Category: MLB

The Texas Rangers won the right to negotiate with Japanese sensation Yu Darvish, submitting a record $51.7 million bid. When will Major League Baseball learn?

Scouting reports attest that Darvish throws seven different pitches, all with extraordinary skill. The hype surrounding Darvish is reminiscent of Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Red Sox bust who never came close to living up to his reputation as the savior–in-waiting for the Boston staff.  Remember the Gyro ball which through its “double spin” mechanics was going to baffle even the most fearsome American League hitters? You could buy a Dice-K DVD that explained the Gyro ball’s mysteries.

The Miami Marlins began the offseason with four very big splashes.  The normally spend thrift  habits of owner Jeffrey Loria went out the window with a brand new ballpark and a wish to contend, not just now, but for the foreseeable future. The Marlins dove in and got not just their feet wet, but even splashed their neighbours in the process.

They need Prince Fielder to complete the transition.  They needed Albert Pujols but he’s in California now.  They need a big, strong, fearsome power hitter. It seems only the Chicago Cubs and perhaps the Washington Nationals have any practical and realistic interest in Fielder at this point.

The Milwaukee Brewers have stated that, with the signing of free agent Aramis Ramirez, their pockets are empty.  They have no interest in their former star, at least not at his asking price. Rumours were flying that the Toronto Blue Jays would take a run at Fielder. Fielder likely wouldn’t play in Canada. The Texas Rangers have been mentioned. The Seattle Mariners and Baltimore Orioles might still be in the running but it is unlikely Prince would sign onto a team which is essentially going nowhere for the foreseeable future. It appears that those rumours were just that, rumors. No online sportsbook favorable odds for the O’s.  Click here to check out the odds.

With the relatively quick signings of Jose Reyes, Heath Bell and the signing of Mark Buehrle and new manager Ozzie Guillen, the Marlins didn’t blink, until lately.  They seem to have abandoned their frugal ways but need to take one more giant step to complete the transformation. This winter’s signings are a big step towards improving their playoff hopes but are not enough to get the Marlins over the hump in the National League East.

Prince Fielder would be and here’s why.

Jose Reyes, while not a marked improvement over Hanley Ramirez, is a genuine star player when healthy and theoretically allows the Marlins to move incumbent Hanley Ramirez to third, filling a gaping hole which has existed at that position for some time now. I say theoretically because reports are that Ramirez is not interested in a position switch.  If Miami can convince their star player to take one for the team, the left side of their infield becomes one of the best in baseball.

The signing of Heath Bell instantly fixes a shaky closer position.  Without a star closer, no team can seriously contend or advance far into the playoffs. Many stat geeks will point out that closers are over rated and Miami paid too much for theirs.  Tell that to the New York Yankees.  Tell that to the teams who don’t have a lockdown ninth inning specialist.  Bell will make a big difference. Bell will allow the other bullpen pitchers to return to the setup or specialist roles they are more comfortable with. Bell will take all the pressure off the entire staff.  He’s a proven lock the game down pitcher.

Mark Buehrle, while not one of those starting pitchers who rack up the strikeouts and intimidates opposing hitters with a blazing fastball or his mound presence, is you’re much needed, innings eating, dependable game in and game out type of starter.  The Marlins need starting pitching.  The rotation they entered the winter with is solid, with a true ace as their number one, but Johnson is too fragile.  The number two and three starters are hot and cold.  They now have a solid anchor, probably a number two arm.

Now the Marlins need to sign a big, scary bat, someone to guide young star Mike Stanton to greatness and to carry the power weight for this team.  They need a hitter who can quickly turn a game around and who would allow them to slug it out toe to toe with the Philadelphia Phillies.  They need a face for the franchise at a time which might be a critical crossroad.  Prince Fielder is that player.  He’s coming into his prime.  Many scouts contend that in two or three years, Fielder will be slow and cumbersome and a better DH candidate than anything else. The history of baseball is full of big, slow moving, not that great in the field first basemen.  That’s why many of them played first base or moved there later in their careers. No one knows how the new Marlin ballpark is going to play but one thing seems a no brainer to me.  Sign Fielder for seven or eight seasons.

Do what it takes.  As my father used to say, come big or don’t come at all.

The awarding of another, (third time is the charm), franchise to Washington, steroids, the All Star game and November baseball.   Let’s continue where we left off last time.  Ad naseum, intellectual Latin for: It makes me sick to my stomach.  More or less.

I touched briefly on the subject of the rape of the Montreal Expos last week.  The story continues with the awarding of this franchise to Washington, D.C.  Once again we have a conflict of interest situation.  The owner of the Washington Nationals and the commissioner of baseball, Bud Selig are close personal and business friends. Washington had previously been awarded two franchises, both of which eventually moved to other cities.  Both moves were precipitated by a lack of fan interest in the team.  This was the excuse given by baseball for the closing down of the Montreal Expos franchise.

The search began for a location which promised intense fan interest and a successful and vibrant new beginning.  Other potential markets were “discussed” and then dismissed as not viable.  The choice came down to, (the only one really considered), and the manipulation began. The usual press propaganda was released and suddenly, Washington, despite its previous failures, was chosen as the most likely site.  Money was quickly raised for the building of a new stadium and the search for a name to hide the past failures behind the senators was decided upon.  Somehow, the owner of the Baltimore Orioles, a man known for stubbornly holding his ground and a fierce defender of his territorial rights, was persuaded to waive those concerns and sign on the dotted line.  Friends in high places indeed.

Steroids has once again raised its unwanted head with the release of a report that Ryan Braun has tested positive.  The tireless efforts of the commissioner’s office to ignore this cheating and the “oh, that was in the past, unfortunate but can’t we all just forget about it” propaganda is self serving and dishonest to say the least.  The so called standards which have been apparently put in place were quickly put aside with the news that Manny Ramirez will be allowed to reenter Major League Baseball and, despite having been caught twice, would serve only a 50-game suspension, the penalty for a first-time offender. Allowing Mark McGwire to be hired on by St. Louis as a coach sends the wrong message as well. A policy can’t be a policy when enforced depending on which way the wind is blowing on that particular day. It’s either wrong, or it isn’t. The current chest puffing on HGH testing is also unwarranted. I’m sorry that I got caught, not that I did something less than above board.

The All Star game was changed from a pleasant and fun mid-season exhibition to a game which could decide the World Series the next season. This almost relegated a back seat afterthought to the World Series by what used to be and should be a pleasant midsummer diversion.  This idea is quite simply, the wrong approach. This was done to divert attention from and to speed the end of memory of the Bud Selig-inspired tie game during the 2002 game. Of course, this solution and the 2002 game show the incompetence of the commissioner more than his corruption. This wasn’t the end of the All-Star fiasco either.  I’m in favor of fan voting, but allowing up to 25 votes per fan seems more akin to the elections in several third world countries.   It grossly inflates the actual numbers of fans who vote.  Instead of making glorified claims as to the popularity of the sport, it would be much better served to let actual numbers reflect as to the relative health of the game and get a much clearer and viable indication of what needs to be done.

In 2010, we were treated to November baseball. This could also be named, let’s ensure that the New York Yankees, TV’s biggest market, at the pleading of Fox Sports, make it to the World Series. Never before had I witnessed off day which were not travel days. But theses off days, non travel days, would help a team which had only two viable starting pitchers not have to dip into the rest of the rotation which was certainly not playoff worthy. Apparently, baseball feels that it needs the Yankees and/or RedSox in the finals every season.  TV money speaks far louder than the so called competitive equality which Selig boasts about each season. It was only his bad luck which has seen different champions for the past several seasons. November baseball is flirting with disaster, (see 2008 Tampa Bay-Philadelphia). Baseball shouldn’t be played in November. Check the history of weather patterns throughout the years.

The list goes on and on but enough already.  At least that’s what the commissioner’s office would prefer.

What he did: I gave Jack Morris a vote for my recent project on the 50 best players not in the Hall of Fame. I even said he belonged in Cooperstown. Felt a little sheepish after I started counting votes– Morris, one of the more polarizing figures in baseball today, fell big in our rankings. After finishing No. 36 in the 2010 edition of the project, Morris plummeted all the way to a tie for 52nd with Rick Reuschel  this year. It made sense in the respect that advanced research shows Morris to be somewhat overrated, and a lot of my voters this year were members of the Society for American Baseball Research.

Plenty of fans and old-school writers could care less about advanced research, though and bemoan Morris’s absence from Cooperstown. Needless to say, our voting wasn’t well-received by one person who commented:

Jack Morris not being included is a joke. 4 world series rings. WS MVP. Pitched the greatest game in WS history. If that was for the Yankees, he would have been in the hall years ago.

It’s a joke.

I don’t agree, particularly since Don Larsen isn’t in the Hall of Fame or our Top 50, and he pitched the actual greatest game in World Series history and did it for the Yankees to boot. Still, the comment made me think.

Morris sports a 254-190 lifetime record and 1991 World Series heroics that grow more mythical by the year. He also won the most games of any pitcher in the 1980s, maybe helped by the fact he was on winning Detroit Tiger teams nine of those years (Detroit finally went 59-103 in 1989 and an injury-plagued Morris staggered to 6-14.) Still, the biggest thing keeping Morris out of Cooperstown might be his 3.90 ERA, higher than any man enshrined. Morris didn’t need Yankee pinstripes for a Hall of Fame plaque. He needed an era where his ERA could have been lower.

Era he might have thrived in: With his durability, good for at least 240 innings ten times in his career, Morris might have been well-suited for the 1960s. The pitcher-friendly era might take somewhere close to one run off his ERA, and on the 1968 Tigers, Morris could stand in for Mickey Lolich who had postseason brilliance of his own that year, winning three games in the World Series. That all might be enough for Cooperstown.

Why: Hall of Fame voting doesn’t always deal in context. Morris could take his exact same abilities, his 105 ERA+ and 39.3 WAR which rank near the bottom for enshrined pitchers and have passable surface stats in the right era. Playing his best years in the 1960s, this could mean an ERA somewhere in the lower half of the 3.00s. If that didn’t satisfy the Baseball Writers Association of America in its Hall voting, Morris would at least probably be honored by the Veterans Committee.

There’s a tool on Baseball-Reference.com that converts stats between different eras based largely on average number of runs scored. Since earned run average directly relates to this, it’s a good tool to see how Morris’s ERA might fare with the ’68 Tigers. In short, he’d do well with them for any number of seasons from his career. Take 1986, where Morris went 21-8 with a 3.27 for Detroit; that’d be good for 16-13 with a 2.60 ERA in 1968. Or there’s the strike-shortened 1981 season where Morris led the American League with 14 wins against seven losses and a 3.05 ERA; in 1968, that would come to 20-14 with a 2.53 ERA.

Whatever the case, it’d be a huge benefit for a man who, in real life, never had a season with a sub-3.00 ERA. Then there’s the fact that playing prior to 1980 when four-man rotations were common, Morris might get enough additional starts over the course of his career for 300 wins. Heck, Morris wouldn’t need a fairytale ten-inning shutout in Game 7 of a World Series for his plaque. Fans would have to find another non-enshrined player to get angry about.

Any player/Any era is a Thursday feature here that looks at how a player might have done in an era besides his own.

Others in this series: Al Simmons, Albert Pujols, Babe Ruth, Bad News Rockies,Barry Bonds, Billy Beane, Billy Martin, Bob Caruthers, Bob Feller, Bob Watson,Bobby Veach, Carl Mays, Charles Victory Faust, Chris von der Ahe,Denny McLain, Dom DiMaggio, Don Drysdale, Eddie Lopat, Frank Howard, Fritz Maisel, Gavvy Cravath, George Case, George Weiss, Harmon Killebrew, Harry Walker, Home Run Baker, Honus Wagner, Hugh Casey, Ichiro Suzuki, Jack Clark, Jackie Robinson, Jim Abbott, Jimmy Wynn, Joe DiMaggio, Joe Posnanski, Johnny Antonelli, Johnny Frederick, Josh Hamilton, Ken Griffey Jr., Lefty Grove, Lefty O’Doul, Major League (1989 film),Matty Alou, Michael Jordan, Monte Irvin, Nate Colbert, Ollie Carnegie, Paul Derringer, Pedro Martinez, Pee Wee Reese, Pete Rose, Prince Fielder, Ralph Kiner, Rick Ankiel, Rickey Henderson,Roberto Clemente, Rogers Hornsby, Sam Crawford, Sam Thompson,Sandy Koufax, Satchel Paige, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Stan Musial, Ted Williams, The Meusel Brothers, Ty Cobb, Vada Pinson, Wally Bunker, Wes Ferrell
, Will Clark, Willie Mays

Editor’s note: This week’s edition of “Any player/Any era” will be published Thursday afternoon.

_______________

Baseball fans are righteously shocked and disgusted at the ludicrous contract offered by the Anaheim Angels and accepted by Albert Pujols. But I recall another winter transaction even more stunning although it took place on a smaller stage.

During the 1956-1957 season, the Puerto Rican League Santurce Cangrejeros sold Roberto Clemente, the team’s superstar, local hero and the island’s most beloved figure to its rival Caguas Criollos.

Baseball, as owners constantly remind us, is a business. The Clemente sale is an outstanding example of how money can be the overriding factor in front office decisions.

Here’s how it happened. The Crabbers’ owner, Pedrin Zorrilla had sustained heavy losses in running his club and could no longer afford to to carry on. So although Zorrilla loved his Crabbers, he reluctantly sold the ball club to Ramon Cuevas, a business potentate. Cuevas’s first move was to liquidate the Crabbers debts by selling Clemente, Juan Pizarro and Ronnie Samford to Caguas for $30,000. The move, which Zorrilla would never have considered, horrified the former owner and shocked all of Puerto Rico.

The transaction so enraged Ruben Gomez that when he heard the news in the clubhouse, he tore off his uniform and swore he would never play another game.

But the deal backfired on Caguas. Even though Clemente was hitting a torrid .400 and was in the middle of an 18-game hitting streak, Caguas ended up tied for third place with the San Juan Senators. In a single elimination game for the final playoff spot against the Ralph Houk-led Senators, Caguas lost 4-1. Entering the game, Clemente needed to go 2-4 to secure .400 but fell one hit short and ended the year at .396 to win the batting crown with the decade’s highest average.

The Senators’ winning pitcher was Luis “Tite” Arroyo who won 111 games in his 19-year Caribbean League career, an astonishing total given that the seasons lasted a mere three months and games were played only on the weekend.

In an interesting footnote, when Clemente went to Caguas he took Sandy Koufax’s roster spot. Caguas was forced to release Koufax because of a new regulation that limited “imports” (American-born players) to three. In Koufax’s final appearance, he pitched a two-hit shut out against Santurce with Clemente getting both hits.

During his fifteen seasons with the Santurce, Caguas, and San Juan, Clemente compiled a .323 batting average. He competed in five championships: two with Santurce, two with San Juan and one with Caguas. Clemente played for Puerto Rican teams that twice won the Caribbean Series on two occasions, and as manager, he directed the San Juan team to two playoff appearances in two seasons.

In a few weeks, Pittsburgh Pirates fans will have to face a chilling reality: the baseball season, and thus the Pirates 20^th consecutive losing year, will be right around the corner.

Last week I finished off my column with the words, “I’m just getting started”.  The more I think about the Bud Selig illegacy, the more I am realizing that this topic could indeed turn into a novel of epic length, something akin to The Decline and fall of The Roman Empire.   There is so much to reveal and discuss concerning the man who has tried everything in his power to destroy this wonderful game of baseball.  And the hits just keep on coming.

Selig has long had a very shady relationship with current Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria.  Loria is a name which is still reviled in the city of Montreal .  The dubious financial transactions between Loria and the now owner of the Boston Red Sox; bribery and the contraction scheme of a few years past to the present day investigation by the securities; and exchange commission concerning the Miami Marlins stadium deal– all hint at the possible involvement of Selig.   The baseball world should be gathering outside of Miller Park to, as was done in ancient Roman times, unceremoniously tear down the statues of their corrupt and former Caesars.

Selig, as owner of the Brewers, is thought of fondly in many parts of Milwaukee as the man who brought baseball back to that wonderful city.  This is all despite the fact that he ran this franchise into the ground, left the fans with a team in which little money was ever invested in and then as owner was at the same time, the commissioner of baseball.  The term conflict of interest began to rear its ugly head.  After being exposed for this conflict of interest, Selig defended himself by switching the day to day operations of the Brewers to his daughter.  He claimed that this would satisfy any conflict of interest charges as he had little or no influence…on his own daughter.

The Montreal Expos were allowed to wither and die on the vine.  Star players were allowed to be traded for what amounted to little more than Triple A players and plans for a new and modern baseball park in downtown Montreal were scuttled by Loria and I suspect his good friend Bud Selig.  Almost any other franchise you could name would not be allowed to hurt the city and destroy a franchise whose fans showed they were very supportive of a team which, through good times and bad, did support the team.  Loria wanted to buy the then Florida Marlins, owned by current Boston owner John Henry, and Selig was just the man to do it.  At one point, Henry owned both the Marlins and RedSox, illegal by any business laws.  The evoking of the best interest of baseball remained securely locked in the top drawer in the commissioner’s office.  Baseball purchased the Expos from Loria allowing him to buy the Florida Marlins.  There were also interest free loans involved.

There’s more. The owner of the Minnesota Twins was offered hundreds of millions of dollars by Selig to contract the team a few seasons ago.  This money was much more than Carl Pohlad could have received had he sold the team on the open market. There was no logical reason to contract the Twins.  Attendance was good and they had been successful.  Pohlad and Selig were very good friends and financial buddies. After the media became aware of this situation, the flood of negative press saw Selig suddenly abandon these contraction plans.  But Loria got the Marlins and Henry got the RedSox.

All of the above, brief as this discussion is, point to obvious and very dubious and probably illegal, financial wheeling and dealings encouraged if not tacitly sanctioned by the one man who is supposed to be looking after major league baseball.   All of this by the man who boasts that revenues have quadrupled over the last few years.  So have ticket prices, concession prices and team souvenirs.

I’ll be going on to part three next week.  The awarding of another, (third time is the charm), franchise to Washington, steroids, the All Star game, November baseball and other topics-if I have the stomach for it.  Right now I’m suddenly not feeling that well.

In his recent guest post on Hardball Times, my friend and fellow baseball historian Graham Womack mentioned in passing that he had never heard of pitcher Bob Kuzava.Read Graham’s post “Getting One Vote for the Hall of Fame” here.

Let’s be clear from the outset. There’s not a reason in the world that anyone outside of diehard New York Yankee fans from the mid-1950s should recognize Kuzava’s name. The journeyman left hander who pitched for eight teams in 10 years (Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Washington Senators, Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals) and compiled a 49-44 record with a 4.05 ERA is completely forgettable.

But as was so often the case with the Yankees during their run of five consecutive World Championships, a player—usually a pitcher—would rise out of obscurity to perform spectacularly at a critical moment to help deliver a key game to the Yankees.

So it was with Kuzava in 1951, his best season. After posting an 8-4 record with a 2.40 ERA Kuzava, who had started eight games, took a seat in the Yankees’ bull pen for the World Series against the crosstown rival New York Giants. With Vic Raschi and Eddie Lopat winning 21 games and Allie Reynolds 17, manager Casey Stengel’s starting rotation was set.

In the sixth game, the Yankees were coasting with a 4-1 lead in the top of the ninth. But Johnny Sain, pitching in relief of starter Reynolds, faltered, gave up two runs and left the bases full when Stengel summoned Kuzava.  Press box reporters thought Stengel was crazy since the next two batters were right handed, Monte Irvin and Bobby Thompson. But Stengel’s gamble paid off. Irvin and Thompson hit back-to-back sacrifice flies that scored two runs but left Kuzava with only one out to collect.

With the score now 4-3, it was Giants’ manager Leo Durocher’s turn to play a hunch. Durocher chose right handed, back up catcher Sal Yvars to hit for the lefty Hank Thompson. Yvars, understudy to Wes Westrum, had made a mere 41 regular season plate appearances.

That set the stage for one of the World Series’ most thrilling finishes. With Whitey Lockman in scoring position and representing the tying run, Yvars lifted a weak fly ball to right field that, in the late afternoon sun and with the shifting winds, seemed sure to drop in. But Hank Bauer, playing right in place of the injured Mickey Mantle, made a lunging dive and came up with the ball. The game and the series were over.

Kuzava earned the save, an achievement he repeated in 1952 in the seventh gameagainst the Brooklyn Dodgers. Although the Dodgers slugging right handed line up feasted on lefties, especially in Ebbets Field where the game was played, Kuzava set down the last eight batters: Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson (on another famous lunging catch, this one by Billy Martin falling on his knees near the pitcher’s mound), Roy Campanella, Andy Pafko, Carl Furillo, Bobby Morgan, Billy Cox and Pee Wee Reese. Once again, Stengel’s faith in Kuzava paid off.

Now 88 and living in Michigan, Kuzava’s friends call him “Sarge,” his rank during World War II where he served from 1943 to 1945.

What he did: In 1934, Babe Ruth was nearing the end of his storied career. With Ruth’s production having once again slipped and his 40th birthday looming, the New York Yankees chose to release their legend after he returned from a goodwill trip to Japan. The Sultan of Swat’s fondest wish was to manage in the majors, though the best the Yankees could offer was for him to run their top farm club. As owner Jacob Ruppert famously remarked of Ruth, “How can he manage a team when he can’t even manage himself?”

Ruth rejected New York’s offer, listening to his wife who told him he was strictly a big league person. Instead, Ruth went to the Boston Braves for one more bleak, bloated season, looking grotesque in the outfield and serving in an empty role as vice president. He lasted a few months, and save for a role as hitting coach for the Brooklyn Dodgers two seasons later was done in baseball. The apocrephyal story, told by Ruth’s wife after his death in 1948, was that he sat by the phone the rest of his life waiting for a call to manage that never came.

Era he might have thrived in: It’s interesting to wonder what might have been if pride hadn’t gotten the best of the Bambino. The minor league team he refused to run, the Newark Bears went on in 1937 to have one of the greatest seasons ever for a farm club, going 109-43 and winning the International League by 25-1/2 games. A number of future big leaguers starred for those Bears including Charlie Keller, who hit a circuit-best .353.  Once, after a player got promoted to the Yankees, a fellow Bear remarked it was “because he couldn’t crack the lineup here.” It seems if Ruth had sat on the Newark bench, he’d have gotten some credit for their success and earned his shot managing in the majors.

Why: First of all, this tact worked for the Newark manager in ’37, Ossie Vitt, who parlayed his team’s brilliance into a stint the following three seasons managing the Cleveland Indians (interestingly, Vitt went 262-198 those years, never finishing worse than third, though he was unpopular with his players and didn’t last as manager beyond 1940.) While I don’t know if the Bambino could have unseated Joe McCarthy in pinstripes, as the Yankees were on an unprecedented run of their own in the late ’30s, an impressive showing in Newark might have gotten Ruth the job in Cleveland or elsewhere.

I’ll add that I think Ruth was unfairly judged. No doubt he drank and caroused, but I can’t see character resolutely determining a manager’s odds for success. There have simply been too many exceptions to this throughout baseball history, the Boston Red Sox new hire Bobby Valentine only the latest example. In earlier years, John McGraw was a wild young manager with the New York Giants, Leo Durocher returned from a gambling-related ban to lead New York to multiple World Series, and Billy Martin won and drank everywhere he went. Even Casey Stengel told his players not to drink at the hotel bar “because that’s where I do my drinking.”

I don’t know if Ruth was terribly worse as a person than any of these men, and he’d have also brought a wealth of baseball experience. I doubt it’s on talent alone that he swatted 714 home runs, hit .342 lifetime, or won 94 games as a pitcher. It’s a shame he couldn’t have passed more of his knowledge on.

Any player/Any era is a Thursday feature here that looks at how a player might have done in an era besides his own.

Others in this series: Al Simmons, Albert Pujols, Babe Ruth, Bad News Rockies,Barry Bonds, Billy Beane, Billy Martin, Bob Caruthers, Bob Feller, Bob Watson,Bobby Veach, Carl Mays, Charles Victory Faust, Chris von der Ahe,Denny McLain, Dom DiMaggio, Don Drysdale, Eddie Lopat, Frank Howard, Fritz Maisel, Gavvy Cravath, George Case, George Weiss, Harmon Killebrew, Harry Walker, Home Run Baker, Honus Wagner, Hugh Casey, Ichiro Suzuki, Jack Clark, Jackie Robinson, Jim Abbott, Jimmy Wynn, Joe DiMaggio, Joe Posnanski, Johnny Antonelli, Johnny Frederick, Josh Hamilton, Ken Griffey Jr., Lefty Grove, Lefty O’Doul, Major League (1989 film),Matty Alou, Michael Jordan, Monte Irvin, Nate Colbert, Ollie Carnegie, Paul Derringer, Pedro Martinez, Pee Wee Reese, Pete Rose, Prince Fielder, Ralph Kiner, Rick Ankiel, Rickey Henderson,Roberto Clemente, Rogers Hornsby, Sam Crawford, Sam Thompson,Sandy Koufax, Satchel Paige, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Stan Musial, Ted Williams, The Meusel Brothers, Ty Cobb, Vada Pinson, Wally Bunker, Wes Ferrell
, Will Clark, Willie Mays

Of the eleven players who won four or more batting titles, only Bill Madlock isn’t in the Hall of Fame. (The other ten are listed at the end of my column; try to name them before looking. Note: some spoilers in the text.)