Mayhem breaks out at the trading deadline

Originally Published: August 5, 2003

The trading deadline has seen its share of craziness over the years. And this year was no different.

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By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
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Here at Useless Info Central, we love the trading deadline. We love it more than three-hour rain delays, more than run-scoring balks, more than the fake-to-third, throw-to-first move.

And one reason we love it is that every year, something happens at the deadline to remind us that baseball follows no scripts, defies all logic and often makes absolutely zero sense. Of course, that's a good thing.

First off, the trading deadline is a time that often makes us recall that we actually have no idea which items in the transactions column are about to have the most significance. For instance ...

Useless Tigers information

The Tigers just did something many folks have never witnessed. They ended July an even (gulp) 50 games under .500 (28-78). Thanks to the miracle of Retrosheet, we know that makes them only the fourth team in history to reach 50 games below sea level before flipping their calendars to August. The others (with their records through July):

1962 Mets (26-76)
1916 Athletics (19-71)
1899 Cleveland Spiders (15-74)

Then again, maybe we can't blame the Tigers, because their schedule lately has been kind of unfair. In the 20-game stretch ending Sunday, they had to play the Red Sox five times, the Mariners three times and the Twins three times. And man, is that dangerous.

As Booth Newspapers' Danny Knobler reports, they're 1-8 this year against the Red Sox, 1-8 against the Mariners and 1-8 against the Twins. They've lost 11 of their last 12 games in Seattle, 23 of their last 25 in Minnesota and seven of their last eight in Boston.

On the other hand, it's hard not to think of the Tigers as equal-opportunity losers. When Seattle swept them last week, it was the 14th time they'd been swept out of 35 series this year. So they've now been swept 33 times in the last two seasons -- including at least once by every team in the American League and four more times by NL teams (Arizona, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Philadelphia).

The Tigers also have dropped to 1-23 in games played in front of crowds of 30,000 or more. They should have hawked some tickets on the streets of Minneapolis on Saturday. They beat the Twins, 9-1, but needed 722 more tickets sold to get the attendance to 30,000.

Loyal reader Eric Orns, whose grasp of the useless-information concept is getting scary, checks in again to report that with their recent five-game losing streak, the Tigers now have had losing streaks that have hit every number between one and nine. And it didn't even take them 100 games. Hard to do. Amazingly, they still haven't lost 10 (or more) in a row. That '62 Mets team they're running neck-and-neck with had losing streaks of 17, 13 and 11.

Finally, we turn our attention to Brian Kingman's favorite Tigers development of the season -- the race to 20 losses. When Mike Maroth lost his 15th game of the year, to the Royals, on July 27, he became just the fourth pitcher in the last 30 seasons to get to 15 losses before August. The others, courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau:

Willie Blair, 1998 Diamondbacks-Mets (July 27)
Matt Keough, 1982 A's (July 28)
Gaylord Perry, 1975 Indians-Rangers (July 27)

Blair got bounced out of the rotation and finished 5-16. Keough (4-3 the rest of the way) rallied to finish 11-18. And Perry (9-2 after that) actually charged back to finish with a winning record (18-17). So there's hope for the Last 20-Game Loser of the 20th Century, Mr. Kingman, after all.

On the other hand, Maroth isn't the Tigers' only threat to Kingman's throne. On Aug. 1, Jeremy Bonderman also lost his 15th game, making the Tigers the first team to have two 15-game losers on or before Aug. 1 since the 1952 Pirates. That team, according to Elias, had the Bob Friend-Murry Dickson tag team to make a two-headed charge at 20 losses. Friend finished with only 17, but Dickson wound up losing 21.

We'd be willing to bet that no pitcher traded before the deadline will win seven games in the last two months. But Jose Lima, who couldn't even get a job in the Atlantic League until May, just won seven in his first month and a half with the Royals. In his previous incarnation in the big leagues, as a Tiger, he'd won seven of his previous 25 starts and nine of his previous 39.

Also, we can just about guarantee that no relief pitcher traded before the deadline will save 15 games in the next two months. But Rod Beck, who was living in a trailer in Iowa this spring, has saved 15 of 15 for the Padres the last two months. Of his previous 15 big-league save opportunities, back before he visited his friendly neighborhood Tommy John surgeon, he'd blown nine of them.

Meanwhile, if you go back and reflect on previous deadline blockbusters, who among us had it figured that the 2001 deadline deal with the longest-lasting reverberations might be the salary-dump special of Ray Lankford for Woody Williams? Lankford is out of baseball, but Williams is 30-9 for the Cardinals. Before that deal, he'd won 30 of his previous 84 starts for the Padres and Blue Jays.

It's doubtful that any team traded for a reliever at the deadline who will be as effective as Rheal Cormier has been for the Phillies. But any team could have traded a bag of sunflower seeds for Cormier last winter or this spring. Last season, Cormier had the third-worst ERA (5.25) of any left-handed reliever in the National League and allowed the second-most baserunners per nine innings (14.55). This season, thanks to a trip to the Joe Kerrigan Repair Shop, he has the lowest ERA of any left-handed reliever in the National League (1.36) and has allowed the fewest baserunners per nine innings (8.45) of any left-hander except Billy Wagner.

Then there's Bill Mueller. Since the last time Mueller worked for the Giants and Cubs (i.e., last season), the Giants have signed Edgardo Alfonzo for $26 million, and the Cubs have traded for both Jose Hernandez and Aramis Ramirez. Little did they know that the third baseman they didn't bring back, Mueller, would lead all AL third basemen in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging, OPS, runs scored, extra-base hits and times reaching base. Alex Rodriguez makes more money every month ($3.7 million) than Mueller makes all season ($2.1 million).

Then there's Jesse Orosco, a human Useless Info column all by himself, and one of the Yankees' big acquisitions before the deadline.

Thanks to loyal reader Christian Ruzich, of all-baseball.com, we know that Orosco's deal to the Yankees was the 49th time in history a player had been traded after age 40. But that's not all.

Orosco now has been traded three times since turning 40 (to the Mets for Chuck McElroy, to the Cardinals for Joe McEwing and now to the Yankees for several dollar bills). That makes Orosco the second old-timer in history to get traded three times in his 40s. The other: Hoyt Wilhelm.

Orosco had previously been tied with this group of senior citizens who were all traded twice in their 40s: Harold Baines, Danny Darwin, Joe Niekro, Gaylord Perry and Gerry Staley.

The only other players to be traded at age 46 or older: Phil Niekro (from Cleveland to Toronto at age 48), Wilhelm (from the Angels to the Braves at age 46) and Wilhelm again (from the Cubs to the Braves at age 47).

Last time the Yankees traded for a 40-year-old: They dealt for Joe Niekro in September, 1985, so he could play with his brother for a couple of weeks and be there for Phil's 300th win.

One last milestone for Orosco to shoot for: If he can just get traded one more time for someone else over 40, it would be only the second time 40-year-olds have ever been traded for each other. Ruzich reports that the other was a Jerry Koosman-Ron Reed swap between the Phillies and White Sox in 1984.

OK, next question: Suppose you'd been sitting back last March and trying to predict which players would be in the most demand before the trading deadline. Boy, would you have been wrong about most of them. For example ...

How many of you thought Jeff Suppan would be the most-coveted starting pitcher in the National League at the trading deadline? Last year, Suppan went 9-16, with a higher ERA (5.32) than any AL right-hander who started as many games as he did (33). This year, at the time he was traded, he had the ninth-best ERA (3.57) of any NL right-hander who had started as many games as he had (21).

And who would have predicted that here in the year of "Moneyball," the Oakland A's would trade for one hitter before the deadline -- and it would be a guy (Jose Guillen) who has never walked 25 times in any season in his big-league career? Guillen walked about half as many times all last season (14) as Barry Bonds walked last postseason (27).

But all this fits in with our general rule of thumb about baseball: Everything you thought you knew about it has a chance to be proven wrong within 15 minutes. Some recent examples of that:

Of course, we all knew the Arizona Diamondbacks didn't have to trade for any starting pitching at the deadline because they had just gotten Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling back, and that was better than anyone they could have traded for. That's true, of course. But thanks mostly to the mysterious disappearance of their entire offense, they're still 6-13 since Schilling returned, and 3-11 since they got both co-aces back. Just as we all expected, the Diamondbacks are two games under .500 (10-12) this year in games Johnson and Schilling start, but five games over .500 when anyone else starts. Last year, they were 38 games over .500 (54-16) when Johnson and Schilling started, but four games under .500 when anyone else started. Bizarre.

OK, everybody out there who figured last winter that the Kansas City Royals would make three trades in July -- and none of them would involve Carlos Beltran -- raise your hands. Right. We know you all thought the Royals had gone under for the count when they bobbed under .500, at 28-29, on June 5. Since then, they've gone 4-0 in games that would have dumped them back under .500 and 5-1 in games that would have dumped them out of first place with a loss.

And, finally, the days after the trading deadline often remind us that sometimes, even the ramifications of trading away players aren't what they seem to be. Over the weekend, both leagues featured series pitting prominent sellers versus prominent buyers (Reds vs. Giants in the NL, Orioles vs. Red Sox in the AL). And the teams that did the selling won both series. Go figure.

Useless Bill Mueller Information
You know this is a great sport when the first switch-hitter in history to hit grand slams from both sides of the plate is not Mickey Mantle, Eddie Murray or Chipper Jones -- but is, in fact, Bill Mueller. Here's just some of the useless info that makes Mueller's three-homer, two-slam eruption last week in Texas so fascinating:


	Mueller

Mueller hit as many slams that night in back-to-back innings (two) as he'd hit in his previous 2,999 career at-bats. And he'd hit no slams since 1999.

He also hit as many home runs in that game (three) as he'd hit in his first 294 trips to the plate last year, with the Cubs.

Mueller was the 12th player in history to hit two grand slams in one game. The Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR's David Vincent, reports that the only one of the previous 11 who owned fewer career homers at the time than Mueller (52) was a pitcher, Tony Cloninger.

Mueller had never previously hit any kind of home run from each side of the plate in the same game, had never hit two homers with any runners on base in the same game and had gone 1,939 days between multihomer games until he broke that streak against the Yankees on the 4th of July.

And in case you're interested, the closest Mantle ever came to hitting two grand slams in the same game was four games apart, on July 26 (game 94) and July 29, 1952 (game 98). Murray, whose 19 slams lead all switch hitters, never came closer than 13 games apart -- on July 9 (game 80) and July 23 (game 93), in 1985.

Really Useless Numerology Dept.

Useless numerology info: Victor Martinez just drove in the most historic run the Cleveland Indians have scored all season -- and he didn't even know it. When he drove in the Indians' fourth run of a 7-4 loss to the Yankees on July 20, with a dramatic ninth-inning ground ball off Mariano Rivera, he allowed the Indians to break our favorite esoteric record of the year:

Most consecutive games scoring exactly the same number of runs.

From both ends of a July 12 doubleheader through that game on the 20th, the Indians scored four runs in every game. No more. No less. Exactly four runs in seven straight games. And according to the Elias Sports Bureau's Randy Robles, that's a record -- not just for four runs but for any number.

Before that, six teams had shared the record by scoring precisely the same number of runs in six straight games. And here, courtesy of Elias, they are:

1993 Indians (June 19-24, three runs)
1989 Brewers (Sept. 6-12, seven runs)
1984 Astros (July 12-17, three runs)
1980 Twins (July 30-Aug. 5, two runs)
1927 Braves (July 16-21, two runs)
1896 Louisville Colonels (April 19-26, three runs)

Useless Barry Bonds info: The amazing Barry Bonds ended the week with 42 intentional walks -- and 46 strikeouts. So he has a shot at a second straight season with more intentional walks than whiffs, a ridiculous feat accomplished by only two players (with 20 or more intentional walks) in any season. Here they are, thanks to Lee Sinins' Sabermetric Baseball Encyclopedia:

Player	Year	SO	IBB
Barry Bonds	2002	47	68
Dave Rader	1973	22	23

The only other close calls (within 10):

Player	Year	SO	IBB
Stan Musial	1958	26	26
Tony Gwynn	1990	23	20
Wade Boggs	1991	32	25
Ted Kluszewski	1956	31	22
Tony Gwynn	1987	35	26
Ted Williams	1957	43	33

Useless waiver info: When the Angels released Kevin Appier last week, they had to pop a few Rolaids -- because they had to eat $15.67 million bucks remaining on Appier's contract. The bad news is that since Disney just sold the team, he lost his free tickets to Disney Land. The good news is, the Angels still have to pay him enough money to buy 333,404 tickets to Disney Land, with enough left over to buy a smoked turkey leg and a lemonade.

Useless K-Mart info: Our new favorite relief pitcher to watch, thanks to loyal reader Mitch Levy, is Seattle smoke machine Rafael Soriano. Soriano just ended a stretch in which he whiffed seven straight hitters over two games (all swinging). He piled up eight straight outs on strikeouts and 13 of 18. And when he gets those hitters to two strikes, they might as well give up. They're 5 for 53 against him, with almost eight times as many strikeouts (39) as hits (5).

Useless healthy-rotation info: While we're on the subject of the Mariners, Freddy Garcia needs to figure out a way to stay in their rotation, or it will cost the Mariners a shot at one of the great notes of the year. They're all the way into August, and they've still used only five starting pitchers.

Our colleague, Dave Schoenfield, had to know the last team to make it through a whole season using only five starters. So he ripped through the Sports Encyclopedia of Baseball until he determined that the last team to do it was the great 1966 Dodgers. Their fearsome fivesome:

Sandy Koufax 41 GS
Don Drysdale 40 GS
Claude Osteen 38 GS
Don Sutton 35 GS
Joe Moeller 8 GS

Among the teams that have come close:

1972 Orioles: 6 starters (No. 6 starter had two starts)
1970 Orioles: 6 starters (No. 6 starter had three starts)
1994 Dodgers: 6 starters (got only one start -- in a strike year -- beyond top five, from Ismael Valdes)
1993 Dodgers: 6 starters (had two extra starts -- from some kid named Pedro Martinez) What's really amazing is that no Bobby Cox team has ever done this, because no manager has repeatedly come closer. His closest calls:

2000: 6 starters used
1995: 7 starters (3 extra games)
1994: 7 starters (2 games)
1993: 6 starters (6 games)
1984 Blue Jays: last team with four guys to make 35-plus starts
1983 Jays: four guys with 30 starts
1980 Braves: 6 starters used (2 extra starts)

This year, incidentally, the Braves have used the same five starters in every game since signing Shane Reynolds and getting Mike Hampton back from the disabled list, on April 15 and 19, respectively.

The Sultan's Corner

Moises Alou just homered against a team managed by his father for the sixth time -- four more than all the other father-son manager-player combinations combined. So that inspired the Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR's David Vincent, to look into every time in history a son homered against a team managed by his dad:

Moises Alou vs. Felipe Alou: April 24 and 26, 1998; Aug. 27, 2000; May 6, 2001; April 29 and July 29, 2003.

David Bell vs. Buddy Bell:
June 14, 2001

Bret Boone vs. Bob Boone: June 19, 2002

Meanwhile, now that Aaron Boone no longer works for a team managed by Bob Boone, here are the most home runs hit for a team managed by his father, courtesy of the Sultan:

84 Moises Alou for Felipe Alou
76 Cal Ripken Jr. for Cal Ripken Sr.
40 Aaron Boone for Bob Boone
28 Brian McRae for Hal McRae
4 Billy Ripken for Cal Ripken Sr.
1 Dale Berra for Yogi Berra

All those inside-the-park homers over the weekend inspired massive inside-the-park trivia from the Sultan:

There were two more inside-the-parkers last weekend in inside-the-park heaven, Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City. Ballparks that have been the site of the most inside-the-parkers since 1946 (the line of demarcation separating modern inside-the-park history from the olden days, when it was much more common):

Kauffman Stadium 93 (1973-present)
Yankee Stadium 86 (all years)
Polo Grounds 67 (1946-57, 62-63)
Forbes Field 58 (1946-70)
Shibe Park 57 (1946-70)
Wrigley Field 45 (1946-present)

For the sixth time in team history, the Royals just hit two inside-the-parkers (by Aaron Guiel and Angel Berroa) in a span of three games. Here are the others, according to the Sultan. Amazingly, Willie Wilson wasn't involved in any of them:

April 1978 (Darrell Porter, Clint Hurdle)
April 1983 (Jerry Martin, UL Washington)
October 1985 (George Brett, George Brett)
May 1991 (Brian McRae, Bill Pecota)
August 1992 (David Howard, Brian McRae)

But it's Robin Ventura's inside-the-parker that produced the most fun notes. First off, most career outside-the-park homers before hitting an inside-the-park homer:

Eddie Mathews 479
Hank Aaron 447
Juan Gonzalez 359
Ron Santo 339
Dwight Evans 330
Dave Kingman 326
Robin Ventura 284
Ron Cey 250

Now the oldest players to hit their first inside-the-park homer, and their age when they did it:

Luke Appling 42 years, 41
days -- 5/13/1949
Bill Buckner 40 years, 132 days -- 4/25/1990
Paul Molitor 37 years, 246
days -- 4/25/1994
Jim Sundberg 37 years, 109 days -- 9/4/1988
Dwight Evans 36 years, 243 days -- 7/4/1988
Arky Vaughan 36 years, 43 days -- 4/21/1948
Robin Ventura 36 years, 20 days -- 8/3/2003

This was Ventura's first homer as a Dodger. So the Sultan presents the last 10 players to hit an inside-the-parker for their first homer with a new team (first career homers disallowed):

Fernando Vina (Cardinals) 5/9/2000
Tom Goodwin (Rockies) 4/5/2000
Brant Brown (Pirates)
5/9/1999
David Bell (Indians)
4/15/1998
Tim Bogar (Astros)
7/1/1997
Deion Sanders (Reds) 4/18/1997
Juan Bell (Phillies)
9/24/1992
Jack Howell (Padres)
8/16/1991
Mike Pagliarulo (Twins) 5/19/1991
Bill Buckner (Red Sox) 4/25/1990

Ventura and Guiel did their inside-the-park things on the same day (Sunday). Which inspired the Sultan not just to look up the last time two players did that on the same day (Corey Patterson, Timo Perez on Sept. 24, 2000), but some of the most memorable days in which that has happened:

May 26, 1997 (three in one day, two in one game)
Sammy Sosa Cubs vs. Pirates
Tony Womack Pirates vs. Cubs
Doug Strange Expos vs. Mets

Oct. 4, 1986 (two in one game by the same player)
Greg Gagne Twins vs. White Sox
Greg Gagne Twins vs. White Sox

Oct. 2, 1985 (two great names)
Kirk Gibson Tigers vs. Blue Jays
George Brett Royals vs. Angels

Aug. 27, 1977 (three in one day, two in one game)
Toby Harrah Rangers vs. Yankees
Bump Wills Rangers vs. Yankees
Dan Driessen Reds vs. Phillies

July 21, 1974 (fathers, not sons)
Ken Griffey Sr. Reds vs. Cubs
Jose Cruz Sr. Cardinals vs. Astros

July 31, 1972 (two in one game by a guy known for longgggg homers)
Dick Allen White Sox vs. Twins
Dick Allen White Sox vs. Twins

June 9, 1963 (three in one day, two in one game)
Pete Rose Reds vs. Phillies
Johnny Callison Phillies vs. Reds
Tim McCarver Cardinals vs. Mets

Sept. 14, 1958 (two in one game)
Johnny Callison White Sox vs. Senators
Bubba Phillips White Sox vs. Senators

July 18, 1957 (two in one game)
Ernie Banks Cubs vs. Pirates
Chuck Tanner Cubs vs. Pirates

Finally, loyal reader Mike Waite reports that the Red Sox have had multi-homer games from 10 different players this year and wonders if that's a record. Well, it ties one, anyway. The other teams to do it, according to the Sultan:

1999 Rockies
2000 Astros
2001 Rockies

And in case you're wondering, for record-breaking purposes, these are the current Red Sox position players who haven't hit at least two home runs in a game this year: Nomar Garciaparra, Doug Mirabelli and Damian Jackson.

Useless Rockies info: For the 42nd time since Coors Field opened in 1995, the Rockies just scored in double figures at least twice in the same series over the weekend. So nothing new there -- except they did it in Pittsburgh. It was only the third time in the last nine seasons they'd scored in double figures twice in the same road series. The others: Aug. 11-12, 2000 in Montreal and May 4-5, 1999 at Wrigley Field.

Useless Jekyll-Hyde info: Speaking of that series, the Rockies and Pirates did something in back-to-back games that's nearly impossible. They played a 12-11 game one night and a 1-0 game the next. According to Dave Smith, of the amazing retrosheet.org, it was only the sixth time two teams had scored at least 11 runs apiece one game, then followed that act by playing a 1-0 game the next game. The others:

May 28, 1939: Dodgers 16, Braves 12
May 29, 1939: Dodgers 1, Braves 0

Aug. 20, 1969*: Expos 11, Padres 10
Aug. 21, 1969*: Padres 1, Expos 0
*Both clubs were expansion teams

May 28, 1985: Reds 13, Cubs 11
May 29, 1985: Reds 1, Cubs 0

Aug. 29, 1986: Yankees 13, Mariners 12
Aug. 30, 1986: Mariners 1, Yankees 0

June 16, 1989: Mets 15, Phillies 11
June 17, 1989: Mets 1, Phillies 0

Useless Roger Clemens info: Believe it or not, Roger Clemens just pitched his first complete game in 104 starts, dating back to May 28, 2000. Most complete games in the nearly 3� years in which Clemens was pitching no complete games:

Curt Schilling 21
Bartolo Colon 16
Mark Mulder 15
Sidney Ponson 15
Randy Johnson 14

Useless Devil Rays info: Let's hear it for those Devil Rays. They went 14-12 in July, for the fourth winning month in franchise history. The others: 14-13 in Sept.-Oct. 2001, 15-11 in June 2000, 16-12 in August 1999. The Diamondbacks, who were born at the same time, have had 20 winning months.

Useless Rocco info: Meanwhile in Tampa Bay, Rocco Baldelli continues to head for historic plateaus. Devil Rays media-relations whiz Rick Vaughn reports that Baldelli's current pace would give him 193 hits, 84 RBI, 27 stolen bases and 58 extra-base hits. The only rookie in history to match or better all those numbers: Shoeless Joe Jackson, in 1911.

Nomad of the year: Dan Miceli is the official winner of the Mike Morgan memorial Modern Nomad Award. The Elias Sports Bureau reports that Miceli is the first pitcher in division-play history to pitch for teams in four different divisions in the same season. He has been an Astro, Yankee, Indian and Rockie this year. And because he was a Marlin in 2001 and a Ranger last year, he now has pitched in all six divisions over the last three seasons.

Useless Mr. Rickey info: And another milestone for Rickey Henderson: At 44, he became the oldest Dodger to get a hit since pitcher Dazzy Vance did it in 1935. Rickey is the oldest Dodgers position player ever to get a hit. The only Dodger older than Rickey to get a hit was pitcher Jack Quinn, who got three hits in 1931 at age 47 and four more the next year at 48. The oldest position players before Rickey ever to get a hit for the Dodgers were catcher Clyde Sukeforth (15 hits in 1945, at age 43), Vic Davalillo (one hit in 1980, at 43) and outfielder Johnny Cooney, three hits in 1944, at 43).

Useless Rich Harden info: It's official. Rich Harden's first three starts with the A's were better than the first three starts of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder or Barry Zito. Here is how those four did, courtesy of Jeff Fletcher, of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:

Hudson: 2-0, 2.37 ERA, 19 IP, 23 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 7 BB, 24 K

Mulder: 1-0, 3.66 ERA, 19 2/3 IP, 17 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 9 BB, 14 K

Zito: 1-0, 2.37, 19 IP, 10 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 12 BB, 14 K

Harden: 2-0, 0.86, 21 IP, 14 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 7 BB, 16 K

Last pitcher for any team to go at least seven innings in the first three starts of his career and allow one run or none in all three, according to David Feldman, an associate TV producer for the A's: Tom Candiotti, in 1983.

Useless Dodger info: The refusal of the Dodgers to score -- or allow -- runs never ceases to amaze us. But they've outdone themselves lately.

In five straight Dodgers games, starting July 24, a total of eight runs were scored by both teams. That's the fewest in any five-game stretch by any team, according to Elias, since the 1906 Cubs and their opponents combined for a whopping seven runs in five games, from June 30-July 4.

The Dodger scores: 1-0, 2-1, 1-0, 1-0 and 2-0. Those 1906 Cubs scores: 2-1, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0. Considering that the lowest possible total is five, that's some big-time non-scoring.

And, of course, those five games included a three-game Dodgers-Diamondbacks series in which a total of five runs were scored. The last time any two teams scored that little in one series, the same two teams did it, according to Elias, from Sept. 18-20, 2000 -- producing exactly the same game scores in exactly the same order (2-1, 1-0, 1-0).

Useless Braves-Expos info: Then there was the mirror image of that Dodgers-Diamondbacks series: Braves vs. Expos, July 25-28. Expos public-relations genius John Dever reports that in that series, all this happened:

-- The two teams combined to score 77 runs in four games, on 114 hits -- 19 of them home runs. In four games, 146 batters reached base safely -- not even counting errors.

-- The Expos won two of the four games -- and gave up 17 hits in each of their two wins. They hadn't won any previous game in which they gave up 17 hits or more since May 14, 2000.

-- The Braves' 13-10 loss July 27 was their first loss in a game in which they scored 10 runs or more since June 8, 1996.

-- And the starting pitcher that day was Greg Maddux, marking the first time one of Maddux's teams had lost on a day when A) he started and B) they scored in double figures since Aug. 16, 1987 (a 23-10 loss by the Cubs to the Mets at Wrigley).

Useless Pedro info: Amazing things happen in Yankees-Red Sox games, especially Yankees-Red Sox games involving Pedro Martinez. The New York Post's Joel Sherman reports that Pedro had gone more than two years without allowing a home run to any Yankee until Jorge Posada, of all people, homered off him July 25 at Fenway.

Martinez had pitched 48 straight innings and faced 200 Yankees without allowing a homer, until Posada -- who had been 6 for his previous 39 against Pedro, with no homers and 26 strikeouts -- ended that streak.

This is the kind of stuff that explains why Martinez has faced the Yankees 21 times since joining the Red Sox, has a 2.76 ERA against them and 194 strikeouts in 143 2/3 innings -- and has seen his team go 8-13 in those 21 games.

Useless burglary info: And while we're on the subject of Boston-New York, maybe the most amazing thing that happened in that Red Sox-Yankees series was Jeremy Giambi setting up the winning run in the final game by stealing the first base of his career.

Giambi had more at-bats (over 1,400) without a steal than any active player. So the new leader in that prestigious department is now Marlins catcher Mike Redmond (1,060 AB, zero steals).

Useless splashdown info: Loyal reader Brian Smith reports that Jose Cruz Jr. just did something only two other men have ever done. He hit home runs that came down in two bodies of water -- McCovey Cove and the swimming pool at the BOB.

The only other two players to do it: Mark Grace (pool in 1998, Cove in 2001) and Luis Gonzalez (pool in April 2000, Cove in September 2000). But Cruz's claim to fame is: He's the first guy to do it in the same week.

Box score lines of the week
One-and-done division
Detroit's Nate Cornejo, July 30 at Seattle:

2/3 IP, 7 H, 9 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 2 HR

Stat of the day: This was the first time the Tigers had given up nine runs in the first inning of any game since May 16, 1916, when Bert Gallia did it against the Washington Senators -- eh, kind of. Actually, Booth Newspapers' Danny Knobler reports that the Tigers also gave up nine runs in the first inning of a game last Sept. 19 -- except they never counted, because the game got rained out. The starting pitcher that night: Nate Cornejo.

Multi-threat division
The Detroit Free Press' John Lowe observes that you need to check those box scores closely, because on July 26, our favorite Rockie, Dennis Stark, had fascinating lines in both sections of the box score.

His pitching line:

3 2/3 IP, 11 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 2 HR

But his hitting line was just as interesting:

0 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 2 RBI. (His two trips to the plate: sac fly, bases-loaded walk.)

Useless farm land info

Useless on-base machine: Our pals at Howe Sportsdata report that Pawtucket third baseman Kevin Youkilis reached base in his 71st straight game Monday, matching the longest streak in the minor leagues since Kevin Millar also reached base in 71 straight games in the previous millennium.

Youkilis' streak started in Double-A and has continued since he moved up to Triple-A last month. But Millar's streak came over three seasons (1997-98-99), with three different teams (Portland, Charlotte, Calgary) in three different leagues (Eastern, International, Pacific Coast) in two different countries (U.S., Canada). And it doesn't even count the one game in which he batted in the major leagues, in April 1998, and reached base twice.

Trasnsactions of the month: Eagle-eyed reader Dave Conrad noticed that in the July 21 issue of Baseball America, the Indians, Rockies and Blue Jays all released a left-handed pitcher named Tim Young. Turns out he's the same guy. We haven't gotten an explanation yet on how he got released three times in one month, but at least he set a record that's pretty much unbreakable -- three releases in one transactions column.

Triviality
Question: As Albert Pujols chases the triple crown, he should know that only three active players have led their league in all three triple-crown categories at any point in their careers. Can you name them?

Answer: Alex Rodriguez (HR in 2001-02, RBI in 2002, batting title in 1996), Barry Bonds (HR in 1993 and 2001, RBI in 1993, batting title in 2002) and Andres Galarraga (HR in 1996, RBI in 1996-97, batting title in 1993).

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com. If you have useless info of your own to report, we apologize for the glitches in our useless info e-mail last month. It's now up and running again at uselessinfodept@yahoo.com.