Larry’s Blog
Ominous Yankee Development
April 23, 2024
After 23 games, the N.Y. Yankees have fallen out of first place in their division for the first time. It’s still early times, with roughly seven-eighths of the regular season yet to be played, and the team’s overall 15-8 record is more than respectable. The pitching staff is outperforming expectations and is one of only […] More
Dollar Strengthens to 2024 High
April 12, 2024
Fear that Iran is going to attack Israel is augmenting economic factors strengthening the dollar, which climbed 0.7% on a weighted basis to its strongest point since November. Today’s release of U.S. import price data also buoyed the U.S. currency. Import price gains in March of 0.4% both on month and year-on-year exceeded expectations. Import […] More
Placing the 2023 New York Yankees in the Franchises Storied History
August 26, 2023
Among the many Yankee teams I’ve followed in my lifetime, I consider the 1998 squad to have been the most successful, and the 1966 version to have been the least proficient. In 1966, League divisions hadn’t yet been introduced. The American and National Leagues each had ten teams, and the teams with the best winning […] More
Power Pitching and Home Runs on Display in the MLB 2022 Post-Season
November 3, 2022
Viewers of the World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Houston Astros this week were treated to a barrage of power hitting and power pitching on adjacent days this week. In the first five innings of game 3 on Tuesday, five different Phillies’ players hit home runs against Houston pitcher Lance McCullers. No pitcher […] More
Phillies Draw First Blood in World Series in Game with Ties to Don Larson’s Perfect Game
October 29, 2022
In winning game one of the 2022 World Series, the Philadelphia Phillies overcame a five-run deficit early in the game. This tied a 5-run come-from-behind world series victory two decades earlier in game six of the 2002 World Series won by the Anaheim Angels. The only World Series game in which a winner overcame a […] More
2022 MLB World Series a Mis-Match on Paper
October 24, 2022
In the era of divisional postseason play that was introduced in 1969, only the 1976 Cincinnati Red with a 7-0 record have gone undefeated in the major league baseball playoffs. With series records of 3-0 against the Seattle Mariners in the American League Divisional Series and 4-0 against the New York Yankees in the American […] More
The MLB Team With the Best Record in the First Half of the 2022 Regular Season Has Been Exposed in the Playoffs
October 23, 2022
The New York Yankees compiled a 58-43 won-loss record in the first half of the 2022 regular baseball season but went 41-40 the rest of the way. That drop-off was mere prologue to the dramatic erosion of offensive productivity through eight post-season games. Although sporting the second highest average runs-per-game during the regular season, the […] More
Three Takeaways from MLB Divisional Series So Far
October 16, 2022
Prior to this year, only one post-season major league baseball game had gone past the 11th inning with no runs scored by either team. Then last week the longest such game occurred in the wild card round when the Cleveland Indians beat the Tampa Bay Rays 1-0 in 15 innings. Just a week later, that […] More
Nearly Perfect Padres Pitching Knocks Out the Favored N.Y. Mets
October 10, 2022
With a loss in the third and final wild card game, the N.Y. Mets became the third wild card team to be favored but lose in the initial two out of three round of the 2022 major league baseball playoffs. Like the Toronto Blue Jays and St. Louis Cardinals, the Mets had a better regular […] More
Scintillating Games on Second Day of MLB Wild Card Playoff Round
October 9, 2022
Yesterday’s four wild card games produced not just one but two extremely rare developments. The game between the Cleveland and Tampa was scoreless entering the bottom half of the fifteenth inning, setting a record for the most innings in which a post-season game has gone without a run being scored by either team. In fact, […] More
