This baseball team recently broken a 79-year-old record. Why did nobody noticed it?

Baseball starts again, but before the Cubs and Dodgers take on the field in the Tokyo Dome on Tuesday, let's take a look at the last season when the baseball story was taken, we noticed a record and nobody for decades.

I speak of the Baltimore Orioles who scored in 71 double games in 2024.

Fast explaner: a double game happens when the dough hits a ball, usually weak and on the floor, and not only does it He If they are thrown away, but his teammate, which was already on the basis, is also thrown out. It is the most demoralizing thing that happens on a baseball field and cuts out a promising rally at a moment. So less is better.

The 71 of 2024 Orioles is the lowest overall season in the history of the Major League baseball. No team joined these few double games when they only played 154 games. No team joined the few double games when they were wearing all woolen pants. In fact, no team had never arrived less than 75 double games, a record of the St. Louis Cardinals from 1945 and the Tampa Bay Rays 2021. The 2024 Orioles were the best base team from a good -looking edge, which was not a double game that ever existed.

You didn't hear any of it at ESPN or in the New York Times. They didn't even hear about it from the Orioles themselves. That was because they didn't know. Sig Mejdal, the Vice President and General Manager of Orioles, told me that he knew that avoidance of the team was a strength for the DP, but he did not quite believe that the team had set up an all -time balance until he had looked it up. “The people I mentioned were pretty surprised,” he told me.

What did the orioles do so well not to form double games? The story offers little guidance. The list of teams with the least gidpging in history contains good teams such as the 100-profit 2021 rays (75 DP) and lousy teams such as the 99-without-royals (79 dp). Some of these teams have not got into many double games because they had hardly a man at First (1967 Royals). Some of them, like the 1986 Cardinals (83 DP), provided tons of bases, which reduces the number of DP situations. But the 2024 Orioles had many singles and walks and not many steals. They beat the ball with elevation; Their floor ball share of 40.3 percent was the fourth in the majors. But that means that three other teams hit even fewer floor balls, and many of them became double games. To be honest, I'm at a loss.

In order to be fair for any other base team in history, the double games in the league are modest in a modest decline. There were only 0.66 per team per game in 2024, the lowest total number in decades. Perhaps this has something to do with the ban on postponement or the rule that allows a video review of the “neighborhood game” (also known as “We will only say that the second Baseman has touched the bag because he had the mood to have touched the bag”).

But is it important? We do not discuss Pete Alonso or Aaron Richter's swallowing performance because they play in the Homer-happy 21^st Century. Each team had the opportunity to get into the fewest double games ever. Only the Orioles did it.

It is not quite fair how unjustified it was. We pay attention to things that happen, especially if you happen unusually often or with unusual strength. But we neglect the negative space of spectacular things extremely fail happen. These things are important! Nowhere more than in the baseball. There is more characteristic for sport than the 3-2 count with the bases in a tie game when the entire stadium goes to knee to see if the dough cannot achieve the ball successfully, not even successfully attempt To hit the ball, win the game with it?

Anyone can cheer on judges who sparked their 50-year-old ball into the stands. A small connoisseur is needed to follow the goalless inning strip of an aid, or Luis Arráez, who is for a whole month without beating, or Jim Palmer, who is exposed to 213 times 213 times in his 19-year career and never gave up a Grand Slam. Or the orioles, who always arise with a runner on the first and less than two outs and manages not to get out of a rally.

The regression to nobody's regression, and the 2025 Orioles will probably play more double games than in 2024. I can't wait to see what they don't do Year.