Autumn Baseball

Oakland Coliseum

Baseball is a game of numbers, or is it? The leaves on the maple trees on our street have begun to drop, the lingering daylight is beginning to recede, light rains cool the air, its inevitable, the first sign that fall is on it’s way. Kids are back in school, Labor Day is upon us, and my Cubs, with 25 regular season games left have virtually no chance (again) at the playoffs (see Catching Lightning). Wait till next year. The lazy days of summer are but a memory and the 2013 baseball season is winding down. Will this season prove that big money buys a pennant winner, or just lucrative losers?

This year I chalked up another stadium on my list of major league baseball parks visited (complete list below). After reading the book Money Ball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, seeing the Oakland Athletics was a must. It's the story of how Billy Bean, General Manager of the Oakland A's changed the game of baseball using the statistical work of Bill James. Now granted, the Oakland Coliseum is no Wrigley Field but it does hold a place in baseball history. The 2002 season was historic for the A’s - a winning streak of 20 consecutive games. During the 20th game, cruising along with an 11-0 lead, the A's blew it. The Royals rallied to tie the score on a two-out, RBI single by Luis Alicea in the top of the ninth, the Athletics won in dramatic fashion, a walk-off, the bottom half of the ninth, for the third straight game. Oakland broke a three-way tie for the longest winning streak in AL history with the 1906 Chicago White Sox and the 1947 New York Yankees. For those interested, the major league record of 26 consecutive victories was set by the New York Giants in 1916.

The premise of Moneyball is to answer the question, "How did one of the poorest teams in baseball, the Oakland A's, win so many games?" The author does this by comparing the payrolls and unfair advantage between the Oakland A's and the New York Yankees, well, I’d like to look closer to home - the American League West. The 2013 Angels (see Angels 10 Tigers 0) have a payroll of $127,896,250 compare this to the A’s, $60,864,500. That’s over twice as much. This year there are three teams with lower payrolls than the A's: Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins, and Houston Astros (average $38,939,257).

The stats as of September 2, 2013 are very telling (had to throw in my Padres and Cubs for comparison);

Team	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road
Oakland	78	58	.574	1	42-25	36-33
Angels	63	72	.467	15.5	31-37	32-35
Padres	60	76	.441	21	36-32	24-44
Cubs	58	78	.426	21	27-42	31-36

In April, sports broadcasters could not stop raving about the Angels and their powerhouse lineup; Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton, Mike Trout, and Mark Trumbo, to name a few. Google, Pujols, today, (for example) and the headlines say, Albert Pujols healthy enough to golf . According to Pete Donovan of the Desert Sun, "This may not be the worst Angel team of all-time (the ’80 club was 30 games under .500), but it’s surely the most embarrassing based on preseason predictions.” On the opposite side of the dugout is the Oakland A’s. To this day, I'm unable to name an Oakland player from memory. However, if you happen to attend an A's game the cheer, during each at bat, is for their beloved catcher, "DEREK - Norris - DEREK - Norris!" The headlines for today read, The A's take back the AL West. During our visit to the Coliseum we witnessed scrappy play, and the raw enthusiasm of the Oakland fans, this made baseball fun again. And why not, they were winning. The game we attended, Oakland won (Indians 3 - Oakland 7).  Now, deep down, I’m a National league fan at heart, (put the pitcher in the batters box) however, I love the game of baseball and truly enjoy watching the season unfold. Let’s face reality, teams play 162 games a year, it's not over yet! The 1951 Giants came back to beat the the Dodgers after trailing by 12 1⁄2 games and as a result they were already looking ahead to face the New York Yankees in the 1951 World Series; the Associated Press commented on their dominance, saying that "unless they completely fold in their last 50 games, they're in." The Giants won 16 straight games from August 12 to August 27, cutting their deficit from 12 1⁄2 games to six. By September 20, the Dodgers had ten games left to play while the Giants had seven, and the Dodgers had a 4 1⁄2 game advantage, making a pennant win appear imminent. However, the Giants won their last seven games, and in the final game of the season, the Dodgers needed to defeat the Phillies to force a playoff; they did so by winning 9–8 in 14 innings, which meant both teams had a record of 96-58. The most talked about playoff game among baseball aficionados, the 1951 Dodgers and Giants resonates thru history, Bobby Thompson's, shot heard round the world! Giants 5 Dodgers 4. According to the Postseason probabilities chart at MLB.com as of Sept. 2, the A's have a 97% chance of getting to the playoffs this year. It would be epic to see the Dodgers battle the Oakland A’s in a 2013 World Series (sorry Angel fans). What’s the statistical probability of that match-up?  Who knows really - it's baseball, there are 30 teams, anything can happen. Major League Ballparks visited; Fenway Park, *Shea Stadium, Yankee Stadium (original), Citizens Bank Park, Comerica Park, Wrigley Field, Bush Stadium, Kauffman Stadium, Ballpark at Arlington, Coors Field, Safco Field, AT&T Park, *Candlestick Park, Oakland Coliseum, Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium, *Qualcomm, and Petco Park.