Category Archives: All-Encompassing

So… who’d be in the 2015 “In Memoriam” montage?

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Last year, to great controversy, Major League Baseball didn’t do a thing to honor the memory of the great Tony Gwynn at the All-Star Game, leading many (including myself) to suggest that maybe MLB should take the opportunity every All-Star Game to pay tribute to the past and those we’ve lost by having a “In Memoriam” segment at the All-Star Game. One guy (Sully) even made a video on his own, and it was pretty good.

Well, we haven’t heard anything about a possible official “In Memoriam” video happening in a few weeks in Cincinnati, so I can only assume it won’t be happening, or it’s being kept a closely-guarded surprise. But, I (somewhat morbidly) wondered: who’d be in this year’s “In Memoriam” video anyway?

Here’s a list (and a semi-random order) I came up with, a * means that they’d get an extra emphasis, such as a highlight or interview clip about them:

Alvin Dark, 1948 Rookie of the Year, 3-time All-Star, lengthy managing career *

Frank Torre, member of 1957 World Champion Milwaukee Braves

Lennie Merullo, 7 seasons of MLB experience, last surviving man to have played in the World Series for the Chicago Cubs

Gordie Gillespie, all-time leader in coaching wins in college baseball (longtime NAIA coach)

Noella Leduc, winning pitcher of the last AAGPBL All-Star Game

Jim Fanning, longtime member of Expos front office, manager of Montreal’s 1981 playoff team

Riccardo Ingram, Twins minor-league roving instructor

Rocky Bridges, 1958 All-Star

Sy Berger, longtime Topps baseball card designer

Ray Sadecki, pitcher in 1960s and 1970s

Lon Simmons, Ford Frick Award-winning broadcaster for Giants and A’s*

Fred Gladding, 1969 NL saves leader

Jean-Pierre Roy, commentator for Montreal Expos from 1968 to 1984

Victor Sanchez, 20-year-old Mariners prospect

John Keenan, longtime Dodgers scout

Jose Capellan, pitcher during the 2000s

Bill Valentine, longtime umpire

Bill Slayback, 1970s Tigers pitcher, singer of “Move Over Babe (Here Comes Henry)”

Wendell Kim, longtime coach

Minnie Minoso, 9-time All-Star, 3-time gold glover *

Carl Long, Negro Leaguer who later helped integrate the Carolina League

Dave Bergman, 17 years MLB experience, 1984 World Champion

Dick Bresciani, longtime Red Sox PR Man

Jerry Lumpe, 1964 All-Star

Ulpiano Cos Villa, Spanish-Language broadcaster for Angels and CBS in 1980s

Jeff Robinson, pitcher in late 80s and early 90s

Oscar Taveras, young Cardinals star *

George Spencer, top reliever for 1951 Giants

Bernardo Fernandez, longtime Negro Leaguer

Jerry Gross, early Padres broadcaster

Alison Gordon, first female member of the BBWAA

Hank Peters, longtime executive, GM of Orioles from 1976 to 1987

Brad Halsey, MLB pitcher 2004-2006

Ollie Brown, outfielder in 1960s and 70s

John Winkin, College Coach

Stuart Scott, ESPN legend, creator of the “Boo-Yah!” HR call

Alex Johnson, 1970 All-Star and AL Batting Champion

Jerry Dior, creator of the MLB Logo

Don Bryant, catcher of Don Wilson’s second no-hitter, Bullpen coach of the 1975 AL Champion Red Sox

Nelson Doubleday Jr., former owner of the Mets

Al Rosen, 4-time Star, 1953 MVP, 2-time AL HR champion, longtime executive *

Andres Mora, member of the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame, 3rd all-time in minor league HRs

Jose Martinez, former player and longtime coach and executive

Bill Monbouquette, 3 (or 4, depending on how you count the multiple ASG years)-time All-Star and thrower of a No-Hitter in 1962

James Stillwell, an original owner of the Seattle Mariners

George Shuba, member of the 1955 World Series Champion Dodgers, minor-league friend of Jackie Robinson

Joe Simenic, co-founder of SABR

Russ Kemmerer, MLB pitcher in 50s and early 60s

Nick Peters, sportswriter and winner of 2009 J.G. Taylor Gordon Spink Award from HOF

Stu Miller, 1961 All-Star, 1958 NL ERA champion, member of Orioles Hall of Fame

Darryl Hamilton, 13-years MLB experience, MLB Network analyst

Ernie Banks, Hall of Famer *

 

 

OOTP International Baseball Competition Part 10: Weeks 9, 10 and 11

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Throughout the year, I’ll be posting updates of a simulated league from Out Of The Park Baseball 2016 made up of national “dream teams” to determine what the greatest baseball country on Earth is… or something like that. Previous installments can be found here. This is a long post, so there is a JUMP after the first day. A glossary of storyline characters can be looked at here. Also, hit any picture to make it bigger and more readable.

Due to the lateness of this installment and how far behind I am on this, this time it’ll be a bit different: instead of a day-by-day coverage, it’s going week by week, encompassing Week 9 (May 25 to May 31), Week 10 (June 1 to June 7) and Week 11 (June 8 to June 14), with highlights from each.

So, let’s get going:

Week 9 (May 25 to May 31):

Monday was a simple ending of the previous week’s final series. But Tuesday brought whole new series, including prime matchups like Dominican vs. Japan and a Netherlands/Canada match-up that had major implications on the race for the final spots in the playoffs, even this early in the season.

The first game of the Japan/DR series certainly lived up to the hype, with Japan winning 5-3, with Albert Pujols striking out to end the game to end a last-ditch DR rally. The Netherlands-Canada game also was quite evenly matched, with the Canadians winning 2-1 thanks to a 2-run rally in the 8th. That would allow them to tie Mexico for the 8th and final spot. Sure, it was still a long way until the playoffs, but every game counts. Elsewhere, Team USA somehow lost to Team Rest-Of-World 3-2, and Venezuela creamed Italy, 18-4.

The next day- Wednesday the 27th, saw Japan again defeat the Dominican, 5-4 in 10 innings on a walk-off single by Shinnosuke Abe. Meanwhile, the Netherlands evened their series with Canada with a 8-2 win.

To end their series on Thursday, the Dominican salvaged a game with a 8-2 win, while Canada won their series with a 9-2 victory.

The final three days of the week saw a series between Team USA and Team Cuba. Team USA would take the first game in a 15-4 rout. That wasn’t even the biggest rout of the day, though, as Venezuela beat Colombia 15-3 behind a cycle from Miguel Cabrera:

Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 2.08.27 PMThe next day, Team USA would win again, 8-3, and then finished the sweep the next day with a 3-1 win.

And thus ended Week 9… and take a look at South Korea!:

Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 2.26.59 PMThe Power Rankings, which show how much the Korean team is on the rise with their winning streak:

Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 2.29.07 PMThe Player of the Week for Week 9 was Carlos Beltran:

Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 2.30.36 PMAnd monthly awards for May were given out to Yasiel Puig and Max Scherzer:

Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 2.31.24 PM Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 2.31.51 PMWeek 10 (June 1 to June 7):

Bad weather plagued much of the week, washing out three games in the Caribbean and South America on Monday alone, but in Nicaragua the weather was fine as South Korea won their 13th straight game. They’d win the next day two to make it 14, coming back late against Rest-Of-World to win 8-7 and then finishing off the sweep on Wednesday, 9-2, to make it 15 wins in a row.

However, once the Koreans returned to Korea, they ended up finally hitting that bad weather, and at the worst possible moment, as it cut short a game and made them fall to Cuba, 4-1 in 6 innings. The streak was over.

That wasn’t the biggest surprise that day. The biggest surprise that day was this:

Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 9.50.36 PMWell, I guess it’s true: anything can happen.

The end of the winning streak, the shocking upset of the Dominican, and the rain delays were the main stories of the week- as was a shocking injury that put Nelson Cruz out of commission for the rest of the competition:

Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 10.01.45 PMSo, at the end of Week 10:

Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 10.08.16 PMPower Rankings:

Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 10.09.23 PMAnd MVP of Week 10, Matt Kemp:

Screen Shot 2015-06-20 at 10.10.59 PMWeek 11 (June 8 to June 14):

Injuries- both of people leaving the DL and going to the DL- were the story early in the week. Clayton Kershaw returned from the DL for Team USA, but elsewhere Yovani Gallardo was knocked off the Mexican roster for the rest of the season with a torn back muscle, Taiwan lost two players to the DL, Albert Pujols had a quad injury and would be out a few weeks, and the Dutch found out that they’d again be without Andrelton Simmons for about five weeks.

But the games went on, and Kershaw made his presence known late in the week:

Screen Shot 2015-06-21 at 12.02.39 PMSo, at the end of Week 11, the standings, where Team USA is rampaging:

Screen Shot 2015-06-21 at 12.05.21 PMThe power rankings:

Screen Shot 2015-06-21 at 12.06.08 PMThe week’s top player was Kennys Vargas:

Screen Shot 2015-06-21 at 12.06.51 PMAnd that concludes Part 10 of the International Baseball Competition. But next time: JOSE FERNANDEZ JOINS THE COMPETITION!

 

OOTP International Baseball Competition Part 9: Week 8 brings lots of runs, a near-no-hitter, etc.

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Throughout the year, I’ll be posting updates of a simulated league from Out Of The Park Baseball 2016 made up of national “dream teams” to determine what the greatest baseball country on Earth is… or something like that. Previous installments can be found here. This is a long post, so there is a JUMP after the first day. A glossary of storyline characters can be looked at here. Also, hit any picture to make it bigger and more readable.

May 18

Week 8 of the IBC began in Australia between the Dutch and the Australians. The Dutch would end up winning 9-6, not long before a Takayuki Kajitani 3-run home run in the 7th in Japan put the home team up 3-0 against Venezuela, a lead they wouldn’t give up. Not long after that, the Taiwanese finished off the Puerto Ricans, 5-4.

And then… everybody waited until night-time on the East Coast of the USA.

The first game of the night, at 6 PM, was South Korea vs. Dominican Republic. It was a nice pitching match-up:

Screen Shot 2015-05-26 at 7.25.02 PM(A reminder that injuries and such are, other than opening day injuries, entirely separate from actual reality, hence why Hyun-Jin Ryu is still playing despite being injured in the real world)

Bartolo Colon would prove to be the winner of the game, as the Dominican would be the first to get on the board, thanks to a Starling Marte double in the second. Robinson Cano and Adrian Beltre would add two more RBIs later in the game. Colon and the relievers (including Antonio Bastardo, who had to fill in after Joaquin got injured with two outs in the 9th) would hold the Koreans scoreless. Colon would strike out nine and give up six hits in the victory.

In Boston, Team USA once again demolished Italy, but “only” by the score of 13-1, as Trout, Stanton, Kemp and McCutchen all homered and Jon Lester went 8.2 IP allowing only 3 hits and striking out 15. However, the Ghost of the Bambino was not happy: “Only won by 12, Joe?”, he whispered in Joe Maddon’s ear. And, worse, Matt Kemp, who was hitting .373, hurt himself running the bases and would be out for 2 weeks.

In Havana, the biggest upset of the day took place, as Team Rest-Of-The-World defeated Cuba, 4-3, surviving a late 9th-inning rally. However, the Rest-Of-Worlders did not get out unscathed, as 1st baseman Rene Leveret, one of their few sort-of-kind-of-semi-power threats, was injured making a spectacular dive to record an out in the 9th, straining an oblique and being knocked out for three weeks.

Justin Morneau, Joey Votto and George Kottaras all homered as Canada beat Panama, 12-6.

Finally, Enrique Osorio went 5-5 with 2 doubles and 4 RBIs as Mexico steamrolled Colombia, 15-5.

GO BELOW THE JUMP FOR MORE:

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For Memorial Day: Baseball Players Who Gave Everything

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(Portions of this have previously been in a post from May 2012.)

Throughout history, there have been baseball players who have been willing to put their careers aside in service of their countries. It even continues today, as Mitch Harris of the Cardinals, a Naval Academy graduate, worked his way up through the minors after spending five years serving in the Navy.

And there have been some who have given their lives while serving. Some died in the heat of combat, others died in accidents, still others died of illness or other causes. Regardless, today we remember them:

  • Bill Stearns pitched part of five seasons in the National Association (the predecessor to the National League that is sometimes considered a Major League, sometimes not). A drummer as a young teenager in the Civil War, years after his baseball career ended he volunteered to fight in the Spanish-American War. He served in Puerto Rico, where he caught some sort of tropical disease that would ultimately kill him upon his return to the mainland. He is the earliest known Major Leaguer to die while serving his country.
  • Eddie Grant was a Harvard-educated infielder who spent time with Cleveland, Philly, Cincinnati and the Giants. On October 15, 1918, he died after being wounded by a artillery shell in the Argonne Forest of France. His unit had been fighting to rescue the “Lost Battalion” that had been pinned down by German forces. He was 35. A memorial to him was placed in the Polo Grounds (it is one of the plaques that can be seen in the expanded version of the Willie Mays catch photo), and a replica of it is now apparently in San Francisco.
  • Larry Chappell was a light-hitting outfielder in the 1910s who was at one point part of a trade for Shoeless Joe Jackson. In 1918, he died while in Army service only a few days before the armistice from the Spanish Flu pandemic that killed tens of millions of people. He was 28.
  • Ralph Sharman was a young outfielder who did well in a September stint with the Phillies in 1917. After the ’17 season, however, he was inducted into the army. He died in May, 1918 when he drowned while in Alabama, where he was undergoing training. He was only 23.
  • Tom Burr appeared in one game with the Yankees in 1914. He retired from baseball after 1914 and would find himself as one of the first fighter pilots in the history of the United States. He died in a training accident in France in 1918 at the age of 24.
  • Harry Chapman played parts of five seasons in the majors before he entered military service in 1917. He never would see action, dying from influenza in Nevada in October of 1918.
  • Harry Glenn played six games with the Cardinals in 1915 and was a mainstay of the St. Paul Saints minor league team. While serving as a army aviation mechanic on the homefront, Glenn died of pneumonia.
  • Newt Halliday would play only one game and have only one AB with the Pirates in 1916 before entering military service, where he died of tuberculosis and pneumonia while undergoing naval training. He was only 20.
  • Robert “Bun” Troy was born in Germany but moved to America at a very young age. He appeared in one game with Detroit as a pitcher in 1912, and his professional baseball career would end after 1914. He died of wounds sustained while serving as a member of the 80th Infantry Division in the Meuse-Argonne during October of 1918.
  • Christy Mathewson had retired from pitching by the beginning of America’s involvement in WWI, and was manager of the Cincinnati Reds. He left the club in the middle of the 1918 season, going to France, where he served in the Army’s chemical division. While there, he suffered the effects of poison gas, which left him with various respiratory ailments, including the tuberculosis that took his life in 1925.
  • Marv Goodwin, who played portions of seven seasons in the majors, died on October 18,1925 in a training exercise for the Army Air Service Reserves, mere weeks after his last professional game.
  • Elmer Gedeon, who had had a cup of coffee with Washington in 1939, died while piloting a B-26 Marauder over France on April 20, 1944. He was 27.  He was one of only two people with Major League experience who died in WWII. The other being…
  • Harry O’Neill, who was a catcher in one game (with no plate appearances) for the Athletics in 1939. He was killed by a sniper on Iwo Jima on March 6, 1945.
  • Bob Neighbors, who had a cup of coffee with the Browns in 1939. In 1941, his baseball career came to an end when he had a poor season and, perhaps more importantly, lost his wife of only six months in a car accident while he was away on a road trip. He signed up for the United States Army Air Force after Pearl Harbor, and became a career military man from that point on. He went Missing In Action (and presumed dead) in 1952 when his B-26 went down over North Korea. He was both the only MLB-experienced man to die during the Korean War, and the last to have died in active service, period.

Of course, there were plenty of players who never made it to the big leagues who died in the line of duty, some of whom may have one day become Major Leaguers if not for the cruelty of war:

 

To them and all who have given the ultimate sacrifice, and to those who made it home, we salute you.

 

New Link: My World Of Baseball

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A new addition to the blogroll, which I have long went to but never have placed into the list of links for one reason or another: My World of Baseball. The webmaster there covers and gives opinions on baseball both internationally and domestically (especially prospects).

Check it out.

Looking at the new stuff that will be in OOTP ’16

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It’s coming again. Out Of The Park Baseball. Are you hyped? Because I’m hyped. Oh, sure, they didn’t pick any of my suggestions for their tagline, but the one they did pick is pretty good. And, what’s more, OOTP 2016 is coming and it already is looking like a big leap over even the improvements that OOTP 2015 brought.

Because, for the first time in quite awhile (if ever), it’ll be officially licensed. Yes, Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball are officially licensing the latest OOTP games, due out in March. That means that instead of having to import logos and stadiums, etc, it’ll all come pre-packaged (although, of course, we’ll still be able to make our own if we want). What’s more, it definitely gives OOTP more clout and officialness- in fact, it’s mobile version will be renamed “MLB Manager”. That will expand it’s reach to more people, bringing OOTP head Markus Heinsohn one step closer to world domination.

Some other things I’m excited for:

  • More leagues! They are adding the Australian League and Independent Leagues in both America and Japan! I love the global scope of OOTP and glad to see it’s default settings continue to grow.
  • Team Owners are more realistic: apparently now instead of simple “win now” or “win later” things, the owners will have both long-term and short-term goals and from the look of what the press release says they might not always make sense (for example, signing a star to a long contract, which as we’ve seen in the real world can be a total disaster).
  • Better finance and coaching systems. They are, of course, completely separate from each other, but I’m combing them because I’m looking forward to seeing more about them. The finance system apparently will be much bigger and involve season ticket sales, etc, while the personnel and coaches will now have personalities and the like. I’m interested.
  • Changes to team strategies, playoff news coverage and the 3D modelling. I’m especially looking forward to the last of these- OOTP 15’s modelling was a good first step but definitely had room for improvement. Fingers crossed it delivers! That fact that they’ve confirmed they will have the 30 MLB stadiums in from the start makes me very optimistic.
  • Little things like rainout rescheduling, different currencies (Yen, Pesos, Euros, etc.), improved HoF and All-Star Voting, etc. etc.

I, of course, will write more about the latest OOTP as more info becomes available.

Note: While I received no compensation for writing this preview, in the past I have received complimentary copies of “Out of The Park Baseball” from it’s developers.

My Suggestions for Out Of The Park Developments Tagline

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As you know, I’m a big fan of Out of the Park Baseball. In fact, I purposely have to keep myself from playing it unless I really, really want to, because otherwise I’ll end up getting lost in it and never emerging for about a week and a half. I’m currently two months OOTP-sober, for example, but I think I might have a relapse soon.

Oh, I got a bit off track there.

Anyway, the developers of Out Of The Park, OOTP Developments, are now running a contest for what their tagline should be for their games (they are increasingly diversifying their portfolio and are adding a football game to the baseball and hockey games they already have). Y’know, like “It’s In The Game”. The winner gets $100 gift card, free copies of all of their games next year, and, presumably, bragging rights for all eternity. I mean, if I win, I’m totally putting it on my resume.

I, of course, had some suggestions. After checking to make sure sharing them won’t disqualify me, here they are:

OOTP Developments: Imagination and Victory
OOTP Developments: Imagine Victory
OOTP Developments: Dream of Victory
OOTP Developments: Dream It. Win It.
OOTP Developments: Beyond Fantasy, Beyond Reality
OOTP Developments: For When Paradox Isn’t Addictive Enough
OOTP Developments: Just One More Season
OOTP Developments: On Grass, On Turf, On Ice, On Your Computing Device!
OOTP Developments: More Than Mere Games
OOTP Developments: The Games Go On
OOTP Developments: Your Team, Your League, Your World
OOTP Developments: Where The Game Never Ends
OOTP Developments: Make The Crowd Go Wild
OOTP Developments: Just Imagine…

Personally, “Imagination and Victory” is my favorite, as it sums up the two best things about OOTP games: coming up with big or neat worlds or scenarios to play in, and winning in them. I even googled a Latin translation of it (Imaginatio Atque Victoria) in case they want to make it sound all profound.  The “For When Paradox Isn’t Addictive Enough” is a joking reference to Paradox Interactive, a game company that makes grand strategy games like Crusader Kings and Hearts of Iron that, like OOTP, can perhaps best be described as addictive drugs in video game form.

Anyway, if you want to try and beat me (and everyone else) in this contest, you can check out the rules and get the e-mail address to apply to here. Good luck, and if you somehow grab one of the above suggestions and they pick you to win for some reason instead of me, I expect half of the winnings.

THIS YEAR’S MYSTERY TEAM WILL BE THE ███████

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Next week, the Winter Meetings begin in Orlando San Diego. And while we no doubt will see funny images on MLB Network like Kevin Millar hanging out with Goofy at the Zoo and Brian Kenny trying to explain to Captain Jack Sparrow the Chicken why the win stat must be sent to Davey Jones’ locker  the slaughter, ultimately, it will be about one team. What team is that? Why, it’s the ██████████████!

Here’s how it will happen, of course:

The ██████████████, after all, will no doubt be the ones that will be rumored to be signing ███████████ on the first day, and the team that will be behind the massive three-team trade involving ██████████████████, █████████████, and ██████████████, which will feature ███████ and top prospect ███████, amongst others. Everybody will think the deal is nuts, but some will praise the ███████████’s GM, █████ ██████████, for his initiative and brilliant thinking. Others will call for his firing.

Meanwhile, the ██████████████’s current star, ███████ ███████, will then make a funny comment on Twitter about how he fell asleep in his █████████ home a few hours ago and is honestly wondering if he missed anything, and then make a second comment saying that this is the first time he heard about the ███████████ trade. It’ll be retweeted by everyone and become a meme, with people talking about how “█████████ is sleeping, make sure you do your deals now” or what-not. Everyone will be sick of it within 48 hours and it will then be resigned to the dustbin of baseball memes.

Then, however, a lull will fall upon Orlando San Diego for most of the second day. Instagrams of Joe Maddon walking around EPCOT SeaWorld and Alex Rodriguez showing up for reasons beyond mortal minds will fill the void while Ken Rosenthal is forced to tell Twitter people that A) he is taller enough to ride Space Mountain than a panda bear so stop asking and B) he’s too busy to go to Disney World the San Diego Zoo right now. But then, the ██████████████ will be rumored to have been talking to Scott Boras. But about who? The speculation will go throughout the day, until finally, we hear that █████████ has signed a deal! Except, it’ll turn out that that report is actually a fake account, and that ██████████ is actually going to somebody completely different.

Overnight, people will start talking about how lots of pizza is arriving at the ██████████████’s suite, and wonder whether this is proof that ██████████████ will be signing ████████. Nothing will really materialize, but, hey, it’ll kill time.

Then, later on, the ██████████████ will make that one final splash, signing ██████████. People will instantly declare them to be World Series favorites…

….and then, in 2015, they’ll miss the playoffs.

Whoops. Well, at least the ██████████████ will always have their great 2014-2015 offseason to remember.

(This article was originally published last year– hence the crossed-off parts)

The Previous BAL-KC Playoff Matchups… yes, there was one (and there could have been 3!)

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Don’t believe the people who say that this ALCS is the first time that Baltimore and Kansas City’s baseball teams have met in the playoffs. It’s wrong.

Oh, to be sure, this is the first time the MLB franchises- the Royals and Orioles- have met. But it’s not the first time Kansas City and Baltimore have sent their nines against each other. It’s the second… and there could have been at least two more, had they been played. Using a few other resources, such as Baseball-Reference, SABR, and their joint wiki, here is the hidden history of Kansas City and Baltimore in the postseason..

 

1923 Little World Series: Kansas City Blues def. Baltimore Orioles, 5-4

Throughout history, there have been many incarnations of a Triple-A World Series, pitting the best teams in America that aren’t Major League. And in 1923, we had the only time that we can be sure Kansas City and Baltimore played each other in a postseason series, as they faced each other in a best-of-9 series, at the time going by the name “Little World Series”, although the Sporting News also referred to as the “Junior World Series”. It was a match-up between the American Association and the International League.

Winning the IL for the fifth straight season, the 1923 Orioles were in the midst of perhaps the greatest minor league dynasty in history, as they would ultimately win the IL every year from 1919 to 1925. Under Jack Dunn- best known for being the man who discovered Babe Ruth- they’d gone 111-53 to win the pennant by 11 games over Rochester, and would later be named as the 19th greatest minor league team in history. Their roster was stacked with players who either had or would have major league careers.

The most notable, of course, would be 23-year-old future Hall-of-Famer Lefty Grove, who pitched to a 3.11 ERA as he set the IL record for strikeouts in a season that year with 330 Ks in 303 IP. However, his 27-10 record wasn’t even the best on the team- that belonged to the 29-year-old Rube Parnham, who went 33-7 with a 3.18 ERA. The righty, interestingly enough, only pitched in six MLB games in his career for the 1916-1917 Philadelphia Athletics.

Also on the Orioles that year was Grove’s fellow Hall-of-Famer Chief Bender, then 39 years old, who had pitched in all but one of his 459 career MLB appearances on the mound (in addition to some small stints as a position player). Pitching in 18 games with Baltimore, he was less than effective and had a 5.03 ERA.

Other notable Orioles included Tommy Thomas (who would go on to pitch parts of 12 seasons in the big leagues), 2B Max Bishop (who tied for the IL lead in HR at 22 and who would go to 15th all-time in MLB OBP), Jimmy Walsh (who had been primarily an outfielder in the majors during the 1910s) and Clarence Pitt, a mid-season acquisition from Rochester who hit .357 in 1923 but who never played a MLB game.

In contrast to the runaway Orioles, the Blues had been in a neck-and-neck race before grabbing the AA title. In fact, in a article dated Sept. 30 in the October 4 issue of Sporting News, it was said that it would be “almost a miracle” if they were to come through in their race with the St. Paul Saints. That same article, entitled “St Paul Counting Team As Safely In”, is in fact more of a preview of a Saints-Orioles series than anything. But Kansas City won an astounding 10 of their last 11 games to finish the year with a 112-54 record, the second best in the history of the American Association and just barely ahead of St. Paul at 111-57. Unlike the Orioles, the Blues lacked many big names or future stars, instead being made up mainly of older veterans, such as their 37-year-old player-manager Wilbur Good (who’d played parts of 11 years in the bigs), 30-year-old Bunny Brief (who had already played all 184 of his MLB games), and 36-year-olds Beals Becker (who had been second in the 1914 National League batting race) and Lena Blackburne (most known for his role in the infamous “rubbing mud” that is placed on baseballs before being put in play). There was also 25-year-old Dud Branom, who hit .348 but would ultimately only have 30 games with the Athletics in 1927. Pitching-wise, the Blues were led by Jimmy Zinn, who went 27-6 with a 3.94 ERA, and Ferdie Schupp, who went 19-10 with a 4.23 ERA. Also in the rotation: Ray Caldwell, winner of 134 career MLB games.

Bad weather plagued the Little World Series, and in fact it ended after MLB’s World Series. Starting on October 10th in Kansas City, it didn’t end until October 25th- 16 days later- in Baltimore, where Kansas City won the 9th and deciding game 5-2, defeating Grove and Parnham in the final game behind homers by Bill Skiff and Brief. It was only because of Baltimore’s play at home that the series had even gotten that long, as Kansas City had gone 3-1 to start the series.

That would be the last time Baltimore and Kansas City would have two professional baseball teams meet in the playoffs… but it’s not the last time that it could have happened.

1929 Negro World Series: The Kansas City Monarchs would have played the Baltimore Black Sox

The Negro Leagues were infamously disorganized, with record-keeping at times being hit-or-miss and the with league schedules often haphazardly taking place between barnstorming tours and other exhibitions. In addition, there was the problem of money (several Negro Leagues ended up folding long before integration) and, of course, the racism they faced, which often closed them out of stadiums and hotels. So, with that in mind, perhaps it is isn’t surprising that the Negro World Series (also called the Colored World Series, depending on the era) was an on-and-off affair. Well, in 1929, it was an “off” year, thus depriving the world of a matchup between the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro National League and the Baltimore Black Sox of the short-lived American Negro League.

We’ll never know what would have happened had they done so, but any such series would have featured at least three Hall of Famers: Jud Wilson (with Baltimore), Bullet Joe Rogan (with Kansas City) and Andy Cooper (also with Kansas City).

1939 Negro World Series: The Kansas City Monarchs would have played the Baltimore Elite Giants

Ten years later, the Negro American League champion Kansas City Monarchs would have faced the Negro National League champion Baltimore Elite Giants. But, like in 1929, the Negro Leagues World Series was not in existence at the time.

That was a shame, as this series would have been even more star-studded than the 1929 edition would have been. Hall of Famers Hilton Smith, Turkey Stearnes and Willard Brown, as well as Buck O’Neil (who should have been a Hall of Famer for his work off the field alone), were on the Monarchs, while the Elite Giants had a 41-year-old Biz Mackey and a 17-year-old catcher named Roy Campanella.

We’ll never know what might have happened, but it really fires up the imagination, doesn’t it?

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So, there you go, the previous playoff match-ups between Baltimore and Kansas City. Oh, sure, two of them never really happened, but, still, that’s way more than is needed to render any claim that this is the first time that Kansas City and Baltimore have met in the playoffs false!

 

Looking at the “Pace of Game” rules that will be experimented in the AFL

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The Arizona Fall League will, this year, be a test bed for some possible rule changes to speed up the pace of play in baseball. It is, of course, an important issue, and I’m glad to see that already some possible changes will be tested. So, let’s take a look at what we’ve got here:

 

Batter’s Box Rule: The batter shall keep at least one foot in the batter’s box throughout his at-bat, unless one of a series of established exceptions occurs, in which case the batter may leave the batter’s box but not the dirt area surrounding home plate. (Exceptions include a foul ball or a foul tip; a pitch forcing the batter out of the batter’s box; “time” being requested and granted; a wild pitch or a passed ball; and several others.)

 

A fine rule to start with. A chunk of the killed time these days is because batters step out to take some practice swings or adjust some equipment after nearly every pitch. So, on the surface, forcing hitters to stay in the box is good. However, there are some possible flaws, mainly in the fact there are a ton of exceptions, with the biggest one being the fact the batter can still call “time”. Yes, sometimes when a batter calls time it is for a good reason, but other times it is just so that they can do the aforementioned practice swings or adjustments. So, ultimately, this rule will only help if umpires cut down on unnecessary calls of “time”, otherwise the problem will remain, just in a different form.

(MORE AFTER THE JUMP)

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