The Baseball Buffet for 10/21/2025

Issue #431

The goal with The Baseball Buffet series is to provide the best daily dose of relevant baseball info in a smart-brevity format (mostly short bullets, getting to the point, with quick analysis/insights.) Think of it like what baseball fans of a certain age would look forward to in their morning newspaper’s sports section each day!

⚾ Welcome! ⚾

The 209th day of the season featured the seventh game of the ALCS:

• SEA 3, TOR 4 - Julio Rodríguez doubled to lead off the game, and then Josh Naylor singled to drive him in. The Blue Jays came right back, with a walk to George Springer, a single by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and then a single by Daulton Varsho that drove in Springer.
  
  The Mariners had solo homers by Rodríguez in the third and Cal Raleigh in the fifth, while George Kirby did well over four innings (4 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K). But then in the bottom of the seventh, with two runners on, Springer hit a 3-run off HR Eduard Bazardo, who had just entered in relief of Bryan Woo. (For Springer it was his 23rd postseason HR, which ties him with Kyle Schwarber for third all-time.)
  
  Chris Bassitt, normally a starter, came in and pitched a scoreless top of the eighth, and then Toronto’s closer Jeff Hoffman, with the home crowd going wild, struck out the side in the top of the ninth. The Blue Jays are now in the World Series for the first time since they won back-to-back championships in 1992-1993.

Reader Survey

As the 2025 season winds down, I am conducting a reader survey! I am interested in feedback so I can plan for both the offseason and for the 2026 season too. After mentioning this in the past two days’ newsletters I’ve already gotten over 220 responses, which is a great start. But if you’ve not participated yet, I’d love to hear from you… it only takes two minutes, so thanks in advance for your feedback!

Active Leaders

Aaron Judge may have led all of MLB in OBP this year (and by a lot), but Juan Soto remains the active career leader:

• .417 - Juan Soto

• .413 - Aaron Judge

• .407 - Mike Trout

• .387 - Bryce Harper

• .386 - Freddie Freeman

• .384 - Ronald Acuña Jr.

• .378 - Paul Goldschmidt

• .374 - Shohei Ohtani

• .374 - Christian Yelich

• .372 - Yandy Díaz

Today’s Trivia Question

The all-time OBP leaderboard has Ted Williams and Babe Ruth at the top, and then largely has a lot of players from the 19th century and the early 20th century. If we look at just the Divisional Era (1969 until present), who are the three players with a higher career OBP than the above noted Juan Soto’s .417 as the active leader? (Minimum 3,000 career plate appearances required to qualify.)

On this day in baseball history…

Here is what stands out to me for this day in baseball history. Unless otherwise noted, the descriptions are from baseball-reference.com.

📅 On October 21…

• 1975: Carlton Fisk hits an iconic HR to force game 7 in the World Series. “Carlton Fisk breaks up one of the best games in World Series history with a home run in the 12th inning to give the Boston Red Sox a 7-6 victory against the Cincinnati Reds, forcing a seventh game to decide the winner of the 1975 World Series.”

• 1976: The Big Red Machine rolls on. “With a 7-2 victory, the Cincinnati Reds win the World Series, completing a four-game sweep of the Yankees. It is the Reds' second straight World Championship. Johnny Bench hits two home runs for five RBI. He finishes with a .533 batting average and is named Series MVP. Yankees catcher Thurman Munson has six straight singles to tie a World Series mark. Cincinnati becomes the first and only team to win a World Series using the identical batting lineup in every game of that Series, with no pinch-hitters, pinch-runners, or defensive replacements making an appearance. Cincinnati also becomes the first team ever to go through an entire League Championship Series and World Series without a defeat.”

• 1980: The Phillies finally win their first World Series. “The Philadelphia Phillies become World Series champions for the first time in their 98-year history with a 4-1 triumph over the Kansas City Royals in Game 6 of the 1980 World Series.”

• 1998: The Yankees sweep the Padres in the World Series. “The New York Yankees close out their historic season with 3-0 victory against the San Diego Padres, sweeping San Diego in four games to win their record 24th World Series championship. Andy Pettitte gets the victory, and Scott Brosius is named Series MVP. The Game 4 victory gives the Yankees 125 wins against 50 losses for a .714 winning percentage, the best in the majors since their Murderers' Row club of 1927, as their American League record of 114 regular-season victories are the most ever for a major league champion team.”

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys 🎉

Whitey Ford (1928)

• Hall of Famer

• 16-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1950-1967 (missing 1951-1952 for military service), all with the Yankees

• All-Star in eight seasons

• Led the AL with a 2.47 ERA in 1956 and a 2.01 ERA in 1958

• Won the AL Cy Young Award in 1961 after posting a 25-4 record, 3.21 ERA, and 209 strikeouts

• World Series MVP in 1961 after winning two games with only six hits and 0 runs allowed over 14 innings

• Overall had a 236-106 (.690) record, a 2.75 ERA, and a 133 ERA+

Zack Greinke

• First-round draft pick (6th overall) by the Royals in 2002

• 20-year major league pitching career, spanning from 2004-2023, beginning and ending with the Royals, but spending 11 seasons with five other clubs

• Six-time All-Star, and winner of six consecutive Gold Glove Awards

• Won the AL Cy Young Award in 2009 after posting a 16-8 record with 242 strikeouts and leading the league with a 2.16 ERA

• Led the NL with a 1.66 ERA for the Dodgers in 2015

• Had 200+ strikeouts six times

• Was an above average hitter for a pitcher, with a .225 batting average, 9 HR, 29 doubles, and 9 SB in 600 plate appearances

• Overall had a 225-156 (.591) record, a 3.49 ERA, and a 121 ERA+

Bill Russell (1948)

• 18-year major league career, spanning from 1969-1986, all with the Dodgers

• Started out as an OF, but switched to SS in his fourth season and provided generally good defense over his career

• Was part of a consistently good infield for over eight years that also included Ron Cey at 3B, Davey Lopes at 2B, and Steve Garvey at 1B

• Three-time All-Star

• Light hitter, with only 46 HR in 8,021 plate appearances

• Had 10+ SB nine times

• Overall had 167 SB and a .263 career average

• Managed the Dodgers for parts of three seasons from 1996-1998, with a .537 record during that time

George Bell (1959)

• 12-year major league career, spanning from 1981-1993, mostly with the Toronto Blue Jays

• Three-time All-Star, including in 1987 when he won the AL MVP Award after batting .308 with 47 HR and an AL-leading 134 RBI

• Had 20+ HR eight times, and 100+ RBI four times

• Overall had 265 HR, 1,002 RBI, a .278/.316/.469 slash line, and a 113 OPS+

Bill Lee (1909)

• 14-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1934-1947, mostly with the Cubs

• Had a 20-6 record and 2.96 ERA in his second season in 1935

• Two-time All-Star, including in 1938 when he led the NL in wins with a 22-9 record and in ERA with a 2.66 mark

• Overall had a 169-157 record, a 3.54 ERA, and a 106 ERA+

Currently active players who were born on October 21 include LAA Christian Moore, ATH Ben Bowden, CLE Matt Krook, and TEX Luis Curvelo.

Today’s Matchups

No game today, as we now await the start of the World Series, between the Dodgers and Blue Jays, which will begin on Friday in Toronto.

⚾ I hope you enjoyed the newsletter today!⚾
 

Today’s Trivia Answer

During the Divisional Era (1969 to the present), the OBP leaderboard for players with 3,000 or more career plate appearances is as follows:

• .444 - Barry Bonds

• .419 - Frank Thomas

• .418 - Edgar Martínez

• .417 - Juan Soto

• .415 - Wade Boggs

• .414 - Todd Helton

• .413 - Aaron Judge

• .411 - Manny Ramírez

• .409 - Joey Votto

• .408 - Jeff Bagwell

Good Reads

Here I am providing one or more links to baseball articles I’ve enjoyed recently, whether by writers at MLB.com or elsewhere.

• Major League Baseball Has Least Debuts in a Decade in 2025, by Benjamin Chase at Here's the Pitch: the IBWAA Newsletter, 10/20/2025

• 5 Baseball Cards Disguised as...Something Else, at Wax Pack Gods Newsletter, 10/19/2025

See recent issues of The Baseball Buffet for more recent good reads!

Did you know? I wrote a 600+ page book with the same title as this newsletter/blog? Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports. It is available at Amazon and most other major booksellers.

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