All-Star Plate Appearances, By Franchise

35 Replies

73 different players representing the Yankees have had at least one plate appearance (PA) in an All-Star game (ASG). That’s the most for any one franchise. The Dodgers are second, with 70 different players having had at least one PA in an All-Star game. At the other end of the scale, the Rays franchise has had nine different players with at least one All-Star game PA.

Willie Mays had 79 ASG plate appearances while with the Giants. That’s the most by any one player representing a particular franchise. Stan Musial had 72 PAs in All-Star Games, all for the Cardinals, his only team — that’s second only to Mays in ASG PAs for a particular franchise. More on this theme, after the jump. Brooks Robinson had 47 ASG PAs for the Orioles, a high number, but not the most for the Orioles, as Cal Ripken had 52 plate appearances in All-Star games. That 47 ASG PA number for Robinson is the most by any player who does not lead his franchise in this category.

Below is a table that lists, for each of the 30 current major league franchises, the number of different players who have had at least one ASG plate appearance while representing that franchise. The table also lists the player with the most ASG PAs for the franchise (and the number of his ASG PAs for the franchise), as well as the player with the second-most ASG PAs for that franchise (and, again, the number of his ASG PAs for the franchise). After Tuesday’s game, I’ll update the table to include this year’s data.

[table id=139 /]

0 0 votes

Article Rating

35 Comments

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Phil

11 years ago

Nice—if you’d asked me to guess, I would have thrown out a number higher than 73. You could take those numbers, compare them to league/division titles (or franchise winning pct. since 1933), and figure out who’s been over/under-represented. Too lazy myself…

KalineCountry

11 years ago

Thanks for doing this.
iirc Kaline was 12 for 37 with 2 Bombs with 18 All-Star selections, played in 15, missing 3 due to injuries. Also Gehringer played in the first 6 batting .500

donburgh

11 years ago

The name Willie Jones is a complete mystery to me.

donburgh

11 years ago

Reply to donburgh

Ok, he’s more recognizable by his nickname. Still, it’s kind of a fluke that he makes this list. He played all of the 1950 game that went 14 innings, and got 7 PA as the NL’s leadoff man.

Author

birtelcom

11 years ago

Reply to donburgh

–As I was doing this list, I stopped to check Willie Jones’ b-ref page, as he was largely unfamiliar to me, too.

–No one in the majors played more games at third base in the 1950s than Puddin’ Head.

–In his New Historical Abstract from 2001, Bill James ranked Puddin’ Head the 65th best third baseman in MLB history. If you use the Play Index to rank, in order of career WAR, everybody who played third in at least half their career games, and you do that as of 2001, WAR ranks Puddin’ Head as 64th.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

For the years including All-Star games already played, here are the combined winning percentages for the original 16 teams, and their number of All-Stars with at least one PA: Rk — Tm — W-L% — AS w/1 PA 1 — NYY — .581 — 73 2 — BRO — .541 — 70 3 — STL — .539 — 69 4 — BOS — .531 — 66 5 — NYG — .521 — 58 6 — BSN — .513 — 55 7 — CIN — .510 — 60 8 — DET — .507 — 60 9 — CLE — .507 —… Read more »

Phil

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Lines up surprisingly well if you remove those two outliers: from the top, 73, 70, 69, 66, 58, 55, 60, 60, 57, 50, 51, 46, 54, 46. Actually, two more stand out: Boston Braves a little under-represented, too many Phillies.

Luis Gomez

11 years ago

Ken Keltner might be the only 7-time all-star that I never heard of before.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

Luis, Ken Keltner is best remembered as the man who stopped DiMaggio’s hitting streak. He was a good defensive third baseman, and he made a couple of good plays on DiMaggio on July 17, 1941.

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

He was also made famous by Bill James’ “Ken Keltner List”, a series of 15 questions to guide decisions about whether or not someone belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Luis Gomez

11 years ago

Reply to Ed

Again, I read those questions before, but I never associate them with Keltner´s name.

By the way, question # 14 always reminds me of the “Charlie O´Brien for the HOF” debate. 😉

Luis Gomez

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

I remember the story about a third baseman making a couple of great plays to stop DiMaggio´s streak, but for some reason, Keltner´s name wasn´t as familiar as it should be. Thanks, John.

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Keltner was also the last player to be used as a courtesy runner, on 6-14-49.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Huh — I did not realize that the practice had lasted so late, nor that the run Keltner scored in place of Boudreau was credited to Boudreau. (See 1st inning.)

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS194906140.shtml

Darien

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

According to Retrosheet, Jim Hegan was the last proper courtesy runner, three weeks later on 07-02-49: retrosheet.org/courtesy.htm

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Darien

Darien: Thanks for the update. I got my info from the Charlton Chronology which, although rich with information about the history of the game, does have a number of errors.

Lawrence Azrin

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Related to “courtesy runners” in MLB – I read somewhere that c.1914, Tris Speaker was badly shaken up running into a wall making a catch, left the field, but was allowed to re-enter the game a few innings later by agreement with the other team.

Does anyone know the last time that re-entry to a game from a temporary injury was allowed?

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Going by the retrosheet link provided by Darien in post 16 shows that the last time a player was granted re-entry from a game due to an injury that was not caused by a HBP was on 8-3-47 when Dick Wakefield of the Tigers injured himself going into second base. He was replaced by Roy Cullenbine and then returned to the game at the inning’s end. That link is worth reading. Tris Speaker was mentioned in that on 6-4-15 he was hit in the head while batting and replaced with a courtesy runner. Speaker returned to the field at the… Read more »

Lawrence Azrin

11 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

@24/Richard,

OK, thanks.

Matthew Glidden

11 years ago

Outta nowhere, Nellie Fox at #10 in all-time PAs. Remembered the multiple ASG changes for several years in his career (two each ’59-’61), but never would’ve put him in the top 30, let alone top 10!

Author

birtelcom

11 years ago

Reply to Matthew Glidden

Nellie is actually #11 all-time in career ASG PAs. Rod Carew appears on the table with 36 ASG PAs, but those are only his appearances as a member of the Twins. He had 12 more ASG PAs as a member of the Angels, for a career total of 48, ahead of Fox. Nellie was certainly helped in this list by the 15 PAs he racked up playing in four ASGs in 1959-1960. But even he’d had half the number of PAs in those two years, he’d still be top 20 (he played in nine other ASGs besides the four in… Read more »

no statistician but

11 years ago

One of the interesting things about this post and HHS generally is how they reveal the disparities between those of us with an historical interest and those with a contemporary interest. To me and, I suspect, Richard Chester and some others, the commentary here on Willie Jones, Ken Keltner, and Nellie Fox is a trifle bizarre. It’s names like Luis Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez, and Michael Young that I have difficulty placing.

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

nsb: I do know the old-timers better than the newcomers. Whenever I do the Player Stats Quiz I go back to the forties and fifties.

Editor

Bryan O'Connor

11 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

A primer on the “new guys”:

Luis Gonzalez- 57 HR and one of the greatest hits in Yankee-hater history, all in 2001.

Hanley Ramirez- Pujols’ only rival for best player title in mid-’00s; faded fast (but is raking for the Dodgers in ’13)

Michael Young- AL Gold Glove voters’ backup choice when Jeter wasn’t available for some reason. Horrible fielder at many positions; presumably won GG because he hit a lot of singles.

BryanM

11 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

Count me among those who remember Nellie Fox as a perennial all-star MVP candidate but have difficulty remembering which Ramirez is the really good one

11 years ago

Reply to BryanM

I think the homogeneity of Hispanic names doesn’t help. I’m sort of surprised what often happens in football (soccer) hasn’t happened in baseball: players going by their first names or nicknames to avoid confusion. So Raúl Gonzalez is universally known as Raúl, Xavier Hernandez is Xavi, Javier Hernandez is Chicharito, etc.

Abbott

11 years ago

Reply to RJ

I remember the homogeneity of Davis’ back in the 80’s. So many!

Abbott

11 years ago

Reply to RJ

I remember the homogeneity of Davis’s back in the 80’s. So many!

e pluribus munu

11 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

nsb, What initially led me into HHS (B-R blog) was precisely this dynamic, and the way that commenters with different backgrounds and interests accommodate one another here.

no statistician but

11 years ago

Some random comments on birtelcom’s table:

Seeing Reggie Jackson listed for the A’s makes me wonder how many PAs he had total in his career, and also whether any other multi team stars had high totals that don’t show up here.

It’s hard to believe that Santo and Williams don’t have more than Sandberg for the Cubs, that Jackie Robinson and Duke Snider don’t have more than Steve Garvey, that Lou Boudreau isn’t the Indians leader, that Schmidt and Ashburn respectively have so few for the Phils, that Aparicio has more than Luke Appling for the White Sox.

birtelcom

11 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

All good questions. Let’s do Appling. Luke was named to seven ASGs, but only played in four, with ten total PAs. Cronin and Boudreau took some of the PAs that might otherwise have been Appling’s.

birtelcom

11 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

Reggie came to bat in 12 All-Star games, with 31 total PAs. While with the A’s, he had 19 PAs in six games. While with the Yankees, he had 8 PAS in four games While with the Angels, he had 4 PAS in two games. 31 total ASG PAs places him tied for 23rd (with Billy Herman, George Brett and Joe Morgan) in the list of most career ASG PAs. The only hitter who places in the top 20 who is not on the above table somewhere is Wade Boggs, who had 32 career ASG PAs, 22 while with Boston… Read more »

birtelcom

11 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

Billy Williams was an All-Star six times, but started only two ASGs. With Mays and Aaron as contemporaries, Billy really didn’t have much room in the NL’s All-Star outfield, and there was also Clemente, Stargell, etc. to compete with. The lesson is that piling up ASG PAs may depend on the vagaries of the prevailing league competition at your position.

Yippeeyappee

11 years ago

Birtelcom, thanks for doing this research. To help promote the site and this fine article, I used it as the basis of this quiz.

Jimbo

11 years ago

lol at Carter coming in 2nd for the Jays.