Runs and Bases: the 1930's Part 2 | Syracusefan.com

Runs and Bases: the 1930's Part 2

SWC75

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BRANCH RICKEY

A good definition of a great man is someone for whom idealism and self-interest dovetail to become one. Idealism gives the great man the power to imaging things as they might be, rather than just the way they are. Self-interest gives them the motivation to overcome the obstacles in the way of changing things. You have to want to do great things and to get credit for them. And it doesn’t hurt if you can benefit in other ways. Another thing about great men is that everything everyone says about them tends to be true to some extent. Their admirers point to their virtues and achievements. Their detractors, (and they will always have them) will point out their faults and failures and suggest that self-interest was behind their achievements - as it surely was.

To many people, (including Ken Burns), Branch Rickey is a sort of saint, who, remembering when a black college teammate was refused service in a hotel, vowed to integrate baseball and finally did so decades later, (long after he’d become a successful general manager). Blacks had fought for this country and they could sure as heck play baseball in it. His detractors, including Walter O’Malley, said that Rickey did it to draw fans to Ebbets Field, where there was a large population of blacks nearby. He wanted to fill the seats and increase his salary by doing so. He also wanted to win and skimming off the cream of black players would help him do so. . I’m sure he did. I think it’s all true.

Ralph Kiner never had anything good to say about Branch Rickey when his name came up during Mets broadcasts. That’s because Rickey never had anything good to say about Ralph. “Kiner has so many weaknesses that if you had eight Ralph Kiners on an American Association team, it would finish last.” Kiner for his part, said that Rickey got bonuses based on how much he reduced the payroll so he was always trying to find ways to lower player salaries- the money went right into his own pocket. DIzzy Dean, who Rickey did trade a decade before, had called Rickey “a skinflint”.

Bill James: “Branch Rickey came to the Pirates as Kiner was at his zenith and immediately stated his intention to trade Kiner for whatever he could get. The Pirate owner, John Gailbreath said “Wait a minute”, and then said “No” and then said “Hell No”. This provoked Rickey, in one of the oddest moves of his career, to begin systematically destroying Kiner’s reputation as a player, so that he could trade him. It’s nuts but that’s what he was doing. Kiner was regarded by some Pirate fans as the second coming of Babe Ruth. Rickey went down a check list, comparing Kiner to Babe Ruth. Kiner didn’t do well. If he could make a player less popular with the fans, Rickey reasoned, he would then be free to trade him.

As it turned out, Rickey was right on the narrow point: Kiner had leg, ankle and back problems, which dramatically shortened his career. Had the Pirates traded him in 1950 or 1951 for a package of three young players, they likely would have come out far ahead in the deal, particularly when you consider that branch Rickey would have bene picking the young players.

On another level, Rickey was saying that if Kiner was really as good as the Pirate fans thought he was, the Pirates wouldn’t have been in last place. This is unfair. Kiner wasn’t Babe Ruth but he was a top-fight player for a few years. No one player was going to keep a team out of last place, year after year, without some contributions from the other 24 guys.”

Rickey was also defending the prerogative of the general manager to have a free hand in building or rebuilding a club, if he was going to be blamed for his success or failure. He’d been given that free hand with the Cardinals and Dodgers with tremendous results. Why should he be limited by the popularity of the best player on a last-place team? The story also shows how selfish and even cruel he could be when someone got in his way. And it shows that he understood that pennants are won by all 25 guys on your roster.

“Baseball’s Hometown Teams” by Bruce Chadwick is a good book about the history of the minor leagues. The first ‘minor’ league was the International Association in 1877, a year after the formation of the National league. It had teams in Canada, New York, Pennsylvania and New England. Other leagues quickly followed. The major league owners didn’t want to slice the pie any more than they had to and they’d created the National League so they didn’t have to schedule games against teams in smaller cities. The minors allowed teams in smaller markets to survive. And the minors served as a root system for the majors, finding local talent, developing it and then selling the contracts of quality players to teams from bigger markets until those players made it to the majors.

Except originally major league teams didn’t wait for minor league teams to put their players on the market. The contacted the players directly and offered them contracts with no compensation for the teams they had been on. This became worse when the American League went major in 1901 the raids became even worse. As a response the minor leagues banded together to form the National Association as a common front against the majors. They put in their own reserve clause into their contracts and threatened lawsuits if the majors continued to tamper with their players.

“The two major leagues, knowing they needed the minors as a talent pool, kicked and screamed. But by the start of the 1903 season they entered into an agreement with the minors that called for payment of up to $7,500 to the minor-league club for any player singed to a major league contract. That agreement plus the success of the new schedules and the reserve clause sent the minor leagues into the twentieth century as the largest and most successful sports organization in America.”

But the minor leagues never considered themselves ‘minor’. At the start of the century, long before the advent of television brought major league baseball to every town in America. The minor leagues were the ‘major’ baseball attraction in their area of the country.” And because they owned the contracts of their players, the minors could keep them the entire year. If a Joe Hauser was on pace to hit 60+ home runs, his team would keep him the whole season and see if he could do it. And the leagues set their own schedules, so the International league could play 168 games and play through the end of September, then have their top four teams play seven game post season series to determine a champion. The PCL could play a 225 game schedule to take advantage of the better weather out west. Then the teams, if they so chose, could sell the contracts of their players, (I hate the term “sell their players”) to a major league team if they chose to. Or not, as in the case of Jack Dunn, whose Orioles won seven straight IL pennants.

In 1919 the National Association, operating from a position of strength, negotiated a new agreement with the majors. “Furious that top players were being taken away for little money pulled out of the agreement in 1919. They resigned it but with a clause permitting them to get whatever they could negotiate in the sale of a player. That meant that in the 1920’s a minor-league owner could keep stars for several years to build up their sale value. This enabled owners like Jack Dunn in Baltimore to put together a dynasty. It also enabled owners to earn substantial extra income, enough to save a franchise or make one prosperous by selling stars…..The majors suddenly found they had to pay at least $50,000 to land a star minor leaguer. They also found owners holding onto players as prices escalated. ” The San Francisco Seals sold Willie Kamm’s contract to the Giants for $75,000 and Jimmie O’Connell to the White Sox for $100,000.Dunn finally sold a frustrated Lefty Grove’s contract to Connie Mack for $100,000.”

Branch Rickey didn’t like operating from a position of weakness. He had come to the Cardinals as their team president and field manager in 1919. There was no such thing as a “General Manager” until Cardinals owner Sam Breadon insisted that he wanted to be the president and that Rickey, after several mediocre teams, quit as field manager. Instead, the new post of general manager was created for him, although he was at first called “business manager”. Anyway, Rickey ran the club. The Cardinals, who hadn’t won anything since the 1880’s, couldn’t afford to spend $50-100,0000 for a player. Instead of trying, Rickey came up for a better use for the money they did have: buying ballclubs. He did so quietly, behind the scenes, so that other big-league teams couldn’t copy him, at least not until his farm system” began producing results. He bought the Syracuse Stars of the international league and part of the Houston Buffalos of the Texas League and the Fort Smith team in the Western Association. (He later moved the Stars to Rochester where they became the Red Wings- and won three straight IL pennants- after Syracuse refused to build him a new ballpark). But Rickey was far from done. He was building an empire.

“By 1931 the Cardinals owned sixteen teams outright. But that was not enough for Rickey- he just kept going. He would buy 100% of a club one month, then 51 percent and controlling interest of another the following month. He collected minor league teams like other people collect coins. Ten, fifteen, twenty and on up. By 1940 the Cardinals owned controlling interest in 33 minor league teams, or one tenth of all the teams in the country. The Cards owned 51 percent of most but a full 100 percent of 15 teams. Rickey soon owned half the Nebraska State league and half the Arkansas-Missouri League. Then he bought the rest of the teams in each league. All told the Cardinals had a farm system of some 500 players from which to choose new talent each year. And not one of them, when moved to the majors, would cost the front office a nickel.”

The Cardinals farm ‘teams’ were not teams at all but simply collections of players whom the Cardinals could promote or demote as it pleased them. Even Little League teams get to keep their players to the end of the season. Instead of being part of a root system, farm clubs are more like an elevator that nobody stays in for long. They no longer really represented the communities they were in, no matter how many games some of the Cardinals teams won.

Judge Landis also looked askance at what Rickey was doing “Along the way, Rickey was not without opposition. Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis represented the most powerful challenge. The objective side of the commissioner viewed the success of the Cardinals as a threat to the integrity of the
game. The controlling side of the man took offense at Rickey’s personal success, particularly when Landis’s salary of $40,000 was almost $10,000 short of Rickey’s. The prevailing side of the Commissioner is subject to debate.” Landis ordered 91 Cardinal farm hands to become free agents, ruling that the Cardinals’ relationship with their minor league teams were illegal.

Bill James: “Landis ruled that the Cardinal contracts had trapped the minor league teams in a relationship in which they were prohibited from taking actions that they might need to take to win a league championship and thus, in effect that they were considered a breach of faith with those team’s fans the same as surrendering the attempt to win the pennant in any other way. Once this breach of faith was complete, once the minor leagues teams were no longer able to pursue victory for themselves only, they could no longer survive without subsidies….The minor leagues decayed because the point was lost that Landis was trying to make: that minor league teams cannot survive if their fans are asked to support units which are, in reality, extensions of a foreign power. The minor leagues before Branch Rickey were a small war. After Branch Rickey, they were boot camp.”

There’s a myth that the minor leagues were dying during the depression and the major leagues rescued them by making them part of their farm systems. It’s a myth largely created by Rickey who alleged that local investors were not able to provide the financial support of a major league franchise. In fact, per Chadwick’s book, the minors prospered in the 30’s, for the same reason the movies did: people needed to be entertained and minor league baseball was a relatively cheap, geographically obtainable form of entertainment available to people all over the country, not just in the big cities. Minor league teams also learned to promote their product with public relations directors, catering to the local press and various promotions, such as Ladies Days, knothole gangs, Old Timer’s games, night baseball, handing out blocks of tickets to local schools, post season playoffs, By the end of the decade there were 43 minor leagues with 350 teams in them. And most of them were still independent teams. The creation of farm systems was not a rescue operation. It was a way of closing down free labor markets so the major league teams had a monopoly.

Other teams caught onto to what the Cardinals were doing and started to copy them and the results showed up in the baseball standings in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
The BRAVES got started with Harrisburg of the NYP League in 1932. They moved to two teams in 1937 and five in 1938, then cut back to one in 1943.
The BROWNS got started with Wichita Falls of the Texas League, (a popular starting point for farm systems), moved up to three teams in 1932 but then retracted to two and then one before moving back out to three in 1936 and thirteen the next year, but then cut it back to one in 1943 and three in 1946.
The RED SOX picked up a couple of teams in 1932 and were up to ten by 1937.
The CUBS also started with Wichita Falls back in the 20’s, then reading in the International league for a couple of years. They really got going in 1934 with 3 teams and 8 by 1938 and 17 by 1948.
The WHITE SOX began in 1932 with Waterloo of the Mississippi Valley League in 1932, had six by 1942 but were up to 14 by 1946.
The REDS started with Cedar Rapids of the Mississippi Valley league in 1932, expanded to six in 1934 and 12 by 1939.
The INDIANS began with Frederick of the Blue Ridge League in 1929, had four teams by 1933 and seventeen by 1939
The TIGERS had some kind of relationship with Ft. Worth of the Texas League as early as 191, (per Baseball Reference. com), but really didn’t get a Rickey-like “farm system” going until 1932, when they had five teams and twelve by 1941.
The DODGERS began in 1932 with Hartford of the Eastern League and Jersey City of the International League. They languished for years with no more than 2-3 teams until Rickey took over and increased that but only to 6-7 teams in the years after the war.
The SENATORS began with Chattanooga of the Southern Association in 1932. They moved up to four in 1936 and ten by 1939.
The YANKEES started in 1932 but started with 5 teams and reached a height of 23 teams by 1949.
The ATHELTICS began IN 1923 WITH Shreveport of the Texas League but abandoned them in 1924 and didn’t get another team until 1932. They didn’t get very heavily into it even after that but did have five teams by 1941.
The PHILLIES got off to a late start with Hazelton of the NYP League in 1934 but they had eight teams by 1940, (Baltimore was their top farm team), and fifteen by 1948, (which produced the 1950 “Whiz Kids”)
The INDIANS started with good ole Wichita falls back in 1920 but didn’t expand to three teams until 1934, ten in 1940, (the Chiefs were their top farm club0 and then to 19 teams in 1948.
The GIANTS started with two teams in 1932, were up to six by 1937 and 21 by 1948.

But the major leagues still didn’t entirely own the minors, who enjoyed another boom in the post-war years. Chadwick: “The players were back from the war and eager to make up for lost time. Recently discharged servicemen jammed as much entertainment into their lives as they could to make up for lost time and that included minor league baseball. ..By the late 1940’s more than forty million Americans were watching minor league games a year…In 1949 there were a record fifty-nine minor leagues, 464 teams and ten thousand players in the Minor Leagues…Attendance was a record 41.8 million.”

What killed the independent minors were three things something Branch Rickey didn’t invent: television, air conditioning and the jet plane. Chadwick: “Television’s Impact was devastating. With so much baseball on television, attendance at minor league parks dropped from a high of 41.8 million in 1949 to 34.5 million in the 1950 season to 27.5 million in 1951 and continued to plunge. The major league teams, of course, greedy for the television dollar, did little to restrict the impact of the enw media on their minor-league affiliates….Television wasn’t the only villain chipping away at the strength of the minors. Manufacturers of air conditioning units were able to refine their technology and increase mass production to sell relatively cheap window units that the average family could afford. People no longer had to seek out air-conditioned theaters or the breeze-swept stands of baseball stadiums to stay cool on hot summer days.”

The earliest Sporting News Baseball Guide I have obtained is the 1955 book, which has the records of the 1954 season. The take-over of the minor leagues by the majors continued to progress and the size of the minor leagues was beginning to shrink due to television, (and air conditioning). 7 of 24 Triple A teams were still independent. Double A had 3 independent teams of 16. The “A” level leagues had 34 teams, 10 of them independent. Class “B” had 44 teams, 20 of them independent. Class “C” had 83 teams, 48 of them independent. Class “D had 68 teams, 17 of them independent. All told, 269 teams, 108 independent and 161 part of farm systems. Most of them were in the lower minors at this point, the places most financially vulnerable.

They jet place allowed the major leagues to switch poorly-supported franchises out of the northeastern quadrant of the country and across the amp all the way to the west coast. (it also allowed them to play one city against others to see how much they would be willing to do to keep or have a team, including building expensive stadiums). “The owners of major league franchises, eager to make as much money as possible, began moving major league teams into markets that had proved successful for the minor leagues”. Milwaukee, Kansas City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Minnesota finally joined the major leagues and the Baltimore Orioles returned. Gone were the original Milwaukee Brewers, the Kansas City Blues, the San Francisco Seals, the Oakland Oaks, the Los Angeles Angels, the Hollywood Stars, the Minneapolis Millers and the Baltimore Orioles of Jack Dunn and Joe Hauser.

People often credit Rickey with making two major changes to the game of baseball: the farm system and integration. Actually he made a third: when the major leagues refused to expand because they didn’t want to share the wealth with anyone, (which prevented the National League from having a New York Franchise), Ricky helped form the Continental League, with himself as President of the League, (one wonders if he invented the league just to give himself a job). When the majors agreed to expand, the CL folded without ever taking the field. But it forced the creation of the New York Mets, the Houston Colt 45s, (Astros), the Washington Senators, (Texas Rangers) and the new Los Angles Angels, as well as all the expansion teams to follow. This ended the era of the “High Minors”, leaving even Triple A to medium-sized cities like Syracuse. If you were a major league town, you likely had a major league baseball team.

In 1963, the majors completed their take-over of the dying minors, getting rid of the low minors and organizing the rest into Triple A, Double A, Single A and the Rookie Leagues, each one a step on a ladder
leading to the major leagues. There has been a movement in recent years to create independent leagues but they are at the lowest level of baseball and are no longer a route to the majors.

Even Rickey’s greatest achievement had a downside. Just as the major league teams didn’t think to compensate teams like the Millers and the Seals for invading their territory, Rickey didn’t consider the Negro Leagues to be part of “Organized Baseball” and there for didn’t consider player’s contracts with Negro League teams to have any validity. So he simply raided those teams for the players he wanted without compensation. The owners of Negro League teams could have fought for their players but breaking the color line was just too important. Eventually, their purpose having ended, (and with the same problems the minor leagues were having drawing fans for the same reasons), the Negro Leagues passed from the scene. Since integration was on an experimental basis throughout the 50’s, (the Red Sox finally became the last team to integrate in 1959), this had the ironic impact of greatly reducing the number of African American professional baseball players to lows that hadn’t been seen since the 19th century.

One wonders if it might have been possible to keep the minor leagues independent and allow them to prosper and the cities they represented have teams that their hometown fans to root for, rather than mere collections of players. Maybe the teams in the high minors could simply have been elevated to the major leagues instead of being put out of business by franchise shifts and expansion teams. Maybe the Negro Leagues could have become part of organized baseball and become part of the minor league system, (they’d tried integrating themselves in the late going: a movie should be made about Eddie Klepp andLouis Clarizio, who integrated the Negro leagues). Maybe the most successful ones, like the Kansas City Monarchs, could have competed as major league teams. Maybe the businessmen who owned these teams could have become major league owners, or at least kept their teams at the minor league level. But it was about taking control of things and they wound up on the wrong side of history.

Rickey, for all his success and fame, was not so revered by those who employed him. Relations with St. Louis Cardinals owner Sam Breadon as Breardon insisted on appointing the Cardinal’s field manager and, in Rickey’s view, failed to stand up to Landis when he moved to pare down the Cardinal’s farm system. Beardon was also unhappy that the Cardinals had won no pennants since 1934.Breadon claimed that Rickey was involved in negotiating a possible sale of the Cardinals to an oilman who promised him a bonus of $100,000 if the sale went through. Breadon also tried to reduce Rickey’s salary, which didn’t help their relationship, either. Rickey said “I would rather dig ditches for a few cents an hour than to work for Sam any longer than my contract requires.” He got his wish as Breadon announced in February 1941 that Rickey’s contract would not be renewed when it ran out after the 1942 season. Ironically, Rickey’s farm system had built the next great Cardinals team and they won four pennants and three World Series in the next five years.

Rickey was hired to run the Brooklyn Dodgers, replacing Lee McPhail who was going into the military service. Ray Stockton of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote an unflattering article in the Saturday Evening Post entitled “A Brain Comes to Brooklyn”, citing Rickey’s excessive money consciousness , his demand for commissions every time he made a deal, his vanity, (if he didn’t like his picture in the paper, he’d send them a studio shot to use in the future). Stockton did give him grudging admiration as an innovator and an evaluator of talent. Brooklyn sportswriter Tom Meany provided this description of Rickey based on one he’d heard for Mahatma Ghandi: ”an incredible combination of Jesus Christ, Tammany Hall and your father”. Rickey was thus dubbed “The Mahatma”. Jimmy Powers of the Daily News had another name for Rickey: “El Cheapo”. It didn’t help that Rickey had traded Brooklyn favorite Dolph Camilli.

Rickey got permission to go ahead with his plan to integrate the game by not simply convincing majority owner Ed McKeever but also banker George McLaughilin of the Brooklyn Trust Company, who had kept the team from going bankrupt during the depression. If you’ve seen the film 42 or any one of many documentaries and books on the subject, you know what happened next.

(To Rickey’s further credit he offered try-outs for the Dodger to Japanese American athletes who were currently interred because of the war. “The fact that these boys are American boys are good enough for the Brooklyn club.” I’m not aware that anything came of this.)

The McKeever family wanted to sell their interest in the team. Banker McLaughlin put together a four man group consisting of himself, Ricky, John L. Smith, the head of the Pfizer Corporation and the team’s chief lawyer, Walter O’Malley, a specialist in foreclosures. One writer said “Instead of being run by the executors of estates, the team was now run by living, breathing people”. Each owned a fourth of the team but Rickey ran it. He and O’Malley came to resent each other. O’Malley particularly thought Rickey took too much credit for integration when he needed the backing of the other owners to proceed with it. He also accused Rickey of pursuing it for his own purposes: to make money and get the pick of black players. Still, iIt seems unlikely that O’Malley would have pushed for integration on his own if he ran the team.

And in 1950, he did. Smith died and O’Malley bought out his shares to gain 50% of the stock in the team. He used that to block anything Rickey wanted to do and then made an offer for Rickey’s shares. Rickey dodged him by offering the shares to a friend, forcing O’Malley to up his price, (to $1,050,000: the Dodgers are now worth $2 billion). Rickey then left for his next job in Pittsburgh and his confrontations with Ralph Kiner and John Galbraith. Eventually he had to retire for health reason but managed to lay the groundwork for the Pirates eventually championship team, including acquiring Roberto Clemente from the Dodger’s organization.

Then came his involvement with the Continental league and a lucrative career as a speaker. In 1965, he was addressing an audience in Columbia Missouri when he told them “I don’t believe I can continue” and collapsed. Those were the last words he ever said, (perhaps the most appropriate “last words” ever spoken). He was 83.

I’m a believer that people don’t so much have virtues and faults as they do traits. If the traits come in handy, they are virtues. If they are problematic, they become faults. In 1926 as Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill faced the general strike of that year with defiance and intransigence, even calling for machines guns to be used on the strikers. The result was disastrous and ruined his political career. Thirteen years later he was called back to become Prime Minsters as the Nazis over-ran Europe. He used the same traits to oppose them and rally his countrymen in the effort. They were the same traits and he was the same Churchill. Branch Rickey was an innovator, an opportunist, a skin-flint and a moralist. (His constant lectures and sermons must have really rubbed the people he crossed the wrong way). When his traits produced the integration of the game, its expansion and the success of the teams he worked for, he was a great man. On other occasions, the result was different and so he became less than that. The ledger is in his favor, but it is a ledger.

(Sources: Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman” by Lee Lowenfish, Wikipedia, SABR, Baseball Reference.com, Baseball Alamanc)
 
THE REAL FOUNDERS OF THE YANKEE DYNASTY

Harry Frazee needed money to finance “No No Nannette” on Broadway and sold Babe Ruth to his friend, Colonel Ruppert and the previously moribund Yankees immediately became a dynasty while the Red Sox wouldn’t win their 6th World Series for another 86 years.

Except that the Yankees didn’t win the 1920 pennant or World Series. The Indians did. Ah, but the Yankees won the next three pennants! And lost the first two of those series against John McGraw’s Giants, the second in a sweep. But then Yankee Stadium opened and the Yankees won both the pennant and the World Series over those same Giants. The dynasty had begun! Except the Senators- the SENATORS – won the next two pennants. The Yanks even had a losing record: 69-85, in 1925, the year of the Babe’s “bellyache”. But the Yankees won the pennant the next year! And lost to the Cardinals, who had never won anything, (at least since they became the Cardinals). But the next year they had the greatest team of all time, won 110 games, swept the World Series and did the same thing the next year, (except they won 101 games). Yup, then the Philadelphia Athletics won the next three pennants, finishing a combined 55 ½ games ahead of the Yankees. But then the Yankees stormed back to win 107 games and again swept the World Series! And then the Tigers won the next two pennants and their first World Series.

16 seasons. 7 pennants, 4 World Series wins. Is that a dynasty? Maybe: nobody else had as good a record in that time. The Giants were the closest with 5 pennants and 3 World Series titles. 7 and 4 in 15 would be a strong record today, in this era of free agency and three levels of playoffs. This era’s Yankees won 7 pennants and 5 World Series from 1996-2010, another 15 year period. People might have described them as a “dynasty”. But most would say that term more properly applies to the 1996-2000 Yankees who won 4 World Series in 5 years. To most people a “dynasty” means you are dominating the sport, winning the championship most of the time and being the team to beat every year.

In 1936, the Yankees started a stretch of four consecutive years in which they won the American League pennants and the World Series. Their regular records during those years were: 102-51, 102-52, 99-53 and 106-45, an average of 102 wins a year in a 154 game schedule and a combined winning percentage of .670. The 1986 Mets had a record of 108-54, a winning percentage of .667. So the late 30’s Yankees basically had the season the 1986 Mets did four years in a row. Except the Mets had to win two classic series against the Astros, (4-2 with the last two games going 28 innings), and the Red Sox, (coming back from two home losses to win 4-3). The 1936-39 Yankees won 16 games and lost 3 in their World Series with their last two series being sweeps, (just like the 1927-28 Yankees. That 1939 team is the one that lost Lou Gehrig- yet they had a better record than the previous three! Rob Neyer & Eddie Epstein, in that book Bill James mentions, (see Runs and Bases the 1920’s Part 2: The Greatest Team Ever), chose the 1939 New York Yankees as the best team ever:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/legendary/lidyna.shtml
What would they have been like with a healthy Gehrig?

The Yankees finally had an off year in 1940. Lefty Gomez hurt his arm. Bill Dickey was past his prime. George Selkirk, Red Rolfe and Frank Crosetti had off years. The Yanks finished third with an 88-66 record, still only two games out of first. Then they won three more consecutive pennants, going 101-53, 103-51 and 98-56, an average of 101 wins with a winning percentage of .654.They beat one of the best teams the Brooklyn Dodgers ever had, then lost to the hottest team of all time, the 1942 St. Louis Cardinal, who had closed the season winning 43 of 51 games to beat out the Dodgers, 106-48 vs. 104-50, then came back to beat the Cardinals in five the next year- without Joe DiMaggio, who was in the service. Taking out the one off year, they had a regular season winning percentage of .663 from 1936-1943. They were the ’86 Mets, (or the ’75 Reds or the ’70 Orioles) seven times in eight years.

The war intervened and the Red Sox had one of their all-time greatest years, (104-50) to win the 1946 pennant. The Yankees came back to win the pennant and World Series in 1947 with a team that included several players from the pre-war era, including the outfield of DiMaggio, Charlie Keller and Tommy Henrich, as well as Phil Rizzuto, Johnny Lindell and Spud Chandler. The next year the aging Yankees finished third, 2 ½ games behind the Indians. It had been quite a run.

It didn’t take the Yankees long to rebuild. From 1949-1964 they won 14 American league pennants in 16 years and 9 World Series. These teams weren’t quite as dominant as the 1936-43 Yankees. The first ten years of the period the only team to win 100 games was the only one that didn’t win the pennant- the 1954 Yankees went 103-51 but finished eight games behind the1954 Indians. The 1961 Yankees won 109 games but did it in a 162 game schedule, (in an expansion year), giving them a winning percentage .673, barely above what the 1936-43 Yankees did on a regular basis. The 1963 Yankees went 104-57, (.646). But they got swept in the World Series. By then the National league had caught up to the Yankees, beating them in 5 of the their last 9 World Series of that era, after only the ’42 Cardinals had been able to do it in 16 series from 1927-1953. Then the American league caught up as well and the Yankees didn’t win another pennant until 1976.

But from 1936-1964 the Yankees had won 22 pennants and 16 World Series in 29 seasons and might have added a couple more save for the war. THAT’S a dynasty. That era was summed up by the title of Peter Golenbock’s book “DYNASTY - THE NEW YORK YANKEES 1949-1964 WHEN ROOTING FOR THE YANKEES WAS LIKE ROOTING FOR U.S. STEEL”.

What happened to turn the Yankees from the sport’s most successful and publicized team from 1920-35 into a true dynasty from 1936-1964? Baseball is the most democratic of sports: everyone gets their run at bat. Everybody has their, (widely separated ) positon to play on the field. Every starting pitcher has his own spot in the rotation. Everyone on the bench and in the bullpen has a role to play. The best teams are the ones do the best job of filling out their roster with good players to fill all of those positons and roles. I talked about this before in analyzing the 1906 Cubs. They had the best record ever but didn’t seem to have the superstars one would assume carried them to that record. What they had was a better than average player at every positon. The 1998 Yankees were much the same way. And the Yankees of the 1936-64 period were, as well.

Here is a list of New York Yankees Hall of Famers:.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_York_Yankees_in_the_Baseball_Hall_of_Fame
There are 50 of them. Impressive. You could have a whole wing of the Hall of Fame devoted to nothing but New York Yankee Hall of Famers. That must be why they won so much, right? Let’s break it down . Barrow, Griffith, the MacPhails, Ruppert and Weiss are in as executives, as is Branch Rickey, who played for the Highlanders in 1907. Harris, Huggins, McCarthy and Stengel are in as managers. So are Frank Chance, Leo Durocher, who was a utility infielder for the Yankees in the ‘20’s, and Bill McKechnie, all of whom are known for managing other teams. Bob Lemon is in as a pitcher for the Indians of the 50’s, although he later managed the Yankees, briefly. Wilbert Robinson played for the Yankees when they were the (second) Baltimore Orioles and in in the Hall for being the long-time manager of the Dodgers, who were known as the Robins when he led them. Baker, Boggs, Bresnahan, Chance, Coveleski, Grimes, Hunter, Keeler, Mize, Niekro, Perry, Sewell, Slaughter, Vance and Waner are all more famous as players for other teams. Chesbro, Gordon, Jackson, Gossage, Henderson and Winfield all had significant tenures with the Yankees but the Bronx was still just a stop on their career paths.

The true “Yankee” Hall of Famers are: Yogi Berra, Earle Combs, Bill Dickey, Joe DiMaggio, Whitey Ford, Lou Gehrig, Lefty Gomez, Waite Hoyt, Mickey Mantle, Herb Pennock, Red Ruffing and Babe Ruth. Hoyt, Pennock, Ruffing and Ruth all played for other teams but are primarily known for their Yankees tenure. Berra, Dickey, DiMaggio, Ford, Gehrig, Gomez, Mantle and Ruffing played for the Yankees in the 1936-64 period. Bill James ranked Berra as the #1 catcher in baseball history, Dickey as #7, DiMaggio as the #5 center fielder, Ford as the #22 pitcher, Gehrig as the #1 first baseman, Gomez as the #67 pitcher, Mantle as the #3 center fielder, and Ruffing as the #51 pitcher. That’s 8 guys, three pitchers, two catchers, 2 center fielders and a first baseman. Mantle, Ford and Berra were the famous triumvirate of the 50’s and 60’s. Before that it was Gehrig, Dickey and DiMaggio, with Gomez and Ruffing leading the pitching staff.

But is such a confluence of talent unprecedented? Was that enough to totally dominate the sport?

The Giants have the most Hall of Famers, (54- I’m including managers and executives in these totals simply because they were part of the Yankee’s 50). They had quite a team in the 30’s with Mel Ott, Bill Terry, Travis Jackson “King” Carl Hubbell, “Prince” Hal Shumacher, (of Dolgeville, NY). But the group they had in the 60’s topped that: Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, the Alous, Jim Ray Hart, Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry. Why didn’t they dominate?

The Dodgers have had 50 HOFers. Bill James talks about their 1941 team that had Dolph Camilli, Billy Herman, Pee Wee Reese, Pete Reiser, Joe Medwick and Dixie Walker. But even that doesn’t compare with their famous 50’s line-up that included Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider and Carl Furillo, with Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine, Preacher Roe, Johnny Podres and Clem Labine pitching. That team went 105-49 in 1953 with Newcombe in the military service. But neither of those teams won as many championships as the Dodgers of the 60’s with their pitching staff anchored by Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Ron Perranoski and all that speed in their line-up with Tommy and Willie Davis and Maury Wills, backed up by the big bat of Frank Howard. But still, the Dodgers never became the dynasty that the Yankees were.

The Cardinals have 39 Hall of Famers. Their great eras have been the Gashouse Gang Era which featured Rogers Hornsby, then Frankie Frisch, Jim Bottomley, Rip Collins, Chick Hafey, Pepper Martin, Joe Medwick, Jesse Haines, Wild Bill Hallhan, Burleigh Grimes and the Dean Brothers, the Musial Era, which had Stan, Red Schoendienst, Marty Marion, Johnny Mize, Terry Moore, Walker and Mort Cooper, Enos Slaughter and Harry “The Cat” Brecheen, the 60’s Cardinals with Lou Brock, Curt Flood, Ken Boyer, Bill White, Orlando Cepeda, Tiim McCarver, Roger Maris, Bob Gibson and Steve Carleton, the Whitey Herzog Era with Ozzie Smith, Keith Hernandez, Tommy Herr, Vince Coleman, Willie McGee, Jack Clark, Joachim Andujar and the current era with Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, Jim Edmunds, Yadier Molina, Matt Holliday, Carlos Beltran, Matt Carpenter, Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright and Jason isringhausen. One thing I notice about the Cardinals is that, even in their good periods, they usually alternate between being good and being mediocre. They tend to have speed teams that are dependent on one slugger in the middle of the line-up. When that slugger is healthy and having a good year, he produces incredible numbers of runs batted in. But when he’s hurt or having a sub-par season, their offense is like a machine that isn’t plugged in. And they have a tendency to take decades off: the 50’s, the 70’s and the 90’s, which the Yankees in their heyday never did.

The Braves have had 44 Hall of Famers. A lot of those are from the 19th century but they had quite a triumvirate in the 50’s with Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn to go with Lew Burdette, Dell Crandall and Wes Covington. Then, of course there was their incredible span of 14 divisional titles in 15 years in the Maddux-Glavine-Smoltz-Chipper jones, Andrew Jones era. You wonder how the old Yankees would have done if they’d had to win two series just to get into the World Series. The Red Sox have had 33 Hall of Famers . The most was probably in their great era when they won 5 of the first 15 World Series. But they were awfully good in the late 30’s and 1940’s with Ted Williams, Jimmie Foxx, Joe Cronin, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, Dom DiMaggio, Rudy York and later Junior Stephens, Walt Dropo and Billy Goodman, with Mel Parnell and Ellis Kinder on the mound .

The Athletics have had 37 Hall of Famers on a succession of great teams, all brought down by the economics of the sport: The Collins-Baker-Plank-Bender group of the teens, the Foxx-Simmons-Grove bunch of 1929-31, the Jackson-Hunter- Bando-Blue – Rudi-Fingers team of the 70’s and the “Bash Brothers” team with McGwire, Canseco and Eckersley in the bullpen. These days they are sustaining success with their “moneyball” concept. The Phillies have had 34 Hall of Famers. Their peak was in the 1976-83 period when they had Mike Schmidt, Steve Carleton, Greg Luzinski, Bob Boone, Larry Bowa, Garry Maddox, Pete Rose and Tug McGraw, then, in the late going, Tony Perez and Joe Morgan.

The Senators had one great player- Walter Johnson but several good ones, 15 of them Hall of Famers, before moving to Minnesota, where the Twins have added 7 more Hall of famers, including Harmon Killebrew and Rod Carew, who played with Tony Oliva, who would be an HOFer except for injuries and Jim Kaat, Camelo Pasqual and Mudcat Grant.

The Pirates have 45 HOFers. Besides the Honus Wagner Era, they had Kiki Cuyler, Max Carey, the Waner Brothers and Later Arky Vaughn in the 20’s and 30’s. In the 60-s70-s they won three, 9widely separated) titles with Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Bill mazeroski, Al Olvier, Bill Madlock and others. The Indians have had 29 HOFers. They were never better than when they had a pitching staff of Bob Feller, Bob lemon, Early Wynn and Mike Garcia in the 50’s along with Larry Doby, Al Rosen, Bobby Avila and Vic Wertz. They were sort of the American League’s version of the Dodgers. They brought in black and Hispanic players and you didn’t have to look up their line-up to remember who was in it.

The Tigers have had, surprisingly, only 24 Hall of Famers in their line-ups over the years. They were strong from 1934-45 with four pennants and two World Series titles, led by the “thee G’s: Hank Greenberg, Charlie Gehringer and Goose Goslin as well as Mickey Cochrane and Rudy York. Schoolboy Rowe, Tommy Bridges, Hal Newhouser, Virgil “Fire” Trucks and Dizzy Trout were top pitchers. The Kaline-Horton-Northrup-Freehan-McClain-Lolich group of the 60’s was also very good, as was the Gibson-Trammel-Whitaker-Morris-Hernandez team of the 80’s. .

The Cubs have had 40 HOFers. They won the pennant every three years from 1929-38 and again in 1945- and lost the series each time. But they had some great players in that time: Gaby Harnett, Charley Grimm, Rogers Hornsby, Kiki Cuyler, Hack Wilson, Billy Herman, Riggs Stephenson, Phil Caveretta, Frank Demaree, Bill “Swish” Nicholson and Pitchers Charlie Root, Lon Warneke, Guy Bush and Bill Lee. They were perennial contenders in those days but could never break through and win the series. Then, in the 60’s the Cubs had a great quartet of stars, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo and Ferguson Jenkins and they weren’t even perennial contenders. They had all four of those guys and finished last in 1966 with Leo Durocher managing them. They did contend for a few years after that but couldn’t sustain it.

The White Sox have had long arid stretches and that’s all the Browns ever had before they became the Orioles. The Sox have had 33 HOFers and actually had a streak of 17 straight winning seasons from 1951-67. But they won only one pennant, despite having Nellie Fox, Louie Aparicio, Minnie Minoso, Sherm Lollar, Jim Rivera, Larry Doby, Jim Landis, Al Smith, Floyd Robinson, Pete Ward, Don Buford, Tommy Agee and pitchers Billy Pierce, Dick Donovan, Early Wynn, Gary Peters, Juan Pizzaro, Joe Horlen, Tommy John, Hoyt Wilhelm, Eddie Fisher and Wilbur Wood. The Orioles had 13 HOFers ( to go with the brown’s 13), but really had something in the 1966-71 era when they had “F Robbie” and “B Robbiie”- Frank and Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell, Dave Johnson, Louie Aparicio, Mark Belanger, Curt Blefary, Paul Blair, Don Buford, and the great pitching staff of Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar,

I could go on to the histories of the expansion teams but the point is that collections of stars can make a team successful but it takes more than that to make a dynasty. Modern owners and general managers who try to build a great team with checkbooks, gathering in other team’s stars, often find the results disappointing. Collecting stars tends to make your payroll top-heavy and ages it. The most consistently successful organizations are the ones that realize that, with a 162 game season where anything and everything can and does happen and a game in which everyone has their job to do and nobody can do it for them, a game where you can’t give the ball to your best player on every play, it’s really all about filling out your line-up and roster with as many good players as you can get. You are going to need all of them.

And nobody ever did that better than the Yankees in their glory era. Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle were great but so were other players on other teams. What was most often said about the Yankees when they were a true dynasty was that they had players on the bench who could start for other teams. They had so many good pitchers, they invented the bullpen. (There had been relief specialists before but never an entire crew of them). Joe McCarthy was said to be a “push button manager”- the parts were all in place- all he had to do was to push the right button. Casey Stengel was famous for his platooning tactics. He had so many good players he platooned them not so much to hide weaknesses but to get to them all on the field in ideal circumstances.

The Yankees became a dynasty for two reasons, both involving triumvirates. For one, in 1931 Colonel Jacob Ruppert, the owner of the Yankees, who admired what Branch Rickey was doing for the Cardinals, went to Ed Barrow, his General Manager and told him he wanted the Yankees to develop a farm system like Rickey’s only even bigger and better. With all the money the Yankees had made in the Babe Ruth Era and the New York City market, they had the wherewithal to build and even bigger and better farm system than Rickey’s. They selected George Weiss, the young General Manger of the Baltimore Orioles, (who had taken over when Jack Dunn died of a heart attack in 1928) to run it.

They bought teams in Kansas City, Binghamton, Norfolk and Akron and got a part ownership or working agreements with 10 other clubs, one of them the San Francisco Seals who had a young player by the name of Joe DiMaggio. By the end of the decade the Yankees controlled two hundred minor league players. Their farm system had already produced DiMaggio, Charlie Keller, Joe Gordon, Red Rolfe and George Selkirk. Their masterpiece was the 1937 Newark Bears, who stormed through the International League with a record of 109-43 (.717) and won the pennant by 25 ½ games. In the playoffs they swept Syracuse and Baltimore, both 4-0, then met the crown jewel of Rickey’s empire, the Columbus Red Birds of the American Association in the Junior World Series. The series was set up to be three games in Newark, followed by four games in Columbus. The Red Birds shocked the Bears by winning all three games in Newark, 5-4, 5-4 and 6-3. They then returned home for the Coup de Grace. But the Bears turned it around, winning all four games in Columbus, 8-1, 1-0, 10-1 and 10-4. It was a classic confrontation, even if there wasn’t much cheering from the home fans. In a few years, players from both teams would be meeting in the World Series, including George McQuinn, Joe Gordon, Charlie Keller, Buddy Rosar, Marv Beuer, Spud Chandler, Atley Donald of the Bears and Mort Cooper, Max Lanier and Enos Slaughter of the Red Birds.

But stars are not the only product of a farm system. Unlike trades and free agents, a farm system allows a team to fill out its roster with good players. It was the creation of Ruppert, Barrow and Weiss that allowed the Yankees to do that better than anyone else. The Yankees have had great players, great players who became more famous than other team’s great players because they played in New York. But they won all those championships because they surrounded those great players with lots of good ones.

But beyond that, the Yankees developed a mystique, an air of superiority based on a serious dedication to the game and to victory. That has to come from the players themselves. It couldn’t come from Ruth with his reputation for showing up hung over and hitting home runs, (as exaggerated as that reputation was). Ruth was the face of baseball but he didn’t become the image of the Yankees. From everything I’ve read about that era, the core of the Yankees’ team, the guys who determined the prevailing attitude were Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey and Joe DiMaggio. Gehrig may have existed in Ruth’s shadow but his personality and approach to the game had a greater impact on his teammates. Dickey was similar in many ways and joined Gehrig in setting the tone. When he showed up the reserved, austere DiMaggio fit in very well. By the end of Joe’s career, he was the unquestioned leader of the team and it was said that if he looked at you disapprovingly, it was enough to wither your soul. In the 50’s the Yankees had a somewhat loser reputation with the escapades of another troika, Mantle, Ford and Martin and the malapropisms of Stengel and Berra, but the serious dedication to victory remained. The image of the Yankees wound up being very different from the image of Babe Ruth.

Babe Ruth was baseball’s greatest player but the Yankees were not yet a dynasty when he played there. The real founders of the Yankee dynasty were Ruppert, Barrow and Weiss in the front office and Gehrig, Dickey and DiMaggio in the clubhouse and on the field.
 
RUNS AND BASES

1935 National League

Runs Produced
Joe Medwick STL 235
Ripper Collins STL 208
Augie Galan CHI 200
Mel Ott NY 196
Hank Leiber NY 195
Billy Herman CHI 189
Arky Vaughn PIT 188
Wally Berger BOS 187
Pepper Martin STL 166
Paul Waner PIT 165

Bases Produced
Mel Ott NY 418
Augie Galan CHI 411
Arky Vaughn PIT 404
Joe Medwick STL 399
Wally Berger BOS 376
Ripper Collins STL 371
Billy Herman CHI 365
Hank Leiber NY 362
Jo Jo Moore NY 350
Dolph Camilli PHI 339

1935 American League

Runs Produced
Hank Greenberg DET 255
Lou Gehrig NY 214
Charlie Gehringer DET 212
Buddy Myer WAS 210
Jimmie Foxx PHI 197
Joe Vosmik CLE 193
Goose Goslin DET 188
Moose Solters STL 188
Ben Chapman NY 184
Bob Johnson PHI 184

Bases Produced
Hank Greenberg DET 463
Jimmie Foxx PHI 460
Lou Gehrig NY 452
Charlie Gehringer DET 396
Joe Vosmik CLE 394
Buddy Myer WAS 391
Bob Johnson PHI 377
Moose Solters STL 361
Earl Averill CLE 357
Odell Hale CLE 353

1936 National League

Runs Produced
Joe Medwick STL 235
Mel Ott NY 222
Gus Suhr PIT 218
Paul Waner PIT 196
Arky Vaughn PIT 191
Billy Herman CHI 189
Pepper Martin STL 186
Chuck Klein PHI 181
Dolph Camilli PHI 180
Stan Hack CHI 174

Bases Produced
Mel Ott NY 431
Dolph Camilli PHI 427
Joe Medwick STL 404
Arky Vaughn PIT 393
Paul Waner PIT 385
Gus Suhr PIT 375
Chuck Klein PHI 363
Billy Herman CHI 361
Frank Demaree CHI 353
Pepper Martin STL 349

1936 American League

Runs Produced
Lou Gehrig NY 270
Zeke Bonura CHI 246
Charlie Gehringer DET 245
Hal Trosky CLE 244
Earl Averill CLE 234
Luke Appling CHI 233
Jimmie Foxx BOS 232
Joe DiMaggio NY 228
Goose Goslin DET 223
Moose Solters STL 217

Bases Produced
Lou Gehrig NY 536
Jimmie Foxx BOS 487
Earl Averill CLE 453
Hal Trosky CLE 447
Charlie Gehringer DET 443
Harlond Clift STB 423
Goose Goslin DET 400
Joe DiMaggio NY 395
Bob Johnson PHI 391
Odell Hale CLE 386

1937 National League

Runs Produced
Joe Medwick STL 234
Frank Demaree CHI 202
Johnny Mize STL 191
Stan Hack CHI 167
Paul Waner PIT 166
Augie Galan CHI 164
Billy Herman CHI 163
Mel Ott NY 163
Gus Suhr PIT 161
Dolph Camilli PHI 154

Bases Produced
Joe Medwick STL 451
Mel Ott NY 394
Johnny Mize STL 391
Dolph Camilli PHI 375
Frank Demaree CHI 361
Augie Galan CHI 354
Paul Waner PIT 340
Billy Herman CHI 328
Gene Moore BOS 328
Hersh Martin PHI 317

1937 American League

Runs Produced
Hank Greenberg DET 280
Joe DiMaggio NY 272
Lou Gehrig NY 260
Charlie Gehringer DET 215
Jimmie Foxx BOS 202
Red Rolfe NY 201
Hal Trosky CLE 200
Gee Walker DET 200
Joe Cronin BOS 194
Earl Averill CLE 192

Bases Produced
Hank Greenberg DET 507
Lou Gehrig NY 497
Joe DiMaggio NY 485
Wally Moses PHI 420
Harlond Clift STL 418
Jimmie Foxx BOS 415
Hal Trosky CLE 397
Charley Gehringer DET 394
Earl Averill CLE 393
Beau Bell STL 382

1938 National League

Runs Produced
Joe Medwick STL 201
Mel Ott NY 196
Frank McCormick CIN 190
Johnny Rizzo PIT 185
Dolph Camilli BRO 182
Stan Hack CHI 172
Ival Goodman CIN 165
Johnny Mize STL 160
Arky Vaughn PIT 149
Ernie Koy BRO 143

Bases Produced
Mel Ott NY 427
Johnny Mize STL 400
Stan Hack CHI 373
Dolph Camilli BRO 372
Ival Goodman CIN 359
Joe Medwick STL 358
Arky Vaughn PIT 358
Johnny Rizzo PIT 340
Gus Suhr PIT 319
Frank McCormick CIN 291

1938 American League

Runs Produced
Jimmie Foxx BOS 264
Joe DiMaggio NY 237
Hank Greenberg DET 232
Charlie Gehringer DET 220
Harlond Clift STL 203
Red Rolfe NY 202
Buddy Lewis WAS 201
Lou Gehrig NY 200
Joe Vosmick BOS 198
Bob Johnson PHI 197

Bases Produced
Jimmie Foxx BOS 522
Hank Greenburg DET 506
Harlond Clift STL 424
Lou Gehrig NY 414
Joe DiMaggio NY 413
Bob Johnson PHI 407
Charlie Gehringer DET 403
Joe Cronin BOS 382
Hal Trosky CLE 372
Frankie Crosetti 367

1939 National League

Runs Produced
Frank McCormick CIN 209
Joe Medwick STL 201
Johnny Mize STL 184
Dolph Camilli BRO 183
Billy Herman CHI 174
Cookie Lavaghetto BRO 170
Augie Galan CHI 169
Enos Slaughter STL 169
Billy Werber CIN 167
Ival Goodman CIN 162

Bases Produced
Johnny Mize STL 445
Dolph Camilli BRO 407
Joe Medwick STL 358
Billy Herman CHI 357
Frank McCormick CIN 353
Billy Werber CIN 339
Enos Slaughter STL 337
Stan Hack CHI 337
Cookie Lavaghetto BRO 336
Arky Vaughn PIT 334

1939 American League

Runs Produced
Ted Williams BOS 245
Bob Johnson PHI 206
Red Rolfe NY 205
Joe DiMaggio NY 204
Jimmie Foxx BOS 200
Gee Walker CHI 193
Hank Greenberg DET 191
Joe Cronin BOS 185
George Selkirk NY 183
Bill Dickey NY 179

Bases Produced
Ted Williams BOS 453
Jimmie Foxx BOS 417
Bob Johnson PHI 415
Hank Greenberg DET 410
Red Rolfe NY 409
George McQuinn STL 389
Joe Gordon NY 373
Joe DiMaggio NY 365
Barney McCosky DET 353
Joe Cronin BOS 349

Cumulative rankings, (10 points for finishing first in a league in a year, 9 for second, etc.)

Runs Produced
Honus Wagner (1897-1917) 137
Ty Cobb (1905-1928) 126
Cap Anson (1871-1897) 119
Lou Gehrig (1923-1939) 111
Babe Ruth (1914-1935) 109

Sam Crawford (1899-1917) 96
Rogers Hornsby (1915-1937) 89
Tris Speaker (1907-1928) 81
Nap Lajoie (1896-1916) 77
King Kelly (1878-1893) 76

Hugh Duffy (1888-1906) 75
Mel Ott (1926-1947) 75
Eddie Collins (1906-1930) 74
Dan Brouthers (1879-1904) 73
Sherry Magee (1904-1919) 68

Jimmie Foxx (1825-1945) 67
Bobby Veach (1912-1925) 66
Joe Medwick (1932-1948) 64
Jim O’Rourke (1872-1904) 64
Charlie Gehringer(1924-42) 64

Ed Delahanty (1888-1903) 60
Harry Stovey (1880-1893) 57
Harry Heilmann (1914-1932) 57
Al Simmons (1924-1944) 55
Roger Connor (1880-1897) 55

Comment: Lou Gehrig actually passed Babe Ruth as a run producer, (with Ruth’s help, of course), and probably would have gone on to top the list except his career was cut short by illness. Foxx, Ott, Medwick, Gehinger and Simmons were the only players on the list still playing in the 1940’s and none of them were in a position to make a run at the leaders.

Bases Produced
Ty Cobb (1905-1928) 129
Babe Ruth(1914-1935) 125
Lou Gehrig (1923-1939) 120
Honus Wagner (1897-1917) 112
Tris Speaker(1907-1928) 110

Rogers Hornsby (1915-1937) 98
Cap Anson (1871-1897) 91
Billy Hamilton (1888-1901) 89
Jimmie Foxx (1925-45) 89
Eddie Collins (1906-1930) 89

Harry Stovey1880-1893) 88
Sam Crawford (1899-1917) 86
Mel Ott (1926-1947) 84
Dan Brouthers (1879-1904) 83
Ed Delahanty (1888-1903) 79

Jim O’Rourke (1872-1904) 73
Max Carey (1910-1929) 73
Roger Conner (1880-1897) 70
Sherry Magee (1904-1919) 66
Jesse Burkett (1890-1905) 63

Joe Jackson (1908-1920) 62
George Burns (1911-1925) 61
Paul Waner(1926-1945) 61
King Kelly (1878-1893) 57
Elmer Flick (1898-1910) 53

Comment: Again Gehrig was #1 with a bullet until he fell ill. One more good year could have done it. Foxx, Ott and Waner were still active as the game headed into the 40’s but are no threats for the top spot.
 
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THE PLAYERS

The four great baseball heroes of my father’s generation were Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Stan Musial and Bob Feller. Three of them began their major league careers in the late 1930’s.

It’s fashionable these days to denigrate JOE DIMAGGIO’S achievements and to declare him overrated. After all, he hit .325 lifetime with 361 home runs. Lots of players have topped those numbers. His contemporary, Ted Williams hit .344 with 521 home runs. Musial hit .331 with 475 home runs. What’s so great about DiMaggio? The answer usually comes in the form of a “you had to be there” argument that implicitly accepted DiMaggio’s statistical inferiority. My own favorite is the statement that no one ever saw DiMaggio make a great catch: he was already there when the ball came down.

Here’s a comparison I like to make when discussing the value and proper use of statistics. Mel Ott hit 511 home runs . Joe DiMaggio hit 361 home runs. Conclusion: Mel Ott was a better home run hitter than Joe DiMaggio. In fact, much better. But let’s look at their home and road numbers. Home numbers are heavily influenced by the nature of the player’s home ballpark. Road numbers are compiled in many different ballparks and are thus more revealing of the player’s true talent. Mel Ott hit 323 home runs at home and 188 on the road. Joe DiMaggio hit 148 home runs at home and 213 on the road. So DiMaggio was ahead 213-188 when they were playing in several different kinds of ballparks. If you multiply that by two, you get an idea of how many home runs they would have hit if they’d both had average home parks. That puts it at DiMaggio 426 homers, Ott 376.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story, either. Mel Ott played major league baseball in 22 different seasons. He was a regular for 18 of those seasons. He played in a total of 2,730 major league games and came to the plate 11,348 times. Joe DiMaggio played in 13 major league seasons and missed half of one. He played in 1,736 major league games and came to the plate 7,673 times. Basically, Ott’s career was half again as long as DiMaggio’s. If DiMaggio had played as long as Ott, in average ballparks, he might have hit approximately another 213 home runs. That would give him 639 home runs to Ott’s 376. Mel Ott was a great player and a great home run hitter but Joe DiMaggio was far greater.

Ott gets full credit for all 511 home runs: he took advantage of his home ballpark by pulling the ball and all his home runs counted in the games he played. If you were a National League pitcher in the 1930’s and Mel Ott was at the plate, you had to deal with his real capabilities, not speculation about what he was capable of in some other ballpark or era. But I think it is permissible to elevate the reputation of someone whose numbers are deflated by circumstance as in the case of DiMaggio. Statistics are not the end-all of any discussion: they merely provide an objective foundation for it. They ask questions more than they provide answers.

Why did Joe DiMaggio, a clearly greater home run hitter than Mel Ott, wind up with 150 fewer home runs in his major league career? Ott was 17 years old when he tried out from John McGraw in 1926. McGraw, seeing that his pull-hitter’s swing was perfect for the wash tub shaped Polo Grounds, kept him with the big club rather than sending him down to some minor league coach who would “straighten him out”. Ott was 32 when the war broke out and didn’t have to go into the service. He continued playing baseball as long as he could play it at a major league level.

DiMaggio grew up on the west coast and started playing for the San Francisco Seals when he was 17. The PCL was nearly a major league at the time and the Seals were Joe’s home town team so he played for them for three years. When he came to New York in 1936 he was 21 years old. He played in Yankee Stadium, which could best be described as “pregnant”. Whereas the left field power alley is normally around 375-385 feet, in this stadium it was 461 feet away, farther than center field, which was 457 feet. Joe’s natural power alley was called “death valley”. Joe thus had to hit most of his home runs on the road. He was only 27 when war broke out and eligible for military service. He spent three years in uniform, even if most of it was a baseball uniform in Hawaii, where ulcers began to bother him: he’d asked for active duty and was turned down because he was deemed too important to risk. He was actually given a medical discharge due to the ulcers. Then, in 1947 he had an operation to remove a three inch bone spur from his left heel. (It’s said to have hurt like a knife blade). It was removed and skin graft put over the wound, which never properly healed. It was the cause of DiMaggio missing half the 1949 season. And it was still a factor when DiMaggio retired at age 37, saying “I feel like I have reached the stage where I can no longer produce for my club, my manager, and my teammates. I had a poor year, but even if I had hit .350, this would have been my last year. I was full of aches and pains and it had become a chore for me to play. When baseball is no longer fun, it's no longer a game, and so, I've played my last game.”

Those are the facts the statistics lead you to when you use them properly. Some more facts: of all the great sluggers in the Hall of Fame, Joe DiMaggio hit the most road home runs per 162 games of all but one: 40. (Guess who is #1?) Ted Williams was right behind him with 39. And Joe out-hit Ted .333-.328 on the road. Stan Musial? .326 with 24 home runs. And Joe was spectacularly efficient, striking out only 369 times while hitting 361 home runs. In 1940 he struck out 13 times while hitting 30 home runs. During the 56 game hitting streak, he struck out 5 times. Ah, yes the hitting streak. As you may have heard, after Ken Keltner twice robbed Joe of base hits that day in Cleveland when the streak stopped, Joe went on a 17 game hitting streak. If anyone ever hits in a 57th straight game, he’ll have to deal with the specter of the 74 game hitting streak Joe would have had without Keltner. Or the 61 game hitting streak Joe had as a 18 year old in his first full year with the Seals. In fact, it’s worth looking at those years with the Seals. Remember that the PCL was virtually a third major league at the time: In 1933 Joe hit .340 with 259 hits, 45 doubles, 13 triples, 28 homers and 169RBIs with 129 runs scored in 187 games. The next year he hurt his ankle but hit .341 in 101 games. Then, in 1935 he hit .398 with 48 doubles, 18 triples, 34 homers, 154 RBIs and 173 runs scored in 1972 games. Those would have been major league years if he’d been born in the east. Bill James said that Joe’s first seven years with the Yankees were the best first seven years any player ever had. So the idea many people have that Joe’s statistical record is somehow mediocre by the standards of other great players is quite false.

Beyond that, Joe was the unchallenged leader of a team that won 10 pennants and 9 World Series in the 13 seasons he played there. They say that all he had to do was look at you after you’d screwed up and it would send shivers down your spine. Then there are all those “you had to be there to see him play” stories. There aren’t many people left who did. But the record of Joe’s accomplishments speaks for itself.

Some of the modern reaction to DiMaggio is due to stories of how cold, arrogant and miserly he was. He wasn’t a good father or husband, etc. etc. That may or may not be true but it has nothing to do with his status as a ballplayer. My reading of Joe, (from a very great distance) is that he was a shy, insecure guy from a poor background who was thrust into the national spotlight by his talents. He had the good sense to say as little as possible and what people wanted him to say so they could read what they wanted into him, (Michael Jordan is a good comparison, as is Joe’s contemporary Joe Louis), and to create a membrane of people he trusted around him to protect him from people he didn’t trust, of which there were a great many.

A 1939 article in Life Magazine gives some clues why Joe might have been wary of publicity. Some quotes: “Joe is a tall, thin Italian youth with slick black hair and squirrel teeth….Italians, bad at war, are well-suited for milder competition…..Although he learned Italian first Joe, now 24, speaks English without an accent and is otherwise well adopted to most US mores…. Instead of olive oil or smelly bear grease he keeps his hair slick with water. He never reeks of garlic and prefers chicken chow mein to spaghetti…Joe DiMaggio’s rise in baseball is a testimonial to general shiftlessness….His inertia caused him to give up school after one year in high school…he is lazy, rebellious and endowed with a bad stomach.“ Beneath a photograph of DiMaggio posing with Joe Louis is a caption “Like Heavyweight Champion Louis, DiMaggio is lazy, shy and inarticulate.” The caption for Joe signing an autograph for a kid reads “Like other celebrities, DiMaggio sometimes cynically signs a pseudonym.” You’d wind up “aloof” and distrustful, too if you read stuff like that about yourself.


It’s often speculated what numbers they might have put up if TED WILLIAMS were traded for Joe DiMaggio, which almost happened in 1947. It was thought that Williams numbers, great as they were, would be even better with the short porch in right field in Yankee Stadium and that DiMaggio would put up amazing numbers aiming at the Green Monster in Fenway rather than at Death Valley in Yankee Stadium. Let’s look at DiMaggio’s numbers in Fenway, converted to 162 games and Williams’ in Yankee Stadium, also per 162 games:

DiMaggio in Fenway Park
.334BA .410OBP .605SP 215H 80W 43SKO 41D 8T 39HR 3SB 151RBI 128RS 472BP 240RP
Williams in Yankee Stadium
.309BA .484OBP .543SP 157H 166W 57SKO 18D 2T 31HR 0SB 96RBI 91RS 438BP 156RP

DiMaggio was a much bigger force at Fenway than Williams was at Yankee Stadium, despite Ted’s famous emphasis on pull hitting, (he believed it that if you hit the ball to the middle of the field, it was a hit or an out. If you hit it down the lines, it was a hit- and more likely a home run- an out or a foul ball), he didn’t hit as many home runs there and far fewer doubles and triples. There’s a downside to having less room for the balls to fall in. Of course, Williams was facing the Yankee pitching staff while DiMaggio was facing the Red Sox pitching staff, so that may have put Ted at a disadvantage. Notice they walked Ted even more than usual. It illustrates walks can be a pitcher’s weapon as well as a batter’s.

Let’s look at their road numbers per 162 games:
DiMaggio on the road
.333BA .405OBP .610SP 218H 74W 34SKO 38D 11T 40HR 3SB 155RBI 145RS 472BP 260RP
Williams on the road
.328BA .467OBP .615SP 180H 142W 50SKO 30D 5T 39HR 1SB 126RBI 119RS 480BP 206RP

DiMaggio’s numbers in Fenway Park are virtually the same as his road numbers. Fenway would have been better than Yankee Stadium for him, (of course he wouldn’t have gotten to be a Yankee and I suspect that mattered to him more than his numbers), but Fenway wouldn’t have otherwise have been advantageous to him. It wasn’t the Baker Bowl.

It’s clear DiMaggio was the greater player and it’s not really even close: Joe was a far better outfielder and base runner and at least as good a ball striker when he chose to hit: his batting numbers are as good as Williams and by definition he was swinging at more bad balls because he walked so many fewer times. Yet he struck out fewer times than Williams, (or any other power hitter in history). The one thing Ted did better than Joe was walk and thus get on base. All you have to do is watch a game or two to see the influence of walks on baseball game. But for an RBI guy a walk, while it keeps the inning going, it also tends to hand the bat to the guy behind you to drive in the runs. It’s amazing how many more runs DiMaggio produced. Of course he was hitting in the Yankee’s line-up but Ted was hitting in the Red Sox line-up and nobody ever said that the Red Sox’ problem was that they couldn’t hit the ball as well as the Yankees.

Much is made of the fact that Williams won the Triple Crown in 1947 but that DiMaggio won the MVP because one writer failed to list Ted Williams in the top ten players in the American league on his ballot. But three sportswriters failed to list DiMaggio in their top tens. That election tells us less about DiMaggio and Williams than it does about sportswriters.

Still, Williams status as a great hitter and an iconic figure in the game and in American life is unassailable. He’s the last .400 hitter. He could have settled for .3995 but insisted on playing a double header on the last game of the season and went 6 for 8 to hit .406. Per Wikipedia: “The present-day baseball sacrifice fly rule was not in effect in 1941; had it been, Williams would have hit .416.” Even at .406, he was 140 points above the league average. When Bill Terry was the last national Leaguer to hit .4000 in 1930, he was 98 points above the league average. When Rod Carew hit .388 in 1977 he was 122 points above the league. George Brett was +121 when he hit .390 in 1980 and Tony Gwynn was +127 when he hit .394 in 1994. And none of those guys hit with the power of Ted Williams.

Williams hit 521 home runs despite missing three years to World War II and all but 43 games of the 1952-53 seasons to the Korean War. He also played only 89 games in 1950 due to a broken collarbone suffered in the All-star game and 98 games in 1955 due to a hold-out he manufactured so he didn’t have to sign his lucrative new contract until his divorce was final. Ted played 2,292 major league games and came to the plate 9,788 times and hit 521 home runs. Hank Aaron played 3,298- over a thousand more than Ted and came to the plate 13,941 times. He hit 755 home runs. If Ted had played in as many games as Hank he’d have hit 750 home runs. If he’d come to the plate as much he’d be at 742. He’d certainly haven broken Ruth’s record before Hank did. But Aaron wasn’t walked nearly as much as Ted. Hank had 12,364 official at bats to Ted’s 7,706. If Ted had had the same number of official at bats, he would have hit 836 home runs. But it was Ted’s choice not to give into the pitchers and no swing unless the ball was in his wheelhouse.

Bill Jenkinson credits him with three 500 foot home runs in his career, the first to “the back of the grandstand roof in right center in Comiskey Park” in 1941, a 505 foot drive. The next two both came in 1946. He hit a 500 footer in Sportsmen’s Park “that landed on a roof on the far side of grand avenue in right center.” That was May 18th. On June 9th at Fenway he hit a drive that “kept going and going until it conked a fan in the head who was sitting in either the 33rd or 37th row in section 42. There is still some question on this point. However, even in the lower plateau this drive computes at a 522 foot masterpiece”. This was a spot Reggie Jackson was shown as a young player and was said to be awestruck.

But maybe what is most impressive about Ted Williams, the hitter, is what he was able to do late in his career. When he came out of the service for the second time in 1953 at age at age 35 he batted .407 and hit 13 home runs in 37 games. Three years later he hit .388, 133 points above the league average with 38 home runs in 132 games. In his final season, 1960, when he turned age 42, he hit .316 with 29 home runs in 113 games, including one in his last at bat, (and he had already decided that would be his last game even though the Red Sox had a road trip left, so he didn’t decide to quit because of the home run).

But Ted is as well-known for his military exploits. He proved to be as talented a pilot as he was a hitter of baseballs. Johnny Pesky underwent the same training Ted did: “"He mastered intricate problems in fifteen minutes which took the average cadet an hour, and half of the other cadets there were college grads." Pesky again described Williams' acumen in the advance training, for which Pesky personally did not qualify: "I heard Ted literally tore the sleeve target to shreds with his angle dives. He'd shoot from wingovers, zooms, and barrel rolls, and after a few passes the sleeve was ribbons. At any rate, I know he broke the all-time record for hits." Ted went to Jacksonville for a course in aerial gunnery, the combat pilot's payoff test, and broke all the records in reflexes, coordination, and visual-reaction time. "From what I heard. Ted could make a plane and its six 'pianos' (machine guns) play like a symphony orchestra", Pesky says. "From what they said, his reflexes, coordination, and visual reaction made him a built-in part of the machine."(SABR)

Williams is remembered as a baseball player who actually fought in World War II, compared to DiMaggio, who mostly played ball, (and had ulcers). But Ted never did get into action in the big one. He had been a reluctant draftee, claiming exemption because he was the sole support of his mother. But when faced with a public outcry that he was a draft dodger and the loss of endorsement contracts, (important even then), he announced he’d set up a trust fund for his mother and enlisted. He proved to be such an able pilot he was made an instructor. The closest he came to combat was being sent to Hawaii, awaiting orders to join the Pacific fleet, where he was when the big bombs were dropped and the war ended.

He got his action when recalled to duty in Korea, something he was livid about at the time. But he served with distinction, flying 39 combat missions under the command of Major John Glenn. It’s been suggested that there should have bene a movie of Williams’ life starring John Wayne, who somewhat resembled him physically, in their way of speaking and in their public persona. But it’s also been pointed out that Wayne stayed home under the same deferment and made movies instead of fighting the war, which helped his career because other big stars were in the service. It’s been suggested that Wayne’s subsequent super-patriotism was his way of atoning for his failure to serve in the war. I’ve heard the phrase “Ted Williams was the man John Wayne pretended to be, (or wanted to be).” That may or may not be fair but, despite his reluctance, Ted Williams war service is certainly to his credit.

Another thing to his credit was his advocacy for minorities. His mother was May Venzor, a Mexican-American. Ted said “"If I had my mother's name, there is no doubt I would have run into problems in those days, [considering] the prejudices people had in Southern California". Williams offered support to Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby when they integrated the major leagues. When Pumpsie Green finally integrated the Red Sox, Ted made Pumpsie his warm up partner so everyone in the stands could see it. And it was Ted who said in his Hall of Fame speech in 1965 that it was time that the Hall recognized the great players of the Negro Leagues. To date, 18 have been inducted.

Despite his brash demeanor when he first came and his “shoot from the hip” style of expressing himself. (which he later attributed to insecurity), Williams had great respect for the giants of the game that had come before him. He befriended Jimmie Foxx, Bill Terry, Rogers Hornsby and Ty Cobb had distilled much of his hitting philosophy from what they told him. He idolized Babe Ruth. The Babe coached him in an exhibition game and said to Ted “"Hiya, kid. You remind me a lot of myself. I love to hit. You're one of the most natural ballplayers I've ever seen. And if my record is broken, I hope you're the one to do it". Williams was “"flabbergasted" by the incident, as "after all, it was Babe Ruth".

Late in life, Ted received the kind of adulation from the young stars of the game that he once had for his elders, capped by their flocking around him at the 1999 All-Star game in Fenway Park. There were also visits to his home by many of the top players for advice. He returned the respect by speaking admiringly about them in interviews and books like “Ted Williams Hit List”, the sort of thing most veteran ballplayers don’t do. Many young ballplayers don’t respect those who have come before them as Ted did. I think Ted wanted to connect with them and respecting them was the first step in doing so. I recall my elderly father talking constantly to guests about his early life, his time in the service, his work at General Electric for reasons that must have bene unfathomable to them. My mother would have to cut him off and then escort the guest outside where she told them, “He wants to be remembered”. It was my feeling watching Ted Williams in his later years that wanted to be remembered. He succeeded.

I’m not focusing on pitchers but BOB FELLER was a something special, a real prodigy. Bob went straight from high school to the majors the month he turned age 18 in 1936. He struck out 15 St. Louis Browns in his first start, (including all three in his first inning), and a record 17 Philadelphia Athletics the following month. He created such a sensation that when he graduated from high school the following spring, the ceremony was broadcast nationally on NBC radio. He was called "the best-known young person in America, with the possible exception of Shirley Temple."And Bob had a better fastball.

In a famous confrontation, Hank Greenburg came into the last day of the 1938 season with 58 home runs, needing two to tie Babe Ruth’s single-season mark and three to break it. The opposing pitcher was Bob Feller. Greenberg said, "Feller's curve was jumping wickedly and with that and his fast ball, he was murder." There was a record set that day: Feller broke his own record with 18 strike-outs.

“Due to Feller's pitching speed, Lew Fonseca was commissioned by the Office of the Commissioner to pit Feller's fastball against a Harley-Davidson motorcycle in a speed trial. The test was conducted in Chicago's Lincoln Park and required Feller to hit a target 12 inches in diameter, 60 feet 6 inches (18.44 m) away. The motorcycle passed Feller going 86 miles (138 km) per hour (mph/kph) and with a 10-foot (three-meter) head start but the ball beat the bike to the target by three feet (0.91 m). Feller's throw was calculated at the time to have reached 98.6 mph (158.7 kph), and later 104 mph (167 kph) using updated measuring methods….There is footage of a Feller fastball being clocked by Army ordnance equipment (used to measure artillery shell velocity) and registering at 98.6 mph (159 kph). However, this took place in the later years of his career and the speed of the ball was measured as it crossed the plate (whereas later methods measure the speed as it leav[69] He also threw the second fastest pitch ever officially recorded, at 107.6 mph (173.2 kph), in a game in 1946 at Griffith Stadium.” (Wikipedia)

Like DiMaggio and Williams, Feller lost time to World War II. He enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor- no reluctance there- despite having the same 3C draft deferment Ted Williams and John Wayne had, as Bob was his family’s primary source of financial support. He served as a naval gunner on North Atlantic convoys and then in 8 Pacific Island invasions, winning 5 campaign ribbons and 8 battle stars.

Bob had won 76 games from 1939-41 and struck out 767 batters. He missed 1942-44 and only pitched 9 games in 1945, winning 5 with 59 strike-outs. Then he had his biggest year in 1946, winning 26 games and striking out 348 batters, one short of Rube Waddell’s record. It’s reasonable to think that if he’d had four full years in 1942-45 he’d have 100 or so wins in that time instead of 5. As it was he won 266 games so 350 would have been the minimum expected. But then everybody’s life was interrupted at that time and one wonders what anybody might have accomplished in that time if they’d had the chance to do something constructive instead of destructive.

Feller was noted for having the best business sense of any of the players of his generation. He was the best at negotiating contracts, had several businesses and made a lot of money barnstorming. He was regarded as the wealthiest player of his time. Later he helped inaugurate the practice of selling his autograph and thus began the now ubiquitous autograph shows. Late in life he got some bad publicity for his political views and when a radio host accused him of being a “racist” for suggesting that Latin players didn’t know the rules as well as American players because of the language barrier. Feller had once been quoted as doubting Jackie Robinson would make in in major league baseball because the thought he was too “muscle-bound”.

But Bob also barnstormed with Satchel Paige before integration and played a lot of games against black players. "They were trying to make money, but part of it was also, he felt that the black players weren't necessarily getting a fair chance and that he wanted to sort of showcase it. And seeing those, I think, those exhibition games helped people realize that the Negro League players were just as good as the Major League players." (Wikipedia) He was also a founder of the Major League Players Union and its first President. Mike Wallace interviewed back then and he seems like a rather enlightened individual to me:
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/feller_bob.html

There were other sluggers who came to prominence in the last thirties besides DiMaggio and Williams. DOLPH CAMILLI had over 100 RBIs five times from 1936-42 with the Phillies and Dodgers. He was not a high average hitter (.277 lifetime) but was the star of the 1941-42 Dodgers who won 204 games. He had 34homers and 120 RBIs in ’41 and 26 and 109 the following year. Later Branch Rickey traded him to the Giants because he was 36 and he refused to go, instead retiring from the game, (although he later had a brief comeback with Boston). “When news of the trade reached Brooklyn fans during a game at Ebbets Field, Rickey needed a police escort when he left the ballpark to go home.”

The Cardinals, normally a speed team, came up with two muscle men. In fact JOE MEDWICK preferred being called “Muscles” or “Mickey” to “Ducky”, a name pinned on him early in his career not, as some have assumed, by admiring women but by a group of young girls who thought he walked like a duck. I don’t know if he also talked like one, but he certainly didn’t hit like one. He hit .324 lifetime with good home run power but lots of extra base hits. He had 64 doubles, 13 triples and 18 home runs in 1936 but his big year was 1937 when he won the last National League Triple Crown by hitting .374 with 31 homers and 154 RBIs. He also led the league in runs scored with 111, hits with 237 and doubles with 56, (120 doubles in two consecutive years!)

He was the subject of another one of Rickey’s controversial trades to the Dodgers in 1940. Six days later Charlie Dressen of the Dodgers was stealing the Cardinals’ signs, whistling when he saw the sign for a curveball. Pitcher Bob Bowman decided to cross Dressen up by throwing a fastball and Medwick, leaning forward to reach the curve, was nearly killed when hit in the head by the pitch. He “lost much of his dominance” after that but still played a role in the 1941 Dodger pennant.

Besides being a dangerous hitter, Medwick was pretty much of a jerk. Bill James calls him “The Albert Belle of the 1930’s….Medwick was almost universally hated around the National league as a result of a long string of fights and other incidents.” Leo Durocher called him “the meanest, roughest guy you could imagine. “ Once Durocher was arguing with a guy and Medwick simply walked up to the man and slugged him.” The list of brawls with his own teammates runs a mile long. He once decked teammate Ed Heusser when the St. Louis pitcher censured him for failing to hustle on a fly ball. He cold-cocked pitcher Tex Carlton when he walked in front of Medwick one too many times while "Ducky" was being photographed. He flattened Rip Collins and once threatened to take out both Dean Brothers with a bat.”

Medwick showed little interest in the finer points of the game, such as defense and baserunning, saying he “played for the base hits and the buckerinos” . His most famous moment came in game seven the 1934 World Series when he slid hard into Detroit third baseman Marv Owen with the score 11-0 in favor of the Cardinals. He was pelted with garbage. Commissioner Landis ordered him removed from the game, the only player ever expelled form a game for his own safety. Medwick’s comment: "Well, I knew why [the Tiger fans] threw that garbage at me. What I don't understand is why they brought it to the park in the first place." At least he had a sense of humor. In 1944 he was on a USO tour when the group was given an audience with the Pope, who asked Medwick was his profession was. Joe: “Well, I used to be a Cardinal.”

JOHNNY MIZE was a relative of Babe Ruth and somewhat resembled him, both in the face and with the bat, (he was also a more distant relative of Ty Cobb but didn’t resemble him.) . In six seasons with the Cardinals, Mize batted .336 with 158 home runs and 653 RBI’s. His best season was 1940 when the led the NL with 43 homers and 137RBIs. This didn’t prevent Rickey from trading him to the Giants where he again led the NL in RBIs with 120 in 1942. After three years of military service he came back to battle Ralph Kiner for the National league home run crown, tying him twice with 51 in 1947, (he again led the league with 138 RBIs) and 40 in 1948. He wound up his career as a pinch hitter deluxe with the Yankees, for whom he hit 25 home runs in only 305 at bats in 1950. That year Phil Rizzuto asked to borrow one of Mize’s massive bats and got a hit with it. He kept using it and wound up winning MVP.

Mize was a great student of hitting, like Ted Williams, and like Joe DiMaggio was very difficult to strike out. He had three different seasons in which he had more home runs than strikeouts, including the only such season in which a player hit 50+ home runs, (he struck out 42 times in 1947). But “Sometimes, though, Mize’s unsolicited advice backfired. During the 1953 World Series – Mize’s last hurrah – Brooklyn pitcher Carl Erskine was throwing a masterpiece in Game 3 at Ebbets Field, striking out a horde of Yankees with his sharp-breaking off-speed pitches. As teammate after teammate went down on strikes, and Erskine got closer to a World Series strikeout record, Mize kept grumbling that the Yankees should lay off pitches in the dirt.

“A lot of our players were getting pretty annoyed, they looked at him like he was crazy,” said Whitey Ford, the Yankees’ Hall of Fame pitcher. “Then Casey (Stengel) sent him up to pinch hit in the ninth. He ends up swinging at a curveball in the dirt, and Erskine set the World Series strikeout record.”

Mize was Erskine’s record 14th victim, swinging three times at pitches that were down around his ankles. When he returned to the dugout, tight-lipped and none too happy, the Yankees’ aggressive infielder Billy Martin managed to rip Mize’s whiff and bad defense in one quip: “What happened, John, that low curve take a bad hop?” (SABR)
 
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