Recently a friend of mine, a Chicago White Sox fan, offered me a challenge when he was bragging about his team's ability to finish in second place.
The challenge was to name one better second place team than the Sox (White and Red) in the past 10 years.
Well, let's give it a shot...
Am I looking for a team better than the Red Sox? Because certainly in the past 10 years the Boston Red Sox are better when finishing in second place than the White Sox.
In the past 10 years both the Red Sox and the White Sox have finished second in their respective divisions six times.
Of those six second place finishes the Red Sox have a combined record of 541-430 for a .557 winning percentage. The Red Sox also won the wild card three times in those six second place finishes.
In their six second place finishes the White Sox have a combined record of 487-483 for a winning percentage of .502. They have never won a wild card.
That means the Red Sox and their six second place finishes in the last 10 years won 54 more games than the White Sox won in theirs.
So, I suppose, the actual challenge is to find a team better in finishing second than the Red Sox.
The next best American League team at finishing second in the last 10 yrs is the Los Angeles Angels. They have finished second four times in the last 10 years, once making the playoffs by winning the American League wild card in 2002, when they won the World Series. So, no, the Angels have not been mighty enough to finish second six times, but they did win a championship - certainly that must count for something.
The Florida Marlins have finished second in their division just twice in the last 10 years. Both times resulted in the Marlins winning the National League wild card and a World Series championship. So, the Marlins are also not mighty enough to have finished second in their division six times in the last decade but they do have two titles.
The Giants have finished second five times in the last 10 years, once winning the NL wild card. Their record in those five seasons (one of which was the strike-shortened 1994 season) was 414-349, a .543 winning percentage. Although the San Francisco Giants only made the playoffs once in those five years, they did manage to make an appearance in the World Series that year, 2002.
The New York Mets have finished in second place four times in the last 10 seasons, twice making the playoffs and appearing once in the World Series in 2000.
The Astros have finished second five times in the past 10 years and did not appear in the playoffs in any of those years.
The New York Yankees have finished second only twice in the last 10 yrs, but both times they won the wild card and appeared in the playoffs.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have finished second four times in the past decade, two less times than the White Sox, but they did make the playoffs once.
Seattle and Oakland have both finished second three times in the last 10 years and both teams have won the wild card once.
The Baltimore Orioles have even won the wild card once in the last 10 years. They finished second twice.
All told 13 different teams have appeared in the playoffs via the wildcard in the past 10 seasons. (There were no wildcard teams in 1994 as there were no playoffs in 1994). Of those 13 teams two have won the world series, one of those teams twice.
The challenge itself is ambiguous...
"I challenge you to name one better second place team than the Sox (White and Red) in the past 10 years."
Not sure exactly what 'better' means, but I'll bet if you ask Florida fans they wouldn't trade their two championships for finishing second six times and not appearing in the playoffs at all.
I would also guess that Giants fans would rather finish second five times and make it to the World Series once than finish second six times and see no post-season action. Also it seems that their winning percentage in years that they finished second is .041 higher than the White Sox during their second-place runs. In other words, I doubt that they would prefer finishing second once more in the past decade, having to sacrifice a World Series birth and losing more often during the regular season.
My opinion is that the Red Sox are probably the best second place team in the past 10 years, but don't tell that to Marlin fans or Angel fans. Actually you'd probably be better off not telling it to Giant fans or White Sox fans either.
Another interesting side to this coin is the fact that many teams may have been better second place teams than the Red Sox but just weren't eligible due to the fact that they were too busy finishing first.
In the past 10 years the Atlanta Braves finished first in their division nine times...thereby making them ineligible for the distinct honor of being the best second place team. The one year they did not finish first was 1994; at the time of the strike Atlanta was in second place, six games back of the first-place Expos.
In the past 10 years the New York Yankees finished first in their division eight times. The other two years they finished second and won the wild card. They would have been an incredible second place team had they not been too good to qualify.
In the past 10 years the Cleveland Indians finished first in their division six times and two other times they finished second. The Indians also might have made an excellent second place team had they not been too busy winning the division.
Both the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers also did not qualify for the coveted best second place team award four times each in the past decade as they won their respective divisions.
Same goes for San Francisco, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Oakland Athletics and the Seattle Mariners, who all won their divisions three times each in the last 10 years.
Even the Cincinnati Reds, the Minnesota Twins and the Dodgers have two division titles each in the last decade.
But I guess winning the division has nothing to do with finishing second.
Not sure if I met the challenge or not.
"I challenge you to name one better second place team than the Sox (White and Red) in the past 10 years."
I find it amazing that I did all that research, came up with all those points and it is still possible that the White Sox might be the second-best second place team in the last decade.
» Henry Scott lives in Glendale.
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Posted September 14, 2005.
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