This book is incredible.

I had an opportunity to preview this book a few weeks ago, and it is fantastic. The research is great and the book is full of stories about some players that you've heard of (Willie Mays), some you never heard of (Steve Dalkowski), and some that you wouldn't have imagined had a baseball background (Jack Kerouac).
The author is also a graphic artist, and as such, has included mock-ups of baseball cards for the people he profiled. He based those on the infamous tobacco cards from the early twentieth century. I have linked to his website in a previous post, and it is awesome as well.
This is truly one of the most enjoyable baseball books that I have read, and I look forward to getting a hard copy of the book as soon as it is available.
From Fidel Castro, to Dwight Eisenhower; From Frank Sinatra to Dizzy Gillespie; from the 'Rabbi of Swat' to 'The Black Babe Ruth', the stories and illustrations will draw you in, and will leave you wanting much, much more.

Gary Cieradowski also introduces us to several key people responsible for making baseball an international game as well. People like Hector Espino, Eiji Sawamura and Wu Ming-Chieh.

There is a chapter featuring the infamous 1919 Chicago Black Sox and there performances after their banishment from Major League Baseball.

And what historical baseball book would be complete without delving into some of the characters of the game, like Eddie Gaedel, Moe Berg, George Sackett and the incomparable Oscar "Farmer" Dean. And let us not forget the Stanzak Brothers from Chicago, a semi-pro team of brothers, aged 15 to 33, led by their father Martin.

And, let's not forget the artwork. If you ever wondered what the Brooklyn Bay Parkways uniform looked like, well he has a drawing of George Sackett wearing the Dukes jersey. How about the Covington Blue Sox? Look for Humpty Badel.

Seriously folks, if you get a chance to stop into your local bookstore, leaf through a copy (it should be available beginning next week) and I'm pretty confident that you'll pick up a copy for yourself, and maybe even one for a friend as well.

Or click on the link to order your copy today...

                                                           Gary Cieradkowski's website

Milestones and Money

Milestones and Money

           

            As we are quickly approaching an historic milestone in baseball history, an omnipresent dark cloud is also looming on the horizon. We all know by now about a certain slugger for a certain team that has in his contract to receive a bonus for a certain amount should and when he reaches certain milestone home runs as a player for that certain team.

            Let's be certain here.

            Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez, born in New York, raised in Miami, proudly hailing from Westminster Christian School is approaching one of baseball's hallowed numbers...660. And, per the most recent contract that was mutually agreed on with the New York Yankees, Mr. Rodriguez will be due a six million dollar bonus for reaching Willie Mays' career home run total. 

            The New York Yankees keepers of some of the most revered numbers (3, 4, 5, 7, 8(twice), 9 ,15, 16, 56, 714, 28 ) will have to pony up some money for the newest one, 660. But don't count on it.

            Ostensibly, the Yankees will refuse to pay the bonus specified in the contract, arguing that ARod's accomplishments are tainted by his involvement with Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs). The Yankees will argue that they had plans to market Alex and his approach to each milestone that he approaches in their own inimitable way...t-shirts, hats, plaques and the like. They will argue that ARod's use of the PED' will detract and embarrass any attempt to market or capitalize on his assault on the home run title.

            Mr. Rodriguez will challenge the team's decision to withhold payment, saying that the mutually agreed contract will prevail on legal terms. In 2008, when Rodriguez signed his most recent contract, there was rumors of his involvement with steroids and other performance enhancing entities, but no proof, and ARod denied them wholeheartedly. And then he signed his contract.

            In early 2009, signed contract in hand, Alex admitted in an interview that he had, in fact, taken steroids in 2001-2003, a decision that he regretted. He said at the time that he had not used any substances during his years with the Yankees.

            In 2013, while recovering from hip surgery, the Biogenesis story broke, with allegations of ARod's involvement in ongoing violations of the league's banned substance policy. And to further convolute the issue, he was also accused of attempting to cover-up  the issue and the investigation.

            He was suspended for a record 211 games, essentially the remainder of the 2013 season, and the entirety of the 2014 season. He was able to play while awaiting an appeal of the suspension, and was able to play in 44 games and the post season.

           

            The Yankees will lose their argument.

            They knew about the PED use in 2001-2003, and did not move to have the current contract amended in any way. For this, they will pay. Taking personal feelings out of the matter, and looking at things in black & white, the Yankees set themselves up for this back in the late 80's, when they fought the commissioner's office to overturn one of the lifetime suspensions doled out to the late Steve Howe, a left handed reliever with a rubber arm and a substance abuse problem.

            Howe was suspended on seven different occasions for drug issues, the last being a lifetime ban set by Fay Vincent in 1992. Howe and the Yankees appealed the decision, and it was overturned by an independent arbiter.

            The role of the commissioner should not be overlooked in these cases. Vincent, a true commissioner, thought he was acting in the 'best interest of baseball', a terminology that hasn't been used in baseball for twenty years.

            Allan 'Bud' Selig, who recently retired as the baseball commissioner remains the only owner to act as commissioner. His decisions reflect a weighted slant towards ownership, and has been responsible for many changes in the game, good...and bad. I won't delve into those at this time, but I believe his inability to effectively enforce the substance policies helped create the issue that the Yankees and Rodriguez are facing.

            His fans will speak of his initiating a stricter performance enhancing drug screening program in 2005, a full 13 years after taking office and with the public embarrassment of no less than two books written by players that openly talked about rampant steroid abuse.

            One you may be familiar with was "Juiced" by Jose Canseco. The other by a pitcher whom I won't name, who stated that at least forty percent of major leaguers were using some sort of PED in the early twenty-first century. His publisher buckled under pressure from the MLB and the MLBPA to change the wording in the book to say 'a few' instead of forty percent.

            When Selig handed out suspensions for players involved in the Biogenesis situation, there were eighteen players who were punished. Most received the mandatory 50 games. Ryan Braun of Mr. Selig's former team  was suspended for 65 games and ARod with the 211 games.

            Three of those players had previously served a 50 game suspension, and were deemed to have 'served their time'. Only Rodriguez protested. As a result, he was finally suspended for the entire 2014 season, and is ready for a breakout 2015...milestones and all.

            Had Mr. Selig stepped in and suspended ARod for his earlier admitted indiscretions, this money for milestones talk would be a non-issue.

            If this gets appealed to the new commissioner, Rob Manfred, I honestly don't know how he will rule, but I know that whatever he decides won't be enough. The appeal will be in a court of law, and I think the Yankees will lose. (It may be the non-Yankee fan in me saying that) I think the precedent has been set, and it was set by the Yankees. So we shall see.

            Meanwhile, 660 awaits.

            And so does the cash.

Check out this website, from graphic artist and historian Gary Cieradkowski. Great simultaed baseball cards, and fantastic research. Also read more bout his upcoming book "The League of Outsider Baseball" which I have been telling folks about for a few months...The book will be available as an e-book for your NOOK, but trust me, you WILL want a hard copy...

http://www.infinitecardset.blogspot.com/

1968 the Year of the Pitcher???

1968

            What happened in 1968? Plenty.

            Off the field, the nation was in turmoil, an unpopular military action, an unpopular election, and a cultural revolution was taking place. But rather than get too political, let's just keep this long winded article on the diamond, shall we?

            Offense pretty much disappeared in 1968. Batting averages plummeted. Carl Yastrzemski, a year after his Triple Crown season, led the American League by hitting a robust .301. (The record for the lowest average to win a title). The league as a whole hit just .230, the lowest in history. Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers became the fist 30 game winner since 1934. (And a number not reached since)

            The National League fared a little better, batting .243. While it wasn't the least productive offensive season in league history, it did produce an incredible pitching performance.

            'The Year of the Pitcher' was deemed as such not because of Denny McLain, but rather because of Bob Gibson. The former Wichita State Shocker was as fierce a competitor as ever played the game, and he led the NL with a microscopic 1.12 Earned Run Average. In layman's terms, he allowed a little more than 1 run per every 9 innings pitched. Extrapolated over a full seasons worth of games (in his era, this means 300+ innings pitched,  30+ starts, 15+ complete games, and an ungodly amount of pitches thrown).

            In 1968, Mr. Gibson started in 34 games, pitching 302 and 2/3 innings. He completed 28 games, pitched 13 shutouts and won 20 games. He walked 62 and struck out 268.He also lost 9 games.

            This was a different game than is played today. Let's look closer at the statistics I just mentioned. He gave up 1 run per game, and lost 9 times. He completed 28 games, in 34 starts. he won 20. He lost 9. He had the rarely seen anymore stat known as a complete game loss.  And he had a few of them.

            Even more amazing is that Gibson went almost a month between wins, losing four straight games. He got the victory against Tom Seaver and the Mets on May 6th, and didn't win again until a 6-3 victory over Al Jackson and those same Mets on June 2nd. He lost 5 of his first 8 decisions.

            The Cardinals, who hit for a .249 average, got Gibson and the rest of the staff enough runs to help them repeat as the National League Champions, where they faced the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.

           

            The 1968 Tigers were led by their pitching, the aforementioned McLain and his 31 victories was the staff ace. Mickey Lolich, Earl Wilson , Joe Sparma and John Hiller all pitched in to be responsible for 80 of the Tigers' 103 wins. Their offense, led by often overlooked Bill Freehan, placed 3 hitters in the top 10 in MVP voting. The Tigers bested the Cardinals in the 1968 Series in 7 games. a Series that had its share of impressive and historic pitching performances.

           

            The leagues had decided to expand the following season, adding two teams to each league, and instituting the first year of divisional play, and a League Championship Series. Adding teams in Canada (Montreal), and the Pacific Northwest (Seattle), both teams that are no longer in existence, as well as welcoming San Diego, and reacquainting themselves with Kansas City, Major League Baseball was primed to remain the National Past Time. The fact that teams weren't scoring runs became an issue. Runs brings fans and ratings. Fans, and more importantly ratings, brings revenue.          

            The economics of baseball in the 1960's is nowhere near what it has become in the 2010's. The same can be said of all sports. But baseball could tweak the game a little bit, making a show out of lowering the pitcher's mound in 1969, and going forward. Something to boost the offense. They really didn't need to.

            Call it harmonic convergence, call it a once in a lifetime, call it a cyclical anomaly, but the pitching wasn't really that much better in 1968 than people think it was. I think most of it was show, with some pitchers (not who you might think) having monster years, but also the marquee players showing their age.

            The 1968 baseball landscape featured some big names, Mantle, Mays, Aaron.
     Mantle, was in the twilight of his career. The legendary centerfielder for the Yankees was spending his time as a first baseman. Thirty-seven year old Willie Mays, still playing center for the Giants, was starting to decline, as he had hit .263 the year before, and .288 in 1968. He drove in just 77 runs, his lowest output to date. Aaron now 34, did hit .287, but that was 19 points below his career number. But, those performances were among the top in the National League     

            For all the talk about the year of the pitcher, over in Cincinnati, the spawning of what would become 'The Big Red Machine' was beginning.

            The Reds led the National League by hitting .273. Their lineup included Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Tony Perez, Alex Johnson, (another overlooked hitter) and Lee May.

            Harmonic convergence could explain a bit of this, as the Reds only faced Bob Gibson twice in 1968, and he shut them out both times. Maybe they just beat up on the rest of the league.

            No. I think it was a unique situation where the pitchers, as happens with cycles in baseball, had a few outstanding performances that set them apart from the rest.

            Which pitchers you ask?

            Well, here are the top overall performers in the majors:

Name, Team	MIKE	Wins	Losses	ERA
Bob Gibson, StL	2.4453	22	9	1.12
Denny McLain, Det	2.3648	31	6	1.96
Luis Tiant, Cle	2.2635	21	9	1.60
Dave McNally, Bal	2.1919	22	10	1.95
Juan Marichal, SF	2.0888	26	9	2.43
Steve Blass, Pit	2.0034	18	6	2.12
Jerry Koosman, NYM	1.9607	19	12	2.08
Mel Stottlemyre, NYY	1.9166	21	12	2.45
Joe Hoerner, StL*	1.8657	8	2	1.47
Stan Bahnsen, NYY	1.8531	17	12	2.05
Lindy McDaniel, NYY*#	1.8497	4	1	1.75
Jose Santiago, Bos*	1.8468	9	4	2.25
Tom Seaver, NYM	1.8300	16	12	2.2
Sam McDowell, Cle	1.8198	15	14	1.81
Don Drysdale, LA	1.8124	14	12	2.15
Jim Hardin, Bal	1.8104	18	13	2.51
Tommy John, ChA	1.7906	10	5	1.98
Ray Washburn, StL	1.7740	14	8	2.26
John Odom, Oak	1.7697	16	10	2.45

* denotes reliever

#also played with the Giants but only using Yankee statistics.

            Definitely, some heady numbers here, and we'll delve into them in a moment. But let's look at the much maligned offensive numbers. So, the offensive leaders are as follows:

Name, team	MIKE	HR	RBI	AVG
Willie McCovey, SF	1.9421	36	105	.293
Ken Harrelson, Bos	1.8977	35	109	.275
Bill Freehan, Det	1.8431	25	84	.263
Dick Allen, Phi	1.8259	33	90	.263
Carl Yastrzemski, Bos	1.8232	23	74	.301
Billy Williams, ChN	1.8201	30	98	.288
Tony Perez, Cin	1.8170	18	92	.282
Willie Mays, SF	1.8105	23	79	.289
Frank Howard, Was	1.7847	44	106	.274
Johnny Bench, Cin	1.7821	15	82	.275
Pete Rose, Cin	1.7578	10	49	.335
Ron Santo, ChN	1.7541	26	98	.246
Lee May, Cin	1.7400	22	80	.290
Ernie Banks, ChN	1.7393	29	86	.246
Hank Aaron, Atl	1.7379	29	86	.287
Willie Horton, Det	1.7202	36	85	.285
Jim Northrup, Det	1.7192	21	90	.264
Glenn Beckert, ChN	1.7024	4	37	.294
Roberto Clemente, Pit	1.6957	18	57	.291
Jin Ray Hart, SF	1.6682	23	78	.258

            Now, factoring the players against the league average, and combining the pitchers and hitters, the top in the American League were:

Player	MIKE
Ken Harrelson	1.9195
Bill Freehan	1.8644
Carl Yastrzemski	1.8442
Frank Howard	1.8052
Denny McLain	1.8046
Luis Tiant	1.7466
Dave McNally	1.7457
Willie Horton	1.7400
Jim Northrup	1.7390
Frank Robinson	1.6711

            And in the National League:

Player	Mike
Bob Gibson	1.9008
Willie McCovey	1.7370
Juan Marichal	1.6965
Steve Blass	1.6476
Dick Allen	1.6330
Tony Perez	1.6250
Jerry Koosman	1.6232
Willie Mays	1.6193
Johnny Bench	1.5938
Pete Rose	1.5722

            The pitching dominated the season (sort of) and also dominated the post season awards, as Gibson and McLain were both unanimous choices for the Cy Young Award for each league, and they both were voted the Most Valuable Player for each league. McLain had a sweep, being the unanimous choice in the American League, and Gibson getting fourteen of the twenty first place votes in the National, with Pete Rose getting the remaining six.

           

            The best performers over their team's average for 1968 are slightly different. As you can guess from looking at the Mike number and its rating, McLain didn't rank as highly as one might think he would, actually finishing third in the AL. These are the hghest performers over their team's average:

           

player	vs. AL
Frank Howard, Was	1.7405
Luis Tiant, Cle	1.6794
Denny McLain, Det	1.6634
Camilo Pascual, Was	1.6431
Dave McNally, Bal	1.6186

            In the MVP vote, Howard finished 8th, McNally and Tiant tied, and Camilo Pascual, who went 13-12 with a 2.69 ERA for the last place Washington Senators, didn't get any votes.

                       

           

            In the National League:

           

           

Player	Vs. NL
Dick Allen, Phi	1.6880
Bob Gibson, StL	1.6834
Hank Aaron, Atl	1.6645
Juan Marichal, SF	1.6316
Willie McCovey, SF	1.6307

            In the MVP vote, Gibson won, McCovey was third, Marichal fifth and Aaron was twelfth. The much maligned Dick Allen, not a popular player with the sportswriters, didn't get a single vote, despite hitting 33 homers and driving in 90 runs for the seventh place Philadelphia Phillies.

                                   

           

            With the numbers being as close as they are, and the fact that Gibson led his team to the World Series, it can be argued that he deserved the award. I'm fine with that. However, Allen's contributions on a weaker team should be recognized.

I encourage your comments and questions...Thanks for reading!

This book is awesome, and the graphics are fantastic...coming in May...