Hello Baseball Fans,
We’d like to announce that Fall is officially here. ‘The Classic’ is upon us. The 2019 Regular Season ended what seems like months ago. October baseball has grabbed the headlines. Milwaukee traveled to our nation’s capital to take on the Nationals and went back north disappointed. Washington wiped out the the two-time defending National League Champion Dodgers and then swept the Cardinals for a trip to the World Series. Yes, the Nats got it done! In the A.L., Tampa Bay headed out to the far west to battle Billy Beane’s Athletics. The Rays batted more like the A’s with four home runs for a trip back east (a little) to battle Houston. They pushed the ‘Stros to the limit, but ultimately headed back to Florida for some off-season golf. The ‘Stros are still battling the Yanks, who swept the no-show Twins. It has been a wild ride, and speaking of wild, during the regular season, FOUR teams managed to smash the team HR record, which included the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees both eclipsing the 300 HR plateau on the year. Even in this era of power vs. power, that is most impressive!!
And speaking of unlikely regular (and post) season occurrences, we here at the VFTD just wanted to acknowledge how shocked and disappointed we are to have made it until mid-October for our first post since February. Later, you can check out the last one by simply scrolling down from this article: Starting In ’19
https://viewfromthedish.com/?page_id=340
Now, inserting that link of our own material may seem rather shameless. And it is, haha. But with GOOD reason (we hope you’ll agree, read on). The post in that link was about Shoe-less Joe Jackson and lifetime bans and all the rest that accompanied the 1919 ‘Black Sox’. It was deemed significant to start off the beginning of the year with that review. However, it was not just because of our awe for Jackson’s impact on the field as a slugger, which was of a similar capacity of today’s stars. Another reason that story was significant is the aspect of the nice and neat and round number of those events approaching their 100th anniversary mark. We all love ’round’ numbers, right? Twenty-game winner. Five hundred homers. 30 HR-30 SB Club. Two hundred innings pitched. And on and on.
However, VFTD likes ALL numbers. Big ones like 389 as in Johnny Bench’s career HR total. And small ones like 2 as in the number of pitchers who have thrown a dozen, yes 12, one-hitters (Nolan Ryan and Bob Feller). So in spite of, or a complement to, our lack of output this past spring and summer, we’re going to list some of our favorite stats and findings from this great game. Surely, you are familiar with some of them. And others, not so much. And many will be in places you would not expect. And of course, the list is from numbers 1 through 99 as this post brings us to being one short of the nice and even century mark. Technically, it’s the 87th post and there are 12 other drafts full of duds, studs, leftovers, and left-for-deads, but who’s counting?! Oh wait, WE are. Anyway, here’s our list!! (NOTE: the number of each listed item also matches the number of the significant stat):
1: Player to be named unanimously to HOF, Mariano Rivera. 2: For both the American and National ‘Leagues’ having their own rules and identities; much unlike other sports’ conferences. 3: Cities the Athletics have called home: Oakland, Kansas City, & Philadelphia. 4: Lou ‘Iron Horse’ Gehrig. 5: Cal Ripken Jr.’s jersey number while with the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings.
6: Stan ‘The Man’ Musial. 7: As in a 7-hundred thirty-three (.733) winning percentage; highest among managers with at least 10 World Series game wins,Terry Francona (11-4 record). 8: For Masked Men legends Yogi Berra, Gary ‘The Kid’ Carter, and Bill Dickey. 9: Ted ‘Splendid Splinter’ Williams. 10: The number of MLB stadiums yours truly has visited (no game to see at Arizona).
11: Number of titles won by St. Louis; good for 2nd all-time (most recently in twenty-11). 12: Consecutive Gold Gloves won by Roberto Clemente (Sadly, the streak was retired, not defeated). 13. For Asdrubal Cabrera and Blue Moon Odom, the only MLBers to wear lucky 13 for 13 lucky seasons (to date for Cabrera). 14: Ernie ‘Let’s Play Two’ Banks. 15: Los Angeles Dodgers who earned at least $2.1 million this year (MVP Candidate and all-around exceptional talentCody Bellinger at $600K).
16: The electric Bo Jackson’s jersey number as a K. C. Royal. 17: Jersey number for the worst pitcher’s surname, Bob Walk. 18: Of the ten players all-time to play for 18 seasons and play for just one franchise, five are in the Hall of Fame (Roberto Clemente, Bob Feller, Mickey Mantle, Edgar Martinez, and Mike Schmidt. 19: Jersey numbers for HOFers Robin Yount and Tony Gwynn, who both played for one franchise for 20 seasons. 20: Frank Robinson, a unique legend in all his roles as a player, manager, and both a team and league executive.
21: Warren Spahn from Buffalo, NY holds the record for most Wins by a left-handed pitcher at 363. 22: Combined total of BBs and Ks during Johnny Vander Meer’s consecutive no-hitters in 1938 (perhaps surprisingly an even 11 BBs and 11 Ks). 23: For Orioles catcher, Chris Hoiles, who not only wore number 23, but also amassed a nice career WAR of 23 and change (yes, that was a homer pick and catchers dominate, of course). 24: For Dwight ‘Dr. K’ Gooden’s win total in 1985 as he went 24-4 with a paltry 1.53 ERA and 16 complete games as a 20-year old. 25: For Tommy John, who pitched wearing number 25 for 24 of his 26 playing seasons.
26: Number of players to win both Rookie of Year and a league MVP award (Kris Bryant & Mike Trout the most recent winners from each league). 27. Mike Trout. The more you study, the more you realize his all-time significance. That’s NOT hype. 28. The combined total of no-hitters thrown in the years 1990, ’91, 2012, and ’15 with a Modern Era single-season record of 7 in each year. 29. For Eddie Cicotte’s 29 Wins for the ’19 Black Sox and HOFer Hal Newhouser, the most recent pitcher to obtain exactly 29 wins, in 1944). 30. The sum of Greg Maddux’ playing awards with 4 Cy Youngs, 8 All-Stars, and 18 Gold Gloves. Yes, a big mantle would be required.
31: Wins for Denny McLain in 1968 (last 30+ game-winner, perhaps ever) and for Lefty Grove who also had 31 Wins in nineteen-31. 32: For the jerseys of HOF big-time arms of Sandy Koufax, Steve Carlton, and Roy Halladay. 33: For the number of innings played in the longest pro game ever between Rochester Red Wings and Pawtucket Red Sox (1981). 34: Nolan Ryan’s jersey, whose digits neatly add up to seven, representing ALL of his no-hitters. 35: If you watched any baseball in the 1990s and 2000s, you saw these two prominent number 35s plenty: Mike Mussina and Frank ‘Big Hurt’ Thomas.
36: As in five hundred-36 Home Runs for the all-time leader among switch-hitters, Mickey Mantle of course. 37: For Joe Medwick’s Triple Crown and MVP-winning season of nineteen-37 with a .374 average, 31 HR, and 154 RBI, which included 237 Hits, 56 2B, and a 1.056 OPS . 38: Career errors made by Ichiro Suzuki in 2,366 games in the field, which is an amazingly great Fielding Average of 0.9927. That is 24th all-time by an OF, but many ahead of him played 800+ fewer games and certainly couldn’t throw like him. 39: Number of players in the 450-HR Club thru 2019 (Edwin Encarnacion nearest active player at 414). 40: For all of the New York Yankees World Series appearances, which is 35% of the 114 classics through 2018.
41: For the Summer of nineteen-41 when Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams put on the ultimate hitting clinic with a 56-game hitting streak and last .400 batting season, respectively. 42: Jackie Robinson. 43: Pitching Wins by rookie Larry Corcoran for the 1880 Chicago White Stockings (later re-named the Cubs). Corcoran was recently joined this year by Justin Verlander in the 3+ No-Hitter Club (the others: Ryan, Koufax, Bob Feller, & Cy Young). 44: Hammerin’ Hank Aaron, who retired in 1976 as first all-time in HRs and 2nd in Hits (currently, and safely, is still 2nd and 3rd, respectively). 45: For the number of individual seasons of 50+ stolen bases from 2000 to 2019 (with none of those occurring in 2002, ’12, ’18, and ’19). There were over 110 such seasons in the prior twenty seasons from 1980 thru ’99 (with four less teams for much of the era).
46: Individual seasons of a batter hitting 50+ HR in a season. 47: Home Runs for Hank Aaron in 1971, a career high at age 37, while leading the league in Slugging (.669) and OPS (1.079). 48: For Torii Hunter, who is the longest tenured number 48 in MLB history (19 seasons). His career is likely one that many of us underestimate. He had 353 HRs, 1,391 RBI, and 9 consecutive Gold Gloves in his 17 full seasons. 49: For the number of 2019 HRs (good for 2nd in all of MLB) hit by a shortstop you probably don’t talk about or even know about: Cincinnati’s Eugenio Suarez. He tacked on 103 RBI to go with an OPS of .930. 50: For the Fifty players who appeared in the BoSox-Giants fifteen inning game in September of 2019 including a record 24 pitchers. We’ll vote for the eligible 25-man roster per series, thanks. Forty is way too many if we’re going to attempt to get playing time for ALL of them.
51: All-time occurrences of a relief pitcher surpassing 45 Saves in a season. Twelve players have two each. Craig Kimbrel is only player with three seasons of more than 45 Saves. 52: As in one hundred and 52 Runs scored in a season. It’s already been 19 seasons since Jeff Bagwell was the last to score 150+ runs in 2000. Significant? We’ll say yes, since prior to Bagwell reaching the mark in 2000, Teddy Ballgame had been the most recent to do so back in 1949 with exactly 150 runs scored. 53: There have been 398 individual seasons of 53 Stolen Bases or more (including pre-1900). All-time stolen base and caught stealing leader, Rickey Henderson, accounts for 13 of those seasons (a whopping 3.2%). 54: The record for fewest errors in a single season held by the 2013 Baltimore Orioles. That is a bargain rate of one error every 3.0 games! 55: Brooklyn’s Duke Snider had a great ’55 campaign while leading the N.L. in runs scored (126) and RBI (136) and smacking 42 HRs. His success continued in October as his Dodgers finally beat the Yankees in the World Series in seven games as ‘The Duke Of Flatbush’ hit .320 with 4 HRs and 7 RBI (Note: teammate Johnny Podres was W.S. MVP with 2 complete games and an ERA of 1.00).
56: For Junior’s SENIOR level of consistency: Ken Griffey Jr. had 56 home runs in both 1997 and ’98 in addition to exactly 3 triples, 121 Ks, 76 BBs, and 3 double plays turned (Doubles were 34 and 33 while RBI were 147 and 146, respectively). 57: Years ago (April, 1962) that Dodger Stadium, the game’s 3rd oldest stadium, hosted its first game. 58: For the record number of players to hit 30 HRs in the 2019 regular season. 59: For the perhaps surprising consistency throughout baseball’s evolving eras of strictly day games, changes in ballpark dimensions, p.e.d. influences, and batting philosophies, there have been nine performances of hitting 59 or more Doubles in a season. Meanwhile there have been a remarkably close ten such seasons of 59 or more HRs in a season. And Nick Castellanos of the Tigers and Cubs (he was traded mid-year) nearly evened the two categories at ten apiece by clubbing a whopping 58 doubles here in 2019. 60: For the number of feet between the pitching rubber and front edge of home plate. Luckily, they added the extra half a foot as well to that dimension (60 feet, 6 inches in all). This is most important. Why? Because, otherwise, we would have to acknowledge a poor pitch to the plate with the phrase of ‘he threw a fifty-eight and a half footer up there’, which does not quite roll off the tongue like ‘that was a fifty-nine-footer’ (laugh here).
61: With the trend you may have noticed, you may think we’d have Roger Maris here for 61 famous HRs in ’61. A great ring to it. OK, but we must also mention Joe D’s 61-game hitting streak in the Pacific Coast League in 1933. 62: For the low number of BBs handed out by Bob Gibson in 1968. 62 is an amazingly low number in 304+ innings pitched. He won the Cy Young, MVP, and Gold Glove awards behind a video game-esque ERA of 1.12, 0.853 WHIP, and 13 complete game shutouts. WOW!! 63: For Hank Greenberg’s 63 doubles for the Tigers in 1934, the 3rd best total all-time. The two-time MVP winner is also known for the 2nd all-time season RBI total of 184 in 1937. 64: 1964 was the year the Yankees’ amazing run of 39 consecutive winning seasons concluded. Included in the streak was an awesome overlap of all-time household names as Ruth helped start the streak and played with Gehrig. And then Joe D. arrived and played alongside Gehrig for a few years. And then Yogi played with Joe D. for six years. And then, Mickey Mantle, DiMaggio, and Yogi overlapped for the ’51 campaign and Berra and Mantle played thru the ’63 season together. 65: Pitcher Phil Hughes came into the Big Leagues as a high draft choice of NYY. He sported jersey number 65 as a rookie and kept it for several years. In 2014, he signed with Minnesota. He proceeded to have a very historical season that year as a Twin by setting the all-time single season record of K to BB ratio at 11.63 (2.5 K to 1 BB is considered very good). He had 186 K to just 16 BB in 209.2 innings pitched. Bret Saberhagen is 2nd all-time at 11.000 (1994) followed by Cliff Lee at 10.270 (2010). Amazing control!!
66: While we’re in the Midwest, Sammy Sosa hit 66 HRs for the Cubs in ’98, the year Mark McGwire hit 70 for the Cards. Together, Sosa and McGwire electrified fans and non-fans alike during their home run chases for a few years. The two of them along with Barry Bonds (record 73 in ’01), own 6 of the 8 all-time seasons of 60+ HRs. 67: Fittingly, for the NYY-BoSox rivalry, with the Yanks’ Maris and his aforementioned career year for HRs, the BoSox have Earl Webb as the all-time single-season leader for Doubles with 67 in 1931. And similar to Maris’ 22 HR differential between 61 and 39 HRs for his second best season, Webb’s second best for doubles was 30. 68: The Year of the Pitcher, nineteen-68. Bob Gibson led the universe with a microscopic 1.12 ERA and 0.853 WHIP to help close out 13 SHUTOUTS!! (28 Complete Games on the year). He won the Cy Young, MVP, and Gold Glove awards. 69: As a result of the ’68 season, in nineteen-69, they lowered the mound by 5 inches to a height of 10″. What a huge percentage and impact to the game, perhaps more significant than the higher profile change of adding the DH four years later. Food for thought. 70: For Jacoby Ellsbury, the last man to steal 70 or more bases (70 in 2009).
71: For Roberto Clemente’s Extra-base hit total in his MVP season of 1966. His ‘equal’ distribution among 31 Doubles, 11 Triples, and 29 HRs is remarkable. And tack on a .317 AVE, 202 Hits, and 119 RBI with 17 OF assists for good measure. 72: Carlton Fisk’s White Sox jersey number. 73. OK, we rounded up as Mike Trout’s career WAR is actually 72.5, the highest ever for having just turned 28 years old. 74: This one is for Rod Carew. He had 74 BB in 1974. He also had 78 BB in 1978. See how that matches up there? 74 in ’74 and 78 in ’78. Haha. Anyway, he also hit a tremendous .388 with 100 RBI, 238 Hits and a 1.019 OPS in his MVP season of 1977. 75: The record number of World Series games played by one Yogi Berra. Almost half a season’s worth in the Classic!!
76: For Chicago Cub, Rick Monday. In 1976, he stopped two fans from igniting the American Flag on fire in the outfield of Dodger Stadium. NOW that’s an MVP! 77: Ivan Rodriguez’ jersey number (’09 Astros) and Jim Rice’s 1977 season of 39 HR with 206 Hits. 78: Jim Rice’s ’78 season of 46 HR with 213 Hits. 79: Jim Rice’s ’79 season of 39 HR and 201 Hits making his 3rd consecutive season of 35+ HR coupled with 200+ Hits, which we believe to be a record (Gehrig, Ruth, Aaron, Ted Williams, Mantle, Joe D., Barry Bonds, Pujols, Griffey Jr., & Mays confirmed to have NOT accomplished this). 80: Everyone likes the excitement of an Extra-Base hit. Eighty is for the number of seasons a player has had 80 or more Extra-Base hits. 2019 had a whopping 10 players make the mark (led by BoSox Rafael Devers’ 90) while 2018 had seven and 2017 had six players at 80+. Ruth is all-time best at 119 in 1921. SICK!!
81: For Randy Johnson’s 81 victories for the Diamondbacks from ’99 to 2002. In that four year span, he had at LEAST 334 Strikeouts per year and won 4 of his five Cy Young awards. 82: Eighty-two times in which a player hit 50+ doubles in a season. 83: You’ve probably noticed that we’re partial to both the O’s and Catchers. Therefore, this one is the ultimate combo: In Baltimore’s ’83 Championship season, catcher Rick Dempsey was World Series MVP after going 5-for-13 with four Doubles and one HR. 84: For Walter ‘Big Train’ Johnson’, who gave up just 84 Earned Runs for the ’24 Senators. He won his second MVP that year after going 23-7 with a 2.72 ERA in 38 starts that included 20 Complete Games. He also had 6 of his all-time best 110 Shutouts. Plus, with this being his second MVP award, it gave him an MVP on either side of the end of Dead Ball Era (1920) with his being in 1913. 85: For Zack Greinke, who ranks 85th all-time among pitchers of both kinds, starter and relievers, with a WHIP of 1.1588. It’s ironic that we all try to find guys for fantasy baseball with WHIPs closer to 1.0000 and there’s ONLY 85 in history who could average less than 1.1600 for a career.
86: This one is kind of like the 7th-inning stretch and it’s for the sum of the jerseys of players we have not mentioned specific playing stats for thus far (surprising, but the numbers are driving this thing!): Willie Mays (24), George Brett (5), Derek Jeter (2), Jimmie Foxx (3), Ozzie Smith (1), Tony Gwynn (19), and Sandy Koufax (32). Check our math, that’s Eighty-Six. Their legends and HOF status cover many of the game’s eras. 87: For Paul Molitor’s remarkable nineteen-87 season: he had a 39-game hitting streak (7th best all-time) and led the A.L. with 114 Runs and 41 doubles in just 118 games played. 88: Jersey number for most appropriate pitcher’s surname: Josh Outman. 89: For HOFer Mel Ott’s career Stolen Bases (89). Significant? Among the great crooks of the game, not exactly. However, Ott was also busy slamming 511 HRs and 2,876 Hits to go with his whopping 1,860 RBI and 1,859 Runs for powerful N.Y. Giants teams of the ’20s and ’30s. And what a great name for a ballplayer!! 90: For Bob Welch’s nineteen-90 season in which he went 27-6 with a 2.95 ERA. He won the Cy Young Award, but came in 9th for MVP. Rickey Henderson, Dave Stewart, and Dennis Eckersley were his teammates. And all three finished ahead of Welch for MVP (with Henderson winning).
91: As in one hundred 91 RBI, the all-time record, for Hack Wilson in 1930. He had 35 2B, 56 HR, 105 BB, and batted .356 with a .723 SLUG percentage for the Cubs. He also had 159 RBI in ’29 as a warm up. 92: For Tris Speaker’s all-time best total of seven hundred 92 career doubles (and his career WAR of 134.0). Also, 792 for the number of cards in many of those most famous Topps Baseball Card complete sets. 93: For the career triples total of Irish Meusel, who played primarily for the Phillies and Giants in the 1920s. Meanwhile, his little bro, Bob Meusel, was slugging away on Murderers’ Row behind Ruth and Gehrig. 94: For Babe Ruth’s career Wins as a pitcher including a perfect 5-0 record over a 13 year span with the Yankees. 95: As in Eighteen-95, the year Ruth was born.
96: As in six hundred 96 HRs. The career total for Alex Rodriguez. Surely, the p.e.d. usage and subsequent season-long suspension kept him(self) out of the exclusive 700 HR Club. A fitting punishment-by-numbers you could say. 97: This one is for Johnny Bench. He scored 97 Runs in 1970 when he won his first of two MVPs. He also took the Gold Glove award, of course, and had 177 Hits, 45 HR, and 148 RBI. AND he also STARTED twice in Centerfield. 98: For the number of players to have at least 80 career Sacrifice Flies to their credit. The stat started being tracked in 1954. Eddie Murray (128), Cal Ripken (127), Robin Yount (123), Hank Aaron & Frank Thomas (121), George Brett & Ruben Sierra (120) round out the top 5 totals all-time.
NINETY-NINE: Of course, Sacrifice Flies are RBI. Speaking of RBI: Some might say this stat is outdated or not really useful, but we like to know who the guys are that simply drive more people home than others. And no matter your take on it, RBIs are FUN!! Out of the 19,364 players to make it to MLB, only 99 batters have hit the 1,330 RBI plateau. Carlton Fisk is the 99th at exactly 1,330. Side Note: Reaching even the 1,000 RBI plateau for a catcher has proven to be significant (Fisk is 4th all-time among his fellow HOF catching brothers). But back to big picture; again, an uneven 99 players out of nearly 20,000 can say they drove in a teammate 1,330 or more times. Amazing to think that a mere 99 players cover a nearly 1,000 RBI span that runs from Fisk to all-time leader Hank Aaron at 2,297 career RBI.
Later Baseball Fans, hope to see you at 100.