| 4/25/95 | BTG | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MLB | +5.0 | LAD 8, FLA 7 | Raul Mondesi CF | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ |
Box-Toppers Toppers Box
Today’s key Box-Toppers numbers. Click links to jump to charts elsewhere on this page.▪️ Player of the Game: 4/25/1995
▪️ Players of the Game: 4/26/1995
▪️ B-T points of top players for 4/25 & 4/26/1995
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On April 25, 1995, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Florida Marlins, 8-7, to open the 1995 regular season.
The next day, in Richmond, Indiana, where I lived at the time, I picked up my Palladium-Item newspaper from my front step, turned to the sports section and examined the box score for the game. Using a formula I devised during the previous season, I determined that Raul Mondesi was Box-Toppers Player of the Game—the player who most contributed to the Dodgers’ win. Mondesi hit a pair of two-run home runs, doubled and went 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in four runs.
That game 30 years ago marked the beginning of Box-Toppers. Now in its 31st season, Box-Toppers has analyzed box scores from more than 70,000 regular season games, determining a top player in each game, rewarding points to the top players and tracking and ranking those points by player and team.
The Dodgers win was the sole game on the opening day of the 1995 season, which had been delayed until April 25 by the 1994-95 baseball strike. The 1995 season was shortened from 162 to 144 games.
Raul Mondesi: 1st Box-Toppers Player of the Game
Mondesi had a Box-Toppers game score of +5.0 that day, highest of all Dodgers players, to earn Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors worth 1.0 Box-Toppers point. Since it was also the only game of the day, Mondesi was also Box-Toppers Player of the Day, worth a bonus 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 2.0 total Box-Toppers points, the first such points ever awarded.
Mondesi would go on to earn Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors five times during the 1995 regular season, including earning overall Player of the Day honors a second time on Aug. 1, giving him 7.0 Box-Toppers points for the season, which ranked 13th among National League outfielders. He earned 59.9 Box-Toppers points from 1995 to 2003, which ranks 60th among all outfielders since 1995. However, it should be noted Mondesi also played in 1993 and 1994 and likely would have additional career Box-Toppers points.
April 26, 1995: Box-Toppers’ first full slate of games
The next day, April 26, 1995, was the first full slate of Major League Baseball games for the season with 13 games played. Those Player of the Game winners are listed in the chart elsewhere on the page. Some of the highlights:
Box-Toppers Player of the Game winners, April 26, 1995
Here are Box-Toppers Player of the Game winners for April 26, 1995, the second day of Box-Toppers player tracking and the first day a full slate of games was played in the 1995 season. Player of the Game winners are listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score (BTG)| 4/26/95 | BTG | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MLB | +11.2 | KC 5, BAL 1 | Kevin Appier, W (1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | |
| NL | +7.0 | ATL 12, SF 5 | Fred McGriff 1B | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| BAT | +5.0 | TOR 13, OAK 1 | Devon White CF | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +5.0 | MIL 12, CHW 3 | Pat Listach 2B | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +5.0 | BOS 9, MIN 0 | Aaron Sele, W (1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| +3.0 | STL 7, PHI 6 | Scott Cooper 3B | 5 | 1 | 3 | 4 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | LAD 4, FLA 2 | Eric Karros 1B | 4 | 0 | 3 | 4 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | HOU 10, SD 2 | Derek Bell CF | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | DET 5, CAL 4 | Juan Samuel DH | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | NYY 8, TEX 6 | Danny Tartabull RF | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | MON 6, PIT 2 | Jeff Fassero, W (1‑0) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| +2.0 | COL 11, NYM 9 (F/14) | Joe Girardi C | 7 | 4 | 4 | 1 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +2.0 | CHC 7, CIN 1 | Ozzie Timmons PH‑LF | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ |
AL—Overall American League Player of the Day, worth 1.7 total Box-Toppers points.
NL—Overall National League Player of the Day, worth 1.7 total Box-Toppers points.
BAT—Top AL or NL Batter of the Day, worth 1.5 total Box-Toppers points.
All other players listed here earn Player of the Game honors, worth 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
` Pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save.
Kevin Appier, Player of the Day
Royals pitcher Kevin Appier was Box-Toppers overall Player of the Day (6.2IP 0H 0R 2BB 7K W in the 5-1 win over the Orioles) earning 2.0 total Box-Toppers points.
He had the highest Box-Toppers game score (+11.2) among the 13 who earned Player of the Game honors that day. Appier earned 16.4 Box-Toppers points in 1995, fourth among all players and second among American League pitchers. It was one of 11 times in 1995 he earned Player of the Game honors and one of four times that season he was overall Player of the Day.
Appier earned 68.5 Box-Toppers points from 1995 to 2003, 135th among pitchers since 1995. Appier’s career began in 1989, so he would likely have additional career Box-Toppers points.
(See the chart elsewhere on this page, Box-Toppers point totals of top players for April 25-26, 1995, to see 1995 and career Box-Toppers point totals and rankings for all Player of the Game winners for Box-Toppers’ first two days of tracking.)
Fred McGriff, NL Player of the Day
Fred McGriff of the Braves was Box-Toppers NL Player of the Day (2HR 4-5 3R 5BI in the 12-5 win over the Giants) earning 1.7 Box-Toppers points. He earned 1.0 point for being Player of the Game and 0.7 bonus points for having the highest Box-Toppers game score (+7.0) among all that day’s NL Player of the Game winners.
It was one of nine times in 1995 that McGriff earned Player of the Game honors. He finished the season with 10.7 Box-Toppers points, ninth among NL batters.
The Braves went on to win the World Series in 1995 with players such as Greg Maddux (23.4 Box-Toppers points, second overall and first among NL pitchers), closer Mark Wohlers (9.0 Box-Toppers points, ninth among NL pitchers) and Ryan Klesko (11.0 Box-Toppers points, eighth among NL batters). [See detailed season leaders for 1995—and each of the subsequent 29 seasons through 2024—in Box-Toppers details leaders chart.]
McGriff went on to have 57.7 Box-Toppers points from 1995 to 2003, which ranks 39th among all first basemen since 1995. (McGriff would likely have more career Box-Toppers points if his career which began in 1986 were tracked.)
Related: A Box-Toppers comparison of Braves title teams from 1995 and 2021
Devon White, AL Batter of the Day
Devon White of the Blue Jays was Box-Toppers AL Batter of the Day (3B 2B 3-4 2R 4BI in the 13-1 win over the Athletics) earning 1.5 Box-Toppers points.
He earned 1.0 point for being Player of the Game and 0.5 bonus points for having the highest Box-Toppers game score (+5.0) among all that day’s Player of the Game winners among AL batters.
Pat Listach of the Brewers, Player of the Game winner in the 12-3 win over the White Sox, also had a Box-Toppers game score of +5.0, but White beat him for AL Batter of the Day honors because he had more at bats—four vs. three. (The Brewers were in the AL in 1995.)
White earned Player of the Game honors five times in 1995, earning 5.5 total Box-Toppers points, 16th among AL outfielders. White earned 29.0 total Box-Toppers points from 1995 to 2001, but his career began in 1985, so he would likely have more points if those games were tracked.
Other Player of the Game winners
There was no NL Batter of the Day for April 26, 1995, because the day’s top NL player was batter Fred McGriff. The remaining 11 players who earned Player of the Game honors, listed in the chart on this page, all earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
Box-Toppers point totals of top players for April 25-26, 1995
Here are Box-Toppers point totals of each of the Player of the Game winners for April 25 and 26, 1995, the first two days of Box-Toppers tracking 25 years ago. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total they earned for the entire 1995 season. Also shown are each players’ rank in Box-Toppers points for 1995, followed by their subsequent career Box-Toppers point totals, their overall rank in career points among all players from 1995-2025, the year they began their career and the final year of their career. Since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995, players who played before that might have earned additional Box-Toppers points if their careers were tracked prior to 1995.| Player | Pos | Team | ’95 B‑T pts | ’95 rank | Career B‑T pts | Career rank | Year began | Year ended |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kevin Appier | pi sp | kc al | 16.4 | 5 | 68.5 | 233 | 1989 | 2004 |
| Eric Karros | 1b | lad nl | 11.7 | 17 | 59.2 | 336 | 1991 | 2004 |
| Fred McGriff | 1b | atl nl | 10.7 | 23 | 57.7 | 346 | 1986 | 2004 |
| Derek Bell | cf | hou nl | 9.7 | 35 | 41.9 | 539 | 1991 | 2001 |
| Raul Mondesi | cf | lad nl | 7.0 | 79 | 59.9 | 324 | 1993 | 2005 |
| Joe Girardi | ca | col nl | 6.0 | 126 | 14.5 | 1595 | 1989 | 2003 |
| Devon White | cf | tor al | 5.5 | 143 | 29.0 | 887 | 1985 | 2001 |
| Ozzie Timmons | ph lf | chi nl | 5.0 | 181 | 7.5 | 2419 | 1995 | 2000 |
| Jeff Fassero | pi sp | mon nl | 4.0 | 204 | 49.3 | 440 | 1991 | 2006 |
| Juan Samuel | dh | det al | 4.0 | 223 | 10.0 | 1980 | 1983 | 1998 |
| Aaron Sele | pi sp | bos al | 2.0 | 340 | 55.2 | 362 | 1993 | 2007 |
| Danny Tartabull | rf | nyy al | 2.0 | 383 | 6.5 | 2601 | 1984 | 1997 |
| Scott Cooper | 3b | phi nl | 2.0 | 418 | 2.0 | 3980 | 1990 | 1997 |
| Pat Listach | 2b | mil al | 1.0 | 572 | 3.0 | 3552 | 1992 | 1997 |
Total players receiving Box-Toppers points in 1995—651
Total players receiving Box-Toppers points from 1995-2025—5,155 (through April 22)
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
A brief history of Box-Toppers
While Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995, it wasn’t until 2013 that results were shared more widely, when the website Box-Toppers.com was launched (that happened March 25, 2013, with a post incorrectly predicting the Dodgers would beat the Blue Jays in that year’s World Series.)
The Box-Toppers Baseball Email Newsletter began in 2023.
Back when I began the system in 1995, there was no thought—no real possibility even—to share the system widely. It was done mainly so I could better learn about the game’s top players after not following baseball for more than a decade. The internet was in its dial-up infancy, at least for me, so there was no feasible way at that point to post results online.
Things have changed through the years. In the early years, baseball box scores were found almost exclusively in printed-on-paper newspapers. If games went late, beyond a newspaper’s press time, they did not appear in the next morning’s paper—and sometimes never appeared. Online box scores were only starting to become available but often they were incomplete. It seems impossible now even for me to believe, but trips to the library were necessary to track down out-of-town newspapers to fill in missing game box scores from the previous week. Box scores were often shunted into narrow spaces in newspapers, meaning they would only list a player’s last name—or worse, they would truncate or abbreviate a player’s last name. If there was no game narrative or only a limited one attached to the box score, it was sometimes difficult to know precisely which player was listed.
Here are the 10 players with the most career Box-Toppers points since tracking began 30 years ago today (April 25, 1995). While these standings are from the end of the 2024 season, no active players among these 10 have earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors in 2025, so the point totals are still accurate. Details: Little change in Box-Toppers ‘all-time’ career points top 10 lists during 2024
In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the delay of that year’s Major League Baseball season until July, I had time to audit some Box-Toppers results from the 1995 season. This was done to ensure I was consistent in applying Box-Toppers rules and that I was using accurate information. There were a few minor changes (which included Randy Johnson gaining 3.7 more Box-Toppers points).
But the biggest change was correcting incomplete results from those early days. For example, on June 2, 1995, a White Sox player listed as “Vllre, L,” in my newspaper box score was Player of the Game. Until I audited the results 25 years later, looking up the complete box score on BaseballReference.com, I did not know that it was actually catcher Mike LaValliere, who played from 1984 to 1995 and earned Player of the Game honors twice in 1995, earning 2.0 Box-Toppers points.
Immediate access to accurate, updated information became far more reliable after 2000. Box scores gradually became available online and were updated shortly after a game’s finish. Complete Box-Toppers results for all of a day’s games could be compiled the next morning. Technology improved to the point that it became possible to post results each morning on a website—and that’s when the Box-Toppers.com website and blog began in 2013.
Biggest change in 30 years: Decline of once-dominant batters
Box-Toppers began as a way to determine the top players in the game based on each game’s top player and each day’s top players. And while the way to determine those top players has remained unchanged, the results have changed over the years.
The biggest and most notable change is that batters, who consistently earned half or more of all Box-Toppers points awarded prior to 2010, saw their status diminish considerably in the decade of the 2010s, as the balance of power swung decisively to pitchers.
From 2000 to 2009, batters earned 51.7 percent of all Box-Toppers points awarded. But from 2010 to 2024, batters have earned an average of 41.4 percent of points each season, compared to 58.6 percent for pitchers. In 2024, pitchers earned 62.8 percent of all points awarded, their largest share in 30 seasons of Box-Toppers tracking.
Box-Toppers has shown the balance that was once in the game is gone as batters’ performances, relative to pitchers’, has declined and declined precipitously. It’s not getting better in 2025. It’s early in the season, but batters are already on track to set a new record low, winning only 36.9 percent of all points through the games of April 17.
About Box-Toppers
Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.
Box-Toppers strives for accuracy. See a mistake in a post? A wrong name, wrong team, grammar error, spelling goof, etc.? Thanks for pointing it out! Contact Box-Toppers here. Let's fix it and make it right.
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(This post is modified from Box-Toppers’ 25th anniversary post of April 25, 2020. That post included a lot about the COVID-19 pandemic, which had recently begun and was at that point, indefinitely delaying the start of the 2020 season. The season, shortened from 162 to 60 games, finally began in late July.)