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Continuing with your votes for the 100 best Hall of Fame candidates. No. 85: Ron Cey Score: 28.36 From 1974 to '82, Steve Garvey was widely regarded as one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, star in baseball. He started in the All-Star Game for seven straight seasons during...
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Interesting about Buddy Bell and 3rd base vs. shortstop. I always thought shortstops got more chances, therefore their value was potentially greater because they were involved in more plays.
Just to confirm this, I looked at the best SS I could think of (Ozzie Smith) and the best 3B (Brooks Robinson) and B-R.
Ozzie Smith’s best defensive season was 1989 (dWAR 4.8) and Brooks Robinson’s was 1968 (dWAR 4.5).
In 1989, Ozzie smith had 709 chances, 209 putouts, 483 assists, 17 errors and 73 DPs turned.
In 1968, Robinson had 537 chances, 168 putouts, 353 assists, 16 errors and 31 DPs turned.
I am not certain at all how dWAR is calculated, but based on these numbers alone, the idea that fewer plays results in less value is untrue.
So there, I disproved my own theory.
It kind of tells you that there are many flaws in how dWAR is calculated as “Chances” is just putouts, assists and errors, but SSs and 2nd basemen do so much more that don’t get counted as a chance, such as covering 2nd on a steal, cutoff throws, backing up bases, etc. As good as a 3rd basemen possibly could be, they just don’t have anywhere near the value of a stable player playing SS or 2B. Yeah, it helps having a great arm at 3rd and you are saving some base runners and runs if you have one, but all of that is calculated in fielding stats for a 3B. SS and 2B? So much of middle infield play just can’t be calculated. If there is a stat that counts every time a fielder touches a live ball we would get closer to realizing that really good 3rd basemen aren’t undervalued in the HOF at all.
I remembered the Norm Cash table leg story slightly differently, since I watched the game on TV and it was, of course, very memorable. The incident happened in the 9th inning, not the 6th inning (which makes a lot more sense anyway). Why would Cash be giving up in the 6th inning? With two outs in the ninth of a dominating performance, it makes much more sense. Anyway, after reading this, I thought maybe I misremembered. But the article I read online said that the incident did happen with two outs in the ninth as I remembered.
OK, what I love most about the clip is after Luciano tells him to go get a bat and Cash provides his quip to Luciano, Luciano clearly busts out laughing. Gotta like a man who can make an umpire laugh.
OTOH, to not mention the alleged reason that Cash’s 1961 season is so out of whack with his other seasons seems a bit odd. Many think his career year was the result of a corked bat. That had to hurt him when it came to voting for the HOF.
I think Cash’s 1961 season is more related to expansion. There were a lot of really big offensive seasons that year. A lot of non MLB arms were in the league that year.
As for the chair leg thing, on the Angels TV broadcast, I believe they described it as a piano leg…. Chair leg is probably more accurate. But it’s funny that they went to the Tigers broadcast for confirmation when it was on local LA TV for the Angels where the broadcasters (I’m trying to remember who was broadcasting, but back at that time I’m pretty sure that it would have been Dick Enberg and Don Drysdale) DID pick up what Cash was doing and there was somewhat of a closeup of Cash chuckling with Luciano. The broadcasters also did pick up the joke that Cash was making about why he was doing it. It made total sense in a two outs in the 9th inning of a dominant no-hitter in a game that they were not in position to win even if he got a hit. It was a hey, we’re going to lose, Ryan’s going to No-Hit us, but WTH, Let’s have some fun for a minute.
I’m pretty sure there have been studies done that show corking a bat does absolutely nothing to help you hit with more power — it’s basically the same as just using a lighter bat.
Nolan Ryan’s Angels years were just insane and was much watch TV when he played my Red Sox. Unhittable and wild is such a scary combo and he seemed to be especially both against the Sox. If he had his Astros mechanics when he was pitching for the Angels there would be no doubt he would have been the greatest pitcher who ever lived.
Mike Milbury, apropos of your Cash question: “It’s unbelievable that after more than 30 years in the game, pummeling a guy with his loafer will be my legacy. But I guess it’s better than having no legacy at all.”