Yes…there were so few HR’s hit in the 50’s. (re: Carab Countless file)
There was a time when hitting 500 homers was a cause for national celebration.
It meant you joined a small club inhabited by legends Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Willie Mays.
That’s the club Eddie Mathews joined July 14, 1967, when he blasted his 500th homer off Juan Marichal at Candlestick Park.
He even beat his old Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves teammate Hank Aaron to the punch, since Aaron didn’t rip No. 500 until a year later. Of course, Aaron went on to slug 755 homers, which stood as the major league record until Barry Bonds passed him in 2007.
Now, hitting 500 homers only raises eyebrows and heightens suspicion. That’s what the steroid era has done to major league baseball. Even those players who might have been clean don’t get a free pass from the public because they played in an era when artificially induced sluggers were rampant.
When Mathews hit No. 500, he was just the seventh player in major league history to accomplish the feat. In 1978, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. On Feb. 18, he’ll be inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame posthumously following his death in 2001.
Repoz
Posted: February 01, 2013 at 06:39 AM |
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1. RMc and His Roster of Rubbish Posted: February 01, 2013 at 09:13 AM (#4359848)...there were 12.
EDT: I should add I agree Mathews seems like a far better candidate.
Wasn't that Kiner's last year on the ballot?
Yes, an underrated player. It was quite common in the 1960's to still hear that Pie Traynor was the greatest 3rd baseman ever. Of course, Traynor never was that in the first place - before Mathews, I'll go with Frank Baker. But to still be talking about Traynor like that was an amazing insult to Mathews. And then, not so very long after Mathews retired, along came Michael Jack Schmidt. But for a while there, Mathews should have been recognized as the greatest third baseman ever.
Kiner's main claim to fame during his short career was leading the NL in home runs his first seven years, which meant that in the post-WWII period he was kind of considered the gold standard for sluggers of that era. Then when Mantle with his 800 ft. tape measure shots and a new generation of sluggers emerged, memories of Kiner's accomplishment more or less receded into the background.
this is what i used to hear when i was a kid.
eddie matthews hit his 500th homer on my 12th birthday. come to think of the cardinals went all the way that year, so i guess baseball was perfect then.
Wasn't Mathews well-known as a party animal during his playing days? If true, all of those late nights may well have caught up with him and started to take away some of his game.
this is what i used to hear when i was a kid.
And when Mathews arrived in the Majors the consensus was still Jimmy Collins.
No, there were 7. He is referencing when Mathews did it, 1967, and he was the 7th. By 1978, when he was inducted, there were 12, but that is not what the writer was saying.
Yeah, but the greenies brought it all back ... and more!!
He was a stunningly gifted all-around athlete who wasn't exactly a stickler for conditioning. Johnny Logan's famous line was that he determined how far over to play in the hole depending on how late Mathews got in last night.
This seems so familiar, as if it's almost identical to something that's going on today...
This made me think of last year's playoffs. How many Hall of Famers* are replaced by pinch hitters, even after age 36?
*blah blah needles blah blah HGH blah blah slappy centaur bluelips blah blah
Meh. He had over 10,000 PA's, that's top 1/3 for HOF batters/position players. I tend to think there's a limit on playing time moreso than age in some ways. Guys have a hard time staying on the field after they hit 10,000 PA's (that's a LOT of games) and some make it there sooner than others. Mathews got there quicker than most. Only 5 other HOF had 10,000 PA's by age 35.
As #19 points out, while this might have been the impression (Santo suffered from this), guys who play a lot as early as Mathews almost always end their careers at "younger" ages. PAs through age 30 leaders:
Ott, ARod, Yount, Renteria, Pinson, Griffey Jr, Foxx, Andruw, Cobb, Kaline, Aaron, Mantle, Santo, Mathews, Ripken
That's not a list filled with post-30 greatness. Cobb, Kaline, Aaron and Ripken lasted a long time. I suspect folks forget that Yount retired after age 37 and was pretty average after 33. Nevertheless, he's 13th all-time in PA.
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