[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by KCRfan1

Nice choices Bill. All of the players you have selected, and the others as well, were stars back in the day.

Thanks, Lou. Great topic, by the way.

I've found that I've been discovering players I never knew about a lot more often now that I have started subscribing on baseball-reference.com. The $6 a month for the play index is so worth it. I throw the most obscure set of parameters in, and get a huge grin on my face when the results get spit back out. Yes, I am a real live baseball nerd.

One player I've recently discovered is Vern Stephens. He's really the game's first power hitting shortstop.

If you look at his peak between 1942 and 1951, the numbers he put up were phenomenal. In 1949 he hit .290 with 39 home runs and 159 RBI, matching Ted Williams in that last category. The next year he hit .295 with 30 home runs and 144 RBI. Between 1948 and 1950 he drove in 440 runs. I don't care if that was during an offensive era--driving in 440 runs in 3 years is impressive for a shortstop in any era.

For that ten year average, his 162 game averages were mighty impressive: .290 AVG, 103 runs, 26 HR, 121 RBI. .360/.474/.834 is a pretty hot slash line.



I'd grown up operating under the assumption that Williams was really the only superstar, or offensive force, while he played in Boston. Over time, I've completely changed that viewpoint. I knew that Dom DiMaggio was a great in his own right, but Johnny Pesky was pretty incredible, too. Obviously Bobby Doerr was a Hall of Famer, and then you have Stephens.