Position players pitching over time

This is something I posted on the SABR-List.

David Smith provided a Retrosheet link that has known occurrences of this happening. See Non-Pitchers on the Mound.

I sorted that table by date and then compiled the number of cases by time period. Here is what I got:

1898-99)  13
1900-09)  81
1910-19)  80
1920-29)  62
1930-39)  39
1940-49)  51
1950-59)  36
1960-69)  24
1970-79)  17
1980-89)  58
1990-99)  48
2000-09)  52
2010-19)  304
2020-25)  588 

What were the most exciting games in history? Part 3

In Part 1, I had bases.chat, created by SABR member Ted Ingram, add up the absolute value of all Win Probability Added events in every game that have play-by-play data. Then I had it create a list of top games. The idea was that the higher the WPA the more exciting a game was.

The top games were all regular season games. In Part 2 I did the top post-season games.

bases.chat said "WPA computed from Retrosheet play-by-play data using Tom Tango's win expectancy framework."

In this part, I show the games with the most plays that had a WPA of 0.25 or higher. The idea was that some games could just go on a long time without any big events yet still end up with a high total WPA. So other games could be considered more exciting if they had more big events.

In the table below, Inn refers to how many innings the game lasted and # refers to how many such events there were in the game. This first table has regular season games. There are many extra-inning games here but some of them were only 10 or 11 innings, so they did not last too long or have too many more chances to get high WPA events.

Rank	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Inn	#
1	5/24/1988	Padres	6–7	Expos	13	10
2	7/17/2000	Athletics	9–10	Rockies	10	9
3	7/10/1932	Athletics	18–17	Indians	18	9
4	7/23/1930	Pirates	16–15	Phillies	13	9
5	7/18/1949	Yankees	5–6	White Sox	10	9
6	8/11/2020	Orioles	10–9	Phillies	10	9
7	8/12/1966	Pirates	14–11	Reds	13	8
8	6/20/1977	Cubs	10–9	Giants	12	8
9	7/3/1951	Phillies	8–9	Giants	13	8
10	7/24/1998	Marlins	6–7	Phillies	12	8
11	8/4/2011	Blue Jays	6–7	Rays	12	8
12	5/7/1920	Robins	6–7	Giants	11	8
13	8/17/2019	Brewers	15–14	Nationals	14	8
14	6/15/1912	Cardinals	4–5	Dodgers	11	8
15	6/9/2023	Astros	9–10	Guardians	14	8
16	9/16/1991	Reds	5–6	Dodgers	12	8
17	6/21/1927	Cubs	5–6	Cardinals	13	8
18	7/7/1985	Expos	6–3	Astros	19	8
19	7/26/1993	Padres	6–9	Cubs	11	8
20	8/21/1954	Yankees	9–10	Red Sox	12	7
21	4/26/1995	Mets	9–11	Rockies	14	7
22	5/19/1990	Phillies	15–12	Dodgers	11	7
23	7/17/2012	Mets	4–5	Nationals	10	7
24	7/25/2019	Orioles	10–8	Angels	16	7
25	6/24/2011	Nationals	9–5	White Sox	14	7

Now the top 25 post season games.

Rank	Date	Round	Visitor	Score	Home	Inn	#
1	10/3/1995	NLDS	Braves	5–4	Rockies	9	7
2	10/29/2017	WS G5	Dodgers	12–13	Astros	10	6
3	10/24/2020	WS G4	Dodgers	7–8	Rays	9	5
4	10/3/1995	ALDS	Red Sox	4–5	Indians	13	5
5	10/9/1912	WS G8	Giants	6–6	Red Sox	11	5
6	10/25/2017	WS G3	Astros	7–6	Dodgers	11	5
7	10/4/1995	ALDS	Mariners	5–7	Yankees	15	5
8	10/9/1985	ALCS	Royals	5–6	Blue Jays	10	5
9	10/6/1995	NLDS	Rockies	7–5	Braves	10	5
10	10/27/2011	WS G6	Rangers	9–10	Cardinals	11	4
11	10/12/1986	ALCS	Red Sox	7–6	Angels	11	4
12	11/1/2025	WS G7	Dodgers	5–4	Blue Jays	11	4
13	10/17/2024	ALCS	Yankees	5–7	Guardians	10	4
14	10/9/1988	NLCS	Dodgers	5–4	Mets	12	4
15	10/12/2009	NLDS	Phillies	5–4	Rockies	9	4
16	10/10/2004	NLDS	Braves	6–5	Astros	9	4
17	10/21/1975	WS G6	Reds	6–7	Red Sox	12	4
18	10/9/2009	ALDS	Twins	3–4	Yankees	11	4
19	10/26/2018	WS G3	Red Sox	2–3	Dodgers	18	4
20	10/11/1986	ALCS	Red Sox	3–4	Angels	11	4
21	10/10/1995	NLCS	Braves	2–1	Reds	11	4
22	9/30/2020	Wild Card	Yankees	10–9	Indians	9	4
23	10/20/1972	WS G4	Reds	5–4	Athletics	9	4
24	10/8/2010	NLDS	Braves	5–4	Giants	11	4
25	10/8/1995	ALDS	Yankees	5–6	Mariners	11	4