Other Crap

Here's some baseball trivia for you. (I discovered this while researching the question below.) Which of these teams has a stronger offense: Seattle Mariners or Boston Red Sox?

Answer: the Mariners scored 403 runs on the road, the Red Sox 395. The reason that you answered the Red Sox (assuming you did) is Safeco Field. The Sox score 20% more runs at home than the Ms. That's a lot of runs.

In fact, the Ms have approximately as good an offense as the mighty White Sox and Rangers. The Ms scored 403 on the road, the Rangers and White Sox 407 each.

In case you are wondering, Safeco is not the MLB park least conducive to offense. It's the AL choice, but the batters who really have to struggle are the poor Padres. PETCO park is to hitters as Coors is to pitchers. In fact, the amount Petco cost the Padres' hitters (101 runs) was actually greater than the amount Coors helped the Rockies' hitters (99 runs)!!! The Padres actually have a good offense. They scored 416 runs on the road - fourth best in the NL - but they finished a distant last in runs scored at home with 315. They were so far in last that they couldn't even see second-last, which was 353! Brian Giles knocked in 53 runs on the road, 30 at home. No Padre knocked in more than 38 at home. Mike Piazza slugged .564 on the road, .425 at home.

Poor Piazza has spent his entire career in the toughest hitters' parks in the NL. Imagine what his lifetime numbers would look like if he had played in Denver. Piazza's lifetime stats on the road: obp .390, slugging .576. His OPS of .966 on the road would be great for a first baseman. It's off the chart for a catcher. No catcher (except Piazza, of course) has ever had a lifetime OPS over .900. Bench is considered a great hitting catcher at a meager .818!!