Contact
I'm always glad to hear from people who read the site.
If you're interested in talking to me for whatever reason, please feel free to contact me using the Contact form above or directly at lar@wezen-ball.com.
Oh, and don't forget, you can always use the Forums!
Baseball Bloggers Alliance
Other Links
Online Flowers
Shop for your flowers online at the Online Flowers shop
Party Bets
Wanna make baseball a tad more exciting? Check out Party Bets. They have some of the largestonline sports betting rooms online. Plus you can just play for fun instead of cash.
|
|
Written by Larry Granillo
|
|
Thursday, 14 May 2009 05:32 |
|
Writing the Seamheads AL West Preview the other night, I noticed something interesting about the 1982 Brewers that I had never heard anyone mention before: with Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, and Cecil Cooper, the '82 Brewers had three separate players reach the 200-hit plateau. It seemed like a pretty rare feat, so I decided to investigate it a little further.
Before breaking the 200-hit players down by team and year, I thought it might be prudent to look for any players who may have been traded (or otherwise played for multiple teams) during a 200-hit campaign. After all, if someone did get traded in a 200-hit year and then joined two or three other 200-hit players on a given team, I would have to decide how to count them. I didn't expect to find many but, if Mark McGwire can be traded in the middle of a 58-home run season, it didn't seem out of the realm of possibility for a Molitor- or Carew-type player to be traded mid-200 hit-season.
It turns out that there have actually been six players throughout history who played for more than one team on their way to a 200 hit season:
Player..............Year..Team A (Hits)........Team B (Hits)....Hits
Irish Meusel........1921..Philadelphia (121)...New York (80)....201
Moose Solters.......1935..Boston (19)..........St Louis (182)...201
Red Schoendienst....1957..New York (78)........Milwaukee (122)..200
Lou Brock...........1964..Chicago (54).........St Louis (146)...200
Willie Montanez.....1976..San Francisco (71)...Atlanta (135)....206
Randy Velarde.......1999..Anaheim (115)........Oakland (85).....200
My first thought on seeing that list was "Randy Velarde had 200 hits in a season? Really?" After that, though, I noticed that all of these guys, except maybe Willie Montanez, only barely reached the 200-hit mark. There are no 210 or 215 hit seasons in that group, which makes some sense. A player hitting that well is unlikely to be dealt for any reason.
Now that we have a list of multi-team 200-hit players, we can look at the list of teams who had three or more players reach 200 hits. As you can see, while the list above is nice to have, it doesn't actually affect our main list here.
Year..Team..............Num..Players
1929..Philadelphia (N)...4...Lefty O'Doul (254), Chuck Klein (219), Fresco Thompson (202), Pinky Whitney (200)
1937..Detroit............4...Gee Walker (213), Charlie Gehringer (209), Pete Fox (208), Hank Greenberg (200)
1920..St Louis (A).......3...George Sisler (257), Baby Doll Jacobsen (216), Jack Tobin (202)
1920..Chicago (A)........3...Eddie Collins (224), Joe Jackson (218), Buck Weaver (208)
1921..St Louis (A).......3...Jack Tobin (236), George Sisler (216), Baby Doll Jacobsen (211)
1929..Detroit............3...Charlie Gehringer (215), Dale Alexander (215), Roy Johnson (201)
1930..Philadelphia (N)...3...Chuck Klein (250), Pinky Whitney (207), Lefty O'Doul (202)
1930..Chicago (N)........3...Kiki Cuyler (228), Woody English (214), Hack Wilson (208)
1935..New York (N).......3...Bill Terry (203), Hank Leiber (203), Jo-Jo Moore (201)
1963..St Louis...........3...Dick Groat (201), Curt Flood (200), Bill White (200)
1982..Milwaukee..........3...Robin Yount (210), Cecil Cooper (205), Paul Molitor (201)
1991..Texas..............3...Rafael Palmiero (203), Ruben Sierra (203), Julio Franco (201)
It's an exclusive list, for sure. In the last 70 years, only three teams have been able to achieve the feat, and none in the last 18 years. And, in the 9 seasons that it was done before 1937, three teams (Klein's Phillies, Gehringer's Tigers, and Sisler's Browns) managed the feat twice. That leaves only 9 distinct "teams" (in the loose sense of the word) to have acheived the feat in all of history.
I'm not sure what more I can say here. Obviously, the game has changed since World War II, and hits are harder to come by. Guys like George Sisler, who could seemingly turn anything into a basehit, just don't exist anymore (excepting maybe Ichiro!), and the way the game is played today prevents many others from reaching the milestone. With that said, though, it doesn't seem impossible for a team in today's game to have three 200-hit players. If I were forced to make a prediction as to which team could be the next to have three different 200-hit players, I think I'd have to go with the Mets. David Wright, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Beltran are all threats to 200 hits every season, and it wouldn't be a stretch to see them all do it together.
 |
|
|
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account! 