from the WWL: The failure dynasties

And Matt Williams was on pace to break Roger Maris' record of 61.

 

The Cubs and Red Sox faced off in the world series.

SI said so.

 

I thought the White Sox were. I thought K.C. and Cleveland were in a tie for second at the time.

EDIT: Just checked Retrosheet - Royals were in third place, four games behind White Sox. Cleveland was a game out in second place.

 

My bad. I guess I shouldn't rely on memory.

 

When I was at the Cubs-Nats game Sunday, some Nats fans were chanting "19 ... 08, 19 ... 08." I was tempted to chant back "never ... ever, never ... ever." But I didn't.

 

I always am skeptical when people say "What if?!?!??!" about the 1994 season.

But DAMN, that was indeed a loaded Expos team.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MON/1994.shtml

 

The 2001 Seattle Mariners (116-46) just wish there was a strike in August of that season.

 

Yes, well, I am always skeptical of the "Expos were a lock" sentiments. Can't count out the Braves. They had come back from 9.5 down to win the West in '91 and from 10 down to win the West in '93. An 8-game deficit to the Expos in '94 was definitely not insurmountable.

 

I thought it was 6 1/2 games in 94. And no, it was not insurmountable. There's no reason to believe the Braves wouldn't have at least made it interesting ...

 

The Expos were not managed by Dusty Baker.

 

Kendall's power never really developed. He had 10 or more homers in three of four seasons between 1998 and 2001--and had eight homers in 280 ABs when his ankle fell off in 1999--but he's topped three homers in a season once since 2002.

If not for the contract, he'd be fairly underrated. Nearly 1,900 hits as a catcher before his 34th birthday is pretty damn impressive, and he's got some great wheels for a catcher. His HOF monitor at Baseball-reference.com is 88.5...100 is a HOFer. Of course, that's not going to happen. He's a singles hitter, he's not really an asset behind the plate and nobody has ever walked up to a ticket office and said "two, please" because Kendall was playing.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, your first-place Texas Rangers ... in first place in the AL West despite being 10 games under .500.

http://shrpsports.com/mlb/stand/1994finaldiv.htm