Astros Have Shot at World Series Record in 2015
If the Houston Astros reach the 2015 World Series, they will become the first franchise in MLB history to reach the World Series as members of both the American and National Leagues.
The Milwaukee Brewers are the only other MLB club with a dual league membership history. The Brewers have been to the World Series twice as AL members, but it doesn’t seem likely from their current residence in the 2015 NLC basement that they are going to finally bag their first NL pennant this year. The City of Milwaukee already is represented in World Series history by AL and NL clubs, but their NL champion was the Braves, not the Brewers.
Milwaukee already is on record as the only one-franchise-at-a-time city in MLB history to have their town’s name registered as World Series champions from both leagues, but by totally different franchises. (Correction: Thanks to Rick B. – My error, I brain-welded the Brewers and Twins in my mind at the moment I was writing and gave Milwaukee credit for the Minneapolis World Series win of 1987. Milwaukee’s only trip to the World Series was in 1982, when they lost to the Cardinals in 7. This truth means that the door remains open only for Washington to become the first “city” with a future chance at winning the World Series in their town’s name as a member of both leagues. As the predecessor of the Minnesota Twins, the AL Washington Senators won in it all in 7 games over the NY Giants in 1924 – and are now eligible to win it as the successor to the Montreal Expos of the NL as the Washington Nationals. Neither Houston nor Milwaukee is in the running to take the dual league “city name” prize as winners from both leagues because both these clubs lost in their only previous tries as members of the opposite league to the present league construction for each circuit.)
Other traditionally simultaneous dual AL/NL cities like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and St. Louis have all had World Series clubs from both their AL and NL franchises.
None of the other franchises qualify as clubs with dual league membership history. – Thanks again, Bud Selig! You will always be the one who used your own dual seat power as acting commissioner/and club owner back in 1997 to move your Milwaukee Brewers from the AL to the NL, in effect, if not declared as such – “in exchange for an NL franchise to be named later” – and, even though it took the better part of fifteen years to complete, “the club that got named later under new owner’s buying condition pressure from Commissioner Selig was – who else – our Houston Astros!
SABR Was Recognized in Print by The Sporting News for the First Time Back in 1973
Check out his link that friend and fellow researcher Darrell Pittman forward to me. Since Sunday, June 28th, was the rap and go home day from our National Convention in Chicago, this is an especially good time to recognize how much growth our SABR group has experienced in the 42 years that have passed since this fabled TSN ink was spilled in our behalf for the first of many times to come. At our SABR convention here in Houston in 2014, we had an attendance that was three to four times greater than our groups total membership was back in 1973.
What Does the Rule Book Say?
During this afternoon’s 3-1 Astros win over the Yankees, my grown son asked me for a ruling on this hypothetical circumstance:
“If a player hits an ordinary home run and then goes into his normal trot around the bases, what happens if he suddenly realizes about midway to third that he totally missed touching second base? Does he have the right to back-track and touch second base before continuing, or would he be called out for back-tracking and be better off just continuing on his way as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened?”
My answer during the game was: “I don’t know. – I’ve never seen that happen,” but now, hours later, my guess is this one: He would have as much right to retreat as any runner retreating from a captured fly ball, but he would be subject to an “out” call if reached third base and touched it before retreating to second base. On the other hand, if he simply ignores the situation and keeps running, he will be called out when he passes third, if the umpire saw him miss the bag at second. That’s one of the things they pay umpires to watch.
Am I close to being right here? If you know, and you have a rule citation too, please include it in your public comment here.
Please Comment Publicly
While I do appreciate all the private e-mails these columns produce, please consider leaving public comment here whenever possible. I do understand about privacy concerns on so many levels, but there are also many times when some of you simply share good information privately that would be of benefit to everyone. Thanks. – And have a great new week, everybody
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