You probably know that if you type a search term into Google, it will give you a few autocomplete suggestions for that search, giving you an indication of the most popular searches done by the public.
Here’s an example:
If you type in Babe Ruth, Google suggests:
Babe Ruth stats
Babe Ruth quotes
Babe Ruth baseball
Makes sense, right? The three things people are most interested in right now are Ruth’s career stats, some of the colorful things he said, and a baseball associated with Babe Ruth. (This last one might be trending now because a Babe Ruth baseball was recently featured on an episode of White Collar.)
Here are results for some other players.
Barry Bonds stats
Barry Bonds trial
Barry Bonds steroids
Sammy Sosa skin
Sammy Sosa stats
Sammy Sosa white
Don Mattingly stats
Don Mattingly rookie card
Don Mattingly Hall of Fame
Manny Ramirez stats
Manny Ramirez news
Manny Ramirez comeback
Bud Selig salary
Bud Selig extension
Bud Selig net worth
Mickey Mantle quotes
Mickey Mantle stats
Mickey Mantle biography
Larry Bowa stats
Larry Bowa meltdown
Larry Bowa rookie card
Omar Vizquel baseball reference
Omar Vizquel hall of fame
Omar Vizquel 2012
Jose Canseco stats
Jose Canseco twitter
Jose Canseco Red Sox
Don Zimmer pedro
Don Zimmer Pedro Martinez
Don Zimmer fight
Pedro Martinez stats
Pedro Martinez and brothers foundation
Pedro Martinez jimmy fund
Robin Yount stats
Robin Yount rookie card
Robin Yount card value
George Brett pine tar
George Brett shits (seriously, because of the hilarious YouTube video)
George Brett stats
David Cone perfect game
David Cone stats
David Cone Hall of Fame
I could go on and on, but you get the idea…find any other interesting results?
I’m a bit surprised that “steroids” doesn’t pop up as one of the choices for Canseco or Manny.
I have no idea what that George Brett video is about. Now I’ll have to decide if I want to go and find it. Perhaps I should have breakfast first.
Here is the George Brett video. It’s very cleverly dubbed-in audio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6hu4aLXv7U
(it’s not safe for work!)
Am I right in assuming that Billy Martin plays a significant role in the video in question?
I see that he does not. I had forgotten all about that one.
It’s good to start you day with a good laugh as well as a good ….
Double-tapered.
Never heard that term before. Good term.
I’ve pondered looking at this video all day, but have yet to click on it. I’m afraid of what disturbing things I might see.
Perhaps I’ll now go have dinner, a glass of wine, and ponder more.
Yes, it’s probably best to eat first.
You may not want to afterwards.
Mattingly’s HOF credentials are impressive. How many first basemen with a lifetime avg. >.300, > 2,000 hits, > 600 xBH and multiple gold gloves (Donnie had 9), are NOT in the HOF? Add an MVP and league leading seasons in hits, doubles, RBI, BA, SLG, and OPS+ and I submit to you: Don Mattingly, Hall of Famer.
Amen to that! I locked horns with John Autin (in a friendly way of course) on that matter about a year ago. I pointed out that there was a parallel between Koufax’s career and Mattingly’s in that they each had a few great years and a few so-so years. John pointed out that Koufax’s great years were at the end of his career but Mattingly’s was at the beginning and that made a difference to the voters. He also pointed out that Koufax had a God-like image.
Since that time I have seen that Mattingly’s career has a better parallel with that of HOFer Dizzy Dean, They both had several great years at their career starts and so-so years at the end due solely to injuries. Dean had no trouble being voted in.
True, Dean had no trouble being voted in… but he’s controversial to this day.
As for Mattingly, Dr. Remulak, is his 1985 really any better than Jim Rice’s 1978? Or Fred Lynn’s 1979? Or Kevin Mitchell’s 1989? Yes, he was great that year, but that’s not a Hall of Fame case. I just can’t really see Mattingly getting in while Fred McGriff is on the outside. While Mattingly was perhaps a shooting star, McGriff was a more productive player for much more time, by either fWAR or rWAR (WARP tells a different story, but the edge to Mattingly is still only slight). True, I wasn’t yet alive for Mattingly’s glory years; but on the other hand, I wasn’t really a baseball fan until about 1995, which means I missed McGriff’s best years, too. So for me, I just don’t see much of a difference; and what I do see gives an edge to McGriff.
Ummm….What Dr. Doom said. Mattingly had a nice peak but it wasn’t that high of a peak and it didn’t last very long. (his MVP, btw wasn’t deserved…he won it due to the overemphasis on RBIs by MVP voters). It’s unfortunate that he got injured but that’s part of life. Lots of players could have had Hall of Fame careers if not for an injury or something else happening. There are 15 retired first basemen who are not in the Hall of Fame who have a higher career WAR than Mattingly. Granted not all of them are better qualified for the Hall, but that’s still a pretty long list.
I’ll also submit some other one-year MVP standout seasons to compare to Mattingly’s 1985 campaign: George Foster, 1977. Joe Torre, 1971. Jeff Burroughs, 1974. and I’ll throw in Keith Hernandez in 1979 just for comparison also:
OPS+
1. K Mitchell ’89: 192
2. Joe Torre ’71: 171
3. G Foster ’77: 165
4. J Burroughs ’74: 162
5. D Mattingly ’86: 161
6. Jim Rice ’78: 157
7. K Hernandez ’79: 151
Dizzy D in Google generated the suggestions:
Dizzy Dean
Dizzy during pregnancy
Dizzy diner [in Park Slope, Brooklyn — 3.5 stars on yelp]
Well, Keith Hernandez misses the .300 AVG but it was .296 and his OBP was .384. He did have 2000+ hits, 600+ xBH, an MVP award (and a 2nd and 4th place finish), 11 Gold Gloves, and league leading seasons in runs (twice), avg, obp, walks, and doubles. Plus he twice led the NL in times on base, which isn’t on the main stats portion of the page but I find it impressive. Despite Mattingly’s high peak he beats Mattingly in career OPS+, 128 to 127, and in a little longer career.
And as I like to point out to my friends who are Yankee fans, Keith Hernandez was the number 3 hitter on two World Championship teams, while Donnie Baseball is probably the greatest Yankee who never won a World Series ring 🙂
Hernandez’s use of PEDs, cocaine and cigarettes, preclude HOF consideration. Other than that, you are right, they both belong in the Hall. Mattingly’s career post-season avg. is the stuff that Mex can only dream of.
While I abhor cigarettes, are you serious? You’d advocate ( in any percentage of an argument ) against a HOF induction because he smoked in the dugout? You’re crazy. No old-timers would be in then.
I’m pretty sure Jim Leyland’s got a shot at the HOF and I remember him smoking on the field in the early 90s.
The Keith Hernandez trade to the Mets:
Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey.
That’s pretty bad.
Looking at the ’83 Cards, it seems that they wanted to move George Hendrick to first to make room in the outfield for some nice prospects named David Green and Andy Van Slyke.
Van Slyke worked out great, and they packaged Green et al to get Jack Clark.
And they got back to the WS in ’85.
So, maybe that was a good trade.
But, can’t help but wonder if Keith Hernandez would have gotten to that ball faster before the flip to Worrell. If so we wouldn’t all have a flashback when we hear the word “Denkinger.”
More likely, though, Hernandez would have made that NEXT play,on the Balboni pop-up that fell between Porter and Clark.
Here’s the Denkinger play… I can’t find the Balboni pop up, though as I remember it, Clark looked like a big maloof:
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=13062921&c_id=mlb
BAHAHAHA!!!! Sammy Sosa! Best one ever.
By the way, “Billy Ripken” will return stuff about the infamous card…
Oh, I don’t know. I give you…Ryan Braun!
Herpes
Steroids
Press Conference
The difference with Ryan Braun is that it is/will be changing rapidly. His reputation could get better, or worse. I think it’s tougher to do this with active players. The Sammy Sosa one just cracks me up, though.
Also, not a baseball player, but I had to do it…
John Autin
New Orleans
Extreme
Piano
Now that certainly raises some questions about our post leader! 🙂
And just to be fair, I typed in my own name and got:
Photography
Golf
Facebook
Blah!!! Boring!!!
One of Mike Schmidt’s top three is “Mike Schmidt crying,” which I assume is from his retirement. Another is “Mike Schmidt comedy,” which I’m going to go ahead and guess is another Mike Schmidt, and not something along these lines:
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Mike.
Mike who?
Mike Schmidt.
Others I’ve found:
“Roberto Alomar hiv” — google knows the rumors, peeps.
“Vladimir Guerrero Yankees” — he wishes.
“Derek Jeter herpes” (fourth one down) — moving right along.
“Tom Seaver wine” — good to know that the best pitcher in Mets history is best noted as a boozemaker.
“Nolan Ryan fight” — take that, Robin Ventura!
“Paul O’Neill kicks baseball” — surprised that “water cooler” was not a top result.
“Ty Cobb racist” — well, obviously. I’m disappointed “Ty Cobb fights with crippled man” was not one of the top results.
“Cap Anson racist” — same, except for the “fights with crippled man” part.
“Honus Wagner signed baseball” — this must be at least in part due to that stupid car commercial last year.
Also, both Rogers Hornsby and Tris Speaker apparently were in the KKK, which is disappointing to find out if true. Don’t lead me astray, Google.
Sadly, it’s definitely true in Speaker’s case. He did however redeem himself somewhat by working with Larry Doby when the Indians signed him.
A few points:
1) There’s no definitive proof that Speaker was a Klan member though there are rumors about it.
2) There have been various incarnations of the Klan over the years. The second one, which existed from 1915-1944, was the most powerful one. Membership peaked between 4-6 million men, up to 15% of the eligible population. Being a member of the Klan in that era simply wasn’t the shameful thing we think of it as today.
3) The Klan was strongly anti-Catholic. Assuming Speaker was a member, this may have been his hook. Speaker was definitely anti-Catholic and there are rumors that the Red Sox traded him due to a Catholic-Protestant rift on the team.
According to Timothy Gay’s book “Tris Speaker” that “Tris told a prominent writer in the 1910s that he was a member of the Klan”. He also grew up in the same town as Hiram Wesley Evans, who was an Imperial wizard in the KKK for 20 years and wrote 3 books about the “evils” of race mixing and the threat posed by immigrants. Speaker was 7 years younger than Evans.
That said, you’re right. There’s no definitive proof that Speaker was in the Klan or a racist. Circumstantial evidence and hearsay is not enough to make someone guilty.
Yeah, to me it’s a bit like the PEDs thing. The evidence is circumstantial and we definitely don’t have a complete list of all the players who were Klan members.
I was on Tommy John’s website last week, and there was a link to this painting that featured/was in part done by John, Gaylord Perry, Vida Blue, and Tom Seaver. In a photo of them, you could click on the player. Clicking on John brought you to said website. Clicking Perry and Blue took you to the Giants’ website. Clicking Tom Seaver… took you to his vineyard’s website. So I JUST learned that he was even into winemaking. I guess I’m late to the party.
Weird, I don’t get crying as one of Mike Schmidt’s top three. I get stats, comedy, facebook. Crying doesn’t show up anywhere.
That is weird. Does Google localize the autocomplete like it does other stuff? I’m about halfway between NYC and Philly, so maybe Schmidt’s retirement speech is more popular here or some such.
I think Google does factor in the location: I’m in Pittsburgh, and the first result when I enter Prince Fielder is “Prince Fielder to Pirates.”
Here’s a quite long blog post on Google’s autocomplete. It suggests that location as well as other factors are at work:
http://searchengineland.com/how-google-instant-autocomplete-suggestions-work-62592
I too am from halfway between NYC and Philly (Somerset County, NJ) and I have “Comedy”, “Stats” & “Facebook” for Mike Schmidt.
Howdy, neighbor!
Mike Schmidt crying at his retirement press conference has been in the news recently due to Jason Varitek’s similar behavior.
Good call — by the way, Jason Varitek’s top result for me is “wedding.” I realize he was recently married, but jeez.
And I’d like to think that Mike Schmidt’s crying is always up there. Let me have that, Andy.
Perhaps they’re referring to an old Braves-Phillies matchup when Skip Caray announced, “Now here comes Mike Shit”. There was silence and muted laughter as (I believe) Pete Van Wieren and Skip were just dying laughing.
Nolan Ryan
Stats
Fight
Beef
See…I didn’t get “beef.” I got “rookie card,” with “foundation” soon thereafter. I’ll bet my theory on autocomplete being localized is somewhat spot on.
Speaking of bet…
Pete Rose yields “stats” “hall of fame” and “jr”. — HEAR THAT, HALL OF FAME?!? GOOGLE WANTS HIM IN.
Shoeless Joe Jackson: “stats” “autograph” “comes to Iowa” — is the last one a Field of Dreams reference?
Eddie Cicotte: “stats” “biography” “grave”
What did we learn today? Google forgives gamblers. It does not, however, forgive errors.
Fred Merkle: “boneheaded play” — I’m going to assume “boner” is blocked.
Bill Buckner: “error” “curb” — as in Curb Your Enthusiasm, where he appeared.
Nolan Ryan has his own brand of beef. I live in Dallas, so I see it in the supermarkets, hear ads for it on the radio, and so on.
Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa was the the short story by W.P. Kinsella that eventually led to the novel Shoeless Joe and the movie Field of Dreams. For those who don’t know, in the book the character that became Terrance Mann (played by James Earl Jones) was actually J.P. Salinger, the reclusive author of “Catcher in the Rye”
Disappointed to find a Google search for “Moises Alou” did not autocomplete with “pee.” A Bing search yielded “pees on his hands” as the fourth choice. Bing is now my new default search engine.
It’s times like your post that I really miss the like button…
And see for me, #3 for Google is “urine hands”.
Urine good hands…isn’t that the All State slogan?
Does than mean Pedro Cerrano peed on his hands also?(All State spokesman….Pedro Cerrano = Dennis Haysbert). Sorry I went there.
Hats….for bats. Keep bats warm…..gracias.
Wait? Moises Alou pees on his hands? I thought that was Jorge Posada?
Note to self: To be safe, never shake hand of professional baseball player.
Search Dick Radatz on Bing and the Jim Bouton story about Radatz being hired to throw oranges at a guy’s naked ass pops right up (and, lol, my HHS post regarding that story is on the first search page). Same search on Google, nothing. And no, I’m not paid by Microsoft. This search game is addictive.
I tried a few different Mets players and on Todd Hundley (I went vague), it gave me “daughter” as the second choice. I think maybe people thought the girl who was Steve Phillips’ sidepiece was his daughter. Otherwise, I cannot figure out what that one is about, since there isn’t a Lawrence Fishborne Bernie Kosar thing going on either…
Fritz Peterson yields “Movie” and “Mike Kekich.” Apparently, Matt Damon & Ben Affleck are making a movie based on the famous wife swap.
Three more:
“Rafael Palmeiro viagra commercial”
“Ted Williams frozen”
“Roy Halladay anaconda”
a few more random ones:
“Jason Giambi brother” — SCORE ONE FOR JEREMY!
“Frank Thomas Mets” — you hear that, Big Hurt? The other Frank Thomas was BETTER.
“Miguel Tejada real age”
“Albert Pujols lyrics” — I wasn’t aware there was a song about El Hombre. Apparently Rick Ross raps on it.
“Ted Williams frozen (head)” – hasn’t anyone ever told you that there’s no cryogenics in baseball?
There’s no more “like” button so I am submitting a write-in “like”.
Richard,Hartvig –
I don’t think that’s what Tom Hanks’ character (in “A League of Their Own”) had in mind, but thanks!
If I had read this in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep my laughter would have been loud enough to wake everyone in the house.
Another write-in “like” from me.
#4 for Sparky Lyle is “nagging question”.
Hmmm, I just checked Sparky Lyle, and for me it suggested “autographed baseball” at #4.
I’m disappointed “birthday cake” was not one of the choices.
Ah you must have read Bronx Zoo as well!
Yes, and there are some images that just won’t leave my mind!
Ball Four tells of Doug Rader pooping on a birthday cake, taking Spary’s bit to the next level. A Doug Rader search yields neither “poop” or “birthday cake.”
Joe Morgan’s top four are honda, stats, saints, and…mexican mafia! Hmm…
Jim Palmer has some interesting ones:
#1 – trucking
#5 – underwear
#8 – how to brew
#10 – Jewish
Ed – Jim Palmer Trucking is a major transport company where I live.
Oil Can Boyd = drunk
Oil Can Boyd led to “drugs” when I searched him.
speaking of which, “Dock Ellis” has plenty of no hitter links but the letters LSD don’t actually come up on autocomplete.
Some more, because being cooped up with laryngitis is the worst:
Willie Mays “Hayes” — good to see Major League lives on.
Randy Johnson “bird” — funny that’s what lasts from a great career.
Curt Schilling “video game” — makes sense since Kingdoms of Amalur just came out, but still…
Pedro Martinez “midget” — wow….didn’t that guy pass away?
Moises Alou “breaks leg” — nope, urine hands isn’t popping up for me.
“Can peeing on your hands make them tough?”
is #3 when I search.
Darrell Evans
Stats
Freedom
Trading my sorrows
Clearly there’s another Darrell Evans out there.
Wow, Kevin Mitchell was talented! I get baseball, football, and boxer among his top 5.
“Keith Hernandez” brings up:
Seinfeld
stats
model (which is not for the baseball player Keith Hernandez)
Interestingly, if I type in “Keith Hernandez ” (with the space added so it looks like you are looking for something more specific) I get:
Seinfeld
Stats
Hall of Fame
And then the link to the guy doing the modelling
Fun idea, Andy! But it might as well be called “What Heisenberg tells us…” — since this very discussion will alter the results.
damn:
… you autocorrect
… Yankees
… lol (?)
I despise K:
… Kate
… Keith Hernandez
… Keith Olbermann
The most “Google-famous”:
Sandy . . . Bridge (Koufax is #3)
Willie . . . Nelson (no Mays visible)
Barry . . . Weiss (Storage Wars?!)
Mickey . . . Mouse
Rogers . . . Sporting Goods
Babe . . . Ruth (finally!)
Just trying a twist — nothing much to see here, folks.
For me, the most famous Sandy is indeed Koufax…though autocomplete is suggesting that he is gay.
Yet paradoxically, search Rusty Staub, and the gaydar function appears to be disabled. Koufax, twice married, Staub, a — ahem — confirmed bachelor. Do I dare search Mike Piazza? I think I’ll just let it be. Sam Champion breathes a sigh of relief.
I was looking up Rusty Staub and found this:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYM/1972.shtml
Nobody on the 1972 Mets had 100 hits!
For the record, since 1901, only teams other than the 1972 Mets without a 100 hit man were both in strike-shortened seasons (as was 1972, albeit slightly).
– 1981 Blue Jays
– 1994 Phillies
Other than 6 teams from the 1981 season, only team with just one 100 hit player was the 1906 Cardinals.
Only one non-strike-year team had as few as one?
And the ’72 Mets had zero?
That’s an (awful) amazin’ stat.
(The division winning Pirates had nine)
And what a trying season overall for the Mets.
Gil Hodges drops dead of a heart attack on April 2nd, right in front of all his coaches after a round of golf.
Three days later they trade Singleton, Jorgenson, and Foli for Staub, who ended up being the only player on that team who had more hits than games played. However, he was gone after 66 after injury. Also injured were Bud Harrelson, Jerry Grote, and Cleon Jones. Fregosi was hurt in Spring Training and never found his form.
Yet they were 29-11 after the first two months, and had infused some added excitement by acquiring Willie Mays. Mays ripped it for the first week, with a 1.280 ops. Then he started playing like a 40 year old.
They had one player with more than 120 games played.
Tommie Agee led the Mets in 1972 with 96 hits. The Mets played 156 games, missing six games because of the players’ strike. 96 hits over 156 games comes out to 99.7 hits over 162 games, suggesting Agee (1972 batting average: .227)was not exactly a sure thing to get to 100 even with the six extra games.
The ten lowest team batting averages over the past 100 years:
1968 Yankees.214
1972 Rangers .217
1963 Mets .219
1963 Colt 45s .220
1965 Mets .221
1967 Senators .222
1968 Senators .223
1969 Padres .22457
1967 White Sox .22460
1972 Mets .22473
I tried Piazza earlier…”gay” did not pop up.
Hey we matched. I got the Koufax = gay thing too! Apparently, back in 2003, the NY Post published a story about Koufax being gay. I definitely don’t remember hearing about that.
Is that what the “nagging question” about Sparky Lyle was? I looked and only found an article which contains the sentence, “The nagging question is whether or not Jim Rice deserves to be in the HOF…..”.
Not very interesting:
http://cardboardgods.net/2007/06/15/sparky-lyle-in-the-nagging-question/
The “nagging” thing about this is that Rice’s dubious HOF selection is going to haunt us all for years. Just imagine how many times over the next few decades you’re going to read, “Well, If Jim Rice is in, then player X deserves to be in”. Should be great fun!
Bill Lee brings up Spaceman (of course), but also a reference to him pitching in the minors at age 63 (something I didn’t recall). Sure enough, B-R has the 2010 start for Brockton in an independent league: 5.1 innings, 2 ER, 5 H, 1 K, 0 BB and a W !
That game came “only” 41 years after his last minor league appearance, and 28 years after his last MLB game. Am guessing both are records.
I believe Buck O’Neil did something similar.
Minnie Minoso played in his 70’s in the Minors.
Right you are, Luis.
Minoso drew a walk, aged 77, for St. Paul of the Northern League. He also had a PA for the same team, 10 years earlier, which was his first minor league appearance since 1969, and his first professional appearance since 1980 with the White Sox.
Almonte, Nieto, Carmona: Each one could be a MLB player (Erick, Tom, Fausto). But in this case, they are the surprising autocomplete suggestions for “Zoilo.”
The ’65 MVP doesn’t come up until you type “V.”
You obviously don’t spend enough time looking up baseball stuff, JA. 🙂
“Zoilo Versalles” and “Zoilo Versalles stats” are #s 2 & 3 for me.
I get the same as Dr. D
I think Zoilo Almonte is in Spring Training with the Yanks right now.
I was disappointed that “I-285” didn’t come up for Pascual Perez (he legendarily got lost on the I-285 loop before a scheduled Braves start). You have to type in “Pascual Perez I” to get it to come up.
“Boilery” = Boileryard Clarke.
“Jhonny” = Johnny Depp; need a P to get Peralta.
“Jhou” = Jhoulys Chacin.
“Diz” #4 is this thread.
But for a sign of how much personal data Google is collecting (and/or a sign of my one-track mind):
“B” = Baseball-Reference.com
Johnny Bench brings up “called”. I didn’t get the reference but it’s in the urban dictionary. You’ll have to look it up yourself cause it’s definitely not pg-13.
Harmon Killebrew brings up Mormon. Had no idea but he converted to Mormonism in 1966.
Fernando Vanzuela: Jr(!) Still playing in the Mexican League.
Yovani: Gallardo (no surprise here).
Vinny: Testaverde (expecting Castilla, of course)
Joakim: Noah, then Soria.
There is location involved for sure. I just searched “Piazza” and it sows a local restaurant called Trattoria La Piazza.
It “shows” a local restaurant, sorry.
Mattingly: The Simpsons episode, when Mr. Burns tells him to get rid of his sideburns.
Steve Sax: The Simpsons.
Darryl: Strawberry, then Brinkley, a carrer Minor leaguer with an interesting 9/11 story.
Alvaro Espinoza:
in jail
wine
winemaker
http://randomballplayers.blogspot.com/2011/04/alvaro-espinoza.html
–Wade Boggs is the man:
beer
beer story
stats
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sportsprose/2009/05/the_legend_of_wade_boggs_and_a.html
http://www.totalprosports.com/2011/01/04/6-sports-rumors-that-are-total-bullsht/ (#1 is interesting!)
Boogs search, no “sex addict.” More Google/Bing disappointment.
Well, from the first link I actually started counted up the beers as the author told the story(how much is a “half-rack” of beer?) but I estimated he had about 30 from the way the author told it. That sounds a little more reasonable although really high for a normal human. That’s what…30 beers in about a ten hour trip, 3 an hour, one every twenty minutes for ten hours. That’s humanly possible, but damn that is hardcore.
Here are 3 I find interesting:
“Kris Benson wife”
“Chuck Finley is forever” (from “Burn Notice”)
“Glenallen Hill phantom steal” (game vs. Tigers)
“Darrell Evans I am in Love with you” (huh? Actually a religious songwriter with the same name!)
Kevin Millar
-stats
-twitter
-wife
*No cowboy up or got heem, interesting
Red Schoendienst
-stats
-address
-statue
*Hm, a few stalkers out there…
Wafe Boggs
-beer
-carpet world
-stats
*And yet no fried chicken
Mark Koenig
-terranomics
-enron
-sberg
*I had to check 3 times to make sure I spelled this right. Apparently, being a member of the ’27 Yankees isn’t all it’s craked up to be.
Murderer’s Row.
The nine (most common) starters had ops+ of:
225
220
141
135
125
116
83
78
The guy with the 83 (Koenig) batted in the number 2 hole (.320 obp).
When he wasn’t playing, it was a fella named Morehart.
He may have had more heart, but he didnt have more bat.
He whacked at a 79.
What would happen if someone got in a time machine and gave Miller Huggins a copy of Moneyball? Did they have trash cans in 1927?
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/1927-batting-orders.shtml
It’s interesting that Collins and Grabowski alternated behind the plate every day for the first 99 games.
That would make perfect sense in a four man rotation, both for keeping the catchers fresh and for matching them with the same pitchers…
Except that the NYY rotation was anything but consistent. And more often than not they utilized a Five-man attack.
Only Waite Hoyt started more than thirty games.
And his days off were:
0 – 0
1 – 2
2 – 4
3 – 9
4 – 9
5 – 9
6 – 9
9 – 1
As for catchers, only once did a NYY catcher start three games in a row.
And it was Bernard Oliver Bengough.
And just to illustrate how the curse of the bambino had already taken root, the three and four hitters for the ’27 Red Sox were
Phil Todt
and
Ira Flagstead
The Red Sox team OPS+
1925 – 78
1926 – 76
1927 – 77
1928 – 81
1929 – 80
1930 – 74
1931 – 79
1932 – 75
All but the 1929 season were league worst (1929 was 2nd worst to the White Sox).
And, people make fun of the Browns?
OPS+ for the last 10 years for NYY and Boston, with ranks in AL:
Year….BOSTON….YANKEES
2011….116(1)….106(3)
2010….109(T1)…108(3)
2009….105(4)….114(1)
2008….106(2)….101(T6)
2007….107(3)….116(1)
2006…..98(9)….111(1)
2005….111(T2)…115(1)
2004….110(3)….111(T1)
2003….118(1)….114(2)
2002….106(T3*)..114(1)
*3-way tie
Average 10-year OPS+: NYY-111 BOS-108
Average 10-year AL Rank: NYY-2.1 BOS-3
I’m not really sure what I’m trying to prove, other than I really wish my Atlanta Braves were still a team with a big budget every year.
That should read 108.6 for Boston 10-year average. Yes, I just took the average of those ten numbers and assumed an equal # of PA.
george steinbrenner seinfeld 🙂
I get the same thing for Jay Buhner.
#106/Voomo Zanzibar –
I don’t think that the weakness of the Red Sox #3/4 hitters had anything to do with any alleged “Curse of the Bambino”, it’s more because owner/president Bob Quinn was trying to run the team on a relative shoestring.
Tom Yawkey sure turned things around.
I relish, cause I found just what I used to be looking for.
You’ve ended my 4 day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a nice day. Bye