Opening Highs

The Yankees opened their 1956 season on the road, at Griffith Park against the old Senators (now Twins).  Mickey Mantle had two home runs that day, but Yogi Berra, batting immediately after Mantle in the lineup, managed to rack up five RBIs anyway, posting the highest RE24 of any hitter in the majors in an Opening Day game during the 1950s. Yankees/Senators 4/17/1956

RE24, you may recollect if you are regular High Heat Stats reader, is a measure of how much the result of a hitter’s plate appearance increased (or reduced) his team’s run-scoring chances in that inning.  With a man on second and one out, the average number of runs scored in the rest of the inning will be about 0.72.  With a man on second and two outs, that number drops to about 0.35, so a hitter who strikes out with a man on second and one out is given an RE24, for that PA, of -0.37.  But if instead he singles and the man on second scores, the team’s run scoring expectation has increased to the one run that actually did score plus the 0.29 that will score on average given the new base-out condition of one out and no men on.  So the hitter gets an RE24 credit, for his RBI single, of 1.29 minus 0.72, or .57.  More on Opening Day RE24s after the jump.  

Yogi’s RE24 in that 1956 season opener was 5.29, a huge number, resulting from a day in which he was four for four, with a double, a homer and two singles, plus a walk for good measure.  The Senators’ starter that day was 22-year-old Camilo Pascual, who went on to a long and distinguished career with the Senators/Twins.  The winning pitcher that game for the Yankees, beneficiary of Mantle’s and Berra’s dominating offense, was Don Larsen. Larsen’s last start of that 1956 season was even better than his Opening Day start, but hey, a win is a win, right?

Top RE24 Games by A Hitter in His Team’s First Game of a Season, 1950-2013:
Raul Mondesi (Dodgers, 1999), 5.95 RE24
Brant Alyea (Twins, 1970), 5.37 RE24
Yogi Berra (Yankees, 1956) 5.29 RE24
Dmitri Young (Tigers, 2005) 5.25 RE24
Jim Presley (Seatlle, 1986) 5.23 RE24

That list coincidentally provides the highest Opening Day RE24 numbers of the 1950s, the 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s.  What about the low-scoring era of the 1960s?  The highest Opening Day RE24 for a hitter in the ’60s happens to have been accomplished for Houston in its very first game as a franchise, and the second highest Opening Day RE24 for a hitter in the ’60s happens to have been accomplished for the Angels in the very first game in the history of that franchise.

Top RE24 Games by A Hitter in His Team’s First Game of a Season, 1960-1969:
Roman Mejias (Houston, 1962), 4.62 RE24
Ted Kluszewski (Angels, 1961), 4.15 RE24
Roger Maris (Yankees, 1960), 3.93 RE24
Ernie Banks (Cubs, 1965), 3.79 RE24
Ernie Banks (Cubs, 1969), 3.70 RE24

Roman Mejias led Houston in everyday player WAR in that inaugural 1962 season (he’d been grabbed in the expansion draft from his long-time home in the Pirates organization).  Mejias was traded to the Red Sox after 1962 for veteran outfielder Pete Runnels, who had just won the 1962 AL batting average crown (a crown he also won in 1960).

The 1961 season turned out to be the last one in the majors for Ted Kluszewski, who’d been taken in the expansion draft by the Angels as a platoon partner at first base for Steve Bilko.  Klu’s big performance on the Opening Day of the Angels franchise was in part a measure of revenge against opposing pitcher Milt Pappas.  The preceding season, in late August, Klu had hit what appeared to be a pinch-hit, go-ahead three-run homer off of Pappas, but the whole thing was called back by the umpires who ruled that time had been called before the play, a decision that created something of a brouhaha.

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Doug
Doug
10 years ago

That Senators/Yankees game was exactly 3 years after another Griffith Stadium opening series (for the Senators) game between the same teams. Mantle also homered in the 1953 game, the shot popularly presumed to have traveled 565 feet over the left center-field wall.

Interesting that the top two opening day RE24 games for the 1960s were in a franchise’s inaugural season.

Doug
Editor
10 years ago

These are the top 5 worst RE24 opening day games. Rk Player Date Tm Opp Rslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO GDP WPA RE24 aLI BOP Pos Summary 1 Paul Konerko 2000-04-03 CHW TEX L 4-10 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 -0.109 -3.210 .645 5 DH 2 Josh Bard 2003-03-31 CLE BAL L 5-6 6 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 -0.414 -3.070 2.065 8 C 3 Albert Pujols 2011-03-31 STL SDP L 3-5 5 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 -0.427… Read more »

Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
10 years ago
Reply to  Doug

It took Agee 17 innings to compile thew worst game of all time.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL197108050.shtml

Ground Ball Double Play: 2B-1B; Harrelson to 3B
Line Drive Double Play: LF-2B
Ground Ball Double Play: SS-2B-1B
Flyball: RF
Flyball: LF
Flyball: CF
Strikeout
Flyball: CF; Harrelson to 3B

Voomo Zanzibar
Voomo Zanzibar
10 years ago
Reply to  Voomo Zanzibar

(worst for which we have play-by-play data)

Darien
10 years ago
Reply to  Doug

I remember watching that Pujols game in 2011 and chortling with glee at the expense of the hated Cardinals. Who went on to win the World Series anyhow, just to stick it to me.

oneblankspace
oneblankspace
10 years ago
Reply to  Darien

Except for that one game with 3 HR, Pujols did not do well at bat in that Series. In the other six games, his BA/OBP/SLG/OPS : .053/.296/.105/.402 with 4 runs scored and 0 driven in.

oneblankspace
oneblankspace
10 years ago
Reply to  Darien

If you don’t count the game where Pujols hit 3 home runs in the 2011 World Series but look only at the other six games, you find an absolutely miserable batting line.

AVG = .053
OBP = .296
SLG = .105
OPS = .402
RBI = 0
Runs = 4

oneblankspace
oneblankspace
10 years ago

(sorry about the double post; #6 did not show up until I had posted #7, and an error page showed in my browser)

Mike L
Mike L
10 years ago

One more baseball picture; Ted Williams, Eddie Pellagrini, Hank Greenberg, and the 28 year old JFK in 1946.
https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/450372174142922752/photo/1