January, 2010 | The Baseball Zealot

Piniella has management support

The Cubs Convention (which sadly I didn’t go to this year) was this past weekend. Breaking Sports News compiles this list of Ten things learned at the 25th Cubs Convention.

Most important on the list… Piniella has management backing

(Team president Crane) Kenney said the Cubs are satisfied with the job he has done. Kenney also pointed out they have the second-best record among National League teams (behind Philadelphia) in the three years since Piniella was hired.

"We think we have the best manager in baseball," he said, adding: "We like it when he gets a little hot."

Refreshing, I guess. Lou has what it takes to get the Cubs to the playoffs. He’s already shown that. My concern and maybe I’m putting the horse before the cart, is how to translate the success during the regular season to success in the postseason.

But in the end, I support Lou and am encouraged by the management’s backing of him rather than finding a quick fix or worse, pulling a PR move to look as if they are “doing something” to solve the problem.

HOF: Watch the finger pointing

A rather thought-provoking article comes from Dugout Central entitled Don’t Blame the Hall of Fame that simply wants us to be careful when we point fingers at selection time.

Whether you believe Andre Dawson should or shouldn’t be enshrined, or Ron Santo, or Dick Allen isn’t the fault of anyone living or working in Cooperstown, New York.

For that you have to blame the six hundred or so individuals spread throughout the country who seemingly hide behind a set of outdated rules and responsibilities and a BBWAA membership card.

Leave the Hall of Fame alone.

Especially if you’ve never been there.

As someone who has made the trek back east to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum four times (three times for induction ceremonies), I wholeheartedly agree.

Last chance to sign up for Kiwanis’ Sports Trivia Championship

If you’re in the Champaign-Urbana area, tomorrow (January 15) is the last day to register for the Kiwanis’ Sports Trivia Championship. The Championship will take place on January 31 at 2pm. I get the sense that the deadline is pretty hard and fast so sign up now!

Here is the sign-up page.

Not only have I registered for the contest but I’m teaming up with Shawn Lee (yes, teams are allowed). Some of you might remember Shawn from a few episodes of our now defunct podcast, Baseball Zealot Radio. Shawn is the webmaster of the Vermilion Voles vintage base ball team. He’s even been known to pick up a bat for them as well.

Shawn and I are obviously pretty good at the baseball trivia bit. But the Kiwanis will be throwing in some Illini sports trivia our way, too (Chicago Bears, too). Shawn’s a Rutgers man so he won’t be much help with that I suppose.

Time to brush up on my Illinois sports history, I guess. Now if only they would include Illini Baseball, I would smoke ‘em all.

Go Team Zealot!

Ballplayers and websites

I ran across this article on Dugout Central entitled The Art of Catching by none other than former catcher Brent Mayne. The byline at the bottom included a link to brentmayne.com. Go figure. Yeah, he plugging a book but the site is rife with come cool stuff including his take on Mark McGwire’s latest admission on steroids. He also has a podcast with some interviews (I’m planning on listening to the one with Rich Amaral).

I’m a little leery when it comes to MLB ballplayers and blogs or websites. Somehow, I get the idea they are either ghost-written or under heavy monitoring. Mayne’s however seems on the level. First, he’s retired and probably can say what he wants. Second, his writing style and content appears “unofficial” looking (i.e. he writes like he might speak). Third, he’s selling a book and makes no bones about it. But instead of putting a quick template website up and forgetting about it (I’ve seen this countless times even by writers), he’s actually updating it. Kudos.

Speaking of ballplayers and websites, Willie Mays is having some issues with a website. A domain name, in particular. According to domainnamewire.com, Mays is filing to get williemays.com under his control. Currently, the domain name is owned by a company called Global Access which resides in the Isle of Man. The website is purely a money making venture for GA as it includes links to ticket outlets (this probably goes without saying but I encourage anyone who goes there to NOT buy tickets from those links).

Mays has asked the World Intellectual Property Organization to arbitrate the matter on his behalf.

Dawson, the HOF, and Wikipedia searches

I’m always interested in searching habits of people browsing the web so I found this little tool interesting. And if I can make it pertain to baseball, all the better.

The graph above shows the number of hits that Andre Dawson’s page on Wikipedia took. The results aren’t too surprising though I’m surprised that the spike was so dramatic. Essentially on the day of the announcement and the day after. Not so much before the fact. I attribute it to idea that hard core baseball fans (the ones that would be researching Dawson beforehand) aren’t so likely to use a source like Wikipedia for their research.

For the occasional baseball fan, Wikipedia might be their first stop.

For kicks, here is the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Wikipedia page spike graph. Pretty much the same but less of a spike. Obviously, the Hall of Fame was more on people’s mind as opposed to a particular player (since no one was announced yet).

My take on the Hall of Fame balloting

The Hall of Fame balloting broken down Zealot-style…

New Hall of Famer Andre Dawson’s most compelling statistic:

He’s one of three major league players who has 400 homeruns and 300 stolen bases. The other two? Willie Mays and Barry Bonds.

Andre Dawson’s least compelling statistic (and the one you hear cited by his detractors ad nauseum):

His lifetime .323 OBP. Enough said.

The 2010 HOF candidate most deserving to get into the Hall of Fame but didn’t:

My opinion?? Bert Blyleven. I’ve been on his bandwagon for a few years now. Come on, vote him in already! He has two more years of eligibility left. The good news is that since 1999, when he got 14.1% of the vote, his percentage has gone up every year with the exception of 2007. I predict that we’ll see Bert in the Hall next summer.

The reason Roberto Alomar didn’t get in his first year:

Three-fold. 1) the spitting incident didn’t help especially among the old guard of the BBWAA 2) the fact that some don’t want to vote anyone but the cream of the crop in their first of eligibility especially with reason #1 hanging around their necks and 3) I’ve heard this factoid bandied about… that Alomar was pretty much done by the time he was 35 or 36. Yes, I know… he started out (full time) in the bigs when he was 20 and subsequently put in a good 17 years of service in the majors but that kind of thing sticks with writers, I guess.

Craziest Hall of Fame vote:

Pat Hentgen 1 vote. To be fair, Hentgen won a Cy Young and won one World Series game but with 131 wins and a 4.32 ERA that can take you only so far.

The “It’s not crazy if there are two of us” award:

Eric Karros 2 votes.

and finally,

The 2010 candidate I thought was dissed this year:

Harold Baines. Should he have gotten in? I don’t know. But I was surprised that he barely hung on for next year’s ballot. Yes, I’m a Cub fan but Baines deserved more. An interesting stat: Baines had more career hits and more career rbis than any other HOF candidate.

Read the transcript of BBWAA interview with Andre Dawson

If you haven’t already, take the time to read the transcript of the BBWAA conference call interview with Andre Dawson after the announcement of his selection to the Hall of Fame. It’s a good read.

During the interview, he spoke at length about his family especially his mother and his grandmother, Eunice Taylor, who he considered a “mentor”.

Dawson seemed to have a high opinion of playing in Chicago and of the Chicago fans:

I just went out and said I was going to have fun. The fans embraced me from day one of spring training. And I think even though I pressed a little bit at the outset, I hit a grand slam home run that kind of got me going.

And from there, you know, things just started to happen on a daily basis. But for the most part of the six years that I was there, I really enjoyed the reception, the fact that I had an opportunity to play amongst fans who really didn’t put any pressure on you, you know.

Plus he had great comment about one of my favorite baseball people:

Don Zimmer always would make the comment, get here early and don’t really go out and do something that would embarrass the fans.

Something else about the interview struck me too. Something that some people might appreciate more than others:

Andre Dawson: Okay, thank you.

…

Andre Dawson: You’re welcome.

…

Andre Dawson: Thank you.

…

Andre Dawson: Thank you, sir.

…

Andre Dawson: Thank you.

…

Andre Dawson: Thank you.

…

Andre Dawson: Thank you, (Ian).

…

Andre Dawson: Hi Toni. Thank you.

etc, etc..

you get the idea. Grandmother raised him right.

Big Unit saying goodbye after 22 years

Randy Johnson has retired and we’ve lost one of this era’s best pitchers. Given his age, probably last era’s, too.

You’ve heard the big numbers on the Unit… five Cy Young awards, 303 wins, etc. Here are a few lesser known ones:

…he was tops among active pitchers (well when he WAS active) in complete games. And you know what? It’s not even close. His 100 is almost double of second place Tom Glavine’s 56.

…Led the majors in Strikeouts per 9 IP an amazing eleven times.

…Was baseball’s second oldest player at the time of his retirement at 46. Most of us know that greybeard Jamie Moyer is the oldest (he’s 47). And some of us might even make a guess at John Smoltz as the third oldest at age 42. But who’s the fourth oldest? Answer later.

…Back to Randy Johnson… he was the active leader in shutouts with 37.

…All told he led the majors in 56 various (positive) stat categories throughout his career (not counting the times he led in walks or HBPs because he did that too). Pretty impressive.

I had a friend (you know who are) who once felt the Big Unit wasn’t Hall of Fame-worthy. Granted, this was five or so years ago but we had a discussion about it. I’m wondering if he’s changed his mind by now.

Five years from now, I hope we’re not quibbling about whether Randy Johnson should be inducted into the Hall. He had the rare combination of longevity and intensity. The kind of pitcher that played for years but yet, was the kind that you wanted to pitch in the big game.

Like him or not, he gets in. For my money, if you could pit him against the current class, he gets in before any of them.

Second coming of Mr Cub?

The Southern (IL) reports on a trade in the Frontier League whose name seems to hearken back to older Cub days (emphasis mine):

When Southern Illinois Miners’ manager Mike Pinto traded for the Gateway Grizzlies’ Stephen Holdren last July, he called it one of the biggest trades in Frontier League history.

Pinto said the deal he finalized Monday, sending Holdren to the River City Rascals in exchange for power-hitting first baseman Ernie Banks, is even bigger.

Apparently, Banks, a former Marlins draft pick, is more than just a namesake to the former Cub. This minor league firstbaseman really can hit, too. Last year he hit .353 for the River City Rascals, good for 3rd in the Frontier League. He also placed 5th with 24 homeruns (in just 77 games no less).

Banks will be looking at a new team this coming year in the independent league based in the Midwest. The Southern Illinois Miners are based in Carbondale, Illinois

How many played SS and catcher in the same season?

My buddy John and I got talking the other day about players who double at two positions that require radically different skillsets. Craig Biggio, for example, was a rarity in that he played catcher AND secondbase, two positions you rarely see paired together. And played them well. Not to mention that he played centerfield as well.

What I wanted to see was how many players in modern day baseball had played at catcher AND shortstop within the same year. My chosen limit was at least 10 games at both positions. Between the the years 1901 and 2009, only seven players fit that description.

Using Baseball Reference’s Play Index, here is the list of players I came up with:

Player	G	Year	Tm	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	Pos
Marty Martinez	113	1968	ATL	356	34	82	5	3	0	12	29	28	6	.230	.291	.261	6542
Bobby Bragan	109	1942	PHI	335	17	73	12	2	2	15	20	21	0	.218	.264	.284	*62/45
Bobby Bragan	94	1944	BRO	266	26	71	8	4	0	17	13	14	2	.267	.304	.327	*62/54
Sport McAllister	78	1903	DET	265	31	69	8	2	0	22	10	0	5	.260	.297	.306	*62/953
Dave Roberts	101	1980	TEX	235	27	56	4	0	10	30	13	38	0	.238	.280	.383	562/943
Mike Sandlock	80	1945	BRO	195	21	55	14	2	2	17	18	19	2	.282	.346	.405	*26/45
Ron Slocum	60	1970	SDP	71	8	10	2	2	1	11	8	24	0	.141	.238	.268	265/4

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/4/2010.

(The games played were Martinez SS-54 C-14, ‘42 Bragan SS-78 C-22, ‘44 Bragan SS-51 C-35, McAllister SS-46 C-18, Roberts SS-33 C-22, Sandlock SS-22 C-47, Slocum SS-17 C-19).

All seven (well six, as Bobby Bragan is listed twice) seem to be the uber-utility types playing at least four different positions in their particular season. It’s no surprise that none were fantastic hitters (though Roberts did hit 10 HR) but I’m sure their managers found their versatility useful.

I guess the most unusual was Bragan himself who not only did it twice but managed to put in over 20 games at catcher each year in addition to his normal shortstop.