If as expected Pedro Martinez will have enough votes for induction into the Hall of Fame when the current election’s results are announced Tuesday, he will be, when this summer’s ceremony in Cooperstown rolls around in July, one of the youngest pitchers ever to be included in an induction group. The five youngest pitchers inducted up to now are listed after the jump.
Five youngest pitchers as of their Hall of Fame induction ceremony:
Sandy Koufax, age 36 at induction
Catfish Hunter, age 41 at induction
Dizzy Dean, age 43 and six months at induction
Bob Feller, age 43 and eight months at induction
Jim Palmer, age 44 and nine months at induction
At 43 years and nine months old, Pedro will be just a bit older at the July 26 party this year than Feller and Dean were at their respective inductions, but a full year younger than Palmer was at his.
The youngest everyday players inducted were both tragic cases: Gehrig and Clemente. Joe DiMaggio was the youngest everyday player to be inducted under more normal circumstances. DiMaggio was just 40 years and eight months old when he was inducted in 1955, a few months younger than Babe Ruth was when he was inducted in 1936 shortly after his retirement as a player.
I’m intrigued by this Catfish Hunter game:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET196706180.shtml
He was replaced with 2 out in the 9th in favor of a rookie LOOGY, with Gates Brown coming up.
Only he didn’t leave the game. Just shifted over to 1st Base.
I’m betting that if Brown succeeds, Catfish comes back to face Kaline.
Apparently Al Dark was so pleased with his own tactic here he repeated it for a while: http://prestonjg.wordpress.com/2013/06/22/al-darks-misadventures-putting-pitchers-in-the-field/
Other instances of a pitcher moving to another position and then returning to the mound:
Billy Pierce, 6-25-53
Sandy Consuegra, 7-3-54
Bill Wight, 8-20-55
Billy O’Dell, 6-6-65
As many of you probably know, this game featured 2 pitchers switching between pitching and playing the field:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN198607220.shtml
Totally coincidentally I came across the following video of a Giants-Cardinals fight that happened on the same day as this game. There is footage of the Mets-Reds game at the end, including Gary Carter playing third and Jesse Orosco in right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtcjzQ0YsTs
There’s also the Reds-Mets game on 7/22/1986. I believe it is the game where Ray Knight and Eric Davis got into it at third base, leading to a bunch of ejections in the 10th inning, and Roger McDowell and Jesse Orosco both pitching and playing the OF at times. Orosco pitched 2/3 of an inning, then moved to RF while McDowell pitched the next inning, then Orosco pitched another 1 1/3 innings (with McDowell flip-flopping between RF and LF during that time), then McDowell finished up the last 2 innings.
Very nice. See, the problem is, there’s no account of it being something that Dark had his pitchers work on. Maybe they did work on it, who knows? But I would have two relief pitchers, a LOOGY and a ROOGY, both practiced and capable at 1st Base. It could work!
Whitey Herzog also did this with Todd Worrell, moving him to RF when he brought Ken Dayley into pitch. In the 1987 game, Worrell was moved to RF *after* Mike Schmidt homered off him leading off the 9th.
Generated 1/5/2015.
Fun. That first game in ’86, a 37 year old Rick Rueschel pinch ran for the 26 year old outfielder, Diaz, who had reached off of Worrell. Maybe a response to the absurdity of putting Worrell in RF (displacing Vince Coleman!)?
Nope. Big Daddy pinch ran seven times that year.
Ken Dayley then came in to strikeout a 21 year old leadoff hitter named Bonds.
Funny: Gates Brown would finish 4 for 33 against Catfish, with no homers.
Bo Porter did it twice with Tony Sipp in 2014, with Sipp moving to the outfield both times:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ARI/ARI201406090.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU201406150.shtml
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKM4_kXGASo
Can you name the 12 modern* HOF starting pitchers who (like Pedro) never won 10 games in a season after age 33? There’s one 300-game winner, but no others with
230+.250+ career wins.* Min. 200 starts since 1901. Here’s the list; you can ignore Kid Nichols at the bottom (only 94 GS since 1901), although he wouldn’t be a correct answer anyway.
Dizzy Dean, Joss, and Koufax didn’t win any games after age 30.
Newhouser and Lefty Gomez also make the list.
Mathewson is the 300 game winner.
Catfish; Koufax’s teammate Don Drysdale.
The “trick” answer: Eckersley. He meets the 200 GS minimum.
Eck’s not on John’s list though — didn’t start at least half his games.
A couple of old-timers: Ed Walsh, Rube Waddell.
Artie, that’s a good answer, but I forgot to mention another criterion in my list — 50% of games as starts. Eck misses that one.
Eight down, four to go.
I’m guessing Drysdale, Marichal, Feller, Willis, Chesbro and Waddell.
Only 50% right.
Looks like Ed Walsh is the last one.
Still one to go, as Eckersley was not on my original list. (See comment #19 above.)
Aha! Charles Albert “Chief” Bender. Last 10+ Win season in the majors at age 30, and no wins in the majors at all after age 33 (he did put up some big numbers in the minors though). Apparently in his later years he preferred being player/manager in the minors to being merely a player in the majors.
Chief Bender is the last one, i think.
Is Doc Halladay a first ballot selection?
If so, he’ll be only 41 when elected and 42 when enshrined.
Good question, and very much in the spirit of the original post. Halladay is a great candidate but I’m not sure he’s a likely first ballot inductee. May depend on the holdovers situation at that time. Mariano Rivera would be on the ballot for the first time that same year.
Most Innings Pitched in a season with an ERA higher than 10:
67.2 … Roy Halladay (10.64)
51.0 … Micah Bowie (10.24)
49.2 … Brian Matusz (10.69)
48.1 … Aaron Myette (10.06)
39.1 … Stu Flythe (13.04)
39.0 … John Van Benschoten (10.15)
Van Benschoten followed that with a 10.48 in 22.1
_______________________________
Halladay figured it out, though.
Took him till his 5th MLB season to put it together.
Cherrypicking pitcher’s career seasons (5th through 14th), here are the WAR leaders:
99.3 … Walter
78.3 … Grove
73.9 … Christy
73.7 … Pedro
70.3 … Clemens
67.6 … Pete Alexander
65.8 … Gibson
65.8 … Gaylord
65.6 … Randy
65.3 … Maddux
63.2 … Seaver
62.4 … HALLADAY
57.5 … Fergie
57.3 … Spahn
57.2 … Niekro
54.6 … Palmer
54.2 … Dazzy Vance
53.3 … Waddell
53.2 … Kevin Brown
53.1 … Newhouser
“Van Benschoten”:
Isn’t he Merkel’s Chief Cabinet Minister?
Van Benschoten enjoys the unique distinction of having two seasons of 20 IP with ERA north of 10. His 90 IP for his career are the most for pitchers with 9+ career ERA, or with 10+ career RA.
Doc’s “first ballot” to me. From 2002-11, he went 170-75, with teams that were collectively .488 in other decisions (671-703). Doc beat that W% by 50 wins.
In those 10 years, Halladay led the majors in WAR and WAA by a margin of about 25%, also led in wins and W%, and of course CG by almost 2 to 1. Second in ERA+ and IP. Two CYAs, two seconds, a third and two 5ths.
His WAR per inning is 7th among modern pitchers with 2,500 IP.
For good measure, he has a postseason no-no, and the indisputable aura of “seemed like a HOFer when I was watching him.”
What’s the case against?
The BBWAA has only elected 4 starters with fewer than 3,000 IP – Koufax, Lemon, Dean, and Vance. Only Koufax made it first ballot, the others were on the ballot for a while before getting in.
Obviously Koufax is a better comp for Halladay than the others but I seriously doubt that Halladay gets the “Koufax treatment”. I think his last two years will hurt him a bit in the eyes of the voters.
Actually Pedro will be the 5th BBWAA electee with fewer than 3,000 IP but there’s obviously a sizable gap between Pedro and Halladay.