Baseball Quiz: What Hall of Fame pitcher led the league in wins
the most seasons? Answer below.
Johnny Mac”s Baseball Tales: Harry Heilmann
[I asked my buddy, Johnny McCarthy, to regale us with a few
baseball tales over the coming weeks.]
Ah, the vagaries of history. Why do we remember one event, but
not another; one player, but not another? We may remember the
great double play infield of the old Cubs due mainly to a mediocre
poem (“Tinker to Evers to Chance”), when, in fact, their election
to the Hall of Fame is due in no small part to that verse. But who
remembers the poor third baseman? He was a good, solid player
by the name of Harry Steinfeldt but history has conveniently left
him out. Even I will admit that Steinfeldt to Evers to Chance
doesn”t exactly roll off the tongue.
Here is another one…name this player…I was a four-time
American League batting champ, one of only 8 players since 1900
to hit .400, and finished up with the second highest lifetime
average this century for a right-handed hitter (.342, second to
Rogers Hornsby) and a Hall of Famer. Sounds like a player
everyone should know…but they don”t. The answer is Harry
Heilmann, the slugging outfielder for the Detroit Tigers.
Heilmann was one of the players who benefited most from the live
ball. Never a defensive plus, he screwed around at 1st base for a
few seasons before shifting to the outfield on a permanent basis.
In fact, it was Ty Cobb, as player-manager, who made the switch.
Cobb also made some subtle changes in his batting style, which
helped immensely. According to Heilmann, Cobb never seemed
to care how he hit when they were just teammates, but once he
became manager and Heilmann”s performance affected Cobb, he
let loose with the tips. I don”t know about you, but I can
certainly believe that of Cobb.
Heilmann won titles in 1921, ”23, ”25, and ”27. There were some
pretty fair hitters around in those times.Cobb, Ruth, Gehrig,
Speaker, and Simmons, to name a few. So these were no
cheapies.in fact, he won 2 of those titles on the last day.
We all have heard the story of Ted Williams risking his .400
average to play in both ends of a double dip, but never hear of
Heilmann”s similar exploits. In ”25, he trailed Speaker by over 40
points with a month to go. A real tear put him at .38826 vs.
Speaker”s .38927 entering the final day. Speaker sat out due to
injury, but Heilmann went 3 for 6 in the first game to overtake
him. Against teammates advice, he played the second game, went
3 for 3 with a dinger and won the crown at .393.
A similar pattern emerged in ”27. He was hooked up with Al
Simmons, who played an early game on the east coast on the final
day. Simmons had a couple of hits, finishing at .392. Heilmann,
at .391, again had a doubleheader, this time in St. Louis, so he
knew what Simmons had done. He rapped 4 hits in the opener,
edging past Simmons for the crown. But, yet again, he opted to
play the second game, collecting three more safeties and finished
at .398. Quite an exhibition, wouldn”t you say? He also denied
the Bambino a Triple Crown in ”23, when his .403 bested the
Babe”s .393.
Heilmann”s best season might have been 1921, when he hit .394
(beating Cobb) with 237 hits, 114 runs, 139 RBI, and a 23-game
hitting streak.
What probably hurt him historically was the lack of a
championship. The Tigers had some great hitters who played
with Heilmann (Cobb, Sam Crawford, Bobby Veach, Heinie Manush
and Fatty Fothergill, to name a few) but their pitching was
generally putrid. Harry never made a World Series appearance in
17 seasons.
Heilmann also took it on the chin in the Crash of ”29, so he went
to work broadcasting Tigers games in ”33 after he retired. He
was a local hit for 17 years, very droll and full of anecdotes.sort
of an early day Ralph Kiner. In keeping with his star-crossed
career, he was invited to broadcast the ”51 All-Star game in
Detroit, but became gravely ill and died the day before. One
happy note.he died believing that Cobb”s push for his Hall of
Fame election and plaque presentation at the game was
successful. In fact it was not, but he was elected posthumously
the next year.
Quite a story for someone most of us never heard of.
[Sources: The Baseball Online Library, “Total Baseball”]
*More Baseball History, 7/12.
Giovanni da Verrazano
If you watched any of Operation Sail from the waters off New
York on the Fourth, you may have noticed that all of the tall ships
and other craft traveled under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. So
I thought you may be curious to know who the bridge is named
after.
Giovanni da Verrazano was an Italian / Frenchman who was the
first explorer to bring back detailed descriptions of North
America and one who also helped France”s claim to some of the
New World.
Born in 1485, Giovanni moved to Dieppe, France in 1506.
Wishing to sail, he quickly rose to command a French warship in
the Mediterranean, where France and Spain were at war.
In 1524, French King Francis I commissioned Verrazano to
explore the Americas. Giovanni set sail in January 1525 in 4
ships. Two were lost at sea on the transatlantic voyage and the
two survivors made landfall at what is now Cape Fear, N.C.
He sailed south, looking for a suitable anchorage, but turned back
before he would have found Charleston. He then reached
Chesapeake Bay. Thinking it marked the entrance to a channel to
the Pacific Ocean, he named it the Verrazano Sea.
Continuing northward, Giovanni looked for a suitable site to
found a French colony (the mission for which he was
commissioned). Following the coasts of Delaware and New
Jersey, he reached a well-protected anchorage, sheltered by a long
island. On April 17, 1525, he anchored in a passage that became
the Verrazano Narrows, the channel between modern-day
Brooklyn and Staten Island.
Eventually, Verrazano went up to Newport, R.I. and then
rounded Cape Cod to reach Maine. He continued all the way to
Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and then back across to France in
July.
A few years later, Giovanni obtained patronage for a second
Atlantic voyage. This time he made landfall in Florida, then sailed
down to the Leeward Islands. Anchoring off of what was
probably Guadeloupe, Verrazano went ashore with a small party.
They were attacked and killed by cannibals before their comrades
aboard the ships could rescue him. His last words were, “At least
name a freakin” bridge after me, will ya?!”
[Source: “Historical Atlas of Exploration,” Angus Konstam]
One-Hit Wonders
Continuing with our list of artists who had only one Top 40
Billboard charted song with that tune also making the Top 10.
Debut date and peak position are also listed. [1961-75]
Ray Coniff: “Somewhere, My Love” (Theme from Dr. Zhivago)
7/66 #9
Bill Cosby: “Little Ole Man (Uptight – Everything”s Alright)”
9/67 #4
Count Five: “Psychotic Reaction” 9/66 #5
Les Crane: “Desiderata” 10/71 #8 [TV talkshow host in S.F.]
The Cuff Links: “Tracy” 10/69 #9
Daddy Dewdrop: “Chick-A-Boom (Don”t Ya Jes” Love It)” 4/71
#9
Desmond Dekker / The Aces: “Israelites” 6/69 #9
William DeVaughn: “Be Thankful For What You Got” 5/74 #4
Dr. John: “Right Place Wrong Time” 5/73 #9 [Not to be
confused with Dr. Hook.]
Don & Juan: “What”s Your Name” 2/62 #7
Carl Douglas: “Kung Fu Fighting” 11/74 #1
Mike Douglas: “The Men in My Little Girl”s Life” 1/66 #6
[Yes, the talkshow host.]
Edison Lighthouse: “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)”
2/70 #5
Jonathan Edwards: “Sunshine” 12/71 #4
David Essex: “Rock On” 1/74 #5
*More one-hit wonders on 7/12.
Top 3 songs for the week of 7/7/62: #1 “The Stripper” (David
Rose) #2 “Roses Are Red” (Bobby Vinton) #3 “I Can”t Stop
Loving You” (Ray Charles).
Mike Piazza / Oscar Grimes
The New York Mets Mike Piazza just had a streak stopped
wherein he had collected at least one RBI in 15 straight games.
The major league record was 17, held by Oscar “Ray” Grimes Sr.
Grimes set his mark back in 1922, while playing with the
Chicago Cubs, a season in which he hit .354 with 14 HR
and 99 RBI. For his career, Grimes was a .329 hitter but
he only had 1537 at-bats.
Quiz Answer: Warren Spahn led the league 8 times in wins.
Walter Johnson, Grover “Pete” Alexander, and Bob Feller each
did it 6 times.
Next Bar Chat, Friday…You may have seen where college
students from 55 “top” schools recently took an American
History quiz and did very poorly. We”re going to take a look at
this test.
