Monday
I was traveling back from Arizona on Monday, returning from my latest trip to see all of the active ballparks in the major leagues. I’ve been slowly knocking off parks for nearly fifty years, and this is the year I’m finally going to finish.
Monday was the birthday of Willie Davis, the under-appreciated star of the Dodgers in the 1960s and ‘70s who I wrote about a few months ago. It was also the birthday of Dick “Cannonball” Redding, the legendary pitcher whose career largely took place before the formation of the Negro Leagues.
Redding was reputed to throw harder than any pitcher in Black baseball, hence his awesome nickname. He reportedly threw nothing but fastballs early in his career, and still managed to throw several no-hitters and post preposterous accomplishments like a 43-12 record in 1912. These exploits got him strong consideration for the Hall of Fame in 2006, and again in 2022, but he’s fallen short every time, a victim of the lack of documentation for much of his career.
He’s a perfect example of why SABR elected to form a Special Negro Leagues and Teams Committee last year, which will be focused on developing more information about teams that weren’t part of the seven Negro Leagues that were finally recognized as major leagues in 2020. Too many players like Redding suffer from having only myths and legends about their abilities and accomplishments rather than hard proof of their greatness.
Tuesday
Chase Field is a perfectly fine venue, in a great location, with all the modern creature comforts and a staff that tries really hard to put on a good ballgame. But everything fell just a bit flat, or seemed forced, or was an unforced error. Like playing the game with the roof closed on an absolutely gorgeous day.
Tuesday was also the anniversary of Bob Feller throwing the only Opening Day no-hitter in major league history. He turned the trick in 1940, striking out eight and walking five in a 1-0 win over the White Sox. He would go on to win the pitching Triple Crown that season, and finished second in voting for the American League MVP Award. He was just twenty-one years old.
Feller had another dominant season in 1941, then missed most of the next four seasons due to service during World War II. He very famously spent most of his retirement years telling anyone who would listen about the career numbers he would have compiled if he hadn’t missed those seasons, and even carried around a piece of paper showing what his final numbers may have been. It always struck me as a bit odd that a first-ballot Hall of Famer felt the need to tell people he was even better than they thought, but that was Feller.
Also, I think it’s entirely possible that he was wrong. Rather than ruin his career numbers, I think his war service may have prolonged his career. The workload being placed on his very young arm was extreme even by the standards of those days. I wrote about that last year in a lot more detail if anyone is interested.
Wednesday
Despite being one of the best catchers in the history of baseball, a dominate defender who could also hit, it took six appearances on the ballot for Gary Carter to be elected to the Hall of Fame. And yet some folks still foolishly insist he was overrated.
Wednesday was the anniversary of Frank Robinson’s major league debut in 1956. He went 2-for-3 with an intentional walk in a 4-2 loss to the Cardinals. It was the start of a remarkable career, but a really remarkable rookie season.
There have been 136 individual seasons in which a player hit at least 35 homers, scored at least 120 runs, and had at least 6.0 WAR. Babe Ruth accomplished that eleven times, Álex Rodríguez did it eight times, and Barry Bonds and Lou Gehrig did it seven times each. Robinson did it three times during his distinguished career, including that rookie season.
Do you know how many rookies have ever done that?
Two.
Robinson was the first. It wasn’t done by another rookie until Aaron Judge did it over sixty years later, in 2017.
Rookie Frank Robinson was a problem.
Thursday
Amos Otis slipped to the fifth round in the 1965 draft, his first organization didn’t protect him, his second left him off their first playoff roster, and then traded him to an expansion team. And yet he still became the foundation for the building of a dominant franchise and had a career worthy of having his number retired.
Thursday marked the anniversary of Tom Seaver’s 3,000th career strikeout, and he got it in ignominious fashion.
He entered the game with 2,997 strikeouts, so it was pretty clear that he was going to get the milestone in that game. Sure enough, he whiffed the very first hitter he faced, Garry Templeton, for number 2,998. Then he ended the second inning by striking out the opposing pitcher, Bob Shirley, for number 2,999.
Then his problems began.
After retiring Templeton to lead off the third, Seaver surrendered a single to Tony Scott and an RBI double by Keith Hernandez to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead. He managed to get out of the inning without further damage, but remained stuck on 2,999 strikeouts.
After the Reds did nothing in their half of the third, Seaver watched Ken Oberkfell reach on an error by Dave Concepcion to lead off the fourth inning. Then Oberkfell stole second base, and Gene Tenace walked, bringing up Tom Herr, who smacked an RBI double to right-center field. That drove in Oberkfell with an unearned run to make the score 2-0 and put runners on second and third with no one out.
Shirley grounded out to third for the first out, but then Templeton hit a sacrifice fly to right field. That should have been the third out, but instead it scored Tenace with another unearned run while Herr moved to third base. Scott followed that with a single, scoring Herr with the third unearned run of the inning to make the score 4-0 Cardinals.
Then Seaver struck out Hernandez to end the inning and get to 3,000 career strikeouts. Seaver and the Reds ended up losing the game, 10-4.
I’m guessing this wasn’t Tom Seaver’s favorite baseball memory.
Friday
Finally, Friday is Joe Mauer’s 41st birthday. As he goes into the Hall of Fame later this summer, and you inevitably hear some folks wonder if he deserved to be a first-ballot selection, keep this one statistic in mind.
Joe Mauer won three batting titles as a catcher.
At the time he won them, the sum total of all the batting titles won by American Leagues catchers since the league’s first season in 1901 was zero. (By the way, the total by any other American League catcher besides Mauer remains zero.) The total won by any catcher in either the American or National League was three, one by Bubbles Hargrave in 1926, and a pair by Ernie Lombardi in 1938 and 1942. Since then, a fourth has been added by Buster Posey in 2012.
To summarize:
All catchers besides Joe Mauer in modern AL/NL history = 4 batting titles.
Just Joe Mauer all by himself = 3 batting titles.
“I’m guessing this wasn’t Tom Seaver’s favorite baseball memory.”
Ouch. Bit of a clunker, given Seaver’s ultimate demise…