EARL WILSON...TRAILBLAZER, PITCHER, HUMANITARIAN.....

It was just five years ago that Robert Earl Wilson passed away at the age of 70. He died suddenly of a heart attack at his home in Detroit Michigan. He was known primarily as a member of the 1968 World Champion Detroit Tigers and that is as it should be, for it was with the Tigers that he had his best years and it was the city of Detroit where his huge heart found it's home. However before he made his way to Detroit in 1966, that huge heart touched the heart of a little boy in Weymouth Massachusetts. A little boy who fell in love with Red Sox pitcher Earl Wilson, the pitcher who hit home runs!

He was signed on May 11, 1953 becoming the first black player to be employed by the Boston Red Sox organization. Originally a catcher, his rifle arm peaked immediate interest in converting him to the mound. By the end of 1954 and after two stops at the Class C level in the Arizona Texas League, and a short stint with the San Jose Red Sox in the California League, he settled in with the Class A Montgomery Rebels of the South Atlantic League. He was exclusively a pitcher and he was 20 years old.

From 1956 -1961 his minor league journey took him through; Albany NY, Minneapolis, Seattle and two stops with the Red Sox. When the Red Sox broke Spring Training from Scottsdale Arizona in April of 1962, Earl Wilson was in the major leagues to stay!

My earliest baseball memories are a mosaic of images; some more vivid than others. The first trip to Fenway where Dad pointed to left field and stated with reverence, "that's left field and that's where Ted Williams plays". I still smell the cigar smoke wafting across the diamond. Rooting for the White Sox in the 1959 World Series because those dastardly Dodgers had abandoned the good people of Brooklyn. Sitting in the chair at Tom's Barbershop while Bill Mazeroski rounded the bases in triumph after slaying the mighty Yankees with the homer that ended the 1960 World Series. Leaping with a scream of joy nearly cost me an ear.

As vivid as each of these are, they remain but snippets of a tapestry of yesterdays. My first memory of a complete nine innings of baseball involved, my Red Sox, my dad, my living room, my black and white TV and the mighty Robert Earl Wilson.The date was June 26, 1962. School had just ended and I was promoted to Mrs. Lenihan's fifth grade classroom at the James Humphrey School. It was officially summer and the confirmation of that was that the Red Sox were going to be on TV! This may seem like no big deal today, however, a televised night game during the week was a rarity and I was excited at the prospect. With school out it meant that I would get to stay up and watch the whole game. Make no mistake about it, Christmas had come in June!

A summer rain threatened to melt my early Christmas, but it only delayed the start by a half hour. I was shooting hoops on the makeshift basket on the telephone pole in front of my house when dad called me in, "game time" he said and I was gone! The sweet fragrance of that summer rain remains with me as I see myself bounding up the front stairs and into my living room.

The Sox were playing the Angels who were sending the flamboyant rookie lefthander Bo Belinsky to the hill. Belinsky had exploded on the scene six weeks earlier when he hurled a no hitter on May 5th against the Orioles! Belinsky entered the game with a 6-3 record while Wilson was 5-2. It had all the earmarks of a pitchers duel and a little over 14,000 fans showed up at Fenway to see it. One of the largest crowds of the year!

The first two innings went quick as each pitcher walked a man in the second. It was 0-0 with one out, in the bottom half of the third, when Earl Wilson strolled to the plate. He took a hardy cut at the first pitch and missed. The next fast ball he launched into the blackness of the night clear over the screen in left centerfield giving his team and himself a 1-0 lead. It was his second home run of the year and of his career but the true significance of that home run was six innings from being realized.

It was the only run that he would need as one Angel after another came up and went down. He walked two men in the fifth and one in the sixth. The Sox added an unearned run in the fifth on an RBI single by right fielder Carroll Hardy. Belinsky was nearly as formidable, striking out 10 and allowing only three hits before departing in the eighth for a pinch hitter. Following Wilson's walk of Billy Moran with one out in the sixth, an Angel had not reached base and when the ninth inning arrived, Earl Wilson stood on the threshold of history.

Moran led off and down he went, Leon "Daddy Wags" Wagner flied out to Yastrzemski in left field and only Lee Thomas stood between Wilson and immortality. Thomas lofted a fly ball to centerfield and as that ball nestled into the glove of Gary Geiger, the 14,002 members of the Fenway faithful erupted. So did the living room at 57 Endicott Street, for Earl Wilson had fired a no hitter!

Wilson was the 12th Red Sox pitcher to throw a no hitter. He was only the second pitcher in Major League history (Wes Ferrell 1931) to throw a no hitter and hit a home run in the same game. And he was the first black pitcher in American League history to pitch a no hitter. All of that was unknown to the nine year old boy in the living room. All he knew is that Earl Wilson was AWESOME!!!!

It was nearly a half century ago that Wilson spun his magic in the Fenway night yet the significance of that night, his career and indeed his life has grown in stature with each passing year, unveiled by history and embolden by his character.

His impact upon the game of baseball went far beyond his no hitter. In 1965 he hired Bob Wolfe, a Boston attorney, to represent him in contract negotiations with the Red Sox. He was the first professional athlete to hire "an agent" both changing the face of professional sports and launching Wolfe on a career which made him the most sought after agent throughout the decade of the 1970s.

Wilson endured the prejudice, discrimination and hatred ever present throughout his journey through the minor leagues in the 1950s. An incident which occurred in the spring of 1966 would stretch his tolerance to the limit and take him to his ultimate destiny. Following a spring training game in Lakeland Florida, Wilson along with teammates Dave Moorhead and Dennis Bennett entered the local Elks Club for a beer. The trio was immediately informed by the bar tender that "we don't serve niggers in here". The three of them left the premises and when the Boston press got word and wrote of the incident, Wilson was told by Red Sox GM Dick O'Connell to not "make an issue of it". A man of dignity and pride, Wilson was not happy that the Red Sox did not come to his aid and defense. He expressed that disappointment and before the June 15 trade deadline he was on his way to Detroit, exchanged for outfielder Don Demeter and pitcher Julio Navarro.

The Tigers and Wilson were a perfect match. Wilson fell in love with the city and the city and the Tigers fell in love with him. And why not? From the time he arrived until his arm failed him in 1970; Wilson was 64-45 with Detroit including a league leading 22 wins in 1967. He was a mainstay on the staff which won the 1968 World series and he continued to hit. He finished his career with 35 home runs. Warren Spahn is the only pitcher who hit more. Oh, and as for Demeter and Navarro? Wilson hit more home runs for the Tigers than Demeter did for the Red Sox and Navarro never threw a pitch in a Boston uniform.

After baseball he founded a very successful auto parts distributorship in Detroit. The humanity that was Earl Wilson would manifest itself long after his playing days ended when he served four years as president of the Baseball Assistance Team. BAT is an organization which aids former players who have fallen upon hard financial times. During his tenure as BAT's president he raised over $4,000,000 to assist his comrades. Beyond that he was a constant force in countless charities and charitable events throughout Michigan and beyond.

On April 23, 2005 Earl Wilson was at his home in Michigan when a heart attack struck him down. That huge heart had simply had enough and in a matter of an instant, he was gone. His passing brought accolades from the many who knew him. Willie Horton said "one of the great teammates I had...and a greater individual."

Earl's resume speaks for itself. However nowhere on that resume will it tell about the 12 year old boy who approached him at a "Sports Night" at East Junior High School in Weymouth Massachusetts. Looking up at the elegant "Duke of Earl" clad in a "shiny" gray suit with a powder blue shirt and a gray tie; the page of his 1965 Red Sox Yearbook opened to Wilson's picture, He asked, "Mr. Wilson could I please have your autograph?" "You sure can" he said as he signed, creating a moment and a memory which, like Wilson, grows in stature with the passage of time into that unrelenting veil of history.

PITCHING AND GOLF.....

In February of 2009, I had the privilege of playing a round of golf with Red Sox great Luis Tiant. Tiant was the ace of the Red Sox pitching staff during the decade of the 1970s and is, in my opinion, the best pitcher not in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. The intent of this post is not to explain that point but I would invite one and all to examine the careers of Tiant next to those of Don Drysdale and "Catfish" Hunter and then try to figure out why El Tiante is not there. But I digress.

Throughout the round, as shocking as this may seem, the conversation centered around two things, baseball and golf. Luis, who is approaching seventy, and sports about a 10 handicap commented how much golf was like pitching. And indeed it is true. When a pitcher is on the mound he must be totally focused on the job at hand and he must approach his stint one pitch at a time. He cannot, must not, be deterred or derailed by what has just transpired. Whether he has just surrendered a 450 foot home run or punched out the number four hitter with the bases loaded. His focus must be on the next pitch and his journey from start to finish must be one pitch at a time.

A round of golf will last for roughly four hours. During that time a golfer is actually in the motion of striking the ball and following through for a period of about 90 seconds. So, a golfer requires three hours, fifty eight minutes and thirty seconds of total focus and concentration for about a minute and a half worth of motion. He too must be totally focused on the task at hand and cannot, must not be deterred or derailed by what has just transpired. Whether he has just rifled a snap hook into the woods or just nailed a six iron from 170 yards to within 8 feet of the hole. His focus must be on the next shot and his journey from start to finish must be one shot at a time.

To reach the level of a major league pitcher or PGA Tour golfer an individual possesses a certain skill level that a minute number of human beings possess. On certain days that skill level merges with mental focus and concentration resulting in a performance of exceptional proportions; Pedro Martinez strikes out 17 batters and throws a one hitter or Tim Lincecum whiffs 15 and gives up four singles, Phil Mickelson shoots a 30 on the back nine of Augusta on his way to a round of 65 or Freddie Couples at 50 years old shoots 67 on Bobby Jones Playground.

When we, who can't do, evaluate the performances of these great competitors we often engage in the discussion of topics such as greatest this or best that. The greatest season a baseball player has ever had or the best performance in a golf tournament. These exercises of pundits and observers are often punctuated with the numbers. For example how could the best pitching performance not be one of the rare occasions in which the pitcher threw a perfect game or the even rarer accomplishment of striking out 20 batters in just nine innings? How could the best golf tournament not be the one in which the the winner simply buried the field with the lowest score of all time?

I submit to you that as stunning, as incredible, as dynamic as those performances may have been they do not qualify in my eyes as "the greatest" I have ever seen. And watching the events at Augusta National last weekend, was a reconfirmation of that concept in my mind. Everywhere you turned for the 2010 Masters there was a tremendous story waiting to unfold. In no particular order there was Lee Westwood, once the 4th ranked player in the world, dropping to the rank of 269th, battling back to number 4 again and knocking on the door for his first major championship. Freddie Couples, the 50 year old 1992 Masters Championship capturing the magic of yesterday and threatening to become the oldest player in history to win a major. And then there was Tiger and Phil. There is always Tiger and Phil but never, ever more juxtaposed then they were this weekend. Tiger, the philandering narcissist living his self created nightmare reemerging after a 145 day hiatus. Phil, the quintessential family man who has spent the past year in support of his wife and mom who both are battling cancer the insidious predator. Both Mrs. Mickelsons were present at a tournament for the first time since their diagnosis' a year ago. The weekend belonged to Phil and his family and rightfully so! He made the shots when he needed them as he stepped into the breech on Sunday to grab the coveted Green Jacket.

As fitting, hard fought and emotional as that was, I came away from the weekend and was once again in awe of Tiger Woods. As we all know Tiger finished fourth this weekend and I was happy that he did not dominate the course or the field. I was rooting for the game of golf this weekend and I felt that the game could best be served by Tiger struggling. Not because his personal life is a train wreck. Not because of his ridiculous transgressions, not because I choose to sit in moral judgement on his rather questionable personal choices. Simply because I know in my heart that the game of golf is simply too difficult to play and NOBODY, not even the great Tiger Woods, should be able to be away from it for 145 days and then dominate the best at one of its finest venues.

That all having been said; what he did was nothing short of phenomenal. His game abandoned him on the weekend. He pulled his tee shots, he popped them up, his chips were long, he three putted from 8 feet and he was never in rhythm. Yet, in spite of it all, through 66 holes, he still had a chance to win. In short he had nothing and through sheer mental toughness, will, determination and heart, he remained a force.

While watching the Masters I thought back to my conversation with Tiant and I began to think back to a similar performance by El Tiante himself. It was game four of the 1975 World Series. The Reds were up two games to one and a Red Sox loss would put them down 3-1 placing their proverbial backs against the proverbial wall. Luis had shutout the Big Red Machine on five hits in Game 1 and the Sox looked to him to even the series.

The Reds jumped in the bottom half of the first inning. Rose led off with a single, Ken Griffey (daddy) doubled him in and was thrown out trying to stretch his double into a three bagger. Joe Morgan walked, went to second on a grounder to short by Tony Perez and scored on a double by Johnny Bench. It was clear right out of the gate that the Tiant of game four was not the Tiant of game one. Or was he? The Red Sox scored five runs in the top of the fourth and the Reds added two in the home half of the same frame. The score at the end of four was Boston 5 Cincinnati 4.

What transpired in the next five innings was the greatest pitching performance I have ever witnessed. Oh, Tiant was not the Tiant of game 1. He did not dominate. In fact in only one of the last five innings (the 7th) did the Reds go down one, two three; and the first out was a scorched line drive by Rose to second base, the third out was a blast to the centerfield fence by Morgan. In the fifth, the Reds had men on second and third when Bench flied to left to end the inning. The sixth ended with Tiant punching out Darrell Chaney with Geronimo on first. Concepcion popped to right to end the eighth with George Foster on first and the game ended when Griffey lined to center and Morgan popped to first, both with runners on first and second. The final score Boston 5 Cincinnati 4.

The box score looks very ordinary. Tiant surrendered four runs on nine hits, he walked four and struck out four. His pitch count for the night reads 155 but there are some who suggest it was about 170. What Luis did that night, with virtually nothing, was even the World Series 2-2 and set the stage for legendary baseball drama that is now woven into the tapestry of baseball history. What he did, he did through sheer mental toughness, will, determination and heart.

So when the the cosmic tumblers kick into place and the symetry of talent and competiveness merge to produce a performance for the ages, sit back, watch and admire them as true works of art. As for me, give me the performance of the athlete who simply refuses to yield, who continues to fight when all that remains is the sheer will to do so; for when he prevails, we all prevail!

CLOSING IN ON .400? OR IS IT GONE FOREVER?

Next season will mark the 70th anniversary of Ted Williams hitting .406. When "Teddy Ballgame" finished that season, he accomplished what had not been done in eleven years. Did anyone following baseball during the summer of 1941 think that seven decades later we would still be waiting for that next .400 hitter?

To gain some perspective, lets take a look back. During the summer of 1941, Jimmie Foxx joined Babe Ruth as the only players to crack 500 career home runs. Mel Ott, who would be the third, finished the year with 415 career dingers. Babe Ruth and his 714 home runs had been gone from the game for six years. The Tigers Hank Greenberg, the 1940 AL MVP, received his call to service on May 7 and would forsake his $55,000 salary to become "the best soldier that I can be". Walter Johnson was in the twentieth year of what would be a sixty-one year reign as baseball's strikeout king. The league minimum salary hovered around $5000 and we were nearly a decade away from baseball's first $100,000 player. Only 6 players had amassed 3000 hits and thirteen of the 27 players who now occupy that same list had yet to be born.

We stand on the threshold of the 2010 season, and as mentioned, 27 men have reached the 3000th hit plateau, the last being Houston Astro Craig Biggio in 2007. The closest active players to that coveted mark are Ken Griffey Jr. (2763) and Derek Jeter (2747) so it appears that it will not be until 2011 until another joins this exclusive fraternity. Twenty five men have surpassed 500 career homers, the last being Gary Sheffield in April of last year. Five of those players (Griffey, ARod, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome and Sheffield) are still active. Carlos DelGado (473) is the closest active player to the 500 mark. Nolan Ryan is the reigning king of strikeouts (5714) and eight others have passed Walter Johnson. With this winter's retirements of Randy Johnson and John Smoltz and with Tom Glavine and Pedro Martinez still looking for work, Jamie Moyer is the active leader with 2342 punch outs. I think Ryan will be safe for a while. Oh and in 2009, the average salary in major league baseball topped the 3 million dollar mark, 434 players earned a million dollars or more, 85 earned 10 million dollars or more, the league minimum was $390,000 and the gross revenues for the 2009 season were 6.6 billion dollars (up 1/2 billion from 2008).

As we begin the second decade of the twenty first century, the .370 mark has been reached only thirteen times by eleven players. The .380 mark has been hit 4 times and the .390 mark but twice (and one of them was the strike shortened season of 1994).

PLAYERS BATTING .370 OR HIGHER SINCE 1941......

STAN MUSIAL- CARDINALS

1948-.376 with 230 hits in 611 AB with 694 plate appearances.

He fell 15 hits short of .400.

TED WILLIAMS-RED SOX

1957 - .388 with 163 hits in 420 AB with 546 plate appearances.

He fell 5 hits short of .400

ROD CAREW- TWINS

1977- .388 with 239 hits in 616 AB with 694 plate appearances.

He fell 8 hits short of .400.

GEORGE BRETT- ROYALS

1980-.390 with 175 hits in 444 AB with 515 plate appearances.

He fell 5 hits short of .400.

TONY GWYNN- PADRES

1987-.370 with 218 hits in 589 AB with 680 plate appearances.

He fell 18 hits short of .400.

ANDRES GALARRAGA- ROCKIES

1993-.370 with 174 hits in 470 AB with 506 plate appearances.

He fell 14 hits short of .400.

TONY GWYNN- PADRES

1994**- .394 with 165 hits in 419 AB with 475 plate appearances.

He fell 3 hits short of .400.

The asterisks indicate that this was a strike shortened season and thus cannot be counted as a full major league season. Therefore it was not considered the "closest" to come to .400.

TONY GWYNN- PADRES

1997- .372 with 220 hits in 592 AB with 651 plate appearances.

He fell 17 hits short of .400.

LARRY WALKER- EXPOS

1999- .379 with 166 hits in 438 AB with 513 plate appearances.

He fell 9 hits short of .400.

TODD HELTON- ROCKIES

2000- .372 with 216 hits in 580 AB with 697 plate appearances.

He fell 16 hits short of .400.

NOMAR GARCIAPARRA- RED SOX

2000- .372 with 197 hits in 529 AB with 599 plate appearances.

He fell 15 hits short of .400.

BARRY BONDS- GIANTS

2002- .370 with 149 hits in 403 AB with 612 plate appearances.

He fell 12 hits short of .400.

ICHIRO- MARINERS

2004- .372 with 262* hits in 704 AB with 762 plate appearances.

He fell 20 hits short of .400.

*Broke an 82 year old record for hits in a season. (George Sisler 257 in 1922)

POINTS OF INTEREST.....

* Of these thirteen players, only Galarraga and Garciaparra are right handed hitters.

* Although he broke the record for hits in a season in 2004, Ichiro finished more hits away from .400 than anyone else on this list.

The list speaks for itself and a surface look tells us that Ted Williams and George Brett came the closest, within 5 hits, of hitting the magic number of .400. Rod Carew came within 8 hits of the magic number and it is his season that we will take a look at first.

Carew hit .388 in 1977 and it was a remarkable season in that it most resembled the .400 seasons of old; marked by his high number of hits (239) and his near 700 plate appearances. This was the norm for virtually all .400 hitters who preceded him. He never really challenged the .400 mark as he entered September hitting .378. He went 0-4 in the first game of the month and then exploded in a 15 game hitting streak in which he registered 10 multiple hit games (four of them with 3 hits). He cooled for about a week slipping to .312 over a four game stretch and finished his last five games going 12-20 with three, three hit games. Entering into the month hitting .378 with 518 at bats, Carew raised his average 10 points to finish the year at .388. He hit safely in 22 of his last 25 games with 15 of them multi hit contests and in seven of them he registered three hits. He batted .439 during the final month coming up just 8 hits shy of .400. Rod Carew simply ran out of baseball season.

When Ted Williams celebrated his 40th birthday on August 30, 1957 he was not feeling well. In fact he was suffering from an upper respiratory infection that was about to shelve him for two and a half weeks. He entered the month of September, like Carew, hitting .378. On the first of the month, he struck out in a pinch hit appearance and did not step back into the batters box until the 17th of September, having missed 14 games. His return was another pinch hit and this time he singled. The next game, he pinched hit and walked, the next another pinch hit and this time he homered. He returned to the line up on September 21st and would not make an out for four games. His record breaking streak of reaching base in 16 consecutive at bats stretched over six games. From his return to the lineup on Sept 17 until the end of the season, he went 12-19 (.632) raising his average 10 points to finish at .388 and falling 5 hits short of joining Hornsby, Cobb and Sisler as the only players with multiple .400 seasons. Williams, like Carew, just ran out of time.

The man to come the closest of them all was George Brett in 1980. Not only because he, like Ted, was only 5 hits away, but because he was at the .400 mark later in the season than anybody. He began the month of September hitting .405, capping an amazing streak of hitting. At the 1980 All Star break, he was hitting .337. All he did was tear through the dog days, batting an astounding .495 in the month of July and an equally astounding .430 through August. He did this while battling with torn ligaments in his ankle. He stumbled through the first week of the September and finally his ankle took him out of the line up for nine games. He made his return in the second game of a doubleheader on September 17th going 2-5 and with 16 games to go he was at .398. His next two games he went 2-3 and 2-4 and with just 14 games left in the season, George Brett was hitting .401.

That was as close as he'd get as the next seven games he went 5-28 and with six games remaining he had dipped to .385. Like Carew and Williams, he finished strong going 9-18 in his last five games and he reached the .390 mark, only 5 hits short of .400. However, Carew and Williams, simply ran out of time, Brett, on the other hand, ran out of gas.

The question is there to be debated and kicked around by pundits, talking heads, in bars and pool halls, living rooms and ball parks; will we ever see another .400 hitter? Those who say no will tell you the game has changed too much, pitching in particular. A batter rarely sees a pitcher four times in a game and if he does, it's because he's throwing lights out. Bullpens are replete with pitchers who are targeted to get just one guy out. I suspect, however, that somewhere down the road the unreachable star will be reached. However, I think it will be by a hitter who has been shelved for a good chunk of his season therefore limiting his plate appearances to 525 or 550. I do know this, if you hear anybody yapping about a player hitting .400 when he's batting .438 in June, shut him off, he's an idiot! If however, it's early September and he's hitting .405, pay attention, at least the ride will be fun!

THE HEART AND SOUL OF BASEBALL.....

There is a purity in the game of baseball which lies in the fact that it is a marvelous metaphor for life! It is a game in which individuals compete against one another in one on one match ups (batter versus pitcher) yet that individual encounter takes place within the framework of a team. It is a game that is wrought with failure, for the best offensive players will fail between 60 and 70% of the time. It is a game which is defined by battling back from adversity, some created by the individual and some far beyond their control. It is life in its purest form.

Saturday I had the privilege of witnessing baseball, and the love of it, in that purest form when I watched the Venice Little League Challenger Program compete against and with the Venice High School baseball team. The Challenger Program is a program in which individuals who face a myriad of physical and mental challenges, compete and play baseball. It was started in 1989 and today 30,000 individuals participate in over 900 Challenger programs throughout the world. The Venice Challenger Program has been running for 14 years and has maintained a ten year association with the Venice High School Baseball Program. This culminates in a ball game at the Venice High School Field complete with lining up on the lines for the National Anthem and a hot dog feast with all the amenities. And in between, they play the game.

Each player is hooked up with a buddy from the High School team, or the Cheerleading Squad; and as the squads make their way to their respective dugouts, they do so with "buddy" in tow. An inning consists of each player batting once. The buddy will assist them in running, if need be, or perhaps push their wheelchair towards first after they have hit the ball. Have you ever seen a blind baseball player strike a pitched baseball? I did and watching the determination and effort on this young man would move even the crustier among us. Everyone who hits the ball is safe. Everyone who hits the ball is out, sometimes several times. Everyone who hits the ball rounds the bases and scores. And in the end, the Challenger team wins, everybody wins. The reason is simple, because in this game of baseball, as in life, it's all about the journey. The journey from home to home, the journey from the dugout to the playing field, the journey in tracking down a batted ball wherever it may take you. It was a journey filled with joy!

The hills roll out from the sleepy rural town of Cooperstown New York and they seemingly roll on forever. Nestled away in their midst is heaven, baseball heaven. The place where ballplayers go to be immortalized. The place where careers and accomplishment of players who performed at the very highest level still live, still breathe and their presence is palpable. There are those that will suggest that it is where the soul of America is housed. Having visited there and paid homage many times, I would not dispute that claim but I would add that the heart of this great game and the heart of this great country beats in the Challenger Program.

Oh, and as for the game, 14-13 The Challengers won, AGAIN! But the real winners were those of us who were there, touched by the lives of those who for an hour took us with them on their journey from home to home!.....Thanks.

ROGERS HORNSBY...AN UNPARRALLED STRETCH

Eighty five years ago, in the 1925 season, Rogers Hornsby, the Hall of Fame second baseman of the St. Louis Cardinals finished the year with a .403 batting average. It was good enough to garner his fifth straight National League batting title and his second Triple Crown in four season. It also capped off a streak of five years which, if this game is played for another million years, will never, ever be duplicated!

It was the second consecutive .400 season for the man they called "Rajah" and it was his third .400 season in four as he sandwiched a paltry .384 batting average in 1923. Imagine, stringing together seasons hitting, .397, .401, .384, .424 and .403? That's exactly what he did from 1921 through 1925 and incredibly during that stretch of five years he hit .402!!!!!

The Holy Grail of hitters is the .400 mark. It has occurred twenty eight times since the games inception in 1869. However, in the modern era, which began with the birth of the American League in 1901, it has happened only thirteen times. More astonishingly than that is the fact that only eight players have hit that mark. Ty Cobb joins Hornsby in having done it three times (.420 in 1911, .409 in 1912 and .401 in 1922). George Sisler did in twice (.407 in 1920 and .420 in 1922). The other five to turn the trick in order are: Nap Lajoie (.427 in 1901), "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (.408 in 1911), Harry Heilman (.403 in 1923), Bill Terry (.401 in 1930) and Ted Williams (.406 in 1941).

The other two hitters with multiple .400 seasons have enjoyed similar stretches. Ty Cobb came close to Hornsby's feat hitting .397 from 1910 through the 1914 season. He did in fact hit .401 from the start of the 1910 campaign through the end of 1913 and in 1910, 11, 12 he batted .405. The other multiple achiever, George Sisler hit, .400 on the nose from 1920 through 1922. These are remarkable achievements! Cobb hitting .401 through four complete seasons and Sisler hitting .400 through three. However, "Rajah" is the king of the .400 hundred hitters; doing it for half a decade, through FIVE COMPLETE SEASONS!

PLAYER...........YEAR......AVG......HITS... PA.... OBP..... OPS

Nap Lajoie........1901 .......426....... 232..... 582....463...... 1.106

Joe Jackson......1911........408........233......641....468.......1.058

Ty Cobb.........1911.......420........248......654....467.......1.088

Ty Cobb.........1912.......409........226......609....456......1.041

George Sisler...1920........407........257......631.....449......1.082

George Sisler....1922.......420........246......654.....467......1.061

Ty Cobb........1922.......401....... 211...... 612.....462......1.026

Rog. Hornsby..1922.......401.......250.......704.....459.......1.181

Har. Heilman...1923.......403......211........626.....481.......1.113

Rog. Hornsby..1924........424......227.......640......507.....1.203

Rog. Hornsby..1925........403.....203.......605......489......1.245

Bill Terry........1930.......401.....254........710......452......1.071

T. Williams.....1941.......406....185.........606......553......1.287

Some interesting notes and observations about this very elite group of hitters.

* Shoeless Joe Jackson accomplished his feat in his rookie year.

* Shoeless Joe hit .408 and did not win a batting title.

* Ty Cobb joined Jackson as the only players to hit .400 in a season and not win a batting title. He hit .401 in 1920 and Sisler hit .420.

* Lajoie, Heilman and Hornsby batted right handed, the others are left handed swingers.

* Williams is the only player to hit .400 and not get 200 hits in that season.

* Williams had the highest on base percentage .553 during a .400 season.

* Williams had the highest OPS 1.287 in a .400 season.

* Hornsby is the only other player to have an on base percentage higher than .500.

* Hornsby hit the most home runs in a .400 season, 42 in 1922.

* Hornsby won the Triple Crown in two of his .400 seasons, 1922 and 1925.

* Lajoie did it in the least amount of plate appearences, 582.

* Lajoie has the record for the highest batting average in the modern era, .427.

* Hornsby and Terry hit .400 in over 700 plate appearances.

* Hitting .400 occurred 7 times from 1920-25. The nascent years of the "Live Ball Era."

*Five of the .400 season involved all time top ten number of hits in a season: #2,Sisler, 257 in 1920, #3, Terry, 254 in 1930, Hornsby, #6, 250, in 1922, Cobb,# 8, 248 in 1911 and Sisler again #9, 246, in 1922.

* Sisler held the record for hits in a season for 84 years until Ichiro had 262 hits in 2004.

* Every player who hit .400 is in the Hall of Fame with the exception of Shoeless Joe.

Have we seen the last of the .400 hitters? It has been nearly seven decades since Ted Williams accomplished this remarkable feat. The tale is forever woven into the fabric of baseball history. It was the last weekend of the season, Ted was hitting .3996 which rounded up to .400. At the time, it had been eleven years since Bill Terry of the NY Giants had cracked that barrier. Red Sox manager Joe Cronin had suggested that "The Kid" sit it out and take his .400 average for the season. Ted would have none of it, played both ends of the double header, went 6-8 and finished the year at .406. Since that time only two players have even cracked the .390 mark.

If the moment comes when a major leaguer reaches the .400 mark in a season, he will do so with a fanfare and whoop la that will make the McGwire/Sosa charade of 1998 seem like a picnic. The story of Ted Williams will be told and retold and a whole new generation will become familiar with the greatness that was Ted Williams. But I wonder how many stories will be told about Rogers Hornsby, "Rajah" the soft spoken second baseman of the St. Louis Cardinals who hit .400 hundred not just in a season but for HALF of a DECADE, making him the undisputed King of the .400 Hitters!

NEXT.....Those who have come the closest to .400 since "The Splendid Splinter" turned the trick in 1941.

STEPHEN STRASBURG, HALL OF FAME OR BUST? OR SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN?

On August 17, 2009 the Washington Nationals and Stephen Strasburg agreed to a 15.1 million dollar contract. Unprecedented numbers for a draft pick, but this is no ordinary draft pick. The 6'4" 220 pounder has, on paper, all the elements of a "can't miss" player. His fastball hits between 95 and 97 MPH and has been clocked as high as 103. Complimented by a curve that ranges between 79 and 81, the twenty two year old had been mowing down the opposition at San Diego State. This culminated in a no-hitter in his last home start in which he struck out 17 Air Force hitters. As a sophomore, he once struck out 23 Utah Utes and in his junior year he compiled a record of 13-1 with an ERA of 1.32. He allowed just 59 hits, and 19 walks while striking out 195 batters in 109 innings!

His professional career consists of five starts and 19 innings pitched with the Phoenix Desert Dogs in the Arizona Fall League; he was 4-1 with a 4.26 ERA, he walked 7 and struck out 23. It is widely held that the 2010 season will mark the beginning of Strasburg's major league career. It may come early in the year, it may come later but it seems unlikely that the Nationals are not going to begin, as soon as possible, to recoup some of their 15 million dollar investment.

What can be expected of this phenom? If history tells us anything, and it usually does, the fates will not be kind to Strasburg and the Nationals. A peek into the past might tell us why.

Steve Chilcott, Brien Taylor, Matt Bush; do those names mean anything to you? These men each have two things in common, actually three. They each were the overall number one draft picks in the MLB draft; Chilcott in 1966, Taylor in 1991 and Matt Bush in 2004. They each were drafted and signed out of high school and neither one of them ever played in a major league baseball game!

The MLB baseball draft, in it's current incarnation, dates back to 1965. The then Kansas City Athletics, made Rick Monday of Arizona State the first ever overall number one pick. Not one MLB overall number one pick has been enshrined in Cooperstown. That will change within the next decade as Ken Griffey Jr is sure to be a first ballot inductee and Chipper Jones will garner significant support. Alex Rodriquez may arrive at Cooperstown's pearly gates as well but the steroid fallout may or may not contribute to postponing his induction.

Several of them have had solid major league careers: Harold Baines, 22 seasons, six all star appearences, just short of 2900 hits and 384 career homers. Darrell Strawberry, a wealth of talent sidetracked by demons yet still made eight all star teams, was named rookie of the year and twice finished in the top three in NL MVP voting. Jeff Burroughs was the 1974 AL MVP with the Texas Rangers. What does all this have to do with Strasburg? Nothing, but the history of pitchers drafted at overall number one paints a little different picture.

Strasburg became the thirteenth pitcher chosen as the top pick when he was tabbed by the Nationals last June. He is the third pitcher chosen at this spot in the last four years and the tenth righthander selected. Only three southpaws have been selected as the number one pick in the forty five years of the draft. The list follows in order:

YEAR PLAYER TEAM RECORD
1973 David Clyde LH Rangers 18-33
1976 Floyd Bannister LH Astros 134-143
1981 Mike Moore RH Mariners 161-176
1984 *Tim Belcher RH Yankees 146-140
1988 Andy Benes RH Padres 155-139
1989 Ben McDonald Orioles 78-70
1994 Paul Wilson Mets 40-58
1996 #Kris Benson Pirates 69-74
1997 Matt Anderson Tigers 15-7
2002 #Bryan Bullington Pirates 0-5
2006 #Luke Hochevar Royals 13-26
2007 #David Price Rays 10-7
2009 Steven Strasburg Nationals ????????

* first overall in secondary phase January 1984
# Still active or in camp 2010

David Clyde was 18 years old when he was drafted out of Westchester High School in Houston Texas on June 5, 1973. Twenty two days later he was on the mound at Arlington Stadium against the Minnesota Twins. He pitched five innings, gave up only one hit, (a two run homer) walked 7, fanned 8 and beat Jim Kaat. He was 7-18 with the Rangers in three seasons before being traded to the Indians. He spent two years in the minor leagues before returning to the bigs in 1978. He went 8-11 for the Tribe and led the league in wild pitches. By the end of the 1979 season, Clyde was out of baseball. However, I'm sure that more than once he has told the tale of facing Reggie Jackson ten times and only allowing him two singles while striking him out five times. Oh and two picks behind the Rangers at three, the Brewers chose Robin Yount. And after that at four, the Padres selected Dave Winfield.

Floyd Bannister was drafted by the Astros in June of 1976 out of Arizona State University. The following year, at the age of 22, he was in the majors. He played for 15 seasons with 6 teams achieving his most success with the White Sox where he had his only three winning seasons and won 16 games twice. He led the league in strikeouts one year, two others led the AL in K's per nine innings and was named an All Star in 1982. A middle of the rotation pitcher he had several solid years but not what the Astros had in mind when they made him baseball's top choice in 1976.

Mike Moore was tabbed at number one by the Mariners out of Oral Roberts University in 1981. Another middle of the rotation hurler, Moore pitched for Seattle, Oakland and the Tigers. A bit more successful than Bannister, Moore had three 17 win seasons and in 1989, he went 19-11 for the A's and made the AL all star team. He added two wins in the 1989, earthquake World Series against the Giants. He had 161 big league wins but was 15 games under .500 for his career.

Tim Belcher was the first pitcher drafted at the top spot to finish his career with a winning record. He also owns the distinction of being drafted in the top spot twice. First by the Twins in June of 1983 and after not signing, again by the Yankees in the secondary draft in January of 1984. Within a month, he was taken by the Oakland A's as a free agent compensation pick and three years later he was traded to the Dodgers. He pitched 14 seasons with the Dodgers, Reds, White Sox, Tigers, Mariners, Royals and Angels. Three times he won 15 games but his best year, ironically, was his rookie year of 1988. He went 12-6 with the Dodgers with a 2.91 ERA and he won 2 games in the NLCS and 1 game in the World Series as the Dodgers upset the mighty A's in the "I don't believe what I just saw", Kirk Gibson World Series.

Andy Benes was in a word, a winner. The first pick out of the University of Evansville in Indiana, he pitched 14 seasons with the Padres, Cardinals, Diamondbacks and Mariners. In those 14 seasons he compiled a record of 155-139 and he only had "losing seasons" three times, two of them being years of 10-11 and 13-14. A solid number two starter throughout most of his career, his best season was in 1996 when he went 18-10 with the Cardinals. He started 9 post season games throwing 54 2/3 innings with a 1-1 record and a 5.47 ERA. In the strike shortened season of 1994, he led the NL in strikeouts with 189. Ironically, it was his worst won/loss record as he went 6-14.

Highly touted out of LSU in 1989, Ben McDonald had a nine year career that can best be described as unfulfilled promise. Playing for seven seasons with the Orioles (5) and Brewers(2) he had double digit wins in four of those seasons. His best year came in 1994 when he went 14-7 with Baltimore. He finished his career with a 78-70 mark but never came close to being the top of the rotation guy that the Orioles had hoped.

In 1994, The New York Mets selected Florida State's Paul Wilson in the draft's top spot. In June of 1996, he made his debut and stayed with the Mets for the season going 5-12 with a 5.38 ERA. He was traded to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in July of 2000 where he toiled for three seasons. Becoming a free agent in December 2002, he signed and finished his career in Cincinnati with the Reds. It was a career defined by mediocrity as he went 40-58 and he was finished at the age of 32.


Kris Benson was the first of two Pirate pitching flops out of the draft's top slot. Drafted out of Clemson in 1996, the Georgia native made it to the Pirates staff in 1999 going 11-14 with a 4.07 ERA. In a career that has spanned 8 seasons and 4 teams, Benson has compiled a record of 69-74 with a 4.41 ERA. In 2009 he pitched 22 1/3 innings with the Texas Rangers going 1-1 with an 8.46 ERA. At 35 it appears as if he's hit the end of the line. He actually made more headlines off the field when his then wife Anna was negotiating with Playboy to pose for their magazine. Kris contended that was the reason the Mets traded him. I think it might be more that throughout his career it cost his teams $500,000 for every win he was able to produce.

Matt Anderson was chosen out of Rice University by the Detroit Tigers in 1997. He made his debut one year later and in fact, in his rookie year, showed some promise as a set up man going 5-1 with a 3.27 ERA. He had six seasons with the Tigers and closed out with the Rockies in 2005. He actually had 22 saves in 2002 but never could overcome control issues. He finished his career with a 15-7 mark but his ERA was 5.19. He totaled 256 2/3 innings in his career striking out 224 and walking 157. He never started a game in the majors.


The second faux pas of the Pirates in six years came in 2002 when they selected Bryan Bullington out of Ball State in the top spot. He made it to the Big Leagues in Sept of 2005 and as he attempts, this spring, to land a spot on the staff of the Kansas City Royals, he does so still seeking his first big league win. In four seasons with the Pirates, Indians and Blue Jays, he has pitched but 39 innings, is 0-5 with a 5.08 ERA. In September he will turn 30 and it appears as if time is running out on this former number one.

In 2006, the Kansas City Royals tabbed Luke Hochevar out of the University of Tennessee as the number one choice in the land. The following season Hochevar made his debut. The 26 year old has been in the Royals rotation the past two years with mixed results. Last year he was 7-13 with a 6.55 ERA. It was a Jekyll and Hyde year for the young righthander as he allowed 6 earned runs in 9 of his starts and in 8 other starts he only allowed 2 earned runs or less. The jury is still out on the former Vol who is slated to hold down the third spot in the 2010 rotation of the Royals.

David Price was the last "can't miss" pitcher drafted at the top of the heap. The Rays selected the 6'6" southpaw out of Vanderbilt in 2007. Price paid immediate dividends, making his major league debut in September of 2008 as the Rays were making their first ever playoff bid. He appeared in only five games, and threw only 14 innings yet he was on the mound when the Rays defeated the Red Sox in game 7 of the ALCS earning them their first ever American League pennant. It was Price's first major league win! Last year he settled at the back end of the Rays rotation where he went 10-7 with a 4.42 ERA. Not bad for a 23 year old pitcher facing the metal of the American League East. He will start the 2010 campaign as the number three or four starter in the Rays rotation but could well be the ace of the staff by seasons end.

Some observations about the collective performance of all the pitchers chosen at the overall number one position are really quite astounding. To begin with, none have ever had a 20 win season in the major leagues. (Mike Moore came the closest going 19-11 in 1989). None has ever won a Cy Young Award. In fact, only five times have they even been in the top ten in Cy Young Award voting: Tim Belcher finished 6th in the NL voting in 1989, Mike Moore finished 10th in the 1985 AL voting and 3rd in 1989 and Andy Benes had two appearances in the NL Cy Young voting, 6th in 1991 and 3rd in 1996. Floyd Bannister, Mike Moore, Tim Belcher and Andy Benes each made one all star team.

The collective record of all 12 draft picks is 839 wins and 888 losses for a winning percentage of .486. And in the 101 collective seasons pitched by all these pitchers, there were 46 seasons in which they won more games than they lost, 47 seasons where they lost more games than they won and 8 seasons where they finished .500. Only four of them, Bannister, Belcher, Benes and Price have pitched in the post season. They collectively have hurled 103 2/3 innings for a 7-4 mark and an ERA of 5.03.

So the stage is set for Strasburg, as he stands poised to make his first major league appearance, we wonder, will he be the one to break the trend? Will he be the first pitcher selected at the coveted "overall number one" slot to deliver all of the expectations? Time will tell but one thing is for certain, if he does, he will not only have to tame the likes of Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard, Hanley Ramirez, David Wright, et al. But he will have to defeat perhaps the toughest opponent of them all.....History!

Steroids and 50 home run seasons..........

Well, now that Mr. "I Don't Want To Talk About The Past" McGwire is back on the scene, the question of steroids and other PED'S will be bantered about yet again. His stunning (note tongue firmly implanted in cheek) revelation and admission in Studio 42 with Bob Costas had all the melodrama of a bad episode of General Hospital. I was particularly taken by his lies within his truths. He never took them to gain strength? Really? Really Mark? This is disheartening beyond words for McGwire seemed so real, so genuine! Who can forget the images? Raising up his son as he crossed home plate? Embracing the Maris family? And so on, and so on.

My most favorite claim however is the assertion that these drugs did not help him hit more home runs! Is he really that diluted? Is he really so self absorbed that he cannot step outside himself, for the briefest of moments, to see the truth? The sad part is that he is not alone, he is merely another pony riding the hubris carousel not accepting responsibilty for his actions and what those actions have caused.

I have rolled this issue round and round in my brain and I have tried and tried to dismiss it as another version of simply gaining the edge. I want to place it in the same category as the spit ball, or Gaylord Perry's vaseline ball or even Whitey Ford, with the help of Yogi Berra, loading the ball up with mud. Hell, I have even tried to fluff it off as simply the 90s version of "Greenies".

Perhaps it's the freak show aspect to all of this that will not allow my mind to accept it as thus. Maybe Barry Bonds head growing to ridiculous proportions is just too much for my mind to comprehend. His feet growing five sizes when he was almost 40 is a concept that my mind cannot get wrapped around either. The reality is that if this happened 100 years ago, he'd be the feature act in a traveling circus freak show, along with the bearded lady and Tom Thumb.

So what I did was turn to history. Often it is history that will reveal truths lost in our day to day mundane existence. It is in history where will will often find the future. So travel with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryear to help us sort out the nonsense of today.

In the entire history of baseball, there have been only 41 times that a player has hit 50 or more home runs in a season and this has been accomplished by a grand total of only 25 players. There are nine players who have accomplished this monumental feat multiple times.

The first man to do it was, of course, The Bambino. Babe hit 54 in 1920 and before the decade ended he had done it three more times including his 60 in 1927. He hit 59 in 1921 and 54 again in 1928. The decade of the 1930s produced four more 50 home run seasons: Hack Wilson of the Cubs hit 56 in 1930, Jimmie Foxx (The Beast) hit 58 in 1932 with the Athletics and 50 in 1938 for the Red Sox becoming the first player to accomplish the feat with two different teams and the second player to do it more than once. The Tigers Hank Greenberg slugged 58 round trippers in 1938 making that the first year two players did it in the same season. The 1930s brought us the first version, if you will, of the juiced baseball allowing others, other than The Babe to emerge as monster home run hitters.

The 1940s saw it occur three times and twice in the same season. Ralph Kiner of the Pirates and Johnny Mize of the Giants each slugged 51 homers in 1947 to tie for the National League home run title. Kiner duplicated the effort in 1949 when he hit 54 dingers on his way to seven consecutive National League home run crowns. The fifties saw it happen but twice. Willie Mays jacked 51 in 1955 and Mickey Mantle hit 52 in 1956 as part of his Triple Crown season. Both of these greats would duplicate their efforts in the 60s. Mantle ended with 54 in his race to 60 home runs with teammate Roger Maris in 1961 and Mays bombed 52 in 1965. Maris , of course, captured the Holy Grail with his 61 homers in 1961.

Following Mays' 52 home runs in 1965, the 50 home run season took it's longest hiatus since it had first occured. It would be 12 years before George Foser of the Cincinatti Reds clubbed 52 homers in 1977. It would then take 13 more years before the Tigers gargantuan first baseman Cecil Fielder would hit 51 in 1990. In seven decades, this remarkable feat had been accomplished but 18 times by only 11 players. All that was about to change and change dramatically!

Since 1990, the 50 home run plateau in a single season has been reached 23 times by 14 different players. Excluding Fielder's 1990 season, there were 11 times that a player hit 50 or more home runs in a season in the decade of the 90s alone. Albert Belle cracked 50 for the Indians in 1995. The incomparable Brady Anderson banged 50 the following year for the Orioles and Greg Vaughn hit 50 on the button with the Padres in 1998. In Seattle, Ken Griffey Junior had back to back 56 homer campaigns in 1997 and 1998, a remarkable achievemnet which was swallowed up by a guy named Sosa and another named McGwire. "Big Mac" bashed 52 in 1996, 58 in 1997, 70 in 1998 and 65 in 1999. "Slammin Sammy" banged out 66 in 1998 and 63 in 1999 becoming the only man in history to hit 60 home runs in a season and not lead the league. And he did it in back to back seasons!!

The twenty first century brought more of the same. Sosa had his third consecutive 50 homer campaign with 50 in 2000. The 2001 season brought four more 50 homer seasons and three new members to the fraternity, with Alex Rodriquez clubbing 52, Luis Gonzalez hitting 57, and Barry Bonds jacking the ungodly sum of 73. Sosa hit another 64 homers becoming the only man in history to crack the 60 mark three times and still it was not enough to capture the home run crown.

From 2002 through 2007, the half century in homer mark was hit seven more times. Alex Rodriquez did it two more times when he hit 57 in 02 and 54 in 07. The other five times added five new faces to the 50 home run parade. Jim Thome hit 52 in 02, Andruw Jones, 51 in 05, David Ortiz 54 in 06, Ryan Howard, 58 in 06 and in 2007, Prince Fielder hit 50 duplicating his dad's effort seventeen years earlier. This marked the first time a father, son duo accomplished the feat.

So for the purposes of recapping; from 1920-1990, 11 players did it 18 times or roughly every four years. From 1995-2007, 14 players have done it 23 times or roughly two players per season! Jose Canseco marks 1988 as the year he began hitting the juice and introducing and injecting it into teammates including Mark McGwire. Is this a coincidence? Probably not.

The list of players who have achieved this plateau since 1995 is rife with players who have been linked to or have admitted taking steroids. At the top of the admission list are ARod and McGwire. Sammy Sosa has long been suspected of hitting the juice. His sudden inability to comprehend English may have been a side effect of excessive steroid use. Greg Vaughn lived with Ken Caminiti in 1996, what is the liklihood that he dabled? David Ortiz appeared on "the list" in 2009 and then of course there's Bonds. Never proven but ask yourself this question, If a man had a gun to your head and said if you do not answer this question correctly I will pull the trigger and then he asked you "Did Barry Bonds take steroids"? What would your answer be? I don't know about you but I'm going with a big yes! Andruw Jones had a curious response to questions about Bonds when Barry surpassed Hank Aaron in career home runs. He said "What difference does it make if he took steroids, lots of people do and they don't hit 755 homers", interesting. Albert Belle is linked to just about anything and everything bad. I'm surprised he hasn't been questioned in the Kennedy assassination. And then of course there are Brady Anderson and Luis Gonzalez. Lets see, throughout Anderson's career, he averaged a home run for every 30.95 at bats. In 1996 he jacked one out of the park every 11.58 at bats. How do you think he became Ruthian in his home run production? As for LuGo, a similar surge, he went from doinking a dinger in every 25.87 at bats to the astonishing rate of every 10.68 trips to the plate.

Of the newcomers to the list, it appears as if only Griffey, Thome, Howard and Prince Fielder are "legitimate" contenders to the 50 home run crown. If you eliminated all the of the players who appear to have subscribed to the theory of more power through chemistry, it would total but 15 players and it would have occured 22 times since The Babe did it in 1920. That comes down to, roughly, once every 3 1/2 years. A little better than the previous seasons but that could be legintmally linked to more knowledge of nutrition, the body and legitimate workout regiments.

The last 50 home run season was 2007 when both Alex Rodriquez and Prince Fielder topped the mark. In 2008, Ryan Howard fell two home runs short and last year Albert Pujols led the majors with 47. In the American League, there were no 40 home run seasons the past two years. One has to go all the way back to 1991 (Howard Johnson, Mets 38) and 1992 (Fred McGriff Padres 35) to find back to back years where the league home run leaders did not reach the 40 home run plateau. If nobody hits 50 homers this season, it will mark the first time in nearly 20 years (1991, 92 and 93) that the majors will be without a 50 home run hitter for three straight seasons.

Is the recent reduction in the 50 homer season a result of better drug testing? That question will be determined and perhaps best answered a decade or two hence. If the the 50 home run season continues to appear at the rate it has for nearly a century. (about 1 every 3 1/2 to 4 years) one might logically conclude that chemistry played the larger role in the 1990s escalation. If, however, more and more 50 home run seasons appear and from more and more "unlikely" sources one might conclude that todays players are simply bigger, faster and stronger. Or, there's something else out there that as of yet is undetectable. A thought I'd simply rather not ponder!

The Man They Call Yaz

I begin this venture with a story of Carl Yastrzemski. The son of a Long Island potato farmer this man, of Polish decent, was the epitome of the meaning of the term work ethic. I am not here to chronicle his career, (peek into baseballreference.com for that) nor am I here to analyze his stats and numbers. Rather in this entry I will try to explain how enormously clutch he was as a player.

The Boston Red Sox tale of their "Impossible Dream" season of 1967 is well documented and chronicled. The "Cardiac Kids" came from ninth place the year before and captured the American League pennant, by a single game, the last weekend of the season by sweeping the mighty Minnesota Twins in a two game set at Fenway. Yaz went seven for eight, hit his 44th home run of the year, had 6 RBI and scored twice, that last weekend of the season. In fact for the entire month of September and into Oct 1st, Yaz hit .417 with 8 homers and 24 RBI. The Sox went 16-11 through that stretch. More incredibly is the fact that he closed out the season with a 10 game hitting streak in which he hit .541 (20-37) with 4 home runs and 14 RBI. The Red Sox manager during that season was the Hall of Famer Dick Williams. Dick is 81 years old and he will tell you to this day that in all his years both in and watching baseball, Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 was the greatest player he ever saw!!!

It is difficult to assess one's "clutchness" if you will. We all know what it is, yet it is difficult to quantify. We can look at certain numbers, the sabermetriticians have created a whole new world of analyzing and calculating "the numbers". Those of us not so adept, need no numbers. All we need know is when our club is in a tight spot and the opposition is at the plate, who do we NOT want to step in the batter's box? It's as simple as that. Do the fans of Yankee opponents want to see Derek Jeter at the plate in a key spot? Of course not. How about those Cub fans sitting at Wrigley on a nice sunny afternoon. Do they want Pujols stepping in with two on in the top of the 8th and their beloved Cubbies ahead 4-2? I doubt it!! Or how about the 2004 Red Sox and that David Ortiz fellow. You remember him. All "Large Father" did then was pick up the Red Sox and their nation and placed it on his shoulders to carry them from their 86 year residence in the pit of despair!

All formidable examples. All with the numbers to back it up. However I will say that there never has been a player in my 50 years of watching baseball who can eclipse the clutchness that was Yaz in 1967! During the 1990s my son, began playing Little League. A devotee of the game, even at a young age he possessed a marvelous interest and curiosity regarding baseball history. When he was nine years old he asked me "dad, how good was Yaz"? I explained it thus.

When the Red Sox defeated the Twins on Saturday Sept 30, 1967, it created a deadlock atop the American League. The whole season was about to come down to one game on Sunday. At midnight, my dad and I headed into Boston. We went to mass (it was Sunday after all) at 3 AM on Arch St in Boston and headed on over to Fenway and the ticket booth. There were only four people in line in front of us and and when the windows flew open, WE GOT TICKETS!!!! We went into the park as soon as it opened. I can still smell the cigar smoke and feel the electrical charge that hovered over that marvelous ball yard. Making our way to a couple of seats about halfway up the third base grandstand we chose two, sat down and miraculously we were there when the game began. Was it possible that we would sit here the entire game? Unfortunately no, the true patrons arrived after the top half of the first inning. Moving to the standing section behind the grandstand, I shimmied up a pole and made my way out onto the stanchions in the third base roof, I wrapped myself around a girder and hunkered down to watch history.

The Twins took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an error by George Scott, the Red Sox Golden Glove first baseman. They stretched it to 2-0 in the third on another error. This time by of all people Yaz! Was it possible that fate would deal the cruelest of blows? Errors by the two best defensive players on the team would lead to the undoing of this most wondrous of seasons?

The score remained 2-0 until the bottom of the sixth. Pitcher Jim Lonborg led off with a bunt single. That was followed by singles from Jerry Adair and Dalton Jones and with the bases loaded Yaz strutted to the plate. His left hand tugged at his belt as he stepped in to the box, bat cocked high above his head, he glared out at the Twins hurler Dean Chance. Chance's first pitch was a fastball down and in for ball one. His next fastball caught a little bit too much of the plate and the mighty Yaz uncorked his swing.

Those who teach players how to hit a baseball will tell you that the prefect swing and the prefect connection between baseball and bat will drive a pitched ball right back up the middle. Well Yaz's swing sent Chances fastball on a line over the left part of the second base bag. In fact, he had hit the ball so cleanly, it barely made a sound and as Lonborg and Adair came around to score, the game was tied. Yet I must say, there was a twinge, ever so slightly, but a twinge none the less, of disappointment for Yaz had not homered. Think about that! A perfectly hit baseball which was his third hit of the day, his fifth hit in a row and it tied the score in the biggest Red Sox game in 21 years. Yet you truly expected him to hit a homer! THAT IS HOW GOOD YAZ WAS IN 1967!

My nine year old son understood what I was saying. He got it. It provided a measure of just how clutch was "The Man They Call Yaz"!!! Eleven years later, in 2004, that little boy was now 20 and he watched the wonder that was David Ortiz. He was away at college and we talked often during the Red Sox miracle of "04". In game four of the Yankees series, Ortiz had homered in the 12th to keep the Red Sox alive and less than 24 hours later "Papi'" singled in the bottom of the 14th bringing the series to 3 games to 2. He called me after that game and asked, "Dad, is he close to Yaz in 67?" Yea Boom, close!