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Saturday statistical stuff: If we are going to have some baseball numbers, we might as well start with Albert Pujols. He is not quite one of a kind, but he is close. Only five other big-league players have had at least 400 home runs, 1,300 runs batted in and a .325 bating average for their careers. The others? Hall of Famers Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial, Babe Ruth vand Ted Williams.
A reminder that the Chicago Bears do not have cheerleaders. Thankfully, the Denver Broncos do.
Of course, none of those fellows did what Pujols pulled off: a 10-year, $254 million contract. Heck, all those guys’ salaries for their careers combined don’t come close. Not even with wages adjusted for inflation.
What isn’t inflated are Pujols’ home-run numbers. He theoretically should average almost five more homers per season playing for the Los Angeles Angels. So the numbers crunchers say.
The former St. Louis Cardinals first baseman is one of two players to sign a $200 million contract. Alex Rodriguez is the other, having done it twice.
Pujols’ deal is the sixth 10-year contract in baseball history. Rodriguez has had two (2001-10 and 200-2017). The others: Dave Winfield (1981-90), Derek Jeter (2001-10) and Troy Tulowitzki (2011-2020).
And then there’s Mark Buehrle. The former Chicago White Sox left-hander — who signed a four-year, $58 million deal with the Miami Marlins — is one of six active pitchers with 150 victories and an earned-run average better than 4.00. Buerhle (161, 3.88) trails Roy Halliday (188, 3.23), Tim Hudson (181, 3.40), CC Sabathia (176, 3.51) and Derek Lowe (166, 3.94). Roy Oswalt (159, 3.21) closes out the list.
Buehrle has the longest active streak of pitching 200 innings and winning 10 games: 11 consecutive season. Dan Haren is next with seven.
Buehrle has made the most starts and pitched the most innings since 2001. He’s also fourth-best in that span in wins (157) and complete games (27).
Tough to improve on his consistency the last three seasons. Buehrle has won 13 games in each of them.
Buehrle is one of three pitchers to pitch multiple no-hitters, including a perfect game, and win a World Series title for the same team. The other: Hall of Famers Cy Young (Boston Red Sox) and Sandy Koufax (Los Angeles Dodgers). Which isn’t to say Buerhle deserves to be in the shrine at Cooperstown, N.Y. Well, not yet. OK, maybe never. But he would be welcome on just about any big-league staff.
Well, we might as well have a little football while we’re at it.
How about something involving the Chicago Bears at the Denver Broncos?
The Broncos (7-5) have won five in a row and are tied with the Oakland Raiders for the AFC West lead. A Broncos victory vs. the Bears would make Denver the third team to win six consecutive games after starting a season 2-5 or worse. The others: 1970 Cincinnati Bengals, who started 1-6 and finished 8-6; and the 2005 Minnesota Vikings, who began
2-5 before finishing with a 9-7 record.
And now for some truly impressive figures. These belong to members of the Denver Broncos cheerleaders, who will be on the sidelines for Sunday’s game against the visiting Chicago Bears: