The Three True Outcomes
Who needs fielders when Ryan Howard's at the plate? (Full article only available by subscription)
Ryan Howard has hit 10 balls this month that actually landed on that big old field in front of him (two singles, two doubles and six balls that got caught by those people with mitts on). Now that might seem practically, well, normal. But if you were following the Howard events that preceded this outburst, you'd know different.
As loyal reader Michael Milici reports, Howard somehow went 20 straight trips to the plate (June 24-29) without the ball ever coming down on the field (two homers, five walks, 13 strikeouts). So either the ball never left the batter's box, or it came down in somebody's nacho tray. But those guys playing defense might as well have gone out for a cheese steak when he was up.Well, you definitely don't see that much. Our official Useless Info streak guru, Trent McCotter, went back to 1968, trying to find somebody -- anybody -- who could match this streak. Couldn't do it. Not Adam Dunn. Not Rob Deer. Not even a pitcher. Here are the next-longest streaks he found over the last 40 seasons:
PITCHERS
16: Jim Hannan 7/24-8/13/1968
16: Vida Blue 8/13-9/29/1972
15: Mike Thurman 7/24-9/5/1998NON-PITCHERS
14: Gorman Thomas 7/27-7/29/1975
14: Jack Clark 7/23-7/26/1987
14: Mark McGwire 8/8-8/10/1998
14: Travis Hafner 9/21-9/23/2005Amazing. Oh, and one more thing: McCotter also found the last man to make 13 straight outs via whiffage -- Manny Ramirez, during the first two weeks of his Red Sox career (April 6-13, 2001).
It's useless facts like this that make Jayson Stark's columns fun.
Read more about the Three True Outcomes. (So named because they're the only three outcomes in baseball that depend solely on the batter versus the pitcher, without involvement from any other fielder.)