Paul Proia is a lifelong Cubs fan and baseball nut who has at various times broadcast baseball games for the University of Kansas, studied baseball history, wrote a biography of Hall of Famer Rube Waddell, and likes to study baseball statistics. For some things, he’s trusted the work of Bill James and Pete Palmer. For others, he’s invented his own routines – like figuring out the best way to determine a player’s defensive contribution in terms of range and runs prevented. If you want to know how, you’ll have to ask.
A graduate of the University of Kansas, Paul is married to the former Jeanne Evanoff, and they have one son, Casey, who is six and looks like a hitter with good speed but no patience at the plate. We’re working on it.
9 Comments
June 7, 2009 at 7:27 am
So, is this still in the hobby stages, or are you getting some compensation from sponsors? This is good stuff.
June 7, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Thanks for your kind words… Just getting started – so still hobby for now… Would I like to turn this into something bigger, sure. Who wouldn’t? I’ll try to keep it current. If you like what is here, share the link with your friends!
Paul
June 19, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Nice site. No wonder you’re up till midnight every night!
August 27, 2009 at 11:21 am
Paul:
Love the website and I just added to “My Favorites”. I look forward to checking in often.
Let’s play ball!
August 27, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Thanks for the visit!
October 7, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Paul,
Great site! The Red Sox are turning me into a baseball nut. What are a couple of the best books on the early days of the game?
Just bought your book; can’t wait to read it!
All best,
John
October 7, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Thanks for writing! (And buying!)
I’ll get the book out by the end of the week – I usually ship media mail, so it’s five days to deliver.
If you are looking for a nice “slice of life” read, I’d go with “Glory of Their Times”. All first person rememberances of the early days. There are plenty of pretty good baseball history books. The most complete is probably The Bill James Historical Abstract – which is probably in paperback now. You have to deal with some of his statistical modeling, but the history section (first third or so) is really, really good.
After that, it’s really subject to your taste.
Let me know what you think of the book. I haven’t gotten any reviews on Amazon.com, for example, and I’d like to get some feedback!
Thanks again, John – and drop me a note any time.
Paul
October 24, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Very nice site !!!
What do the Cubs have to do for ‘10 ???
Take care !
October 25, 2009 at 1:24 pm
How much time do you got?
1) Infield… Need a full season from Aramis Ramirez, which doesn’t look like it will ever happen again. Would be nice to get a defensive upgrade, too.
2) Outfield… Do the Cubs have any real bangers in the outfield? Sam Fuld? Soriano, Fukudome and Bradley were disappointing (to say the least), but compare the offensive production in the outfield with the rest of the NL and they look very weak. And that was a lot of money spent on lousy production.
3) Catching… Soto can come back. He could use a fresh start next year – and start the season healthy rather than playing in the World Baseball Classic.
4) Starting pitching. I’d resign Harden, but this is a strength for the Cubs. Need Zambrano to be a lean, mean, pitching machine. So – hire him a personal trainer and chef.
5) Bullpen. Not horrible. Sure – every guy they tried as stopper made you wince the way Mitch Williams used to, but bringing back Kerry Wood won’t matter. The Cubs need more leads, and that means more offense.
Long and short, the Cubs win when they lead the NL in runs scored. So, finding offense in the outfield and a healthy Geovany Soto would go a long way to fixing that.