Author: The Coach

#8 The Coach, founding Regent of Tapey Beercone.

Stat Chug: The Five Runs Plus Outs Limit and Its Effect on the Game

Stat Chug: A specially brewed stats based draft.

The Five Runs Plus Outs Limit and Its Effect on the Game: How the Rule Limits Run Scoring and More

Of the many rules Tapey Beercone adopts by way of Piney Pinecone a very prominent statute is the Five Runs Plus Outs Limit Rule. The rule is stated thus:

Article III: Gameplay Section A: Inning
… A half inning ends when any of the following occur:
-When the third out of any inning is recorded.
-When a sum total of 5 runs and outs are reached and it is not the last inning and a Grand Salami has not been recorded in the half inning.
-When a sum total of 8 runs and out is reached and it is not the last inning.

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From the Annals: The Quintessential Field

Tapey Beercone can be played just about anywhere, and the variety of locations and field characteristics represented in the Tapey Beercone Atlas provides amble evidence of this. The rules for field making are left intentially vague. So consice in fact, all rules and regulations for Tapey Beercone field-making could fit on the back of a post card. And while, there is no effort, neither within the Regency nor the player base at large to change these rules, a general trend has emerged over the seasons which has led to measured consistency between fields. This post will explore the Atlas to compare how fields vary, and just how consistent they are, with the aim to answer the question: What would the prototypical Tapey Beercone field look like.
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Stat Chug: Searching for a Drinking to Batting Ability Link

Stat Chug: A specially brewed stats based draft.

Searching for a Drinking to Batting Performance Link: The quest to find the link between inebriation and batting performance.

In a Sport such as Tapey Beercone, where drinking is prevalent (in fact encouraged by the rules), it seems obvious that all of this drinking would have some effect on a player’s performance and the outcomes that player produces. A good part of what makes Chugging Percentage (CHG) such a prestigious statistic is that the components of the stat ( Batting production measured by Slugging Percentage (SLG) and Drinking Frequency measured by Beers per Inning (BPI)) are presumably not independent. The idea being that for one to remain a productive batter whilst also quaffing beer at an exceptional rate takes unique ability. Plainly put, one would expect that the relationship between batting outcomes and drinking frequency would be inversely correlated, that to drink more would on average mean to give something away as a batter. With these assumptions in mind, this author aimed to seek out this relationship with the goal being to measure it, and then with these measurements in hand create a new metric to judging the exceptional batters/drinkers who standout from the pack. What follows is a walk-through of this quest.
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From the Annals: Game of Kings, but not Kegs

Tapey Beercone is the self-evident and undisputed Game of Kings, at least within the Buckos Nation. Also self-evident is the fact that to play Tapey Beercone you need beer. Specifically you need beer in the form of beer canned in aluminum, otherwise there’d be no ball. But beer comes in many other forms too: the glass bottle, the growler, and larger still, the keg.
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Stat Chug: The Five-Run Inning

Stat Chug: A specially brewed stats based draft.

The Five-Run Innings: Do the Stats reveal the secret to reaching every offense’s goal?

In the details, Tapey Beercone is a very unique sport. In what other sport do players prepare for the game by drinking a few beers so they have the materials needed to make the ball? But if you take a few steps back, and view the game from a distance, it will look much like the other base and ball sports, such as baseball or softball. A pitcher, a batter, some fielders, and runners on the bases. It’s all pretty much what you would expect. Still, set aside the obvious equipment differences, and there and many characteristics of Tapey Beercone which are distinct from the other similar sports. One of these major differences between how Tapey Beercone is played, is the innings limit on runs and outs.
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From the Annals: The Regency Streak

As dictated by the sport’s Charter, Tapey Beercone is governed by six Regents. These being the original six players who founded the sport and played in its first games. All six players are still active players today, and all have ample history playing throughout the sports five seasons. But what is somewhat remarkable is the consistency of their playtime, and the resulting streak.
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6 for 6: #Beerpope

#Beerpope, a moment that made a Beerpope.

Tradition. Tapey Beercone is steeped in it. Since the first aluminum cans were wrapped in duct tape, the sport has held to a vast array of traditions. One needs only peruse the Official Rules finding there is literally a section titled “Traditions”, as evidence of how deeply traditions are held in the sport. More broadly, the entirety of Articles IV and V on Ground Rules and Sportsmanship codify many of the sport’s most deeply held rituals and conventions. However, the vast majority of these traditions are not founded in Tapey Beercone alone, but stretch out universally into the customs of the Buckos Nation at large. Some, such as naming each new field, or the Testicle Bill of Rights, owe their creation to Piney Pinecone. Still others, such as the playing of the Buckos National anthem or resolving disputes by Rock-Paper-Scissors are carryovers from Buckos culture in general. Not simply a part of the sport, they are traditions held across all aspects of life in the Buckos Nation. Rare is the tradition rooted in the game’s founding itself.
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From the Annals: The Triple Play

Making outs is Tapey Beercone is a challenge. The league on-base percentage hovers around .650, meaning nearly two-thirds of the time the batter safely reaches first without making an out. Given the difficulty in making one out, it’s no surprise that making two outs on one play is very uncommon. And three outs in one play, well that ought to be impossible.
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Stat Chug: BPI, CHG, and the Origins of the Statistical Era of Tapey Beercone

Stat Chug: A specially brewed stats based draft.

Beers Per Inning, Chugging Percentage, and the Origins of the Statistical Era of Tapey Beercone.

It was in the run up to the Season 3 opening series at Hell Hole that we first began a serious discussion about recording statistics during games. Not just winners and losers, and game scores as had been done in past seasons, but much more rigorous play-by-play statistics. This wasn’t unprecedented, way back during the Piney Pinecone Days at Jim Siemens Field, there was a concerted, though ultimately fruitless, attempt to record statistics during those games. We talked about how we could do it: how would we record, and more importantly what would we record? Simply hits versus outs?, or could we record all the basic play outcomes from baseball? (1B, 2B, 3B, etc.) Then it hit us: What about recording beers? It was with that thought that we knew stats needed to become a thing!
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6 for 6: The Miracle Near 79th Street

The Miracle Near 79th Street, a Buckos Christmas Story

Our story takes place in New York City, in the Winter of 2012, but let’s back track a little, to Alaska in May of 2010. At that time Tapey Beercone was still in its infancy, the sport just but a year old, and while just one game had been played outside the sport’s birthplace in California, the sport had already woven itself into the fabric of the Buckos Nation to the point that it was a given that the Buckos would take the game with them went they took a trip to Alaska. This led to a shining success, the three game Alaska Series, and it instilled in the Buckos Nation the concept that the sport could be taken anywhere. In the years after the sport spread, to Oregon, across California, and even to somewhat public spaces, but our story is about the game expanding to a place that would have seemed impossible, even while picking up ax handles from checked baggage at the airport in Anchorage.
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