Mel Ott’s great years were before World War II; he died as a relatively young man almost sixty years ago; his franchise left New York, where he played his whole career, before most current fans were born; and his career total of 511 homers no longer seems as stupendous as it once did. All these factors mean he may not be remembered by casual fans (other than crossword puzzle aficionados) as much as other ballplayers of comparable stature. But that didn’t stop the Circle’s voters from embracing Ott overwhelmingly. By a wide margin, Mel becomes the 78th inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on Master Melvin, and the voting, after the jump.
Ott is one of only eight everyday players who have accumulated over 100 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) in the National League. The others besides Mel are Mays and Aaron, Bonds and Schmidt, Musial and Hornsby and Honus Wagner. It’s the same eight guys in both the Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs versions of WAR.
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“Rbat“, also know as WAR Runs Batting, is a Baseball-Reference stat estimating the number of runs a player created as a hitter above the number that an average player of his time and home park would have hit with a comparable number of plate appearances.
Most Career Rbat through Age 32, NL History
1. Rogers Hornsby 743.5
2. Mel Ott 646.7
3. Stan Musial 639.9
4. Albert Pujols 625.2
5. Hank Aaron 561.6
6. Willie Mays 521.5
On a full career basis, Ott is still 6th all-time in Rbat in the NL
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When the 19th century ended, Big Sam Thompson held the National League career home run record, with 126 homers. The progression of the NL career HR record-holder since then:
Cy Williams broke Thompson’s record in 1923.
Rogers Hornsby broke Williams’ record in 1929.
Mel Ott broke Hornsby’s record in 1937 and held the record for 29 years, until Willie Mays took the record in 1966.
Hank Aaron took over the record from Mays in 1972.
Barry Bonds passed Aaron in 2006.
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Most RBI on the Road, Single Season, NL
87, by Mel Ott (1929)
86, by Mel Ott (1934)
84, by High Pockets Kelly (1924) and Ryan Howard (2009)
83, by Hank Aaron (1957)
Most Runs Scored On the Road, Single Season, NL
79, by Mel Ott (1929) and Jeff Bagwell (1999)
78, by Stan Musial (1948)
77, by Craig Biggio (1995)
76, by Barry Bonds (1993)
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Most Career Regular Season Home Runs in One Ballpark
Mel Ott, Polo Grounds 323
Sammy Sosa, Wrigley Field 293
Ernie Banks, Wrigley Field 290
Mickey Mantle, Yankee Stadium 266
Mike Schmidt, Veterans Stadium 265
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Latest Home Run To Take The Lead in a World Series-Ending Game
Mel Ott (1933), top of the 10th inning
Joe Carter (1993), one out in the bottom of the 9th inning
Bill Mazeroski (1960), none out in the bottom of the 9th inning
Harry Hooper (1915) and Whitey Kurowski (1942), each with one out in the top of the 9th inning
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Most WAR (Baseball-Reference version) in a Season, Everyday Player in the NL, Age 20 Season or Younger
1. Mel Ott (age 20) 7.4
T2. Vada Pinson (age 20) and Frank Robinson (age 20) 6.5
4. Jason Heyward (age 20) 6.4
5. Bryce Harper (age 19) 5.1
T6. Johnny Bench (age 20) and Sherry Magee (age 20) 5.0
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Notes on this round’s voting:
–Ott received the most votes of any candidate since Joe DiMaggio, seven rounds ago.
–The list of holdovers next round will be completely unchanged, as no holdover this round appeared on 25% or more of the ballots and no holdover fell below 10%. The only newcomer to the ballot to hit at least 10% support was Ott, who goes directly into the Circle without a stop on the holdover list.
–Ducky Medwick barely avoided falling off the ballot. The last vote he needed was cast for him in the final hours of the voting. On the other side of the ledger, Kevin Brown fell one vote short of reaching the 25% support level, which would have given him another protected round of eligibility.
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The full spreadsheet showing this round’s vote tally is here: COG 1909 Vote Tally.
The vote summary for recent Circle of Greats voting rounds is here: COG Vote Summary 2 . An archive with details of the 1968 through 1939 rounds is here: COG 1968-1939 Vote Summary . In both cases, raw vote totals for each past round appear on Sheet 1 and the percentage totals for each past round appear on Sheet 2.
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A spreadsheet listing the full membership to date of the Circle of Greats, along with some of their stats, is here: Circle of Greats Membership . You can also find that same link any time by clicking on “Circle of Greats” at the top of the High Heats Stats home page.
Another COG data spreadsheet showing each season a COG member played in the majors, along with the team he played for that season and his baseball-reference WAR (overall WAR for everyday players, pitching WAR for pitchers) for the season, is here:
Circle of Greats Seasons
Craig Biggio – 763
John Smoltz – 658
*Roberto Alomar – 649
*Eddie Murray – 608
Kenny Lofton – 608
Ryne Sandberg – 607
Edgar Martinez – 507
Lou Whitaker – 493
Whitey Ford – 382
Bobby Grich – 376
Sandy Koufax – 375
*Harmon Killebrew – 361
Tony Gwynn – 346
Willie McCovey – 336
Juan Marichal – 268
Tom Glavine – 262
*Kevin Brown – 258
Alan Trammell – 239
Mike Mussina – 233
Curt Schilling – 224
Nolan Ryan – 220
Ron Santo – 217
Tim Raines – 213
Larry Walker – 197
*Minnie Minoso – 193
*Lou Boudreau – 190
Barry Larkin – 188
*Roy Campanella – 184
Frank Thomas – 181
*Dennis Eckersley – 177
*Dave Winfield – 152
Paul Molitor – 152
Bob Gibson – 147
Gaylord Perry – 142
Jim Palmer – 133
Al Kaline – 132
Duke Snider – 130
Joe Gordon – 126
Ernie Banks – 119
Eddie Mathews – 115
*Rick Reuschel – 106
Thoughts:
1. The other holdovers: Luis Tiant (90), Joe Medwick (39), Dizzy Dean (27).
2. Rick Reuschel passed 100 votes this round. Welcome to “the list!”
3. Winfield should passed 150 votes. Kevin Brown passed 250. Harmon Killebrew passed 350.
4. Robbie Alomar is within striking distance of Craig Biggio this round.
5. Eddie Murray is tied for #4. He will definitely own that place for himself at the end of this round. Can you believe Eddie Murray worked his way THAT high on this list?!?
6. An interesting note on Ott’s career: he led the NL in HR six times. Yet, he only led the NL in slugging only once. Plus, while he led in OBP four times, he only led in OPS twice… and neither time was one of the times he led in OBP! It’s odd.
On your thought #6, Doc, I think the Polo Grounds layout was helping Mel in homers, but not in overall SLG.
Right, I think so, too. It’s just odd to see someone with so much black ink, and so little overlap, even among the things that seem related. The Polo Grounds certainly were an oddity. And although his home park undoubtedly boosted Master Melvin’s HR total, Bill James estimates that the park presents an accurate overall view of Ott’s value, because of the number of non-HR hits that the park took away from him.
I think you mean to say that Alomar is within striking distance of Smoltz. That would take quite the round for Alomar to pass Biggio.
Whoops! Yep, you’re right. That WOULD be a pretty impressive round. I mean, I guess we could all use all three of our votes on him… but I don’t think that’s going to happen. 🙂
On your NL career homer progression, Jimmie Foxx’s late career switch to the NL occasioned this first game featuring two players who had then hit 500 home runs, when Ott’s Giants and Foxx’s Phillies met on 8-5-45.
The next such game would be 22 years later, when Eddie Mathews hit his 500th as an Astro against Mays’ Giants on 7-14-67. Mathews would have another such game later that season, as a Tiger against Mantle’s Yankees on 9-25-67.
I admit, some of the times when I saw a vote for Ott (that left off his first name) I thought Ed Ott, 1980ish catcher.
Weird stat about Ott. There have been 31 occasions of a batter receiving exactly 100 BB in a season. Ott has 4 of them and no one else has more than 1.