trivial occurrences 2020

Fenway is god-tier park dims. <3<3<3

I believe I made a park dims thread...?

I sure did!

S/D Unconventional Stadium Dimensions

I was looking at the NL ROTY for 2002 to see who finished above Mark Prior (not saying he should have won it, but wanted to see if I recognised any of the names). Look at the guy who finished in 4th! Negative WAR, league-high walks(106 in 154 innings), WHIP of 1.578 (Prior’s was 1.166). What on earth was going on there?

https://i.postimg.cc/J4Dvykkt/IMG-6367.jpg

14 wins as a rookie and had a gruesome end of season injury which may have lent some sympathy votes.

Steve Shasta…You are unreal

lollin'~q

...pardon my ignorance. When did you start posting on ILX gyac? I created this subboard 21 years ago (!) when I had tons of free time and we could have used more quality posters such as yourself.

Firstly!

Secondly, I had to check, 2011? But I only got into baseball in 2022. I’m trying very hard to make up for lost time though! One day we will meet and pore over your big book of player injuries together 🫡🫡🫡

Yes please!

HEALTH IS WEALTH

(aw, thanks for the kind words too!)

Was WAR around in 2002? I know there was an earlier version at some point--VORP--but I don't think it was. A couple of the awards that year were obvious--Bonds and Johnson--but Tejada winning MVP over A-Rod suggests voting was still pretty old-school.

No idea, and I’m not even a WAR believer tbh (it’s just one stat of many & I personally cbf thinking about the different kinds), but I just mentioned it as shorthand for a negative WAR (for a reliever, no less!) being reflective of some less than shining performances.

I think it's a great tool for narrowing the field and making sure there's never a Baylor/Burroughs-type winner again. (And honestly, you don't need WAR for that.) But I'm far from a true believer. I like a little narrative in the mix!

If you want to feel really old: Kent Tekulve turns 77 today.

thought he'd be older

https://i.imgur.com/Zp1C3Dt.jpeg

I wonder if his arm even works these days...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVGks-UU0AIl4VC?format=jpg&name=small

According to noted White Sox stats poster Jay Cuda, they are only the second team in baseball history to have--take a deep breath--zero runs, zero walks, zero extra-base hits, and 10 or more strikeouts in an Opening Day game. The previous instance was in 1967, when the San Francisco Giants faced Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Tbf they should definitely have had a walk going by the scorecard

#OpeningDay
Umpire: Brian O'Nora
Final: Tigers 1, White Sox 0#RepDetroit // #WhiteSox#DETvsCWS // #CWSvsDET

More stats for this game 👇https://t.co/fASdPcVOMs pic.twitter.com/uFV9X0FshR

— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) March 29, 2024

Tyler Anderson vs. Chase Anderson--that seems worth noting.

the astros' manager and the orioles' manager are brothers-in-law because their wives are sisters

the list of current active leaders in shutouts includes a guy near the top whom i forgot existed.

Clayton Kershaw - 15
Justin Verlander - 9

tied for third place --

Gerrit Cole - 5
Max Scherzer - 5
Shelby Miller - 5

reminds me what a different time we're in, Tim Belcher (career w-l of 146-140, ERA of 4.16) tossed 18 shutouts and even if we take away the 8(!) he threw in 1989*, he'd still rank second among active dudes now.

Not that living to 100 is trivial, but I don't know where else to post this (and there's a great brush-with-fame story from 1951).

https://www.mlb.com/news/oldest-living-mlb-player-turns-100

There are quite a few brushes with fame in his bio, he's had an incredible life!

For the first time since 1910 and only the second time in the history of the baseball, the Colorado Rockies have trailed in all 28 games to start a season.

— Patrick Lyons (@PatrickDLyons) April 28, 2024

He can see Russia from his window:

https://www.mlb.com/news/dave-winfield-getting-statue-in-alaska

I checked this--true!

https://i.postimg.cc/DftZ4WvQ/moyer.jpg

From the article about Chadwick Tromp wearing 45:

Tromp is not the first player with a presidential last name to wear the jersey number corresponding with that POTUS’ term placement, however unintentionally. There’s Ben Ford, who pitched 19 unremarkable games in relief for the 2004 Milwaukee Brewers. Ford wore the No. 38; Gerald Ford was the 38th president.

He said he selected that number himself, but did so without knowing its historical significance and relation to the president.

“My parents’ names are actually Gerald and Betty Ford too,” Ben said, referring to the congruency between his family and the former president and first lady. “Ever since I was young, it’s always been talked about like that. I never even would have thought to have done that.”

U L Washington wore the No. 1 for the 1985 Expos. Buster Adams, who played in the 1940s wore, No. 2 and No. 6 in his career. John Adams was the second president and John Quincy Adams was the sixth. Two players named Jackson wore No. 7. Four players named Taylor wore No. 12. Six Johnsons wore No. 17, another 10 Johnsons wore No. 36. Three Wilsons wore 28. One Ike and one Dwight, both first names, wore the No. 34. Reggie Cleveland notably wore the No. 22, though not the No. 24.

There are other close calls. The Washington Senators had an infielder named John Kennedy, who wore No. 34 in 1962, No. 36 in 1963, and also shared a May 29 birthday with John F. Kennedy, the 35th president. There was also a John Fitzgerald who wore the No. 35 for his one big league appearance in 1958.

Then there’s No. 41 Guy Bush, who played with the Cubs in the 1920s and 30s. He died in 1985, four years before George H.W. Bush would become the 41st U.S. president.

Otis Nixon wore #1, as in "the first president to resign."

To paraphrase Outkast, what's more trivial than trival? Stupid!

https://i.postimg.cc/MpsxVGRb/trivial.jpg

Hey Ira! (Flagstead)

Have you ever seen a center fielder tag someone out at home plate? Well here you go! pic.twitter.com/MORPFxt5Tp

— WOSN Sports (@WOSNScores) May 25, 2024

he ran right into the CF's trap

J.D. Martinez's 321st career HR tonight was his first-ever walk-off. Not sure if anybody keeps records on that kind of thing, but the odds on that seem very long.

If it was his first walk off, that would be crazy.

But first walk off homer? Can only happen at home, team has to be losing by as many runs are om base - 1, j.d has to be in that batting order.... and then he has to hit a home run! Without doing any math, I'd say the 250-350 range is where the statistics favour this being an almost definite thing

JD has hit 4 HRs in a game which honestly is much more impressive (and rare).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szf0TeB2PKY

Walk-offs are easily checkable on Baseball Reference. Looking at the three guys ahead of J.D. for career HR, there's Bryce Harper (6 career walk-offs), Vinnie Castilla (3), and Troy Glaus (6); behind him, Jay Bruce had 5 (including his very first HR), then there's the two Fielders, Cecil (2) and Prince (4).

6, 3, 6, 5, 2, 4--more in line with what I'd expect.

https://www.mlb.com/news/most-career-walk-off-home-runs-in-mlb-history-c275821150

Steve: four HR in a game is definitely more impressive--hitting 320 HR before you hit your first walk-off is almost the opposite of impressive--but I doubt it's rarer, not unless you can find 18 other players (how many who've had 4-HR games) who hit that many HR without a walk-off.

Tonight's game between the Nationals and Rockies was the first in Major League history to end in a walk-off victory on a pitch clock violation.

— Jessica Camerato (@JessicaCamerato) June 23, 2024

does anyone recall seeing a [6 - 3 - 4/5] gb double play where it's intentionally thrown to first to get a speedy runner, followed by a non-force out of a slowboy that was on 1st to complete the double play?

sorry that's 5 - 3 - 4/6

Never seen one of those. Just 3UA - tag at 2nd.

Yeah or the guy on first is out because they’ve thrown from third to first and he’s caught off the bag.

Watching Braves-Yankees and YES network said this about Max Fried, but I can’t find anything about this anywhere else (tbf, a couple of minutes googling):

Announcer says he wears 54 because “his favourite pitcher of all time is Sandy Koufax and his favourite pitcher growing up is Clayton Kershaw, so he added Koufax’s 32 and Kershaw’s 22 for 54”

Cal Raleigh: first @MLB player to homer from both sides of plate in a state (CALifornia) that starts with his first name.

Only Chili Davis at CHI (7/30/88) & Milton Bradley at MIL (4/18/05) have done it in a CITY that starts with the first 3 letters of first name. #TheMayerGWS

— Alex Mayer (@alexmayer34) July 10, 2024

truly a trivial occurrence lol

Braves booth (Brandon Gaudin and CJ Nitkowski, 10000000x better than Chip Caray + anybody) last night was speculating whether there have ever been two A.J.s in one bullpen or on one pitching staff before now. (AJ Minter & AJ Smith-Shawver)

closest i can come is that a.j. burnett and j.a. happ were both in pittsburgh in 2015