Cecil Travis
 

A few squirts re Cecil:

< Prior to beginning his almost four years in uniform, Travis had a career batting average of .327; after 800 post-war at-bats he finished at .314, which is still the all-time record for an American League shortstop and third overall at shortstop behind Honus Wagner and Arky Vaughan.

< In August 1947 when Cecil retired, the Senators celebrated "Cecil Travis Night", which was attended by former Supreme Allied Commander, Dwight Eisenhower; Travis was showered with gifts, including a fancy DeSoto automobile and a 1,500-pound Hereford bull.

< Despite frostbite suffered during the Battle of the Bulge, Travis refused to blame his military service for derailing his baseball career: saying simply, that his four years away from the game were "too long." He said, "We had a job to do, an obligation, and we did it. I was hardly the only one."

< Bob Feller and Ted Williams lobbied unsuccessfully for Travis' Hall of Fame induction. But as Travis philosophically said: "I was a good player, but I wasn't a great one."

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1705855237

Great post, sir. You summed it up perfectly.

This is a very interesting topic. Eddie Collins graduated from Columbia University and John Ward received a law degree from Columbia. Amazing considering John Ward's parents passed away when he was a teenager and he got his law degree in his late twenties while playing professional baseball. Lou Gehrig left after his sophomore year to play pro baseball. Barry Larkin went back to Michigan to complete his degree in 2010!

How about combining sports and cards? Reggie Smith hit 314 Home runs in his career. His rookie card is #314. I've never found another similar player.

When I was a kid learning about baseball history, I thought it was cool that several records matched the years they were set in: Alexander's 16 shutouts in 1916, Hornsby's .424 in 1924*, Maris's 61 in 1961.

* When I was learning about baseball stats, this was considered to be the highest single season average. This was before the Macmillan Encyclopedia which adjusted Lajoie's 1901 average from .422 to .426 (if I remember correctly) and which brought more recognition to 19th century statistics, which sometimes were excluded (people would say Hornsby had the "modern record" and Duffy was more of a footnote).

Well, Riche was always a singles hitter anyhow.

James, so glad you got to know Ted and talk baseball. He was a wonderful guy and I am still in shock he is no longer with us. Best, your shipmate

My biggest regret was that we didn't correspond more often, maybe once a month. I treasure the Phil Rizzuto card that I purchased from him, as we always spoke about Scooter as well. It's amazing how the Hobby and baseball history allowed two people connect that were a touch over 50 years apart in age! Teds legacy will live on, as I'm sure we will talk about him until the cows come home. I pointed this out, in another thread, that he's probably debating with Jefferson Burdick in the great beyond!

Another interesting piece of trivia bringing up both Ted and Phil Rizzuto. Phil Rizzuto was the only player in the history of Major League Baseball to lead the league in Sacrifice Hits in the same year that he won MVP!

Well, here is one back: I dated Phil Rizutto's daughter, Penny, in college. Ted knew her well and approved.

Whoa, you just jarred loose an old memory! My roommate in college dated Tommy John's daughter. I believe her name was Tamara IIRC.

Ichiro after 6,000 career at bats:

Overall: 2000 for 6000 = .333333333...........
Home: 980 for 2940 = .333333333...........
Away: 1020 for 3060 = .333333333...........

That's pretty cool

Art Fowler (first game was 4/17/1954) made his debut almost 30 years after his brother Jesse (7/29/1924).

Wilton Guerrero (5'11, 145 lbs, born 10/24/74) is 4 inches shorter, 90 pounds lighter and 3 1/2 months older than his brother Vladimir (6'3, 235, 2/9/75)

In 1976 Tony Perez had 32 doubles, 6 triples, 19 home runs, and 91 RBI's for the Reds. The following year for the Expos he had 32 doubles, 6 triples, 19 home runs, and 91 RBI's.

In 1974, Tommy McCraw had 34 hits, 8 doubles, 0 triples, 3 homers, and 17 RBI's for the Angels. In July he was purchased by Cleveland and would go on to have 34 hits, 8 doubles, 0 triples, 3 homers, and 17 RBI's for the Indians.

He did give up a grand slam in the minors in 1967. Some guy named Johnny Bench.

Jesse Fowler went by Pete and spent most of his adult life institutionalized.

Johnny Cooney played for parts of three decades and had more than 3000 at bats. He hit two home runs in his career. They were on consecutive nights.

How could Wilton Guerrero be 3 1/2 months older than his brother Vlad? Did his mother get pregnant when she already was pregnant? I thought that was impossible.

Papa was a rollin' stone...

https://www.baseballprospectus.com/n...nd-birthdates/

Presumably it’s a result from the brothers lying about birth dates to seem younger and more attractive to MLB, and is not true.

I can guess the rest. After a few dates, things are going really well, and you and Penny start going at it pretty heavy. Then all of a sudden Phil comes into the room and says:

Okay, here we go, we got a real pressure cooker going here
Two down, nobody on, no score, bottom of the ninth
There's the windup, and there it is
A line shot up the middle, look at him go
This boy can really fly
He's rounding first and really turning it on now
He's not letting up at all
He's gonna try for second, the ball is bobbled out in center
And here comes the throw, and what a throw
He's gonna slide in head first
Here he comes, he's out
No, wait, safe-safe at second base
This kid really makes things happen out there
Batter steps up to the plate, here's the pitch-he's going
And what a jump he's got, he's trying for third
Here's the throw, it's in the dirt-safe at third
Holy cow, stolen base, he's taking a pretty big lead out there
Almost daring him to try and pick him off
The pitcher glances over, winds up, and it's bunted
Bunted down the third base line, the suicide squeeze is on
Here he comes, squeeze play, it's gonna be close, here's the throw, here's the play at the
Holy cow, I think he's gonna make it

What source do you have for his having been institutionalized? I couldn't find anything online referring to it.

A surprising fact about Jesse Fowler that I do know is that the age difference between him and his brother Art Fowler (MLB 1954-64) was 23 years, the largest in MLB history. Jesse's professional career began in 1922 and Art's ended in 1970.

Narum and Chacin were taken out for pinch hitters at what would have been their next at bat.

Quirk was the only player to hit a walk off HR in his only PA for a franchise. He beat the Twins with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

That HR was enormously important for a team he had played for as recently as two years earlier and would play for again the following year (the Royals), as the Royals and Twins were in a tight AL West pennant race. His former and future teammates had asked him just a few days earlier to help them out if he got the chance.

Finally! Somebody else who did this!

I remember having a list of several besides the three you mentioned but the only one coming to mind right now is:

Lefty Grove, 31 wins in 1931

Ted Williams:

- won two Triple Crowns
- won two MVPs
- hit .400
- hit .388
- led the majors with 145 RBI

ALL of these were accomplished in different seasons.


Joey Gallo:

Achieved 100 career home runs before 100 career singles, the only player to ever do that.


2019 LA Angels:

Until Trevor Cahill threw 4 innings at the end of September across 3 appearances, the Angels were on track to become the first team ever to have no pitchers with 100 IP. Cahill finished with 102.1.


Phil Niekro:

Led the NL in both wins AND losses in 1979 with a record of 21-20. He finished 6th in Cy Young voting and won a Gold Glove.

First-hand family accounts. You're not going to find that information online.

Also, his nickname of Pete was originally "Peach". He fell out of a peach tree as a kid. At some point, "Peach" morphed into Pete.

By the time Art was born, Pete had aready been married for nearly four years.

Mark, brilliant. I loved it; however, whatever may have happened between Penny and me is a taboo subject. A gentleman never tells.

I had to look it up on Baseball Reference, not that I don't believe folks, it's just cool to see the line. But something else caught my eye.

He only had four PAs that year, and an average of .333... and an OBP of .250. A sac fly on 7/21 batted in the game-winning run for the White Sox (not the Indians, even). I suppose there's a good one for "lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Edited to add, it was a White Sox victory over the Indians, to boot.

The truly astounding thing is that both seasons Williams won the Triple Crown, he was robbed of MVP. The media's undying hatred for the man was astounding. A top 3 hitter in our game.

...but understandable. The guy wasn't the easiest personality to deal with, not to mention the ego. Basically DiMaggio with a mouth.

Mantle had an ego and a mouth, but the personality and his personal character flaws seemed so much more human and relatable vs. the other two guys. It explains a lot about Mick's continued popularity as compared to the waning popularities of Williams and DiMaggio.

That's not to say that Williams and Joe D. didn't have humane and decent sides to them. The fact that they often tended to keep hush-hush about their kind deeds says so much.

All three were complex personalities in their own ways. Sometimes heartwarming, often infuriating, but endlessly fascinating.

Yeah, in my mind there was others as well, but I can't think of them now. 31 wins in 1931 is a good one.

Or they're half-brothers, which would also help explain some of the other discrepancies.

EDIT: Apparently not, just likely an uncorrected false date for Wilton's birth.

Tony Gwynn
 

Somewhere on Twitter (or Facebook?) I always see crazy Tony Gwynn stats. Haven't committed any to memory, so I had to look some up (link below)-

Gwynn finished his career batting .302 with two strikes. That's easily the best mark for any player since numbers were first tracked by count in the mid-1970s. Wade Boggs comes in second at .262. In fact, in 1994, Gwynn batted an absurd .397 in two-strike counts. This one is mind-blowing to me - a 300 hitter with 2 strikes over a 20 year career.

Including postseason play, Gwynn faced 18 Hall of Fame pitchers for a total of 541 plate appearances. That’s essentially a full season’s worth of plate appearances exclusively against Hall of Famers. Gwynn batted .331/.371/.426.

Gwynn batted .300 in every season but his rookie year, giving him a record 19 straight seasons above .300. J.D. Martinez is the current leader with four straight .300-plus seasons.

Gwynn faced Greg Maddux 107 times in his career -- more than any other pitcher. He batted .415/.476/.521 against the four-time Cy Young Award winner and Hall of Famer. That's easily the highest average against Maddux for any player with at least 70 plate appearances. - I include this one as everyone needs to google the Maddux interview about Tony Gwynn.

https://www.mlb.com/news/19-facts-ab...ynn-c177069734

Cobb had 23 seasons + .300.

Williams and Ruth, presumably. Who is your other top 3 hitter?

Gwynn has a lot of wild stats.

Maddux and Pedro never managed to strike him out even once in significant sample sizes.

Struck out 3 times in a game only once. Struck out twice in a game only 34 times in 2,440 games.

Went 20 consecutive games or more without a strikeout 11 different times in his career.

Made every all star game from 1984 to 1999 except for 1988, a year in which he won the batting title and was 11th in MVP voting.

He would have to get 0 hits over more than 1,100 at bats to drop below a .300 average.

When it comes to (not) K-ing as a batter, the answer is Joe Sewell. Gwynn is probably the best of his era with avoiding the K, but gotta defer to Sewell as the king of not K-ing.

It's kind of amazing that with his .014 K rate Sewell only hit .309 in an era when .309 was not that much over the league average. There could be a whole thread for odd Sewell stats and figures alone

Sewell just using one bat over his entire career is just plain nuts. Modern day bats seem to shatter after just a couple dozen plate appearances. It is somewhat like the credit card I had recently that basically was almost unusable because it was deteriorating while being in my wallet for just two years, whereas those good old fashioned credit cards were in it for the long haul.


Brian (not that credit cards can hold a candle to bats when it comes to durability. The newer credit cards do have their uses though, especially nowadays when you can not only swipe, but also insert or tap...how convenient is that!)

There have been three players named Aurelio in MLB history: Monteagudo, Lopez and Rodriguez. Each was killed in traffic accidents between the ages of 44 and 52.

I flip-flop constantly. Cobb, Gehrig and sometimes Bonds. Cobb was such a complete threat, dominated the deadball era. Bonds, well the numbers speak for themselves but he truly didn't become God-Like until he was aided by some chemical assistance later in his career. Gehrig tends to hold the spot most often, however. Tremendous power, and able to hit into the gaps as well. Walked a good amount and hit for a high average on a consistent basis. Had the chips fallen, differently and he'd not contracted ALS I think we can safely assume he'd total at least in the mid 500's for homers and 3000+ hits.

That's the tough thing about these debates. I always have Ruth and Williams one and two. The hard part is choosing three!

And don't get me started if we're allowed to factor in Negro League Ballplayers! Josh Gibson and Oscar Charleston would certainly enter the conversation as well!

I responded to a blog hosted live by Tony Gwynn while we were living in San Diego and was answered by Tony himself. That is among my treasures. I also was in attendance when his number was retired by the Padres. He was a ballplayer anyone could look up to. He passed away horribly and way, way too young.

Learning all these facts about Gwynn has been simultaneously jaw-dropping and heartwarming. He was such a decent guy. I'm afraid I took Gwynn for granted amidst the other stars of his era. Quite ridiculous in retrospect.

It is not an uncommon name, but there have only been two major league players named George Burns and they played at nearly the same time: George Joseph Burns (N.L. George Burns) from 1911-1925 and George Henry "Tioga George" Burns (A.L. George Burns) from 1914-1929.

Makes you wonder what the most common MLB name is. Offhand, I know there were five different Tom Hughes and at least seven Bob Smiths.

There were 3 Bob Millers in 1957 and 1958, and 2 of them played for the 1962 Mets. Must have awfully confusing for the roster.

His first homer was of the inside the park variety as well

Cool, he must have been an exciting player to watch.

I should have referred to his walk-off inside the park home run as instead a 'run-off' inside the park home run, because walking wouldn't have done the trick unless all 3 outfielders were to collapse.

Brian

The movie Major League is one of my favorites. Here’s one of Bob Uecker’s many, many memorable quotes:

“Just a reminder, fans, comin' up is our "Die-hard Night" here at the stadium. Free admission to anyone who was actually alive the last time the Indians won a pennant.”

Here’s the surprising baseball fact:

The release date of Major League is closer to the Indians winning that pennant than it is to modern day.

And two of them played for Detroit.

On the flip side, there were two players named Jeff D'Amico, born a year apart. Both were pitchers and both played in 2000 (the only year Jeff D'Amico was in the majors).

I remember them well! In 2001 I was 10 and buying packs with my allowance and cash I could scrape up. Jeff D'Amico (the Brewers version) seemed to be in every single pack I bought at Target and Wal-Mart that year. I didn't get a full set, but I got 15+ D'Amico (Brewers). He was the bane of my set building existence

Looking at the above two cards, who would have thought they were different players, except for the few people who knew of the existence of Jeff D'Amico no. 2? In the photos, they even look alike.

Roy Gleason
1.000 lifetime batting average
2.000 slugging

Isao Harimoto is the only professional baseball player in history to have a nuclear bomb dropped on him (as a kid he was in Hiroshima in 1945 when the bomb was dropped. His sister died in the blast).

In an unrelated earlier incident when he was four years old his hand was severely burned in an accident which severely disfigured it, forcing him to play ball left handed for the rest of his life.

He would go on to become Japan’s all time career hits leader (until overtaken by Ichiro, though he still holds the NPB record).

And he is still alive today.

Nothing can stop that guy.

In 1909 Mr. Ty Cobb Hit 9 Home runs an was the Home Run Leader...

None of them went over a fence !* :D

Well in 5 times as many plate appearances John Paciorek batted, slugged and had an OBP all of 1.000

Yeah, Paciorek was where my mind went as well. I've never really looked in to his story, but how do you have such a formidable debut and then...nothing?

Apparently he had a back injury.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/b.../John_Paciorek

Despite his famously gaudy 1956 stat line, the Mick had a higher WAR in 57.

There's a book about Paciorek but it's really bad. It's pretty obviously an 8-page magazine article stretched, stuffed and filled to become a book.

Yogi Berra played baseball in New England under a pseudonym towards the end of the WWII. (Years ago I won a few Cranston Firesafes programs with Cusano in the lineup. Interestingly, they spelled his name differently in different programs).

https://newenglandhistoricalsociety....-assumed-name/

Bumping my thread for a new one I just noticed -- for all his outstanding seasons including 18 wins last year, and the fact that he's been around for well over a decade, Chris Sale has only 138 lifetime wins.

He has missed significant time with injuries in his career. Still, I would have guessed a higher number for sure.

Note that surprising really, considering how starting pitchers are used these days. Jacob deGrom only had 84 wins in 3 less seasons.

Currently, there are only 20 active pitchers with 100 or more wins. Sale is actually 7th on the list.

This is one of the most jaw-dropping baseball facts I ever personally unearthed:

While researching a bunch of players during a very hectic week of going over the Heilbroner Baseball Bureau information cards when they were together in their entirety for the final time, I took thousands of photos of cards of interest. These cards all had the players' home addresses on them from when they first started in pro ball.

There was a gentleman named Rollie Miller whose MLB career consisted of 2 IP for the 1941 Senators. He grew up in a tiny house in St. Louis.

I have this curiosity about certain blighted US cities in relation to former addresses of ballplayers. If I'm dealing with cities like St. Louis, Baltimore, Detroit, and the like, I hop on Google Streetview to see if the house still stands and what the neighborhood looks like in the present day. I did this with Rollie Miller's childhood home. It was in shambles, and was at the time listed for some paltry sum of $14 or $19K. Its most memorable feature was this green metal awning over one window which had a white letter monogrammed on the front.

Time goes by. Maybe a few weeks, maybe a few months. I'm still poring over these photos I took of the Heilbroner cards. Another MLBer with a St. Louis address comes along in my research. Again, I type the address into Streetview. It's the exact same house as Rollie Miller's! Same green monogrammed awning, same asking price. Rollie Miller was white. His parents must have sold the place and at some point the neighborhood transitioned from white to black, and this later, black player's family moved into the Rollie Miller house and spawned a Major Leaguer of their own!

Unfortunately, I can't for the life of me recall who this player was, but have a recollection that he debuted in the late 1950's. That, coupled with his ethnicity and living in St. Louis definitely narrows it down, but I can not locate the photo I took of his Heilbroner card with the same address. It will turn up again when I'm researching something unrelated.

Just think of that! This has to be the only case of two completely unrelated Major Leaguers being raised in the same house, a generation apart. This is something that nobody would have ever known if it wasn't for my unrelated interest in blighted neighborhoods.

Long thread and this might have been posted, but in 1987 Don Mattingly set the record for most grand slams in a single season with six. He never hit another grand slam in any other season and those are the only grand slams of his career.

He also tied Dale Long's record with a homer in 8 straight games that year.

Related to my Chris Sale post, Johnny Cueto who hasn't done shit in 9 years, and who many may not know is still pitching, has more wins than Sale.

I looked it up, saw the stats, still think this is made up. He's gotta be 47 years old.

Not that surprising to me. Cueto was on all those winning Giants teams. Sale has been on not great teams for most of his career

Edit, looked it up: only a couple of playoff years with the Giants, actually. Some of his Reds teams were good though, too.

That's really neat--do you have any others?

He had an 18 win season when he first pitched for them, but then only won 21 the next five years.

Of pitchers 30 and younger, the leader is Max Fried with .. wait for it ... 73. Once the old guard as it were of Verlander, Kerhshaw, and Scherzer get in, and Cole and Sale either do or don't, there is going to be a radical shift in what it means to be a HOF pitcher.

Just one. These had to be part of a larger collection, but to date, I've only ever seen the two or three I purchased.

There just has to be a town named John. The collector got a little sloppy here.

Fewer wins and innings! It wouldn't surprise me if they change the win stat somehow in the coming years. I hope they don't but with Manfred you never know.

You'll have dudes hitting 120 on the gun with 25 pitch counts.

Chet Lemon has the same career OBP and very nearly the same WAR as Ichiro.

Many people would be surprised to know that Carlton Fisk led the American League in triples in 1972 with 9. No other catcher has led either league in triples since.

Same with Darrell Evans I believe and his OPS+ was significantly better.