Carlo4 said:

---

AgRyan04 said:

---

The first two Angels to win Rookie of the Year were Salmon and Trout

---

Seems kinda fishy to me

---

Carlo4 said:

---

AgRyan04 said:

---

The first two Angels to win Rookie of the Year were Salmon and Trout

---

Seems kinda fishy to me

---

agsalaska said:

---

Carlo4 said:

---

AgRyan04 said:

---

The first two Angels to win Rookie of the Year were Salmon and Trout

---

Seems kinda fishy to me

---

My 12 yo son has two kids with the last name Fish at his school and a kid name Bass at the other middle school. The fish are somehow, even in this small town, apparently not related. I said to him the other day 'that's crazy son. to have two Fish at the same school that are not related.' He looked right at me and without missing a beat said 'If Bass ever transfers over here we will have three'

I laughed.

---

Corporal Punishment said:

---

On May 29, 1976, Joe Niekro hit the only big league home run of his career (973 lifetime at bats), and it came off his brother Phil.

---

McInnis said:

---

Here's something that I just stumbled across that I found surprising. Sandy Koufax has a career WAR of 48.9. We've talked about a lot of players here who retired with WARs in the range of 50-60 and didn't make the HOF. Koufax is just barely edged out by Lou Brock as the Hall of Famer with the lowest career WAR, and we discussed the reason for that here a while back (his historically bad defense). But there's never been any controversy over Koufax being in.

Koufax pitched for only 12 years and everyone knows his career was cut short by recurring arm soreness. But what I didn't realize is that his first six years were the very definition of mediocre. In that time he had a record of 27-30 and an era of about 4.10. Then in 1961 he figured it out. He finished his career with:

Four no-hitters and a perfect game.
Three Cy Youngs, all of them by unanimous vote. And this was when only one Cy Young was awarded in the major leagues.
A career strikeout per nine inning ratio of 9.3, just under Nolan who had 9.5.
A career K to walk ratio of nearly 4.

Maybe most surprising to me is that in spite of his arm problems he went out at the top of his game. His last season was his best leading the NL with 27 wins and an era of 1.73.

Too bad he couldn't have lasted another two years and pitched in 1968, aka the year of the pitcher when Bob Gibson set a record that will probably stand forever by posting an era of 1.12. Wonder what Sandy could have done that season?

---

W said:

---

here's a baseball reference / WAR oddity from this season

according to B.R....Dansby Swanson had a 4.0 WAR season in 2024

however Cubs fans will say he had a bad year -- due to posting .701 OPS and OPS+ 98 for $26 MM

and the fans have a point -- because at the end of August, his OPS was a woeful .667

but then he had his best month of the season in September (after the Cubs were out of contention for the division) to clean up his stats

did he have a good year? WAR says yes...

---

agsalaska said:

---

I have quite the oddity here.

Don Mattingly had over 2,153 hits and 222 home runs. Of those 222 home runs six were grand slams. That by itself is not that unusual. What is unusual is that they were all hit in 1987. That is a major league record I think. And he hit all of zero across the rest of his career.

---

jja79 said:

---

Mike Schmidt says hello.

---

jja79 said:

---

During the 1980s Schmidt had 13 fewer hits, 149 more HR and 212 more RBI. I just have a hard time saying anyone was better.

---

Quote:

---

On June 7, 1884, ace pitcher Charley Sweeney set a major league record that would stand for 102 years, when he struck out 19 batters in a single game. After this game, however, arm trouble put him on the bench, putting the bulk of the Providence Grays' innings on the back of Old Hoss Radbourn, who was the Gray's only other pitcher of note. Radbourn complained, and eventually Sweeney was forced to take the mound again. What followed is possibly the most old-timey baseball story in existence.
After a game in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Sweeney got drunk and elected to stay in Woonsocket with a lady friend. Waking the next morning (still drunk) and realizing that he had to start in Providence, he rushed out the door. With an already-tight pitching staff, the Grays had no choice but to put the visibly hammered Sweeney on the mound.
They tried to pull him after five effective innings, but Sweeney was having none of it. This was a time where pitching anything less than a complete game brought your very manliness into question. He pitched another two against the wishes of his manager. When again they tried to pull him before the 8th, with the threat of a $50 fine, Sweeney told them to stuff their $50 fine and his whole contract. He walked off the field and watched the rest of the game with a woman in each arm, presumed to be prostitutes. This not only got him kicked off the team, but thrown out of the entire National League.
And that only sets up the final twist of the story. With the Grays being extremely understaffed, Old Hoss Radbourn offered to pitch the remaining games of the season for a small pay bump and an exemption from the reserve clause. He started 40 of the remaining 43 games in the season, and won 36 of them. His arm became sore enough that he couldn't raise it over his shoulders, and he had to warm up for hours before gametime just to get the ball to the plate. Just to add to his spectacular feat, Radbourn started and won every single game of the 1884 "World Series".
After an incredible 678.2 innings pitched, Radbourn amassed an official 59 wins for the season (sometimes reported as 60), an impossible record that will never be touched. And it's all because a man named Charlie Sweeney got laid on July 21, 1884.

---