Total Baseball (1994 Edition)/Total_Baseball_1994_Edition_Creative_Multimedia_1994.iso/dp/0003/00036.txt

Text File | 1994-02-16 | 32KB | 566 lines

$Unique_ID{BAS00036}
$Title{Lives of the Players:  N-P}
$Author{}
$Subject{Nettles Newcombe Newhouser Nichols Niekro Oliva O'Rourke Otis Ott
Paige Palmer Parker Peckinpaugh Pennock Perez Perry Phillippe Pierce Plank
Posey Powell Pratt}
$Log{
Graig Nettles*0043701.scf
Hal Newhouser*0043801.scf
Kid Nichols*0043901.scf
Phil Niekro*0044101.scf
Jim O'Rourke*0044601.scf
Amos Otis*0045001.scf
Mel Ott*0045101.scf
Satchel Paige*0045301.scf
Dave Parker*0045601.scf
Roger Peckinpaugh*0046001.scf
Herb Pennock*0046101.scf
Tony Perez*0046301.scf
Billy Pierce*0046601.scf
Eddie Plank*0047001.scf
Boog Powell*0047201.scf}

Total Baseball:  The Players


Lives of the Players:  N-P


Graig Nettles
Third Baseman, Min (A) 1967-69, Cle (A) 1970-72, NY (A) 1973-83,
SD (N) 1984-86, Atl (N) 1987, Mon (N) 1988-

One of the best glove men to play third base, Nettles finally began winning
Gold Gloves when Brooks Robinson retired, although he'd been an acknowledged
master for several years.  His eye-popping stops in the 1978 World Series were
a big factor in the Yankee victory.  And Series watchers saw him pull his
spectacular act again in 1981.  Only Robinson played more games at third or
accepted more fielding chances.
     Although his lifetime batting average is below .250, Graig hit with
power.  His nearly 400 homers put him third among third basemen, after Mike
Schmidt and Eddie Mathews.  He led the AL in homers with 32 in 1976 and
followed with a career-high 37 the next season.


Don Newcombe
Pitcher, Negro League, 1944-45, Newark Eagles; Bkn (N) 1949-51, 1954-57,
LA (N) 1958, Cin (N) 1958-60, Cle (A) 1960

Big Don was Rookie of the Year with the Dodgers in 1949, with a 17-8 mark and
an NL-leading five shutouts.  He jumped to 19-11 in 1950 and 20-9 in '51.
Then he lost two years to the Army.  It took the 1954 season to get him back
to where he'd been, but in the next two seasons, he was brilliant:  20-5 and
27-7 to win the first Cy Young Award.
     Suddenly, in 1957, he struggled.  The next year he slipped further and
was traded to Cincinnati.  After a brief comeback to 13-8 with the sixth-place
Reds in 1959, he fell off the charts.
     After his brilliant beginning, Newk finished his career with a
disappointing 149-90 record.
     The problem was alcohol.  It ruined his career and nearly his life. But,
heroically, he pulled himself back and now counsels other baseball alcoholics
as a member of the Dodgers' front office.


Hal Newhouser
Pitcher, Det (A) 1939-53, Cle (A) 1954-55

Wrongly stigmatized as a wartime phenom, Newhouser was actually the AL's top
lefthander for the 1940s.  Ted Williams called him one of the three best
hurlers he ever faced.  Other stars played part or all of the war years
without having their records denigrated.  But Newhouser was so dominant in
1944-1945 that it's sometimes forgotten he had two 20-win years and won more
than half of his 207 career victories after the war.
     In 1944 he overcame the wildness that had plagued him in his first
seasons with the Tigers.  He was voted AL MVP for his 29-9 record and 2.22
ERA. The next year he was 25-9 and led the AL in shutouts (8) and ERA (1.81).
The Tigers won the AL pennant in 1945, and though he didn't pitch well in the
World Series win over the Cubs, he was still credited with 2 victories.  In
both 1944 and 1945 he led the AL in strikeouts.
     The stars were all back in 1946, but Newhouser sailed on.  He had the
most wins of any pitcher at 26-9 and again led the league in ERA with 1.94.
He had his greatest strikeout year at 275, but finished second to Bob Feller's
348.  "Prince Hal" was the AL's top winner again in 1948, with 21.


Charles "Kid" Nichols
Pitcher, Bos (N) 1890-1901, StL (N) 1904-05, Phi (N) 1905-06.
Manager, StL (N) 1904-05

Perhaps the best of the pre-1900 pitching greats, Nichols' seven seasons of 30
or more wins is topped by no one.  He won 20 or more games for ten straight
seasons and had twelve 20-win seasons altogether.
     Pitching without a windup, "Kid" had control and speed but no curve. He
took over as ace of the Bostons in 1890 at the age of twenty and pitched them
to five pennants, 1891-93 and 1897-98.
     His best year was 1892 (35-16).  He won 3 complete game victories in
three days in September, then in the Temple Cup playoff against second-place
Cleveland, he dueled Cleveland ace Cy Young (36-11) for eleven scoreless
innings before darkness forced a stoppage of play.
     Nichols was 30-14 for a fourth-place team in 1896.  The next year he beat
the Orioles two out of three in September to clinch a flag.
     Sixth all-time in wins, with a 362-207 record, the Kid also notched 533
complete games for fourth on the all-time list.  In 502 starts with Boston, he
was relieved only 25 times.


Phil Niekro
Pitcher, Mil (N) 1964-65, Atl (N) 1966-83, 1987, NY (A) 1984-85,
Cle (A) 1986-87, Tor (A) 1987

For twenty-four years, to the age of forty-eight, Niekro tossed his knuckler,
most of the time for weak Atlanta teams in a notorious hitters' park.  When he
approached win number 300, some experts were surprised; they'd never thought
of him as a star.  But he was.  Hitters knew it long before the writers
suspected.  Bobby Murcer said hitting Niekro's knuckler was like "eating jelly
with chopsticks."
     For his 300th win, Phil decided not to throw a single knuckler--until the
last batter, when he struck Jeff Burroughs out with three of them.
     Not only did Phil win 318, he saved 30 others, a rarity for modern
starters.  Among his 274 losses were 47 shutouts--only Johnson and Young had
more.
     Niekro wandered seven years in the minors and didn't become a regular
starter with the Braves until 1967 when he was twenty-eight.  He led the NL
with a 1.87 ERA that season and was 11-9 with seventh-place Atlanta.
     Niekro's club--the Braves--held him down.  Atlanta finished last six
times with him, and he led the league in defeats four times, a record.  He
somehow managed to win 20 three times.  In 1979 he led the NL in both wins and
losses with a 21-20 mark.
     Phil's home park also hurt.  It was part of the reason he led the league
four times in throwing gopher pitches.
     Phil was 23-13 in 1969 to lead Atlanta to the division title.
     He holds the record for most wins after the age of forty--121.  He's the
second-oldest man (forty-three and a half) to hit a homer.
     When he retired in 1987 he had 3,342 strikeouts and was third all-time in
bases on balls, fourth in innings pitched, and first in wild pitches, 200.  He
once threw 6 wild ones in one game--four in one inning.


Pedro "Tony" Oliva
Outfielder, Min (A) 1962-76

There's no telling what the Oliva's batting marks might have been if he'd had
a healthy knee.  Instead, he had five operations, each one slowing him down a
little more.  As a Minnesota rookie in 1964, he lined out 217 hits, the AL
rookie record.  He also tied the rookie mark for total bases and,
incidentally, led in batting, .323.  Naturally, he was Rookie of the Year.
     Tony led the league in batting the next year too, as the Twins won the
flag and almost won the Series.  He tied Johnny Pesky's mark of leading the
league in hits each of his first two seasons.
     And then he hurt his knee.  Two subpar seasons followed, but by 1969 he
was back over .300.
     In 1971 Oliva was having his best year ever, .375, when he fell and hurt
his knee again.  His average dropped to .337, and though he hung on to win his
third batting title, he was through as an outfielder and as a great hitter.
He became exclusively a DH until he finally retired in 1976 with a career
average of .304 and 220 home runs.
     Incidentally, he was born Pedro Oliva and became Tony when he used his
brother's passport to get out of Cuba.  A third brother, Juan Carlos, stayed
in Havana and became one of Cuba's top pitchers.


James "Orator Jim" O'Rourke
Outfielder, Middletown (NA) 1872, Bos (NA) 1873-75, Bos (N) 1876-78, 1880,
Prov (N) 1879, Buf (N) 1881-84, NY (N) 1885-89, 1891-92, 1904, NY (P) 1890,
Was (N) 1893.  Manager, Buf (N) 1881-84, Was (N) 1893

O'Rourke reportedly had only average speed and a weak arm, but he was a star
in the National Association for four seasons before the National League was
formed, averaging .317.  He helped the Boston Red Stockings to five pennants
(three in the National Association), then switched to Providence and helped
them win a flag in 1879.  Ten years later he was the regular left fielder for
the New York Giants champions of 1888-89.  In between, he spent four seasons
as player-manager of Buffalo's NL club.
     From 1876 on, he hit over .300 in eleven major league seasons, averaging
.310.  After retiring he managed and umpired, and at the age of 52 caught a
nine-inning game for the Giants, their pennant clincher in 1904.  He even got
his 2,304th major league hit and scored his 1,446th run.
     And then he became president of a minor league.
     His nickname stemmed from his Yale Law School background and his flowery,
bombastic speech.
     In 1945 he was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame.


Amos Otis
Outfielder, NY (N) 1967, 1969, KC (A) 1970-83, Pit (N) 1984

Otis is another underrated player.  He helped Kansas City win four division
titles and one World Series between 1976 and 1980.  He hit a strong .277, with
193 home runs and 1,008 RBIs.  He hit .429 in the 1978 League Championship
Series in a futile effort to upset the Yanks.
     Two years later Amos hit .333, as the Royals won the LCS.  He then hit
.478 in the World Series against Philadelphia, including a home run in Game
Five to bring Kansas City to within one run of victory.
     Otis was one of the best baserunners of his day.  When he led the AL in
stolen bases in 1971 with 52, he was caught only eight times.  The year before
that he had done even better with 33 out of 34--the only time they caught him
was on a steal of home.
     He was a fine fielder too.  In his first two years, 1970-71, he went 165
straight games without an error.  He led the league's outfielders in putouts,
double plays, and total chances both years.


Mel Ott
Outfielder, NY (N) 1926-47.  Manager, NY (N) 1942-48

With his quick, distinctive leg kick as he stepped into the ball, Ott used to
golf high flies into the chummy upper deck of the Polo Grounds, 256 feet away.
He hit almost two thirds of his homers at home.  When he retired after
twenty-two seasons, he had 511 homers, the third highest total at the time,
and a .304 career average.  He set new NL career records for runs (1,859),
RBIs (1,860), and walks (1,708).  The run and RBI marks were first broken by
Stan Musial; the walks by Joe Morgan.
     Ott's famous leg kick helped him compensate for his lack of size; he
weighed only 165-170 pounds.  It was a graceful kick, unlike that of Sadaharu
Oh, who lifted his front knee and pulled his foot back with his bat cocked
forward.  Mel lifted his front foot high, his weight perfectly balanced on the
fulcrum of his bat handle at his belt.  Babe Ruth, Ducky Medwick, Rudy York,
and other big men used modified versions of it.
     Ott arrived in New York with a straw suitcase at the age of sixteen and
adopted Manager John McGraw as a father.  He stayed to become one of the
Giants' all-time most popular players and six-time home run champ.
     Six times Mel led the league in walks and ten times drew 100 or more.
Four times he drew 5 walks in one game; the first time was on the final day of
the 1929 season, when Phillies pitchers gave him five intentional walks, one
with the bases loaded, so he couldn't tie Philadelphia's Chuck Klein for the
homer title.
     Mel hit .389 in the 1933 World Series and won the deciding game with a
home run in the tenth inning.  It was his eighth season on the Giants, though
he was only twenty-five years old.
     Ott became player-manager of the Giants in 1942.  It was in reference to
Ott that Leo Durocher made his famous pronouncement that "Nice guys finish
last."
     He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1951.


Leroy "Satchel" Paige
Pitcher, Negro League, 1926-50, Chattanooga Black Lookouts,
Birmingham Black Barons, Cleveland Cubs, Pittsburgh Crawfords,
Kansas City Monarchs, New York Black Yankees, Satchel Paige's All-Stars,
Philadelphia Stars, Cle (A) 1948-50, StL (A) 1951-53, KC (A) 1965

If Satch wasn't the greatest black pitcher of all time (and many say he was),
he was by far the most famous.  He began pitching semipro in 1924, and made
his professional debut in 1926, age twenty-two; he was 9-6 the next year, and
pitched the Birmingham Black Barons into the playoffs.  His white major league
debut was in 1948 with Cleveland, age forty-two; he was 6-1, set attendance
records, and helped the Indians to the pennant.  When they said he should be
Rookie of the Year, he asked what year they meant.
     Satch got his name from toting bags at the Mobile railroad station at the
age of seven.  He got his hesitation pitch from throwing rocks at other kids,
fooling them into ducking too soon.  After a stretch in reform school for
stealing toys, Satchel learned his control from Black Baron vets who taught
him to throw over a Coke bottle cap until he could "nip frosting off a cake."
Satch called it his "be ball", " 'cause it be where I want it to be."  He got
his fastball from the Lord.
     Joining the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1931, Paige teamed with Josh Gibson
in one of the greatest batteries of all time.  In 1934 he led all Negro League
pitchers with a 16-2 mark and threw a 17-strikeout no-hitter against the
Homestead Grays.  Barnstorming in the offseason, he dueled many a game against
Dizzy Dean and later Bob Feller.  Much of his pitching was on tour, traveling
packed into a car, knees against chin, to prairie towns, where, "if I didn't
pitch, they didn't want the team--in town, let alone the park."  From there he
sailed to Latin America, where his fabled bronze arm went dead.
     The Kansas City Monarchs took a chance on him, and Paige miraculously
pitched his arm back into shape.  He usually pitched two or three innings a
night to draw a crowd.  One of his great moments came when he deliberately
walked the bases "drunk" to face his old buddy Gibson, then whiffed Josh.  In
the 1942 Series against the Grays, he and Hilton Smith held Josh to a .125
average and swept all 4 games.
     Satch loved fast cars and fast women.  He was always dallying, then
racing to the park, police sirens screaming either in escort or pursuit.
Fined twenty-five dollars for speeding, he peeled off fifty dollars and told
the judge, "Here.  I'm comin' back tomorrow."
     When Satch signed with Cleveland for the 1948 pennant stretch, The
Sporting News called it a publicity stunt.  "Everybody told me he was
through," said the Indians' boss, Bill Veeck.  "That was understandable.  They
thought he was human."  Satch pitched a shutout in his second start, drew two
hundred thousand fans to his first three starts, plus thousands more who
couldn't get in.
     In 1951 Veeck took Satch to the Browns, where he had his own rocking
chair in the bullpen and could still win 12 games and save 10.  Finally, in
1965, aged fifty-nine, Paige pitched three innings for the Kansas City
Athletics to draw a bonus, the oldest man ever to pitch in the majors.  He
allowed one hit.
     Satch's wit has entered the language.  His most famous saying is "Never
look back.  Something may be gaining on you."


Jim Palmer
Pitcher, Bal (A) 1965-67, 1969-84

Winner of three Cy Youngs, Palmer won 20 games eight times and helped the
Orioles win six flags.  The handsome righthander is the greatest jockey shorts
salesman in baseball history, and his seminude posters advertising underwear
are almost as famous in Europe and Asia as they are in the United States.
     Jim won 268 games despite suffering a sore arm after shutting out the
Dodgers as a twenty-year-old in the 1966 Series.  The injury kept him out of
the majors for virtually two years.
     When he got back, Palmer won 20 or more four straight seasons, from 1970
to 1973.  After an off-year, he put together another four-straight, 20-plus
streak, 1975-78.  He won three Cy Young awards, 1973, 1975, and 1976.  He led
the AL in ERA in 1973 and '75.
     Throughout his career, Jim shared a stormy, symbiotic relationship with
Manager Earl Weaver.  They yelled at each other but respected each other and,
in the end, helped each other achieve greatness.
     As a high fastball pitcher, Palmer gave up a lot of home runs--but never
a grand slam.
     He was also excellent in preventing unearned runs, a neglected side of
pitching.  He modestly says that's because he gave up few ground balls to make
errors on.  But his World Series record shows that, even when his mates did
kick a ball, Jim slammed the door.
     Palmer was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1990.


Dave Parker
Outfielder, Pit (N) 1973-83, Cin (N) 1984-87, Oak (A) 1988-89,
Mil (A) 1990, Tor (A) 1991

Parker's career divides into three distinct stages.
     First, 1975-1979: the superstar. Starting with his first full year,
Parker was a .300 hitter, with back-to-back NL batting championships in 1977
and 1978, 30 home runs in 1978, MVP in the 1979 All-Star Game, a leader of the
1979 World Championship team, and a reputation as a hustling "complete"
player, with speed and the best right field arm in baseball.
     Second, 1980-1983: the disappointment. After signing a five-year
$5-million contract to become the highest-paid player in baseball, his batting
average and power fell off alarmingly, as did his availability. He was
constantly injured and obviously overweight. He reacted to criticism by
Pittsburgh fans by criticizing the fans. He became arguably the most
unpopular player ever to wear a Pirate uniform. One day he was nearly skulled
by a battery thrown from the stands. Only later was it learned that he had
become deeply involved in drug abuse.
     Third, 1984-91: the aged slugger: Parker signed with Cincinnati as a
free agent. Given a new start, he apparently conquered his addiction and
produced excellent power stats for the Reds, twice topping 30 homers and
leading the NL in RBIs in 1985. No longer an all-around player, he was traded
to Oakland for 1988 and became an outstanding DH.


Roger Peckinpaugh
Shortstop, Cle (A) 1910-13, NY (A) 1913-21, Was (A) 1922-26, Chi (A) 1927.
Manager, NY (A) 1914, Cle (A) 1928-33, 1941

Peckinpaugh was a fine-fielding shortstop with bad luck.  In the eight years
he played for the Yankees he led AL shortstops in assists three times.  In any
later age, that sort of range would have had him canonized by the New York
media, but Roger did his work in those years when the Giants were the team in
New York and the Yankees were a distant "other."  The Yanks won the pennant in
1921, his last season with them, but the Giants beat them in the World Series,
as Peckinpaugh's error let in the winning run in the final game.
     Traded to Washington, he helped the Senators win a pennant and World
Series in 1924, but his contributions were overshadowed by those of the "Boy
Manager," Bucky Harris, and Walter Johnson, who finally had the chance to
pitch for a winner after years with poor teams.
     Peckinpaugh was a liability at bat early in his career, but gradually
improved to ordinary.  He actually hit .305 in 1919.  In 1925 he hit a
sprightly .294 and fielded brilliantly all season to lead the Senators to
another pennant.  This time he was named AL MVP just before the World Series.
     But the 1925 Series was a nightmare for Roger.  By the eighth inning of
the final game, he had made 7 errors.  Suddenly, in the top of the eighth, he
became a hero--he hit a home run to put the Senators in the lead.  Alas!  In
the bottom of the eighth, the Pirates tied the game, and poor Roger made error
number 8--a Series record for any position that still stands--to keep the
inning going.  The Pirates scored twice more to become champions.  In
Peckinpaugh's greatest season, he became the World Series' greatest goat.


Herb Pennock
Pitcher, Phi (A) 1912-15, Bos (A) 1915-17, 1918-22, 1934, NY (A) 1923-33

Pennock was a smooth lefthander whose effortless style took him to a 240-162
career.  Anything but overpowering, he blended curves and excellent control
with the excellent bat support he usually received.  Although he threw 35
shutouts over his twenty-two seasons, he was the kind of pitcher who pitched
just well enough to win.  In World Series competition, he was 5-0.
     He came to the big leagues right out of high school, joining the
Athletics and winning 11 games for the 1914 team at age twenty.  When Connie
Mack dismantled his team after the loss to the Braves in the 1914 World
Series, Pennock was sold to the Red Sox, another strong team.  By 1920 the Sox
owner began selling his stars.  In 1923 Pennock was passed on to the Yankees,
with whom he had his best seasons.  He was 21-9 in 1924 and 23-11 in 1926, and
had two other seasons with 19 wins.
     At 160 pounds, Pennock was seldom a staff workhorse.  He led the AL with
277 innings pitched in 1925, but he usually threw 50-60 fewer innings.  He
nearly always gave up more hits than innings, although his low number of walks
somewhat compensated for that.  He once pitched an 11-hit shutout.  His career
ERA of 3.61 isn't spectacular.  But, while the spectacular pitchers came and
went, Pennock and his soft curves prevailed.
     In 1948 he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.


Atanacio "Tony" Perez
First Baseman/Third Baseman, Cin (N) 1964-76, 1984-86, Mon (N) 1977-79,
Bos (A) 1980-82, Phi (N) 1983

One of the biggest cogs in the Big Red Machine of the 1970s, Perez helped put
the Reds in four World Series.  He knocked in 90 or more runs eleven straight
seasons, 1967-1977.  His career totals read 1,652 RBIs and 1,272 runs scored.
He hit 379 homers, with a high of 40 in 1970.  He hit .300 a couple of times
and finished with a respectable .279 for twenty-three seasons.  Yet,
amazingly, he never led his league in a single important offensive statistic.
     But he was consistent.  He was also a good enough glove man to play third
base for five seasons for Cincinnati so slugger Lee May could play first.
     He hit .435 in the 1972 World Series.  In the 1975 Series, Tony went 0
for 15, then exploded with 2 homers and 4 RBIs to win the fifth game, 6-2.  He
added another homer and 2 RBIs in the final game to key a 4-3 win.


Gaylord Perry
Pitcher, SF (N) 1962-71, Cle (A) 1972-75, Tex (A) 1976-77, 1980, SD (N)
1978-79, NY (A) 1980, Atl (N) 1981, Sea (A) 1982-83, KC (A) 1983

The only man to win a Cy Young Award in both leagues, Perry had as much fun
outwitting the umpires with his spitter as he did fooling the hitters with it.
He even wrote a hilarious book about it, revealing for instance that KY Jelly
and Preparation H work as well as the old standbys:  spit, sweat, and
Vaseline. The trick was to lubricate the fingers enough to squirt the ball out
without spin, like squirting a watermelon seed.  The ball then behaves like a
knuckleball but is easier to control.  Perry was still winning games at the
age of forty-three.
     Perry won 20-plus twice for the Giants in the 1960s before he was traded
to the AL after the 1971 season.  NL umps were glad to see Perry go. Umpire
Chris Pelekoudas gave him a giant jar of Vaseline as a going-away present.
     His first year in the AL, Perry was 24-16 with the fifth-place Indians.
He was the first man to top 20 in both leagues in nearly fifty years.
     By 1978 he was back in the NL, where his 21-6 mark for San Diego earned
him his second Cy Young.  It was his fifth 20-win season.
     In twenty-two years Perry played on only one division champ.  With
support like that, a guy needs a little extra edge to win 314 games.


Charles "Deacon" Phillippe
Pitcher, Lou (N) 1899, Pit (N) 1900-11

Phillippe was the best control pitcher in the twentieth century, giving up a
stingy 1.25 walks per nine innings.
     The Deacon's best year was 25-9 in 1903, his fifth 20-victory year in
five years in the league.  In the first World Series that fall, Phillippe
pitched 5 complete games in thirteen days (a total of 44 innings pitched) and
gave up only 3 walks.  He won his first 3 starts in a period of six days.  But
he lost Game Six on ground rule triples into the crowd.  The next day he
pitched his fifth complete game in eleven days and was shut out, 3-0, as
Boston took the Series.
     The Deacon was still around to pitch 6 innings in the 1909 Series without
allowing an earned run.


Billy Pierce
Pitcher, Det (A) 1945, 1948, Chi (A) 1949-61, SF (N) 1962-64

Pierce was the epitome of "stylish lefty," the kind who looks good even when
he loses.  But Billy didn't lose that often.  The White Sox got him and
$10,000 from the Tigers in 1949 for an aging catcher.  It was the kind of deal
that should have got the Sox four-to-seven at Joliet.
     Billy stepped in immediately as the Sox ace; that wasn't any great honor
in 1949, but after Chicago added such as Nellie Fox, Minnie Minoso, and Chico
Carrasquel for a few broken bats or bubble gum cards or some other trade
imbalance, the White Sox became a consistent first-division team.  Billy led
the AL in ERA in 1955, won 20 games in 1956 and '57, and totaled 186 wins for
his thirteen years with the Sox.  In 1959 he helped them win their first
pennant in forty years.
     In 1962 he joined the Giants and led them to a flag with a record of 16-6
that included a 12-0 record at Candlestick Park.


Eddie Plank
Pitcher, Phi (A) 1901-14, StL (F) 1915, StL (A) 1916-17

Plank came out of Gettysburg College to win 327 games.  He held the record for
most wins by a lefthander until Warren Spahn surpassed that mark in 1963,
forty-six years after Eddie retired.  He won 20 or more games eight times,
seven with the Philadelphia A's and one with St. Louis of the Federal League.
He pitched for six AL championship teams with the A's.  He was only 2-5 in
World Series games, but 4 of his losses were shutouts.  His Series ERA was
1.32.  He threw a lot of shutouts himself--69--the most for a lefty and
fifth-best of all time.
     Plank drove batters crazy before he threw the ball.  He'd fuss around the
mound, fidgeting with his uniform, talking to the ball ("Only nine more to
go," etc.), shaking off signs.  By the time he threw the ball, the batter was
ready to swing at anything.
     Of course, Plank didn't throw just anything.  He had a good fastball and
curve, which he delivered sidearm with good control.  He struck out 2,246
batters and walked fewer than half that many.  Despite all his good years, he
never led the league in wins, strikeouts, or ERA.
     He was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.


Cumberland "Cum" Posey
Outfielder, Owner, Negro League, Homestead Grays, Detroit Wolves

Posey's Homestead Grays wrote a record never approached by any other U.S. pro
team in any sport--they won nine straight pennants from 1937 to 1945 with Josh
Gibson, Buck Leonard, and Cool Papa Bell generating the power.  Only the Tokyo
Giants, with nine straight Japanese championships, can match them.  Yet they
may not have been the greatest Grays teams of all.
     The 1926 club, starring Joe Williams, won 43 straight (mostly against
white semipro teams).  The 1930 Grays, with Williams, Gibson, and Charleston,
won 11 out of 12 from the western champion Monarchs.  And the 1931 club
boasted a record of 136-17, again mostly against semipros.  They even
challenged the white major league Pirates to a winner-take-all series, but
Pittsburgh simply refused.
     Posey's father was a wealthy barge captain, his mother the first black to
graduate from Ohio State.  At various times Cum attended Penn State, Pitt, and
Duquesne universities, but failed to graduate from any of them.  He was
considered the best colored basketball player in America in 1913 and also
managed the Murdock Grays, a steel mill team.  Eventually he founded the
Loendi Big Five, which claimed the U.S. basketball championship of 1919.  He
gained control of the Homestead Grays in the early 1920s, played for the team
until 1928, and managed it until 1935.
     But when the Depression struck, Posey lost his stars to racketeer Gus
Greenlee's well-bankrolled Pittsburgh Crawfords.  Cum got his own racketeer,
Sonnyman Jackson, and fought back, eventually driving Greenlee out of the
league.
     In 1937 Cum bought Gibson back for $2,500, and the team went 152-11 to
embark on their pennant streak.
     The Grays shuttled between Pittsburgh and Washington by bus, playing two
or three games a day, league and semi-pro.  Rain could wipe out all profit for
the week, until World War II brought prosperity at last.  In 1945 Posey's
Grays sometimes drew thirty thousand fans to Griffith Stadium hours after the
AL Senators had played before three thousand in the same park.
     But when baseball was at last integrated after the war, the raids of
major league clubs soon destroyed Cum's life investment.  Luke Easter was
snatched up by the Indians for only $10,000.  Posey moaned, "It's like coming
into a man's store and stealing the merchandise right off the shelves."


John "Boog" Powell
First Baseman, Bal (A) 1961-74, Cle (A) 1975-76, LA (N) 1977

Powell drove some long blasts out of parks--469 feet in Baltimore in 1962,
over the roof of Tiger Stadium in 1969.  He and Frank Robinson provided the
power that brought the Orioles four pennants and two world titles between 1966
and 1971.  Big Boog (six-four, 230 pounds) crushed 339 home runs, with a high
of 39 in 1964.
     Boog hit .357 in the 1966 World Series as Baltimore swept the Dodgers in
four straight.  In 1969 he hit .385 to help sweep Minnesota in the LCS and
.429 to key the sweep again a year later.  In the 1970 Series his home runs
won the first two games to get the O's off to a five-game victory over the
Big Red Machine.


Del Pratt
Second Baseman, StL (A) 1912-17, NY (A) 1918-20, Bos (A) 1921-22,
Det (A) 1923-24

Pratt had a knack for picking losers.  He went from the 1912 Browns to the
1918 Yanks, 1921 Red Sox, and 1923 Tigers, spending most of his thirteen-year
career in the second division.
     Del was a fair singles hitter with a high of .324 in 1921.  Curiously, he
hit .302 as a Browns' rookie, then missed that level for seven straight
seasons.  But in 1920, with the livelier ball, he suddenly remembered how to
do it and hit over .300 in each of his last five seasons, bowing out with .303
in 1924.  Another oddity about Pratt was that he played over 100 games in each
of his seasons.  He quit with 1,996 hits; if he'd been keeping track, he might
have tried to hang around for one more year.
     He was a good glove man, although he slowed down rapidly near the end.
He led AL second basemen in putouts five times.
     He was somewhat of a clubhouse lawyer and was traded away from the
Yankees following the 1920 season after a dispute over the division of New
York's World Series money for finishing in third place in the AL.  The Yankees
won the pennant in 1921 and Pratt's new team, Boston, finished fifth, reducing
his bonus to nothing.  Well, penny wise and pound foolish . . .
     The way Pratt got to the Yankees was that he and a teammate sued the
Browns' owner for calling them "lazy" and intimating they lost games
purposely.  The players settled out of court and then--surprise!--were traded.