Reader MikeC asked about scoring by inning in the two leagues, and whether it was different, so I did a quick analysis.

Yesterday, I wrote about the PI's Team Inning Summary function, and here's another thing you can do with it.

For each year, I looked at run scoring for all teams (in total) and extracted the total number of games that a team had a lead going into the 9th inning and then ended up behind at the end of the 9th inning (i.e. losing the game.) Click through for detailed results.

Just having some fun with Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Batting Season Finder...

Do you know how many batters, in all of baseball history, have seasons with 200+ hits and 35+ walks - yet had an OBA of .340 or below?  Here's the answer:

  Cnt Player            Year  H   BB  OBP  Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R  2B 3B HR RBI IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   SLG   OPS  Positions
 +----+-----------------+----+---+---+-----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+---------+
     1 Michael Young     2003 204  36  .339  26 TEX AL 160 713 666 106 33  9 14  72   1 103   1   3   7  14  13  2  .306  .446  .785 *4/6
     2 Bobby Richardson  1962 209  37  .337  26 NYY AL 161 754 692  99 38  5  8  59   1  24   1  20   4  13  11  9  .302  .406  .743 *4
     3 Doc Cramer        1940 200  36  .340  34 BOS AL 150 712 661  94 27 12  1  51   0  29   1  14   0  13   3  5  .303  .384  .724 *897       

Just three batters - in the history of baseball.  That tells you this is pretty hard to do.  All three times, it happened in the A.L. - and it's only happened once in the last 45 years.  Way to go Michael Young.

The PI has a neat feature about team scoring and records by inning. It can be reached from the main PI page.

Here are the runs score for all teams in 2007:

Runs Scored by inning.

 Inning   #    0  Any    1    2    3    4   ≥5  Most Total  Avg Avg/9inn
+------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+----+
    1   4862 3276 1586  845  394  191  100   56   11 2921  0.60 5.41
    2   4862 3507 1355  782  337  133   54   49    8 2357  0.48 4.36
    3   4862 3445 1417  736  360  174   78   69    8 2670  0.55 4.94
    4   4862 3434 1428  757  362  182   63   64   10 2631  0.54 4.87
    5   4862 3427 1435  717  379  187   82   70   11 2777  0.57 5.14
    6   4858 3363 1495  764  367  205   90   69   11 2869  0.59 5.32
    7   4856 3500 1356  723  331  169   71   62    8 2519  0.52 4.67
    8   4854 3525 1329  695  334  151   77   72   11 2534  0.52 4.70
    9   3754 2819  935  524  237  100   42   32    7 1640  0.44 4.00
   10    440  323  117   79   20   12    3    3    8  185  0.46 4.13
   11    246  180   66   49   11    3    2    1    5   93  0.41 3.72
   12    128   89   39   25    6    2    4    2    6   70  0.58 5.24
   13     62   44   18   10    5    3    0    0    3   29  0.51 4.61
   14     30   21    9    6    1    2    0    0    3   14  0.50 4.50
   15     12    8    4    2    1    0    0    1    5    9  0.75 6.75
   16      6    5    1    1    0    0    0    0    1    1  0.18 1.59
   17      4    2    2    1    1    0    0    0    2    3  0.75 6.75
+------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+----+
        43560 30968 12592 6716 3146 1514  666  550   11 23322  0.54 4.83

So, for example, let's say you want to know how many times a team scored 1 run in the 7th inning of a game. Well, you go down the list to Inning # 7, then read across to the column for "1" and you see it happened 723 times in 2007.

There are so many interesting things we can glean from the data above:

It's a basic sort, but the results sure are fun to look at.  My favorite is #13.  Betcha didn't expect that one, ay?

Really makes clear how hard it is to keep performing at the highest levels while healthy.  #2 was an alcoholic,  #6 a drinker, #4 had a series of injuries - as did #9.  #8 was known as the hardest player of his day - a real hard sliding wall-runner-into tough guy.  #12 is a catcher.

I know DiMaggio was a great player, but since he only hit 361 homers in his career, I never would've expected him to end up in the top 20.  But there he is at 18.  Hell, at age 27, he was already in the top 20 for career homers.  Not through age 27, but entire careers.  Damn.

Today, I found myself wondering how "old guys" (in baseball terms of being old) have played (pretty much) full seasons - and, who did it the most?  So, I went to Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Batting Season Finder and set it for:  From 1901 to 2007, From Age 35 to 99, (requiring G>=140).  Looking at the results, I noticed that only a dozen players have pulled this off, five times or more:

Player ages are computed as their age on June 30th

                   From  To   Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+
 Craig Biggio      2001 2007 35-41       7 Ind. Seasons
 Pete Rose         1976 1983 35-42       7 Ind. Seasons
 Darrell Evans     1982 1988 35-41       6 Ind. Seasons
 Sam Rice          1925 1930 35-40       6 Ind. Seasons
 Omar Vizquel      2002 2007 35-40       5 Ind. Seasons
 Rafael Palmeiro   2000 2004 35-39       5 Ind. Seasons
 Steve Finley      2000 2004 35-39       5 Ind. Seasons
 Edgar Martinez    1998 2004 35-41       5 Ind. Seasons
 Dave Winfield     1987 1993 35-41       5 Ind. Seasons
 Carl Yastrzemski  1975 1979 35-39       5 Ind. Seasons
 Doc Cramer        1941 1945 35-39       5 Ind. Seasons
 Rabbit Maranville 1929 1933 37-41       5 Ind. Seasons

Biggio and Rose stand out here, at the top, with seven seasons each.  And, Omar Vizquel has an outside chance to tie them.  I would have expected to see Rose here - and, if I thought hard enough, maybe I would have guessed Biggio.  But, Vizquel was an interesting find for me.  I would have not thought of him as being so high on this list.

It's 25 years later, and the AL Cy Young voting for 1982 still bothers me. Rob Neyer once told me that he considers that vote to be the worst Cy Young vote ever, i.e. Pete Vukovich to be the least deserving winner.

Just how bad was that season?

Well here are all pitching seasons since 1901 with at least 200 innings pitched and a winning percentage of .750 or better, ranked by highest WHIP:

  Cnt Player             **WHIP**  W-L%   IP  Year Age Tm  Lg  G  GS CG SHO GF  W  L SV  H   R   ER  BB  SO   ERA  ERA+ HR  BF   AB  2B 3B IBB HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS Pk BK WP   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  OPS+  Pit  Str
+----+-----------------+---------+-----+-----+----+---+---+--+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+------+----+--+----+----+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+----+----+
    1 Pete Vuckovich      1.502    .750 223.2 1982  29 MIL AL  30 30  9   1  0 18  6  0 234  96  83 102 105   3.34  114 14  971  851 38  7   1   5   9   4  23  32 16  3  0  6  .275  .354  .385  .739  108
    2 Juan Guzman         1.452    .824 221   1993  26 TOR AL  33 33  2   1  0 14  3  0 211 107  98 110 194   3.99  109 17  963  836 35  1   2   3   5   9  10  25 17  2  1 26  .252  .338  .358  .696   87
    3 Jack Kramer         1.449    .783 205   1948  30 BOS AL  29 29 14   2  0 18  5  0 233 104  99  64  72   4.35  101 12  891                  0                        0  3                            0
    4 Whitey Ford         1.435    .750 207   1953  24 NYY AL  32 30 11   3  2 18  6  0 187  77  69 110 110   3.00  124 13  882                  4                        0  3                            0
    5 George Earnshaw     1.406    .750 254.2 1929  29 PHA AL  44 33 13   3  5 24  8  1 233 110  93 125 149   3.29  129  8 1115                  5                        0  8                            0
    6 Lefty Gomez         1.398    .774 265.1 1932  23 NYY AL  37 31 21   1  3 24  7  1 266 140 124 105 176   4.21   97 23 1149                  2                        0  0                            0
    7 Ellis Kinder        1.389    .793 252   1949  34 BOS AL  43 30 19   6 10 23  6  4 251 103  94  99 138   3.36  130 21 1085                  2                        0  1                            0
    8 Tom Glavine         1.362    .786 239.1 1993  27 ATL NL  36 36  4   2  0 22  6  0 236  91  85  90 120   3.20  127 16 1014  910 50  4   7   2  10   2  25   9  5  1  0  4  .259  .327  .376  .703   92
    9 Larry Christenson   1.359    .760 219.1 1977  23 PHI NL  34 34  5   1  0 19  6  0 229 113  99  69 118   4.06   99 21  945  856 52  7   1   7   5   8  18  14  8  1  6  7  .268  .324  .418  .742  100
   10 Charley Root        1.357    .760 272   1929  30 CHC NL  43 31 19   4  9 19  6  5 286 120 105  83 124   3.47  133 12 1158                  3                        0  1                            0
   11 Alvin Crowder       1.348    .808 244   1928  29 SLB AL  41 31 19   1  6 21  5  2 238 113 100  91  99   3.69  114 11 1069                  1                        0  1                            0
   12 Mel Parnell         1.327    .781 295.1 1949  27 BOS AL  39 33 27   4  5 25  7  2 258 102  91 134 122   2.77  157  8 1240                  5                        0  9                            0
   13 Red Ruffing         1.326    .750 247.1 1938  33 NYY AL  31 31 22   3  0 21  7  0 246 104  91  82 127   3.31  137 16 1043                  0                        1  1                            0
   14 Bruce Hurst         1.325    .750 216.2 1988  30 BOS AL  33 32  7   1  0 18  6  0 222  98  88  65 166   3.66  113 21  922  842 40  1   1   2   8   5  15  14  4  4  3  5  .264  .316  .388  .704   92
   15 Lefty Grove         1.318    .750 275.1 1933  33 PHA AL  45 28 21   2 16 24  8  6 280 113  98  83 114   3.20  134 12 1173                  4                        0  1                            0
   16 Russ Ortiz          1.314    .750 212.1 2003  29 ATL NL  34 34  1   1  0 21  7  0 177 101  90 102 149   3.81  112 17  912  793 41  3   7   4   6   7   9  22  5  2  0  5  .223  .312  .347  .659   76 3569 2104
   17 Richard Dotson      1.313    .759 240   1983  24 CHW AL  35 35  8   1  0 22  7  0 209  92  86 106 137   3.23  130 19  997  872 34  3   1   8   4   7  33  29  5  2  0  7  .240  .325  .351  .676   83
   18 Red Munger          1.311    .762 224.1 1947  28 STL NL  40 31 13   6  6 16  5  3 218  94  84  76 123   3.37  123 12  936                  2                        0  4                            0
   19 Brad Penny          1.308    .800 208   2007  29 LAD NL  33 33  0   0  0 16  4  0 199  75  70  73 135   3.03  151  9  865  765 47  1   2   5  13   9  29  14  5  0  0  6  .260  .325  .359  .684   78 3232 2084
   20 Chien-Ming Wang     1.307    .760 218   2006  26 NYY AL  34 33  2   1  1 19  6  1 233  92  88  52  76   3.63  124 12  900  841 44  1   4   2   3   2  33   9 11  1  1  6  .277  .320  .375  .695   79 3055 1920

Yeah, so Vukovich's 1982 ranks as the worst of all time (well, since 1901) in this regard. We see a lot of old seasons on here, but for the most part I think we also see over-rated pitchers on this list. Juan Guzman (#2) is a prime example of a guy who was fairly lucky in having such a winning season, and parlayed it into a big contract, and never had anywhere close to the same success. Russ Ortiz in 2003 (#16) is another example. He had a good career up to that point, but played way over his head that year, then fell off a cliff. (Later he became the highest-paid player ever to be released outright.)

Mind you, we see other names here like Whitey Ford, Left Gomez, and Red Ruffing who are not over-rated.

#20 is interesting, huh? When Wang won 19 in his first full season last year, the rest of his stats didn't seem to back it up very well. His low strikeout rate, even for a ground-ball pitcher, was alarming. I predicted a much poorer 2007, but in fact he had a very similar season. I'm not sure his numbers bode well for a long & productive career, though. That trade we've heard about of packaging Wang with a few others for Santana might not be such a bad deal for the Yankees.