MAJOR LEAGUE FOUNDERS: ROSS BARNES 1876-1976

Next up in my “Founders” 1976 celebration of the 100th season of Major League baseball is the very first batting champ in league history, Ross Barnes. Check it out:

Barnes was a hitting machine during his short 9-year career between 1871 and 1881.
During his playing days in the National Association with Boston between 1871 and 1875, he put up about as gaudy a set of numbers you’ll ever see.
In 1873 he scored 125 runs while leading the league with a .431 average. And keep in mind that run total was in just 60 games!
Obviously the game being what it was back then we take these stats with a grain of salt, but in 1876, the Majors’ inaugural season, Barnes paced the circuit with a .429 average while also leading in runs (126), hits (138) doubles (21) triples (14), on-base-percentage (.462) and slugging (.590).
Retiring from the game at a young 31 years of age, he finished with a .360 lifetime average, with 698 runs scored in just 499 games and 2391 at-bats.
It’s also worth noting that Barnes played a key role in certain rules being adopted that we use to this day.
For example back then, if a batter struck a ball that chopped fair, then bounced off the diamond BEFORE reaching a base, it was still considered fair.
Now, Barnes was a MASTER at doing so, frequently chopping down at the pitch and bouncing the ball off the field before it reached a base.
This led to the league establishing that a batted ball MUST bounce fair until AFTER a base to be considered in play instead of foul, a rule in place to this very day.

REST IN PEACE WALT "NO NECK" WILLIAMS

Yeah I know I'm a bit late with the news, but here's a tribute to former Major League player Walt "No Neck" Williams, who passed away on January 23rd at the age of 72 in Texas.

With one of the all-time classic nicknames in baseball history, Williams fashioned a nice 10-year career in the big leagues playing for the Houston Astros, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees.
Rest in Peace brother...

ANOTHER AWESOME CARD FROM 1971: JOE RUDI

Here’s another one of those great in-game action cards from the 1971 Topps set: Joe Rudi:

What has always mystified me was that the 1971 set is chock-full of great action cards, yet the following year when Topps decided to run the “In-Action” sub-set we were left with some terrible photo choices.
Anyone know what was going on?
If you were to take some of the 1971 cards like Rudi, Thurman Munson, Lindy McDaniel, etc, you could have one kick-ass “In-Action” sub-set!
Anyway, as we all know Joe Rudi was on the cusp of a great run in Oakland, winning three consecutive World Championships between 1972 and 1974, getting named to three all-star teams, winning three Gold Gloves, and finishing second in Most Valuable Player voting twice, in 1972 and 1974.
As one of the early big name Free Agents, he moved on to the California Angels in 1977 where he’d spend four seasons before playing out his career with a year in Boston in 1981 and back to his original team, Oakland in his final year in 1982.
All told he’d hit .264 for his career, with 179 homers and 810 runs batted in over 1547 games.

MISSING IN ACTION-"IN ACTION" #51: 1972 MANNY SANGUILLEN

It's been a while since I had a “Missing” In-Action card from the 1972 set, so today I’ll post up my card for Pirates cathcer Manny Sanguillen.
Take a look:

With the 1970’s giving us catchers like Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk and Thurman Munson, it’s easy to overlook Sanguillen and just how good a player he was.
A career Pittsburgh Pirate except for a lone season (1977) in Oakland, he put together a very nice 13-year career between 1967 and 1980, ending up with a .296 lifetime average.
Over the course of his career the man could flat out rake, posting .300 plus averages four times in his career, while hitting .280 or better another four years.
In 1975 he hit .328, his career high, and between 1969 and 1971 his averages were: .303, .325 and .319.
Named to three all-star teams during his career, he was also a member of both the 1971 and 1979 World Champion teams, and finished with 1500 hits over 5062 at-bats, with  57 triples (for a catcher!) and 65 homers.

MISSING IN ACTION: 1973 ED SPRAGUE

Here’s a “missing” card for a guy who has a few of them actually, former pitcher Ed Sprague of the Cincinnati Reds:

Sprague appeared in 33 games for the National League Champions in 1972, posting a 3-3 record with a 4.13 earned run average out of the bullpen.
He would go on to play another four seasons in the Major Leagues, finishing with a 17-23 record along with a 3.84 ERA, nine saves and 188 strikeouts over 408 innings and 198 games, 23 of which were starts.
His son, Ed Sprague Jr would also play in the Majors later on in the 1990’s and 2000’s, as a third baseman for 11-years, mainly with the Toronto Blue Jays.

TURN BACK THE CLOCK 1954: THE CLEVELAND INDIANS RACK-UP 111 WINS

Today we celebrate the the 1954 Cleveland Indians and their American League record 111 wins which got them to the World Series to face the New York Giants:

Based on a balanced attack of both hitting and pitching, the Indians went on to break the 1927 New York Yankees then-record of 110 wins, and not until 1998 when the Yankees took home their 112th victory on September 25th (a game in which I was an attendee!) would any team match the ‘Tribe’s accomplishment.
First off, when you have a pitching staff led by three future Hall of Famers in Bob Feller, Early Wynn and Bob Lemon, you can’t go wrong! Throw in another Hall of Fame pitcher who was at the tail-end of his career in Hal Newhouser, who put in a nice season, as well as others like Don Mossi, Mike Garcia and Art Houtteman, and you can see why the team always had a chance to win a game.
From the offensive side, the Indians were also stacked, with batting champ Bobby Avila (who batted .341 that year), Al Rosen and future Hall of Famer Larry Doby among others, helping the team finally break the grip of the Bronx, snapping the Yankees five-year reign as not only American League champs but World champs as well.
Sadly for them they could not carry their winning ways in the World Series, bowing the the eventual World Champion New York Giants and a kid named Willie Mays in four straight.

HALL OF FAME #43: EDDIE MATHEWS: CLASS OF 1978

Next up on the “Hall of Fame Inductee” parade for the 1970’s is former perennial all-star third baseman Eddie Mathews, who bashed his way to a Cooperstown induction in 1978:

Mathews was a beast at the plate, hitting 30 or more homers in a season ten times during his career, with four of those seasons totaling over 40.
He’d also drive in over 100 runs five times and score over 100 eight times while topping a .300 batting average on three occasions while leading the National League in walks four times, homers twice, and getting named to nine all-star teams.
Twice a runner-up in Most Valuable Player voting, he played for the Braves from Boston, to Milwaukee and their inaugural season in Atlanta in 1966, the only player to do so.
By the time he finished his stellar career Mathews collected 512 homers, 1453 runs batted in, 1509 runs scored and a .271 average along 1444 walks and a .509 slugging average.
Until a guy by the name of Mike Schmidt came along, he was THE power-hitting third baseman in the games long history.