Starting my Paul Blair stats hunt
Yesterday I got into an argument with my cousin about Paul Blair’s career stats. That dude played for my Yankees back in the 70s! Woke up this morning still steaming, figured I’d dig up some numbers to shut him down properly. Grabbed my coffee and fired up the laptop.
First place I always check is the official baseball stats site. Typed his name real slow, fingers crossed. BAM – his lifetime batting average popped up immediately! Found all the basic stuff there: games played, hits, home runs. Solid starting point but I needed more details about his fielding positions.
Hitting dead ends and getting frustrated
Tried that super popular sports encyclopedia site next. Their search box gave me trouble – kept showing soccer players named Paul Blair! Had to add “baseball” and “MLB” to finally see his page. Annoying as hell. Their stats layout made my eyes cross too – tiny fonts and weird abbreviations everywhere. Gave up after five minutes of squinting.
Then I remembered that sports history forum I lurked on last year. Scrolled through endless threads about Hank Aaron before finally finding one discussing Blair. Some old-timer claimed Blair robbed three homers in a single game! Couldn’t verify that anywhere official though. Forums are fun but not reliable for actual stats.
Striking gold finally
My buddy texted me about this sports reference site he uses. Man, that was the jackpot! Search worked perfectly, and holy cow they had everything:
- Split stats against left-handed pitchers
- Fielding percentages by year
- Even minor league numbers from 1962!
Spent hours comparing his 1977 season with his earlier years. What surprised me most? His stolen base percentage was way higher than I remembered!
Found one more amazing source on accident while searching images. This baseball nostalgia site had scans of his original 1967 Topps card with stats on back! They also listed random fun facts like his salary each season. Totally useless for my argument but damn interesting.
Wrapping it up
By dinner time I had printed out like fifteen pages of stats. Called my cousin back and dropped knowledge bombs for twenty straight minutes! The official site gave quick answers, the reference site did heavy lifting, and the nostalgia spot provided cool context. Forgot how much I love falling down rabbit holes like this – reminds me why I started blogging in the first place. Next weekend maybe I’ll dig into Ron Guidry’s strikeout records!
