Monday, March 26, 2007
The Sac Fly Watch: A New Season of Nonsense
The dumbest statistical rule in baseball remains the sacrifice fly rule: if a runner tags up and scores on a hitter's fly-ball with less than two outs, the hitter gains an RBI but not an "official" plate appearance; if a runner scores when a hitter grounds out, said hitter is credited with an RBI but also an out against their batting average...which is dumb.
Dumb, but no matter; much as last year's Pitcher RBI "Race" stole much of the thunder of the 2006 season, this year 4outs will follow the leaders of the Sac Fly Race as they attempt to reach the pinnacle, set in the inaugural year of this coma-inducing stat: Gil Hodges' 19 sac flies in 1954.
Oh, Andre Dawson came close in 1983, when he managed 18 RBI on mere flyballs, but nobody, in over 50 years of record-keeping, has been man enough to pad their RBI-totals with 20 sac flies: Roy White & Bobby Bonilla, in 1971 & 1996 respectively, each drove in 17 runners from third on otherwise-useless outs, and Juan Gonzalez & Mark Loretta racked up 16 sac flies each in 2001 & 2004...can it be done this year?
A very cursory look at the leaders would suggest that 13, in any given year, will lead the Majors; Hodges, incidentally, hit 42 HR in 1954, suggesting that of his 130 RBI that year, almost half were on flyballs of one kind or another...and that's without knowing how many of his 23 doubles or 5 triples were "moonshots" that just bounced inside the fence. Remember, I said incidentally...
Who's ready for a second-straight season of meaningless trivia?
You can bet your ASS that I am. ¶ 2:53 PM
Dumb, but no matter; much as last year's Pitcher RBI "Race" stole much of the thunder of the 2006 season, this year 4outs will follow the leaders of the Sac Fly Race as they attempt to reach the pinnacle, set in the inaugural year of this coma-inducing stat: Gil Hodges' 19 sac flies in 1954.
Oh, Andre Dawson came close in 1983, when he managed 18 RBI on mere flyballs, but nobody, in over 50 years of record-keeping, has been man enough to pad their RBI-totals with 20 sac flies: Roy White & Bobby Bonilla, in 1971 & 1996 respectively, each drove in 17 runners from third on otherwise-useless outs, and Juan Gonzalez & Mark Loretta racked up 16 sac flies each in 2001 & 2004...can it be done this year?
A very cursory look at the leaders would suggest that 13, in any given year, will lead the Majors; Hodges, incidentally, hit 42 HR in 1954, suggesting that of his 130 RBI that year, almost half were on flyballs of one kind or another...and that's without knowing how many of his 23 doubles or 5 triples were "moonshots" that just bounced inside the fence. Remember, I said incidentally...
Who's ready for a second-straight season of meaningless trivia?
You can bet your ASS that I am. ¶ 2:53 PM
