Our mystery player is a 20th century pitcher. Among other accomplishments, he:

• led his league in ERA, ERA+, Complete Games and Shutouts, but each only once in his career
• had back-to-back 20 win seasons, but never led his league in Wins
• ranks 3rd in career W-L% for his franchise (min. 1000 IP)
• over his 4 year peak, made top 5 in his league in ERA, ERA+, WHIP, Complete Games, Shutouts and HR/9 (min. 750 IP)
• allowed 5 hits or less in over 25% of complete games over his career
• was unbeaten in multiple World Series starts

Congratulations to James Smyth! He correctly identified our mystery pitcher as none other than Babe Ruth. I chose the Babe as the subject of this quiz to alert our readers that the good people at Retrosheet.org and Baseball-Reference.com have been busy, and have now updated their databases and search engines to include complete box scores and game logs back to 1914, Ruth’s debut season.

Continue reading →

This post is for voting and discussion in the 48th round of balloting for the Circle of Greats (COG).  This is the first of two rounds of voting for players born in 1931.  Rules and lists are after the jump.

Continue reading →

After runner-up finishes in the previous two rounds of voting, Al Kaline swamped the field as the voters’ resounding choice to become the next inductee into the Circle of Greats. A mainstay in the Tiger outfield for more than two decades, Kaline was an outstanding player in all facets of the game, retiring in 1974 as the all-time AL career leader for right-fielders in WAR, Offensive WAR, Defensive WAR and WAR Baserunning Runs.

More on Al Kaline after the jump.

Continue reading →

These are the only players who, in the 1901 to 1960 period, had a career accomplishment that has become rather more common since then. What is it?

Congratulations mostly to ATarwerdi96! And a nod to Richard Chester for getting the final detail. They teamed up to identify that these are the only players to compile 600 games from 1901 to 1960 at each of two positions, with at least one of them in the infield. With expansion has come expanded opportunities for versatile players to shine all over the ball field. More after the jump.

Continue reading →

Following up from the AL version, here’s a collection of statistical tidbits for last year’s NL teams that you probably won’t find anywhere else.

Enjoy.

Continue reading →

As we wait impatiently for the new season, here’s a quick look back at last year and some of the more unusual team accomplishments of that season. And I do mean unusual – chances are you won’t find these stats anywhere but HHS.

More after the jump.

Continue reading →

Unless you’re a backup catcher with exactly one stolen base in your career. Then it’s a great play … especially if it works.

That’s what happened back in 1982, four hours into this game on what was no doubt a steamy August afternoon in St. Louis. Tom Tango posted a discussion of this play on his website last month, and I thought it might also interest our readers here at HHS.

More after the jump on the rules implications of stealing home with two strikes on the batter.

Continue reading →

This post is for voting and discussion in the 47th round of balloting for the Circle of Greats (COG).  This round is for voting on the group of players born in 1932.  Rules and lists are after the jump.

Continue reading →

Bob “Hoot” Gibson has been elected as the latest inductee to the Circle of Greats. Gibson was a consistent winner over a 17-year career with the Cardinals, with 20 wins in 5 of 6 seasons (1965-70), 15 wins in 10 of 11 seasons (1962-72) and 12+ wins with a winning record for 13 straight seasons (1961-73). Gibson’s 251 career wins are tops for his generation of pitchers with their entire careers between 1955 and 1980.

As impressive as his career accomplishments are, Gibson is probably most remembered for an iconic 1968 season, and for his dominating post-season performances in three memorable 7-game World Series. More on Bob Gibson after the jump.

Continue reading →

Alex Cobb, the Rays’ young right-hander, has made an impressive start to his major-league career. Among active starters with 300 career IP, Cobb is one of only 11 pitchers with a career HR/9 below 0.75 and a SO/BB ratio above 2.5. His .641 career winning percentage ranks second in that group, behind only Lance Lynn‘s mark of .654.

Cobb also authored a game start that is unique among all major league starts of the past 5 seasons. What is that start and why is it so unusual?

Hint: Prior to Cobb’s start, there had been 6 other such games in this century (since 2000). There were 13 such games for 1990-99, 44 for 1980-89 and 110 for 1970-79.

It appears I’ve stumped the panel, for a change. The unusual thing about Cobb’s game is that his game score was less than the number of batters he faced. Add in 8 innings pitched and it’s the only such game since 2008. With long starts becoming as rare as double-headers, and almost every pitcher usually able to register at least a handful of strikeouts (a big part of game score), these games are really getting scarce. The other matching games are after the jump.

Continue reading →