The Retro Sheet
Official Publication of Retrosheet, Inc.
New Database at www.retrosheet.org
There are two topics for this column: game logs and data release policy. The game log story is really just an update from last time. Since then Tom Ruane has done a lot of work getting the logs organized. He has had help from Mark Armour who is filling in some of the gaps, especially umpires. In addition David Vincent has written a program that will make access to these logs easy and logical. All that is left is to get the logs posted on the web site, which we hope will be accomplished very soon, perhaps even before you read this notice.
The Retrosheet Board of Directors explicitly gave permission to the President of the organization to decide when a given data file was ready to release. Up to this point, I have been very conservative and we have only released files that had undergone exhaustive proofing. For example, totals generated from our play by play files agree to the greatest extent possible with the official totals in all batting and pitching categories. For those cases (very few) where our numbers differ from the official totals, we have detailed descriptions of the source of these differences.
The logic behind this slow approach is that I thought it would be damaging to our credibility to release one version of a file without detailed proofing and then to replace it later af ter we had made corrections. I was worried that research results using an early version would be in conflict with results based on a later version and that published differences of this sort would reflect badly on us as a good data source.
However, it is now clear to me that the time has come to change this policy and to release files much sooner. There are several factors that point to this conclusion, but the central one has to do with the use I have made of Retrosheet files for SABR presentations, both in 1998 in San Mateo, and later this month in Scottsdale. I was led to a simple choice: either the files are not in good enough shape to be used for research, or they are. And if they are in good enough shape, then they are good enough for everyone, not just for me. This last point is extremely serious, since I am very uncomfortable with taking advantage of my position as Vault Keeper to do things that no one else was allowed to do. I thank Doug Burks especially for reminding me of my responsibilities in this regard.
The policy we are moving toward is to release files that are syntactically correct, even before detailed proofing is done. Along with each file (usually team-season) will be a list of discrepancies we know about between our data and the official totals. To give a sense of what this means, we usually have 30-35 differences for the batters on a single team and 20-25 for the pitchers before we start proofing. We define a difference as a discrepancy in any category for one player. Example : If we incorrectly put player X into the starting lineup instead of player Y (which is easy to do), then if player X has 4 at bats, 1 run, 2 hits and 1 RBI, we will have generated 10 differences: at bats, runs, hits and RBI as well as games played for bot h players. Making the change from player X to player Y will solve 10 discrepancies at once. Of course, some are a lot more difficult to track down. As corrections are made, new versions of the files will be released. Of course, users of the data will b e encouraged to identify the exact location of the differences, which will almost always be mistakes in our files.
This change is major and certainly brings with it some anxiety. However, I believe that the new policy is more in keeping with our objective of disseminating information as effectively as possible. We have always said that Retrosheet data was a work in progress and the expectation of periodic corrections to previously released files is consistent with this reality.
The Annual Meeting of Retrosheet, Inc. will be Saturday, June 26, 1999 at the Scottsdale, AZ Radisson Resort from 1:30 to 2:30. The room will be posted at the convention.
The Retrosheet Board of Directors Nominating Committee is seeking candidates for two three-year positions on the Board. The terms of Luke Kraemer and David Vincent expire at the end of June 1999 and both incumbents are running for re-election. If you are interested or would like more information, please contact Clem Comly at ccomly@erols.com. The deadline for nominations is June 17 and the vote will be taken at the annual meeting in Scottsdale, AZ on June 26.
We continue to make excellent progress in rounding up more game accounts. I have copied some microfilmed games from 1923 (Chicago Daily News), and Ted Turocy continues to get accounts from various papers for the 1910 season. Mike Grahek is relentless in requesting microfilm from 1912 (and earlier) and has gathered much for us.
In the last issue I recounted the work of Bob Kistler with games from Boston for 1952. He has now finished the Boston library holdings for that year (51 Red Sox and 111 Braves) and has turned to 1951, where we need even more. Many thanks to Bob for continuing to be such a Retrofriend.
Luke Kraemer sent along copies of more of Bruce Foster's scorebooks from the 1950s. These are excellent accounts, mostly covering Philadelphia, which is a tough city for us, as I have noted before. Luke also put us in touch with a memorabilia dealer in New York who had some Foster scorebooks from the World War II years. Having these is a tremendous help, since newspaper coverage of games during the war was limited.
Eddie Epstein of the San Diego Padres sent us copies of the last few games that were in the team scorebooks, but which had not been copied before. This still left us with a gap of one game in 1978, which Padre fan Heather MacNintch supplied! Heather scored hundreds of games from the radio in the 1970s and 1980s and happily for us, she saved them. Thanks to these finds, we now have the 1977, 1978, and 1979 seasons completed.
Twenty-eight year old Carl Stimson, the Red Sox’6’5”pitcher, made his ML debut on 6-6-1923 against Cleveland, entering the game in the 8th, trailing 10-1. His first inning was disastrous, yielding 6 runs on 3 H, 3 BB, 2 SB, 1 HBP, 1 WP, 1 SF, and 1 SH. The 2 stolen bases occurred with leads of 14-1 and 16-1. He gave up his seventh earned run on 3 H in the 9th. (With a 17-1 lead, Joe Sewell was caught stealing 2b.)
Eleven days before his 29th birthday on 7-7, Stimson's second ML pitching appearance was also against Cleveland in the first game of a doubleheader. He entered the game in the 7th, with his team already down 24-2. His brief chance for any sort of redemption, however, was not meant to be. He gave up 3 more runs in 2 IP on 6 hits, 2 BB, and 1 PB. He was saved further damage by the Indians running themselves out of each inning (probably half-intentionally) with 2 plays at the plate from the outfield, and a pickoff. It would be Carl's last day in the majors. His 2-game pitching career, both against the Indians, would produce the following line:
IP H R ER BB SO HBP WP ERA OppBA
Stimson 4 12 10 10 5 1 1 1 22.50 .750
On 9-16-1972 the Indians were in Boston. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Carl Yastrzemski (batting in the 3rd position) singled and was pinch-run for by Cecil Cooper. Reggie Smith (batting in the 4th position) followed with another single and was pinch-run for by Dwight Evans, who was making his major league debut. In the top of the seventh, Cooper stayed in the game at 1b, and Evans went in to rf. In the bottom of the eighth inning, John Kennedy (batting in the 2nd slot) flew to lf for the first out of the inning. The following batter should have been Cooper, but instead Evans batted out of turn and popped to ss. Cooper then followed (also batting out of turn) and grounded to 1b. Since both players made outs, the Indians did not protest. Evidently Evans was told by manager Eddie Kasko to bat in the 3rd position instead of the 4th slot in the order and thus Evans’ first major league at bat was one batter too early.
The team of Steve Boren, Jim Smith, and Herm Krabbenhoft are collaborating on documenting the complete details of every triple play pulled in ML history. In doing their research, they have uncovered the earliest use of a courtesy runner so far. The game (St. Louis at Louisville) took place on 8-1-1877. Here are the particulars, extracted from the account given in the 8-2-1877, edition of The Louisville Courier-Journal:
"It was the fifth. Battin, Nicholls and Blong, the first three strikers, filled the bases on safe singles to right field. With none out, Dehlman drove a long fly to right, which was splendidly taken by Shaffer and just as splendidly returned to Devlin. Battin had tried to run in after the catch had been made, but Shaffer's rapid return and Devlin's transfer of the ball to Snyder made him change his mind and beat a retreat to his old quarters. In the meantime, Croft, who was running for Blong, thinking that each player would be advanced a base on Dehlman's hit, had run down almost to second. Snyder, taking in the situation at a glance, threw to Latham, which cut him off. Latham, with ball in hand, ran down the path, forcing Croft nearer to second, while Nicholls, not knowing what to do, kept near his base and dodged backward and forward occasionally for amusement. Craver, seeing that things were getting unpleasantly exciting, got Latham to hand him the ball, and shortly after had occasion to use it, as Battin tried to get home. A line throw square into Snyder's hands dispatched the daring Joseph with but a moment to spare. With Croft and Nicholls within a dozen feet of each other in the neighborhood of second, Snyder ran clear across the diamond, forced Croft gradually closer to the base, and that gentleman at last grew so confused that he stood perfectly quiet when within a few feet of second, and passively allowed Snyder to walk up and complete a glamorous triple play by slapping him on the back with the ball."
Blong pitched the entire game for the Browns (batting eighth) and Croft also played the whole game in the fourth slot.
Wayne Townsend found another: On 8-12-1923 the Red Sox were in Cleveland. In the fifth inning, Cleveland 2bman Riggs Stephenson was hit in the head by a Bill Piercy fastball. Joe Connolly ran for him by permission but Stephenson would take his position in the field the next inning and finish the game.
Congratulations and thanks for these new courtesy runners. The complete list is available at our web site.
Los Angeles, 7-1-1949 -- A new racket has sprung up in Los Angeles to harass police -television baseball gambling. Casinos are springing up in various sections of the city. Croupiers stand behind long green tables, singing out frequently changing odds on all the standard possibilities in the game being televised.
Will the batter fly out, strike out, single, knock the ball out of the park? Will the runner go to 2b on the next pitch? What will the next pitch be, ball or strike? There’s betting action on every move but the bettor has to be alert to get his money down before the television camera decides what’s what.
It’s against the law, just as betting at baseball parks is against the law. The fad may not last but patrons who have taken part say business is booming.
Los Angeles, 8-28-1947 -- Baseball Commissioner A.B. Chandler and his committee, including Presidents Will Harridge and Ford Frick, of the American and National Leagues, arrived today to begin a four-day inspection tour of Pacific Coast League facilities. Here primarily to investigate what basis the Coast circuit has for demanding major league status, Chandler and other committee members indicated that most major league club owners “are still very much opposed to transporting teams in planes.
Newsmen took this to mean that there is no plan immediately under consideration for moving a single major league franchise to Los Angeles. Both Harridge and Frick said that the subject of transferring a franchise has not come up in their leagues since the St. Louis Browns made a gesture to shift to Los Angeles in 1941.
Pittsburgh, 9-7-1945 -- With Coach Chuck Dressen acting as manager in the absence of Leo Durocher, the Dodgers nosed out the Pirates today, 3-2. The chief entertainment for the fans wasn’t the ball game, however. For the third consecutive day the piece de resistance was supplied by violent disagreements between players and the umpires, who now have the record of having given the heave-ho to six men in three games.
Today it was Augie Galan and Dixie Walker who were the ejectees, the former being tossed out by George Barr for kicking dust on George’s shoes, the latter banished by Tom Dunn for tossing his glove in the air as h e was returning to his outfield post. The melee began in the Brooklyn third when Eddie Stanky was on 3b and Goody Rosen on 2b via a pass and a wild throw by Babe Dahlgren. When Galan bounced a grounder to Pete Coscarart and was thrown out, Rosen broke f or 3b with Stanky still at that station.
In the ensuing ball-tossing Stanky broke for home and was trapped but finally dashed into Al Lopez, the ball flying out of the Pirate catcher’s hand and Eddie apparently scored. But Ziggy Sears suddenly called Stan ky out for running out of the base line. There followed immediately a mob scene, in which all of the Dodgers stormed around the three arbiters, with Barr and Sears yelling louder than the players. Galan was chased by Barr and when Walker had almost reached his post in rf Dunn suddenly gave him the thumb by long distance.
This brought Stanky storming at Dunn and Eddie immediately was joined by several others, including Dressen. Even Johnny Peacock, who had been far out on the bullpen bench, rushed into the argument. The affair held up the game for more than ten minutes and Sears and Dressen still were barking back and forth at each other when Tom Sears made his first pitch to Coscarart.
The six men chased in the three games, two each day, are Frank Frisch, Bob Elliott (Pittsburgh), Durocher, Luis Olmo, Galan and Walker.
Cincinnati, 7-21-1945 -- Assault and battery charges against Umpire George Magerkurth were dismissed in Municipal Court today at the request of the Dayton, Ohio, café operator who earlier had claimed the NL arbiter struck him after the finish of the 7-19 Reds-Braves night doubleheader.
The prosecuting witness refused to press the charges. He said Magerkurth had made a written apology and given a check for $100 to cover medical expenses. He charged he suffered a bruised right eye and an injured arm when Magerkurth leaped over his box railing at Crosley Field and struck him after asking: “Did you call me a thief?”
The rotund restaurant man said he had not called the umpire a thief but that a man sitting nearby had heckled the strike caller during the evening. The man asserted: “Magerkurth hit the wrong man.”
The judge declared: “I am glad that prosecution has been withdrawn. I’m an old baseball fan myself and I never saw a finer group of people than baseball fans, although sometimes they say things they don’t really mean.”
The Dodgers lost a Ladies’ Day game on 8-17-1945 to the Cubs 4-3 when their ninth-inning rally was ended by a disputed decision at 1b. Virtually all of the fans at Ebbets Field disagreed with Umpire Tom Dunn when he called Dixie Walker out and they let him know their feelings with words and gestures. Many items were thrown onto the field and Dunn was surrounded by hundreds of people, including a dozen Dodgers.
One fan attempted to attack the arbiter but was stopped by a policeman. The Dodgers, led by Manager Leo Durocher, Walker and Eddie Stanky, told Dunn off in no uncertain terms, but the decision held.
Brooklyn had scored two runs and had Augie Galan on 2b with two outs. Walker slammed a hard grounder to deep short. It looked like an infield hit until Dunn signaled the "out" sign. Then all hell broke loose. Walker and Stanky each flung their caps, and Durocher stormed from the dugout. They and other players mobbed the umpire and continued to harass him even as hundreds of fans surrounded Dunn. In a few minutes he was led safely away, luckily untouched by the things hurled in his direction.
Outside the park a wild female fan, rushing up to a city police car parked opposite the field, demanded that the officer go in and do his duty. "Arrest that umpire!" she shrieked. "He robbed the Dodgers!" [Does she fit the judge’s description in the previous story?]
Retro volunteers Greg Beston, Bob Militello , Terry Simpkins, Dave Smith and Wayne Townsend contributed to this list. Please send your unusual plays to the editor at GrandSlams@aol.com.
9-03-1921 (Gm 1) SLA @ CLE - The Browns batted out of turn in the first inning and scored two runs. However, the mistake was not detected until the end of the inning and the runs counted. The Browns resumed the correct order the next time around the lineup.
8-7-1923 -21-year-old Washington pitcher, Squire Potter, made his ML pitching debut against the Indians, entering the game in the 7th with his team down 1 3-1. The kid's 1st 8 pitches were called balls, prompting the reporter to quip, "[Senator catcher Patsy] Gharrity then halted the game to walk over and show the youngster where the pitcher's rubber was." It didn't help. Potter would finish the game yielding 9 runs on 11 hits, 4 walks, and a wild pitch in his 3 innings of work (final score: 22-2). But it could've been much, much worse! According to the reporter, 3 Indian baserunners "allowed" themselves to be caught stealing while Potter struggled, and o n e batter "purposely stretched" his double into an out at 3B with a 20-run lead. Poor Squire would never pitch in the majors again. But 15 years later his brother, Dykes, met a similar fate as a pitcher with the Dodgers. His career numbers: 2 IP, 4 H (1 HR), 4.50 ERA.
9-29-1923 CLE @ DET - Umpire Holmes stopped the game and ruled Cobb was using an illegal bat. The bat was thrown out of the game. Cobb submitted the bat to Umpire Owens, picked up 3 other bats, and came to the plate, but asked that he be given a chance to go to his locker for another. You have to wonder what Cobb had up his sleeve.
5-23-1931 PHI @ BRO -In the top of sixth inning, the Phils are batting and leading, 2-1, when catcher Spud Davis singles to rf off Dodger pitcher Fred Heimach . The Phils' behemoth pitcher Jumbo Jim Elliott follows with a poke to rf and is thrown out at 1b by Babe Herman: 93.1-2.
6-4-1965 LAN at MLN -In the bottom of the 9th inning, with 1 out and men on 1b and 2b, Dodger manager Alston made four defensive changes, but brought in no new players to do it! The changes were: Wes Parker cf to 1b; Ron Fairly 1b to rf; Lou Johnson lf to cf; Al Ferrara rf to lf. Parker had just entered the game to start that inning, replacing cf Willie Davis, who had a sore hamstring. Eddie Mathews showed what he thought of this defensive brilliance by hitting a three run homer to end the game.
8-22-1967 CIN @ LAN -Tommy Harper led off the game with a single. Don Drysdale picked him off and six Dodgers handled the ball with cf Willie Davis making the putout. POCS2(1361548)
8-25-1967 CIN @ HOU -This is not an unusual play but rather an unusual night at the ballpark for Pete Rose. The "Hit King"struck out in all four plate appearances against Don Wilson. Wilson pitched eight innings and struck out ten batters but lost the game 2-1.
5-27-1972 MIL @ BOS -In the top of the seventh inning the Brewers had George Scott on 2b, Johnny Briggs on 1b and one out. Mike Ferraro flew to Tommy Harper in cf for the second out, but it turned into a double play when Briggs was called out for passing Scott on the basepaths. The Boston scoresheet gives Harper an assist on the play although it appears he does not deserve one. The play should probably be scored 8/DP.1X3(6). The exact same play too k place in the 4th inning of Game 3 of the 1992 World Series and the center fielder there was NOT given an assist in the 8-6 double play. In that instance, Terry Pendleton passed Deion Sanders -not exactly an easy thing to do!
6-13-1972 KCA @ BOS -Carlt on Fisk led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a long drive near the top of the cf wall at Fenway Park. A fan reached over the wall and interfered with the play. Instead of awarding the usual two bases when a fan reaches onto the playing field (not a requirement), the umpires decided to give Fisk a triple in accordance with Rule 3.16. Fisk later went on to tie Joe Rudi for the AL lead with nine triples.
7-11-1972 NYA @ CAL -In the top of the first, the Yanks had Horace Clarke on 3b and Thurman Munson on 1b with no outs. Bobby Murcer hit to 1b and Bob Oliver threw home. Art Kusnyer ran Clarke back and threw to Ken McMullen for the out. Meanwhile, Munson got caught between 2b and 3b and was eventually tagged out by cf Ken Berry. The entire double play was: FC3/DP.3XH(325);1X3(5168);B-2(TH)
7-15-1972 BOS @ MIN -Danny Thompson of the Twins could not stop getting hit with the baseball. In the third inning, with Cesar Tovar on 1b and no outs, Thompson bunted in front of the plate but was called out for being hit with his own batted ball. In the sixth, Thompson was on 1b with two out when he was hit by Rod Carew's batted ball, thus ending the inning and giving a single to Carew: S/BR.1X2(4).
10-3-1972 MIL@ NYA -Here’s a GDP you don’t see too often. Yankee Celerino Sanchez was on 1b when Jerry Kenney grounded to Ron Theobald at 2b. Theo flipped to George Scott for the putout on the batter. Scott then fired to ss Rick Auerbach who ran Sanchez back towards Scott. The play went 43(B)63(1)/GDP
8-30-1974 CLE @ TEX -Dave Nelson led off the Texas first inning with a walk off Dick Bosman. Nelson swiped 2b with Cesar Tovar at the plate. Tovar then flew to lf. Before Jeff Burroughs struck out, Nelson stole 3b. With Mike Hargrove up, Nelson stole home, thus completing a rare feat of stealing three bases in one inning.
8-30 to 9-1-1974 BOS @ MIN -At the start of the series, the Red Sox were in first place by five games over the Yankees. In the first inning, Rick Miller, Cecil Cooper and Darrell Evans are all struck out by Bert Blyleven. Blyleven fanned 14, while giving up just four hits as the Twins won 3-2. The next night, Tommy Harper, Miller and Evans start the game off as strike out victims of Dave Goltz. Goltz scattered nine hits over eight innings as the Twins won 6-2. On Sunday, Miller, Dick McAulifffe and Evans go down in order in the first, though not on strikes. The Twin s struggled to a 9-6 victory. Meanwhile, the Yanks swept the White Sox, cutting the Boston's lead to 2 games.
The Chicago American of 4-28-1926 had an interesting short story next to the play by play of that day's game between the Cubs and the Pirates. Headlined "American League gives in to Landis; will allow resin", the story said:
American league club owners today capitulated to a ruling by Baseball Commissioner Landis and voted to provide its umpires with resin for the use of pitcher s. The magnates at the same time reaffirmed their disapproval of the practice and took steps to urge avoidance of its use in the box.The league, which voted last winter not to permit use of the resin ball and instructed its umpires to see that its verdict was enforced, decided today "to instruct managers to request their pitchers not to ask for the resin bag" after having decided to comply with the commissioner's interpretation of the rule.
This resolution said, however: "The American League has not changed its attitude toward the use of rosin and American league clubs will instruct their mangers to request their pitchers not to ask for the rosin bag and that rosin will not be permitted on the bench."
The American association and the International league were among the minor circuits which fell into line behind the American league when it earlier refused to accept rosin.
Several weeks ago Commissioner Landis handed down a ruling making the use of the foreign substance in all leagues optional with the pitcher. Today's action by the American league magnates came as a result.
In addition to the rather odd subject, note the varied use of "resin" and "rosin" in the story and that "league" and "association" were not capitalized as we would today.
Lyle Spatz noted that Bon Baylor had the Major League record for being caught stealing twice in one inning on 6-15-1974 when the Orioles hosted the White Sox and wondered how that could be. Here it is:
In the bottom of the 9th, Baylor ran for Ellie Hendricks, who had singled as a pinch-hitter. With Brooks Robinson at the plate, Baylor was caught stealing second, but ruled safe when second baseman Ron Santo (that's right; he played 39 games there that year!) dropped the ball for an error. Baylor then stole third base successfully. After an intentional walk to Robinson, Baylor was caught stealing home (catcher Ed Herrmann unassisted) when Andy Etchebarren missed a squeeze bunt.
This is surely one of the most adventurous times on the bases for a pinch-runner! The Orioles won the game in the 11th on a Boog Powell homer.
Boston, 8-25-1946 -- A bleacherite was knocked unconscious accidentally today by a baseball slung by Johnny Price, Cleveland Indian stuntman, between games of a doubleheader between the Indians and the Red Sox at Fenway Park. A companion, struck by the same ball, suffered a head contusion.
The first victim was revived at the hospital. Doctors said he suffered a brain concussion. The second victim was struck a glancing blow and was allowed to go home after treatment at the hospital.
Before the start of the doubleheader, Price, using a sling, had heaved a baseball completely out of the ballpark, a stunt he has performed elsewhere. He tried it again just before the start of the second game and the ball flew into the rf bleachers from in front of the Cleveland dugout.
Red Sox spokesmen quoted one of the victims as saying: “We were looking at our scorecards and the next I knew the ball hit us.” [They sound like RetroVolunteers to me.]
Bill Deane is well known in the SABR community as an expert on various topics. His hidden ball trick research has been featured in TRS and Retrosheet volunteers have found quite a few new examples of the trick. Bill wrote an article for The Home Run Encyclopedia on players who homered in their last at bat and has some new information on that topic to share with us.
9-29-1895: In his final major league game, Louisville's Hercules Burnett collects a single, triple, and a home run, steals a base, and scores three runs in a 13-8 win over Cleveland.
8-3-1901: Cleveland pitcher Ed Scott ends his career in dramatic fashion, homering in the tenth inning to win his own game, 8-7 over Milwaukee.
5-9-1923: Walt Kinney's homer helps make him the losing pitcher in his final game. The A's pitcher inherits a 3-0 deficit score, but homers during a game-tying, three-run rally in the top of the sixth. Kinney is knocked out of the box in the bottom of the inning when the Browns score four, en route to a 10-5 victory.
9-30-1956: In his final day in the majors, Baltimore's Joe Frazier collects five hits and ten total bases during a doubleheader vs. Washington.
9-28-1957: Marv Blaylock, hitless in 16 at bats since June 15, and not having batted since July 27, blasts a ball over the scoreboard at Connie Mack Stadium.
9-30-1962: Boston's Don Gile -- 0-for-34 on the season at the beginning of the day -- hits a homer in the bottom of the ninth to end the game, the season, and his career.
Philadelphia, 7-1-1920 -- By making an public apology to Bryan Hayes, whom he hit with a baseball a year ago, Yankee pitcher Carl Mays will be able to perform here on 7-3 after an enforced absence from Philadelphia since Memorial Day 1919. Mays was twirling for the Boston Red Sox when the incident occurred. Hayes was sitting back of the Boston dugout, when, during a rally by the Athletics, some boys began pounding on the dugout roof. Mays became angry and blamed Hayes, who called him down. Mays threw a ball at Hayes, who is a boxing instructor, and hit him on the head. Hayes immediately had a warrant sworn out. In a conference today, Hayes made it clear that he did not want any damages, but was merely seeking an apology. [A month later, Mays hit Ray Chapman with a pitch, killing him. The immediate reaction by Chapman’s teammates was to threaten to boycott any game pitched by Mays. They tried to enlist the other teams to join their boycott, but the threat died quickly when most teams refused.]
That is the title of a feature in the 7-18-1933 NY World Telegram. It ranks teams by runs allowed per game and also has a column showing complete games pitched. The league average runs allowed for the NL was 4.0 at that point and 5.0 for the AL. Before you say, “That’s normal”, remember that there was no designated hitter to influence the numbers. The Giants led the NL with 3.1 runs allowed while the Indians led the AL with 4.4. The highest total of runs allowed was by the Athletics at 5.8 per game. The Cubs had 55 complete games out of 88 contests (63%) to lead the majors in that category. The worst percentage of games completed was turned in by the Phillies with 28 for 84 (33%). This is an interesting foreshadowing of SABRmetrics 65 years ago.
St. Louis, 6-21-1924 --The Browns and the Chicago White Sox split a doubleheader. A shower of pop bottles greeted Umpire Howard E. (Ducky) Holmes in the sixth inning of the first game when George Sisler, the Browns’ playing manager, and Pat Collins, local catcher, were banished from the game for disputing decisions on balls and strikes. The game was further delayed in the same inning when Manager Sisler crossed the field to help close a gate in the rf bleachers, which had broken open. He was roundly cheered, while the crowd booed Holmes.
Owner Phil Ball climbed out of his box and went on the field, conferring with Umpire Rowland and police officials. Jimmy Austin, Browns coach, then came out to argue with Holmes and was banished by the official. Umpire Holmes was not injured. Sisler, Collins and Austin were all suspended for their actions in the game by the league.
Three days later, hostile feeling among followers of the Browns against Holmes culminated when the arbiter was struck in the eye by an irate man as he was sitting in a car after a doubleheader between the Browns and Detroit. Two brothers were arrested following the attack. Holmes attributed the attack upon him to a conspiracy on “the part of gamblers. ”The brothers told police that Holmes kicked them and pushed them as they were leaving the park.
In 1949, White Sox General Manager Frank Lane had a “Homer Fence” built 20 feet inside the permanent wall down each line. The idea of this low wire barrier was to provide more excitement and thrills to the fans in the guise of more Pale Hose dingers. The new structure reduced the distances down the lines from 352 to 332. The move backfired however. After eight games in the park that season, opponents had slugged fifteen long balls while the home club had only eight.
In the middle of the night before the Yankees came to town for a series, the fence was removed. At the time New York’s record was 12 -3 and the removal of the fence was intended to check the Yanks’ juggernaut. In the first game of the series (May 5), Joe Tipton and Cass Michaels each hit balls to lf that would have been over the temporary enclosure but were caught by Johnny Lindell. Those two fly outs cost the White Sox six runs in a game that they lost 7 -5. Tommy Henrich hit a ball into the upper rf tier to pace the New Yorkers.
Philadelphia, 8-25-1947 -- The Dodgers are “cry babies” if you listen to little Augie Galan. The 35-year-old left fielder for the Reds says that the Brooks like to administer rough treatment but can’t take it. Galan says the reason Cincinnati pitcher Ewell Blackwell is on the sidelines is because of a rough-up on a play at the plate in Brooklyn.
But when the Reds retaliated with the same kind of treatment, Galan reported, there was a howl that could be heard all over Brooklyn. “If they can’t take it they shouldn’t play that way, ”Augie says. “The Dodgers’ Eddie Stanky is an exception. When he’s out there at 2b he expects a runner to knock him out of the way to break up a double play. When it’s his turn, look out -he’s playing for keeps.”
New York, 4-27-1914 -- The moving picture has played many parts, both as instruction and as amusement, but it remained for Manager John McGraw of the Giants to bring it out as a new method of teaching baseball. Arrangements have been completed whereby a complete outfit is to be installed in the Giants’ clubhouse, and hereafter there will be daily instruction for the ballplayers from pictures taken from the previous day’s game. The men will have a chance to see themselves as others see them, and McGraw will be the master of ceremonies.
It is considered that the plan will point out to the men the defects of their play, such as too wide turning of the bags, slowness in starting, swinging on the ball too slowly, not taking proper advantage of a pitcher’s windup so as quickly to get started toward the next base, sliding improperly into the bags, and instruction regarding the proper way to meet various brands of pitching.
With the start of the baseball season there are always a number of recruits who, were their faults corrected, might prove of tremendous value to the teams they have joined. But the fight for the pennant is so hard that not even by daily morning practice can a man like McGraw hope to devote time enough to each individual to cure his defects and increase his efficiency. No one man’s eyes could keep up with the individual performance of a squad of thirty big league baseball men.
McGraw expects to get a line on his new pitchers and the kind of work done by the recruits through the medium of the motion pictures. For the first time moving pictures have been made from directly behind the catcher, showing the ball from the moment it leaves the pitcher until the break of the curve.
New York, 5-8-1918 -Charley Moran, who is just in the sprouting stage of umpiring in the NL, was the guest of honor at a mobbing party up at the Polo Grounds. The Phillies started the riot when Moran called Meusel out at the plate in the ninth inning of a game which went to the Giants by a score of 3-2.
The Phillies had launched a rally in the ninth which threatened to result in the unheard of calamity of a Giant defeat. The decision in question prevented the Phils from tying the score, so they rose to great heights of tempestuous fury. A bunch of Phillies, which included Stock, Eddie Burns, Bancroft, and Pat Moran, rushed at the umpire when he called Meusel out and jostled him about so roughly that the umpire squared off, put up his fists and started to hit straight from the shoulder. When the belligerent Phillies and umpire Moran were becoming nicely churned into a maelstrom of trouble, elbowing their way into the f ray came managers Pat Moran and McGraw. They got in front of the umpire and stood there like heroes, ready to take any blows intended for that person. When it comes to umpires, McGraw is either for ‘em of against ‘em. He is never neutral. McGraw and PatMoran did a little shoving and all the infuriated Phillies, who were screaming for their pound of flesh, were turned about and headed toward the bench.
A flock of hot-headed fans took up the battle when the baseball players had decided to let the umpire live, and as the cause of the trouble was making his way back under the grandstand to the umpires ’dressing room, one man was so angry that he hurled a perfectly good cane at the ump, and didn’t get it back, either.
Since last time David Horwich has completed the 1973 AL, Dave Lamoureaux has finished off the 1970 and 1972 AL, and Clem Comly has completed the 1965 and 1966 NL. Also, Rick Elliott has entered all the games from the 1958 Tigers, giving us a complete set of Detroit games in the computer from 1953-forward, one year longer than our Orioles run (we have Dodger games back to 1946, but we are still missing five LA games from 1968).
Thanks to the above efforts, plus lots of work by Mark Dobrow, Greg Beston, Bill Disney, Scott Fischthal, Mark Pankin, Doug Burks, Stuart Shea, David Vincent, Ron Richards, Jim Herdman, Ted Turocy, Luke Kraemer, Chrstopher Chestnut, Mike Dehler, Charlie Mugler, and Ron Fisher (apologies to anyone not mentioned!), we have now completed the computer entry for all the games in our collection from 1959-forward. There were 44725 games played from 1959-1983 and we are missing accounts for only 631 of them, which is a great percentage (98.6%). It is interesting that of those 631, only 10 are from the AL, with the senior circuit lagging far behind. Clem Comly and I will use these games, plus files from the Baseball Workshop and Total Baseball in our presentation on expansion at the SABR meeting in Scottsdale later this month.
Proofing continues on several seasons: Jon Dunkle, 1979 AL; Marc Stephenson, 1978 NL, John Jarvis, 1977 NL, and Jay Wigley, getting started on 1976 NL. In addition we have had a tremendous boost from Pete Palmer who has finished the day by day comparisons for the complete 1978, 1977, and 1976 AL seasons. After doing that Pete went a step further and offered to help us with the project we are doing to get all Orioles games proofed to provide them with daily totals for each player. Pete has finished the job back to 1968, so we are well on our way to having this information for the Orioles this year. David Vincent has also spent time editing different years lately. Thanks to all these gentlemen for the time in this tedious, but essential endeavor.
On February 21, New York Newsday had an item on the number of games in which Rickey Henderson had batted leadoff. They nicely credited Dave Smith and Retrosheet for the information.
Jayson Stark's column in the May 23 Philadelphia Inquirer mentioned Lyle Spatz and Dave Smith along with Retrosheet as he noted that Pedro Martinez had recently struck out 10 or more batters in 7 consecutive starts, equaling an accomplishment of Nolan Ryan. We searched the records of several other strikeout pitchers (Koufax, McDowell, Gibson, Richard, Seaver, and Johnson), but came up with no others. Peter Gammons picked up this item and put in the Boston Globe as well.
The 1999 media guide for the New York Mets gives Retrosheet a nice credit for help we provided.
Now that baseball season has begun, Baseball Weekly has resumed printing weekly extracts from our "Strange and Unusual" section. In addition they printed an item that Dave Smith sent to editor Paul White summarizing the results of career matchups involving the four men who are entering the Hall of Fame this August. For those of you who missed it there, the numbers are:
AB H 2B 3B HR BB HP SO SF RBI BA OBA SA
Brett 101 29 4 2 0 14 0 18 0 8 .287 .374 .366
Yount 69 16 4 1 2 8 2 16 0 10 .232 .329 .406
Cepeda 32 6 1 0 3 3 0 5 1 7 .188 .250 .500
It has been about 18 months since we last presented a graph of our holdings and completed games. Bowing to popular demand from several people, we offer the update below. Comparison of this graph to the last one (December, 1997, Volume 4, Number 4 of TRS) shows we have made remarkable progress. In addition to the near completion of the 1959-forward era, we have also dramatically increased our holdings in the 1910s and 1930s. The following table presents a more quantitative summary of the 20th century coverage of Retrosheet alone (1901-1983) and in combination with the Baseball Workshop/Total Sports games (1984-1998), which are also in our file format. Note that these totals are only for the American and National Leagues; the Federal League is not yet included in our counts, even though we have three of their games input. This chart will soon be a regular part of our web site and updated regularly.
Games Have Games
Years Played Accounts Entered %Have %Entered
1901-1983 115717 68043 56389 58.8 48.7
1901-1998 160442 112768 101114 70.2 63.0
The number of hours donated by dedicated volunteers to accomplish these results is staggering. Congratulations and thanks to all of us for the great work done so far. May the next 10 years of Retroactivity be as productive and, more importantly, as fun as the first 10.
Here is the report on group activity since the last issue of TRS. The smallest number of games entered in a single week during this period was 70 and the highest was 410.
Total Games in Computer (All Years before 1984) 56,389 Games Entered since last Report 2,852 Days since last Report (2/27/99 to 5/31/99) 93 Games Entered per Week (13 weeks) 214.7 Games Entered per Day (The Fisher Index) 30.7Assistance provided by Shelley and Tim Vincent
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Page Updated: 6/19/99
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