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Behind the Numbers
By Jason Beck
Traveling manOh, the places Mike Morgan has been, the faces he has seen. The parks in which he has pitched.
But the most obscure, and perhaps the most amazing, statistic of Morgan's mobile career is the number of stadiums in which he has played. By the time he finishes the 1999 season, assuming of course he stays healthy and stays in Texas, he could be on the verge of pitching in 40 major-league ballparks. Morgan is so old (drumroll, please) that he pitched at Metropolitan Stadium. That's the old outdoor stadium in which the Twins played before the Metrodome opened in 1983. He pitched in Toronto's Exhibition Stadium before SkyDome opened. He weathered the era of the cookie-cutter park and is entering the new explosion of stadium construction. The Morgan stadium count stands at 35 after he made his SkyDome debut last month. He'll likely add Tropicana Field when the Rangers visit the Devil Rays in two weeks, and should finally pitch in Jacobs Field during a four-game series in August. Interleague play will bring him to Arizona's Bank One Ballpark for the first time at the beginning of June. Assuming Morgan pitches in each of those series, he'll raise his total to 38 by season's end. Unless the Mariners and Rangers meet in a playoff, or he's traded, he won't get a chance to pitch this year at the Mariners' new Safeco Field, scheduled to open in July after the Rangers finish their series in Seattle. Though records on ballparks played in isn't published, Morgan's mark leads active pitchers. Orioles reliever Jesse Orosco has pitched in 33 stadiums. Morgan's counterpart among active hitters is Rickey Henderson, who entered the majors in 1979, a year after Morgan. Henderson also has appeared in 35 big-league ballparks. Even if Morgan doesn't appear in Seattle's new stadium, he can still claim a record with his victory in the Kingdome April 18. It came 19 years, 8 months and 9 days after his last win against the Mariners, the longest time between victories for a pitcher against a team. Cal McLish went 18 years and nearly 2 full months (1944-1962) between victories over Pittsburgh. Morgan could complete another major-league mark this year. He has beaten 27 of 30 big-league teams, the exceptions being Arizona, Boston and Tampa Bay. Al Leiter holds the record at 29 followed by Orel Hershiser, Ken Hill and Kevin Tapani at 28. Go-for-2 GuyBrewers catcher Dave Nilsson had a six-game streak of multiple-hit games broken Tuesday when he went 0-for-2 against the Mets. Surprisingly, it's not that rare of a feat. While records for multi-hit games are not available, the Elias Sports Bureau lists three players who had longer multi-hit game streaks in 1998. Hal Morris had an eight-game streak last April. Paul Molitor and Juan Gonzalez tallied seven-game stretches in May and September, respectively. Don't let the number of accomplished players fool you, however. Multi-hit stretches are far from an easy task. Joe DiMaggio only had three straight multi-hit games during his record 56-game hitting streak. Luis Gonzalez has only managed two consecutive multi-hit outings during his 30-game stretch through Wednesday. Nilsson's streak ties him for the longest this year. Jose Offerman also had six consecutive multi-hit games last month. Even more numbers6 -- Record for consecutive games with three or more hits, set by George Brett in May, 1976. 7 -- Consecutive starts for Pedro Martinez in which he has posted 10 or more strikeouts, the first player to do so since Nolan Ryan in 1977. 3.94 -- League-leading earned-run average for Houston Astros starting pitchers. 106 -- Games that Cubs reliever Terry Mulholland has pitched since last surrendering a stolen base on June 24, 1997, when then-Cardinal Royce Clayton swiped second.
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