Playing in Taiwan once was a last option Justin Nicolino had to continue a professional baseball career. Now the former Miami Marlins pitcher is one of many ex-MLB players who provide entertainment for U.S. sports fans.

UFC 249 will be sandwiched between 14 live baseball broadcasts out of South Korea and Taiwan this weekend for American sports fans to watch as they wait for major sports leagues to return.

A "Shoeless" Joe Jackson baseball card from 1910 sold at auction for $492,000 this week.

Asian baseball, Grimes' baby, scary invasive insects -- how well did you follow the news this week? Take the UPI News Quiz for May 8, 2020.

Dale L. Zimmerman, Jun Tang, Rui Huang.

Source: The Annals of Applied Statistics, Volume 13, Number 4, 2416--2451.

Abstract:
We extend statistical shape analytic methods known as outline analysis for application to the strike zone, a central feature of the game of baseball. Although the strike zone is rigorously defined by Major League Baseball’s official rules, umpires make mistakes in calling pitches as strikes (and balls) and may even adhere to a strike zone somewhat different than that prescribed by the rule book. Our methods yield inference on geometric attributes (centroid, dimensions, orientation and shape) of this “called strike zone” (CSZ) and on the effects that years, umpires, player attributes, game situation factors and their interactions have on those attributes. The methodology consists of first using kernel discriminant analysis to determine a noisy outline representing the CSZ corresponding to each factor combination, then fitting existing elliptic Fourier and new generalized superelliptic models for closed curves to that outline and finally analyzing the fitted model coefficients using standard methods of regression analysis, factorial analysis of variance and variance component estimation. We apply these methods to PITCHf/x data comprising more than three million called pitches from the 2008–2016 Major League Baseball seasons to address numerous questions about the CSZ. We find that all geometric attributes of the CSZ, except its size, became significantly more like those of the rule-book strike zone from 2008–2016 and that several player attribute/game situation factors had statistically and practically significant effects on many of them. We also establish that the variation in the horizontal center, width and area of an individual umpire’s CSZ from pitch to pitch is smaller than their variation among CSZs from different umpires.

Major League Baseball players and team employees to participate in 10,000-person COVID-19 study

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The Northwoods League announced Thursday that its 2020 season will not begin on May 26, as originally scheduled, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The following is a guest post by Hanna Soltys, Reference Librarian, Prints & Photographs Division. The post was written with the help of Sara W. Duke, Curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Art.   While professional baseball’s Opening Day will take place at a later date, the spirit and excitement of the day still live […]

Live professional baseball games could be televised in the United States as early next week, with South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reporting Monday that ESPN and the Korea Baseball Organization are nearing an agreement.

Derek Jeter, Larry Walker and the rest of this year's Baseball Hall of Fame class will have to wait another year for their big moment at Cooperstown.

The Korean baseball league opens its delayed season Tuesday in empty stadiums across South Korea and Canada's Jamie Romak, along with the rest of the league's players, are getting used to a new baseball normal that includes rules against high fives and spitting, daily temperature checks and the absence of fans.

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The impact of baseball as an outreach tool is growing far beyond the first teams that began nine years ago in Érd.

OM Hungary's Sports Team brings baseball and the Gospel to local schools in their now-annual visit to sports classes.

Sports ministry is having an impact on peoples' lives, both young and old. In Hungary its no different with their ever growing Baseball Ministry

Even before baseball got shut down, Joe Maddon felt like people should talk more. So that's what he's doing, one Zoom at a time.

There were fans in the stands for baseball in Taiwan on Friday, albeit spaced far apart as a safeguard against the spread of the coronavirus.

As coronavirus cases dwindle in Taiwan, baseball fans will be allowed back into stadiums on Friday evening, though with a cap on numbers.Taiwan's Central Epidemic ...

Up to 1,000 fans are allowed inside each stadium in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League

Taiwan will gradually ease restrictions on travel and sporting activities, with the island’s health minister saying efforts to control the coronavirus were paying off.The island – home to 23 million people – had reported just 440 cases and six deaths from Covid-19 as of Thursday, with no local transmission for close to a month.Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said that with very few new cases among people returning to the island from elsewhere, the authorities would allow Taiwanese stranded in…

Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez eyed a deal to work with biotech billionaire Wayne Rothbaum to mount the bid for the Mets

With the Korea Baseball Organization's regular season kicking off with no spectators allowed in the stadium, a large number of baseball fans have turned online to cheer for teams they support. The number of viewers who watched any of the five season opening games streamed online was 1.49 million in ...

Taiwan reopened baseball games to a limited number of fans on Friday for the first time since controls were imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus, part of government efforts to slowly allow normal life to resume.

Title: Ex-Baseball Star Kirk Gibson Has Parkinson's Disease
Category: Health News
Created: 4/28/2015 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/29/2015 12:00:00 AM

Teams fail when they cannot achieve a common goal. They also fail when they do not have one. In baseball, different goals between players and staff are unusual. Everyone wants to win. In neurology, where teams may be loosely defined and comprise people from many disciplines, goals differ. A win for you may not be a win for me.

There were fans in the stands for baseball in Taiwan on Friday, albeit spaced far apart as a safeguard against the spread of the coronavirus.

There were fans in the stands for baseball in Taiwan on Friday, albeit spaced far apart as a safeguard against the spread of the coronavirus.

My basement is overrun by sports cards from the 1980s and 1990s, all of which aren't worth the cardboard they're printed on. And they've never been more priceless.

Bryce Harper talks up the idea of major leaguers playing in next summer's Olympics.

The country’s professional soccer leagues will kick off Friday, also without spectators in the stadiums.

When the season opened on April 11 after a three-week delay, only players, team personnel and cheerleaders were allowed in the stadium.

Whenever baseball returns after the delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic, there’s an element that might come into play like never before: the sound of silence.

Pro sports plan to play in empty venues because of the coronavirus outbreak, but examples of events occurring without fans is sparse.

MLB stadiums without fans would be like playing in a giant television studio. TV executives offer ideas on reinventing baseball as entertainment.

The Korean baseball season is underway, but the games have a much different look with no fans in attendance because of the coronavirus crisis.

Desperate for viewers while the country is shut down, ESPN gambled that fans are in such need of live competition that they'd watch late-night Korean baseball.

Dan Cey has resigned as Calabasas' baseball coach after being reprimanded following a complaint by a neighbor about changes to the playing field.

Letters to the Los Angeles Times sports department.

There is no baseball being played in the US because of coronavirus, but a manufacturer of the uniforms worn in the Major League is now using the same fabric to make protective clothing in the fight against the pandemic.

While much of the world is under lockdown, baseball returned to South Korea on a day when the country reported just three new cases of COVID-19.

A 18-foot-wide helix turbine specially designed for urban spaces has been installed on the roof of Progressive Field, ready to begin churning out energy on opening day.

Singer Jessica Simpson was having a relaxing moment when she almost got hit in the face by son's baseball. Jessica is enjoying the quality family time as she quarantines amid the growing coronavirus pandemic.

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

Attempted gettin’ some sun and my son smacked a homerun from the driveway that almost nailed me in the face. Proof is in the splash. Needless to say, I got off the mat 😂

A post shared by Jessica Simpson (@jessicasimpson) onApr 25, 2020 at 3:56pm PDT

But it's not all perfect moments for the Texas native as she isolates with her husband and three kids. She posted a photo of her in a bikini on Instagram as her son Ace hit a baseball that nearly collided with her face, reports dailymail.co.uk.

The 39-year-old is seen basking in the sun while floating on a mat. The baseball splashing next to her head is also visible. She wrote: "Attempted gettin' some sun and my son smacked a homerun from the driveway that almost nailed me in the face. Proof is in the splash. Needless to say, I got off the mat."

Simpson shares son Ace Knute and daughters Maxwell Drew and Birdie Mae with husband Eric Johnson.

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Most footballers eye a career in coaching or punditry after hanging up their boots but Radamel Falcao is planning to go against the trend by turning his hand to baseball.