“My wife tells me one day, ‘I think you love baseball more than me.’ I say, ‘Well, I guess that’s true, but hey, I love you more than football and hockey.” ~ Tommy Lasorda
Back in August I cleaned out my notebook and notes on my iPhone to use some of those tidbits for a post. Well, I noticed that I was building a nice collection of notes again and figured I’d throw them out there for you to enjoy.
Tim McCarver, a workhouse of a catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals (1959-1961, 1963-1969), the Philadelphia Phillies (1970-1972), the Montreal Expos (1972), again the St. Louis Cardinal (1973-1974), the Boston Red Sox (1974-1975) and again with the Philadelphia Phillies (1975-1980) when he was mostly Steve Carlton’s designated receiver, played in 4 decades. Durable, tough, and opinionated. After retiring he had a successful announcer as an announcer. Tim celebrated his 81st birthday yesterday (October 16, 1941). La breithe shona duit.
“In 1991, Andre Dawson while playing for the Chicago Cubs and umpire “Cowboy” Joe West got into a heated argument after West rung him up looking on a questionable strike. West then ejected him for arguing the call. Dawson was fined $500 by the National League. He sent a check to the league offices for the fine with a note in the memo line “Donation for the blind.” True and hilarious story.
How good was Ted Williams? Let’s look at these stats comparing Joe Di Maggio and Williams.
Joe Di Maggio’s during his 56-game hitting streak:
(BA) .408 / (OBP) .463 / (SLG) .717 / (OPS) 1.181
Ted Williams during DiMaggio’s streak:
(BA) .412 / (OBP) .540 / (SLG) .684 / (OPS) 1.224
Or this stat, Ted Williams’ OBP at Fenway Park is .496. So essentially, he reached base 1 out of every two times he came to the plate at Fenway, a span of 1165 games stretching from the age of 20 until the age of 42.
Babe Ruth remains the lone member of the 100 Complete Games, 100 Stolen Bases, 100 Triples, 700 Home Runs and 2200 RBI Club.
The Nieko brothers, Joe and Phil combined for their careers 539 Wins and 8,988 MLB innings.
Graig Nettles had a “vanity” license plate when he played with the New York Yankees. It was simply “E-5”.
Hall of Fame second baseman Charlie Gehringer, who played with the Detroit Tigers struck out once in 90 career World Series appearances.
In 1943 Stan Musial produced more triples (20) than strikeouts (18).
Stan’s career hits total was 3,630 with 1,815 coming at home and on the road. He was consistent.
In 1997, Greg Maddux threw a 78-pitch complete game. This is “4 innings” to most current starting pitchers. He threw 63 strikes and only 15 balls.
Bobby Cox was ejected 161 times in his career as a manager. That is one game shy of an entire regular season of just telling umpires that he “disagreed” with their calls.
Lou Gehrig had 187 RBIs in 1927, he batted 60 times after Ruth had cleared the bases. An amazing stat, he would have had 200 RBIs easily. That is one of the reasons that the ’27 Yankees are considered one of the greatest teams in history.
Hall of Famer, Orestes “Minnie” Minosa singled as the Designated Hitter for the Chicago White Sox. At age 53 he became the oldest player to get a hit in regulation game, September 12, 1976. It also made him a 5-decade player.
(Minnie Minosa, 1976. Found on the internet. Assuming Public Domain.)
Firefighter Michael Cammarata lost his life at the age of 22 in the September 11th attacks. In 1991, he played right field for the Staten Island team that made it to Williamsport. His #11 is the only number retired by the Little League World Series.
On September 8, 1965, Bert Campaneris of the Kansas City Athletics becomes the first player in MLB history to play all nine positions in a single game.
When Jarry Park opened in 1969 as the home of the expansion Montreal Expos, 6,000 folding chairs were used because the ball club ran out of time to bolt in the permanent seating.
Tony Gwynn, played in 2,440 games in his career. Tony had four or more hits in a game 45 times. He had only 33 two-strikeout games. And he had only ONE game in which he struck out three times. I don’t know if that will ever be equaled.
On October 16, 1909, the Pittsburg Pirates (there was no “h” in Pittsburgh from 1891-1911) won their first World Series title. It was the first series that went to a 7th game, winner-take-all. They beat the Detroit Tigers 4 games to 3.
This season the New York Mets, the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers combined for 313 wins during the regular season. Combined in the postseason, they managed only 3 wins. I’ll be writing more about this year’s playoffs as they progress.
Rest in Peace, Howard Bruce Sutter (January 8, 1953 – October 13, 2022), who passed away at a hospice facility. He had been recently diagnosed with cancer.
Bruce was a right-handed pitcher who made his MLB debut on May 9, 1976, for the Chicago Cubs and had his last appearance on September 9, 1988, wearing the Atlanta Braves uniform. He played for the Chicago Cubs (1976-1980), the St. Louis Cardinals (1981-1984) and the Atlanta Braves (1985-1988). He retired with a 68-71 win-loss record, an ERA of 2.83, 861 strikeouts and 300 saves. Bruce was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2006 with a 76.9% of the vote on his 13th ballot year. Sutter was one of the very good ones.
Thanks for reading.
~ Coach Mike
Please feel free to share this post and site with your family, friends and 50 complete strangers if you like.
Link to: Achieves Page
Link to: About Page
Follow on Twitter: @CommentsFromCo9
Fascinating read🤗 I love reading about these player’s awesome athleticism ‼️ Thank you for sharing these insights and please continue🙏 I know this may be a stupid question but Craig Nettles’ vanity plate E5, what does that stand for🤷🏻♀️ Thank you 😊