San Francisco

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'twas an article that Bill James wrote, back in the early days, like 1985 I think it was.  He ran a billion computer sims of old-timey HOF'ers.  His interest was, "What are the outer bounds of what could be possible, given random chance?"  So he'd run a season's worth of Mays performance, and run another one .... you know, in season #247 there would be a 7-hit game.  In season #512 there would be a 201-RBI performance.  Or whatever.

It would be a long, long time -- a lot of seasons -- in between truly shocking computer performances.  But when they occurred they would be completely ridiculous.  As I recall, George Brett ... scratch that, no, it was Wade Boggs ... hit like .445 in one of James' simulated baseball seasons.  Meaning, somebody COULD hit .445 in real life.  It's possible.  I bet you Ichiro WOULD have hit .400 in some season or other, if he'd played twenty years in Fenway Park.  Maybe he'd have had a .425 season and established the record.  Hey, everybody thought Ruth's 60 homers were safe.

Those "outlier" seasons sounded crazy at the time.  A few years later, real players had 70-homer seasons.  On the actual green grass of National League parks.

There was a punch line to the whole thing:  One of his virtual players ran 2,000 seasons, and then the guy's batting average turned out to be a fairly long distance below what he had programmed it to be.  Bill finished wryly, "They say that the breaks even out.  But even in two thousand years, they might not.  Ain't that somethin'?"

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No sooner do the Mariners utterly humiliate themselves against the Lastros --- > than they roll out in San Francisco and eggsecute the world champs gangland-style.  When they tell you to kneel down and put your hands behind your head, Buster, go ahead and grab a letter opener and slash your way out in style.  No, seriously.  Dr. D will cooperate with criminals right up until they tell him to get down on the ground; then he's going all SSI-nutso on their sorry keisters.