MVP Elections – 1984 AL

Greetings again, HHS-ers! Dr. Doom here, via Doug again.

You’re going to notice a pattern here: whenever a reliever wins an MVP, I’m going to give it the sideways eyes and have us re-examine, because… I’m just not sure I buy relievers being that valuable.

So that leads us to 1984. I feel like every time I look at one of these years, the BIG story in baseball is something going on in the other league. We looked at the AL in 1981, when the NL was the real mess. We looked at the NL in 1967, when the greatest pennant race in history was in the AL. Finally, with 1984, we rectify that trend.

Continue reading →

Quiz: Who Am I ? (solved)

9 Replies

As we await this month’s HoF balloting, here’s a little diversion in a bit different format from most of my quizzes. Here are the clues:

I pitched primarily in relief in a career of more than both 10 seasons and 500 innings
I never pitched in the post-season, but was twice traded in mid-season from teams that made the playoffs
I pitched in both leagues, but played in the AL only for expansion teams

Congratulations to Jim! He knew that our mystery player was none other than Frank DiPino, (mostly) an NL reliever from the 1980s and early 1990s. More on DiPino after the jump.

Continue reading →

All I want for Christmas is …

11 Replies

In the spirit of the season, here’s a rundown of some of the more notable transactions occurring on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Possibly the most important Christmas signing occurred in 1964 when the woeful Kansas City A’s began putting together the pieces of a future dynasty, acquiring an undrafted 18 year-old pitcher with the unlikely name of Rollie Fingers. That 1964 season also saw the A’s debuts of Dave Duncan and Blue Moon Odom, two other teenagers who would figure prominently in the first of Oakland’s three 1970s championship seasons.

Continue reading →

MVP Elections – 1981 AL

50 Replies

Dr. Doom here (via Doug), back for more MVP re-voting!

If your jam was 1970s baseball… well, I’m sorry that we were only there one year. It’s not that the ’70s didn’t have their share of interesting MVP races. They certainly did! What they didn’t necessarily have was the years I was looking for: the ones with multiple good candidates, any of whom could be called the MVP.

Thankfully, if you’re a fan of ’70s baseball, you’re probably also a fan of ’80s baseball. And if you are, boy oh boy are you in for a good few posts. This is the first of SEVEN posts in which we’ll be examining 1980s baseball.

Continue reading →

2016 Year in Review – Records You Didn’t Hear About

51 Replies

Scanning baseball’s statistical leaderboards for the 2016 season will tell you the players who turned in the best or worst performances last year. But, for some context, I’ve looked at some of those leading players to consider the significance of their accomplishments over a longer period than just last season. For example, you probably weren’t aware that Bryce Harper‘s .243 batting average last year was the lowest by a player leading his league in IBB, breaking the old mark of .249 by White Sox catcher Ed Herrman in 1972.

More on last season’s statistical leaders after the jump.

Continue reading →

Homering in both ends of a double-header on your birthday

17 Replies

On August 31 of this past season, the Rockies’ Stephen Cardullo homered in both ends of a doubleheader AND it was his birthday. He’s just the 4th guy to accomplish this feat since 1913, and there’s a good chance nobody else did it before then.

Players to HR in both ends of a double header on their birthday since 1913:

Stephen Cardullo 8/31/2016
Tony Perez 5/14/1972
Joe Rudi 9/7/1970
Eddie Joost 6/5/1949

Double headers are so rare right now (the Rockies/Dodgers one this year was likely because of a rainout on a Tuesday as both games were played on a Wednesday) that it seems pretty unlikely anybody will ever again achieve this–although I would have said the same before this season 🙂

Mookie Betts’ remarkable season

14 Replies

Mookie Betts had a 2016 for the ages. Since 1901, here are the only guys to post 29+ fielding runs and 29+ batting runs. As with Mookie this year, most of these guys didn’t win their league MVP award.

Rk          Player Year Rbat Rfield Age  Tm     Pos
1     Mookie Betts 2016 29.8   32.0  23 BOS    *9/H
2      Chase Utley 2008 30.0   31.0  29 PHI    *4/3
3    Albert Pujols 2007 51.3   31.0  27 STL    *3/H
4      Scott Rolen 2004 40.2   30.0  29 STL      *5
5    Ichiro Suzuki 2004 35.7   30.0  30 SEA   *9/DH
6      Ken Griffey 1996 39.8   32.3  26 SEA    *8/D
7        Al Kaline 1961 39.3   29.2  26 DET *98/H75

Website should be up and running again

28 Replies

Go ahead, post a comment here just to prove that you can!

I’ve been quite busy with my day job and unable to pay any attention to things here. Doug has done a good job of keeping me apprised and nudging me periodically to get things fixed. It appears something got corrupted in the old theme, and so switching over to a different theme has resolved the issue. I’m going to make some minimal changes to this new theme to make it prettier but do as little as possible to help ensure that it stays running smoothly and quickly.

Apologies for all the downtime.

World Series Game 7

35 Replies

It comes down to one game for all the marbles tonight. Mother Nature is cooperating with a second night of almost summer-like weather in November, so it figures to be a showcase evening that will see one long world championship drought ended … and another extended.

More after the jump.

Continue reading →

MVP Elections – 1974 NL

58 Replies

Hey HHS folks! Dr. Doom here. I love Captain America – an odd thing for the REAL (fictional) Dr. Doom to say, perhaps, but true nonetheless. In fact, as I type this, I’m wearing a Captain America t-shirt. And you, Steve Garvey, are no Captain America. But Captain America or not, Mr. Garvey is at the center of this next post.

Well, that’s my opinion anyway. Whether you share it or not, it’s time to dig in on the 1974 NL MVP race!

Continue reading →