Total Baseball (1994 Edition)/Total_Baseball_1994_Edition_Creative_Multimedia_1994.iso/dp/0003/00033.txt

Text File | 1994-02-16 | 19KB | 336 lines

$Unique_ID{BAS00033}
$Title{Lives of the Players:  J}
$Author{}
$Subject{Jackson Jenkins Jennings John Johnson Joss}
$Log{
Shoeless Joe Jackson*0029601.scf
Reggie Jackson*0029501.scf
Fergie Jenkins*0029901.scf
Hughie Jennings*0030001.scf
Tommy John*0030101.scf
Ban Johnson*0030401.scf
Walter Johnson*0030701.scf
Addie Joss*0031001.scf
Reggie Jackson's three home run 1977 World Series game (with audio)*0029501.scf,54576080.aud}

Total Baseball:  The Players


Lives of the Players:  J


Joe Jackson
Outfielder, Phi (A) 1908-09, Cle (A) 1910-15, Chi (A) 1915-20

One of the great natural hitters, Shoeless Joe threw his career and his honor
away for thirty pieces of silver.  Joe averaged .356 for his career, the third
best ever, using his favorite bat, "Black Betsy," and a swing so pretty it
would make Will Clark weep.  Babe Ruth said he copied Joe's swing.  Ironically
it was Ruth's popularity that helped fans forget the shame that Jackson and
his coconspirators brought to baseball.
     An illiterate millhand, Joe hit .408 as a Cleveland rookie in 1911. He
finished second to Ty Cobb's .420.  The next year Joe hit .395 and finished
second again to Cobb (.410).  Except for ten games in 1908-1909, Joe always
hit .300.  But a trade to the White Sox in 1915 threw him in with the
proverbial bad company.
     The White Sox were building a great team, but it was a team split. Joe
resented the Sox' educated second baseman Eddie Collins and his cadre of
followers.  The other side, the ones who griped about the admittedly low
salaries owner Charles Comiskey paid, the ones who figured baseball was a
stick and they had the wrong end, the ones who hung with the sharpies who
looked for an edge, that side accepted Joe.  They were his friends.  They
didn't laugh at his naivete, snicker at his lack of sophistication, or make
fun of his southern drawl.
     Despite the division on the team, it won the 1917 pennant and World
Series.  Because 1918 was a war year, Joe took a shipyard job and played only
in 17 games.  Others were missing.  When everyone returned in 1919, the Sox
paraded to another pennant and were installed as heavy favorites over
Cincinnati in the World Series.  But the chiselers on the team had a different
idea.  They conspired with gamblers to throw the Series for a promised
$20,000.  In Jackson, who was grossly underpaid at $8,000, the sharpies found
a willing conspirator.
     The story broke late in the 1920 season, while Jackson was hitting .382.
Eight players were indicted in Chicago.  Jackson admitted his guilt, but none
of the players were convicted in court.  There was no doubt of what they'd
done, but the carefully assembled evidence suddenly and mysteriously
disappeared.  No matter, Judge Landis, the baseball commissioner, banned the
"Black Sox" from the game for life.  Jackson, as well as others in the group
of "eight men out," played outlaw ball under an assumed name.  Even fat and
out of shape he never lost that great swing.


Larry Jackson
Pitcher, StL (N) 1955-62, Chi (N) 1963-66, Phi (N) 1966-68

Jackson won 184 games for the Cardinals and Cubs in the 1950s and 1960s.
Although in double figures twelve of his fourteen seasons, Larry had only one
20-game season.  In 1964 he was 24-11 for the eighth-place Cubs, finishing
second in the Cy Young voting.
     He didn't get much help from his teams, so Larry helped himself in the
field, leading all pitchers in chances accepted and fielding average several
seasons.


Reggie Jackson
Outfielder. KC (A) 1967, Oak (A) 1968-75, 1987, Bal (A) 1976, NY (A) 1977-81,
Cal (A) 1982-86

"Mr. October," Jackson was perhaps the most electrifying hitter of the 1970s.
"I'd like to be able to light the fire a little bit," he said. And he did.
     Reggie was at his best in the World Series, hitting .357, ninth best
ever. His Series slugging average of .755 is tops all time. He's probably
most famous for driving three home runs on three pitches in the final game of
the 1977 Series to sink the Dodgers. Reggie was a winner. In twelve years,
1971-1982, his teams--the A's, Yanks, and Angels--won ten division crowns and
five world championships. Jackson won the MVP in 1973, when he led the league
with 32 homers and 117 RBIs for Oakland's champs. Perhaps Reggie's longest
homer was walloped in the 1971 All-Star Game. It hit a light tower above the
roof of Tiger Stadium like a rifle shot.
     Jackson is sixth on the all-time home run list with 563. He won four
home run crowns and drove in 1,702 runs. He also struck out more than any
other man in history, 2,597 times--once in every four at-bats. But he
considered the strikeouts a bargain price for the homers.
     Intelligent, outspoken, egomaniacal, Reggie fought with his team owners,
Charles Finley and George Steinbrenner, and with his managers, especially
Billy Martin, who benched him once for loafing.
     Jackson wanted to be "the straw that stirs the drink," the highest-paid
star, with his own eponymous candy bar. If there were an Ego Hall of Fame,
Jackson would be the first one in. But the doors of Cooperstown have opened
for him already.


Travis Jackson
Shortstop, NY (N) 1922-36

Jackson was a member of the Giants' "Hall of Fame Infield" of 1925-27.  While
Jackson played short and Fred Lindstrom third, they were joined by George
Kelly, Bill Terry, Frankie Frisch, and Rogers Hornsby.
     However, Jackson and the others had many better years.  Travis played on
New York pennant winners in 1923, 1924, 1933, and 1936, his final season. He
was a reliable shortstop with good range, and inevitably was given the
nickname "Stonewall." (Like, you couldn't hit a ball through him.  Get it?) He
led NL shortstops in assists four times, total chances three times, and
fielding average twice.  Defensively his strongest feature was his powerful
throwing arm.
     If Jackson had an edge over a half dozen good-fielding shortstops of his
day, it was that he hit better.  He topped .300 six times and finished with a
career mark of .291.  That wasn't sensational for the hit-happy time he played
in, but it was excellent for a shortstop.  He even learned to jerk the ball
down the Polo Grounds' short foul lines.  One year he hit 21 homers.  His 929
RBIs are also high for someone playing his position.


Ferguson Jenkins
Pitcher, Phi (N) 1965-66, Chi (N) 1966-73, 1982-83, Tex (A) 1974-75, 1978-81,
Bos (A) 1976-77

Pitching in the hitters' haven, Wrigley Field, Jenkins strung six consecutive
20-win seasons together.  In 1971 he was the NL's Cy Young winner with a 24-13
mark and 2.77 ERA.  He pitched 325 innings that season, one of the five years
he topped 300.
     Jenkins combined excellent control with a good fastball and curve. Traded
to Texas in 1974, he responded with a 25-12 season, leading the AL in wins.
In a nineteen-season career, he never pitched for a pennant winner, yet he
compiled a 284-226 mark.


Hughie Jennings
Shortstop, Lou (AA) 1891, Lou (N) 1892-93, Bal (N) 1893-99, Bkn (N) 1899-1900,
1903, Phi (N) 1901-02, Det (A) 1907, 1909, 1912, 1918.
Manager, Det (A) 1907-20

A law school graduate, Jennings played on the famous rip 'n' run Baltimore
Orioles of the Gay Nineties.  He was their shortstop and captain, and they
won the pennant his first three years, 1894-1896, plus the Temple Cup playoffs
the next year.  Hugh helped with averages of .335, .386, .401, .355, and
.328--the best years he ever had, thanks in part to the new, longer pitching
distance, which was inflating everyone's batting stats.  In 1895 Hughie scored
159 runs and knocked in 125 more, with only four home runs.
     Jennings' specialty was getting hit with the pitch, which he did 49
times in 1896, the record until Ron Hunt broke it in 1971.  The Orioles
weren't above faking it a bit, by taking a close pitch, then rolling around in
supposed pain, while raising a welt by pinching themselves.  However, Jennings
had his skull fractured by an Amos Rusie pitch in 1897.  That one was almost
certainly legitimate.
     Hughie took over as Detroit manager in 1907 and won pennants in his first
three seasons.  Only Ralph Houk of the Yankees matched that.  In eleven more
years of trying, Jennings never won again, but he finished in the first
division seven times.  His greatest player was, of course, Ty Cobb, whom he
disliked but coddled.  His other players were treated sternly, often
sarcastically.
     Jennings' nickname was "Eeyah," because he used to shout it from the
coaching box.  He said it was Hawaiian for "Watch out!"
     He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1945.


Tommy John
Pitcher, Cle (A) 1963-64, Chi (A) 1965-71, LA (N) 1972-74, (injured 1975)
1976-78, NY (A) 1979-82, 1986-89, Cal (A) 1982-85, Oak (A) 1985

John is the bionic man, with two arms and two careers.  In July of 1974 he had
only a fair 124-106 lifetime mark, but was coming off his best season, a
career high of 16 wins for the Dodgers.  He was 13-3 for 1974, and seemed
headed for a great year when he tore a ligament in his elbow.
     Dr. Frank Jobe sewed a new one back in.  It was history's first ligament
transplant.  Tommy said he asked Dr.  Jobe to give him Koufax's arm but said
he got Mrs. Koufax's by mistake.  He could throw again, but he had no
fastball--he didn't even have a medium ball.  Still, he could throw curves and
get them over the plate.  And he knew how to pitch.
     In 1976 he was 10-10 for the Dodgers and was named the Comeback Player of
the Year.  That was nice, but he was just beginning his second career.  In
1977, he was 20-7.  After joining the New York Yankees as a free agent in
1979, he won 21 and 22.  And he pitched on and on:  1989 was his twenty-sixth
season.


Bancroft "Ban" Johnson
American League President, 1901-27

A former sportswriter, Johnson built the AL from the old Western League, a
minor loop which he and Charles Comiskey took over in 1893.  In 1900 they
changed its name and in 1901 proclaimed it a major league.  They raided the NL
for star players and managers and built the league into what they claimed it
to be.
     By 1903 Johnson had forced the NL to make peace, leading to the first
modern World Series--won by Ban's AL Boston boys over Pittsburgh.  In fact,
the AL would win fourteen of the first twenty-four Series.
     Johnson ran his league with tunnel vision.  A humorless workaholic, his
word was law among the original AL team owners.  He banned liquor from his
ballparks and fined for profanity and rowdyism.  He backed his umpires,
raising their status.  Although nominally the president of the AL, he was
called the "Czar of Baseball" because he dominated the three-man commission
that governed the game until 1920.
     But his power slipped as new owners who resented his dictatorial ways
entered the AL.  Even his old ally, Comiskey, turned against him.  When the
Black Sox scandal broke in 1920, Johnson demanded a full investigation,
causing a final break with Comiskey, who owned the Sox.  One result was that
the commission was replaced by one czar, Judge Landis.  Ban fought his loss of
power for six years before resigning.
     He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1937.


"Indian Bob" Johnson
Outfielder, Phi (A) 1933-42, Was (A) 1943, Bos (A) 1944-45

The lesson of Johnson's career was "Play for a contender or they'll never
remember."  It was his misfortune to join the Philadelphia A's in 1933, just
when Connie Mack was selling off his high-priced stars and the team was
heading for the bottom of the AL like a lead submarine.  So for ten years with
the awful A's and three more with a couple of other nolo contenderes, Johnson
played the outfield, hit a ton, and today is too obscure for a good trivia
question.
     Even when he'd do things like go 6-for-6 (in 1934) or bat in six runs in
one inning (1937), the A's were so far out of contention that their contests
were carried on sports pages after "In other games . . ."  Of course, fans
knew about him then--he was elected to seven All-Star Games--they just forgot
quickly because none of his hits ever meant anything in a pennant race.
     What hitting?  Five seasons over .300 and a .296 career mark; three years
with 30 or better homers among a total of 288; seven straight 100-RBI years
(eight altogether) for teams that considered each baserunner a moral victory.
     Now, just for a second, close your eyes and picture that record in Yankee
pinstripes.


William "Judy" Johnson
Third Baseman, Negro League, 1921-38, Hilldale, Homestead Grays,
Darby Daisies, Pittsburgh Cranfords

Johnson was one of the three best third baseman during the 1920s and 1930s.  A
steady defensive player, he was dependable rather than flashy.  At bat he was
an intelligent, scientific hitter who consistently exceeded .300 and was
acclaimed for his ability to come through in the clutch.  Known for his quiet,
down-to-business manner, Johnson was considered a steadying influence on
younger players.
     He played on the famous Philadelphia Hilldales (1921-1929), hitting
.364 in the 1924 black World Series.  His inside-the-park grand slam won Game
Four.  In 1929 he hit .383 with 22 stolen bases.  The next year he joined the
Homestead Grays as player-manager.  Judy also played on the 1935 Pittsburgh
Crawfords, perhaps the best black team of all time, with Satchel Paige, Cool
Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston, and Josh Gibson.
     In later years, Johnson scouted first for the Philadelphia A's and later
found Dick Allen for the Phillies.  He was named to the Hall of Fame in 1975.


Walter Johnson
Pitcher, Was (A) 1907-27.  Manager, Was (A) 1929-32, Cle (A) 1933-35

Johnson is high up on everyone's list of nominees as the greatest pitcher of
all time.  His statistics alone are staggering.  Working for a Washington team
that finished in the second division in ten of his twenty-one seasons, he
nevertheless won 417 games (second only to Cy Young), pitched in 5,925 innings
(third most of all time), threw an all-time record 110 shutouts, and compiled
a 2.17 ERA, the seventh-best career mark.  For years his 3,506 strikeouts was
considered an unbreakable record, but a later, more free-swinging age has
changed that; even though he has been surpassed by Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton,
and Don Sutton, he still may be the greatest strikeout artist ever.
     He won more than 30 games in two seasons, more than 20 in ten other
years.  He led the AL in wins six times, in ERA five times, and in strikeouts
twelve!
     He did nearly all of this with a fabled fastball, thrown with an easy
side-arm motion.  It came in straight as string, but the hitters couldn't get
around on it.  Only late in his career did Johnson bother to develop a curve.
He had good control, and for all his innings pitched only in one season did he
walk more than 100 batters.
     He won more more 1-0 games--and lost more--than any other man.  In 1908,
Johnson's first full year in the league, he won three shutouts in four days,
giving up twelve hits in the three games, yet he had to settle for a 14-14
record for a last-place club.  In 1913 he battled for fifteen innings to win
1-0; in 1918 he struggled twenty innings for a 1-0 win, giving up only one
walk the whole game.
     Of all his great seasons, 1913 was no doubt the acme.  He was 36-7, to
lead in wins and percentage.  His ERA was 1.14.  In a league-leading 346
innings he gave up only 232 hits, an average of less than six per nine
innings.  He struck out 243 to lead the league and walked--now get this--only
38!  Oh, yes, he pitched eleven shutouts and had 55 2/3 straight shutout
innings, a mark which stood until 1968.  He even set the record for fielding
that year, with no errors in 103 chances.  Naturally he was MVP.
     Even with a sore arm in 1921 (when he had an 8-10 record), he could still
pitch a no-hitter.  It was his only one; strangely, he never pitched one in
spacious Griffith Stadium.
     Johnson finally made it to the World Series in 1924 at the age of
thirty-six.  The old man was 23-7 and led the league in his usual categories:
wins, ERA, strikeouts, and shutouts.  The writers gave him another MVP.
     As much as batters hated to bat against him, everybody liked "the Big
Train."  Open, honest, modest, soft-spoken, considerate, shy, he never drank
or smoked but didn't condemn those who did.  A big evening for him was going
to a movie or just talking baseball.  If he wasn't the greatest pitcher ever,
you'd want him to be.  In 1936 he was one of the first five players elected to
the Hall of Fame.


Adrian "Addie" Joss
Pitcher, Cle (A) 1902-10

Joss' death at age thirty-one cut off one of baseball's most brilliant
pitching careers.  He was the hardest man in history to reach base against,
just 8.7 runners per nine innings; only 1.4 of them were walks.  At six-three,
185 pounds, the long-armed Joss pitched with an exaggerated pinwheel motion
that earned him the nickname of "the Human Hairpin."  Addie pivoted away from
the hitter before the pitch, then came side-armed with a "jump" ball that--the
batters swore--dipped, leveled off, and dipped again, something like Frank
Merriwell's fictional curve that broke both ways on the way to the plate.  It
earned him a lifetime 1.89 ERA, second best ever to Ed Walsh's 1.82.
     Joss broke in with Cleveland in 1902.  He fanned four of the first six
men he faced and ended with a one-hitter, a single by Jesse Burkett.  A few
days later Addie just missed another no-hitter; with one out in the ninth, an
error and two singles spoiled it.
     As a rookie, he was 17-13 with fifth-place Cleveland and 18-13 the next
year, as the club rose to third.  In two years Addie started 60 games and
completed 59.  For his career he finished 234 out of 260.
     He won 20 or more each year from 1905 through 1908, with a high of 27 in
1907.
     Joss' best year came in 1908, when Cleveland made a run for the pennant
against Ed Walsh's White Sox and Ty Cobb's Tigers.  Addie won seven of his
club's first eleven games.  The three teams were neck and neck (and neck) on
October 2, when Joss faced Walsh.  Big Ed was 40-14 at that point.  Ed pitched
a four-hitter; Addie topped him 1-0 with a perfect game.  Though Cleveland
lost to Detroit by  1/2 game, Joss was 24-11 with a 1.16 ERA.
     Addie was a fine barbershop singer and often harmonized on the sidelines
with Walsh.
     Joss threw another no-hitter in 1910 but hurt his elbow and ended the
season early with a 5-5 record.  The next spring he fainted on the trip north;
eleven days later he was dead of tubercular meningitis.
     Although he played only nine years, his record was so outstanding that
the usual ten-year requirement was waived when he was elected to the Hall of
Fame in 1978.