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Useless first-week info
posted: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 | Print Entry

If Jason Schmidt has as many home runs as Ryan Howard, and Barry Bonds has as many stolen bases as Carl Crawford, you know what that means.

It must be a whole new season.

So let's provide clear proof, from the first week of the season, that it sure isn't last year anymore:

• The two World Series teams -- the Tigers and Cardinals -- never spent one day under .500 all last season. They both had losing records by the end of Opening Day this year.

• The Pirates and Royals never spent one day over .500 last season. They were both over .500 after the first day of this season.

• The Pirates played six games in Houston last year and lost them all. They played their first three games of this season in Houston -- and won them all.

• The Pirates were the last team in the National League to win three games in a row last season (when it took them 53 games). They would have been the first in the NL to win three in a row this season if the Mets hadn't beaten them to the 3-and-0 club by 15 minutes Wednesday.

• OK, one more Pirates note. Not only did no team homer in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings of any game last season, but according to the Elias Sports Bureau's Rob Tracy, no team had done it in any game of any season since May 6, 1983 (when the Mets did it against the Reds). But the Pirates did that against the Astros on Opening Day this season.

• Last year as an Angel, Darin Erstad didn't hit a home run all year. So of course, he homered on his first Opening Day with the White Sox.

• As the great Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported, Joe Torre had made it through 10 seasons of managing the Yankees without ever seeing his starting pitchers fail to make it past the sixth inning five games in a row. But he had that happen in the first five games of this season.

• On each of the last two Opening Days, Tom Glavine has pitched exactly six innings, and given up exactly six hits and one earned run. In between, he didn't make any other starts in which he pitched exactly six innings, giving up exactly six hits and one earned run.

• Luis Gonzalez went all last season without hitting two home runs in a game. So who was the first player on any NL West team to homer twice this year? Who else? Luis Gonzalez.

• Lou Piniella won on Opening Day two straight years when he was managing the Devil Rays. So naturally, he lost his first opener with that Cubs team that handed out $317 million worth of contracts over the winter.

• Curt Schilling hadn't gotten knocked out of a start before the fifth inning in 10 years. But the Royals waved goodbye to him after four innings on Opening Day.

• And only five times in the last 17 years had Schilling allowed a run to score on a bases-loaded walk. But he did that in the first inning of this season.

• For the first time in his career, Ben Sheets threw no complete games last year. And in 166 starts as a Brewer, he'd never thrown a two-hitter. So what did he do on Opening Day this year? Throw a complete-game two-hitter, of course -- a feat achieved on Opening Day by only one other pitcher in the last 25 years (Tom Glavine in 1992).

• In his first 1,545 games in the big leagues, Jason Kendall whiffed three times in a game in only three of them. So how many times did he strike out on Opening Day? Three, naturally.

• Speaking of strikeouts, no Pirates pitcher fanned 11 (or more) hitters in any game last season. But Ian Snell punched out 11 in their second game this year.

• The Mariners won one of their first 16 games against Oakland last year. It took them two games against the A's to beat that this year.

• Before this year, when he was employed by teams not known as the Brewers, Jeff Suppan made seven starts in Miller Park and lost none of them (5-0, 1.76 ERA). So was there ever any doubt he'd lose his first game in Miller Park after he became a Brewer?

• In 62 appearances last year with the Mets and Diamondbacks, Jorge Julio never gave up five hits (or more) in any of them. And in his entire career (all 343 games of it), he'd never had a game in which he allowed five hits without getting at least three outs. But what happened in his first game as a Marlin? He coughed up a lead in the ninth -- by giving up five hits in 1/3 of an inning.

• Jason Marquis' bullpen in St. Louis blew one save for him all last season. His bullpen in Chicago blew a save in his first game as a Cub.

• The Devil Rays won one game all last year when they arrived in the ninth inning trailing by more than one run. So how'd they win their third game of this season? Scored three in the ninth against Toronto after being down by two after eight.

• Daniel (Walk This Way) Cabrera didn't go to the mound one time last year without walking at least one hitter. So how many did he walk in his second start this year? Zero, naturally -- in seven innings.

• Chris Duncan didn't get three extra-base hits in any game last season. So is anybody shocked to hear he was the first player in the big leagues to get three in a game this season?

• As our friends from Elias reported, Craig Biggio had one multi-hit road game after the All-Star break last season. Anybody want to guess how many hits he got in his first road game this season? Yup. Two.

• The Cardinals never had any three-game stretch last season in which they scored one run or none in three games in a row. But they did that in the first three games of this season.

• Hanley Ramirez might have won a rookie-of-the-year award last season, but he didn't have one game in which he got four hits and scored four runs. So what did he do on Opening Day this season? Get four hits and score four runs. What else?

• Loyal Useless Infomaniac Eric Orns reports that Carlos Beltran hit just one of his 41 homers last year on an 0-2 pitch. So what was the count on his first homer this year? Yep, 0-2.

• Finally, thanks to the amazing folks at Elias, we know that, in the history of baseball, only one team (the 1994 Phillies) had ever won its first two games of the season despite trailing after seven innings in each of them. So how crazy is it that two teams did that last week (the Pirates and Braves)?

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