Yeah, I’m still one of those. I get the newspaper delivered to my driveway each morning. Every good day starts that way. Sometime during my second cup of coffee, I make it to the Sports section, and in particular, page 4. You see, that’s where I find the NL and AL Standings, the pitching lineups for the day, and many of the box scores from the night before. It’s not a casual glance, mind you, but 15-20 minutes of poring through the material, thinking about the what ifs, and finding my favorite teams in the standings. After the first month of MLB play, it seems to me in many ways those standings are upside down.

One of the fun stories at my happy place, Wrigley Field, is the history of the team flags flying on what looks to be a ship’s mast on top of the manual scoreboard. Those flags, or pennants, are placed in order based on the current standings. Prior to 1962, when there were only 8 National League teams, the four teams on the left side were in the “first division” (first four places) and the four teams on the right side in the “second division”. Five flags on each side proudly flew when the NL expanded to ten teams in 1962. Then in 1969, division play began with six pennants on the left exhibiting the NL East standings, and six teams on the right, the NL West. Nowadays, with 15 teams in the league, there are five pennants on the left (NL West), five in the middle (NL Central), and five on the right (NL East), all trying to reach the top spots. This is how the term “pennant race” in baseball was coined.

With the Dodgers’ 15-4 start, it’s been no surprise which pennant has remained atop the left side for most of this season. It’s difficult to keep your pennant flying at the top for the entire season. Indeed, there have been only five teams in MLB history that have gone “wire to wire”. The first such team was the 1927 Yankees, widely considered the best team ever with their “Murderer’s Row” lineup and a roster that included nine future Hall of Famers, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig among them. The ’84 Tigers are on this list as well, along with the 1995 Brooklyn Dodgers, 1990 Reds, and 2005 White Sox. I know that much of baseball is hoping that the Padres continue their hot streak of the past two weeks and replace LA at the top of the NL West.

Does a hot start mean a stand-out season and a championship awaits in October? Sometimes, but certainly not always. Of the ten hottest starts in MLB history, two were by American League teams that set regular season win records, first by New York in 1998 with 114, and then topped by Seattle three years later with 116. The ’98 Yanks won the World Series, but the ’01 Mariners fell short. My favorite two hot starts had one thing in common. Both the 1970 Reds (starting 22-6 with a 70-30 record at the All-Star Break) and the 1984 Tigers (starting with a blistering 35-5 record) were managed by Sparky Anderson. While Detroit captured the crown in 1984, a very hot Orioles team dominated the Reds in the 1970 Series.

Positioning the pennants in the NL Central race so far this season is driving the Wrigley manual scoreboard operator crazy. All five teams have been over .500 for much of the season and essentially switching spots at the top (and bottom) of the standings daily. Before the season, most experts predicted the Cubs to win the division, but the Pirates and Reds were given some of the ink as well. One should never count out the Brewers. All four teams show much promise. And what about the Cardinals?! My St. Louis blog followers are basking in their early season surprise. No division race has ever ended in MLB history with all five teams above .500. Maybe this is the year!

The NL East? Clearly upside down. In March the question baseball analysts discussed was whether the Phillies or the Mets would win the division. Now the discussion turns to which team will finish in last place. New York, with baseball’s highest payroll at $364 million this season, just came off of a 12-game losing streak and Philadelphia almost matched it with ten straight. The Mets have clearly missed Juan Soto who just returned this past week, while the Phillies’ pitching staff has been decimated by injuries. At the top of the division with the only winning record sits Atlanta whose winning ways have featured clutch hitting, team defense and speed, and a solid bullpen. Their flag is faltering a little this week with the news that their closer, Raisel Iglesias, was placed on the Injured List.

Moving to the American League, it’s topsy turvy as well. How many of you would have thought that four weeks into the season the teams in last place in the division races would be Boston (AL East), Kansas City (AL Central), and Houston (AL West)? There is only one team in the American League that appears to be separating themselves from the others, and of course it’s the Yankees. The Pinstripers have the league’s best record, eight games over .500 at 18-10.

I heard a commentator say recently that you can’t win a division during the first month, but you certainly can lose one. In my mind, the outcome of each game, whether in April or September, has the same impact on the standings. It’s a long 162, and may the best pennants rise to the top.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach