Jose Bautista / Presswire
Time for 1977’s other expansion team to get the Rushmore treatment.
Let’s get started.
First of all, can you guess which batter has the most career WAR for the Blue Jays? I bet you get it wrong. Continue reading
Just a great photo.
Courtesy of Presswire
"We don't need no stinkin' last names." -made up quote from Edgar and Ichiro / Presswire
Now that we’ve gotten the more recent expansion teams out of the way, we’re finally to our first team with at least 30 years of history. Unfortunately, it’s one that hasn’t even been to the World Series…
Let’s take a look at who the heroes of the Mariners are. Continue reading
Ellis Burks, once a great Rockie, in a photo from spring 2012 when he was coaching the Reds / Presswire
Here are the Colorado Rockies. The way I see it, this is a discussion of just the final two faces on their Mount Rushmore as Todd Helton and Larry Walker clearly get the top two spots. Let’s look a little more at who gets #3 and #4.
Josh Johnson / Presswire
Here’s another toughie, as most of the great players for this franchise didn’t stick around for more than a few years. I’m calling them the Florida Marlins since that’s how they were known for virtually their entire existence. Continue reading
Luis Gonzalez and Randy Johnson / Presswire
Time for us to figure out who is on the Mount Rushmore of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Continue reading
Will Middlebrooks has started off really well in the first 10 games of his MLB career. Just to play devil’s advocate, though, check out the list of players in the last 20 years to have at least 4 HR in their first 10 career games: Continue reading
Carl Crawford / Presswire
Following on Graham’s original post (which itself expands on an idea tweeted by Buster Olney), I’ve decided to go through baseball’s 30 teams and talk about who might be on each team’s Mount Rushmore.
Much like the real Mount Rushmore, the criteria used for selecting the 4 honorees isn’t totally straightforward. Just like with presidents, it’s tough to rate who was “best” in any measurable way, and similarly tough to figure who was most well-liked, most important, or most influential.
I’m also going to run down these teams in reverse order of length of franchise existence, so the first few are going to be toughest. You’ll see what I mean right away when we look at the Tampa Bay Rays.
The title says it all…here are the guys since 1918 to have such a game:
| Rk | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | BOP | Pos. Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adam Kennedy | 2009-08-15 | OAK | CHW | L 1-8 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3B |
| 2 | Aaron Miles | 2008-06-22 | STL | BOS | L 3-5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | SS 2B |
| 3 | Curtis Granderson | 2005-09-18 | DET | LAA | L 3-5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | CF |
| 4 | Geoff Blum | 2003-04-19 | HOU | MIL | L 2-3 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3B |
| 5 | Warren Morris | 2000-06-10 | PIT | KCR | L 1-2 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2B |
| 6 | Jason Kendall | 1999-05-03 | PIT | SFG | W 9-8 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 5 | C |
| 7 | Jeff Blauser | 1996-06-10 | ATL | NYM | L 3-8 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 6 | SS |
| 8 | Jose Vizcaino | 1995-09-23 | NYM | FLA | L 3-4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 | SS |
| 9 | Rafael Palmeiro | 1990-06-30 | TEX | BOS | W 6-5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1B |
| 10 | Darren Daulton | 1989-09-20 | PHI | CHC | W 9-8 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 8 | C |
| 11 | Lenny Harris | 1989-08-23 | LAD | MON | W 1-0 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | LF |
| 12 | Richie Hebner | 1978-07-30 | PHI | CIN | L 3-5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1B |
| 13 | Cesar Tovar | 1974-08-14 | TEX | MIL | L 5-6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | LF |
| 14 | Matty Alou | 1970-08-19 | PIT | SFG | L 4-7 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | CF |
| 15 | Pete Rose | 1970-07-10 (2) | CIN | ATL | W 3-1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | RF |
| 16 | Roberto Clemente | 1968-07-13 | PIT | PHI | L 2-3 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 3 | RF |
| 17 | Lee Thomas | 1961-09-05 (1) | LAA | KCA | L 3-7 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 | RF |
| 18 | Hank Aaron | 1958-08-27 | MLN | SFG | L 2-3 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | RF |
| 19 | Bill Virdon | 1956-09-03 (2) | PIT | BRO | W 3-2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | CF |
| 20 | Stan Lopata | 1955-06-19 (1) | PHI | CHC | W 1-0 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3 | C 1B |
| 21 | Bobby Estalella | 1945-07-21 | PHA | DET | T 1-1 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | CF |
| 22 | Joe Medwick | 1940-06-04 | STL | BRO | L 1-10 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 4 | LF |
| 23 | Cecil Travis | 1937-08-03 | WSH | SLB | W 3-2 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | SS |
| 24 | Bob O’Farrell | 1927-08-16 | STL | BSN | W 5-3 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 7 | C |
| 25 | Buck Herzog | 1918-08-01 | BSN | PIT | L 0-2 | 10 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2B |
I’m giving away my copy of Banzai Babe Ruth, a great book from Robert K. Fitts that I reviewed a couple of months ago.
All you need to do to enter is leave a comment on this post below. I’d also appreciate if you’d follow us on Twitter @HighHeatStats and also “like” us on the Facebook widget below to the right, but neither is a necessity for you to enter. At some point I will close comments and use random.org to pick a random winning comment.
Meanwhile, I got the chance to ask Rob Fitts some questions, so here is my mini-interview:
Rob Fitts: It’s a really long story but here’s the short version. In 1993 my wife was transferred to Tokyo. I was working on my ph.d. so I could accompany her. We lived for there for two years. I was a big American baseball fan when we went over there so I used my love of baseball to acclimate myself to Japan. I spend a couple afternoons each week scouring Tokyo’s flea markets looking for old Japanese baseball cards, went to games at night and even played on a company team. The enthusiasm the Japanese showed for baseball was exciting. Remember this was 1993-4, right before the strike, American baseball was at an all-time low. So during those two years I wanted to learn all I could about Japanese baseball. This eventually lead me to do my own research and write the books.
Rob Fitts: The language barrier- no question. I can only read a little Japanese so I had to use interpreters and translators. that was time consuming, expensive and some times frustrating, but I was lucky to find a bilingual research assistant who really helped.
Rob Fitts: Most of the players who come over from Japan have the baseball skills to play in the Majors. Their success is based on how they adapt to the United States both on the diamond and off. The games are played a little differently. MLB players are faster, stronger, and better hitters than the average Japanese player. Japanese pitchers must get used to facing good hitters throughout the lineup. In Japan starters also usually pitch once a week. In MLB that have to get used to pitching every 5 days. But more important, the Japanese players have to adapt to their new surroundings. They have to get used to American culture, the food, the language, clubhouse culture, the media… I think that might be the most difficult transition.
To enter the contest to win a copy of Rob’s great book, just leave a comment below. Or, you can buy your own copy directly right here.