stoopidstats 2024: baseball's cumulative win totals

 Before I start, a couple housekeeping items:

1) This post is very late. There are various reasons for this that I'm not going to get into.
2) When presenting information of this sort, it would be good form for me to make my file accessible to the reader. I have been trying to figure out how to do that, but I have not been successful yet. Sorry. If anyone wants to see my data file, please contact me and I can email it.

That having been said, here are the relevant changes in terms of wins/losses and games over .500.

New Wins Plateaus

Several franchises, locations, states and nicknames reached new win plateaus in 2024. These are summarized below:

Ranks

The Philadelphia Phillies had 95 wins in 2024, as compared to the Boston Red Sox' 81. On the strength of that, Philadelphia moved up to the fourth-highest ranking location and Boston moved down to fifth. 

Meanwhile, the Cleveland Guardians, in their third year since changing their nickname from "Indians" to "Guardians," won 92 games. "Guardians" as a nickname is now moving up the ranks, passing nicknames that have been long out of use. It gained 15 places in the rankings in 2024.

These changes are summarized below:

Since there is no longer a franchise called the Indians, "Indians" is likely to get passed by "Dodgers" and "Braves" over the next couple of years.

2024 was, apparently, The Athletics' last year in Oakland. They're slated to play in West Sacramento for three years before moving to Las Vegas. While in West Sacramento, they will simply be The Athletics without indicating any location. Not counting the Negro Leagues, the only other time a team franchise did not have a location in front of its name was in 1877, when the team that had (from 1874-1876) been the Hartford Dark Blues became known as the Hartfords of Brooklyn. No other franchise has used the nickname "Hartfords of Brooklyn," though it does remind of "Angels of Anaheim" of recent memory. The Athletics will be the first Major League franchise in Nevada. So it'll be fun watching Nevada climb the ranks.

A Final Note

For something like this, it's necessary to have one source of truth. Mine is Baseball Reference. In their ongoing effort to get things right, they often revise information. What I noticed this year was that a lot of historical information regarding teams' nicknames. I won't try to provide a list of changes. But one example is the franchise now known as the Minnesota Twins. They played in Washington from 1901 through 1960. Until recently, BR indicated that they had been The Senators that whole time. Now, it shows them as having been The Nationals for most of the span. There are other changes, but that seems to be the biggest. 

cinema history class: birthday tribute to mrs. z.

 

Keith and Christina spent a lot of Sunday evenings watching movies with Christina's parents. And then, after the dad died, they watched a lot of movies with Mrs. Z. In honor of Mrs. Z., who passed away in early 2024, Keith showed us four of her favorite movies.

Reaction and other folderol:
Note: There mya be spoilers.

In some ways, this session reminded me of a "Bring Your Own Movie Month," since these were four very different movies, of different genres, with little to tie them together. I'll note, of course, that Keith never grilled Mrs. Z. about what her favorite movies were. Rather, he was going by what movies Mrs. Z. would request he bring for their Sunday night get-togethers.

Laura, starring Gene Tierney, was definitely my favorite of these. I'm always down for a good film noir, and this was definitely a good one. It had the sharp dialogue that the genre is famous for, and it kept me guessing the whole time. It was also a special treat to see Vincent Price (before he was famous) as a leading man. I really enjoy seeing him when he's not camping it up. Of course, one drawback for me is that, whenever I see the name "Dana Andrews" in the credits, I can't help but hear Richard O'Brien singing "Dana Andrews said prunes / Gave him the runs [pronounced runes] / And passing them used lots of skill." But I suppose that's not anything to hold against the movie.

I also really enjoyed Horror of the Zombies (AKA The Ghost Galleon), which was the third in the Blind Dead series. In it, some modern-day models find themselves aboard an old galleon carrying the corpses of the Knights Templar. The setup is convoluted, but it's still a good story with some good scares. It was a low budget film, but the producers did a good job of keeping it from feeling cheap -- for the most part, anyway. It does a good job of building suspense slowly. So, like a lobster in a boiling pot, you hardly realize how you've been sucked in. And you don't even see the zombies until more than an hour into the movie. I have to wonder if some of the inspiration for this movie was the Bermuda Triangle lore that was popular around that time. It also bears noting that this movie had a great ending.

I had a harder time getting into Dracula Has Risen from the Grave and The Pyjama Girl Case. Admittedly, they're both good movies. Dracula, especially. It was Christopher Lee's last portrayal of Dracula, and he does a good job with it. But I've found myself a bit burned out on Dracula movies.  Going into Pyjama, I was expecting a giallo. And while it had giallo elements, it didn't really stay true to the form. Having said that, I'll note that it featured a 100% giallo ending. Still, hard for me to get into.

The trailers:

Dracula has Risen from the Grave:

Horror of the Zombies:

The Pyjama Girl Case:

Laura: