Friday Stuff
Monday
Lou Brock broke the career stolen base record on this date in 1979. The actual event was a bit messy, as Brock walked in the fifth inning, stole second, and scored when the Mets committed not one but two errors on the play. It meant that he didn’t have his Rickey Henderson moment of stealing the base, calling time, and pulling the bag out of the ground so he could hold it triumphantly over his head. Let’s be honest, that wouldn’t have been Lou Brock’s style anyway.
He was a pretty low-key guy by all accounts, and self-promotion really wasn’t his thing. That feature of his career, his ability to just show up and do his job every day for 19 years, is likely what got him into the Hall of Fame. It allowed him to collect that 938th stolen base, and get to 3,000 career hits a few weeks earlier. Those are the two signature moments of his career. The single-season stolen base record he set in 1974* was also impactful, but that’s a record that others have held without getting the same sort of accolades. Just ask Maury Wills what that record means without career milestones on top of it.
(*Note: Technically it was only the modern stolen base record, as Hugh Nicol stole 138 bases for Cincinnati of the American Association in 1887, but the rules for what counted as a steal were entirely different then.)
Whether those two milestones make Brock deserving of Cooperstown is debatable. There are those who think the 3,000-hit milestone is a magic number that guarantees induction all by itself. I’ve personally never thought that, but it’s an understandable point of view. Add in the stolen base record and Brock was a lock, as was proven by the fact he was elected on the first ballot.
But the truth is that his overall career wasn’t that different than Johnny Damon’s, and the only real difference between them was that 19th season Brock played while Damon retired after 18. Here’s how their full records compare:
But here’s how they’d compare without Brock’s final season:
Seems like a dead heat to me, and if I had to pick a winner it would likely be Damon because he was a more well-rounded player. He hit for more power, and played better defense, and was arguably as good or even better than Brock at running the bases. Damon’s stolen base success rate was 80% at a time the league average was 71%. Brock’s was 75% at a time the average was 64%, so they were similarly better than the leagues they played in. The same could be said for their respective abilities to take extra bases once they were on; Each was 7% better than league average. Brock was better in the postseason, though they each were on two title-winning teams, and it’s not like Damon was bad in postseason play. I just think he was an overall better player.
But Brock did play that 19th season, and that got him the 3,000 hits and record-breaking steal that made his case a slam-dunk to the voters. That’s fine. I’m just not sure the margin between Brock getting 315 Hall of Fame votes and Damon getting 8 should be the 120 games Brock played when he was 40 years old.
Tuesday
Coincidentally, Tuesday marked the date Mickey Vernon died in 2008, and I think he’s another example of a guy whose Hall of Fame case was just as good as Brock’s but was missing out on the sort of milestones that would draw attention to him.
Vernon missed two prime seasons due to World War II. In the seasons before and after that gap he averaged 88 runs, 178 hits, 40 doubles, 78 RBI, 19 steals, and 4.2 WAR per season, with a batting line of .311/.380/.449. What if he’d played those two missing seasons and posted those numbers in each? His career statistics would look like this:
2,702 games
1,373 runs
2,850 hits
570 doubles
136 triples
187 homers
1,466 RBI
174 steals
1,071 walks
A batting line of .289/.361/.431
A 120 OPS+ or so
43.9 WAR
You know who that looks like? It sort of looks like a slower version of Lou Brock batting in the middle of the order instead of at the top.
But Vernon didn’t play those two years, and wasn’t really given credit for them in the minds of the voters. He never reached any magic number milestones or broke any major league records, and so he topped out at 25% of the Hall of Fame votes cast by the baseball writers, and never got even half of the votes cast when he was considered by the Veterans Committee.
And I don’t think he should have been given more support. I personally wouldn’t have voted for either Vernon or Damon, but this is pretty clear illustration of the mindset of the people who vote for the Hall of Fame.
Lou Brock had a career that simply wasn’t that different from guys like Damon and Vernon, guys who properly never came close to being elected to the Hall of Fame. And yet he sailed in with no trouble because he happened to reach a couple of numbers that made the voters ignore everything else about his career.
Wednesday
Tell me what you think about a starting pitcher who has an outing that looks like this:
First Inning
Retires Jim Gosger on a pop fly.
Dalton Jones reaches on an error by the first baseman, but is then thrown out while trying to advance on a passed ball.
Gives up a double to Carl Yastrzemski.
Retires Tony Conigliaro on a fly ball to left field.
Second Inning
Retires Lee Thomas on a pop fly to third base.
Gets Félix Mantilla on a ground ball to the shortstop.
Eddie Bressoud is out on a fly ball to right.
Third Inning
Gets yet another pop fly, this time by Mike Ryan.
Strikes out the opposing pitcher, Bill Monbouquette.
Gets Gosger again, this time on a ground ball to short.
That’s it. The pitcher is pulled at that point with a 1-0 lead. He never factored into the decision because he didn’t go five innings, and Monbouquette settled down while the Red Sox came back against the bullpen and won, 5-2. A decent outing, but is there anything remarkable about this start other than it being pretty short?
Trust me, there is. That’s what Satchel Paige did against the Boston Red Sox on this date in 1965 while pitching in the final big league game of his long, storied career. He was 59 years old at the time.
The game was played in Kansas City, where Paige lived after the hey day of his career with the Kansas City Monarchs, Cleveland Indians, and a variety of other teams. It was mostly a publicity stunt by the Kansas City A’s at the end of an otherwise forgettable season in which they were fighting with Boston to stay out of last place. The attendance for the game was just 9,289, a poor showing on a Saturday night but still about 50% more than a usual crowd for the A’s.
Paige, though, didn’t treat the game as a stunt. He was a bit short of the service time needed for his major league pension, and was hoping the game might allow him to catch on someplace for just long enough to qualify. (Which actually happened when the Braves signed him in 1968 for that exact purpose, even though he never pitched for them.) He was still making his living by touring the country and pitching exhibition games against local squads, so his arm was actually in pretty good shape, something he proceeded to prove to the Red Sox and the rest of the world for three innings.
There are a lot of records in baseball that are considered unbreakable, like Cy Young’s 511 wins, and Nolan Ryan’s 5,714 career strikeouts. But I think throwing three shutout innings at the age of 59 may be the most unbreakable record out there.
Thursday
Royals’ second baseman Frank White hit for the cycle on this date in 1979, and that shocked a lot of people.
There had only been 12 cycles accomplished by a second basemen to that point in baseball history, and most of them were by legends. Nap Lajoie had one, as did Charlie Gehringer, and Joe Gordon, and Jackie Robinson, and Rod Carew. Bobby Doerr had done it twice. More than half of the cycles by second basemen to that point had been done by guys who ultimately landed in the Hall of Fame. It simply wasn’t yet a position where much offense was expected.
And Frank White certainly fit the profile of the typical light-hitting second baseman. Before that season he had a career OPS+ of 74. His batting line was .245/.283/.342, and he’d only hit 22 homers in 708 games. He was on the field for his remarkable glove, one that had already earned him two Gold Glove Awards and would earn his six more before his career was over. No second baseman with a Gold Glove had ever hit for the cycle before. In those days, being a top-tier defensive second baseman as well as a power threat was not a combination often seen.
But White showed a bit more pop in 1979, hitting a new career high of 10 homers and slugging .403. Neither of those marks are great, but they made him a bit more dangerous than he’d been to that point in his career. It was a skill he would develop even more later in his career. He had back-to-back 22-homer seasons in the mid-80s, and averaged 18 homers per 162 games from 1981 to 1987.
That cycle was a bit of a breakout for him. He slugged more than 40 points higher from 1980 onward than he had before that point, and even added a second cycle in 1982, joining Doerr as the only second basemen to do it twice. (They’ve since been joined by Aaron Hill.)
So let’s give it up for Frank White, expert glove man with some surprising pop.
Friday
Finally, speaking of Nap Lajoie, this was the date he collected his 3,000th career hit in 1914. At the time, he was just the third player to do it after Cap Anson and Honus Wagner.
He did it in his final season in Cleveland, and though he went on to play a couple more years with the Philadelphia A’s, that didn’t do the Cleveland franchise any good because they’d been known as the Cleveland Naps or Napoleons for a dozen years by that point in honor of Lajoie. They would look pretty silly keeping that name while he was playing for a competitor, hence their switch to Indians as their nickname beginning in 1915. (Which eventually made them look silly enough in a different way that they changed it again to Guardians in 2022.)
Imagine if teams today were named for their best player. We’d have a few interesting ones.
AL East
New York Judges
Baltimore Gunnars, unless they shortened it to Guns. Unlikely since the nearby Wizards already changed from the Bullets.
Boston Durans or Devers. I don’t think either of their first names work.
Tampa Bay …what? Lowes? Siris?
Toronto Vlads or maybe Juniors
AL Central
Cleveland Josés or J-Rams
Detroit Tariks
Kansas City Witts
Minnesota Buxtons. His nickname is Buck, which would be great, but I think it would be too confusing to have both the Minnesota Bucks and the Milwaukee Bucks. That said, anything that brings the rivalry between Minnesota and Wisconsin to the forefront is probably a good thing.
Chicago Crochets, but only on days he pitches. Otherwise they’re so dreadful that they have to stick with White Sox.
AL West
Houston Air Yordans. I’m pretty sure this is the best new team name possible.
Seattle Julios or J-Rods
Texas Coreys, but if you went with Marcus Simien as their best player you’d have the options of using one of his nicknames, Sauce. The Texas Sauce would be spectacular.
Oakland Rookers. I refuse to calls them the Sacramento Rookers. And if he’s still their best player when they get to Vegas, I’m pretty sure they’re going to cause a lot of controversy if they are known as the Las Vegas Rookers.
Los Angeles Trout. I know he barely plays anymore, but the name is too good. Besides, are we really going to have a team called the Los Angeles Netos?
NL East
Philadelphia Harpers unless you want to go with Wheelers. I’m just not sure Pennsylvania wants Wheelers on one end of the state and Steelers on the other end. One of Harper’s nicknames in Mondo, and the Philly Mondos is pretty solid.
New York Franciscos and/or Lindors. Back when Pete Alonso was spectacular the New York Polar Bears would have been pretty awesome.
Atlanta Acuñas, or is it Acuãe? Let’s just go with Ronalds. Alternatively, Chris Sale’s nickname is apparently The Condor, so I’d be okay with the Atlanta Condors.
Washington CJs as soon as he stops being demoted to A-ball.
Miami Jazz would have been great, but since Chisholm was traded I guess they’d be the Miami Ottos.
NL Central
Milwaukee is tough because they’re a bit of a polyglot team without a singular star. Maybe the Milwaukee Yelich or the Milwaukee Chourios. Or William Contreras’ nickname is apparently Killer, but there would be a loot of Jeffrey Dahmer references if they were known as the Milwaukee Killers.
St. Louis Masyns is already a solid name with the funky spelling. But Winn also has two nicknames which would be even more glorious. The St. Louis Blaze sounds like a roller derby team from the 70s. Or the St. Louis Energizer Bunnies would simply be delightful. Think of the mascot.
Chicago Happs? Chicago Dansbys? Chicago Nicos? I’m not thrilled with any of them.
Cincinnati Ellys. Love it.
Pittsburgh Pauls. I mean, how perfect is that?
NL West
Los Angeles Shoheis, I suppose, but the LA Mookies would have been delightful.
San Diego Jacksons. Manny Machado has all sorts of options that would have made great names, but he’s now gone 35 straight games without hitting in a double play, ruining my hopes of him surpassing Jim Rice’s single-season record, so he isn’t going to be getting any love here anytime soon. Screw that guy.
Arizona Ketels. Perfect.
San Francisco Chapmans, but apparently Matt Chapman is sometimes called Pegasus and The San Francisco Pegasus is sort of spectacular.
Colorado Doyles. Just a string of really terrible names among their best players, so we’re stuck with perhaps the most boring team name possible to close out this otherwise fun exercise.
This Week’s Editions
Monday: Late Bloomers: Earl Averill
Tuesday: Decisions, Decisions: The First Reliever Cy Young
Wednesday: Baseball Remembers: Jim Gilliam
Thursday: First Gloves: Bill Doak