By ‘this,’ I mean start the season 0-3, according to the MLB. Oh, the horror:
It may be only three losses, but for just the second time in Major League history both the Yankees and Red Sox are 0-3 after each team was swept in its season-opening series.
The only other time the two American League East powers both failed to win a game in their first three contests was 1966. In that season, the Red Sox and Yankees went on to finish ninth and 10th, respectively, in the 10-team American League.
Boston posted a 72-90 record, while the Yankees went just 70-89 for their seventh-worst winning percentage in club history.
The 1966 Yankees weren’t a bunch of nobodies; they had Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Mel Stottlemyre, Whitey Ford, etc. and they should’ve finished about 10 games better than they did. I don’t think the more talented 2012 Yankees are going to have similar problems recovering from this disastrous start less than two-percent into their season.
As for the ’66 Red Sox, they were a year away from Carl Yastrzemski’s MVP season and first place. The 2012 Red Sox may be in line for a down year with a new manager and a shoddy bullpen, but it’s hard to base that off their 0-3 start, especially since they ran into a buzzsaw (and some bad luck) in Detroit. After all, they were 0-6 a year ago and rebounded to be in what should have been a comfortable spot for the postseason until their epic collapse.
But if you’re into predicting the future with history, get this: in 1966, the Baltimore Orioles won the American League. Right now, the Orioles find themselves atop the AL East with a 3-0 record. Granted, this seems to be a common theme going into April 9 when the O’s have had a winning record in four of their last five seasons.
As for the two teams who sent the Yankees and Red Sox to matching 0-3 records for the first time in nearly half a century — the Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers? They start a three-game series on Tuesday.
