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Gaming Guru  The Home Run of Slots11 August 2020
By Frank Scoblete I love baseball. I am a New York Yankees fan (do not boo me!) ever since I met Joe DiMaggio in 1953 shortly after he retired. It was my first time at Yankee Stadium. I was six years old and I was with my dad. I know that most of the biographies of Joe D. paint him as a man who was aloof and unfriendly but he was not that to me. He shook my hand; asked me if I played baseball and told me to work hard at everything I did and would do in my life. From what I recall I just kept nodding. Of course, I didn’t exactly know who he was, one of the greatest players to ever play the game, but I knew he was important by the way everyone around him acted. My father was in awe of him. I nodded my agreement with whatever he said and then I left but the memory of that occasion stays with me, although most memories of my being six-years old have long since left me. I have looked up Joe DiMaggio’s career statistics and a remarkable thing struck me – had he played today he would probably be the home-run king and have the highest average in the league and finish in the top levels of all the new statistics being used by the current statisticians. You can look up the great players who came before Joe DiMaggio such as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig or after DiMaggio such as Willie Mays and Hank Aaron and find a startling fact: These players did not strike out much compared to today’s major leaguers. Yes, today even Babe Ruth, who was known as the “strike-out king” of his time, would be considered a contact hitter. DiMaggio rarely struck out. The most he struck out in one full season was 39 times. That was over 600 at-bats! His range was usually in the low 20’s to low 30’s. Let’s put him against today’s greatest players, the best of whom is undeniably Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels. Trout strikes out well over a hundred times a season! A New York Yankee favorite, Aaron Judge, struck out 209 times in his only full season of play. His teammate, home-run champion Giancarlo Stanton, struck out 170 times in one of the full seasons he played. In short, today’s players want to hit home runs. They have developed arcing swings at the ball to loft it into the air so the ball goes over the fences. But that swing also opens them up to more strikeouts per season. Baseball has been kind to today’s would-be home run hitters. The baseball parks are smaller, making it easier to hit home runs, and the baseballs have been juiced and thus they can be hit farther. We had juiced players in the recent past and now we have juiced baseballs. Those two juices have changed the nature of the game. Everyone knows that Yankee Stadium had what was called the “short porch” designed so Babe Ruth could hit home runs – even though most of Ruth’s homeruns were epic in nature. The old Yankee Stadium was a wasteland for home runs by right-handed power hitters. Indeed the very dimensions of the old Yankee Stadium reveals a startling truth; except for down the lines, a right handed hitter at the old stadium faced just short of impossible odds of hitting a home run to left center or center field. The ball had to travel over approximately 460 feet to get out of the park! How many home runs would DiMaggio have hit had he been launching his drives a mere 400 to 420 feet, distances that could easily propel the ball out of the stadium? I saw Aaron Judge hit a 445-foot home run to left center two years ago. That was a massive home run but it would not have cleared the fences in 1941. So today’s baseball players have incorporated large numbers of strikeouts in return for hitting home runs. Juiced balls and seemingly better ticket sales have demanded it according to baseball analysts. And that brings me to slot machines. There are basically two types of machines in the casinos, those that favor smaller wins but a better chance of going home with some kind of money after any given session or slot machines that offer you the home runs of huge payoffs but far less chance of going home tonight with some money in your pocket. In short, these machines can be considered strike outs. You choose. Do you want to have a better chance to win today? If so, play standalone machines where jackpots are not massive. If you want to hit the life-changing jackpots then go for the home-run machines where strikeouts are far, far more common. My baseball analogy of juiced balls and smaller stadiums would seem to indicate that monster-paying machines should be easier to beat but that isn’t so. Giant jackpots cause more strikeouts but rare monster hits. Take your pick! All the best in and out of the casinos! Frank’s books are available at Amazon.com, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, e-books and at bookstores. Visit his web site at www.frankscoblete.com This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.net. Manners Are Important4 August 2020
In just about all areas of life we are confronted by how to properly handle our relations with other people, our culture, others’ cultures and just the do’s and don’ts of this or that situation. For example, if someone is grasping onto the overhead strap on the subways so he doesn’t fall, it is considered wrong to break the person’s fingers in order to get a good grip on the instrument yourself. ... (read more)
Penny Pinching28 July 2020
Einstein is credited with saying the following: “Craziness is defined as continuing to do the same thing time and again expecting different results.” Whether he said or wrote this, or whether it is a false citation doesn’t matter; the sentiment certainly makes sense. And it certainly makes sense when it ... (read more)
Interview with a Blackjack Bully21 July 2020
I think this column will be a first for any gambling writer. That’s right; I am going to interview a blackjack bully. Blackjack players and other gambling writers have often decried those blackjack bullies who feel free to give other players advice. Worse, such blackjack bullies will often harangue other ... (read more)
Ask Frank: Spanish 21 StrategyHello there, Living in Canada, I find that the rules are more liberal here than at other casino locales, such as the dealer standing on all 17s for Spanish Blackjack. In your book, Armada Strategies for Spanish 21, there is only a strategy for when the dealer hits soft 17. I w... (read more)Ask Frank (Playing Winning Craps)Dear Mr. Scoblete: In your book Forever Craps, you recommend to play one Don't Come bet per shooter without odds in order to reduce your exposure to the house. I usually play at casinos that count the spread and odds. If I play one ... (read more)Bad Ways to Play Good Casino GamesYou've met this guy before. He's cantankerous, witless, and loud. He knows everything about everything when it comes to casino games. He's a self-made expert who knows more than all writers and mathematicians combined, and as he doubles on his thirteen against the dealer's ... (read more)The Craps to English DictionaryCraps is another country, a kingdom with its own mores, legends, myths, rites, rituals, superstitions and government. It also has its own language, much of it easily misunderstood as sexual or scatological references. For those of you interested in journeying to this ... (read more)Craps Crap and Craps Gold - Part 1What do the following sayings have in common? "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." "Better late than never." "High fences make good neighbors." "Always play the Pass/Come and take full odds." Answer: The above statements are true. Yes, some people might quibble and say that you can eat as ... (read more)Frank Scoblete |
Frank Scoblete |
