Total Baseball (1994 Edition)/Total_Baseball_1994_Edition_Creative_Multimedia_1994.iso/dp/0003/00037.txt

Text File | 1994-02-24 | 43KB | 744 lines

$Unique_ID{BAS00037}
$Title{Lives of the Players:  Q-R}
$Author{}
$Subject{Quinn Quisenberry Radatz Radbourn Raines Randolph Redding Reese
Reulbach Reuschel Rice Rickey Rixey Ripken Rizzuto Roberts Robinson Rogan
Rommel Rose Rosen Roush Ruffing Rusie Ruth Ryan}
$Log{
Rick Reuschel*0048001.scf
Jim Rice*0048201.scf
Eppa Rixey*0048801.scf
Robin Roberts*0048901.scf
Brooks Robinson*0049101.scf
Frank Robinson*0049201.scf
Jackie Robinson*0049301.scf
Pete Rose*0050001.scf
Edd Roush (right) and Gus Bell*0006701.scf
Red Ruffing*0050401.scf
Amos Rusie*0050601.scf
Babe Ruth*0050701.scf
Nolan Ryan's seventh no-hitter (with audio)*0050801.scf,59370077.aud}

Total Baseball:  The Players


Lives of the Players:  Q-R


John Picus "Jack" Quinn
Pitcher, NY (A) 1909-12, 1919-21, Bos (N) 1913, Bal (F) 1914-15, Chi (A) 1918,
Bos (A) 1922-25, Phi (A) 1925-30, Bkn (N) 1931-32, Cin (N) 1933

An old spitballer, Quinn pitched almost 1,000 pro games in almost thirty
years, 1907-1935.  He hit his last home run in the majors at the age of
forty-six and won his last game when he was forty-seven.  Or maybe forty-seven
and forty-eight--there's a disagreement as to when he was born.  Anyway, he
was old!  Spitballers, like knuckleballers, tend to have long careers.
     Trapped in a coal mine fire as a youth, Jack had a checkered baseball
career.  He bounced around the Yanks (Highlanders) when they were down,
1909-1912, the minors, the Federal League, the Yanks again when they were
rebuilding, 1919-1921, the Red Sox when they were down, 1922-1924, then caught
the A's on the upswing, 1925-1930.  He hurled two Series games in 1930 at the
age of forty-six (or thereabouts)--the oldest man to do so.
     During all that time, he kept his spitball low and usually over the
plate.  His only 20-win season was with the Feds in 1914, which makes it a bit
suspect, but he won 18 three times in the AL.  Well, no one ever said he was
great, just good for a long, long time.


Dan Quisenberry
Pitcher, KC (A) 1979-88, StL (N) 1988-89, SF (N) 1990

The submarine baller Quisenberry was baseball's premier reliever of the 1980s,
leading the AL in saves five years out of six, 1980-1985.  He was Fireman of
the Year four times and was one of the top reasons Kansas City got into four
playoffs in that period.
     Calling himself "just a garbage man," Quiz saved 45 in 1983, a record
since topped by Dave Righetti (46) in 1986, and Dennis Eckersley (48) and
Bobby Thigpen (57) in 1990.
     Dan has a dry sense of humor.  "I have seen the future," he was fond of
saying.  "It is much like the present, only longer."  As for his underhand
style, he shrugged.  "I found a delivery in my flaw."


Dick Radatz
Pitcher, Bos (A) 1962-66, Cle (A) 1966-67, Chi (N) 1967, Det (A) 1969,
Mon (N) 1969

For nearly four years, 1962-1965, Fenway Park's leftfield wall was only the
second-most-fearsome "Monster" in Red Sox land.  Number one was the six-six,
250-pound fastballer who stomped in from the bullpen and turned batters to
mush.  Radatz won two Fireman of the Year Awards for the Red Sox, 1962 and
1964, when he led the AL in saves.  He led in relief wins three straight
years, 1962-1964.  His 16 relief wins in 1964 set an AL record (since broken).
     The Monster intimidated hitters, averaging more than a strikeout an
inning, and after every win he'd shove his fist triumphantly into the air.
And just when they didn't think he could get any better, he lost it.  As soon
as he lost a foot off his fastball, he was done.  He didn't have anything else
to throw.  His final figures:  52-43 and 122 saves--100 in four years.


Charles "Ol' Hoss" Radbourn
Pitcher, Buf (N) 1880, Pro (N) 1881-85, Bos (N) 1886-89, Bos (P) 1890,
Cin (N) 1891

Radbourn was hardly a "hoss."  He stood only five-nine and weighed 168.  But
he earned his name by winning 60 games in one year, 1884--that's 679 innings,
441 strikeouts, and a 1.38 ERA.  He won the NL pennant for Providence.  By
season's end he was pitching every day until he could barely lift his arm to
comb his hair.  Then he won three more against the AA champs in the freezing
cold in the championship series.
     Hoss had a great curveball.  He also had an "in-shoot," or screwball. He
delivered both underhand, although overhand pitching had been legalized that
year.  The pitching distance was only fifty feet, but batters could ask for a
high or low ball, in effect cutting the strike zone in half.
     Charlie had already won 33 in 1882 and 48 in 1883 when the historic 1884
season with Providence began.
     The temperamental Radbourn resented young Charlie Sweeney trying to push
him out as ace.  He was suspended for loafing, but when Sweeney got drunk and
jumped the club, they begged Rad to come back.  The only pitcher on the
roster, he pitched nearly every game until Providence clinched the flag.  He
pitched 30 of 32 remaining games, won 26 of them--18 in a row, including 5
shutouts and 4 one-run games.  His winning streak was broken when he lost,
2-0.
     Rad had several more good years to bring his career record to 310-195.
Then he bought a bar and retired.  In 1894 he shot himself hunting, losing one
eye and half his face.  He ended his days in the back of a pool hall, refusing
to come out.  He died at the age of forty-two.  Sweeney died five years later,
reportedly in San Quentin on a murder rap.
     Radbourn was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.


Tim Raines
Outfielder, Mon (N) 1979-90, Chi (A) 1991-

Raines may have been the top player in the NL in the 1980s. A compact
switch-hitter, his main weapon is blinding speed, but he also hits with
occasional power. As a rookie in 1981, he stole 71 bases in only 88 games.
He led the NL in steals in his first four seasons, with a high of 90 in 1983.
Entering the 1988 season, he had the best base-stealing percentage in history
for players with 300 or more steals: 511 out of 585 for 87 percent. He led
the league in runs scored in 1983 and 1987. In 1986, he topped the NL with a
.334 batting average. He opted for free agency in 1987, but no team made a
legitimate offer, an absurd situation that was later ruled to have resulted
from collusion on the part of owners. They couldn't have been more obvious if
they'd held a meeting on "60 Minutes."  Raines eventually re-signed with
Montreal, but he missed spring training and the first month of the season.
When he hit .330, he set a lot of people wondering about the need for spring
training.


Willie Randolph
Second Baseman, Pit (N) 1975, NY (A) 1976-88, LA (N) 1989-1990, Oak
(A) 1990, Mil (A) 1991, NY (N) 1992

Randolph was one of the sparkplugs who drove the Yankees to five titles in six
years, 1976-1981. Solid defensively and excellent on double plays, he enjoyed
his best year at bat in 1980 (.294). His worst was 1981 (.232, two HRs);
however, his homer in the League Championship Series won the third game to
clinch the pennant. Although held back by injuries for a couple of years,
he hit .307 in 1987 and a career-high .327 in 1991. One of his strengths
was that he walked about twice as often as he struck out.


Dick Redding
Pitcher, Negro League, 1911-38, Lincoln Giants, Lincoln Stars,
Indianapolis ABCs, Chicago American Giants, Brooklyn Royal Giants,
Bacharach Giants

Cannonball Dick could knock the bat out of a man's hand back in the pre-World
War One era.  He is credited with twelve no-hitters, though this is unverified
and probably mostly against semipro foes.
     From 1912 to 1914 Dick teamed with Joe Williams on the Lincoln Giants to
form perhaps black baseball's strongest one-two pitching punch ever.  Real
old-timers insist the two were both faster than the younger and more famous
Satchel Paige.
     Thereafter Dick and Joe became fierce rivals.  In 1920 Redding beat Joe
with a no-hitter at Ebbets Field in probably the finest game he ever pitched.
     An illiterate Georgian, he was credited with 17 straight wins as a rookie
in 1911.  In 1915 he reportedly won 20 straight.  He pitched the Indianapolis
ABC's to a championship in 1917, then spent 1918 seeing combat service in
France.
     No stats were kept until the Eastern League was formed in 1923, when Dick
was over the hill and managing the Brook Royals, one of the weakest clubs.  He
was a losing pitcher then.
     He often faced Ruth and Gehrig in exhibitions; his job was to groove soft
pitches to them to please the customers.


Harold "Pee Wee" Reese
Shortstop, Bkn (N) 1940-42, 1946-57, LA (N) 1958

Reese was shortstop on seven pennant-winning Dodger teams, from 1941 to 1956.
An average hitter, he nevertheless led the NL in runs scored in 1949 with 132
and totaled 1,338 for his career.  A good baserunner, he played during a time
when base stealing was not stressed.  His 30 steals led the league in 1952,
and his career total of 232 stolen bases is one of the better marks for the
era. He was at his best in the field and in providing leadership as captain of
the team.  Reese once faked a splinter in his eye to give his reliever more
time to warm up.  The performance was so convincing that the hurler dropped
the ball and came over to see if he could help.  A Southerner, one of Pee
Wee's greatest accomplishments was winning Jackie Robinson's acceptance on the
team.
     His nickname stemmed not from his lack of size (five-ten, 160), but from
the fact he was a marbles champion as a lad.
     Although he hit .300 only once and never amassed exceptional stats, he
finished in the top ten in MVP voting in eight of his sixteen seasons.
     Reese was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984.


Ed Reulbach
Pitcher, Chi (N) 1905-13, Bkn (N) 1913-14, Nwk (F) 1915, Bos (N) 1916-17

Reulbach is the only man ever to pitch a doubleheader shutout, which he did in
the stretch of the 1908 pennant race, won by the Cubs in a playoff of the
Merkle game.  When the Cubs' other starters came out of the hectic Giant
series (that included the Merkle game) in September, exhausted, Ed agreed to
pitch the doubleheader against the seventh-place Dodgers, whom he had already
beaten seven times.  He shut them out for eighteen innings, and the Cubs went
on to win in a playoff.
     Ed had pitched marathons before--in 1905 he had won an eighteen-inning
game, then went twenty innings to win another.
     For three years, 1906-08, Reulbach had a remarkable record--60-15.  He
led the league in winning percentage all three seasons (only Lefty Grove has
matched that)--as the Cubs swept three pennants.  In the 1906 Series against
the Hitless Wonder White Sox, Ed pitched a one-hitter in Game Two.
     Reulbach died July 17, 1961, the same day as Ty Cobb.


Rick Reuschel
Pitcher, Chi (N) 1972-81, 1983-84, NY (A) 1981, Pit (N) 1985-87, SF (N) 1987-

Reuschel was an outstanding starter for the Cubs' throughout the 1970s,
winning 20 in 1977 and 18 in 1979 for so-so teams.  Traded to the Yankees in
1981, he was expected to thrive with the Yankees' bats behind him.  Instead,
his career was nearly ended by a sore arm.  He tried a comeback with the Cubs
and finally signed a minor league contract with the Pirates in 1985.
     He made a remarkable comeback with the last-place Bucs, 14-8.  Traded to
the Giants in 1987, he helped them win their division and continued with an
outstanding season in 1988, winning 19 and contending for Cy Young honors.
     "Big Daddy"--he's a well-upholstered six foot three--throws with a
deceptively easy motion; he almost seems to be lobbing the ball.  But he has
surprising velocity, good movement, changes speeds well, and has fine control.


Jim Rice
Outfielder, Bos (A) 1974-89

Rice was made for Fenway Park and took advantage of it.  He and Fred Lynn
enjoyed splendid rookie seasons in 1975 to lift the Red Sox from ninth to the
flag.  An injury kept Rice out of the World Series, which Boston lost to the
Reds in seven games.
     Jim's best season was the thrilling 1978 pennant race with New York, won
by the Yankees in a playoff.  Rice led the league in homers (46), RBIs (139),
triples (15), and hits (213), with a .315 batting average.  He was voted MVP
over New York's Ron Guidry in a hotly debated vote.
     Rice led in home runs three times and RBIs twice.  On the downside, he
was also among the all-time leaders in hitting into double plays.  But you
know who the leader is?  Hank Aaron.  Not bad company to be in.


Edgar "Sam" Rice
Outfielder, Was (A) 1915-33, Cle (A) 1934

Rice stopped only 13 hits short of 3,000, hit .322, topped .300 fourteen
times, stole 351 bases, had good range in the outfield and a strong arm, and
played on all three Washington pennant winners.  He rarely struck out; in 1929
Sam came to bat 616 times and whiffed only 9 of them.  He had no power; he
once hit 182 singles in one season; most batters don't get that many hits.
     A victim of a tragic killer tornado that killed most of his family, Sam
wandered aimlessly, joining a shipping concern.  As a sailor in Mexico, he
began to play baseball.  Rice joined the Senators as a pitcher in 1915.  When
Detroit hurler Hooks Dauss tripled off him, Sam cut his toe plate off forever.
     In 1924 Rice put together a thirty-one-game hit streak, led the AL with
216 hits, and batted .334 as the Senators won their first pennant.
     In 1925 he hit .350 and cracked 227 hits to lead the Senators into the
World Series, then slapped 12 hits in the Series, a record (later broken by
Bobby Richardson of the Yankees).  In Game Three he made the most famous play
of his life; he chased down Pirate Earl Smith's drive but fell into the stands
as he reached the ball.  An out or a home run?  Rice would never answer
directly.  "The ump called him out."  He would smile mysteriously.  He left a
letter to be opened at his death.  In it, he at last answered the question.
He caught the ball.
     Rice was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1963.


Branch Rickey
Executive.  Manager, StL (A) 1913-15, StL (N) 1919-25

Rickey invented the farm system and integrated the game.  One would have been
enough to put him among the five most influential men in baseball history.
Rickey's decision to sign Jackie Robinson to a Dodger contract took great
courage.  His motives were not completely pure.  Robinson, Roy Campanella, and
Don Newcombe, and other black stars helped win seven pennants for the Dodgers.
     Rickey had powerful fundamentalist religious scruples against playing
ball on Sunday.  As a player and manager, he was not available on Sundays.
He wasn't missed that much as a player.  He was a catcher, but he hit only
.239 in 120 major league games and once was victimized for 13 stolen bases in
a game. He was however a brilliant teacher and innovator.  After a period as
both field manager and business manager of the Browns, he joined the Cardinals
as president of the club in 1916.  After 1925 he concentrated on his front
office job.
     In 1919 Branch conceived the farm system.  Unable to outbid the rich
clubs for players, he decided to grow his own, and his minor league chain was
one reason for the Cardinals' five flags in nine years, 1926-1934.  Eventually
he had eight hundred players under contract on fifty teams.
     Rickey had taken over a team $175,000 in debt and made it a champ.  He
also instituted ladies' day, the Knothole Gang to get kids interested in the
game, the batting cage, and the sliding pit.
     After the season in 1942, he moved to the Dodgers and laid the groundwork
for the champions of 1947 to 1955.  He eventually sold his stock in the club
for a cool million.
     He moved on to Pittsburgh in 1951.  There Rickey left a legacy that
produced a flag in 1960 after he had gone.  His trial balloon of a Continental
League pushed baseball to expand in the 1960s.
     He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967.


Cal Ripken, Jr.
Shortstop, Bal (A) 1981-

Ripken is the best power-hitting shortstop since Ernie Banks. Originally a
third baseman, he was switched to short in 1982, his first full year with the
Orioles. When he slugged 28 home runs and batted in 93 runs, he was named
Rookie of the Year. His second season was even better. He led the AL in hits
(211), doubles (47), and runs (121), while hitting .318, with 27 homers and
102 RBIs. The Orioles were World Champions and Ripken was named MVP.
     Although he's been chosen on the AL All-Star team each year since 1983,
his batting average and RBIs slipped, until he put together another MVP
season in 1991. Extremely durable, he's on track to surpass Lou Gehrig's
consecutive game streak in 1995.


Eppa Rixey
Pitcher, Phi (N) 1912-17, 1919-20, Cin (N) 1921-33

The winningest National League lefthander until Warren Spahn--and still the
losingest--Rixey was a control artist who seldom walked anyone and seldom
whiffed anyone.  If Spahn hadn't broken his record, he said, nobody would have
known about him.  That's an exaggeration, but he seldom pitched for teams that
were likely to make him a household name at World Series time.
     Straight off the University of Virginia campus, Rixey began on the 1912
Phillies in the shadow of Pete Alexander.  He was 11-12 on the 1915 champs and
lost his only World Series game.
     He was 22-10 for the second-place Phils in 1916, lost 21 for them in
1917, then went into the Army for a year in France.  He lost 22 in 1920 as the
Phillies finished last.
     Switching to the sixth-place Reds, Rixey won 20-plus three times,
including a league-leading 25-13 in 1922, when they rose to second.  The
six-five stringbean with a big sweeping motion was voted the Reds' all-time
lefthander in a 1969 fan vote.  He pitched for twenty-one years, amassing a
career record of 266-251.  His home run ratio, one per forty-eight innings,
was the best in the Ruthian era.
     He was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1963.


Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto
Shortstop, NY (A) 1941-42, 1946-56

Rizzuto played on ten Yankee pennant winners and in nine World Series.  A
superior fielder, he led AL shortstops in fielding in 1949 and 1950.  Those
were his best offensive years, too, as he scored over 100 runs each season.
His 1950 season won him the MVP, as he hit .324, fifty-one points above his
career average.
     A Yankee broadcaster, the five-foot-six Rizzuto has remained highly
visible in New York, and his "Holy cow!" has become his trademark.
     As a rookie in 1941, he was called to the mound by Lefty Gomez.  "Kid, is
your mother in the stands?"  Lefty asked.  "Yes, sir, Mr. Gomez," Phil
replied.  "Well, stay here and talk to me a little; she'll think you're giving
advice to the great Lefty Gomez."  That day Phil hit his first home run and
circled the bases with his face wreathed in smiles.


Robin Roberts
Pitcher, Phi (N) 1948-61, Bal (A) 1962-65, Hou (N) 1965-66, Chi (N) 1966

Roberts had great control and a fastball.  He came close to a rare 30 wins
with 28 in 1952, and came within 14 of winning 300 games.
     His moment supreme came in October 1950, when he hurled the Whiz Kids to
their first flag in thirty-five years.  After pitcher Curt Simmons was
drafted, the Phils lost their comfortable lead and went into the final
game--against the Dodgers--only one game ahead.  Robin, taking up the slack,
was making his third start in five days.  He battled Don Newcombe into the
tenth inning, 1-1, before Dick Sisler's home run finally won it for Robin.
     In the Series a weary Roberts started Game Two, but this time he was the
loser, 2-1, in the tenth on a home run by Joe DiMaggio.  It was his only World
Series.  Though he won 20-plus for six years in a row and led the league in
five of them, the Phils never got closer than third again.
     He was voted MVP in 1952, when he was 28-7 with a fourth-place team. He
was 6-0 against the champion Dodgers.
     Roberts had excellent control--1.7 walks per game lifetime.  In 1953-1954
he had the least walks and most strikeouts per game in the NL.  But he gave up
more than 500 home runs, including a then-record 46 in 1956, as hitters knew
they could dig in on him.
     Roberts was a workhorse, leading the league in complete games and innings
pitched five times each.  It finally cost him the snap in his fastball.
Roberts was 10-22 in 1957, 1-10 in 1961.  But he learned to pitch with
finesse, went to the AL, and won another 52 games.
     In 1976 he was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame.


Brooks Robinson
Third Baseman, Bal (A) 1955-77

Robbie led AL third basemen in fielding average a record ten times, he won
sixteen straight Gold Gloves, and he set the existing career records in
assists, putouts, double plays, and fielding average.  And he made some
postseason plays that brought millions of viewers to their feet, cheering.
     His best year at bat was 1964, when he hit .317 and led in RBIs and all
the fielding categories for his position.  The BBWA named him MVP.  In
twenty-three seasons, he had 268 homers, 1,357 RBIs, and a .267 batting
average.
     The postseason brought out the best in Brooks at bat as well.  He hit
.429 in the 1970 Series, sparkled in the field, and was named Series MVP.  The
next year he hit .364 in the ALCS and .318 in the Series.
     Personable and extremely popular with Oriole fans, he could have been
elected King of Baltimore during his playing days.  He was elected to the
Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983.


Frank Robinson
Outfielder, Cin (N) 1956-65, Bal (A) 1966-71, LA (N) 1972, Cal (A) 1973-74,
Cle (A) 1974-76.  Manager, Cle (A) 1975-77, SF (N) 1981-84, Bal (A) 1988-

From 1956, when he blasted 38 home runs to tie the rookie record, until 1976,
when he hit his last, Robbie was one of the best-hitting outfielders of all
time.  His career marks include 586 homers, 1,812 RBIs, 1,829 runs, 2,943
hits, and a .294 batting average.  In 1970 he hit two grand slams in a single
game.
     Frank is also the Jackie Robinson of managing, the first black man to
lead a white big league team.  He managed the Indians to two fourth-place
finishes and a fifth from 1975 to 1977, and later managed San Francisco and
Baltimore.
     An aggressive, intelligent leader, he's the first man to win MVPs in each
league--1961 with the Reds and 1966 with the Orioles.  He led them both to
pennants, and in the latter year, his first in the AL, won the Triple Crown as
well.  The two Robinsons, Frank and Brooks, provided the punch for four Oriole
champions:  1966, 1969, 1970, and 1971.
     In 1982 he was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame.


Jackie Robinson
Infield, Negro League, 1945, Kansas City Monarchs, Bkn (N) 1947-56

Aggressive, exciting, driven with an inner fire, Robinson battled his
opponents, history, and himself.  He made integration succeed, and in doing so
helped the Dodgers win six flags.  Historian David Q. Voigt calls him one of
the five most pivotal men in baseball history--and he ranks right up there in
American history as well.
     He could drop a bunt, line a homer, or steal a base--whatever was needed
to win.  "If it wasn't for him," the Cards' Red Schoendienst once remarked,
"the Dodgers would be in the second division."
     Jack's story is familiar:  football star at UCLA, an Army court martial
(and acquittal) for refusing to sit in the back of the bus, a year with the
Kansas City Monarchs (hitting .345), the surprise announcement that he would
be the first black to sign in the white majors, the promise to Branch Rickey
to turn the other cheek to insults, the jockeying, the knockdown pitches, the
threat of a strike, and the triumphant rookie year of 1947.
     Robinson was not the best black prospect, Negro Leaguers agree.  But he
was college-educated and had played with whites, two intangibles that Rickey
sought above sheer talent.
     Jackie was twenty-eight before he reached the white majors, his athletic
peak behind him.  Yet he revolutionized the game with his running, dancing off
base to rattle the pitcher, and 19 steals of home--5 in one year.  It was a
new brand of ball, and blacks who followed Robinson's footsteps perfected it.
     Jack's best season was 1949.  He led the league in batting and stolen
bases, knocked in 124 runs, and won the MVP, as the Dodgers won the pennant by
a single game.
     In 1951 the Dodgers were fighting to stave off the Giants' amazing drive.
On the final day, against the Phils, with the bases loaded, Jack made a
spectacular catch of Eddie Waitkus' drive up the middle to preserve the tie.
In the fourteenth he walloped a homer to win it and end the season all tied
up.  The Giants, however, won the three-game playoff for the pennant, somewhat
obscuring one of Robinson's greatest seasons.
     Robinson played for only ten years.  He finished with a .311 career
batting average, but more important, he led his team to six pennants.
     After retiring, Robinson became active in politics and spoke out
militantly on civil rights.  He was one of the first to denounce the game for
not hiring black managers.  At last, the tensions took their toll, the fires
burned out, and he died at the age of fifty-three, leaving the game
unalterably changed.
     He was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.


Wilbert Robinson
Catcher, Phi (AA) 1886-90, Bro-Bal (AA) 1890, Bal (AA) 1891, Bal (N) 1892-99,
StL (N) 1900, Bal (A) 1901-02.  Manager, Bal (A) 1902, Bkn (N) 1914-31

Uncle Wilbert was chubby and cherubic, a former catching star with the great
Orioles, later the lovable manager of Brooklyn's Daffiness Boys and winner of
two pennants.
     He's one of only two men to get seven hits in a nine-inning game--he
drove in 11 runs that same day in 1892.  A lifetime .273 hitter, Robbie had
three .330-plus years with the Orioles.
     In 1911 he joined his old teammate and friend John McGraw as Giant coach.
His patient handling helped make an $11,000 beauty out of the former "$11,000
lemon," Rube Marquard.
     But the friendship with McGraw broke up in an argument over a missed sign
in the 1913 World Series, and Robbie went to manage the crosstown Dodgers.  He
raised attendance, started a Bonehead Club for stupid plays, and became its
first member when he handed the wrong lineup card to the umpire.  He agreed to
catch a baseball dropped from a plane; the ball turned out to be a grapefruit
and splattered all over his chest, and thinking the wet was blood Robbie
though he'd been killed.  He once benched a player because he couldn't spell
his name for the lineup card.
     Incredibly lax as a disciplinarian, Robbie nevertheless had a knack for
developing pitchers.
     Robbie won Brooklyn's first twentieth-century flag in 1916.  He finished
fifth in 1919, hired hunchbacked Eddie Bennett as batboy, and finished first
in 1920.  He left Bennett home and lost the last four games of the World
Series in Cleveland.  He fired Eddie and fell back to fifth in 1921.  He
almost won again in 1924 but lost to McGraw by one and a half games.
     He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945.


Wilbur "Bullet Joe" Rogan
Pitcher, Negro League, 1917-46, Los Angeles White Sox, Kansas City Monarchs

Little (five-six) Rogan pitched for the Kansas City Monarchs a decade before
Satchel Paige, and most black vets who saw them both believe that Joe was the
better.  Monarch second baseman Newt Allen said, "Satchel had the stuff, but
Rogan had the brains."
     Joe's 109 wins are second best for the black leagues.  Satch is fourth
with 100, though several of Paige's seasons have not yet been compiled, and he
won 63 more in the white majors and minors.  On the other hand, Rogan did not
begin pitching in the big time until he was thirty.
     Satch was languid and loose, Bullet Joe stocky and dour.  Paige threw his
fastball in a cup, Rogan threw a farago of curves, sliders, and palm balls all
over the plate.  Satchel was a comedian at bat, Joe hit cleanup on one of the
greatest murderers' rows in blackball annals.
     Casey Stengel also called Rogan "one of the best, if not the best,
pitchers that ever lived."  He discovered Rogan in the Arizona desert with a
black cavalry team on the Mexican border in 1918.  Stengel, a Kansas City
native, tipped off the Monarch owner, and Joe's pro career was launched at the
age of thirty.
     He pitched and batted the Monarchs to three straight flags, 1923-1925,
hitting .426, .450, and .355.  On the mound he was 12-9, 19-10, and 12-2 in
the 100-game Negro League seasons.  He was probably the MVP in 1924 or
1925--if not both.  His postseason record was .421 at bat, 8-4 on the mound.
     In fifteen games against white big leaguers, Joe hit .389.  In one 1929
game, Al Simmons went 0 for 5 against Joe, and struck out three times.


Eddie Rommel
Pitcher, Phi (A) 1920-32

In 1922 Rommel had one of the finest seasons of all time--27-13 for the
seventh-place A's (they were a last-place team without him), a feat almost as
amazing as Carlton's 27-10 with the last-place Phils of 1972.
     The next year he led the league in losses, 18-19 with the sixth-place
A's.  In five roller coaster years, 1921-1925, Ed and his knuckler led the
league in victories two times and in losses twice.
     By the time the A's dynasty blossomed, Ed was past his prime.
Nevertheless, he was 28-11 during the pennant-winning seasons of 1929 to 1931.
     He later became an outstanding AL umpire.


Pete "Charlie Hustle" Rose
Outfielder/First Baseman/Third Baseman/Second Baseman, Cin (N) 1963-78,
1984-86, Phi (N) 1979-83, Mon (N) 1984.  Manager, Cin (N) 1984-89

The most exciting player of his age, Charlie Hustle monopolized center stage
with his unsuccessful pursuit of Joe DiMaggio's hit streak in 1978 and his
successful pursuit of Ty Cobb's lifetime hit record in 1985.
     Rose played more games than any other man (3,562), batted more times
(14,053), made more hits (4,256), stands second in doubles (746), and fourth
in runs (2,165).  He had fourteen .300 years and ten 200-hit seasons (Cobb had
only nine), won three batting titles, and made the NL All-Star team in
seventeen seasons at five positions.  He was Rookie of the Year in 1963, MVP
in 1973, and played in his last World Series in 1983.
     He was a hell-for-leather baserunner who wasn't very fast.  He was a
great hitter who lacked home run power.  On any given day in his career there
were probably a couple of hundred players in the majors with more talent.
None made as much out of his talent as Rose.  He didn't drink or smoke and
kept himself in perfect shape.  He worked and he hustled.  In an exhibition
game with the lordly Yankees in the early 1960s, he ran out a walk.  "Charlie
Hustle," they sneered.  Rose turned the putdown into a compliment.
     He played hard every day.  He played wherever he was needed.  And he
loved every inning.  Long after some of those Yankees who sneered had retired,
in part because they disdained conditioning as much as Pete's gung-ho style,
Rose was winning games with head-first dives and key hits.
     Above all, Rose was a winner.  Pete played on four pennant winners in
Cincinnati during the 1970s, then he signed a lucrative contract with the
Phillies in 1979 and helped them to two more pennants in the 1980s.  The
Sporting News voted him Player of the 1970s, then Man of the Year in 1985.
     "There are a lot of players better than me," Rose said, "but I do the
same thing day in and day out, year in and year out."
     Rose's post-playing career has been marked by disappointment, controversy
and personal tragedy.  In his first five years as Cincinnati manager, he was
unable to lift his team above second place.  But there was worse to come.  In
1989, Commissioner Bart Giamatti suspended him from baseball for life, after
investigating accusations that Rose had bet on baseball games, including those
involving the Reds.
     And 1990 brought more ugly headlines, as Rose was sentenced to five
months in prison for tax evasion.  A hot talk-show topic was whether Rose--in
spite of his playing record--should be denied entrance into the Hall of Fame.


Al Rosen
Third Baseman, Cle (A) 1947-56

For a few years, Al Rosen was one of the most feared hitters in the American
League.  He played thirty-five games for the Indians from 1947 to 1949, but
couldn't move Ken Keltner off third base until 1950.  That year his 37 homers
set an AL rookie record not broken until 1987.  In 1953 he was AL MVP,
narrowly missing the Triple Crown with a .336 batting average, while leading
the league with 43 homers (still the record for AL third basemen) and 145
RBIs.
     In 1954 he was on his way to an equally impressive season when he
suffered a broken finger.  The injury permanently affected his grip on the
bat. He returned to the lineup and helped the Indians set the AL record with
111 victories in winning the pennant, but his batting stats fell off badly.
He retired two years later.  From 1950 to 1954, he averaged .298, 31 home
runs, and 114 RBIs.


Edd Roush
Outfielder, Chi (A) 1913, Ind (F) 1914, Nwk (F) 1915, NY (N) 1916, 1927-29,
Cin (N) 1916-26, 1931

Roush was the Tris Speaker of the NL.  He made circus catches and won batting
titles--.341 in 1917, his first year as a Cincinnati regular, and .321 in
1919.  He just missed the one in between, losing by two points to Brooklyn's
Zach Wheat.
     Edd's 1919 title helped the Reds win the flag, but he hit only .214 in
the Series.  Not that it mattered; that was the year the Black Sox decided to
lose the Series.
     Roush swung the heaviest bat in the league, a 48-ounce club, but he
wasn't a home run hitter; only 67 of his 2,376 career hits went the distance.
He was a singles hitter, but darned consistent.  In both 1921 and 1922 he hit
.352; then in 1923 he slumped to .351.
     Roush was an independent cuss who held out year after year just so he
could miss spring training.  When he really got into a money dispute in 1930,
he held out the entire season.
     He was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.


Charles "Red" Ruffing
Pitcher, Bos (A) 1924-30, NY (A) 1930-42, 1945-46, Chi (A) 1947

Mired with the bottom-of-the-barrel Red Sox of the late 1920s, Ruffing seemed
to go with the flow, compiling a 39-96 record with appropriate sky-high ERAs.
In 1928 he was 10-25; the next year 9-22.
     Traded to the Yankees in 1930, he became the new improved version. Buoyed
by better defense and far more hitting, Ruffing's pitching "became much
better," as though a weight had been lifted.  His victories shot up as his ERA
dropped.  Four straight years (1936-1939), he won 20, and he had eight other
seasons of at least 14 wins.  His total Yankee record was 231-124.  In six
World Series he was 7-2, with a 2.63 ERA.
     The burly redhead was primarily a fastball pitcher, but though he was
often lauded for his "pinpoint" control, he walked more than 100 in three
different seasons and finished his career with a total of 1,541 free passes.
     Ruffing had hoped for a career as an outfielder, but a childhood accident
cost him four toes on his left foot.  No longer able to run, he became a
pitcher.  However, he remained an excellent hitter for a pitcher, averaging
.269 with 36 career home runs.  He was often used as a pinch-hitter.
     He was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967.


Amos Rusie
Pitcher, Ind (N) 1889, NY (N) 1890-95, 1897-98, Cin (N) 1901

Rusie helped revolutionize the game.  The Hoosier Thunderbolt was the fastest
pitcher of the 1890s.  In 1893 they moved the pitching distance back five feet
(and six inches) to its present distance because of him and a few others.  At
the old fifty-foot distance (measured from the front of the box, not the
back), Rusie had struck out 341, 337, and 288 from 1890 to 1892.  After they
moved it back, his whiffs dropped to 208--and everyone's batting average
jumped up.
     Rusie was as wild as he was fast.  He whiffed 1,934 batters and walked
1,704.  His 289 walks (in 549 innings) in 1890 is the record.  In four seasons
he led the league in both walks and strikeouts.  Amos was a workhorse, often
going over 300 innings pitched and twice over 500.
     In the eight years he pitched for the Giants, Rusie won 20 or more in
each of those eight years.  His top year was 1894, 36-13, plus 2 more wins in
the Temple Cup playoff over Baltimore.  His ERA that year of 2.78 was awesome
compared to the NL average of 5.32.
     In 1895 he was 23-23, as the Giants finished twelfth.  He sat out 1896 in
a dispute with his owner, who tried to subtract a fine he had levied from the
pitcher's salary for the coming year.  Rusie went to court, and the other
owners paid the fine and Rusie's 1896 salary rather than see the reserve
clause tested.
     As the league's top box-office draw he returned in 1897 and went 28-10,
as he lifted the Giants from seventh to second.
     His wins fell to 20 in 1898, and he blamed it on the wear on his arm.
When the club tried to cut his pay again, from $3,000 to $2,000, Rusie sat out
for two years.  In 1901 he was traded to Cincinnati, but his arm was gone and
he retired after three games.  The Giants did better on their end of the
trade, picking up a kid pitcher named Christy Mathewson.
     Rusie, who compiled a 245-174 mark in only nine full seasons, was named
to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977.


Babe Ruth
Outfielder, Bos (A) 1914-19, NY (A) 1920-34, Bos (N) 1935

There has never been another figure in American sports like the Babe.
Gargantuan--nay, Rabelaisian--in his appetites, prodigious in his production,
he is the most famous athlete this nation has ever produced.  Maris and Aaron
topped some of his records, but they can never top him in American mythology.
     Ruth revolutionized the game.  Authorities disagree whether his home runs
gave birth to the lively ball or vice versa.  They also disagree on whether
Babe created attendance records with his homers or whether the postwar Roaring
Twenties prosperity created them.  But Babe gave the game a lift after the
Black Sox scandal and personified his time as no other American has.
     No one has dominated the game as the Babe did.
     He began as a lefthanded pitcher with the Red Sox.  He went 18-8 in his
first full season, 23-12 as a sophomore, and 24-13 in 1917, his third year.
He led the AL in ERA in 1916.  Yet his hitting was so impressive that he
became a part-time outfielder in 1918 and won his first home run crown, with
11 in ninety-five games.  In 1919, still batting against the dead ball, he
crushed 29 homers, breaking a record that had stood for thirty-five years.
     In 1920 he was sold to the Yankees for an announced figure of $100,000
(in truth it was far more).  He arrived in New York the same year the lively
ball arrived in baseball.  They hit a new record 54 homers (in only 458 at
bats!), batted .376, and led in RBIs with 137.  The next year the Babe had
arguably the greatest season any batter ever had:  59 home runs, 171 RBIs,
177 runs, a .378 batting average, and an otherworldly slugging percentage of
.846. Only one batter was able to top his 59 homers during the next forty
years--the Babe with 60 in 1927.
     All told, he led in home runs twelve times, in RBIs six, in runs scored
eight, in walks eleven, in slugging percentage thirteen times, and in batting
average only once (in 1924 with .378).
     His career totals:  714 homers, 2,209 RBIs, 2,174 runs, a record 2,056
walks, a record .690 slugging average, and a .342 batting average.
     Equally important to the Ruthian Mystique was the Public Ruth, the hefty
child-man the fans loved.  The Private Ruth ate too much, drank too deeply,
partied too long, womanized too indiscriminately, cursed like a wounded
Marine, held petty grudges, and sometimes bullied lesser mortals.  The Public
Ruth signed autographs, was naughty but nice, hit home runs for hospitalized
boys, grinned on cue, and even "called his shot" before a home run in the 1932
World Series.  The "called shot" illustrates how pervasive was the Ruthian
Mystique; any other batter would have been merely pointing and yelling at the
Cubs' pitcher, as the Chicago players always insisted he did.  But the public
chose to believe The Ruth had pointed to the center field bleachers moments
before hitting his fifteenth and final World Series home run out there.  The
fans believed he could do anything, so they let him.
     In 1936, a year after he retired, he was named to the Baseball Hall of
Fame.


Nolan Ryan
Pitcher, NY (N) 1966, 1968-71, Cal (A) 1972-79, Hou (N) 1980-88, Tex (A) 1989-

There's no way to know if Ryan threw faster than any of the great fastballers
of the past, but no one has ever thrown so fast for so long as Ryan.  In his
twenty-fourth major league season, at the age of forty-three, he can still
strike out batters with heat.  As a sheer athlete, he is the greatest pitcher
who ever lived.  No one else has pitched six no-hitters.  His 383 strikeouts
in one year (1973) stands as the record--and that was accomplished in the
first year of the DH, so he had no patsies in his opposing lineups.  His total
K's are over 4,700, more than 600 past his nearest rival.  His 300-plus wins
were accomplished with mostly average or less support.  "My job is to give my
team a chance to win," he said.  "I have no control over how many runs they
score."
     Actually, Ryan's control was for many years the only flaw in his
pitching.  He led his league eight times in walks.  In 1977 he walked 204 in
299 innings (he also struck out 341).  His career total of walks will probably
stand as the record as long as his strikeout total--perhaps well past the time
this page has turned to dust.  But, as his fastball has
slowed--relatively--his control has improved.
     Surprisingly, he's never won a Cy Young Award.  But consider his 1974
season:  most innings pitched, 333; fewest hits per nine innings, 5.97; most
strikeouts per nine innings, 9.92; and a 22-16 record with a last-place team.