The “Slate” tool to find out the connections between Athletes is WRONG!

You’ve probably seen this page pop up on your Twitter feed today. It’s a cool thing from Slate in which you can find how sports players are connected. For example, they use the example that Tom Brady and Kevin Garnett are within six degrees of each other, due to playing with people who had played with multi-sport athletes.

However, it is far from perfect. For example, it treats Jim Thorpe as two people (a baseball player and a football player), a grave error considering that he is one of the greatest athletes of all time. For another, there is an outright false statement that is seemingly also built into the tool. And I quote:

Hockey is the opposite, as there has never been a pro hockey player who also played top-level basketball, football, or baseball. As a result, hockey is a closed system. But once you get off the ice, it’s possible to link every pro baseball, basketball, and football star.

This is, of course, completely wrong, as there has actually been one player who played both baseball and hockey on the highest level. In fact, I wrote about him at one point: his name was Jim Riley.

Sadly, as of this writing, author Ben Blatt and Slate have yet to fix this. But, I can’t blame them, can I? I mean, Jim Riley is very obscure, and if not for the fact that he is the one person to play in both MLB and NHL, he would have been completely forgotten.

Still, I hope that they fix it. After all, I want to see how all of the ProStars connect together.

The Lone Man to play in MLB and the NHL (and other MLB/NHL connections)

Hockey is back!

(Crickets)

Well, anyway, there have been far fewer two-sport athletes in baseball involving hockey than there are basketball or football. In fact, there has been a grand total of one player who has spent time in the Major Leagues and the NHL. That player is Jim Riley, who spent some brief time with the St. Louis Browns and Washington Senators in the 1920s and spent a brief time with the Chicago Black Hawks (note the space) and Detroit Cougars (not yet the Red Wings) in the 1926-1927 season. Here’s what his top league statistics looked like:

In MLB:

Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards
1921 26 SLB AL 4 12 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 .000 .083 .000 .083 -78 0 0 0 /4
1923 28 WSH AL 2 5 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 .000 .400 .000 .400 13 0 0 0 /3
1931 Did not play in major leagues (Did Not Play)
2 Yrs 6 17 14 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 .000 .176 .000 .176 -52 0 0 0
162 Game Avg. 162 459 378 27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 81 81 .000 .176 .000 .176 -52 0 0 0
WSH (1 yr) 2 5 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 .000 .400 .000 .400 13 0 0 0
SLB (1 yr) 4 12 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 .000 .083 .000 .083 -78 0 0 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/14/2013.

In the NHL:

Season Age Tm Lg GP G A PTS GC +/- PIM EV PP SH GW S S% TOI ATOI
1926-27 31 TOT NHL 9 0 2 2 1 14
1926-27 31 CBH NHL 3 0 0 0 0 0
1926-27 31 DTC NHL 6 0 2 2 1 14
Career NHL 9 0 2 2 1 14
Provided by Hockey-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/14/2013.

Of course, Riley also played in the minor leagues in both sports. You can find his baseball minor league stats over at Baseball Reference, and you can find his hockey stats over at hockeydb.com.

Now, although Riley is the lone man to have played in both MLB and the NHL, he is not the only player who played both sports. Not even close. Take a look after the jump for other connections between America’s pastime and Canada’s pastime:

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