To say the Houston Astros are disliked would be an understatement. “Loathed” seems closer to the mark. Nearly two years after Houston’s cheating scandal shook the sport, most baseball fans still aren’t over it — particularly since their ability to yell at the team in person was put on hold by COVID-19 last year. While […]
The impending return of baseball has fans everywhere excited, but it has also set off a series of more specific, if still tentative, celebrations. Yankees fans hope to get their first look at Gerrit Cole, Angels fans at Anthony Rendon and Joe Maddon, everyone else at the sight of the Astros facing opposing pitchers (if […]
The only time a baseball team based in Washington, D.C. won the World Series, the great Senators pitcher Walter Johnson was on the mound. Johnson — who would go on to be part of the first Hall of Fame class — was still effective at age 36, winning 23 games in 1924, and would be […]
Just over a month ago, the Houston Astros pulled off the biggest move of the season: In a deal reported minutes after the trade deadline had passed, the Astros acquired Cy Young winner Zack Greinke from the Diamondbacks to form baseball’s best rotation alongside Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole, the two likeliest Cy Young candidates. […]
Welcome to Full Count, our weekly baseball column. Have anything you want me to write about? Email or tweet me at neil.paine@fivethirtyeight.com or @Neil_Paine. The last time the Arizona Diamondbacks won this many games this early in a season, the team was in the midst of defending a world championship, powered by a group of […]