Kuzul

The St. Louis Cardinals won their third consecutive pennant in 1944.  They faced the St. Louis Browns in the World Series. Since the teams shared Sportsman’s Park, all the games would be played in the same park. The Cardinals had beaten the New York Yankees in 1942. The Yankees returned the compliment in 1943. The 1944 Cardinals won 105 games. The Browns had won 89. The purists wrung their hands in anguish. How unfair to give a team with a record 16 games worse than its opponent's record a chance to win the World Series. When the leagues were split into two divisions in 1969, the purists cracked their knuckles in disgust, because the team with the best record was forced to play a best-of-five series against an opponent that might have finished with a much worse record. Baseball purists never liked the wild card. To them, having a second ...

Batting average is not an overvalued statistic. When you compare Ichiro Suzuki's 2004 season with Eddie Stanky's 1950 season, it illustrates the importance of a player’s batting average when you evaluate him. Suzuki batted .372 with a .414 on-base percentage and a .455 slugging average. Stanky batted .300 with a .460 on-base average and a .412 slugging average. I must point out that singles, not extra base hits, created Suzuki's higher slugging average. Suzuki hit 24 doubles, five triples and eight home runs. He hit 225 singles. Stanky hit 25 doubles, five triples and eight home runs. He hit 120 singles. Ichiro had 105 more singles than Stanky. The difference in on-base percentage between the two came from the fact that Stanky walked 144 times and Ichiro walked 49 walks. Stanky had 95 more walks. Adding Ichiro’s 225 singles and 49 walks results in his getting credit for reaching first base 274 ...

Lou Gehrig passed away 71 years ago today, June 2, 1941. A study released on Aug. 17, 2010 created speculation about the cause of Gehrig’s death. 12 athletes that suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) comprised the study's sample. It was discovered that three of the 12 had symptoms similar to those of Gehrig, who died from amyotophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ALS is rare. About 6,000 individuals in the U.S. are diagnosed with it each year. Individuals that suffer from trauma to the head and brain develop symptoms similar to those of ALS. The researchers identified spinal cord markings on the three individuals with symptoms that resembled Gehrig’s. They suggested that they died by concussion or other head trauma that attacks the central nervous system. Two former football players diagnosed with ALS, Wally Hillenburg and Eric Scoggins, had the condition, according to the study. Gehrig was hit in the head ...

“He has the best stuff, the best repertoire of pitches that I’ve seen on any one single pitcher,” Chipper Jones said about Stephen Strasburg Friday, as reported by Carroll Rogers of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Who are we to question him?I mean, none of us has ever faced Jones’ teammates Greg Maddux, John Smoltz or Tom Glavine. Neither has Jones, but he has seen enough of each to compare them to Strasburg. Jones batted against Pedro Martinez, Johan Santana, Randy Johnson and possibly the greatest of them all, Roger Clemens. Don’t conclude that Jones has said that Strasburg is or can be greater than any of the above-mentioned future Hall of Famers: He said Strasburg “…has the best stuff, the best repertoire of pitches…” Maddux and Glavine relied on their assortment of pitches.Smoltz, Santana, Johnson and Clemens had unbelievable fastballs that they complemented with either cutters, curves or split-fingered fastballs. ...

It happened 56 years ago. On May 24, 1936, the New York Yankees were visiting the Philadelphia Athletics. The Athletics scored their only two runs in the first inning. It wasn’t enough. Shortstop Frankie Crosetti hit a pair of home runs and Joe DiMaggio hit one, but that was nothing. Tony Lazzeri batted in the second inning with the bases loaded. He hit a home run. Tony Lazzeri batted in the in the fifth inning with the bases loaded. He hit a home run. Lazzeri hit a solo shot in the seventh inning. He also had a triple and finished the day with an American League record 11 RBIs. That record still stands. The final score was 25-2.The Yankees had 19 hits and received 16 walks. The game was reminiscent of the time a writer asked Yankees’ owner what he considered a good afternoon. Ruppert responded that  it was “When ...

There is a difference between being a great baseball talent, being a great player and having a great career. Thurman Munson and Carlton Fisk were great baseball talents. Munson and Fisk were great players. Fisk had a better career than Munson did. As Helen Gamble of The Practice might say, "I wonder why." Traditional statistics reveal little when comparing them, although Munson had a better batting average (.292 to .269) and a better on-base percentage (.346 to .341). Fisk's slugging average (.457) was superior to Munson's (.410). Do you think that Munson's home park compared to Fisk's home parks was a factor? Munson and Fisk each had Hall of Fame ability. Modern statistics shed new light on the careers of both catchers. Munson's career WAR or WIns Above Replacement was 43.3 for his 10 full complete seasons. Fisk's career WAR was 63.7 for his 21 complete seasons. This is to ...

The New York Yankees were hosting the Chicago White Sox for a twi-night doubleheader on July 25, 1961. The second-place New Yorkers trailed the Detroit Tigers by one game. The fifth-place White Sox were 13 games behind despite having a respectable 50-47 record. Whitey Ford (17-2) faced Frank Baumann (7-7) in a battle of left-handers in the opener. Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle each had 37 home runs going into the games. The teams traded zeroes until the bottom of the fourth inning. Bobby Richardson became the Yankees' first baserunner when he drew a leadoff walk. Tony Kubek moved him to second with a sacrifice bunt, bringing up Maris.The future single-season home run record holder promptly hit a drive that hit the right field foul pole. Mantle, batting right-handed, now trailed Maris by one home run. He swung at a Baumann fast ball and drove it down the left ...

William Rhoden of the New York Times presented some interesting ideas about Barry Bonds in a column a little more than one year ago. Rhoden posits that America, despite having a president whose father was black, is not comfortable with powerful, prominent black men that do not conform. Bonds, the greatest player of his era, plays by his own rules, which forced the media to resentfully follow those rules. Lawyer Allen Ruby told the jury at Bonds’ federal trial that one reason Bonds was being tried was because he was Barry Bonds. Bonds attitude has been compared to Bessie Smith’s legendary blues classic, “’Tain’t Nobody’s Business if I Do.” The following from the work easily applies to Bonds: “If I should get beat up by my poppa / That don't mean you should call no copper / Cause it ain't nobody's business if we do”It is significant, according to Ruby, that prosecutors ...

"Batting sixth and playing first base, No. 14, Bill Skowron, No. 14." Skowron stepped into the batter's box against the ace left-hander on the Yankee Stadium mound in the second inning of a scoreless game. There was a runner on second with one. The fans watched with eager anticipation. The pitcher peered in to get the signal from his catcher, nodded assent and delivered. The "Moose" lined a base hit  to center field as the crowd let out a groan.Skowron' base hit came at the expense of his good friend Whitey Ford. Mickey Mantle fielded the ball cleanly, but he had no chance of throwing out Frank Howard at the plate. The Los Angeles Dodgers led the New York Yankees 1-0 in the first game of the 1963 World Series. Following Skowron's single, weak-hitting Dick Tracewski singled and left-handed-hitting John Roseboro hit a three-run home run.In the third inning, Skowron batted ...

Mickey Mantle won the Triple Crown in 1956, batting .353 with 52 home runs and 130 RBIs. My brother and I often heard some of our friends that didn't exactly root for Mantle or the New York Yankees claim that Mantle usually hit home runs when the Yankees were well ahead or far behind. Baseball-Reference has posted data that allow us to discover if that claim is true. The Yankees opened the 1956 season in Washington. In his first at-bat of the season, Mantle hit a two-out home run against Camilo Pascual to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. He put the game away with a three-run blast in the sixth inning for an 8-2 lead on the way to a 10-4 win. In 1956, Mantle hit 10 home runs with the score tied, seven home runs with the Yankees behind by one run and six home runs with the ...