THEBEST.HTM                                            3/25/91

 

John W. Burgeson

E-mail JWBurgeson@Juno.com

 

                        The Best of Teams,

                        The Worst of Teams

 

We begin with a trivia question.  What Hall-of-Famer, elected because

of his playing ability, not a pitcher, has a son who outhit his father

by over 200 points in the Major Leagues?

 

I'll give the answer later. But there's a clue in what follows. I

determined to search The Baseball Encyclopedia recently to compile

what must be agreed is the very best team. Ever. "Very best," of

course, demands a clear standard. My standard is very simple, highest

slugging average, played after 1900, played a position, pitcher has a

0.000 ERA, nothing more.

 

After an evening or two, I came up with the following roster; can you

find a better one?  The players bat in the reverse order of their

positions.

 

Yr Team   Name             G  AB   H  2B TR HR   R RBI    BA   SA  POS

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

23 CLE    Jackie Gallagher 1   1   1   0  0  0   0   1  1.000 1.000 OF

63 HOU    John Paciorek    1   3   3   0  0  0   4   3  1.000 1.000 OF

18 PHI    Ty Pickup        1   1   1   0  0  0   0   0  1.000 1.000 OF

71 BOS(A) Joe Giannini     1   2   1   1  0  0   0   0   .500 1.000 SS

12 DET    Ed Irvin         1   3   2   0  2  0   0   0   .667 2.000 3B

20 WAS    Allie Watt       1   1   1   1  0  0   0   1  1.000 2.000 2B

71 DET    John Young       1   4   2   1  0  0   1   1   .500  .750 1B

58 CHI(A) Charles Lindstrom1   1   1   0  1  0   1   1  1.000 3.000  C

58 CLE &  Rocky Colavito 222 693 191  31  5 49 101 137   .276  .547  P

68 NY(A)

                  Team                                   .771 1.366

 

A few comments are in order. All of these players played in just one

game, except John Young, who played in two, and Rocky Colavito, who

played in many but only pitched twice, with an ERA of 0.000 in 5.2

innings. Rocky's averages shown above are a composite of those two

years. He gave up but one hit, walked five and struck out two!

 

A few other players who almost made the team:

 

1902      PIT         Mike Hopkins           1.000       1.500     C

1922      CIN         Red Lutz               1.000       1.500     C

1912      CHI (N)     George Yantz           1.000       1.000     C

1935      PIT         Aubrey Epps             .750       1.250     C

1914      PHI         Ben Rochefort           .500        .500    1B

1949      BOS (A)     Steve Kuczek           1.000       2.000     -

1937      WAS         Jerry Lynn              .667       1.000    2B

1910      CLE         Jim Rutherford          .500        .500    OF

1901      CLE         Frank Cross             .600        .600    OF

 

The nearest pitcher I could find to Rocky was Al Braithwood, of the

1915 Pittsburgh team, who also had an ERA of 0.000 in 3 innings. But

Al batted .000, so Rocky was the obvious choice.

 

I used the seventh edition (through 1987) of the encyclopedia, so

perhaps there are some later candidates.

 

In the same spirit of inquiry, I compiled a list of the worst team.

This proved harder to do -- more choices. The following team can

probably be "deproved" (opposite of improved) upon since I did not

search the whole encyclopedia.  The criteria was hitting .000 in as

many games as possible. For the pitcher, as high an ERA as possible,

but not infinite.

 

 

Year      Team        Name            G      AB   K      BA       POS

----------------------------------------------------------------------

1964      PIT         Rex Johnston    14     14   0      .000      OF

1925      NY (N)      Pip Koehler     12     12   1      .000      OF

1927      PIT         Herman Layne    11     11   0      .000      OF

1934      BOS (A)     Red Kellett      9      9   5      .000      SS

1964      HOU         Steve Hertz      5      5   3      .000      3B

1935      STL (N)     Lyle Judy        8      8   2      .000      2B

1971      PIT         Bill Keen        6      6   4      .000      1B

1925      NY (A)      Roy Lubbe        8      8   6      .000       C

1945      WAS         Joe Cleary       1      0   na       na       P

 

Joe's pitching record was 0.1 inning pitched, 5 hits, 3 walks and an

ERA of 189 (charged with seven runs)! If you prefer a pitcher with an

infinite ERA, try Lou Bauer of the 1918 Philadelphia Phillies. He

faced two batters, walked them both, and was charged with at least one

run.

 

Long before this, you've no doubt figured out that the answer to the

trivia question is the great catcher of the Giants, Freddie Lindstrom

(.311 lifetime). His son, Charlie, appeared in one game for the White

Sox in 1958, went to the plate twice, walked and tripled, for the

highest slugging average in the majors! There's only one way to beat

him!

 

One more comment. I'd give a lot to be among any one of the second

team above. They may not have excelled in the majors, but they were

there. So were a lot of players who only appeared once or twice. Give

them credit; they made it to the majors while most of us never even

came close!

 

Burgy

 

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