COG Round 90 Results: “Bucketfoot” heads the class |

The 90th round of voting for the Circle of Greats inducts Hall of Famer “Bucketfoot” Al Simmons, winning election in only his third round on the COG ballot as he edged out contemporaries Carl Hubbell and Paul Waner in a close three-way race. Simmons was a fixture on the powerhouse As teams of the late 1920s and early 1930s, recognized as one of the top hitters in the game and also one of the better outfielders. His manager Connie Mack, hardly known for sentimentality, kept just one picture of a former player in his office – Simmons’. When asked which player had been most valuable to the As, Mack replied “If only I could have had nine players named Al Simmons.”

More on Al Simmons after the jump.

The 22 year-old Simmons debuted with the As in 1924 and made an immediate impression with 31 doubles and 102 RBI. It would be the first of 11 straight seasons of 25 doubles and 100 RBI. As a sophomore, Simmons compiled the phenomenal total of 253 hits, still the record for right-hand hitting batters and then second only to George Sisler‘s mark of 257 recorded 5 years earlier. Simmons’ .387 BA that year remains the record for players in a qualified first or second season of a career. It would be the first of 7 straight qualified seasons batting .340 with a 140 OPS+, tied with Harry Heilmann and Ted Williams for the second longest such streak behind Ty Cobb‘s eleven seasons.

Simmons peaked at age 27-29, posting three consecutive 7.5 WAR seasons. Included were AL batting crowns in 1930 and 1931, and a 150 run/150 RBI campaign in 1930, one of only ten such seasons in major league history. That 1930 season was one of three for Simmons with 200 hits and 150 RBI, second only to Lou Gehrig‘s 7 such campaigns. For his career, Simmons passed milestones for 1500 runs, 1800 RBI, 500 doubles and 300 home runs, and fell just short of 3000 hits. His 9518 career PA are the fewest of the 16 players to reach those four plateaus.

Simmons’ age 27 season was the first of 5 consecutively with 200 hits and 100 RBI, tied with Chuck Klein for the longest such streak of seasons. The last of those campaigns was in the White Sox uniform, whither Simmons had been dispatched as Connie Mack sold off his top players after the As dynasty had run its course. It would be the first of 5 times that Simmons would be sold, the sums realized a reflection of his declining value as his career wound down: from $100,000 (1932) to $75,000 (1935) to $15,000 (1937) to $3,000 (1938) to undisclosed (1939). Those late career travels would make Simmons a teammate of a host of HOFers, by my count no fewer than these nineteen: Ty Cobb, Mickey Cochrane, Eddie Collins, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, Tris Speaker, Zack Wheat, Charlie Gehringer, Goose Goslin, Hank Greenberg, Waite Hoyt, Luke Appling, Red Faber, Ted Lyons, Joe Cronin, Bobby Doerr, Rick Ferrell, George Kell and Ernie Lombardi.

Simmons was a post-season terror, slashing .333/.387/.667 in three consecutive World Series with the As, including a pair of home runs in each. Simmons also posted 8 World Series multi-hit games, including three consecutively in 1930, and seven with an extra-base hit.

Quiz time.

Who is the only other non-Yankee with multiple home runs in three different World Series?
Who is the only player with fewer career WS games than Simmons and who recorded more than Simmons’ total of 7 WS multi-hit games including an extra-base hit?

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David Horwich

9 years ago

“Who is the only other non-Yankee with multiple home runs in three different World Series?”

Frank Robinson, 1966, 1970, 1971; 2 HR each series.

He was my 3rd guess; I looked at Hodges and Campanella first.

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Doug

Reply to David Horwich

Frank’s the one.

I was surprised no Dodger had done so.

David P

I believe there were only 57 votes cast last round. Is that the least ever?

Hartvig

Reply to David P

In the 1954 election there were only 48 ballots cast. Just 4 rounds prior there had been 81. I think that birtelcom might have taken a few week hiatus for travel or business somewhere in between. I also found 55 in the 1943-2 election and 57 in 1942 plus about half a dozen other vote tallies in the 50’s (but more than 57). They mostly seem to be clustered around 3 periods- 1954, 1943 & then starting again in 1907. I mentioned that I think one of them seemed to correlate with a few weeks of downtime for COG voting… Read more »

I guess I’m starting to understand some peoples frustration. I wrote a long- and now that I think about it kind of rambling- reply that when I went to post my screen did what it usually does on this site- which is go white- and then after waiting about 10 or 15 seconds- again, what I usually do- I clicked off of the site and then back in. Only this time it doesn’t appear to have posted. Short answer is no. I think the fewest I could find was 48 & another of maybe 54 plus a few other 57s.… Read more »

I tried replying to this earlier and the comment never showed up.

I don’t remember all of the details now but I believe the fewest number of ballots cast in an election was 48 followed by 54 in another. There were maybe another 7 or 8 elections (not counting the most recent ones) where the vote totals were between 57 and 59. In the most recent round in which the vote totals have been updated (1904-1) there were 65 ballots cast.

Dr. Doom

Reply to Hartvig

The comment DID show up. It’s showed up three times, actually… not that you’ll necessarily see this one. Also, I actually answered this query in my post below (#4), as well, with an assist from David Horwich. Try switching browsers (Chrome and IE appear to work best).

Reply to Dr. Doom

And now I’m realizing that I forgot to thank Hartvig for his research!

Round 89 all-time vote update! * = active on the ballot; # = in redemption purgatory; all others elected. Craig Biggio – 763 Eddie Murray – 731 Roberto Alomar – 725 John Smoltz – 658 Kenny Lofton – 608 Ryne Sandberg – 607 *Harmon Killebrew – 510 Edgar Martinez – 507 Lou Whitaker – 493 Whitey Ford – 382 Bobby Grich – 376 Sandy Koufax – 375 *Kevin Brown – 369 Tony Gwynn – 346 Willie McCovey – 336 *Roy Campanella – 287 *Minnie Minoso – 285 *Dennis Eckersley – 273 Juan Marichal – 268 *Dave Winfield – 262 Tom… Read more »

The average number of votes over all 90 rounds is 66 (66 is also the median, and the mode). The last 5 rounds prior to this one had 65, 65, 65, 61, and 65 votes.

Richard Chester

Answer to the second question: Pepper Martin

Reply to Richard Chester

That’s who I found.

Probably not among those likely to come to mind. Although, interestingly, Lou Brock, a player not dissimilar to Martin, had 9 multi-hit (incl. XBH) games in only two more WS outings than Simmons.

KalineCountry

I remember reading many years ago, that Al Simmons held the American League record for most hits by a right handed batter until Kaline passed him in his final 1974 season.
iirc Al was passed by Robin Yount.