Records

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DOUGHBOYS
Posts: 13088
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:00 pm

Records

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Mon Mar 30, 2020 8:45 am

There are zillions of baseball records that will never be broken.
For some reason, Cy Young and 511 Wins or Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak are usually the first two brought up.
I don't know why.
Young, literally pitched every other day. He also holds another record that will never be broken....316 losses
Young threw 7,335 innings and had 815 complete games.
Throwing 200 innings a year, a pitcher would have to pitch 37 years to break Young's record.
Good luck.
And 815 complete games?
There weren't 815 complete games this decade.

DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak has been approached. Pete Rose had 44 games.
DiMaggio set the record without the press hounding him.
Nowadays, a 20 game hitting streak gets noticed and the player is constantly reminded.
Even 20 game hitting streaks are scarce now though.
So the media has resorted to an easier streak.
The 'on base' streak.
Ugh.
Rat's ass.

Records like Johnny Vander Meer's two consecutive no-hitters also get acclaim.
Ha! Try breaking that record! Three no-hitters.
That would be like breaking Ichiro Suzuki's record.
Ichiro is the only player in history to hit an inside the park home run in an All Star game.
Denny McLain won 31 games in 1968.
Seven years later, a Catfish Hunter fete went unreported. No big deal.
Hunter threw 30 Complete Games. It had happened so often before that nobody gave it a thought.Along with McLain's 30 Wins, we'll never see it again.
McLain also hit his first and only home run in his first game in the Major Leagues.
Lots of pitchers have done that. But, with pitchers like Shohei Ohtani not even being allowed to hit while pitching, we may never see an American League pitcher hit a home run again.

I like little known records.
Here are a few....
Mickey Mantle is touted as being the best World Series hitter. The Mick holds the Series record with 18 homers.
BUT, Duke Snider hit four homers in a World Series...twice.

Going back to complete games....
Walter Johnson threw a lot of shutouts (remember those?)
Johnson threw Nine Opening Day shutouts!

Any player who wins a Triple Crown is rightly lauded.
Only one player has accomplished it twice.
Rogers Hornsby in 1922 and 1925.
Hornsby, quietly, may have been the best hitter of his time.
Yes, a time when Cobb and Ruth played.
Although Cobb and Ruth got all the media attention with spikes sharpening and home runs, Hornsby just hit the living crap out of the ball.
From 1921-1925, Hornsby AVERAGED hitting .402
In 1924, between the two triple crowns, Hornsby had the highest batting average of the century, .424

There is the trick question of who was the last American League switch hitter to win the Most Valuable Player award...Vida Blue
Ever the showman, Charlie Finley, the A's owner offered Blue a bonus if he were to switch his first name to 'True'.
Blue turned down the offer and was a bit offended.
He would wear a 'Vida' on the back of his jersey instead of his last name to spite the owner.

If I were to ask the name of the only player to lead his league in triples, homers, and RBI, you may think that the answer would be from the early 1900's.
It's not.
It happened in the 70's.
It was also a player that you'd never think would lead his league in triples. But he did.
It was Jim Rice.

There have been a lot of great brother acts in baseball. Especially pitchers.
Dizzy and Daffy Dean.
Gaylord and Jim Perry.
Phil and Joe Niekro.
But none of these brothers tandem each threw a no-hitter.
Bob and Ken Forsch did.

Last, I get a smile on my face when seeing Fernando Tatis Jr. being drafted so highly.
I was rooting for his Dad one year because he was on my fantasy team.
Nearly went through the roof when he did what no player has ever done.
Tatis hit two grand slams in the same inning.
Fantasy gold.
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!

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