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Useless managerial information
This is the state of baseball today: Of the 30 men with big-league managerial jobs, exactly five of them managed their current team at any point in the good old 1990s:
Bobby Cox (1990)
Bruce Bochy (1995)
Tony La Russa (1996)
Joe Torre (1996)
Jerry Manuel (1998)
|  | | Jerry Manuel is becoming a fixture in Chicago. |
And while we're on the subject, how many bar bets could you win on Manuel having the longest tenure of any AL manager besides Torre?
But let's make this more absurd: Only 12 of the 30 active managers were even managing their current team at the start of the 2001 season: those five above, plus Bob Boone, Larry Bowa, Bob Brenly, Mike Hargrove, Lloyd McClendon, Mike Scioscia and Jim Tracy. Nice line of work.
Since Cox first set foot in the dugout in Atlanta, on June 22, 1990, the Cubs have had nine managers (counting interims and Dusty Baker). The AL "leaders" are the Tigers and Angels, with seven apiece (counting Alan Trammell in Detroit).
Teams that have used the next-fewest managers in the time that the Braves have employed one: Yankees, A's, Pirates and Giants, with three each (counting Ken Macha in Oakland and Felipe Alou in San Francisco).
Altogether, since the start of spring training this year, there have been an incomprehensible 19 managerial changes involving 14 teams. And that doesn't even include Jeff Torborg swapping his Expos cap for his Marlins cap the week before spring training. Or Frank Robinson taking that Montreal job the same week.
Whatever number you prefer, though, it's still a record. According to Bob Bloss -- author of the exhaustively researched book, "Baseball Managers" -- the previous record for most changes from one spring training to the next since 1900 was a mere 14.
The first time that happened was 1975, when there were only 24 teams -- and 12 of them changed managers a total of 14 times. The only year to match that before this one was 1991, when there were 26 teams -- and 13 of them changed managers a total of 14 times. Among the managers who lost their jobs in 1991: Jeff Torborg and Frank Robinson.
But forget February through September. Just in this offseason, 10 teams have had to redecorate their managers' offices. The only baseball winter since 1900 to top that one, according to SABR's David Vincent: 1915-16, when 11 of the 16 teams changed managers. And one of the five who kept his job was Connie Mack, who had a slight advantage -- since he owned his team (the Athletics).
Finally, Dusty Baker was the sixth manager in the last 40 seasons to lead a team to the World Series and then become the ex-manager of that team. Here are the other five times it has happened, according to the Elias Sports Bureau:
1963-64 Yankees: Ralph Houk, succeeded by Yogi Berra
1964-65 Cardinals: Johnny Keane, succeeded by Red Schoendienst
1964-65 Yankees: Yogi Berra, succeeded by Johnny Keane
1971-72 Pirates: Danny Murtaugh, succeeded by Bill Virdon
1973-74 Athletics: Dick Williams, succeeded by Alvin Dark
And in answer to your inevitable questions about who managed the All-Star team the next year, the answers are: Al Lopez in '64 (finished second with White Sox), Gene Mauch (finished second with Phillies) and Al Lopez in '65 (finished second with White Sox), Murtaugh in '72 (who came out of retirement to manage the All-Star Game) and Williams (who was managing the Angels) in '75.
Useless awards information
Barry Bonds is now up to five MVP awards, plus two second-place finishes in the always-fascinating MVP balloting. The only other man ever to finish in the top two seven times was the great Stan Musial (three firsts, four seconds). Bonds leaped out of a tie with two other very cool names who had done it six times -- Mickey Mantle (three firsts, three seconds) and Ted Williams (two firsts, four seconds).
This was also the second time in his career that Bonds had finished either first or second in three straight MVP elections. Only six other players in history ever did that once. Oh, by the way, they're all Hall of Famers:
Yogi Berra (four straight years, 1953-56), Musial (four straight years (1948-51), Mantle (1960-62), Hal Newhouser (1944-46), Dizzy Dean (1934-36) and Chuck Klein (1931-33).
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| 2002 SEASON STATISTICS |
| GM |
IP |
W-L |
BB |
SO |
ERA |
| 35 |
260 |
24-5 |
71 |
334 |
2.32 |
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And over in the pitching portion of the baseball universe, Randy Johnson now has finished 1-2 in the Cy Young voting seven times (five firsts, two seconds). That ties the Unit with Roger Clemens (six firsts, one second) in that esteemed category. Nobody is at six, but the group at five consists of three guys you've probably heard of -- Greg Maddux (four firsts, one second), Tom Seaver (three firsts, two seconds) and Jim Palmer (three firsts, two seconds).
This was Johnson's first unanimous Cy Young. So if he's looking for more plateaus to climb, he can work next year on becoming the fifth pitcher ever to win at least two unanimous Cy Youngs. The others, courtesy of the East Valley Tribune's Ed Price:
Sandy Koufax 3 (1963-65-66)
Pedro Martinez 2 (1999-2000)
Roger Clemens 2 (1986-98)
Greg Maddux 2 (1994-95)
Another late-breaking A-Rod feat: He just became the third player in history to hit 50 homers and win a Gold Glove in the same season. Joining him for meetings of that club are Willie Mays (1965) and his pal, Junior Griffey (1997 and '98).
Fernando Vina and Edgar Renteria became the first NL double-play combination to win Gold Gloves in the same year since the Big Red Machine, only the third in National League history and the ninth of all time. Here come the others:
Roberto Alomar-Omar Vizquel (1999-2000-2001 Indians)
Lou Whitaker-Alan Trammell (1983-84 Tigers)
Joe Morgan-Dave Concepcion (1975-76-77 Reds)
Bobby Grich-Mark Belanger (1973-74-75-76 Orioles)
Davey Johnson-Belanger (1969 and '71 Orioles)
Bobby Knoop-Jim Fregosi (1967 Angels)
Bill Mazeroski-Gene Alley (1966-67 Pirates)
Nellie Fox-Luis Aparicio (1959-60 White Sox)
And now, the envelope please. It's time to announce this year's winner of our annual Palmeiro trophy, a tribute to Rafael Palmeiro's legendary feat of winning a Gold Glove and DH of the Year award in the same season (1999). The winner of the much-coveted Palmeiro trophy is the AL Gold Glover who spent the most time DH-ing that season.
And this year's prestigious winner is ... (drum roll, maestro) ... Eric Chavez, whose 30 at-bats as a DH blew away co-runners-up Darin Erstad and Ichiro Suzuki (16 AB apiece). As always, the trophy is in the mail.
Miscellaneous useless info
If Jim Thome signs with the Phillies (or anybody else this side of the Pacific), he'll become only the second player in history to change teams after a 50-homer season. The other: Greg Vaughn, who was traded from the Padres to the Reds after hitting 50 in 1998.
Next-most homers by guys who called the moving vans:
49, Albert Belle (from '98 White Sox to '99 Orioles)
48, Albert Belle (from '96 Indians to '97 White Sox)
48, Junior Griffey (from '99 Mariners to '00 Reds)
46, Jose Canseco (from '98 Blue Jays to '99 Devil Rays)
Also, we should mention Mark McGwire, who was traded in midseason from the A's to the Cardinals in 1997 -- while he was in the middle of a 58-homer season. But he only had 34 when the A's traded him in July.
We don't know exactly how heavily innings pitched weighed on the minds of the Cy Young voters. But Pedro Martinez pitched the fewest innings (199 1/3) of any 20-game winner in history who was exclusively a starting pitcher.
Bob Grim pitched one-third of an inning fewer in 1954 while winning 20 for the Yankees, but he'd been a reliever in 17 of his 37 appearances that year.
Fewest innings ever by 20-game winners, according to the new edition of Lee Sinins' indispensable Sabermetric Baseball Encyclopedia:
199, Grim 1954
199 1/3, Martinez 2002
202 1/3, Tim Hudson, 2000
204, Scott Erickson, 1991
207 2/3, John Smiley, 1991
207 2/3, David Cone, 1998
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| 2002 SEASON STATISTICS |
| GM |
AB |
H |
HR |
OBP |
AVG |
| 152 |
592 |
170 |
1 |
.332 |
.287 |
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Juan Pierre's eviction from Coors Field reminds us that Pierre did something this season that no player had ever done:
He was six innings away from becoming the first player since our man, Harold Reynolds, in 1989, to go through a season of 590 at-bats or more without hitting any homers. Then, on the last day of the season, in his 590th at-bat of the year, he homered. On the road yet. Off Arizona's John Patterson.
The Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR's David Vincent, reports that nobody had ever had that many homerless at-bats in a season and then homered on the last day.
And while we're on the subject of last-day homers, the Sultan also reports that Diamondbacks catcher Chad Moeller became the third player since 1901 to wait until the last day of the season to hit his only two homers of the year. Here are the members of the Two-daloo Club:
Moeller (105 AB)
Jack Lelivelt, 1912 Yankees (149 AB)
Brian McCall, 1962 White Sox (8 AB)
Had Alfonso Soriano ever hit that 40th home run, he wouldn't just have gotten himself in the 40-40 Club. He would have elevated himself and his first baseman, Jason Giambi, into a whole new 40-40 Club.
They would have been the first two occupants of the right side of any infield to hit 40 homers apiece in the same year. Nevertheless, they were still the first regular residents of any team's right side who even hit 30 apiece.
The only asterisk on this note goes to the 1964 Red Sox. Dick Stuart, their first baseman, hit 33 that year. Felix Mantilla, who played four positions (including 48 games at second), hit 30. But since Dalton Jones was the regular second baseman, he and the Sox are hereby disqualified.
Our friend, Chuck Pool -- former public-relations genius for the Marlins, Astros and Nebraska Cornhuskers -- wonders if Darin Erstad is the first man ever to play for a World Series winner and a national college-football champ. (Don't forget Erstad's 1994 punting days at -- yep -- Nebraska.) If you know of any others, send them our way at: askespn@espn.com.
We don't know what this means, exactly. But Jerry Beach, of ESportsNY.com, reports that this World Series was the first since 1982 with four "lead changes."
The Giants led the Series, 1 game to 0. Then the Angels led, 2-1. Then the Giants led, 3-2. Then the Angels led (and won), 4-3. The '82 Brewers and Cardinals followed the same pattern.
This has to be a first: Our buddy, John Lowe, of the Detroit Free Press, reports that Kenny Lofton just achieved one of the all-time postseason daily doubles. He was the first and last batter of both the LCS and the World Series. Hard to do. Especially since his team won one of those series.
And in a similar vein, ESPN research machine Mark Simon reports that the Astros' Brian Hunter contributed to more clinching parties than Moet Chandon. He made the final out this year in games in which both the Cardinals and Giants clinched their playoff spots.
That Adam Kennedy three-homer game in the ALCS was memorable for many reasons. But not the least of them was this:
He was batting ninth.
The lowest previous spot in the order by a guy who hit three homers in a postseason game was fifth, by Bob Robertson in 1971.
According to David Vincent, Babe Ruth batted third in both of his three-homer games. Reginald M. Jackson was in the cleanup hole for his trifecta in the 1977 World Series. And George Brett's three-homer game in the 1978 ALCS came as a leadoff man.
If you're wondering, Ruth never did have a three-homer game, postseason or regular season, while hitting ninth -- even in his days as a pitcher.
During one of our World Series columns, we laid out a proposal by Elias' Steve Hirdt to make the road to the Series more difficult for wild-card teams. Hirdt's plan was to add a second wild-card team in each league, then have the two wild cards play a one-game playoff to see who would advance.
That inspired loyal reader David Hallstrom to research just how much that might water down the playoff field. He found that if you throw out the strike-shortened '95 season, the second wild-card team would have averaged 89.9 wins in the NL and 87.4 in the AL these last seven seasons.
Who would have won those extra wild cards? A year-by-year rundown:
1996: Montreal (88); Boston/Chicago/Texas (85)
1997: New York/LA (88); Anaheim (84)
1998: San Francisco (89); Toronto (88)
1999: Cincinnati (96); Oakland (87)
2000: Los Angeles (86); Cleveland (90)
2001: San Francisco (90); Minnesota (85)
2002: Los Angeles (92); Boston (93)
After a walk to start an inning during the NLCS, Fox broadcaster Tim McCarver observed that his advice to young pitchers was to never walk the leadoff man because "he always scores." Hearing that prompted Retrosheet's Dave Smith to wonder just how true that was. So he looked it up.
Smith told us he researched every game dating back to 1974 -- a total of 61,365 games and more than 1.1 million half-innings. Here's what he found:
That after a leadoff walk, a team scored 39.9 percent of the time.
That after a leadoff single, a team scored 39.7 percent of the time.
That after a leadoff error, a team scored 43.8 percent of the time.
That after a leadoff HBP, a team scored 40.9 percent of the time.
In other words, if the leadoff hitter reaches first by any means, his team will score about 40 percent of the time. So the moral of this story is: Leadoff outs are good. Leadoff anything-else is bad.
Our amigo, Alan Schwarz of Baseball America, came across another cool playoff oddity: Anaheim's Chone Figgins batted 1.000 during the ALCS (1 for 1). So what's so amazing about that? He never played the field or pinch-hit.
His position was listed as: PR. He pinch-ran for Bengie Molina in the seventh inning of Game 5, scored and then got to bat when the Angels batted around. He thereupon singled and scored again. It's a great game, folks.
Add Miguel Cairo to your Mr. October list, too. He had one three-hit game all season. Then Scott Rolen got hurt. So Cairo had to play third base for the Cardinals. And he had two three-hit games in the NLCS. Back-to-back yet.
His last previous back-to-back three-hit games were June 30 and July 1, 1999, for the Devil Rays. That was four teams ago, by the way.
That Mike Hampton contract might have seemed like a good idea to the Rockies at the time. But the Denver Post's Mike Klis reports that for those 21 games Hampton won for them in his two years, they'll wind up paying him more than $2 million per win. Best we can figure, the Rockies will ultimately pay Hampton a total of $45.5 million, counting salaries, buyouts and signing bonuses. Which comes to $2.167 million per win. Nice work if you can get it.
And all you competitive-balance fans will be happy to know the Giants were the sixth different National League team to play in the World Series in the last six years. That's only happened three times in NL history. The others were 1914-19 and 1986-91.
Top 10 list of the week
With poor Billy the Marlin out on the free-agent market as his old team looks for a more economical replacement, our friends, David Hill and Jim Sundra -- of the always-irreverent Baltimore baseball magazine, Outside Pitch -- have checked in with the long-awaited Top 10 Signs Your Mascot Is Overpaid:
10. Shoots wads of 20s into the stands.
9. "Is that an enormous Rolex on his left fin?"
8. He has a chauffeur for his go-cart.
7. He doesn't give the umpire glasses. He sends out a lasik surgeon.
6. He arrives at the ballpark loaded down with more Saks bags than Winona Ryder.
5. For a tax break, establishes phony charity to support less fortunate mascots of the mid-80s.
4. Changes name to William Exeter "Skip" Marlin III.
3. Buys his way into a country club that previously discriminated against those of scaly skin.
2. Fan of the Game: his broker.
And No. 1. He's got such a big head that ... oh wait, he's supposed to have a big head
Headliner of the week
Finally, this headline just in from the hilarious online humor newspaper, the Ironic Times:
World Series ratings up 20 percent among monkeys.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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