Althouse: " I Made a Network of Every Home Run in MLB History."

April 10, 2026

" I Made a Network of Every Home Run in MLB History."

30 comments:

Leland said...: Interesting, although I question the Jose Altuve 5'6" stat.; 4/10/26, 8:11 AM
Lazarus said...: Seems like a pointless activity, but baseball is full of pointless statistic mongering. Wouldn't there be a lot more than one, two or three connecting links coming from each player's dot? It does remind me of those congressional voting charts that show the two parties as blobs growing ever further apart.; 4/10/26, 8:12 AM
Aggie said...: Well done, that looks like it was a lot of fun. There's something quite fulfilling, seeing people being passionate about their subject to the point that this guy loves baseball stats and all their connections.; 4/10/26, 8:21 AM
Known Unknown said...: This video is an amazing example of how to present data interestingly. That first tease of turning of the "tv" when the swing is about to happens made me want to watch more to see what was so vital about that particular matchup of players.; 4/10/26, 8:34 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Wouldn't there be a lot more than one, two or three connecting links coming from each player's dot?"

Well, did you know that 67% of MLB players have had no home runs at all?

If we just take the set of the 33% of players who've had at least one home run in an MLB game, what percent of them have had ONLY one or ONLY 2? Relying on Grok, I'm seeing 12% have had only one and 9 to 12% have had only 2. So that's 24% of the "dots" on the graphic are players who've had only one home run. But the graph also has dots that are pitchers. Those who've never given up a HR aren't in the graph. But there are hundreds who've given up only 1 or only 2.; 4/10/26, 8:41 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "So that's 24% of the "dots" on the graphic are players who've had only one home run."

I mean 24% of the dots that represent batters. There are also many dots that are pitchers.; 4/10/26, 8:43 AM
Leland said...: Nolan Ryan has only 2 HRs. I wonder how many MLB pitchers have only 1.; 4/10/26, 8:46 AM
Ambrose said...: Very cool.; 4/10/26, 8:55 AM
Aggie said...: Did anybody notice that the data is graphed to resemble a baseball? (I didn't).; 4/10/26, 9:05 AM
BarrySanders20 said...: Impressive data nerd. Pronounces Al Kaline as "alkaleen".; 4/10/26, 9:20 AM
Wince said...: My sex therapist told me to think about baseball, which clearly this guy has thought a lot about. But does that help when the resulting graphic reminds you of a cosmological-scale pussy?; 4/10/26, 9:26 AM
Curious George said...: "Leland said...
Nolan Ryan has only 2 HRs. I wonder how many MLB pitchers have only 1."

Don't know but Bartolo Colón was one of them. Took him about ten minutes to round the bases.; 4/10/26, 9:29 AM
baghdadbob said...: This graph will break down as a vanishingly fewer number of pitchers hit HRs (because they no longer bat). It will rely on Ontani and a handful of position players who mop-up on the mound in blowouts.; 4/10/26, 9:33 AM
baghdadbob said...: Ohtani. Typo.; 4/10/26, 9:44 AM
Wilbur said...: Interesting. Many fans don't realize something pointed out in the video, that for decades the two Leagues were separate entities and there were relatively few players who jumped from one league to another and few trades made by teams between the two leagues.

Baseball-Reference.com used to have a search tool where you could connect any two players in MLB history by teammates each had played with. E.g., you could link Babe Ruth and Henry Aaron by one of Ruth's teammates who played with a guy, who played with another guy who played with Aaron at the start of his career. I can't remember the name of the search tool (it was an unusual name), and I don't see it on their website now on their Frivolities page.; 4/10/26, 9:49 AM
Aggie said...: "...But does that help when the resulting graphic reminds you of a cosmological-scale pussy?..."

It might, if the whole point of the game is about hitting balls as hard as you can with a large wooden stick.; 4/10/26, 9:50 AM
Hassayamper said...: Well, did you know that 67% of MLB players have had no home runs at all?

Most pitchers never connected for a homer even in the days before the DH. This percentage will increase further with the introduction of the DH to the National League.

What I find more counter-intuitive is that more than half of position players never hit a dinger. This is in large part a relic of the dead-ball era, which also featured larger ballparks and no ban on spitballs and other trick pitches and ball-doctoring.

It is also attributable to a long tail of nobodies with very short careers. We tend not to remember the many thousands of "cup of coffee" players called up from the minors in September who saw only one month or one week or one game or even one plate appearance, as well as the rarely played pinch-runners, utility/defensive specialists, and recent debuts with just a handful of PA's. Fewer than 1% of position players who have been to the plate 1000+ times have no HR's.

But even among position players who stick around for multiple seasons, there are a few very light hitters who never tally a homer. Since the dead ball era, the record is held by one Tom Oliver, who played four seasons for the Red Sox, coming to the plate 2073 times in 514 games but never leaving the yard.; 4/10/26, 9:54 AM
MadisonMan said...: Really, really interesting. I was waiting for an explanation of why the data plot took the shape that it did.; 4/10/26, 9:57 AM
Quaestor said...: The graph lacks completeness. Not all home runs are "over the fence" cannonballs that simply connect a batter to a pitcher. Sometimes runs result from less than perfect fielding, errors, other defensive misplays, or umpirical blindness.; 4/10/26, 9:59 AM
Curious George said...: "Quaestor said...
The graph lacks completeness. Not all home runs are "over the fence" cannonballs that simply connect a batter to a pitcher. Sometimes runs result from less than perfect fielding, errors, other defensive misplays, or umpirical blindness."

Not exactly sure what you're getting at. Sure, there are inside the park homers every than perfect fielding. Outfielders will take risky actions on the ball that allow it to get past them. No errors but dumb angles and dives.; 4/10/26, 10:36 AM
Josephbleau said...: About the only thing I see in this is that all the bad pitchers have many connections. And you can’t judge the significance of a connection without knowing every organizational detail about baseball since 1901. The way to get long chain connections is where pitchers hit home runs off of other pitchers.; 4/10/26, 11:13 AM
Yancey Ward said...: "This graph will break down as a vanishingly fewer number of pitchers hit HRs"

Will it? Sure, there will be fewer connections between pitchers but the vast majority of connections will remain.; 4/10/26, 11:15 AM
Levi Starks said...: That was the best thing I’ll have watched in a long time long time. Thanks; 4/10/26, 11:25 AM
Temujin said...: Thank you, BarrySanders20 for noticing "alkaleen". It told me the creator of this is not so much a baseball fan, as a data collecting, graph making fan (or is that phan?). Very neat video, though I found it tough to stay for the entire thing.; 4/10/26, 12:06 PM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: Over the fence, you're out!; 4/10/26, 1:02 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: I dont understand the graph. Why are Mays and Leonard so prominent?; 4/10/26, 2:07 PM
PerthJim said...: One thing I would have liked to see is the impact of the introduction of the designated hitter. How much did this the number of home runs hit? You would think it would have increased the number of homers, given many of the DH players are long ball hitters that may not be playing without the DH. Yordan Alvarez is a current example.; 4/10/26, 2:14 PM
James K said...: Impressive data nerd. Pronounces Al Kaline as "alkaleen".
I've encountered that sort of mispronunciation a lot on YouTube videos, and the suspicion is that they are AI-generated.; 4/10/26, 2:18 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: Any discussion of Barry Bonds has to take into a account he was using performance enhancing drugs. And is disqualified. Of course babe ruth took performance enhancing drugs too: Beer and Hot dogs.; 4/10/26, 6:42 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: I used to think Babe Ruth's ability to be an elite hitter and pitcher was due to the primitive nature of Baseball back in the 20s. But Shohei Ohtani proved me wrong.

He's an unique unicorn player - just like the Babe.; 4/10/26, 6:45 PM