PudnerSports.com: 2024 Statis-Pro NL Update Starts with Unexpected Willie Mays Tribute Card

Our blogs annual transition from basketball to baseball was set for today. We culminated earlier with the breakthrough blog producing 300 pdf links to our great men's and women's college basketball teams. Our NL Statis-Pro baseball commissioner provided the update further down in this blog on his great season playing out to transition us to baseball when the news broke that Willie Mays has passed away at 93. (Our Statis-Pro instructions are here).

We pulled up our 60 all-time Statis-pro teams and went to the 1954 New York Giants and anyone who plays Statis-Pro baseball needs just one look to see why sports commentators tonight are discussing if he was the greatest player of all-time. For those of you who don't know, in Statis-Pro the pitcher tries to keep the action on his own card where batters still sometimes get a walk or single but never an extra base hit. Better pitchers keep it on their cards more often, lesser pitchers allow it on the batters cards more often, meaning about half the time Willie Mays came to the plate the action ended up on this incredible card:

The only weird thing about this card is the B/C on-base running speed that year, because he only stole 8 of 13 bases this first year back from the military. Within two years he was leading the league in steals year after year so would be an A/A for several straight years, but a B/C this year but that is the only thing about his 1954 card that is not incredible.

Make a mistake to Mays and their was a 50-50 chance he reached base, on half of the 64 possible numbers in the base-8 random number from 11 to 88. On the first 11 numbers (11-23) he singled, on the next 7 numbers (24-32) he doubles.

Then I hit the incredible part - THREE numbers result in triples. I looked through the 60 all-time great teams in our game to see how many other players had three or more triples on their card. There are some reserves with few at bats, then then there were 16 players with three triples but no home runs from the dead ball era. But only nine players have had three triples that high (33-35 or three higher numbers) and I list them below.

All-Time Great	Team	Bats	1b	2b	3b	HR	Deep	K	W	HPB	Out	BA	OPS
Melky Cabrera#	SFG 2012	SN	11'-32	33-38	41-43	44	45-47	48-54			55-88	0.346	0.906
Lou Brock*	StL 1968	LN	11'-27	28-32	33-35	36	37-41	42-54	54	55	56-88	0.279	0.746
Willie Mays	NYG 1954	RP	11'-23	24-32	33-35	36-43	44-46		47-48		51-88	0.345	1.078
Goose Goslin*	Was 1924	LN	11'-28	31-36	37-41	42-43	44-46		47-48	51-52	53-88	0.344	0.937
Eddie Collins*	PhA 1910	LN	11'-33	34-36	37-41	42	42-44			45-46	47-88	0.324	0.800
Rube Oldring	PhA 1910	RN	11'-27	28-35	36-38	41	42-44			45	46-88	0.308	0.771
Danny Murphy	PhA 1910	RN	11'-25	26-33	34-37	38	41-43				44-88	0.300	0.774
Sam Crawford*	Det 1909	LN	11'-26	27-35	36-38	41	42-44				45-88	0.314	0.817

Notice that only one other player with three triples also has more than one home run number - Goose Goslin of the 1924 Washington Senators, and he has TWO homers. Mays has 3 triples AND one of the greatest home run ranges in the game with 6 home run numbers (36-43 keeping in mind it is base 8 so there is no 39 or 40). Players also get some homers off the three numbers in their DEEP range - and if they are playing a dead ball era game those are almost all caught for deep flies whereas if playing in the live ball era they are almost all homers.

There is simply not other player on our great 60 teams who is both an all-time elite triples hitter AND an all-time elite home run hitter - but Mays is as that's why his OPS was 1.078. His CD-5 (top clutch defensive rating) is an understatement as WAR (wins above replacement) indicates Mays was the top defensive player as well as offensive player in baseball that year - and I'm not sure if that has happened in the past. As this season was all coming off spending two years in the military.

I like playing board games because they let me "see" how good a player was. That 1954 he led the league not only in WAR on offense and defense, but in triples, batting average, OPS, OPS+ and the next year he also led the league with 9 double plays from the outfield - the first of three straight years in which he led the league in double plays which I assume resulted in runners not tagging up to try to advance on fly balls to him later.

We stopped producing statis-pro baseball cards because we don't want to compete with others keeping the game alive with great cards like those you find on Statis-Pro Advanced, so we just provide players in sheet form to get players used to playing the game so they see investing in cards is worth while.

Here are our 2024 Statis-Pro cards in sheet form to get you going if you have yet to play the game, and the following are the results from the NL commission based in Montana who rotates Statis-Pro leagues with me each year (this year I have the AL and he has the NL).

2024 Statis-Pro So Far with 10 Teams Selected to Play

I modified the injury policy. (got tired of so many stars dropping)

I’ll go back to the “what if” policy. (was doing the 60-day IL)

So, I’m keeping the injured stars in play instead of taking them out. (just using Z plays for injuries)

Statis-Pro National League

NL “East”

Atlanta 20-14 .588 -

Milwaukee 19-15 .559 1

Chicago 17-16 .515 2.5

Philadelphia 16-18 .471 4

Miami 10-23 .303 10

NL “West”