The Baseball Buffet for 10/31/2025

Issue #441

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 219th day of the season was an off day as the Blue Jays and Dodgers had a travel and rest day as they get ready for the sixth game of the World Series this evening. Toronto leads LA three games to two, so they could end it tonight and take home their first World Series Championship since winning back-to-back in 1992 and 1993.

Today’s Trivia Question

Five current MLB franchises have never won a World Series championship: Padres, Rays, Brewers, Rockies, and Mariners. Out of the 25 other clubs who have one at least one World Series, who has had the longest stretch of time since their most recent championship?

Trivia answers are at the bottom of each newsletter.

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 31… 👻

• 1931: 11 years after it was banned, the end of legal spitball pitches. “The St. Louis Cardinals release the last legal spitballer, pitcher Burleigh Grimes.” Although banned in 1920, several pitchers who had been using the spitball were allowed to continue to do so until they retired.

• 1972: Don Money is traded… making way for Mike Schmidt. “The Philadelphia Phillies send third baseman Don Money and two others to the Milwaukee Brewers for four pitchers, including Jim Lonborg and Ken Brett. More importantly, the deal opens up third base for a young infielder named Mike Schmidt, who will embark on a Hall of Fame career.”

• 2010: The Giants win with an all-rookie pitcher/catcher combo in the World Series. “In Game 4 of the World Series, the Giants beat the Rangers, 4-0. San Francisco has the first starting all-rookie battery in a World Series game since Yogi Berra and Spec Shea in 1947 and both youngsters do well: Buster Posey homers while Madison Bumgarner tosses eight shutout innings of three-hit ball. The Giants become the first team since the 1966 Orioles to throw two shutouts in a Series.”

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys 🎉

Fred McGriff (1963)

• Hall of Famer

• 19-year major league career, spanning from 1986-2004, mostly with the Braves, Blue Jays, Rays, and Padres

• Five-time All-Star

• Led the NL with 36 HR in 1989 and with 35 HR in 1992, and had 20+ HR an impressive 15 times

• Had 100+ RBI eight times and 100+ runs twice

• Overall had 493 HR, 1,550 RBI, a .284/.377/.509 slash line, and a 134 OPS+

Dave McNally (1942)

• 14-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1962-1975, mostly with the Orioles

• Three-time All-Star

• Had a 1.95 ERA and a career-high 202 strikeouts in 1968

• Posted 20+ wins four seasons in a row, including in 1970 when he led the AL in wins with a 24-9 record

• Generally did well in the postseason, with a 2.49 ERA over 90.1 IP

• Overall had a 184-119 (.607) record, a 3.24 ERA, and a 106 ERA+

Ken Keltner (1916)

• 13-year major league career, spanning from 1937-1950, mostly as a 3B for the Cleveland Indians

• Seven-time All-Star

• Had 20+ HR three times, including in his rookie season in 1938 when he had 26 HR and 113 RBI, and then again in 1948 with 31 HR and 119 RBI

• A good defensive 3B, he was often amongst the leaders in several fielding statistics

• Overall had 163 HR, 852 RBI, a .276/.338/.441 slash line, and a 112 OPS+

Mike Napoli (1981)

• 12-year major league career, spanning from 2006-2017, starting as a catcher for the Angels and Rangers, and then transitioning to playing more 1B and DH for the Red Sox and Indians

• Had 20+ HR eight times, including career highs of 34 HR and 101 RBI in his second to last season

• Generally not a high average hitter, but batted .320 with 30 HR in 2011

• Overall had 267 HR, a .246/.346/.475 slash line, and a 117 OPS+

Currently active players who were born on October 31 include ATH Scott McGough, CLE Erik Sabrowski, and SEA Miles Mastrobuoni.

Today’s Matchup

Today we have game six of the 2025 World Series, with the Blue Jays up three games to two:

• LAD vs. TOR at 8:00pm ET - This game features a rematch of starters from game 2 from Saturday, which the Dodgers won 5-1 due in part to Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s second consecutive complete game. Overall he has a 1.57 ERA with 26 K in 28.2 IP in four starts this postseason — not bad given the Dodgers need a win here to force a game seven. The Blue Jays will counter with Kevin Gausman, who has a 2.55 ERA with 18 K in 24.2 IP this postseason.

⚾ I hope you enjoy the game today… and Halloween!⚾
 

Today’s Trivia Answer

The Cleveland Indians/Guardians. They have been in six World Series: 1920, 1948, 1954, 1995, 1997, and 2016. But their only two championships came in 1920 and 1948, so they the longest current gap since their last victory. The Pittsburgh Pirates have the second longest gap, as they last won it all in 1979. Other current long dry spells are:

• 1983 - Orioles

• 1984 - Tigers

• 1986 - Mets

• 1989 - Athletics

• 1990 - Reds

• 1991 - Twins

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.

• 3 storylines to watch with Blue Jays on verge of title in Game 6, by Will Leitch at MLB, 10/30/2025

• Here are 10 of the coolest feats of the postseason, per Statcast, by David Adler at MLB, 10/30/2025

• Smoky Burgess and his bat got around, by Mark Kolier at Almost Cooperstown, 10/31/2025

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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