I just think about how the Yankees/Brian Cashman tried to nickel and dime Jeter once he got past age 32. At least the Guards did not do that. And if it means Cleveland has some money to replace the bullpen arms they lost to the gambling ***** that is probably to Jose's ultimate benefit, right?
Joe, is this contract more about what the Dolans are getting from Jose or about what Jose wants for himself and his family? After all, he initiated the extension. He is ALREADY a Cleveland icon. But there will be a day, when he is 50 years old and has 100 million in the bank when he sits with his family and friends, reflects back in his hall of fame career, and says, “That’s the way you do it.” He did this for his own purposes. And being with his Cleveland family for his whole career was one of them.
I see nothing wrong with this extension, in any way. Good for Jose, good for Cleveland, good for his family, good for the game.
I don't care that Kyle Tucker is getting what Willie Mays in his prime would get today, or that some pitchers might get more or whatever. People go from team to team partially because it is public what everyone is getting, and when it is their time, they want more. Also, of you are less than great, the team moves on from you and tries to replace you with someone younger and cheaper (Like any workplace today for that one)
SO he only made $272 million and not more. That is like a guy getting $5.44 million every year from age 16-65, so I think he will be OK.
It is great to see someone play his career with 1 team. It happens so rarely today. Either the team is unhappy with the performance or cost, or the player wants to win the lottery when they are a free agent, but every once in awhile you can just stay where you are happy and comfortable if you want.
To get some idea of what might be ahead, I present Jose Ramirez' closest similarity score comps through age 32, courtesy of BBRef, with some of the numbers they put up from age 33 on, including their age during their last MLB season:
Scott Rolen (933.2) * 533 G, 519 Hits, 55 HR 109 OPS+, age 37
Shawn Green (923.0) 279 G, 277 Hits, 25 HR, 99 OPS+, age 34
Mookie Betts (918.5) N/A (same age)
David Wright (915.4) 39 G, 31 Hits, 7 HR, 111 OPS+, age 34
Ryan Zimmerman (903.3) 247 G, 182 Hits, 33 HR, 106 OPS+, age 36
Nolan Arenado (899.0) 259 G, 252 Hits, 28 HR, 96 OPS+, age 34, still active
Andre Dawson (894.8) * 1031 G, 1021 Hits, 164 HR, 114 OPS+, age 41
Similarity scores rely only on the counting stats, and I don't think they include steals, or else Scott Rolen might not be so high, since he stole only 118 bases his entire career, while Ramirez will probably cross the 300 mark next season (he has 287 right now).
Unfortunately, almost half of these guys weren't/aren't thirdbasemen, so it's hard to look hopefully at the 1000+ games played by Beltran or the Hawk and fantasize about a productive swan song for Ramirez. Thirdbasemen tend not to age as well as outfielders.
Certainly nobody could reasonably complain about that kind of production in his mid to late 30s. Adding those numbers to his current ones, Ramirez would end up with something like 2,700 Hits, 425 HR, ~1500 Runs & RBI, maybe 65-70 bWAR. That would certainly land him in Cooperstown the first time he becomes eligible. If he can still hit, they'll surely put him at first or DH to keep his bat in the lineup even after he can no longer hack it at the hot corner.
Which is good, because the only "similar" thirdbaseman to play even 600 games after turning 33 was Aramis Ramirez, and even he was done at age 37, two whole years before this contract will end. Rolen played only about 500 more games , Longoria about a hundred less than that, and Zimmerman even less. Wright had a degenerative spinal condition, and Shawn Green chose to retire with the $100M he'd already made rather than move his family from California at age 35, but he could have kept playing if he'd wanted to. Mookie and Arenado are of course incomplete careers at this point, but we can see Arenado's production is already seriously diminished in the last two seasons compared to his prime.
The good news is that there is some precedent for thirdbasemen playing regularly until age 40 or so, albeit not always productively. There are 11 players with at least 900 games after age 33 who played predominantly third base, seven since integration, and five of those (Schmidt, Beltre, Chipper, Boggs and Brooksie) are in Cooperstown. The others are Gary Gaetti and Graig Nettles, who some suggest should be in the Hall himself. (The pre-integration players were Jimmy(s) Dykes and Austin, Lave Cross and Hall of Famer Deacon White, none of which are especially instructive here.)
Ramirez is not especially like any of those, as he steals bases WAY more often than any of them, which might make him more prone to injury going forward, though it has not so far. He's also not especially known for his defense, having never won a Gold Glove, though he has been a finalist several times.
One other way to look at this is that Ramirez is likely to get his 300th HR and 300th Steal in 2026. Only eight players have ever done that: both Bondses, A-Rod, Mays, Dawson, Beltran, Reggie Sanders and Steve Finley. The last of those is a likely PED case (averaged 8 HR/162 games through age 30, 27 HR/162G for the next decade), as are Barry and Rodriguez. Bonds Sr. was the first to ever combine such power and speed, but was done at age 35. Sanders was extremely talented but never had a healthy season after age 26. The other three are in Cooperstown.
Anyway, none of this is to say whether this is a good contract or not. If Ramirez gets hit by a bus or abducted by aliens and we never see him play another game, the Dolans will have gotten more than their money's worth from him. But if he only adds, say, the kinds of numbers that Rolen or Longoria put up after age 32, he may not have such an easy time getting into Cooperstown, since he may finish shy of 2000 hits, and (presumably) without having ever won an MVP. Hopefully not having had to play the first half of his career on astroturf will help assure he does not finish his career as they did. Certainly this contract will cement him as a Cleveland icon, regardless of the actual numbers. Good on them for making sure of that.
As a Tigers fan, I've enjoyed watching Jose Ramirez from across Lake Erie. Third base has long been a revolving door for the Tigers. I don't get mad at players who take the big money, or those who take the home team loyalty discount either. I'm just a fan of long careers with one team. I'm spoiled by Whitaker and Trammell I guess.
Concur from the Heartland (KC). Jose Ramirez is the esteemed foe. We cannot quite love him, because he has killed us too many times, but damn we really, really respect him and I expect he will get a well deserved standing O at the K someday when he is playing his last game there.
I'm surprised Cleveland offered him this deal. This is a great offer for Ramirez -- there's no way he'd earn those paychecks hitting free agency at 36. (Nolan Arenado says hello.)
He's been so underpaid thus far, it's nice that he's get some of that back on the backend of his career.
Hey, Paul. Tom here. This was taken at Hi Corbett Field in Tuscon in 1982, I believe. I wish I still had the jacket, because I would have passed it to my son. It's long gone but I have this old photo and another with George Vukovich(!).
I wonder how much ancillary value there is in being a franchise icon? In other words, the opposite ends of the scale would be a Scott Boras type mercenary player who plays for multiple teams to get every last dollar and Jose. But Jose will have much greater value in advertising, signatures, charity, etc (other opportunities to cash in on his popularity that I can't think of right now) than an equivalent player who hops around chasing a buck. It is obvious that it doesn't equal the 100 million plus that he has forfeited by staying put, but it must be something? Completely irrelevant to that thought, Jose Ramirez has always looked like Pedro Martinez' baby brother to me. Never been able to shake that thought.
Other than Kenny Lofton in stolen bases, José has an excellent chance of eventually passing everyone ahead of him and holding the franchise record in those categories. He is also three good months away from becoming the 9th player in MLB history with 300 home runs and 300 stolen bases, and when he gets there he'll join Willie Mays as the only players to reach those milestones with one team. if he eventually gets to 350 HR and 350 SB, José will be the first player to do that with one team, and join Bobby and Barry Bonds as the only players with so many of each in MLB history.
In addition to a statue at Progressive Field, he should get one at City Hall.
He also has a good shot to become the Cleveland franchise leader in bWar. Nap Lajoie currently holds that title at 79.6, while Ramirez is in 5th place at 57.6.
It's definitely possible, and I would LOVE it, but I doubt he'll get there. Very few players add another 22+ WAR from their age-33 season on. In the last 50 years, only 24 position players have done that; in the last 20 years, only 5 position players (Beltré, Nelson Cruz, Chipper Jones, Ortiz, and Ichiro). José's effort will also be hampered by almost certainly losing some or even all of 2027 to a work stoppage, when the owners refuse to just keep their money train rolling.
That said, I don't think Ramírez needs to catch Lajoie in WAR to be considered the greatest player in franchise history. I think WAR totals from the early 1900s can be discounted some on account of segregation and a lower overall level of play. The replacement-level player during Lajoie's career was working as a farmer or barkeep for a lot of the year. If José breaks the franchise records he has a good shot at, and gets to 70 WAR, I think he's Cleveland's greatest player ever.
And in Lajoie's case, we have statistical proof that his defensive stats were boosted by his insistence on taking all discretionary putouts at 2B (over the SS). While this was normal in the 19th century (because the 2Bman literally played right at 2b initially and then slowly moved away from the bag), Lajoie was the last practitioner of the 2bman taking all the throws at 2B. This boosts his putouts considerably when compared to his contemporaries and subsequent 2Bmen too. Therefore, his defensive WAR numbers should be taken with a grain of salt.
I would have Feller at the top for Cleveland, if we're including pitchers, because while I don't think you can just give a player 8-10 WAR for each season they missed for WWII, I do think it's reasonable to give them some credit for seasons they missed for military service, and because while still a long time ago, I think the overall quality of play during Feller's career was stronger than during Lajoie's or Speaker's.
Oof, this is somewhat dispiriting. However, I wonder what percentage of players have accumulated 22+ WAR from their age-33 season on if you only look at the pool of players who, like Ramírez, put up at least 5+ WAR in both their age-31 and age-32 seasons.
Yes, I completely agree with you that Ramírez doesn't need to catch Lajoie's WAR total to be the greatest player in franchise history for exactly the reasons you stated.
Yeah, narrowing down the pool to players more similar to José makes sense...
Going back to 1975, only 31 position players (including Ramírez) posted 5+ WAR in their age-31 and age-32 seasons. So he's already in very select company, which includes Marcus Semien, now two years and 7.4 WAR into the rest of his career, not yet a yes or a no on 22+ more WAR.
Of the other 29 position players in that group, 8 (28%) put up 22+ WAR over the rest of their career: Joe Morgan, Mike Schmidt, Ozzie Smith, Paul Molitor, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Larry Walker, Adrian Beltré
So, definitely possible, but certainly less than a 50/50 probability, especially with the next CBA negotiations seeming very likely to cost everyone weeks' or months' worth of games.
Here's hoping there aren't any lost games, José keeps playing well, and in seven years he's at 80+ WAR, undoubtedly the greatest player in franchise history!
I don't mean players who only ever played for one MLB team, I mean players who got to 300 HR and 300 SB with a team, regardless of whether they also played for other teams.
Mays hit 660 home runs and stole 339 bases, and he hit 646 of those home runs and stole 336 of those bases for the Giants, making him the only player with 300/300 for one team.
Thanks! I am a Guardians fans who has spreadsheet tabs with franchise leaders for all-time, since integration, and my lifetime leaders in different categories for a few years, so I had put in most of the effort a while ago, and was able to just pull everything from there for this.
I created the spreadsheet so that once every couple weeks in the season, I can update José's (and in some instances, Carlos Santana's) totals, and occasionally move them up a spot. The updates bring me a surprising amount of satisfaction. When José broke Earl Averill's franchise record for extra-base hits, I'd been anticipating that moment for weeks, knowing it was coming. Moving his team to the top of that column was one of the highlights of the 2025 season for me!
Great article about a great player!
I just think about how the Yankees/Brian Cashman tried to nickel and dime Jeter once he got past age 32. At least the Guards did not do that. And if it means Cleveland has some money to replace the bullpen arms they lost to the gambling ***** that is probably to Jose's ultimate benefit, right?
What a treat it'd be if he nabbed that SO close 40-40 season, THIS season, at the age he is. Long Live Jose Ramirez.
Loved the inclusion of Duane Kuiper as a Cleveland sports hero on par with Jim Brown, LeBron, Feller, etc. Never surrender!
Love the Kuiper Cleveland legend reference. And, as a Giants fan, he’s also a San Francisco legend.
Yeah. We should admire Joe's craftsmanship in this stuff.
"They set him up to forever be one of the true sports heroes in town, along with Jim Brown, LeBron James, Bob Feller, Duane Kuiper, and Bernie Kosar."
Agreed about Joe's craftmanship, and the Duane Kuiper inclusion stood out for me also.
Joe, is this contract more about what the Dolans are getting from Jose or about what Jose wants for himself and his family? After all, he initiated the extension. He is ALREADY a Cleveland icon. But there will be a day, when he is 50 years old and has 100 million in the bank when he sits with his family and friends, reflects back in his hall of fame career, and says, “That’s the way you do it.” He did this for his own purposes. And being with his Cleveland family for his whole career was one of them.
I see nothing wrong with this extension, in any way. Good for Jose, good for Cleveland, good for his family, good for the game.
I don't care that Kyle Tucker is getting what Willie Mays in his prime would get today, or that some pitchers might get more or whatever. People go from team to team partially because it is public what everyone is getting, and when it is their time, they want more. Also, of you are less than great, the team moves on from you and tries to replace you with someone younger and cheaper (Like any workplace today for that one)
SO he only made $272 million and not more. That is like a guy getting $5.44 million every year from age 16-65, so I think he will be OK.
It is great to see someone play his career with 1 team. It happens so rarely today. Either the team is unhappy with the performance or cost, or the player wants to win the lottery when they are a free agent, but every once in awhile you can just stay where you are happy and comfortable if you want.
To get some idea of what might be ahead, I present Jose Ramirez' closest similarity score comps through age 32, courtesy of BBRef, with some of the numbers they put up from age 33 on, including their age during their last MLB season:
Scott Rolen (933.2) * 533 G, 519 Hits, 55 HR 109 OPS+, age 37
Shawn Green (923.0) 279 G, 277 Hits, 25 HR, 99 OPS+, age 34
Mookie Betts (918.5) N/A (same age)
David Wright (915.4) 39 G, 31 Hits, 7 HR, 111 OPS+, age 34
Aramis Ramírez (912.8) 660 G, 688 Hits, 97 HR, 121 OPS+, age 37
Carlos Beltrán (911.7) * 1024 G, 1020 Hits, 162 HR, 119 OPS+, age 40
Evan Longoria (910.5) 426 G, 342 Hits, 65 HR, 106 OPS+, age 37
Ryan Zimmerman (903.3) 247 G, 182 Hits, 33 HR, 106 OPS+, age 36
Nolan Arenado (899.0) 259 G, 252 Hits, 28 HR, 96 OPS+, age 34, still active
Andre Dawson (894.8) * 1031 G, 1021 Hits, 164 HR, 114 OPS+, age 41
Similarity scores rely only on the counting stats, and I don't think they include steals, or else Scott Rolen might not be so high, since he stole only 118 bases his entire career, while Ramirez will probably cross the 300 mark next season (he has 287 right now).
Unfortunately, almost half of these guys weren't/aren't thirdbasemen, so it's hard to look hopefully at the 1000+ games played by Beltran or the Hawk and fantasize about a productive swan song for Ramirez. Thirdbasemen tend not to age as well as outfielders.
Certainly nobody could reasonably complain about that kind of production in his mid to late 30s. Adding those numbers to his current ones, Ramirez would end up with something like 2,700 Hits, 425 HR, ~1500 Runs & RBI, maybe 65-70 bWAR. That would certainly land him in Cooperstown the first time he becomes eligible. If he can still hit, they'll surely put him at first or DH to keep his bat in the lineup even after he can no longer hack it at the hot corner.
Which is good, because the only "similar" thirdbaseman to play even 600 games after turning 33 was Aramis Ramirez, and even he was done at age 37, two whole years before this contract will end. Rolen played only about 500 more games , Longoria about a hundred less than that, and Zimmerman even less. Wright had a degenerative spinal condition, and Shawn Green chose to retire with the $100M he'd already made rather than move his family from California at age 35, but he could have kept playing if he'd wanted to. Mookie and Arenado are of course incomplete careers at this point, but we can see Arenado's production is already seriously diminished in the last two seasons compared to his prime.
The good news is that there is some precedent for thirdbasemen playing regularly until age 40 or so, albeit not always productively. There are 11 players with at least 900 games after age 33 who played predominantly third base, seven since integration, and five of those (Schmidt, Beltre, Chipper, Boggs and Brooksie) are in Cooperstown. The others are Gary Gaetti and Graig Nettles, who some suggest should be in the Hall himself. (The pre-integration players were Jimmy(s) Dykes and Austin, Lave Cross and Hall of Famer Deacon White, none of which are especially instructive here.)
Ramirez is not especially like any of those, as he steals bases WAY more often than any of them, which might make him more prone to injury going forward, though it has not so far. He's also not especially known for his defense, having never won a Gold Glove, though he has been a finalist several times.
One other way to look at this is that Ramirez is likely to get his 300th HR and 300th Steal in 2026. Only eight players have ever done that: both Bondses, A-Rod, Mays, Dawson, Beltran, Reggie Sanders and Steve Finley. The last of those is a likely PED case (averaged 8 HR/162 games through age 30, 27 HR/162G for the next decade), as are Barry and Rodriguez. Bonds Sr. was the first to ever combine such power and speed, but was done at age 35. Sanders was extremely talented but never had a healthy season after age 26. The other three are in Cooperstown.
Anyway, none of this is to say whether this is a good contract or not. If Ramirez gets hit by a bus or abducted by aliens and we never see him play another game, the Dolans will have gotten more than their money's worth from him. But if he only adds, say, the kinds of numbers that Rolen or Longoria put up after age 32, he may not have such an easy time getting into Cooperstown, since he may finish shy of 2000 hits, and (presumably) without having ever won an MVP. Hopefully not having had to play the first half of his career on astroturf will help assure he does not finish his career as they did. Certainly this contract will cement him as a Cleveland icon, regardless of the actual numbers. Good on them for making sure of that.
As a Tigers fan, I've enjoyed watching Jose Ramirez from across Lake Erie. Third base has long been a revolving door for the Tigers. I don't get mad at players who take the big money, or those who take the home team loyalty discount either. I'm just a fan of long careers with one team. I'm spoiled by Whitaker and Trammell I guess.
I would note that being able to celebrate to two players who retired 30 years ago hardly counts as being spoiled.
Concur from the Heartland (KC). Jose Ramirez is the esteemed foe. We cannot quite love him, because he has killed us too many times, but damn we really, really respect him and I expect he will get a well deserved standing O at the K someday when he is playing his last game there.
I'm sure Gard ownership has done lotsa cheap things in the past, but this isn't one of them, as other BRs have pointed out. Kudos to them!
I'm surprised Cleveland offered him this deal. This is a great offer for Ramirez -- there's no way he'd earn those paychecks hitting free agency at 36. (Nolan Arenado says hello.)
He's been so underpaid thus far, it's nice that he's get some of that back on the backend of his career.
Do they still make those jackets like the one Joe is wearing in the photo? If so, I'd like to buy one for my grandson (and for me!)
Hey, Paul. Tom here. This was taken at Hi Corbett Field in Tuscon in 1982, I believe. I wish I still had the jacket, because I would have passed it to my son. It's long gone but I have this old photo and another with George Vukovich(!).
I think that's BR Tom wearing the jacket.
Jose, Tito, Klubes, The Rock, Biebs-all class acts in Cleveland baseball.
I wonder how much ancillary value there is in being a franchise icon? In other words, the opposite ends of the scale would be a Scott Boras type mercenary player who plays for multiple teams to get every last dollar and Jose. But Jose will have much greater value in advertising, signatures, charity, etc (other opportunities to cash in on his popularity that I can't think of right now) than an equivalent player who hops around chasing a buck. It is obvious that it doesn't equal the 100 million plus that he has forfeited by staying put, but it must be something? Completely irrelevant to that thought, Jose Ramirez has always looked like Pedro Martinez' baby brother to me. Never been able to shake that thought.
What happened to Kathleen’s Korner? Haven’t seen one of those in a while.
Cleveland franchise leaders...
Hits:
1. Nap Lajoie 2047
2. Tris Speaker 1965
...
7. José Ramírez 1668
Doubles:
1. Tris Speaker 486
2. Nap Lajoie 424
3. José Ramírez 398
Home Runs:
1. Jim Thome 337
2. José Ramírez 285
3. Albert Belle 242
Extra-Base Hits:
1. José Ramírez 726
2. Earl Averill 724
3. Tris Speaker 667
Total Bases:
1. Earl Averill 3200
2. José Ramírez 3007
3. Tris Speaker 2886
Stolen Bases:
1. Kenny Lofton 452
2. José Ramírez 287
3. Omar Vizquel 279
Runs:
1. Earl Averill 1154
2. Tris Speaker 1079
3. José Ramírez 1001
RBI:
1. Earl Averill 1084
2. José Ramírez 949
3. Jim Thome 937
Other than Kenny Lofton in stolen bases, José has an excellent chance of eventually passing everyone ahead of him and holding the franchise record in those categories. He is also three good months away from becoming the 9th player in MLB history with 300 home runs and 300 stolen bases, and when he gets there he'll join Willie Mays as the only players to reach those milestones with one team. if he eventually gets to 350 HR and 350 SB, José will be the first player to do that with one team, and join Bobby and Barry Bonds as the only players with so many of each in MLB history.
In addition to a statue at Progressive Field, he should get one at City Hall.
He also has a good shot to become the Cleveland franchise leader in bWar. Nap Lajoie currently holds that title at 79.6, while Ramirez is in 5th place at 57.6.
It's definitely possible, and I would LOVE it, but I doubt he'll get there. Very few players add another 22+ WAR from their age-33 season on. In the last 50 years, only 24 position players have done that; in the last 20 years, only 5 position players (Beltré, Nelson Cruz, Chipper Jones, Ortiz, and Ichiro). José's effort will also be hampered by almost certainly losing some or even all of 2027 to a work stoppage, when the owners refuse to just keep their money train rolling.
That said, I don't think Ramírez needs to catch Lajoie in WAR to be considered the greatest player in franchise history. I think WAR totals from the early 1900s can be discounted some on account of segregation and a lower overall level of play. The replacement-level player during Lajoie's career was working as a farmer or barkeep for a lot of the year. If José breaks the franchise records he has a good shot at, and gets to 70 WAR, I think he's Cleveland's greatest player ever.
And in Lajoie's case, we have statistical proof that his defensive stats were boosted by his insistence on taking all discretionary putouts at 2B (over the SS). While this was normal in the 19th century (because the 2Bman literally played right at 2b initially and then slowly moved away from the bag), Lajoie was the last practitioner of the 2bman taking all the throws at 2B. This boosts his putouts considerably when compared to his contemporaries and subsequent 2Bmen too. Therefore, his defensive WAR numbers should be taken with a grain of salt.
Interesting! I was not aware of all that.
I would have Feller at the top for Cleveland, if we're including pitchers, because while I don't think you can just give a player 8-10 WAR for each season they missed for WWII, I do think it's reasonable to give them some credit for seasons they missed for military service, and because while still a long time ago, I think the overall quality of play during Feller's career was stronger than during Lajoie's or Speaker's.
Oof, this is somewhat dispiriting. However, I wonder what percentage of players have accumulated 22+ WAR from their age-33 season on if you only look at the pool of players who, like Ramírez, put up at least 5+ WAR in both their age-31 and age-32 seasons.
Yes, I completely agree with you that Ramírez doesn't need to catch Lajoie's WAR total to be the greatest player in franchise history for exactly the reasons you stated.
Yeah, narrowing down the pool to players more similar to José makes sense...
Going back to 1975, only 31 position players (including Ramírez) posted 5+ WAR in their age-31 and age-32 seasons. So he's already in very select company, which includes Marcus Semien, now two years and 7.4 WAR into the rest of his career, not yet a yes or a no on 22+ more WAR.
Of the other 29 position players in that group, 8 (28%) put up 22+ WAR over the rest of their career: Joe Morgan, Mike Schmidt, Ozzie Smith, Paul Molitor, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Larry Walker, Adrian Beltré
So, definitely possible, but certainly less than a 50/50 probability, especially with the next CBA negotiations seeming very likely to cost everyone weeks' or months' worth of games.
Here's hoping there aren't any lost games, José keeps playing well, and in seven years he's at 80+ WAR, undoubtedly the greatest player in franchise history!
It should be noted that Mays played for the Mets so not technically with one team.
I don't mean players who only ever played for one MLB team, I mean players who got to 300 HR and 300 SB with a team, regardless of whether they also played for other teams.
Mays hit 660 home runs and stole 339 bases, and he hit 646 of those home runs and stole 336 of those bases for the Giants, making him the only player with 300/300 for one team.
Just want to offer a pat on the back for the effort this must have taken.
Thanks! I am a Guardians fans who has spreadsheet tabs with franchise leaders for all-time, since integration, and my lifetime leaders in different categories for a few years, so I had put in most of the effort a while ago, and was able to just pull everything from there for this.
I created the spreadsheet so that once every couple weeks in the season, I can update José's (and in some instances, Carlos Santana's) totals, and occasionally move them up a spot. The updates bring me a surprising amount of satisfaction. When José broke Earl Averill's franchise record for extra-base hits, I'd been anticipating that moment for weeks, knowing it was coming. Moving his team to the top of that column was one of the highlights of the 2025 season for me!
I do something similar with Sidney Crosby's stats. I assumed I was the only one, haha.
You're my kind of nerd.