Hello Baseball Fans,
Despite what yours and many others’ local weather is doing, Spring is finally here and our baseball heroes are ready to play some real games that count to kick off the 2026 MLB season! Every team has some new prospects or free agents or shooting stars to be excited about in hopes that this season can be one of contention and possibly end in a championship. The 162-game season is a true marathon that grinds on all teams, thus producing worthy playoff contenders and qualifiers.
Before we look to what may happen in this ’26 season, let’s look back one hundred years at what happened in the previous ’26 season. And we can make some comparisons along the way to what happened just last season in 2025. First, we’ll start with pitchers. They are vital, of course, but we put them out front mostly because we want to keep them happy. And you better believe, that is not easy!
1. Starting Pitcher George Uhle of the Cleveland Indians led the 1926 big leagues with 32 complete games.
2. For comparison, recently retired ace, Clayton Kershaw, had 25 complete games; in his career!! Kershaw’s season high was 6 in 2014.
3. George Uhle had three shutouts along the way in 1926 and was bested by Cincinnati Red Pete Donahue who led the bigs with five shutouts that year.
4. For those of you who would like to see our current day pitchers reform to capture more wins, let’s look at another statistic that has flip-flopped. The pitching save. In 1926, the saves leader was Firpo Marbery of the American League’s Washington Senators. He had a massive lead with his 22 saves while second best was 9 saves by Hooks Dauss of the Detroit Tigers.
5. Last year, Colorado Rockies had TWO relief pitchers achieve eleven and ten saves, respectively, in Seth Halvorsen and Victor Vodnik. What, you didn’t have either of them on your fantasy team?! And don’t forget, the Rockies were an historically abysmal last place team with a 43-119 record!
6. OK, can we please talk hitting now? YES!! The Roaring Twenties, as they became to be known, must include the likes of Babe Ruth. Ruth led the way in 1926 with 42 Home Runs, 146 RBI, and 144 BB. He stole a commendable 11 bags, but also got caught stealing 9 times. That is a poor percentage. Remember that last part for later……
7. The Major League stolen base leader in 1926 was Hall of Famer Cool Papa Bell (birth name James Thomas Bell) of the St. Louis Stars of the Negro National League. Bell swiped 36 bags in just 91 games played!!
8. In 2025, speedster Jose Caballero of the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees stole 49 bases in 126 games. Look out!
9. Strikeouts. Joe Sewell of the Cleveland Indians struck out just six times the entire 1926 season while batting .324 with 187 base knocks in a complete 154 games.
10. In 2025, seven different players struck out 5 times in one game! The list includes some prominent players too. Cal Raleigh, Jackson Chourio, Jose Altuve, Nick Castellanos, Dylans Crews, Tyler Stephenson, and Austin Slater are your Golden Sombrero ‘plus one’ winners a.k.a. Platinum Sombrero.
11. Hardware. Who won the trophies? MVP. The National League MVP was catcher Bob O’Farrell of the St. Louis Cardinals. For The A.L., you’re probably thinking it was Ruth. However, that is incorrect. Player-managers and previous winners were NOT eligible to win MVP. That certainly dampens the MVP comparison argument amongst the greats of different eras. Ruth had already won his in 1923 when he had an astounding 1.309 OPS. The 1926 A.L. MVP winner was George Burns of Cleveland. He batted .358 with 216 hits and an 0.889 OPS.
12. Pennants. Who won the American and National League regular season titles? New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals, respectively. New York was led by manager Miller Huggins to a 91-63 record while player-manager Rogers Hornsby took the Cardinals to an 89-65 season.
13. Championship. Who won the 1926 World Series? In a best of seven series, New York won Game One at Yankee Stadium, the series was tied at 2 games apiece, and the Yankees took Game 5 for the all-important 3 games to 2 lead. The Cards tied it up at 3 games apiece in Game 6 as Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander won his second game of the series. Along the way, Herb Pennock won Games 1 and 5 for the Yankees and Ruth smashed 3 home runs in the Yankees’ Game 4 win.
Game 7. It was a tight, low scoring game. The Yankees drew first blood with a run in the bottom of the third. The resilient Cardinals rallied in the top of the fourth and plated three runs. St. Louis managed to go 3 for 9 on the game with runners in scoring position. Some timely hitting. The Yanks scratched another run in the last of the sixth to make it 3-2. Despite having thrown 108 pitches in Game 6 just a day earlier, Cleveland Alexander was brought in with one out in the 7th inning to possibly close the door for Cardinals and capture their first World Championship.
Alexander gave up no hits in the relief appearance. However, he did walk Ruth with two outs in the ninth. The Yankees were alive and had slugger Bob Meusel coming to bat. Meusel batted .315 with an 0.842 OPS that season. Meusel swung and missed at the first offering from Alexander and Ruth had taken off for second to get in scoring position. MVP catcher Bob O’Farrell threw to Hornsby who tagged Babe Ruth at second base. Ruth was called out! The 1926 World Series ended on a caught stealing and the Cardinals won their first title in franchise history.
Fans, you can rest assured that no other World Series has ended on a caught stealing, the Yankees and Cardinals will not have a World Series ‘rematch’ in 2026, and no big-time slugger is going to even have the opportunity to steal in a situation like that! Surely, he would be pinch ran for with today’s strategies in place.
What lies ahead? An action-packed 2026 MLB season with 2,430 regular season games to be played, 12 playoff teams, and hardware for MVP, Cy Young, Silver Slugger, and Gold Glove winners. Good Luck to all your favorite clubs and players!
Later Fans.
hey dad