I Think I’m In Love

by Geoff Young on Mar 14, 2010

No, not the Eddie Money song. In fact, this costs no money.

Our friends at Seamheads mentioned something called the National Pastime Almanac the other day. According to the web site, “The National Pastime Almanac is a Baseball Encyclopedia with statistics, streaks, rankings, records, awards, etc. from 1876 through 2009, regular and post season.”

Uh, okay. I might be interested.

Also, it’s free. As in, completely. And addictive. As in, completely.

What can you do with this thing? I’m still working that out (which is half the fun), but mainly you can create all kinds of lists. Here are a few I’ve thrown together so far:

Players Who Hit 100 or More Home Runs in Their First Four Years with the Padres

  1. Adrian Gonzalez, 130
  2. Nate Colbert, 127
  3. Ken Caminiti, 121
  4. Phil Nevin, 108
  5. Ryan Klesko, 106

Padres Pitchers Who Won 20 Percent or More of Their Team’s Games

  1. Randy Jones 1976, 30.1%
  2. Randy Jones 1975, 28.2%
  3. Gaylord Perry 1978, 25.0%
  4. Clay Kirby 1971, 24.6%
  5. Andy Benes 1993, 24.6%
  6. Dave Roberts 1971, 23.0%
  7. Pat Dobson 1970, 22.2%
  8. Andy Hawkins 1985, 21.7%
  9. Jake Peavy 2007, 21.3%
  10. Clay Kirby 1972, 20.7%

Career Double Plays Turned per 162 Games by a Padres Shortstop (min. 500 games)

  1. Ozzie Smith, 102.7
  2. Khalil Greene, 95.5
  3. Chris Gomez, 94.7
  4. Enzo Hernandez, 90.6
  5. Garry Templeton, 87.1

National League West 2004-2009

  1. Dodgers: 513-459 (.528), .267/.337/.411, 3.98 ERA, att. 45,678/game
  2. Padres: 484-489 (.497), .256/.328/.401, 4.08 ERA, att. 32,277/game
  3. Giants: 473-498 (.487), .261/.326/.402, 4.23 ERA, att. 38,099/game
  4. Rockies: 467-506 (.480), .269/.342/.432, 4.77 ERA, att. 28,966/game
  5. Diamondbacks: 446-526 (.459), .255/.324/.414, 4.47 ERA, att. 28,113/game

Oldest Padres manager? Jack McKeon, 1990: age 59. Youngest? Jim Riggleman, 1992: age 39.

Padres who have hit 30 or more doubles, hit 30 or more homers, stolen 20 or more bases, and struck out fewer than 100 times in a season? Steve Finley (1996), Ryan Klesko (2001).

Which team has the longest streak of hitting 100 or more homers? The A’s: 41 years (1969-present). Hitting fewer than 100 homers? The Reds: 61 years (1876-1938).

I could go on, and I have. This is a beautiful thing. I’ll talk to you later; I’ve got stuff to do.

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4 Responses »

  1. Melvin
    March 14, 2010 • 1:55 pm

    Seems neat. How does it compare to b-ref’s play index?

  2. Pat
    March 14, 2010 • 10:00 pm

    Cool, Geoff; thanks!

  3. Geoff Young
    March 15, 2010 • 8:53 am

    Melvin, I’m still playing around with this thing, but the main differences I see are:

    –The National Pastime Almanac is free
    –It is a standalone piece of software that you download and install on your computer, so no Internet connection is necessary to use it once you’ve got it up and running
    –Some of the reports (e.g., Padres Pitchers Who Won 20 Percent or More of Their Team’s Games) are pretty different from what P-I offers.

    Bottom line: I find P-I to be indispensable in my research. I’ll gladly pay for the service because it does amazing things. The National Pastime Almanac is pretty slick in its own right, though, and I expect it to augment P-I in my work. It’s one more tool in the proverbial belt. And a lot of fun.