Ok, all the characters in the movie talk about how washed up Kevin Coster's character is. They even go as far to call him a "bum" at what not. You get the idea.
When he is warming up, it shows his season stats. He has a 3.55 ERA, which, as of 7/28/09 would be the 11th best ERA in the American Leauge. Hardly a bum. There wasn't one sports geek on the crew that couldnt tell them to bump that number up a little bit? Come on...
Totally agree on the ERA, but I thought the rest of his stats were realistic for a pitcher with his record.
Also, one of the last Yankees to bat had a .373 average, which is fairly remarkable. I'm surprised there were no baseball fans on the set that didn't question some of those things.
lol, yeah and i think the .373 was on their big power hitter as well. Better than Ichiro :)
shareThat batting average is almost Ted Williams high.
"Alexei... YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! HISTORY!" - Hawk's call of Buehrle's perfect game.
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The batting average was realistic as they actually used real stats of the yankee players for that seasons. The guy with the .373 average wasn't a normal starter. If you actually look at the stats for the yankees season in 1998 in which this movie is portrayed you would see that Shane Spencer was hitting .373 with 10 hr's on the season. All of the stats, for the yankees were actually accurately portrayed in the movie. All of the players names were just changed.
shareThe guy with the .373 average only had something like 10 HR and 27 RBI, so he was probably a somewhat recent call up who was being given the day off. Not sure why you would give a lefty a day off against the righty Chapel when you're trying to clinch the division, but whatever floats their boat I guess.
shareIn fact, his stats were Shane Spencer's stats.
shareI couldn't really tell but the guy with 39 HRs, was his AVG .388 or .308? My TV is from the 80s.
shareAmerican League ERA was 4.87 in 1999. Chapel's ERA of 3.55 would have given him an ERA+ of around 134 and placed him fourth in qualified starters, behind Pedro Martinez, David Cone, and (just barely) behind Mike Mussina's 3.50.
The picture is somewhat different for 1991, the year of the book's publishing, but Chapel's still respectable ERA+ of 114 or so would still put him in the top 20 (of approximately 70-75 qualified starters).
FYI, 1991's leading AL hitter was Julio Franco at .341 and Nomar Garciaparra at .357 in 1999.
I think they were trying to imply his greatness as a pitcher. So he had a not so hot record he still had a decent ERA. That showed he still had some command at his age and maybe implying he was even better when younger. I see no reason to change the ERA at all. Sometimes they have really good players on bad teams.
My Sig: Nothing Here.
There are plenty of pitchers with losing records and an ERA of 3.55. I don't remember anyone (other than the Yankee fans) saying he was a bum. Vin Scully says throughout the film what a great pitcher he was, Hall of Fame, etc. And it's really only in the steroid era that ERAs have crept up that high. Many great pitchers in the 70s and 80s had ERAs in the high 2s, low 3s. The best relievers in those years were always under a 1.00.
I think the 3.55 is right where it should have been. His team was a losing team and likely didn't score any runs for Chappel, that explaining the good ERA but losing record.
"I think that boy's cheese slid off his cracker" The Green Mile
Look at Roy Oswalt and the Astros this season. Almost the exact same ERA but he's 6-10 because of the horrible hitting. A shame we have to trade away one of the best Astro in history.
shareThe most unrealistic stat is that 11 of his 30 starts are no-decisions, even though he averages 7 innings per game. Any pitcher who averages 7+innings (a monster rarity in this era of relief specialists and pitch counts) is going to have a decision in at least 75% of his starts. (Moreover, it is unlikely he would have averaged 7 innings per start having completed only 2 games.)
I also find it hard to believe that he would have a losing record in the AL with an ERA this low. The Tigers had the DH and were still playing in Tiger Stadium - one of the most hitter-friendly fields in its day - during the time in which this film is set. He would have good run support and win at least 12 of his 19 decisions with an ERA that low.
His bases on balls total of 98 (4.18 per 9 innings) was also rather high for an ERA that low. I don't remember if his hits given up was listed, but if it was at least one per inning, there is no way his ERA would have been south of 4.00.
Whoever contrived the stats for Chapel either didn't fully understand the dynamics of statistics in relationship to the game or didn't think the stats through well enough.
Based on the other stats, a more realistic line for Chapel would have been a 4.40 ERA and 11-14 record. (4.21 and 12-14 after his season-ending perfect game.)
To see the only real monster, one must only look in the mirror.
I haven't watched baseball since the strike in the mid 90's but I have a minute, I will sit down and watch this show. Like the poster above 100% of the Bum talk comes from Yankee's fans and not people in the know.
As far as the ERA goes, I think it is being used as an device to show what kind of pitcher he has been over the first 15 years of his career and that he is now pitching at a level of mortals. Chapell loves the game and can still play at an extremely high level but being his time is limited and the new owners feel they can get more by trading him for a younger player.
As I write this, the headline on every sports sight reads "Colts release Manning". Where will "Peyton land"? To me its the same story, different sport.
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Haven't they retired everything under about 25 by now. :)
Anyway, yeah, I noticed that too.
He wasn't a bum. He was a HOF level pitcher towards the end of his career. In fact, the Tigers were going to trade him because he still had value. I was kind of wishing they gave him an era closer to 3.2 or so.
The only people calling him washed up and a bum were the opposing Yankee fans.
by Strntz:
He wasn't a bum. He was a HOF level pitcher towards the end of his career. In fact, the Tigers were going to trade him because he still had value. I was kind of wishing they gave him an era closer to 3.2 or so.
The only people calling him washed up and a bum were the opposing Yankee fans.
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Good reply. The pretend Yankees fans made the film better. And true to Yankees class, the one heckler gave Chapel due credit at the end of the game.
I thought it was a good number, it showed he was still somewhat decent but not nearly HOF level.
shareI thought (3.55) was a good number, it showed he was still somewhat decent but not nearly HOF level.
It is bad to drink Jobus rum. Very bad.share