1917 and Wars...Literal and Figurative

Ed. Note:  Sorry for the delay in between postings...started a new job, then a newer job, which has be working crazy hours. And, well, life happens.

     1917 saw the United States become involved in the 'War to End All Wars'. As a quick refresher, the U.S. Decided that it would not intervene in the war, and President Woodrow Wilson won re-election by keeping America out of the conflict, while trying to negotiate a peaceful settlement among the warring nations.

     Wilson's main concern was the submarine attacks on passenger ships, like the RMS Lusitania, which was sunk by a U-Boat in 1915. President Wilson negotiated a settlement with Germany, but let them know that the U.S. Would not tolerate 'unrestricted submarine warfare in violation of international law'.

     Germany complied for a time, but in January, 1917, the resumed their aggression.

Furthermore, they reached out to Mexico, and invited them to join with the Central Powers, in exchange, Germany would aid Mexico in a war with the United States in an effort to reclaim Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

     This message was intercepted and made public to the American public, as the President classified it an Act of War. Congress officially declared War in April, 1917.

     Baseball would feel the effects of the war effort. Attendance was down across the league. The Washington Senators would draw less than 90,000 fans in 77 home games. The American economy was beginning to suffer, and the looming threat of players being lost to conscription, enlistment and other war efforts led to an uneasiness throughout organized ball.

     On an historic note, Boston Braves catcher Hank Gowdy became the first Major Leaguer to enlist, seeing action in France with the 166^th Ohio regiment.

     Baseball also was dealing with 'wars' of their own, but obviously to a much lesser extent. The first being the threat of a strike by the 'Players Fraternity'.

     The Players Fraternity was essentially a union, founded in in 1912 by former player Dave Fultz. It was established to help players get protection, to help insure that terms of the player contracts were fulfilled. It was an entity that was looking out for the best interest of the players.

     The 'strike' that was threatened was ostensibly to abolish the '10 day Clause', in which a team could stop paying a player who suffered an injury after 10 games of inactivity, but they would still be under contract to their team, due to baseball's reserve clause.

     After several negotiations, the Fraternity decided, on February 14^th, 1917 to not go through with the work stoppage, after gaining several concessions from the ownership committee. The Fraternity, however, was then stripped of power as the owners decided to sever any ties with the Players Fraternity from that point forward. The Fraternity disbanded in 1918.

     But, in one of those baseball coincidence, two months later, on April 14^th, Marvin Miller was born.

     Miller would become a labor attorney, who would grow to lead the Major League Baseball Players Association from 1966-1983. During that period he negotiated the very first Collective Bargaining Agreement with the owners in 1968, and led through three strikes and two lockouts.

     He represented Curt Flood in his battle to negate baseball's Reserve Clause, and helped bring about Free Agency in baseball. Flood refused a trade from St. Louis to Philadelphia, challenging the system in which, he felt, players were considered chattel.

     During a game against the Reds at the Polo Grounds, Giants Manager John McGraw had some words with Bill “The Singing Umpire” Byron. When the game was over, McGraw approached Byron and said,”Take your hands out of your pockets, and I'll show you who's the better man.”

     More words were exchanged, and according to sportswriter Sam Crane, Byron's hands came out of the pockets, and fists were thrown.

     “The umpire went down, his mouth bleeding profusely. He made no attempt to regain his feet.”

McGraw was fined $500 and suspended for sixteen days.

     There was also an historic battle that seems to have been forgotten, and still remains somewhat controversial.

     The Boston Red Sox were playing the Washington Senators. George Herman Ruth, the Babe, was the Sox starting pitcher, and was not having a good day from the get-go.

     His first pitch to Ray Morgan was called a ball, and Ruth disagreed. So much so that he walked halfway to the plate to tell the umpire so.

     The next two pitches were also called balls, with Ruth being a little more aggressive in his displeasure at the umpire's decision, and encroaching even closer to the plate. Probably, given the combative nature of the situation, it didn't matter where the next pitch was going to be.

     When the fourth pitch was called ball four, Ruth advanced to the plate, (as Foster took first base on the walk) and engaged in an argument with the home plate umpire, Brick Owens. During the heat of the argument, Ruth slugged Owens in the nose. Obviously, he was immediately ejected from the game and subsequently fined and suspended.

     Scrambling now, Red Sox manager Jack Barry quickly got pitcher Ernie Shore ready to fill in for Ruth.

     Shore quickly picked Foster off of first base. He then proceeded to retire the next twenty-six batters in order. Shore had been credited with an asterisked perfect game, the reasoning was that he was responsible for the 1^st out of the game, even though he reached on Ruth's walk, and then the next 26 in order.

     Some that since the first runner was on base, the perfect game should be nullified, since a truly 'perfect game' would not have ANY base runners.

     In 1991, Major League Baseball revisited the perfect games, and decided that this was not a true perfect game, so game is now officially recorded as a 2-pitcher no-hitter.

     (As an aside, the view of Major League Baseball now says that a perfect game is a game where a pitcher competes nine innings, no more or no less, and no batter reaches base. That being said, David Palmer of the Expos lost a 5 inning perfect game, Pedro Martinez lost credit for a perfect game, although he was perfect for nine innings, but allowed a hit in the tenth, and Harvey Haddix lost a twelve inning perfecto because he allowed a hit in the 13^th)

     Ruth was in his last season as a full time pitcher. But he was still a dominant pitcher. How dominant was he?

     He finished with a 24-13 record, and an ERA of 2.01. But, Ty Cobb made 672 plate appearances in 1917, striking out just 34 times, or 5.1% of the time. Ruth was responsible for 4 of those 34, 11.8% of the strikeouts for the league's leading hitter, who finished with a .388 average.

     On to the season at hand, the Chicago White Sox won the American League pennant seemingly with ease. The finished nine games ahead of Boston. However....

     There is a theory that the White Sox made the Tigers know that they would be 'appreciative' of Detroit's less than spectacular performance during a Labor Day series between the clubs. The Tigers did win two of the four games, but the two losses were easy victories for the Pale Hose. Allegedly a 'bundle of cash' was left for the Tigers at the end of the series.

     It is very hard to substantiate these claims, especially a hundred years later, but there was allusions to this during testimony by Chick Gandil and Charles Comiskey during the “Black Sox” trial in 1920.

     Also during this time, and up into the 1920's, it was not unusual for a team wining a crucial series from a team in the second division to leave certain...shall we call them gratuities...to the losing team.

     That being told, the Sox were the only team in either league to win 100 games. Offensive production was still down across the majors. The pitchers held a 17.7% statistical advantage over the hitters, and the American League hurlers were, on average, 12.6% better than their National League rivals.

     The top teams in both offense and pitching for each league were as follows:

       Pitching:

American League	Wins	Runs per 9 innings	National League	Wins	Runs per 9 innings
White Sox	100	2.919	Giants	98	2.883
Red Sox	90	2.894	Phillies	87	3.239
Indians	88	3.459	Cardinals	82	3.664

       Batting:

American League	Avg	Runs scored	National League	Avg	Runs Scored
Tigers	.259	639	Giants	.261	635
White Sox	.253	656	Reds	.264	601
Indians	.245	584	Phillies	.248	578

     And then the overall top 5 power rankings for both leagues combined stands as:

White Sox	World Series Champions
Giants	National League Champions
Red Sox	2nd in American League
Phillies	2nd in National League
Indians	3rd in American League

     The White Sox won the World Series over the Giants in six games. It was the second World Series Championship for the White Sox. Pitcher Red Faber went 3-1 in the Series.

     On to other highlights from the season...

     For the third place Cleveland Indians, infielder Sam Chapman established a record with 67 sacrifice hits in a season.

     For the Yankees, first baseman Wally Pipp established a record for the lowest batting average for an American league home run champion. He hit .244. That record would stand until Harmon Killebrew batted .242 while leading in homers.

     Pipp is the answer to a great trivia question,but not the one your thinking. He was the first Yankee to lead the American league in homers in consecutive seasons.

     For the Phillies, pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander won thirty games for the third consecutive season.

     In St. Louis, Browns pitcher Ernie Koob and Bob Groom each pitched a no-hitter against the pending World Champion Chicago White Sox. And they did it on consecutive days. The only time that has been accomplished.

     And Cardinals outfielder Walton Cruise became the first to hit a ball out of Braves Park. He was also the second, accomplishing that as a member of the Braves in 1921.

     Pirates outfielder Carson Bigbee gathered six hits in an extra inning game. 

     And the Pirates played a record four consecutive extra-inning games.

     And For the Tigers, Ty Cobb led the league in doubles and triples for the third time in his career. No other American Leaguer has done it more than once. (Stan Musial did it four times in the NL)

     It was Cobb's fifth time leading in Total bases and stolen bases in the same year. Snuffy Stirnweiss is the only other American Leaguer to accomplish this feat once.

     Let's delve into the player performances for 1917...

     Looking at the National League batters first, our initial top ten rankings are:

PLAYER	TEAM	Runs	RBI	SB	AVG	RCG
Edd Roush	Reds	82	67	21	.341	1.07
Rogers Hornsby	Cardinals	86	66	17	.327	0.99
Gavvy Cravath	Phillies	70	83	6	.280	1.01
Benny Kauff	Giants	89	69	30	.308	1.00
Heinie Zimmerman	Giants	61	100	13	.297	1.04
George Burns	Giants	103	43	40	.302	0.93
Heinie Groh	Reds	91	53	15	.304	0.92
Hal Chase	Reds	71	86	21	.277	1.01
Possum Whited	Phillies	69	70	10	.280	0.91
Casey Stengel	Dodgers	69	73	18	.257	0.91

     And then as we compare these to their team performances, we get this list:

Rogers Hornsby	Above
Max Carey	Pirates	82	51	46	.296	0.85
Edd Roush	Above
Casey Stengel	Above
Gavvy Cravath	Above
Red Smith	Braves	60	62	16	.295	0.82
Walton Cruise	Cardinals	70	59	16	.295	0.91
Les Mann	Cubs	63	44	14	.273	0.91
Zack Wheat	Dodgers	38	41	5	.312	0.72
Ed Konetchy	Braves	56	54	16	.272	0.83

     This brings our final top ten National League hitter to this list:

Rogers Hornsby

Edd Roush

Gavvy Cravath

Benny Kauff

Heinie Zimmerman

Max Carey

Heine Groh

Casey Stengel

Hal Chase

George Burns

     Switching to the American League, where there was more offense, our initial list of top performers would be:

Ty Cobb	Tigers	107	106	55	.383	1.36
Bobby Veach	Tigers	79	110	21	.319	1.18
Tris Speaker	Indians	90	60	30	.352	1.04
Joe Jackson	White Sox	91	82	13	.301	1.15
Happy Felsch	White Sox	75	99	26	.308	1.11
Eddie Collins	White Sox	91	66	53	.289	1.01
Braggo Roth	Indians	69	72	51	.285	0.97
Joe Harris	Senators	40	65	11	.304	0.94
Ray Chapman	Indians	98	36	52	.302	0.85
Sam Rice	Senators	77	69	35	.302	0.94

     And then, against their team's average performances, we get this list:

Ty Cobb	Above
Tris Speaker	Above
George Sisler	St. Louis Browns	60	52	37	.353	0.81
Bobby Veach	Above
Wally Pipp	Yankees	82	70	11	.244	0.92
Sam Rice	Above
Joe Jackson	Above
Joe Judge	Senators	62	30	17	.285	0.88
Braggo Roth	Above
Joe Harris	Above

     Combining and calculating, that brings our top ten overall performers to this list:

Ty Cobb

Bobby Veach

Tris Speaker

Joe Jackson

Happy Felsch

George Sisler

Braggo Roth

Eddie Collins

Joe Harris

Sam Rice

     Now we'll take a look at the pitching, where the American League pitchers held a 12.6% advantage over the National League hurlers, and where overall, the pitchers were 17.7% better than the hitters, we get this initial list of top ten National Leaguers, featuring Rune per Game (RPG):

Pitcher	Team	W-L	ERA	RPG
Pete Alexander	Phillies	30-13	1.83	2.48
Ferdie Schupp	Giants	21-7	1.95	2.28
Slim Sallee	Giants	18-7	2.17	2.92
Pol Perritt	Giants	17-7	1.88	2.55
Hippo Vaughn	Cubs	23-13	2.01	2.95
Fred Toney	Reds	24-16	2.20	3.05
Rube Marquard	Dodgers	19-12	2.55	3.25
Art Nehf	Braves	17-8	2.16	3.01
Wilbur Cooper	Pirates	17-11	2.36	2.90
Lefty Tyler	Braves	14-12	2.52	3.05

     And then against their team's averages, we get this list:

Fred Toney	Above
Pete Alexander	Above
Hippo Vaughn	Above
Rube Marquard	Above
Art Nehf	Above
Lefty Tyler	Above
Leon Cadore	Dodgers	13-13	2.45	2.93
Jeff Pfeffer	Dodgers	11-15	2.23	2.84
Ferdie Schupp	Above
Pete Schneider	Reds	20-19	2.10	3.45

     With that being stated, crunching the numbers brings us this top ten total National League pitching ranking:

Pete Alexander

Ferdie Schupp

Hippo Vaughn

Fred Toney

Wilbur Cooper

Slim Sallee

Pol Perritt

Rube Marquard

Art Nehf

Lefty Tyler

     And now over to the mighty American League pitchers. Our initial top ten list begins with:

Ed Cicotte	White Sox	28-12	1.53	1.97
Carl Mays	Red Sox	22-9	1.74	2.52
Babe Ruth	Red Sox	24-13	2.01	2.57
Jim Bagby	Indians	23-13	1.99	2.55
Stan Coveleski	Indians	19-14	1.81	2.35
Walter Johnson	Senators	23-16	2.21	2.90
Dutch Leonard	Red Sox	16-17	2.17	2.69
Reb Russell	White Sox	15-5	1.95	2.90
Ernie Shore	Red Sox	13-10	2.22	3.02
Bob Shawkey	Yankees	13-15	2.44	3.09

     A quick word here about Ed “Knuckles” Cicotte...

     He was one of the premiere pitchers in the American League, going 208-149 over his career. He was the top AL pitcher in 1917, leading the league with a 1.53 ERA, and in innings pitched with 346 and 2/3rds.

     He struggled in 1918, but bounced back in 1919 to win 29 games against just 7 losses.

     His salary for 1919 was $6,000, but with a promised $10,000 bonus for winning thirty games. He fell one game short.

     However, according to legend, owner Charles Comiskey allegedly instructed manager Kid Gleason to sit Cicotte for the last five games of the season, depriving Ed that opportunity to win that thirtieth game, and saving Comiskey the bonus money.

     Many point to this occurrence as the impetus for Cicotte's participation in the “Black Sox” scandal on 1919, where the White Sox threw the World Series against the Reds.

     In that Series, Cicotte won one game, and lost another.

     For his part in the scandal, Cicotte, along with seven others, were permanently expelled from baseball.

     Also of note that the top three on this list all deserve to be noted.

     Babe Ruth, of course, for being, well, Babe Ruth. Another dominant pitcher who held the American League record for the lowest ERA (1.75 in 1916) by a left-handed pitcher in the regular season, which was subsequently broken by Ron Guidry (1.74)in 1978

     And Carl Mays, a wicked sidearmer, who's notoriety comes from baseball tragedy.

In 1920, Mays who was pitching for the Yankees at the time, lost control of a fastball that struck Indians shortstop Ray Chapman in the temple. Chapman died as a result of the massive head trauma.

     But back to the statistics at hand, this is the list as compared to to their team performances:

Walter Johnson	Above
Win Noyes	Athletics	10-10	2.95	3.98
Bob Groom	Browns	8-19	2.94	3.09
Jing Johnson	Athletics	9-12	2.78	3.58
Carl Mays	Above
Ed Cicotte	Above
Bullet Joe Bush	Athletics	11-17	2.47	3.90
Jim Bagby	Above
Babe Ruth	Above
Stan Coveleski	Above

     That will bring our final top ten best pitchers in the AL to:

Ed Cicotte

Carl Mays

Babe Ruth

Jim Bagby

Walter Johnson

Stan Coveleski

Dutch Leonard

Reb Russell

Ernie Shore

Bob Shawkey

     So with all this information in mind, and no post season awards to speak of, here are my top five votes for each award.

National League

Grover Cleveland “Pete” Alexander

Player of the Year

Pitcher of the Year

Ferdie Schupp

Rogers Hornsby

Offensive Player of the Year

Edd Roush

Gavvy Cravath

American League

Ty Cobb

Player of the Year

Ed Cicotte

Pitcher of the Year

Carl Mays

Babe Ruth

Bobby Veach

     Thanks for reading...hope you enjoyed!

1997...drastic changes afoot

1997...changes

     The 1997 season brought about many changes. With more expansion looming for the 1998 season, acting commissioner Bud Selig proposed a 'radical realignment', which would assign teams to leagues based on geographical location. So all the East Coast teams in one division, west coast teams in one division, and so on, and without regard for previous designations.

     One version of the realignment had fifteen teams switching leagues. The prospect of having one league being on the west coast didn't sit well with the players, fans or the media, so it was scrapped.

     This would have put the Mets and Yankees in the same division, or the Cubs and the White Sox, Dodgers and Angels...yada, yada, yada. The owners were very much opposed to this plan, and voted it down.

     The preparations were caused by the addition of the Arizona Diamondbacks franchise, which was promised to be in the National League, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, which was promised to be an American League team.

     Tampa Bay's ownership was banking on a big following from retired New Yorkers, and a built in fan base with the Yankee farm system based in Tampa. Arizona's ownership was banking on the same with the Dodger fan base.

     On paper, assigning one team to each league would be simple enough, except that would bring each league to a total of fifteen teams each. An odd number, which would cause the need for either one team from each league taking a series off every week, or the allowance of inter-league play.

     Inter-league play made the most sense, and the novelty of it was certainly getting attention. It was decided that there would be two sets of inter-league play periods, where teams would play teams in their rival division. So AL East plays NL East, AL Central plays NL Central and AL West plays NL West.

     The games would follow the league rules for the home team...designated hitter in the AL parks, none in the NL parks.

     It was designed with the fans in mind...so they told us. The American League fans getting to see the National League players, and vice-versa. However, that wasn't exactly the case. In my mind, if you want to expose the AL fans to the NL players, use the NL rules. Let the pitchers bat for themselves in the AL parks, since the fans never got to see that.

     Plus, too, the different style of play between the leagues, with the National League being a more pitching finesse type of league, with the fireballers in the American League.

     And don't get me started on the different strike zones....

     In hindsight, it's easy to see a greater plan in place...one that has been slowly erasing the delineation between the two leagues. There is one umpiring group, instead of AL and NL umps. There is no more League Offices, or League Presidents either.

     If you look right now at the mlb.com website and look at the league leaders for any category, (go ahead, I'll wait) you will see the default is for MLB leaders, then leaders for each league. This may seem insignificant to some, but to me, it is further diluting the game.

     In 1997 for example, Mark McGwire hit 58 home runs, but didn't lead the league. He played for Oakland in the American League, where he hit 34 homers. Then he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals, where he hit another 24, giving him 58 total.

     But, since this was the good old days, his stats are split.

     Also, a couple of years earlier, in 1990, McGwire's teammate Willie McGee was traded from the Cardinals to Oakland late in the season. McGee hit .335 for the Cardinals, with enough at bats to qualify for the league lead. He struggled a little in Oakland, hitting just .274, which gave him a combined .324 batting average.

     Eddie Murray of the Dodgers hit .330, which led the majors, but following the rules in play at the time, finished second to McGee, who was now playing the the American League.

     But enough griping about the inter-league stuff. As we know now, the 1998 expansion happened, and instead of fifteen teams per league, the National League added a team from the American League. That team was the Milwaukee Brewers, which by sheer coincidence was owned by acting commissioner Bud Selig.

     In actuality, the Kansas City Royals were first offered the opportunity to switch leagues, but decide against it. The Brewers were the next to have the offer, and they took it. So, for the 1988 season, the Milwaukee Brewers began play as the first team to switch leagues since the modern Major Leagues had been 'invented'.

     But, back to 1997.

     The inter-league play schedule succeeded. The national League teams actually gained the advantage over their American League counterparts, winning 20 more games.

     This also led to many firsts..

     The first inter-league game was the San Francisco Giants visiting the Texas Rangers, with Giants outfielder Darryl Hamilton getting the first ever hit in inter-league play.

     The first Designated Hitters for each National League team were:

Braves	Keith Lockhart
Cubs	Dave Clark
Reds	Eddie Taubensee
Rockies	Dante Bichette
Marlins	Jim Eisenreich
Astros	Sean Berry
Dodgers	Mike Piazza
Expos	Jose Vidro
Mets	Butch Huskey
Phillies	Darren Daulton
Pirates	Mark Smith
Cardinals	Dmitri Young
Padres	Rickey Henderson
Giants	Glenallen Hill

     Among other inter-league curiosities was this fact...when the Toronto Blue Jays played the Montreal Expos, it was the first time since World War II that the American National Anthem was not played before a major league baseball game.

 

     Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Al Martin, in town to play the Minnesota Twins, got confused as to his whereabouts, and wound up at the Target Center, home of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves.

     Another experiment was the “Aloha Series”, a three game set between the Cardinals and the Padres, played at Aloha Stadium, in Honolulu. They played a double-header on Saturday, April 19^th, which the Cardinals swept, and an afternoon game on Sunday, won bu the Padres.

     Logistically, it was a challenging trip for the Padres, who played a Wednesday night game in Pittsburgh, then flew back to San Diego for a layover, and then on to Hawaii.

     Mercifully, they were given two days off to recover...and explore.

     Padre's pitcher Joey Hamilton got badly sunburned,and third baseman Ken Caminiti showed up for batting practice wearing shorts.

     By all accounts, the series was a success, but hasn't been tried again.

     1997 also marked the fiftieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breaking the color line with the Dodgers. In commemoration, on the anniversary, the Dodgers were in New York to play the Mets at Shea Stadium.

          Commissioner Bud Selig made the unprecedented move of retiring the number 42 in perpetuity throughout baseball. Those who were active players that wore that number were allowed to keep wearing it. (Mariano Rivera of the Yankees would be the last active player to wear that number)

     Ken Griffey Jr. of the Seattle Mariners changed his number from 24 to 42 for that one game only. To this day, Jackie Robinson Day is celebrated by Major League baseball, and on that day, all uniformed personnel wear the number 42 jersey.

     In July, with the Chicago trailing the Indians in the Central Division race, the White Sox made a critical trade with the Giants at the trade deadline. The Giants sent minor leaguers Lorenzo Barcelo, Mike Caruso, Bob Howry, Brian Manning and Ken Vining along with Keith Foulke to the Windy City, in exchange for pitchers Wilson Alvarez, Danny Darwin and Roberto Hernandez. The three Sox pitchers had combined for 18 wins and 27 saves.

     But White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf was quoted as saying that it would be 'crazy' for anyone to think that the Sox could catch Cleveland for the pennant. They finished six games behind. For the record, the three pitchers traded to San Francisco, helped them by recording a combined 10 wins and 4 saves.

     Reinsdorf had already alienated his fellow owners somewhat, by announcing that he was taking a hard line on free agent signings, and then signing former Indians outfielder Albert Belle to a five year, fifty-five million dollar contract, making him (for a time) the highest payed player in the game.

     The Florida Marlins became the first Wild Card team to win the World Series. In doing so, they also became the fastest expansion team to become Champions as well, doing so in just five years.

In the process, owner Wayne Huizenga turned a lot of heads by his all in approach, over spending on free agents that he, frankly, couldn't afford. Apparently, he was hoping for municipal funding to build a new baseball stadium in downtown Miami.

     That deal fell through.

     Huizenga couldn't bank on the revenue that he had projected from the new stadium, and made no secret that he was: a. losing money, and b. going to be selling off that high priced talent as soon as the season was over.

     True to his word, he did both.

     But it was an unusual post season, and followed by a relatively hum-drum World Series, until Game Seven. With Cleveland hoping for its first World Series win since 1948, it took an eleventh inning game-winning single by Edgar Renteria, scoring Greg Counsell for South Florida's first ever World Series victory.

     The Atlanta Braves had won 101 games, but lost the National League Championship Series to the Marlins, who had won 92 games.

     The Indians, who had just 86 wins, bettered the Orioles, who had won 98 games, in their LCS.

     As for the team rankings, we have the following offensive leaders:

NATIONAL LEAGUE	AMERICAN LEAGUE
Rockies	Yankees
Padres	Mariners
Braves	Red Sox
Astros	Indians
Mets	Angels

     And then the top pitching teams were as follows:

Braves	Orioles
Dodgers	Yankees
Marlins	Rangers
Mets	Blue Jays
Astros	Brewers

     And our final overall 'Power Rankings' were:

Braves	1st in NL East, lost in LCS
Yankees	AL Wild Card, lost in Division
Orioles	1st in AL East, lost in LCS
Mariners	1st in AL West, lost in Division
Mets	3rd in NL East

     The Mets were the outliers on this list, winning 88 games, which would have won the NL Central. The Marlins and Indians rode hot streaks to carry them through their playoff series' and into the Fall Classic.

     But other things of note from the 1997 season:

     The Colorado Rockies became the first team to amass both 200 home runs and 200 double plays in a season.

     They were the first team with three batters to hit 40 homers in 1997: Larry Walker, Andres Galarraga and Vinny Castilla.

Joined in this picture by Dante Bichette

     Larry Walker, who won the NL MVP Award made 409 Total Bases, the highest amount in the National League since the immortal Stan Musial in 1948.

     Walker is the only player to have 30 homers and 30 stolen bases while hitting over .350 in a season.

     For the Anaheim Angels, outfielder Tim Salmon hit 30 homers for the fourth time in his career, the first Angels player to do that.

     First baseman Eddie Murray, who is the all-time leader in hitting Sacrifice Flies, plays in his 3,000^th game. He is the all-time record holder for games played at first base with 2,413.

     The Baltimore Orioles became just the third team in American League history to be in first place all season long, and the first to do so since the 1984 Tigers.

     Manager Davey Johnson won the Manager of the Year Award, and resigned the same day.

     In Boston, Rookie of the Year winner Nomar Garciaparra became the first American League rookie to have a thirty game hitting streak.

     The Cleveland Indians became the first American League team to hit 200 home runs in three consecutive seasons.

     They hit eight homers in a game against the Brewers.

     Cleveland hosted the All-Star Game, and catcher Sandy Alomar, Jr. homered in the game (he also homered in the World Series, becoming one of a handful who have done both in the same season).

     Alomar also was voted the All-Star Game MVP, becoming the first hometown player to win that award.

     The Atlanta Braves, playing their first season in Ted Turner Field, won a record 19 games in April.

     Outfielder Kenny Lofton became just the third Atlanta Brave to hit a lead-off homer in consecutive games, joining Dennis Menke and Felipe Alou.

     Florida Marlins catcher Charles Johnson, known for his defensive prowess, went the entire season without committing an error.

     For the Houston Astros, Jeff Bagwell became the first first-baseman to reach the 30 Homer/30 Stolen base club.

     Reliever Billy Wagner averaged 14.4 strikeouts per nine innings, the highest total for pitchers with 50 or more innings pitched.

     Craig Biggio scored 146 runs, the highest National League total since Chuck Klein's 152 in 1932. He also set the record for the most plate appearances (744) without hitting into a double play.

     For the Dodgers, they had four players hit thirty or more homers for the second time (1977 was the first). Mike Piazza, Eric Karros, Todd Zeile and Raul Mondesi all did the trick.

     Mondesi became the first Dodger to reach the 30 Homer/30 Stolen Base club.

     Mike Piazza established records for catcher for hits with 201. He is the only catcher to reach 200 hits and 40 homers in a season.

     In Montreal, Expos shortstop Mark Grudzielanek hits 54 doubles, setting a new National League record.

     The Expos scored an NL record 13 runs in the 6^th inning of a game against the Giants. Second baseman Mike Lansing homered twice in the inning, becoming the first National League second baseman to homer twice in an inning since 1894.

     Philadelphia Phillies rookie catcher Bobby Estalella became the first Phillies rookie to homer tree times in a game.

     Mets first baseman John Olerud became the second player to hit for the cycle in both leagues. Bob Watson was the first, in 1979.

     Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Roger Clemens won the pitching Triple Crown.

     Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Tony Womack stole 32 consecutive bases, breaking the team record set by Max Carey in 1931.

     San Diego Padres legend Tony Gwynn won is fourth straight batting title, his eighth overall. The eight titles tied Honus Wagner for the National League record.

     Now to the statistical recap, beginning with the pitching in the American League. The American League pitching was not stellar as a whole. There were some outstanding performances, but as a whole, the league Earned Run Average was 4.57, compared to the National League's 4.20.

     Overall, the National League performed 7% better than the American League when looking at the pitching and hitting combined.

     That being said, here is our initial top ten American League pitching performances:

PITCHER	TEAM	W-L	ERA	SV
Randy Johnson	Mariners	20-4	2.28	0
Roger Clemens	Blue Jays	21-7	2.05	0
Randy Myers	Orioles	2-3	1.51	45
Mariano Rivera	Yankees	6-4	1.88	43
Andy Pettitte	Yankees	18-7	2.88	0
John Wetteland	Rangers	7-2	1.94	31
Justin Thompson	Tigers	15-11	3.02	0
Doug Jones	Brewers	6-6	2.02	36
David Cone	Yankees	12-6	2.82	0
Brad Radke	Twins	20-10	3.87	0

     And then as compared to their team's performances, we get this list:

Randy Johnson	Above
Brad Radke	Above
Roger Clemens	Above
Justin Thompson	Above
John Wetteland	Above
Roberto Hernandez*	White Sox (ONLY)	5-1	2.44	27
Doug Jones	Above
Jamie Moyer	Mariners	17-5	3.86	0
Wilson Alvarez*	White Sox (ONLY)	9-8	3.03	0
Willie Blair	Tigers	16-8	4.17	0

     This brings our official combined top ten list to the following:

Randy Johnson	2nd in Cy Young, 11th in MVP
Roger Clemens	Cy Young Winner, 10th in MVP
Brad Radke	3rd in Cy Young, 25th in MVP (tied)
Randy Myers	4th in Cy Young, 4th in MVP
John Wetteland	No votes
Justin Thompson	No votes
Doug Jones	20th in MVP (tied)
Mariano Rivera	25th in MVP (tied)
Andy Pettitte	5th in Cy Young
Roberto Hernandez	No votes

     Looking at the National League, where the pitchers out performed the hitters by 6.2%, and out performed the American league pitchers by 9.8%, we get the following initial ranking:

Pedro Martinez	Expos	17-8	1.90	0
Greg Maddux	Braves	19-4	2.20	0
Darryl Kile	Astros	19-7	2.57	0
Denny Neagle	Braves	20-5	2.97	0
Shawn Estes	Giants	19-5	3.18	0
Kevin Brown	Marlins	16-8	2.69	0
Curt Schilling	Phillies	17-11	2.97	0
Alex Fernandez	Marlins	17-12	3.59	0
Tom Glavine	Braves	14-7	2.96	0
Rick Reed	Mets	13-9	2.89	0

     Then compared to their team, we get this list:

Curt Schilling	Above
Pedro Martinez	Above
Shawn Estes	Above
Garret Stephenson	Phillies	8-6	3.15	0
Darryl Kile	Above
Trevor Hoffman	Padres	6-4	2.66	37
Greg Maddux	Above
Brett Tomko	Reds	11-7	3.43	0
Kevin Brown	Above
Alan Benes	Cardinals	9-9	2.89	0

     That brings the final overall ranking to this:

Pedro Martinez	Cy Young Winner, 16th in MVP (tied)
Greg Maddux	2nd in Cy Young, 12th in MVP
Curt Schilling	4th in Cy Young, 14th in MVP
Darryl Kile	5th in Cy Young, 22nd in MVP
Shawn Estes	No votes
Denny Neagle	3rd in Cy Young
Kevin Brown	No votes
Garret Stephenson	No votes
Brett Tomko	No votes
Alex Fernandez	No votes

     Switching to the offensive side, with some very garish numbers, due in part to the dawning of the performance enhancing era. The American League batters had a 9.6% advantage over their pitching adversaries, and a 5.9% advantage over the National League hitters. This is important, considering that the National League played more games at Coors Field, which seems to inflate offensive numbers.

     But more on that in a moment. For now, the top ten American League performers, initially are as such:

PLAYER	TEAM	HR	RBI	AVG	RCG
Frank Thomas	White Sox	35	125	.347	1.37
Ken Griffey Jr.	Mariners	56	147	.304	1.38
Bernie Williams	Yankees	21	100	.328	1.44
Juan Gonzalez	Rangers	42	131	.296	1.32
Edgar Martinez	Mariners	28	108	.330	1.19
Tino Martinez	Yankees	44	141	.296	1.22
Paul O'Neill	Yankees	21	117	.324	1.24
Jim Thome	Indians	40	102	.286	1.13
Tim Salmon	Angels	33	129	.296	1.22
Nomar Garciaparra	Red Sox	30	98	.306	1.24

     And then compared to their teams, we get this list:

Frank Thomas	Above
Juan Gonzalez	Above
Carlos Delgado	Blue Jays	30	91	.262	0.92
Ken Griffey Jr.	Above
Jeromy Burnitz	Brewers	27	85	.281	0.93
Tony Clark	Tigers	32	117	.276	1.19
Bernie Williams	Above
Bobby Higginson	Tigers	27	101	.299	1.15
Mark McGwire	A's (ONLY)	34	81	.284	0.90
Tim Salmon	Above

     Combining and crunching brings us this top ten list:

Frank Thomas	3rd in MVP
Ken Griffey Jr.	MVP Award Winner
Bernie Williams	17th in MVP
Juan Gonzalez	9th in MVP
Edgar Martinez	14th in MVP (tie)
Tino Martinez	2nd in MVP
Tim Salmon	7th in MVP
Jim Thome	6th in MVP
Paul O'Neill	12th in MVP
Tony Clark	18th in MVP

     Over in the National League, where the Rockies, playing at Coors Field, scored 140 more runs than their nearest competitor, hit 65 more home runs, an hit 17 points higher than any other NL team.      Their pitching, however, suffered in that rarefied air. The Rockies hit 124 homers there, but their opponents hit 121, That helped the Rockies staff to amass a season ERA of 5.25, a quarter a run per game higher than the next lowest team.

     With that, herewith is the initial top ten National League hitters:

Larry Walker	Rockies	49	130	.366	1.46
Mike Piazza	Dodgers	40	124	.362	1.24
Andres Galarraga	Rockies	41	140	.318	1.42
Tony Gwynn	Padres	17	119	.372	1.34
Jeff Bagwell	Astros	43	135	.286	1.24
Ray Lankford	Cardinals	31	98	.285	1.21
Barry Bonds	Giants	40	101	.291	1.16
Craig Biggio	Astros	22	81	.309	1.27
Todd Hundley	Mets	30	86	.273	1.02
Ellis Burks	Rockies	32	82	.290	1.18

     And then as compared to their team's statistics, we get this list:

Mike Piazza	Above
Ray Lankford	Above
Larry Walker	Above
Jeff Bagwell	Above
Tony Gwynn	Above
Barry Bonds	Above
Scott Rolen	Phillies	21	92	.283	1.05
Craig Biggio	Above
Todd Hundley	Above
Moises Alou	Marlins	23	115	.292	1.20

     This brings our National League finalized top ten list to:

Mike Piazza	2nd in MVP
Larry Walker	MVP Award Winner
Andres Galarraga	7th in MVP
Ray Lankford	16th in MVP (tied)
Tony Gwynn	6th in MVP
Jeff Bagwell	3rd in MVP
Barry Bonds	5th in MVP
Craig Biggio	4th in MVP
Todd Hundley	No votes
Moises Alou	10th in MVP

     Before we go further, we'll revisit the term 'Valuable' when it comes to picking the player with the most value. When one votes for the Most Valuable Player, is one looking at the entire league, or just looking for the most valuable player on his team, and then as compared to the league?

     A player, as I have mentioned several times, that may receive votes as the Most Valuable Player, in my mind, is the player that far exceeds the standard set by his team. He carries his team when needed. The poorer the team around him, the batter that player has to be.

     Looking at the American League hitters above, for example, which has three players on the list...how much of an impact did that lineup have with those three players in it have on a given day?         Compare that with Tony Clark from above, without a lot of other help in that lineup, yet he was able to create more than one run per game.

     And on the pitching side, strikeouts are nice. And they are glamorous. But they re not essential. If you'll notice. In my highlighted statistics, I never mention strikeout totals. Because they don't win games.

     The formula that I use doesn't factor strikeouts at all. More important in my formula is base runners. Or rather, lack of base runners. The fewer runners you allow, the fewer that can score. The fewer that score, the better your chance of winning a game. That is where the importance is.

     To quote former New York Jets head coach Herm Edwards, “You play to win the game.”

     From there, I weigh each statistic, but not evenly. Wins are worth a lot more than saves. Runs more than homers. Sacrifice hits as even with hits. Then I compare all the stats, which is where I get my final results.

     Also, there is always talk about how a player from a low finishing team can win any of the post season awards, which I don't agree with. If the player was the best in the league, he should be awarded for that.

     The initial lists for each category are flat out the best straight up performers for that season. That is based on raw, black and white statistics.

     The finalized rankings have been filtered to factor in other things, including how strong their team was, and how they compared to teammates and other peers.

     Most times, the top players from the initial list were the top players for the league. This particular season was an anomaly, where Larry Walker was the top National League hitter, but was beaten out by Mike Piazza for the top overall ranking. A good part of that reasoning was Walker's home ballpark. But also taken into account was that Piazza was putting those numbers up while being the catcher. He caught in 139 games, which is a little tougher on the body .

     My Cy Young winner in the AL would be Randy Johnson, who finished 2^nd to Roger Clemens in the actual voting. Johnson and the Mariners won the AL West Division, while Clemens and the Blue Jays finished in last place in the AL East, 22 games behind the Orioles.

     Neither one of my MVP, or offensive Player of the Year, were on playoff teams either.

     So my top five American League players were:

Randy Johnson

Roger Clemens

Frank Thomas

Ken Griffey Jr.

Bernie Williams

     And in the National League:

Mike Piazza

Larry Walker

Pedro Martinez

Andres Galarraga

Ray Lankford

     So my updated post-season award winners would be:

National League Most Valuable Player

Mike Piazza

National League Cy Young Award

Pedro Martinez

American League Most Valuable Player

AND

Cy Young Award

Randy Johnson

Offensive Player of the Year

Frank Thomas