So we're just a short 67 days away from Major League Baseball's official opening day! I've been trying to come up with a variety of tie-in articles. Admittedly, some of them have been better than others. In an effort to try something a little different, I went to the standard tab on FanGraphs and just started going year by year to find a particular stat of which the Brewers finished with sixty-seven. It only took me until 1977!
That year the Brewers were caught stealing 67 times. As destiny would have it, the only other team that year to have been caught stealing exactly 67 times was the Seattle Mariners. What does this all mean??? Nothing. It means nothing. But hey, it's kind of an interesting coincidence, right?
Anyway, the Brewers were definitely not the worst team in the majors at stealing that year. The Pittsburgh Pirates were caught a whopping 120 times. The Cardinals were close behind them with 112 times. No other teams that year were caught even 90 times. White Sox were the best only having been caught 43 times. Of course they only stole 42 bases so perhaps we should look at ratio.
The Brewers were caught 67 times, but were able to steal 85 bases. Not a great ratio. The Reds had the best ratio. They were caught 64 times, but they stole 170 bases. The White Sox were the only team that had fewer stolen bases than times they were caught.
That year the Brewers really weren't a base stealing club. Outfielder Jim Wohlford led the club with 17 stolen bases. But he also led the club by getting caught 16 times. Robin Yount had a much better ratio with 16 stolen bases and 7 caught stealing.
The '79 Brewers weren't much of a home run hitting team either. Their 125 HR was 17th in baseball. It's probably no surprise they finished with a 67-95 record that year. So what do you think? Will the 2016 Brewers best that mark or fall short?
And again, keep your suggestions for future tie-ins coming! There have been some really great ones so far and it helps me out a bunch. There are 66 more of these to come after all!