Welcome to The Boston Globe lab's 'Beta Boston' tumblr. By Matt Carroll
Baseball players’ salaries measured in hot dogs. Praying 
for victory, and helping out nonprofits financially. And even a treasure trove of baseball literature.
These apps and sites were among the nine that were created as part of Boston Baseball Hack Day, held Saturday in the Boston Globe innovation lab. The fun, free event brought together about 35 people with overlapping interests – baseball and programming.
Fuelled by coffee, donuts and pizza, the group impressed the judges with their creations. (Links are provided, but not all sites are operating.)
The winner was Rally Cry. When your team is down by a run, maybe you start praying for a stunning victory. Well, put your money where your prayers are – pledge some cash to a nonprofit (but only pay if your team wins). Team members were: Kenji Ross, John Hamilton, Mike Paulo, and Doug Pfeffer.
Baseball has inspired some of the greatest sports writing, and Baseball Literature is a Tumblr devoted to just that. The site was the idea of Jay Hurd, who was helped by others.
Perhaps the site that inspired the most laughter was What’s That in Hot Dogs? The team divided player salaries by the price of hot dogs in the player’s home park. With some ballparks charging only a buck while Fenway charges the equivalent of a monthly mortgage payment, that cuts some salaries down to size. Team members were: Rory MacKean, Ted Lawless, Matthew Shanley, Kyle Fidler, and Chris Adams.
There’s a full list of the apps hacked together at http://baseballhackday.com, and more photos from organizer Daigo Fujiwara on Flickr.
The judges were: Ben Fry, an information designer and principal at Fathom; Andy Andres, a professor at BU, who teaches Sabremetrics 101 at Tufts; and Matt Pepin, sports editor of boston.com.
The event was sponsored by the Boston Globe, Boston.com, SABR Boston, and Hacks/Hackers Boston.
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What could happen when you bring together baseball stats geeks with computer geeks and news geeks? We’re about to find out.