October 19, 2012

If the Cardinals and Tigers play for the World Series, it will be the lowest combined win total (176) in a World Series (non-strike year) since 1973 (A's vs Mets, 176 wins).

If they meet, it guarantees the fourth lowest win total (non-strike year) for a World Series champion (Cardinals in 2006 had 83 wins, Twins in 1987 had 85 wins, Yankees in 2000 had 87 wins) since they began playing 162 games in a season (1961).

posted by grum@work at 04:23 PM on October 19, 2012

I hope this hasn't been posted already, but high school lad kicks 67 yard field goal to tie game.

posted by Joey Michaels at 05:54 PM on October 19, 2012

Wow- although to be fair, I bet most NFL kickers could do that kick some reasonable percentage of the time... but what coach would allow a kicker to even attempt a 60+ yard field goal without really unusual circumstances- such as time expiring at the end of a half on fourth down while in your own territory but near the 50-yard line?

There have been twelve 60+ yard field goals in NFL history, and the longest ever attempt was 76 yards (Janikowski, the guy who did that, apparently hit an 82-yarder in high school practice). I don't know how many 60+ yard field goals have been attempted, but it's probably not that much higher.

I'm curious how accurate a field goal kicker would have to be from that distance to start making it more attractive than punting: if a kicker was say 75% accurate at 70 yards or less, and the opposing team was very likely to get a TD on the turnover, then he'd score 9 points for every 7 given up. But a team wouldn't necessarily even have 4 punts a game from within their own 45; taking a quick look at the punt stats for 2012, it looks like most punts are coming from well beyond that range, and a team is getting maybe two punts a game from within their own 43 (i.e., a 70 yard FG). So even if our Orin Incandenza-esque super-punter is hitting 90% or more on two attempts a game, and they're ceding a TD out of it... that's a net loss.

Unless... our kicker is so insanely good that he's 75% at say 70 yards or less, and the team has him try for the FG when it's 3rd and long, and failing that has him punt as before (unless the rule is that if a team attempts at FG on 3rd down and misses, possession switches anyway).

posted by hincandenza at 08:17 PM on October 19, 2012

In the Dolphins-Rams game this year the Rams let time wind down and then called a timeout at the end of the second half to try a 66 yard field goal to tie the game. "Legatron" had the distance - it probably would have been good from about 70 - but missed wide left.

Unfortunately it was the Rams/Phins, so no one saw it.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:45 PM on October 19, 2012

I don't know what to think about uber kicks made in a climate controlled indoor environment. Whether they should be asterisk material or not.

The thing that captivated me about Dempsey's record kick (which I saw replays of the same day he kicked it) is that it happened in the thick swampy air virtually below sea level at old Tulane Stadium. Where airborne footballs go to die.

If he had struck that kick on a clear day in Denver, it might have traveled all the way to Fort Collins.

posted by beaverboard at 11:53 PM on October 19, 2012