The Baseball Research Journal articles from January 1 2002

The Baseball Research Journal archives from January 1 2002

Editor's note.(Editorial)
January 1, 2002... I believe that this thirty-first issue of the Baseball Research Journal has something for everyone: controversy, nostalgia, originality, mystery--even a riot. Starting back to front, the last article in this BRJ--as it has been in the...

John McGraw comes to New York: the 1902 New York Giants.
January 1, 2002... John McGraw was one of the most successful baseball managers ever, leading the New York Giants to 10 pennants in his 30 years with the club. His arrival in mid-1902 marked the turning point in the fortunes of the Giants, a team which had been...

56-game hitting streaks revisited.
January 1, 2002... In an article in the 1994 Baseball Research Journal, Charles Blahous explained a system to determine the probability of various players in various seasons putting together a 56-game hitting streak. I will describe some improvements to Mr....

Lou vs. Babe in life and in "Pride of the Yankees".(Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth)(Biography)
January 1, 2002... Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig formed the most feared batting twosome in the history of baseball. Batting third and fourth, they served as the heart of the great Yankee teams that won three World Series between 1927 and 1933. Despite their heroics,...

The evolution of World Series scheduling.
January 1, 2002... In the early years of World Series play, game schedules were not nearly as standardized as today's format. Back then, a coin toss decided the site of the opening game as well as a possible seventh game. The order of games hosted by each...

Batting average by count and pitch type: fact and fallacy.
January 1, 2002... Many baseball coaches, sportswriters, and television announcers have commented on the fact that batting averages are low with two strikes or high with less than two strikes. For example, Thomas Boswell, in an article he wrote criticizing Ted...

Harry Wright: the most important baseball figure of the 19th century?
January 1, 2002... In 1999 the Society for American Baseball Research completed a poll that ranked Harry Wright as the third largest contributor to 19th-century baseball. Though hindsight is often said to be 20/20, that is questionable in this case. In fact, the...

Early RBI leaders in the International League.
January 1, 2002... It is obvious that the game of baseball has changed drastically over the years. With the value of RBI compilations accepted now as a matter of course the serious historian must take note of their prominence in league history--and by extension,...

Identifying 19th-century player Dick Higham ... Perhaps!
January 1, 2002... Because it seemed both helpful and important to attempt to round out Richard "Dick" Higham's story (see TNP 2000 and TNP 2001) with photographs. I researched libraries, archives, newspapers, and magazines, etc. Identifying 19th-century baseball...

Best of times, worst of times: superlative & dismal ten-year team performances.
January 1, 2002... Not many fans are still around who remember when the Chicago Cubs compiled the best ten-year record in major league baseball history over the past century. That's because it happened from 1903 through 1912. The Windy City Cubs--yes, those Cubs...

It's a dirty job, but ...
January 1, 2002... From The Sporting News of January 14, 1893: "The plan of having the duties of manager and captain separated and performed by two men, has so manifestly many advantages over the other one, that it is in vogue in a majority of professional clubs....

Baseball's most unbreakable records: polled from SABR's Records Committee.
January 1, 2002... More than any other sport, baseball as we know it today is infatuated with numbers. Every movement, whether from defensive positions, the pitcher's mound, or the batter's box, is examined, analyzed, and quantified. As a result, we are treated...

Bill Doak's three "no-hitters".(baseball player William Leopold Doak)(Biography)
January 1, 2002... There have been only a handful of major league pitchers who threw three no-hitters: Larry Corcoran, Cy Young, Bob Feller, Sandy Koufax, and Nolan Ryan. Similarly, only Johnny Vander Meer, Allie Reynolds, Virgil Trucks, Jim Maloney, and Nolan...

The King is dead.(Leonard Cole)(Biography)
January 1, 2002... "It is no bad thing to be a king."--Homer On a cool October afternoon in Boston in 1914 the Red Sox hosted the Yankees at three-year-old Fenway Park. On the mound for the Sox was rookie left hander George Herman Ruth, already referred to as...

Home runs: more influential than ever.
January 1, 2002... The baseball media have made a lot of noise the past two seasons about how baseball's home run explosion possibly reached its zenith in the 2000 season, since the number of home runs per game in the 2001 and 2002 seasons was lower than in 2000....

The most exciting World Series games: a mathematical approach.
January 1, 2002... In baseball there are many kinds of excitement. Seeing great catches and timely hits by legendary players, watching your favorite team crush the opposition, having a record set--most fans would be excited by such occurrences. However, we are...

The best last-place team ever? The 1966 Yankees didn't know how to finish last.
January 1, 2002... The 1967 Sporting News Baseball Guide reported "Many observers felt [the 1966 Yankees] to be the best tenth-place team in major league annals." If they couldn't capture yet another pennant, at least they could be the best at finishing last. ...

Kamenshek, the All-American: was this baseball's greatest fielding first baseman?
January 1, 2002... The old Yankee first baseman, Wally Pipp, watched the diminutive first baseman, Kamenshek, dance around the bag in the 1940s and said he'd never seen a finer fielding first-sacker in his life. And Pipp had seen Lou Gehrig, George Sisler, and...

The most dominant Triple Crown winner.
January 1, 2002... Baseball's Triple Crown is a heroic achievement reserved only for the sport's elite. It has been accomplished only thirteen times since 1900, by eleven different stars. Only Rogers Hornsby and Ted Williams were able to repeat the feat of...

Preventing base hits: evidence that fielders are more important than pitchers.
January 1, 2002... A most surprising discovery about baseball was reported several years ago by Voros McCracken on various Web sites. Despite their individual efforts, major league pitchers seem to have almost identical abilities to prevent base hits. Of course,...

Not quite marching through Georgia: Don Larsen and the Atlanta Crackers.
January 1, 2002... The cover of Tim Darnell's book Southern Yankees describes the now virtually forgotten Atlanta Crackers as "one of minor league baseball's most successful and storied franchises." Over a 65-year period from 1895 through 1960, playing largely in...

Twin bills fill the bill.
January 1, 2002... Doubleheaders are an increasingly rare part of baseball. Major league baseball no longer has them as part of the regular season schedule, so it is left to rainouts to produce games that need to be rescheduled as part of a twin-bill. But domed...

Forbes Field, hitter's nightmare?
January 1, 2002... Forbes Field was one of the very first classic era ballparks (only Philadelphia's Shibe Park preceded it) to be built in America. It was the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates for 62 seasons after it opened June 30, 1909. Forbes Field has been...

RBI, opportunities, and power hitting: opportunities significantly affect RBI totals.
January 1, 2002... RBI have long been one of the staples of measuring a hitter's contribution to his team's success. Sometimes a player is said to be "a good RBI guy: Newspapers and record books list the annual RBI leaders, scoreboards and broadcasters tell us...

Babe Ruth dethroned? Whither the Sultan of Swat?
January 1, 2002

Wanted: one first class shortstop.
January 1, 2002... The fall of 1878 found Harry Wright in a tight spot. The tale of how Harry's troubles came about is a long one, finding its roots way back in 1868. Wright had been managing and captaining the leading nines of professional baseball since that...

Does experience help in the post-season?
January 1, 2002... Do baseball players fare better in the post-season when they have post-season experience behind them? My research says the answer is a clear no. Managers' efforts to build teams with players who "have been there before" appear to be fruitless...

The Riot at the First World Series.
January 1, 2002... It is one of the most widely reproduced photographs in baseball history and probably the best known of all baseball pictures from the opening of the twentieth century. The picture is especially relevant in 2003 because it was taken one...

Why isn't Gil Hodges in the Hall of Fame?(Biography)
January 1, 2002... Gil Hodges has received more votes for the Hall of Fame than any other person not selected. He came as close as 44 votes shy of election, but unfortunately, that came in his last year of eligibility under the BBWAA vote. Gil Hodges' Hall...

Dan Sweeney was a small major league player.(From a Researcher's Notebook)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Trying to determine who was the smallest player in major league history is a difficult task. In the old days statistics on the height of major league players were usually inaccurate. Of course, Eddie Gaedel, the 3 foot, 7 inch midget who was...

Pitcher Hal Carlson died in Chicago hotel in 1930.(From a Researcher's Notebook)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
January 1, 2002... The shocking death of Cardinal pitcher Darryl Kile in a Chicago hotel on June 22 brought to mind another pitcher who died in a Chicago hotel on May 28, 1930. Hal Carlson, veteran Cub hurler, died suddenly in a Northside hotel where he had an...

Boston Bees hit jackpot on two longtime league pitchers in 1937.(From a Researcher's Notebook)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... When major league clubs bring up longtime minor league players, the hope is that some of them will be successful. But it is doubtful that any club could match the record of the Boston Bees in 1937. The Bees brought up two pitchers from the...

Two players named householder in the 1880s cause confusion.(From a Researcher's Notebook)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... There are two players with the name Charles Householder in the baseball encyclopedias. Charles F. is listed as having been born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1856. He played with Chicago and Pittsburgh, Union Association, in 1884. ...

Cap Anson waived last two innings of game.(From a Researcher's Notebook)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... According to baseball lore, there was a game in the 1890s in which the home team gave up its last two innings and let the visiting club take its last two innings instead. No details were given about the game. Of course, baseball rules do not...

Red Dooin, Phillies manager, put ad in paper for a catcher.(From a Researher's Notebook)
January 1, 2002... On April 2, 1912, manager Red Dooin of the Philadelphia Phillies, who were in the midst of their annual preseason series with the crosstown Athletics, put the following ad in the Philadelphia Press: "WANTED--A CATCHER, manager Dooin would...

Mike Menosky, former major league player, called upon to settle court case.(From a Researcher's Notebook)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Mike Menosky played in the majors for nine years with Pittsburgh, Federal League, and Washington and Boston in the American League. Menosky, 57, a probation officer, helped decide a court case against a Detroit man. Because Menosky, an...