Baseball, more so than any other of the major sports, I think, keeps track of numbers.
Numbers, that is, in the form of statistics and records. For example, I doubt that there are many readers who, without looking up the stats, can tell me how many points or even who the all-time leading scorer is in the NBA. Or, how many yards and touchdowns did Dan Marino throw? But, even the novice baseball fan can recognize these numbers: 511, 27, 755 and 2,632.
For the record, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 38,387 points in his career and Marino passed for 61,361 yards (or almost 35 miles) and 420 touchdowns. And if you don’t recognize the baseball numbers they represent the number of wins Cy Young accumulated, the number of World Series the Yankees have won (darn it!), the number of home runs the true all-time champion, Hank Aaron, totaled, and the number of consecutive games Cal Ripken, Jr. played in.
This summer the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York will open up an exhibit called One For the Books that will make these numbers come to life for the avid baseball fan. I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to visit the Hall of Fame on two occasions and I just may have to go back to see this display.
I am a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and included in that membership is a subscription to a magazine called Memories and Dreams. That’s exactly what baseball is to me as I have shared with you during different columns. The magazine features stories on past and current players and it is a great way to relive some of those wonderful moments in baseball annals that have created the numbers we fans love to follow.
Only in baseball does the fan follow statistics so closely during the season. Andre Ethier of the Dodgers hitting streak earlier this season was an example.
Even as he was approaching 30 games, the media began following his every at bat to see if the streak would continue.
Dimaggio’s streak was still 26 games away and we fans needed to know if he had another hit. And if a pitcher throws a couple of shutouts in a row we go into a frenzy the next time he pitches to see if he will approach Orel Hershiser’s record of 59 1/3 scoreless innings.
This month’s issue had a great article involving some baseball numbers that are uncanny in the manner in which they turned out for some players. Let me give you an example of what I mean.
Stan Musial, the legendary St. Louis Cardinal player, had 3,630 total hits for his career ranking him fourth all time. Here’s the uncanny part: half of his hits (1,815) were hit at home while exactly the same number (1,815) were hit on the road. Talk about consistency.
Here’s some more intriguing stats:
•Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron, two of the greatest players who ever lived, scored exactly the same number of runs: 2,174.
•Hall of Fame catchers Carlton Fisk and Gary Carter both hit exactly half of their home runs at home and half on the road.
•Roberto Clemente ended his career with exactly 3,000 hits. This total, in all probability, would have certainly changed if his life hadn’t been tragically cut short in an airplane crash while delivering food to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
•Lefty Grove and Early Wynn each won exactly 300 games.
•Bruce Sutter saved exactly 300 games.
•Lou Boudreau had 2,500 hits.
•Warren Spahn, the greatest left handed pitcher in history, had 363 wins due in part, perhaps, because of the 363 hits he got as a batter.
•Sam Crawford’s career batting average was .309 and he got 309 triples.
The numbers keep getting stranger:
•Eric Gagne pitched exactly 82 1/3 innings in 2002, 2003, and 2004.
•Howard Johnson, the former Met, had 760 RBI’s and 760 runs scored.
•Charlie Hough, the knuckleballer, had 216 wins and 216 losses.
•Ron Perranoski had 79 wins, 179 saves, and an ERA of 2.79. (cue The Twilight Zone theme)
Some players carried over their regular season numbers to the postseason:
•Charlie Gehringer batted .321 for his career in both the regular season and the postseason.
•Walter Alston, the long-time manager of the Dodgers, won 20 World Series games and lost 20 games.
•But, just maybe, the most stunning set of stats of all time happened in a game between the Pirates and the Dodgers way back in 1910. Both teams scored eight runs, had 38 at-bats, 13 hits, 12 assists, 2 errors, 5 strikeouts, 3 walks, 1 hit batsman, and 1 passed ball. By the way, each team used 10 players.
•Some times, however, the “exactly’s” don’t quite work out. One of the best pinch hitters ever, Greg Gross, finished his career with 143 pinch hits. One more hit would have given him a “gross.”
That’s it until next time. Hope your summer is filled with great memories and dreams.
Randy Blalock is a columnist for the Barrow Journal. You can e-mail him at rblalock@mindspring.com.
