25TH ANNIVERSARY: George Brett Wins Batting title in 3rd different decade

Twenty-Five George Brett picked up his 3rd batting title.

1991 Topps #2 Record Breaker George Brett - Batting Titles in 3 Decades

All three titles were in different decades which had not been done prior. Topps honored the achievement with teh #2 card in the 1991 set.

1991 Topps #2 Record Breaker George Brett - Batting Titles in 3 Decades (b-side)

On the final day of the season Brett singled during a 5-2 loss to the Indians in front of a massive Municipal stadium crowd of 5,196. The hit came off of journeyman reliever Mauro Gozzo. George Brett's .329 average bested fellow Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson by four points. Rickey never won a batting title, his .325 in 1990 was a career high as was his 2nd place finish. Henderson did however lead the league in OBP (.439) in 1990 and won the AL MVP Award. Advanced analysis now also reveal that Henderson led the league in WAR (9.9)

Score

1991 Score #769 HL George Brett Batting Champion

Another card that noted Brett's Batting title was 1991 Score #769.

1991 Score #769 HL George Brett Batting Champion (b-side)

Score tells us a bit more about the course of Brett's 1990 campaign. His final .329 season average only came about because of an impressive second half where he batted .388.

I like the shot on the back of the card. Brett carries three Bats on his shoulder likely symbolizing his three titles - each of the bats carries his uniform #5 on the knob.

Sources and Links
Phungo George Brett HoF Index
Baseball-ref

1990 Year of the No-Hitter June 11th - Nolan Ryan pt 3

This is the third of four postings on cards dedicated to Nolan Ryan's 6th No-Hitter.

 

1991 Topps #6 Record Breaker - Nolan Ryan 

Topps chose to honor the fact that Ryan became the oldest pitcher to throw a No-Hitter, rather than to honor that fact that he had pitched a record 6th no-hitter - which was breaking his own record of five no-hitters. 

Of course less than a year later Ryan broke both of these records once again when he tossed his 7th No-Hitter at age 44. 

1991 Topps #6 Record Breaker - Nolan Ryan (b-side)

The flip side contains the an Oakland CA dateline and notes the record was previously held by Cy Young who pitched one at 41+ on June 30 1908

Cy Young No-Hitter #3
Boxes don't go back to 1908 in Baseball-ref but we were able to find this line score for the game

Salt Lake Tribune July 1 1908

Interesting that a No-Htter in a Red Sox vs Yankees (Highlanders) game warranted a grand total of 1 line in the article.

According to the B-R Bullpen the future Hall of Famer almost pitched a perfect game. The first batter Harry Niles walked but was subsequently erased on a caught stealing. Cy Young then retired the last 26 batters to complete the No-Hitter .

Sources and Links
1991 0611 Nolan Ryan 6th No-Hitter Index
Baseball-ref
Salt Lake Tribune (1908 07 01)

1990 Year of the No-Hitter: Greg Harris?? Lo-Hitter - A Pat Venditte from two decades ago

Greg Harris did not join the Red Sox rotation until the teams 17th game on April 28th. He was pretty much the definition of a SwingMan, but given the opportunity to start for a very good 1990 Red Sox team, Harris made the most of his opportunities.

On June 7th Harris had his best start of the year, He and Closer Jeff Reardon combined to throw a 1-hitter as the Red Sox shutout the Yankees  3-0 .

1991 Score #109 Greg Harris

Notice this is a Lo-Hitter as opposed to a Near-Hitter. The difference being that in this Game Greg Harris gave up a fifth inning single, while in a Near-Hitter (see Brian Holman or John Smoltz) The No-Hitter stays in tact deep into the game. I would say at least into the 7th is a good yardstick of went to start Near-Hitter talk. 

Box Notes

The batter that foiled Greg Harris' meeting with infamy was Yankee outfielder Jesse Barfield - and once again we will bring up how small a world baseball is and let you know that Barfield will play a role in a future Year of the No-Hitter posting. 

Barfield was the only Yankee to reach base as Harris/Reardon pitched to one over the minimum. The final inning was uneventful although there was a Hall of Famer that batted that inning, although it was a football Hall of Famer - Deion Sanders. 

Flip

1991 Score #109 Greg Harris (b-side)

This is a GREAT Card. Notice in the box with Greg Haris' Demographic info we find that he is right handed. Now look at the action shot on the A-side. Harris is throwing Lefty. 

What is going on here? 

Check the end paragraph on the back of the card. The Ambidextrous Harris is tossing BP in the photo and he is throwing Lefty, I would assume he is a bit less dominant from that side. 

We have some fortuitous timing here as this earlier this weekend The A's called up switch-pitcher Pat Venditte. He has a special Ambidextrous glove that allows him to pitch from different sides in the same inning, can't tell from the above photo, but it appears that Harris is using a LH glove on his right hand.

Sources and Links

1990: Year of  the No-Hitter

Baseball-ref

1990: Year of the No-Hitter - May 27th Near-Hitter John Smoltz

Today we have another Year of the No-Hitter posting which is only a Lo-Hitter or Near-Hitter. On May 27th a then 24 Year Old John Smoltz was facing the Phillies at the Vet on Beach Towel Day and he took a No-Hitter into the 9th inning.

1991 Score #208 John Smoltz

Unfortunately for Smoltz it was not to be, One of the three remaining outs he needed was Lenny Dykstra who was batting .408 going into play that day.  With a 6-0 lead Smoltz decided to challenge the hottest hitter in baseball and Lenny doubled down the right field line.

Box Notes
The man that broke up Smoltz's No-Hitter was Lenny Dykstra, who was batting .408 going into the gaem. The Phillies staring pitcher that day was Terry Mulholland, whom we will hear from a bit later in our Year of the No-Hitter series.

Smoltz's Reaction
When asked about the Near Miss post game Smoltz referred to Dave Stieb who had lost not one but two no-hitters in the ninth inning:

 "I never knew what Dave Steib went through. Now I do - even though mine was one out earlier." 

Like the aforementioned Terry Mulholland we will here from Dave Stieb later in this series as well....

Flip

1991 Score #208 John Smoltz

The documented in the first paragraph of text on Smoltz's 1991 Score Card. I had several options of cards to post noting the near-hitter and Score's recognition of Smoltz's big day made the choice easy.

It's in the Cards
A lot of reasons are given for Topps relegation to the second tier of trading cards in the 90s - Holograms, Photography, Relics, Autos etc. One I rarely see mentioned is the difference in copy. Check the text on the back of the 1991 Topps Smoltz Card.

1991 Topps #157 John Smoltz (b-side)

One line on John Smoltz's 1988 Season at Richmond. The A-Side is fine enough though.

1991 Topps #157 John Smoltz

Nice early card of Smoltz pre-mustache. There is a lot to like about 1991 Topps, nice design lots of great shots throughout the set. I have always been fond of cards where an element of the photo pops out beyond the border a bit, On the Smoltz card his pitching hand extends just beyond the edge as if he is going to throw a fastball through the frame.

Sources & Links
1990 Year of the No-Hitter Index

John Smoltz HOF Index

Baseball-ref
Philadelphia Inquirer
LA Times

1991 Topps #79 Frank Thomas - 2014 Hall of Fame Inductee

Today we concluded are 2014 HoF candidates with the Big Hurt.

1991 Topps #79 Frank Thomas

Two MVP awards, 521 career Home Runs (ranks 18th all time), 1704 RBI (22nd), Career OPS .974 (14th), 79.8 Career Offensive WAR(36th) 5 time All-Star, 4 time OBP and OPS league leader.  

Even with during the offensive inflation era those are great numbers. The only hole in the Frank Thomas resume is the light postseason numbers. Not that his playoff performances were poor, in '93 Thomas batted .353 with a .593 OBP, but his teams never won. That 1993 White Sox squad lost to the Blue Jays Joe Carter team.  

1991 Topps
This is Frank Thomas' 2nd Topps Card.  I have always been a fan of the '91 Topps Set and I am glad to see the set has another Hall of Famer. This set is everywhere and it is likely I picked this card up out of a dime box. 

His first Topps card is 1990 #414 which is well known due to a scarce variation that has his name missing. To find out about Frank Thomas Rookies check out this article at Cardboard Connection


2014 HoF Candidate Postings   

I hope everyone enjoyed our 2014 HoF candidate postings. I plan on looking at the 2015 ballot more thoroughly. In these posts I try to put in a variety of cards and discuss an aspect of the player and/or card.

Craig Biggio (Phungo Vote = HoF)    
Tom Glavine HoF

Todd Jones  
Greg Maddux HoF     
Mike Mussina   HoF      
Rafael Palmeiro HoF    
Mike Piazza (2013 Profile)     
Curt Schilling (2013 Profile)      
Mike Timlin      
Larry Walker 

2013 HoF Rejects (no longer on ballot)

Jeff Conine

Kenny Lofton

Jose Mesa

Sources

Cardboard Connection
Baseball Card Database
Baseball-ref.com

2014 Hall of Fame Candidate: 1991 Topps #339 Larry Walker

Since it took all of two days to get through all of the former Phillies on the ballot, team Phungo is going to take a look at some of the other candidates. Today's feature is Larry Walker.

 1991 Topps #339 Larry Walker

This isn't the Larry Walker Topps RC (It is preceded by 1990 Topps #757 plus a number of other cards by Score, Donruss, Fleer and others ) but not of those cards have the fine Topps All-Star Rookie Trophy.

Larry Walker is generally remembered for his decade with the Rockies, but he did come up with the Montreal Expos with whom he spent six seasons.  Walker is a career .313 HR with 383 Home Runs. Those numbers may have gotten a guy in the HoF a few generations ago, but that hasn't yet happened for Walker who is now on his 4th ballot.

Without checking I would not put Larry Walker in the HoF. Digging around in Baseball-Ref I found the following. Walker won the 1997 MVP award which he deserved according to WAR ratings. He had 2 Batting Titles (Coor assisted). His other LL included OBP, slugging, and OPS each twice and Homers once. His Awards mantle includes 7 Gold Gloves and a trio of Silver Sluggers.

The five time all-star was a part of 3 playoff teams including the 2004 Cardinals who took the NL Pennant before losing to the Curse-Breaking Red Sox team.

HoF related metrics on Baseball-ref
-Of his top 10 Sim Scores 3 are HoF (Snider, DiMaggio, Mize), 6 are either active or still awaiting HoF consideration. Only 1 is Out (Ellis Burks)
-His Black/Gray Ink test are both below the HoF average. Black is close - Grey not so much
-However is HoF monitor and HoF standards somewhat above the category averages

Advanced Metrics
This is the WAR numbers where I am taking it on faith that all these folks are doing their calculations correctly.
-WAR RF (72.6): The average WAR for HOF RF is 73.3, but this is at a position that includes Babe Ruth. Every WAR RF above Walker is in the HoF. Walker ranks above at least a dozen RFs already in the Hall plus Joe Jackson.
-WAR7(44.6): this tracks a players 7 best WAR seasons. The RF HoF average is 42.9. Once again every RF above Walker is HoF and Walker ranks above 12+ HoF. 
-JAWS RF (58.6):  JAWS(developed by Jay Jaffe) accounts for a players 7 year Peak along with their career WAR. Among Right Fielders Larry Walker ranks 10th in JAWS.  and as with the previous WAR related categories Walker ranks above at least a dozen RFs already in the Hall plus Joe Jackson.

Phungo Verdict: HOF - This is a pleasant surprise, Walker ranks right at the average player for his WAR. His number may be Coors inflated, but from what understand WAR should account for this issue. Beyond WAR he has decent Sim scores and has always been represented as a good dude. The one drawback on his resume beyond the Mile High Home games is his lack of playoff experience and no World Championship.


2014 HoF Candidates
Todd Jones
Mike Piazza (2013 Profile)
Curt Schilling (2013 Profile)
Mike Timlin
.
2013 HoF Rejects (no longer on ballot)

Jeff Conine

Kenny Lofton

Jose Mesa

Larry Walker HOF Index
1991 Topps #339 Larry Walker (HoF Candidacy 2013)

Sources and Links
1991 Topps Rookie Cup Index
baseball-ref.com