Monday
Always admit your mistakes, folks. It’s much healthier than the alternative, especially when those mistakes lead to happy accidents. That’s what Mondays’s edition was about, me screwing up a post that was supposed to publish on Monday, but stumbling happily into a great idea for another series thanks to a couple of fabulous readers.
Monday marked two important milestones, both involving Philadelphia and the National League. It was the 148th anniversary of the first National League game ever played, a 6-5 victory by the visiting Boston Reds over the hometown Philadelphia Athletics. These were not the same Philadelphia Athletics that were later part of the American League, nor were they they Philadelphia franchise that evolved into the modern day Phillies. This particular Philadelphia team only existed for one season. The National League wouldn’t have a franchise there from 1877 until 1883, when the current Phillies franchise was founded.
Speaking of the Phillies, Monday was also the anniversary of John Kennedy becoming the first Black player to appear in a game for the Phillies when he pinch-ran for second baseman Solly Hemus in the 8th inning of a 5-1 loss to the Dodgers on April 22, 1957. His appearance made the Phillies the last National League franchise to integrate their major league roster.
It was rumored that Bill Veeck had planned to buy the team and integrate it in 1943, but was prevented from doing so by commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and National League president Ford Frick. At least, that’s what Veeck asserted in one of his books. All we know is that the team was turned over to the league after failing to pay their bills, and it was sold to someone else, lumber magnate William Cox, who was banned from baseball after just one season for betting on games. The next owner, Bob Carpenter, opposed integrating his team and employed the horrifically racist Ben Chapman as his manager for several years.
Kennedy’s appearance fell on the tenth anniversary of Chapman’s notorious racist tirade against Jackie Robinson in 1947. Was it a plan by the Phillies to finally integrate their roster on the anniversary of probably the most racist incident in the team’s history? Since Kennedy didn’t start the game, I’m going to guess it wasn’t coordinated. Still, to have two different reminders of their owners’ racism fall on the same day is, uh, something I guess.
Tuesday
On Tuesday I wrote a piece for the IBWAA newsletter about the missing Negro Leagues managers in the Hall of Fame. It’s a subject I’ve written about before, and it continues to be a disgrace to the Hall of Fame and those of us who love it that not a single manager from the Negro Leagues has been inducted.
Here’s a fun fact:
Ted Trent was a great pitcher. He was a four-time All-Star mostly for the St. Louis Stars and Chicago American Giants, led the league in wins one year and in strikeouts another, and had a career record of 82-58 with an ERA+ of 126. He’s got a pretty good argument for the Hall of Fame once his numbers are adjusted for the missing data of the Negro Leagues.
David Cone was also a great pitcher. He was a five-time All-Star, played for five World Series winners, won a Cy Young Award in 1994, and had a career record of 194-126 with a 121 ERA+. He also has a pretty good argument for the Hall of Fame.
Alex Wood has had a really solid career (this season notwithstanding). He’s won 76 games with a 103 ERA+ and made the All-Star team in 2017 when he led the league in winning percentage and had a 2.72 ERA. He doesn’t have a Hall of Fame case, unfortunately, but he’s still a solid big league starting pitcher.
What do these three guys have in common? Well, that’s the fun fact. Here are Ted Trent’s career numbers against just the numbers Warren Spahn compiled in his twenties:
And here’s David Cone’s full career against just Warren Spahn’s thirties:
And here’s Alex Wood’s full career against Warren Spahn’s forties:
Keep in mind that Spahn lost three full seasons in his twenties while serving in World War II, which offsets some of Trent’s missing Negro Leagues data. Basically Spahn had the full career of a near-Hall of Fame pitcher just in his twenties, AND the full career of another near-Hall of Fame pitcher just in his thirties, AND the full career of a decent long-time major league starting pitcher just in his forties.
Warren Spahn was a marvel, and Tuesday would have been his 103rd birthday.
Wednesday
I seem to bump into topics related to the Big Red Machine a lot. I’m not trying to do that, and would sort of prefer to avoid them at this point, at least for a while. But, alas, sometimes we get an angry Twitter user who decides to go on an off-base rant, and the honor of a Cincinnati legend has to be defended. That’s how Wednesday’s edition of the newsletter came about.
In keeping with the birthdays of legendary Braves players, Wednesday was Chipper Jones’ 52nd birthday. I won’t do the same sort of decade-by-decade exercise for him that I just did for Spahn, but there’s a different fun exercise we can do.
As a left-handed hitter only, Jones posted numbers that looked a lot like Johnny Mize:
And as just a right-handed hitter, Jones was a lot like the career Pete Alonso has had so far:
That’s not exact since Alonso has hit a lot more homers and had a much lower batting average, but it’s in the ballpark. The point is that you’d have to add together the Hall of Fame career of Johnny Mize with the All-Star career of The Polar Bear to get an approximation of the actual career Chipper Jones had.
Thursday
Speaking of the aforementioned David Cone, Thursday’s edition of the newsletter was about the really horrible decision by John Schuerholz of the Royals to trade Cone to the Mets for a backup catcher. No, really, that was how he announced it at the time it happened. It didn’t make any sense then, and after their respective careers transpired, it makes even less sense now.
Thursday marked the 23rd anniversary of Rickey Henderson drawing his 2,063rd career base on balls in 2001 to break Babe Ruth’s all-time record. He would end his career with 2,190 walks, and to give you an idea of how many that is, consider this:
Mike Trout has drawn 100 walks in a season four times, and led the league in walks three times. He has 975 walks in 13+ seasons.
Bryce Harper has also drawn 100 walks in a season four times, and has led the league in walks twice. He has 970 walks in 12+ seasons.
Combined, they’ve played 25 full seasons, the same number Rickey Henderson played, and have drawn 1,945 walks as of this writing.
And they’re still 245 walks short of Rickey’s record.
Friday
Finally, Friday marked the 65th anniversary of Sadaharu Oh’s first home run for the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Central League. He would go on to hit 867 more.
As of now, there are no Japanese players in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. There are some bits of memorabilia, including some items from Oh’s career, but no player from Nippon Professional Baseball has been elected.
I’m not a fan of the stance the Hall of Fame has taken on this issue. I far prefer the position the Basketball Hall of Fame has taken, allowing members from all over the world.
Yes, I realize that the Hall in Cooperstown is the “National” Baseball Hall of Fame, and not the “International” Hall of Fame, and that many other baseball Halls of Fame exist in other parts of the world. There’s one in Japan, and Oh is obviously a member of it. It just seems to me that since the game has grown around the world, and players from other leagues have come to the Major Leagues and excelled, that the Hall of Fame should expand its membership to include to very best players whose careers took place in Japan, or Cuba, or other places with a remarkably high level of play.
So far, the Hall has limited their inclusion to special displays, like the one they have for baseball in Latin America. The Hall of Fame recently announced that another special display will be created to document the game’s history in Japan, particularly the exchange of baseball players and culture between Japan and the United States. That’s a good step, and I applaud it.
But it would be nice to see Sadaharu Oh, and other remarkable Japanese players, honored with their own plaques in Cooperstown.
For some reason I find myself more intrigued by Spahn's "missing war stats" than just about anyone else, perhaps because of all of those guys, his career is perhaps the most forgotten and he was so close to true, indelible legend status. Naturally our dear friend Mr Feller neglected to include the stats of everyone else who also had to go to war on his little sheet. 400 victories isn't absurd to project.