RISPectful record
Baseball's postseason is in mid-swing (sorry about that, I just can't resist a good pun), but let's not move too quickly past the regular season. If we don't focus enough on the first season, there's little point in being a Cubs fan. The Cardinals posted an offensive number during this year's summer campaign that is absolutely astonishing. The team's collective batting average with runners in scoring position (on second and/or third base) was the highest of any club in baseball's recorded history. Play-by-play data that tracks this statistic only goes back to roughly World War II, but the Cards' 2013 number is far and away the top one ever posted. Here are the top 5 all-time...
1. 2013 ST. LOUIS .330 (447 out of 1,355)
2. 1950 Boston (AL) .312
3. 1996 Colorado .311
4. 2007 Detroit .311
5. 2000 Colorado .309
Look at that gap, would ya'?! For what it's worth, the 18 point difference between number one and number two on the list is larger than the one between number two and number 40. The next highest team average in the league this year was .282. The Cards could use more of that magic in NLDS Game 5 tomorrow night. Their unique talent in this regard has not been much on display during the current series, but some of that may have to do with the absence of Allen Craig (pictured above), who is off the roster for this round with a sprained leg. He tops all of his teammates with a .454 average with runners poised to score.
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We all know that there's an ingrained plantation mentality when it comes to college athletics, but it’s especially creepy to me when coaches refer to the athletes on their team as “kids.”
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Quote of the day: "The Amazing Sneijderman," Deadspin commenter, in response to a suggestion by a writer on the site to read the entire text of the lawsuit filed by Alex Rodriguez against Major League Baseball and commissioner Bud Selig: "I'm sure it's really great stuff, Barry, but with so few games left to attend, will anyone actually have time to finish the whole thing?"
Normally, I get annoyed when people call baseball boring, but that’s a funny line.
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Quote of the day II: Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon, talking about the dramatic ending to an important game played in the other league last night, "I swear, I was looking down on my card, and you're preparing for what's going to happen. Their pitchers are so good. And then I hear that thing you hear on the radio back in the day, when you're listening to the Cardinals on KMOX, lying on the floor in Hazleton, Pa., that knock. And I look up and the ball is going toward the tank -- whock! -- nobody hits home runs there. Nobody does. How about that? That's incredible."
Maddon name-drops the Cardinals more often than Jon Hamm does.
posted by CM @ 8:29 PM
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