Boy, oh boy. Has this been the Weirdest and Wildest first week of a season ever, or what?
The Yankees unleashed a brand new bat after which hit extra house runs than I’m fairly positive the White Sox hit all final season. … A catcher hit for the cycle, in a park that had by no means earlier than hosted a big-league sport. … A pitcher made it to house plate and obtained a success earlier than a complete slew of men who receives a commission to get these hits. … To not point out we had a man get harm throughout a house run trot — and one other man get harm (and laughed at by his spouse) throughout a bathe.
However the very best half about this week is that baseball was again, so let’s get rolling and …
Slam the torpedoes
If this version of Bizarre and Wild appears particularly hard-hitting, that’s as a result of I’m writing it on my new Torpedo Laptop computer … specifically fitted with my private Torpedo Keyboard … and brilliantly displayed on my fabulous Torpedo Monitor. Oh, and I’m truly consuming a scrumptious Torpedo Sandwich as I’m typing it.
It’s simply extra proof of a greater life via torpedoes. And also you don’t even must take my phrase for it. Simply ask the Yankees. They exist to remind us that every one you want is a helpful dandy MIT physicist on your employees … and also you’ll be happier, too. You may also be hitting cleanup for the Pirates by subsequent week, however no ensures on that.
Because of the Yankees and the funky torpedo bats, we’ve generated someplace within the neighborhood of 800,000 phrases price of revelatory baseball torpedo literature on this website within the final week. And likewise due to these torpedo bats, we’re not completed!
As a result of now it’s the Bizarre and Wild column’s flip.
How’d the Yankees’ first torpedo-driven homestand of the season go? Thanks for asking. It went kinda like this:
Leadoff insanity — The Yankees have performed baseball for 123 seasons. They’ve gained greater than 10,000 video games. They’ve performed in 41 World Collection. I used to be virtually considering there wasn’t a lot left that they haven’t completed.
Ha, ha, ha. Yeah, positive. On Opening Day, they jogged our reminiscence — that they’d by no means began a catcher within the leadoff spot … they usually’d additionally by no means led off any of these earlier 122 seasons with a house run … till 2025 arrived and …
So take into consideration this: Rickey Henderson, Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon, Brett Gardner, Alfonso Soriano as soon as led off greater than 3,000 video games for the Yankees — and by no means did this. In reality, in line with YES Community’s James Smyth, no Yankee had even led off a season with any sort of extra-base hit since Roger Maris did it … in 1960.
However Austin Wells, within the first sport main off in his big-league life, went deep to start out the season. Baseball. It’s wonderful.
20 is lots — Then got here Saturday. Yankees 20, Brewers 9. Stuff occurred:
• Nestor Cortes! He appeared kinda acquainted. He’d spent the previous 4 seasons pitching for the Yankees. One in all his many specialties in New York was maintaining the baseball within the park he was pitching in. In reality, he’d made it via his remaining 36 begins in a row for the Yankees with out giving up three house runs in any of them.
Then, within the first sport he began towards the Yankees after his commerce to Milwaukee, he served up three house runs on his first three pitches. Baseball began maintaining monitor of pitch counts in 1988. Earlier than Saturday, you understand how many pitchers had ever completed that to start out off a sport? That will be none. In fact.
Additionally, you understand how many pitchers within the division-play period (1969-present) have ever allowed homers to the primary three hitters they confronted for his or her new crew? That, in line with STATS, would even be none. In fact.
• 9 house runs! We’re every week into the season … 19 groups nonetheless haven’t hit 9 house runs all season … At one level Thursday, the Rockies, Rays and Astros had solely hit 9 mixed … Babe Ruth as soon as went 15 straight months late in his profession with out hitting 9 in a month … Babe Ruth! … However on Saturday, the Yankees hit 9 in sooner or later.
• To not point out 20 runs! Do you know it took the Yankees fewer video games to place a 20 on the board this season than it took Daniel Jones and people New York soccer Giants final season? The Giants didn’t rating 20 (or extra) till Sport 3. They didn’t do it at house till November. However the Yankees fired up a 20 Saturday in Sport 2, in simply six spins via their batting order — whereas throwing two fewer interceptions than Jones by the way in which.
Judgement Day — Aaron Choose, man. He pounded three house runs Saturday. He virtually hit 5. He had an opportunity to hit a fourth house run off a place participant (extra on that later). He did whomp a fourth homer of the season the following day. So can we take this man as a right? I generally suppose we do.
Ever heard of Ronald Acuña Jr.? Fairly good participant proper? He performed 49 video games final 12 months earlier than he obtained harm — and had 4 house runs and 15 RBIs. In the meantime, that Aaron Choose man had 4 house runs and 11 RBIs within the first collection of this season.
Cheaper by the dozen — Do you know that at one level, the Yankees hit 12 house runs in 11 innings on Saturday and Sunday? Is that ridiculous or what? I requested the nice Katie Sharp of Baseball Reference what number of groups have ever completed that.
Just one different crew has: the 1999 Cincinnati Reds, in back-to-back video games in Philadelphia, on Sept. 4 and 5. You realize who performed third base in these two video games for the Reds? A fellow named Aaron Boone.
Loopy eights — Lastly, I discovered this type of amusing: By Sunday night time, the Yankees already had eight gamers who had hit a homer. The Mets at that time solely had six gamers who had hit a single. However in fact, simply a kind of groups had bats designed by their resident MIT physicist. I’m wondering which one!
It’s all cyclical in Sacramento
Sutter Well being Park: House of the A’s. (Ed Szczepanski / Imagn Pictures)
They play Main League Baseball in Sacramento, Calif., now. It hasn’t been boring.
Cycle race — Earlier than Monday, earlier than the massive leagues confirmed up in Sacramento, no Cub had hit for the cycle in 32 years. In reality, just one catcher on any crew had ever hit for the cycle anyplace within the state of California — and that was Charlie Moore, in Anaheim, 45 years in the past.
However Cubs catcher Carson Kelly wasn’t alive to see any of that. So Sacramento, this was what a biking catcher appears like.
Carson Cycle Kelly. pic.twitter.com/NWJMNJeWUj
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 1, 2025
So what’s so Bizarre and Wild about that? Oh, simply a few issues. Nothing necessary:
• The A’s performed over 4,000 video games within the Coliseum in Oakland. Need to guess what number of visiting gamers — at any place — hit for the cycle there? By some means or different, that will be … zero! After which Carson Kelly hit for the cycle of their very first sport in Sacramento.
• Then once more, what have been the chances that anyone would hit for the cycle on Day 1 in any new park, underneath any circumstances? Ho-ho-ho. They have been so lengthy that, in line with my pals from STATS Carry out, no one had ever completed it within the first sport in any park.
• The earlier document for quickest cycle in a brand new park, in line with the unimaginable Kenny Jackelen of Baseball Reference, was set as not too long ago as … 122 years in the past! That one got here in Sport 3 on the late, nice Mahaffey Park in Cleveland, courtesy of Buck Freeman, of the Boston Individuals, who had himself a day towards the Cleveland Napoleons on June 21, 1903.
• Oh, and the document for quickest cycle at a present park is Sport 35, set by David Bell at Residents Financial institution Park in 2004. For what it’s price, after that, no Phillie hit for the cycle in that park once more for one more 20 years, till Weston Wilson broke that streak final 12 months.
• However none of that’s even my favourite a part of this cycle recap. Within the eighth inning of this sport, Kelly arrived at house plate for his remaining shot to finish a cycle. “All” he wanted was a triple (chuckle-chuckle). To not counsel that was unimaginable. However heading into that sport, right here have been all of the energetic gamers with no less than 1,800 profession plate appearances, 10 big-league seasons and not more than two triples:
Austin Hedges — 2,359 PA, 10 seasons, 2 triples
Carson Kelly — 1,809 PA, 10 seasons, 2 triples
A type of two males wanted a triple for the cycle — after which hit that triple. I really like baseball.
The Cubs’ 18 wheeler — However Kelly positive wasn’t the one Cub who was letting it fly in Sacramento that night time. The Cubs put up a four-run inning, a five-run inning, a six-run inning and 18 runs altogether — in an 18-3 blowout within the first big-league sport ever performed in Sacramento. And yeah, that was a factor, too.
• Shockingly, in line with STATS, this was not the worst loss a house crew had suffered in its first sport at its new ballpark. But it surely makes the leaderboard. The one worse defeat within the trendy period in a park’s debut belongs to Ozzie Guillen’s 1991 White Sox of their first sport at what was then referred to as the “new” Comiskey Park — a 16-0 bashing by Rob Deer’s ’91 Tigers.
• And for those who’d prefer to journey again to the beginnings of MLB within the nineteenth century, Kenny Jackelen dug up a 21-3 bludgeoning of Barney Gilligan’s 1885 Windfall Grays of their first sport on document on the Wright Avenue Grounds, to not be confused with the Floor Spherical.
• However you also needs to notice that within the very first major-league sport performed in Sacramento, the Cubs put up 18 runs, 20 hits and 10 extra-base hits. What number of instances did any crew have a sport like that within the Athletics’ 56 seasons within the Coliseum in Oakland? Proper you might be. That will be none.
Save the very best for final — Oh, and another factor: A pitcher obtained a save on this sport. Colin Rea wound up strolling out of the Cubs’ bullpen within the seventh inning — when it was “solely” a 16-3 sport. He caught round so lengthy, he truly obtained an at-bat (hanging out towards A’s catcher Jhonny Pereda) and pitched “successfully” sufficient that he obtained credit score for a save. In an 18-3 sport.
So sure, he owns extra saves proper now than Emmanuel Clase. And sure, he additionally owns the second save in historical past in an 18-3 sport. Joel Pineiro scarfed up the opposite one for the Cardinals on Aug. 22, 2008. Gotta love the save rule — virtually as a lot as we love baseball in Sacramento.
Strangest However Truest Accidents of the Week
Freddie Freeman was completed in by the dreaded “bathe mishap.” (Harry How / Getty Pictures)
THIRD PRIZE — Phillies reliever Matt Strahm needed to be scratched from his final look in spring coaching … due to a packing malfunction. He instructed the Bizarre and Wild column he was packing his daughter’s toys in a field and jammed the cardboard between his nail and finger. He additionally revealed it was his second packing harm of the spring.
“I’m going to have to purchase a home right here (in Florida),” he stated, “so I don’t must pack.”
SECOND PRIZE — When you at all times considered Freddie Freeman because the cleanest participant in baseball, are you positive that’s a great factor? He simply missed the Dodgers’ entire collection with the Braves, then went on the injured list, due to a dreaded “bathe mishap.” Which he stated was truly a technical time period for: slipping within the bathe. A lot to the amusement of his spouse, Chelsea, apparently.
“Chelsea truly made the joke: ‘I believed I used to be going to take care of this if you’re 70, not if you’re 35,’” he reported this week.
FIRST PRIZE — The excellent news for Pirates second baseman Nick Gonzales is, he hit the Pirates’ first house run of the season on Opening Day.
The dangerous information is, every thing else about that. Try probably the most painful house run trot of 2025.
First house run of 2025 goes to Nick Gonzales pic.twitter.com/uIkSoM3o4c
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) March 27, 2025
No, he didn’t twist one thing or pull one thing, regardless of Greg Brown’s greatest on-air medical prognosis. This man managed to fracture an (already sore) ankle someplace in between unleashing that mighty swing and gingerly working his means across the bases. And, effectively, he’ll be out for some time. It might virtually be humorous — if it wasn’t probably the most Pirates factor ever.
The Week in Ineffective Information
Skubal and Sale? No drawback for the Dodgers, apparently. (Steph Chambers / Getty Pictures)
EIGHT WINS AND TWO CYS — Not solely are the Dodgers undefeated, but additionally they’ve confronted (and overwhelmed) each reigning Cy Younger Award winners of their first seven video games. That appears laborious.
They beat the AL Cy Younger, Tarik Skubal, in Sport 3. Then they circled 4 days later and did the identical to the NL Cy Younger, Chris Sale. So in fact I needed to know if that was as uncommon as I believed it was.
I requested my pals from STATS to dig into this. If we don’t depend relievers who gained the Cy Younger (yeah, that really used to occur), then the Dodgers turned the third crew to face each reigning Cy Younger starters inside their first 10 video games of a season:
2013 Indians — confronted David Value and R.A. Dickey of their first six video games.
2013 Pink Sox — confronted Dickey after which Value of their first 10 video games.
So if the class is “going through” each Cy Youngs, that 2013 Cleveland crew holds the document. However just one crew has ever “overwhelmed” each reigning Cy Youngs that early in a season. And that crew could be … who else … the 2025 Dodgers.
LIFE IS A BREEZE — I hold searching for methods to place Rafael Devers’ wild, swingin’-and-missin’ begin in perspective. Would this do it?
Steven Kwan swung and missed at 69 pitches all final season. At this tempo, Raffy (41 whiffs in seven video games) will go him subsequent Tuesday!
INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY (PITCHING) NO. 1 — Jake Bauers isn’t an precise pitcher. However that didn’t cease the Brewers from sending him to the mound twice final weekend to mow down the otherwise-unstoppable Yankees on Saturday and Sunday.
So what’s so Bizarre and Wild about that? In keeping with Baseball Reference’s Jessica Model, he’s the primary true place participant to pitch twice in his crew’s first collection of the 12 months. But in addition …
The Brewers’ actual pitchers towards the Yankees final weekend: 22 IP, 34 ER, 15 HR
Jake Bauers (not an actual pitcher) vs. the Yankees final weekend: 2 IP, 0 ER, 0 HR
Take a bow, Jake Bauers. (Mike Stobe / Getty Pictures)
INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY (PITCHING) NO. 2 — Right here’s one thing else you don’t see yearly: A place participant pitching on Opening Day!
However a well-rested Opening Day employees — and even an off day the following day — didn’t cease Angels supervisor Ron Washington from waving in utility dude Nicky Lopez to pitch in an 8-0 sport within the opener. So in fact, our query of the day was: Has that ever occurred?
The official ruling of the Bizarre and Wild column: No!
A handful of different “place gamers” did flip up in a Baseball Reference/Stathead analysis challenge. However they have been all guys who pitched means an excessive amount of to be thought of “true” place gamers. Our closest name was Christian Bethancourt, for the 2017 Padres. However ignore the remainder of his profession profile. He pitched 24 instances that 12 months between the massive leagues and Triple A. So Nicky Lopez, you’re now a real Opening Day legend.
FIRST CONTACT — As you will have heard, we’ve got two new ballparks in MLB this season. There’s George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, proud house of the Not Yankees (aka the Rays). And there’s Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, new house of the Staff with No First Identify, the A’s.
So how ’bout this factor that occurred, that caught the attention of all of us right here at Bizarre and Wild World HQ.
First homer by a Ray in Tampa — Kameron Misner.
First homer by an A in Sacramento — Jacob Wilson.
What have they got in frequent? Not solely was it the primary house run by the house crew in each parks … it was additionally the primary house run within the big-league life of each guys who hit them.
So how lots of the different 28 parks have had their first house run hit by gamers who had by no means hit every other big-league house runs? That, says our pals at STATS, could be precisely … none!
BOX SCORE TAG TEAM OF THE WEEK — You’d suppose we’d run out of wacky tidbits on that nine-homer sport in Yankee Stadium, wouldn’t you? However guess what? You’d suppose mistaken. How about these two box-score classics from a pair of Brewers hurlers that day:
Nestor Cortes — 2 IP, 6 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 5 HR
Connor Thomas — 2 IP, 6 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 3 HR
So perhaps you’re questioning: What number of groups within the live-ball period have had two totally different pitchers surrender eight earned runs and no less than three homers in the identical sport?
That reply, in line with Baseball Reference, is: Not a one … till final Saturday within the Bronx.
HERE COMES THE JUDGE — There’s just one factor that would presumably be extra magical than watching a feared slugger stroll to house plate with an opportunity to hit his fourth house run of the sport. And that will be …
Watching that feared masher dig into the field … and discovering a place participant on the mound.
So sure, that occurred final Saturday, when Aaron Choose needed to take his shot at a four-homer sport … towards Brewers multi-position menace Jake Bauers.
It didn’t end in any four-homer historical past.
Jake Bauers stops Aaron Choose from getting 4 house runs pic.twitter.com/E52BsX0xb0
— Talkin’ Yanks (@TalkinYanks) March 29, 2025
But it surely did make me suppose:
What number of instances in historical past may that have occurred? Because of Katie Sharp, we are able to now reply that! Listed here are the one 4 different males to bat towards a place participant with their fourth homer on the road.
Lawrence Butler vs. Garrett Stubbs — Butler went deep thrice for the A’s towards the true pitchers, however flied out towards the Phillies’ intrepid backup catcher, on July 14, 2024.
Adolis García vs. Jace Peterson — García didn’t homer once more, however he no less than doubled off the A’s utilityman on April 22, 2023.
Alex Dickerson vs. Drew Butera — Sure, Dickerson actually did hit three homers in a single sport for the Giants, in a kind of Coors Subject specials, on Sept. 1, 2020. However Butera held him to a double within the ninth. Good aid work!
Gary Sánchez vs. Hanser Alberto – The then-Yankees catcher hit three bombs on this sport at Camden Yards on April 7, 2019 — however he hadn’t confronted the fearsome Hanser Alberto, who held him to a fly-ball out within the ninth. No surprise Dave Roberts pitched Alberto 10 instances in 2022!
5 issues I cherished this week
1. The Diamondbacks gave up their DH on Sunday — which allowed this wild factor to occur: Ryne Nelson (he’s a pitcher) obtained a success this 12 months earlier than the NL batting champ (Luis Arraez). To not point out earlier than José Ramírez, Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa, Rafael Devers and Willson Contreras (all positively not pitchers).
2. Juan Soto has now performed on Opening Day in Houston two years in a row (final 12 months with the Yankees, this 12 months with the Mets). It nonetheless feels Unusual However True to me that Alex Bregman hasn’t!
3. The MVP award has been round for greater than 90 years. For 9 a long time, we by no means noticed a sport through which three former MVPs hit back-to-back-to-back homers. So naturally, it’s now occurred twice since final Aug. 31. The Dodgers did it then (Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman). The Yankees did it Saturday (Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger, Choose). And because the nice Sarah Langs of MLB.com noticed, each have been main off the sport.
4. Padres reliever Wandy Peralta ought to have performed 1-1-1 within the lottery final Thursday. It was Opening Day (aka Sport 1). He threw one pitch. And he collected Win No. 1! An enormous hat tip to Braves broadcast Bizarre/Wildness aficionado C.J. Nitkowski for not letting that one slip previous us. Because of him, we all know the one different pitcher within the pitch-counting period with a one-pitch win on Opening Day was Dan Naulty for the Twins in 1997 — with a one-pitch double play!
5. So has any crew had a more unusual first week than the Reds? Fortunately, Reds TV analysis genius Joel Luckhaupt was throughout it.
Opening Day — Reds pitchers strike out 17 Giants … and lose.
Sport 2 — Reds pitchers strike out one Large … and win.
Video games 4-5-6 — the Reds rating 14 runs towards the Rangers, then lose back-to-back-to-back 1-0 video games … for the primary time in franchise historical past.
Oh, and you understand how laborious it’s to attain 14 runs in a single sport after which lose three straight 1-0 video games? So laborious that no crew has ever pulled off that Bizarre and Wild trick.
Heck, you understand how laborious it’s to attain 14 after which simply get shut out (by any rating) in even two video games in a row? It’s so laborious that no crew has completed it since July 2018, when it was completed by Cleveland, a crew managed by … yep … Terry Francona!
This Week in Unusual However Trueness
The A’s honor the Man of Steal. (Ezra Shaw / Getty Pictures)
RICKEY BE WONDERING ABOUT THIS! The best factor the A’s did Monday of their first sport in Sacramento was to have each participant honor the late, nice Rickey Henderson by carrying No. 24.
The one not-cool a part of that tribute: Need to guess the one crew in baseball that hadn’t even tried a stolen base but? Yup. That will be that crew making an attempt to honor Rickey!
HEY 19 — There are many different groups moreover the Phillies which have perfected the artwork of swinging-and-missing. However right here’s what these different groups haven’t perfected:
The artwork of whiffing … and nonetheless successful!
So on Opening Day, that Phillies offense — the identical dudes who gained three totally different nine-inning video games final season through which they struck out no less than 16 instances — spent their day battling MacKenzie Gore and the late-afternoon shadows … and struck out 19 times (in 10 innings)!
And the way’d that work out? They did what they at all times do in video games like this: They gained. Right here’s how Unusual However True that was:
• Video games gained by groups that struck out no less than 19 instances final 12 months (in a sport of any size): none!
• Report of all groups that had struck out that many instances in video games of 10 innings or fewer within the wild-card period: 2-28!
• Report of all groups that had struck out that many instances in video games of 10 innings or fewer within the live-ball period: 3-30!
• Video games gained by the Phillies in all their earlier video games since 1901 through which they punched out 19 instances or extra (in video games of any size) — uh-huh, none! As in 0-6.
Strikeouts. They’re simply outs!
CATCH THIS — It was an enormous week for catchers. They went biking. They obtained to pitch. And so they obtained to do what the Cardinals’ Iván Herrera did Wednesday:
Smoke three house runs in a single sport.
That will be cool it doesn’t matter what. But it surely was extra Unusual However True than you suppose.
• Ted Simmons, Joe Torre, Tim McCarver, Darrell Porter and (lest we overlook) Willson Contreras have all caught for the Cardinals over the past century. But by some means, Iván Herrera turned the primary Cardinals catcher who has ever hit three homers in a sport.
• However that’s not all. Johnny Bench, Mike Piazza, Gabby Hartnett and Buster Posey are among the many a whole bunch of catchers who’ve performed baseball in St. Louis over the past century. But by some means, the whole record of catchers who’ve had a three-homer sport in St. Louis, for or towards the Cardinals, consists of … Iván Herrera.
• And that’s nonetheless not all. As a result of to seek out the final catcher to hit three house runs in a sport anyplace for or towards the Cardinals, you would wish a time machine. As a result of it occurred 103 years in the past — when a man named Walter “Butch” Henline did it for the Phillies, on Sept. 15, 1922, at one of many all-time band bins, Baker Bowl.
Since then, Reds catchers (not all of them named Bench) have had 5 three-homer video games. … And Texas has allowed 4 of them to opposing catchers simply within the 2000s. However the Cardinals? They have been a trifecta-free zone … till they weren’t. Lastly.
GIMME-SIX — We’ve seen walk-off homers … and walk-off walks … and walk-off caught-stealings … and walk-off inside-the-parkers. However I’m fairly positive we’ve by no means seen this.
Try this “walk-off” within the Cubs’ 4-3 win in Arizona final Saturday.
Technically, that’s not a walk-off 6-unassisted second of inspiration from Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson — as a result of that time period, walk-off, is meant to be for hitters. However that’s what Swanson known as it. So we’re going with it.
Besides, then I made a decision I completely, positively needed to know the reply to this query: May which have ever occurred? It took Katie Sharp means too many hours of her worthwhile life to determine that out. However she did it!
We determined that stuff like popups and 6-unassisted force-outs at second didn’t depend. They needed to no less than vaguely resemble this play, which was dominated a 6-unassisted out “at house” because the base runner, Garrett Hampson, had rounded third and couldn’t get again. So right here’s what you could know:
The Baseball Reference play-by-play database goes again greater than a century. Need to guess what number of different video games in that point have ended on a 6-unassisted ground-ball out “at house”?
None could be a wonderful guess.
Katie did discover two very totally different 6-unassisted ground-ball “walk-offs.” One was turned by Astros shortstop Roger Metzger on Might 15, 1972, through which he tagged out a runner going from second to 3rd. The opposite was a 6-unassisted double play pulled off by Giants shortstop Hal Lanier on Aug. 25, 1970, through which he ran down runners making an attempt to advance to 3rd and second.
However that’s all pre-video. So what was the good, most progressive, most baseball-I.Q.-ey 6-unassisted walk-off that we are able to truly see with our personal eyeballs? You simply watched it!
CENTRAL CASTING — Hey, let’s look in on the AL Central. Wait. What?
Was that The Onion? Or some sort of misprint? Or did we actually see 5 groups in a single division — all tied for first place — every week into the season?
OK, it’s one hundred pc actual. So yeah, I do know what you’re considering earlier than you even … um, too late!
@jaysonst What’s the newest right into a season that every one 4 groups had the identical document just like the AL Central’s 2-4?
— Mike Peterson (@Tnut10) April 3, 2025
So Mike, by in style demand, I requested Kenny Jackelen to look into this, with the caveat that it’s truly 5 groups tied, not 4. As at all times, he labored his magic.
• Within the divisional period, this ties the document for many video games right into a season through which the whole division was tied. The 2002 NL East was additionally ensnarled in a five-way tie after six video games, at 3-3.
• But when we journey again deeper into the fashionable period, earlier than divisions, there was a five-way tie (kind of) within the NL in 1961 after 4 of these groups had performed 9 video games (5-4) however a fifth crew had performed 11 (and was 6-5). In fact, there have been eight groups in that league. So all eight of them clearly weren’t tied.
• And for those who’re a fan of the 1896 standings, you could possibly peer again and discover 5 groups nearly tied within the NL after both 21 or 23 video games. That was in a 12-team league.
• However now right here’s the reply to your greatest query: What’s the most recent in a season that 5 groups have been tied for first, all with shedding information? Ha. You’re taking a look at it. Kenny studies that had by no means earlier than occurred after any variety of video games — not even one — till this week.
So welcome to the AL Central, the place successful is elective … however anyone has to complete first. Or everyone.
DON’T WALK THIS WAY — Lastly, it doesn’t appear that arduous, in idea, to depend to 4. Even your 3-year-old can most likely do it. However in baseball? It may be tougher than it appears — as documented final weekend by our pals at Jomboy Media with this at-bat by Seth Brown.
Final night time, Seth Brown noticed FIVE pitches known as balls earlier than taking his stroll and nobody observed pic.twitter.com/EHGSlnLAz7
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) March 30, 2025
What a world. We simply completed a spring coaching the place lasers could detect if a pitch was one-84th of an inch outside the strike zone. However again right here in actual life, if no one remembers to depend to 4 … don’t take your base!
It’s only a reminder that people nonetheless matter today, even within the lovely sport of …
Baseball!
GO DEEPER
Happy New Year, Baseball! 17 Weird & Wild ways the season’s first week surprised
(Prime photograph of Jazz Chisholm Jr.: Pamela Smith / Related Press)
