Henderson Alvarez has become a Maddux icon

Henderson Alvarez, a right-handed pitcher for the Marlins is becoming quite a sensation within the world of the Maddux. On Saturday night in Miami, Alvarez (who just turned 24 on Friday) pitched the first Maddux of 2014, shutting out Seattle on just 90 pitches, while allowing only 2 hits and issuing 0 walks. It was the third Maddux of Alvarez's career already, which puts him in select company, especially given his age. Youth wasn't the only factor that made this particular Maddux so notable though, and I don't think any other active pitcher could have generated as many interesting tidbits of Maddux trivia as Alvarez just did.

A Maddux on Opening Day

There have been only two Madduxes* thrown on Opening Day, each of them thrown by a pitcher who went on to have a great season, each of them thrown by a pitcher who now has at least one Cy Young Award in his trophy case (well, I guess their awards might not actually be in a trophy case, they could be on a mantle somewhere, or perhaps one of them is being used to prop a door open). One was thrown in the American League, the other in the National, but they were both thrown in southern California.

MLB 2014 Predictions

Another baseball season is upon us, bringing with it 162 more chances for each of us to live and die a little with our team, and another chance for me to show off my infinite wisdom by making predictions that stand little chance of proving correct.

I haven't had the right World Series winner since 2009, which is bad news for the team I'm picking this year.

NFL Players born on a Super Bowl Sunday

(This post was originally written in 2014, but has been updated for 2016.)

It's Super Bowl Sunday, the biggest day of the American sports calendar. I'm not much of a football fan anymore, but today is one of the few days when I'll get sucked back in. Today I decided to take a look through the records at Pro-Football-Reference.com to find out how many NFL players (guys who appeared in at least one NFL game) were born on a Super Bowl Sunday. I don't believe this information will be of any help to you in winning any of your prop bets, but it's something.

My Favorite Movies of 2013

After slumping in 2012 and seeing only 47 new movies (the first time since 1996, when I was 16, that I didn't see 50+), I rebounded and saw 52 in 2013. Heading into December, I wasn't sure I'd make it, but a brutal cold front that extended my winter break by two days and made going outside highly unpleasant, all while my fiancee was in Hawaii for work, allowed me to put Netflix to good use and cruise back above the benchmark. Both Netflix and Red Box were a bigger part of my movie-viewing than ever before, so while finding time to get to the theater a gets harder and harder, I was still able to keep caught up on things.

2013 (It Was a Very Good Year)

Ground Ball With Eyes has been a ghost town of late, with this being my only post in December, after also writing only once in November and once in October too. My absence here has not been due to writing less, in fact it's quite the opposite. At the end of the 2013 season, I took over as managing editor at Let's Go Tribe, and after writing there twice a week or so for the previous year, I've had at least one post up there every since day for more than two months, often more than one, and that's left me with precious little time for other research or writing.

With old daddy Earth fixin' to start one more trip 'round the sun, and everybody hopin' this ride 'round be a little more giddy, a little more gay*, I wanted to take a moment to look back on some of the biggest events of my 2013, which has been one of the most eventful, memorable, and wondrous years of my life.

Greatest Chicago-Area Baseball Players

Baseball talent is not evenly distributed around the United States, for reasons largely having to do with climate. As you'd expect, more MLB players come from warmer parts of the country. Still, any big city is going to produce a fair amount of talent over the years. What kind of team could be built entirely of players from my hometown of Chicago? Place of birth is what I know how to feasibly research, so that's what I'm using. I'm also including the metro area, to get a wider scope. All players included here were born in Chicago or a suburb within 30 miles of the city limits.

Worst 3-season stretches in baseball history

Entering 2011, the Houston Astros had never lost more than 97 games in a season. The Angels were the only other franchise that could say that. In 2011 though, Houston lost 106 games... then they lost 107 games in 2012... and then they lost 111 in 2013. They went from having one of the most impressive track records in all of baseball for avoiding really bad seasons, to putting together one of the worst stretches ever.

2013 breaks MLB record for most extra-inning games

When the Blue Jays and Orioles went into the 10th inning Tuesday night, a new record for most extra-inning games in a single season was established. It was the 238th extra-inning game of 2013, besting the mark set in 2011 (the Diamondbacks and Padres later made it 239). No other season in MLB history featured more than 220 extra-inning contests. With five days left in the season, there's time for this season to build up a little breathing room, likely finishing up at something like 245 (I'll update this post once the final results are in). What follows is a look at some of the specifics of this year's extra innings, and how they compare to those of other seasons.

Vladimir Guerrero: a Hall of Fame career?

Vladimir Guerrero was the #1 overall pick in the first fantasy baseball league I ever played in, and he helped me win the title that year. I already liked him, but that cinched his place in my heart. Guerrero hasn't played in the Major Leagues since 2011, but it wasn't until this month that he accepted that he wouldn't make it back, and made his retirement official. Vlad was famous for having elite power and speed during his prime, as well as an absolute cannon for an arm, and for swinging at and connecting with any and all kinds of pitches sometimes even ones that bounced in the dirt. When his name arrives on Hall of Fame ballots in a few years, he'll be an interesting candidate, sure to draw solid support. Will he draw enough to be inducted? We'll have to wait and find out. In the meantime, should he be inducted?