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Hall of Merit — A Look at Baseball's All-Time Best Tuesday, May 12, 2020Most Meritorious Player: 1927 DiscussionThe Yankees swept the Pirates in the World Series. The Chicago American Giants defeated the Bacharach Giants 5 games to 3 in the Colored World Series. Vote for 10. Player SH WS BBR WAR Babe Ruth 44.2 12.4 Lou Gehrig 43.4 11.8 Rogers Hornsby 39.5 10.1 Frankie Frisch 36.1 9.2 Paul Waner 35.3 6.9 Harry Heilmann 32.1 7.2 Earle Combs 31.3 6.9 Pie Traynor 26.0 3.9 Hack Wilson 30.6 6.0 Al Simmons 24.8 5.8 Travis Jackson 24.1 5.1 Tony Lazzeri 24.1 6.3 George Harper 26.1 5.4 Chuck Dressen 23.1 4.4 Riggs Stephenson 26.6 4.8 Mickey Cochrane 22.7 3.8 Bill Terry 26.5 5.3 Chick Hafey 20.7 3.7 Gabby Hartnett 20.5 3.6 Goose Goslin 27.4 5.3 Bibb Falk 20.5 4.7 Joe Sewell 20.1 3.5 Jim Bottomley 25.8 4.4 Charlie Gehringer 20.3 4.1 Bob Meusel 21.0 4.2 Sammy Hale 17.8 2.7 Ty Cobb 21.3 4.4 Bob Fothergill 22.1 4.4 Alex Metzler 20.7 4.1 Tris Speaker 21.0 3.6 Roy Parnell 7.6 Ed Rile 7.1 Willie Wells 6.8 Dick Lundy 5.5 Steel Arm Davis 5.2 Turkey Stearnes 5.2 Jud Wilson 5.1 Oscar Charleston 4.7 Wilson Redus 3.9 Poindexter Williams 3.8 Martin Dihigo 3.4 John Beckwith 3.0 Mule Suttles 2.5 Heavy Johnson 2.5 Newt Allen 2.5 Cool Papa Bell 2.2 Cristobal Torriente 2.1 Pitcher SH WS BBR WAR Dazzy Vance 24.5 7.5 Tommy Thomas 28.4 7.9 Ted Lyons 29.3 7.9 Pete Alexander 27.3 6.5 Jesse Petty 21.1 5.6 Jesse Haines 28.1 5.2 Red Lucas 23.0 5.8 Ray Kremer 22.5 6.7 Waite Hoyt 23.3 6.1 Bump Hadley 18.2 5.3 Lefty Grove 24.9 5.3 Dutch Ulrich 15.2 4.0 Willis Hudlin 19.1 4.8 Wilcy Moore 24.4 5.7 Earl Whitehill 17.4 5.0 Carmen Hill 21.2 4.9 Lee Meadows 21.0 4.8 Jake Miller 15.8 4.0 Jack Quinn 17.9 4.3 Charlie Root 21.0 3.1 Willie Foster 6.9 Bullet Rogan 6.0 Harry Salmon 5.7 William Bell 5.4 Sam Streeter 5.0 Luther Farrell 4.6 Nip Winters 4.0 Darltie Cooper 4.5 Satchel Paige 4.0 George Mitchell 3.9 Ted Trent 3.6 |
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1. DL from MN Posted: May 12, 2020 at 05:44 PM (#5949868)Player Name OPS+
Roy Parnell 240
Charlie Smith 222
Jud Wilson 213
Oscar Charleston 209
Willie Wells 204
Ed Rile 194
Turkey Stearnes 191
Pitcher Name ERA+
Joe Williams 384
Darltie Cooper 173
William Bell 172
Bullet Rogan 161
George Mitchell 158
Ed Rile 153
Satchel Paige 151
Willie Foster 149
1) Babe Ruth
2) Lou Gehrig
3) Rogers Hornsby - these shouldn't be controversial
4) Frankie Frisch - outstanding glove
5) Paul Waner
6) Dazzy Vance - top pitcher
7) Willie Wells - positional value makes him the top NGL player
8) Tommy Thomas
9) Roy Parnell - career year
10) Jud Wilson
11-15) Harry Heilmann, Bullet Rogan, Willie Foster, Charlie Smith, Earle Combs
16-20) Ted Lyons, Dick Lundy, Pie Traynor, Pete Alexander, Biz Mackey (top catcher)
21-25) William Bell, Hack Wilson, Al Simmons, Travis Jackson, Jesse Petty
Ed Rile is also interesting as a two way player - 140IP and 75 games at first base with career bests pitching and hitting.
The Urban Myth does not start with Hornsby’s rookie year or anything. It starts in 1925. In 1925, the Cards, although they had talent, were not winning. They were 13-25 when Branch Rickey decided to promote himself to full-time General Manager, and gave up the managerial post. It went to Hornsby, in order to save money – most of you know about player-managers in the 1920s and 30s. And the team turned around immediately. They went 64-51 during Hornsby’s tenure, finishing at 77-76.
Then 1926 happened. The team kept on playing just like they had for Hornsby in the previous year. They won the World Series. They did this in spite of their superstar player, one Rogers Hornsby, having his weakest season in the 1920s. To my dad, Hornsby looked like a martyr and a savior, who had given up his personal numbers to guide the team to a Championship. Dad was envisioning a dynasty, especially since Rickey’s farm system was cranking out talent. Then, Hornsby got traded to the Giants, for Frankie Frish, Jimmy Ring, and some cash. Say, WHAT? The rumor mill was that Rickey had gotten jealous of Hornsby’s superb managerial skills, and had traded him to the one team that would NOT let him manage – John McGraw’s Giants.
Hornsby lasted only one year in NY, 1927. His hitting came right back, but what he now wanted was to prove Rickey wrong, and show that he really WAS a great manager. This wasn’t going to happen with the Giants, and Hornsby feuded with McGraw.
A last note about the Cardinals at that time. Everyone knows that the 1927 Cards, without Hornsby but with Frank Frisch’s career year, won three more games than they had in 1926, but the Pirates rose in revolt and won the pennant. This is held as evidence against Hornsby. That is wrong. What happened was that, in the middle of 1926, the Cards, already playing like they had for Hornsby in 1925, managed to get their hands on Grover Cleveland Alexander. Pete didn’t pitch that well (9-7, although he had the lowest ERA of any Cards stater), but the team did win, and then there was Tony Lazzeri. And then, in 1927, what happened was that the Cards had a FULL season of Ol’ Pete. Is half a season of Pete Alexander, compared to your #4 starter, worth three games? Of course it is; that’s the entire difference between the 1926 team’s record and 1927. Frisch’s career year was not much better than Hornsby’s BAD year in 1926, but Ol’ Pete was there all year in 1927.
Back to the main thread: The owner of the Boston Braves was trying to shore up his truly lousy team by acquiring St. Louis superstars. He traded for Hornsby for the 1928 season, and gave him the managerial job, and also acquired George Sisler. Well, Sisler was finished, really, and there was no real talent on the team other than Hornsby and Sisler. They were really bad, and Hornsby gave up on being the next Frank Chance. The Braves ran out of money, and traded Hornsby to, of all teams, the Cubs, managed by Joe McCarthy, who was known to just hate southerners. Apparently, Joe was able to suppress that hatred if the southerner in question was Rogers Hornsby.
The Cubs, in 1929-30, had mind-bending bad luck. In 29, Hornsby was Hornsby, but superstar catcher Gabby Hartnett got hurt early and was not able to play that season. They came close, but didn’t win. In 1930, Hartnett was back, but Hornsby missed the year with a serious injury, and they didn’t win that year, either. Well, the injury pretty much finished Hornsby as a star payer, and the Cubs came up with Billy Herman. Hornsby had taken over the managerial job when McCarthy went to the Yankees, and was actually the manager who decided to bench himself and let the rookie (Herman) play. So much for Hornsby’s alleged selfishness.
That’s the Urban Myth. However, if you read My War with Baseball, you will find that Hornsby does not mention Rickey as a factor in being traded to the Giants. He says that the problem was Sam Breadon’s miserliness. Breadon would not pay Hornsby what Hornsby would accept, so away Hornsby went. This completely collapses everything in the Urban Legend from 1926-1929.
But think about all of this. If you haven’t read My War, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – in the Urban Legend that is impossible, or even improbable. It makes perfect sense. It just turns out to not have been true, but nobody knew that until Hornsby published. Of course, this has nothing to do with ranking Hornsby as a player. It’s just a really interesting thing, to me at least, because it IS so possible without My War. One of the best, and most misleading, Urban Myths of all time, because no part of it is impossible. Thanks for putting up with all this in the middle of a MMP thread.
I enjoyed this, Brock. Expanded comments like these are always welcomed.
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