#1: Jeremy Hermida

I have hand selected Jeremy Hermida as my first player, for two reasons: he's related to my wife's aunt, and he's now a member of my beloved Boston Red Sox. I may occasionally hand-select players now and then, but for the most part I plan on random selection.

I can go about this two ways: Although the 2010 has yet to start, I can safely assume Jeremy will be playing for Boston http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifthis year. So I can go this route:

1. Jeremy Hermida played on the 2010 Boston Red Sox with Tim Wakefield.
2. Tim Wakefield played on the 1995 Boston Red Sox with Matt Stairs.

If you want to be a stickler, I can only use the years he has played so far, meaning Jeremy last played with the Florida Marlins:

1. Jeremy played on the 2005 Florida Marlins with Mike Lowell
2. Mike Lowell played on the 2007 Boston Red Sox with Tim Wakefield.
3. Tim Wakefield played on the 1995 Boston Red Sox with Matt Stairs.

Since it's my blog I'm going to use the former and make the following statement:

Degrees of Matt Stairs: 2

I gave myself an easy one to start off with. I have no doubt this will be more challenging once I get players who aren't playing in the same era as Stairs. I also had a few routes I could have gone with, such as using Brendan Donnelly instead of Mike Lowell to connect Hermida to Wakefield. Unless I see a specific benefit to choosing one over another, it's purely a preference choice.

Welcome to 6 Degrees of Matt Stairs!

Welcome to my blog/baseball-themed distraction! The concept is simple: I'm am going to try and connect players throughout the rich history of baseball to current baseball journeyman Matt Stairs in 6 degrees or less, just like the Kevin Bacon game. I'll use the random page feature of baseball-reference.com to select a player, then find a chain of teams and players that will lead me to Matt Stairs.

Why Matt Stairs?

Well, I read the following article this Spring: Stairs is a swing away from record book, and it got me thinking about how someone who has played for so long with so many different teams must have played with an extraordinary number of teammates. I figured it would be fun to adapt the Kevin Bacon game to a player like Matt. So here's my endeavor.

Who am I?

I'm just your casual baseball fan. I am in no way a baseball historian, and to be honest, I'd be amazed if I can consistently pull this off with anyone who last played before WWII.

What's my strategy?

I'm sure I'll come up with some more concrete ideas as I progress, but for now it'll be simple trial and error. I plan on doing a lot of clicking...

So again, welcome to my blog. This should be fun...