Per a reader question.

| name_common     | games |
+-----------------+-------+
| Ivan Rodriguez  |   535 |
| Brad Ausmus     |   492 |
| Benito Santiago |   485 |
| Carlton Fisk    |   477 |
| Tony Pena       |   472 |
| Jason Kendall   |   463 |
| Gary Carter     |   450 |
| Bob Boone       |   440 |
| Johnny Bench    |   404 |
| Jorge Posada    |   401 |
| Lance Parrish   |   376 |
| Jason Varitek   |   359 |
| Rick Dempsey    |   335 |
| Terry Steinbach |   328 |
| Mike Piazza     |   325 |
| Joe Girardi     |   325 |
| Jim Sundberg    |   323 |
| Darrell Porter  |   308 |
| Javy Lopez      |   306 |
| Ted Simmons     |   299 |
| Bill Freehan    |   298 |
| A.J. Pierzynski |   296 |
| Dan Wilson      |   295 |
| Ramon Hernandez |   293 |
| Terry Kennedy   |   290 |

On Friday night Brett Gardner of the Yankees went 5 for 6 with a triple and a home run. It was the third game this year in which Gardner has both homered and tripled (thanks to Peter Abraham for opening my eyes to this). His third such game occurred in the Yankees' 73rd game of the season and the 106th game of Gardner's career.

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News has come out that Chavez may be forced to retire due to his latest injury, a herniated disk.

From 2001 to 2005, Chavez was unarguably the best third baseman in baseball, leading all in HR and RBI:

  Cnt Player             **HR** From  To   Ages   G    PA    AB    R    H   2B  3B  RBI  BB  IBB  SO  HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions Teams
+----+-----------------+-------+----+----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+
    1 Eric Chavez         151   2001 2005 23-27  745  3182  2825  451  785 173   9  502  321  46  535  11   0  25  59   36  11  .278  .351  .506  .857 *5/D763   OAK
    2 Aramis Ramirez      146   2001 2005 23-27  727  3007  2742  380  782 160   3  484  195  20  416  35   0  35  87    9   9  .285  .337  .505  .842 *5/D      PIT-TOT-CHC
    3 Troy Glaus          142   2001 2005 24-28  615  2622  2221  377  559 119   7  408  356  20  572  23   0  22  49   33  13  .252  .358  .503  .861 *5/D6     ANA-ARI
    4 Adrian Beltre       124   2001 2005 22-26  755  3065  2822  352  765 146  12  423  193  24  476  21   4  25  69   32  14  .271  .320  .463  .783 *5/6D     LAD-SEA
    5 Scott Rolen         123   2001 2005 26-30  658  2793  2389  420  677 161  15  473  325  21  453  48   1  30  58   42  17  .283  .376  .518  .894 *5        PHI-TOT-STL
    6 Tony Batista        114   2001 2004 27-30  635  2624  2431  312  582 113  10  383  136  19  400  24   4  29  56   28  15  .239  .283  .435  .718 *5/D6     TOT-BAL-MON
    7 Mike Lowell         109   2001 2005 27-31  744  3077  2738  372  750 188   3  440  274  23  384  25   1  39  70   17   7  .274  .341  .464  .805 *5/4D     FLA
    8 Vinny Castilla      106   2001 2005 33-37  726  2934  2700  336  699 164  10  425  177  23  458  27   2  28 104   10   9  .259  .308  .445  .753 *5/6      TOT-ATL-COL-WSN
    9 Corey Koskie         91   2001 2005 28-32  639  2679  2297  364  617 147   9  348  310  31  551  44   0  28  51   61  26  .269  .362  .459  .821 *5/D      MIN-TOR
   10 Hank Blalock         89   2002 2005 21-24  512  2205  1985  292  543 113   6  309  190  10  421  11   2  17  47    5   5  .274  .338  .471  .809 *5/4D     TEX

A bit of a career oddity about Chavez: in 2004, he lead the AL with 95 walks despite playing in only 125 games, and also despite the fact that he generally walked only a moderate amount in his career, averaging 70 walks over a typical 162-game season.

In the 2004 season in which Chavez led the AL with 95 walks, Barry Bonds led the NL with (gulp) 232 walks. Chavez's total is the lowest to lead the AL since Dwight Evans' 85 in 1981, which doesn't really count since that was a shortened season. The real most recent season with a lower leading total is 1965, when Rocky Colavito led with 93 walks.

Jason Kendall hit a single in the second inning of tonight's Brewers-Cardinals game for his 2000 career hit.  Here are all the players with at least half of their games at catcher and at least 2000 career hits: (Totals through yesterday)

  Cnt Player              **H**  From  To   Ages   G    PA    AB    R   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  IBB  SO  HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions Teams
+----+-----------------+--------+----+----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+---+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+
    1 Ivan Rodriguez      2637   1991 2009 19-37 2301  9387  8757 1268 530  50 300 1236  477  63 1314  56  27  70 293  124  61  .301  .339  .476  .815 *2/D34    TEX-FLA-DET-TOT-HOU
    2 Ted Simmons         2472   1968 1988 18-38 2456  9685  8680 1074 483  47 248 1389  855 188  694  39  11 100 287   21  33  .285  .348  .437  .785 *2D3/759  STL-MIL-ATL
    3 Carlton Fisk        2356   1969 1993 21-45 2499  9853  8756 1276 421  47 376 1330  849 105 1386 143  26  79 204  128  58  .269  .341  .457  .798 *2D/735   BOS-CHW
    4 Yogi Berra          2150   1946 1965 21-40 2120  8364  7555 1175 321  49 358 1430  704  49  414  52   9  44 146   30  26  .285  .348  .482  .830 *279/35   NYY-NYM
    5 Mike Piazza         2127   1992 2007 23-38 1912  7745  6911 1048 344   8 427 1335  759 146 1113  30   0  45 229   17  20  .308  .377  .545  .922 *2D/3     LAD-TOT-NYM-SDP-OAK
    6 Gary Carter         2092   1974 1992 20-38 2295  9019  7971 1025 371  31 324 1225  848 106  997  68  33  99 180   39  42  .262  .335  .439  .774 *29/375   MON-NYM-SFG-LAD-MON
    7 Johnny Bench        2048   1967 1983 19-35 2158  8669  7658 1091 381  24 389 1376  891 135 1278  19  11  90 201   68  43  .267  .342  .476  .818 *253/798  CIN
    8 Jason Kendall       1999   1996 2009 22-35 1867  7813  6847  957 360  34  73  677  650  46  596 236  25  55 157  170  81  .292  .370  .386  .756 *2/79D    PIT-OAK-TOT-MIL

In honor of the Celtics victory over the Bulls, here is a search that I came across a few weeks ago:

Most games with a hit in a player's first 30 career game age 20 or younger (since 1954):

                   Games Link to Individual Games
 -----------------+-----+-------------------------
 Roberto Clemente     26 Ind. Games
 Garry Templeton      24 Ind. Games
 Rickey Henderson     24 Ind. Games
 Thad Bosley          24 Ind. Games
 Jay Johnstone        23 Ind. Games
 Danny Ainge          23 Ind. Games
 Chris Speier         22 Ind. Games
 Ron Santo            22 Ind. Games
 Ivan Rodriguez       22 Ind. Games
 Aurelio Rodriguez    22 Ind. Games

Check out the guy at #6.

Ainge was 0-4 in his 30th game so here are his totals through his first 29 games:

His secondary numbers were not very good, but considering that he was 20 years old and playing second base, he had a pretty good run. If you're interested, here are Ainge's (baseball) career numbers  after his 29th game.

The most intense rivalry in sports renews itself this weekend. Here are a couple of lists to get you started.
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Here's a curiosity more than anything else. The players with most games with a hit  in their teams first 10 games over the last 5 years:

                   Games Link to Individual Games
+-----------------+-----+-------------------------+
 David Wright         40 Ind. Games
 Vernon Wells         40 Ind. Games
 Jose Reyes           40 Ind. Games
 Carlos Beltran       39 Ind. Games
 Jason Bay            39 Ind. Games

5 players have hit in at least 39 of the 50 games and 3 of them have been Mets.

Opening day stats are fun. The ability of a player to take a blank page and add some very  impressive numbers with just a few at bats makes the top performances on opening day stand out.  The players with the really big opening days, like  George Bell, Tuffy Rhodes and Dmitri Young remain etched in our memories.  Those with big opening days  that are not as impressive, provide us with a moment of enjoyment, but are soon forgotten. Here are the players  since 1954  who have hit 2 or more home runs on 2 different opening days.

                   Games Link to Individual Games
+-----------------+-----+-------------------------+
 Joe Torre             2 Ind. Games
 Xavier Nady           2 Ind. Games
 Raul Mondesi          2 Ind. Games
 Eddie Mathews         2 Ind. Games
 Juan Gonzalez         2 Ind. Games
 Adam Dunn             2 Ind. Games

It is interesting to note that most of these players were not particularly successful on opening day during their careers. In fact,  with the exception of these games, Torre was actually a terrible opening day hitter. In  the other 11 opening days that he played, Torre managed to only get  another 6 hits. For his career Torre was 10-51 with 1 double and 5 home runs on opening day. The exception so far has been Xavier Nady. Nady has now played on 5 opening days and has had at least one extra base hit in each one. Overall Nady is 12-23 with 4 doubles and 5 home runs.

In addition to having two multiple home run games  Nady has also 4 hits in 2 different games. (In one of them he hit 2 homers.) Here are the players since 1954 who have 4 or more hits on 2 opening days.

                   Games Link to Individual Games
+-----------------+-----+-------------------------+
 Xavier Nady           2 Ind. Games
 Aaron Miles           2 Ind. Games
 John Mayberry         2 Ind. Games
 Jeff Kent             2 Ind. Games
 Dante Bichette        2 Ind. Games
 Don Baylor            2 Ind. Games

Since 1954 there have been 43 instances where a player has started at least 100 of his team's wins in a season.

Five players have each accounted for 2 of those seasons.

                   Year Games Link to Individual Games
+-----------------+----+-----+-------------------------+
 Brooks Robinson   1969   106 Ind. Games
 Brooks Robinson   1970   105 Ind. Games
 
 Pete Rose         1970   100 Ind. Games
 Pete Rose         1975   108 Ind. Games               

 Andruw Jones      1998   103 Ind. Games
 Andruw Jones      1999   103 Ind. Games                

 Derek Jeter       1998   104 Ind. Games
 Derek Jeter       2002   100 Ind. Games                

 Miguel Tejada     2001   100 Ind. Games
 Miguel Tejada     2002   102 Ind. Games

Since 1954 there have been 27 times when a player has started 100 losses in one season.

Only 2 players have managed to do it twice.

                   Year Games Link to Individual Games
+-----------------+----+-----+-------------------------+
 Frank Thomas      1954   100 Ind. Games
 Frank Thomas      1962   109 Ind. Games  

 Billy Williams    1962   102 Ind. Games
 Billy Williams    1966   103 Ind. Games                 

There have also been 3 players who have pulled off one of each:

                   Year Games Link to Individual Games
 -----------------+----+-----+-------------------------
 Rocky Colavito    1961   100 (wins)   Ind. Games
 Rocky Colavito    1964   101 (losses) Ind. Games 

 Eddie Murray      1979   102 (wins)   Ind. Games
 Eddie Murray      1988   107 (losses) Ind. Games 

 Ichiro Suzuki     2001   107 (wins)   Ind. Games
 Ichiro Suzuki     2008   100 (losses) Ind. Games                                                           
           

Ichiro  - Welcome to the club.

Last week Joe Girardi announced that he would be flip-flopping  Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter in the Yankee lineup. The actual value of the move may be  debatable, but it is interesting from a historical perspective.  Since 1954 there have been only a handful of players to have started as many games from their respective line-up slots as Damon and Jeter.

Only 7 players have started more games at leadoff  than Damon:

                   Games Link to Individual Games
 -----------------+-----+-------------------------
 Rickey Henderson   2875 Ind. Games
 Pete Rose          2300 Ind. Games
 Lou Brock          1893 Ind. Games
 Brett Butler       1845 Ind. Games
 Kenny Lofton       1705 Ind. Games
 Paul Molitor       1570 Ind. Games
 Craig Biggio       1560 Ind. Games
 Johnny Damon       1519 Ind. Games

Only 4 players have started more games from the 2 hole than Jeter :

                   Games Link to Individual Games
 -----------------+-----+-------------------------
 Ozzie Smith        1529 Ind. Games
 Nellie Fox         1504 Ind. Games
 Omar Vizquel       1470 Ind. Games
 Jay Bell           1319 Ind. Games
 Derek Jeter        1246 Ind. Games