Sunday, September 16, 2012

Red Sox 1-36: 13 is for…


13 extra-inning HR in Ted Williams career

Wow. That’s a lot of home runs in extra innings. In fact, it’s the most extra-inning home runs in Red Sox history. For comparison, David Ortiz, the greatest clutch hitter in Red Sox history, has 8 extra-inning home runs in his career. (At least going into this year. Did he get any yet?) I guess you can be clutch without hitting home runs in extra innings.

Which, I suppose, leads to a question. Is hitting an extra-inning home run clutch? Is hitting a lot of them impressive? I have no idea. Entering 2012, David Ortiz had 378 career home runs. So, those 8 extra inning bombs represented 2.1% of all his home runs. Ted’s 13 represent 2.5% of his lifetime 521. 2.5 is higher than 2.1. So? Don’t ask me.

Hitting an extra inning home run is also a function of opportunity. After all, you can’t hit a home run in extra innings unless you get an at-bat in extra innings. A better question would be, in how many of Ted’s extra-inning at-bats did he homer?

The bottom line, though, is that hitting a home run in extra innings is better than striking out in extra innings. It’s even better than hitting a single in extra innings, no matter what selfish Ichiro and his fans tell us. So, if you’ve done a good thing more often than anyone else in Red Sox history, that’s pretty cool.

13 is for thirteen extra-inning HR in Ted Williams career

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