Quiz – Potpourri (solved)

Interesting group of different kinds of players. That’s the attraction of this quiz.

But this ballplayer potpourri are the only players with a season since 1901 with a particular batting accomplishment. What is this unusual exploit?

Rk	Player
1	Nap Lajoie
2	Paul Waner
3	Ichiro Suzuki
4	Lou Brock
5	Zack Wheat
6	Phil Rizzuto
7	Curtis Granderson
8	Heinie Manush
9	Pepper Martin
10	Lonnie Smith

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/15/2014.

Congratulations to Artie Z! He correctly identified these players as having the only seasons since 1901 with 120 runs scored and matching triple and HR totals. For whatever reason, having a season with those two totals matching seems to be strongly correlated with going to the HOF. More on this curious quirk after the jump.

This analysis isn’t. Just some fun with numbers. 🙂

Here are the top HR=3B seasons (i.e. the highest matching totals). Half were turned in by HOFers.

Rk	Player	HR	OPS+	3B	Year	Age	Tm	G	PA	R	H	2B	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	Pos
1	Curtis Granderson	23	135	23	2007	26	DET	158	676	122	185	38	74	52	141	.302	.361	.552	*8/H7
2	Frank Schulte	21	157	21	1911	28	CHC	154	687	105	173	30	107	76	71	.300	.384	.534	*9
3	Ryne Sandberg	19	140	19	1984	24	CHC	156	700	114	200	36	84	52	101	.314	.367	.520	*4
4	Joe Medwick	18	123	18	1934	22	STL	149	646	110	198	40	106	21	83	.319	.343	.529	*7/9
5	Sam Crawford	16	167	16	1901	21	CIN	131	559	91	170	20	104	37	45	.330	.378	.524	*9/7
6	Carl Crawford	15	112	15	2005	23	TBD	156	687	101	194	33	81	27	84	.301	.331	.469	*7/8HD
7	Paul Waner	15	133	15	1929	26	PIT	151	704	131	200	43	100	89	24	.336	.424	.534	*9/3H
8	Donn Clendenon	14	129	14	1965	29	PIT	162	676	89	184	32	96	48	128	.301	.351	.467	*3/H5
9	Heinie Manush	14	134	14	1932	30	WSH	149	677	121	214	41	116	36	29	.342	.383	.520	*7/H
10	Zack Wheat	14	142	14	1925	37	BRO	150	671	125	221	42	103	45	22	.359	.403	.541	*7/H
11	Heinie Zimmerman	14	169	14	1912	25	CHC	145	619	95	207	41	99	38	60	.372	.418	.571	*53
12	Nap Lajoie	14	198	14	1901	26	PHA	131	582	145	232	48	125	24	9	.426	.463	.643	*46
13	Enos Slaughter	13	144	13	1949	33	STL	151	655	92	191	34	96	79	37	.336	.418	.511	*7/H
14	Gus Suhr	13	115	13	1934	28	PIT	151	650	67	162	36	103	66	52	.283	.360	.459	*3
15	George Watkins	13	112	13	1931	31	STL	131	541	93	145	30	51	31	66	.288	.336	.477	*9/8H
16	Freddy Leach	13	103	13	1930	32	NYG	126	581	90	178	19	71	22	25	.327	.361	.482	*7/H

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/16/2014.

HOFers (since 1901) to do this in a qualifying season more than once:

Rk		Yrs	From	To	Age
1	Paul Waner	4	1929	1942	26-39	Ind. Seasons
2	Ozzie Smith	3	1990	1994	35-39	Ind. Seasons
3	Eddie Collins	3	1918	1925	31-38	Ind. Seasons
4	Robin Yount	2	1977	1978	21-22	Ind. Seasons
5	Luis Aparicio	2	1968	1969	34-35	Ind. Seasons
6	Brooks Robinson	2	1958	1961	21-24	Ind. Seasons
7	Enos Slaughter	2	1948	1949	32-33	Ind. Seasons
8	Red Schoendienst	2	1948	1952	25-29	Ind. Seasons
9	Billy Herman	2	1942	1943	32-33	Ind. Seasons
10	Joe Medwick	2	1934	1942	22-30	Ind. Seasons
11	Jim Bottomley	2	1934	1935	34-35	Ind. Seasons
12	Heinie Manush	2	1932	1934	30-32	Ind. Seasons
13	Zack Wheat	2	1914	1925	26-37	Ind. Seasons
14	George Davis	2	1901	1905	30-34	Ind. Seasons

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/16/2014.

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Richard Chester

10 years ago

I got it but I’ll leave it for someone else to solve.

Lawrence Azrin

10 years ago

es it have to do with a ratio of runs scored to another stat? They all scored at least 120 runs in a season at least once (Waner did it 3 times).

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

The 120 runs is part of the solution.

Artie Z.

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

They all had a season where they had 120+ runs and 3B=HR.

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Artie Z.

Bingo. Well done, Artie Z. Don’t know what it is about matching triple and HR totals, but seems to be a disproportionate number of HOFers in the list. Even taking away the 120 run requirement, 8 of the top 16 HR=3B seasons are by HOFers. Rk Player HR 3B Year Age Tm G PA R H 2B RBI BA OBP SLG OPS 1 Curtis Granderson 23 23 2007 26 DET 158 676 122 185 38 74 .302 .361 .552 .913 2 Frank Schulte 21 21 1911 28 CHC 154 687 105 173 30 107 .300 .384 .534 .918 3 Ryne… Read more »

Lawrence Azrin

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

@8/Doug,

That 1901 Nap Lajoie season looks totally freakin’ awesome, like one of the very greatest seasons ever. But by WAR, it’s not even as good as his 1910 (9.8 to 8.4). I don’t understand – every individual component of WAR looks better in 1901 than 1910.

So what happened – did Nap’s 1901 WAR get reduced for ‘lesser strength of league’, since 1901 was the 1st year of the AL, and it might be called an expansion year, like 1961/62 or 1969?

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

I think that’s it. Here are AL R/G (per team): 1901 – 5.35 1902 – 4.89 1903 – 4.10 1904 – 3.54 After that, it stabilized in the mid-3’s. Must have been some fun ball to watch that first year. Lajoie, who had jumped cross-town from the Phillies to the As, played just that one year for Mack. He was declared a free agent the following season and went to Cleveland. Wound up back with the As as a 40 year-old, playing two seasons to close out his career, with the As going 79-226 (Gene Woodling suffered a similar misfortune… Read more »

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

As I recall, Lajoie had to leave the A’s because he had broken his contract with the Phillies and wasn’t allowed to play in Pa. for anyone but them. So Lajoie had to skip all of Cleveland’s away games against the A’s

Lawrence Azrin

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

@11/Doug, The ‘Dead Ball Era’ is usually defined as 1901-1919. However, look at MLB R/G averages over these years: 1900 – 5.21 1901 – 4.99 1902 – 4.43 1903 – 4.44 ……….. 1904 – 3.72 1905 – 3.89 1906 – 3.61 1907 – 3.52 1908 – 3.38 (low point) Scoring didn’t fall substantially below the historical average of 4.42 R/G until 1904, so _perhaps_ the DBE should be defined as 1904-1919 instead. Causes? Foul balls with less than two strikes were called strikes in the NL in 1901, but not till 1903 in the AL. More importantly, the spitball was… Read more »

Luis Gomez

10 years ago

120 Runs by Lonnie Smith in 1982. Is that a record for most runs by a player on his only 100-run season?

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

Since 1901 there have been 26 players, including Smith, who have scored 120+ runs in their only year of 100+ runs scored.

Here are the top 6:
Nap Lajoie, 145
Ellis Burks, 142
Jesse Burkett, 142
Roger Maris, 132
Rocky Colavito, 129
Rod Carew, 128

oneblankspace

10 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Rizzuto is not on that list, as he had 110 in the season before his 125 runs.

TheGoof

10 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

That’s misleading for Lajoie and Burkett, who had multiple 100-run seasons before 1901.

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

I made a similar run for players with 120+ RBI in their only year of 100+ RBI. There are 23 such players. The top 6 are:

Tommy Davis, 153
Walt Dropo, 144
Jim Gentile, 141
Don Baylor, 139
Ed Morgan, 136
Hal McRae, 133

Davis’ second best in RBI is 89, a differential of 64 RBI. I believe the record for the greatest such difference is 83 by ALer Jake Jones (96 RBI and 13 RBI).

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

Lonnie also had only one 20 HR season (in 1989 when he led the NL in OBP and WAR), but no other season with 10 home runs.

In 1982, Smith led the NL in R, CS and HBP. Wonder if anyone else has done that.

Has any other player appeared in the World Series for 4 different teams, or with 3 different WS winners?

Lawrence Azrin

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

@17/Doug,

In 1915 Ty Cobb led in runs (144), CS (38), and was 3rd in HBP (10). Lou Brock and Rickey Henderson twice led in runs and CD.

Kenny Lofton was in the playoffs with six different teams, Rickey Henderson five.

The B-R P-I was not used for the above.

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

In 1925 Johnny Mostil led the AL with 12 HBP, 135 R and 20 CS.

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

Lonnie and 10 others (retired players since 1901) have one 20 HR season and no other 10 HR seasons. The others are:

Rk
1	Wally Moses
2	Roy Smalley
3	Ken Hunt
4	Chico Fernandez
5	Walt Bond
6	Sam Bowens
7	Bert Campaneris
8	Joe Charboneau
9	Bobby Crosby
10	Orestes Destrade

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/17/2014.

Can probably add Josh Fields to the list. He’s 31 and hasn’t played in the majors since 2010, and hasn’t had 300 PA since 2007.

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

Stuffy McInnis and Wally Schang have also appeared on 3 different WS winning teams.

Fred Merkle and Terry Pendleton both appeared in 5 World Series but never on the winning team.

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

Has anyone mentioned that Jack Morris appeared for 3 different winning WS teams; DET 1984, MIN 1991 and TOR 1992?

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Granderson and Schulte had their 3B = HR seasons when they also had more than 20 doubles. That made them only 2 of 7 players with more than 20 doubles, triples and homers in a season. The other 5 are Willie Mays, Jim Bottomley, Jimmy Rollins, Jeff Heath and George Brett.

HowardR

10 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

In 1899 Buck Freeman became the only player to hit 25 triples and homers in the same season. He missed your list by one double.

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to HowardR

Excepting Ned Williamson’s heavily asterisked 27 HR in 1884, those 25 HR were the major league record until Babe Ruth hit 29 in 1919, and the NL record until Rogers Hornsby his 42 in 1922.

oneblankspace

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

Williamson… what was it, 184 down the line? Six of the top seven (and 7 of the top 10) in NL HR in 1884 played for the White Stockings.

PaulE

10 years ago

I recall when Smith was approaching 70 SB and 70 RBI in 1982, there was talk it hadn’t been done in a long time. Another nice job by the Phillies front office in trading away a guy who immediately becomes an MVP candidate. Phillies probably would have won the division if they hadn’t traded Smith?

In another note, supposedly Wally Moses could still hit the ball 350 feet as an older hitting instructor (age 55?).

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to PaulE

Those 70/70 seasons are pretty unusual, tightly bunched in two clumps separated by (appropriately enough) 70 years. 10 such seasons since 1901, 6 of them from 1909 to 1915, and the other 4 from 1983 to 1986. Rk Player SB RBI Year ▴ Age Tm G PA R H 2B 3B HR BB SO CS BA OBP SLG OPS Pos 1 Ty Cobb 76 107 1909 22 DET 156 651 116 216 33 10 9 48 45 .377 .431 .517 .947 *9 2 Eddie Collins 81 81 1910 23 PHA 153 658 81 188 16 15 3 49 41 .324 .382… Read more »