New policy at work, so I won't be around as much anymore. It kinda stinks. I like the (almost) real time conversations here and replying to something six hours old isn't the same.

Time to get a new job, then, GGC.

You're fired!

I got my BP 2010 last week, and looking through it, I think if I had to pick the NL Pennant winner right now, I would pick Colorado. I really like the personnel/depth//age skew on that team. Obviously, having added Halladay, Phildelphia will be favored.

Rangers acquire P Edwar Ramirez from the Yanks for cash.

Mets sign P Kyle Snyder

Okay, two things:

MLBNetwork is currently showing an old Red Sox-Yankees tilt from the 70s, though I'm watching it with the sound down most of the way because I'm trying to do my homework so I haven't been able to figure out exactly what year it's from. It's a day game, sounds like Scully doing the play-by-play, Lou Piniella is batting third for the Yankees. Yaz just homered down the right field line. Two graphics help me place it a little:

1. THIS IS RON GUIDRY'S 35TH START just flashed on the screen, meaning it must be just about the last week of the season.

2. A graphic that indicated the Sox had some wildly outsized winning percentage in day games -- though the thing that really intrigued me is that I added it up and they'd played something like 60 (!) day games that season.

(My guess is that this game is from 1978, from contextual clues about who's playing, when important and memorable games b/w these two teams might have happened, and when Piniella was hitting well enough to be in the heart of the Yankees' batting order. I don't really know MLBNetwork's policy on how notable a game has to be to be replayed at 11.00 on a Tuesday night.)

What really intrigues me are that number of day games, and the fact that the guy who is playing 1B for the Sox appears to be wearing his helmet in the field. If the Sox really played more than 60 day games that year, that means that well over of a third of games were being played in the sunshine in those days. That's gotta be WAY more than we see these days. I wonder: When did that start to change? How quickly did it change? I imagine it must have been in mid-evolution 30 years ago, when at least one park (Wrigley) didn't have lights at all. Were there any other clubs that didn't have lights? Were there clubs that preferred to play day games, lights regardless? I haven't the foggiest clue about any of this stuff, because many of my earliest baseball memories entail the installation of lights at Wrigley and what a big deal that was.

The other thing is that guy in the batting helmet. The only other guy I've ever seen wearing a batting helmet in the field before is Olerud, who had to do it for medical reasons. Is that George Scott wearing that helmet in the field? If so, why would he have been doing that?

I seem to remember that in the 70s and into the 80s, virtually all of the Sox weekend home games were played during the day. A lot of other teams did play Saturday night tilts, but they were pretty unusual in Boston. Couple that with your Sunday road games, first-week affairs and holidays, and 60 doesn't seem that unreasonable.

Is that George Scott wearing that helmet in the field? If so, why would he have been doing that?

Scott did wear a helmet in the field later in his career. I think it had something to do with the fans.

If you're lucky you might also spot Bob Montgomery in his soft cap in the batter's box, the last big leaguer to eschew the batting helmet.

It was a pretty notable game, Voxter - game 163 of the '78 season, Bucky ######' Dent and all that.

Scott wore a helmet in the field, yeah. Wikipedia says it was to protect him from thrown items from the stands, but I don't know about that.
EDIT: Coke to you, good sir.

I suspected it might be the Dent game, but I wasn't sure, as I wasn't paying very close attention. Maybe I should stop watching. Mostly I was blown away by the number of day games the Sox had played.

Oh, sorry - didn't mean to play spoiler.

To go into a little more detail about the day games, Voxter. No, the Cubs were the only club without lights. But Saturday day games, not just at Fenway, were a little more prominent league-wide. I think Oakland played a few more day games than the average team (though not nearly as many as San Fran, which was probably second to the Cubs in the number of day games per season, I'm guessing the result of the cooler summers in the Bay, and at the Stick in particular).

Without looking it up, if you break it down, the Sox played about 26 games on Sunday each year, and in a typical year all but possibly one (the date at Texas, which almost never played games during the day due to the heat) would have been played during the day. On top of that, I'd say as many 20 of their Saturday dates would have been played during the day. Throw in four holidays (Patriot's Day, Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day), home and road openers (and maybe a few other early-season starts, particularly in cold-weather locales), and maybe a few getaway day affairs (not as frequent then, but you might find one at the end of a long trip), plus Game 163 and reaching 60 day games is not farfetched.

The big change, particularly for the Sox, but also for baseball as a whole to a lesser extent, was the move away from Saturday afternoon games. Additionally, the arrival of Sunday Night baseball has moved a few day games to the night column. On the other hand, midweek matinee affairs throughout the season seem to be a little more common now than they were in the 70s and 80s.

ba transactions

Last week I wrote about the 1946 Pacific Coast League season, and while I focused on the dominating hitting performances of the year, '46 was truly a year owned by the pitcher. The following five years, however, would tell a different story, producing the highest average batting lines of the Sporting News era (1941 - 1957). It would include Max West's 201 BB & 179 OPS+ in '49 as well as Luke Easter's absolute domination in half a season that same year: .363/.460/.722 with 25 HR in 322 PA for a 209 OPS+. That era would also include the stellar hitting performances of SAC 2B & manager Joe Gordon, who hit .299/.399/.627 with a league leading 43 HR, 136 RBI & 169 OPS+ in 566 PA, HWD OF George Schmees (.325/.385/.629 for a 166 OPS+ in 530 PA), and all-around excellent hitting of MVP Jungle Jim Rivera, who led the league in batting (.352), hits (231), doubles (40), total bases (363), times on base (308) & runs (135), finishing second in triples (16) & stolen bases (33), third in RBI (112) & OBP. (.420), and fourth in slugging percentage (.553), leading Rogers Hornsby & the Seattle Rainiers to the 1951 PCL pennant. Two of the best hitting performances, however, occurred during the 1948 season, producing the best batting average and HR pace in over a decade in the PCL.

BEANING HALTS GRAHAM'S PCL HOMER BID

Jack Graham, veteran first baseman-outfielder who had previous trials with the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants, threatened to establish a new Pacific Coast League home run record in 1948 until he was accidentally beaned, July 25, and sidelined for most of the remainder of the season. Playing with San Diego, the lefthanded slugger hit 46 homers in his first 117 games and appeared a good bet to break Tony Lazzeri's 1925 mark of 60 homers in 197 games for Salt Lake. The accident occurred in the second game of a Sunday double-header at Los Angeles, and Graham's injury was diagnosed as a slight concussion and an inner hemorrhage. After several weeks out of action, Graham returned to appear in 21 more games, but, troubled by dizzy spells which frequently forced his early retirement, he added only two more round-trippers for a total of 48.

Here is a complete look at Graham's batting line for the '48 season:



According to the the Sporting News excerpt, Graham hit 46 HR in 117 games, averaging 2.54 HR a game. That pace exceeds even Luke Easter's crowd-pleasing half season, when he hit 25 HR in 80 games for 3.2 HR/G average. If my estimate is correct, Jack Graham was on pace to not merely challenge Lazzeri's record but blow it out of the water--if he would have played at that pace all year he would have hit at least 70 HR for the Padres, who played 189 games in '48.

Now Lane Field was known for its short right field, and when the wind blew in from the bay it would give hits in that direction an extra push, but Lazzeri's 1925 HR performance was not without its own park factors, playing in a league that included such hitter's havens as San Francisco's Recreation Park and the newly built Wrigley Field in L.A. More importantly, Lazzeri played his home games at Bonneville Park, which made Coors Field look positively pedestrian.

According to an interview with Jack nearly 50 years later (which I recommend checking out), he lost the Red Adams pitch as the shadows crept over the infield late in the game. It hit him in the temple above his right eye; Graham suffered dizzy spells and blurred vision when he returned near the end of the season, forcing him to turn his head so that he could see the pitcher. Doctors actually recommended that he sit out the rest of the season, but San Diego sports writer Earl Keller to Graham that if he finished the rest of the season the other writers would vote him MVP, worth a $1,000 bonus.

As good as Graham's slugging performance was, however, it wasn't necessarily the best hitting performance of the year, especially considering that the league's leading hitter spent his home games at pitching friendly Seal's Stadium (which, according to Steve Treder, was an even more difficult park to hit for average than power). But winning batting titles was beginning to be old hat for Gene Woodling.

FOUR SWAT TITLES FOR WOODLING IN SEVEN YEARS

Copping the 1948 Pacific Coast League batting title with a .385 average, Outfielder Gene Woodling of San Francisco gained his fourth swat championship in seven seasons of play in Organized Ball. The Seal star, who observed his twenty-sixth birthday during the '48 season, broke into pro ball in 1940 by leading the Ohio State League with .398 while playing for Mansfield. The next year he topped the Michigan State League by hitting .394 for Flint. Sidelined most of the 1942 season with a broken leg, Woodling came back in 1943 to hit .344 for Wilkes-Barre and pace the Eastern League. He entered the U.S. Navy the next year. On returning from the service, he spent 1946 as a reserve outfielder with the Cleveland Indians, was sold to Pittsburgh for 1947 and optioned to Newark of the International League, and then sent to San Francisco in the deal for Pitcher Bob Chesnes. His 1948 performance, made all the more spectacular by the fact that he was sidelined from May 24 to mid-July by torn ankle ligaments, earned him a 1949 trial with the New York Yankees.

The manager of those 1949 Yankees, of course, was Casey Stengel, who had managed his "Nine Old Men" Oakland Oaks to the 1948 PCL pennant, and he had got a very good look at Mr. Woodling.



According to Gene in an interview available via the SABR BioProject, Lefty O'Doul played a role in his success, changing his stance & teaching him hit off his back foot, getting him to pull the ball better

The next closest qualified batter, SEA 3B Hillis Layne, hit a measly .342, over 40 points below Woodling's league leading average. It was the best average since Ox Eckardt hit .399 in 1935 and no one would surpass for the rest of the history of the old PCL.

Angels sign P Chad Orvella

Twins sign P Brad Hennessey

Giants sign P Andy Sisco and 3B Michael Sandoval, brother of Pablo

A's release P Jay Marshall

Andy Sisco! That's a name I haven't heard in a long, long time.

The big change, particularly for the Sox, but also for baseball as a whole to a lesser extent, was the move away from Saturday afternoon games. Additionally, the arrival of Sunday Night baseball has moved a few day games to the night column. On the other hand, midweek matinee affairs throughout the season seem to be a little more common now than they were in the 70s and 80s.

The Giants used to play quite a few mid-week day games, primarily because Candlestick Park was such a miserable place for a night game. I don't think that is the case for the new stadium however.

Graham hit 46 HR in 117 games, averaging 2.54 HR a game. That pace exceeds even Luke Easter's crowd-pleasing half season, when he hit 25 HR in 80 games for 3.2 HR/G average.

I just realized that I wrote "2.54 HR a game." In 117 games that would be 297 HR! 'Twould be Mays, Ruth & Gibson's hypothetical HR totals to shame! Obviously, I meant 1 HR every 2.54 games. . . .

Trivia From my Calender:

Match the hitter with the number of World Series home runs

1. Reggie Jackson
2. Yogi Berra
3. Lou Gehrig
4. Duke Snider
5. Babe Ruth
6. Mickey Mantle

A. 18
B. 15
C. 12
D. 10
E. 11
F. 10

18 Mantle
15 Ruth
Don't know

Mets sign P Mike O'Connor

Nats release P Eddie Guardado and P Shawn Estes

Pirates have told IF Ramon Vazquez he will be traded or released

The Mets are just stockpiling roster fodder, aren't they?

For the record:

Jackson: 10
Berra: 12
Gehrig: 10
Snider: 11
Ruth: 15
Mantle: 18

Someone brought Shawn Estes to camp?

Cuban OF/1B Leslie Anderson to TB - 4/$3.75M.

Good bit in BA about how players run out of (contract) options. Transactions 101 stuff, but still a good primer.

The Giants used to play quite a few mid-week day games, primarily because Candlestick Park was such a miserable place for a night game. I don't think that is the case for the new stadium however.

The Giants will almost always end a weekday series with a day game, even if they don't have very far to travel. The big change from Candlestick during the Magowan era is that you would get series where two of the three games were weekday games, especially against somewhat less attractive opponents where the team figured - correctly, usually - that 16,000 for a day game was more than they would get for a night game.

The area around Candlestick isn't that great at night time as well, which probably dissuaded some fans from going. It's still pretty cold at AT&T;, but not only is it not as bad as Candlestick, the area around it is much safer.