Berler's theory was simple, as summarized by our friends over at All-Baseball.com: "Since the Cubs last won the NL pennant in 1945, only once has a team with three or more ex-Cubs won the World Series." Remarkably, this is still true -- and Berler even came up with a cockamamie way to explain away the single anomaly, postulating that 1960 PIT 3B Don Hoak had somehow overcome his "Cub-ness" and thus did not officially count against the Pirates that year.
This so-called "Ex-Cub factor" is a much-quoted (and often-mis-quoted or mis-represented) theory of the baseball universe, so there's something to this; but there are other factors to consider, too, as we head into the post-season starting ... yikes! ... later today. Let's see ...
Which begs the following questions:
Alomar Division: Thunderbirds
Barfield Division: Schroedinger's Bat
Carter Division: Pohnpei Papayas
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends
Actually, come to think of it, that's less of an amazing coincidence and more of a statistical likelihood; pulling from approximately the same-sized population pool, there have been an identical number of Moores and Taylors to make the big leagues so far. (There has never been a player named "Taylor Moore," though.)
Obviously, that Taylor total does not include the four men who bore that appellation as a first/given name, nor the dozen who had it as a middle name. None of those 15 were All-Stars, either, with 2B Elliott Taylor "Bump" Wills the biggest name and 1920s-era OF Taylor Douthit probably the best player.
As with the Moores, no Taylor has yet been inducted to the Hall of Fame; but where the Moores had five former All-Stars available for roster selection, the Taylors have managed just one, former PHI 2B Tony Taylor. One place the Taylors have the advantage on the Moores ...
Hey, who knew?
And Josh Towers finishes his fine season with 208.2 innings and a 3.71 ERA.
As this is the final series of the season, so too is it the final Advance Scout. It'll be back next year, so please feel free to offer comments and criticism about how to make it better. I'm always open to suggestions!
This week's Scout features some young arms, a no-hitter (interrupted) and a bonus baby signed by a team that has had some rotten luck with bonus babies.
On to the Advance Scout!Although no Moore has yet been inducted to the Hall of Fame, this Hall of Names squad may feature up to five former All-Stars. There have been two Moores to manage in the big leagues, both of whom might also make the squad as players.
We're going to uproot this franchise and move the whole happy bunch to Smith County, Texas, where they will be known as ...