Godzilla vs. Kong

 

AB	4442	3790
HR	175	189
RBI	760	760
BB	547	784
AVG	0.282	0.286
OBP	0.360	0.410
SLG	0.462	0.518
OPS+	118	152
WAR	21.2	43.5
dWAR	-9.3	-0.9
Post Season OPS	0.933	0.978
Post Season PA	235	79
Height	6'2"	5'10"
Weight	210	185

 

Triple Crown Trio (a great baseball card newly created based on the 1968 Topps set)

In 1968, there were three active Triple Crown winners. That is the last year there were that many. I suggested this idea to Jason K. Woodburn, who has a Twitter account called "Custom Cards OTD in Baseball" (@custom_baseball). He created this card. 

Topps often had cards like this that featured two or three big stars photographed together. Unfortunately, Topps did not have such a card in 1968, although they could have because Yastrzemski won the Triple Crown in 1967, Frank Robinson did it in 1966 and Mantle in 1956. All three were active in 1968 (then Mantle retired the next year, not playing in 1969). Maybe there was never a time when all three were at the same place. 

 

Annual Games Behind For The St. Louis Browns, 1901-43

They finally won a pennant in 1944. Prior to that, they had only one season when they finished less than 5 GB (1922, 1 GB). There were only two others when they were under 10 GB (1902 5 GB & 1908 6.5 GB).

So that 1922 season in very anomalous. In 1921, they finished 17.5 GB and in 1923 they were 24 GB. In both seasons they fell out of contention very early on. In 1921, the were behind by at least 10 games from June 16 to the end of the season. In 1923, it was from June 29 on.

The bar chart below illustrates their GB for each season. 1922 is a cabin in a sea of skyscrapers. 

Temperatures in some major league cities at about 8 pm central time

Boston 50 (with a low tonight of 44 & rain starting in 78 minutes-a game might still be going) 

New York 56 (low will be 52 with a little late night rain) 

Pittsburgh 51 (with a low of 48) 

Cleveland 46 (with a low of 46 & rain starting in 30 minutes) 

Detroit 40 (with a low of 38)

Chicago 37 (with a low of 32)

St. Louis  41 (with a low of 39)

Minneapolis 32  (with a low of 29 & wind gusts of 15 mph so wind chill will be 17)

Denver 38 (with a low of 32 & wind gusts of 15 mph)

There is no snow predicted anywhere but in recent days both Minneapolis and Denver have had snow and even lower temperatures than tonight.

So some tough weather for baseball. What would MLB do if they had a Twins-Rockies series with sub-freezing temps and snow like they had within the last week? Move the games to a neutral site? One with a roof like Milwaukee? 

So far in the series, Dodgers lead Rays in OPS .832-.631. You should be watching since the Dodgers might be the closest thing to the 27 Yankees you will ever see and wouldn't you want to watch the 27 Yanks in color and HD?

The Dodgers finished with a .194 OPS differential (.821 - .627). Only the 1927 Yankees were higher since 1901 (.201 using BB Ref, .196 using Retrosheet). Next highest was 2019 Astros at .167

Dodgers, Rays and OPS differentials (A Rays victory would be historic upset)

LA season OPS differential) .194 (.821 - .627) only 27 Yanks better

Rays season OPS differential) .057 (.753 - .696)

Dodgers have .137 edge in regular season OPS. Biggest upset in world series I could find is 1906 when Cubs had .132 edge but lost to White Sox

But it was only a 60 game season so maybe Dodgers are not that good and Rays are better than .057. But look at playoffs

LA for each playoff series
.166 (.637 - .471)
.269 (.815 - .546)
.103 (.850 - .747)

Rays for each playoff series
.215 (.769 - .544)
-.050 (.713 - .763)
-.076 (.675 - .751)

Weighted avg by number of playoff games LA = .155, TB = -.025

Yes, negative for the Rays