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Sports analytics professional Ari Kaplan
of Ariball.com recalls what happened to
him after the Baltimore Orioles hired
him in college. “When I was a teenager,
[Orioles manager and Hall of Fame
player] Frank Robinson was one of my first
bosses. Another was Roland Hemond, a general manager also
honored by the Hall of Fame. It was great to work with such
outstanding baseball people. One of the big honors I had was
meeting Earl Weaver [pictured at left], the legendary manager
who was one of the innovators in splits, which is the practice
of looking at lefty-righty matchups [in determining batting
order and which players would face which pitchers]. Weaver
had these index cards he would bring into the dugout, so he
was one of the first to do it. One of my first big honors was to
computerize that entire
methodology
for the Orioles. I would
then print it out for the coaches every day.”
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ard at
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