MLB Needs to Abandon Post-Season Stats and Adopt Play-Off and World Series Stats
It’s interesting to think back in 1961 when Roger Maris’ home run record was asterisked because he played in just 8 more games than Babe Ruth. MLB made a separate record book for the longer season. Why is it that today MLB is comparing the World Series stats of baseball great Mickey Mantle to post-season stats of current day players?
Mantle never played in a Divisional Series game nor a League Series game. Yet, at multiple times during this years play-offs, MLB has displayed post-season leader boards for home runs which has listed the following top 5 players:
- Manny Ramirez (29),
- Bernie Williams (22),
- Derek Jeter (19),
- Reggie Jackson (18) and
- Mickey Mantle (18).
A more accurate representation would differentiate between between Divisional Series (DS) homers, League Series (LS) homers and World Series (WS) homers as shown below. PA = Plate Appearances and DNE = Did Not Exist:
| Player | PA | DS | LS | WS | TOT HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manny Ramirez | 485 | 12 | 13 | 4 | 29 |
| Bernie Williams | 545 | 8 | 9 | 5 | 22 |
| Derek Jeter | 587 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 19 |
| Reggie Jackson | 318 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 18 |
| Mickey Mantle | 273 | DNE | DNE | 18 | 18 |
The World Series is the pinnacle of the game of baseball. How can MLB logically combine World Series stats with play-off stats into one bucket called post-season stats when the level of play is so distinctly different? Also, due to the play-offs, today’s players have almost three times as many post-season games per year as those players prior to 1969. If MLB insists on keeping post-season records, they should never include players (such as Mantle, Berra and Ruth) in post-season stats, because they played prior to 1969 when play-offs did not exist. Comparing stats of players who only played in World Series to those players who also played in Divisional Series and League Series is like comparing apples to oranges. MLB could easily solve this issue by keeping two sets of stats; one for play-off records (combined DS and LS) and one for World Series.
One can only imagine how many homers Mantle would have hit if the Yankees of his day would have played Divisional Championship Series and League Championship Series along with the World Series. The Yankees played in 12 World Series during Mantle’s career. That would have included a minimum of 12 Divisional Series (best of 5 games) and 12 League Series (best of 7 games). This does not even include the times that the Yankees would have made it to he play-offs in addition to the 12 years. 50 homers? 60? More?
For the record, Mickey Mantle is the all-time World Series leader in Home Runs (18), RBIs (40), Runs Scored (42), Total Bases (123) and Walks (43).
All of these players were best in baseball , but Mickey Mantle had a way about him of being best he played in New York , he played hurt all of the time.He was one of the most clutch players all time. This man never realized what kind of and icon he really was and never appreciated the fans and what and impact he had on fans.He was one of the greatest players of all time and if he was not hurt as much as he was or played in a field like Detroit he would lead majors in Home runs probably hitting as many as 1000 Home runs. I was born in 1953 and the memories I have of baseball and the Mick will never be forgotten
The Mick was and is the best baseball player of all time!!!
I AM RIGHT WATCHING THE GIANT DODGER GAME. REASON WHY MICKEY CAME TO MY MIND, AND OTHER GREAT PLAYERS BEFORE 1969.
IT IS UNFAIR TO COMPARE RECORDS IN POST SEASON, BEFORE AND AFTER 1969. AND THE MOST ONE AFFECTED IS MY HERO MICKEY MANTLE.
CAN YOU PLEASE INFORM HOW MANY PLATE APPEARANCES DID MICKEY HAVE IN WS?
so many 450 foot outs the mick hit in 18 years at the stadium. today, its only 410 to dead center. if mickey had had just one good leg for all those years, no telling how much better he would have been. what is vastly overlooked is that NONE of the big dogs back then woukd have played one day with the pain that Mickey endured for l18 years.