Going into the 1997 season, the odds -- and the numbers -- were definitely stacked against the Pirates, who many expected to lose 100 games. A look at some of them on opening day that year:

4: Rookies on the roster

6: Players with fewer than 100 career hits

8: Position players that had appeared in fewer than 162 games (the equivalent of a full major-league season)

19: Career wins for Jon Lieber, making him the staff ace

20: Age of starting right fielder Jose Guillen

56: Combined career wins for the starting rotation

23: Players making $350,000 or less

200,000: Median salary of the roster

335,988: Average salary of the roster

1.38: Million dollars that was the average MLB salary

9.071: Million dollars that was the Pirates' entire payroll -- last in MLB

16.454: Million dollars that was the Tigers' payroll -- next-to-last in MLB