Jules was a cultural historian, focusing on California and baseball. He was my professor at San Francisco State University, and wrote one of my college recommendation letters. When I hastily applied to graduate school, he came through with a letter on short notice without even a hint of complaint. He was an inspirational teacher who shared his passion for both history and baseball unreservedly.
In addition to his research, Jules was a wonderful writer. I read his book "Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and his Legacy" before I'd ever met him. In my childhood and teenage years, I read literally hundreds of books about baseball, and "Baseball's Great Experiment" was one of the best. Then as now I was impressed at its combination of academic depth and lucid, exciting prose. It's certainly the best book about Robinson, and when I sold my baseball books a few years ago, it was one of the dozen or so that I kept -- my special favorites. I have often recommended it to friends, both fans and non-fans. In Jules' San Francisco Chronicle obituatary, I was moved to read that it was Rachel Robinson's favorite book about her late husband. I'm not surprised.
Jules was also a friend, particularly close with the Weinstein-Zitrin family, with whom I spent many hours as a young teenager. He and Richard Zitrin, my childhood friend Gabe's father, would engage in heated discussions of baseball subjects -- I remember Richard having particularly strong opinions on whether Jack Morris was overrated, though I can't remember which side he was on and which side Jules was on. Jules was the commissioner of the Pacific Ghost League, the first fantasy baseball league on the West Coast, which was founded in 1981. I'm sure all the owners of the PGL have Jules in their hearts today.
Jules struggled long and hard with cancer, and his illness in recent months was very severe. I will be thinking of him, and of his family. I hope they can find peace in his passing. I also want to thank Jules Tygiel for all he did for me. He will be missed.
Podcast: Bill James, Legendary Baseball Writer and Analyst
In the late 1970s, Bill James started writing "The Baseball Abstract," a new kind of baseball annual. James used statistical analysis to study baseball's conventional wisdom, and often found unexpected results. The first Abstracts were hand-mimeographed and mailed by James himself, but by the early 1980s, James was at the forefront of a new movement, which he called sabermetrics, that argued for objective analysis of the game. James and his cohorts were often derided by baseball insiders, but today James is an employee of the Boston Red Sox, and his ideas have helped transform how baseball teams are run. James also runs billjamesonline.net and has just released his first in a new series of annuals, The Bill James Baseball Goldmine. Discuss this episode on the forum! Download This Show (MP3)
Bill James is the man who invented baseball nerd-dom -- at least in the contemporary sense. He took the box scores printed in the morning paper and drilled down, putting basic assumptions to the test over and over again. Then he took what he'd learned, and wrote it for a general audience in incisive, often very funny prose. I'm interviewing him in about an hour, over the phone, and I couldn't be more excited about it.
Above, a very good segment from 60 Minutes on James, which does a better job than most of expressing what James does and has done over the past 30 years.
Also: Morely Safer is just impossibly old. I should emphasize: he does a great job and as far as I can tell hasn't missed a beat. But he is super, super old.
Yesterday the Sklar Brothers came by for an interview (to be heard later on TSOYA), and we fell into talking about sports, and specifically, the intersections between sports nerddom and comedy nerddom. I was inspired by their passion, so here's A Baseball Post.
First of all, congratulations to Jacob Mustafa, owner of the Nothing Can Mustafas Now in the Maximum Fun Fantasy Baseball League. You may know Jacob as the editor of TSOYA The College Years. After Rick Paulas' Paulas Poundstones and Paul Reiser's Mojo Reisers spent the season locked in a tight 1-2 battle, the Mustafas triumphed after a shocking last-week ascension. Jacob earns the right to hold the Saint Mary's Park 1992 Trophy (pictured above) for one calendar year, until next year's champion is crowned. He will also, in accordance with Rotisserie Baseball tradition, be doused with Yoo-Hoo brand chocolate drink.
And in further baseball nerd news... if you're looking towards a long fantasy-baseballess winter, here's some good news. Baseball Mogul, the nerdiest and best baseball simulation game available, is now free. Well... last year's version is free. I try not to have the game installed on my computer, because I am inclined to spend ten and twelve hours at a time managing my team, adjusting ticket prices, signing free agents and drafting high schoolers. The good folks at Sports Mogul stop giving away the game at the end of the World Series, so act now.
We continue our journey into The Sound of Young America's vast audio archive with this program from The Sound of Young America Classics.
On this week's show, a celebration of America's Pastime. We've got baseball trivia with Tim & Eric, creators of the Cartoon Network's "Tom Goes to the Mayor", Will Carroll, author of the The Baseball Prospectus, and author/former major league pitcher Bill "Spaceman" Lee.
Also, a public service announcement regarding barber shop quartets.
Please share your thoughts on the show in the comments section!
Word has started to leak out that I am a baseball nerd. I'm comfortable with the fact that I've read several hundred books on the subject, have in the past belonged to a special nerd club and attended it's conventions, and ran a rotisserie baseball league from ages 11-16.
Well, some intrepid Young Americans have suggested a fantasy baseball league, and I am an active supporter of the idea. Interested in participating? Get in on the discussion here.
And even if you don't want to participate in this league, you can still listen to our baseball show, featuring Tim & Eric, Will Carroll of The Baseball Prospectus, and Bill "Spaceman" Lee, the former Red Sox and Expos lefty who once wrote a letter to commissioner Bowie Kuhn stating that he (Lee) did not smoke marijuana (though he did eat it on his pancakes every morning).
"Rust, a fungus disease, sapped the
wheat crop. Production of durum wheat dropped from the 10-year average
of 31,547,000 bushels a year to 4,976,000 bushels."
My friend Jules Tygiel passed this week.
In the late 1970s, Bill James started writing "The Baseball Abstract," a new kind of baseball annual. James used statistical analysis to study baseball's conventional wisdom, and often found unexpected results. The first Abstracts were hand-mimeographed and mailed by James himself, but by the early 1980s, James was at the forefront of a new movement, which he called sabermetrics, that argued for objective analysis of the game. James and his cohorts were often derided by baseball insiders, but today James is an employee of the Boston Red Sox, and his ideas have helped transform how baseball teams are run. James also runs 
