A fair amount has been made of Eric Hinske being on three consecutive AL pennant winners. This seems to me more of a coincidence to me than an actual accomplishment. However, all the talk has reminded me of Candy Maldonado who – when I was young – always seemed to be playing in the postseason. It appears time is playing tricks on my memory. I thought I remembered him being on one of the A’s pennant winners from ’88-’90 but he was not. The Candyman was in the postseason 6 times for three different teams. (’83 & ’85 Dodgers, ’87 & ’89 Giants, ’91 and ’92 Blue Jays.)
Which leads me to this question: Who has been in the postseason with the most different teams?
A quick Google search leads to no definitive answer, mainly thanks to the many Yankees that top all of the cumulative postseason lists. I did come across this tidbit: Lonnie Smith holds the record for most World Series appearances with different teams. (4, PHI, STL, KC, ATL)
My guess off the top of my head would have been Gary Sheffield, but Sheff only went to the postseason with the Marlins, Braves and Yankees. Sorry Brewers, Padres, Dodgers, Tigers and Mets fans.
Next guess is Rickey Henderson or Kenny Lofton, who both bounced around a LOT at the end of their careers. Rickey hit the postseason 8 times with 5 different franchises. Lofton 11 times with 6 different teams.
Honestly, that’s all I’ve got. I don’t know how to research this more quickly and accurately with the information I have access to. I used Baseball Reference.com to get the information you see here, and I haven’t even looked at pitchers. I’m sure there’s a LOOGY out there who went from team to team and racked up some stats. (OK, two quick pitchers: David Cone and Jack Morris both appeared in the postseason with three different franchises.)
If anyone can add any insight or tools to help me on this search I’d appreciate it.
Update: By request from Dan Rutz, 4 more pitchers:
Paul Byrd: 4 seasons, 4 teams. ATL, LAA, CLE, BOS
Al Leiter: 5 seasons, 4 teams. TOR, FLA, NYM, NYY
Mike Stanton: 11 seasons, 4 teams. ATL, BOS, TEX, NYY
Alan Embree: 7 seasons, 5 teams. CLE, ATL, SF, BOS, SD
Kenny Lofton is still the leader in the clubhouse with 6.
UPDATE #2: Thanks to Lar for the answers in the comment below. Lofton and David Wells are the leaders with 6 apiece.
Filed under: baseball, postseason | Tagged: baseball, postseason |
6-4-3 Putout 
Lofton’s the right answer, with 6. David Wells ties him on the pitcher’s side with 6.
The full list of players with playoff appearances with 5 different clubs:
Pitchers: Alan Embree, Chad Bradford, Danny Jackson
Batters: Don Baylor, John Olerud, Reggie Sanders (that was my first thought), Bobby Bonilla, Ellis Burks, & Rickey
The easiest way to do this is to download the Lahman Database (the Microsoft Access version is the easiest) and learn to play around with that. If you’ve never really played around with a database, you may want to give it a try. It might take a little learning on your part, but Access at least gives you a sensible interface.
You can find the database here: http://baseball1.com/content/view/57/82/
And nice start with the blog. That’s how you do it. Ask a question, look for the answers, see if anybody has input. It works.
where does Kevin Brown fit into this?
Per Baseball Reference.com, Brown appeared in the postseason 3 times for 3 different teams. ’97 Marlins, ’98 Padres and ’04 Yankees.