Cube Notes

+ The database has been updated to include player deaths and debuts for major leaguers for the 2007 season. The new layout, up until today, did not include this information. Debut dates are linked to the game boxscore from the player page. Death information is for major leaguers only and displays the date of death. For minor leaguers and other players who have passed away, you can send along the date of death for inclusion. For non major leaguers, date of death may be absent as its more difficult to track.

+ I've also added 2008 salaries to the salary database. This is only for players who started the season on a major league roster or on the disabled list. I'll update the rest of the players at the end of the season.

+ Spring training statistics are no more. Not only do they take up space on a player's page, they take up database space and are fairly insignificant. I might try to replace them with more significant statistics like fall/winter Leagues or other International leagues. I've had requests for Mexican League data as well.

+ Disney World was a success for our family. 10 days of non-stop park hopping between the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM), Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Laggon and Downtown Disney. Our kids are 5 and 3 and they had a good time but they were more likely to enjoy the pool or the arcade at the hotel instead of Small World or Astro Blasters with Buzz Lightyear. I would recommend to any family that if you are planning to go to Disney only once, wait until your kids are all 48 inches or taller (so they can ride on most any ride) and are at least 6 or 7 years old. My favorite Disney rides:

• Test Track
• Aerosmith's Rock n' Roller Coaster
• Splash Mountain
• Primeval Whirl
• Expedition Everest
• Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters
• Tommorowland Speedway

+ Sorry for the lack of updates. Sometimes life gets in the way and sometimes you accidentally overwrite your "site build" program and have to rebuild it from scratch.

Current season statistics are now available on player pages. They were updated late last week, before the disappearance of my site building program. I'll try to update the stats at least twice a week so that each player's page gains more relevance. You might notice that for now, the team statistics pages for 2008 are not available. I'll be updating those next.

Oh, and the stats are for the majors and affiliated minor leagues.

+ You might have noticed an update to the layout of the site within the last couple of weeks and at the time of publication, I liked them but upon review, I have decided to redesign once again.

Today, you will notice that the player pages are updated and looking very different. The data is organized differently and the width of the page is compressed into 1024 pixels making design easier and hopefully overall, the site easier to read. Any feedback is appreciated.

+ Recently updated on The Hockey Cube. Includes player logs, player stats analysis, team logs, a calendar, a daily view with daily standings and leaders and finally, the boxscores. Faceoff data was not available for 2003-04 but I'll try to insert it retroactively when I find it.

2002-03 is already underway.

+ Once again, sorry for the lack of updates on the blog. As is always the case, I get wrapped up in a large project and I neglect all others. Though I am still entrenched in designing a new site layout that will clean up the inconsistencies and control the ads a bit better, I have started in on some of the smaller projects that are on my to-do list.

+ The first project on that list was for player Transactions between December 1,2006 and February 28,2008. One of the new features of the Transactions, going forward, is the inclusion of length of contract. I don't have dollar figures but on Johan Santana's page, for example, you'll see he signed a 6-year contract with the Mets after being traded there.
As with every player update, expired sponsorships have been removed and profiles have been updated as a result of visitor updates submitted.

+ I'm headed back to Disney World at the end of April and I am betting that there is snow on the ground here when I leave. Today is the first day of spring and Montreal is celebrating with more snow. My bet is that if the groundhog could get his head out of his little hole and through the 10 feet of snow above it, he would look outside and say six more weeks of winter before jumping back to his hole and his HD television. Ideally, when I leave for Disney, I would like to see a few inches of snow still on the ground so I could at least feel like I was leaving winter behind and heading directly to summer. I'm still wondering why my ancestors decided to settle up in Canada when there were so many tropical climates available.

+ Another new feature on The Hockey Cube (THC) as it slowly morphs into my ideal web site. I have added the ability to sponsor a player page. Unlike The Baseball Cube, The Hockey Cube will account for almost all revenue on the hockey site.

+ I know this song was released in 2005 but Dakota by the Stereophonics is my new favorite song followed closely by Comin' Home by City and Colour. The name of the latter artist is for a Canadian from St. Catharines, Ontario whose name is Dallas Green. Probably not the same as this Dallas Green. The moniker "City and Colour" comes from "Dallas" being a city and "Green" being a colour.

+ I haven't forgotten about The Baseball Cube. I have several projects in the pipeline for it in the next few weeks but since its hockey season and there is so much to add to the hockey site, you'll likely see many more updates for THC than you will for TBC in the next little while. There's enough passion for both!

+ A new feature on the Hockey Cube's front page is Milestones. For THC, a milestone is a significant statistical achievement for a player during a given season or for his career. Usually, our milestones will be a player reaching an even-number stat total. 300 goals or 1400 penalty minutes. The career milestone intervals are based on the frequency of the stat. Shots on goal will be every 500 while goals, assists, points and penalty minutes are for every 100. For career stats, we'll also track a player's 1st of any given stat.

For season stats, we're tracking every 10 of goals, assists and every 25 points while we're counting every 100th shot. There are other stats involved but you get the gist.

The Milestones data will be available moving forward only and there are plans to add milestones for every game day going back to 2005 and might actually happen this week.

You'll also be able to see the milestones on a particular game date. Scroll down past the day's standings.

I might separate season and career statistics since I find the career milestones much more interesting and there are many more season milestones listed. Let me know if you have any thoughts.