Bruce Markusen has a very well-researched piece The Hardball Times all about a player I remember from one of my favorite era of baseball, the 70s- Al Hrabosky.

I remember the Mad Hungarian well.  What I didn’t know was how he got his nickname:

The unusual routine prompted a nickname from the Cardinals’ front office. The team’s public relations director, Jerry Lovelace, began calling Hrabosky “The Mad Hungarian.” The name, which accurately reflected his heritage, caught on with writers, broadcasters and fans, giving Hrabosky one of the most identifiable alter egos of his time, or any other for that matter.

Just think, the club front office not only approved but capitalized on Hrabosky’s behavior.

No doubt I’ve said this before but I wonder if Al’s stomping around the mound and talking to the ball would be tolerated in today’s world.  The 70s were a more colorful time (in more ways than one… you’ve seen the uniforms) and probably a little more tolerant of differences and eccentricities.  

Sadly, if Hrabosky tried to pull what he did in 2010, someone would complain, there would be an investigation by an appointed MLB committee and a 50-page policy written up detailing what is acceptable and not acceptable. 

Miss you. Al.

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Posted in: Baseball History by The Baseball Zealot
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Eighty years ago today, something happened that has occurred only twice ever. 

Joe Sewell struck out twice in one game. 

Sewell, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977, was famous for his penchant for contact hitting.  In 14 seasons and 7132 career at-bats, he fanned only 114 times.  In nine straight full-time seasons between 1925 and 1933, he never went into double digits in Ks.

And yet on May 26, 1930 as a member of the Cleveland Indians ballclub, he struck out twice at the hands of White Sox pitcher Pat Caraway.  For his part, Caraway wasn’t much of a flamethrower.  For his career, he only struck out 2.8 batters per nine innings. 

Seeing that it was relatively early in the season, I suppose some wondered if Sewell was losing his touch.  Instead, he finished the 1930 season striking out only one more time.  That total of three strikeouts was tied for his lowest total in his career.

Sewell had struck out twice in a game earlier in his career in 1923.  That year he had the obscene total of 12 strikeouts.

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A few posts I posted a trivia question of sorts.  Who came in third in the 1961 MVP voting after Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.  My only hint was that this player had superior BA/OBP/SLG than Maris, the winner of the award. 

The answer, easily looked up of course, is Jim Gentile. 

Kudos to DonS who texted me the answer the next morning.  It took him two tries (his first was Norm Cash, a good guess).

In some ways, Gentile was a one-year wonder.  His 1961 season was phenomenal.  He had more runs, doubles, homers, rbis, walks than any other season in his career.  The same goes for his batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

Jim Gentile’s career stats

He certainly was no slouch in the couple seasons surrounding his 1961 campaign.  But anyone expecting the production they got out of him in that year was surely disappointed.

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This week 48 years ago, Roger Maris got his second consecutive MVP award.  The year was 1961 and was, of course, when he hit 61 homeruns. 

Yankee teammate Mickey Mantle came in second place in the voting.  He almost overcame Maris in the voting (202-198).  The stats WERE close. Maris (.269, 61 HR, 142 rbis. Mantle .317, 54 HR, 128 rbi)

For the $64,000 question, who came in 3rd in voting?  Try not to use your Google-fu before answering.  He wasn’t TOO far behind Maris and Mantle in votes and actually had a higher batting average, on-base percentage AND slugging percentage than Maris.

Here’s the answer

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Here is another fact off my tear-off White Sox trivia calendar.  Who holds the record for most years as a Major League manager?  Connie Mack (53 years)

He is the longest-serving manager in MLB history, holds records for wins (3,731), losses (3,948), & games managed (7,755), with his victory is almost 1,000 wins more than any other manager.  Mack was the manager of the Philadelphia Athletics for the club’s first fifty years before retiring at the age of 87 in 1950.

Connie played eleven years (10 in the NL & one in the Players League) in the major leagues, as a light hitting catcher, .245 career average.  He hit five home runs in 2,931 at bats, three in 1888, when he sacrificed average for power, batting only .187 (his only season below .200).   His best season as a player was in the Players League in1891 when he batted .266 with12 triples, he was HBP 20 times.  His last three seasons as a player, were also his first three as a manager, as he was the Pittsburgh Pirates player/manager (even back then they were trying to save money).

Mack wanted men who were self-directed, self-disciplined, and self-motivated; his ideal player was Eddie Collins.  As a manager, he won nine pennants and appeared in eight World Series, winning five.

Over the course of his career he had three pennant-winning teams.  His original team, with players like Rube Waddell, Ossee Schreckengost, and Eddie Plank, won the pennant in 1902 and 1905, losing the 1905 World Series to the New York Giants.  During that season, New York’s manager John McGraw said that Mack had “a big white elephant on his hands” with the Athletics.  Mack adopted a white elephant as the team’s logo, which the Athletics still use today.

As his first team aged, Mack acquired a core of young players to form his second great team, which featured Mack’s famous “$100,000 infield” of Eddie Collins, Home Run Baker, Jack Barry, and Stuffy McInnis.  These Athletics, captained by catcher Ira Thomas, won the pennant in 1910, 1911, 1913, and 1914, beating the Cubs in the World Series in 1910 and beating the Giants in 1911 and 1913, and losing to the Boston Braves in 1914.

That team was dispersed due to financial problems, from which Mack did not recover until the twenties, when he built his third great team.  The 1927 Athletics may have been the best second-place team in history, featuring several future Hall of Fame players including veterans Ty Cobb, Zack Wheat, and Eddie Collins as well as players in their prime such as Mickey Cochrane, Lefty Grove, Al Simmons, and rookie Jimmie Foxx.  That team won the pennant in 1929, 1930, and 1931, beating the Chicago Cubs in the World Series in 1929 and beating the St. Louis Cardinals in 1930, and losing to the Cardinals in 1931.

The Veterans Committee voted Connie Mack into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937.

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Posted in: Baseball History, Hall of Fame, Managers, history by Teddy Ballgame
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The 2005 White Sox were the Major League team since the 1927 Yankees to lead wire-to-wire, and then go on to sweep the World Series, their first World Series championship since 1917.  This fact appeared on my tear-off Chicago White Sox trivia calendar.

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Happy Birthday Three Finger Brown! 

Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown would have been 133 years old today. 

As a kid, I learned a little about baseball history from an old-timers bubble gum baseball cards I bought at the dime store.  Of course, Three Finger Brown was one of them.  As a Cub fan, I had an affinity for him. 

Some interesting (and perhaps lesser-known) facts about Brown.

• Made his major league debut at age 26 in 1903.
• Brown accumulated 239 wins in his career but also led the league in saves four years in a row (1908-1911, unrecognized at the time of course).
• Known primarily as a Cub, Brown did get picked up by the Reds later in his career and even played in the Federal League.  In 1916, he was purchased by the Cubs for his last year where he pitched in 12 games.
• Broke and held for many years, the record for number of chances handled by a pitcher without an error in 1908 with 108.

Here is his obituary that was in the New York Times when he passed in 1948

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As a lifelong White Sox fan, I found today’s White Sox tear-off calendar page of particular interest.

Johnny Mostil – This native Chicagoan patrolled centerfield for the White Sox through most of the 1920s with great distinction.  In 1969, he was voted the greatest-ever for the White Sox at that position.

Centerfield what a glorious position, free, ranging, taking every ball he can get to, arguably the best athlete on the field.  The corner outfielders can’t hold the centerfielder’s jock when it comes to outfield defense, which is why I’ve argued for some time now that the Outfield Gold Glove Award should be given to one leftfielder, one centerfielder, & one rightfielder, rather than just outfield.  The way it’s done now, three outfielders in each league, would be like giving out four infielder gold gloves, not, one firstbaseman, one secondbaseman, one shortstop, & one thirdbaseman.

My personal favorite White Sox centerfielder was Ken Berry, or the Bandit, as he was known back then.  I remember one year where he actually leaped over the centerfield wall to catch at least 100 potential home runs, well maybe not quite that many, but still it was alot.

Later I came to appreciate Chet Lemon, nicknamed Juice, he was always in a hurry, often times diving headfirst into firstbase, trying to beat out an infield hit.  With Ralph Garr & later Ron LeFlore in LF and Richie Zisk & later Claudell Washington (I can still see the banner brought in by a clever fan, “Washington Slept Here”) in RF, Chet had to cover alot of ground.

I still remember oldtimers talking about Jim Landis, as the greatest defensive centerfielder ever to play on the Southside of Chicago.  But that, no doubt, has something to do with the White Sox winning the pennant in 1959 with Jim patrolling CF, the same way current White Sox fans will remember Aaron Rowand out there for the 2005 World Champion ballclub.

But who was this Johnny Mostil?  Turns out he was born in Chicago, ended his career with a .301 career batting average.  It looked like this kid could fly.  In 1925 he stole 43 bases, leading the league, he also walked 90 times & scored 135 times that season.  Mostil had 82  career triples.  Johnny only played two seasons after his failed suicide attempt in 1927, after it was discovered he was having an affair with teammate Red Faber’s wife.

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Posted in: Baseball History, history by Teddy Ballgame
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On my tear-off White Sox calendar today was the question, "Whose Hall of Fame plaque begins with the words: GREATEST HITTER AND GREATEST NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYER-MANAGER OF THE 19TH CENTURY"?  Answer: Cap Anson

Here’s more on Anson from wikipedia…

Anson was well known to be racist and refused to play in exhibition games versus dark-skinned players. This attitude was not considered unusual in his day, and Anson remained very popular in Chicago while playing for the White Stockings. On August 10, 1883 Anson refused to play an exhibition game against the Toledo Blue Stockings because their catcher, Moses Fleetwood Walker, was African American When Blue Stockings Manager Charlie Morton told Anson the White Stockings would forfeit the gate receipts if they refused to play, Anson backed down. On July 14, 1887 the Chicago White Stockings played an exhibition game against the Newark Little Giants. African American George Stovey was listed in the Newark News as the Little Giants’ scheduled starting pitcher. Anson objected, and Stovey did not pitch. Moreover, International League owners had voted 6-to-4 to exclude African-American players from future contracts. In September 1888 Chicago was at Syracuse for an exhibition game. Anson refused to start the game when he saw Walker’s name on the scorecard as catcher. Again, Anson pressured his opponents to find a Caucasian replacement.

Posted in: Baseball History, Hall of Fame, history by Teddy Ballgame
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I have a tear-off White Sox calendar, here are some interesting facts I came across recently regarding Hall of Famers that I thought I’d share with you.

1) Bruce Sutter is the only player in the Hall of Fame never to have started a game.

2) Ty Cobb hit nine homers 100 years ago in 1909, to lead the AL with long balls (the only time he topped the Junior Circuit in home runs), he also had the highest batting average .377, 107 RBIs were also tops, his only Triple Crown.  Cobb also was tops with 76 SBs, 216 hits, 116 runs scored, .431 OBP, .517 SLG, .947 OPS, 194 OPS+, & 296 total bases, not a bad day at the office.

In 21 seasons with the White Sox, pitcher Ted Lyons won 260 games, faced Ty Cobb and Ted Williams, hurled a no-hitter, and pitched a 21 inning complete game loss.  He later managed the club for two seasons.  In 1955, Lyons was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Posted in: Baseball History, Hall of Fame, history by Teddy Ballgame
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