Talking baseball

Tuesday 6/25/24

More big games for Jarren Duran as the Sox first won their series over the Reds on Sunday and then came home to take the first game of the series against the Blue Jays last night. (Also: It looked very hot in Cincinnati. I don't know if it's always that way down on that field, but it felt like it watching.) I believe the last eight series between these two teams has resulted in a sweep for one of them. That's bizarre.

I've heard some of his postgame interviews lately and my sense is that Alex Cora really likes his team. Not that he thinks his team is great by any means--but that he likes the style of play and what they seem to be settling into. He despises ownership, though, and I don't blame him. It's like having a scrappy, athletic ball club is making his last year with the team more bearable than it might have otherwise been and he's glad for that. I can see this team still being in at the trade deadline and ownership doing nothing to help them out.

Jim Rice only reached the 30 home run mark four times in his career. You think of him as this fearsome slugger. That was his reputation when I was growing up. But in three of those four years he led the league in homers, which helped with the rep. And he didn't land in the low 30s, either--thrice he hit 39 home runs, and then he had his big 1978 season with 46. It's also surprising that he only had 382 career home runs, which is just a few more than Carlton Fisk. Not 500, okay. But not 400? Darrell Evans got to 414. It just seems like Jim Rice should have been able to hit more home runs than Darrell Evans.

Speaking of Evans and Fisk: That a thirty-eight-year-old and a thirty-seven-year-old finished 1-2 in the 1985 home run race is also surprising.

Gorman Thomas reached the 30 home run mark more times than Jim Rice--he did it five times, leading the league twice. Which makes it strange as well that Thomas only had 268 career home runs. There can't be many guys in the modern era who led the league twice in home runs and had less career home runs.

Only once in the history of MLB has there been a walk-off inside-the-park grand slam. In order for this to happen, of course, the home team has to be trailing by three in the bottom of the ninth or an extra inning. The game would otherwise come to an end on a ball in play when the winning run scores. The man who accomplished this feat: Roberto Clemente. If you had a guess, he would have been the perfect choice, too, based upon his set of skills, so that seems appropriate.

Your all-time MLB leader in assists: shortstop Rabbit Maranville (by a comfortable margin over Ozzie Smith), who is one of my favorite players. He was a shortstop in the teens, twenties, and into the thirties. A strange and funny person. I recommend reading about him in Lawrence Ritter's The Glory of Their Times. Maranville won a title with the Boston Braves in 1914. I don't think of 1914 as that long ago. But I know I think about time differently than most people. That there was another Boston team that won a World Series always strikes me with a measure of surprise, though. People who saw that team were alive when I was alive. Current day stair guy.

Maranville's 1934-36 Diamond Stars card is one of the most beautiful from the most beautiful cards set there is. I love the architecture of this set, both with the ballparks and the Art Deco cityscapes we frequently see in the background. The fields of the Republic crossed with the Modernism of a rapidly changing age between the wars.

Joe Morgan finished in the top ten in home runs more times than he did in the top ten in batting average. Surprising, right? Here's a crazy stat: He didn't have a season in which his OPS+ was below 100. And he played for a long time. This can be said about very few players, even great players. I'm starting with Morgan's rookie year of 1965.

Pete Vuckovich of the Milwaukee Brewers won the 1982 Cy Young award, in large part because the Brewers (for whom Gorman Thomas led the league in homers that season) had one of those magical years. And it wasn't like Vuckovich won the Cy Young because he had so many wins, which were a big deal at the time. He had 18 wins, which actually feels underwhelming, given the team he was on and him being the number one starter. Those Brewers could score. One of the great line-ups of all-time.

But here's what's wild: Vuckovich's WHIP was 1.502. That's walks and hits per inning. Meaning, he averaged 1.5 guys on base per inning. How do you win like that? You're frequently in jams. This is the highest WHIP for any Cy Young award winner. It's a dismal number. Vuckovich's career WHIP was 1.374, so he was significantly worse in his best season. This is confusing.