Chicago White Sox (1901 – ) Quiz: 1) Most hits, career? 2)
Most home runs, season? 3) What 3 pitchers won 20-games at
least once in the 70s? 4) Last World Series for the Sox?
Answers below.
Johnny Mac”s Hall of Fame Debate…Second Basemen
Here”s a brief history of four players…all second basemen, all
obviously good players, and each one should be recognizable to
even the casual fan as they are “modern” players (only one came
up prior to 1960). For the sake of this exercise, I am going to
call them players A, B, C, and D, but will identify them later in
the story. In this group you will find only one Hall of Famer,
although all are eligible for the Hall. The other three have failed
to get the required votes to even stay on the ballot, and must wait
for the Veterans Committee to see about possible enshrinement.
I would think only one of those three has a shot at eventually
getting in, but even he might not make it. So here goes.
Player A: An anomaly in the modern game, this player came up
at 20 years old and played his entire 19-year career with the same
team. He never played another position other than second for
even an inning during that time. He was a good, steady fielder
who won 3 Gold Gloves and turned more than his share of DPs.
At the plate, he gave you decent average (.276) with excellent
power for a second-sacker (244 career homers). His near 2400
hits, combined with 1200 walks, gave him an exceptional
lifetime on-base average of .363. That made him a good run
scorer, as his near 1400 total would attest. He even managed to
drive in over 1000, putting him in pretty rarified air amongst 2nd
basemen. He could steal a base now and then and hit 420
doubles for good measure. He won a World Series when he was
27, and his team contended for a few years after, but only made
the post-season once more.
Player B: He also came up at twenty, but his team had an
established second baseman, so they traded him after only 30
games. He stepped right into the lineup, making the All-Star
team in his first two seasons (he would eventually make 4 more),
and the team made it to the World Series his first three. While
losing that initial campaign, the team won the Series the next two
years and he remained a fixture at second for 13 seasons. He
made a few stops late in his career, managing to appear in 2 more
Series. His career numbers are very close to Player A, except for
power. He had exactly the same lifetime BA of .276, with an
even better on-base pct. of .373. He collected 2210 hits, 316
doubles, walked 1240 times, and scored over 1200 runs. While
he didn”t go deep often (only 54 homers), he was a better base
stealer, accumulating 271. Though never a Gold Glover, he was
regarded as a good fielder. He is currently a major league coach
and nobody will be surprised if he ends up with a managing job
in the near future.
Player C: Probably the least well remembered of our quartet,
Player C nonetheless had quite a career for himself. Breaking in
with a good club, he went to the post-season two of his first 3
years, making 2 All-Star squads. After 5 productive years and
another All-Star nod, he was traded in his prime to a contending
team, where he remained 10 seasons, making an additional 3 All-
Star squads. He helped his club to 3 post-season appearances,
where, to put it mildly, neither he nor his team distinguished
themselves. In fact, his team had a total of 6 games where the
opposition was in a must-win or be eliminated situation, and his
club lost all 6, some in spectacularly crushing fashion. He
nonetheless was a good player for a long time, winning 4 Gold
Gloves over a career that featured a .266 BA, a fine .371 on-base
pct., with an excellent .424 slugging average. He amassed over
1800 hits, 1000 runs, 1000 walks, with 224 homers and 320
doubles. He was an excellent power man for the position, even
leading the league one year in slugging while sharing the home
run title. (OK, there is an * for this particular season, but
everyone else had the same chance he did.)
Player D: Like Player A, this fellow came up as a kid,
established himself as a regular by age 20, and remained his
entire career with the same team. Never all that much of a stick
man, he did collect 2000 hits and almost 300 doubles to go with
a .260 career average. He rarely walked, which kept his career
on-base pct. a shade below .300. Never known for his power, he
did occasionally jack one out when it counted, and, to be honest,
he was hurt by his home park, among the worst in the league for
hitters. He also batted down in the order, where taking a walk
ahead of the pitcher”s spot was not always good baseball. That
being said, a .299 career on-base pct. is below average. In the
field, he was exceptional. Garnering 8 Gold Gloves, he probably
has the overall finest fielding stats of any second baseman in
history. That earned him 7 trips to the mid-summer classic in his
12 seasons as a regular. He went to the World Series and won as
a 23-year-old, but didn”t get back for 10 years, by which time he
was basically a sub.
There you have our four “mystery men”…although I”m sure
more than a few of you have figured it out already. As I said,
only one is currently in the Hall, with our other 3 the longest of
long shots. Now I don”t know, but I would put the competition
among A, B, and C, with D a bit outside due to his lack of
offensive skills. Remember, our first three guys all could field,
maybe a shade below Player D, but very good nonetheless.
As you might now have guessed from my tone, only Player D is
in the Hall.
“Ed, the envelope please.”
Player A. Lou Whitaker
Player B. Willie Randolph
Player C. Bobby Grich
Player D. Bill Mazeroski
Look, this isn”t meant as a swipe at Maz.he was a helluva
player and maybe the best fielder for his position ever. But the
Hall of Fame? [Ed. And here come the e-mails from Pittsburgh!]
You would really need to convince me that his fielding was so
valuable as to make up for his stick. And just how much better
was he than the other 3 guys? Enough to make him a plaque,
while the others couldn”t even pull 5% of the vote? I don”t think
so. Look, Garry Maddox and Paul Blair were as graceful and
proficient in center as any players who ever lived, but don”t look
for them in Cooperstown anytime soon. You need to do more.
Granted, second is a key defensive position, but the true greats
gave you production at the bat as well. One home run, no matter
how famous, does not a Hall of Fame career make.
A follow-up for those of you who aren”t walking baseball
encyclopedias.my post-season comments regarding Grich refer
to the 1982 and 1986 Angels. They were up 2-0 in a best of five
against the Brewers (the famous “Harvey”s Wall Bangers” of
Molitor, Yount, Cecil Cooper, Gorman Thomas, et al) and lost
the next three. The ”86 squad had a 3-1 lead in a best of seven
against the equally ill-fated Red Sox. The famous 2 out, 2-strike
homer of Dave Henderson against the late Donnie Moore began
that 3-game slide. Moore committed suicide years later, and
folklore would have it that the Henderson homer was at least a
contributing factor. Separately, the * refers to the strike season
of 1981, where Grich tied for the league lead in homers with 22.
And lastly, I also looked for someone who was Mazeroski”s
equal, or, rather, clone. Frank White.
White: 2324 games…7859 at-bats…906 runs…886 RBIs…407
doubles…160 homers…178 steals…412 walks… .255 BA.
.293 on-base pct..8 Gold Gloves…a World Championship
.and numerous post-season appearances.
Mazeroski: 2163 games…7755 at-bats…769 runs…853 RBIs.
294 doubles…138 homers…27 steals…447 walks… .260 BA.
.299 on-base avg…8 Gold Gloves…2 World Championships
(though he only went to the plate once in ”71).
That”s pretty close, huh? White had better speed, a little more
pop.Maz had a slightly higher BA and on-base pct., but
negligible, really. Now White was a good player, but I don”t
recall seeing the “Frank White for Hall of Fame” bandwagon
passing by.
Lastly, for you trivia buffs, you”ll recall that White was the only
graduate of the Royals “Baseball Academy” to make a mark in
the Big Leagues.
Golf Tidbit
So who came up with the maxim, “Ya drive for show and ya putt
for dough”? It was South African, and 4-time British Open
winner, Bobby Locke. Locke also won 7 times on the PGA Tour
in 1947 and twice in ”48, but the PGA began to make things
increasingly difficult for him, banning him from time to time, for
not playing more events. [Locke would only come to the States
in the summer.] Of course, what the Tour was really upset about
was the fact that he was taking the Americans to the cleaner, so
they came up with an easy excuse.
Top 3 songs for the week of 5/13/72: #1 “The First Time Ever I
Saw Your Face” (Roberta Flack…sing to me, Roberta) #2 “I
Gotcha” (Joe Tex) #3 “Oh Girl” (Chi-Lites)
Chicago White Sox Quiz Answers: 1) Most hits, career: Luke
Appling, 2749. “Old Aches and Pains” played from 1930-50 and
was a career .310 hitter. 2) HRs, season: Albert Belle, 49 (”98).
3) 20-wins, 70s: Wilbur Wood (1971-74), Stan Bahnsen (”72),
Jim Kaat (”74-”75). 4) The White Sox last won the Series in 1917
.while the Cubs last triumphed in 1908; not much of a
difference but all you hear of is the Cubs” futility.
Wilbur Wood was a classic. The knuckleballer was just
moseying along in his career, which began in 1961, when after a
1970 campaign where he went 9-13 in relief with 21 saves, the
Sox decided to turn him into a starter…and a workhorse, the
likes of which we won”t see again, given baseball”s current
trends.
1971: 22-13, 334 IP, 1.91 ERA, 7 SHO.
1972: 24-17, 377! IP, 2.51 ERA, 8 SHO, 49 starts.
*The Sox had a 3-man rotation in ”72; Wood, Bahnsen and Tom
Bradley. Collectively they started 130 of 154 games (the
schedule was reduced by an early-season strike).
1973: 24-20, 359 IP (381 hits), 48 starts, 3.46 ERA.
1974: 20-19, 320 IP, 42 starts, 3.60 ERA.
1975: 16-20, 291 IP, 43 starts, but the ERA was now 4.11.
Wood finished out with a 164-156 career mark.
Next Bar Chat, Friday. SHARK!!!!!!
