Is this...a beginning for Rico?

Nah, he's not going in, though maybe karlmagnus will argue his case. ;-) A good one, though.

Fell off a cliff at 32, otherwise he'd have had a good case. Pity, I was looking forward to the Red Sox doing a late roar up the HOMers table by inducting Yaz AND Rico AND Reggie AND Rice AND Tiant.

yuah, I think I like one of those guys that Karl mentioned, though I haven't looked at Tiant.

His 170 OPS+ in 1969 is an AL record for a shortstop. I believe that Wagner and Vaughn are the only shortstops ever to top that.

Fell off a cliff at 32, otherwise he'd have had a good case.

/de-lurk

Seems to have been pretty injury-prone, too. Only three seasons of 150+ games played, just five seasons of 140+ games.

/re-lurk

RICO HIT THE SCREEN!

I remember reading a terrific Sport Magazine piece on Petrocelli while flying back from L.A. back in '70...title was "Who Put the Pop in Petrocelli" or some such. It turned out to be a nifty bit on ol' Eddie "Pop" Popowski helping Rico on his hitting.

Rico said that playing the drums help develop his wrists and improved his hitting.

His 170 OPS+ in 1969 is an AL record for a shortstop. I believe that Wagner and Vaughn are the only shortstops ever to top that.

When I read this, I had to see what A-Rod had managed. His best SS OPS+ has been 167, which he achieved in 2000 in Seattle. He matched that last year at 3B.

Thanks, John.

Thanks, John.

For the "Little Caesar" reference? I actually used it once before at the beginning of another thread, so I had to alter it slightly so as not to totally repeat myself. :-)

His 170 OPS+ in 1969 is an AL record for a shortstop.

there was a thread a couple months ago about severe fluke seasons, and I completely forgot about Rico's 1969

his next highest OPS+ was 124--the difference is Cashian

of course, today, we'd say "steroids"

The Red Sox have a long string of high peak, very good but not quite HoM shortstops: Pesky, Stephens, Petrocelli, Burleson, Garciaparra. Garciaparra may get there with his current resurgence though. Add Cronin, that's a pretty good list.

of course, today, we'd say "steroids"

They were talking about it back then too

Sports Illustrated Cover -- June 23, 1969

Just want to clarify that I didn't mean to say that people thought Rico was doing them. Just that Steroids are not as recent a problem as I once thought. 1969 was quite a while ago and Sports Illustrated is a high profile mainstream magazine.

'Course, Cronin is either wearing or should be wearing a Senators cap in the HoM.

Nomar still needs another 7-8 years, doncha think?

I remember reading a terrific Sport Magazine piece on Petrocelli while flying back from L.A. back in '70...title was "Who Put the Pop in Petrocelli" or some such. It turned out to be a nifty bit on ol' Eddie "Pop" Popowski helping Rico on his hitting

I remember reading that article...but I am pretty sure in was in 67...It took a lot less slugging to qualify for having "pop" then.

As for the 69 article,...SI occasionally did journalism back then....sigh

(Reprinted from the Whitey Ford thread.)

Interesting note on steroids in the Gordon Edes column of the Boston Sunday Globe for 4/16/06 (quote):

[Roger] Abrams acknowledges he is not as agitated by the Bonds scandal as many. That may be due to research he is doing for his next book, in which he uncovered steroid abuse by a Hall of Famer -- in 1889. ''I have an article in the Washington Post from 1889 that shows Pud Galvin had a shot of testosterone -- a steroid," Abrams said, making no effort to suppress a chuckle. ''It's gone on forever, but no one really cared about it then."

I remember reading that article...but I am pretty sure in was in 67...It took a lot less slugging to qualify for having "pop" then.

Eric...Could have been...as I was dizzy at the time from flying back and forth to LA to help keep my sister from being dragged into the Tony Alamo Cult..

Doping Pitchers (Sporting Life 1908-09-26)

Paul,

I didn't know Dale Berra was even alive in 1926.

This looks like use of painkillers. Novocain is probably both more effective and safer than cocaine - these days, you'd see novocain and cortisone. And some of it is legal.