Fun Fact Friday

Welcome to Fun Fact Friday. The FFF image is a comparison of the last 2 Red Sox records in years they won the World Series to now. As you can see, they are 2 wins better than their '07 squad, but only 2 games up on NY instead of 7.5. This can be attributed to just how elite the AL East is now, especially compared to divisions like the NL and AL Central ones.

Did you know?

• In 2010, former Red Sox first-round pick Matt Murton set the single season record for most hits in Japan's Nipon Professional Baseball League with 214. Murton, who plays in the outfield, was drafted by the Sox in 2003, and played in 155 games for Lowell and Sarasota. He was then included in the trade that sent Nomar to the Cubs and brought Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz to the Sox, helping lead them to their first World Series victory in 86 years. Murton played in 346 games with the Cubs, A's, and Rockies from 2005-2009, hitting .286 with 29 HR and 112 RBI. His 214 hits in 2010 broke Ichiro Suzuki's record of 210, set in 1994, six years before he would come to the US and play for the Mariners.
• Carl Crawford is the MLB's active leader in career triples, with 109. The all-time career record is 309, held by Sam Crawford, who played from 1899 to 1917 with Cincinnati and Detroit. The record will likely never be broken, as Curtis Granderson, Jimmy Rollins, and Christian Guzman are the only players to hit 20 or more triples in a season in the last 15 years.
• Since 2000, Cincinnati Bengals have had 35 arrests, leading the NFL with 2 more than the Minnesota Vikings. In the same time frame, Detroit and St. Louis are at the bottom of the league, with seven arrests each. Click here to see the list of Bengals arrested in the last 11 seasons. It includes all but the three most recent arrests of Adam Jones, Cedric Benson, and Marvin White.
• Recently retired Mark Recchi of the Boston Bruins is the second to last player who appeared in the NHL in the 1980's to retire. Mike Modano of the Red Wings is the only remaining player. Recchi, who scored his first NHL goal 4 YEARS before Tyler Seguin was born, began his career when the NHL had just 21 teams. Four of those teams have since moved or folded, and nine others have been added. Recchi became the oldest player to score a goal in the Stanley Cup Finals this year, at 43 years and 126 days old.
• Mark Reynolds of the Baltimore Orioles in on pace to have his first season since 2007 of NOT ECLIPSING 200 strikeouts at the plate. In 2008, Reynolds set the MLB single-season record with 204, only to break it again in 2009 with 223. In 2010, he rebounded with 211, which is still second all-time. He is the only player to ever strike out 200 times in a season, and he done it three times! The past seven years have had it's fair share of strikeouts, as the top 9 single-season strikeout totals have all occurred in the past seven seasons, by Reynolds, Ryan Howard, Adam Dunn, and Jack Cust.
• The 2010 NFL leading rusher was Houston's Arian Foster, who was an undrafted free agent out of Tennessee in 2009. Jamaal Charles of the Chiefs was the second leading rusher, and he was a 2008 third-round pick out of Texas. Third was Michael Turner of Atlanta, who was San Diego's fifth-round pick out of Northern Illinois in 2004. See the trend here? In fact, of the top-ten running backs in 2010, only four were first round picks. Compare this to the top-ten QB's, in which six were first rounders.
• Breakout running back Peyton Hillis of the Browns rushed for 1177 yards in 2010. It was the first time since 1984 that a white running back eclipsed the 1000 yard mark in a season. The last non-Patriot was John Riggins of the Redskins, who ran for 1239 yards and 14 touchdowns at age 35.
• Felix Hernandez pitches against the Sox at Fenway tonight, and he was also on the mound the last time Seattle won a game, which was July 5th. They are riding a 12-game losing streak and challenging the likes of Baltimore and Oakland for the worst record in the AL. Of the players in the Sox lineup, JD Drew actually has the best career numbers against Hernandez, as he has batted .360 (9 for 25) with 2 HR's against him. The last time Felix faced the Sox, he pitched 7 innings, giving up 6 hits and 2 runs, but Carl Crawford hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth to give the Sox a 3-2 victory. The Mariners are 5-3 against the Sox in King Felix's starts in the past five seasons.