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?

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
Richard Chester
10 years ago

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

Lawrence Azrin
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).

Artie Z.
Artie Z.
10 years ago
Reply to  Doug

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

Lawrence Azrin
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
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 »

wx
wx
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
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
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
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
oneblankspace
10 years ago

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

TheGoof
TheGoof
10 years ago

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

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
10 years ago

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).

Lawrence Azrin
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
Richard Chester
10 years ago
Reply to  Doug

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

Richard Chester
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
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
HowardR
10 years ago

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.

oneblankspace
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
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?).