For the 1931 season, Lou Gehrig paced the AL in both homers and RBI, generated more hits than any other player in the league, tallied more total bases than anyone, scored more runs, had more extra-base hits and reached safely as much as anyone. The numbers – gazing at them […]
Another day, another dinger. Of course, Cal Raleigh hasn’t been that productive, going homerless in 39 games this season. But he has gone yard in 19 of them, 19 contests that have been a little extra elevated by the humming, building consideration of how high, how far the 28-year-old backstop […]
The Dodgers’ top-10 leaderboard for runs scored in a single season is littered with names from long ago: three players from the 1880s, six from the 1890s (including the top Dodger dog, Hub Collins and his 148 runs in 1890) and one from the 1930s. There is one name from […]
In 2001, Barry Bonds had only 156 hits – tied for 71st most in the Majors that year. Of course, the NL MVP had plenty of other categories to tout in a proclamation of his batting superiority, including a big league-best 107 extra-base hits (which also happened to be one […]
Rather famously, Willie Mays’ introduction with the Giants in 1951 started with a few too many zeroes: 0-for-5, 0-for-3, 0-for-4. That 0-for-12 start was, also rather famously, put to rest by a swing and a drive in the first inning on May 28: a solo homer to left against Warren […]
Stan Musial is famous for a lot of things when it comes to feats on the diamond. Considering the abundance his 22-year saga provided, the very beginnings of that journey are perhaps a bit overshadowed by what followed. But like so much of his career symphony, the overture was pretty […]
In the bottom of the first at Crosley Field on July 6, 1949, Reds cleanup hitter Walker Cooper singled with two outs to move a runner to third. The inning-extending knock turned out to be both a consequential moment for the club and for the 34-year-old who had been acquired […]
The early part of any season is so much fun in so many ways, including the weirdness of early-season statistics. The box scores add up, the individual player lines reflect those accumulations and a couple or a few weeks into things, the numerical revelations can be worth a second glance […]
There are a lot of Major League games every season. There have been a lot of Major League seasons. The spring->summer->fall carnival ride of rises and dips, the sheer volume of numbers and storylines, the numerous ways to organize and contextualize: all of this makes it easy and natural to […]