Over the holidays, we too soon lost one of the outstanding defensive centerfielders in baseball history. Longtime Oriole Paul Blair passed away in Baltimore, aged only 69.
Among contemporary centerfielders, Blair’s 174 WAR fielding runs from 1964 to 1980 were more than the combined total of Garry Maddox (102) and Ken Berry (69) in second and third place. That 174 mark ranks 4th all-time among centerfielders, close behind Jim Piersall (175) and Willie Mays (183), with those three trailing only the phenomenal total of 236 WAR fielding runs posted by Andruw Jones.
After the jump, more on the career of Paul Blair.
Here are those center field WAR Fielding Runs leaders.
| Rk | Player | Rfield | From | To | Age | G | PA | Pos | Tm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andruw Jones | 236 | 1996 | 2012 | 19-35 | 2196 | 8664 | *89H7D/3 | ATL-LAD-TEX-CHW-NYY |
| 2 | Willie Mays | 183 | 1951 | 1973 | 20-42 | 2992 | 12496 | *8H/39675 | NYG-SFG-TOT-NYM |
| 3 | Jim Piersall | 175 | 1950 | 1967 | 20-37 | 1734 | 6592 | *89H7/65 | BOS-CLE-WSA-TOT-LAA-CAL |
| 4 | Paul Blair | 174 | 1964 | 1980 | 20-36 | 1947 | 6673 | *8H/974D56 | BAL-TOT-NYY |
| 5 | Devon White | 135 | 1985 | 2001 | 22-38 | 1941 | 8080 | *89H/7D | CAL-TOR-FLA-ARI-LAD-MIL |
| 6 | Willie Wilson | 108 | 1976 | 1994 | 20-38 | 2154 | 8317 | *87H/9D | KCR-OAK-CHC |
| 7 | Kenny Lofton | 104 | 1991 | 2007 | 24-40 | 2103 | 9235 | *8/H7D9 | HOU-ATL-CLE-NYY-PHI-LAD-TOT |
| 8 | Willie Davis | 104 | 1960 | 1979 | 20-39 | 2429 | 9822 | *8H/97D | LAD-MON-TOT-SDP-CAL |
| 9 | Garry Maddox | 101 | 1972 | 1986 | 22-36 | 1749 | 6777 | *8H/79 | SFG-TOT-PHI |
| 10 | Curt Flood | 99 | 1956 | 1971 | 18-33 | 1759 | 6957 | *8H/7549 | CIN-STL-WSA |
| 11 | Chet Lemon | 94 | 1975 | 1990 | 20-35 | 1988 | 7874 | *89/HD574 | CHW-DET |
| 12 | Tris Speaker | 92 | 1907 | 1928 | 19-40 | 2790 | 11992 | *8/H3971 | BOS-CLE-WSH-PHA |
| 13 | Max Carey | 86 | 1910 | 1929 | 20-39 | 2476 | 10771 | *879/H | PIT-TOT-BRO |
| 14 | Carlos Gomez | 85 | 2007 | 2013 | 21-27 | 823 | 2720 | *8H/79D | NYM-MIN-MIL |
| 15 | Brett Gardner | 84 | 2008 | 2013 | 24-29 | 620 | 2228 | *87/HD | NYY |
Note that the last two names on the list are players who have played less than half as long as every other player above them (and less than one third of the time that some of the others have played). These active leaders have “benefited” (if that’s the right word) from the recent usage of Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) as the metric in WAR Fielding Runs. While DRS is generally acknowledged as more accurate than its predecessor, Total Zone Runs or TZR, it can tend to reward the top performers more handsomely than TZR (as an example, Gomez and Gardner score 40 and 41 for TZR, less than half of their DRS results; on the other hand, Andruw Jones maintains his huge lead on the field, actually scoring even higher with TZR which credits him with a 242 score).
After a September call-up as a 20 year-old in 1964, Blair was elevated to the Orioles’ primary centerfielder the following season, a position he would own for 12 straight years until traded to the Yankees following the 1976 season. In his time in Baltimore, Blair won 8 gold gloves, 7 of them consecutively from 1969 to 1975. Blair also had 7 seasons leading AL centerfielders in Total Zone Runs (plus two 2nd place finishes). He led players at all positions in TZR in 1969 and placed no worse than 3rd in TZR among players at all positions in 4 of 6 seasons from 1967 to 1972.
Blair’s first gold glove came in 1967, his finest offensive season, when he posted a 135 OPS+ and 6.8 WAR. His best WAR season was a 7.1 total in 1969, one of five seasons over 5 WAR. For his career, Blair’s 37.9 WAR was split evenly between offense (18.7) and defense (18.6). Of 26 players (incl. partial careers for some players) since 1901 with less than 40 career WAR but 15+ offensive and defensive WAR, Blair is the only outfielder (the others are 5 catchers, 3 second basemen and 17 shortstops).
The Orioles of Blair’s time boasted outstanding defense at 3 positions with Blair in center, Brooks Robinson at 3rd base and Luis Aparicio and, later, Mark Belanger at shortstop. Matched with a legendary pitching staff that produced no fewer than seventeen 20 win seasons, Blair’s Orioles won 4 AL championships and two World Series titles (plus two other seasons topping the AL East). Two more WS crowns would follow in two seasons as a part-time centerfielder with the 1977 and 1978 Yankees.
Blair finished his career with one season of part-time play on a 1979 Reds team that won the NL West while boasting no fewer than 31 gold gloves split among Blair (8), Johnny Bench (10), Joe Morgan (5), Dave Concepcion (4) and Cesar Geronimo (4). Blair appeared briefly with the 1980 Yankees before retiring at age 36.
Quiz time: for you trivia buffs, Blair is one of just four retired players to play their entire careers since 1901 and record 5 or more 5 WAR seasons, but have no other seasons of 3 WAR. Who are the other three?
By the way, in the same elegaic vein:
Most World Series Games Played at Second Base:
1. Frankie Frisch 42
2. Eddie Collins 34
3. Bobby Richardson 31
4. Tony Lazzeri 30
5. Joe Gordon 29
6. Billy Martin 27
7. Mark Lemke 24
T8. Jerry Coleman, Davey Lopes and Joe Morgan 23
Some more quirky Coleman trivia.
His 723 career regular season games are the fewest for players with 25 or more World Series games. 4 of the other bottom 10 were teammates of Coleman.
Generated 1/8/2014.
Highest ratio of WS games played to regular season games played (25 WS games played minimum).
Gil McDougald, .0397
Joe Collins, .0396
Jerry Coleman, .0360
Yogi Berra, .0354
Hank Bauer, .0343
Tony Kubek, .0339
Elston Howard, .0336
Phil Rizzuto, .0313
Joe DiMaggio, .0294
Roger Maris, .0280
Jackie Robinson, .0275
Billy Martin, .0274
Mickey Mantle, .0271
RC:
All but Kubek, DiMaggio, and Maris played in the 1955 Series. All but those three and Rizzuto played in the 1956 Series.
Whitey Ford only played in 22 WS games, but his ratio was .044. Does any other starting pitcher with, say 6 starts or more, beat that? Rivera relieved in 24 games, but his ratio is just .022. Does any reliever of note beat that?
We’re obviously getting desperate here for the start of spring training.
For pitchers with at least 6 WS starts here is the top of the list.
Whitey Ford, .044
Vic Raschi, .030
Gary Nolan, .028
Don Gullett, .026
Bob Turley, .026
George Earnshaw, .025
Andy Pettitte, .024
Chief Bender, .022
John Tudor, .021
Carl Erskine, .021
Ed Lopat, .021
Allie Reynolds, .021
Being partial to round numbers, I used 5 WS appearances as a qualifier and only considered retired players.
Here are your top 10 for starters, with a rate based only on games started.
For relievers, these are the leaders with rates based only on relief appearances.
And, for any pitching appearance.
Doug:
Who would have guessed Bob Turley did all that relief work? Not me, at least.
@4/Doug,
Coleman died last Sunday (Jan 5th), after being hospitalized for a fall in his home. He was 89 years old.
He’s probably better known to many fans as a longtime broadcaster for the Yankees, Angels and especially the Padres (1972-2013).
Yes, I was debating whether to do a piece on Coleman or on Blair, and went with the latter.
In addition to Coleman, the Padres’ broadcast team in recent year included Dick Enberg, now aged 79 after joining the Padres at age 75.
Jerry Coleman is in the Radio Hall of Fame.
Quiz answer:
Felipe Alou
Mike Schmidt
Nomar Garciaparra
Correct, Sir Richard. Child’s play for a P-I whiz like yourself 🙂 .
Schmidt is the interesting one of those three, with 14 seasons of 5 WAR, all consecutively. Not only did he have no other seasons of 3 WAR, he had no other seasons of 2 WAR. It was 145 games of 1.9 WAR to start his career and 150 games of 1.4 WAR to end it. In between was unrelenting excellence.
The bulk of Brett Gardner’s 84 came in 2010-2011, when he played left field.
Good observation.
The data are for entire careers for players playing at least 50% of games in centerfield.
Most WAR By An AL Center Fielder, 1961 through 1978:
1. Paul Blair 39.4
2. Amos Otis 37.0
3. Mickey Mantle 36.0
4. Reggie Smith 34.1
5. Bobby Murcer 27.4
Yes, I’m cherry-picking a period that covers all of Blair’s career while catching only the end of Mantle’s career and the beginning of Otis’s, Smith’s and Murcer’s. But still impressive. Though note that if you look at both leagues, not just the AL, over that same period, Blair is topped in WAR by Willie Mays, Willie Davis, Jim Wynn, Reggie Smith, Cesar Cedeno and Vada Pinson (a list, BTW, that may remind us how much African-American participation in baseball has declined lately).
I remember Paul Blair only as a Yankee.
He would play the last few innings two or three times a week as a defensive replacement at
all three OF positions.
His hitting was awful, due primarily to a beaning several years earlier.
He was not on the team because of his hitting.
36 years later I can still see Blair gracefully devour everything hit near him and never throw to the wrong base.
It is cool when the new defensive metrics perfectly correlate with the memory.
RIP Mr. Blair.
Blair proved useful to the Yankees by helping Mickey Rivers to improve his fielding. Rivers was weak on balls hit directly over his head.
Weak also describes Mickey’s arm.
I recall how he would throw the ball in very quickly, by design I am sure, hoping to mitigate his lack of arm strength.
Without checking, my guess is that Rivers would be the outfielder Blair most often replaced in those late innings in 77&78.
Blair’s contributions to the Yankees were not solely defensive. He singled in the winning run in the 12th inning in Game 1 of the 1977 WS.
My favorite memory of Rivers:
One spring training, he was once quoted “my goals are to hit over .300, score at least a 100 runs, and stay injury-prone” :).
Re Rivers:
How about, “153 pounds is my base-stealing weight; 163 pounds is my homer-hitting weight”?
@22/Paul E,
So Rivers weighed 153 lbs. in 1974-76, and 163 in 1977-78?
LA #23:
Great question. I recall Rivers making the comments – perhaps after a 2-HR game or a weekend where he homered multiple times. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t when he was with Texas. I’ll see if I can find it in the ethereal world of the internet 🙁
I also remember some sportswriter commenting during the World Series sweep by the Reds that the 1976 NY Yankees outfielders “threw like Charlie’s Angels”. Strange, the %&#* you remember…..
That Piersall Rfield total is sick. I knew Jimmy was good. I knew he assisted the Sox and Cubs back in the day as an outfield coach, and Harry once in a while referred to Jimmy’s superior defense as a player (though not as often as to Jimmy’s “craziness”), but that total is hard to get your mind around. I mean, the guy only played a handful of full seasons. He missed a whole lot of games to various maladies, mental and physical. To be up there with Willie Mays, who played, what, 1200 more games, and ahead of Paul Blair, RIP, who I used to think of as the avatar of CF, is mind-boggling to me.
Man, you learn something new everyday.
And I’ll have to lift one to Blair tonight. Man, that guy was awesome to watch.
As great defensively as Blair was, I don’t think he quite belongs in the same class as Mays and Andruw Jones. Plus, Speaker needs to near the very top. So, if you swapped Speaker and Blair, the chart above would be a whole lot more believable.
I’m just not buying that Speaker had barely more defensive value in his entire career of almost 2800 games, than 4/5 years worth of games from Brett Gardner and Carlos Gomez. I suspect the further you go back in MLB history, the harder it is to accurately measure defensive valuue. How else to explain that only two of the top 15 defensive centerfielders all-time started their career after 1950?
I never saw an outfielder launch the ball as high as Rivers when throwing it in.
Whoever that sportswriter was that made that comment about Rivers during the sweep in 76, he (it is 1976 I can confidently assume “he”), should not insult Charlie ‘s Angels like that.
I watched Battle of the Network Stars.
Farrah Fawcett could play any position on my team.
Who else had the poster???