Tall Tales and Ballplayers

Because baseball is long on nostalgia, there are ample opportunities for older ballplayers to publicly tell stories from back in their playing days. That might be on a podcast, or MLB Network, or somewhere on social media. It could be in a book someone ghostwrites for them, or even in an honest-to-God newspaper story from time to time. There’s no shortage of these tales, but something I’ve learned over the years is that when you run across one, no matter the format, take the details with a grain of salt.

The example I always give is Don Baylor’s autobiography, which is somewhat awkwardly titled Don Baylor: Nothing But the Truth: A Baseball Life. Yes, there really are two colons in the title. I read this a few years back and came across his re-telling of the 1979 season, the year he was named American League MVP. He won it largely because he led the league with 139 RBI that season, but at one point he claimed to be worried that Fred Lynn of the Red Sox was going to catch him. He was leading Lynn by 15 RBI at the All-Star break, according to Baylor, but woke up one morning to find out that Lynn had homered three times in Detroit the night before and collected 10 RBI in a single game to cut his lead to just 5. Oh my, what an exciting RBI race!

But there are a few problems with this version.

• Baylor was leading Lynn by 10 RBI, not 15, at the All-Star break.

• Lynn really did have a 10-RBI game against the Tigers, one in which he homered three times, but that game didn’t take place in 1979. Lynn did that June 18, 1975, his rookie year with the Red Sox.

• Note that is not just the wrong year, but is also before the All-Star break.

• The most RBI Lynn had in one game in 1979 was 6 in a game against the Twins in Fenway Park that August.

• That was after the All-Star break, and Baylor’s lead over him was 15 at that point, but it cut that lead to 9, not 5.

• Lynn went on a bit of a spree over the next few games and cut Baylor’s lead to 3, but that didn’t all happen in one game.

• No one in the league had a 10-RBI game in 1979. Other than Lynn’s 1975 game, no one in baseball had driven in 10 runs in a single game since Reggie Jackson in 1969, before Baylor was even in the big leagues. No one would do it again until Mark Whiten in 1993, long after Baylor was retired.