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Hey, it’s always nice to get some positive attention, and this was a little thing that sort of feels like a big one.
Honestly, I don’t remember when we started Six Pack of Stats on South Side Sox, gimme a sec and I’ll look.
Wow, huh, Opening Day 2018, when Brett took over here and was making an effort to introduce some new stuff to the site. It’s ran off and on, I think it wasn’t every game, simply because we had fewer writers then than now. But in 2020, it was our primary recap here at SSS, as we did our written story recaps at Sports Illustrated.
I know it was something Brett did on the White Sox beat in 2010-11, and even on the Blackhawks beat in 2009-10. So this goofy sidebar has started to take on a life of its own. (Perhaps he can confirm, but the Six Pack concept originally was pitched to CSN/NBC with an eye to sponsorship, because there wasn’t a thing that company wasn’t trying to sell. Or still isn’t.)
Burying the lede here, the one and only Tom Tango, perhaps second in sabermetric status to Bill James himself, went out of his way to give a little love to SSS and the Six Pack today:
This is what WPA was made for. While we all watched the game and don't need to have the WPA chart, think about the hundreds of similar games that have been played that you did NOT see. What these charts allow us is look back at those little known games to bring them back to life. https://t.co/UYikw0QMTK
— Tangotiger (@tangotiger) August 13, 2021
I know Brett was excited about this, because right away he let us all know internally that this was sort of a big deal, and later tweeted back as well:
WOW. There's no higher compliment, Tom.
— South Side Sox (@SouthSideSox) August 13, 2021
As someone who's been doing versions of the Six Pack even back on a hockey and baseball beat 10-11 years ago, it's nice to think the feature could finally be getting some traction! https://t.co/QoYxf1qOT3
Tango (his pen name) is the godfather and architect of Statcast and currently is an advanced stats bigwig at MLB, so it’s a bit ironic that the game he chose to highlight SSS’s Six Pack efforts didn’t even have Statcast (although Tyrone Palmer’s kerosene-powered Statcast attempt was totally legit).
Tango’s The Book is a pioneering saber tome from the 2000s, he developed FIP, his Marcel the Monkey projection system takes a broad swipe at predicting Hall of Fame careers, and he has worked as a consultant for a number of MLB and NHL teams.
We’re not tweeting out this little victory lap, but thought you as readers might like to see how SSS is being recognized out there.