Sports Figures with Postseason Kryptonite
Oakland Athletics general manager and Moneyball aficionado Billy Beane famously said, "My s--t doesn't work in the playoffs."
Sometimes, for whatever reason, players, coaches and even front office members seem to have that same playoff albatross hanging around their necks. For some, their postseason performance drops off from their regular-season numbers. For others, their teams simply fail to get it done consistently.
Make note: These are not players who had one bad postseason (looking at you, Roy Hibbert) or teams who have historically had this problem without the presence of one consistent superstar, coach, general manager or owner (hey, St. Louis Blues).
Over the course of sports history, many individuals have had a certain postseason vulnerability, a kind of kryptonite, if you will. Today, we'll take a look at 10 such folks in sports. For some, the evidence is murky, and for others, it's crystal clear.
One thing is true for all. These guys all have that reputation—that reputation that the postseason is their kryptonite.
Honorable Mention: Clayton Kershaw
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Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw gets an honorable mention because he just recently overcame his woeful postseason kryptonite.
Kershaw is a three-time Cy Young winner and easily one of the best pitchers in baseball. He posted an otherworldly 1.77 ERA in 2014 and a slightly more mortal (but still not at all unimpressive) 2.13 figure in 2015. However, his career postseason ERA is 4.59.
Until Game 4 of this year's National League Championship Series, Kershaw had tallied just one postseason win, during the 2013 National League Division Series. It wasn't so much poor pitching all-around, but late-game meltdowns that got him—like Game 1 of the 2014 NLDS. Kershaw was cruising until the seventh, where he proceeded to give up six runs in one inning.
In NLDS Game 4, however, Kershaw came out and pitched seven beautiful innings, allowing just one run on three hits and getting the win, his second ever in the playoffs.
Honorable Mention: Marc-Andre Fleury
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Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has been called a "playoff disaster" by Yahoo Sports' Ryan Lambert and the "worst playoff goalie in hockey" by SB Nation's Travis Hughes. Like Clayton Kershaw, however, Fleury has been able to overcome the bad recently.
For a period of four years, after his 2009 Stanley Cup and before the 2013-14 season, Fleury failed to record a playoff save percentage of over .900. He made some horrendous attempts at saves during that time, and he was benched during the 2013 playoffs. In 2012, he allowed an astonishing 4.63 goals-against average in six games.
Fleury turned things around, however. In the most recent Stanley Cup playoffs, he posted a .927 save percentage and 2.12 GAA. Per Pat Pickens of Aol.com, Penguins center Sidney Crosby said after elimination, "He doesn't have to prove anything to us. He's doing that night after night for us, in the regular season and playoffs. He was great for us again tonight."
Honorable Mention: Tony Romo
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And finally, one last honorable mention for a perennially playoff-challenged pro who finally exorcised his demons. Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo was long thought of as a guy who couldn't get it done in the postseason. (The 2006 bobbled snap, anyone?)
In 2013, Dallas head Jason Garrett told Vinnie Iyer of Sporting News, "The quarterback has a big role in having a really good football team, a championship football team. Tony's done a great job helping us get into some of those games, helping us get an opportunity to win the division, to go to the playoffs, and sometimes it hasn't worked out for our football team."
Sure, Romo's playoff record is still a meager 2-4, but last season's win over the Detroit Lions in the Wild Card Game gave Dallas its first playoff win in five years.
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Alex Rodriguez
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Alex Rodriguez has been historically bad during postseason play, but probably not as bad as people think.
One incredible performance in 2009 helped lead the New York Yankees to a World Series title. In 2000, he hit .308 in the division series and .409 in the American League Championship Series for the Seattle Mariners.
Even including those numbers however, and A-Rod's career postseason line is .259/.365/.457 (compared to a regular-season line of .297/.382/.554), and he's tallied just 13 home runs in 19 playoff series, with six of those coming in 2009. In 2012, Yankees skipper Joe Girardi actually benched him for Game 5 of the division series after he went 2-for-16 in the first four games.
Chris Paul
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Much like a head coach would be, Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul is saddled with a reputation for having postseason kryptonite due to his teams' lack of playoff success. Paul has been to the postseason seven times—three with the then-New Orleans Hornets and four with the Clips—and never made it past the second round.
The truth is his regular-season per-game numbers are virtually identical to his playoff stats. For instance, Paul has posted 18.7 points and 9.9 assists per game over his regular-season career. The postseason counterparts are 20.9 and 9.5.
Perhaps that's part of the problem. In reference to Paul's oft-league-leading assist totals, ESPN's Skip Bayless wrote, "When you watch Chris Paul on the playoff stage, you often sense he is fighting two battles, one against his nature and one against his opponent," suggesting Paul should, perhaps, take over a little more in the playoffs.
It could be that something more intangible—fire, grit—is at play. Or it could be that Paul isn't at fault more than anyone else. Still, he has the reputation, and he will continue to keep it until his team can get over that hump. He's a little like a coach in that way.
Don Mattingly
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Don Mattingly probably would've crushed it as a player in the postseason (just an opinion). Unfortunately, the New York Yankees' streak of 13 straight playoff appearances started in 1995, Mattingly's last season in the bigs.
As manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2011-15, however, Mattingly got slapped with a "can't win in the playoffs" reputation that finally resulted in his exit.
Mattingly's Dodgers have the highest payroll in baseball and have finished first in the National League West over the past three seasons. Still, they have failed to advance to the World Series all three times. None of this is to say what happened to Donny Baseball's team has been entirely his fault, but his situation certainly made him vulnerable to the consequences of postseason failure.
Right or wrong, the powers that be in L.A. must've thought Mattingly had at least a little of that postseason kryptonite.
David Price
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MLB pitcher David Price is a Cy Young winner, 20-game winner and posted a 2.45 ERA during the 2015 regular season.
Despite all that, he continues to underperform in the playoffs. Price is 0-7 as a starter in eight playoff series over the course of his career, according to Mike Oz of Big League Stew. His career regular-season ERA is 3.09, but his career postseason figure jumps to 5.12.
Price had a chance for some Kershaw-like redemption in Game 6 of the ALCS. Instead, he pitched 6.2 innings, allowing three runs on five hits, including two home runs. Not terrible, but he took a no-decision as his Toronto Blue Jays lost the game, 4-3, and the series.
Carmelo Anthony
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In May 2012, ESPN Stats & Info reported that, at the time, New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony had the worst win percentage of any player in history with at least 50 postseason games under his belt.
The Denver Nuggets went to the playoffs every year Anthony was with the team (seven complete seasons), but they were bounced in the first round six of those seven times. The New York Knicks also made the postseason in Anthony's first three seasons there, but never made it past the second round.
Much like Chris Paul, Anthony's postseason numbers rival his regular-season stats—25.7 points and 7.3 rebounds in the postseason, compared to 25.2 and 6.6 in the regular season.
But also like Paul, Anthony serves as the figurehead for his team. When his teams aren't winning, as the superstar, he takes much of the blame.
Rick Nash
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In May, Ryan Lambert of Puck Daddy called New York Rangers left winger Rick Nash "not world-beating, but always respectable" in regular-season play. And it's true, but his goal tally falls off considerably from the regular season to the playoffs.
As of October 26, Nash has a 0.43 goals-per-game mark, a figure that drops to 0.17 in the playoffs (10 in 60 games, per Hockey Reference). In addition, Nash has posted a 12.4 shooting percentage over the course of his 13-year NHL career. In four postseasons, that number is far lower at 4.8.
Of the Rangers' postseason woes (no Stanley Cup since 1994), Nash told Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post:
"That's always in the back of the head. I think what good teams do is forget about whatever happened, whether you win or lose. Teams like Chicago that are there every single year, I don't think they dwell on the ones that they lose, they just move on and try to win more.
"
Wayne Rooney
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For the purpose of the following points about Wayne Rooney, postseason will mean World Cup play. Rooney is England's captain, the country's all-time leading goalscorer and is widely regarded as one of the best players in his nation's history.
However, he has not helped his team to a World Cup title. And despite playing in three World Cups, Rooney has netted just one goal in 11 total matches. Comparatively, he has scored 16 goals in 22 World Cup qualifiers.
According to his ESPNFC profile, Rooney has a "propensity to lose his cool in key games." Rooney himself said in a documentary, Wayne Rooney: The Man Behind The Goals, "I go into tournaments and I'm always confident—for some reason it just hasn't happened. Maybe I just put too much pressure on myself," per Timothy Abraham of Express.
Not to rag on England, but Rooney's teammate, Steven Gerrard, has also shown a tendency to crumble under pressure.
Peyton Manning
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Peyton Manning will go down as one of the greatest NFL quarterbacks ever. He is a 14-time Pro Bowler, Super Bowl champion, five-time MVP and holder of a whole mess of passing records.
Still, he also has the reputation of a great regular-season QB who can't win in the postseason (despite that aforementioned Super Bowl). The prevailing thought is he should have won more.
Manning's teams have made the playoffs 14 times in his career, and he has won just one Super Bowl and compiled a playoff record of 11-13. For comparison's sake, Tom Brady's playoff record is 21-8.
Manning also has a 96.9 regular-season passer rating for his career (through Week 7, third in NFL history) and just an 88.5 rating in the playoffs.
Billy Beane
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Since Billy Beane became general manager of the Oakland Athletics in 1998, the team has had 11 winning seasons and won over 100 games twice. One of those came in 2002, when the team also achieved an American League record 20-game win streak.
Still, the A's have made the postseason eight times in the Beane era but only advanced past the division series once, in 2006, when they got swept out of the ALCS.
Beane's success as a GM has come largely on the back of his sabermetric-based strategy, aka Moneyball. And though he's undoubtedly trying to change this, he himself once told Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball, "My s--t doesn't work in the playoffs."
Marvin Lewis
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Some might be tempted to say Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton has postseason kryptonite. His team has posted a winning record in four consecutive seasons only to lose in the Wild Card Game each time.
Still, even more so than Dalton, head coach Marvin Lewis can't seem to notch that first postseason win. In 12 years of trying in Cincinnati, Lewis is 0-6 in postseason games. Besides 2011-14, Lewis' team also made the playoffs in 2005 and 2009, losing each time.
In July, Lewis told Paul Daugherty of the Cincinnati Enquirer, "We're good enough, but we have to play good enough." He also said of team owner Mike Brown, "I want to hand Mike the trophy, then just walk away."
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