Using the Batting Game Finder, set for post-season, we can find who had the most post-season multi-hit games.

First I sorted it by most games in a single year:

                   Year Games Link to Individual Games
+-----------------+----+-----+-------------------------+
 Marquis Grissom   1996     9 Ind. Games
 Troy Glaus        2002     9 Ind. Games
 Marty Barrett     1986     9 Ind. Games
 Bernie Williams   1996     8 Ind. Games
 Albert Pujols     2004     8 Ind. Games
 Darin Erstad      2002     8 Ind. Games
 Willie Wilson     1985     7 Ind. Games
 Devon White       1993     7 Ind. Games
 Bill Mueller      2004     7 Ind. Games
 Willie McGee      1987     7 Ind. Games
 Tino Martinez     2000     7 Ind. Games
 Kenny Lofton      2002     7 Ind. Games
 Marquis Grissom   1995     7 Ind. Games
 Ken Griffey       1995     7 Ind. Games
 Steve Garvey      1981     7 Ind. Games
 Craig Biggio      2005     7 Ind. Games
 Lance Berkman     2004     7 Ind. Games
 Carlos Beltran    2004     7 Ind. Games
 David Bell        2002     7 Ind. Games
 Brady Anderson    1997     7 Ind. Games
 Moises Alou       2003     7 Ind. Games
 Sandy Alomar      1997     7 Ind. Games

Right away you can see that, unsurprisingly, most of these seasons are within the Wild Card Era (1995 to present.) But a shout out to Barrett, Wilson, White, McGee, and Garvey, who all did it without the benefit of the extra round of the playoffs. Of these 22 guys to have 7 or more such games, 17 were on teams to go to the World Series, and 9 of those were on actual championship teams. So the 5 guys who didn't even make it to the World Series (Griffey in 1995, Berkman and Beltran in 2004, Brady "Big 5-0" Anderson in 1997, and Alou in 2003) are particularly impressive.

Now, how about most multi-hit post-season games in a career, regardless of year?

Here are the top 25:

                   Games Link to Individual Games
+-----------------+-----+-------------------------+
 Derek Jeter          43 Ind. Games
 Bernie Williams      36 Ind. Games
 Pete Rose            30 Ind. Games
 Chipper Jones        25 Ind. Games
 Kenny Lofton         24 Ind. Games
 Steve Garvey         23 Ind. Games
 Paul O'Neill         22 Ind. Games
 Yogi Berra           22 Ind. Games
 Manny Ramirez        21 Ind. Games
 Chuck Knoblauch      21 Ind. Games
 Marquis Grissom      21 Ind. Games
 Jorge Posada         20 Ind. Games
 Frankie Frisch       20 Ind. Games
 Devon White          19 Ind. Games
 Albert Pujols        19 Ind. Games
 John Olerud          19 Ind. Games
 Tino Martinez        19 Ind. Games
 David Justice        19 Ind. Games
 Reggie Jackson       19 Ind. Games
 Lonnie Smith         18 Ind. Games
 Bill Russell         18 Ind. Games
 Andruw Jones         18 Ind. Games
 Rickey Henderson     18 Ind. Games
 Roberto Alomar       18 Ind. Games
 Mark Lemke           17 Ind. Games

It's not a surprise to see this list dominated by Wild Card Era Yankees, including Jeter, Williams, Knoblauch, Posada, and Martinez. But man oh man is it impressive to see Pete Rose up there. Granted he was on 8 playoff teams and played in 14 post-season series, but he still had 30 multi-hit games out of 67 played (45%,) good for a .321 batting average. WOW. Compare that to Jeter, who has 43 multi-hit games out of 123 played (34%.) Still awesome, but not quite Pete Rose awesome.

It's such a shame to think about what's happened to Pete Rose. He was such an amazing player, both in talent and in hustle. He could have had a wonderful post-retirement career, especially in America where people are so easily forgiven for almost any crime. I still cannot believe that the only time he ever showed any remorse about his actions was so many years later, and it was just to write "I'm sorry I bet on baseball" on baseballs that he sold.

Does everybody remember the classic moment in the 1980 World Series when the ball popped out of catcher Bob Boone's glove? It was in foul territory on a pop up, and Rose was there to back him up. When the ball popped out, Rose nonchalantly grabbed it out of the air for the third out, then bounced the baseball on the Veterans Stadium carpet and hustled back to the dugout, all the while with a smile on his face.

I miss that Pete Rose.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 6:17 am and is filed under Game Finders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.