Post by abisai on Jan 31, 2005 13:25:37 GMT -5
sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=1977943
"NFL Doesn't put MLB to shame"
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
You may have heard that there's some kind of big football game coming up. Well, here at Useless Info Central, we try to stay relevant. So we'll, uh, kick off this column with some football-related baseball notes:
Here's something to ponder: Football is the sport that's always praised for its spectacular competitive balance. But as loyal reader David Hallstrom reports, five different baseball teams have won the World Series over the last five years. Think that happens all the time in football? Think again.
In the NFL's 39-year Super Bowl era, there has been exactly one five-year period in which five different teams won a title -- 1984-88. And even if you include the pre-Supe era, that's the only five-year span in which the NFL can make that claim over its last 57 seasons.
Then there's this year's Super Bowl matchup -- which didn't exactly come out of nowhere. It matches one team going for its third title in four years (the Patriots) versus another team (the Eagles) that has made it to four straight conference finals.
In other words, for a sport that's supposed to be so wide open, there sure has been a lot of regularity to the NFL's postseason final four.
In fact, it turns out the NFL's final four teams actually have been more predictable over the last four years than baseball's final four. In baseball, 12 of the 30 franchises have made it to a League Championship Series over the past four seasons. In football, only 10 have been to a conference final.
Or let's take this back even more years. Over the last eight baseball postseasons, 16 of the 30 MLB franchises have been to at least one LCS (53.3 percent). That's virtually exactly the same percentage as the NFL (17 of 32, 53.1 percent). So it may be true that there's more parity in football. But it isn't true that it's tougher to predict which teams will still be standing at the end.
In other topics, it sure has been a fun year to be a New Englander. You might have noticed that even before we pointed it out. We've already seen the Patriots and Red Sox win championships in the same calendar year. And in the Super Bowl/division-play era of the NFL and MLB respectively, there haven't been many metropoli that have had that thrill. Here's the list:
1989: Bay Area (49ers and A's)
1979: Pittsburgh (Steelers and Pirates)
1969: New York (Jets and Mets)
Peter Angelos no doubt would want us to add 1983, when the Redskins and Orioles won. But we'll leave that in the hands of the jury.
OK, now suppose the Patriots win yet another Super Bowl. Throw in the Red Sox, and that would be three titles for New England in a span of about 12 months. So how often has that happened in the same era? Precisely twice:
January 1989-January 1990: Bay Area (49ers, A's, 49ers)
January 1979-January 1980: Pittsburgh (Steelers, Pirates, Steelers)
And even if you include the rest of the century, it occurred just one other time:
October 1938-October 1939: New York (Yankees, Giants, Yankees)
Here's yet another amazing New England phenomenon: The Patriots and Red Sox are both working on eight-game postseason winning streaks. What are the odds of that?
Look at it this way: There has been only one other period in the history of the two sports in which a football and baseball team had postseason winning streaks of eight games or longer going at the same time. That period lasted all of one day -- and didn't involve teams from the same metropolitan area.
The day in question was Oct. 11, 1969 -- when the Orioles beat the Mets in Game 1 of the 1969 World Series, for their eighth postseason win in a row (dating back to the 1966 World Series). Meanwhile, over in the NFL at the time, the Packers hadn't lost a postseason game since 1960. So they'd won nine straight.
The Packers' streak lasted until 1972 (when, after missing the playoffs four years in a row, they lost a first-round game to the Redskins). But the Orioles' streak survived just 24 hours, until Jerry Koosman beat Dave McNally, 2-1, in Game 2 of that World Series. At least this New England streak is guaranteed to last two weeks -- at least.
But the baseball-football note of the year has nothing to do with the Super Bowl. For that one, we turn to the Chicago Bears, who started Chad Hutchinson at quarterback in their final five games of the year.
And what does that have to do with baseball? Well, in a previous life, you might recall, Hutchinson was a pitcher for the Cardinals. With a career ERA of 24.75, we might add. Which is just slightly higher than the number of times he was sacked in those five starts for the Bears (23).
That led to loyal reader David Hallstrom's question: Is 23.75 the highest baseball ERA ever for an NFL quarterback?
Hmmm. That looks like a job for all you Useless Info-maniacs out in Reader Land because, hard as we've tried, we can't find any comprehensive list of men who played in both the NFL and the major leagues.
With the help of the Elias Sports Bureau's Ken Hirdt and The Baseball Encyclopedia's Pete Palmer, we have found two guys who played in the NFL and pitched in the big leagues:
-- Matt Kinzer: punter (for one game) for the 1987 Lions, pitcher for the 1989 Cardinals and 1990 Tigers (and owner of a 13.20 career ERA).
-- Ernie Nevers: fullback for the Duluth Eskimos and Chicago Bears (1926-31), pitcher for the 1926-28 Cardinals (and owner of a 4.64 ERA).
But neither of those men was a quarterback. So if you've been stashing away a secret list of pitcher-quarterbacks (NFL and MLB only), now's your chance to send it along to uselessinfodept@yahoo.com.
"NFL Doesn't put MLB to shame"
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
You may have heard that there's some kind of big football game coming up. Well, here at Useless Info Central, we try to stay relevant. So we'll, uh, kick off this column with some football-related baseball notes:
Here's something to ponder: Football is the sport that's always praised for its spectacular competitive balance. But as loyal reader David Hallstrom reports, five different baseball teams have won the World Series over the last five years. Think that happens all the time in football? Think again.
In the NFL's 39-year Super Bowl era, there has been exactly one five-year period in which five different teams won a title -- 1984-88. And even if you include the pre-Supe era, that's the only five-year span in which the NFL can make that claim over its last 57 seasons.
Then there's this year's Super Bowl matchup -- which didn't exactly come out of nowhere. It matches one team going for its third title in four years (the Patriots) versus another team (the Eagles) that has made it to four straight conference finals.
In other words, for a sport that's supposed to be so wide open, there sure has been a lot of regularity to the NFL's postseason final four.
In fact, it turns out the NFL's final four teams actually have been more predictable over the last four years than baseball's final four. In baseball, 12 of the 30 franchises have made it to a League Championship Series over the past four seasons. In football, only 10 have been to a conference final.
Or let's take this back even more years. Over the last eight baseball postseasons, 16 of the 30 MLB franchises have been to at least one LCS (53.3 percent). That's virtually exactly the same percentage as the NFL (17 of 32, 53.1 percent). So it may be true that there's more parity in football. But it isn't true that it's tougher to predict which teams will still be standing at the end.
In other topics, it sure has been a fun year to be a New Englander. You might have noticed that even before we pointed it out. We've already seen the Patriots and Red Sox win championships in the same calendar year. And in the Super Bowl/division-play era of the NFL and MLB respectively, there haven't been many metropoli that have had that thrill. Here's the list:
1989: Bay Area (49ers and A's)
1979: Pittsburgh (Steelers and Pirates)
1969: New York (Jets and Mets)
Peter Angelos no doubt would want us to add 1983, when the Redskins and Orioles won. But we'll leave that in the hands of the jury.
OK, now suppose the Patriots win yet another Super Bowl. Throw in the Red Sox, and that would be three titles for New England in a span of about 12 months. So how often has that happened in the same era? Precisely twice:
January 1989-January 1990: Bay Area (49ers, A's, 49ers)
January 1979-January 1980: Pittsburgh (Steelers, Pirates, Steelers)
And even if you include the rest of the century, it occurred just one other time:
October 1938-October 1939: New York (Yankees, Giants, Yankees)
Here's yet another amazing New England phenomenon: The Patriots and Red Sox are both working on eight-game postseason winning streaks. What are the odds of that?
Look at it this way: There has been only one other period in the history of the two sports in which a football and baseball team had postseason winning streaks of eight games or longer going at the same time. That period lasted all of one day -- and didn't involve teams from the same metropolitan area.
The day in question was Oct. 11, 1969 -- when the Orioles beat the Mets in Game 1 of the 1969 World Series, for their eighth postseason win in a row (dating back to the 1966 World Series). Meanwhile, over in the NFL at the time, the Packers hadn't lost a postseason game since 1960. So they'd won nine straight.
The Packers' streak lasted until 1972 (when, after missing the playoffs four years in a row, they lost a first-round game to the Redskins). But the Orioles' streak survived just 24 hours, until Jerry Koosman beat Dave McNally, 2-1, in Game 2 of that World Series. At least this New England streak is guaranteed to last two weeks -- at least.
But the baseball-football note of the year has nothing to do with the Super Bowl. For that one, we turn to the Chicago Bears, who started Chad Hutchinson at quarterback in their final five games of the year.
And what does that have to do with baseball? Well, in a previous life, you might recall, Hutchinson was a pitcher for the Cardinals. With a career ERA of 24.75, we might add. Which is just slightly higher than the number of times he was sacked in those five starts for the Bears (23).
That led to loyal reader David Hallstrom's question: Is 23.75 the highest baseball ERA ever for an NFL quarterback?
Hmmm. That looks like a job for all you Useless Info-maniacs out in Reader Land because, hard as we've tried, we can't find any comprehensive list of men who played in both the NFL and the major leagues.
With the help of the Elias Sports Bureau's Ken Hirdt and The Baseball Encyclopedia's Pete Palmer, we have found two guys who played in the NFL and pitched in the big leagues:
-- Matt Kinzer: punter (for one game) for the 1987 Lions, pitcher for the 1989 Cardinals and 1990 Tigers (and owner of a 13.20 career ERA).
-- Ernie Nevers: fullback for the Duluth Eskimos and Chicago Bears (1926-31), pitcher for the 1926-28 Cardinals (and owner of a 4.64 ERA).
But neither of those men was a quarterback. So if you've been stashing away a secret list of pitcher-quarterbacks (NFL and MLB only), now's your chance to send it along to uselessinfodept@yahoo.com.
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