I’m finished updating the all-time records for the Illowa APBA League through the 2009 season. It’s a fun process and I’d thought I’d share some notes.
Hitting
By virtue of being the career leader in at-bats (by some 1000 ab), Cal Ripken finds himself on a lot of all time career lists. The Iron Man is on the top ten in years played, at-bats, hits, rbis, doubles, and homeruns. He does NOT lead in years played. Harold Baines has that honor.
The two categories of triples and stolen bases is where we get to see a different type player from elsewhere on the record lists. Kenny Lofton and Tim Raines are kings there. They are 1-2 in those categories with Lofton leading in triples and Raines leading in stolen bases.
If there is one category that is dominated by one player it is single season at-bats. Ichiro Suzuki shows up seven times in that top ten list.
New entries (2009) in the single season top ten lists are:
| Ichiro Suzuki | AB | 7th | 672 |
| Prince Fielder | HBP | 1st | 30 |
| Ryan Howard | Strikeouts | 7th | 176 |
Here are the links to the all-time hitting records:
| Career Hitting Records |
Pitching
Tedd was the one who pushed me to update the all-time records. After doing them, I can see why. Greg Maddux is all over the career and single season pages. He and Roger Clemens were battling it out for years for some key categories but after the Rocket retired, Maddux squeezed in a few more innings.
Maddux’ legacy is quite amazing. He leads all pitchers in games started, complete games, innings pitched, and wins (40 wins over Clemens now). The most dramatic record for Bat Boy is shutouts. His 63 career shutouts is 24 more than #2 Steve Carlton.
Alas, he will never catch Roger Clemens in strikeouts. I don’t think anyone ever will. The Rocket has 4449 over his IAL career which is almost 500 more than Maddux.
Other frequent names popping up on the career list are Steve Carlton, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Orel Hershiser, Mike Mussina and Kevin Brown.
Roy Oswalt has unique distinction of being the only pitcher from this century with a career ERA low enough to make the top ten list. Embedded among pitchers from the 80s and 90s, his 3.50 sneaks in at a formidable 4th all-time.
Looking at the single season pitching records is always fun. Did Dick Drago really pitch 104 games in 1982? How did Andy Messersmith win 27 games in 1976? For that matter, Luis Leal had 46 starts in 1984… what a workhorse!
New entries as of 2009 in the single season pitching records are:
| Livan Hernandez | Innings Pitched | 1st | 354 1/3 |
| C.C. Sabathia | Shutouts | 5th (t) | 7 |
| Boof Bonser | Games | 10th | 86 |
Here are the links to the all-time pitching leaderboards:
| Career Pitching Records |
Who’s the worst?
Every time I do all-time leaders, I like to do some all-time “worst” lists too. It’s a morbid curiosity I have but it’s fun.
Two Olivers ended up with all-time highest ERA. Oliver Perez with highest ERA for a season (9.09) and Darren Oliver for worst ERA for a career (5.98).
You’ll see some IAL greats on the All-time Worst page and that shouldn’t be a surprise. Mark McGwire hit .174 in 1990 and that’s good for third all time. For that matter, another HOFer Joe Carter, comes in at fifth with a .183 average in 1994.
I did some interesting calculations like lowest runs (and rbis) for a full season. You definitely do not see any slackers on those list. Those are mostly due to lineup placing more than anything… but it’s still interesting.
Let me say that although I call it my all-time “worst” lists, any player that makes it to IAL has to be pretty good, even Alfredo Griffin.
Loners
Something I found interesting… we have a few players who are all alone in their category:
| Cal Ripken | only player with over 10,000 ab |
| Nomar Garciaparra | only player to hit over .400 in a season |
| Albert Pujols | only player to slug over .600 in their career |
| Frank Thomas | only player to have an OBP of .500 in a season |
| Wade Boggs | only player to have a career OBP over .400 |
Finally, a non-stat record. Actually, let’s make it a trivia question. Which player in Illowa history has the longest name (both names)? Who has the shortest name?
Hint: there are two with the shortest name and they all three played for the same manager at one point in their IAL careers (not at the same, though).
First person to comment or email the answer gets a free drink of their choice from me at the draft weekend.