Cetera Services Partner and Chief Communication Officer Dirk Lammers appeared on national baseball expert Mark Simon’s influential Sports Info Solutions Baseball Podcast to chat about no-hitters and the role of defense, umpires and other things.
Take a listen using this Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1461705002?i=1000476053905
In addition to his nearly 16 years as a researcher at ESPN, Mark wrote The Yankees Index, Every Number Tells A Story and podcasts about baseball regularly for Sports Info Solutions, which has been delivering detailed baseball data and analysis for nearly two decades.
I listened and thoroughly enjoyed the interview. There were a lot of great stories shared, and even as a relative baseball newcomer I found the conversation extremely accessible. I’d love to write a detailed summary, but I’ll boil it down to this: It was about stats and stuff.
Thankfully, I can share this episode summary from Sports Info Solutions:
On this episode, Mark Simon (@MarkSimonSays) is joined by Dirk Lammers (@ddlammers/@nonohitters), author of Baseball’s No-Hit Wonders and an expert on the history of no-hitters for a conversation on all the different factors that go into throwing one. Dirk explains the origins of his research, how much research he’s done, and his favorite (2:18). They then discuss the most prominent defensive plays in no-hitters, what made Gregor Blanco’s perfect game-saving catch so special, what percentage of no-hitters feature a good or great defensive play, and why Kevin Kouzmanoff should be remembered for his defensive work (7:21). They also get into the role of umpires and catchers (14:36) and look at patterns in pitchers that throw no-hitters (18:47). Lastly they discuss the most likely current pitchers to throw a no-hitter (20:01). Thanks for listening and stay safe!
Dirk authored Baseball’s No-Hit Wonders: More than a Century of Pitching’s Greatest Feats (Unbridled Books, 2016) and blogs regularly about no-hitters on his website nonohitters.com.
