34 days until Opening Day

February 24, 2011

Third basemen are remembering how to slide
34 days until Opening Day

Whose hat to wear? Trivia: 25 players have hit at least 500 career home runs. How many teams can claim they had the most of those players play for them at one time or another? For instance, Eddie Matthews and Gary Sheffield each have 500 home runs and each at one time played for the Tigers, so Detroit gets to say it had two 500-home run hitters. (Hint: two teams are tied for the most players.)

All-Time baseball birthdays: Today is the birthday of Honus Wagner and Eddie Murray. The Flying Dutchman and Steady Eddie are both all-time greats, as you know. Wagner hit .350 or more 6 times, Murray had 504 home runs, both had well over 3,000 hits, etc. Here are some things you might not have known: Wagner stole 723 bases and Murray hit 9 walk-off home runs. They both had brothers who also played in the majors (Butts Wagner and Rich Murray).

Great names also born today: Pinky Pittenger, Bugs Raymond, Champ Osteen, Con Lucid, Stubby Clapp, Steamboat Struss.

Random stat: I can’t tell you why I was looking up Vladimir Guerrero stats, but I was. Did you know he hasn’t hit more than 44 home runs in a season? Surprising for a guy who is not likely to but very possibly could end up with 500 home runs, if he sticks around long enough. Doubly surprising for a guy whose nickname is The Impaler.

I think Vlad will turn into one of those guys who has great career stats but makes you think “Well, was he ever really the best at his position? Was he ever dominant for a stretch of years?” And then we’ll have to have that stupid argument about whether those criteria are requisite to get into the Hall. How about this stat? His career batting average is .320 and he has 1433 RBI. How many other guys in the history of baseball can claim those two criteria? Only 11 others, and every single last one of them is a Hall of Famer. (Cobb, Speaker, Heilmann, Ruth, Hornsby, Gehrig, Simmons, Foxx, DiMaggio, Williams, Musial)

Not to mention once upon a time he carried a turbo-charged cannon on his shoulder. He’s never finished worse than 5^th in the league in assists from right field, and he led the league three times. He’s second on the active list for that somewhat obscure stat.

Hmm, impromptu bonus trivia: Who is first on the active list for career assists from right field?

Once sold for $2.8 million. Not the player, just the card.


Trivia answer: The teams who can claim at one time or another scratching onto their lineup cards the most players who would retire with over 500 home runs are the Orioles and Yankees, with five each. The Orioles were Eddie Murray, Reggie Jackson, Rafael Palmeiro, Frank Robinson, and Sammy Sosa. The Yankees were Gary Sheffield, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Alex Rodriguez, and Babe Ruth.

Bonus trivia answer: The active leader for career assists from right field is Bobby Abreu, with 130 (Vlad has 128).

35 days until Opening Day

February 23, 2011

Position players have joined the pitchers and catchers at spring training
35 days until Opening Day

Bad knees trivia: Which player has the most seasons in which he played at least 140 games at catcher? (It’s probably not who you think it is.)

Baseball birthday: Today is Elston Howard’s birthday. Howard won the AL MVP in 1963 for the Yankees. For much of his career he split time among the outfield spots and backstop, but during the period of 1960-1967 he spent most of his time catching (previous to 1960 he was splitting time with an old-timer named Yogi). That MVP year was one of his years behind the plate, as he played 132 games there.

I looked up his numbers for that season and frankly they aren’t that impressive. He hit .287 with 140 hits, 28 homers, 85 RBI, and 257 total bases. He didn’t lead the league in any offensive category, but he did win his first Gold Glove.

That season Bob Allison of Minnesota had 143 hits, 35 homers, and hit .271. Yastrzemski had 183 hits and averaged .321. Killebrew had 45 home runs. Howard’s teammate Whitey Ford was 24-7 with a 2.74 ERA and 1.099 WHIP.

I ran some of Howard’s key offensive stats: 140 hits, 28 homers, 257 total bases, .287 batting average. 292 players have had seasons in which they at the bare minimum hit all of those numbers. Hank Aaron did it 13 times (as did Mays). Even Fernando Tatis and Ryan Klesko and Brad Hawpe are in on this accomplishment. So why Howard?

When you run those stats and include playing 132 games at catcher, the number of players with matching season dwindles to 12. Only three catchers have had multiple seasons that match Howard’s 1962 (Piazza, Campanella, Berra). Howard’s 1963 season was the first of its kind for a catcher since Berra seven years earlier.

Including when he was first base coach for the Yankees in the 1970s, Howard gathered six World Series rings. He also lost six World Series as a player, a record he shares with Pee Wee Reese. He was the first black player to play for the Yankees and the first black coach in the American League.

Howard is credited with inventing the batting donut.



Did you know who Bob Allison was without looking him up? Really? He moved to Minnesota and became a Twin when the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota in 1961.




Trivia answer: The player with the most seasons playing at least 140 games at catcher is none other than Jason Kendall, with 9 such seasons. Somewhat surprisingly, only 72 players ever have played even a single season that meets that criterion. Some notables: 

Gary Carter – 7
Tony Pena – 6
Yogi Berra – 5
Mike Piazza – 4
Ted Simmons – 4
Pudge Rogriduez – 3
Johnny Bench – 3
Carlton Fisk – 2



41 days until Opening Day

February 17, 2011

Catchers are trying to remember their signals
41 days until Opening Day

Loser trivia: Today is Mike Maroth’s birthday. Maroth was the last pitcher to be pinned with 20 losses in a season (he was 9-21 in 2003 for Detroit). Since 1950, three pitchers who ended up in the Hall of Fame had a season with at least 20 losses; who are they?

Midwestern bias: You may have heard about Albert Pujols’ contract negotiations ending. It’s a big deal. It’s forcing Department of Justice employees into retirement. His stats are just fascinating. So you’ll forgive me for revisiting it again and again.

Although the impact of impending free agency on a player’s season (the “contract year” effect) is still up for debate, it’s fun to imagine what will happen if Pujols responds to the contract situation with his best season ever. What would that look like? I took his highest total from any season for various stats and added just one (for instance, the most home runs he has hit is 49, so I have it here as 50), and this is what you get in this hypothetical perfect 2011 season:

162 games, 138 runs, 213 hits, 52 doubles, 50 home runs, 138 RBI, 17 stolen bases, .360 batting average, .463 OBP, 395 total bases. That’ll give your fantasy team a boost.

Enter Sandman: On this day in 1990, the Yankees signed 20-year old Mariano Rivera as an amateur free agent. I will spend another day looking at Rivera’s otherworldly stats, but I wonder: bottom of the ninth, Cardinals down by one, man on second, Pujols in the aforementioned perfect season comes to the plate, 1999 Rivera (of the 45 saves and 0.884 WHIP) on the mound…who wins?

Strong start: 193 players have homered in their first career game. Only 4 have hit 2 in their first game (J.P. Arencibia, Mark Quinn, Bret Campaneris, Bob Nieman). Heard of any of those guys other than Campy? Yeah, me neither. I guess your first game is not necessarily an indicator of future success.

Some old logos should be brought back.

Trivia answer: Phil Niekro had two 20-loss seasons (1977 and 1979), Steve Carlton had one (1973), and Robin Roberts had one (1957).

New feature! Correct trivia answers from yesterday: Mark

42 days until Opening Day

February 16, 2011

Pitchers are tinkering with new pitches
42 days until Opening Day

Nice K/9 Trivia: Which pitcher has the most career games of at least 15 strikeouts?

Baseball birthdays: Eric Byrnes turns 35 today. He hit .258 in an unremarkable career spanning 11 seasons, the highlights of which were finishing in eleventh place in MVP voting in 2007 and having messy hair. I would have completely forgotten Eric Byrnes and would never have mentioned him except that I remembered this video of him playing in a softball game soon after his sudden retirement.

He was on “The Office” too: Jerome Bettis’s birthday is today. So what? The Bus counts as a baseball birthday because he is part-owner of the minor league teams State College Spikes and Altoona Curve. Extra emphasis on the Curve because 1) they have one of the coolest logos in baseball, and 2) Stephen Strasburg made his minor league debut against the Curve.

The Empire got eviller: On this day in 2004 the Yankees traded Alfonso Soriano and a PTBNL to the Rangers for Alex Rodriguez and cash. Soriano would go on to sign an albatross of a contract with the Cubs and long for his sole 40-40 season with the Washington Nationals in 2006, which he will never replicate because of the permanent nagging injury he has as a result of that fundamentally unsound hop he does in the outfield. Rodriguez would go on to sign the biggest contract in the history of baseball, admit to steroid use, pose for a picture while kissing himself in a mirror, be accused of bad sportsmanship by Dallas Braden and a couple Toronto Blue Jays, slap Branson Arroyo, and get fed a cracker on national TV by Cameron Diaz during the Super Bowl.

Random Stat: Randy Johnson and Tom Seaver are tied for a dubious record. They each tallied 13 strikeouts in playoff starts that they lost, the most for a losing pitcher (Johnson for Seattle against Baltimore in 1997 and Seaver for the Mets against the Reds in 1973).

In honor of current events: MLB has had one player who was born in Afghanistan (Jeff Bronkey was born in Kabul, a pitcher for the Rangers and Brewers between 1993 and 1995), and one player who was born in Saudi Arabia (Craig Stansberry was born in Dammam, a pinch hitter and second baseman for the Padres between 2007 and 2009). Bronkey, the one born in Afghanistan, played for the Rangers during the time in which George W. Bush was part of the Rangers’ ownership group. I don’t know what the relevance of that is, but I’m sure it’s something.

Ozzie doing his thing.

Trivia Answer: Randy Johnson has 29 games of at least 15 strikeouts. He was 21-3 in those 29 games. In the 3 games he lost, his team supported him with 1, 0, and 1 runs. 

43 days until Opening Day

February 15, 2011

Pitchers and catchers are playing long toss
43 days until Opening Day

Strikeout Trivia: The 1969 and 2010 seasons are tied for having the most pitchers with 200 or more strikeouts. How many pitchers in each season qualified for this distinction? (In other words, what’s the record?) (If you can name two thirds of the 2010 guys, I will buy you lunch.)

The remainder of today’s email is about the regular season powerhouse but woeful postseason underachievers known as the 1991-2005 Atlanta Braves. I think you might find it interesting even if you’re not a Braves fan.

How do you solve a problem like the 1990s Braves?: Between 1991 and 2005 the Braves won their division 14 times in 15 years, including 11 in a row between 1995 and 2005. For all their trouble, they only won one World Series. Here’s a breakdown of their ultimate results between 1991 and 2005:

Lost in the LDS 5 times
Lost in the NLCS 4 times
Lost in the World Series 4 times
Won the World Series 1 time (1995)

These numbers are remarkable for several reasons. First of all, winning the division 14 of 15 years is pretty good.  The only reason they didn’t win it all 15 seasons is that there was no postseason in 1994. They often won the division by a lot; at times they won by 21, 19, 18, 10, 10, 9, and 8 games. They averaged over 97 wins a season and won more than 100 games six times. The Braves had three future Hall of Fame pitchers, a future Hall of Fame third baseman, and a future Hall of Fame manager (not to mention many other All-Stars).

So what happened?

I’m no analyst, but I can show you some cool numbers. Let’s look at the pitchers first. The years reflected are their years with the Braves between 1991 and 2005.

John Smoltz (1991-2005): 149-99, 3.17 ERA, 39 complete games with 13 shutouts, 154 saves, 2,192 strikeouts, 1.148 WHIP, 1 Cy Young

Tom Glavine (1991-2002): 209-102, 3.15 ERA, 44 complete games with 18 shutouts, 225 innings per season, 1,731 strikeouts, 1.275 WHIP, 2 Cy Youngs

Greg Maddux (1993-2003): 194-88, 2.63 ERA, 61 complete games with 21 shutouts, 230 innings per season, 1,828 strikeouts, 1.051 WHIP, 4 Cy Youngs

That trio is the gold standard against which other potentially great pitching staffs are measured. All the talk this offseason has been about the Phillies’ 2011 rotation, and the pervading question is “Can they be better than the Braves of the 1990s?” There’s a good reason for that.

Don’t forget Chipper Jones. Between 1995, when he became a fulltime player, and 2005, Chipper hit .303, 331 home runs, 1,111 RBI, had a .401 OBP, and struck out far fewer than 100 times per season. He was also MVP in 1999.

Fred McGriff, Terry Pendleton, and a young Andruw Jones played on those teams at one time or another, too, among others.

So why’d they keep losing?

My first guess was that the offense just didn’t produce in the series in which they lost. That’s not quite accurate. In the thirteen series they lost, the Braves offensively outperformed the teams that beat them about half the time. In six of those lost series, they had a better team batting average than the victors, and seven times they scored more runs in the series.

Their road-home splits are pretty even (that is, they were pretty dreadful both home and away): they were 13-25 at home and 11-22 away.  It’s old baseball wisdom that you must win at home; maybe the Braves’ record supports that simple theory.

The Braves were only 3-11 in Game Ones of series in which they lost. Many of the lost Games Ones in the earlier lost series were blown by the bullpen; maybe a bad bullpen is to blame. The Big Three weren’t to blame; each of their career postseason ERAs are in line with their regular season career ERAs.

There is a statistic developed by Bill James called Pythagorean wins. Pythagorean wins are determined by plugging into a formula how many runs a team scored and allowed over the course of a season. Theoretically Pythagorean wins are an indicator of how lucky a team was; that is, if their Pythagorean wins (how many games they “should have” won) are higher than their actual wins, they got unlucky, and vice versa. Sort of like how you might assume the Braves got unlucky in those postseason series that they lost but managed to outhit their opponents.

According to the Braves’ Pythagorean wins between 1991-2005, the Braves finished with a better record than they “should have” eight times; they got lucky. Six of those eight seasons were ones in which they outhit the team that vanquished them in the playoffs.

Call it regression to the mean, call it bad luck, call it the law of averages; it seems that the numbers simply caught up to the Braves when the postseason came around. Could it really be that simple and nonscientific?

Of course it can. It’s baseball.

Trivia answer: Fifteen different pitchers threw 200 or more strikeouts in both 1969 and 2010. The 2010 players are: Ryan Dempster, Yovani Gallardo, Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, Dan Haren, Felix Hernandez, Ubaldo Jimenez, Clayton Kershaw, Jon Lester, Tim Lincecum, Francisco Liriano, Jonathan Sanchez, Justin Verlander, Adam Wainwright, and Jered Weaver.

Pitchers and catchers report today/44 days until Opening Day

February 14, 2011

Today pitchers and catchers report (for most teams)
44 days until Opening Day

kthxbye trivia: Last year Edgar Renteria won the World Series MVP for the Giants; this year he’ll be playing for the Reds. In 2009 Hideki Matsui won the World Series MVP for the Yankees; the next year he played for the Angels. Three other players have won World Series MVP only to play for another team the following season. Who are they?

Say it ain’t so: On this day in 1916 the White Sox and the Indians finally complete a trade when a player to be named later from the previous season is shipped to Cleveland. The trade is full of guys you’ve never heard of except for one – Joe Jackson. Jackson had been sent to Chicago during the 1915 season. He would finish his MLB career with a .356 average and four 200-hit seasons. His career was of course cut short by being banned by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis for Jackson’s alleged role in the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Jackon’s stats in that World Series against the Reds beg to differ: he hit .375 (which lead the Series) with 12 hits (a record at the time), 6 RBI, and hit the only homer of the Series. Eight Men Outis not a bad film if you’re interested in that sort of thing.

This guy again? (it’s the Midwestern bias): Friday’s trivia question was about the active leader in at-bats per home run. Only one guy appears in the top 20 of that list and the top 20 of the list of active leaders of at-bats per strikeout: Mr. Pujols. He’s tied with strikeout machine Adam Dunn for third on the list of AB/HR at 14.05, and he’s twelfth on the AB/SO list at 8.87. 

A Peach and a Shoeless guy

Trivia answer: In 1996 John Wetteland won World Series MVP for the Yankees, then played for the Rangers in 1997; in 1991 Jack Morris won World Series MVP for the Twins, then played for the Blue Jays in 1992; in 1986 Ray Knight won World Series MVP for the Mets, then played for the Orioles in 1987. Morris is the only one to win the World Series with his new team.

3/47 days

February 11, 2011

3 days until pitchers and catchers
47 days until Opening Day

Today is completely random stat/fact day, so here is completely random stat trivia:Among active players, who has the best career at-bats per home run ratio?

Today is the 42^nd day of the year: Jackie Robinson wore #42. This Sunday, February 13, will be the anniversary of a 1968 trade that sent Robinson to the New York Giants. As you may know, Robinson never played for the Giants. At the time they settled on the trade, the Dodgers were unaware that Robinson had already agreed to retire that offseason. Agreed with whom, you ask? The president of the Chock full o’Nuts company, which was at the time a lunch counter franchise in New York (they had not yet begun making coffee, which is what they do today). Robinson had agreed with the company to quit baseball and come on board as an executive, and he did.

Good investment: Jayson “Werewerth” Werth is getting more millions of dollars in his new contract with the Nationals (126) than he has career home runs (120). (Courtesy of Steve M.)

One of my most favoritest stats ever: Stan Musial has 3,630 career hits. 1,815 of those came at home, and 1,815 of those came on the road.

Left behind: Last year, 62.8% of players batted exclusively right-handed, 28.7% batted exclusively left-handed, and 8.6% were switch hitters.

Not canine, K/9: Today is Brian Matusz’s birthday. He had a pretty good first full season last year, with a 7.3 K/9 ratio. In Doc Gooden’s first season, he had an 11.39 K/9 ratio (that’s 276 strikeouts in 218 innings), best ever for a player’s first season.

That season, 1984, is the only season ever in which rookies led each league in strikeouts: Doc with his 276 led the NL, and Mark Langston with 204 for Seattle led the AL. Both pitchers debuted on April 7 of that year.  Doc won rookie of the year that year, and Langston finished second.

Don’t make ’em like they used to: Baseball has some of the best names. Players and managers whose birthdays are today through Sunday include: Pants Rowland, Sweetbread Bailey, Blue Washington, Kiddo Davis, Crazy Schmit, Tuck Turner, and Biff Sheehan.

Strong cup of coffee: 505 guys have played exactly one major league game. Of those 505, only one ever homered in his fleeting moment in the show (Steve Hill did it last year for the Cardinals). 


The District: As far back as the records go, 96 major league players were born in Washington, DC. Only 3 of them have made an All-Star Game – Maury Wills (7), Don Money (4), Brendan Donnelly (1).

Jackie Robinson shilling for Chock full o’Nuts

Trivia answer: Ryan Howard has the best career at-bats per home run ratio with 12.79. That’s good for third all-time, behind McGwire (10.61) and Ruth (11.76).

4/48 days

February 10, 2011

4 days until pitchers and catchers
48 days until Opening Day

4-dinger trivia: Mike Cameron is mentioned in an item below. On May 5, 2002 Cameron became only the 11^th player ever to homer four times in one game. Two players have done it since Cameron. Who are they?

The Kid heads East: on this day in 2000, the Mariners send Ken Griffey Jr. to Cincinnati for Mike Cameron, Antonio Perez, Brett Tomko, and Jake Meyer. Neither team wins a World Series for their trouble.

It’s easy to forget how good Griffey was. He put up terrific numbers with the bat and was a sparkling defender. It’s a shame injuries derailed what is surely a Hall of Fame career but perhaps what could have been an all-time great career. I guess injuries naturally happen when you don’t take steroids or human growth hormone to help you recover from injury. The guy played his first game when he was 19. His average 162-game numbers before he was traded were 185 hits, 43 homers, 123 RBI, 18 SB, .299 BA. He hit 56 home runs in back to back seasons (again, without PEDs). In his career he’s hit 630 home runs. Plus he’s supposedly a good person blah blah blah.

Bonus Griffey factoid: the career centerfielder played first base twice. The first time was during a game he started at DH and had to move to first during a double switch. The second time was a little more bizarre. He started the game at center. Before the fourth inning, Lou Piniella moved Griffey to LF, the starting RF to CF, and the starting LF to RF. In the top of the seventh, Piniella flipped the leftfielder (Griffey) with the rightfielder.  In the top of the 9^th, Piniella flipped the rightfielder (Griffey) with the first baseman (Raul Ibanez). I have never heard of anything like that.

Also known as Sotos syndrome: on February 20, 1992, while visiting a small town for a softball tournament, Griffey overdosed on nerve tonic and consequently suffered a case of cerebral gigantism. It was later revealed that Griffey was tricked into overdosing by local magnate C. Montgomery Burns.

Griffey has the same birthday and was born in the same town as Stan Musial. They are two of four players born in Pennsylvania with at least 400 home runs (Reggie Jackson and Mike Piazza are the other two).

Non-Griffey stat of the day: comes in the form of a quote from Joe Posnanski, very possibly the best sportswriter I’ve ever read. In admiring that first baseman in St. Louis every has been talking about: “Pujols has averaged a .331 batting average, 43 doubles, 41 home runs, 119 runs and 123 RBIs over his first 10 seasons in Major League Baseball.  Only nine players in the game’s history have produced that stat line or better in a given season, and all nine of those players did it just once.”

Since today inadvertently turned into Griffey-a-thon, why not throw in a picture, too.

Not Photoshopped.

Trivia answer: on May 23, 2002 (just 3 weeks after Cameron), Shawn Green hit four homers for the Dodgers against the Brewers, and on September 25, 2003, Carlos Delgado belted four for Toronto against the Devil Rays.

Bonus 4-dinger stats: thirteen players have had four homers a game. No one has ever done it twice. Only one player has hit 4 homers in a game for the losing team (Bob Horner, his four home runs, and the Braves lost to the Expos 8-11 on July 6, 1986). Also, that game was one of only two in which the team with the player who hit four home runs scored fewer than ten runs. 

6/50 days

February 8, 2011

6 days until pitcher and catchers
50 days until Opening Day

Rangers third basemen Michael Young is requesting a trade because he doesn’t want to accept a diminished role in Texas. Normally I wouldn’t sympathize with a guy complaining about being paid $16MM to move out of position (the Rangers are suggesting that Young can DH and spell the regular infielders as needed), but I think Young deserves some extra recognition for the accommodations he’s made for his Rangers. He started with Texas as a second baseman, where he played full time for a few seasons. In 2004 Alfonso Soriano showed up in Texas and Young moved over to shortstop. Soriano was gone in 2006 but then Ian Kinsler came on the scene, so Young stayed at short. In 2009 hot prospect Elvis Andrus came up and bumped Young to third base. This offseason the Rangers have brought in Adrian Beltre to play third base, leaving Young out in the cold.

So here is the trivia question: who is the only player in MLB history to start at least 200 games at each of first, second, third, and shortstop? (hint: his career began sometime since 1990)

Baseball birthday: today is Fritz Peterson’s birthday. Peterson had a few good years on a few miserable Yankees teams in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He is best known for, in 1973, swapping his wife, children, and dogs for the wife, children, and dogs of teammate and close friend Mike Kekich. Peterson’s career took a nosedive soon thereafter.

Around this date: in 1889, construction workers in New York are dismantling the Polo Grounds to do some road construction, leaving the New York Giants homeless for that season. This fact is not really that significant other than giving me an excuse to post a picture of the Polo Grounds.

This is actually the Polo Grounds in 1954 – the first pitch of that year’s World Series. Not a bleepin’ Jumbotron in sight.


Trivia answer: Mark Loretta played 829 games at second, 405 games at short, 234 games at third, and 214 games at first. Since that wasn’t enough variety, he’s even logged a couple outfield innings and appeared on the mound on two separate occasions. Only seven other players have ever started even 100 games at all those positions.

7/51 days

February 7, 2011

7 days until pitchers and catchers
51 days until Opening Day

Whodathunkit trivia: On this day in 1996 Dave Winfield announced his retirement. Winfield is one of only eight players in baseball history with 3,000 hits and 400 homers. How many of the other seven players can you name?

Bonus Winfield story: As a rookie with the Padres, Winfield bought blocks of tickets to Padres games and gave them to San Diego area families who couldn’t otherwise afford to go to games. Years later Winfield played for the Blue Jays and was teammates with David Wells. Winfield then discovered that Wells, a San Diego native, was one of the kids who attended Padres games courtesy of Winfield.

Surely as a result of good scouting and nothing more: On this day in 1994 the Chicago White Sox sign Michael Jordan to a minor league contract with the AA Birmingham Barons. In 127 games and 436 at-bats Jordan hit .202 with 3 home runs.  He had nearly as many strikeouts (114) as total bases (116). After a year of that nonsense, Jordan returned to basketball.

Super Bonus Mind-Bending Trivia (Hint – the answer is not all-time home runs): What is the only way this progression makes sense? Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Stephen McInerney. Answer: Aaron’s birthday is February 5, Ruth’s birthday is February 6, and McInerney’s birthday is today. Birthday hits! There are no Stephens in the Hall of Fame. There is Steve Carlton, but he’s Steven with a “v”, not a “ph”.

Odds are he missed the ball. Not a joke, statistically.

Trivia answer: The seven other players to have 3,000 hits and 400 home runs are Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Carl Yastrzemski, Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken Jr., and Rafael Palmeiro.

10/54 days

February 4, 2011

10 days until pitchers and catchers
54 days until Opening Day

Retirement Trivia: Andy Pettitte is going to announce his retirement today. My favorite part of watching Pettitte pitch always was waiting for the pickoff. You knew it was coming, so did the runner, so did half the stadium. Yet he kept nabbing napping baserunners. He will retire as the second most prolific picker off of baserunners (well, since 1920 anyway, when they started keeping track of such things) with 94 pickoffs. Who is number one on the list?

Bonus Lunch Trivia!: There have been 27 pitchers with at least 50 career pickoffs. Only six of them were right-handed. If you can name three of the six I will buy you lunch.

Betcha Didn’t Know “Cy” Was Actually a Nickname: On this day in 1956 the Cy Young Award is established. Denton True “Cy” Young died in 1955 and Baseball felt an award in his honor was an appropriate way to honor the man who holds several unbreakable records, the most ballyhooed of which is his untouchable 511 wins. From 1956-1966 one award was given for both leagues; Don Newcombe won the first.

After 22 years of pitching he went home to toil on his farm, not unlike George Washington. Young is tied in first place for most career perfect games thrown (1) with Dallas Braden, among others.

Not So Surprising From a Guy Who Once Banned Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle: On this day in 1971, Takoma Park, MD native and baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, in one of the biggest publicity flubs in the history of not thinking things through, proclaims that former Negro League players will have a separate (but equal, surely) wing in the Hall of Fame. The predictable controversy that ensued led to the Negro League players’ rightful inclusion in the Hall alongside everyone else.

Speaking of Banned Players: On this day in 1991 the Hall of Fame board of directors voted unanimously to ban Pete Rose from the ballot.

Maybe Better Than Charlie Hustle: On this day in 2004 the St. Louis Cardinals give Albert Pujols a deal of $100 million for the next seven years. Little do they know that exactly seven years later they will wish they had signed him for $250 million for 15 years, which would have been a huge bargain.

Got 'em.

Retirement Trivia Answer: Steve Carlton is in first place with 144 pickoffs.

Bonus Lunch Trivia Answer: Charlie Hough (73 pickoffs), Rick Sutcliffe (56), Jamey Wright (53), Phil Niekro (51), Don Drysdale (51), Jack Sanford (50).

11/55 days

February 3, 2011

11 days until pitchers and catchers
55 days until Opening Day

Trivia: One of today’s birthday boys, Fred Lynn, was the first player to win Rookie of the Year and his league’s MVP award in the same season. Only one other player has achieved that feat. Who is it?

“You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball”: On this day in 1886 Albert Spalding forms the company that will bear his name and manufacture the first official baseball. Spalding made the official baseballs for MLB until 1977 when Rawlings took over.

So that’s why the museum is in Kansas City: On this day in 1920 in Paris of the Plains the Negro National League is formed. The league consisted of 8 teams; 3 were named Giants (Chicago, Chicago American, St. Louis) and 2 were named Stars (Cuban and Detroit). The creatively named teams were the Dayton Marcos, the Indianapolis ABCs, and the Kansas City Monarchs. The Cuban Stars were not based in Cuba. They were actually two teams, one based out of New York and one based out of Cincinnati. Most of the players themselves were Cuban. In a lot of ways things were much more complicated back then. And less politically correct.

(Kansas City is called Paris of the Plains because it has more boulevards than any city outside the real Paris.)

Baseball birthday: Chicken Hawks, 1896. He played two seasons, one for the Yankees (shared the outfield with a guy named Ruth) and one for the Phillies. Most well-known for having a preposterous name.

Also birthed today: Fred Lynn, 1952. Lynn might very well hold the record for Number of Unusual Achievements, and therefore is the answer to many trivia questions. Lynn was the first player to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season.  He is the only player to hit a grand slam in an All-Star Game. He hit exactly 23 home runs 4 years in a row. He won ALCS MVP in 1982 even though his team lost the series (he hit .611).  On June 18, 1975, he recorded 16 total bases in one game against the Tigers (only 16 other players have ever had 16 total bases or more in a game). He finished his career with 1,111 RBI; an impressive but otherwise insignificant number, nevertheless one that stands out because it’s just so darn symmetrical. Believe it or not, he’s one of two in the history of baseball to have that exact number (the other being George Hendrick).

There are 108 double stiches on each baseball.

Trivia answer: Ichiro Suzuki won AL MVP and AL Rookie of the Year in 2001. He had a ridiculous 242 hits while hitting .350 and stealing 56 bases for the 116-win Mariners.

12/56 days

February 2, 2011

12 days until pitchers and catchers
56 days until Opening Day

Trivia: Today is Groundhog Day, which according to Bill Murray legend is a day that happens over and over again with unpleasant results. Which current National holds the distinction of being the active MLB position player with the longest career hitless streak?

On this day: in 1936 the first class of players was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame – Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson. Good group. The guys who didn’t make the cut are impressive, too – Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker, Cy Young, Rogers Hornsby, George Sisler, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, and Connie Mack all got votes (and of course, they would all later get in), among many other great players. Evers and Chance got votes, but no Tinkers. Interestingly, banned-for-life Joe Jackson got a couple votes. A ton of guys who didn’t make it that year made it later. Obviously there will never ever again be a class like that 1936 class.

Speaking of not making the Hall of Fame: on this day in 2005 the trade that sent Sammy Sosa to the Orioles was finalized.  In return the Cubs got Jerry Hairston, Jr. and minor leaguers Mike Fontenot and Dave Crouthers. Crouthers (a pitcher) never saw the show. Hairston only lasted 38 games in Chicago before being traded again, eventually making his way to the Yankees and winning a World Series title in 2009.  Mike Fontenot was traded to the Giants and won a title last year. Sammy Sosa finished his career in 2007 with 609 homers, no championships, and a lifetime of cork jokes and steroids suspicion. And that was before the weird skin thing.

Baseball birthday: George Halas, 1895. Yes, that George Halas. Halas played 12 games in the outfield for the Yankees in 1919. In 22 at-bats, he knocked two hits (.091 BA).  Both hits were singles. Before baseball Halas played football for Navy. He and his teammates who won the 1919 Rose Bowl were granted their military discharge as a reward. Halas was MVP of that game.

1936 Hall of Fame class

Trivia Answer: In July and September of 2009, new Nationals “outfielder” Matt Stairs went 29 straight games without a hit, luckily with the Phillies at the time. As a side note, Livan Hernandez’s longest career hitless streak is 8 games.

13/57 days

February 1, 2011

13 days until pitchers and catchers

57 days until Opening Day

Trivia: On this day in 1926 the Yankees sold Wally Pipp to the Cincinnati Reds. Pip had become redundant on June 2, 1925 when he sat out that day’s game against the Washington Senators and a young Lou Gehrig took his spot in the lineup. Gehrig would end up with the record for consecutive games started with 2,130.  Cal Ripken, Jr. broke that record by playing in 2,632 straight games. Who has the record for overall games played in a career?

DC side note: Wally Pipp went to Catholic U.

Also on this day: In 1995, during talks between the players’ association and the owners, the owners agree to drop their demand for a salary cap, instead settling for a luxury tax.  The Yankees win 4 of the next 6 World Series in an unrelated complete coincidence.

But they didn’t sign Johan Santana: The Mets did on this day in 2008, for $137.5 million.  To date they have paid him $56,005,062. That’s $1,400,126.55 for each win he’s chalked and $112,913.43 for each strikeout he’s thrown.

Wally Pipp – two time home run champion (with 12 HR in 1916 and 9 HR in 1917), and tied for 54th on the list of career triples leaders with 148.

Trivia Answer: Pete Rose holds the record for games played with 3,562. (That’s 1.19 hits per game if you were wondering.)

17/61 days

January 28, 2011

17 days until pitchers and catchers

61 days until Opening Day

Trivia:  Easy one today since it’s Friday.  Everyone knows the Indians haven’t won the World Series since 1948 and that the Cubs haven’t won since the Neolithic Era.  Of teams who have won a World Series, who has the longest drought after the Cubs and Indians? (answer at the bottom)

Today in baseball history: In 1901 the American League officially organizes as a major league.  Previously the American League had been a minor league.  The new major American League is comprised of the Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Americans, Washington Nationals, Cleveland Blues, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, and Chicago White Sox.  Three clubs were dropped – Indianapolis, Minneapolis, and Buffalo.  Having lost baseball, Buffalo immediately turned its attention to losing Super Bowls.

In 1949 the New York Giants sign their first black players, one of whom was Monte Irvin.  Irvin would go on to be elected to the Hall of Fame based primarily upon a stellar career in the Negro Leagues.  He is perhaps most famous for moving to Florida and being a neighbor of my grandparents for a time.

Obscure baseball birthday: Daunte Culpepper.  Yes, that Daunte Culpepper.  He counts as a baseball birthday because he was drafted by the Yankees out of high school as an outfielder.  Obviously he did not sign.  He decided to stick with football, and as a result he is now the quarterback for the Sacramento Mountain Lions of the United Football League.  He also played in the NFL.

Trivia answer:  The Pirates last won in 1979.  They beat the Orioles, who have the second-longest streak (1983).  Willie Stargell won the MVP at 39 years old, the oldest World Series MVP ever.  He hit .400.  That Pirates team was the last to win Game 7 of a championship series on the road in any sport until the Penguins beat the Red Wings in Detroit in the 2009 Stanley Cup.

18/62 days

January 27, 2011

18 days until pitchers and catchers

62 days until Opening Day

Trivia:  Of the top fifty career stolen bases leaders, only five are current players.  Who are they? (answer at the bottom)

While you ponder that, get this.  Rickey Henderson holds the single season stolen bases with an absurd 130 bases in 1982.  That’s more than ten entire teams had that season and tied with one other.  He also led the league in walks that season.  The guy was obviously a supernatural base stealer and he only hit .267 that season – throw him strikes and make him hit!

He also stole more than the average American League team that year.  The average number of stolen bases per team in the AL in 1982 was 100; the average in the NL was 149.  Big disparity between the leagues.  No NL team had fewer than 128; only six AL teams had over 100. 

In case you’re wondering, the averages in 2010 were 108 for the AL and 91 for the NL (Nationals in third place with 110!).  So much for NL small ball.

Yogi maintains to this day that he got Jackie.

Answer: Juan Pierre (527 bases – 19th place), Carl Crawford (409 – 37th), Omar Vizquel (400 – 41st), Johnny Damon (385 – 46th), and Ichiro (383 American bases – 48th). 

19/63 days

[perhaps the beginning of a daily routine until the season starts]

January 26, 2011

19 days until pitchers and catchers
63 days until Opening Day

Today in baseball history: On January 26, 1919, the St. Louis Cardinals named Branch Rickey as manager.  After a mediocre stint as manager, Rickey built a dynasty in St. Louis through his work in the front office (he was replaced as manager by Rogers Hornsby).  During Rickey’s tenure, the Cardinals won the pennant in 1926, 1928, and 1930, and the World Series in 1931 and 1934.

Rickey is probably most well-known for his time in Brooklyn in the Dodgers front office.  In 1945 he announced the signing of Jackie Robinson to the Dodgers AAA team, who of course made his debut in 1947, a year in which the Dodgers won the pennant.  Rickey also brought Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe to Brooklyn.

Later with the Pirates, Rickey acquired Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski.

The Nationals are inquiring into the master scout’s availability for the 2011 season.

Other:
After a short career as a player, Rickey went to law school at Michigan.

As a major league catcher, he once allowed a record 13 stolen bases in a single game.

A Rickey quote: They call you an extremist if you want integration now-- which is the only morally defensible position. To advise moderation is like going to a stickup man and saying to him: "Don't use a gun. That's violent. Why not be a pickpocket instead?" A moderate is a moral pickpocket.

Bill Veeck on Rickey: It occurred to me that if I let myself get trapped in a room with Rickey, there was a strong possibility that he would still have (the players I wanted), as well as my promissory note, and I would end up with two guys I had never heard of.

Also:

Today is Bob Uecker’s 76^th birthday.  He allowed 27 passed balls in 1967 in only 59 games.  That’s what you get for catching Phil Niekro.