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As the Tigers found out, it's tough to get yourself 10 games out of first place only 11 games into the season. It's not unprecedented -- but it's close. These Tigers are only the second team in history to pull it off.
The Elias Sports Bureau's Randy Robles reports that the other team was the 1987 Indians, who made the mistake of starting 1-10 in the same April when the Brewers were starting 11-0. Those Indians went on to finish 61-101, 37 games behind the first-place Tigers. Those Brewers went on to win their first 13 games, then lose 12 in a row and wind up at 91-71, seven games out.
But the Tigers nuggets don't stop there. On the way to becoming the fourth team in history to lose their first 11 games, these Tigers . . .
Went 28 consecutive innings without scoring more than one run in an inning.
Led in only 15 of 102 innings.
Lost four of the eight leads they took in the next half-inning.
Never held a lead of more than two runs (three times).
Were outscored 79-32.
Stole fewer bases than Melvin Mora (4-3).
Had a team on-base percentage (.310) that was barely higher than their opponents' batting average (.306).
Had a 6.26 team ERA, more than double the ERA of the pitchers who faced them (2.82).
Lost one game by nine runs, one by seven runs, two by six runs, three by four runs, three by two runs and only one game by one run.
Two of their pitchers -- Jeff Weaver and Mark Redman -- each lost more games (two) than the Indians (one).
And all of these pitchers won a game before the Tigers did: Gary Knotts, Ricky Stone, Aaron Fultz, Jeremy Fikac, Justin Miller and Rodrigo Lopez.
Finally, the Tigers were one of 15 teams that even started a season by losing their first nine games. Booth Newspapers' Danny Knobler reports that just one of the others wound up with a winning record.
That was the 1983 Astros, whose third baseman was (who else?) just-fired Tigers manager Phil Garner and whose catcher by season's end was (who else?) current Tigers manager Luis Pujols.
Meanwhile, in the rest of the sport ...
In case no one noticed, there's a segment of the baseball population making a heroic comeback:
The pitchers. (In the National League, anyway.)
Last April, for example, the ERA of the average National League pitcher was 4.46. This April (through Monday), it was 3.73.
Kevin Brown, Glendon Rusch and Dave Williams all homered before Jeff Bagwell, Todd Helton and Adam Dunn.
And the most amazing development yet is that no National League team scored 10 runs in a game for five straight days last week (Wednesday through Sunday).
The longest streak last year was three days. The longest streak in the 2000 season was only two days. And the last time there were no double digits on the board for five days was all the way back in 1998, according to Elias -- from Aug. 15 through 19.
There hasn't been a six-day streak since the modern rocketball era began in 1993. Last time that happened: July 29 to Aug. 7, 1992 (10 straight days).
That game-winning home run the great Mariano Rivera served up to Shea Hillenbrand at Fenway on Saturday was even more unusual than it looked. Since Rivera gave up his infamous game-tying, series-turning home run to Sandy Alomar Jr. in Game 4 of the 1997 AL Division Series, he'd allowed several game-tying homers -- but only one game-winning homer.
That was to Andruw Jones in an interleague game, on July 16, 1999. The last time Rivera gave up a game-losing homer to an American League hitter was two years before that (and almost five years before Hillenbrand) -- on July 14, 1997 (to Cleveland's Marquis Grissom).
Believe it or not, those are the only game-losing home runs Rivera has ever allowed in five-plus seasons as the Yankees' closer. Amazing.
More Yankees: Last season, the Yankees lost one game all season when they held a lead of four runs or more (That was last June 17, when they blew a five-run lead to the Mets at Shea). They just lost two games like that on one road trip (last Wednesday at Toronto, Saturday at Boston).
It also isn't every day the Yankees score four runs or more in the top of the first inning at Fenway and lose. Last time that happened: July 5, 1971. They scored five in the first off Gary Peters. But Mel Stottlemyre (who witnessed this game as pitching coach) couldn't hold it and the Red Sox won, 12-7
Speaking of that four-run first inning Saturday, let's remember it came against Pedro Martinez, of all people. We know plate ump Fieldin Culbreth has a strike zone the size of a thumb tack. We know Pedro rebounded to throw much better after that. Still, this is not the Pedro we've come to know and love.
This Pedro already has surrendered three runs in the first inning of one start and four in another. And that's a sign of a pitcher who's having a tough time getting comfortable. Which is usually a sign of a pitcher who's having some kind of physical problem.
It's certainly a problem Pedro never had before. Check out his first-inning numbers this year versus the previous six years:
YEAR BAT AVG. ON-BASE PCT. SLG PCT.
2002 .286 .444 .643
2001 .159 .209 .190
2000 .192 .243 .288
1999 .193 .244 .284
1998 .165 .213 .243
1997 .118 .182 .137
On the other side of New York, Rey Ordonez committed three errors in his final 150 games of the 1999 season. He committed three in one game Saturday. Which means he's in the running to achieve a very challenging feat:
In 1999, he had the highest fielding percentage of any shortstop in the league. At the moment, he has the lowest (.877 through Monday).
Well, thanks to the Elias Sports Bureau, we know it's not impossible to go from first to worst.
In 1967, Bobby Wine of the Phillies led NL shortstops in fielding percentage (committing just 12 errors). Two seasons later, with the '69 Expos, he finished last (while committing 31). It hasn't been done since. (Minimum to qualify: two-thirds of a team's games at the position.)
Triviality
Jesse Orosco, who turns 45 this week, and Roger Clemens are the last active players who took part in the 1986 World Series. Can you name the only other two players currently on big-league rosters who played in a World Series in the 1980s? (Answer at bottom.)
The Sultan's Corner
It took Barry Bonds exactly one year and 11 days to hit 80 home runs. (It once took Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper an 11-year, one-month career to hit one home run.) But as amazing as Barry is, he didn't set the record for the quickest 80 homers by much.
The Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR's David Vincent, reports that Barry was only five days ahead of Mark McGwire, who once hit 80 in a year and 16 days (from Aug. 22, 1997 through Sept. 6, 1998). And Sammy Sosa was only a week behind (hitting 80 between May 22, 1998 and June 13, 1999).
After a question from loyal reader Doug Pappas, we've finally uncovered Kenny Rogers' place in history (aside from managing to get yanked in the fourth inning of a '96 playoff start by Joe Torre even though he was winning).
When Rogers started that 1-6-5-2-1-4 triple play against the Mariners on Sunday, he became the first pitcher ever to have started a triple play and thrown a perfect game in his career, according to Elias.
Debut of the week: Seattle called up Ron Wright after Edgar Martinez got hurt. In the first game of his career, he made six outs in three at-bats: strikeout, double play, triple play. It's all uphill from here, Ron.
Or maybe not. He was designated for assignment on Wednesday.
Through Monday, the Rockies had played eight games at Coors Field this year. They'd scored four runs or fewer in six of them.
Last year it took them until June 7 (their 31st home game) before they scored four runs or fewer for the sixth time.
But maybe somebody just lowered Denver over the winter while nobody was looking. In those first eight games at Coors this year, only once did either team score in double figures. In the first eight games last year, the winning team averaged 10 runs a game.
Barry Bonds is now only 10 homers behind Mark McGwire on the all-time list. As recently as Opening Day 2000, he was 77 behind. Phew.
On the other hand, before we get carried away predicting Bonds is going to break Hank Aaron's record, remember that Hank's 755 is still 181 home runs away on the Home Run History Expressway. Which are nine more home runs than -- to pick one great hitter -- Vladimir Guerrero has hit in his whole career (in five full seasons, plus parts of two others).
With Barry about to turn 38 in July, what's the likelihood of seeing him average 36 homers a year through 2006 (when he'll be 42)? Just asking.
It was a common assumption two weeks ago that the Indians' glory years were behind them. But the 2002 Indians already have as many winning streaks of 10 games or more as the 1995-2001 Indians teams had combined (one).
At what point do we declare the Orioles one of the most schizophrenic offensive teams ever? Before they scored 12 runs in one inning Thursday, they'd scored nine runs in their previous 59 innings.
In their three wins, they're averaging 11.3 runs per game. In their eight losses, they're averaging 1.3 runs per game.
Elias' Randy Robles reports that now that Greg Maddux has finally proved he's human by going on the disabled list, here are the active pitchers who have made the most starts without ever visiting the DL:
Tom Glavine -- 472
Darryl Kile -- 297
Rick Helling -- 173
Jose Lima -- 151
Livan Hernandez -- 150
Meanwhile, here are the active pitchers who were on the DL the most while Maddux was spending no time on the DL:
Mike Morgan -- 14 times
Paul Shuey -- 10
Kevin Brown -- 8
Matt Mantei -- 8
Rich Garces -- 8
Andy Ashby -- 8
Hipolito Pichardo -- 8
We've heard of the age of specialization, but Joey Hamilton is taking it to new extremes. Since last year's All-Star break, he's won three games -- all against the Phillies in Philadelphia, for two different teams (Toronto, Cincinnati).
Through Monday, Matt Morris was the only Cardinals starter with a win. And Javier Vazquez was the only Expos starter without a win.
A correction from last week: The three Red Sox starters last year with a 17-strikeout game on their stat sheet were Pedro Martinez, David Cone and Hideo Nomo -- not Martinez, Cone and Bret Saberhagen.
This just in: Curt Schilling can pitch. In his last 24 starts, counting the postseason, he's 18-1. Schilling, incidentally, went 27 straight batters without allowing a hit over his last two starts.
Indians starting pitchers are 10-0. They won nine games all last April.
The Twins are 15 games under .500 against the Indians the last two years. They're 26 games over .500 against everybody else.
Quinton McCracken, now a Diamondback, homered Sunday for the first time since April 21, 1999. The East Valley Tribune's Ed Price reports that in between McCracken homers, Barry Bonds whacked 159.
Our official bobblehead correspondent, David Hallstrom, reports that bobbleheads are off to another torrid start this year. Magglio Ordonez was the first position player honored last weekend -- and went 2-for-4. That was the good news.
The bad news was that the White Sox lost to the Orioles on his bobblehead day for the second straight year (9-4 this year, 11-3 last year). But our ruling is that the bobblehead isn't responsible for the White Sox bullpen.
Finally, Lee Sinins -- creator of the amazing Sabermetric CD-rom Baseball Encyclopedia (available at baseball-encyclopedia.com) -- heard us debating Barry Bonds versus Babe Ruth last weekend on Baseball Tonight and contributed this astounding note:
Our feeling is that the only way to compare players of different eras is to measure them against their respective generations. Well, the Babe's 714 home runs came during a period in which the average player hit 94 in his career.
So Ruth hit over 600 homers more than the average player of his era, with the "average player" defined as "the average career of a player who would have played exactly as much as that player in each of those seasons."
Here is a ranking of the top 10 in that category (most home runs above league average for that period):
HOMERUNS DIFF PLAYER LEAGUE
1 Babe Ruth 622 714 92
2 Hank Aaron 457 755 298
3 Mark McGwire 405 583 178
4 Jimmie Foxx 403 534 131
5 Willie Mays 390 660 270
6 Lou Gehrig 377 493 116
7 Ted Williams 376 521 145
8 Mel Ott 374 511 137
9 Mike Schmidt 367 548 181
10 Barry Bonds 363 574 211
And how about this coincidence? With the home run he hit to pass Harmon Killebrew on the all-time homer list (No. 574), Bonds also passed Killebrew on this homers-above-average list. Killebrew's 573 were 362 more than the average player of his time. Whaddaya know.
Trivia Answer
Rickey Henderson and the currently injured Matt Williams, who both played in the '89 World Series -- Henderson for the A's, Williams for the Giants.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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