NG Life

這個是ESPN網站中的一個小遊戲，叫做Cameraman Baseball，可以算是MLB版的大家來找碴啦。玩法就是找出左右兩張圖中不同之處，每張圖都有5個不同的地方，玩到越後面速度越快，我大概玩到快10萬分就不行了，不過排名第一個的那位老兄竟然有辦法玩到100萬分，真的是太變態了。

這張圖片是美國時間5/27 New York Yankees vs Baltimore Orioles這場比賽ESPN上Gameday的圖片。

Gameday中金鶯隊Adam Jones的照片竟然眼睛是閉上的，而且表情很囧的樣子，相對於上面洋基Farnsworth笑的那麼陽光真的是形成很大的對比，看起來覺得很好笑。

我對Adam Jones不太熟悉，但是我覺得他應該笑一下才對阿，至少今年上場時間大幅增加。不過成績不太好看，尤其是三振保送比到目前為止是4:1，選球還蠻爛的，大概跟照片一樣，打球都閉著眼睛在打吧!不過幸好四名外野手中，Jay Payton的表現一樣爛，所以使得Adam Jones還能有持續上場的機會。

Peruse the Major League Baseball offensive statistics, and you'll find those home run-hitting, historically lead-footed Boston Red Sox traveling in unexpected circles: They are tied for sixth in stolen bases (40) and are first overall in success rate (85 percent).

仔細瀏覽大聯盟的進攻數據，你將會發現善於打全壘打，但是速度不快的波士頓紅襪隊正進行著一趟意外之旅: 他們在盜壘排行榜並列第六(40次)，盜壘成功率則排名第一(85%)。

It's a boon to manager Terry Francona's flexibility to have Jacoby Ellsbury, Coco Crisp, Dustin Pedroia and Julio Lugo on the roster, but the numbers reflect a philosophy that has permeated the organization from the minors through the majors. The Red Sox will run, but only if they're prepared and the odds are in their favor.

這 都是因為總教練Terry Francona能靈活的運用球員名單中的Jacoby Ellsbury, Coco Crisp, Dustin Pedroia與Julio Lugo，但是數字反映出了充斥著這支球團從小聯盟到大聯盟的一種現象。紅襪隊會盜壘，但是只有在他們準備好了與機會在他們這邊的時後。

"We like to steal bases," said general manager Theo Epstein, "as long as we don't get caught."

"我們喜歡盜壘"，總經理Theo Epstein說:"只要我們不被抓到。"

這篇文章是在PTT的MLB板的翻譯小組中所挑選的文章，當初為了搶業績，沒有先稍微瀏覽一下，就隨便挑了一篇，結果....這篇好難翻啊!拖了超過兩個禮拜才翻完，而且自己覺得翻的很爛.....

Phew. It has been long time coming, but you can now heave a big sigh of relief as I publish the final of my four-part series on valuing baseball clubs. If you are coming to this series fresh (where have you been?) I urge you to read part 1, part 2 and part 3 first.

哇!又過了好長一段時間，但是當我現在發表這篇如何評估棒球隊的價值四大系列的最後一部分時，你應該開始有些印象了，如果你對這個系列感到陌生的話(你跑哪裡去了?)，我強烈建議你先看看第一部分，第二部分與第三部分。

The Sportvision PITCHf/x system is composed of three basic parts: the pitchtracking cameras, the trajectory reconstruction software, and the image rendering software. In this brief note, I will discuss only the first two of these.

Sportvision公司的PITCHf/x系統是由三個基本部分所構成: 投球追蹤攝影機，軌跡重建軟體，與影像建構軟體。在這篇簡短的文章中，我將只討論前面兩個部分。

To track a pitch in three dimensions requires two cameras with their axes ideally oriented perpendicular to each other. The PITCHf/x system utilizes three cameras, but only two are used for the actual tracking. A nontracking third camera is placed in centerfield and is only used for setting the height of the strike zone. In a typical setup (e.g., Fenway Park), the tracking cameras are placed high above home plate looking down ("high home") and high above the first-base line looking down ("high first"). In other venues, such as Busch Stadium, there is a "high third" instead of a "high home" camera. Both of the tracking cameras are permanently afixed to the stadium structure in an location where they are not easily bumped. The zoom on the lens is adjusted so that the field of view runs from approximately a few feet in front of the pitching rubber to the point of home plate. The cameras operate at 60 frames/s, meaning that a typical pitch of transit time 0.45 sec will provide up to 27 images for each of the two tracking cameras.

要以三度空間的形式追蹤投手投出的球需要兩部攝影機，且攝影機的中心線方向必須形成直角。PITCHf/x系統則使用了三部攝影機，但是只有兩部 是用來追蹤軌跡。第三台不用來追蹤軌跡的攝影機架設在中外野，唯一的目的是設定好球帶的高度。以一般的設置(例如: 芬威球場)而言，追蹤攝影機架設在本壘板上方朝下方拍攝("home high")與一壘邊線上方朝下拍攝("hign first")。在其他的地點，如布希球場，是以"high third"取代"high home"攝影機。兩部追蹤攝影機都被固定在球場結構中不易遭受碰撞的位置。鏡頭的變焦經過調整後使得視角位在投手丘前面幾呎到本壘板。攝影機以每秒60 個畫面拍攝，這代表兩台追蹤攝影機在一般球的飛行時間0.45秒內各可以提供27張影像。

To do the trajectory reconstruction, very clever proprietary software is used to do pattern recognition. For each frame, each camera provides a two-dimensional image of the baseball in pixels. To convert pixels into x,y,z coordinates, the cameras need to be calibrated, which is accomplished initally by placing markers at precisely known locations in the field of view of the cameras. Using this information, a prescription (more precisely, a matrix transformaton) is established for transforming the 2-dimensional pixel information from the two cameras into x,y,z coordinates on a frame-by-frame basis. The resulting trajectory x(t),y(t),z(t) (t is the time) is then "smoothed" by fitting it to a function corresponding to constant acceleration (click here for more details). Other quantities, such as the pitch speed, the location of the pitch as it crosses the plate, the "break" of the pitch, etc., are derived from the smoothed trajectory.

要達成軌跡重建必須使用非常聰明的專屬軟體來做圖形識別。每個畫面，每部攝影機提供了以像素為單位的二維棒球影像。要將像素轉換為x,y,z座標， 攝影機必須經過教點，起初先在攝影機視野內的精確的已知位置做記號，使用這些資料可以建立一套規則(更精確的說法是矩陣轉換)，將從兩台攝影機得到以逐格 動畫為依據的二維像素資訊，轉換成x,y,z座標。產生的軌跡x(t)，y(t)，z(t)(t代表時間)透過一個對應於固定加速度的函數(點此了解更多細節)做"平滑處理"。其他的數據資料，如球速，球經過本壘版的位置，球的變化量...等等，也都能由經過平滑處理的軌跡取得。

For a more detailed and technical description of an early version of the K-Zone tracking technology, see the article "Tracking Pitches for Broadcast Television", by Dr. Andre Guiziec. This system only tracked the pitch over a small range close to home plate. The current PITCHf/x system tracks over most of the distance between pitcher and home plate. For a report on a different technique for tracking a pitched baseball, see Tracking High-Speed Motion with Multi-Exposure Images. Although not directly related to the MLB Gameday system and although the techinque is not applicable outside of a laboratory setting, it is a very nice piece of experimental work that demonstrates how smart people can do excellent studies with inexpensive equpiment.

想要得到更多較早版本K-Zone追蹤技術的細節與技術說明，請參閱由Dr Andre Guiziec所撰寫的"Tracking Pitches for Broadcast Television"這篇文章。這個系統只追蹤球接近本壘板時的小範圍。目前的PITCHf/x系統則追蹤從投手到本壘板大部分的距離。另一種追蹤投出的球的技術報導請參閱Tracking High-Speed Motion with Multi-Exposure Images。雖然這個技術與大聯盟的Gameday系統沒有直接的關係，並且尚未使用在實驗室以外的環境，但是這是一個非常棒的專題研究，它顯示聰明的傢伙如何運用便宜的設備進行傑出的研究。

原文

Piazza, one of greatest hitting catchers in MLB history, retires

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Mike Piazza is retiring from baseball following a 16-season career in which he became one of the top-hitting catchers in history.

比佛利山莊，加州 -- 在Mike Piazza宣布結束16年職業生涯時，他成為了史上最佳的強打捕手之一。

"After discussing my options with my wife, family and agent, I felt it was time to start a new chapter in my life," he said in a statement released Tuesday by his agent, Dan Lozano. "It has been an amazing journey ... So today, I walk away with no regrets.

"和我的妻子，家人與經紀人討論過我的想法後，我覺得到了該展開人生新頁的時候了。"他在由經紀人Dan Lozano發表的聲明中這樣表示，"這真是一趟令人驚奇的旅程，所以今天我沒有帶著任何遺憾的離開。"

"I knew this day was coming and over the last two years. I started to make my peace with it. I gave it my all and left everything on the field."

"兩年前我知道這個日子始終會到來。我開始平靜的面對它。我將我的一切都奉獻在球場上。"