Q Who would you name as the three best all-around outfielders who ever played for the Reds?

1. Frank Robinson 1956-63, 6 very good seasons*
2. Pete Rose 1968-74, 6 very good seasons
3. Vada Pinson 1959-65, 4 very good seasons

4. George Foster 1975-79, 4 very good seasons
5. Edd Roush 1917-1920, 3 very good seasons

*A "very good season" is defined here as a WAR >= 4.8.

Note: As talented as Eric Davis was, it's notable he only had 2 "very good seasons" in his career, both with the Reds. Davis's best season, 1987, he should have done better in the MVP voting. He was second in WAR (8.0), but finished far behind an undeserving Andre Dawson. Tony Gwynn led the NL that year in WAR (8.1). The Hawk (2.7) was well out of the top 10.

Note2: The only Reds team to go to the post-season in the Robinson-Pinson years was their 1961 team. They were a great team in 1-run games, 34-14, but not good enough to win a world championship. Nonetheless, that was perhaps the Reds best offensive outfield ever with Robinson (163 OPS+), Pinson (130) and Wally Post (140).

"Q I was told that Joe DiMaggio, a power hitter, has more career home runs than strikeouts. Is that true, and if so that’s a record that shall never be broken, right? — Dick, Dayton"

well, Dick from Dayton.. DUDE, INTERNET. GOOGLE. N.O.T. H.A.R.D. LOTS OF ANSWERS THERE.

Other than that, I’ll await my ballot, which includes biographies and statistics for each candidate.

Anyone know what's included in these "biographies and statistics"?

Pennis from Parma: I heard from my neighbor Ned Newton that there have been 4 players in baseball history who hit more than 200 home runs but struck out fewer than 400 times. Is that true, Hal?

Hal: Yes, Pennis, it is true. Here are our 4 heroes:

1. Joe DiMaggio 361 HR, 369 K
2. Ted Kluszewski 279 HR, 365 K
3. Bill Dickey 202 HR, 289 K
4. Sid Gordon 202 HR, 356 K

LeBron from South Beach: I heard from my neighbor Dee-Wade that there have been 5 players in baseball history who hit more than 1,300 extra base hits and walked more than 1,400 times. Is that true, Hal?

Hal: Yes, King Quisling, it is true. Here are our 5 heroes:

1. Hank Aaron 1,477 xbh, 1,402
2. Barry Bonds 1,440 xbh, 2,558 bb
3. Babe Ruth 1,356 xbh, 2,062 bb
4. Stan Musial 1,377 xbh, 1,599 bb
5. Willie Mays 1,323 xbh, 1,464 bb

"Q I was told that Joe DiMaggio, a power hitter, has more career home runs than strikeouts. Is that true, and if so that’s a record that shall never be broken, right? — Dick, Dayton"

well, Dick from Dayton.. DUDE, INTERNET. GOOGLE. N.O.T. H.A.R.D. LOTS OF ANSWERS THERE.

Perhaps he's an attorney and asks questions he knows the answer to. Or McCoy could be baseball's answer to Walter Scott in Parade's "Personality Parade" section. You know... the guy who writes questions that no sane person would ask (I miss The Love Boat's Gavin MacLeod. What's he up to these days?) and then answers them himself.

That Personality Parade column is mind-numbing. "Dear Walter, my friend and I have a friendly bet that only you can solve. He says there was more than one Uncle Bub on "My Three Sons." I say nobody could ever replace William Frawley! Who's right?"

McCoy could be baseball's answer to Walter Scott in Parade's "Personality Parade" section.

Heh... that's the first I thing I thought of as well. Baseball Digest's mailbag also used to consist of questions like that. To be fair, that was a long time ago, when it served some sort of purpose. I don't know if it's still like that anymore.

Davis's best season, 1987, he should have done better in the MVP voting. He was second in WAR (8.0), but finished far behind an undeserving Andre Dawson. Tony Gwynn led the NL that year in WAR (8.1). The Hawk (2.7) was well out of the top 10.

I'd consider 38th to be "well out of the top 10", yes.

Who doesn't miss Gavin McLeod? Several Laughs above Replacement (mostly on the MTM show of course).

Here's a sad fact that might win you a bet at your favorite sabermetric bar ... more WAR for the Reds, Griffey Sr or Griffey Jr? Turns out it's not even close.

Since Hal's not including Robinson (and therefore not Pinson), my post-Robinson choices would probably be Davis, Rose and Foster. Davis was clearly the best all-around OF of the post-Robinson era, he just couldn't stay healthy. Rose wasn't much of a defender (Foster was OK) so you could argue he doesn't meet the 'all-around' criterion, I'm not sure who I'd put next if we add the requirement they must be average or better offensively and defensively.

There wasn't anything to particularly like or dislike about O'Neill's time in Cincy -- 112 OPS+, 10.8 WAR over essentially 5 full seasons, he was the definition of an average corner OF. My guess is he's on the Hal McCoy "I told you so" All-Star team moreso than one of the best all-around OF he saw play in Cincy. In fairness, O'Neill did have a couple of big defensive years in Cincy (by Chone) which might have made him stand out more in an "all-around" ranking. So he might make it under my criteria above.

It is kind of too bad in this day and age of google and wikipedia that there isn't really "that guy" you can go to with a question. I used to love going to my Physicist Uncle and asking him something about science, or asking my dad about baseball before 1989.

But now it just seems so much easier to look it up.

"Dear Walter, my friend Shirley and I have a friendly bet that only you can solve. He says Adrienne Barbeau played Bea Arthur's daughter, Carol Traynor, on the 1970s hit comedy, Maude. I say nobody could ever replace William Frawley! Who's right?"
——Freda, Gaithersburg, Maryland

I'm sorry, Freda, but Adrienne Barbeau had the best rack on TV in the 1970s. I'm going to have to go with the double dees.

"Dear Walter, Adrienne Barbeau was bigger than Shirley Hemphill?"
——Freda, Gaithersburg, Maryland

Better, Freda. Better.

It is kind of too bad in this day and age of google and wikipedia that there isn't really "that guy" you can go to with a question. I used to love going to my Physicist Uncle and asking him something about science, or asking my dad about baseball before 1989.

But now it just seems so much easier to look it up.

I'm still that guy to some extent, but people don't cal me with random trivia questions as often. I think the last one was a few months ago when my boss called me to ask who was the metal band that did that song "The Lumberjack" with a chainsaw. It was Jackyl. I think he knew that and was just showing me off to some client.

Damn, I'd love to be "that guy".

Unfortunately none of my friends seem interested in the Duke of Buckingham.
Although once at a bar with my brother's baseball team I was able to name a guy who had more HBPs than Craig Biggio.

[3]

Other than that, I’ll await my ballot, which includes biographies and statistics for each candidate.

Anyone know what's included in these "biographies and statistics"?

The "Baseball Analysts" website published scans of the 2010 ballot and an included page showing some of the biographies. The site describes the biographies:

A summary of the players' records and accomplishments accompanied the ballot. The players were listed in alphabetical order, starting with Alomar and ending with Zeile. The following page, which includes Blyleven, Burks, Dawson, and Galarraga, serves as an example of the information provided to the electorate.

For how many years was the talk around the office water coolers nothing but sarcastic humor and disparaging jokes about the Cincinnati Reds? — Dave, Miamisburg/Centerville/Beavercreek

A Most hard-working folks don’t hang around water coolers, but I’m told the water cooler in your office is on your desk and it is your job to keep it filled. For those slackers who do lean on water coolers, well, they can heap their sarcasm and disparaging remarks on the Bengals.

Rough!

As for "that guy" I wish I didn't answer a half million computer related questions that can be answered via google every day...

"Dear Walter, my friend Shirley and I have a friendly bet that only you can solve. He says Adrienne Barbeau played Bea Arthur's daughter, Carol Traynor, on the 1970s hit comedy, Maude. I say nobody could ever replace William Frawley! Who's right?"

"Dear Walter, I have a friend locked up in a mental hospital who says that William Frawley owned Babe Ruth and coached Mickey Mantle. Please tell him that he's nuts."

[13] Thanks.

It's basically the back of a mid-80s baseball card, except without yearly stats. A line of old-school career stats (SB, but no CS!) and a few dozen words of trivia (10 seasons with at least 20 doubles!)

Kind of astonishing HOF voters would use that information as the basis for their votes, as Hal McCoy suggests he does. (Then again, he's voting for Blyleven, so maybe I should take it easy on him.)

I find it very upsetting and disillusioning that so many people here don't see the depth in the information Walter Scott provides in his column. Just to prove you all wrong, I have today's parade in front of me right now and I'm going to provide the 5 questions he answers:

1. How did Ryan Reynolds celebrate Halloween growing up in Canada? E. Silverman, Ithaca, NY (must be a Cornell grad. That question has Ivy League written all over it)

2. I'm a fan of director Zach Snyder, who got his start on the remake of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Does he like to scare people in real life?

3. I love the paranormal shows on TV. Do any of the experts have tips for confronting Halloween spooks?

4. I was so happy that Jim Parsons won an Emmy for playing Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory. What's next for him?

5. I heard Criss Angel has a magic kit out. Does it reveal the secrets to any of his famous illusions?

Well? I think some apologies are in order.

As for "that guy" I wish I didn't answer a half million computer related questions that can be answered via google every day...

Not to stray too far off topic, but that reminds me:

How is that KGB text-question/answering service doing? It seems like quite a while since I've seen one of their commercials on TV.

DB

How did Ryan Reynolds celebrate Halloween growing up in Canada? E. Silverman, Ithaca, NY (must be a Cornell grad. That question has Ivy League written all over it)

I can field that one.
I don't know Ryan Reynolds personally, but if his childhood was anything like the typical Canadian one he celebrated Hallowe'en on August 15th, not in October like you Yanks! And we don't wear costumes...well we do in a way. Every child wraps himself in a big garbage bag, takes a stroll around the neighbourhood and swaps families with another kid in the neighbourhood. The game is for the parents to figure out who's kid they have without peeking!

Also we burn effigies of Irishmen to commemorate the Battle of Ridgeway.

I don't know Ryan Reynolds personally, but if his childhood was anything like the typical Canadian one he celebrated Hallowe'en on August 15th, not in October like you Yanks! And we don't wear costumes...well we do in a way. Every child wraps himself in a big garbage bag, takes a stroll around the neighbourhood and swaps families with another kid in the neighbourhood. The game is for the parents to figure out who's kid they have without peeking!

Also we burn effigies of Irishmen to commemorate the Battle of Ridgeway.

I can't decide if I want this to be true or false. If true, it's amazingly awesome. If false, Greg (U)K is a creative dervish.

How is that KGB text-question/answering service doing? It seems like quite a while since I've seen one of their commercials on TV.

I wonder about this, too. It's seemed weird that they started up a company of that nature right as smartphones were becoming popular.

Lou Boudreau '48
9 k's
98 BB
18 HR
34 2b
560 AB

Nellie Fox, 1957-1960:
10 HR
30 3B
106 2B
243 BB
50 K

None of the seasons were as impressive as Boudreau's '48, but quite a four-year run amidst a career of not-striking-out.

I wonder about this, too. It's seemed weird that they started up a company of that nature right as smartphones were becoming popular.

My phone is semi-intelligent. Theoretically I can surf the net, but the only thing I'm comfortable doing online with it is checking email. Reading this thread would require me to click like ten times to get all the comments.

While browsing the old Sports Illustrated(? - maybe it was some other baseball magazine?), there were classified ads offering to answer baseball trivia questions for something like $0.25 a question or something like that.

I'm in denial about there ever being a world where all the information I could ever want wasn't at my fingertips. I don't remember what I did with computers before the internet. Lots of games, I think.

I'm in denial about there ever being a world where all the information I could ever want wasn't at my fingertips. I don't remember what I did with my fingertips. Lots of sticky pages, I think.

Yeesh.

Note: As talented as Eric Davis was, it's notable he only had 2 "very good seasons" in his career, both with the Reds. Davis's best season, 1987, he should have done better in the MVP voting. He was second in WAR (8.0), but finished far behind an undeserving Andre Dawson. Tony Gwynn led the NL that year in WAR (8.1). The Hawk (2.7) was well out of the top 10.

I have a hard time believing that Davis was really -7 and -21 (!) runs in the field in years that he won Gold Glove awards. I'm guessing he probably had at least one, maybe two "very good seasons". (Also why was 4.8 the cutoff?)

"Also why was 4.8 the cutoff?"

Totally arbitrary. I fully realize that WAR stats need to be taken with a margin of error (+/- some percent). I was going to cut it off at 5.0 because that was a round number. But then I moved it down a little under the assumption that some 4.8 seasons are probably better than other 5.0 seasons due to the imprecision of these sorts of estimates of WAR.

(Note: I am not any kind of sabermetrician. At best, I am a fan/user of them. As such, my usage of them is apt to be abuse or misuse as much as anything else. I would also note that if we had WAR for Fangraphs going back into distant baseball history, and I used their numbers, we would get different outcomes, based on their differing assumptions about what/who is generating wins.)

Dear Peter Gammons, my college roommate insists that Eric Davis' kidney exploded in the World Series during the 1989 earthquake. I say William Frawley stabbed him with a rusty spork. You haven't seen Vivian Vance lately, have you? Please settle the debate by deciding which of the two of us is not a figment of the other's imagination. P.S. Could you steam the stamp off my envelope and send it back to me?

Heh... that's the first I thing I thought of as well. Baseball Digest's mailbag also used to consist of questions like that. To be fair, that was a long time ago, when it served some sort of purpose. I don't know if it's still like that anymore.

I think my favorite one was where someone wrote in about a bet he had regarding Lou Boudreau, "who announces games for the Cubs". The writer thought he was 25 years old, while his friend thought he was 30 to 35. Who's right?

Boudreau was 64 at the time. I was wondering if the question was trying to flatter Lou in an attempt to obtain information, but if you had some rough idea of Boudreau's age, why would you need to write to Baseball Digest to find out for sure?

Frank Robinson was with the Reds through 1965, though his OPS+ had declined to 151 by that point, so DeWitt was obviously correct with his "old 30" comment. The Judge had only 7 seasons that good left in him.

Wasn't William Frawley's character supposed to be Steve Douglas' grandfather? When Frawley died, they brought in William Demerest to play Steve's (great)uncle Charlie. Anyone who doesn't know Demerest's film work from the 30s & 40s, particularly his films for Preston Sturges, has missed one of the treasures of American cinema. Demerest was a guy who, much like Jimmy Durante, arrived at a certain look in his 30s which he then maintained for the next 40 years.

Years ago there was a Sturges festival at the late lamented Regency on upper Broadway. The day they were showing "Miracle of Morgan's Creek" and "Hail the Conquering Hero" Eddie Bracken came to introduce them. All he wanted to talk about was how great Demerest was, how you should watch him no matter what else was happening on the screen. A lovely tribute from a very fine comic actor.

Wasn't William Frawley's character supposed to be Steve Douglas' grandfather?

he was supposed to be Steve Douglas' father-in-law (and the boys maternal grandfather)

and I agree about Sturges/Demarest

and what the fuck happened to the Regency?? It was one of my favorites

"Wasn't William Frawley's character supposed to be Steve Douglas' grandfather? When Frawley died, they brought in William Demerest to play Steve's (great)uncle Charlie."

I think Frawley was supposed to be the father-in-law of Mr. Douglas (Fred MacMurray). Uncle Charlie (Demerest) was supposed to be Frawley's brother, hence the great-uncle of the Douglas boys. Also, Frawley was not replaced when he died. He was sick, and when the show moved over to CBS after 5 years on ABC, the new network decided that it was too expensive to insure him. So they canned Frawley in favor Demerest.

EDIT: coke to Pasta.

Note: A friend of mine in high school, who would go on to lead our baseball team as their head coach to a couple of CIS championships, wore heavy plastic glasses when he played point guard in basketball. As such, he looked passably like the youngest son (#4), Ernie Douglas. His nickname, not surprisingly, was Ernie D.

Lou Boudreau '48
9 k's
98 BB
18 HR
34 2b
560 AB

Lou Boudreau '48
9 k's
98 BB
18 HR
34 2b
560 AB
Managed WS Champs
Invented "Williams Shift"

Fixed

Also, see any Joe Sewell season like 1925:

204 H
64 BB
4 K

I have a hard time believing that Davis was really -7 and -21 (!) runs in the field in years that he won Gold Glove awards. I'm guessing he probably had at least one, maybe two "very good seasons".

Yeah I noticed a little while back what little regard the fielding metric has for young Eric Davis. That seems odd to me. Yes the knee was already giving him problems by 1988, but -19 still doesn't seem right. Nor does the total from 1988.