These postseason numbers don't measure up

ANAHEIM, Calif. - "Beg" might be too strong a word, so let's settle for "implore." I implore play-by-play announcers and sportscasters all over this great land of ours to be careful how they describe various statistical occurrences they will encounter during the 2008 baseball playoffs.

So now that Manny has gone deep against the Cubs (he has now homered in 15 of his 20 playoff series), or when Jim Thome loses one against the Rays, please, please, please let no one refer to their homers as being Nos. 25 and 18, respectively, in "postseason" play without mentioning that until 1969, postseason play meant World Series play and World Series play only, and until 1995 it meant World Series and League Championship Series only.

Surely, that's not too much to ask

Bernie Williams was Exhibit A. Williams was a very nice ballplayer, not a Hall of Famer, certainly, but a truly solid professional who had a Yankee career worthy of number retirement. He was never the best player on the team, but he was reliable. He was privileged to play in 25 postseason series, and in so doing, he compiled some notable numbers, in cluding 22 homers and - bet you didn't know this - 29 doubles. Bernie Williams, in fact, is the all-time postseason RBI leader with 80.

That's all well and good. Just don't confuse him with Babe Ruth.

Manny's got some pretty good numbers, too. Manny Ramírez came up with the Cleveland Indians when they were the Class Act of the American League, which got him into the playoff swing of things right away. I believe you know where he went after that.

Manny entered the '08 playoffs with 24 homers, 64 RBIs, and an on-base plus slugging percentage of .819.

Pretty good stuff. Just don't confuse him with Babe Ruth.

I mentioned Thome. There's another guy with some pretty good postseason numbers. Now the odd thing about Jim Thome's postseason résumé is that in addition to his 17 homers, he has as many triples (1) as doubles. Wow. You'd think he'd have doubled off a wall, or down a line, or something, more than once. Now put a little check mark next to his name, because he does have one important distinction, and that is he actually has a better postseason home runs per at-bat rate than Mickey Mantle.

Let's talk about Mantle. The Mick played in 12 World Series, retiring in 1968, one year in advance of League Championship Series. In 230 World Series at-bats, Mantle had 18 homers, six doubles, and two triples, while driving in 40 runs. In other words, he hit just four fewer World Series home runs than Williams had postseason home runs in 235 fewer at-bats.

Are we starting to see things in the proper perspective?

It's time to address the Babe.

Babe Ruth played in "only" seven World Series for the Yankees. I say "only" because there is a perception he must have played in more since he was with the Yankees for 15 full seasons (1920-34). But the Philadelphia A's had something to say about that, winning three consecutive AL titles from 1929-31, which left the Babe playing in "just" those seven Series, the same as Frank Crosetti, five fewer than Mantle, two fewer than Hank Bauer, and only half as many as Yogi Berra, who missed only in 1948, 1954, and 1959 during his 17 full seasons with the Yankees.

Suffice it to say, the Babe got a lot done during those seven series.

He went to bat 118 times. He had 15 home runs, five doubles, and a triple. He drove in 30 runs. His OPS was 1.211. He had a home run every 7.9 times at bat.

Now we're getting somewhere. Williams had a postseason home run every 21.1 times at bat.

One man does enter into the discussion, however. I believe you know him as "Mr. October."

Reggie Jackson splits the difference between the Babe and Manny, having retired in 1987, eight years in advance of the three-tier playoff series implementation. He played in five World Series and 11 ALCS, and was deprived of an opportunity for a sixth World Series when he was injured during the 1972 ALCS and forced to miss Oakland's exciting seven-game conquest of the Reds (You think in a series of six one-run games a Reggie Jackson at-bat or two might have made it easier for the A's?).

Jackson had 18 postseason home runs in 281 at-bats, along with 14 doubles and a triple. But he did a disproportionate amount of his damage in his five World Series, during which he hit 10 home runs in 98 at-bats (I'm leaving the home run per at-bat computation to you), while adding seven doubles and that triple. His five OPS marks: .841, .945, 1.792 1.196, and 1.096. Yeah, the nickname is apt, all right.

Reggie's got the right to reference the Babe, if he wishes.

But only up to a point. The Babe still had that pitching thing going. In Game 4 of the 1918 World Series, for example, Babe Ruth was pitching and batting sixth. He took a 3-2 lead into the ninth, the first two runs courtesy of his own gap-shot, two-run triple. When the first two men reached base to start the Chicago ninth, Red Sox manager Ed Barrow removed Ruth from the mound, but not the game. Joe Bush took the mound while the Babe went to left field. Bush put out the flame, but if the game had gone into extras, the Babe would still have been been lurking, bat in hand.

So for that, and many other reasons, let's hold off on the Babe comparisons if someone happens to hit a home run in the 2008 postseason. Give the Babe Bernie's 25 postseason series. The numbers would be sick.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at ryan@globe.com.