Ken Burns Baseball

Then there's the silliest of all cliches, "on a pace for." A player with 11 homers in his first 27 games is said to be "on a pace for 66 homers." Isn't it obvious enough that home runs (and most other things) occur in irregular spurts? When Toronto Blue Jays' George Bell hit three home runs on opening day in 1998, was he on a pace for 486, but for only 243 the next day? (He finished with 24, although the year before he had hit 47). It's a little less silly, but sheer speculation, if you play the pace game after mid-season. When Mark McGwire lifted the home run record to 70 in 1998, he had 65 with four games left, which projected to a final 66 or 67. But he actually hit five in his last three and wound up with 70. "Pace" is a figment of mathematicians' imagination.

-- "The Rise and Fall of the Press Box," Leonard Koppett, 2003.

From the chapter on statistics, a must-read for any sports writer, whether you agree with his many interesting points or not.

 

Shot in the Dark (cue Ozzie)
45

 

Ha! No doubt.

 

Walter Johnson's shutout record (110, I believe) will never be approached. Hell, there may not be another pitcher to get half as many.

 

Beat me to it, FOTF.

Think about it. I know it was the dead-ball era and an era featuring ballparks (outside of Philadelphia's Baker Bowl) that you could land a plane on, but Johnson won 417 games and more than a quarter of those were by shutout.

Nobody's coming within 13 wins of Jack Chesbro's 41 victories, or Ed Walsh's 40 either. It's virtually impossible to get to 30, never mind 40. Bob Welch winning 27 back in the late 80s was mind-boggling.

 

I had to look it up. Although I don't know if he went by Hank, Henry Wilson, who played one game in 1898, was 0-for-2 with a walk. So, my "guess" is none.

 

Especially when you look at Welch's overall numbers. He won 27 games with some of the least impressive and intimidating stuff in recent memory.

 

What about the hit-by-pitch record? Hughie Jennings got plunked 51 times in 1896. Rob Hunt challenged the mark in 1971 with 50, and he's the only other person with more than 46 and one of two with more than 39 -- Jennings got hit 46 times in 1897 and 1898.

 

You want an offensive record which will never fall? How about Billy Hamilton's 192 runs in 1894? The modern-day record is held by Ruth (177 in 1921). To put it in perspective: In 2000, Jeff Bagwell scored 152 runs, tied for 29th all-time, and he was the first person to score that many since Lou Gehrig scored 163 in 1931 -- 69 years earlier.

 

Hell, the White Sox haven't scored 192 runs all year, have they?

 

Eh, 614. But who's counting anyway? All that matters is they've scored more runs than both Washington and the Nationals.

But they somehow are productive enough to give their manager a five-year extension, so the numbers are really irrelevant.

 

Washington and the Nationals?