With Game 162 in the rearview mirror, here's some historic stuff we guarantee Doris Kearns Goodwin will never unearth:
• Even after Game 163,
Joe Mauer is going to wind up leading the American League in batting average at home (.386)
and on the road (.345). Last player to lead the AL in both departments, according to ESPN research gurus Jeremy Lundblad and Ryan McCrystal: Pre-Metrodome Twins hit man Rod Carew in 1977 (.374 road, .401 home).
Mauer
• But Mauer's place in AL history will still hang on what he does in Game 163. Until this weekend, his batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and home run totals would have placed him in a group with only Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Earl Averill in the history of the AL. But now Mauer's average has dipped to "only" .364. So Mickey Mantle has now joined this group, with his storied 1957 season, because he batted .365 that year. So has Jimmie Foxx, who hit .364 in his stupendous 58-homer season in 1932. Should Mauer's average fall as low as .361 after Tuesday, Norm Cash (.361 in 1961) would also sneak in here with all those Hall of Famers.
• One more note on Game 163: If Tuesday is the last regular-season game ever played in the Metrodome, it would be the first time in history that any stadium's final game was one of those tiebreaker playoff games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
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Jayson Stark
