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Did you know....

roger_that
Jun 19 2022 04:28 PM

...that if Tyler Megill, Edwin Diaz, and Chris Bassitt put together spectacular Mets careers (very unlikely but not impossible), we will have retired uni numbers straight from 36 through 42?

roger_that
Jun 20 2022 04:51 AM
Re: Did you know....

No? Nothing? OK, I think that's a little weird, but whatever....



How about this? The 1962 Mets' entire pitching staff, including such stalwarts as Larry Foss, Dave Hillman, Sherman Jones, Clem Labine, Vinegar Bend Mizell, Herb Moford, Bob Moorhead, who combined for 0 wins in the 91 games they pitched in, to the ones you've actually heard of, such as Roger Craig and Al Jackson, can ALL (that's seventeen--17, count 'em, 17--pitchers) be fit alphabetically into the first half of the alphabet.



That's right, every one of them has a last name beginning with a letter between A (Craig Anderson) and M (the aforementioned Mssrs. Mizell, Moford, and Moorhead, plus Ken MacKenzie and both Bob Millers). I am not sure this is actually an all-time major league record* but I defy you to find another.



You might suppose, in the interest of larger sample sizes, that this situation would reverse itself if we were to include the entire New York Mets squad, but no, not really. The presence of such memorable 1962 Mets as Gene Woodling and Frank Thomas and Charley Neal would seem to give the lie to my claims of alphabetical imbalance on that squad, but: of the 28 men who nominally swang a bat for the 1962 Mets, the overwhelming majority--20 out those fabled 28--could also be squeezed into that small bus labeled "A-M"--an anomaly of staggering proportions.



It almost makes one conclude that there was some sort of massive conspiracy afoot here to restrict the players on the 1962 Mets, particularly their pitching staff, to the front of the alphabet. I cannot account for this imbalance otherwise, or explain why such twisted thinking might have lain deep in the minds of the Powers That Be.



But there it is.





* as listed in the Book of Phenomenally Stupid Baseball Stats

Johnny Lunchbucket
Jun 20 2022 06:37 AM
Re: Did you know....

I like your alphabet research and would like to subscribe to your newsletter

roger_that
Jun 20 2022 06:55 AM
Re: Did you know....

Next month's lead feature: Double- and Triple-C on the '62 Mets catching (!) squad:



Chris Cannizzaro, Choo-Choo Coleman: Coincidence or Co-incidence?