In 1942, today's #1947League hero, Leon Day(HOF), was involved in one of the most controversial games in #WorldSeries history...but the team he played for during the season didn't make the Series. What happened?
Interesting to note that even though NNL/NAL officials threw out that creative Day victory against the Monarchs, baseballreference.com includes it in Day's stats, leading Day to a brief career with the Homestead Grays:
The nominal Boston ace picked up his first win in 7 starts, surviving Joe Gordon homers in the 5th and 7th. Monte Irvin went 2-4, stole a base, scored twice.
Boston got another quality start from Red Barrett, now 6-2 with an ERA under 2.00. Silvo Garcia keyed the decisive 8th-inning rally. Feller (6-9) took yet another tough loss.
And here's another cool data graphic....all-time ERA leaders. Fascinating to watch knowing that Koufax had the opposite career trajectory of everyone else. Started out mediocre, got way, way better...
Josh Gibson clubbed round-trippers #31 and #32 in his team's 76th game. Ford Smith held the high-flying Phils to 6 hits. St. Louis's 3rd straight win from Philly.
I don't know the outcome of the (fictional?) event below.
Here's a question I do have the answer to, though. Which of these two men has the higher career OPS, according to the best available stats? One guess, please.
This many days left until Spring Training, brought to you by the 1970 AL MVP, Boog Powell.
From the baseball-reference web site:
“In the South they call little kids who are often getting into mischief buggers, and my dad shortened it to Boog.” - Boog Powell, on his nickname's birth
This many days left (the lowest number in the photo) until Spring Training, brought to you by Devon “Devo” White, centre fielder for the 1992 and 1993 World Champion Toronto Blue Jays, and artiste of the Canadian version of The Catch.
This one occurred during game 3 of the 1992 WS. Two on, no outs. Justice hits a loud out to the CF wall. Devo’s range enables him to catch the ball, hit the wall, and throw to the cutoff man in time to throw to 1st for the next out.
Roberto Alomar, a guy who might know a thing or two about fielding, said:
“This one was better,” insisted Roberto Alomar. “Mays didn’t hit the wall, but Devo did. He had to catch the ball and hit the wall almost immediately.”
Continuing with the play…
Cutoff man relays to Olerud at 1st for out #2 and then another relay to Gruber to catch Sanders in a rundown thanks to a bad call by the ump.
This many days left until Spring Training, brought to you by IMO the. Greatest. Of. All. Time, Willie Mays.
I was going to post about The Catch, but I have a question for the panel about something else.
In 1951, Bobby Thomson hit his famous “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” off of Ralph Branca. (With the Russ Hodges radio call on WMCA, “The Giants win the Pennant! The Giants win the Pennant!”).
What I didn’t learn until a few months ago was that the on-deck hitter was Willie Mays.
One school of thought is that Mays’ presence forced Branca to pitch to Thomson, rather than pitch around him.
Another school of thought says that Mays was “only a rookie”, so wasn’t a concern to Branca.
This many days left until Spring Training, brought to you by Bobby Thomson! (I couldn’t ignore the obvious segue)
Born in Scotland, he was known as “The Flying Scot” and “The Staten Island Scot”, because of his childhood years.
His ‘Flying’ moniker might be puzzling at first glance. He had a not-exactly-Hendersonian high of 10 SB in one single season and 5 SB or less in each of the 14 others. But the speed was evidently out in the field and not on the base paths. A baseball card blurb said that “The Braves acquired Bobby last season to add speed to the outfield”.
He was known for his “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” that won the NY Giants the Pennant, which was featured on a US postage stamp.
This many days left until Spring Training, brought to you by Roberto Clemente.
Wow. HOF, WS@2, WS MVP, WAR of 95, MVP, Batting Title@4, ERA@5, AS@15, WS, Au Glove@12
Tragically, he died in a plane crash on a flight from Puerto Rico that was delivering relief aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
Clemente was in the news after a book about his life, where he mentions the racism that he faced in the U.S., was taken out of FL school libraries as a result of the anti-woke initiative by Participation Trophy winner, Ron Desantis. (The decision was reversed, it must not have polled well with Florida’s Latino demographic.)
This many days left until Spring Training, brought to you by Frank Robinson.
Doing it all: HOF, WS@2, WS MVP, WAR of 107(!), MVP@2 (AL & NL), Batting Title, AS@14, AS MVP, 586 HR, Au Glove, Triple Crown, PoY, MoY
10th on the HR list, the only player to MVP in both AL and NL.
The first African-American manager in Major League Baseball, he also won Manager of the Year. In his first game as player-manager for the Cleveland team, Robinson homered.
His accomplishments helped minorities reach executive and management positions in baseball.
Alt text: Frank Robinson in an Orioles home uniform, wearing number 20; about to drop the bat after the follow-through of a swing that appears to have connected for a hit.
This many days left until Spring Training, brought to you by Tony Gwynn.
HOF, WAR of 69.2, Batting Title@8 (tying Honus Wagner’s NL record), AS@15, AS MVP, Au Glove@5, Ag Slugger@7
His 20-year career ended in 2001 with a .338 career BA , the highest since Ted Williams (.344) in 1960.
He attended SD State on a basketball scholarship. Fortunately for us, he followed his parents advice: keep up with baseball as “something to fall back on”.
George Will (bowtie guy) wrote about him in Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball. Gwynn described being happy with a strikeout where he got the swings he wanted for the pitch he was seeing. And unhappy when an errant swing got an HR. IOW be aware when dumb luck smiles on you.
This many days left until Spring Training, brought to you by Gene Tenace.
WAR of 46.3, WS@4, WS MVP, AS
Born Fiore Gino Tennaci,
"If you divide his WAR by his plate appearances, he was more valuable on a per plate appearances basis than Bill Dickey, Roy Campanella, Gary Carter, and Yogi Berra. - from CalltothePen . com
He drew 100 walks six times and led his league in BB in both the AL and the NL. Lifetime BA of .241 but OBP .388
Tenace was 1972 WS MVP: 4HR; two in Game 1 in his first two WS at-bats (a first at the time, later done by Andruw Jones in 1996.
In addition to WS@4 as a player, he WS@2 as the bench coach for
::pauses to check notes::
Alt text: Gene Tenace, green A’s uniform, number 18. At 1st base, doing the splits, right foot solid on the bag, left leg on the ground pointing to 3rd, right hand up in the air for balance, gloved left hand also in the air, cleched. Runner’s leg, mostly off camera, 3-or-so feet in the air, indicating he tripped. Umpire about 10 feet away, hands on knees. SWAG interpretation: umpire is determining control of the ball before calling an out.
Alt text: Helton in Rox home uniform, side-ish view of a discernible number 17 on the back, right foot on first base, gloved right hand (holding a hidden baseball) at the end of a sweeping tag of the right buttock of Matt Carpenter, who wears a Cardinals away uniform with much dirt, facing towards the camera; showing incredible focus on making an absolutely perfect adjustment to his gloves while standing 14.3 inches past first base, thus resulting in an embarrassing out for his side.
Alt text: A baseball stadium tunnel under the stands with the bottom steps of two upward sets of stairs separated by a pillar/column. Two players in uniform inside the tunnel, their backs to the camera, facing each other, stand at the bottom of the right stairway, presumably the stairs lead to the field.
Evidence of one of the first Ted Talks, two players in conversation. The player on the left is Ted Lyons, wearing number 16, with his gloved left hand reaching up to lean against the narrow edge of the pillar. The player in the right is Ted Williams, wearing number 8, leans with his right shoulder against the wall.
This many days until Spring Training, brought to you by Dick Allen.
WAR 58.7, RoY (and 7th in MVP voting that year), MVP, AS@7
Not known for his fielding, he was one of the most talented hitters of his era, he batted over .300 for much of the 1960’s dead ball decade. His average suffered during the 1968 Year of the Pitcher, but he still hit a career 4th-highest 33HR, including three on the last day of the season (a feat only done one other time that century).
Unfortunately the effect of racism took its toll. During his career, he stood up for himself. After winning RoY in ‘64 he held out for more money. They doubled his salary from 10k to 20k, which angered white fans.
News stories were slanted against him. White fans reacted, booing him on the field and pelting him with debris to the point that he would wear a helmet in the field. They also vandalized his house (at one point throwing a rock through his window) and threatened him by phone.
His brother, Hank (they were on the 72 and 73 ChiSox together) said that the racism had beaten him down.
Baseball scout Jack Ogden said, “I scouted 90,000 players in my lifetime and Allen was the greatest I ever saw. It’s too bad he had so many difficulties.”
The numbers of the day weren’t enough to get him into the HOF, but the advent of OPS+ tells a different story.
Among hitters with 7000PA, Allen’s OPS+ of 156 ties him for 12th with Willie Mays.
Willie Mays and Mike Schmidt, among other HOFers, are in favour of it.
The same numbers today would get him in. Plus with ::going out on a limb:: less overt racism (less throwing stuff at players), maybe he could focus more on hitting. And maybe become a better fielder.
PS when some people bitch about “woke” and political correctness, they want to return to an era where this all happened to Dick Allen (and much worse to others was accepted)
yeah but let's be frank -- the numbers do not tell the whole story with this guy, and even so, the numbers as they are are good enough to merit election. And all that "on the bubble" stuff feels bogus to me given, you know....
Allen put up with (and stared down) a lot of crap so that guys today wouldn't have to. Add that to his amazing performance over a long period and ... seems like a slam dunk to me
@ted_duffield shoots and scores! Yes, it was the Cleveland Buckeyes who fell to the New York Cubans in the '47 #WorldSeries. What would you like to hear, sir?
Minnie Minoso has been incandescent lately. Today, he went 4-4, HR, 3 RBI, SB, pacing a Detroit win that was never really in doubt. Senators' swoon continues.