Ya know…I can’t even think of the best player I never heard of.
Bill Nicholson is the best player I had never heard of.
I recently came across Willis Hudlin and his Hall Rating of 49. That led me to wonder who the best players were that I had never heard of. By “never heard of”, I mean I couldn’t tell you either the general era they played in or their position just by looking at their name. For example, I don’t know much about Murry Dickson, but I knew he was a pitcher. So, he counts as “someone I’ve heard of”.
So, Nicholson was the best player I had never heard of. That kind of surprises me, as he was pretty valuable. With 39.9 WAR and a Hall Rating of 74, he had a pretty great career.
...Nicholson’s list of similar players starts with Hall of Famer Earle Combs and includes Dolph Camilli, Darryl Strawberry, David Justice, Ken Williams, and Kent Hrbek. That gives you an idea of the type of player he was.
So, why haven’t I heard of him? It’s probably because all of his accomplishments pointed out in the list above took place during World War II, when many stars were overseas. Nicholson was not—and he dominated.
I know I have seen Nicholson’s name before. But I think I subconsciously associated him with Dave Nicholson, the TTO (Three True Outcomes) legend. I think because I’m so familiar with Dave (relatively speaking, compared to his actual body of work), I assumed that he and Bill were the same person. I was wrong—and I’ve been missing out on a pretty good player.
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His mom was quite the ballplayer as well.
Wrigley is a better home run park now than it used to be (by comparison to the other parks in the league, at least). Nicholson actually hit a substantial majority of his career home runs on the road, 136 out of 235.
Also, the wartime baseball (the balata ball) was deader than any ball used by MLB since the actual dead ball.
Finally: Nicholson was once intentionally walked with the bases loaded. (Take that, Jim Rice!)
Nicholson had a substantial amount of power, especially in context.
Buffinton is the first pitcher I've never heard of as well. My position player is Mike Griffin. I used a standard of "able to accurately recall something about this person," preferably position and era, ideally at least one team played for.
John Briggs 21.0
Doran and Thon were supposed to be quite the keystone pair were supposed to play together for a dozen years, the NL version of Whitaker/Trammel
Then Mike Torrez hit Thon in the face (I saw it live on TV)
Doran was forgotten after that even though he was a good player for a number of years
The Astrodome in the 70s and 80s was a really low offense environment, you look at Doran or Thon's good years and they look ok raw number wise, but in context they were terrific for middle infielders
Griffin (38 WAR)
Ed McKean (36)
Jimmy Williams (not the manager, 30)
Marty McManus (29) - thought his name was familiar, but misidentified him as the third member of the Cobb-Crawford outfields in the late '00s. (Can anyone name the actual holder of that distinction?)
Wally Moses (also 29)
That covers the top 500 in position player WAR for me (along with some other guys who are either older than or worse than those listed). It also brings me up to the decade before my parents were born. So I'm pretty happy with that.
Indeed. Not that the relative similarity in their names made much difference, because I don't think McManus had ever entered my consciousness to be confused with McIntyre to begin with.
"Hey, Mike Torrez, if you could have a do-over on just one pitch, what would it be????"
That was my take at the time too.
I've never heard of John Briggs.
Decent-hitting Brewers OF after his Phillies stint, if memory serves.
(Most of what I [think I] know about early '70s players is based on my dim memories of their baseball cards & my sub copies The Sporting News.)
Indiana-born Thon was also a member of the "I wouldn't have guessed he's Hispanic" club. Mike Lowell followed him in.
he is 70 now and still goes by johnny
No wonder I tend to think of Briggs & Larry Hisle in the same ... well, not breath, I guess, but thought. Both followed a Phils/Brewers/Twins career trajectory, pretty much, though I guess not in the same order.
Also was called "Breek" tho I have no idea why. Some sort of play on his last name, I guess.
On what planet is Bill Nicholson similar to Earle Combs?
His value is very similar to Combs's, at least by WAR; I'm guessing that's what was meant. But WAR in no way "gives you an idea of the type of player" anyone was, at least beyond a judgment of quality.
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