It's Pi Day, the geekiest holiday of the year (that's 'pi' as in π = 3.14 = March 14 = 3/14)! As such, I thought I'd continue the Wezen-Ball tradition of honoring any ballplayers who had a 'Pi (π) Career' – that is, they ended their careers with "314 career _____".
I'm also including players who managed a .314 OBP or SLG (or 3.14 ERA) in the 2010 season, as well as a few players with Pi BPro stats (like True Average and SIERA). I'm still new to all the stats here, so if anyone has any other suggestions for stats to include, I'd be happy to hear them.
Without further ado, here are this year's 'Pi (π) Players':
2010 Season
.314 On-Base Percentage: Jose Guillen, Seth Smith, John Buck
.314 Slugging Percentage: Nyjer Morgan
3.14 ERA: Matt Cain, Brett Myers
.314 True Average: Evan Longoria
3.14 SIERA: (none)
Career Pitching
3.14 ERA (min. 1,000 IP): Bert Gallia, Leon Cadore, Tug McGraw, Mike Marshall, Mike Cuellar, Al Orth
314 Wins: Gaylord Perry
314 Complete Games: Joe McGinnity, Burleigh Grimes
314 Quality Starts: Kevin Brown
314 Saves: Robb Nen
Career Batting
.314 Average (min. 1,000 Games): Bibb Falk, Cecil Travis, Derek Jeter*
.314 On-Base Percentage: Mookie Wilson, Marlon Anderson, Bobby Tolan, Terry Kennedy, Don Kessinger and 8 others
.314 Slugging Percentage: Otis Nixon, Abraham Nunez, Jose Uribe, Jimmy Austin, Miller Huggins
314 HR: Reggie Smith, Alfonso Soriano*
314 Doubles: Pete Fox
314 Stolen Bases: Andre Dawson
Personally, I think that these players should be remembered every Pi Day (especially the less familiar names, like Bibb Falk or Bert Gallia). I'd love to hear any other 'Pi (π) Career' values that others might be able to come up with.
Thank you for reading
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_Day
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/y/youngwa01.shtml
http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/BFslt
Fun article .... as always!
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/COL/COL200107210.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN198706030.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BRO/BRO193607291.shtml
"Outstanding that on Pi Day our two leadoff hitters wear No. 3 (Theriot) and No. 14 (Prado). #StLCards #Braves #geek"
Of all pitchers (no innings limit), the player with the career ERA closest to pi is Mike Marshall. His 3.141346 is a bit closer to pi than Wayne Granger's 3.142484
http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/RRgPz
The ones who come CLOSEST to 3.1415927 (each finishing with 3.141509434) all pitched 212.0 innings and gave up 74 ERs:
Mel Parnell 1948 BOS
Jerry Koosman 1970 NYM
Paul Foytack 1957 DET
Fun article. Keep up the great work!
Just a sidenote. Otis Nixon is just a prime example of how far speed and defense can get you in the Major Leagues.
He had 5,000+ AB in his career, and he managed a mere .044 ISO.
Any idea if that's some kind of record for lowest ISO (min 5,000 career AB)?
http://halftauday.com/
It is argued that pi's mathematical significance is exhausted by its being half the value of tau. I guess tau day would be June 28.