Two Little Missing Home Runs
OK, so this is a story about two little home runs that went missing somewhere along the long line of box scores that, well, let's just say, aren't always perfect. Bear with me. This story takes a bit of a winding course. To set the stage: my work concerns the old American Association (1902-1962). A year ago I started developing a database for the home runs of each team for their single-season franchise maximum number. So for example, Milwaukee hit 163 homers in 1936, the most they ever hit in their 50-year history. The story of Milwaukee's 1936 season appeared in the spring edition of my publication, the American Association Almanac. The problem with such a database is its accuracy, esp. with regard to completeness. In the case of my St. Paul database for the Saints, the team total for their franchise-high season was 173, but I came up with 171. I isolated the player home runs and compared each total with what was officially recorded on baseball-referenc...