[rockford]

As we’re getting closer to narrowing it down to the 48 Greatest Teams of All Time, the bias favoring teams from the Dead Ball and World War II eras appears to be much more pronounced.


Consider: We’re two-thirds of the way through the Quarterfinals, and five of the top six teams by winning percentage are from those two relatively short, distinct eras.


1. .594 1910 Cubs
2. .574 1902 Pirates
3. .565 1909 Pirates
4. .563 1943 Cardinals
5. .557 2017 Nationals
6. .547 1942 Cardinals
7. .544 1932 Yankees
8. .540 1954 Yankees
9. .537 1937 Yankees
10. .536 1910 A’s


That dominance extends to eight of the top 14, and half of the top 18.


Chronologically, these two eras account for about 21% of baseball history (starting in 1901) – yet they’re providing most of the top contenders for GTOAT. And absolutely no one is arguing that ballplayers from the Dead Ball or WWII eras were superior to those from other times.

For comparison, these eras accounted for about 25 of the teams in the Quarters, close to the expected percentage.

So … we’re going to proceed and see how this all plays out, and adjust in future tourneys. But at this point, I suspect it may be necessary to ban these eras from GTOAT play, which would be a shame. A better option may be to have separate tournaments for these eras, and only allow a limited few into the overall GTOAT tourney, and perhaps only with statistical adjustment.


Anyway, just wanted to point out this development. I’m open to ideas. As the tournament progresses, we’ll start to drill down a bit more into the statistics, and see what that suggests.