We all work with numbers! It could be in our work life, our personal life (how fast we drive, how much we eat or weigh, in our job, etc, etc. Those numbers guide us into decisions that we understand. But, sometimes it seems, that we are CHASING CRAZY NUMBERS.

…After a hot start in July, the Cardinals have dropped to a 10-9 record in July.  This is 13^th best in the MLB. However, solid-strong teams like the Dodgers, Braves, Phillies are all beneath us for the month in winning percentage!! Throughout most of the month, the Cards have remained 5, 6 or 7 games behind Milwaukee. Those numbers should encourage StL fans!

…Yet some really CRAZY NUMBERS are 34, 37, 36, and 35 and a maybe 33…  It’s the ages of the StL Cards starting staff. It is hard to feel inspired about the 2^nd half when you see those numbers.

…Last year St Louis City SC won the Western Conference & held the 4^th best record in the League. Despite going 2-3-2 in their last 8 matches of the year. Then, shockingly almost, City fell in 2 straight matches in the 1^st round of the Playoffs. The fact that STL finished 1st in the Western Conference and fourth overall didn’t mean squat! Those were CRAZY NUMBERS! Further, most observers indicated that the matches weren’t even competitive! Turning the page to 2024, their last victory this season was on May 11^th! UGH!! The mass exodus has already began @ City SC.

…the #1 ALWAYS draws attention in sports! Missed by several StL baseball fans, the U of Tennessee Baseball team was voted #1 in the final NCAA-Baseball Poll this year. The Vols beat Texas A&M in the College Baseball World Series with a 6-5 win in game-3. Tennessee went 5-1 in the finals played annually in Omaha. Local Boy, Tony Vitello—HC of Tennessee Baseball was voted the Coach of the year. His Dad, Greg Vitello, was the long-time baseball & soccer Coach @ DeSmet HS. Vitello’s teams haves already rewritten Tennessee Baseball Record Books—leading the country in wins over the past 4 seasons with 211 wins, highest winning percentage (.773), most NCAA Tournament wins(25) and home runs (566). Those are some really CRAZY NUMBERS! So, he’s done it with more that just 1 “group” of recruits. I think Tony Vitello would make a terrific MLB manager!

…. Can a college baseball coach ever “step up” to professional ranks is always the question. What will it take fo r the MLB owners decide to bring a highly successful college coach in the MLB as a manager? The NFL has done it for years—sometimes successfully sometimes they flopped… take a look at some of the coaches who were on the downside—Steve Spurrier flopped as he went 12-20 in the NFL. Nick Saban jumped to the NFL after his 4^th NCAA title—he lasted 2 years @ Miami then raced back to U of Alabama to win national titles for several years followed by retirement. Lou Holtz tried the NFL for 1 year then quickly raced back into the NCAA waters. Dennis Erickson left the U (Miami) for the Seattle Seahawks. He was there 4 years with his best being an 8-8 record. Bobby Petrino jumped from U of Louisville to Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons expected the younger coach to be a better fit for the growth of Michael Vick. NOT SO MUCH! Both were gone in a year, Petrino ended up the next year in U of Arkansas.

…. On the UPSIDE…Tom Coughlin left Boston College as the 1^st HC for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL. In his 2^nd year Coughlin led Jacksonville to the playoffs. Following that, Coughlin led the NY Giants to TWO super bowl Victories including the one that snapped the Patriots long string of Super wins. Jim Harbaugh went from Sanford to SF 49’ers. He led the Niners to consecutive appearances in the NFC title game & 1 Super Bowl. Jimmy Johnson took the Cowboys to 3 Super Bowls! Pete Carroll won BCS in 1995 with So Cal then moved to Seattle where he got them in the playoffs 2 of 3 seasons.

….The Greatest of all was before my time!(yea…. Way, way back 😊) It was Paul Brown! He coached High School for 10 years, then led Ohio State to national title in 1942 in his 3 year stint there. Then, he went into the Navy for WWII. Returned to NFL in 1946 to Coach the Cleveland Browns (name sound familiar?) until 1962. Still needing a final challenge, he took the expansion team, Cincinnati Bengals from 1968-19785.Those are CRAZY NUMBERS! Overall Brown won 7 league championships (4 in the AAFC and 3 in the NFL), 1 NCAA championship (1942 Ohio State), 4 high school national championships, and 7 state championships (6 in Ohio, 1 in Maryland). His 213 professional football wins currently rank him 5th all time in the NFL, and his 66.7% place him 9th (minimum 100 games coached).

…. Sooo… it can be done…especially if the MLB team is “rebuilding” with a corp of young players. However, the leap from college to the professional ranks is HUGE. Vitello is young enough that I feel that he could adapt to the MLB style, routines, strategies, evaluations.  Sooo… I’m throwing my MLB hat “in” for Tony Vitello to “move up”!

…starting the 2024 season in about a month, SLU Women’s Soccer successful NUMBERS got lost by many in the busy fall season last year. St Louis U HC Katie Schields led her team to its 6th consecutive A-10 tournament title last year. Post-season success was enhanced as SLU upended U of Indiana in round 1, then handled Georgetown in the 2^nd round-which moved them into the “Sweet 16” for the 1^st time in school history. The W-Soccer Billikens fell to Penn State in the round of 16 but battled all the way to end. Falling behind 2-0, the Billikens forced overtime by tying it up before losing 4-3 to Penn State in 2 OT. The Lady Billikens completed their season 19-3-2 (9-0-1 in the A-10). More CRAZY NUMBERS like that are expected in 2024!!

…Clearly the MLB player with the best offensive numbers in 2024 is Bobby Witt Jr(KC). The 24 year old SS, the son of a MLB player-Bobby Witt SR, is largely overlooked since KC seldom demands national attention as a team. He’s a AL league leader in several categories! As of Wed he was 2^nd in Batting Average .341; 2^nd in Runs Scored-82; 5^th in RBI’s; 1^st in HITS in the MLB; 3^rd in Doubles-27; 2^nd in Triples-10; 6^th in Stolen Bases!

…MLB numbers in the standings really have some meaning at this time of the year. The Cards are 52-28-2^nd place. If the season ended today, the Cardinals would be the 2^nd wild card team. For the first time, there will be THREE wild-card teams in each league! That means Six of the 15 teams of each league will be tasting playoff water.  That’s 40% of the teams! I know playoffs are exciting but really….you play 162 games to get into the top 40% and eliminate 9 teams in each league? Sounds like “everybody gets a trophy” mentality to me 😊

…With the summer Olympics beginning this week, if you’re like me…I’ll watch some of it. Of course I understand the sports that we’ve routinely seen for years- Track/field, Soccer, Swimming, Basketball(regular 5 on 5 and also 3 on 3 competition), Boxing, Hockey, Tennis, Volleyball and I watch them when I can. Some of the other sports that I don’t know much about the strategy, rules, players, I don’t really have a keen  interest.  I may watch a few “new” sports for me for awhile and see if it appeals to me and if have a minimal understanding of what’s going on 😊 Most of the scoring systems are easy numbers and easy to figure out… I must ask though…how did Tennis ever get its scoring system? Not only do the numbers jump around but then we get some “love” thrown in!!

…With the extended MLB playoff system, if any of the playoffs teams are located in Northern USA, we may see some very, very cold (maybe even snowy) days for playoffs. Crazy!

…Returning to MLB, in the last 5 full seasons, there have been some horrid strikeout NUMBERS. During those 5 seasons, there have been over 20,000/year! To give you an idea as you compare it to the past… in 2010 there were 15,214 strikeouts. In 2000, saw 14,212 strikeouts. 1990 had 12,689 strikeouts. Last year (2023), the MLB saw 21,261 strikeouts! (roughly 40% more strikeouts than from 2010!!)

….You see the upswing (just like the batters upswing!! 😊)  From what I understand, the MLB pitchers are being taught to lengthen their stride on their delivery. The thought being, the mini- seconds longer it takes with the longer stride will allow the arm to “come around” longer allowing it to get more speed on the pitch.  It’s my thought along those lines, that the increase mini-seconds longer that the increased stride requires, the baserunners gain that extra time in their stolen base attempts. Combine that with athletes getting bigger, stronger, faster each year – it equals more stolen bases! Both NUMBERS ARE GOING UP!

….Looking way, way down the ladder…. The Oakland A’s no longer have the worst MLB record. Currently they are 41-63 (not good but not the worst). The Chicago White Sox currently hold the title as the “worst team in the MLB” with a record of 27-77. 27 wins since April 1 (roughly)-that’s approximately 6 wins a month, for each month thus far…ouch!

…Thanks for taking your time for the read!  If you’ve missed any of the Buzz articles…they are found on www.bobryansportsblog.com. If you’re reading this on Facebook, please make sure to click the “like” button as a sign of your read (not of your reading taste 😊)  Bob