Sorry about that little vacation-induced interruption in our blogospheric production. But it's 2009, and Three Strikes is back. And what better place to start than with another shot at the NFL's fictitious superiority in competitive balance.
STRIKE ONE -- TICKER TAPE DEPT.: As you may have noticed, unless you're still sweeping up champagne bottles, another NFL playoff blitz is about to begin. And who's the No. 1 seed in the NFC? It just happens to be those reigning Super Bowl champs, the Giants.
Well, what else is new? We need no better excuse than that to point out a big, big difference between baseball and football in the 21st century.
This makes four times in the past five years that the Super Bowl winner has gone back to the playoffs the next season. Only the Steelers missed in 2006 (and how can we not mention that that's the Steelers' ONLY miss since 2003).
OK, so how does that compare to baseball? Glad you asked.
We don't know how the 2008 Phillies will fare next season, obviously (since the Psychic Hot Line was unavailable for comment). But if we start in 2007, we find that only two of the previous six World Series winners made it back to the playoffs the next year. And even more astounding, how about this:
When this year's Red Sox advanced to the ALCS, it marked the first time a defending World Series champ had even won a postseason GAME the next year since 2001.
Don't believe it? Here are the actual facts:
• 2001 Diamondbacks -- swept in the '02 NLDS
• 2002 Angels -- missed the playoffs
• 2003 Marlins -- missed the playoffs
• 2004 Red Sox -- swept in the '05 ALDS
• 2005 White Sox -- missed the playoffs
• 2006 Cardinals -- missed the playoffs
• 2007 Red Sox -- won the '08 ALDS, lost the ALCS
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can hear all you NFL apologists clattering away on the keyboards already. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know all about how many zillions of dollars the Yankees have spent this winter. And true, there's no equivalent to a franchise like that in the NFL. We concede that point. We'll also address that topic some other time.
But get back in the moment. This note is purely a look at the state of competitive balance in these two sports since baseball revamped its revenue-sharing system. And ladies and gentlemen, the facts don't lie -- no matter how many e-mails you type after you read this.
STRIKE TWO -- LOST HOMER DEPT.: We got lots of fun e-mail in the wake of our Strange But True Feats of the Year column this week.
Here's the link if you missed it.
We need to address two topics in the wake of all that e-mail.
First off, as loyal reader Jordan Rappaport pointed out, the biggest oversight in that column was the omission of one of the all-time Strange But True games of ANY year. That was the classic June 28 game in which the Dodgers beat the Angels, 1-0, even though:
• The winning team forgot to get a hit.
• An American League team actually pinch-hit for a pitcher (Jered Weaver) who was throwing a no-hitter (because the game was in Dodger Stadium, so it was being played under NL rules).
• The Angels didn't even get credit for pitching a no-hitter because they never pitched the bottom of the ninth.
Baseball sure doesn't get much stranger, or truer, than that. And we still can't believe we left that out of the column. So we ask: Got any more favorites? Send them along to uselessinfodept@yahoo.com and we'll try to sprinkle in some more Strange But True-isms in a future blog.
In the meantime, though, the hottest topic of you e-mailers, by far, was the bizarre Bengie Molina home run in which he didn't score a run. We got bombarded by folks claiming that this was NOT the first time this had happened, with most of you citing the Robin Ventura walk-off shot in Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS.
Well, here's the difference between Ventura's mighty blast and Molina's:
Ventura only got credit for a "grand slam" single because the winning run crossed the plate but HE never did. Molina, on the other hand, still got credit for a home run -- because his pinch-runner, Emmanuel Burris, finished his trot.
Looking for more examples of Ventura-esque non-homers that didn't count as home runs? Check out Retrosheet's tremendous list of "lost home runs"
here.
And now one more leftover item from that Molina homer, in answer to a question we've heard several times: Every source we've checked has given Molina credit for all four of his Total Bases for that home run, even though he never made it past first base.
How? Why? Heck, you've got us. We're not sure how that works, either. But at this point, we're too confused by the whole darned thing to ask. This home run has given us a serious case of statistical vertigo!
STRIKE THREE -- FAREWELL TO THE AUGHTS DEPT.: Finally, the dawn of 2009 means we're one year from the end of a decade that,
as Bill Simmons notes this morning, we still haven't settled on a decent name for -- The '00s? The Double Ohs? The Aughts?
Well, whatever we're calling it this week, here's a sampling of the offensive leaders for the decade, according to Lee Sinins' Sabermetric Baseball Encyclopedia:
• AVERAGE: Albert Pujols -- .334
• HOME RUNS: A-Rod -- 405
• RBIs: A-Rod -- 1,143
• RUNS: A-Rod -- 1,112
• OBP: Barry Bonds -- .517
• SLG: Barry Bonds -- .724
• OPS: Barry Bonds -- 1.241
• SB: Juan Pierre -- 429
• TIMES REACHING BASE: Todd Helton -- 2,528
• EXTRA BASE HITS: A-Rod -- 688
• HITS: Ichiro --1,875
• SINGLES: Ichiro -- 1,471
• DOUBLES: Todd Helton -- 393
• TRIPLES: Jimmy Rollins -- 90
• WALKS: Barry Bonds -- 1,128
(Minimum: 4,000 plate appearances.)
Cool list, huh? We'll get to the pitching leaders, the closest races and some not-so-prestigious leaders in future blogs. In the meantime, happy 2009 to all you loyal Useless Infomaniacs.
Jayson Stark
