offers predictions<\/a> about division winners and award races. As I do every offseason, I went back through mine to see how badly I mangled things. Like a blind pig finding an acorn, I did stumble into a few correct guesses.<\/p>\nI predicted Bobby Jr. to lead Royals position players in WAR, and he did. Unless he loses a limb, that one\u2019s basically automatic.<\/p>\n
I picked Cole Ragans to lead the staff in WAR, and he might have if injuries hadn\u2019t waylaid him. Instead, that honor went to Noah Cameron, and I doubt any of the big brains at Royals Review saw that one coming.<\/p>\n
I correctly guessed the three NL division winners (Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Los Angeles) plus one Wild Card team (San Diego).<\/p>\n
On the American League side, I completely whiffed with Baltimore, Detroit, and Texas, and had Kansas City, Seattle, and the Yankees as my Wild Cards.<\/p>\n
Overall, I got seven of the twelve playoff teams right\u2014nothing to brag about, and certainly nothing to take to Vegas.<\/p>\n
In the World Series, I had Los Angeles beating the Royals in five. What can I say? I\u2019m a shameless homer.<\/p>\n
Speaking of homerism, I had Bobby winning MVP. That, of course, went to Aaron Judge, who continues putting up historic numbers. It\u2019s unfortunate that Bobby (and Cal Raleigh) have become the Josh Allen to Judge\u2019s Patrick Mahomes.<\/p>\n
I did nail the NL MVP with Shohei. Again, not exactly rocket science. Or even as difficult as men talking to women.<\/p>\n
I lucked into Tarik Skubal for AL Cy Young but missed on the NL side. I whiffed on both Rookie of the Year picks as well, which is a total crapshoot anyway.<\/p>\n
No worries\u20142026 is just a few months away, and I\u2019ll be back out there slinging mud against the wall.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m always fascinated by random baseball trivia. For example, four legends began and ended their careers in the same city, but for different franchises:<\/p>\n
Babe Ruth \u2013 Red Sox \/ BravesJimmie Foxx \u2013 Athletics \/ PhilliesHenry Aaron \u2013 Braves \/ BrewersWillie Mays \u2013 Giants \/ Mets<\/p>\n
The common thread? All four were among the best to ever play. They weren\u2019t ready to throw in the towel, and returning to their original city was their last chance to hear the applause of an appreciative crowd who remembered them when they were young and vital. The end always comes too soon for our heroes. Ruth hit just .181 with six home runs in his Boston return, and no one who saw it will ever forget Willie Mays on his knees pleading with home plate umpire Augie Donatelli for a safe call. And honestly, it looked like the ump blew it.<\/p>\n
For $200, Alex: Major League Baseball has been around for a little over 150 years, and roughly 21,000 men have played the game. Progressive Field in Cleveland\u2014the majors\u2019 smallest-capacity stadium\u2014holds 34,830. You could put every person who\u2019s ever played in MLB into that ballpark and still be at only 60% capacity.<\/p>\n
I was recently scrolling through Conagra\u2019s website and discovered they own David\u2019s sunflower seeds. According to David\u2019s site, they\u2019re the official seed of Major League Baseball\u2014and softball too. You learn something new every day. I\u2019ve been an avid seed chewer for about 50 years. Coaches can even print \u201cDavid Player of the Game\u201d certificates, which would be pretty cool if you were eight.<\/p>\n
Back in the day, you could buy a packet of Fisher\u2019s sunflower seeds for a nickel. That size was perfect for a game and made a nifty Halloween giveaway. You can\u2019t find those anymore; David\u2019s owns the seed market now.<\/p>\n
Eighteen players have collected five or more hits in a game at least seven times. One of them was former Royal Johnny Damon. It\u2019s easy to forget how good Damon was. In an era when the Royals can\u2019t buy a decent outfielder, it\u2019s heartbreaking to remember that in the late \u201990s the franchise had possibly the best young outfield in baseball: Damon, Carlos Beltran, and Jermaine Dye.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a great bar bet: When was the last time a Royals pitcher won 20 games?<\/p>\n
Answer: Bret Saberhagen in 1989. He went 23\u20136 and won the AL Cy Young.<\/p>\n
Double or nothing: Who threw the Royals\u2019 last no-hitter?<\/p>\n
Saberhagen again, in 1991.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a good chance you may never see either of those again in your lifetime.<\/p>\n
Baltimore hasn\u2019t had a 20-game winner since 1984. Milwaukee\u2019s drought dates to 1986. The long-suffering Padres haven\u2019t had one since 1978. And Colorado has never had a 20-game winner, which blows my mind.<\/p>\n
Finally, we close with the saga of Ron Wright. Wright was a 7th-round pick by the Braves in 1994. A physical specimen at 6\u20191\u201d, 230 pounds, he hit with power and actually improved at each minor-league level. After eight grueling seasons, the Mariners finally called him up. On April 14, 2002, he made his debut against Kenny Rogers and the Rangers\u2014not the easiest assignment. Rogers could deal; \u201cThe Gambler\u201d made four All-Star teams and won 219 games.<\/p>\n
Rogers struck Wright out looking in his first plate appearance\u2014understandable nerves.<\/p>\n
Wright came up again in the 4th with Ruben Sierra on third and John Olerud on first. He hit a comebacker to Rogers, who threw to Alex Rodriguez for the force at second. Sierra broke for home and was tagged out after a rundown. Wanting to join the chaos, Wright took off for second and was thrown out by catcher Bill Haselman. For those scoring at home, that\u2019s a 1-6-2-5-1-4 triple play.<\/p>\n
In the sixth, with Sierra and Olerud on base again, Wright hit into a traditional 6-4-3 double play.<\/p>\n
Rough day. Three at-bats: one strikeout, one double play, one triple play. Six outs in three trips. That\u2019s got to be some kind of record.<\/p>\n
Wright never got another game. The Mariners optioned him to AAA Tacoma, where he hit a respectable .273 with 15 home runs and 57 RBI in 99 games. He split 2003 between Toledo (Tigers) and Akron (Indians) before finishing in the Northern League.<\/p>\n
On the opposite end of the spectrum is John Paciorek, whose brothers Jim and Tom also made the majors. John appeared in one game for the Houston Colt .45s in September 1963 as an 18-year-old. He came to the plate five times, collected three singles, drew two walks, scored four times, and drove in three. A series of injuries ended his career, but he retired with a perfect 1.000\/1.000\/1.000 slash line.<\/p>\n
Baseball, like life, can be confounding, heartbreaking, exasperating, exciting, breathtaking, and beautiful. Some players get 20-year careers; others, like Wright and Paciorek, get one solitary shot at the limelight.<\/p>\n
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now that the season is over and our attention has turned to football and turkey, we finally have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[162652,363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-316937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-burnt-ends","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}