Total Baseball (1994 Edition)/Total_Baseball_1994_Edition_Creative_Multimedia_1994.iso/dp/0003/00039.txt

Text File | 1994-02-16 | 25KB | 440 lines

$Unique_ID{BAS00039}
$Title{Lives of the Players:  T-V}
$Author{}
$Subject{Tannehill Taylor Tenace Terry Thomas Thompson Tiant Tinker Torre
Torriente Trammell Traynor Trout Uhle Vance Vaughan Vaughn Veeck}
$Log{
Bill Terry (center), Jake Ruppert, and Joe McCarthy*0039001.scf
Sam Thompson*0056901.scf
Luis Tiant*0057101.scf
Joe Torre*0057401.scf
Alan Trammell*0057501.scf
Harold "Pie" Traynor*0057601.scf
George Uhle*0058101.scf
Dazzy Vance*0058401.scf
Arky Vaughan*0058701.scf
Bill Veeck (left) and Al Lopez*0035601.scf}

Total Baseball:  The Players


Lives of the Players:  T-V


Jesse Tannehill
Pitcher, Cin (N) 1894, 1911, Pit (N) 1897-1902, NY (A) 1903, Bos (A) 1904-08,
Was (A) 1908-09

A great control pitcher, lefthander Tannehill won 20 games six times from 1898
to 1905 and had a 197-116 career record.  He averaged only 1.6 walks per nine
innings.  He helped pitch the Pirates to the 1901 and 1902 NL pennants.  He
won the 1901 ERA title with a 2.18 mark.
     The Pirates won the 1903 pennant without Tannehill; he and Happy Jack
Chesbro jumped to the AL New York Highlanders (Yankees) that year.  It cost
him a chance to appear in the first World Series.
     He was a disappointing 15-15 in New York and was traded to Boston, the
winner of the 1903 Series.  His 21-11 season helped Boston win the 1904
pennant, but again he lost his World Series chance when the NL's Giants
refused to meet the AL champs.
     With Cy Young, Bill Dineen, and Tannehill doing most of the pitching,
Boston set a team record low of 1.5 walks per nine innings in 1904.


Jack Taylor
Pitcher, Chi (N) 1898-1903, 1906-07, StL (N) 1904-06

Taylor won 20 games four times and 152 during his career, but his claim to
fame is an uncanny ability to finish what he started.  On June 20, 1901, he
pitched a complete game.  Through his next 186 starts--more than five years'
worth--he would pitch a complete game every time he started.  One game went
nineteen innings; another went eighteen.  He finished them both.  On another
occasion, he pitched both ends of a doubleheader.  Fifteen times he relieved
other, less stouthearted hurlers, and each time finished the game.  Taylor
wasn't a particularly imposing physical specimen.  At five-ten and 170 pounds,
he was average or a little less for a pitcher of his day.  Finally, on August
9, 1906, he was relieved in a game.
     Although he pitched only ten years in the NL, two of them partial
seasons, Taylor had six seasons of over 300 innings and completed 278 of his
286 starts.


Gene Tenace
Catcher, Oak (A) 1969-76, SD (N) 1977-80, StL (N) 1981-82, Pit (N) 1983

Tenace was the steady catcher for the Oakland A's dynasty that won three World
Series, 1972-74.  A decent enough defensive catcher, he was actually very
dangerous with the bat, despite a dreary .241 batting average.  Over his
career, he was nearly as likely to get a walk as to get a hit--984 walks to
1,060 hits.  He led the AL twice in bases on balls and had a .380 on-base
average.
     When he did get a hit, the odds were five-to-one it would go out of the
park.  Nearly 20 percent of his hits were homers--201.
     Tenace first showed he could be something out of the ordinary in the 1972
World Series.  He'd just limped through a .225 season with 5 homers, followed
by an .059 LCS.  He looked like a soft touch to the Reds.  So in his first two
Series at bats he homered, not only setting a record but also providing the
A's with all the runs they needed in a 3-2 win.  For the Series he hit .348
and had 4 homers and 9 RBIs.


Bill Terry
First Baseman, NY (N) 1923-36.  Manager, NY (N) 1932-41

Terry was the last NL batter to hit .400, but it doesn't impress some modern
commentators, who point out that when Memphis Bill hit .401 in 1930, the whole
blessed league hit .303.  Still, anyone who knocks out 254 hits as Terry did
in 1930 deserves respect.  And it wasn't that he was a one-year wonder.  He
played fourteen seasons and topped .300 eleven times.  Besides his .400 year,
he had averages of .372, .354, .350, .349, and .341--the last mark also being
his career average.
     He wasn't Lou Gehrig, of course.  His 154 career homers don't look all
that great against Gehrig or Foxx, two AL first basemen of the period.  There
are two answers to that.  The first is obvious:  Terry wasn't the home run
hitter that either of those brawny gentlemen were.  He was a line drive hitter
who hit to all fields.  And that's part of the second answer:  he played his
home games in the Polo Grounds, which had wonderfully short foul lines for
dead pull hitters and horrifyingly deep power alleys for anyone who wasn't.
Terry made the decision to go with the percentages, which was considered smart
baseball in his day.  One tipoff is that in five of the six years from 1927
through 1932, he averaged 20 homers a year.  The sixth year was 1930 when he
hit only 9.  That looks suspiciously as though he cut his swing just a little
when he saw a chance to hit .400.
     Some oldtime sportswriters are kind of happy to see Terry low-rated. He
was the kind of player who, if he thought you were a jerk, said so.  Some call
that "refreshing honesty"; others call it "arrogance."  Whatever.  Once the
reputation was set, he couldn't say anything to please some writers.  One day
in 1934, after he'd become manager of the Giants, a writer asked him what he
thought of the Dodgers, at a time when everyone knew the Dodgers were pretty
awful.  Terry, trying to be one of the guys, made a little joke.  "Is Brooklyn
still in the league?" he asked.  Naturally it got blown all out of proportion,
especially when the Dodgers beat the Giants a couple of times at the end of
the season to knock them out of the pennant.
     One thing about Terry:  he was a much better fielder than the home
run-hitting first sackers of his time.  And he also became a better manager,
winning three pennants and a world title in 1933 when he was a player-manager.


Sam Thompson
Outfielder, Det (N) 1885-88, Phi (N) 1889-98, Det (A) 1906

Big Sam played in two Hall of Fame outfields.  In the early 1890s, he, Billy
Hamilton, and Ed Delahanty made a heavy-lumber trio for the Phillies.  In 1894
Hamilton hit .404, Delahanty .407, and Thompson .407.  The second Hall of Fame
outfield was in 1906, when the Detroit Tigers had suffered so many injuries
that they asked Sam out of retirement.  For the final eight games of the
season, he lined up with Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford.  He hit a mere .226, but he
was forty-six years old at the time.
     Thompson started with the old NL Detroit Wolverines in 1885.  At first
they didn't have a uniform to fit his six-two, 220-pound frame, and he
squeezed into what was available.  Running out a double, he split his pants
right up the middle.
     The modest, good-humored slugger became the most popular player in
Detroit.  In 1887, when they won the NL pennant, he led the NL with a .372
batting average and 166 RBIs.
     Thompson compiled a .331 career batting average.  One of the best home
run hitters of the nineteenth century, he led the NL with 20 in 1889 and 18 in
1895.  His 127 career homers rank him second only to Roger Connor for the era.
And Thompson's ratio of RBIs to games played is the best of all time.
     An outstanding fielder, he was renowned for his powerful arm. Reportedly
he popularized throwing all the way from the outfield to the catcher on one
bounce.
     In 1974 he was named to the Hall of Fame.


Luis Tiant
Pitcher, Cle (A) 1964-69, Min (A) 1970, Bos (A) 1971-78, NY (A) 1979-80,
Pit (N) 1981, Cal (A) 1982

The herky-jerky Cuban dervish Tiant won 20 games four times and finished with
a 229-172 record in a career that looked to be over in the middle.  After four
merely good years with Cleveland, he was suddenly great in 1968 with a 21-9
mark and a league-leading 1.60 ERA.  But the next year he led the AL in losses
at 9-20.  Traded to Minnesota, he appeared washed up with no arm left.
     Boston took a chance on him, but he struggled to 1-7 in 1971.  But the
next year he was the Comeback of the Year with 15-6 and his second ERA title
(1.91).  He won 20 games three times for the Red Sox but was at his best in
1975, when his season's record was 18-14.  The Sox won the division; then Luis
started them on a three-game sweep in the LCS with a three-hitter over
Oakland.  He opened the World Series against the powerful Reds with another
shutout, threw a 163-pitch, complete game victory in Game Four, and went seven
innings in Game Six before weakening.
     After games Luis would entertain writers, puffing his long Cuban cigar
and telling stories.  Some say he took the cigar with him into the shower.
     Tiant's father, Luis Sr., had been a skinny lefthanded junk pitcher in
the Negro Leagues.  Neither had seen the other pitch until the older man got a
visa to leave Havana and was given an emotional welcome to Fenway Park.


Joe Tinker
Shortstop, Chi (N) 1902-12, 1916, Cin (N) 1913, Chi (F) 1914-15.
Manager, Cin (N) 1913, Chi (F) (1914-15, Chi (N) 1916.

Sometimes the whole is more than the sum of its parts, and that sort of rep
seems to forever follow Tinker, Evers, and Chance.  Bound together in F.P.
Adams' famous bit of doggerel and in their simultaneous election to the Hall
of Fame in 1946, the impression persists that they were three ordinary guys
who somehow made magic only as a trio.  The impression is unfair.  Each was an
excellent player, and no doubt they could have proved their worth as
individuals.
     Manager Chance's Cubs depended on pitching, speed, and defense.  They won
four pennants and two world championships from 1906 to 1910 using that recipe.
None of the Cubbies hit much in those dead-ball days; the 1907 world champs
didn't have a .300 hitter, their RBI leader had 70, and the Cubs' best home
run man had 2.  Of course, most other NL teams were similar.
     In that context, Tinker was a pretty decent hitter for his time.  His
.262 average ranks right up there with those of shortstops of later,
better-hitting eras.  He usually knocked in 60-70 runs a season, and he hit 6
homers in 1908.  He was practically a slugger!  For some reason, Lord knows
why, he always hit Christy Mathewson well, and since the Giants were always
trying to nudge the Cubs out of first place, that was a very valuable talent.
Once on base, Joe also had the required speed, stealing 336 bases over his
career.
     But Joe was paid to field.  And that he did very well, leading NL
shortstops five times in average, in assists twice, and in putouts twice.  He
even led once in double plays.  Only once, you ask?  Isn't that the maneuver
T-to-E-to-C were supposedly such whizzes at?  Well, they were--everyone who
saw them agrees--but the Cubs' pitchers just didn't give them as many chances
to get two as some other combinations had.  In the case of double plays, it
looks like the sum wasn't equal to the parts.


Joe Torre
Catcher/First Baseman/Third Baseman, Mil (N) 1960-65, Atl (N) 1966-68,
StL (N) 1969-74, NY (N) 1975-77.  Manager, NY (N) 1977-81, Atl (N) 1982-84,
StL (N) 1990-

Torre started out with the Braves as a catcher because he kept getting fat.
The idea was that catchers don't have to run much, something fat guys hate to
do.  Everything went well for a while.  Joe didn't have the best arm in the
world, but it wasn't embarrassing.  He did all the other catching chores okay,
and he was a terrific hitter.  They selected him for the NL All-Star team from
1963 through 1967.  The only thing was that catchers need rest every couple of
days.  In Joe's case, he usually spent his day of rest at first base so they
could keep his bat in the lineup.
     In 1969 he was traded to the Cardinals, who put him at first base
full-time.  Along about then, Joe figured he'd better get serious about a
diet. It wasn't quite as quick as with the frog who turned into a prince, but
in 1971, slim, trim Torre emerged as a third baseman and had the season of his
life.  He led the NL in batting (.363), hits (230), and RBIs (137).  He was
named MVP.
     Although he never got back to that level, Torre had a lot of good seasons
in his eighteen years.  He finished with a .297 career average, 252 homers,
and 1,185 RBIs.


Cristobal Torriente
Outfielder, Negro League, 1914-32, Cuban Stars, Chicago American Giants,
Kansas City Monarchs, Detroit Stars, Gilkerson's Union Giants,
Atlanta Black Crackers, Cleveland Cubs

Many authorities pick the big Cuban on the all-time All-Negro League outfield.
In 1919 Torriente, Oscar Charleston, and speedster Jimmy Lyons patrolled the
outfield for the Chicago American Giants, making perhaps the best trio ever
among black teams.
     Torriente was called the Ruth of Cuba, and in 1920 the two faced each
other in Havana, one on one.  Torri got three homers, two off first baseman
Highpockets Kelly and one off Ruth himself.  The Babe went 0-for-4 against
Cuban hurling.  Two home runs were usually good enough to lead the league for
an entire season in the cavernous parks down there, making Torri's feat the
more remarkable.
     Cris wore bracelets, which he shook before going to bat, and a red
bandana around his neck, for his Cuban club, the Rojos, or Reds.
     He was Cuban batting champion three times, stolen base champ four times,
and triple and home run champ five times each.  In 1919-1920 he led in every
batting department.
     Torriente's highest averages were .401 in Cuba, 1915-1916, and .402 in
the States in 1920.  He led the Negro League in 1923 with .389.
     Torri pitched occasionally and even played a lefthanded second base. He
was also a notorious playboy, and he died an alcoholic at an early age.


Alan Trammell
Shortstop, Det (A) 1977-

Trammell is a good glove in the process of becoming an outstanding bat.  He
and second baseman Lou Whitaker have held down the keystone positions for the
Tigers for thirteen seasons.  A four-time Gold Glove winner, Trammell's home
runs climbed from 2 in 1978, his first full season, to 14 in 1983, to 28 in
1987.  His batting average, though its climb has not been so steady, began in
the .260s and peaked with .343 in 1987, as the Tigers won the Eastern
Division.
     In 1984, when the Tigers won the World Series, Trammell was named Series
MVP for his .450 average, including two homers and six RBIs in five games.


Harold "Pie" Traynor
Third Baseman, Pit (N) 1920-37.  Manager, Pit (N) 1934-39

Traynor used to be figured as the best-ever third baseman, but his halo has
tarnished a little of late, as sluggers like Eddie Mathews, Brooks Robinson,
Graig Nettles, and Mike Schmidt have appeared.  There even seems to be some
effort to show that he wasn't even the best when he was playing, but that's a
little harder to swallow.
     Traynor, who usually batted fifth for the Pirates, was no home run
hitter; he knocked a mere 58 in his 1,941 games.  Of course, half those games
were in Forbes Field, where any righthanded batter who swung for the distant
left field fence would have been considered a little goofy.  Traynor doubled
and tripled at a pretty good clip.
     He seems to have driven runs home pretty well too, with seven seasons of
100-plus RBIs, but some critics worry that he didn't walk a whole lot.  They
also point out that batting averages were at an all-time high in the twenty
years between the World Wars, making his .320 less impressive.  However, it
does happen to be the best for any of the third basemen who played during that
period.
     Traynor was regarded as the top-fielding third baseman of his day.  A
Pittsburgh sportswriter once wrote:  "He doubled down the left field foul
line, but Traynor threw him out."  He led NL third sackers in putouts seven
times, assists three times, and, surprisingly, only once in fielding average.
There's no way to really rank him against modern third basemen.  His career
and single-season marks have been far surpassed by post-World War Two players,
perhaps because more business comes to the hot corner now that most players
try to pull the ball.  Fielding stats being what they are, they neither prove
nor disprove that he was the best gloveman playing third during his time.
Most of the fans, teammates, and opponents thought he was, but they could be
wrong.
     Maybe they gave him extra for personality; Traynor was a genial,
articulate man, with more friends than bookkeepers have decimal points.  The
Sporting News named him to its All-Star Major League team seven times between
1925 and 1933.  He finished in the top ten in NL MVP voting six times through
the same period.  Let's put it this way, the people who looked at third
basemen when Pie was playing thought he was Pie a la mode.  Some moderns
disagree.  Of course, there are also people around today who can prove that
Elvis lives, nobody ever walked on the moon, and fast food is good for you.
     Traynor was named to the Hall of Fame in 1948.


Paul "Dizzy" Trout
Pitcher, Det (A) 1939-52, Bos (A) 1952, Bal (A) 1957

It was a wartime year, but in 1944 Trout was 27-14 and led the AL in ERA,
complete games, innings pitched, and shutouts.  Dizzy's teammate Hal Newhouser
got the headlines with 29-9, but Trout may have been even better.  He finished
second to Hal in the MVP voting, 232 to 236.
     In 1945 Diz was only 18-15 (while Newhouser was 25-9), but in the
stretch, he pitched six games in nine days and won four of them, as the Tigers
won the pennant on the final day.  In the Series he had an 0.64 ERA but had to
split his two decisions.  He won the fourth game 4-1 and lost the sixth game
in relief in the twelfth inning.
     After the war, Trout's record slipped more than Newhouser's, but for two
years they were terrific.
     Trout's son Steve is a current major league pitcher, and their total of
more than 250 wins makes them the winningest father-son combo.


George Uhle
Pitcher, Cle (A) 1919-28, 1936, Det (A) 1929-33, NY (N) 1933,
NY (A) 1933-34

One of the best hitting pitchers ever, with a .288 career batting average,
Uhle (pronounced "Yoo-lee") was also one of the first to throw a slider, two
decades before it became widespread in the 1940s.  He was 26-16 for
third-place Cleveland in 1923 and 27-11 for the second-place Tribe in 1926,
leading in wins, complete games, and innings pitched each year.  He was also
first in putting men on base the latter year, with 300 hits and 118 walks, or
a dangerous 11.8 per nine innings.  George pitched a 20-inning game in 1929.
He finished his seventeen-year career with exactly 200 wins.


Arthur "Dazzy" Vance
Pitcher, Pit (N) 1915, NY (A) 1915, 1918, Bkn (N) 1922-32, 1935,
StL (N) 1933-34, Cin (N) 1934

One of the Dodgers' Daffiness Boys, Dazzy didn't win his first big league game
until he was thirty-one in 1922.  Vance had pitched five complete games in
seven days in the minors, causing a chronic sore arm which almost ended his
career.  He bounced around the minors for ten years until manager Wilbert
Robinson of the Dodgers tried starting him every fifth day, instead of every
fourth, the common practice.
     Vance responded magnificently.  His high-kick windup and extremely long
arms (he had an eighty-three-inch reach) gave him a roaring fastball. Pitching
with a tattered sleeve to confuse the hitters, he led the NL in strikeouts
seven straight years, a record, in ERA three years, and in wins two.
     Dazzy was the best pitcher in the league in 1924, with 28-6, as the Bums
almost beat the Giants for the pennant.  He won the MVP, even though Rogers
Hornsby hit a mere .424 that year.
     In 1925 the Bums fell to seventh, but Vance led in wins again, with 22-8.
One was a one-hitter, and another, five days later, a rare 1920s no-hitter
(against the Phils).  In 1928 the Dodgers were sixth, but Vance was 22-10.
     Vance was as famous for clowning as for pitching.  He liked to party,
often staying out until the detectives in the lobby yawned and went to bed.
Then he would slip in unnoticed.
     He was the key man in the famous play when Babe Herman doubled into a
double play.  Vance was on second base, but instead of scoring on Herman's
drive, he rounded third and then went back to find Herman and one other runner
sliding in from the opposite direction.
     Vance was named to the Hall of Fame in 1955.


Floyd "Arky" Vaughan
Shortstop, Pit (N) 1932-41, Bkn (N) 1942-43, 1947-48

Next to Honus Wagner, Vaughan may have been the best-hitting shortstop ever,
hitting over .300 twelve times, including his first ten years in the NL.  His
.385 in 1935 is the twentieth-century record for shortstops.  In fourteen
seasons he averaged .318 and led the league in runs scored three times.
Vaughan had a good eye and rarely whiffed; from 1934 to 1936 he was the top NL
hitter in drawing walks.
     Though he was not a power hitter, Arky hit 19 homers one season and led
the league in triples three different years.  He slugged two home runs in the
1941 All-Star Game, the first man to do so.
     He fielded his position well and led NL shortstops in putouts and assists
three times each.
     Vaughan was respected around the league for his honesty and integrity.
In 1943, believing Brooklyn manager Leo Durocher had unfairly suspended
another player and then lied about him to reporters, he handed in his uniform,
threatening to leave the team until Durocher backed down.  He retired at the
end of the season and didn't return to the Dodgers until 1947, when Durocher
was suspended for the season.
     Vaughan was named to the Hall of Fame in 1985.


James "Hippo" Vaughn
Pitcher, NY (A) 1908, 1910-12, Was (A) 1912, Chi (N) 1913-21

Like Harvey Haddix, lefthander Vaughn is remembered for one outstanding game,
somewhat obscuring the fact that he pitched a number of excellent games.
Indeed he was one of the best pitchers around during the World War One period.
He didn't really settle in until he was twenty-six years old in 1914.  But in
seven years with the Cubs, he won 20 or more games five times, 10 once, and 17
once.
     In 1918 he was 22-10 to lead the NL in wins, tops in ERA at 1.74, and led
in strikeouts and innings pitched.  In the World Series that year, he pitched
three complete games and gave up only three earned runs, yet he was only 1-2.
     Now about The game.  On May 2 in Chicago, he hurled nine no-hit innings
against Cincinnati.  What made this no-hitter really special was that Fred
Toney, pitching for the Reds, also tossed a no-hitter.  So they went into the
top of the tenth and Hard Luck Hippo gave up a single to light-hitting Larry
Kopf.  An outfield error followed, putting the runner on third.  The next
batter, Jim Thorpe, topped a little roller down the third base line.  Vaughn
was called Hippo because he ran like one, but he was on the ball quickly and
shoveled it to the catcher.  Too late.  The runner slid in with the run.  In
the bottom of the tenth, Toney retired the Cubs hitless again.


Bill Veeck
Owner, Cle (A), StL (A), Chi (A)

Veeck sent a midget to bat, integrated the AL, invented the exploding
scoreboard, put players' names on their uniforms, and gave baseball its first
two-million-attendance team, the 1948 Indians.  He even tried to field an
integrated Phillies club in 1943 until Judge Landis shot down his quest for
ownership.
     With his open collar, his wooden leg (a souvenir of the Marines), and his
extroverted twinkle, Bill was a fans' owner who lounged in the bleachers,
chain-drinking beer and listening to gripes.  He owned three different AL
teams at various times.
     He learned the game at the hotdog stand in Wrigley Field, where his
father was general manager for the Cubs.  Later, Bill himself became general
manager of the minor league Milwaukee Brewers.
     After the war Veeck brought Cleveland a pennant in 1948.  His promotions
brought in fans and he brought in the players, including Larry Doby, the AL's
first black player and forty-two-year-old Satchel Paige.  In the early 1950s,
Veeck tried to save the Browns.  Some of his gimmicks were outrageous, such as
sending midget Eddie Gaedel to pinch-hit (he walked) and having the fans
manage a game by holding up decision cards.  As White Sox owner, he gave the
team its first flag in forty years in 1959.
     His iconoclastic ways alienated the other owners but enchanted the fans.
He wrote about his adventures entertainingly in Veeck as in Wreck.  He even
wrote about his sabbatical as a race track owner in a book entitled 30 Tons a
Day.  Veeck died in 1986.