MLB postseason oddities, quirks and trivia

The MLB postseason is a stage for big moments, a time when heroes arise and when legacies are made. But it’s also proven to be a place for oddities and quirky occurrences.

Throughout baseball history, the playoffs and the World Series have produced a slew of head-scratchers, fun factoids and things that make you go hmmm. From a game that (sort of) had to be played twice, to walk-off sacrifice bunts, to the sport’s best team not even making the playoffs, the postseason has certainly made for some offbeat trivia through the years.

Here’s a look at some of those fun peculiarities.

Home field was no advantage

Most of the games weren’t that close, either: The average margin of victory in the 2019 World Series was five runs, with three of the games decided by six or more runs. As it turned out, having home-field advantage was no advantage at all. Unfortunately for the Astros, they had more home games that series than the Nationals.

Series MVP on the losing team

A postseason series MVP is usually reason to celebrate, but for a few players, it was nothing more than cold comfort. That’s because there have been four times in postseason history in which a series MVP came from the losing team. The most recent example happened in 1987, when the Giants’ Jeffrey Leonard took NLCS MVP honors while his team dealt with a seven-game loss to the Cardinals. Leonard hit .417 with four homers and a 1.417 OPS, leading both teams in each category (min. 20 plate appearances).

The other MVPs from the losing side are Mike Scott of the Astros in the 1986 NLCS, Fred Lynn of the Angels in the 1982 ALCS and Bobby Richardson of the Yankees in the 1960 World Series.

Bochy’s strange championship pattern

Bruce Bochy is a likely future Hall of Fame manager who’s overseen four World Series titles, including a Giants dynasty from 2010-2014 whose “even-year magic” was enough to set your clocks by. But equally clock-worthy, it turns out, is what’s happened in the years between Bochy-led championships.

In every instance of Bochy’s team winning a championship — three with the Giants and one with the Rangers — the team failed to reach the postseason the next year. From the mountain to the valley, every single time. But don’t feel bad for them, because there’s also this twist: Bochy’s title teams have had a tendency to win another World Series the year after missing the playoffs, as happened with the 2012 and 2014 Giants.

As strange as it seems, win World Series, miss playoffs, win World Series, miss playoffs has been the sequence for every Bochy championship team since 2010. It’s probably just a coincidence, but it also bodes well for the 2025 Rangers.

The 1982 NLCS pitted the Braves against the Cardinals, and Game 1 had a significant quirk: It was played twice. Well, not really. But sort of.

The first attempt at Game 1 at Busch Stadium had the Braves winning 1-0 in the fifth inning when rain caused the game to be postponed before it became official. In those days, the rules only allowed a postseason game to be suspended and resumed later if the game was already official. Because this one wasn’t official, the game was wiped away and the Braves and Cardinals did Take 2 for Game 1 the next day. St. Louis won that one 7-0, the first win in a three-game sweep that led to its eventual World Series championship.

MLB changed postseason rainout rules in 2009. So had those Game 1 circumstances happened today, the first attempt would’ve been resumed the next day at the point at which it was stopped — the bottom of the fifth with Atlanta winning — even though it wasn’t yet an official game. Braves fans will forever ponder this alternate reality.

There have been dozens and dozens of postseason walk-off hits. A walk-off walk (once) and a walk-off wild pitch (twice) have happened, too. But what about a walk-off sac bunt? Believe it or not, that’s happened four times.

The last instance came in Game 3 of the 2014 NLCS between the Giants and Cardinals, when San Francisco’s Grégor Blanco laid down a bunt to advance a runner and St. Louis pitcher Randy Choate made a throwing error to first base that allowed the winning run to score for the Giants. So, technically, yes, it was scored as a walk-off sac bunt. The other three instances of walk-off sac bunts in the postseason also resulted from throwing errors to first base.

There have been nearly 3,000 double plays turned in modern postseason history, but the triple play has proven uniquely scarce. In 124 years of modern postseason baseball, there’s been exactly one three-out play. It was turned, unassisted, by Cleveland second baseman Bill Wambsganss in the fifth inning of Game 5 of the 1920 World Series against the Brooklyn Robins. For more perspective, out of the more than 1,700 times in postseason history when a team could’ve really used a triple play to escape a jam, only that 1920 Cleveland team pulled it off.

Blue Jays fans will disagree that this was the only instance, however.

All those interfering catchers

Catcher’s interference has made a big comeback in postseason play in the past 15 years. Consider: There were no instances of catcher’s interference in the playoffs or World Series from 1985 to 2008. But since 2009, there have been 14 occurrences, likely thanks to changing philosophies for how catchers set up and receive the ball.

This one isn’t odd so much as just good trivia. But it’s still a little odd. Because if asked to name the player with the highest average and on-base percentage in a single postseason series, chances are Lloyd McClendon wouldn’t be among your first 50 guesses.

McClendon was a career .244 hitter, but the Pirates’ utility man and future manager had a postseason for the ages in 1992. In the NLCS against the Braves, McClendon hit .727 with a .750 on-base percentage. Both marks are tops all time for a player with at least 16 plate appearances in a single postseason series. McClendon recorded eight hits across five games in the series, including a homer and two doubles, and walked four times.

The lonely World Series Birthday Home Run club

Of the 35 Modern Era players who’ve made at least one World Series plate appearances on their birthday, only one has hit a home run — and he did it twice in the same game.

That man was Royals first baseman Willie Aikens, who hit two long balls on his 26th birthday in Game 1 of the 1980 World Series against the Phillies. Those birthday dingers were just the beginning of a big Fall Classic for Aikens, who also hit two homers in Game 4 (with 80-grade swagger on the second one) and finished the series with a .400 average and a 1.638 OPS.

Overall in postseason history, four players have hit a homer on their birthday. The latest was Bryce Harper, who clubbed a solo shot on his 31st birthday in Game 1 of the 2023 NLCS.

Making the last out of the World Series twice

No player wants to make the last out of the World Series. Even if it comes free of pressure with the game well out of reach, the final out will be seen in highlights for decades to come, reminding everyone of your role in the ending.

The first series-ender came in 1907, when Schmidt’s Tigers played the Cubs. In the ninth inning with two outs and a runner on first, Schmidt — representing the tying run — popped out to shortstop to seal a 2-0 Cubs win that captured the title. The next season, as the Tigers battled the Cubs again, Schmidt ended the decisive Game 5 with another popup, this time to the catcher, as the Cubs repeated.

Schmidt and the Tigers again reached the World Series in 1909, but they lost to the Pirates. This time, though, there was no series-ending out for Schmidt. But there could’ve been: He was on deck when the series ended.

Team with most wins misses playoffs

The 1981 Reds aren’t noteworthy for anything they did in the postseason, but rather for something they didn’t do in the postseason. The thing they didn’t do? Play. As in, they missed the playoffs that year — even though they had the best record in baseball.

The ’81 players’ strike led to a unique season structure that consisted of two halves, with the first-place team in each half meeting in a Division Series to determine who would play in the LCS. But that created an unintended quirk: The Reds had MLB’s best record over the full season — and were the only team with a .600 or better winning percentage — but didn’t win their division in either half. So, Cincinnati had to watch the postseason from home, the only time in MLB history in which the team with the most wins missed the playoffs. But the Reds at least had like-minded company.

The Cardinals also had the best record in their division over the full season, but also didn’t win either half. So, in a season that was already unlike any other, not one but two of the NL’s best teams never even got into the dance.