Category: MLB

What he did: This is slightly different than usual here. Today’s column isn’t about how one player would fare, but rather a group of them. Months ago, I wrote a post transplanting some of the best hitters in baseball history to the 1999 Colorado Rockies, proposing they could have hit .400 on that club which boasted five 30-home-run hitters and hit .288 as a team. Today, I’m going in a different direction, rounding up some hard-luck, misfit players, transplanting them all to Coors Field at the height of the Steroid Era. My theory is those circumstances could have made pretty much anyone at least a decent hitter.

The cast: I’ll temporarily depart from the usual format of “Era he might have thrived in” and “Why.” Here are my guys:

C – Mickey Tettleton: A two-time All Star, Tettleton essentially did three things. He hit home runs, he didn’t hit for much average, and he struck out. That’s going to be a common thread for this club, but there’s at least one great year in Tettleton.

1B – Tony Clark: Like a lot of the players here, Clark was something of a baseball nomad, playing for six clubs in his 15-year career. Generally, he was solid for a few years and then abysmal for one or two, before repeating the cycle. That makes him perfect for this club.

2B – Tito Fuentes: I was chatting with a new reader today, telling him how my dad and I used to have epic wiffle ball games on our front yard when I was young. My dad impersonated fearsome hitters he named Mail Murphy and Mickey Mammoth, but when he wanted a change of pace, he brought in his spray hitter, Tito Fuentes. I think it was to help me out when I was struggling. He picked the right guy in Fuentes, who hit .268 lifetime with an OPS+ of 82.

SS – Ray Oyler: I considered going with other famously inept shortstops like John Gochnaur, Don Kessinger, or Paul Popovich (who was more a second baseman) but am electing to go with a hitter so offensively challenged it earned him his own fan club with the Seattle Pilots in 1969. If we transport the lifetime .175 hitter to this club, he’d have a good year, at least by his standards.

3B – Enos Cabell: Years ago, Bill James wrote about Cabell as an essentially worthless player, but he’d be one of the best contact hitters on this team.

OF – Rob Deer: For much of his career, Deer’s weight and batting average were about the same, and the only year he cracked .250 was 1988, a weak year for offense. On these Rockies, those numbers would rise, and Deer would resemble a star. He’d be Dante Bichette.

OF – Dave Kingman: Like Deer and Tettleton, Kingman homered and struck out aggressively without much of a batting average, and like Clark, he made his way around the bigs. But in 1979, already five teams deep in his 16-year career, he hit 48 home runs with a decidedly un-Kingman-like .288 batting average. Playing that season on these Rockies, he might have MVP-caliber numbers.

OF – Jesus Alou: I recently saw a blog listing Alou as one of the 20 worst baseball players ever, primarily on the strength of his career OPS+ of 86 and puny WARP3 scores. That seems a little harsh. Alou had one of his best seasons in 1967, a dark year for hitters. On the ’99 Rockies, that year is gold.

The numbers: I’ll offer two charts, the first with each player and an actual season they played.

Player	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
Tettleton 1992	157	525	82	125	25	0	32	83	122	137	.238	.379	.469
Clark 2001	126	428	67	123	29	3	16	75	62	108	.287	.374	.481
Fuentes 1971	152	630	63	172	28	6	4	52	18	46	.273	.299	.356
Cabell 1978	162	660	92	195	31	8	7	71	22	80	.295	.321	.398
Oyler 1967	148	364	33	76	14	2	1	29	37	91	.207	.281	.264
Kingman 1979	145	532	97	153	19	5	48	115	45	131	.288	.343	.613
Deer 1988	135	492	71	124	24	0	23	85	51	153	.252	.328	.441
Alou 1967	129	510	55	149	15	4	5	30	14	39	.292	.316	.367

And, with the help of the stat converter on Baseball-Reference.com, here is how these players’ numbers project for the ’99 Rockies.

Player	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
Tettleton	157	571	126	171	34	0	44	128	167	137	.299	.455	.590
Clark	126	463	101	158	37	4	20	112	80	108	.341	.435	.568
Fuentes	152	691	104	233	38	8	5	86	24	46	.337	.366	.437
Cabell	162	729	158	264	42	11	10	122	30	80	.362	.390	.491
Oyler	148	397	56	106	20	2	1	48	51	91	.267	.351	.335
Kingman	145	564	132	185	24	6	58	157	55	131	.328	.388	.700
Deer	130	536	109	168	33	0	31	132	69	153	.313	.398	.549
Alou	129	556	91	195	20	5	6	51	19	39	.351	.378	.437

Of course, I have no idea how this team would do defensively, and I’m guessing there wouldn’t be much pitching. A 6.01 team ERA helped sink the ’99 Rockies. Beats me how to overcome that on this team in this era. Short of bringing in Lefty Grove or Sandy Koufax, these Rockies would have to get it done at the plate, and even Grove or Koufax might struggle here.

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: Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, Bob Caruthers, Dom DiMaggio, Frank Howard, Fritz Maisel, George Case, Harmon Killebrew, Home Run Baker, Jack Clark, Jackie Robinson, Jimmy Wynn, Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Frederick, Josh Hamilton, Ken Griffey Jr., Nate Colbert, Pete Rose, Rickey Henderson, Roberto Clemente, Sam Thompson, Sandy Koufax, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Stan Musial, The Meusel Brothers, Ty Cobb, Willie Mays

This post was written by Joe Guzzardi, who contributes articles here every Wednesday and Saturday.

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During the mid-1950s when the New York Yankees consistently fielded championship-caliber teams, Whitey Ford anchored the pitching staff.

But each year, the Yankees would have a hurler pop out from obscurity, pitch effectively for one or two seasons, then get dumped off to Kansas City or some other baseball Siberia.

Among them were Bob Grim who in 1954 won 20 games as the American League Rookie of the Year; Johnny Kucks, 18-9 in 1956 and the complete game, 9-0 winner of the seventh World Series game against the Brooklyn Dodgers; Tom Sturdivant who posted back-to-back 16-8 and 16-6 seasons in 1957-1958 and Bob Turley whose 21-7 1958 record garnered him the Cy Young Award.

In 1955, the Yankees former bonus baby Tommy Byrne turned in his career best season, 16-5. Byrne’s outstanding performance after being recalled from the minor league Seattle Rainers where he won 20 games got named the Associated Press Comeback Player of the Year.

Byrne was on his second Yankee tour. Because manager Casey Stengel could not tolerate Bryne’s slow, deliberate pitching style and because the lefty had trouble finding the plate, in 1951 the Yankees’ skipper dispatched him to the lowly St. Louis Browns.

With the Browns, Byrne pitched one of the most remarkable games in baseball history. On August 22, 1951 Byrne (4-7) walked 16 batters in a 13 inning defeat and tied the previous American League record set in 1915 by the Philadelphia A’s Bruno Haas. On that fateful August day, Byrne also broke his own personal record of 13 walks he established during a June 1949 start for the Yankees.

Byrne’s 1951 line: IP 12.2; H 11; BB 16; SO 5

Remarkably Leo Kiely, Byrne’s Boston Red Sox opponent was no control artist either. Although Kiely (4-2) was credited with the 3-1 win, his line was almost as ugly as Byrne’s:

IP: 12.1; H 10; ER 1; BB 8; SO 8

In an interview with the Baltimore Sun years later, Byrne recalled his game against the Red Sox:

“After walking the bases loaded in the 13th inning, I made a 3-and-2 pitch that was borderline. I recall that that the umpire said ‘ball,’ and in came the deciding run. It may have been a strike, but I guess he was getting tired.”

Byrne won 15 or more games three times during his career. But he could never get the hang of throwing the ball over the plate. His strike out (766) to walk (1,037) ratio of 0.74, compiled over 1,362 innings is one of the worst in baseball history. Byrne led the league in walks three consecutive seasons (1949-1951) and in hit batters an astounding four straight times (1948-1951).

Despite his wildness, Byrne managed to finish up with a winning record. Over 13 seasons with the Yankees, Browns, Chicago White Sox and Washington Senators, Byrne posted a 85-69 mark and played with five World Championship Yankee teams

While Byrne’s managers were always reluctant to send him to the mound where anything might have happened, they no qualms about using him as a pinch hitter. As a batter, Byrne hit .238 with 14 home runs including a grand slam.

Byrne, it should be noted, was a beloved figure. During World War II, Byrne served in the Mediterranean as a gunnery officer on the destroyer USS Ordronaux. A graduate of Wake Forest University, Byrne eventually became the town’s mayor.

Before his 2007 death at age 87, Byrne was induced into several Halls of Fame: North Carolina Sports, Baltimore City College, Wake Forest University Sports and the Maryland Sports. Byrne was also presented the Wake Forest Birthplace Society Distinguished Service Award and in September 2007, was held on the grounds of the Wake Forest College Birthplace Museum.

More than anything else, I admire Byrne for inventing the “Kimono” pitch.

Never heard of it? Byrne, defying all the laws of human physiology threw the “Kimono” from behind his back. To the frustration of batters and umpires, Byrne toyed with the “Kimono” during spring training in 1954. When camp broke and the teams went north, Commissioner Ford Frick outlawed it.

Frick no doubt concluded that if Byrne couldn’t throw the ball over the plate from a traditional wind up, he certainly couldn’t do it from behind his back. So in the interests of batter safety, the “Kimono” pitch died a quick death.

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Joe Guzzardi belongs to the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, as well as the Society for American Baseball Research. Email him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com

Here’s the latest guest post from Doug Bird, a regular Sunday contributor here.

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Many people are aware of my opinion of the job baseball commissioner Bud Selig has done during his tenure but for this article I will put aside those opinions and take an objective look at the proposal, discussing the pros and cons as I see them. The feeling is that this will happen despite any negative views one might have and as I am in a positive mood this week I thought I would put pen to paper and take a good hard look at might happen.

The proposal to add two more teams to the playoffs, (one in each league), seems to be scheduled to begin for the 2012 season.   It’s only a proposal and the speculation at this point of when and how many teams is  There have been seasons previous in which a team finishing second has a better won-lost record than any of the other division winners yet fails to make the playoffs. These teams have been unfairly eliminated from playoff contention through no fault of their own, clearly deserving of a post season berth based on their talent and success.  Save for the introduction of the wild card, the American League East with its three powerful teams, would have seen the elimination of two of them on a regular basis, despite their better than average records.

The addition of a wild card team in each league has been very successful from a competitive viewpoint with fewer teams seeing their playoff hopes all but finished by the end of April each season.  The wild card has also given hope to teams who play in a division whereby one team gets off to a terrific start and finds itself with an almost insurmountable division lead by the all star break.  Fans in the majority of major league baseball cities are able to read about, listen to and watch crucial games well into September.  This has been very beneficial for attendance figures, marketing strategies, sales of merchandise and keeping the focus on baseball after the start of seasons by other major sports.

The wild card keeps more players and playing better as they are involved in crucial games much longer into the season. Even professionals with all their ability and pride of game can have difficulty focusing intently on games which are long past meaning anything other than the padding of personal statistics.  Despite what many of us believe, baseball players are only human and humans need to be focused properly and have a goal to perform at the optimum of their abilities.

The cons of the current wild card and the possibility of adding more teams to the playoff picture is one of the watering down of major league talent and the corporate motivations behind the expansion. Pre-wild card, a team with a barely above .500 record was unlikely to qualify for the post season. Certainly it did happen but only rarely and this team was usually quickly eliminated from further advancing. The strong survived and the weak were vanquished, a natural and logical occurrence.  There were no safeguards to prevent this from happening nor should there have been. This, as someone once said, is why we play the game.

The wild card has allowed this to occur much more frequently than in the past, with a season of 83-85 wins– barely over .500– allowing for the real possibility of these weaker teams becoming World Series champions.   There is no advantage gained by finishing first, aside from home field advantage which isn’t important in my opinion. As  the other major sports have shown for many seasons, the incentive to field a highly-talented  team and spend the dollars to acquire good players becomes less and less as more playoff teams are added. Business logic certainly dictates the philosophy: Why spend money if you don’t have to? As a greater number of teams realize this, more and more teams will attempt to present a group of players with only one or two stars amongst them backed up by the necessary warm bodies to fill the other positions. The owners will make more money while spending far less as the revenue generated from an expanded season will sell more television and radio time and fill stadiums well into late October. Any additional playoff teams will only serve the owners and fill their pockets.

I am neither in favor of the wild card nor an expansion of this system. Individual division standings become far less important with teams competing with other teams outside of their division as the season progresses. I am not in favor of this proposal but I am learning to live with those in charge. Baseball is still the best game there is and nothing will change that.

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Email Doug Bird at d.bird@rogers.com

Here’s the latest guest post from Joe Guzzardi, on a Yankee infielder who retired near the top of his game. Derek Jeter, take note.

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While I was writing my post about Derek Jeter earlier this week, New York Yankee great Gil McDougald died.

Reading McDougald’s obituaries, I couldn’t help but think about one major difference Jeter’s will have. Both are career Yankees with special on-field accomplishments that played critical roles in their teams’ World Series Championship years. McDougald famously and willingly played three infield positions with equal skill.

But McDougald never entered into nasty contract negotiations at the end. When it appeared the Yankees would not protect McDougald in 1961 during the first expansion draft, he walked away after ten seasons without regrets. Among McDougald’s motivations were that he wanted to be closer to his wife Lucielle and their seven children.

An interesting footnote to McDougald’s retirement is that Los Angeles Angels owner Gene Autry, a fan of his, begged him to join his newly formed team. As an inducement, Autry promised McDougald that when his playing days were over he would turn over to the managerial reins from Bill Rigney. But because McDougald knew he couldn’t perform up to his standards as a player and he admired Rigney, he declined.

One of McDougald’s former teammates said something about him that sent me deep into my baseball library.

Pitcher and Cy Young Award winner Bob Turley: “Before I was traded to the Yankees, Gil and I played against each other in the minors in the Texas League. He was always one of the most serious guys out there, and he loved to win. But Gil was also a person who got along well with everyone. He was always in good spirits.”

In 1958, Sports Illustrated published a series titled “Big League Secrets.” In it, Sal Maglie, Roy Sievers, Del Crandall, Richie Ashburn and McDougald explained how they plied their crafts.

McDougald told readers how from each of his three positions he executed the pivot, fielded the bunt, applied the tag and made the long throw.

As an example of what Turley meant when he spoke of his old infielder’s competitiveness, McDougald told reporter Robert Creamer how he executed the pick-off play:

I can’t stand to see this play go more than two throws. It’s sort of an obsession with me, especially if I’m in it, because if it goes more than two throws, we did it wrong. The runner should never, never get away in a rundown, no matter how great he is.

As much as I admire Jeter, I’m a product of my time. I miss talented, underrated, underpaid team-oriented players like McDougald. The era of a player who will play 599 games at second base, 508 at third and 284 at shortstop without missing a beat are long gone.

I wish McDougald had more financial leverage. But he played in the baseball’s Golden Era which had to be more satisfying to him than living in a 30,000 square foot Florida mansion like Jeter’s.

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Joe Guzzardi belongs to the Society for American Baseball Research as well as the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America. Email him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com

What he did: I mentioned Howard a few months back in a column on Harmon Killebrew. Both were 1960s sluggers whose batting averages suffered because their career peaks occurred while pitchers dominated. Killebrew got into Cooperstown, on his fourth try with the writers, because despite his .256 career batting average, he smacked 573 home runs (back when that meant something.) Howard was an afterthought on the writers ballot, his .273 clip and 382 homers good for 1.4 percent of the vote his only year eligible, 1979. But if he’d played 30 years earlier than he did, Howard might have been a Hall of Famer, too.

Era he might have thrived in: Howard joins Killebrew and Jimmy Wynn as another player who would have triumphed in the 1930s. Like Wynn, Howard was a Hall of Famer in everything except his era.

Why: In the Killebrew column, I ran his numbers through the stat converter on Baseball-Reference.com, seeing how he’d do playing every year of his career on the 1936 Indians. I found Killebrew would have 687 home runs and a .300 batting average. Doing the same for Howard, he comes out with 469 home runs and a .325 batting average. It’d make him the poor man’s Foxx, who hit .325 with 534 home runs. Foxx needed seven years on the Cooperstown ballot before being enshrined in 1951, but this was mainly because he was inducted in the early days of Hall voting, when the ballot was packed with greats. In other words, I think Howard gets in with the writers, too.

We can take this one step further. Howard and Foxx have similar career trajectories, each debuting young and sitting the bench their first few years before blossoming. We can take Howard’s career, 1958 to 1973, and superimpose it onto the first 16 seasons of Foxx’s, 1925 to 1940. It’s not unreasonable to assume Howard would have played a few more years in this scenario, since he’d be over draft age and in his late 30s as younger players would start leaving for World War II. Foxx got in a few extra seasons this way, and while the results weren’t pretty, it added to his totals. He even pitched a little in 1945. Perhaps Howard would reach 500 home runs, too, finishing out in these years.

Of course, the major benefit for Howard is that his best seasons, 1968 through 1970 are transported to the 1935 Philadelphia Athletics and 1936-37 Boston Red Sox. Here’s how his numbers would look for those years:

Year	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
1935 A’s (’68)	150	615	115	202	34	4	54	154	66	134	.328	.397	.660
1936 Red Sox (’69)	153	613	164	217	21	2	59	164	126	91	.354	.467	.684
1937 Red Sox (’70)	153	573	118	187	17	1	51	165	154	119	.326	.467	.627

This is opposed to his actual totals of:

Year	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
1968 Senators	158	598	79	164	28	3	44	106	54	141	.274	.338	.552
1969 Senators	161	592	111	175	17	2	48	111	102	96	.296	.402	.574
1970 Senators	161	566	90	160	15	1	44	126	132	125	.283	.416	.546

The huge boost in stats mostly has to do with the fact that Howard would be hitting in one of these greatest times for hitters instead of one of the worst (1968 might have been the worst year for hitters since the Deadball Era, so bleak that the height of the pitchers mound was lowered from 15 inches to 10 the following year.) My guess is Howard would have held his own with the likes of Earl Averill, Hank Greenberg, and Chuck Klein. One can only wonder if those men would have fallen short of Cooperstown playing in Howard’s actual era.

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: Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, Bob Caruthers, Dom DiMaggio, Fritz Maisel, George Case, Harmon Killebrew, Home Run Baker, Jack Clark, Jackie Robinson, Jimmy Wynn, Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Frederick, Josh Hamilton, Ken Griffey Jr., Nate Colbert, Pete Rose, Rickey Henderson, Roberto Clemente, Sam Thompson, Sandy Koufax, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Stan Musial, The Meusel Brothers, Ty Cobb, Willie Mays

Here is the latest guest post from Joe Guzzardi, a regular Wednesday and Saturday contributor.

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Several years after he retired, Mickey Mantle told reporters that his one baseball regret was he played too long. In his final 1968 season, Mantle hit .237. Had Mantle retired in 1967, when his .245 batting average made it clear to all he was finished, he would have ended his career with a .302 average instead of .298

Mantle’s hindsight provides a good object lesson for Derek Jeter should he care to learn from it.

Jeter, according to all accounts, has two choices: to accept the 3-year $45 million contract the New York Yankees have offered (or some compromise between that and the $22 million, five year deal he’s seeking) or test the free agent market.

But Jeter has a third and much better option: to retire now before he embarrasses himself by playing out the string as a 41-year-old bench warmer and the inevitable object of baseball ridicule. Joe DiMaggio retired as a Yankee at 36. Jeter should too.

No doubt Jeter would have a hard time making the decision to hang it up. But if, as we are repeatedly told, Jeter treasures his image, then he should project how the media will be talking about him in 2013, when he’s batting about .225 as an occasional designated hitter.

All Jeter has to do is watch how the ESPN talking heads have described the iconic but also aging Brett Favre: “useless,” “washed up,” and “the Vikings biggest problem.” If Jeter substitutes his name for Favre’s in those searing evaluations, he’ll get the picture.

But, you’re asking, what about the tens of millions that Jeter will leave on the table if he retires?

I assume Jeter has had sound financial advice during the 10 years when he has earned nearly $200 million plus millions more from endorsements. Judging from his 30,000-square-foot home he built in Tampa, Jeter doesn’t have any worries. (See it here.) If worst comes to worst, Jeter could always rent out rooms.

But I’m confident that Jeter could talk the Yankees into a comfortable package to not play that would allow him to easily meet his monthly mortgage obligations.

Jeter should approach Hank Steinbrenner with the suggestion that at a salary of, for example, $4 million annually he be named roving scout, Yankee good will ambassador, spring training batting instructor, assistant to the president, bench coach or any other of the innocuous non-jobs that abound in baseball. Jeter would serve at his own pleasure; do pretty much whatever he wants, whenever he wants to. When Jeter wants to travel with the team and hit fungoes, that’s great. If he wants to sit in a corner office with his feet up, that’s fine too.

While it will be disappointing to Jeter not to get 3,000 hits, missing that goal means little since Jeter is a lock for the Hall of Fame. Nothing is less appealing to fans than players who linger too long to reach a milestone that’s insignificant in the big picture. The difference between Jeter’s 2,926 hits and 3,000 won’t alter his legacy.

My proposed solution provides Jeter a dignified way out that allows him to gracefully step aside, protect his status as a Yankee all time great yet still get the bonus income he feels he’s owed for his years of dutiful service.

If you ask me, that’s a lot better for Jeter than being maligned in the press every day for the next three seasons as another player who didn’t recognize when it was time to say good-bye.

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Joe Guzzardi belongs to the Society for American Baseball Research, as well as the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America. Email him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com

I’m pleased to present this guest post from Gerry Garte, a regular contributor here.

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Dwight Eisenhower was President when I first started collecting baseball cards. From year to year, I had the biggest stars of the day – Mantle, Mays, Berra, Banks, Aaron.  A small pack of Topps cards cost a nickel, gum included. My collection lived on a 25-cent weekly allowance, plus benefits.

Neighborhood guys and cousins had baseball cards. We’d trade players or flip for them. It was usually closest to a wall or curb wins. Leaners were great.

After Roger Maris hit an amazing 61 home runs in 1961, his card became prized. I had two. One of the neighbor boys offered to swap 12 marbles for my extra Maris. Transaction accepted. Funny thing, nearly 50 years later I still have the marbles.

The cards were a neat hobby, but like most kids, I never thought of their long-term value. Keeping a card in nice condition was not one of my concerns.

By age 16, baseball cards were like bicycles – left behind. So I yielded closet space. Long story short: None of the cards survived my high school years.

In the mid ‘80s, I went to a couple of sports card shows. It had been about 20 years since the early cards. I’d buy one or two cards at a time, spend maybe $10.

I met Enos Slaughter at a Raleigh, NC, show. He is a 1985 inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I got the gentleman’s autograph and was honored to be shaking the hand of a Hall of Famer.

My son, Benjamin, was born in 1991. When he was about 9, I introduced him to baseball card collecting. I was hoping he’d catch the bug as I had 40 years earlier. Turns out, the bug just winged him. But for the second time, it caught me flush.

After we had put together a great set of 1991 cards (year born), I took it from there.

Newly divorced, but with a steady job, I reverted to age 10. I decided – because I could– to buy all 587 cards in the 1961 Topps basic set — the great Maris year.

This time, I focused on the condition of the card. To ensure authenticity and condition, all cards were graded.  It helps avoid getting cheated.

The authentication services I trust most are PSA, SGC and BVG (Beckett). Their service determines if the card is fraudulent or has been tampered with — trimmed, re-colored, etc. Also, it renders a rating or grade for the physical condition and appearance of the card.

It took several years to complete the set. The journey was its own joy. I don’t know what it cost me, but two years later the set sold on eBay for enough to pay off the bills and buy the son a used Jeep. It was an investment in baseball history.

Three years later, I did it again. This time, I had a complete set of graded 1955 Bowmans (320 cards) auctioned off. The pay-off was smaller – due to condition, popularity and size — but the search was just as much fun.

In childhood, baseball had become imbedded. As an adult, seeing Major Leaguers from the ‘50s and ‘60s on baseball cards is a pleasant way of renewing memories and appreciating the game and life as it was.

As the country transitioned from Ike to JFK, I kept up with my world as best I could. I’d check the box scores daily. On Saturdays, after pick-up games at the schoolyard, I’d hurry home to catch Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese call the game of the week. I’d be engrossed, centered in front of the black-and-white TV set, with my baseball cards close by.

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Email Gerry Garte at garte@comcast.net

I’m pleased to present the latest guest post from Doug Bird, a Sunday contributor here.

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Traditionally, the winners of baseball’s major post season awards are those who have played on winning teams. The voting for best position player, (MVP) and best pitcher, (CY Young), has usually been heavily influenced by the success, or failure, of the team for which an individual plays  The logic being that a particular team might not have enjoyed the success it did had it not been for the play of this individual. Conversely, no matter how important a player might be to a team with a losing record, that team would have had an unsuccessful season with or without him. Any player could have filled his role or so goes the argument. Both opinions are certainly valid.

The 2010 awards once again followed this trend-with one exception, an exception which bodes well for the future. Certainly, no one can really argue with the choices of Roy Halladay, Joey Votto, (well maybe Albert Pujols), and Josh Hamilton. All had excellent seasons and played for winning teams, all were key contributors to their teams’ success. All were team leaders and winning might have been very difficult if not impossible without them.

Roy Halladay gave the Phillies a tried and trusted staff ace, capable of a complete game victory every time he took the mound. He had accomplished this season after season with the Toronto Blue Jays but the Blue Jays continued in their frustrating lack of post season appearances. He was the best pitcher in the league and perhaps all of baseball stuck on a team which was not going to make the playoffs no matter how many games he won or how well he pitched. He was awarded the AL CY Young award in 2003 and the NL CY Young award in 2010. In 2003, the voters decided that he was the best pitcher in the league regardless of the lack of success his steam enjoyed that season, and in 2010, the voters were able to combine personal success and team success in giving him the award. His stats were simply too good to ignore using either criteria and he received all 32 first place votes.

Josh Hamilton was healthier than he had been in years previous, (he still missed almost a month of the season), and still had numbers which could not be ignored by the voting press. All facets of his game were well above average and the Texas Rangers rode on his back all the way to the playoffs. Yet, one could certainly argue, without the bat of Vlad Guerrero behind him,  would Hamilton have enjoyed the offensive numbers he did in 2010? But, MVPs shouldn’t be judged on hitting stats alone and the tremendous contributions made by Hamilton on defense and with his speed on the base paths made him certainly the best all around player in the league. Let’s not forget the swagger or presence a player such as Hamilton brings to the game either, one of those intangibles which don’t show up on the score card but make everyone else on the team that much better.

Joey Votto certainly had the stats to qualify for MVP in the NL but I suspect it was what he meant to the Cincinnati Reds who were a surprise NL central division winner. Their obvious weaknesses were clear in their being swept aside in round one of the NL playoffs.  The baseball writers were taken by surprise all season long by the Reds and felt obligated to come up with a reason.  A healthy and fierce competitor such as Scott Rolen and  the experience of Orlando Cabrera certainly made a difference in 2010 but the player the press settled on was the one who got Cincinnati over the top and gave the Reds the marquee player to get them over the top and into the playoffs. The only real slump the reds went through was the times Votto missed due to injuries. When Votto returned, the collective sigh of relief from players  and fans was audible. Sometimes, writers tire of giving the MVP award to the same player year after year. Albert Pujols is that best player in the NL year in and year out. Votto won his MVP award by being the best offensive player in the NL in 2010 from a strictly numbers consideration and having his best season when his team had its best in several seasons.

Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners was awarded the 2010 AL CY Young award because without him, Seattle would have been even more of an American League doormat than with him.  Writers voted him this award because they couldn’t believe any other pitcher could have enjoyed the success of Hernandez with a team as bad as the 2010 Mariners. The writers awarded Hernandez for his season long effort and perseverance. Any hope of any in season success for the Mariners rested solely on his shoulders. No other starter gave the team much of an opportunity to win games and Hernandez had to win games for his team without much support from his fellow players. He had to be perfect and then some. Other AL CY Young candidates at least had the luxury of playing for teams which could win even when they themselves were not sharp that start. Their teams could win games without them. Seattle could not.

The 2010 baseball award winners proved that  awards can be given out using different criteria for different players. But, that’s what can make them fun isn’t it.

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Email Doug Bird at d.bird@rogers.com

I’m pleased to present this guest post from Joe Guzzardi. I recently announced that I’m asking readers, other baseball writers, and anyone else interested to vote on the 50 best players not in the Hall of Fame. Today, Joe writes about one of the 300 players on the super ballot for this project. My SABR chapter has organized a letter-writing campaign to get Lefty O’Doul inducted to Cooperstown as an ambassador to the game. Joe suggests he may be worthy for much more.

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As you work your way through Graham Womack’s list of 300 potential Hall of Fame inductees, those outstanding players who may merit induction, eventually you will come to candidate #204, Lefty O’Doul.

Once you do your O’Doul research, you’ll learn that he contributed in four different facets of baseball: pitching, slugging, managing and spreading good baseball will throughout the world.

After limited success (1-1, 4.40 ERA) as a pitcher for the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox from 1919-1923, O’ Doul developed a sore arm. The Red Sox sent O’Doul to the Pacific Coast League and converted him into a slugging outfielder who became one of the most outstanding hitters in baseball history.

Back with the New York Giants in 1928, O’ Doul hit .318 as a platoon player. Then, in 1929, O’Doul led the National League in batting with a .398 average, 254 hits, 32 home runs with 122 RBIs and 152 runs scored. O’Doul’s hits total broke Rogers Hornsby’s 1922 National League record which was eventually tied by Bill Terry in 1930.

Despite hitting .383 with 22 homers in 1930, O’Doul was traded to the Brooklyn Robins, now the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 1932, he batted .368 for the Robins to win another league batting title. After a slow start in 1933, when he batted just .252 through 43 games, O’Doul was again traded, this time back to the Giants. He rallied to hit .306 during the balance of season, but played just one more year before his career ended in 1934.

That began the third phase of O’Doul’s career—the most successful manager in PCL history. O’Doul piloted the San Francisco Seals through 1951. After his stint with the Seals ended, O’Doul also managed the San Diego Padres, 1952-54; Oakland Oaks, 1955; Vancouver Mounties, 1956; and the Seattle Rainers, 1957. O’Doul ranks ninth on the all-time victory list for all minor league managers with a 2,094-1,970 record and, in 1945, was elected as the Sporting News Minor League Manager of the Year.

While managing the Mounties O’Doul, age 59, went to bat against the Sacramento Solons during a regulation game. When the Solon manager Tommy Heath foolishly pulled in his outfielders, O’Doul knocked the ball into deep center field for a triple and later scored.

Among his hitting pupils during his many years managing were Joe and Dom DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Willie Mays and Willie McCovey.

O’Doul is not only a legend in San Francisco where his thriving restaurant is the oldest continuous sports bar in the country but also in Japan where he spent years organizing barnstorm baseball games that featured American All Stars like Lou Gehrig, Frankie Frisch, Al Simmons and Lefty Grove. Eventually, O’Doul helped oversee the construction of Tokyo’s Korakuen Stadium, Japan’s baseball mecca.

Will O’Doul, who died in 1969 at age 72, be one of your 50 choices for enshrinement? After all, O’Doul’s .349 career batting average is the fourth highest in baseball history. And in 2002, the Japanese Hall of Fame elected O’Doul as its only American member.

O’Doul is worthy. The question is whether he outshines the other candidates you’re evaluating.

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Joe Guzzardi belongs to the Society for American Baseball Research, as well as the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America. Email him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com

Claim to fame: There’s no better player to write about this Thanksgiving than a baseball legend who turned 90 on Sunday. In his 22 years with the St. Louis Cardinals, Stan Musial established himself as one of the most beloved players in baseball history. Even now, nearly 50 years after his Hall of Fame career ended in 1963, Musial remains an iconic figure. A public campaign for Musial led to an announcement on November 17 that he’ll receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the country.

In a sense, though, I think Musial is underrated. Sure, there’s the universal adoration in the baseball world and the celebration of his impressive stats, like his .331 lifetime batting average, .976 OPS or 3,630 hits, among the best numbers ever. Still, I don’t know if it’s understood that Musial had one of his best seasons– 1946 when he was National League MVP and led the Cardinals to a World Series title—in a year that favored pitchers. If we transport Musial and his .365 batting average that season to a great year for hitters, he might have hit .400.

Era he might have thrived in: It’s really not a question of what year Musial might have hit .400 in, but how many different ones would have allowed it. Here are five sure bets:
1. 1901 with the Philadelphia Athletics
2. 1925 with the St. Louis Browns
3. 1930 with the Philadelphia Phillies
4. 1936 with the Boston Red Sox
5. 1999 with the Colorado Rockies

Why: First, we have to look at what Musial lost in 1946. Baseball was returning from World War II, and even Musial, who played through most of the war, missed the 1945 season serving in the navy. Returns from long breaks generally favor pitchers, possibly due to timing issues that hitters encounter getting back into gear—just look at the gaudy pitching numbers every April and May. In 1946, this lasted for a season, with each National League team averaging 3.958 runs per game (by contrast, in 1930, the NL average was 5.684 runs.) World War II signaled the shift in baseball from the hitter-happy 1920s and ’30s to a game where less runs were scored, fewer players hit .380, and pitchers came to dominate.

Musial had another thing working against his numbers in 1946. While he played on a championship club, it hit a modest .265 with just three players over .300: Musial, Enos Slaughter, and Whitey Kurowski. Slaughter, like Musial, turned in a stellar season and later made Cooperstown, but in another era, Musial might have had a superior teammate to boost his average higher. After all, Babe Ruth had Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb had Harry Heilmann, and Willie Mays had Willie McCovey. In the arrangement here, Musial could be teammates with Napoleon Lajoie on the Athletics, George Sisler on the Browns, or Jimmie Foxx on the Red Sox, among other Hall of Famers.

If we plug Musial into any of these teams he thrives. Obscenely. With the help of the stat converter on Baseball-Reference.com, here are his stats from each club:

Year	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	BA	OBP	SLG
Real ’46 totals	156	624	124	228	50	20	16	103	7	73	.365	.434	.587
1901 Athletics	138	595	148	245	54	22	18	123	8	78	.412	.482	.667
1925 Browns	155	666	163	272	60	24	20	136	9	87	.408	.479	.661
1930 Phillies	155	686	182	292	64	26	21	152	9	93	.426	.497	.687
1936 Red Sox	155	684	180	290	64	26	21	150	9	93	.424	.495	.686
1999 Rockies	163	730	200	316	70	28	23	167	10	101	.433	.504	.700

(If the Colorado numbers make anyone wonder how well other all-time greats might have done with the ’99 Rockies, check out this post from July.)

There are probably many other teams Musial could have hit .400 on. He was a .400 hitter in everything except his era. In life, he’s been something more.

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: Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, Bob Caruthers, Dom DiMaggio, Fritz Maisel, George Case, Harmon Killebrew, Home Run Baker, Jack Clark, Jackie Robinson, Jimmy Wynn, Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Frederick, Josh Hamilton, Ken Griffey Jr., Nate Colbert, Pete Rose, Rickey Henderson, Roberto Clemente, Sam Thompson, Sandy Koufax, Shoeless Joe Jackson, The Meusel Brothers, Ty Cobb, Willie Mays