Back-to-back World Series with different franchises

In Game 2 of the 2012 World Series, three players joined a fairly interesting list: those who've played in back-to-back World Series with different franchises. It was the first time since 1926 that three players joined the list in one year, and the first time all three joined the list in the same game.

Many of us know that Don Baylor was the first player to play in three straight World Series with different franchises, because Eric Hinske became the second such player in 2009, prompting a rediscovering of that factoid. The list that includes all the two-year wonders as well is interesting enough in its own right though, and it currently has 40 members as of 2019:

1. Jack Barry, 1914-15
2. Possum Whitted, 1914-15
3. Spencer Adams, 1925-26
4. Dutch Ruether, 1925-26
5. Hank Severeid, 1925-26
6. Earl Smith, 1927-28
7. Burleigh Grimes, 1931-32
8. General Crowder, 1933-34
9. Goose Goslin, 1933-34
10. Tex Carleton, 1934-35
11. Tony Lazzeri, 1937-38
12. Lew Riggs, 1940-41
13. Rudy York, 1945-46
14. Allie Clark, 1947-48
15. Eddie Stanky, 1947-48
16. Mike McCormick, 1948-49
17. Dick Whitman, 1949-50
18. Clem Labine, 1959-60
19. Bill Skowron, 1962-63
20. Don Gullett, 1976-77
21. Lee Lacy, 1978-79
22. Willie Hernandez, 1983-84
23. Don Baylor, 1986-88
24. John Tudor, 1987-88
25. Jack Morris, 1991-92
26. Marquis Grissom, 1996-97
27. Kevin Brown, 1997-98
28. Jim Leyritz, 1998-99
29. Greg Myers, 1998-99
30. Reggie Sanders, 2001-02
31. Jay Witasick, 2001-02
32. Eric Hinske, 2007-09
33. Cliff Lee, 2009-10
34. Octavio Dotel, 2011-12
35. Gerald Laird, 2011-12
36. Ryan Theriot, 2011-12
37. Quintin Berry, 2012-13
38. Jake Peavy, 2013-14
39. Ben Zobrist, 2015-16
40. Brian Dozier, 2018-19

My Playoff Predictions

Yes, it's the seventh inning of the NL Wild Card game, but these are the same predictions I would've made before the game:

Wild Cards:

St. Louis over Atlanta
Baltimore over Texas

Division Series:

New York over Baltimore
Oakland over Detroit
St. Louis over Washington
San Francisco over Cincinnati

League Championship Series:

New York over Oakland
St. Louis over San Francisco

World Series:

St. Louis over New York

Take 'em to the bank.

Oldest Ringless Players: 2012

Welcome back to another edition of Oldest Ringless Players. No longer do I have to list eight teams here. No, we're up to ten now, thanks to that moronic new second wild card! Regardless, I'm here to report the data, and if ten I must report, ten I shall.

The same rules as always apply: I view anyone who was on the 40-man roster at the end of the year as in line for a ring, so who is the oldest eligible player for each team?

Atlanta Braves: Tim Hudson (July 14, 1975)
Baltimore Orioles: Jim Thome (August 27, 1970)
Cincinnati Reds: Miguel Cairo (May 4, 1974)
Detroit Tigers: Joaquin Benoit (July 26, 1977)
New York Yankees: Raul Ibanez (June 2, 1972)
Oakland Athletics: Bartolo Colon (May 24, 1973)
San Francisco Giants: Marco Scutaro (October 30, 1975)
St. Louis Cardinals: Brian Fuentes (August 9, 1975)
Texas Rangers: Joe Nathan (November 22, 1974)
Washington Nationals: Mike Gonzalez (May 23, 1978)

• Two of these guys, Colon and Fuentes, are currently on the restricted list, so they might not be participating in the celebration if their teams go on to win the World Series (heaven forbid, in the latter case). If you don't think they should count, the next in line would be Brandon Inge (May 19, 1977) for Oakland and Carlos Beltran (April 24, 1977) for St. Louis.
  
• The Orioles have the oldest player here, and the Nationals the youngest. I wouldn't mind seeing Thome get a ring, and despite the youth of the Nats, I want them to represent the National League in the World Series.
  
• Despite the Yankees having the second-oldest player, there's no way I'm pulling for them even a little. It's just Raul Ibanez, for crying out loud.
  
• The team I want to win it all, the Rangers, has a pretty good ORP in Joe Nathan. He's been around a while and I've never had any reason to dislike him.

I'm always a bit pessimistic about the chances of seeing a team I like win the World Series, but what is baseball without hope? As long as the possibility exists, I'll be pulling for a likable team to take the title. After last year's heartbreaking ending, I sure could use a good one this year.

The Activity Chart

I wanted to share a concept I've developed, and it can be linked to the tidbits I give in my Profiling the World Series Winners series. For lack of a better name, I call it the "Activity Chart." It shows you the years when the first and last players from a team's roster were active in the majors, as well as with the team.

For instance, here's an activity chart for the 1975 Cincinnati Reds:

I apologize for the grainy quality. I'm not a premium Photobucket user.

Years in red are years the player in the row played for the Reds, and years in gray are years he was active in the majors but with a different franchise. You can see in this case that the first player from the 1975 Reds to play for the franchise was Pete Rose in 1963, and the first one in the majors was Fred Norman in 1962. On the other end you can see that Ken Griffey outlasted them all.

If you're inclined to ask, yes, I'm aware that similar things have been done on Flip Flop Fly Ball. However, I came up with this idea before I saw it on that site (at least, as far as I remember ever browsing on it), and I think my design has the advantage of being simpler to read and not requiring a key. It may not distinguish partial seasons from impartial ones, but that's because I don't think it's important enough to make note of it.

Plotting the data this way allows you to see when the team really started coming together and when it started falling apart. Judging by this chart, it looks as though the Big Red Machine's core years perfectly spanned the 1970's.

I've made activity charts for other teams, and once I've made one for every World Series winner I hope to find some interesting data that won't be available anywhere but Baseball Junk Drawer.

Characterizing the Fanbases #6: Chicago White Sox

Welcome to the latest installment of Characterizing the Fanbases! In this series I’m attempting to present the psychology of every MLB fanbase. This series, as you would expect, comes with a disclaimer: These characterizations are based on my own perceptions and opinions, and no offense is intended by them. I freely admit that I’m only one man, and my view is therefore limited. I’m fully aware that many fans will not fit the profile I depict, and that’s to be expected, because it’s impossible to make blanket statements about large groups of people. If you want to contest anything I write here, feel free to leave a thoughtful, civil comment. Otherwise, sit back and have fun reading. Perhaps I might even say something insightful!


I’m a White Sox fan as well as a Cub fan, so right up front I don’t fit the stereotype. Most diehard Sox fans flat-out loathe the Cubs, and I’m not always completely accepted among them when I reveal my dual fandom. Having an insider’s perspective though, I think I’m qualified to give the assessment that follows.

Frankly speaking, a large number of White Sox fans have an inferiority complex. On a national scale they’ve been overshadowed in their own city by the Cubs, despite the fact that they’ve had more success over the years. They frequently feel like victims of media bias (not altogether unjustifiably), and many of them react with an “us-against-the-world” attitude. While they outwardly resent the lack of respect, they also sort of like it, because it gives them something to rally around. Remember when the Sox had the AL’s best record in 2005 and still got ignored by the national media going into the playoffs? You’d better believe that being doubted made winning the World Series that much sweeter for Sox fans.

The South Side of Chicago is known for being the blue collar section of town, and as such, many Sox fans love players they see as scrappy, gritty, gutsy, and all those other terms that became so popularly maligned during the heyday of Fire Joe Morgan. In the era of pitcher-friendly Old Comiskey the Sox were often built on smallball and defense, so fittingly, Sox fans were used to watching guys who seemed less like supermen and more like everymen.

Even though the Sox have become better known for their home run power since New Comiskey opened, the old mentality maintains some presence among the fanbase. To reference the 2005 team again, the fact that the Sox won it with a balanced roster whose primary strengths were pitching and speed (as opposed to a lineup anchored by superstar sluggers) couldn’t have played into the traditional Sox fan ideal any better.

White Sox fans don’t quite have a national reputation, because the media has never really paid much attention to them. 1918 was a part of baseball lore for many years as a symbol of aching futility in the face of eternal devotion, while 1917 was a year no one had any particular reason to know anything about. When the Sox finally ended their drought, there was no league-wide fanfare like the Red Sox got the year before, just a simple congratulation before everyone moved on with their lives. Unfair? Perhaps a bit, but Sox fans wouldn’t have it any other way. They thrive on their spot in the shadows, and they’d go through an identity crisis if their team were suddenly one of the cool kids.