About the Game
I would consider myself a well-rounded sports fan, in that I harbor an appreciation for most “mainstream” sports. The first Saturday of college football each fall is a great day – as is the first Sunday for NFL action. College Bowl announcements, and subsequent games, are a fun five week stretch each season – as is the run-up to Super Bowl Sunday each year. March Madness never ceases to amaze or entertain us it seems, as the NCAA Final Four tournament plays out each spring. I’ll even admit to watching some Stanley Cup and NBA Finals action on occasion.
But in my estimation, Baseball was, and still is, the greatest game going.
I’ve heard all the “digs” about how the game is too slow paced, how on any given pitch most players on the field remain inactive, etc. But, having played the game competitively from the time I was nine, until I turned twenty, I know that much more goes into and comes out of the game. The teamwork, the camaraderie, the pure excitement of winning as a team, the dealing with letdown when losing as a team, the sense of having your day in the sun (as the game-winning hero), the humility of having blown the chance for victory (as the game-ending goat), the need to think ahead based on the situation at hand, the need to strategize and decoy, the exhilaration of trying to cunningly outwit your opponent, the sense of knowing you robustly gave it your all – even if in a moment of defeat. Baseball is the greatest reason ever given for a kid to – honestly and genuinely – get down-and-out dirty. And to top it off, Opening Day signals the onset of springtime each year.
I realize other sports can provide similar experiences, but Baseball provided it for me for eleven glorious summers from 1968 to 1978 – and, I took away from this great game, true lessons for life.
About the Memories
I probably attended two hundred to three hundred ball games when I was growing up. Some of my greatest memories are of my dad taking me to Municipal Stadium in Kansas City to see the A’s during the 1960’s. If I close my eyes long enough, I can still see and smell the bright green, freshly cut grass. I remember the sheep grazing on the hill beyond the right field Pennant Porch bleachers. I remember Charley O – the Mule (yes, an actual live mascot) that was kept in a pen behind the stands along the left field foul line. And Harvey, the electronic rabbit behind home plate, that periodically popped up out of the ground to provide the home plate ump with a basket of fresh baseballs.
With all of the games I’ve seen over the years, I never once caught a foul ball or a home run. But, on one perfect day – June 24, 1967 to be exact – as I sat in the field level seats along the first base line (just to the outfield side of the dugout), Rick Monday came strolling in from right field toward the dugout. The game hadn’t started yet. The players were finishing their pre-game warm ups. I was nine years old, and naturally, had brought my glove to the ballpark. Monday noticed me sitting ten or twelve rows back from the field with my dad. “Hey, kid.., can you catch?” he hollered out. “You bet, Mr. Monday,” I hollered back. His left arm quickly snapped and a baseball was suddenly flying in my direction. My dad sat motionless, displaying a total sense of confidence. My right hand shot up and gloved the ball cleanly. “Nice catch, little lefty,” Monday hollered with a big smile. I was too wide-eyed and filled with shear amazement to blurt out a response. My dad tipped his head slightly and smiled a silent thank you, as he proudly squeezed the right shoulder of one extremely excited nine year-old. Monday smiled and touched the brim of his kelly green ball cap in response to my dad – who then promptly removed the ball from my glove and began inspecting it in an old man parker manner – (a fatherly ritual bent on bestowing trivial wisdom to his son – much like the senseless act of kicking the tires on a car) – just as any good dad would be expected to do. In five short seconds, the simple act of a baseball being tossed had occurred – and, an indelible father-and-son memory was forever etched in the mind of a nine year-old boy.
That’s what a warm summer day, and the game of baseball, does.
About the Book
I realize there is, and always will be, some sense of division among baseball fans. Did the Designated Hitter enhance or hinder the game? Has expansion watered down the talent pool? Did the wild card component compromise the playoff system? Should Pete Rose be in the Hall of Fame? Can the net affects of steroid use ever be isolated (statistically speaking)? And as a result, are Hank Aaron and Roger Maris the real home run kings?
From 1900 through 1994 (95 seasons), a 50+ home run season occurred only eighteen times, and by only eleven different players (4x in the 1920s, 4x in the 1930s, 3x in the 1940s, 2x in the 1950s, 3x in the 1960s, 1x in the 1970s, 0x in the 1980s, and 1x in the first half of the 1990s). From 1995 through 2008 (14 seasons) a 50+ home run season has occurred twenty-three times by fourteen different players (11x in the second half of the 1990s and 12x since 2000). The argument that smaller modern-day ballparks add to increased home run totals is not necessarily valid – as smaller ballparks started to be ushered in during the 1960s and 1970s with the expansion era and the home run explosion still didn’t occur for another 25 to 30 years (the apparent steroid era).
The questions, and ensuing debates, could prove almost endless. As a guy who pitched for ten years growing up, I never personally grew to favor the DH rule. Why? For one, I think it cost Nolan Ryan another 600-800 strikeouts – by pitching 2,735 American League innings under the DH rule. Ryan would have blown by 6,000 strikeouts (maybe 6,500) had he faced a pitcher every third inning, on average (factoring for later-inning pinch hitters). For two, it took away a huge part of the strategy of the game – when to pull the pitcher for a pinch hitter, does your team have a good hitting pitcher, is your pitcher a decent bunter, etc.
Most of these debates are very subjective in nature – your opinion vs. mine. I think the ultimate debate for the game (steroid issue aside), is that of modern era players versus the old timers. (I realize, too, this also opens the proverbial “can of worms” for what defines the modern era.)
Batting averages in the .380, .390 ranges, and in even excess of .400, were commonplace once upon a time, but .400 has not been seen since 1941 (and .390+ has only been seen one time in each league since 1941 – George Brett, 1980; Tony Gwynn, 1994). Pitchers winning 30 games were commonplace up until 1920, but, since then we’ve only seen it occur three times – 1931, 1934, and the last being over forty years ago in 1968 (in fact, McLain’s 31 wins in 1968 doesn’t even rank in the Top 100 for single season win leaders). Even into the 1960’s and 1970’s, 20-game winners were fairly common (as example – the NL had nine in 1969; the AL had twelve in 1973). Now, we see seasons with one or two – maybe, three at most. The five-man rotation obviously plays a role with fewer starts, but the deployment of shifting bullpen strategies has also reduced the opportunity for starters to garner later-inning wins – when they don’t regularly pitch past the fifth or sixth inning.
Are the athletes bigger, stronger, and faster today? Is the equipment better today? Are the fields better today? How did artificial turf play into this? How has altering the height of the mound played into this? How have rule changes affected the numbers (i.e. one-hop home runs becoming ground-rule doubles, etc.)? What has been the evolution of the strike zone over time? Is the minimum talent level to get “called up” lesser or greater today? Which of these attributes favor higher vs. lower batting statistics? Which favor the hitter vs. the pitcher? This becomes the basis for the never-ending, subjective debates.
For the purposes of this book, I chose to look into the statistical trivia from a standpoint that would make it interesting from within the lifetime perspective of most living fans. This is not intended to discount or discredit the old timers and their contributions to the game, but part of the entertainment value of the book is that you – the reader – might have a chance to actually remember some of these events/players and, therefore, also have a chance to “dig-in” and answer some of the questions. Maybe stir some memories.
In some cases, I’ve used a particular year as the cutoff point in a question. In others, I’ve referred to modern era players which can generally be construed as the past seventy-five to eighty years (with some minor latitude taken). I realize this will wrinkle the rosin bags of most “baseball purists,” but then again, they can create their own book to resolve any such internal issues – as this book will still deliver a significant challenge, loads of information, and a high degree of pure entertainment for the true fan.
Many of these questions/answers will stand the test of time and be viable trivia for years to come. Others will ultimately change over time, as they are more prone to the old adage of – records were made to be broken.
Being a life long baseball enthusiast, I have always had a passion for the statistics, the records, and the general trivial information regarding the game. I can recite from memory the eighteen member perfect game club, the twenty-five member 50+ home run club, and many other bits and bites of information that my wife finds strangely random and totally senseless. I must admit though, that even after forty-five years of loving the game, I managed to run across (in this research process) some really interesting and unique information that I had never encountered before. I hope you’ll find interest in much of it, as well.
It should be noted that the information presented is as accurate as known to be through the initial start of the 2009 season. This effort is the culmination of fairly extensive information gathering and research over several years, from multiple open sources, as well as many years of personally gathering data. As such, it is subject to error – as any given source is open to reproach (I found a few errors along the way myself that required notifying the open source about their need for correction). However, I’m confident that the information is highly accurate. Nonetheless, should you find any of the information to be questionable or in verifiable error (it was an enormous amount of research after all), your feedback would be appreciated at dfloersch@gmail.com. Or, should you have any positive comments, those would be equally welcomed.
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