Celebrating Pi Day with Baseball Statistics

Today, for those of you that did not know, is Pi Day. Each year, on March 14th, people get together to celebrate the wonder that is 22/7, eating pie and enjoying the irrationality of the number and the date. As I was eating my pizza pie and trying to figure out how, exactly, to consume 3.14 beers, I began to wonder about Pi in the context of baseball statistics. Here are a few fun baseball factoids involving 3.14, or players who amassed 314 of a statistic in a season or their careers.

84 pitchers have posted an ERA of 3.14 over a full season, with Matt Albers being the most recent to do so, performing the feat last year.

Bob Knepper is the only pitcher to post an ERA of Pi twice during a season in his career, doing so in 1986 and 1988.

Six pitchers – Leon Cadore, Bert Gallia, Tug McGraw, Mike Cuellar, Mike Marshall and Tom Seaton – each finished with a career ERA of 3.14.

Bill Hutchinson struck out 314 batters during the 1892 season for the old Chicago Colts.

Gaylord Perry won exactly 314 games in his major league career.

Two hitters had a career .314 batting average – Cecil Travis and Bibb Falk.

Heading into this season, Torii Hunter and Reggie Smith have each hit 314 career home runs. Hunter, in all likelihood, will fall of this list next year.

Andre Dawson and Rafael Furcal each have stolen 314 bases in their careers. Furcal, like Hunter, is likely to remove himself from this list as well after this year.

Hopefully, you all enjoyed National Pi Day, having your fill of pie and enjoyed the wonder that is 22/7. Next year, you can even add baseball to the mix, having a toast in memory of these fine accomplishments.