Baseball...numbers, stories and analysis: June 2019

1929, and flashes of greatness

In reviewing the 1929 season, flashes of offensive brilliance can be seen, only to be lost to history. For as much offense that was created in 1929, all that was upended the following season, when major league offenses dominated over the pitching in both leagues.

In 1929, several new offensive standards were set, NL League batting average, NL leaders in doubles, runs scored, runs batted in and homers. Each of those records lasted just one season.

But there were some accomplishments that couldn’t be undone.

The eventual World Series champion Philadelphia A’s would win one hundred games, the first of three straight one-hundred-win seasons. They would be the first team to do this. They were buoyed by a high-powered offense and a well-balanced pitching staff.

Across the majors, four teams scored nine-hundred or more runs, and three more scored eight-hundred-ninety on the season.

The overall team pitching leaders were:

AMERICAN LEAGUE	NATIONAL LEAGUE
A’s	Cubs
Yankees	Giants
Indians	Pirates

And in offense, we have this list:

Tigers	Cubs
A’s	Pirates
Yankees	Giants

Which puts our overall top five Power Ranking at:

A’s	World Champions
Cubs	NL Champions
Giants	3^rd in National League
Pirates	2^nd in National League
Yankees	2^nd in American League

While scoring was on the rise, it was a different time, and a different type of player. For example, Joe Sewell of Cleveland, Sam Rice of the Senators and Mickey Cochrane of the A’s, Hall of Famers all, combined for 1,708 at bats, 551 hits, 322 runs scored and 230 runs batted in. They hit a combined .323. The three combined to strike out just 21 times.

Joe Sewell, of the Cleveland Indians, was one of the toughest strikeouts in major league history. He went a span of one-hundred-fifteen consecutive games between strikeouts, and over his career, averaged one strike-out for every 62.5 at bats. As of this writing, the current active leader is Andrelton Simmons, with 10.4 at bats per strikeout.

Sewell, a University of Alabama alumni, was signed by Cleveland in 1920, spending half of that season with the New Orleans Pelicans of the Southern Association. He was called up to the big club in the wake of the accident that killed Ray Chapman in August. Joe began 1921 as the Indians regular shortstop. There he was a mainstay for ten years before moving to the Yankees for three years.

He maintains the record for striking out just three times in 1932, while having five-hundred three at-bats, or once every 167.7 at-bats.

He held the second longest consecutive games played streak, with 1,103 games. The longest streak (at the time) was held by Everett Scott with 1,307. By all accounts, Sewell was a great fielder, and a very good hitter. He finished his career with a .312 average and was selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977.

According to legend, Sewell played his entire major league career with one bat, a forty-ounce model that Sewell would rub with a Coke bottle to harden the wood.

He retired and would eventually come to coach the Crimson Tide for seven years. One of his student athletes was drafted by the New York Yankees in the tenth round of the 1966 baseball draft. He opted not to sign, which was good. Ken “The Snake” Stabler went on to have a lengthy football career instead.

The Philadelphia A’s had five players score more than 100 runs, 4 players with 200 or more hits, and finished with a team average of .296.

The A’s pitchers finished with a team ERA a half run better than their nearest finisher.

History, though, is not kind of the A’s of this era. While they would win three straight American League pennants by an average of 13 games each season, and then go on to win the first two World Series appearances of this streak, they are rarely mentioned as one of the all-time great teams.

Those exultations are usually used for the Yankees, either before or after this time. Some blame the media for this, with New York being the dominant focus. In looking at the records of the 1926-28 Yankees and the 1929-31 A’s, you would find that the Yankees scored 6 more runs than the A’s, while the A’s allowed 5 fewer runs. The disparity of 1 run between the two is nominal.

The wins may be more telling, with the A’s winning 313 games to the Yankees 302.

It is worth noting that while some of the sportswriters thought the Yankees seemed to be a bit complacent, their season essentially ended in September, with the unexpected death of their manager Miller Huggins, due to blood poisoning.

The A’s did defeat the Cubs in five games to claim their first World Series title since 1913.

But there were some things of note that happened during the 1929 season…

For the Mission Reds of the Pacific Coast League, Ike Boone collected a massive 553 total bases. (Total bases are the sum of: singles = 1 base, doubles = 2, triples = 3, and homers = 4) Babe Ruth set the Major League record with 457.

Boone hit .407 that year, with 323 hits and 55 home runs. He also played 198 games, which was not unusual for the Pacific Coast League.

Before the major league season began, the Yankees announced that they would feature numbers on the backs of their jerseys, the first team to do so. The Cleveland Indians would follow suit, announcing that they would do the same. Thanks to an opening day rain-out, the Indians were the first team to take the field with numbers. The May 13^th match-up of the two teams was the first game in which both teams wore uniform numbers.

Babe Ruth became the first member of the 500 home-run club, after becoming the founding member of the 200, 300 and 400 home-run clubs.

Tom Zachary of the Yankees went 12-0 on the season, the record for the most wins in a season without a loss. Zachary was best remembered as the pitcher that surrendered Babe Ruth's 60th home run in 1927.

Brooklyn pitcher Chase Dudley became the first player to hit a home run on his first pitch in his first big league at bat.
Johnny Frederick of the Dodgers hit 52 doubles to establish a new rookie record.

Phillies outfielder Lefty O'Doul won the NL batting title by hitting .398, which remains the NL record for an outfielder. He finished with 254 hits, a new NL record that would be tied in 1930 by Bill Terry.

Cubs second baseman Rogers Hornsby hit .380 to set a new Cubs team record. That would be the fourth different team’s batting record that he would set in the decade. He was plagued by issues allegedly related to his betting on horses, and as a result, was traded off when those issues became distractions.

On May 1^st, the National League had two scheduled games; Cubs at Reds and Pirates at Cardinals. At the end of the day, both games were called on account of darkness after thirteen innings. And the score of both games was 4-4.

During a July doubleheader, the Cardinals lost the opener 10-6 to the Phillies. In the nightcap, the Cards turned on the offense and trounced the Phils 28-6. The teams combined for a record seventy-three combined hits on the day.

On to the season review, looking at the pitching performances first. National League pitchers were not very productive. They were outpaced by the AL pitchers, and were serving the NL hitters some fat pitches, apparently. Statistically, the NL hitters fared 62.47% better than the pitchers.

With that being said, the initial top ten ranking for NL pitchers, featuring Pat Malone as the only twenty-game winner in the league, is as follows:

PITCHER	TEAM	W-L	ERA
Burleigh Grimes	Pirates	17-7	3.13
Red Lucas	Reds	19-12	3.60
Bill Walker	Giants	14-7	3.09
Pat Malone	Reds	22-10	3.57
Charlie Root	Cubs	19-6	3.47
Carl Hubbell	Giants	18-11	3.69
Watty Clark	Dodgers	16-19	3.74
Ray Kremer	Pirates	18-10	4.26
Dazzy Vance	Dodgers	14-13	3.89
Guy Bush	Cubs	18-7	3.66

Now the pitchers average against their team’s performance gives us this list:

Red Lucas	Above
Watty Clark	Above
Dazzy Vance	Above
Bob Smith	Braves	11-17	4.68
Socks Seibold	Braves	12-17	4.73
John Morrison	Dodgers	13-7	4.48
Pat Malone	Above
Charlie Root	Above
Burleigh Grimes	Above
Ray Kolp	Reds	8-10	4.03

This brings our final pitching ranking for the National league to:

Red Lucas

Burleigh Grimes

Pat Malone

Watty Clark

Dazzy Vance

Charlie Root

Bill Walker

Guy Bush

Carl Hubbell

Ray Kremer

Moving to the American League, where the league wide earned run average was a half a point better than in the NL, and they had three twenty-game winners, we get this initial list:

Lefty Grove	A’s	20-6	2.81
George Earnshaw	A’s	24-8	3.26
Firpo Marberry	Senators	19-12	3.06
Wes Ferrell	Indians	21-10	3.60
Rube Walberg	A’s	18-11	3.60
Tommy Thomas	White Sox	14-18	3.19
Willis Hudlin	Indians	17-15	3.34
Red Faber	White Sox	13-13	3.88
Jake Miller	Indians	14-12	3.58
Lefty Stewart	Browns	13-13	3.88

Then, as compared to their team’s performance, we get this list:

Tommy Thomas	Above
George Uhle	Tigers	15-11	4.08
Firpo Marberry	Above
Red Faber	Above
Danny MacFayden	Red Sox	10-18	3.62
Milt Gaston	Red Sox	12-19	3.73
Ted Lyons	White Sox	14-20	4.10
Wes Ferrell	Above
Ed Morris	Red Sox	14-14	4.45

Which brings us to our overall top ten American League pitchers to this list:

Firpo Marberry

Lefty Grove

Tommy Thomas

George Earnshaw

Wes Ferrell

Willis Hudlin

George Uhle

Lefty Stewart

Jake Miller

Red Faber

No, on to the National League hitters, who fared 7.2% better than the AL hitters, finishing with a league average of .294 to the AL average of .284. Our initial top ten list is:

HITTER	TEAM	HR	RBI	AVG	RC/G
Rogers Hornsby	Cubs	39	149	.380	1.71
Hack Wilson	Cubs	39	159	.345	1.70
Mel Ott	Giants	42	151	.328	1.65
Lefty O’Doul	Phillies	32	122	.398	1.57
Chuck Klein	Phillies	43	145	.356	1.53
Chick Hafey	Cardinals	29	125	.338	1.47
George Grantham	Pirates	12	90	.307	1.48
Jim Bottomley	Cardinals	29	137	.314	1.48
Pie Traynor	Pirates	4	108	.356	1.52
Kiki Cuyler	Cubs	15	102	.360	1.42

And then, comparing performances to team statistics, we get this top ten list:

Babe Herman	Dodgers	21	113	.381	1.35
Mel Ott	Above
Lefty O’Doul	Above
Chick Hafey	Above
Rogers Hornsby	Above
Chuck Klein	Above
Jim Bottomley	Above
Harvey Hendrick	Dodgers	14	82	.354	1.25
Hack Wilson	Above
Curt Walker	Reds	7	83	.313	1.08

Combining and compiling, we get this final top ten list of National League offensive performances:

Rogers Hornsby

Mel Ott

Hack Wilson

Lefty O’Doul

Chuck Klein

Chick Hafey

Babe Herman

Jim Bottomley

George Grantham

Pie Traynor

Shifting over to the American League, which is very top heavy with Hall of Famers, our initial top ten list is:

Babe Ruth	Yankees	46	154	.345	1.70
Al Simmons	A’s	34	157	.365	1.66
Mickey Cochrane	A’s	7	95	.331	1.49
Harry Heilmann	Tigers	15	120	.344	1.53
Jimmie Foxx	A’s	33	118	.354	1.40
Lou Gehrig	Yankees	35	125	.300	1.41
Dale Alexander	Tigers	25	137	.343	1.43
Charlie Gehringer	Tigers	13	106	.339	1.45
Tony Lazzeri	Yankees	18	106	.354	1.29
Lew Fonseca	Indians	6	103	.369	1.31

Then, as compared to their team performances, we get this list:

Babe Ruth	Above
Lew Fonseca	Above
Al Simmons	Above
Mickey Cochrane	Above
Earl Averill	Indians	18	96	.332	1.24
Carl Reynolds	White Sox	11	67	.317	1.05
Lou Gehrig	Above
Harry Heilmann	Above
Jimmie Foxx	Above
Bibb Falk	Indians	13	93	.312	1.16

Which brings us to this top ten American League hitters list:

Babe Ruth

Al Simmons

Mickey Cochrane

Jimmie Foxx

Lou Gehrig

Dale Alexander

Lew Fonseca

Charlie Gehringer

Tony Lazzeri

In 1929, there was only one post season award given, and that was the National League Award, deservedly won by Rogers Hornsby.

My top five vote for players of the year in each league features only offensive players. So, I added the top pitcher in each league, which doesn’t necessarily mean that they were the sixth best performer, but they were the top pitcher.

That list:

National League