Stolen Base and Base on Balls Highs & Lows

Fewest Base on Balls (plate appearances per, min. 5900 PA)

Shawon Dunston, 203 BB, 6276 PA, 30.92 PA/BB
Charlie Comiskey, 197, 6005, 30.48
Ozzie Guillen, 239, 7133, 29.84
Art Fletcher, 203, 6039, 29.75
Hal Chase, 276, 7939, 28.76
Everett Scott, 243, 6373, 26.23
Tom Corcoran, 382, 9339, 24.45
Enos Cabell, 255, 6304, 24.34
Willie Davis, 418, 9822, 23.50
Ivy Olson, 285, 6630, 23.26

Most Base on Balls (plate appearances per, min. 5900 PA)

Ted Williams, 2019 BB, 9769 PA, 4.84 PA/BB
Barry Bonds (thru 6/28/07), 2504, 12397, 4.95
Babe Ruth, 2062, 10617, 5.15
Mickey Mantle, 1733, 9871, 5.70
Eddie Yost, 1604, 9164, 5.71
Jim Thome (thru 6/28/07), 1412, 8094, 5.73
Mark McGwire, 1317, 7660, 5.82
Frank Thomas (thru 6/28/07), 1596, 9461, 5.93
Joe Morgan, 1865, 11329, 6.07
Rickey Henderson, 2190, 13346, 6.09

Fewest Plate Appearances per Stolen Base (min. 5900 PA)

Vince Coleman, 752 SB, 5970 PA, 7.94 PA/SB
Billy Hamilton, 912, 7576, 8.31
Rickey Henderson, 1406, 13346, 9.49
Lou Brock, 938, 11235, 11.98
Willie Wilson, 668, 8317, 12.45
Jack Doyle, 516, 6570, 12.73
Tim Raines, 808, 10359, 12.82
Davey Lopes, 557, 7340, 13.18
Hugh Duffy, 574, 7745, 13.49
Delino DeShields, 463, 6652, 14.36

Most Plate Appearances per Stolen Base (min. 5900 PA)

Cecil Fielder, 2 SB, 5939 PA, 2969.5 PA/SB
Jay Buhner, 6, 5927, 987.8
Frank Howard, 8, 7353, 919.1
John Olerud, 11, 9063, 823.9
Ernie Lombardi, 8, 6349, 793.6
Vic Wertz, 9, 7020, 780.0
Carlos Delgado (thru 6/28/07), 11, 7577, 688.8
Mark McGwire, 12, 7660, 638.3
Rico Petrocelli, 10, 6170, 617.0
Deron Johnson, 11, 6620, 601.8

Loney's no Baloney

First baseman James Loney of the Dodgers is making major league pitching look like Little League stuff. He's now batting .478 (22 for 46) since being called up a few weeks ago. He's slugging .848 with 14 RBIs, has hit safely in all 10 starts and is 3 for 4 as a pinch-hitter. Whoa, Nellie--think he can keep it up? He showed promise in his first big league stint last year, batting .284 and slugging .559. Twenty-four of his 51 career hits are for extra bases, inclding an impressive 7 triples in just 148 career at bats! And he strikes out less than once every 10 ABs! This dude looks for real!

Trouble Hitting Triples

Congrats to Frank Thomas on his 500th homer today. Frank is now one of the elite in touching all four bases. But his record is less auspicious when it comes to triples--he's only hit 11 for his career. His rate of at bats per triple is the "highest" (i.e., worst) of any player who ever had 7000+ ABs, and third-worst among those with 6000+ . And all three of those worst are active or recent player. Here's the list:

Mark McGwire, 6 triples in 6187 AB, 1031.2 AB per triple
Mike Piazza (active), 7 in 6705, 957.9
Frank Thomas (active), 11 in 7666, 696.9
Boog Powell, 11 in 6681, 607.4
Eric Karros, 11 in 6441, 585.5
John Olerud, 13 in 7592, 584.0
Robin Ventura, 14 in 7064, 504.6
Jose Canseco, 14 in 7057, 504.1

The old Bash Brothers of Oakland may have bashed plenty over the walls, but they were more crash than dash when it came to legging it out on a gapper. Those two form the top and bottom slice of bread on this triple-less sandwich.

More on Fewest Saves

Expanding the lowest save percentage to include those with between 500 and 600 career games pitched in relief (GPIR), we find two active guys with miniscule save percentages!

Rheal Cormier, 575 GPIR, 2 saves, 0.35 %
Ray King, 543GPIR, 2 S, 0.37 %

Both these guys are lefties who usually are brought in to face only one or sometimes two batters, and so rarely finish games. Others of note:

Felix Heredia, 509, 6, 1.18 %
Tony Fossas, 567, 7, 1.23 %
Dennis Cook, 594, 9, 1.5 %
Russ Springer, 528 (thru 6/26/07), 8, 1.5 %

One guy with just under 500 GPIR:

Jason Grimsley, 480, 4, 0.83 %

And another Jason with a HIGH percentage just under 500 GPIR:

Jason Isringhausen, 485, 263, 54.2 %


Most of the highest and lowest percentage guys are from recent years. It would seem that, whereas pitching staffs used to spread the saves around a bit more (quality guys like Rollie Fingers and Goose Gossage only had saves in 37.6 % and 32.1 % of appearances, respectively), they now specialize to such an extent that one guy often has 95+ % of a team's saves in any given year. So if guys go their whole career without ever being the main closer, the saves are few and far between, instead of still collecting around 5 or so a year as in earlier years (1960s-80s).

Hot Young Hitter

The dude that just hit a walk-off 3-run pinch-hit homer for Cleveland, 27-year-old Kelly Shoppach, is now batting .382 (26 for 68) with 8 doubles, 4 homers, and 9 walks for a .676 slugging pct. and .455 on-base pct. The catcher is not getting many starts because he's on the same team as catcher Victor Martinez, who's having a career year with .313 avg., 14 HR and 62 RBI's. But Shoppach is either gonna have to find another position, or the Indians will be trading one of them, because Shoppach's stats aren't those of a back-up catcher!

Relievers with Lowest & Highest Percent of Saves

I didn't realize before just how unlikely it was that Alan Embree, at age 37 and in his 13th year as a reliever in the majors, would at this stage in his career get a chance (due to Huston Street's injury) to be a closer. A little research reveals that, before this season, Embree actually had the LOWEST EVER percentage of saves in relations to games pitched in relief among those who've pitched 600+ games in relief. Before this year, he had 8 career saves in 704 games pitched in relief, for a percentage of 1.1. In 12 seasons, his high in saves was 2, achieved exactly twice. Four other years, he had 1 save, and six times he had zero. Now, in the last month or so, he's doubled his career total with 8 more! He's also moved "down" (or is it"up"?) the list of "top" (bottom?) 10 in terms of LOWEST percentage of saves to games pitched in relief:

Rich Rodriguez, 607 games in relief, 8 saves, 1.3 %
Mike Myers, 848 (thru 6/25/07), 14 S, 1.7 %
Mark Guthrie, 722, 14, 1.9 %
Steve Reed, 833, 18, 2.161 %
Alan Embree, 740 (thru 6/25/07), 16, 2.162 %
Chuck McElroy, 647, 17, 2.6 %
Paul Quantrill, 777, 21, 2.7 %
Hector Carrasco, 636 (thru 6/25/07), 19, 3.0 %
Bob Groom, 771, 27, 3.5 %
Julian Tavarez, 615 (thru 6/25/07, now starting), 22, 3.6 %

And the HIGHEST percentage of saves to games in relief, among those with 600+ such games:
Trevor Hoffman, 849 (thru 6/25/07), 501, 59.0 %
Mariano Rivera, 737 (thru 6/25/07), 422, 57.3 %
Dennis Eckersley, 710, 390, 54.93 %
John Wetteland, 601, 330, 54.91 %
Troy Percival, 605 (thru 6/25/07), 324, 53.6 %
Billy Wagner, 684, 339, 49.6 %
Rick Aguilera, 643, 318, 49.5 %
Rob Nen, 639, 314, 49.1 %
Randy Myers (no relation to Mike), 716, 347, 48.5 %
Tom Henke, 642, 311, 48.4 %
Lee Smith, 1016, 478, 47.0 %
Bruce Sutter, 661, 300, 45.4 %

Just one more entry full of fascinating, totally useless information!

A Good Hart

How's this for a hot streak: Corey Hart (who I just added to my Fantasy team a week ago) has gone: in his last 8 games: 14 hits in 38 AB (.368) with 5 homers, 11 runs and 13 RBI's (and 3 stolen bases)
In the month of June (19 games so far): 25 for 77 (.325) with 8 HR, 19 runs, 18 RBI's and 7 SB's.
Hart is a 25 year old rightfielder with the Brewers who played just over half a season as an official rookie last year after a 21-game stint in 2005.
Perhaps most impressive is his speed/power combo. 30 HR and 30 RBI's is the well established standard. 40-40 has only been accomplished a handful of times. Consider this: if his most recent 19-game rate were extended across a 162-game season, he'd have approximately 68 homers and 60 SB's! If there ever were a 60-60 guy, the world would crown him superman!
By the way, 2007 could be the first season in quite a few years without a 30-30 guy. As we near the midpoint of the season, the best prospects are Brandon Phillips (13 HR, 15 SB) and Jimmy Rollins (13 each). But Phillips' previous career high in HR's is 17, and Rollins' HR production has fallen off (4 in last 51 games) after an explosive April.

Next come David Wright (12 HR, 16 SB), Grady Sizemore (11 and 22), Eric Byrnes (11 and 14) and Ian Kinsler (13 and 11).

My Doggie, Part II

My wife reminds me that I should mention how Bowser got his name. My wife was watching her Braves on TBS one night soon after we brought the pup home, and heard them talking about Jeff Blauser. "Blauser," she repeated. "That would make a good name for our dog." Not wanting him saddled with the handle of a 3rd-rate infielder from my rival team, I talked her into dropping the "l" and changing the spelling to the standard doggie name.

My Doggie

On a personal, completely non-baseball note (although he is a big Cardinals fan, despite my wife's claims of seeing him do the Tomahawk Chop): Happy 14th Birthday to Bowser, our miniature schnauser. He's deaf and slow these days, but precious to us, all the more so after life-saving emergency surgery last Sept. I'm glad he's still here to celebrate another birthday. Can you tell we're kind of sweet on this mutt of ours?!

Gagne's Back

It looks like closer Eric Gagne is back in top form after overcoming some serious injury problems the past two years, and on into this year. Gagne was unimpressive in his first two years in the bigs as a starter. Then the Dodgers moved him to closer in 2002. And it was lights out! For the next three years, through 2004, he had 52, 55, and 45 saves in consecutive years (152 total saves in three consecutive seasons is a record that may last a long, long time). His ERA's during those years? 1.97, 1.20, and 2.19. Oh, yeah, and he had, for the 3 years combined, 365 K's in 247 innings! In 2003, way over half (137, or very close to it) of the 247 outs he recorded were by strikeout. I believe he set an unbelievable record for number of consecutive saves in save opportunities (i.e., wihtout blowing any saves) during that time.
Then, as I said, injuries came into play, limiting him to 16 games and 9 saves in 2005-6. This year, he's missed some time in both April and May. Beginning with May 29, however, he's saved 5 games (and won one today!) and allowed no runs in 8 2/3 innings with 10 K's. He'd have considerably more saves were he not with the hapless Texas Rangers. Still, his 0.50 ERA so far has to be encouraging. If he's back all the way, and can sustain it without injury, at age 31 he still can be one of if not THE greatest, most ting closer ever (most folks, I suppose, would rank Eckersley or possibly Rivera, who seems to be back on track, for best ever as of now).

Ryan who? Ludwick, that's who!

Outfielder Ryan Ludwick's walk-off homer for the Cardinals in the 14th inning last night was his fourth homer in his past 24 at bats, this after having no home runs in the previous 58 at bats this season. I think this guy likes the clutch: his other 3 homers are a tie-breaking (eventually game-winning) three run shot in the 7th (he had a 2-run hit in the ninth in that game, too), a 9th inning pinch hit homer, and a game-tying pinch homer in the 7th inning. Not bad for a dude I'd never heard of until a month or so ago. He's 28 years old, and has shown promising power (13 HR in 227 AB) in parts of three seasons from 2003-05 with the Indians (he apparently spent all of 2006 in the minors). The hang up has been (and continues to be) his average: now .238 for his 137-game career. Here's hoping that improves, and he resembles Mike Schmidt (whose early average problems improved as his career went on) more than Dave Kingman (whose average remained miserable for most of his career).

Most Strikeouts in Season by Pitching Teammates

665 Randy Johnson (372) and Curt Schilling (293), 2001 D'backs
650 R. Johnson (334) and Schilling (316), 2002 D'backs
624 Nolan Ryan (383) and Bill Singer (241), 1973 Angels
592 Sandy Koufax (382) and Don Drysdale (210), 1965 Dodgers
588 Nolan Ryan (327) and Frank Tanana (261), 1976 Angels
557 Sandy Koufax (306) and Don Drysdale (251), 1963 Dodgers
550 Rube Waddell (349) and Eddie Plank (201), 1904 Philadelphia A's
547 Nolan Ryan (367) and Frank Tanana (180), 1974 Angels
547 Sam McDowell (283) and Luis Tiant (264), 1968 Indians
546 Nolan Ryan (341) and Frank Tanana (205), 1977 Angels
544 Mickey Lolich (308) and Joe Coleman (236) 1971 Tigers

Widest Margin to Lead the Majors in Wins

Since 1900:
+9 Walter Johnson, 1913, 36 wins (2nd, 27 by Tom Seaton)
+9 Lefty Grove, 1931, 31 (22, Wes Ferrell)
+8 Grover Alexander, 1916, 33 (25, Walter Johnson & Jeff Pfeffer)
+7 Joe McGinnity, 1900, 29 (22, William Kennedy)
+7 Cy Young, 1901, 33 (26, Joe McGinnity)
+6 Jack Chesbro, 1904, 41 (35, Joe McGinnity)
+6 Don Newcombe, 1956, 27 (21, Frank Lary)
+5 Christy Mathewson, 1905, 31 (26, Rube Waddell)
+5 Dazzy Vance, 1924, 28 (23, Walter Johnson)
+5 Bob Feller, 1940, 27 (22, Bucky Walters)
+5 Denny McLain, 1968, 31 (26 Juan Marichal)
+5 Bob Welch, 1990, 27 (22, Dave Stewart & Doug Drabek)

Cust Saved, Roaring Lamb

Well, it looks like my Cardinals have extended Jack Cust's chance to make a career for himself in the majors. Cust is the 28-year-old slugger who had hit just 5 homers in 144 at bats in parts of 5 seasons with four different teams before this year. Then, with the A's as his fifth team, he started the year on fire, hitting six homers in his first seven games and eight in his first 13 after getting called up in early May. Then, word is, the scouting report became known that what had kept him in the minors all these years was he couldn't hit the breaking ball. And the bottom fell out: from May 22 to June 14, he had 7 hits in 52 AB's with exactly zero homers, one run, two ribbies and 23 K's--ouch! Many were surprised he was still on the roster as the series with the Cards started on Friday. I don't know if the Cards have been feeding him fastballs or what (of course, the Cards have one of the worst starting rotations in memory: their best ERA is a dismal 4.66!), but Cust has proceeded to go 8 for 10 with 6 runs scored, 3 RBI's and (today) a homer.

Meanwhile, Mike Lamb is coming on like a lion for the Astros: he's 11 for 15 with 2 homers and 10 RBI's (including a grand slam today) in his last 4 games. Lamb is a guy who shown lots of potential in the past but at age 31 remained a part-time starter (usually platooning, sitting out against lefties). Who knows, maybe these hot streaks will be turning points in these guys' careers.

Willie Harris, .400 Hitter

Did you know that the majors had a .400 hitter this late into the season? Willie Harris of the Braves has gone 8 for his last 10 to raise his average to .412 for the year. Trouble is, he's still only starting half the time, almost never against lefties and not always against right-handed starting pitchers. He's actually been over .400 most of the year, having dropped below it before his current sizzling hot streak. And with 8 doubles in 97 AB's, his slugging percentage is .546, even though he only has one homer! With 8 stolen bases in 10 tries in the mix, you'd think Bobby Cox might write his name on the line up card at least five or six times a week.

Rose's Dubious Record

Ever wonder how Pete Rose managed to break Ty Cobb's hit record despite a much lower career average? Look no further than the single season plate appearance leaders. Rose is the only name to appear more than once among the top ten, and his appears four times! When the next player to repeat on the list, Ichiro Suzuki, shows up a second time tied for 16th all-time with 752 just last year, one of those he's tied with is--you guessed it--Pete Rose, listed for the fifth time. I guess something can be said for longevity and consistency, and staying healthy. But the guy wasn't even among the elite hitters of his generation! (Carew and Clemente, certainly, would rank as better hitters of his time). He just wore down that record by showing up at the plate 1870 more times (the equivalent of three full years) than any other player in history.

It's About Time!

Under the category of "Good Things Come to Those Who Wait":
Before the past 3 weeks, Alan Embree had pitched in 729 games, all but four of them in relief. How many saves did he have to show for his efforts? Would you believe a total of 8? Now, suddenly, at the age of 37, with A's closer Huston Street on the DL, Embree has gotten the chance to be a closer, at least temporarily, after 15 years of toil with eight different clubs. And he's making the most of it, with 7 saves in his first eight chances.

Al Reyes of Tampa Bay has a similar story. The 37-year-old Dominican bounced between the majors and minors for 11 years, 1995-2005, earning a total of six saves in almost 300 games. After not appearing in the majors at all last year, he won the closing role this year, and has responded with a perfect 17 saves in 17 opportunities. There's a lesson in persevering to make your dreams come true in these guys' stories.

Triple Splurge

Curtis Granderson of the Detroit Tigers had a recent 8-game stretch in which he hit 6 triples. If that doesn't sound so impressive, consider that those 6 triples alone would put him in 4th place in the majors after 60 games. He now has 12 in 60 games, an impressive rate of one every 5 games, which would give him 30 or more for the year, a number reached just once in the last 100+ years. Even more impressive, Granderson also has 19 doubles, which with 8 homers and a .291 avg. gives him a .583 slugging percentage, 8th best in the majors.

500 HR Club Redoux

I mentioned a month ago that 2007 could see as many as four additions to the 500 HR club (Frank Thomas, A-Rod, Jim Thome, and Manny Ramirez). All would still seem a pretty good bet to make it: Manny is most in doubt. He only needed 30 HR this season to hit 500, and he's hit over 30 (often WELL over) the past 9 and 11 of the past 12 years. But so far in 2007, he's only got 8, so he'll need to pick it up (I still wouldn't bet against him). Another interesting development: Seemingly washed up Gary Sheffield has found new life, hitting 15 homers in just over 1/3 of a season. If he hits 30 more, he'll hit 500 this year!

The club admissions HAVE come in bunches before. Consider this: From the time Ruth inagurated the club in 1929 through 1964, only three other players earned admittance (Foxx, Ott, and Ted Williams. Lou Gehrig certainly would have made it, but ALS struck him at age 36 or 37 and froze him at 493 HR). Then, from 1965 through 1971, the club mushroomed suddenly from 4 to 11 (adding Mays in '65, Mantle and Mathews in '67 (all "Ma"'s!), Aaron in '68, Banks in '70 and Killebrew and Frank Robinson in '71.) Then from 1972 to 1995, only 3 more were added (McCovey in '78, Reggie Jackson in '84, and Mike Schmidt in '87). Eddie Murray joined in '96, then the floodgates (or should I say "juiced blood" gates) opened again, with McGwire added in '99, Bonds in '01, Palmeiro and Sosa in '03, and Griffey (who just might have done it cleanly) in '04, for a bloated total of 20, and still expanding. Soon very few fans, no matter how rabid, will be able to name every member from memory (I doubt I could without reviewing the list immediately before trying).

Schilling Comes Within an Out of a No-No

Curt Schilling just had a no-hitter broken up with two out in the 9th by Shannon Stewart. Schilling then retired the next batter (who was the potential winning run!) to win 1-0. Schilling had a perfect game through the first 14 batters before a batter reached on an error. Too bad for Curt. At least he didn't blow the win!

4 Ks in Inning Oddity

Most folks think 3 strike outs in an inning is the maximum, "striking out the side," since, by definition, 3 outs of any kind means the inning is over. But they still credit the pitcher with a "strike out" even when the last strike is dropped or otherwise hits the ground, and the batter reaches base before being tagged or thrown out. So FOUR strikouts in an inning has been done 46 times over the years. Here's the oddity: only one pitcher has done it more than once (Chuck Finley) and he did it THREE times. Not only that, the three occurrences were all in less than a year's time! (5-15-99, 8-15-99, and 4-16-00). Must have some full moons in the middle of those months!

ANother oddity: I recognize three knuckleballers among those who've done it (that's not so odd, since a knuckleball strike is more likely to be a wild pitch or passed ball). The odd part: Phil Niekro did it in 1977, Charlie Hough in 1988, and Tim Wakefield in 1999.

And what, you may ask, about Steve Carlton, Nolan Ryan, Bob Feller, Sam McDowell, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Sandy Koufax, or Pedro Martinez? Not a one of them did it even once.

500 Saves, redoux

My man (on my Fantasy team, so he's "my man") Trevor Hoffman is within one save now of 500. An incredible feat--to be consistent enough to remain the "closer" for enough years to compile that many saves. Any chance the FIRST guy to 400, to 450 and to 475 (Lee Smith) could get his ticket punched to Cooperstown? Please?!

Power Outage

The big home run hitters get all the glory--how's about the guys LEAST likely to hit one out? Starting with the highest at bats for a career and working our way down:
Hall-of-Famer Rabbit Maranville managed 28 HR in 10,078 AB (1 for every 359.9 AB) from 1912-35--the last 2/3rds of his career, then, was after Ruth showed how it COULD be done.
Ozzie Smith had the same number (and made the same Hall) in a few fewer AB's (28 in 9396, 1/335.6) from 1978-96. The rarity of the feat for the Wizard of Oz might explain why Jack Buck was so stunned when Ozzie did it in the 1985 NLCS that he could only say, "Go crazy, folks; go crazy!"
Larry Bowa outdid both of these, hitting 15 in 8418 (1/561.2), less than one a year from 1970-85.
Don Kessinger did only slightly better, with 14 in 7651 (546.5) from 1964-79. All four so far were middle infielders.
Then we have somebody named Donie Bush, who managed 9 HR in 7210 AB (801.1) in the dead-ball days of 1908-23 (including 1 in his last 3288).
Eddie Foster managed 6 in 5652 (942), including none in his last 2702, in the same era as Bush.
The next notable recent (my lifetime) guy is Otis Nixon, with 11 HR in 5115 AB (465).
The guy with the most ABs to rank fewer than 1 HR per 1000 AB is Jimmy Slagle, who incredibly had only 2 in 4996 AB, one every 2498! He played from 1899-1908. Muddly Ruel also ranked "over" 1000, with 4 in 4514 (1128.5), and his career (1915-34) extended into the early power days. Al Bridwell hit 2 in 4169 (2084.5) from 1905-15, and Tommy Thevenow had 2 in 4164 (2082) in the power-packed years of 1924-38. (MLB lists Davy Force with 1 in 4251, but that included the pre-major years of 1871-75. Same with Bob Ferguson, 1 in 3468, 1871-84)
Some more recent players of note: Bud Harrelson, 7 in 4744 (677.7), 1965-80;
Jerry Remy, 7 in 4455 (636.4), 1975-84;
Roger Metzger, 5 in 4201 (840.2), 1970-80.
Frank Taveras outdid all his contemporaries of 4000+ AB. He hit 2 HR in 4043 (2021.5) from 1971-82. He and Nixon could steal a base, but didn't quite have the "power/speed" combo thing down.
A lot of people's choice as worst HR hitter all-time is Duane Kuiper. He hit one solitary homer in 3379 AB from 1974-85.
Emil Verban had 1 in 2911 from 1944-50. (Dave Eggler and Mike McGeary had 0 in over 2400 AB each, but that includes 1871-75 again) Bill Holbert had 0 in 2393 from 1876-88. Not only that, he had a .208 career average and .232 slugging pct., yet stuck around for the 1st 13 years of the NL!
In our day, again: Enzo Hernandez had 2 in 2327 (1163.5) from 1971-78, a .224 avg. and .266 slugging pct.
Rafael Belliard had 2 in 2301 (1150.1), 1982-98. Despite a .221 career average and .259 slugging, Rafael only changed teams once in 17 years!
Woody Woodward had exactly 1 HR in 2187 AB, 1963-71.
And the modern-day (post 1900) non-pitching player with the most AB without ever hitting a homer? Tom Oliver, with the ultimate power outage in 1931 AB in power-crazy 1930-33. Unlike many other guys on this list, Oliver was a decent hitter: 101 doubles, a .277 avg. and half-way decent .340 slugging pct.

Am I living up to the promise of providing totally fascinating, useless information, or what?!

My Man Franco

48-year-old Julio Franco stole a base yesterday, his second in limited playing time this year. My hero! I may have mentioned earlier, Franco is going where no man has gone before. A few pitchers (knuckleballers Phil Neikro and Hoyt Wilhelm, old-timer Jack Quinn) pitched regularly to age 48 and beyond. And a few position players (Minnie Minoso, for one) made a few token, gimmick appearances older than that. But, according to my research, Franco is the first player in the 132 year history of major league baseball to continue playing an offensive (non-pitching) position as a regular, continuous member of a roster past age 46. Carlton Fisk? Topped out by then. Pete Rose? Same thing? Many Mota? Not even close. Franco is a freak of nature. I went to a Braves-Mets game last year and saw two players to tell my grandkids about. First, I saw Pedro Martinez, who may end up the greatest winning percentage pitcher of all-time (at least among those with 150+ wins). And his ERA vs. the average ERA of his time would likely be near the best all-time. But perhaps an even greater story will be seeing 47-year-old Julio Franco hit a 2-run double and field his potition flawlessly. Go, Julio, my hero!

Magglio's Doublemania

Magglio Ordonez leads the majors by a good bit with 26 doubles in 52 games so far, an incredible double every two games rate. Can he become the first since 1936 to hit 60+ doubles in a season? (Todd Helton just missed in 200 with 59). We'll see. In his favor are his consistency so far (13 doubles in April, 13 in May), his durability (playing in 52 of 53 games so far) and a decent history of hitting 'em in the past (47 and 46 in 2002 and 2003). Against him? He hasn't hit so many the past 3 years, and he can't expect to continue his torrid hittting (.345 so far, a good bit above his career average) for a full season. Still, I hope he makes it. One other note: Ordonez's doubles and average have enabled him to take the major league lead in slugging pct. (.660), despite having only 12 HR's compared to A-Rod's and Prince Fielder's 19.