So, we had some fun last week by looking at the leading home run hitter by letter of the alphabet, and the response was so great that I came up with this idea of trying to do something quirky on Fridays that we will call “Weekend Fun Read.”
Always fun to create different lists...an excuse to revist these great ballplayers.
Joe, I am the prez of the Wisconsin SABR Chapter and our book club is reading Baseball 100, fabulous. Our Keltner Book Club will be meeting in March, date TBD, and we would appreciate it if you could attend. We read The Soul of Baseball a year ago and probably have questions and comments on that as well. Thanks for your consideration and I can be reached at bovine9@icloud.com. Dennis D Degenhardt
Entertaining and informative, Joe. Thanks! I'm curious: Was Derringer actually known as The Dude, or was he The Duke? I see Duke on old baseball cards, and that would make more sense if people nicknamed him based on his dapper clothing. The Dude wasn't much of a brawler. A bowler, yes.
A suggestion. Best player by uniform number. Is an opinion, but would be fun. Have tops for each of baseball, football, basketball- and then the overall winner. Ties are allowed- e.g. 20- Robinson and Schmidt.
Joe did. It was when he was at SI- fairly near the end of his tenure. It was the 1st or 2nd thing of his I ever read. Was hoping he’d do it again- updated.
You have significantly increased my knowledge of Tom Zachary. Before reading your post, all I knew about him was that he served up Babe Ruth's 60th homer in 1927. He probably deserved whatever good luck he had in 1929, because most of his major league years were spent with the Senators, St. Louis Browns, Brooklyn, and the Boston Braves. His carreer record was 186-191. I am wondering how many others on this list had losing records for their career. One or two at the most, I would guess. I am also wondering how many on your list also had the most career losses for a player with their letter, so to speak. Definitely Cy Young and presumably Zachary and Quinn.
Someone asked for best team by letter. OK, this one took more work.
For each letter, I chose the highest bWAR at each infield position and catcher, the top three outfielders, and the top five pitchers regardless of starter or reliever. The top five letters (with players listed by fielding position number, 1-9) are:
M at 1203.6 WAR: P (Maddox, Mathewson, Martinez, Mussina, McCormick), J. Mauer, J. Mize, J. Morgan, E. Matthews, R. Maranville, Mays, S. Musial, Mantle
C at 1138.9 WAR : P (Clemens, Clarkson, Carlton, Covelski, Cone), G. Carter, M. Cabrera, E. Collins, R. Cey, J. Cronin, Cobb, Clemente, S. Crawford
R at 1071.7 WAR: P (Ryan, R. Roberts, Reushel, Rusie, Radbourne), I. Rodriguez, A. Rizzo, W. Randolph, B. Robinson, A. Rodriguez, Ruth, F. Robinson, T. Raines
S at 1039.3 WAR: P (Seaver, Spahn, Schilling, Sutton, Smoltz), T. Simmons, G. Sisler, R. Sandberg, M. Schmidt, O. Smith, T. Speaker, A. Simmons, D. Snider
B at 1005 WAR: P (Blyleven, K. Brown, J. Bunning, M. Buehrle, M. Brown), J. Bench, J. Bagwell, C. Biggio, A. Beltre, L. Boudreau, Barry Bonds, C. Beltran, Bobby Bonds
I’m not going to type out the rest (G was sixth with a WAR of 950).
[Edited for one mistake due to Musial not being filtered by bbref as an outfielder since he hadn't played more than 45% at any single OF position. See the comments below for the full explanation.]
It’s a good thing I like to figure out programming puzzles like this, and/or I really need to spend my time more productively ;-)
Musial was the only person caught by the bbref filtering issue (thanks for pointing out the omission, Steven). Including Musial instead of S. Magee vaults them ahead with a sizable lead:
M at 1203.6 WAR: P (Maddox, Mathewson, Martinez, Mussina, McCormick), J. Mauer, J. Mize, J. Morgan, E. Matthews, R. Maranville, Mays, S. Musial, Mantle
Good catch. There is a quirk in the way bbref filters players (or at least in how I used it). I set the filter to be at least 45% of a player’s games to be at a certain position. (This number was picked to allow Ernie Banks to qualify as a shortstop.) For outfielders, I set it to be 45% for the three outfield positions, but bbref interpreted that as 45% at one *specific* position of the three OF spots. Musial’s time was split across all three OF positions as well as first base, so he never hit my 45% cutoff even though he spent about 2/3 of his time as an OF player. I can’t do it now, but I’ll see if I can adjust the formula so no one else gets caught in the same trap.
Good luck getting a ball in play against that S team. And if you do, better not hit it to the left side of the infield. Or to center. Or to right (with a CFer playing there). Or kinda to left (with a "CFer," though not a great one playing there). And not as if the D is too bad on the right side or behind the dish either.
I love this and the home runs by letter articles. On Bob Feller, how about an article estimating the statistics of all-time greats that served in the war and what they would have been if they had not served or if there was no war?
Kind of not surprised to see George Uhle on the list. I recently completed a little project where I went back and decided who I would pick for the Cy Young Award if they started giving it out the year after Young retired (instead of the year after he died). I make Uhle a two-time winner (1923 and 1926).
Good comment again on Bert Blyleven. Bert got a big of the short stick pitching for terrible Twins teams (among others) which made the playoffs 3 times in his 22 year career. We had Angels season tickets, at the time, and we pretty much felt like the game he was pitching was the only game that was going to be tough in the series. It felt like he never gave up much & to win, you had to hold the Twins down to zero or one run....two tops... or hope you got into their terrible bullpen. Which, unfortunately for Bert, happened a fair amount, leading to his roughly 50/50 win/loss ratio. Had he pitched for good teams, he would have won well over 300 games & sailed into the HOF with zero drama.
I don't know about Bill James getting credit for calling him "Pete" Alexander. The Strat-o-Matic cards of HOFers had him as Pete too. Which was a bit confusing, at the time, because he was mostly known as Grover Cleveland Alexander. But, once again, Strat-o-Matic set the precedent.
Whew. Harder than I would have thought. Some of these are tough letters, though - imagine making a playoff series and only facing S pitchers: Warren Spahn, Tom Seaver, Don Sutton, and John Smoltz, with Lee Smith and Bruce Sutter waiting in the pen. Or lining up against all those J's (Big Train, Big Unit, Fergie Jenkins, Tommy John, Addie Joss). Or watching Team G roll up on you with Galvin, Glavine, Gibson, Grove, and Grimes, holding Lefty Gomez, Ron Guidry, and Goose Gossage in reserve.
That might be another fun exercise: what letter could field the greatest full team in baseball history?
It's very cool that you mention Elmer Valo. My father's family (His parents came to the USA from Slovakia when they were children) knew him pretty well (Grandmother grew up in Palmerton).
On an unrelated tangent, my dad has a letter from Connie Mack inviting his father to try out for the club.
What does a guy have to do for the final installment of the best roster with no more than one player per country of birth?
Always fun to create different lists...an excuse to revist these great ballplayers.
Joe, I am the prez of the Wisconsin SABR Chapter and our book club is reading Baseball 100, fabulous. Our Keltner Book Club will be meeting in March, date TBD, and we would appreciate it if you could attend. We read The Soul of Baseball a year ago and probably have questions and comments on that as well. Thanks for your consideration and I can be reached at bovine9@icloud.com. Dennis D Degenhardt
Entertaining and informative, Joe. Thanks! I'm curious: Was Derringer actually known as The Dude, or was he The Duke? I see Duke on old baseball cards, and that would make more sense if people nicknamed him based on his dapper clothing. The Dude wasn't much of a brawler. A bowler, yes.
A suggestion. Best player by uniform number. Is an opinion, but would be fun. Have tops for each of baseball, football, basketball- and then the overall winner. Ties are allowed- e.g. 20- Robinson and Schmidt.
I thought Joe wrote about that once, but I couldn’t find it. Someone else wrote this https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlbs-best-player-at-each-uniform-number-from-no-1-ozzie-smith-to-no-99-manny-ramirez-and-every-digit-in-between/
Joe did. It was when he was at SI- fairly near the end of his tenure. It was the 1st or 2nd thing of his I ever read. Was hoping he’d do it again- updated.
And thanks for the link to the cbs article.
You have significantly increased my knowledge of Tom Zachary. Before reading your post, all I knew about him was that he served up Babe Ruth's 60th homer in 1927. He probably deserved whatever good luck he had in 1929, because most of his major league years were spent with the Senators, St. Louis Browns, Brooklyn, and the Boston Braves. His carreer record was 186-191. I am wondering how many others on this list had losing records for their career. One or two at the most, I would guess. I am also wondering how many on your list also had the most career losses for a player with their letter, so to speak. Definitely Cy Young and presumably Zachary and Quinn.
Someone asked for best team by letter. OK, this one took more work.
For each letter, I chose the highest bWAR at each infield position and catcher, the top three outfielders, and the top five pitchers regardless of starter or reliever. The top five letters (with players listed by fielding position number, 1-9) are:
M at 1203.6 WAR: P (Maddox, Mathewson, Martinez, Mussina, McCormick), J. Mauer, J. Mize, J. Morgan, E. Matthews, R. Maranville, Mays, S. Musial, Mantle
C at 1138.9 WAR : P (Clemens, Clarkson, Carlton, Covelski, Cone), G. Carter, M. Cabrera, E. Collins, R. Cey, J. Cronin, Cobb, Clemente, S. Crawford
R at 1071.7 WAR: P (Ryan, R. Roberts, Reushel, Rusie, Radbourne), I. Rodriguez, A. Rizzo, W. Randolph, B. Robinson, A. Rodriguez, Ruth, F. Robinson, T. Raines
S at 1039.3 WAR: P (Seaver, Spahn, Schilling, Sutton, Smoltz), T. Simmons, G. Sisler, R. Sandberg, M. Schmidt, O. Smith, T. Speaker, A. Simmons, D. Snider
B at 1005 WAR: P (Blyleven, K. Brown, J. Bunning, M. Buehrle, M. Brown), J. Bench, J. Bagwell, C. Biggio, A. Beltre, L. Boudreau, Barry Bonds, C. Beltran, Bobby Bonds
I’m not going to type out the rest (G was sixth with a WAR of 950).
[Edited for one mistake due to Musial not being filtered by bbref as an outfielder since he hadn't played more than 45% at any single OF position. See the comments below for the full explanation.]
It’s a good thing I like to figure out programming puzzles like this, and/or I really need to spend my time more productively ;-)
Musial is 8th all time in position bWAR so he should be either at 1st or OF for the M team.
Musial was the only person caught by the bbref filtering issue (thanks for pointing out the omission, Steven). Including Musial instead of S. Magee vaults them ahead with a sizable lead:
M at 1203.6 WAR: P (Maddox, Mathewson, Martinez, Mussina, McCormick), J. Mauer, J. Mize, J. Morgan, E. Matthews, R. Maranville, Mays, S. Musial, Mantle
Good catch. There is a quirk in the way bbref filters players (or at least in how I used it). I set the filter to be at least 45% of a player’s games to be at a certain position. (This number was picked to allow Ernie Banks to qualify as a shortstop.) For outfielders, I set it to be 45% for the three outfield positions, but bbref interpreted that as 45% at one *specific* position of the three OF spots. Musial’s time was split across all three OF positions as well as first base, so he never hit my 45% cutoff even though he spent about 2/3 of his time as an OF player. I can’t do it now, but I’ll see if I can adjust the formula so no one else gets caught in the same trap.
Thanks. Awesome work.
Good luck getting a ball in play against that S team. And if you do, better not hit it to the left side of the infield. Or to center. Or to right (with a CFer playing there). Or kinda to left (with a "CFer," though not a great one playing there). And not as if the D is too bad on the right side or behind the dish either.
And as suggested, that staff is ridiculous!
My money's on the S's in any short series.
I love this and the home runs by letter articles. On Bob Feller, how about an article estimating the statistics of all-time greats that served in the war and what they would have been if they had not served or if there was no war?
So glad to see ESPN be original with their top 100 baseball players of all time….
Stories on World Series losers - 7th game heartbreakers, multiple losers, etc.
Kind of not surprised to see George Uhle on the list. I recently completed a little project where I went back and decided who I would pick for the Cy Young Award if they started giving it out the year after Young retired (instead of the year after he died). I make Uhle a two-time winner (1923 and 1926).
https://pureblather.com/2022/01/16/before-the-cy-young-award-1/
For fun Friday, we must have the iPad review
Good comment again on Bert Blyleven. Bert got a big of the short stick pitching for terrible Twins teams (among others) which made the playoffs 3 times in his 22 year career. We had Angels season tickets, at the time, and we pretty much felt like the game he was pitching was the only game that was going to be tough in the series. It felt like he never gave up much & to win, you had to hold the Twins down to zero or one run....two tops... or hope you got into their terrible bullpen. Which, unfortunately for Bert, happened a fair amount, leading to his roughly 50/50 win/loss ratio. Had he pitched for good teams, he would have won well over 300 games & sailed into the HOF with zero drama.
I don't know about Bill James getting credit for calling him "Pete" Alexander. The Strat-o-Matic cards of HOFers had him as Pete too. Which was a bit confusing, at the time, because he was mostly known as Grover Cleveland Alexander. But, once again, Strat-o-Matic set the precedent.
I think maybe James, in the Historical Abstract, REMINDED people that that was his nickname by constantly referring to him as just "Pete."
I thought I remembered references of Ole Pete for him, so I looked it up:
https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/short-stops/old-pete-origin
All the more reason to be glad the weekend really starts on Friday!
Whew. Harder than I would have thought. Some of these are tough letters, though - imagine making a playoff series and only facing S pitchers: Warren Spahn, Tom Seaver, Don Sutton, and John Smoltz, with Lee Smith and Bruce Sutter waiting in the pen. Or lining up against all those J's (Big Train, Big Unit, Fergie Jenkins, Tommy John, Addie Joss). Or watching Team G roll up on you with Galvin, Glavine, Gibson, Grove, and Grimes, holding Lefty Gomez, Ron Guidry, and Goose Gossage in reserve.
That might be another fun exercise: what letter could field the greatest full team in baseball history?
It's very cool that you mention Elmer Valo. My father's family (His parents came to the USA from Slovakia when they were children) knew him pretty well (Grandmother grew up in Palmerton).
On an unrelated tangent, my dad has a letter from Connie Mack inviting his father to try out for the club.