This Day In MLB History…
January 27, 1944: Lou Perini, Guido Rugo, and Joe Maney gain control of the Braves and relieve manager Casey Stengel of his duties.
Man, talk about a monumental mistake. However, at the time that Casey Stengel was fired by the Braves, he was nothing more than a so-so manager. In his first nine seasons as a skipper, he won 581 games with the Dodgers and Braves organization, but never placed higher than fifth, obviously not leading to any post-season baseball. Once he was let go by the Braves, he didn’t lead a team for another six years- until the Yankees gave him a chance in 1949.
The Bronx Bombers did have some successful seasons after Joe McCarthy made his exit in 1946, but in that three year span, they had three different men manage the team. They needed someone to be a stabilizing factor, someone who could bring sustained success to an already prestigious organization.
That’s exactly what Stengel was able to do; in his 12 seasons as manager in New York, he won 1,149 games, including 10 American League Pennants and seven World Series titles. He won five titles in his first five years as manager (as you can see in the above picture). This reminds me a lot of Joe Torre’s managerial career; he had moderate success until he came to New York and won four titles in a five-year span.
Before Peroni, Rugo, and Maney had to start looking up at Stengel holding the World Series trophy at the end of virtually every year, they probably felt they made a good business decision…not so much.
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Introducing: The MLB Hall Of Fame Class Of 1961.
The class of 1961 contained only two new inductees, but it was the cream of the crop for center fielders, with Max Carey and Billy Hamilton being enshrined into baseball immortality.
Max Carey: Center Fielder, Pittsburgh Pirates
.285 average, 1545 runs, 2665 hits, 70 home runs, 800 RBI, 738 stolen bases
Max Carey was an extremely talented center fielder that played for 20 seasons in the MLB, with 17 of those seasons being with the Pittsburgh Pirates. This legendary player was voted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee, and rightfully so! He compiled over 2,600 career hits, hit over .300 in a season six times, and led the league in steals on ten different occasions. Even though he wasn’t known for his offense, he is 42nd on the all-time list for career triples (159), 9th all-time in stolen bases (738), and 13th in career sacrifice hits (290). During his career in the league, he patrolled the outfield for 2,421 games, which is the 12th highest total in history. During that time in the field, he registered 3,201 put outs and 133 assists. He helped the Pirates win the World Series in 1925 with a .343 regular season averaged, then kicked it into high gear with a .458 average in the post season. All those great players bring it to another level when the stakes are high, and that’s what Carey was able to do.
Billy Hamilton: Center Fielder, Philadelphia Phillies
.344 average, 1691 runs, 2157 hits, 40 home runs, 742 RBI, 937 stolen bases
Billy Hamilton was a special player during his 14-year career, which spanned from 1888 to 1901. He has the seventh highest career batting average in Major League history, and did so by hitting over .300 for 12 consecutive years. Hamilton has the fourth highest career on-base% (.455) and led the league five times. He has the distinct honor of being one of only three players in MLB history that has more runs scored (1,691) than games played (1,578). Over a five year period from 1891 to 1897, nobody in the National League accumulated more walks than Hamilton. To put the cherry on top, he was the all-time leader in stolen bases until Lou Brock and Rickey Henderson passed him later on. How dangerous was Hamilton on the base paths? He still owns the MLB record for most stolen bases in one game with seven thefts, which he did back in August of 1894. That’s pretty damn good.
Come back next week, as we look at the class of 1962, which holds three more special players.
The Prince Fielder Sweepstakes Are Over!
The wait is finally over; Prince Fielder will officially make the move to the American League and take his talents to the Motor City based on reports of him agreeing to a nine-year/$214 million contract with the Detroit Tigers. This has been a long saga in the media, and I have no doubt that Fielder is finally happy to have a home after months and months of speculation.
Lots of rumors were spreading like wild fire on Tuesday before news dropped of this mega-deal with Detroit; ESPN’s Buster Olney reported yesterday that the Tigers would be a good fit for a one-year deal, since he would replace the hole that Victor Martinez left with his ACL injury last week, and two big market teams could be in the mix next winter with new ownership (i.e. the Mets and Dodgers). However, GM Dave Dombrowski shocked everyone especially the Nationals and Rangers, who seemed to have been the public front-runners for the All-Star first baseman’s services.
What does this mean for the Detroit Tigers in 2012? With a very deep pitching rotation coming back, headlined by 2011 AL Cy Young and MVP winner Justin Verlander, they will be the favorites to repeat at AL Central champions. Analysts were speculating at the end of last week and beginning of this week about all the inexpensive, short-term options that the Tigers could go after. However, they decided to make the second biggest splash of the off-season, next to the signing of Albert Pujols.
As this saga played out throughout the entire hot stove season, there were plenty of nay sayers that played down why Prince wouldn’t be able to get a long-term deal, the biggest negative being his size and stature. His durability has been questioned time and time again because it will be hard to stay on the field as he gets older with his current build. If that’s true or not, you need to look at his track record. Since Prince has become an everyday player in 2006, he has not played in less than 157 games in a single season, also being the only Major Leaguer to play in all 162 games in 2011. While playing every day, his average season comes out to a .282 average, 37 home runs, and 106 RBI; you throw in a decent glove at first base and he’s all an organization would ever want in a player that mans first base.
Short term, this is an unbelievably great move for Detroit; they came out to announce the Martinez injury and said that they aren’t going to be able to replace him in their line-up, but it’s fair to assume that this is a comparable fill in, or even an upgrade. However, once V-Mart comes back to the line-up, I think there’s going to be a little bit of a log jam. In 2011, Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez split time between the DH spot in the line-up as well and rotating at first base every so often. With Martinez out for virtually all of 2012, that frees up the DH spot. Early reports are saying that Cabrera will occupy that spot most of the time, with Fielder going out into the field (no pun intended). Once V-Mart comes back, manager Jim Leyland will most likely have to use the Designated Hitter as a revolving door between these three stars, in order to keep them all fresh. Don’t forget, Cabrera could play some third base if needed as well. The biggest plus to going to Detroit rather than Washington is that towards the end of this contract, he doesn’t have to play the field.
Obviously, this will only be a problem if one of these stars is unhappy with the amount of time they are in the field. I think that they will be just fine, as long as they get their at-bats. So, congratulations to Prince Fielder on finally having a team to play for when organizations begin to report next month and kudos to the Tigers for finding a way to make this type of signing a reality, which will undoubtedly make them a contender for the immediate future. Let’s just hope they told Cabrera and Martinez about their intentions with Fielder before the news broke, unlike the Marlins with Hanley Ramirez and the Jose Reyes signing.
I’m happy to announce that I’m now a staff writer at Fansided MLB! Be sure to take a look at my first post on Ryan Braun and let me know what you think! To get updates on Call to the Pen and On The Way Home, follow me on Twitter: @mmusico8.
A Look At “Unbreakable” Records: Charles Radbourn’s 59 Wins In 1884.
In an era where making between 30 and 35 starts a year is considered a durable starting pitcher, it’s unbelievable to think that accumulating more than 30 wins was ever possible, let alone 59 wins. I sound like a broken record, but I’ll say it again: the game has transformed completely since the late 1800s and early 1900s. Pitching every fifth day is blasphemy to them, especially since it wasn’t uncommon to pitch both ends of a doubleheader.
The point is the subject of today’s post, Charles Radbourn. this pitcher only played in the major leagues for 11 seasons, but here is a list of his accomplishments during his relatively short career:
- 309-194 record, 2.68 ERA, 4,527.1 innings pitched, 1,830 strike outs
- NL pitching triple crown (1884)
- Nine-time 20-game winner
- two-time strike out champion
- 19th most wins in MLB history
- 24th most innings pitched in MLB history
- 8th most complete games in MLB history (488)
Talk about making the most of your time! Exactly how unbreakable is this record? In the last 78 years, there have only been two pitchers to eclipse the 30-win plateau.
Dizzy Dean did it for the Cardinals in 1934 and Denny McLain reached what now is considered immortality for pitchers in 1968 with the Tigers. In 2011, eight pitchers tied for the league lead with 34 starts; if even one of them somehow won every time they took the mound, they would still be 25 wins short of Radbourn’s record.
Like I said at the beginning of this post, the game was totally different back then. Pitchers didn’t pitch every fifth day, there were no pitch counts being tallied, and starters took pride of finishing what they started just about every time they took the mound. This goes without saying, but this record will absolutely and totally, never be broken.
I’m happy to announce that I’m now a staff writer at Fansided MLB! Be sure to take a look at my first post on Ryan Braun and let me know what you think! To get updates on Call to the Pen and On The Way Home, follow me on Twitter: @mmusico8.
MLB Diamond Notes: January 23rd, 2012.
There was a lot of action over the past week in Major League Baseball; Prince Fielder talks still around, Yu Darvish signing and being introduced by the Texas Rangers, but there were three stories in particular that I thought were significant.
News broke late last week that Indians starting pitcher Fausto Carmona is in fact not Fausto Carmona at all. The Cleveland hurler was arrested in the Dominican Republic after trying to obtain a U.S. visa so he could attend spring training next month. Some facts did leak out with this initial story, one being that Roberto Hernandez Heredia (Carmona) is actually 31 years old, not 28, like he has stated.
This is yet another bump in a rocky relationship between Heredia and the Indians. He is seen as an important cog in Cleveland’s rotation, especially since he was their opening day starting pitcher last season. Once more facts are revealed, the Indians front office would be prepared to make a statement. In my opinion, it would be best to just cut bait with Heredia; the only great year that he has had was in 2007 when he won 19 games. Since then, he has been nothing more than mediocre. It takes a smart business leader to know when a deal goes sour and needs to cut bait.
Another big story to break this week is that Red Sox Left Fielder, Carl Crawford, had surgery on his left wrist and is in danger of missing the season opener. There were some rumblings as to why Crawford waited until now to have surgery, but he reported that he didn’t feel anything unusual until recently when he was working out. General Manager Ben Cherington said that even though Crawford is likely to miss the start of 2012, he will be able to participate in baseball activities once in Spring Training, and this injury shouldn’t linger too far into the season.
I’ll tell you one thing; Carl better rebound and get healthy quickly to have a big 2012 season after the down year he had which immediately followed him signing that mega-deal with Boston. The person that knows this the most is Crawford himself. It is apparent to that he is a stand up player and hard worker, but this is not Tampa Bay anymore and the fans in Boston will continue to eat him alive if he doesn’t perform. Personally, I’m a fan of Carl Crawford, so I hope that he gets himself together in time before Beantown eats him alive, but this injury coupled with his poor 2011 will show us exactly what he is made of
The Tigers plan to defend their AL Central title in 2012 took a huge hit last week when word got out that Victor Martinez tore his ACL during one of his winter workouts. Detroit fears the likely possibility of losing their catcher/designated hitter for the entire season. In his first year with the Tigers, he hit .330, launched 12 home runs, and drove in 103 runs. He also served as protection for Miguel Cabrera. So, how to replace such a huge part of their offense?
It’s important to know that Martinez’s productivity can’t be replicated. Unfortunately for Detroit, Carlos Pena just signed with the Rays, so that leaves some limited options to fill this hole. Unsigned players they could go after are Magglio Ordonez or Carlos Guillen. Juan Pierre could also be an option because of his speed and ability to reach base. Dave Dombrowski could bring in a veteran, like Bobby Abreu, bring back Johnny Damon, or swoop in and sign David Ortiz to a one year flyer. What’s a positive is that the Tigers could piece this together since they are a deep team with strong pitching. With the recent happenings this past week, it will be interesting to see who will get off to a good start in the AL Central in 2012.
