From the Road: Day 4

Another Unreal Performance from Shohei Ohtani and a Look Back at the All-20th Century Ballot.

Fantastic night in St. Louis, full house, amazing time with Gerald Early, and we met Tash who, this is wild, painted the cover of BIG FAN on her nails. The talent out there in the world is mind-boggling.

We figured that out that this was the first time Mike had ever been to St. Louis, which is nuts because he had been to every other MLB city already. St. Louis is NEVER the last MLB city; it’s too centrally located for that. Finding out Mike has never been to St. Louis is like finding out that someone has been to 49 of the 50 states and the one he’s missing is Ohio. Anyway, he got to finally see the Arch in person.

His reaction to that was pretty much the reaction Albert Brooks had when he saw the Hoover Dam in “Lost in America.”

Nice dam. Nice arch.

---

Wednesday night. Shohei Ohtani threw five shutout innings (dropping his ERA to 0.72), and he homered on the first pitch of the game (he’s slugging .888 for the last week), and it’s like, yeah, that’s what he does. I mean, they should be breaking into live programming to give us breaking news updates on Ohtani because he’s that amazing, but he also does this stuff so often that we barely even take notice anymore.

This, actually, is one of my favorite parts of Superman. At some point, it just kind of becomes normal to people that there’s a guy out there, in blue tights and a cape, who CAN FLY and also is bulletproof and is also strong enough to lift planes and also can make lasers come out of his eyes and also can blow such cold air that he can turn water into ice. I mean, just the flying thing, every time he did that, people all around should be shouting, “OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD THAT GUY CAN FLY! DID YOU SEE THAT? HE CAN JUST LIFT OFF AND FLY! HE DOESN’T HAVE WINGS OR ANYTHING! HE CAN JUST FLY WHENEVER HE WANTS! THAT GUY CAN FLY!!!”

Instead, they just calmly say, “Thank you, Superman, for saving my cat from that tree.”

That’s where we are with Shohei. He performs daily miracles and we’re left saying, “Thank you, Shohei, for saving my cat from that tree.”

---

I’m sure there’s a scientific reason for this, but: why is the water in an airport bathroom so much hotter than you expected? Every time you turn on the water from the sink, hot lava comes out.

---

We’re driving to Kansas City for our big Rainy Day Books event tonight at Unity Temple on the Plaza — tickets still available! — and I’m so looking forward to what I honestly believe to be the most boring four-hour drive in America. I’ve probably made this drive, I don’t know, 40 or 50 times, I would guess. That means I’ve spent roughly 200 hours of my life on I-70, driving by adult store and personal injury lawyer billboards and, so often, telling passengers (especially kids), “We’ll stop for food in Columbia!”

This will be Mike’s first St. Louis-Kansas City drive. I so envy him. It’s never quite like the first time.

---

Jason Kander will be moderating tonight’s show in Kansas City, and while I don’t want to spoil anything, I will tell you we have something special and maybe even a little bit touching to share with him tonight.

---

I’m probably going to save this for when I get back — though I might write it on the plane to Los Angeles Friday: I’m putting together an all-21st Century Baseball Team Ballot for your enjoyment.

As part of that (ht to Tom Tango) I went back to look at the 20th Century Ballot — and see how many of the players there were in the Baseball 100 (and how many Baseball 100 players were NOT on the ballot).

Here’s what that ballot looked like:

First Base

• Jimmie Foxx (B100)

• Lou Gehrig (B100)

• Hank Greenberg (B100)

• Harmon Killebrew

• Buck Leonard (B100)

• Willie McCovey (B100)

• Mark McGwire

• Eddie Murray

• Geoge Sisler

• Bill Terry

B100s not on the list: Johnny Mize.

Obviously, I’m biased, but I think Mize is a huge oversight. People talk all the time about the war years lost by Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, and Bob Feller, and that’s as it should be. But Mize missed three prime years and still put up 70-plus WAR. On the flip side, I’d say I often get asked why Eddie Murray didn’t make the Baseball 100

Second Base

• Rod Carew (B100)

• Eddie Collins (B100)

• Frankie Frisch

• Charlie Gehringer (B100)

• Rogers Hornsby (B100)

• Napoleon Lajoie (B100)

• Joe Morgan (B100)

• Jackie Robinson (B100)

B100s not on the list: None

I should probably explain that if a B100 player spent any part of his career playing after 1999, I do not count him as eligible for 20th Century Ballot. That is to say, Robbie Alomar, who is in the Baseball 100, was a strong candidate for the 20th Century Ballot — he was a 10-time All-Star in the 20th century and won eight Gold Gloves and posted 54 WAR and so on. But he played on past 2000 — he is therefore eligible for my 21st Century Ballot.

Shortstop

• Luis Aparicio

• Luke Appling

• Ernie Banks (B100)

• Joe Cronin

• Cal Ripken Jr. (B100)

• Ozzie Smith (B100)

• Honus Wagner (B100)

• Robin Yount (B100)

B100s not on the list: Arky Vaughan, Pop Lloyd.

Vaughan is, of course, tragically underrated. But John Henry Lloyd is the real miss here — he’s No. 25 on my list, making him the highest-ranked player not to make the All-Century Ballot.

Third Base

• George Brett (B100)

• Eddie Mathews (B100)

• Paul Molitor

• Brooks Robinson (B100)

• Mike Schmidt (B100)

• Pie Traynor

B100s not on list: Wade Boggs

Huge, huge, huge miss here — how can you possibly have an All-Century Ballot without Wade Boggs? I guess they felt they HAD to put Pie Traynor on the list because he was (absurdly) named the greatest all-time third baseman in MLB’s 100-year celebration, but leaving off Boggs is just baffling. And Molitor as a third baseman? He played 791 of his 2,683 games at third base.

Catchers

• Johnny Bench (B100)

• Yogi Berra (B100)

• Roy Campanella (B100)

• Mickey Cochrane

• Bill Dickey

• Carlton Fisk (B100)

• Josh Gibson (B100)

• Gabby Hartnett

B100s not on list: Gary Carter

I don’t understand why Gary Carter doesn’t get more love. I guess there’s some controversy in New York about whether Carter’s number should be retired by the Mets. I get why they might not; he only played five years with the team; his best years were definitely in Montreal. But, I mean, they’ve retired all the numbers of the stars from 1986 — Strawberry, Gooden, Hernandez — and Carter was the heart and soul of that team, I think.

Outfielders

• Henry Aaron (B100)

• Cool Papa Bell (B100)

• Barry Bonds (B100)

• Lou Brock

• Oscar Charleston (B100)

• Roberto Clemente (B100)

• Ty Cobb (B100)

• Joe DiMaggio (B100)

• Goose Goslin

• Ken Griffey Jr. (B100)

• Tony Gwynn (B100)

• Harry Heilmann

• Rickey Henderson (B100)

• Shoeless Joe Jackson

• Reggie Jackson (B100)

• Al Kaline (B100)

• Wee Willie Keeler

• Ralph Kiner

• Mickey Mantle (B100)

• Willy Mays (B100)

• Joe Medwick

• Stan Musial (B100)

• Mel Ott (B100)

• Frank Robinson (B100)

• Pete Rose (B100)

• Babe Ruth (B100)

• Al Simmons

• Duke Snider

• Tris Speaker (B100)

• Willie Stargell

• Paul Waner

• Billy Williams

• Ted Williams (B100)

• Carl Yastrzemski (B100)

B100s not on the list: Monte Irvin.

There were SO many outfielders on that ballot. Wow.

Pitchers

• Pete Alexander (B100)

• Three Finger Brown

• Steve Carlton (B100)

• Roger Clemens (B100)

• Dizzy Dean

• Dennis Eckersley

• Bob Feller (B100)

• Rollie Fingers

• Whitey Ford

• Bob Gibson (B100)

• Lefty Grove (B100)

• Carl Hubbell

• Walter Johnson (B100)

• Sandy Koufax (B100)

• Greg Maddux (B100)

• Juan Marichal

• Christy Mathewson (B100)

• Satchel Paige (B100)

• Jim Palmer

• Eddie Plank

• Robin Roberts (B100)

• Nolan Ryan (B100)

• Tom Seaver (B100)

• Warren Spahn (B100)

• Ed Walsh

• Cy Young (B100)

B100s not on the list: Bullet Rogan, Phil Niekro, Kid Nichols, Fergie Jenkins, Bert Blyleven, Gaylord Perry, Smokey Joe Williams.

This is where we disagreed the most. On my side, I’ll admit I’ve gotten more complaints about Jim Palmer being left off the list than any other player, so that’s probably a miss on my part. On the other side, I think my seven pitchers — particularly the two Negro Leaguers — should definitely have been on the ballot.