The original, and best, "Big Cat."

James rates Mize as his #7 1B between Eddie Murray and Harmon Killebrew.

Career WS--338, between Mark McGwire 335 and Dick Allen 342

Top 3--34-33-33 (100), between Hank Greenberg and Roger Connor at 98 and Killebrew at 105

Top 5--154, between Frank Thomas 152 and Jeff Bagwelll 163

WS/162--29.06, between Cap Anson 27.12 and Connor 29.45

James says he was probably the best player in the NL in 1940 and 1947, and second best in 1937, 1939 and 1948, and third best in 1942.

He missed 3 prime years to WWII. His WS before and after were 33-26-32-x-x-x-22-32-30, average 29. Add 89 WS gives him an adj total of 427. (I don't give him 427, but if you did add 89, that's what you'd get.)

His OPS+ was 173-153-161-x-x-x-185-160-156. Yikes.

His HR were 43-16-26-x-x-x-22-51-40, average 33. Add 99 HR and get an adj career total of 466.

I think it could probably be argued that Johnny Mize's reputation has suffered more than any other player due to the time lost to WWII. Keep in mind that the BBWAA did NOT elect the Big Cat to the HoF, he went in the back door.

MVP Voting
1937--10th
1938--12th
1939--2nd
1940--2nd
1941--9th
1942--5th
1946--17th (played 101 games)
1947--3rd
1948--17th
1949---
1950--17th AL
1951--31st

HoF Voting
1960--45 votes
1962--14
1964--54, 8th
1964 RunOff--12 (Appling elected)
1966--81, 10th (T. Williams)
1967--89, 9th
1967 RO--14 (Ruffing)
1968--103, 6th (Medwick)
1969--116, 6th (Musial, Campanella)
1970--126, 6th (Boudreau)
1971--157, 6th (none)
1972--157, 6th (Koufax, Berra, Wynn)
1973--157, 7th (Spahn)
1981--elected VC

In 1960, his first your of eligibility, he trailed (top 10) Roush, Sam Rice, Rixey, Grimes, Bottomley, Ruffing, Faber, Appling, Cuyler and Hack Wilson. He was one of an odd generation of players, not only in missing time to WWII. He was also caught in a time warp where the BBWAA was still sorting out the real old-timers and had a strong tradition of electing those who had waited the longest. Otherwise, how could he rate behing Cuyler or Bottomley or, well, any of the 1960 top 10 (none of whom was elected)? So he got off to a slow start in the voting.

The VC cleared out the log-jam, selecting Roush, Rixey, Rice, Faber and Grimes in 1962-'63-'64. You would have thought his best chance was in '67-'68 or '70, yet in '67 he trailed Medwick, Ruffing, Campy, Boudreau, Kiner, Slaughter, Al Lopez and Marty Marion. In '68 it was the same guys except he passed Lopez and Marion (go figure). In '70 he still trailed Boudreau, Kinder, Hodges, Wynn and Slaughter.

In his final year 1973 Mize trailed Spahn (elected), Ford, Kiner, Hodges, Roberts and Lemon.

In my estimation he should have been a first ballot choice in 1960 (there was no HoF election in 1959). Actually the big surprise is that in '60 he was ahead of Medwick 45 votes to 38, while Boudreau had 35. He fell behind Ducky Wucky in '62 but still led Boudreau 14-12 but also fell behind Lou in '64.

I was surprised to learn recently that the Cardinals had sold Mize to the Reds in December 1934, and the Reds turned him back to the Cards before the '35 season opened, because he needed an operation. In retrospect, that may not have been the best decision the Reds ever made.

Anyone know the story behind Mize's trade/sale to the Giants? It looks like a simply salary dump. Its interesting to imagine how amazing the '42 Cards would have been if they could have kept him.

The Big Cat, in my WARP, filling in 1943-45 with my war credit regression equation:



3-year peak: 22.4
7-year prime: 49.1
Career: 90.4
Salary: $275,813,936--26th among post-1893 MLB position players, below DiMaggio and Vaughan, above Matthews and Bench