Tater's Fun Stats

Tater's fun stats

I will attempt to organize this later in the year.

The Flyers goaltending has been near the top of the NHL all year.

Lindros 18 game point streak tied Bobby Clarke's team record.

Clarke has completely reversed the Gratton deal. He got both Renberg and Dykhuis back.

The Phillies are 7 games over .500 for the first time since 1995.

The Phillies have 3 members on the NL All Star team: Paul Byrd, Mike Lieberthal, and Curt Schilling. The most for the Phillies since 1995. They have the same number of members on the All Star team as the Mets (2) and Braves (1) combined (3).

At the half way point of 1998, the Phillies stats were better in every category when compared to 1997, (positive thought). 1997's stats were awful, so they could only improve (negative thought).

Most publications predicted the Phillies to finish last in 1998. Most said that the Phillies had less talent than just about EVERY team in the league. The Phillies finished third in the NL East at 75-97.
Most publications say the Phillies will be fourth in 1999, behind Montreal. They still say Philadelphia has practically NO talent, SI ranked them 21st out of 30 teams in talent. I still think they will finish third. I think they will give the Mets a challenge before faltering late due to a lack of depth. Most publications overlook the Phillies talent because their Minor leagues up until 3 years ago sucked. SI has apparently flip-flopped their opinion on the Phillies. The July 12, 1999 issue says that the Phillies could contend for a wild card spot. I guess they have more talent than other teams than SI thought.

The Eagles have the second pick in the 1999 NFL entry draft, behind Cleveland. The Eagles were one of three teams with 3 and 13 record. The Eagles had the weakest schedule, thus giving them the highest draft pick.
The Eagles used the pick to select Donovan McNabb. History says McNabb will probably suck. (Rick Mirer, Heath Shuler, etc.) I was wrong on this one so sue me. McNabb for MVP... one day!

McGwire's 62 homer had a few coincidence's:
The time and date when added equals 62. 9:18 9-8-1998 9+1+8+9+8+1+9+9+8=62
The lottery number in Missouri that night: 062.

Streaker of the year. Just when you thought nothing else historic could possibly happen this season -- oops. Last Sunday, an Orioles game went start to finish without Cal Ripken playing in it -- for the first time in 16 years and 2,632 games. To put The Streak in perspective:

No other player even managed to stay with the same team from the beginning of The Streak to the end.
The Streak went on so long, the Dow Jones Industrial Average went up more than 7,000 points -- from 819.54 to 7895.66.
Tony Gwynn and Wade Boggs got nearly 3,000 hits during The Streak. And McGwire hit 452 homers during The Streak, despite not making his big league debut until more than four years after it started.

There were numerous memorable freeze-frames Sunday, of course:

The Orioles announcing a lineup change but never mentioning Ripken's name (as if to see if anyone would notice).
Manager Ray Miller trying to hide his lineup card from Torre.
Starting pitcher Doug Johns knowing nothing about any of this until just before the first pitch, when Ryan Minor, not Ripken, flipped him the ball.
And best of all was Minor learning he was in the lineup, then asking Miller the question of the night: "Does Cal know?"

Streak stuff Courtesy Of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Written by Jayson Stark

Updated July 8, 1999

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