Does Houston’s 106 wins and Phillies 87 wins guarantee an Astros’ World Series parade?
This year’s World Series will feature the team with the most regular season wins (Houston-106) against the team that barely made the playoffs as the 6th and final seed in the National League bracket (Philadelphia) with 87 wins.
The Astros’ 106 wins and Phillies’ victories 87 is the second largest difference in regular season wins (19) for World Series opponents. The largest was in 1906 when the two teams from Chicago faced off in a Windy City World Series. The 116-win Cubs took on the 93-win White Sox for that ’06 title (more on that series in a minute).
Looking at the World Series history since 1901, there has been a total of 32 World Series where the regular season win discrepancy between the two opponents was 10 victories or more (this year’s matchup will be the 33rd with a 10-win difference).
The last time this happened was in 2019 when the 107-win Houston Astros faced the 93-win Washington Nationals. What makes that series even more interesting is that the 93-win Nationals won that series. It was the third time in baseball history that a team with 14 or more fewer regular season wins than its World Series foe won the World Series; it happened in 1954 when the 97-win New York Giants defeated the 111-win Cleveland Indians, and in the 1906 series when the 93-White Sox surprised the 116-win Cubs.
Of the 32 times in World Series history when the win-difference was 10 or more victories for the Fall Classic opponents, the team with the fewer regular season wins won the World Series that year 12 times (37.5% of the World Series). Since 2000, it has happened three times: in 2019 with the Nationals over the Astros, in 2006 when the 83-win Cardinals beat the 95-win Tigers, and in 2003 when the 91-win Marlins beat the 101-win Yankees.
Up until 1969, there was only the American League and National League. There were no divisions, so only the two teams that won the A.L. and N.L. faced off in the World Series. In the 15 World Series from 1901 to 1968, there were 15 times when one World Series team won 10 or more regular season games than their opponent. The team with 10 or more fewer wins won the World Series only three of those 15 times (20%).
From 1969 to 2021, more teams qualified for the post-season with additional divisions within each league and Wild Card opportunities. During that time (1969-2021) there were 17 times when the World Series featured a team that had 10 or fewer regular season wins than their World Series opponent. Of those 17 times, the team with 10+ fewer wins won the title nine times (53%).
What will happen this year when the second-largest win difference for World Series opponents is played out with the Astros and Phillies? The Astros enter the series undefeated in this year’s postseason, while it appears the Phils are playing with house money as they have beaten three National League teams that were seeded higher than them when the playoffs started.
If history has anything to say about this seemingly “mismatched” series, you never know what can happen. The Astros have already been on the wrong side of a mismatch World Series, and it happened just three years ago. If the Phillies need any more history on their side, all they must do is look at what happened in the 1906 World Series and the trend that has developed going back to 1969.
It should make for an interesting end to the 2022 baseball season.
Rodgers chases Brady, Brees in passing stat
In the Packers’ loss to the Washington Commanders, QB Aaron Rodgers attempted 35 passes, had a pair of TD passes to Aaron Jones, and did not have a pass intercepted. It was the 45th time in his career that he reached those numbers in an NFL regular season game.
Rodgers 45 games with 35+ pass attempts, two or more TD passes and no interceptions in a game rank third all-time behind Tom Brady and Drew Brees on the NFL list. Brady tops the list with 62 such games; Brees is second with 50.
It’s interest to note that in the two games this season that Rodgers reached those numbers, the Packers lost. The team is now 33-12 in games when Rodgers reaches these passing stats, a .733 winning percentage.
Here is a look at the NFL all-time Top 10 in this category… career games with 35+ passing attempts, two or more TD passes, and no interceptions.
Tom Brady, 62
Drew Brees, 50
Aaron Rodgers, 45
Peyton Manning, 33
Matt Ryan, 32
Brett Favre, 27
Ben Roethlisberger, 24
Matthew Stafford, 22
Philip Rivers, 21
Kirk Cousins, 21
Rodgers and Favre were not the only two Packers’ QBs to reach these stats in a game. Rodgers tops the Green Bay list with his 45 games followed by Favre with 25 during his time with the Pack. Also on the list are: Don Majkowski (two games) and Brett Hundley, Mike Tomczak, Randy Wright and Tobin Rote with one game each.
Packers kick returns have not helped the points column for a long time
The Green Bay Packers’ special teams has been a whipping boy for the teams’ struggles for a long time. The unfortunate part is that there are elements of the special teams that have been good.
You don’t have to look much further than Mason Crosby for a Packers’ special teams player who has succeeded. In fact. Crosby, the Pack’s kicker since 2007, has fashioned a career that could end in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Even some of the punters have had degrees of success. But one area where the Packers special teams have struggled has been with punt and kickoff teams. Specifically, the Packers running back kick-offs and punts and coverage when they are punting or kicking off to opponents.
Recently, I heard a friend question: When was the last time Green Bay even had a kick-off or punt returned for a TD? Great question. Problem is, as a Packers fan, you may not want to hear the answer.
Well, here goes…
The last time the Packers returned a kick-off for a TD: September 8, 2011, by Randall Cobb (yes, he did return kicks at one time in his career).
The last time the Packers returned a punt for a TD: December 28, 2014, by Micah Hyde.
One, a kick-off return for TD, has been more than a decade, while the other, a punt returned for TD, is fast approaching 10 years since.
When you look at the last time opponents have returned a kick-off and punt for TD, it’s a lot more recent…
The last time an opponent returned a kick-off for a TD: December 23, 2018, by Andre Roberts of the New York Jets.
The last time an opponent returned a punt for a TD: December 21, 2021, by Jakeem Grant of the Chicago Bears.
Here’s another eye-opening stat: If you turn the calendar back to 2015, the Packers have no kick-off returns for TD and no punt returns for TD. The opponents, on the other hand, have two kick-offs for TD and three punts for TD.
Considering that the 2022 Packers are struggling at 3-3 after Week #6, it would be nice if the special teams other than Crosby could help put some points on the board. Based on what we’ve seen, however, it may be another year with no kicks returned for TD for the green and gold.
Twelve stats you may not know about… Bruce Sutter
One of baseball’s greatest relief pitchers, Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter, passed away on October 13 at the age of 69. He played for the Cubs, Cardinals, and Atlanta Braves in his 12-year major league career. In his first professional season in 1972, he injured his arm. At spring training in 1973 he was taught how to throw a split-finger fastball and it energized his career.
Sutter was a six-time All-Star and won a Cy Young Award in 1979 with the Cubs. He ended his career with 300 saves.
- Sutter was born in Lancaster, PA. He is one of 1,488 MLB players born in Pennsylvania, and one of 678 pitchers born in that state. Sutter is also one of 19 players born in Lancaster; one of his teammates with the St. Louis Cardinals was second baseman Tom Herr, another Lancaster, PA-born MLB player. The two of them won a World Series together with the Cards in 1982.
- Drafted by the Washington Senators in the 21st round of the 1970 draft, Sutter never played a game in the Senators organization. He in September 1971, signed a free agent contract with the Chicago Cubs and played his first professional game as a member of the Gulf Coast Cubs in 1972 at age 19.
- He made his MLB debut on May 9, 1976, with the Cubs pitching one inning in a game against the Cincinnati Reds. His first career strikeout was Dan Driessen.
- Sutter was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. He is one of seven relievers in the Hall with at least 300 saves. He collected his 300th save in the last game of his career on September 9, 1988. He was then pitching for the Atlanta Braves.
- Bruce was a six-time National League All-Star, making the team five straight years from 1977-81. He won or saved the All-Star game for the N.L. in four consecutive years (1978-81).
- Sutter had 22 saves in the minors. He did start two games in his minor league career. In his MLB career, all 661 games that he pitched were in relief. He is one of 47 relievers to pitch in 600 or more career games, all in relief.
- He led the National League in saves five times. He did it twice as a member of the Cubs and three times with the Cardinals.
- Sutter accumulated 133 career saves with the Cubs and 127 with the Cardinals. He is second on the Cubs all-time career saves list behind Lee Smith. He ranks fourth on the Cardinals all-time career list. Jason Isringhausen ranks #1 in that category for the Cards.
- Sutter had a career batting average of .088. He had six RBIs, no extra base hits, but did steal a base in a game.
- He had the most saves in his career against the Mets with 38. He gave up 77 home runs; the player who hit the most HRs off Sutter was a former Cub, Ryne Sandberg. The two, however, never played together with the Cubs. Sutter’s last year with the Cubs was 1980; Sandberg’s first year with the Cubs was in 1982.
- Sutter twice lost 10 or more games in a season. In 1978 he was 8-10 with the Cubs; in 1983 he was 9-10 with the Cardinals. He is one of 21 relief pitchers (80% or more of their games pitched as a reliever) to lose 10 or more games in multiple seasons. Former reliever Mike Marshall tops this list losing 10 or more games as a reliever in five seasons.
- Bruce Sutter pitched in one post-season, 1982. The Cardinals defeated the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS and then beat the Milwaukee Brewers in seven games to win the ‘82 World Series. Sutter pitched in six post-season games that season collecting two wins and three saves.
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