Let me say first off that this book is sheer delight, so much fun. Posnanski is a well-known sportswriter and he has written an informal history of baseball with short biographies of what he considers its greatest players. Perhaps there can be arguments here and there on his choices but there cannot be any argument that he has written a gem of baseball history and opinion. This is the best baseball book ever.
"I assume that this small sample of Posnanski's facts and judgements has whetted your appetite for the feast that awaits you in this book. I will stop here, so that I do not further delay the fun you are about to have." George Will
#100 Inchiro Suzuki. I choose to ignore Japanese ball players.
#88 Curt Shilling. It's hard to separate the man from his politics. He deserves to be in the HOF but because of his outspoken right wing politics and insensitive public statements he will probably have to wait until he is no longer around as punishment. I do not personally have a problem with that.
#81 Ferguson Jenkins is one of my baseball heroes. He was not glamorous like a Tom Seaver or a Roger Clemens. He was surely the best pitcher to never play in a World Series. He was not known to have a great fastball or a dazzling curve ball. He only pitched one way: down and away. He never varied because he continued to throw strikes down and away. He was a model of consistency. Steady and dependable. His Cy Young year was 1971. He routinely pitched 300 plus innings a year. Today a respected pitcher might pitch 3 complete games a year. Baseball changes. Thinking changes.
#80 Carlton Fisk was his daddy's son. In his HOF acceptance he thanked his dad for being where he was receiving baseball's highest honor and he shook as he said so. The whole room went misty.
#97 Roberto Alomar was a baseball with various and sundry skills. I'll let it go at that since I know the name but have no memories of him.
#74 Frank Thomas was a student of hitting. He was not a slugger though he hit 521 homers. He hit the ball where it was pitched to all fields. He was a hitting genius, a right-handed Ted Williams. And people just didn't see that. People would see his 6'5" 275 lbs. but miss his essence. His huge body was a disguise. He was more than a hulking man/child. It was assumed that when he went to Auburn under Pat Dye with a football scholarship that he would be a football player because he looked like a football player. Didn't he desire to be a great tight end? No, he didn't. He only went to Auburn so he could walk on the baseball team.
#65 "Let's play two." The famously quoted words of baseball Hall of Famer Ernie Banks ostensibly saying he was always ready to play a doubleheader. I have always admired Banks's enthusiasm though I do not know from whence it came but I like to think I share his enthusiasm. That's the enthusiasm of doing what you love from someone of my generation. Let's play two! Indeed, Ernie.
#49 In honor of the Bravos who are on the cusp of possibly winning their first Series since 1995, let me honor them by stating for the record that one of their own, albeit not Atlanta own, his name is Warren Spahn, is the greatest baseball pitcher of all time. Warren Spahn with the high leg kick which you don't see anymore. The Warren Spahn who actually liked to talk about hitting more than pitching. The Warren Spahn who hailed from the country's heartland, namely Oklahoma.My main criterion for "greatest" is consistent high performance over a sustained career and unarguable stats.He was named after President Warren G. Harding, but we won't hold that against him.Casey Stengel once told him he had no guts, but he won a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart at the Battle of the Bulge. Sorry Case, you was wrong.On to the stats. Warren Spahn won 20 or more games 13 times: 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, and 1963, the latter when he was 42 years young.He pitched on guile and street smarts like his successor Greg Maddox. And oh yeah, he had a pitch they called a screwball but nobody ever figured if it really was a screwball or some unknowable pitch even to this day. "Hitting is timing, and pitching is upsetting timing," said Professor Spahn.He won 363 games in all, the most since the Deadball Era. Spahn and Sain and two days of rain for all of you true baseball fans. If the Braves had Spahn pitching tonight you could bet it all on the Braves being World Champions.
#47 Wade Boggs learned about hitting from Ted Williams. Though Williams was a homerun hitter and Boggs wasn't, both of them had the same hitting philosophy. Don't swing at bad pitches. Wait for YOUR pitch; get hits; get on base. Don't make easy outs. For the rest of us that translates into pick your friends wisely; avoid the wrong people. Stay away from bad relationships. Taking your base is always better than striking out on a bad pitch. Spend your time with the right kind of people.
#46 Eddie Matthews had to wait. He had no choice. First eligible for the baseball Hall of Fame in 1974, he was not elected until 1978 even though he should have been a shoo-in his first year of eligibility. He was not popular with many sportswriters because he would not put up with their incompetence. That held him back in the voting. Ralph Kiner was elected before Matthews. Shame on the voters. Once I waited on Eddie Matthews. My first major league game was 1966 in Atlanta, the Braves first year in Atlanta. Braves vs. the Dodgers. A full house in Fulton County Stadium on a sultry Wednesday night. And oh yeah, Sandy Koufax was pitching for the Dodgers.There was a long rain delay during the game. I was sitting with my buddy David Plunkett. After the delay believe it or not Koufax warmed up to continue the game no doubt due to the full house. We were able to stand along the bullpen to watch Koufax warm up. What struck my attention was his curve. I had never seen a basebll break like that. I was thinking how does ANYBODY hit a breaking ball like that!Well, Eddie Matthews for one. Bottom of the ninth. Matthews sent a Koufax pitch into the right field stands to win the game for the Braves. To this day I still remember that baseball heading for the stands below right at us where David and I were sitting in right field. My greatest baseball memory.
#44 Cal Ripken, Jr. is certainly one of my baseball heroes. I admire consistency in one's trade over a long period of time. Ripken was on the field for 2,632 consecutive major league games breaking Iron Man Lou Gehrig's record of 2,130 consecutive games. Not only that, Ripken played 8,243 consecutive innings, every game, every inning, every day, every night. He never took a game off even to the point of never taking an inning off. You want a record that will never be broken? Here it is for sure.
#43 Yogi Berra. Beyond the Yogiisms there are hard facts. Yogi Berra was a catcher. He was gritty and tough. He played in 15 World Series. Three times MVP. Whereas most great hitters waited for their pitch, Yogi would swing at anything. High pitches, low pitches, inside, outside, in the dirt, over his head, toward a beer vendor, into the dugout, Yogi came to the plate swinging. But you know something? He didn't strike out a lot. In the 1950 season he hit 28 home runs. drove in 124 runs, scored 116 runs, and played catcher in 148 games. And he struck out only 12 times. Unbelievable! There was only ONE Yogi Berra, one of my all-time baseball heroes. Oh yeah: my favorite Yogiism. His wife once asked him given that he was born in St. Louis, played in New York, and lived in New Jersey, where did he desire to be buried. Yogi didn't bat an eye. "Surprise me," he said.
#4 Hank Aaron. Braves in the World Series has got me remembering the Braves I grew up with. First off as a baseball fan I welcomed the Braves to Atlanta in 1966. The Braves went from Boston to Milwaukee to Atlanta. Before the Braves, the Cardinals were the South's baseball team. Before TV took over my father and I would listen to and talk about "The Hammer," Hank Aaron. Hammering Hank was a native of Mobile. He was quiet, not as dynamic as Willie Mays, but just as skilled as the Say Hey Kid, our baseball hero. As luck would have it I was living in Atlanta in the spring of 1974 and was there in the stands at Fulton County Stadium on April 8 with a crowd of 53,775 with my girlfriend Suzanne when Hank launched #715. It was a glorious sight and wonderful to see the most momentus major league homer up to that point. Swing batter, batter, batter, and Hamering Hank could sure swing that stick!
The thing that strikes me most reading about Jackie Robinson is seeing what a great all round athlete he was. He could have played professional football. At UCLA baseball was his #4 sport. He was certainly an impact player on the baseball field. The only skill detriment maybe is that he was not deemed to have a particularly strong arm. Hence, he found his place at second place. He was truly a dynamic impact player with the exciting way he played the game. Jackie Robinson was the most consequential athlete of the 20th Century.
#36 Evidently Christy Mathewson really was the choirboy he has always been pictured as being. Scrupulously honest, he never pitched on Sundays. At the same, he was close friends with his manager John McGraw. The bond was they were both fierce competitors and wanted to win just as much as the other. The difference was that McGraw would cheat if necessary but Mathewson wouldn't. Mathewson was a college sports star at Bucknell, clean player from Factoryville, Pennsylvania, whereas McGraw had a rough upbringing, beaten by his father. He left home at 12 and never returned. Mathewson died at 45 having been exposed to mustard gas in Europe during WW I. There is a detour into cheating here. Sign stealing in baseball has been with us from the beginning.
# 34 Cy Young. It was Ford Frick's idea to give an award to the best pitcher in baseball especially since pitchers would seldom win the MVP award. He thought about Bob Fellar who was never named MVP. He thought about Robin Roberts who likewise never won the MVP even though he was the best pitcher in the game from 1950-1955. The possible pitching award grew legs in 1955, the year that Denton True Young died, called Dent early in life by his friends. Cy was a Ohio farm boy. Started in Canton, Ohio. Was such a pitching whiz from the beginning he was nicknamed "Cyclone" Young which quickly became Cy Young. Reputed to be a pure fastball in the first half of his career. You couldn't get away with that today. But he had superb control and different deliveries. He wanted to make the batter hit the ball the fewer pitches he had to throw the better. He was a thinking pitcher. He knew how to throw into the batter's vulnerable spots. He knew his geometry. Highly intelligent pitcher. The curve came later. He switched to the fledgling new American League from the beginning. The game changed constantly during his career and he always adapted. He won an incredible 511 games, a record that cannot possibly be broken. One thing puzzles me. He was not one of the five original inductees into the Hall of Fame in 1936. Why not? He was inducted in 1937 but the vote was not unanimous. Even then he did not collect the most votes that year. Why not?
#33 Jimmie Foxx. Name some famous baseball players. Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Mays, Bonds. Does Jimmie Foxx come to mind? I didn't think so but he was a great, great baseball player who is mostly forgotten today. Hit 534 homers, the record for a right hander for many years including 58 in one year which stood until the doped up Mark McGuire came along. Played for a few years alongside Ted Williams who gushed over him. Such a nice guy that everyone in baseball liked. One of the truly nice guys in the game. Double XX was his nickname. And by the way, it was always Jimmie Foxx never Jimmy Foxx. For such a well-liked man, the end of his life was not good. He lost his wife in May of 1966, his last year marred by depression and loneliness. He felt forgotten and lost his trademark smile. He died in July 0f 1967 of asphyxiation with a piece of meat found lodged in his throat. He was not yet 60 years old.
#29 Eddie Collins was the captain of the infamous 1919 Chicago Black Sox but was not barred for life evidently not involved in the scandal although what he knew and when he knew will always be a question. Tough competitor; great second baseman. Because an executive with the Boston Red Sox. Saw Jackie Robinson in a tryout but passed on him. The Red Sox were the last major league team to integrate.
#22 Rickey Henderson was named after Rickey Nelson. I bet you didn't know that, did you? Rickey was born in the backseat of a car careening against sidewalks on its way to the hospital on Christmas Day in 1958. I bet you didn't know that either, did you?His game growing up was football as a running back and he dreamed of playing for the Oakland Raiders.His mother forced him to play baseball instead.As the most prominent base stealer in baseball history he gloried in steading third. He said it was easier than steading second.He never wanted to quit playing baseball. At the age of 44 he was still playing for a semi-pro team.A walk by Rickey was just as good as a double because he knew he would steal second on first pitch to the next batter. Now you do know a few things about Rickey Henderson.
Frank Robinson was a class act. It started on the playground in West Oakland where he was playground mates with Bill Russell and Curt Flood. The Reds first sent him to Ogden, Utah, back when LDS was clearly racist before they cleaned up their act. Frank conduced himself well. This was 1953 after all which seems like 2 lifetimes ago. He faced the racism every day but never let it affect his play on the field. After his stellar major league career he was named the first black major league manager, the Cleveland Indians in 1975. It was a controversial hiring at the time, a mere one lifetime ago, a huge deal at the time. Rachel Robinson came to his first game. Surely Dusty Baker remembers. Frank Robinson was a pioneer. He had pride, played with ferocity, with an unmatched will to win. His numbers speak for themselves as does the brave way he carried himself in his life.
#18 Tris Speaker is known mainly for his defense. He was legendary for playing such a shallow centerfield. But let's remember the times in which he played had something to do with that before power hitting became the norm. Let us also remember that he finished his career with 3,315 hits, a .345 lifetime batting average, and that ain't defense. As a side note he was raised in Texas in a family of Confederates. He never gott tired of talking about the War of Northern Aggression. He would make disparaging comments about people of color. Imagine that! He was also a member of the KKK. But as we all know and cherish, life can be complicated. He was supportive od and lifetime friends with Larry Doby, the first African American in the American League. But still when I think of Tris Speaker, I always think first of how he could play such a shallow centerfield. He still holds the major league record for outfield assists.
#17 It seems that Ty Cobb perhaps was not the most hated in baseball. It seems that Rogers Hornsby may have him beat.
#15 Let us correct the record. The most hated man in baseball in bygone decades was not Tyrus Raymond Cobb but Rogers Hornsby. According to Joe Posnanski everyone disliked this man. Hornsby seemed to go out of his way to force everyone to hate him.
#9 Stan Musial Some things I refuse to believe especially when it comes to baseball. A friend tried to tell me that Stan Musial was an alcoholic. I refuse to believe it. The friend said he used to live in St. Louis and he had a friend there who knew Stan who said he was a secret dipsomaniac. NO, not true! Not Stan the Man. Do your homework. If you can find any evidence of this send it to me. If you can find ANY thing online of ANYONE saying anthing negative about Stan Musial please send it to me and I will check it out. Otherwise, I believe in Stan the Man.
#7 Walter Johnson. The main thing you read about Walter Johnson is how hard he threw the rock. Until his later years he was a pure fastball pitcher. I don't see how that would work today. If he had had a curve ball he would have been untouchable back then. In the course of winning 414 games people who saw him firsthand always talked about how hard he threw. Since there was no way to clock his fastball in the early 1900's we will never know for sure. I'm thinking low 90's, par for the course, but standard today. He deserved to be one of the first five initiating the Hall of Fame in 1936. Everybody liked him from what I've read. Go Big Train!
#6 Ted Williams I have always been fond of Ted Williams. He aspired to be the greatest hitter of all-time. Lifetime BA of .344. 521 homeruns despite missing 5 seasons serving his country flying military planes in WWII and Korea. He pulled every pitch hitting the ball as hard as he could despite the right side of the field being stacked against him. Unlike Yogi Berra he would not swing at bad pitches. His eyesight was legendary. Hence, flying those planes. He claimed he could see the ball touch the bat.
It’s the birthday of the baseball legend Ty Cobb, born in Narrows, Georgia (1886). His father was a teacher, principal, publisher, and state senator, and he had imagined that his son would follow in his footsteps, or maybe become a doctor or lawyer. He finally gave his blessing to Cobb’s career choice, but he warned him: “Don’t come home a failure.” Three weeks before 18-year-old Cobb made his debut with the Detroit Tigers, his mother shot and killed his father outside their bedroom window — apparently, she thought he was an intruder.
Cobb was furious at the hazing he received from his teammates. He said, “I was just a mild-mannered Sunday-school boy, but those old-timers turned me into a snarling wild-cat.” Cobb became one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Nothing stood in his way — legend has it that he would sit in the dugout where the other team could see him and sharpen the spikes on his shoes, then slide feet-first into each base. He was so mad when he thought the spring training field wasn’t in top condition that he beat up the groundskeeper, then choked the groundskeeper’s wife when she intervened. He attacked a heckler in the stands and almost killed him, and was finally hauled off the man by an umpire and a police officer. The Detroit Free Press described Cobb as “daring to the point of dementia.” He still has the highest lifetime batting average of all time.
He said: “The great American game should be an unrelenting war of nerves. I guess that’s what I miss most in it nowadays. In the battle of wits I was lucky enough to join in, you sat up nights plotting ways to win.” (Garrison Keillor)
#1Willie Mays. Joe Posnanaki says that the greatest baseball player of all-time is Willie Mays. As Bob Dylan says, why don't you just come out once and SCREAM IT!
No comments:
Post a Comment