Here is quick PI tip to help you enjoy opening day.  (It doesn’t require a subscription, although if you want one, the PI is currently available for free.)

To find the results of every team’s opening game since 1871:

• Use the  “Team Winning and Losing Streaks Analyzer“
• Change “Games in Streak” to 1.
• Set “Year” to “All Years”.
• Set  “Team” to “All Teams”.
• Select  “From beginning of season only ” or  Set  “Starting with game” 1.

The results are easily copyable into a spreadsheet.

A few of the many interesting things that you can find with this information:

• Since 1903, the  team that would ultimately win the World Series won on opening day 65% of the time. Those same teams fared better in the second game of the season winning 73% of those games.
• Since 1903, teams that won their first game of the season, posted a .508 winning percentage in subsequent games. Teams that lost had a .492 winning percentage in their remaining games.
• Since 1901, the team with the biggest win in their first game was the 1955 Yankees who beat the Senators (in their second game) 19-1.
• Since 1901, the team with the worst loss in their first game was the 1912 Dodgers who lost to the Giants 18-3.
• There have been 10 opening day ties involving 19 teams (The 1933 Giant’s opener was the Dodger’s third game) since 1871.  However, only 2 of those games took place after 1933. In 1965, the Cubs and Cardinals opened with an 11 inning 10-10 tie.  35 years later, the Brewers and Reds were tied at 3 through six when their game was called.

The PI Game-Finders may be a easier tools for many opening day searches (most wins in the last 10 years etc.), but the Winning and Losing Streaks Analyzer can be a valuable alternative with the added benefits of runs scored and allowed, final season record, postseason finishes and a  greater range of years.

A new baseball season is upon us (at least here in North America).

To get into the swing of things, since 1918, what do these players (and only these players) have in common?

Congratulations to John Autin, who solved the quiz in (gulp!) 7 hours, 53 minutes. The quiz answer is that these 7 players are the only non-pitchers who, since 1918, have appeared in 5 or more opening day games, but never as a starter.

Since 1918, career leaders in Opening Day games:

Home Runs
8, Frank Robinson and Ken Griffey, Jr.
7, Adam Dunn, Eddie Mathews, Willie Mays and Babe Ruth Continue reading →

Ray Narleski, a standout reliever for Cleveland in the 1950s, died last week at the age of 83. Here’s the obituary that ran in the Cleveland Plain Dealer; here is his B-R Bullpen page, and a note from WasWatching.

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Opening day in North America is tomorrow, April 4th. As with last week’s opener in Japan, doesn’t seem to be a lot of build-up by MLB. To wit, tomorrow’s debut of the Marlins’ new digs will share attention with 12 pre-season games, including at least one that will likely still be in progress when the first pitch is thrown in Miami.

One of the great rites of the start of the baseball season is the naming of opening day starting pitchers. This year’s roster includes several making their first opening day start, including Brandon McCarthy, Stephen Strasburg, Tommy Hanson, Justin Masterson, Johnny Cueto, John Danks, Colby Lewis, Wandy Rodriguez, Jake Arrieta and Bruce Chen.

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I recently posted on the very long-term and continuing growth in the prevalence of the strikeout in the major leagues over many decades. For example in 1982, there were an average of 5.04 strikeouts per game in the major leagues, as compared to 7.10 strikeouts per game in 2011. All the more remarkable, then, that Reggie Jackson has continuously held the all-time career strikeout record for a hitter since 1982, with the 30th anniversary of his setting the all-time record coming up in August. Details, and challengers to his record, after you click that clever little “Read The Rest of This Entry ” line. Continue reading →

You got the last quiz in less than 10 comments, so this one is tougher.

The pitchers in this quiz have done something that has happened in the AL only 13 times since 1930. That something is an event within a game.

The common thread connecting these pitchers is related to a career milestone most recently achieved in the 2011 season.

The list of pitchers is after the jump. What did these pitchers do?

The quiz has been solved in 82 minutes. The listed pitchers are those who, in an AL game since 1930, have surrendered the final career hit to a member of the 3000 hit club.

Congratulations to Topper009! And, honorable mention to stealofhome who was right on Topper’s heels.

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This past week, Jack Cust was released and later picked up by the Yankees on a minor-league contract. Cust, at 53.0%, is the active career leader in TTO% (three true outcomes – % of PAs resulting in BBs, Ks or HRs). Generally, those high on the TTO list (usually around 50% of PAs) need to be high up on each of the component lists, if not among the league leaders. If they are, they stand a decent chance of being positive contributors.

Strikeouts are customarily seen as unproductive outs and therefore something to be minimized. Of course, those with high strikeouts can mitigate their negative impact by providing power. I was interested, though, to find out if any players had made positive offensive contributions even when their power did not seem adequate to compensate for their strikeouts.

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Since records have been kept (from 1939) just 7 players have qualified for the batting title but never grounded into a double play:

It’s less impressive for the 3 guys who did it in 1994 since that was a shorter season.

Weird to see slowpoke Rob Deer on here, but that’s because he so often struck out or hit a fly ball.