Why aren’t player postseason statistics counted in career totals?
It’s not as if the idea of MLB postseason stats not being included in a player’s career totals hasn’t crossed my mind more than once. Yet somehow, I always dismissed it as things just being the way they are. But recently when reading about Giancarlo Stanton’s most excellent post-season for the Yankees, Stanton was mentioned as being a shoo-in for induction into Cooperstown if he were to amass 500 career home runs. The lack of association with PEDs being a primary reason.
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I am not here to debate Stanton’s future HOF candidacy. I am here to note that Stanton has 429 career MLB home runs. Except that he doesn’t. Going into this year’s World Series Stanton has 16 career post-season home runs making his actual MLB total 445.
Adding postseason stats to career stats would make oft-recalled numbers, different
Barry Bonds hit only nine measly postseason homers raising his total from 762 career home runs to 771. Hank Aaron, the former all-time home run leader with 755 hit even fewer postseason home runs than Bonds, parking only six for a career total of 761. Babe Ruth, whose 714 career home runs stood a long test of time, hit 15 post-season round trippers for a career total of 729. 714 is way cooler than 729 probably because that number has been in mind for my entire life.
The reasoning behind the idea of not including post-season stats in career totals is, in a word, dumb. I don’t really know where it came from. Was it an effort led by pitchers? Or was it hitters? Since post-season games are Major League games, who is being protected by not including post-season stats in career totals? Players that did not have the good fortune to play in the post-season would appear to be a disenfranchised group!
Two-time MVP Dale Murphy had 398 career homers and is often discussed as a should-have-been HOFer. Had Murphy hit just two more homers, 400 might have been his lucky number to gain a plaque in Cooperstown. Alas, Murph played in just three post-season games in 1982 carding three hits, but none went out of the park.
Not including post-season stats is not unique to baseball
When it comes to the other major professional sports, baseball is not alone in treating post-season stats at an arm’s length. The NFL, NBA, and NHL all don’t include post-season stats in career totals.
It’s fine with me that team stats for an individual season do not include post-season stats. It’s more fun to compare those regular season apples to each other since all teams play the same number of games. But making believe that post-season stats are meaningless just toasts my bagels.
Things get interesting when looking at ‘Almost’ HOF players as my son and I like to do on our podcast. Take for example the late, great Roberto Clemente who totaled exactly 3,000 career hits before his tragic passing on New Year’s Eve in 1972. Clemente was a surefire Hall-of-Famer even if he had 2,999 career hits! Yet Clemente had 34 post-season hits (hitting .318 — one point higher than his career average of .317), for a real-career total of 3,034. That’s harder to remember than 3,000 but it’s a more accurate representation of what really happened.
Baseball is the stat-iest of all the professional sports. Fans know career total numbers. 511 wins for Cy Young (nope 513). 652 career saves for Mariano Rivera (nope 694) — well Yankee fans know that at least. When you include Ty Cobb’s 17–65 in his World Series totals for the Tigers, his batting average goes… nowhere — .3655 which rounds to his career batting average of .366.
Playoff baseball pits the best teams and players versus each other. Compared to the regular season it would seem to be more difficult to succeed playing against the best. That goes for both sides, however. Some of the greatest players to have ever played baseball never reached the playoffs. 14 players are in the HOF who never had the opportunity to play in the World Series.
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HOF players that never appeared in the post-season:
Yes they are all old-timey players. They played long before divisional play. The list above was created in 2003 and should now include Chicago Cubs star Ron Santo who was elected to Cooperstown in 2012, sadly posthumously, as he passed away in 2010. Their lack of post-season stats counting did not inhibit his ultimate election. Others were not so lucky.
Recent Yankees with big post-season success
One last thing, because the post-season can be three times as long as when it was only the World Series (max 22 games today versus max seven games before 1969), post-season stats are more meaningful. Bernie Williams a career Yankee who is another ‘Almost’ guy had a long and splendid postseason career hitting 22 home runs (which would bring his career total to 309) and put up a postseason career OPS of .850 — in 121 career post-season games. Bernie would benefit more than most with a second look if you include his post-season stats in his career stats. Andy Pettitte might say — “hold my beer” as his career bWAR currently at 60.2 would get a big boost from 44 career playoff starts in which he went 19–11 with 276.2 innings pitched. Pettitte’s career post-season WHIP (1.31) is better than his career WHIP (1.35). I’ve not been a huge supporter of Pettitte for the HOF but adding his post-season stats would make it harder to deny. He pitched better against the best players in the biggest moments. That should count. But it doesn’t somehow, and I just don’t get it. Do you?
About the Author: Mark Kolier along with his son Gordon co-hosts a baseball podcast called ‘Almost Cooperstown’. He also has written baseball-related articles that can be accessed on Medium.com and Substack.com.
