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 Statitudes Mailbag
Posted: Thursday September 09, 1999 12:28 AM
Have a question for Statitudes? Click here. CNNSI.com Statitudes producer Ryan Hunt will answer the most creative and thought-provoking statistical questions in the weekly Statitudes mailbag. This week, the mailbag tackles questions regarding some hitting records.
Which NCAA Division I-A football teams have the best records in the second half of the 20th century?
How many AP preseason No. 1 college football teams went on to win the national championship? Since the AP preseason poll began in 1950, there have been eight teams that started and finished the season at the top of the rankings -- Tennessee (1951), Michigan State ('52), Oklahoma ('56, '74, '75 and '85), Alabama ('78) and Florida State ('93). And that doesn't count Nebraska in 1971 or Southern California in 1972, which both led the polls for 14 straight weeks despite not being ranked No. 1 in the preseason poll.
Barry Switzer coached in 22 games that were decided by a field goal or less and only lost one of them. (Switzer coached at Oklahoma for 16 seasons). Is there anything comparable? In a career, an .863 winning percentage in games decided by three points or less is hard to top. For one season, however, a somewhat comparable instance may be Central Michigan in 1991. The Chippewas had six games decided by three points or less -- winning two and tying four. But the record for most games decided by three points or less in one season, incidentally, is seven -- Bowling Green (2-5) in 1980 and Columbia (4-3) in 1971. Both could have used some of Switzer's magic.
Who has the longest streak of consecutive defensive shutouts in NCAA history? Only two teams in Division I-A history have not allowed a single point in the entire regular season -- Duke in 1938 and Tennessee in 1939. The Volunteers, coached by General Robert R. Neyland, actually blanked 15 straight opponents spanning from Nov. 5, 1938 to Dec. 9, 1940. Their streak ended with a 14-0 loss to Southern California in the 1940 Orange Bowl. Duke shut out nine consecutive opponents in 1938 before falling 7-0 in the Rose Bowl. In Division II, Albany St. (Ga.) didn't allow a point in all nine regular-season games in 1960.
How many times have two home runs been hit by the same batter in the same inning? I know Fernando Tatis hit 2 grand slams in an inning in April. Counting Tatis, the feat has happened 33 times in major league history, 11 of which have been in the '90s. Both Mark McGwire (Sept. 22, 1996 with Oakland) and Sammy Sosa (May 16, 1996) have done it. The only players to do it twice in a career are Willie McCovey, Andre Dawson and Jeff King.
What is the distribution of Sammy Sosa's home runs by inning? Sosa likes to start early. Of his 58 home runs this season through Wednesday, 11 have been in the first inning, his most popular power inning. Sosa has hit 10 in the sixth, eight in the third and eighth, six in the ninth, five in the fourth, four in the fifth and seventh and two in the second. He has not homered in extra innings. During McGwire's 70-homer season last year, the only inning in which he did not homer was the second.
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