Hall of Fame slugger Ralph Kiner died Thursday, at age 91. (NY Times obituary; Jayson Stark on the lighter side of Ralph.) Some notes on his playing days:
During his 10-year career (1946-55) with the Pirates, Cubs and Indians, Ralph Kiner led the majors with 369 HRs, 80 more than #2 Stan Musial. He ranked 3rd with his 1,015 RBI (behind Musial and Del Ennis) and 971 Runs (Musial and Pee Wee Reese), and 2nd to Musial in Times On Base and Total Bases.
Kiner topped 50 HRs in 1947 and ’49, joining Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx in an exclusive “2 x 50” club. Through 1996, only Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were added; then four more crashed the door in the next 7 years. All but Kiner needed at least eight years for admission; Ralph did it in four. His 54 HRs in ’49 were the most in MLB from 1939-54, and the NL’s best for 1931-97.
In 1948, he smacked his 100th HR in his 376th game, a record pace that would stand almost 60 years until Ryan Howard got there in 325 games. No one else has come within 13 games of Kiner’s pace.
Through 1970, Kiner was the only Pirate ever to top 35 homers in a season. Willie Stargell broke that string, then wrested the franchise career crown in ’73, finishing with 475. They’re still the only Pirates with a 40-HR year (5 for Kiner, 2 for Stargell), or more than 240 HRs in a Bucs uniform.
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Ralph Kiner was a Navy pilot during World War II, then became the first to complete a Hall of Fame career entirely after that war. As a player, he was very much of his time:
- Kiner averaged 111 walks per 162 games, his walk rate ranking 16th in modern history.
–AND–
His 10-year career (1946-55) almost perfectly fits the highest 10-year walk rate in MLB history (1947-56). The five highest seasonal rates in the modern era were from 1947-51; Kiner was in the middle of five players who averaged 110+ walks in that span.
- He stole just 22 bases, 2nd-lowest for a HOF outfielder and 16th-lowest out of 304 outfielders with 1,400+ games.
–AND–
The years 1946-55 had the 2nd-lowest SB rate of any 10-year span, 0.30 SB per game.
- As a rookie in 1946, Kiner hit .247 with 23 HRs. That would have been the lowest BA ever for a 20-HR man …
–EXCEPT THAT–
… Pat Seerey hit .225 with 26 HRs that same year. Until 1948, no one with 30 HRs had batted under .268; that year, Kiner hit .265 with 40 HRs, and Hank Sauer hit .260 with 35 HRs. Andy Pafko trimmed that mark to .255 in 1951, and was undercut the next year by Kiner (.244 with 37 HRs) and Gil Hodges (.254, 32).
- Kiner retired with 369 HRs and a .279 career BA — to that point, the only one of the 13 men with 300+ HRs to bat below .304.
–BUT–
Within 10 years, eight more had joined that “300/sub-.300” club, five with a lower BA than Kiner. Today, that group has 111 members, 61 with lower BA than Kiner. During Ralph’s 10 years alone, six others smacked 200+ HRs while batting under .300.
- Kiner led both leagues with 109 strikeouts in his first year, the 12th-highest total to date, then averaged just 79 Ks per 162 games thereafter.
–BUT–
That rookie year came when the overall K rate spiked to its highest since 1916; it then shrank back for five years before climbing again. Overall, Kiner’s K rate was high, for his era; he ranked 2nd or 3rd three more times, with totals of 90 Ks or less, and his 749 career Ks ran a close 2nd for that span. Kiner’s K rate was higher than five of the seven 300-HR men who preceded him — but lower than 103 of the 127 who followed him.
- In June of 1953, Pirates GM Branch Rickey sent Kiner to the Cubs in a 10-player deal. For the rest of that year and the next, Kiner kornered the outfield with Hank Sauer, another right-handed slugger who was even older and slower than Ralph. In 1954, Kiner scored -1.2 dWAR in left field, Sauer -1.5 dWAR in right.
–YET–
The plodding corner tandem were hardly the worst of their era. In just the four years 1952-55, nine other teams had LF/RF mates who both scored -1.0 dWAR or worse. The ’53 A’s (Gus Zernial/Dave Philley) and the ’55 Senators (Roy Sievers/Carlos Paula) were the first teams with 2 corner OFs scoring -2.0 dWAR. Also scoring worse than Kiner/Sauer were the ’55 Pirates (Frank Thomas/Jerry Lynch; Branch Rickey’s 5-year plan at work), the ’53 Tigers (Bob Nieman/Don Lund), and … well … the 1955 Indians (Kiner/Al Smith).
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Ralph hit 3 home runs in a game four times from 1947-51. The first two came in late ’47, each during a separate 4-game HR streak, the second one totaling 8 HRs in 3 days. He hit 23 HRs in his last 43 games that year, for his first 50-HR season. The first of those 3-HR games helped the Bucs set a club record of 7 home runs, which has been tied once. (Wait, Reggie Sanders had a 30-HR year for Pittsburgh?!?)
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Kiner’s last game-winning homer came on August 10, 1955, playing for Cleveland against Detroit. The defending AL champs were in a three-way dogfight, a half-game up on New York and Chicago, but trailed this one 4-2 in the 7th. Southpaw Al Aber came in to face Gene Woodling with the bags full and one out, so Al Lopez sent Kiner to bat; Aber whiffed him and got out of the jam. But Kiner stayed in the game, and came up in the 9th with the same score and the sacks loaded again. This time, he unloaded on Aber — the Tribe’s first walk-off slam in searchable history, and their only come-from-behind winning blast between 1950 (Luke Easter) and ’59 (Tito Francona).
Ralph had rarely subbed in before that year. His one hit in seven trips from 1946-54 was a game-breaking slam off Hank Borowy. But in his swan song, he was a beast off the bench, going 16 for 39 with 4 HRs and 16 RBI — tops in HRs, RBI, SLG and OPS among those with at least 20 PAs as a sub.
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On September 3, 1950, Kiner scored his highest WPA (for games with known play-by-play). In a wild game with five lead changes in the last six half-innings, Ralph hit 2 HRs and scored 4 runs, but his last trip really stands out. St. Louis had scored twice in their 10th, on hits by their three future HOFers, and Harry Brecheen went back to the hill expecting to end the Cards’ 4-game skid. But with 1 out, Pittsburgh drew even on back-to-back HRs, by PH Pete Castiglione (his only one ever as a sub) and Bob Dillinger (the only one of his 10 career taters that came for the Bucs). With 2 outs and the bases empty, but maybe still shell-shocked, Brecheen intentionally walked Kiner to gain the platoon edge on Gus Bell, a rookie. Bell won it with a double, his 4th hit of the game and 3rd XBH. The pass to Kiner was the only IBB with none aboard from 1946-52.
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With Kiner’s passing, B-R’s data show 55 living ex-players who were active before MLB was integrated, and 29 who were active in 1946, including Hall of Famers Bobby Doerr (age 95), Red Schoendienst (91) and Yogi Berra (88).
The oldest of those active in ’46 is Mike Sandlock, age 98 (born 10/17/1915); he’s one of nine modern players with 30+ games at both catcher and shortstop. Mainly a wartime replacement, Sandlock was back in the minors from 1947-52, but he returned at age 37 to catch for the ’53 Pirates. That made him teammates for a few months with both Kiner and Joe Garagiola, another still with us from 1946 (age 87). Sandlock wound up catching more than anyone else for that last-place club.
Next-oldest to Sandlock is Lennie Merullo, Cubs shortstop from 1941-47, and the last living Cub to play in the World Series. May 5 will be Lennie’s 98th birthday.
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Despite his defensive shortcomings, Kiner notched 36.3 WAR in his best 5-year run (1947-51) — 3rd overall in that span to his LF contemporaries Musial and Ted Williams, and 13th since 1901 for a player’s 2nd through 6th seasons (between Hornsby and Schmidt). He had three 8-WAR years in that span; only Williams and Barry Bonds had more such years as a LF, while the Babe and Rickey also had three. Kiner’s 149 OPS+ ranks 28th among all retired players with 5,000 PAs.
The man could mash. Rest in peace, Ralph. We will remember you.
Long time listener rare commenter, back in the fold….
Ok, a Kiner story. Watching the Mets one day, Kiner calling the game. I just looked it up it was September 4, 1986– so it was their big year.
He says something like “that’s strike one…. I just was informed that Hank Greenberg has died. He was the best man at my wedding and my best friend in the world, outside, low, ball two”. Didn’t miss a beat. A pro
Welcome back, AL’s first 40-HR shortstop!
Speaking of Greenberg, I wonder if Hank helped Ralph reach his power potential. Kiner hit 27 HRs in 325 minor-league games (albeit in tough circumstances), then 23 in his rookie year. Greenberg joined the Pirates the next year; Kiner hit 3 HRs in 32 April/May games, then 48 in his last 120 games that season.
(And then John remembered Google … “Greenberg gave Kiner hours of instruction,” etc., etc.)
Of course, the change they made to the LF fence to accommodate Greenberg might have helped a bit, too. 🙂
And one of the few players with more than 10 letters in his last name to hit 40 HR’s in a season.
Is this the real Rico Petrocelli?
Berra and Garagiola – amazing that two guys would grow up together, both make the bigs as Catchers……. and both live to be 87+
I wonder what happened to Garagiola in 1948? As a rookie in ’46, he was the #1 catcher for the World Champion Cardinals. In ’47, he posted a 113 OPS+. In ’48, he lost his job to Del Rice, who hit .197 with 4 HRs, while Joe spent most of the year at Columbus, batting .356/.994.
Tough year for Cardinal catchers. Had three of them with 60+ PA and a BA under .200, one of only 8 live-ball era teams with such a complement.
At mid-season, they bring up Bill Baker, a 37 year-old journeyman with all of 500 career PA since 1940. And, he goes out and hits .294 in 134 PA. Go figure!
Garagiola got off the hook for the low BA record for Cardinal catchers when his .107 was eclipsed by Rich Gedman with a .106 in 100 PA in 1991.
I don’t know what the exact situation was, but in their first 7 games the Cardinals started Del Wilber at catcher 5 times, and Del Rice twice; Garagiola didn’t appear until the Cardinals’ 8th game of the season. He proceeded to go 3-4 with a HR in that game, but nevertheless he was on the bench again for the next game, with Del Rice starting.
Garagiola started again the day after that, May 2, 1948, the Cards’ 10th game of the season. It looks like he suffered some sort of injury in that game, although there’s something a little off about the combination of his game logs and the box score (http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN194805020.shtml) – his game logs shows him as playing “GS-0”, which implies he didn’t complete the 1st inning. The boxscore shows him going 0-1, and then has Joe Medwick going 0-1 in his slot in the batting order, but not marked as a pinch-hitter; and then Del Wilber finishing the game at catcher.
So apparently Medwick replaced Garagiola for his 2nd at-bat (perhaps mid-AB?) and made an out (I can’t figure why this isn’t marked as a PH appearance – Medwick’s game logs do show him as a PH in this game), but then Garagiola’s game log shouldn’t have “GS-0”, since he must have made it past the 1st inning for the box score to make any sense.
In any case, Garagiola was removed early in the game, and didn’t appear in the next 5 games; made a pinch-hitting appearance in the Cards’ 16th game of the season, then got his 3rd start of the season in the Cardinals’ 17th game.
And he proceeded to reel off an 0-30 skid, which dropped his batting average to .088 by mid-June. His last appearance for the Cardinals that year came on June 30th, at which point he was sent down the minors. (He spent about half the year in the minors, not most of it.)
Anyway, it looks to me like poor performance (perhaps exacerbated by injury) was the cause; no matter how good your defense is, .088 ain’t gonna cut it. He was only 22 years old at the time, so perhaps the Cards figured he needed some more seasoning.
David, nice work on the Garagiola narrative.
Couple of notes:
— The 4 RBI he had in his first start of ’48 were the first by a starting STL catcher, in their 8th game. The Del’s had gone 2-21 with 1 run in the first 7 games.
— After Joe’s last appearance that year, the Cards were 35-28 overall, but 6-11 with him starting. Probably, the weak hitting from *all* their catchers created a sense of needing to do *something* to stay in the pennant race, and since Joe was the youngest, he drew the short straw.
— The ’48 Cards finished 85-69 — 55-34 when Rice started, 30-35 with all others. However, in 1946, ’47 and ’49, Garagiola easily had the best record as starting catchers. Overall, for 1946-49:
Joe G., 117-71, .622
Rice, 174-122, .588
Others, 77-57, .575
— In 1950, Garagiola was hitting .347 with 19 RBI in 75 ABs when he got hurt and missed the next 3 months, during which the Cards went 42-45 and fell out of the race. He got dealt the following June.
In the earlier boxscores, players appearing as a pinch-hitter are frequently not recorded as such. But, if you look at the game logs on their player page, their PH appearance will be shown (as it is in this case for Medwick).
Another Garagiola tidbit: he was one of 3 Cardinals with 4 hits in the same WS game (10-10-46), still a record for the WS. Wally Moses also had four hits for the Red Sox in that game, making 4 players for both teams, still a post-season record.
the Tribe’s first walk-off slam in searchable history, and their only come-from-behind winning blast between 1950 (Luke Easter) and ’59 (Tito Francona)
Seemed like a really low number. But, I guess you meant come-from-behind walk-off when you said “winning blast”. In any event, I was curious how many more games there might be if I expanded the definition a bit. Actually, not many.
From 1950 to 1959, the Indians likewise had only 3 come-from-behind 9th inning go-ahead HR on the road, in these games. The held on for the regulation win each time.
Generated 2/7/2014.
Similarly, they had only 3 come-from-behind 8th inning go-ahead HR at home, also all preserved for regulation wins.
Generated 2/7/2014.
Lennie Merullo is not the only player from the 1945 WS who is still living.
Ed Mierkowicz (a relative whipper-snapper in that he’s still 4 weeks shy of his 90th birthday), played the final half-inning of that series for the Tigers, coming in to replace Hank Greenberg(!) in left field. He was, thus, on the field for the final out of a WS championship. Not bad for a 21 year-old with all of 16 career PA on the ledger.
I’m pretty pleased with myself that I figured out who the HOF outfielder with the lowest SB total was on my second guess. Since I was thinking outfielders from the 30’s & 40’s when SB’s were less common the first name that popped into my head was Joe Medwick but he turned out to have 48 which was considerably more than the 30 that I knew Joe DiMaggio had. I was still thinking on those same lines when a name from an entirely different era suddenly stepped up and said; “You know it’s gotta be me” and sure enough it was.
I don’t know why Kiner has never really struck a cord with me. I think he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. There was always a fair amount discussion about his candidacy back in the 60’s & early 70’s. I’ve always had kind of a soft spot for the big lumbering outfielders of that general era like Hank Sauer, Jim Lemon, or Gus Zernial. I’m not sure what it is.
And, Rico. Loved the story.
John, when Pittsburgh acquired Greenberg in 1947 they shortened left field at Forbes Field and named it Greenberg Gardens.
After he retired it was re-named Kiner’s Korner.
I loved that show.
And you were right about Hank helping Ralph.
Here is a quote from Wikipedia…
That year he also had a chance to mentor a young future Hall-of-Famer, the 24-year-old Ralph Kiner. Said Greenberg, “Ralph had a natural home run swing. All he needed was somebody to teach him the value of hard work and self-discipline. Early in the morning on off-days, every chance we got, we worked on hitting.”[20] Kiner would go on to hit 51 home runs that year to lead the National League.
I was going to say that Bill Mazeroski can thank Greenberg too. But the Pirates moved the left-field fence back to its original depth after Kiner was traded to the Cubs.
I think you forgot to mention most famous (and obvious) accomplishment–perhaps you’re not impressed with it? Or did I overlook it in your post? He led the league in HR seven years straight. I think that’s a record, no?
Joseph, that is indeed a record, and certainly an important fact about Ralph’s career. Somehow it didn’t occur to me to mention it.
Definitely a record. Next closest was Babe Ruth, who led the AL in HR for six straight years from 1926 to 1931.
Kiner also led ALL of baseball in homers for six straight years, another record (though he was tied three times in the NL, twice by Johnny Mize and once by Hank Sauer). Next-best on that list is Ruth again with two 4-consecutive-year periods leading MLB (’18 – ’21 and ’26 to ’29) and Mark McGwire from 1996 to 1999.
Just a bizarre random thought. Kiner was a lot like Koufax except turned upside down. Similar lifetime WAR, very high peak, plenty of black ink, and a career cut short by injury.
Mike L, that’s a neat observation on Kiner & Koufax. And this might be a stretch, but both were very poor at the secondary aspects of their job — fielding for Ralph, batting for Sandy.
Mike Schmidt led the NL in homers 8 times.
The greatest third baseman in baseball history was remarkably consistent.
Six of those league leading totals were as follows:
36
36
37
38
38
40
New stats?
From 1974-87 his worst season was 5.0 WAR.
More Schmidt.
Dave Kingman is the reason Schmidt didn’t lead the NL from 1979-84.
In 1979 Schmidt blasted 45 HR.
That year, playing in the friendly confines, Kong blasted 48.
In 1982, Kong bested Schmidt again 37-35.