ESPN Fantasy Baseball, iScore Baseball, Bleacher Report, OwnersBox,

Enjoy the MLB post-season!

Regards,
Stu

600....Posts

Hi All,

And for the 600th time I'm posting a new, interesting, enlightening, rewarding, educational, fun, insightful, eye-opening blog entry on this blog, Reference and You.

Wow - 600.  That's a big number.  For anything. Very few people work 600 days in a row.  Most baseball players don't get to the plate 600 times in a baseball season.  Its virtually unheard of to make $600/hour - unless you are an attorney, doctor, actor or athlete. 

Anyway, in honor of this, the 600th blog post, I'll discuss the significance of the number 600 in various fields and subjects of human endeavor!

In world history the following events occurred (roughly - it was a long time ago you know so dates might be a bit skewed): Venice continues as an independent realm...King Ingvar of Sweden invades Estonia but is killed by locals...Persians use windmills for irrigation. Pope Gregory the Great decreed 'God bless You' as the religiously correct response to a sneeze. Bhaskara I was born in India.

The number 600 has many different meanings in popular culture....

The New York Lottery has a game called Quick $600.

There is a Qualcomm processor called the Snapdragon 600...its really fast!

XTI Aircraft has a new type of plane - called te TriFan 600.  Very cool.

Local 600 is the International Cinematographers Guild.

There is a website called 600milliondogs.org - which claims to help find a cure for animal overpopulation.

S&P SmallCap 600 refers to an index of stocks by the Standard & Poor's.

WICC 600 is an AM radio station based in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Applebees has a menu for items that are under 600 calories.

The Coca-Cola 600 is a Sprint Cup series race held at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

and finally, how can I NOT end this post with this link...

600 Acres - a blog about cookies, food and well, the more wholesome things in life!

Enjoy the links.

Regards,
Stu

What Helmet Should I Wear?

 Hi All,

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission has a very relevant site that readers might want to visit - especially now that it is Spring and kids are spending more time outside. The link is for a site called 'Which Helmet For Which Activity?' - click here for the link.

The site does a great job explaining why helmets are so important and explains how users/parents can tell which helmet is the right one to use.  Other important questions that are addressed include, 'Will I need to replace a helmet after an impact?', 'Where can I find specific information about which helmet to use?', and much more. 

Finally, there is a helpful chart that will help parents and kids figure out which helmet to use for activities as varies as bicycling, mountain bike racing, in-line skating, karting, moped riding, motorcycling, football, ice hockey, lacrosse, baseball, softball, t-ball,and much more. 

When users visit this page - by clicking on this link - you will also see a tab at the top of the page for Toy Recall Statistics.  Click on this link to go to that part of the CPSC site.  In particular, users might want to visit this site - Buying Toys - Safer Toys from the CPSC site.  There are a whole bunch toy safety related videos that readers might want to view.

Enjoy the links and CPSC site - its definitely worth bookmarking or making a favorite!

Regards,
Stu

Opening Day: The 2014 Baseball Season Opens Today

Hi All,

The 2014 Baseball Season opens today!  Why Time Begins on Opening Day is a book by Thomas Boswell that pay homage to the great American game - baseball.  Click on this link from Amazon.com to take a look at the book.

Take a look at this link and you'll find an article similar in content to that of Thomas Boswell's book, Why Time Begins on Opening Day...In this case, we're talking about an online article written by someone from SportsOnEarth.com.  It gives a brief (paragraph length) summary of all the Major League Baseball teams.  Interesting article...with some really neat photos.

The 'official' Major League Baseball site - click here to visit - is an awesome place to get statistics, up-to-the-minute news, score, photos, videos and much, much more about every single Major League Baseball player and team!!!

The Sporting News has traditionally been the 'newspaper' of choice that covers the four major sports - baseball, football, hockey and basketball.  Since the appearance of the internet, the importance of this venerable publication (it used to be published weekly...) has decreased. That said, it still has a major presence on the web - as you can see from this link to The Sporting News.  The link goes to the MLB section of the site - which has a massive amount of information.

For example, there are portions of the site that cover MLB News, Fantasy Baseball, Spring Training, Scores, Schedules, Standings, Statistics, Teams, Players, Injuries, Tickets and MLB Shop. Whew....that's a long, long list!

Other sites that are celebrating MLB's Opening Day include ESPN and CBS Sports. Note that these other sites also have sections related to statistics, players, standings, news, schedules and much more.

For the hardcore baseball fan who loves statistics, you might want to visit Baseball-Reference.com.  It is another awesome site for player and team statistics! 

Click on these three links for some random blogs of note - and of interest.
BaseballBlogs.org
BaseballMusings.com
Beyond the Box Score - A Saber-Slanted Baseball Community
Society for American Baseball Research - SABR

This is a virtual plethora of baseball information and news!  Enjoy the sites.

Finally, click the following links - they are all about 'celebrating' MLB's Opening Day in 2014.

'C-span Celebrates Opening Day with a Compilation of Congressional Baseball Mentions'.  Very cute.

New York Times: For Opening Day, a Campaign to Love Baseball

Should Opening Day Be a National Holiday?

Finally (part 2) click on this link for 'the best Android Apps for the 2014 Baseball Season..'

Enjoy the links, the games, and the season!

Regards,
Stu

The 400th Post!!! OMG!

Hi All,

Yep - this is the 400th post on the Reference Blog.  Quite an achievement in this world of turnover and instant change and communication and video-on-demand!

400!  Imagine that!  That's one post per day for over 13 months in a row!

So, what am I going to write about on my 400th blog entry?  That's easy!

I'm going to write about the number 400 - which, evidently, is a very notable number according to numerologists, Wikipedia (search for the number 400), and the Google (search for the number 400).

So, what does the number 400 represent in other fields?
1. The Four Hundred (oligarchy) of ancient Athens. 
2. The HTTP status code on the internet....'The request cannot be fulfilled due to bad syntax'.
3.  The 400 Club - a phrase meaning the wealthiest, most famous, or most powerful social group - leading to a list like the Forbes 400...very cool to see who is on the list.  Talk about 'Masters of the Universe!'.
4.  Atari 400 home computer...let's go back in time to about 1979 to 1992!!!!
5. 400 - Lebanese card game. 

6. Silly and insignificant, but it was the yard number of the RMS Olympic - the RMS Titantic's sister ship.
7.  In baseball - if you can ever, ever, every bat .400, you'll probably go to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.  Only a handful of players have ever hit .400 over the course of a full major league season. The last one to bat .400 was Ted Williams in 1941!
8.  The Sun is about 400 times the size of the Moon and is approximately 400 times further away - which creates a temporary illusion in which the Sun and the Moon in the Earth's sky appear to be the similar size...interesting effect!
9. Forum 400 - similar to entry #3 - which discusses the Forbes 400 - but a bit different.  The Forum400 is an elite group of the top life insurance producers in the country which helps them get 'better'.  The organization bills itself as 'Where Leaders and Legends Converge'.   Go figure. It kind of sounds like they are trying to glom off the 'Forbes 400' list...

So there you have it - 9 very interesting uses of the number 400 in all areas of human endeavor!  Enjou the post - the links and here's to another 400 interesting, fact-filled, uplifting, educational, entertaining and just plain fun blog posts!

Regards,
Stu

The Annual Baseball Opening Day Blog Entry

Hi All, Well, I just thought of a new tradition...at the start of each season for all the major sports (Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey) I'm going to have an 'opening day' entry that talks about the various sports... So, here we are - it is opening day for the 2011 baseball season. Lots of baseball fans love numbers and statistics. Click here for a seriously fantastic stats oriented website (Baseball-Register.com). The folks who put this site together are remarkably obsessive, computer savvy and organized. Amazing stats from literally every baseball game ever played. Player stats, team stats and a sort function make this a baseball fans' fantasy website. Speaking of fantasy....lots of baseball fans play rotisserie (fantasy baseball). And why not, with baseball statistics part of the lore of the game it is easy to see why folks have combined computers with baseball to come up with fantasy baseball. Click here for a few of the more popular fantasy baseball websites: ESPN Fantasy Baseball Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball CBS Sports.com Now that you've picked a team for fantasy baseball, click here for a some 'perspective' on your players. Note that there are many, many, many, many more blogs to be read than just the 5 that I've listed below. Why so many blogs? Because they are so easy to create and update. Folks can create a blog in minutes and be up and writing in probably 5 minutes or less. Can you say democratization of the ideas? Some really good baseball blogs include: MLB Blogs - direct from MLB...authoritative and updated often! Baseball Blogs from the Yahoo! Directory - yep, it still works. Why did I include this? Because every major league baseball team has a blog and this link goes to all of the blogs - instead of linking each of them individually. Baseball Musings.com - not so much a blog as it is a website...includes video and, on the right side of the screen you'll see links to other baseball blogs, links to other baseball news websites, and sigh...more links to other baseball tags. This stuff is endless! Egads... Finally, if you know what a depth chart is, than congratulations, you are a seriously obsessed (in a good way, I mean) baseball fan. Click here to see depth charts from MLBDepthCharts.com. Enjoy the links, the season and the games this year. It'll be a very interesting season! Go Mets! Go Yankees! Okay, one last link - here is one of the best odes to baseball ever written - click here for a link to the book from Amazon.com. stu Friends the Farmingdale Public Library on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter by clicking here!

Stalagtites and Stalagmites

Hi All,

Here's a fun/interesting/educational (I hope at least) entry for today's blog...

Sitting here at the reference desk I can see windows of the library. Just outside these windows I can see ice forming and snow hanging from the roof. This got me thinking about a class I took years and years ago on geology....

So - what are those hanging pieces of ice called? And correspondingly, what are the pieces of ice and snow called that form on the ground when the snow drips and forms ice on the grouns?

Stalagtites and stalagmites that's what.

Click here for a brief entry about stalagtites from Wikipedia. Click here for some really cool photos of various stalagtites. A lot of the time stalagtites and stalagmites form in caves underground.

So what is the difference between stalagtites and stalagmites? Click here for a bit of info on this from How Stuff Works.com

FYI, the simple answer is stalagtites hang from the ceiling of a cave - stalagmites form from the ground by dripping 'stuff' from the ceiling. Think of it this way - stalagtites hold tight to the ceiling...stalagmites don't they form on the ground.

Okay...enough geology for today.

Let's move on to something warm - as in the Yankees and Mets schedule for 2011.

Click here for the 2011 Yankees schedule.
Click here for the 2011 Mets schedule.

Hope this warms you up a bit on such a cold, rainy, sleety, snowy winter day.

Regards,
Stu

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