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If you wake up one morning and the Devil Rays are in first place, Carlos Guillen is leading the league in RBI and Jacque Jones is leading the league in homers, it must be the first week of the baseball season. And how can you not love a week when the impossible becomes that possible?
What were the odds of the Red Sox scoring 11 runs on Opening Day, with Pedro Martinez starting, and losing? Well, we'd sure have taken them in Vegas. We know that.
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| Martinez |
In Pedro's previous 210 starts, dating back to July of 1994, there had been only one other game in which his team would have scored 11 runs and lost. That was June 9, 1999, in Pedro's first game back in Montreal after being traded, when the Red Sox lost, 13-1. But Martinez left after six innings trailing by only 4-0. Then the Red Sox bullpen gave up the final nine runs.
We found only one other game -- in 1995 -- when Pedro's team gave up exactly 11 runs in a game he started. So if they'd scored 11 runs in those previous 210 starts, they'd have gone 208-1-1.
Of course, it's hard to score 11 runs on Opening Day and lose with anybody starting. The Elias Sports Bureau's Ken Hirdt reports that while the Red Sox were the eighth team in history to score 11 or more and lose an opener, they were just the second team to do it since 1930.
The other: the 1983 Giants. They hit four home runs (by Bob Brenly, Max Venable, Chili Davis and Darrell Evans) but lost, 16-13, to the Padres. Unlike the 2002 Red Sox, the Giants never led in that game and were never even close after an eight-run Padres fifth inning. Winning pitcher: Tim Lollar. Save: Gary Lucas. Losing pitcher: Mike Krukow.
Then there's Roger Clemens. Those eight runs he allowed Opening Day were the most by any defending Cy Young Award winner on the following Opening Day. In fact, no one before Clemens even gave up seven.
And by matching up against zero-game winner Scott Erickson, Clemens also was the first Opening-Day starter since 1970 to have won at least 20 more games the previous year than the starter he was pitching against. The last Day 1 match-up like that, according to the Elias Sports Bureau's Randy Robles:
April 7, 1970: Chris Short, Phillies (0-0 in 1969) vs. Ferguson Jenkins, Cubs (21-15 in '69).
Like Erickson, Short had had his previous season wrecked by injury. And because Short pitched a shutout to win that day, it means zero-game winners now have won two in a row against 20-game winners in openers. Who'd have thunk it?
Now more items from our Happy New Year division of the Useless Info Dept.:
Naturally, the Red Sox never scored 11 runs in any game Pedro Martinez pitched last year. Then they did it on Opening Day this year -- and still lost. They'd gone 44 Pedro starts in a row without scoring 11 runs, as a matter of fact.
Barry Bonds played 19 games against the Dodgers last year and drove in eight runs (in 65 at-bats). In his first two games against the Dodgers this year, he drove in nine runs (in six at-bats).
Even with all those home runs he hit last year, only once all season (in May) did Bonds have back-to-back multihomer games. As you might have heard somewhere, he had back-to-back multihomer games in his first two games this year.
Travis Fryman didn't hit a home run until Aug. 2 last year (thanks to elbow problems). He hit his first homer on Opening Day this year, before the calendar even turned to April.
Bartolo Colon threw no complete-game shutouts last season. So of course, he threw a complete-game shutout Opening Day this season.
Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling never started back-to-back shutouts for the Diamondbacks last season. They did it in the first two games of the year this season.
Mark Grace and Steve Finley never hit homers in the same game for Arizona last season. They did it in the third game of the year this season.
Jeff Fassero pitched in 82 games last year and hit one batter. He pitched 1 1/3 innings Opening Day -- and hit three batters.
The Twins didn't have a five-homer game until the day after the All-Star break last year (and that was an interleague game in Milwaukee). So of course, they had a five-homer game this year on Opening Day.
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| Jones |
The Twins' new leadoff man, Jacque Jones, had never had a two-homer game against a team from his own league. (He did hit two in that game in Milwaukee last July.) So what were the chances he'd become the first American Leaguer to hit two in a game this season, by hitting two Opening Day?
Only once all last season did the Phillies' left side of the infield -- Scott Rolen and Jimmy Rollins -- commit errors in the same game (and that was a June 9 interleague game in Boston). They both made errors in the first game this season.
It took the Devil Rays 65 games last year to win three games in a row, and it took them until Aug. 12 to win three in a row against their own league. So naturally, they won their first three games in a row this year.
It also took the Devil Rays 43 games to score nine runs in a game last year. It took them one game this year.
And the Rays won only nine games all last year in which they trailed in the sixth inning or later. They won both of their first two games this year despite trailing in each of them in the sixth inning or later.
Roberto Alomar committed no errors all of last April as an Indian. He committed an error in his second game as a Met this April.
Alex Rodriguez never went hitless for more than three games in a row last season. He went hitless in the first three games this season.
The Giants never had a game last season in which their pitcher and catcher both homered. They had one in the second game of this season, courtesy of Russ Ortiz and Benito Santiago.
Alex Ochoa spent almost half of last season as a Rockie and managed to hit no home runs at Coors Field. He got traded to Milwaukee this winter -- and homered in his first at-bat as a Brewer.
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| Miller |
Wade Miller hit one batter after May 14 last season. He hit the first two batters he faced this season.
Finally, Miller faced the Brewers five times last season, went 5-0 and allowed five runs in those five starts combined (39 2/3 innings). He faced the Brewers on Opening Day this year, lost and gave up seven runs in four innings.
Triviality
Barry Bonds isn't just within 30 of the 600 Homer Club. He's also within 16 of the 500 Stolen Base Club. Can you name the seven other active players who are even in the 200-200 Club? (Answer at bottom.)
More Useless Info
Before their 10-3 thumping by the Orioles this year, the Yankees hadn't lost by seven runs or more on Opening Day since 1985, when Oil Can Boyd and the Red Sox beat them (behind Phil Niekro), 9-2, at Fenway.
Every year, we hear how this will be the year Randy Johnson keeps his pitch count down. And every year, he goes out Opening Day and throws more pitches than anyone else. His opener-by-opener pitch count, courtesy of the East Valley Tribune's Ed Price: 125 in 1999, 133 in 2000, 133 in 2001, 128 this year.
In that 12-11 monstrosity Opening Day, the Blue Jays became the first team to walk 13 hitters in a nine-inning game and win in almost nine years -- since the Rangers did it in July of 1993, according to Elias.
But some things never change. Booth Newspapers' Danny Knobler reports that thanks to the Tigers' sweep by the Devil Rays in Tampa Bay, this marks the 18th consecutive year in which the Tigers did not have a winning record as they played their first game of the season in Detroit.
Yeah, it seems hard to do, all right. But here are the facts:
The omnipotent 1984 Tigers started the year with a 5-0 road trip before heading home. No Tigers team has been over .500 for its home opener since. They opened the season in Detroit six times, so they were 0-0 those years. And in the other 12, they were under .500 in 11 of them and .500 on the nose only once -- 14 years ago (when they were 3-3).
And you wonder why that new ballpark hasn't solved their problems?
What's the secret to sweeping your first series? Load that roster with Rule 5 draft picks, obviously. The Devil Rays started the season with three Rule 5 picks on the Opening-Day roster -- pitcher Steve Kent, pitcher Jorge Sosa and third baseman Felix Escalona.
Devil Rays media-relations genius Rick Vaughn reports that, as best anyone can tell, they're the first team with three Rule 5 players since the 1968 Cubs carried catcher Bill Plummer, pitcher Ramon Hernandez and infielder Jose Arcia. Tampa Bay has yet another Rule 5-er, pitcher Kevin McGlinchey, on the disabled list. Rule 5 Fever. Catch it.
Elias' Rob Tracy reports that Arizona became the 12th team since 1900 to start the season by throwing back-to-back shutouts. The complete list:
2002 Arizona D-Backs
1994 San Francisco Giants
1980 Cincinnati Reds
1977 California Angels
1974 Los Angeles Dodgers
1963 St. Louis Cardinals (3 in row)
1947 Chicago White Sox
1943 Cincinnati Reds
1940 Boston Red Sox
1940 Cleveland Indians
1940 Brooklyn Dodgers
1919 Boston Red Sox
The only defending World Series champ to open the season with back-to-back shutouts: the 1918 Red Sox, who haven't been defending champs since. The only team to do it and go to the World Series that year: the '74 Dodgers.
The first of those shutouts, by the Big Unit, gave him a win in exactly half of the games he has pitched in during his major-league career -- 201 of 402. Lee Sinins, of baseball-encyclopedia.com, reports that he's the 10th 200-game winner since 1900 who can make that claim. The complete list:
|
Pitcher
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W
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G
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Pct.
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Christy Mathewson
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373
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635
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58.7%
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Cy Young
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511
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906
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56.4%
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Grover C. Alexander
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373
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696
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53.6%
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Joe McGinnity
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246
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465
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52.9%
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Eddie Plank
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305
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581
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52.5%
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Walter Johnson
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417
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802
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52.0%
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Juan Marichal
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243
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471
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51.6%
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Roger Clemens
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280
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546
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51.3%
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Greg Maddux
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257
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505
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50.9%
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Randy Johnson
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201
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402
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50.0%
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Young and McGinnity started their careers before 1900, but they were included because their post-1900 stats qualify them for the list.
The East Valley Tribune's Ed Price reports that three of the Diamondbacks' five highest-paid players (Matt Williams, Jay Bell and Todd Stottlemyre) started the season on the disabled list. And the eight Diamondbacks on the DL on Opening Day make almost as much money (more than $38 million) as the entire roster of the Padres team they played Opening Day ($41.4 million).
One slight catch to that 20-game home winning streak by the A's: They went 0-2 at home during the postseason last October, when one win would have eliminated the Yankees.
The Chicago Tribune's ever-observant Teddy Greenstein reports that when Wednesday's Cubs-Reds game was stopped for a minute of silence at 9:11 p.m., the catcher was No. 9 (Todd Hundley) and the hitter was No. 11 (Barry Larkin).
The Sultan's Corner
Obviously, no 73-homer man had ever hit two home runs on Opening Day before Barry Bonds did it this year. So what was the highest home run total the previous season by a player who hit two in the opener? The Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR's David Vincent, has the answer (as always):
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| Bonds |
47: George Bell 1988
47: Eddie Mathews 1954
46: Babe Ruth 1932
Ruth went on to hit 41, Mathews 40 and Bell only 24.
Speaking of multihomer games on Opening Day, we know that Bonds and Mathews are the only two players in history to follow a multihomer opener with another multihomer game in Game 2. Here are the only other four players who hit two on Opening Day and then had another multihomer game within the first 12 games:
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Batter
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Year
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Game No.
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Juan Gonzalez
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1993
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6
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Carlton Fisk
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1973
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7
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Joe Torre
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1966
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10
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Pete O'Brien
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1988
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12
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* Travis Fryman's home run Sunday night made him this year's only Mr. March. But there now have been 27 March home runs hit in history, according to the Sultan -- all of them since 1996. The all-time March home run leader: Vinny Castilla, who hit two in one game -- in Mexico -- in 1998.
Finally, here's your list of active players who have led off the first game of the season with a home run:
1988: Julio Franco (for Cleveland vs. Texas)
1994: Ray Lankford (for St. Louis at Cincinnati)
1999: Juan Encarnacion (for Detroit at Texas)
2000: Gerald Williams (for Tampa Bay at Minnesota)
2000: Shannon Stewart (for Toronto vs. Kansas City)
2002: Jacque Jones (for Minnesota at Kansas City)
Trivia Answer
Brady Anderson, Steve Finley, Ron Gant, Rickey Henderson, Ray Lankford, Sammy Sosa and Larry Walker.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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