Time
to go and give former .300 hitter Bake McBride, aka “Shake n’ Bake” a
card in my long-running “Nickname” series through the 1970’s:
The 1974 National League rookie of the year had himself a very nice
11-year Major League career, one that saw him top a .300 batting average
seven of those seasons.
If not for injuries throughout his Big League tenure who knows what he
could have done, as evidenced with his 1153 hits in only 3853 at-bats.
Only twice did he appear in more than 137 games in any one season, and in only six of them did he play in over 100.
Nevertheless, “Shake n’ Bake” would retire after a couple of years with
the Cleveland Indians with a career .299 average, with 183 stolen bases
and 548 runs scored in only 1071 games.
Think about it, if you were to translate that over let’s say 2500 Major League games, that is quite a career!