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Bicentennial Minute

Posted by Steve Lombardi on May 22, 2010

Via Baseball-Reference.com's Situational Records Tool:

From 1901 To 2010 and Exactly 1 Runs Allowed

Most such games in a season, with 2010 through yesterday:

Rk Year G 6 W L W-L% RS RA pythW-L%
1 1972 520 452 68 .869 1865 520 .912
2 1968 505 421 82 .837 1750 505 .907
3 1971 499 429 70 .860 1845 499 .916
4 1976 493 421 72 .854 1839 493 .918
5 1992 492 434 58 .882 1973 492 .927
6 2005 487 447 40 .918 2142 487 .938
7 1988 485 429 56 .885 1899 485 .924
8 1989 483 426 57 .882 2021 483 .932
9 1915 482 399 71 .849 1720 482 .911
10 1914 479 357 94 .792 1565 479 .897
11 1990 477 434 43 .910 1967 477 .930
12 2009 477 441 36 .925 2259 477 .945
13 1978 475 424 51 .893 1840 475 .923
14 1984 475 434 41 .914 1975 475 .931
15 2001 475 437 36 .924 2132 475 .940
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/23/2010.

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Most losses of such games in a season, with 2010 through yesterday:

Rk Year G W L 6 W-L% RS RA pythW-L%
1 1914 479 357 94 .792 1565 479 .897
2 1968 505 421 82 .837 1750 505 .907
3 1908 401 315 80 .797 1347 401 .902
4 1976 493 421 72 .854 1839 493 .918
5 1915 482 399 71 .849 1720 482 .911
6 1971 499 429 70 .860 1845 499 .916
7 1907 368 288 70 .804 1233 368 .901
8 1909 397 317 69 .821 1370 397 .906
9 1972 520 452 68 .869 1865 520 .912
10 1974 442 377 63 .857 1738 442 .925
11 1918 285 221 62 .781 943 285 .899
12 1917 370 297 61 .830 1221 370 .899
13 1916 339 267 60 .817 1130 339 .901
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/23/2010.

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It makes sense to see 1968 high on each list. But, 1976 too? Never really thought of that year as being a season where offense was at a low...and/or pitching was at a high...

Related posts:

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 11:32 pm and is filed under Play Index. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 Responses to “Bicentennial Minute”

  1. Jim Says:
    May 23rd, 2010 at 12:23 am

    I know about '68 and the change in the height of the pitchers mound but what happened in '72 that made it such a dead ball year. Carlton peaked at the right time.

  2. Frank Clingenpeel Says:
    May 23rd, 2010 at 3:49 pm

    Aside from having Seaver, Perry and Hunter in their primes and Ryan just hitting his, you mean?

  3. Jim Says:
    May 23rd, 2010 at 6:29 pm

    Was '72 a pitchers year because these guys were peaking... or were these guys peaking because something was tweaked with the ball/mound to make it a pitchers year? Your argument lacks validity. I can name you several other years where 5 or 6 pitchers were peaking and its not a statistical outlier like 72 was

  4. Frank Clingenpeel Says:
    May 23rd, 2010 at 6:44 pm

    Good questio, I must admit

  5. Morten Jonsson Says:
    May 24th, 2010 at 8:57 am

    I'd say the rule changes after the 1968 season didn't end the second deadball era. It took the DH to do that--but only in the American League. In the National League, scoring was still at 1960s levels through the 1980s. That's disguised a bit by the fact that pitchers didn't throw as many complete games by then, so they didn't have those monster seasons that you used to see. In 1976 in the NL, teams scored under four runs a game. That's less than in 1964, 1965, or 1966. What is a little surprising is that over in the American League, the scoring was only a fraction higher--it's still the lowest-scoring year since the DH.

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