Tapp-ing into the Numbers: Stats you may not know about the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers

By JERRY TAPP

The Milwaukee Brewers this weekend are honoring the 1982 team on the 35^th anniversary of that team winning the American League championship. Here’s a handful of stats you may not know about that team.

• The 1982 Brewers won 95 games, tied with the 1979 Brewers for second most in club history. Most wins by a Brewers team is 96 by the 2011 Brewers.
• The ’82 squad scored 891 runs, second most in team history. The franchise record for runs scored is 894 by the 2011 Brew Crew.
• Buck Rodgers started the season as the Brewers skipper in 1982 and was fired with the team supporting a very mediocre 23-24 record. Harvey Kuenn was hired to replace Rodgers and the team finished the season 72-43.
• The Brewers in 1982 had three players collect 200 or more hits in the season: Robin Yount with 210, Cecil Cooper with 205 and Paul Molitor with 201. The team had never had two players before (and after) that season get 200+ hits in a season. The ’82 Brewers are one of 12 teams in MLB history to have three players with 200+ hits in a season. The 1929 Phillies and 1937 Tigers hold the league record with four players with 200+ hits for a team in a season.
• The ’82 Brew Crew also had four players with 100 or more RBI: Cooper (121), Yount (114), Gorman Thomas (112) and Ben Oglivie (102). They are one of 24 teams in baseball history to have four players with 100 RBI in a season. The 1936 Yankees hold the MLB record with five players with 100+ RBI.
• There was no 20-game winner on the 1982 Brewers. Pete Vukovich led the pitching staff with 18 wins… Mike Caldwell was second with 17 victories.
• The Brewers in 1982 were 8.5 games out of first place on June 9. That was the furthest out of first they were that season.
• The Brewers entered the final series of the ’82 campaign with a four-game series in Baltimore. Prior to the series they were 3-6 against the O’s in 1982. The Brewers lost the first three games of that series before winning the final game of the series (and the season) to win the division.
• The Brew Crew in 1982 had a .588 winning percentage on the road and .585 at home.
• Putting runs on the scoreboard was important to the ’82 Brewers. Consider this: In games that season where they scored three or fewer runs, the team was 12-47 (.203 winning percentage). In games that season when they scored seven or more runs in a contest the team was 56-4 (.933 winning percentage).
• The Brewers led the league that year in home runs hit (216), most saves (47) and most double plays turned (185).
• The longest losing streak the club had that season was five games (that occurred from April 14-18.