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Useless Hall of Fame information
Nothing bugs us more every year than the sight of players zig-zagging up or down in Hall of Fame votes, even though they hadn't played one inning since the last Hall of Fame election. But it happens -- every darned year. So here are this year's three biggest gainers:
Gary Carter plus-44
Andre Dawson plus-34
Bruce Sutter plus-28
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Expos now off the hook
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Gary Carter will end the Expos' 34-year schneid without a Hall of Famer.
So if you're wondering, the four teams left who still don't have anyone wearing their cap on a Hall of Fame plaque (not counting the Devil Rays, Diamondbacks, Rockies and Marlins, who are mathematically ineligible) are the Blue Jays, Angels, Mariners and Astros.
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And the three biggest disappearing-vote acts:
Don Mattingly minus-28
Dave Parker minus-15
Dale Murphy minus-12
The amazing Joe Sheehan, whose sensational "Sheehan Report" column (now available via email) is about to make a triumphant return to the Baseball Prospectus site, charts candidates' vote percentages. These are the candidates whose percentages have risen two straight years:
Bruce Sutter: 47.6 percent to 50.4 to 53.6
Bert Blyleven: 23.5 percent to 26.3 to 29.2
Jack Morris: 19.6 percent to 20.6 to 22.8
Incidentally, it's good news for Sutter that no pitcher has ever gotten more than 50 percent in any Hall of Fame election and not gotten elected eventually.
Here, also from Joe Sheehan, are the candidates whose totals have been heading south two straight years:
Jim Rice: 57.9 percent to 55.1 to 52.2
Goose Gossage: 44.3 percent to 43.0 to 42.1
Steve Garvey: 34.2 percent to 28.4 to 27.8
Tommy John: 28.4 percent to 26.9 to 23.4
Don Mattingly: 28.2 percent to 20.3 to 13.7
Dale Murphy: 18.1 percent to 14.8 to 11.7
Dave Concepcion: 14.4 percent to 11.9 to 11.1
Dave Parker: 16.3 percent 14.0 to 10.3
Is there any better example than Eddie Murray of how much numbers have changed since his heyday in the late '70s and '80s?
Murray's greatest home run season was the 33 he hit in 1983, and his biggest RBI season was 1985 (124). Those used to be big numbers.
Now, 15 different players have topped both of those totals just in one of the last two seasons. Four players (Barry Bonds, A-Rod, Lance Berkman and Albert Pujols) topped them in both seasons. And since Murray retired, the long list of players who beat both of those numbers in at least one season includes Phil Nevin, Vinny Castilla, Dante Bichette and Jeromy Burnitz.
Murray got elected, though, because he was so dependable and so durable. He's second only to Pete Rose in 150-game seasons. The top five:
Rose, 17
Murray, 16
Cal Ripken, 15
Hank Aaron, 14
Brooks Robinson, 14
Most 150-game seasons by active players:
Rafael Palmeiro, 13
Fred McGriff, 10
Barry Bonds, 9
Sammy Sosa, 8
Craig Biggio, 8
Jay Bell, 8
Jeff Bagwell, 8
Roberto Alomar, 8
Todd Zeile, 8
(Source: Lee Sinins' Sabermetric Encyclopedia)
With the help of the otherwise-useless strike in 1994, first-year candidate Lee Smith set one record he never wanted to set:
He was the first (and last) reliever in history to save 30 games in a season without even pitching 40 innings. Heck, only three other pitchers have ever saved 20 in a season without working 40 innings:
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Pitcher
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Year
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Saves
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Innings pitched
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Mike Fetters
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1995
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22
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34.2
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Bob Wickman
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2002
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20
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34.1
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Jeff Russell
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1995
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20
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32.2
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But let's not malign Lee Smith too much (since we did, in fact, vote for him). On the other end of the workhorse scale, you may be surprised to learn that he pitched in at least 60 games in more consecutive seasons than any reliever in history. You may be more surprised to learn it isn't even close. The top five:
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Pitcher
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Seasons
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Years
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Lee Smith
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12
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(1982-93)
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Pedro Borbon Sr.
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8
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(1972-79)
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Jeff Reardon
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8
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(1982-89)
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Jose Mesa
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8
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(1995-02)
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Robb Nen
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8
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(1995-02)
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Smith also made more All-Star teams (seven) than any closer in modern times except Goose Gossage (9). Here's that top five (not counting active closers, who are led by Mariano Rivera, with five):
Gossage, 9
Smith, 7
Rollie Fingers, 7
Bruce Sutter, 6
Hoyt Wilhelm, 5
(Dennis Eckersley made six All-Star teams -- two as a starting pitcher.)
Ryne Sandberg, the other hot first-year candidate, once had four straight seasons of 60 extra-base hits or more. Only three second basemen in history ever had a streak that long or longer. And they make quite a threesome:
Jeff Kent, 1997-02, (6)
Juan Samuel, 1984-87, (4)
Ryne Sandberg, 1989-92, (4)
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Catchers with some pop
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Gary Carter had nine 20-homer seasons. The only catchers in history with more are Johnny Bench (11), Yogi Berra (10) and Mike Piazza (10). After Piazza, only five active catchers even own more than one 20-homer season:
Pudge Rodriguez, 5
Javier Lopez, 4
Todd Hundley, 4
Jorge Posada, 3
Mike Lieberthal, 2
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Nine players who played predominantly in the decade of the 1980s have now been elected to the Hall (Murray, Gary Carter, Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Robin Yount, Ozzie Smith, Kirby Puckett, Dave Winfield and Robin Yount). Not one has been a pitcher.
That will change next year, when Dennis Eckersley breaks that streak. But this trend tells you how different the '80s were from the '70s, a decade that produced 10 Hall of Fame pitchers. You've heard of them:
Catfish Hunter, Gaylord Perry, Jim Palmer, Ferguson Jenkins, Rollie Fingers, Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton, Phil Niekro, Nolan Ryan and Don Sutton.
Finally, this makes three straight elections since Nolan Ryan made it without a pitcher getting elected. That's the longest streak in a quarter-century -- since the four-election gap between Robin Roberts in 1976 and Bob Gibson in 1981.
Miscellaneous useless information
This being the time when football insanity takes over the world, we do our best to stay relevant. So this week only, we offer a couple of football-related notes.
First up is the oddity of having the Eagles and Buccaneers meet in the postseason three straight seasons. So how many times, you ask, have the same two baseball teams met in three straight postseasons? The answer is ... just twice:
1921-23: Yankees vs. Giants in the World Series
1976-78: Yankees vs. Royals in the ALCS
And the only team to eliminate the same team from three straight postseasons ... those '76-78 Yankees.
Meanwhile, Rueben Frank of the Bucks County (Pa.) Courier Times, the greatest unknown football writer in America, poses this question (think hard now):
What team drafted Chris Weinke, Rodney Peete and Kerry Collins?
Nope. It's not who you think.
Because it's not anybody in the NFL.
It's those Toronto Blue Jays. They drafted Weinke in the second round in 1990 (three rounds earlier than Bret Boone went that year), Peete in the 30th round in 1984 and Collins in the 58th round in 1994.
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| Millwood |
Forget the Bartolo Colon deal. The most staggering trade of the winter is still the Braves sending Kevin Millwood to their favorite division rival, the Phillies, for Johnny Estrada. Millwood is one of only six active pitchers to have won 17 games or more in three different seasons before the age of 28. You might say the others have fairly recognizable names:
Roger Clemens (five), Greg Maddux (four), Tom Glavine, Pedro Martinez and Mike Mussina (three each).
Last pitcher to own three 17-win seasons and be as young as Millwood when he got traded: Bret Saberhagen, who went from the Royals to the Mets on Dec. 11, 1991 for Gregg Jefferies, Kevin McReynolds and Keith Miller.
Lee Sinins, creator of the indispensable sabermetric encyclopedia CD-rom, is preparing to release his first player-comments book, which should be available next month. One thing we learned from reading a preview copy is that we have in our midst an active pitcher who has permitted fewer baserunners per nine innings, compared with his league average, than any pitcher in history who worked at least 2,000 innings. But we bet it's not who you think.
The top five all-time:
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Pitcher
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Runners/9 IP
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League avg.
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Differential
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Mike Mussina
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10.61
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13.27
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2.66
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Curt Schilling
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10.23
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12.67
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2.44
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Walter Johnson
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9.85
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12.18
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2.33
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Cy Young
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9.33
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11.51
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2.18
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Bret Saberhagen
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10.47
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12.65
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2.19
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Greg Maddux (8th) and Roger Clemens (10th) also rank in the all-time top 10. For those interested in the book or the encyclopedia CD-rom, more info is available at baseball-encyclopedia.com.
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| Sanders |
One more cool note from that book: Reggie Sanders, currently a free agent about to play for yet another new team, last year became the first player in history to play at least 100 games apiece for five different teams in five years without changing teams in midseason.
Another great note we missed a couple of months ago was Ron Gardenhire succeeding Tom Kelly in Minnesota and doing exactly what Kelly did -- take his team to the postseason in his first full season as manager.
Elias' Randy Robles reports that even if you disqualify Kelly for managing the final four months of the 1986 season, the Twins still became the sixth team to have two different managers go to the postseason in their first year. But they're not the sixth franchise, because their forebears, those original Washington Senators, also did it. Here's the full list:
Red Sox
1967: Dick Williams
1988: Joe Morgan
Cubs
1932: Charlie Grimm
1938: Gabby Hartnett
Tigers
1907: Hughie Jennings
1934: Mickey Cochrane
Astros
1986: Hal Lanier
1997: Larry Dierker
Yankees
1961: Ralph Houk
1964: Yogi Berra
Senators
1924: Bucky Harris
1933: Joe Cronin
Twins
1969: Billy Martin
2002: Ron Gardenhire
The great Joe Sheehan also delivered the best note on the Colon deal we've seen anywhere. If you include Delvis Lantigua, the prospect the Yankees got from the White Sox, there were five pitchers dealt in this trade. And which one had the worst rate of strikeouts per nine innings last year?
Would you believe Bartolo Colon? Believe it:
Antonio Osuna, 8.78
Rocky Biddle, 7.41
Delvis Lantigua, 7.00
Orlando Hernandez, 6.97
Bartolo Colon 5.75
How many managers go from managing a guy like Barry Bonds to managing a guy like Sammy Sosa in one offseason? Believe it or not, we can actually answer that question, thanks to Christian Ruzich, who covers the Cubs for www.all-baseball.com.
There have been only three other managers in history who have managed two different 500-home run men. The others:
Clyde King (Willie Mays in 1969-70, Hank Aaron in 1974)
Whitey Herzog (Frank Robinson for four games in 1974, Harmon Killebrew in 1975)
Tony LaRussa (Reggie Jackson in 1987, Mark McGwire in 1999-2001)
There were 25 other managers who managed two members of the 500-homer club but managed at least one before he reached 500 home runs. You can check that whole list at: http://www.all-baseball.com/500manager.html.
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| Sanchez |
Another of the great statistical minds of our time, Bill Deane, reported to his SABR friends recently that while the Devil Rays' Joe Kennedy committed 10 errors in only 41 chances last season, a much more difficult defensive feat was accomplished by Cubs pitcher Jesus Sanchez. He committed more errors (two) than he had chances in which he didn't err (one).
For some reason, that moved us to investigate how many other pitchers have had more errors than non-errors in a season. And the answer is ... Sanchez, who was the 10th to do it in the last 25 years. Here are all the others:
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Pitcher
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Year
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Errors
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Assists
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Putouts
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Tom Thobe
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1996
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2
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0
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0
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Joel Johnston
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1994
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2
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1
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0
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Scott Ruffcorn
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1993
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3
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0
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0
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Marcus Moore
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1993
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2
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1
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0
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Joe Vitko
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1992
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2
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0
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1
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Pat Perry
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1990
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2
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1
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0
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Terry Wells
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1990
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2
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0
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1
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Morris Madden
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1989
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2
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0
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1
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Steve Mura
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1978
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2
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1
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0
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Another classic note from Bill Deane: Bartolo Colon threw all of the complete-game shutouts recorded by both of his two teams last year -- Cleveland (2) and Montreal (1).
As reader Alex Friend reported, we left Pedro Martinez out of one of our earlier Useless Information columns this winter. You can add him to Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Tom Seaver and Jim Palmer on the list of pitchers who finished first or second in at least five Cy Young award elections. This year was Pedro's fifth (first in 1997-99-2000, second in 1998-2002). Whoops.
Finally, as reader Diane Firstman points out, we really haven't paid proper due attention to the astonishing collapse of the Orioles last season. In case you forgot:
First 126 games: 63-63
Final 36 games: 4-32
To play .500 ball for that long and then play .111 ball the rest of the way is pretty much impossible. And for proof, we can thank the Elias Sports Bureau's Ken Hirdt, who reports:
The only team in history to play worse baseball than that over the final 36 games of any season were the legendary 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who went 19-99 in their first 118 games -- then finished 1-35 (and never, understandably, took the field again).
The Orioles became just the third team ever to have two double-digit losing streaks in the same season after Aug. 24. (They lost 10 in a row, won one, lost eight more in a row, somehow won three of their next five, then lost their final 12 in a row.) One was those 1899 Spiders. The other was a very different Baltimore Orioles team -- one that played exactly 100 years earlier, then moved to New York the next year and became (yep) the Yankees.
Oh by the way, those Orioles genes didn't follow the Yankees to New York. They haven't even had one 10-game losing streak in (gulp) 90 years -- since the 1913 Yankees lost 13 in a row.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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