The Diamond Fan

Sports Illustrated’s web site has an interesting article about the discovery of a diary entry from 1755 with a reference to the game of “base ball.” This pre-dates the earliest previously known reference to baseball (by that name) by a good half a century.

I’m not sure the discovery is all that earth-shaking.  It is well-known that the sport that developed in 19th Century America had antecedents that date back centuries, and given the nature of that category of games it is not surprising that someone might have referred to one such game as “base ball.”  In any event the game that the diarist (William Bray) described must have been a rather sedate affair, as fully half of the participants mentioned were women.  It’s hard to imagine young women from British society during the reign of George II engaging in anything resembling the robust, competitive sport that was baseball in its early days of development in the USA.

Still, it is an interesting discovery, and warrants further research into what kind of sport this “base ball” may have been and what role it may have played as a forerunner of American baseball.

The Sporting News issue of fifty years ago this week (August 8, 1958) featured Yankees pitcher Bob Turley. The headline:

Bullet Bob Firing for Top Hill Targets: Sets Fast Pace in Victories, Route Jobs, and Strikeouts

Specific articles in the feature were “Could Sweep All Pitching Honors in’58″ and “Yanks’ Hurler Throwback to Iron Man Era.”  The article credits Turley as a key reason the Yankees were running away with the AL pennant race, and speculates on his potential for achieving certain milestones such as 20 complete games and possibly sweeping the AL pitching honors that season.  The article states:

Bob amounts to a throw-back to the rubber arms of 30 and 40 years ago, when pitchers just naturally went nine innings. Today the route-goer is rare. Notching 20 complete games, for example, which is definitely within Turley’s reach, is an extraordinary feat for a starter who has firemen breathing on his neck.

At the time the article was written Turley was 15-4 with an ERA of 2.78, 118 strikeouts and 14 complete games.

How did Turley end up that season? He finished 21-7 with 168 srikeouts and an ERA of 2.97.  He just missed the 20 complete games mark, finish with 19, which still tied for the best in the AL along with Frank Lary and Billy Pierce.  His 21 wins also led the league.  He did, in fact, win the Major League Cy Young Award, as well as The Sporting News Major League Player of the Year Award, TSN’s American League Pitcher of the Year Award, and the World Series MVP.

This, his age 27 season, turned out to be the high point of his career.  He would win only 29 more games from 1959-1963, all but the last three (in 1963) with the Yankees, finishing with 101 career victories.  He would never again be among the league leaders in wins or complete games, although he was 7th in the AL in ERA during 1960.

The rarity of complete games that the Sporting News bemoaned fifty years ago has, of course, become even more rare in recent years.  It was not at all uncommon for league leaders in complete games to exceed Turley’s 19 (sometimes by quite a bit) during the 60s and 70s.  But the last pitcher to reach as many as 20 complete games in a season was Fernando Valenzuela in 1986.  No pticher since the turn of the 21st Century has pitched as many as 10 in a season.

There is a nice article on mlb.com today on the Dodgers’ 1968 draft. (”The greatest Draft in baseball history“) It really was a remarkable haul of talent: Bill Buckner, Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, Davey Lopes, Bobby Valentine, Geoff Zahn, Joe Ferguson and Tom Paciorek, all in one draft. All of these guys reached the majors and had long, productive careers.  A few (Buckner, Garvey, Lopes, and Cey) were truly outstanding players, even if none of them quite rose to the Hall of Fame level.

Most significantly for me, several of those guys formed the nucleus of the teams that made me into a Dodgers fan while I was living in the Los Angeles area in the 70s and 80s. I can still hear Vin Scully now, setting the Dodger defense in the top of the first: “The Dodgers have Dusty Baker in left, Billy North in center, Reggie Smith in right. And the infield: Garvey, Lopes, Russell and Cey…”

Garvey, Lopes, Russell and Cey. The longest running infield in baseball history, and great players all. What a please it was to watch them play. And 3/4 of that historic infield came out of that one draft. Billy Buck was a great one, too, but while he put in some good years with the Dodgers, he spent the majority of his superb career outside the Dodger organization, as did Paciorek and Valentine.  But, wow, that may very well have been the greatest draft in baseball history.

I just got back from a trip to Kansas City. I was there on Opening Day, but the Royals opened on the road so I didn’t get a chance to catch a game.  Too bad: it would have been nice to add another to my list of major league cities where I’ve watched a game.

I did, however, take the opportunity to visit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.  It was a terrific experience,  a way to learn a little more about an aspect of baseball history that I knew relatively little about.  The museum is a fitting tribute to men who obviously loved the game, many of them truly great players.  I recommend it to any baseball fan who visits the Kansas City area.

Spring training has started and everyone is trying to figure out who among the rookie phenoms will make a big splash this year and go on to become stars. This year names live Evan Longoria, Jay Bruce, Jacoby Ellsbury and Cameron Maybin are part of the conversation. Fifty years ago, the February 26, 1958 issue of The Sporting News published a list of “Top Prospects” as voted on by major league scouts (”Major Scouts Tab Siebern as Top Prospect.” ) The Siebern in question was Norm Siebern, a New York Yankees outfielder who had been primed for a big debut in 1956 only to have his season derailed by a knee injury. He was coming back after a strong season at AAA Denver in 1957, and the scouts voted him the number one prospect for that year. Others on the list: Carlton Willey, Braves pitcher; Ron Jackson, White Sox first baseman; Stan Williams, Dodgers pitcher; Mudcat Grant, Indians pitcher.

Forecasting baseball talent has always been an inexact science, so I thought it would be fun to take a look back and see how those top prospects from yesteryear panned out. Read the rest of this entry »