Another reason to dislike ESPN
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Travis G. | Monday, October 22, 2007 |
During Joe Torre’s press conference Friday, they kept flashing screens of where Joe ranked among Yankee managers. Two stats soured me – the first read:
‘Most Consecutive Postseason appearances:
Joe Torre 12
Casey Stengel 5
Joe McCarthy 4′
The second:
‘76 postseason wins (all-time record)’
A casual sports fan seeing this would think Joe was the greatest manager in baseball history. But as usual, ESPN twisted stats to meet their viewpoint. Stengel and McCarthy managed when only one AL team made the playoffs every year instead of four (since 1995). And Joe managed the Yanks in the wildcard/three-round era when playoff teams play at least three games and as many as 19 – teams now have by far the most opportunities to win playoff games. It’s nothing major and most baseball fans know it, but ESPN should know better. As part of the media, they have a responsibility to represent the facts without trying to mislead.
So how many times did Joe manage the Yanks to the best record in the AL? To BRef for the answer…
2006
2004
2003
2002
1999
1998
So six out of 12 years is great, but they never had the best AL record more than thrice in a row as compared to Stengel’s five or McCarthy’s four. ESPN – the misleader in sports.
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