User:Philippe
Philippe is my real first name. I am a member of SABR (The Society for American Baseball Research) and its SABR-Quebec Chapter [1]. I was one of the most fervent fans of the late, regretted Montreal Expos and plan to author a number of articles on the team and its players in the BR Bullpen.
I can be reached at [email protected] (remove the + sign).
Things I am currently working on[edit]
- Season summaries for all years the Expos were in existence (now up to 1991)
- Biographies of selected players, managers, coaches and other persons linked to the Montreal Expos
- A standardized list of Notable Achievements for all players. I am starting with winners of the Silver Slugger Award (done), and will move on to Gold Glove Winners (done), MVPs (done). Cy Young Award Winners (done), Rookie of the Year Award Winners (done), Comeback Player of the Year (done), Manager of the Year Winners (done), and other Hall of Famers (done). Now adding Minor League Player of the Year award winners (done).
- Members of the various World Series Champions since 1903 (completed, June 14, 2007).
- Players who have played in the All-Star Game (completed, July 19, 2008).
- Completing information about minor league teams and cities. I am now working my way alphabetically through every city that has hosted a team in organized baseball. (Done on March 22, 2006).
- I am now working my way through all pages for Canadian cities in the bullpen, adding the two-letter province code, and adjucting any pages that links or should link to them. I am also adding a short geographic blurb about each place, for everyone's reading pleasure. (Done on March 25, 2006).
- Adding a few more elaborate definitions under the glossary section (largely done).
- Adding bibliographical references, especially to recently-published books (largely done).
- Anything else that catches my fancy.
This should keep me busy for a while.
Manager Project[edit]
I have completed most of the managerial project, which consists of adding managerial charts for all major league managers and correcting various inconsistencies, for all current franchises. Still missing are a few Federal League managers, and some 19th century ones, but the bulk of the work was completed on January 24, 2020.
2010 Projects[edit]
A new decade calls for new initiatives. I will be fleshing out the Montreal Expos article based on Jacques Doucet's recently-published history of the team. I will push on with the manager project and continue with integrating information from recent editions of SABR's Baseball Research Journal and National Pastime into articles. And I'll continue working on fixing the half-inch bug in player heights. (well, I've completed that last one; I'm a couple of issues behind on the two journals).
2011: I've done a lot of work on updating and cleaning up the calendar, which is now in pretty good shape, and in writing a few more team histories. I'm moving again in August, so I may be less active until I'm settled in once again.
update on September 19: The move is done, but I don't have an internet connection at home for the time being, so I'm not doing any bullpen work for now. I'm not sure how long it will take. Today, on October 12, I finally have a home internet connection. It will take me a while to catch up with what I've missed over the past month. --Philippe 13:06, 12 October 2011 (EDT)
Five years later, I'm moving back home after five years in France. There will be a disruption in my posting for a few days, but I'm fairly confident everything will be back in order by Labor Day. I should also resume my ballpark wanderings in 2017 as a result.
My two major projects at the moment are going through the SABR Bio Project and linking our articles to theirs while updating our articles with some of the info included in the Bio project article; this involves writing new articles for persons we may be missing, so it can be time-consuming. I've worked my way to the end of the letter M. I've also started adding articles for all umpires that do not currently have one, and linking them on the appropriate league yearly pages. That will take a while too. --Philippe (talk) 10:55, 24 August 2016 (EDT)
- I'm now back in my old house, with an internet connection, and while I still have a ton of boxes to unpack, the move was a lot less painful than expected! I should resume my normal level of activity soon. --Philippe (talk) 11:55, 31 August 2016 (EDT)
- I've now completed the umpires all the way through the end of the letter F. I won't move forward with the rest of the alphabet for the next while, as I will have to input data from the major league season which ends today, as well as postseason results and game descriptions. --Philippe (talk) 12:58, 2 October 2016 (EDT)
- As the 2018 season winds down, the umpire project is complete through the letter S, as is the task of linking up articles at the SABR Bio Project. The end is in sight for both of these major endeavors, but I'll first input stats from the current season and postseason results before moving on to the Ts. As of August 2019, I have completed both tasks through the letter V. Philippe (talk) 15:47, 13 August 2019 (UTC)
I have now reached the end of the W's for the SABR Bio Project articles, so the end is really in sight. I'll be taking a three-week vacation (finally) and will be traveling a bit, but I'll try to keep updating things as the season winds down. I will just be a bit less visible until early October. Philippe (talk) 15:07, 13 September 2019 (UTC)
With the decade ending, I am happy to announce that Rico Zuccaro is the last of the umpires who did not have an article, so that massive project is done! Still to be complete is linking the final bunch of SABR Bio Project articles, and that should be completed in the first few weeks of 2020. Philippe (talk) 16:41, 30 December 2019 (UTC)
2020 Project[edit]
The first major project of the decade is having the Bullpen integrate the decision to recognize the principal Negro Leagues as major leagues. Now that B-Ref has updated its pages, I am going systematically through these in order to ensure the Bullpen reflect the changes. This includes changing page names, creating new player pages, adjusting categories, and adjusting linked pages such as dates, schools, cities, etc. I am also creating single-season pages seasons for teams, and expanding the league ones. I have now completed the 1948 season and will work my way backwards until reaching 1920. I am by no means an expert on the Negro Leagues, but this is a great opportunity to expand my knowledge of these great and underappreciated players. Philippe (talk) 19:14, 29 June 2021 (UTC)
- It took seven months and a bit (with a big pause in the middle), but the project is now complete: every major league player and manager has a page on the bullpen, including every one whose major league status was recognized as part of the Commissioner's decision. That was one major undertaking. Philippe (talk) 20:18, 4 February 2022 (UTC)
A Manifesto[edit]
I aim for quality over quantity. Well-written and researched original articles is what makes the bullpen such a great site, as well as reliable information not available elsewhere. Let's concentrate on this and not on copying tables and lists that are available elsewhere.
Lest We Forget[edit]
I've managed to recover my paean to the Expos, posted on an ephemeral blog on September 30, 2004:
1969-2004
Nous n'irons plus à Montréal
Prendre le métro vers l'est de la ville,
Apercevoir au loin la tour inclinée,
Ou le ciment qui veut paraître blanc.
Il n'y aura plus de voltigeurs,
Ou de balle retroussée paresseusement.
La voix de Jacques Doucet s'effrite,
Et s'efface manche par manche de nos mémoires.
Juché sur l'abri des visiteurs,
Silencieusement Youppi! pleure.
Nous ne garderons que quelques nuits d'été
Et le souvenir d'une jeunesse qui nous semblait dorée.
and my attempt at a translation:
1969-2004
We will no longer go to Montreal
Take the metro to the city's East end
To see from afar the bent tower
Or the concrete that tries to pass off as white.
There will no longer be outfielders,
Or lazily-hit fly balls.
Jacques Doucet's voice crumbles away
and disappears inning by inning from our memories.
Perched on the visitors' dugout
Youppi! cries silently.
Only a few summer nights will be left us
Along with the remembrance of a youth that seemed golden
Ballparks Visited[edit]
I am only including ballparks used by professional teams; the date is that of the first game attended there. There have been many repeat visits to a number of these parks.
A night to remember[edit]
June 28, 2017:
- A few colleagues from work, my wife and I were guests of owner Miles Wolff in a suite at RCGT Park;
- We got to meet the Dominican Republic Team before the game;
- I got to throw the ceremonial first pitch alongside former major leaguer Jason Dickson, who was representing Baseball Canada (how I ended up representing the Dominican Federation is a long and convoluted story);
- Phillippe Aumont then pitched a no-hitter for the Ottawa Champions
This will be hard to top.
We're Social...for Statheads
Every Sports Reference Social Media Account
Site Last Updated:
Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction?
Subscribe to our Free Email Newsletter
Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREE
Your All-Access Ticket to the Baseball Reference Database
Do you have a sports website? Or write about sports? We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. Find out more.