Quiz: Junior-sized All-Star (stumped) |

Ken Griffey Jr. a first ballot inductee last week into the Circle of Greats, is the only player of the past 35 years (since 1979) with four consecutive seasons (1996-99) of 40 HR, 120 Runs and 120 RBI (actually, Babe Ruth, with 7 consecutive seasons from 1926 to 1932, is the only other player to do this).

But, another Junior, rather less well-known, is the subject of today’s quiz. Like Griffey, Junior Spivey was an All-Star who also was the only retired position player active in the past 35 years to accomplish a certain feat. What is it?

Hint: among retired position players to play their entire careers since 1901, Spivey is the 13th to accomplish this feat.

Doesn’t happen often, but looks like I’ve stumped our HHS readers. The secret to this quiz was in noticing that Junior Spivey compiled a pretty fair WAR total of 8.2 in only 457 career games. That is the most since 1978 for retired players with careers of 500 or fewer games, and only the 13th time with WAR over 8 since 1901. Those careers are after the jump.

Here are those 13 players.

Rk	Player	G	WAR	From	To	Age	PA	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos	Tm
1	Junior Spivey	457	8.2	2001	2005	26-30	1785	258	419	90	12	48	201	175	373	.270	.354	.436	.790	*4/H68	ARI-MIL-TOT
2	Ron Blomberg	461	9.4	1969	1978	20-29	1493	184	391	67	8	52	224	140	134	.293	.360	.473	.832	D3/H97	NYY-CHW
3	Jerry Kenney	465	9.1	1967	1973	22-28	1594	165	325	38	13	7	103	184	139	.237	.326	.299	.626	*5/6H84	NYY-CLE
4	Jack Hiatt	483	8.6	1964	1972	21-29	1387	110	287	51	5	22	154	224	295	.251	.374	.363	.737	*2H/37	LAA-SFG-TOT-HOU
5	Luke Easter	491	9.0	1949	1954	33-38	1931	256	472	54	12	93	340	174	293	.274	.350	.481	.830	*3/H9	CLE
6	Sam Jethroe	442	8.8	1950	1954	33-37	1974	280	460	80	25	49	181	177	293	.261	.337	.418	.755	*8/7H9	BSN-PIT
7	Bill Salkeld	356	8.9	1945	1950	28-33	1049	111	232	39	2	31	132	182	101	.273	.402	.433	.835	*2/H	PIT-BSN-CHW
8	Les Fleming	434	9.2	1939	1949	23-33	1572	168	369	69	15	29	199	226	152	.277	.386	.417	.804	*3/H97	DET-CLE-PIT
9	Phil Weintraub	444	9.9	1933	1945	25-37	1630	215	407	67	19	32	207	232	182	.295	.398	.440	.838	*3/H798	NYG-TOT-PHI
10	Ray Grimes	433	10.4	1920	1926	26-32	1787	269	505	101	25	27	263	204	133	.329	.413	.480	.892	*3/H	BOS-CHC-PHI
11	Joe Connolly	412	8.3	1913	1916	29-32	1468	202	358	65	31	14	157	168	131	.288	.380	.425	.805	*7/98	BSN
12	Dutch Zwilling	366	8.5	1910	1916	21-27	1443	167	364	76	15	30	202	128	155	.284	.351	.438	.789	*8/93	CHW-CHI-CHC
13	Ed Lennox	448	8.2	1906	1915	22-31	1615	138	379	70	25	18	185	174	143	.274	.361	.400	.760	*5	PHA-BRO-CHC-PBS

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/25/2013.

Why the lack of recent players on the list? Just a hunch but I’m guessing it has to do with a couple of factors: firstly, the huge sums invested in players today; and secondly, the short benches resulting from those 12 man pitching staffs. The players want to stick around to partake of those riches, and no longer can they do so as a pinch-hitting specialist (as did several of the players on this list).

Finally, for some holiday fun, here’s the All-Junior All-Star team, for players with a given name of Junior, or nicknamed Junior, or commonly known by that generational suffix.

Pitcher: Cloyd Boyer, Gene Thompson
Catcher: John Roseboro, Junior Ortiz
1st Base: Champ Summers
2nd: Base: Jim Gilliam
3rd Base: Vern Stephens
Shortstop: Cal Ripken
Left Field: Otis Nixon
Ceneter Field: Ken Griffey
Right Field: Jose Cardenal

Merry Christmas everyone!

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Chris C

10 years ago

I was going to guess he was the best player ever from Cowley County Community College but apparently that distinction belongs to Travis Hafner.

I don’t have a guess yet but Spivey had a really nice 2nd season-even getting a few MVP votes, then he trailed off quickly. Did he get hurt that following season?

Author

Doug

Reply to Chris C

Don’t know if he was hurt, but it doesn’t appear so. After he last appeared in the majors, Spivey played about 90 games in each of 3 minor league seasons, the last (in 2009) an apparent comeback playing for Independent clubs after being out of baseball entirely in 2008.

Insert Name Here

Complete shot in the dark here… is it that he played at least 5 years in the majors with the majority of his runs, hits, and RBIs in 2 consecutive seasons (02-03)?

Reply to Insert Name Here

Not that.

Richard Chester

Doug: Does it have anything to do with having just one qualifying season and playing in the All-Star game in that season?

Reply to Richard Chester

No. Not that.

nyyankeefanforever

He had two five-hit games as a rookie. Pretty sure that’s a rarity. Might that be it?

Reply to nyyankeefanforever

That is, in fact, a record since 1916 that Spivey shares with these guys. Player Year ▴ #Matching Junior Spivey 2001 2 Ind. Games Chris Singleton 1999 2 Ind. Games Rico Carty 1964 2 Ind. Games Ken Hubbs 1962 2 Ind. Games Wally Moon 1954 2 Ind. Games Red Borom 1945 2 Ind. Games Max Macon 1944 2 Ind. Games Vern Stephens 1942 2 Ind. Games Frank McCormick 1938 2 Ind. Games Frenchy Bordagaray 1935 2 Ind. Games Johnny Frederick 1929 2 Ind. Games Paul Waner 1926 2 Ind. Games Kiki Cuyler 1924 2 Ind. Games Maurice Archdeacon 1924 2 Ind.… Read more »

I ran HBP = HR, HR equal to or less than 20, R equal to or greater than 100, 2B equal to or greater than 30 and H equal to or greater than 160 and got 13 names, including Benny Kauff of the FL. Spivey was the only one after 1975.

Editor

John Autin

While we wait to see if Richard nailed it, I’ll chime in:

I searched on these minimums: 30 doubles, 5 triples, 15 HRs, 15 HBP and 100 runs. That’s only been done 10 times, first by Frank Robinson in ’65, the other nine since 1992.

But, not the answer…

Much, much simpler than all that. But, a true virtuoso performance Richard to find an alternative and completely unrelated solution. 🙂 Interesting names on Richard’s list, BTW. Rk Player Year H HR R 2B HBP Age Tm 1 Austin Jackson 2010 181 4 103 34 4 23 DET 2 Junior Spivey 2002 162 16 103 34 16 27 ARI 3 Ichiro Suzuki 2001 242 8 127 34 8 27 SEA 4 Derek Jeter 1997 190 10 116 31 10 23 NYY 5 Dave Cash 1975 213 4 111 40 4 27 PHI 6 Phil Rizzuto 1950 200 7 125 36… Read more »

Reply to Doug

Doug: I was just waiting for you to say that it is much simpler. I’m retiring now, maybe someone else will come up with the answer.

A new day has dawned and I am trying again. I don’t have the answer but I did discover that Spivey is the only player with HBP = HR, R and SO are 100+ and BA is .300+.

I’ll take a shot.

In 2003 and 2004 Spivey matched his exact HBP, CS, and GiDP totals. That’s the best I have on this.

So far, all of you have focused on one or more of Spivey’s seasonal stat lines.

At the risk of giving this away, the answer does not lie in any of Spivey’s individual seasons.

Spivey’s HR log throws up some interesting stuff. He only hit 48, but 2 each off Randy Johnson, Johan Santana and Greg Maddux. His two off Santana were on consecutive Johan starts in his 2004 Cy Young year. His first 21 home runs produced 23 RBI.

Thought I had a Spivey solution for a minute: Fewest career games (457) for a player with at least 435 games at one fielding position. But then I found Rey Quinones, with 444 of his 451 career games at SS.

Well done, Doug!

For your Junior all-star team you could also toss in P Joe Coleman, Jr., who had 142 career wins (the most for a Junior?).

BryanM

No doubt the money even marginal players earn today explains why fellas who can generate 2+ WAR per 162 tend to have longer careers, but a number of players on your list had careers shortened for other reasons , Luke Easter and Sam Jethroe among them.

Reply to BryanM

Yes. Easter and Jethroe have special circumstances that we won’t see again.

Probably Jerry Kenney is the most similar to Spivey in terms of age and position. But, Spivey was earning about 70 times more than Kenney (or about 10 times more, inflation adjusted).

It doesn’t make sense with Jerry Kenney having more WAR than Luke Easster. For a few years Easter was one of the most feared hitters in the AL, forming part of the Doby-Rosen-Easter heart of the Indians great teams of the early 50s. Kenney did not accomplish much in his career, I was glad when he left the Yankees.

Luis G

For your team, C Sandy Alomar.

oneblankspace

If you need a utility infielder on your bench, you could have Junior Kennedy.