Did You Know....? (uniforms, jersey, Brewers, teams)

[Ridgerunner]

Only about 110 Hall Of Famers have been elected by the BBWAA. The system was originally designed to honor the best players based on their performance against other players of their own era. The Veterans Committee process has allowed comparison of players from different eras, which is essentially like comparing oranges and apples.

[filihok]

Strange but true postseason feats of 2010 - ESPN

Once again this year, the relentlessly creative sport of baseball was stranger than Lady Gaga's taste in meat, stranger than the concept behind "Bridal Plasty," even stranger (believe it or not) than Brian Wilson's beard.

So before Ryan Seacrest instructs that big ball to start dropping in Times Square, let's look back at baseball's Strange But True Feats of 2010 -- arriving this year in five spectacular parts, spread throughout this holiday week. In Part 1, we explore the Strangest But Truest Postseason Feats of the year.

[WhistlerMCMLV]

Did you know . . .

* Dale Murphy (injuries kept him from posting a bona-fide Hall of Fame career) was one righthanded hitter whom lefthanded pitchers couldn't wait to face and righthanded pitchers couldn't wait to get rid of?

Murphy has 155 less home runs lifetime against lefties than righties; he has 850 less hits overall against the southpaws than the starboarders. I don't know if that qualifies as an absolute freak stat, but I'm willing to bet you won't find that many righthanded hitters---with or without long ball power---who were that tied up against lefthanded pitchers.

* Rafael Palmeiro finished his career with a lifetime average per 162 games of exactly the same number of walks as strikeouts---77.

* Tim Raines (who damn well does deserve a plaque in Cooperstown) actually reached base more often and scored more runs than Tony Gwynn.

* Baseball's all-time pinch hit leader, Lenny Harris, has a lifetime .349 slugging percentage.

* Curt Flood ("Dred Scott in spikes," George F. Will has called him), finished his career with a very brief stint as a Washington Senator.

Flood got to be a very brief Senator, opening the team's final season in Washington, because owner Bob Short did one of the few genuinely decent things in his life as a baseball owner: Granted he was hunting for headlines (he did, after all, hunger for and get Denny McLain when McLain was bedeviled by a few parts arm trouble and a lot of parts the kind of activity that got him a couple of suspensions from baseball after he'd shot the lights out as maybe its best pitcher in 1968-69), but Short cut a deal with the Philadelphia Phillies (to whom Flood refused, rather historically, to be traded in the deal that made a Cardinal out of talented, troubled Dick Allen) in which he sent the Phillies three minor leaguers in exchange for the right to negotiate with Flood, who'd sat out 1970 rather than play in Philadelphia while challenging the soon-enough-to-be-flattened (by way of Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally, after Flood lost before the U.S. Supreme Court) reserve clause as it was used, misused, and abused.

The deal had to be made as a gentleman's agreement because Short could have faced sanctions if it was put on paper. Then, Short met Flood. He offered the longtime St. Louis great a $110,000 salary for 1971, with half to be paid in advance, and a promise that if the two couldn't agree on a complete contract Flood would be made a free agent. Short also offered Flood a no-trade clause.

Flood seemed content enough in spring training, but the yearlong layoff plus a number of problems dogging him off the field (a painful divorce, what some called excessive child support demands, and other financial problems tied to his once-successful portraiture business in St. Louis) had taken enough of a toll on Dred Scott in spikes. Flood didn't have to be told. He left the Senators after fourteen games in 1971, leaving the second half of that $110,000 salary on the table, and---since he couldn't see Short when he made his decision---left Short a handwritten note of apology.

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by WhistlerMCMLV

Did you know . . .

* Dale Murphy (injuries kept him from posting a bona-fide Hall of Fame career) was one righthanded hitter whom lefthanded pitchers couldn't wait to face and righthanded pitchers couldn't wait to get rid of?

Murphy has 155 less home runs lifetime against lefties than righties; he has 850 less hits overall against the southpaws than the starboarders. I don't know if that qualifies as an absolute freak stat, but I'm willing to bet you won't find that many righthanded hitters---with or without long ball .

Well, yeah, but there are fewer lefties than righties and Murphy had 3,468 fewer career plate appearance vs lefties. He had 6254 plate appearances against right handed pitching and hit 274 homeruns, or one homer per 22.8 plate appearances. He had 2786 plate appearances against lefties and hit 124 homeruns, or one per 22.5 plate appearances.


In fact, he slugged lefties and righties with about equal ability, so I think your thesis about lefties loving to face him and righties being especially terrified, isn't supported by the numbers.

[filihok]

Originally Posted by Grandstander

Well, yeah, but there are fewer lefties than righties and Murphy had 3,468 fewer career plate appearance vs lefties. He had 6254 plate appearances against right handed pitching and hit 274 homeruns, or one homer per 22.8 plate appearances. He had 2786 plate appearances against lefties and hit 124 homeruns, or one per 22.5 plate appearances.


In fact, he slugged lefties and righties with about equal ability, so I think your thesis about lefties loving to face him and righties being especially terrified, isn't supported by the numbers.

Right

Murphy had a career OPS of .815
Murphy had a career OPS of .783 vs righties
Murphy had a career OPS of .893 vs lefties

He was better vs lefties than vs righties.

Murphy's career tOPS vs lefties was 120
Murphy's career tOPS vs righties was 92

tOPS measures a players performance in a split to himself. Murphy was 20% better vs lefties than his average and 8% worse vs righties.
Dale Murphy Career Batting Splits - Baseball-Reference.com

EDIT:
Normalized to 600 at bats here are Murphy's career stats vs
Righties: .256 batting average, .329 On Base Percentage, .454 Slugging Percentage.
Righties: 536 AB, 137 hits, 23 doubles, 3 triples, 26 home runs, 85 RBI, 57 walks, 123 strike outs
Lefties: .288 batting average, .387 On Base Percentage, .506 Slugging Percentage
Lefties: 511 AB, 147 hits, 24 doubles, 3 triples, 28 home runs, 83 RBI, 86 walks, 100 strike outs.

Murphy was able to hit the ball equally hard off of righties, but he hit it a lot less often (more K's) and had much worse plate discipline (less walks).
He was a better hitter vs lefties.

[WhistlerMCMLV]

Originally Posted by Grandstander

Well, yeah, but there are fewer lefties than righties and Murphy had 3,468 fewer career plate appearance vs lefties. He had 6254 plate appearances against right handed pitching and hit 274 homeruns, or one homer per 22.8 plate appearances. He had 2786 plate appearances against lefties and hit 124 homeruns, or one per 22.5 plate appearances.


In fact, he slugged lefties and righties with about equal ability, so I think your thesis about lefties loving to face him and righties being especially terrified, isn't supported by the numbers.

I sit corrected.

[square peg]

^ At one time in the 1950s Curt Flood's HS baseball team fielded and outfield trio of Vada Pinson, Frank Robinson and Flood.

The Dominican Republic, with an estimated population of 10 million has provided more MLB players than 42 of our own states. (517 as of 2010)

[filihok]

Originally Posted by square peg

The Dominican Republic, with an estimated population of 10 million has provided more MLB players than 42 of our own states. (517 as of 2010)

Not that surprising as 43 states have a population of less that 10 million
List of U.S. states and territories by population - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[square peg]

That's true. But the number does illustrate the enthusiasm for the sport there as well as the level it's being played at.

[Ridgerunner]

Chicago's National League club was known as the White Stockings until the first decade of the 1900s. A sportswriter started calling them the Cubs because they had signed so many young players to replace those stolen by the upstart American League, and the new nickname stuck.