OleMissCub

It's mostly gonna be me crying and Cynosure reporting the opponents' many goals. But yes. more power to you then. I don't think I can name 15 NHL teams. :?

so we're gonna have a hockey thread everyday now?

Speaking of the lack of catchers, I think Joe Torre should be in the HOF. I suppose what hurts him is that he didn't play catcher his whole career. Torre had a pretty badass career though: .297/.365/.452, 128 OPS+, 2300+ hits, 252 HR, 1185 RBI, 1 MVP, 9 time All-Star Torre's offensive numbers are pretty impressive considering the era he played in.

badass uniforms. Three Finger Brown in one: http://www.ssebaseball.com/images/mordecaiBrownPhoto.jpg

Edward Trowbridge Collins aka Cocky: 1914 American League MVP Philadelphia Athletics: 1906-1914, 1927-1930 Chicago White Sox: 1915-1926 (became player-manager 1924) 162 game avg: .333/.424/.429, 141 OPS+, 43 Stolen Bases 7th All-Time Stolen Bases: 744 10th All-Time Hits: 3,315 photos inside spoiler: Collins once said of Williams: "If he'd only tip his cap just once he could be mayor of Boston."

Bill James' take is in order:

I believe he was the series MVP. He definitely deserved it too. He went 2-0 with a 1.33 ERA in 20 innings during that series.

No doubt. Definitely wouldn't be surprised if that were the case.

Grover Cleveland Alexander aka Pete: 373-208, 2.56 ERA Philadelphia Phillies: 1911-1917, 1930 Chicago Cubs: 1918-1926 St. Louis Cardinals: 1926-1929 Best season, 1915: 31-10, 1.22 ERA, 0.842 WHIP, 225 ERA+, 12 shutouts, 241 K's 2nd All-Time in Shutouts: 90 3rd All-Time in Wins: 373 Won NL Triple Crown for Pitchers: 1915, 1916, 1917, 1920 My take on Pete Alexander is that he was the greatest National League pitcher of all time. He barely beats out Christy Mathewson and Greg Maddux in my view. The Phillies acquired Alexander for $750 and for that sum they got one of the best rookie seasons a pitcher ever had. As a rookie, Pete won 28 games with 7 shutouts and K'd 227 batters, which was a considerable amount in those days. He had an exceptional fastball with a devastating curveball. Amazingly, those were really the only two pitches he threw. However, the contemporary accounts of batters who faced him described that his fastball had terrific late movement in toward right handed hitters. So perhaps he also threw what we would today call a cutter. He had unbelievable control and his career BB/IP is 1.65 walks per 9 innings. Unfortunately for Alexander, pitching was really the only thing he could do well. He really is one of the great tragic characters in baseball history. He was an abnormally quiet person with zero social skills. His already strange demeanor was made even worse when he was hit in the head by a fastball while still in the minor leagues. Alexander was also a large alcoholic. What really set Alexander over the edge was his service in World War One. During the war, he served in the front line trenches with an artillery unit. His experience in the war was apparently pretty horrific, because for the rest of his life he remained partially deaf, suffered from post traumatic stress, and had epileptic seizures. Alexander's greatest moment came as a 39 year old veteran pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals. In Game 7 of the World Series against the Yankees, the Cardinals were ahead 3-2 in the 7th. The Yankees had bases loaded and two out with Tony Lazzeri at the plate. Out of the bullpen came Alexander who had thrown a complete game the day before. On four pitches he struck out Lazzeri and then pitched two more scoreless innings to give the Cardinals their first World Series win. photos inside spoiler: Video footage that I put together of Alexander, including the aforementioned Game 7 fanning of Tony Lazzeri. One interesting thing to note in the video is that after he K's Lazzeri and walks off the field, he tosses his glove on the ground; a practice that many fielders used to do up until the 1930's. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7oZKNvxg4s Alexander's line in Nash's Lineup for Yesterday:

I believe Schmidt has said that he doesn't vote for anyone for the Vets Committee because and I'm paraphrasing "if the writers don't vote them in, why should we?".

quotes from some of his contemporaries: I also like this stat: Top Win Shares of the 1960's: Hank Aaron - 340 Willie Mays - 337 Frank Robinson - 307 Roberto Clemente - 260 Harmon Killebrew - 257 Ron Santo - 247 Mickey Mantle - 247 Willie McCovey - 237 Brooks Robinson - 233 Carl Yastrzemski - 230

Tristram Speaker aka Spoke: 1912 American League MVP Boston Red Sox: 1907-1915 Cleveland Indians: 1916-1926 (became player-manager in 1919) Washington Senators: 1927 Philadelphia Athletics: 1928 162 game avg: .345/.428/.500, 158 OPS+, 7 HR, 46 doubles, 13 triples, 89 RBI, 109 Runs, 204 Hits, 25 stolen bases Best season, 1912: .383/.464/.567, 188 OPS+, 10 HR, 53 doubles, 90 RBI, 136 Runs, 222 Hits, 52 stolen bases 1st all-time career Outfield Assists 1st all-time career Doubles 2nd all-time career Putouts (amongst OF) 5th all-time career Batting Average 5th all-time career Hits 6th all-time career Triples 8th all-time career Runs My opinion of Speaker is that he's the second greatest defensive outfielder of all-time behind, of course, Mays. Speaker might also claim second place behind Mays in the category of the player with the best offensive/defensive combination, taking every position into account. To read the accounts of those who saw him play brings immediately to mind the descriptions of Willie Mays or the modern descriptions of Griffey, Jr. in his prime. It was said of Speaker that his glove "was where triples go to die". One of the interesting things about Speaker defensively is that he was known as playing perhaps the shallowest center field in history. He had a tremendous ability to catch balls over his shoulder on a dead run. This is why the day after Mays made "the catch", the press brought Tris out to the game to have a photo op with Mays. The old timers who had seen both play went on record as saying that was what Speaker did all the time because of how he positioned himself in the outfield. Speaker was able to play so shallow due mainly to the era he played in, which was the deadball era. Speaker had terrific speed and was an extraordinary baserunner. His great slugging average for his time is more a testament to his speed and baserunning adeptness than any sort of power stroke. Because of the era he played in, Speaker was not only never the bride, but was never the bridesmaid either when it comes to batting titles and records. He spent the first half of his career behind Cobb and Jackson, and then when Jackson was out he had to now deal with Cobb and Ruth. He does hold one distinction over his friend and rival Cobb and that is that he won 3 World Series' while Cobb won none. In his second year as player-manager of the Indians in 1920 at age 32, Speaker brought the Cleveland Indians their first World Series title. In addition to being nicknamed "Spoke", you will also see him occasionally referred to as "The Gray Eagle" due to the fact that he started going gray in his late 20's. This gray hair often makes Tris look much older in photographs than he really was. Another anecdote about Speaker is that he played several years with Ruth when Babe was still pitching. When Babe decided to become an outfielder full-time, it was Speaker who famously stated, "Ruth has made a grave mistake in giving up pitching. Working once a week he might have lasted a long time and become a great star." The end of Speaker's career is somewhat notable in that he played with "the Deadball Three" as I like to call them. In the late 20's Connie Mack had put together a hell of a team with immense young talent such as Lefty Grove, Mickey Cochrane, Al Simmons, Jimmie Foxx, and others. Mack desperately wanted all of this young talent to have some veterans around to teach them the ropes. So he offered pretty sizable contracts to Ty Cobb, Speaker, and Eddie Collins to come play for the A's as a coup de grace on their careers. All three accepted and spent considerable amount of time teaching the young players on the A's a thing or two. photos inside spoiler: Speaker's line from Ogden Nash's Lineup for Yesterday:

Meph, do you agree as some have said that Fukudome's biggest problem is his inability to handle a two-seam pitch since they don't throw those much in Japan?

I had no idea Iwamura put up power numbers like that. He can't slug for howry in the MLB.

stop being an ass for a sec and just explain to the guy why you think he's wrong.

I'm gonna side with Meph on this one. His knowledge of the NPB is pretty extraordinary.

TBS is messing some crap up tonight.

Andy, you're going down SUCKA!

One more thing from Cobb's book that cracked me up: That's hilarious. Imagine paying $4,500 for a guy who put up .420/.467/.621, 196 OPS+ with 83 steals, 147 runs, and 127 RBI. Awesome.

Thought some of you might get a kick out of this. It's from the final chapter of Ty Cobb's autobiography My Life In Baseball. The chapter is basically an entire Grandpa Simpson moment, bitching about the way the game is played in modern times (1960's to him). Interesting thing is, some of the things he says are a bit prophetic. As I read that I kept thinking about Adam Dunn and Ryan Howard.

except by Truffle 2 posts above yours... :wink: I think he was talking about his disease in general. I was referring specifically to being on the road with that illness. It's a real pain in the ass. I'm friends with a guy with juv diabetes and he always has to have a little cooler with him for his insulin if we go on trips or whatever.

Rarely brought up (in fact I've never heard it mentioned), but I think one reason why his road splits weren't as good as they should have been might have to do with the fact that he was a diabetic. Traveling as a diabetic in modern times can be tricky, much less doing so in the 60's and trying to hide it from everyone. Just a thought.

The writers obviously had something against him because he only got about 15 votes during his one and only year of original eligibility DESPITE the fact that when he retired he ranked second or third in most offensive output ever for a third baseman. He should have been in long, long ago. It's pretty mind boggling how you can consistently rank as the 5th, 6th, or 7th greatest player of all time at your position and not be in the HOF.

glad you and I can see eye to eye on something jerry jones paid Satan to stick a horseshoe up the ass of his franchise NVM

glad you and I can see eye to eye on something jerry jones paid Satan to stick a horseshoe up the ass of his franchise