DS Merle and I land in Austin Texas late morning on 23 August 2013. By 6:30pm that evening my brother Keith already has us in our seats at a AAA Pacific Coast League minor league baseball game, Oklahoma City versus the local Round Rock Express. The official box score from the Austin American-Statesman summarizes the game's statistics, but the score that I keep (see below) tells the story: dominating innings by home team pitcher Josh Lindblom, exciting double plays by the visitors in the second and third innings, two home runs by Oklahoma City in the sixth which put them ahead, and no threats from Round Rock after the third. In the later innings I explain DS Robin's "Estimating Expected Future Runs in an Inning" statistical study and resulting formula. Keith and I apply it in a range of situations, including a sacrifice bunt (which advances a runner to no avail) and a two-out runner-on-third situation. The scoresheet doesn't indicate soda, curly fries, peanuts, and funnel cake consumed. Nor does it indicate temperatures in the upper 90's, or my brother's kind cycling friend Otto who gets us the tickets and comes by to chat. "Dr Zimmermann and Dr Zimmermann," my brother introduces Merle and me. When Otto jokes about being honored to be in the presence of such great intellects, Merle responds self-deprecatingly, "We're sitting here in front to protect you from foul balls with our giant heads!"

(cf. RoundRockExpress (2004-06-04), BaseballBlues2006 (2006-08-04), Reno 7, Round Rock 2 (2011-06-03), ...) - ^z - 2013-08-26