Betcha can’t do that again: musings on one-season wonders

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Some players have career years in which they far exceed their previous best performance and, as it turns out, any subsequent performance. Using FanGraphs leaderboards, I’ve identified the record-holders of this type.

This post takes a quick look at the players who had the largest difference between their best and second-best seasons in a variety of different statistical categories. Thanks to HHS reader Richard Chester for the idea for this post.

Before getting into the records for the biggest differences between the best and second best seasons, it would be remiss to not mention the true one-season wonders who played just a single season. Here are those record holders for seasons since 1901:

Games: 152 – Sparky Anderson 1959
Plate Appearances: 651 – Irv Waldron 1901
Hits: 186 – Irv Waldron 1901
Singles: 155 – Irv Waldron 1901
Doubles: 26 – Al Boucher 1914, Buzz Arlett 1931, Buddy Blair 1942
Triples: 9 – Irv Waldron 1901, Joe Martin 1903
Home Runs: 18 – Buzz Arlett 1931
Extra-base Hits: 51 – Buzz Arlett 1931
Sacrifice Hits: 23 – Al Boucher 1914
Runs: 102 – Irv Waldron 1901
RBI: 72 – Buzz Arlett 1931
Walks: 80 – Goat Anderson 1907
Hit by Pitch: 7 – Dusty Miller 1902, Red Morgan 1906, Newt Randall 1907, Tex Vache 1925
Strikeouts: 88 – Al Boucher 1914
Stolen Bases: 27 – Goat Anderson 1907
WAR (Fangraphs): 2.6 – Buzz Arlett 1931
WAR (B-R): 2.8 – Buzz Arlett 1931
Offensive WAR (B-R): 3.3 – Buzz Arlett 1931
Defensive WAR (B-R): 1.2 – Art Kores 1915
Batting Average (Qualifying): .313 – Tex Vache 1925, Buzz Arlett 1931
Batting Average (200 PA): .324 – Judge McCredie 1903, Monk Sherlock 1930
On-Base Percentage (Qualifying): .387 – Buzz Arlett 1931
On-Base Percentage (200 PA): .397 – Judge McCredie 1903
Slugging Percentage (Qualifying and 200 PA): .538 – Buzz Arlett 1931
OPS (Qualifying and 200 PA): .925 – Buzz Arlett 1931
OPS+ (Qualifying and 200 PA): 138 – Buzz Arlett 1931

Here are the top 5 highest totals for each category among players to play only a single season.

[table id=177 /]

Now for the players with the largest drops from their best to second-best seasons, for seasons since 1901.

Games

139 – Bobby Vaughn: 144 games in 1915, second best was 5 in 1909

Vaughn’s 1915 season as second baseman for the Federal League’s St. Louis Terriers included a majors-leading 42 sacrifice hits. After the Federal League folded, Vaughn played two seasons in the PCL.

Vaughn also takes the prize for sacrifice hits with a difference of 42 between his 1915 and 1909 seasons.

Second in games difference was Ike Davis (see Runs below) with a 136 game difference between his 1925 and 1924 seasons.

Plate Appearances

643 – Ike Davis: 681 PA in 1925, second best was 37 in 1924

See Runs below for more on Ike Davis.

Hits

147 – Lou Klein: 180 hits in 1943, second best was 33 hits in 1951

Klein’s big year came as a rookie second-baseman for the NL champion Cardinals, excelling with his bat and glove (3.9 oWAR, 2.9 dWAR). His B-Ref page doesn’t mention it, but I’m guessing Klein was in the military the next two seasons as he didn’t play in the minors either year and played for the Cardinals in 1945 only at the tail end of the season. Klein played in Mexico after that and didn’t play again in the majors until the second half of the 1949 season. After a trade to the Reds, Klein was back in the minors in 1950 in the PCL before a final season in the majors with the Indians and Athletics in 1951. Klein would bounce around the minors until the 1959 season with the Cubs’ affiliate in Fort Worth.

Klein and Troy Tulowitzki are the only players at any position with 3.5 oWAR and 2.5 dWAR in a rookie season.

Singles

116 – Bobby Vaughn: 118 1B in 1915, second best was 2 in 1909

See Games above for more on Vaughn.

Outside of Federal League players, the next highest difference is 110 by Lou Klein (see Hits above) between his 1943 and 1951 seasons.

Doubles

37 – Earl Webb: 67 2B in 1931, second best was 30 2B in the preceding 1930 season

Manny Machado was on pace last season to break Webb’s all-time mark. But maintaining a record-setting pace for a full season is no easy task. Webb himself was hot and cold (in relative terms) that season with 47 doubles coming in May, July and September and only 20 in the other three months.

Webb’s doubles were 50 more than his other extra-base hits, second only to the Indians’ George Burns who had 57 more doubles than other XBH in 1926.

Triples

22 – Chief Wilson: 36 3B in 1912, second best was 14 3B in the following 1913 season

As with Earl Webb, Wilson holds the all-time record. But, unlike Webb (or any other counting stat record-holder), nobody else has ever come close to Wilson’s mark, with 3 players tied for 2nd most with only 26 three-baggers. Wilson’s Pirates logged 129 triples that season, the most for any team. Forbes Field was evidently a triples mecca as Pirate teams hold down 4 of the top 5 seasons for team triples, plus 7 of the top 12, and 10 of the top 17, but with none of those seasons later than 1930.

Second place on the triples list belongs to Joe Cassidy of the Senators. As a 21 year-old in 1904, Cassidy led the majors with 19 triples, tied with Juan Samuel (among others) for the third-highest rookie total. In almost identical playing time the next season, Cassidy slumped to 4 triples (though he scored 4 more runs and drove in 10 more). After off-season surgery for a spike wound suffered the previous August, Cassidy contracted typhoid fever and died in March 1906.

Home Runs

26 – Brady Anderson: 50 HR in 1996, second best was 24 HR in 1999

26 – Luis Gonzalez: 57 HR in 2001, second best was 31 HR in the preceding 2000 season

Anderson’s heroics led the Orioles to a 2nd place AL East finish behind the eventual world champion Yankees. Anderson batted leadoff in 102 of 149 games, with his 35 HR from that spot good for 3rd best behind seasons of 39 and 38 homers by Alfonso Soriano.

Gonzalez’s big year paced the Diamondback offense as they took the NL crown and World Series title in only their fourth season of existence. Gonzalez started hot with 5 homers in his first 5 games and stayed hot all season, homering in consecutive games 12 times, including twice in 3 straight outings. His season slash of .325/.429/.688 included maintaining a .320 average from May 6 to season’s end, and staying above .340 from June 10 to Aug 31.

Extra-base Hits

44 – Charlie Hanford: 53 XBH in 1914, second best was 9 XBH in the following 1915 season

44 – Mandy Brooks: 46 XBH in 1925, second best was 2 XBH in the following 1926 season

44 – Ken Hunt: 57 XBH in 1961, second best was 13 XBH in 1963

Hanford and Brooks both played just two seasons: Hanford was a 32 year-old rookie and an everyday outfielder in the Federal League in 1914, and a part time player the next season; Brooks got called up by the Cubs in late May and was an instant sensation with .398/.421/.825 and 9 homers in his first 25 games, but never made it back to the majors after a slow start the following season.

Hunt’s season with the expansion Angels was his first full campaign after cups of coffee the previous two years with the Yankees. An injury wiped out most of the following season and he never regained his form after that. Hunt’s 33 career homers are the fewest among players with 25 home runs as a rookie. Well back in second place on that list is Norm Zauchin with 50.

Runs

100 – Ike Davis: 105 runs in 1925, second best was 5 runs in the preceding 1924 season

Davis’s big season came as a 30 year-old rookie shortstop with the White Sox. He never played in the majors again. As Davis was out of baseball entirely the next two seasons before one final season in the minors, he may have moved on to other ambitions before making an abortive comeback, but who knows.

Davis’s 135 hits in 1925 are the fewest (by 10) of any player with 100 runs in a rookie season.

RBI

83 – Jake Jones: 96 RBI in 1947, second best was 13 RBI in the preceding 1946 season

Jones’ big season came as a rookie first baseman, and was unusual (for a rookie) in that he was traded mid-season from the White Sox to the Red Sox. While he put up similar BA and OBP for both his teams, Jones evidently encountered many more RBI opportunities for the powerhouse Boston club. After a slow start the following season (his last), Jones rode the pine the rest of the season. And he really rode the pine, with just 14 games and 33 PA from June onward (including just one appearance in July), despite remaining with the big club the entire season.

Jones’ 117 career RBI are second fewest among players with 90 RBI as a rookie. Only Charlie Hanford (see XBH above) with 112 RBI (all in the Federal League) had less.

WAR (Fangraphs version)

5.6 – Lou Klein: 6.1 WAR in 1943, second best was 0.5 WAR in 1949

Klein’s 1943 WAR on Baseball-Reference is tops among rookie second basemen, with his 5.8 mark just edging out Joe Morgan at 5.7. On Fangraphs, Klein’s 6.1 trails Bill Kenworthy‘s Federal League 6.3 mark in 1914 (only 4.8 on Baseball-Reference) with Bobby Grich at 5.4 (4.8 on Baseball-Reference) and Morgan at 5.1. However you slice it, it was a fine season for Klein about which more is mentioned above under Hits.

Walks

73 – Marty Berghammer: 83 BB in 1915, second best was 10 BB in both 1913 and 1914

Despite those 83 walks and a .371 OBP, Berghammer could do no better than a 95 OPS+ (though with 96 runs) for the Federal League’s Pittsburgh Rebels. Berghammer, who had jumped from the Reds, was unable to jump back when the Federal League folded, and instead played 10 more seasons in the minors, all with the American Association’s St. Paul Saints.

Ike Davis (see Runs above) takes second place with a walk difference of 69 (71 vs. 2) between his 1925 and 1924 seasons.

Hit by Pitch

24 – Ron Hunt: 50 HBP in 1970, second best was 26 HBP in both 1969 and 1971

Actually, there was another category (besides triples) where nobody else has come close to the single season record-holder. Ron Hunt has a comfortable 15 HBP margin over runner-up Don Baylor‘s total of 35 in 1986. Hunt led the majors in HBP for 6 straight seasons (1968-73) and was never below 24 HBP in that period. He was the career leader with 243 when he retired (he now stands fourth). All of that translated into a lifetime .368 OBP, higher than his SLG mark and 95 points better than his batting average.

Strikeouts

99 – Jack McCandless: 99 SO in 1915, second highest was 0 in the preceding 1914 season

McCandless played only in the Federal League, leading that circuit in whiffs in 1915 after having none in 35 plate appearances the year before.

Outside of the Federal League, the largest difference is 98 by Orestes Destrade (130 in 1993, 32 in 1994).

Stolen Bases

53 – Eric Yelding: 64 SB in 1990, second best was 11 SB in both 1989 and 1991

Despite those 64 steals, Yelding managed just 69 runs scored, in part due to a majors-leading 25 times caught stealing. After debuting the season before at shortstop, Yelding played most of 1990 in the outfield (though he still had 40 games at short) before moving back to shortstop in 1991. But, doesn’t matter where you play if you can’t crack 70 OPS+, which Yelding never did in 5 big league seasons.

Yelding’s 64 stolen bases in 1990 are second only to Houston teammate Gerald Young‘s 65 in 1988, among seasons since 1951 with a stolen base success rate under 72%. Young and Yelding in 1988-90 made it 3 years in a row for an Astro to lead the NL in caught stealing.

For the rate stats, I’ve grouped these into marks for qualifying seasons and for 200 PA seasons.

Batting Average

Qualifying: .101 – Doc Farrell: .316 in 1927, second best was .215 in following 1928 season

200 PA: .119 – Tom Saffell: .322 in 1949, second best was .203 in following 1950 season

Following an impressive 1926 rookie campaign (.287/.341/.392), Farrell’s hot start in 1927 (.387/.442/.535 through 42 games) was enough for the Braves to offer up promising right-hander Larry Benton to acquire the slugging shortstop from the Giants. Farrell finished off a decent season in Boston, then nosedived, while Benton went 25-9 for the Giants in 1928 with a 142 ERA+. It would be 8 years before Boston reacquired a spent Benton. But, at least they managed to dump Farrell back on the Giants in 1929.

After cratering in 1950, the 28 year-old Saffell dove deeper still to a Bill Bergen-esque 32 OPS+ over his final 244 PA.

On-Base Percentage

Qualifying: .128 – Jim Hickman: .419 in 1970, second best was .291 in 1963

200 PA: .121 – Tom Saffell: .385 in 1949, second best was .264 in following 1950 season

Those were Hickman’s only two qualifying seasons, but he did have 5 other seasons of 400 PA and one more just under that mark. 1970 was definitely his career year with 155 OPS+ and an All-Star selection for the Cubs. Hickman followed that up with four more very serviceable seasons of .260/.356/.422 and 111 OPS+.

See Batting Average above for a few words on the unfortunate Tom Saffell.

Slugging Percentage

Qualifying: .220 – Larry Sheets: .563 in 1987, second best was .343 in following 1988 season

200 PA: .217 – Tex Erwin: .445 in 1911, second best was .228 in preceding 1910 season

Those were the only qualifying seasons for Sheets, who had four other seasons above 300 PA. These two seasons split his career into two equal-sized but very different halves, with 1250 PA of 127 OPS+ through 1987 and 1252 PA of 88 OPS+ from 1988 onward.

That nice improvement from 1910 to 1911 didn’t take and Erwin regressed to his below-replacement-level mean over the remaining 100 games and 240 PA of his career. Brent Lillibridge may yet exceed Erwin’s mark. Lillibridge currently has a .231 difference between his 2011 (.505) and 2012 (.274) seasons. With a -26 OPS+ in 2013, there may not be many more games in the 30 year-old’s career.

OPS

Qualifying: .311 – Jim Hickman: 1.001 in 1970, second best was .690 in 1963

200 PA: .306 – Tex Erwin: .811 in 1911, second best was .505 in preceding 1910 season

See On-Base Percentage above for more about Jim Hickman. See Slugging Percentage above for more about Tex Erwin. Brent Lillibridge may yet surpass Erwin. Lillibridge currently has a .321 difference between his 2011 (.845) and 2012 (.524) seasons.

Here are the top 5 biggest declines from highest to second-highest season totals, for each category.

[table id=178 /]

Let me know if this is interesting or not. If you like it, I’ll do a similar post on pitchers.

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Mr. Dave

10 years ago

This was a great post. I’d love to see one on the pitching side.

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to Mr. Dave

Certain to be on the pitching list is Dodger (or whatever they were called then) pitcher Henry Schmidt who played only in 1903. He had 22 wins, 13 losses and 301 IP, but with only an 84 ERA+. He chose not to return to the ML because he lived on the west coast and did not want to spend 6 months of the year in the eastern part of the country.

bstar

10 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Mark Fidrych dropped from 9.6 rWAR in his best year to 2.4 in his next-best season for a 7.2 WAR drop.

I’d guess overall pitchers will have bigger drops due to young hurlers succumbing to injuries early in their careers more often than hitters.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Great idea! Congrats to Richard & Doug. Re: Ron Hunt’s HBP — Despite the largest gap ever between a best and 2nd-best season, his 2nd-best (26 HBP) still ranks 15th since 1901. And he did that twice.

Hunt’s career HBP rate (3.95% of PAs) is the highest in modern history for 4,000+ PAs. Fernando Vina is 2nd at 3.31%. For 3,000+ PAs, Carlos Quentin a hair above Hunt, at 3.98%.

There are 30 players with 3,000+ PAs since 1901 whose walk rates are below Hunt’s HBP rate.

Hartvig

10 years ago

Always great to see good old Sparky leading off a post. Thankfully he turned out to be a little better manager than he was a player. Lucky for him that he played for a team bad enough that he wasn’t their biggest problem and thus replaced sooner. Lou Klein jumped to the Mexican League along with Sal Maglie, Max Lanier and a few others when the Pasquel brothers tried to create a third major league south of the border. Most of the players were banned from the majors for 5 years initially but then reinstated in 1946. Buzz Artlett was… Read more »

Voomo Zanzibar

10 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

Buzz Arlett.
Here’s the links

First, preposterous minor league PITCHING stats:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=arlett001rus#standard_pitching::none
___________

And here’s a longer bio, detailing his path:

http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/4419031b

Voomo Zanzibar

10 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Here’s a photo, making the Sultan and Iron Horse look small:

Luis Gomez

10 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Do you know what uniform is he wearing?

bstar

10 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

Looks like a Baltimore Oriole uni when they were a member of the minor-league International League (AA).

Arlett played in Baltimore in 1932-33.

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

@12
By way of Google Images I can verify that it was an Oriole uniform.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

BTW, Voomo, there are enormous errors in Arlett’s minor-league IP listed on B-R — 3 years over 1,000 IP, and over 5,000 career. Dunno if the other stats are right.

Voomo Zanzibar

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Yeah, the hitting stats seem to be legit, but those pitching numbers have haunted me all day. Not right on a lot of levels.

He averaged 24 innings pitched per game in 1922.

Hartvig

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Even though those PCL teams played close to 200 games no one else on the roster pitched more than 367 innings in any of the 5 seasons that I checked. There’s got to be something goofy going on with those numbers.

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

Sometimes they did play 200 games. Here’s a note from a bio on Judge McCredie (the single-season BA and OBP champ for 200 PA) concerning the Portland Beaver team that McCredie managed. “In 1917, Portland finished a disappointing 98-102 and in fourth place.” McCredie, incidentally, earned the nickname “Judge” because, after his one season in the majors, he went to law school as he saw a career in baseball as too uncertain. But, that only lasted one year before he was back in baseball. Apparently an outstanding scout, he recognized the talent in the Negro leagues and lobbied to remove… Read more »

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

But there’s nothing goofy about these Tony Lazzeri stats in 1925. Playing for Salt Lake City in the PCL, in 197 games he accumulated 60 HR, 252 H, 202 R and 222 RBIs.

Lawrence Azrin

10 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

@3/Hartvig,

Maybe Arlett just liked playing in the minors better? Back in the early 1930s, there wasn’t the large difference in playing conditions and especially salary, that we associate nowadays with minor league baseball vs. MLB. He may have had to take a salary cut to play with the Phillies in 1931.

Hartvig

10 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

I know that was the case for some players and I honestly don’t know about Arlett- although I do remember reading a piece by Bill James talking about Jack Dunn being pissed about the other teams in the International League coming to an arrangement with the major leagues and how that led to his having to sell Lefty Grove and that would have been in the mid-20’s so I’m not sure that was still the case in the 1930’s, at least outside of the Pacific Coast League. But that at least might have been part of the reason that he… Read more »

Voomo Zanzibar

10 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

That bio I linked in comment #4 explains it well.
A lot of factors and timing involved…

Hartvig

10 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Wow. Great read. Thanks for the heads up!

Hank G.

10 years ago

Brady Anderson is often trotted out as an example of a player who had a dramatic increase in home runs due to PEDs (of course, no one explains why if that is true he apparently used for only one season). There seem to be some rumors about Luis Gonzalez also.

Are there similar accusations leveled at Davey Johnson or Roger Maris?

Voomo Zanzibar

10 years ago

Highest BA w 200+ PA – Monk Sherlock.
His brother, Vince Sherlock, also played one season.

His BA: .462
in 27 PA

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Monk Sherlock’s 83 OPS+ was the lowest ever with a .320+ BA and 200+ PAs.

(Those 1930 Phillies batted .315 as a team, including pitchers — and lost 102 games.)

Brother Vince left MLB on a 6-game hitting streak, including 4 for 4 in his finale. Don’t know how to check the rarity of that.

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Not sure if I believe this result but this is what Streak Finder produces for streaks of 4-hit games to end a career. Rk Player Strk Start End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Tm 1 Vince Sherlock 1935-09-29 1935-09-29 1 4 0 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1.000 1.000 1.000 2.000 BRO 2 Bernie Neis 1927-10-02 1927-10-02 1 4 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 1.000 2.000 CHW 3 Art Griggs 1918-09-02 1918-09-02 1 5 1 4 2 0… Read more »

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

I think it can be believed.

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

And these are the players to end their careers on a hitting streak of 10 or more games. Rk Player Strk Start End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Tm 1 Magglio Ordonez 2011-08-15 2011-09-27 18 65 8 25 3 0 1 9 7 1 1 0 .385 .388 .477 .865 DET 2 Bill Sweeney 1931-09-05 1931-09-27 14 57 9 20 4 1 0 8 3 0 0 0 .351 .351 .456 .807 BOS 3 Glenn Williams 2005-06-07 2005-06-28 13 40 3 17 1 0 0 3 7 2 1… Read more »

Voomo Zanzibar

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

Go Magglio!
Before that streak, he was sitting on:

.223 .280 .295 .576

Ooooof. Did that while batting 3rd all year.
The first game of the streak he was dropped to 7th.
After that he batted 2nd.
Raised his slashes to a less hideous

.255 .303 .331 .634

The streak did include a PH appearance in which he walked.

Voomo Zanzibar

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Tied for 2nd worst ops+ are two Denver players.
One of which had 202 hits and 108 runs, and led the league in steals.

Brent

10 years ago

Quick facts on Lou Klein (per Wikipedia and baseball reference): 1) Did serve in the military for 2 years after that 1943 season. 2) 2 months into the 1946 season jumped to Mexican Leagu (with teammates Max Lanier and Fred Martin). Wikipedia speculates that he felt he would be stuck as an utility player behind Red Schoendienst in St. Louis (who had come up and won the starting second base job in 1945 when Klein was still in the military.) 3) Happy Chandler suspended him (and others) for 5 years for breaking his contract with the Cardinals. 4) Chandler reinstated… Read more »

Mike L

10 years ago

Not a one year wonder, but Ralph Kiner died. Here’s a good obit from the Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/sports/baseball/ralph-kiner-slugger-who-became-a-voice-of-mets-dies-at-91.html?ref=sports&_r=0

Brent

10 years ago

Reply to Mike L

As usual, JoePoz wrote a great tribute to Kiner today.

http://joeposnanski.com/joeblogs/rip-ralph-kiner/

Lawrence Azrin

10 years ago

Reply to Mike L

@29/Mike L; Bobby Doerr is the oldest living HOFer (95), Monty Irvin 2nd (94). I never saw Kiner play (retired before I was born), but it’s strange that HOFers I do remember watching, such as Mays, Aaron, Banks are now in their 80s. It seems like they were playing not that long agoo… In 1984, Bill James wrote a short sidebar in his BJHA, something to the affect of “Is there anyone alive who remembers seeing Cap Anson playing?” (last MLB game was 1897). Who would be the 2014 equivalent – Ty Cobb,Tris Speaker, or Walter Johnson? I’m sure there… Read more »

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Maybe further back than that.

A 110-year old today would have been 12 in 1916 when Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, Bobby Wallace and Nap Lajoie were still playing.

As I related in the post about Clemente, I can quite clearly recall the 1971 WS when I was 12.

Lawrence Azrin

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

@32/Doug;

True, but I wonder about the, um, mental acuities of the average 110 year-olds. Plus…

Quick googling reveals that there are currently 22 verified living supercentenarians (110 yrs old) in the US of A. All but one are women.

So, what are the chances that:
1) the one man was following baseball in 1916, at the age of 12?
2) any of the women were baseball fans?

Not so good, I’d say…

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Interesting.

I would have guessed there would have been many more than 22. But, nearly all being women was probably predictable.

I wonder about “verified”? I recall reading somewhere (the Guinness Book of Records, I think) that upwards of 40% of births in America were still not “officially” recorded as late as 1920. (Or, something along those lines).

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

I know this doesn’t count but I did see Home Run Baker play in an old-timer’s game at Yankee Stadium in 1953.

Lawrence Azrin

10 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

@36/RC,

Did Ty Cobb try to spike him when Cobb slid into 3rd :)?

Mike L

10 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Lawrence (and Doug) the marker for getting old isn’t that you saw Griffey Sr. and Jr. play and retire. It’s that you saw Brett Boone, Bob Boone and Ray Boone. I didn’t quite make Ray Boone–I was around, but not an avid baseball fan quite yet.

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Mike L

I’m trying to think who it would be for me. Probably Willie Mays.

There weren’t many (actually not any) 20+ season careers ending in the late 60s and early 70s. The last players active who played in the 1940s were Curt Simmons and Smoky Burgess who both retired after the 1967 season, and before I took notice of the game.

Hartvig

10 years ago

Reply to Mike L

Growing up in rural North Dakota and with a father who wasn’t interested in sports I only attended one major league baseball game prior to 1980. Luckily the Twins played the Yankees so among others I got to see Mantle & Maris & Killebrew- I’m not certain of the year but Maris was still a Yankee- my guess is ’64 or ’65 so I would have been 8 or 9. I wish I remembered more but it was the first time that I had traveled anywhere without my parents (my neighbors dad took the 2 of us), the first time… Read more »

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

A couple of things that make me feel my age:

— When I started following baseball, Dick Schofield, Sr. was still playing regularly. His grandson, Jayson Werth, turns 35 this May.

— I was born in Pete Rose’s rookie year. In a few months, Pete will have been banished for more than half my life.

— Thanks to Jamie Moyer, the 2011 season was the first time I was older than every MLB player. His 2012 comeback gave me a reprieve, but I think that’s the last one.