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Jan-29-10
 | | Phony Benoni: Speaking of bad fielding shortstops, there's <Whitey Witt>. He would be converted to an outfielder and have several good years for the Athletics and Yankees, but in his rookie 1916 seaon Connie Mack used him at shortstop. http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/...
Playing a full season at short with more errors than double plays is some accomplishment. Of course, the 1916 A's were an historically bad team, with a record of 36-117. One of their pitchers, John Nabors, lost 19 games in a row at one point, generally for lack of support both offensively and defensively. There's a story, too good not to be apocryphal, that Nabors was pitching one extremely hot summer day and took a 1-0 lead into the ninth. A couple of runners got on, then Witt pulled one of his specials and let the tying run score. Nabors then threw his next pitch about 20 feet over the catcher's head, and the winning run scored. Afterwards, when being consoled about the wild pitch, he is supposed to have said, "If you think I'm throwing another nine innings on a hot day like this, you're nuts." |
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| Jan-30-10 | | playground player: <Phony Benoni> Now that I think of it, Mickey Mantle came up as a shortstop. Phil Rizzuto used to reminisce about that in the broadcast booth. According to the Scooter, Mantle as a shortstop made a great center fielder. |
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| Jan-30-10 | | Jim Bartle: "Mantle can run, steal bases, throw, hit for average, and hit with power like I've never seen. Just don't put him at shortstop." - Kansas City Athletics Manager Harry Craft |
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Jan-30-10
| | Phony Benoni: I got to wondering how good a shortstop Ernie Banks was during his big offensive years. Turns out he was probably a bit better than average for his league at that time, though the NL didn't have a lot of snazzy-fielding shortstops around then. Instead, there was guys like Wills or Johnny Logan or Dick Groat, scrappy rather than graceful. |
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| Jan-30-10 | | Jim Bartle: Or Rocky Bridges? The slick fielding ones of that period were, I think, Roy McMillan and Luis Aparicio. |
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| Jan-30-10 | | A.G. Argent: Rocky Bridges? Sorry, Jim; refresh. |
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Jan-30-10
| | Phony Benoni: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/...
Yes, Rocky Bridges fit the scrappy mold too, but what would you expect from a nickname like "Rocky"? Too bad he never played for Philadelphia. |
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| Jan-30-10 | | Travis Bickle: Hey Phony did this Rocky ever play shortstop?
http://sportsmed.starwave.com/media... |
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Jan-31-10
| | Phony Benoni: <Travis> I don't know, but if he's covering second base I'm not going to try and break up the double play. |
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| Jan-31-10 | | Jim Bartle: http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/da... I think he was a manager in the minors for the Giants for many years. |
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Jan-31-10
| | Phony Benoni: Now <that> is the definition of scrappy. And the perfect nickname, too; he's certainly not an "Everett". |
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Jan-31-10
| | Phony Benoni: Quote supplied by Wikipedia, from "The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book": <"Rocky Bridges looked like a ballplayer. In fact, he may have looked more like a ballplayer than any other ballplayer who ever lived."> |
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| Jan-31-10 | | playground player: <Phony Benoni> et al--There's a Rocky Bridges quote that I cite all the time: "There are three things everybody thinks he can do: run a hotel, write a book, and manage a baseball team." Truer words were never spoken. |
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| Jan-31-10 | | Jim Bartle: What about "win a rook ending"? |
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Jan-31-10
| | Phony Benoni: <JB> The sagest advice I ever heard about rook endings was this: <Rook endings a pawn up are always drawn. Rook endings a pawn down are always lost.> That's certainly benn my experience. |
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| Jan-31-10 | | A.G. Argent: So, Czar, with that rule of thumb, White's a stone cold lock here then, ain't he.
click for larger view |
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Jan-31-10
| | Phony Benoni: <A.G. Argent> Sorry, the rule doesn't apply here. White is two pawns ahead. I'm afraid you're on your own with this one. |
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| Feb-01-10 | | Jim Bartle: I'm thinking of a secondary effect of the steroid use by Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Palmeiro, etc. They were able to maintain or improve their performance well into their 30s, at ages when all players have traditionally dropped off, particularly in power. (Yes, Aaron, too: he kept up largely because the Braves moved from an average home run park to the Launching Pad when he was 32.) This makes power hitters whose numbers drop off normally look like they're underperforming. The best example is Ken Griffey, Jr., who hit 40 homers at age 31, then began to decline. He had a lot of injuries, true, but I think a lot of the decline was because of his age. Griffey has a similar build today as he always did. Nobody has suggested he uses steroids. Yet there's this idea, that I admit I've had, that he's really been an underachiever since he first left the Mariners. Frank Thomas may be a victim of the same thing. |
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| Feb-01-10 | | Jim Bartle: The same "Great American Baseball Card Book" also has a card of Clyde Kluttz. The comment: "There was never a baseball player named Clyde Kluttz." |
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Feb-01-10
| | Phony Benoni: <JB> You might find this page interesting. It's a list of batting leaders up to age 30, and after age 30: http://www.baseball-reference.com/l... Here are the home run leaders:
1. Barry Bonds 503 7203
2. Babe Ruth 430 6106
3. Rafael Palmeiro 414 7213
4. Hank Aaron 413 7358
5. Willie Mays 381 7195
6. Mark McGwire 354 3826
7. Sammy Sosa 336 4800
8. Jim Thome 331 4997
9. Mike Schmidt 313 5556
10. Willie Stargell 310 5465
The second column is plate appearances.
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| Feb-01-10 | | Jim Bartle: Fascinating.
There really was a player named Cupid Childs? |
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| Feb-01-10 | | A.G. Argent: And Zack Wheat? |
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| Feb-01-10 | | Travis Bickle: Hey Phony and all you sports fans out there be advised. The Bears signed Mike Martz as Offensive Coordinator. Now all we need is two blue chip offensive tackles and about 4 recievers. ; 0 |
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| Feb-01-10 | | Travis Bickle: Dr. Benoni how about Jimmy Foxx for the age 30 leaders. I believe at 1 time he was the fastest player to reach 300 home runs. Then the booze set in and he started to unravel. |
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Feb-02-10
| | Phony Benoni: <Travis> From that link I posted earlier, there's the list up to age 30: 1. Alex Rodriguez 464
2. Ken Griffey 438
3. Jimmie Foxx 429
4. Mickey Mantle 404
5. Eddie Mathews 399
6. Frank Robinson 373
7. Mel Ott 369
8. Andruw Jones 368
9. Hank Aaron 366
10. Albert Pujols 366
So you're right about Foxx. Another interesting thing to note is that Hank Aaron is the only one to make both the pre-30 and post-30 lists. Something similar happened with stolen bases. Rickey Henderson led both lists, but there were no other repeats. |
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