As you know, one of my favorite sports sites is the user-friendly database baseball-reference.com. I sometimes call it up to check a single fact and end up not being able to pull away. Here are some interesting facts I recently gleaned...
• Rickey Henderson, while generally regarded as the game's greatest speedster, seemed allergic to triples.
Henderson, who stole 1,406 bases in 25 years, had only 66 career triples, only twice had more than 5 in a season and never had more than 7 in a single year. Slugger Lou Gehrig, the second-greatest home-run hitter of his generation who stole only 102 bases in 17 seasons, posted 163 career triples, including double-digit figures every year from 1925-31.
Current Nationals shortstop Christian Guzman posted triples totals of 20, 14, 6 and 20 with the Twins from 2000-2003, leading the league in three of those four seasons.
Henderson is widely considered an automatic first-ballot Hall of Famer, as he's the majors' all-time leader in runs and stolen bases, while surpassing 3,000 hits and 2,000 walks. But he had only three top-8 finishes in league MVP voting (1981, 1985, 1990). How many first-ballot hitters can you say that about?
He also played for nine different teams, not exactly a guy teams were unwilling to unload.
• Let's play a game of Can You Believe This Current Player Has One Top-Five Finish in MVP Voting?
In his fist seven full seasons, he boasts these stats:
- .616 career slugging percentage, the highest active leader and fourth-best of all time
- .339 career batting average, the highest active leader
- .432 career on-base percentage, second among active players and 10th-best of all time
- 1.048 OPS, second among active players and fifth-best of all time
- Has never hit below .315 in a full season
- Three Gold Gloves
- Five straight All-Star Game selections
Coors Field is either the best thing to happen to Todd Helton or the worst. Sick totals for a guy who could walk down the streets of New York unnoticed.
• Jeff Bagwell is to All-Star Games what Henderson is to triples.
I was watching the Mets' home opener Monday and Ralph Kiner mentioned how Bagwell is a solid candidate for the Hall of Fame. Well, nothing gets me clicking on Baseball Reference like a HOF debate. And, of course, I find something very interesting...
Bagwell has only four All-Star Game selections in his 14 full seasons. Here's a guy with over 1,500 runs and RBIs through age 36, averaging 116 per 162 games in both categories. A guy with nine seasons of 100+ runs (including 120+ four straight), eight seasons of 100+ RBIs (including five of 120+), seven seasons of 100+ walks and batting averages of .310, .315,. 320 and .368.
Most importantly, perhaps, is that he finished in the top 10 of MVP voting six times. And he makes only four All-Star Games? Wade Boggs, by comparison, finished in the top 10 of MVP voting four times, but was selected to 12 straight All-Star Games.
As for the Yankees...
• Just an abomination to watch right now. Bernie Williams and Jason Giambi are liabilities at the plate and in the field. Tino Martinez looks shot at the plate. Alex Rodriguez is the polar opposite of Derek Jeter in his (in)ability to lead by example, though he did manufacture New York's only run, even if he got lucky with a bad throw from Edgar Renteria.
I'm sick of looking for silver linings. That's eight losses in their last 11 games that counted. Maybe they need another six-man no-hitter thrown against 'em or a 22-0 loss at home. Because both those events turned around the last couple of regular seasons.
• Mariano Rivera is the coolest cat around. If there's anyone who doesn't need to be reminded that he's pitched in 23 postseason series with nine earned runs in 108.7 innings, with 32 saves and a 0.75 ERA, with one earned run in seven innings in the 2004 ALCS and one earned run in eight innings in the 2003 ALCS, with three top-three finishes in Cy Young Award voting, it's No. 42 himself.
• As long as Joe Torre is the manager, we will always do the right thing politically. And they did so Monday when the Red Sox received their rings, though I think they did it just to see if Manny Ramirez would wear his on his nose.
Repeat after me: No World Series was ever won in April.
Yeah, they're all looking pretty craptacular right now, but then the 1992 Yanks won their first 8...and then look what happened. You just can't judge too much this early on.
Besides, If you look at this team as a whole and take out the Yankee fan factor, they still scare the shit out of me. When they're clicking on all cylinders (and I'm of the belief that they will get out of this funk), watch the fuck out, American League. Not that Bernie or Tino will tear up the ball, but even if they're hitting for average and the "above average" (A-Rod, Jetes, Matsui, et. al) guys start doing they're thing, they'll be a pretty damn potent lineup. Now it's just a matter of them all finding their groove at once.
OK, hoping that wasn't too Pollyannaish. Though I'm not just saying this to be cheery. I honestly believe it :)
Posted by kabsy77 at April 12, 2005 7:26 AM