So in the background of the TV broadcast of the game today, I could hear the "What's the matter with _________?"/"HE'S A BUM!" chant. Does anybody know the history of this? My googling suggests that it's a very Giants-specific chant, and it may date back to the Polo Grounds, which makes sense since the Dodgers used to be called "the Bums" back then (though, IIRC, that name came from the Brooklyn fans...). Does anybody know of a more specific history behind the chant, or is that all there is? Has it always come from left field (even at Candlestick and the Polo Grounds)? Is it technically inappropriate to use with non-Dodger players? Who else loves seeing that lady with the season tickets to the seat at the very front of section 134?

Facts and stories of all authenticities are allowed: "Nothing is true, everything is permitted."

Just curious for the stat heads out there: what tools do you use for your analyses? I see a lot of Excel and/or FanGraphs looking charts online, but I'm wondering if people aren't using more sophisticated statistics-specific software, like Stata or Matlab.

Also, where does your data come from? I can't imagine people are just hand copying numbers from baseball-reference.com. Is there some way to retrieve and parse large amounts of data from the mlb site?

So the Merc has an article about Brian Wilson's entrance music. Turns out it's some Christian rock song called "Rise Up" which left me feeling a little bleh and--I hate to say it, but--a little weirded out, too.

Anyway, I got to thinking about other closers' songs and some alternative choices. Unfortunately, based on my brief research endeavor, Trevor Hoffman may have claimed dibs on what might be the best entrance music with "Hell's Bells" (that ominous intro + classic riff combo is harder to find that I had thought, and on a purely objective level, I think it's a better choice than "Smoke on the Water", which I will always associate with a particular Kids in the Hall skit).

The best I could come up with would be Danzig's "Mother". Of course, this only works if they play a new version of the video on the jumbotron, where Wilson acts out Danzig's parts. Maybe the parts around 2:16, or 3:00. Who's with me?