March
21, 2001
The Big Mac/Sosa League.
The success of the
1998 Major League Baseball season can be summed up pretty easily…Big Mac and Sammy’s
captivating race at the record book. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa would hold the
the nation, if not the entire world’s attention, in their quest to break Roger
Maris’s all-time single season home run record. Huge crowds flowed into the
ballparks all around the Major Leagues. Everyone wanted to be there when
baseball history, if not a little piece of American history, was made. Who can
forget the scenes of packed stadiums, with fans all but buggering one another
for one of Sammy or Mac’s home runs or even for just a foul ball. Remember the
millions of dollars that were paid for some of those baseballs, let alone the
other tokens and souvenirs that were sold to commemorate the events.
With the success of
that memorable season came the belief within the heirarchy of Major League B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T.
that if it worked well once, it will work well again. The Strat Rat now reveals
the documentation behind a plan to exploit the unprecedented success and appeal
of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and their race at the record book. Why wouldn’t
fans appreciate a run at the home run title every season? Better yet, since the
appearance of of 1, or better yet both of the sluggers at a ballpark all but
guaranteed a sellout for the home team, why not give each Major League team the
opportunity to reap those benefits, and rake in the dough. Contained herein are
the results of that belief and that ill-fated experiment.
The Experiment
Mark McGwire and
Sammy Sosa were cloned and added to every 1998 Major League franchise. In most
cases, they replaced players that were literally not missed from their
respective teams starting lineups. In other cases however, players needed to be
repositioned in order to remain in the lineup. For example, John Olerud was
moved from 1B to LF for the Mets; Jeff Bagwell moved to 3B and Derek Bell moved
to LF for the Astros. For every team, Sosa batted 3rd and McGwire
batted 4th. Injuries were left on, and in order to insure that
players were overused as little as possible despite the primary with rest
settings and the prevent overusage options being used, 40 man rosters were used
for the entire season.
Analysis and
Conclusions
There was significant
impact league wide concerning wins and losses, with the additions of McGwire
and Sosa to the every day lineups. 6 of the 8 playoffs teams still made the
playoffs however, with only Seattle’s replacement of Texas in the AL West a
noteworthy event. San Francisco’s outright winning of the NL Wildcard is not as
significant, considering they finished in a tie with the Cubs during the real
season. Tampa Bay benefitted the most, picking up 19 more wins than they really
did. Generally, the 1st division teams all dropped by 1 to 10 games,
while most 2nd division teams increased their win totals by 5 to 10.
Interestingly, Colorado, who would have appeared to benefit the most from the
increase in power, dropped by 3 wins. This could easily be attributed to the
fact that Todd Helton was forced to move to 3B, Vinny Castilla was moved to SS,
Larry Walker to CF and Dante Bichette’s 5 played LF, to accommodate the
additions of Sosa and McGwire to the Rockie's lineup.
Overall pitching
numbers suffered to the degree of a half run rise in leaguewide ERA’s. The
Atlanta Braves were the only team to allow less than 200 home runs as a staff
and every team hit 200 plus home runs on the season. Interestingly, Tampa Bay,
who benefitted the most as far as wins, hit only 217 home runs, last in the AL
and only ahead of Florida’s 200 in the NL.
The excitement of
having both Sosa and McGwire on every team quickly wore off as the season went
along, and the since virtually every Sammy and Big Mac broke Maris’s record,
the novelty of that accomplishment soon waned as well. So it’s off to the
drawing board and the laboratory yet again for Dr. Evil Don Fehr, Number 2 Bud
Selig, and the Strat Rat. Or maybe we should call him the Strat Lab Rat…?
Stay tuned next time
for…Jurassic Ballpark! Be afraid…be very afraid…! J
Dr. Evil Don Fehr
THE STATISTICAL
PROOF THAT EVEN WHEN IT’S SAMMY AND MAC, THERE CAN SOMETIMES BE TOO MUCH OF A
GOOD THING.
2000 Big Mac/Sosa League
NL Newspaper
Recap AL Newspaper Recap
NL
Final Standings AL Final
Standings
NL
League Leaders AL League Leaders