Wildcard teams were the big winners in the just concluded League Division series that left the best regular season teams (and their fans) asking “What just happened?” More after the jump.
In 2021, the 106 win Dodgers finished second in their division and were thus forced into a one game playoff against a Cardinals team that had won only 90 games. Los Angeles won that game and the following LDS against the Giants team that had beaten the Dodgers for first place in the NL West.
However, the seeming injustice of putting a team as dominant as those Dodgers into an immediate one-or-done matchup prompted MLB to expand the wildcard qualifiers to three per league, and to extend the wildcard round from a single game to a best-of-three series. That move made for more exciting Septembers with far more teams in the hunt for a post-season berth. But, I doubt that MLB expected the post-season impact that we’ve seen in the first two seasons of the expanded playoff format.
Last season, two wildcard qualifiers were matched in the NLCS while the 110 win Dodgers watched at home. Ditto for this season, as division winners lost all four division series for just the third time since 2005. Three of those losing teams won 100+ regular season games, just the second time that’s happened in the division era (the first was in 2002, when the Angels beat the Giants in the first all-wildcard World Series).
A rematch of last season’s NLDS produced the same result, with Philadelphia again prevailing in four games. The Phillies were in control throughout, trailing after only two innings in the entire series. In game one, Atlanta was shut out at home for the first time all season, a scoreless streak that extended through the first five innings of game 2, before the Braves mounted a comeback from 4-0 down for their lone victory. In the two games in Philadelphia, the Phillies out-homered the visitors by a count of 9 to 1, including a post-season record-tying half-dozen in game 3. Nick Castellanos led the home side with a pair of dingers in each game, the first such back-to-back in post-season history.
For the second straight season, a 100 win Dodger squad faced off against a division opponent that had finished a distant second. Last year, it was the Dodger bullpen that succumbed to a relentless Padre attack. This time, LA’s badly depleted starting staff was no match for D-Back bats, pitching less than 5 innings over 3 games and surrendering 13 of Arizona’s 19 runs. Three starters each allowing 3+ runs in less than 3 IP is a record for a division series of any length, and marks just the second time any team has started any post-season series that way (Quiz: which was the first team to do this? Hint: they won the series).
Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, who together accounted for almost half of the Dodger team batting WAR for the season, were held to a combined 1 for 21 for the series, as LA bats fell silent, homering just once in the series, after launching 50% more homers (249 to 166) than Arizona in the regular season. The D-Backs clubbed 9 round-trippers in the series, its high-water mark for the season, having never exceeded 7 homers in any 3-game span in the regular campaign (in comparison, LA homered once or not at all in only 9 of 160 possible 3-game spans, with only two of those 9 spans against one opponent).
Minnesota entered this series with a very large monkey off its back, having broken its record 18-game post-season losing streak in dispatching Toronto in the wildcard round. The sweep of the Blue Jays followed a hot September (18-9 record) so, after splitting the first two games in Houston, Minnesota had some confidence of upsetting the defending champs, heading home to Target Field where the Twins had posted a 47-34 record for the season. The Astros, however, had an even better away record at 51-30, and it was they who held true to form, holding the home side to just three runs over two games to claim the series in 4 games.
In game 1, the Twins closed a 5-run deficit with a 7th inning four-spot on back-to-back blasts off of Astro reliever Hector Nerris, but Houston immediately responded on Yordan Alvarez‘s second HR to seal the game for the Astros. In game 3, Cristian Javier flummoxed the Twins, allowing just one hit in 5 shutout innings. It was Javier’s third post-season start and third time posting those same totals, thereby extending his own record streak of such starts to begin a post-season career. In game 4, Edouard Julien‘s 6th inning blast pulled the Twins to within one, but that would be their last hit of the game, as Astro relievers retired the last ten Twin batters, fanning eight. Aside from the four runs surrendered by Nerris in game 1, Astro relievers allowed only 2 runs and 5 hits for the series, while striking out 24 over 14⅓ IP. Yordan Alvarez became the sixth player to homer in each of the first three games of a division series (Quiz: which of those players extended that streak to a fourth game?)
After sweeping the Rays in the wildcard round, Texas dispatched the O’s with the same efficiency. The first game was the only close contest, as the Rangers overcame 16 strikeouts (tying the post-season record for a winning team in a 9-inning game) to edge the home side 3-2. In game two, Matt Garver‘s 3rd inning grand slam opened up a 9-2 lead, powering Texas to an 11-8 victory, despite being outhit and outslugged. Instead, the Rangers outwalked their opponent, accepting 11 free passes by Oriole pitchers, including a post-season record 5 BB for Corey Seager. The Rangers followed the same script in the clinching game, with a 5-run rising in the 2nd inning to cruise to a 7-1 victory. Two Oriole starters each going less than 2 IP while allowing 5+ runs sets a new division series record, and ties the record for any series.
LCS Series
The NLCS pits the defending NL champion Phillies against the Diamondbacks, making their first NLCS appearance since 2007. The Astros defend their AL title against the Rangers, making their first ALCS appearance since back-to-back pennant-winning seasons in 2010 and 2011. This series also matches veteran managers Dusty Baker and Bruce Bochy, each of whom has over 2000 regular season victories to his credit (Quiz: which other post-season series matched skippers who then boasted the same credentials?)
“……. in 2002, when the Angels became the first wildcard team to win the World Series.”
IIRC, the 1997 Marlins first turned the trick and did it again in 2003. So, in 110 less years of existence, the Marlins have as many world champeenships as the Phillies (1980, 2008).
“….. (the first was in 2002, when the Angels became the first wildcard team to win the World Series).”
At the risk of being “that guy”, I believe the Florida Marlins, in 1997, turned the trick (and in 2003, as well)?
Thusly, the Marlins have won as many WS titles as the Phila Phillies 1883 – present
Right you are. Thanks for the correction. I’ve amended the text to what I had actually intended to say.
sorry for the double post….i stuttered as a child, too 🙁
I don’t think any of these is correct, but to get the guessing started:
First quiz question: the 2004 Red Sox come to mind as likely candidates in the ALCS against the Yankees.
For the second question, I want to say Daniel Murphy, but his came in the NLCS. Including the division series, didn’t he homer in six consecutive postseason games?
#3: Tony La Russia and… somebody else?
#1 ALCS is right, but team and year are wrong
#2 Not Murphy, but you are absolutely correct about his 6 game homer streak in 2015, the longest in post-season history. Included were homers in first 4 games of the NLCS, tied with Carlos Beltran (2004) and Jeffrey Leonard (1987) for the longest streak to begin an LCS series.
#3 is half right
Ha – I have no clue who “Tony La Russia” is! You were generous to give me half credit despite the typo. .
And Joe Torre is the other half of that answer. Wow! I forgot that Torre managed the Dodgers for three seasons after his Yankees tenure. His Dodgers swept La Russa’s Cardinals in the 2009 NLDS.
Oh so close when the Astros defeated the White Sox in the 2021 ALDS. At the time, La Russa had 2821 regular season wins, while Baker had 1987.
The 2009 NLDS is what I was looking for.
Dusty Baker and Joe Torre are the only men with 2000 wins as a manager and 2000 games as a player.
Sparky Anderson also won 2000 games as a manager; he holds the record for most career games played (152) among players with a single season career.
Most career games played among players with a single season career.
Sparky Anderson 152
Art Mahan 146
Dutch Schliebner 146
Irv Waldron 141
Buddy Blair 137
Scotty Ingerton 136
Bob Maier 132
Interesting list.
Anderson, Schliebner, Mahan and Ingerton fared poorly in their one chance in the majors, all with OPS+ under 80.
Blair’s season was as a 31 year-old wartime replacement, before he too (apparently) joined the service.
Maier was classified 4-F and worked his way through the minors during the war before his one major league season in 1945 for the WS champion Tigers. Perhaps spoiled by his World Series check (more than his salary), Maier demanded a raise the next season, didn’t get it and wouldn’t return to the minors, so his professional career ended right there.
Waldron, at age 29, had the best season of the bunch, playing every game but two in the AL’s inaugural season, and recording 186 hits, 102 runs and 20 steals. He continued playing in the high minors until age 37, in big cities like San Francisco, Kansas City and Denver, so may have been earning as much or more there as he did in the majors.
Not shown on that list is Buzz Arlett who may have been the greatest 1 season player. He played 121 games for the Phillies in 1931 with a slash line of .313/.387/.538/.925 with an OPS+ of 139, 18 HR, 72 RBIs and a WAR of2.3. In 1984 SABR named him as the greatest minor league player ever. It is worth reading his SABR biography
A player made for the DH role, Arlett was born 50 years too soon. His SABR bio indicates his defensive inadequacies were the reason he never got more of a shot at the bigs than his one season.
While his defensive stats are not good, they don’t scream liability. Yes, he had the third most errors among right-fielders while playing only 94 games there, but he was also 3rd in range factor and outfield assists.
You’d think a team as dismal as the Phils would have found a spot for a switch-hitter (with neutral splits) who could hit like Arlett. I mean, what does a last-place team like the Phillies really have to lose!
The rhetorical question hanging in the air—could a baseball post-season possibly be any more inconsequential than the 2023 version?—is anyone’s to address who champions stray dogs and lost causes.
Here’s a baseball quiz that can’t possibly be much more boring than what’s passing for World Series excitement to anyone outside of Dallas and Phoenix.
The Pairs of Brothers questions that follow apply to players from 1901 onward who had substantial careers, so no O’Briens or Delahantys or Wrights (Not to be confused with Orville and Wilbur). Some of the questions are undoubtedly too easy, but a couple may inspire a little thinking and research. I may have overlooked alternative answers here and there.
2) What brothers had qualifying seasons as position players on the same team? Hint: the pairs I have in mind played for the same franchise but decades apart.
3) What brothers won four games in the same World Series?
4) What brothers won Cy Young Awards?
5) What brothers were All-Stars together five times?
6) What brothers both led their league in runs and triples at least once?
7) What brothers who made multiple all-star teams were battery mates?
8) What brothers with over five hundred wins between them were shut out in the Cy Young Award sweepstakes.
9) Curveball: What brother with a substantial pitching career was relieved by a brother with an insubstantial one?
10) What brothers both led the league in batting average?
11) What brothers both led the league in RBIs?
12) What brothers finished long careers with the same lifetime BA?
13) What brothers are both in the HOF?
14) Who do most people consider the wrong brother in the HOF? And the one passed by?
15) What brothers went by the same first name when they played, even though it wasn’t the first or middle name of either of them?
For #14: Wes Ferrell and Rick Ferrell. Rick is the one who is sin.
Not sin, exactly. Just bad judgment.
For #7 I’ll go with Mort and Walker Cooper.
And who else?
#4: Jim and Gaylord Perry.
Jim, the forgotten brother, won his first. Probably without saliva.
For #6: Joe and Dom DiMaggio.
Right.
For #1: I think it’s Bob and Irish Meusel back when the Yankees and Giants played in the WS in the 1920s.
Right again, Richard, but they aren’t the only pair.
Have we got to the point where there aren’t any other HHS contributors interested in player lore? I haven’t banned researching the answers. In fact my assumption was that some digging would be necessary.
For #10: Dixie and Harry Walker
At one time a famous brotherly feat. Now the batting championship is, perhaps rightly, a title of lesser importance, akin to being the pitcher who leads the league in wins. Wins, of course, were a far better gauge of pitching prowess before the relatively recent disappearance of complete games. Batting average ceased being an automatic superlative measure gradually, as power hitting took over.
#8: Phil and Joe Niekro.
Scary:
Correct.
Nice to have another responder.
It’s interesting, at least to me, that from 1967 through 1975 the Niekros and Perrys were all in the majors, that the older brother of each pair had the bigger, longer, and more consistent career, that the younger brother had his best seasons in his thirties. Result: 1068 wins.
Is #9 Rick Reuschel being relieved by (older) brother Paul when both were with the Cubs?
In just one game that I could find, but yes.
Kind of like when Tommie Aaron relieved Henry Aaron. That happened four times in 1971 and twice in 1968, in lop-sided games that Hank started at 1st base.
#7: Mort and Walker Cooper.
Yes, but Richard already nailed that one. Who are the other brothers to whom this applies?
Oops – I glossed right over that, and I see that Tom figured out the other brothers below.
Is #5 possibly Joe and Dom DiMaggio, too? They were AL All-Stars together six times.
You’re right. I miscounted. Interestingly, brother Vince made his two All-Star appearances in years when Joe and Dom did not, owing to WWII, not necessarily inferior play.
#3: Paul and Dizzy Dean for the 1934 Gashouse Gang Cardinals.
Absolutely. Thanks, Tom.
#13: Paul and Lloyd Waner, although Lloyd’s OPS+ of 99 makes him a questionable choice. My BR browsing allowed me to discover that in 1927 Paul drove Lloyd home 65 times. I have not been able to find any pair of players with a larger number.
Richard:
At least the writers also got the correct brother into the Hall, while Wes Ferrell is still under-appreciated by the veterans committee, or what ever name the process goes by now.
On the Brothers Quiz, these questions remain unanswered or only partially answered.
1) There’s still another pair besides the Meusels who appeared against each other in the Series. Hint: They played the same position.
2) Hint: the full-time position player brothers played for an Ohio team. Both pairs.
7) Hint: The other pair of battery mates figure in a separate question in the quiz.
11) Hint: This pair figures in another quiz question.
12) No hints.
15) Since this is a really bizarre question, it deserves a pair of hints. a) Going by such things as WAR, the older brother doesn’t make the grade when it comes to having a substantial career and is borderline otherwise. b) They are dead-ball era players.
#1 Clete & Ken Boyer -1964
Right on, Tom.
#7 Wes & Rick Ferrell
#11 Bob & Irish Meusel
You’re on a roll.
#7 – Buck Ewing and John Ewing were teammates on the 1890 and 1891 Giants, with Buck catching 81 and 6 games in those seasons, and John making 31 and 30 starts. So, most likely they were batterymates on numerous occasions in 1890. Obviously, long before All-Star games, but had there been such things in the 19th century, Buck obviously would have been one, and John might have been one in 1891 when he led the NL in ERA and W-L%.
My reference book, The Baseball Maniac’s Almanac,confirms the Ewings as battery mates.
#11 – Irish Meusel led the NL in RBI in 1923, and Bob Meusel was an AL co-leader in RBI in 1925.
Hi, Doug.
Tom appears to have beaten you by ten minutes to the answer of this one but that’s happened to me in quizzes of the past, so you get equal credit.
#2 – Not the answer you’re looking for, and not for the same franchise, but Jesse Fowler and Art Fowler played in seasons 40 years apart, Jesse for the 1924 Cardinals and Art for the 1964 Angels. Jesse was born 24 years before Art.
#15: Jeff (Edward Joseph) Pfeffer and Big Jeff (Francis Xavier) Pfeffer
Got it.
#15 – Good question! First, we should mention the currently active set of brothers who do share a given first name: Carlos Eduardo Perez, a backstop for the Rockies, and his younger brother Carlos Jesus Perez, who catches for the White Sox. Each brother will now receive a George Foreman grill as a parting gift for appearing in this quiz.
The answer you are looking for is pitchers Big Jeff (Francis Xavier) and Jeff (Edward Joseph) Pfeffer. Big Jeff pitched from 1905-11, accumulating 2.4 WAR, while younger brother Jeff had more success from 1911-24, earning 38.5 WAR. Perhaps this should have come to mind sooner, as my name is Jeff, and I noticed this about the Pfeffers a few years, which led me to do a little more digging.
The first few Jeffs in the major league all had it as a nickname, including the Pfeffer brothers and Jeff (Charles) Tesreau. Jeff Heath, who debuted in 1936, is the earliest player I could find with Jeff (Geoffrey) as a middle name. It wasn’t until 1942 that a player appeared in the big leagues with a form of Jeff as a first name: Jeff (Joffre James) Cross.:
And, I guess I should have refreshed the page before submitting that a minute ago… Doug got the answer in first.
You still get full credit, especially given the depth of your response.
The other curious thing about those nicknames:
Jeff – 6’3″-210
Big Jeff – 6’1″-185
Evidently, Big Jeff’s nickname had more to do with being the big brother, six years older than Jeff.
#12: Here are a couple with almost the same lifetime BA.
Bob (.309) and Irish (.310) Meusel
Marv (.237) and Faye (.236) Throneberry
The pair I’m looking for always seem to fly under the radar, but one has borderline HOF stats, despite not making the majors until age 27.
Bob and Roy Johnson, both at .296. Bob made it to the majors at 27, Roy at 26. Both started their pro careers at 23, and starred in the PCL before going to the majors.
Another winner for Tom. Good going.
Oops. Upon rechecking, I find that I goofed slightly on Question 2, insofar as one of the four players, like many catchers, never had a qualifying season, being platooned a lot. He was a six-time All-Star, nevertheless. A second hint: one out of each pair of brothers is a HOFer.
#2: One pair is Roberto and Sandy Alomar Jr.
Right. The other pair also is made up of a catcher and an infielder.
The other pair for # 2 is Joe and Luke Sewell.
And the quiz is done as the Series ends. I read in the Chicago Tribune that the Cubs win in 2016 had 50 million viewers, and the first game of the 2023 matchup had nine million.
So where is that extra $$$$ coming from that the ever expanding playoffs are supposed to be generating?
Reminder that there are still a couple of unanswered questions from the post, for those in the mood for a little more sleuthing.
Yordan Alvarez became the sixth player to homer in each of the first three games of a division series (Quiz: which of those players extended that streak to a fourth game?)
[The Dodgers are the second team to begin a series with] three starters each allowing 3+ runs in less than 3 IP (Quiz: which was the first team to do this? Hint: they won the series).
Wild guess about the second question: the 2004 Red Sox vs the Yankees when they won four in a row after being down three.
Good guess, but not correct.
The player to extend his streak to 4 games is Juan Gonzalez in 1996.
Correct.
Jeffrey Leonard (1987), Carlos Beltran (2004) and Daniel Murphy (2015) homered in the first four games of the NLCS. Hasn’t happened in the ALCS or WS.
Given the lull of comments here I decided to post this. A few years ago I stumbled across a fact which noted that Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell and Ron Cey started 833 games together at their respective positions of 1B, 2B, SS and 3B. That provided me with an inspiration to create a spreadsheet that could count games started together at their respective positions for any group of players. After I created it I entered the above mentioned players and came up with the same number, 833. If anybody out there wants to submit a group of players I could run them on my spreadsheet and post the results here. The time period covered is 1901-2019.
Richard:
Here are some famous groups of four or more players you might look into. In the case of the early Cubs dynasty, you also might go at the seven in bunches of four or five to see where that leads.
The Cubs of the Aughts: Kling, Chance, Tinker, Evers, Steinfeldt, Sheckard, Schulte
Ruth’s Yankees: Ruth Gehrig, Lazzari, Combs
Connie Mack’s Crew: Cochrane, Simmons, Foxx, Bishop, Dykes
Post WW II Red Sox: Williams, Pesky, D. DiMaggio, Doerr
Tigers of the ’60s: Kaline, Cash, Northrop, Freehan, McAuliffe
Torre’s Yanks: Williams, O’Niell, Jeter, Martinez
For Connie Mack’s crew:287 games.
For Ruth’s Yankees: 427 games with Ruth as RF and 308 games with Ruth as a LF.
For Torre’s Yankees: 658 games and with Posada it’s 346 games
For the Red Sox for all the games they played together: 427 games with Pesky as SS and 293 games with Pesky at 3Bat 3B.
Thanks Richard.
Here’s one more:
Boys of Summer: Campanella, Hodges, Robinson, Reese, Furillo, Snider
That,s next on my list.
For Snider CF, Furillo RF, Hodges 1B, Reese SS, Campanella C and Robinson 2B there are 370 games. Without Robinson. who played barely 1/2 of his games at 2B, the other 5 played in 714 games.
Must have been pretty easy to write out a lineup card for the Dodgers 1947 – 1956
For the 1960 Tigers it gets too messy to search because Northrup and McAuliffe played a significant number of games at 3 different positions.
Richard,
How about Yaz, Petrocelli, Scott, and Reggie Smith?
My spreadsheet is not cooperating now, I’ll try later. One thing I have discovered is that the spreadsheet is most effective for players with the overwhelming majority of their games played at a particular position.Three of the 4 players you mentioned do not meet that requirement. See my earlier comments.
Richard,
My fault. How about Schmidt, Boone, Bowa, and Luzinski? Pretty consistent play at 3B, C, SS, and LF respectively. Thanks again
That worked very well, there were 628 such games.
Thanks ! Anorther that might work out well?:
White, Boyer, Flood, Javier, Groat ?
There were 341 such games.
Thanks! I imagine almost double that 341 if Groat is excluded? I believe one or maybe even two years the infield played about 155+ games together but Groat was still in Pittsburgh for the beginning of the total stretch 1961. ….
Groat and White got traded in 1966 with John Quinn searching for guys to take the Phillies over the top. I believe White once claimed the 1966 Phillies had more talent than the 1964 Cardinals?
Without Groat it was 612 games, not for off from double.
That should be far, not for.
Thanks! – If you get a chance, it appears that Trammell, Lemon, and Whitaker may have played close to 1,000 games together but Gibson wasn’t there for all of those nor was Parrish. Any idea which combination of those three plus which fourth worked together most frequently? Same problem with Rose, Perez, and Bench through 1976. Who would be the fourth with those three? I believe Tommy Helms was with the Reds longer than Joe Morgan? Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks again.
For Trammell, Whitaker and Lemon I found 505 games.
Richard, for the period 1982 – 1990, I’m getting a worst case scenario of ~ 668. Games scheduled minus games not started by all three. Maybe because any one of them may have DH’d several times per season and Lemon played about 160 games in RF? Perhaps the spreadsheets are ‘married’ to a specific position for each player?
The spreadsheet is “married” to a specific position for each player. I also ran Williams, Dom DiMaggio and Doerr and found 946 games.
With the way he moved guys around, I guess the “marital” status of the spreadsheet would preclude any Gene Mauch led team….hahaha
I believe the troika of Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell, and Paul Blair might top 1,000? Pretty solid 3B, 1B, CF with a few GG for the two of them
Robinson, Powell and Blair started together in 800 games.
The New York Yankees have just finished their thirty-first consecutive season with a winning record, albeit the .506 W-L percentage in 2023 was the lowest of the 31. From 1926 to 1964 the franchise strung together an even longer run of thirty-nine years, and in the period between the two from 1965 to 1992 they had an additional eighteen seasons where they finished on the plus side of the ledger. If they manage the next two years at .500 or better, they will have spent 90 of the past 100 seasons as winners rather than losers. Looking backwards instead to 1919, one sees that in the 105 years since Babe Ruth ushered in the live ball era, the Yankees have now produced ninety-four winning seasons vs eleven losing ones, finishing first in their league or division forty-nine times, second twenty-two times.
Without the patience, time, knowledge, or skill necessary to find an absolute answer to the question of whether this extended dominance of the Yankees is the most prolonged in all sports, I can only say that by spot-checking the more obvious franchise records, it seems to me that in the realm of major professional sports, no other team comes close. In college football, Alabama perhaps has had a higher percentage of winning seasons, plus a streak of over fifty winners that ended in 1954. Notre Dame also has had very few losing seasons, but since the school has never, except in the pandemic year, played football in a conference and faced those dynamics, it lacks one element for a full comparison. UCLA basketball had a run of 54 winning seasons that ended in 2002-3 and has logged only four losing seasons since. I have not examined college baseball, where one would expect to see a number of prominent sun belt schools with long series of winning records, but until relatively recently baseball was a minor sport in college, and now that it has become more important, the big established schools in warmer climes control the recruiting to such a degree that I can’t see including them in this enquiry.
Here are the two longest winning streaks and losing streaks of the franchises that have existed since 1901(Yankees 1902). Expansion franchises have never exceeded a streak of 8 winning years, although several have exceeded that span in the loss column. A final note on futility: the Phillies’ two long streaks occurred consecutively, with one winning season separating them, so they they basically went through 31 years of frustration.
(I hope the columns migrate to HHS in some recognizable order. If not I’ll try again.)
NYY 39 31 4 4
BAL 18 5 14 12
BOS 16 10 15 8
MIN 6 4 11 7
DET 11 8 12 5
CLE 10 8 7 4
CHW 17 7 7 7
OAK 9 9 14 13
ATL 15 14 11 10
PHI 10 10 16 14
CHC 14 14 10 6
CIN 10 6 11 9
PIT 15 12 20 9
STL 15 14 9 3
LAD 13 13 11 6
SFG 12 12 4 4
The Yankees longest streak of 39 winning seasons is more than the top two winning streaks of any other team on the list.
Good post, nsb. It’s doubtful any team can rival the Yankees’ dominance over the past 105 years.
While the Montreal Canadiens definitely fall short, with 20 losing seasons over the same time frame, they might hold a solid claim on second place in extended dominance. With the NHL’s numerous ties and overtime losses, mediocrity isn’t enough to qualify for a losing record; a sub-.500 team usually needs to be bad. To that end, Les Habitants match the Yankees with their longest streak of losing seasons at just four. Their second longest streak appears to be only two (accomplished at least three times, including the past two seasons).
On the flip side, they had 32 consecutive winning seasons, from 1951-52 through 1982-83. And while it has been 30 years since the Canadiens hoisted the Stanley Cup, their 25 championships are right behind the 27 won by the Bronx Bombers.
Thanks, ST.
Doug is a hockey fan too, so maybe he’ll chime in on your comment. A hockey comment of my own: If hockey is this rugged cold-weather sport and not for wimps—I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out— why has the sport been dominated lately by teams in warm climes?
Back to baseball and the lists above: One of the interesting things I discovered is that, in the loss column of my chart, the two franchises that fared the best after the Yankees and Giants were the Indians—yes, Guardians—and White Sox, teams normally viewed as perpetual also rans and disappointments.
Another observation: A majority of the longer streaks are the direct result of good, hands on ownership and/or money spent, or their opposites.
One other comparable hockey streak is 29 winning seasons by the Bruins, from 1967/68 to 1995/96.
I started a post some time ago about the Dodgers, who in 2022 recorded their tenth straight .560 season and, of course, their eleventh such campaign in 2023. So, what’s so special about .560? As it happens, a team needs to finish twenty games over .500 to reach .560, in both 154 and 162 game seasons (18 games above falls short in both instances).
It’s a really short list of teams since 1901 with a 10-year run of .560 seasons:
1901-10 Pirates (10)+
1903-13 Cubs (11)+
1931-43 Yankees (13)
1946-58 Yankees (13)
1991-2000 Braves (10)*
2013-23 Dodgers (11)
+includes 140 game seasons by the Bucs (3) and Cubs (1) to start those streaks, but both teams were far ahead of a .560 clip in all of those seasons
*includes strike-shortened 1994 and 1995 seasons (Braves went .596 and .625 in those seasons)
Yankees missed out on 28 consecutive seasons with a .539 and .533 during the war.
Not sure how the Yanx compared to other teams with regards to how many starters went to war, but here are the key bats and arms that they lost from 43 to 44:
Dickey
Gordon
Keller
Spud
Wensloff
Johnny Murphy
Interesting question, Voomo. The Yankees also played 1943-45 without DiMaggio, Henrich, and Rizzuto. Frank Crosetti was out for over half of the 1944 season. And they additionally missed Red Ruffing’s arm from 1944-45. All these dates are rough. Some players missed parts of additional seasons; other played a few games in the seasons mentioned.
The other team I checked was the Red Sox, and the findings were similar. Out 1943-45: OFs Ted Williams, Lou Finney, and Dom DiMaggio, SS Johnny Pesky, and P Charlie Wagner. From 1944-45 they missed pitchers Joe Dobson and Mace Brown . And for the 1945 season: P Tex Hughson, 2B Bobby Doerr, and 3B Jim Tabor.
In all, 6-7 of the best position players and 3-4 top pitchers for both teams served in the military or were engaged in other full time war efforts in those years.
Strange, but true.
Derek Jeter, entire career of 2,747 games; 3,465 hits .310 BA
Pete Rose through his initial 2,747 games; 3,464 hits .311 BA
Not of the same consequence as your find, Paul, but here’s another statistical coincidence, or possibly two of them:
Home runs in 1987
Dwight Evans 34
Darrell Evens 34
Will Clark 35
Jack Clark 35
For three of the four players, this was their highest four bagger output.
Just saw this but, Arky Vaughan’s 1935 Rbat of 70 appears to be the all-time high for the SS position….can anyone confirm? Doesn’t look like ARod, Ripken, Wagner, Yount, or Banks ever came close.
Thanks!!
Hi Paul. This seems to be true for all HoF SSs, at least, although when it comes to “coming close,” ARod’s 2005 season Rbat of 66 would seem to qualify.
Vaughan’s Rbat+ in ’35 was a spectacular 198, but isn’t the top SS number (Jennings 1899, 201; Wagner 1908, 210; Appling 1945, 203 . . .).
Vaughan seems to me one of the most underrated players ever.
Bob,
Arod played six innings at SS for the Yankees in 2005; Jeter 1,352.67 ….But, A-Rod did have 3 seasons of 58 Rbat while at SS with the Mariners and Rangers. Coincidentally, Jeter had one season of 58 Rbat in 1999 when he, arguably, should have been AL MVP but finished 6th.
I certainly agree on the underated Vaughan thing…..a real oversight – even beyond being Bobby Grich.
Ugh! That was a rookie error I made, Paul. Too long away from the game. But thanks for moving quickly past it.