baseball stoopidstats -- 2017 edition, number 1

Major League Baseball's regular season is over, which means my favorite part of the baseball year has arrived: The time I get to update my Baseball StoopidStats.*

The first installment is the cumulative won-loss records for all of the major leagues. This is a bonanza for anyone who likes graphs that have too much information to really process efficiently, and which are incomprehensible through lack of labeling. Yay! Fun times! For anyone interested in the file that I am referencing below, it is here.

My file has lots of graphs, but here are three:

This first is a graph showing the cumulative games over .500 (i.e., wins minus losses) for every franchise in baseball history. In this graph, when a franchise ceases operation (as 85 franchises have), its data series ends. The file I linked to above has a similar graph in which defunct franchises show as horizontal lines in the years after they ceased operation (since, playing no more games, their cumulative games over .500 stays constant.

This second graph is similar in concept, but results are grouped not by franchise but by geographic location (as indicated in the team name). For example, the series for "New York" (the gray line that finishes more than 3000 games over .500. That chart includes the Highlanders/Yankees, The Mets, The Giants (through 1957) and various now-defunct teams from the 19th century. The Dodgers (Brooklyn through 1957) are not included in "New York," as they are included (with various now-defunct teams) in "Brooklyn." As before, a series ends after the last of a location's teams ceases operation or moves away. Some series appear as horizontal line for a while before going up or down because they represent locations that had teams at one point, then didn;t have teams, and then did again. An example is Washington (D.C.); The Senators left after 1971, and there wasn't a franchise there again until the Expos moved there (and became the Nationals) beginning in 2005. There have been 54 locations indicated in team names, of which 27 are still being used.

This third graph is similar to the first, but results are grouped by state. Here, New York and Brooklyn are part of the same series (along with Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Troy. For these purposes, I am treating the District of Columbia, Ontario and Quebec as states. To date there have been franchises in 28 states, of which 19 still have teams.

All of my data are taken from Baseball Reference with the following two exceptions:

• If you look at the results for the 1890 American Association(according to BR), the wins and losses don't add to the same total. After some checking I found that, according to Wikipedia, the St. Louis Browns had a record of 78-58 (BR showed them having a record of 77-58). Using Wikipedia as a source for their record, the wins and losses balance.
• In 1884 the Union Association had a team that moved during the season. The Chicago Browns/Pittsburgh Stogies had a record of 41-50, but BR does not indicate the breakdown of that record between the two locations. I found that information on Wikipedia and am accepting it.

A few things to note for 2017:

• The Cardinals passed the Braves in wins this year, becoming the fourth-winningest franchise.
• The Rockies passed the Marlins in wins this year, becoming the 27th-winningest franchise.
• "Texas" passed "San Diego" in wins this year, becoming the 21st-winningest location.
• "Tampa Bay" passed "Florida" in wins this year, becoming the 29th-winningest location.
• The Mariners passed the 3,000-win mark.
• "New York" located teams collectively passed the 21,000 win-mark.
• Teams in Massachusetts collectively passed the 15,000 win-mark.
• Teams in California collectively passed the 22,000 win-mark.
• Teams in Texas collectively passed the 8,000 win-mark

* I Really need to trademark that word.