5’s, 10’s (Butlers on Tuckahoe Road) Notes

There will be more updates as the eventual 10 team baseball “tournament” approaches. Please do not confuse it with the epic, no safety net/bogus wild card PENNANT (to be 1 of 2) races between the teams (Giants and Dodgers) in ’51 and ’62 or the one quarter division race of “same calendar” 1971. Even the “one team is the spoiler” events of 1934 and 1982 exceeds this Giants/Dodgers race to be the N.L. one seed, as the “reg” runner-up gets into the tournament, as the four seed.

Subsequently, said 4 seed, if it wins a 10 to 8 teams left, one game ‘off, a big if, vs historical rival St. Louis (Cardinals), who have won 11 straight games and have a 4 plus games lead for qualification, would play the other, for the first time ever in a scheduled post-season entity. More on it, as the season plays out over the final 11 days. Right now the Giants lead L.A. (the Dodgers) by 2 games and the teams have baseball’s two best records.

Butlers was a 5 and 10 store on Tuckahoe Road and in years, multiples of 5 from this one (2021), the Cards have great history, as yet again I realized too late, at least, a bogus wild card spot was “in the Cards.”

“St. Loo” made and won all 5 of its World Series appearances in the “multiples of 5 and 10 years” from 2021, doing so in 1926, 1931, 1946 and in two with lead broadcaster, Mike Shannon (2006 and 2011-we need the “20” in front of each, as there were World Series in 1906 and 1911) (Shannon in his 49th and final season as Cards’ broadcaster, is not a very good one, however he played ball in a great National League and is tolerable in a way, Ralph “King Kong” Kiner was–he really can not play by play that well, an actual downgrade from the extremely over rated Jack Buck, his mentor of sorts).

Of course there is Yankees’ presence in the “multiples” history, They won World Series in 1936, 1941, 1951,1956,1961 and 1996. All those teams were great, the ’36 and ’61 versions, among the greatest ever.

In five other “multiples” years, the Yankees won pennants, but lost the Fall Classic. (1921,1926,1976,1981 and 2001).

Two other “glory” franchises, the aforementioned Giants and Dodgers have “multiples of 5 and 10” history, the Giants with pennants in 1911,1921, 1936 and 1951 while the Dodgers took the N.L. crown in 1916,1941,1956,1966 and 1981.

Neither team fared well in those year’s subsequent World Series, as only in 1921 and 1981 did either team “title.”

The four teams cited above have accounted for 25 of the 46 World Series appearances in the 23 previous “multiples 5/10 from 2021” years.

Among others, the Red Sox, who lead by 3 games for qualification this year, have that many “multiples” W.S. appearances, winning with Babe Ruth and Smoky” Joe Wood (they traded the great Tris Speaker in April) and others in 1916 and losing 7 game World Series in both ’46 and ’86.

Five teams have 2 such appearances, the A’s (won in 1911, lost in ’31), Reds (won in ’76, lost in ’61), Cubs (won in 2016, lost in 1906), Orioles (won in ’66, lost in ’71) and Braves (lost both, doing so in ’91 and ’96). Among the five, only the Braves (up 3 in the div, 4 in the loss column) figure to be in the 2021 “tournament.”

Eight teams have one such appearance, the White Sox, an almost certain A.L. three seed in 2021, Pirates, Mets, Twins, Diamondbacks, winning while the Tigers, Rangers and Indians all appearing subsequent to the 5 one time winners, lost.

Also the 7 teams other than the Chi-Sox, all will fail to make this year’s playoffs/tournament.