Total Baseball (1994 Edition)/Total_Baseball_1994_Edition_Creative_Multimedia_1994.iso/dp/0004/00044.txt

Text File | 1994-01-05 | 19KB | 282 lines

$Unique_ID{BAS00044}
$Title{No Minor League Experience}
$Author{
Gagnon, Cappy}
$Subject{No Minor League Experience}
$Log{}

Total Baseball:  The Players


No Minor League Experience

Cappy Gagnon


If a group of baseball experts were asked to pick the all-time greatest
players, a handful of names would be on everyone's list: Ruth, Williams,
Gehrig, Cobb, Musial, Mays, Aaron, etc. Great players, all of them, but none
of them made it to the big leagues without first prepping in the minors. In
fact, among the more than 13,000 men who've appeared in the big show, only a
very small number were able to complete a ten-year career without first
spending some time in the bushes.
     Without the ten-year requirement, many more players would qualify, but
this would not be a true indicator of talent, because the list would include
players like the Detroit Tigers "fill-ins" of 1912, the midget Eddie Gaedel,
and the mascot Charles "Victory" Faust, among others. In addition, many
players particularly batterymen, were recruited off sandlots or campuses to
replace injured players, or to get a cup-of-coffee tryout.
     Two other types of players went straight to the big leagues, frequently
with disastrous results. The first were the 1950s bonus babies. According to
the rules at that time, a player signing for more than a $4,000 bonus was
required to stay in the majors for at least two years after signing. Most of
these players were not ready for big league competition, but because they
could not be sent down, they were unable to receive the minor league seasoning
which lower-rated prospects were getting.
     Among American League players adversely affected by this rule during the
1955 season were Kenny Kuhn of the Indians, Tommy Carroll of the Yankees, and
Jim Small and "Diamond Jim" Brady of the Tigers. Kuhn was a schoolboy star
from Louisville; Small, a speedster from Portland; Carroll and Brady were
signed off the campus of the University of Notre Dame. At the time of
signing, most of these bonus babies were faced with the choice of college or
the majors. For those like Carroll and Jim Brady, Ph.D., who had both, there
was a fallback position if their major-league careers ended without the
anticipated stardom. Brady is now the president of Jacksonville University.
But many other players found a lot of disappointment in
their mid-twenties when they found themselves without a baseball career or a
college education.
     The other type of player who was rushed to the majors was the high school
or college "phenom." To paraphrase a comment at the time, most of these
phenoms did not "phenominate." The most famous example of this type was David
Clyde. In 1973 the Texas Rangers ended the season with the worst record in
the major leagues (57-105), costing the manager (Whitey Herzog) his job. The
ballclub was in deep financial trouble, and drastic measures were called for.
A Texas high-schooler, just eighteen, Clyde was the obvious choice for a quick
fix.
     Barely out of high school, Clyde pitched his first big league game with
all the attendant hype. The game was an artistic and financial success. The
year's biggest crowd saw him win. Unfortunately, the bubble burst soon
thereafter. He developed a sore arm and a taste for drinking and nightlife
that his new manager (Billy Martin) was unable to control, for reasons which
are well known now. Eddie Bane, of Arizona State, was the collegiate
equivalent of Clyde, at least on the field.
     Various factors play a role in determining how quickly a player will
advance to the majors. In the long-ago, a small number of "bird
dogs"--injured and retired players mostly--scoured the country for fresh
talent. Playing and living conditions were harsh in the big leagues, and
there was little coaching to polish a player's skills. The minors, or
occasionally the colleges, were the crucible to teach fundamentals and "inside
play." In those pre-expansion, pre-TV days, minor league teams would locate,
sign, teach and develop their own players until they could get a good price
from a higher league or the majors. This practice continued into the 1950s.
     Bonus baby rules from 1947 until the establishment of the combined draft
in the 1960s altered this system. Although many players arrived in the majors
straight out of high school or college, their lack of experience doomed most
of them to a trip to the minors after their enforced bench sitting was over.
For Kuhn, Brady, Carroll, and Small, their careers never lived up to their
schoolboy promise. Harmon Killebrew was one of the few bonus babies who was
able later to make it big after a stretch in the minors.
     Some players, however, have had the right combination of polished talent
and maturity, or have managed to be selected by a team with a spot on the
roster at the right position, or have had a manager who was willing to give a
young player a trial or have simply been lucky. It was then up to the player
to avoid slumps and injuries.
     At least forty-three men have skipped the minors and completed ten or
more seasons without being farmed out. Seven of them played for only one team.
Six jumped directly from high school. Sixteen reached the Hall of Fame, with
at least one more likely to make it (Dave Winfield). The group would make a
pretty good All-Star squad, except that there are no full-time catchers. There
must be something about catching skills and the rigors of the job which have
kept backstops from this exclusive club.
     There are some asterisks to attach to the players on this list. For
example, although Walter Johnson did not play in organized baseball before he
signed with the Senators, he did play nearly a full season with a Weiser
(Idaho) semipro team in 1907. Similarly, Red Murray played a few years of
semipro ball in Elmira (N.Y.) while in his first college (Lock Haven Normal
School in Pennsylvania).
     Bob Horner is a more complicated case. He successfully fought the
Atlanta Braves' management during the 1980 season when they tried to send him
down to the minors, but when he could find no takers in the free-agent market
after the 1986 season, he spent 1987 playing in Japan. Since this was in
their "major" league and he returned to the American majors for the 1988
season, I have listed him, and, in the spirit of baseball's status in Japan,
added his Japanese major league year to his U.S. major league total.
     Satchel Paige doesn't make the list, but is an interesting
variation. He had not played in the minors prior to making the bigs
as a forty-two-year-old rookie with the 1948 Indians, but he had more than
twenty years behind him in the Negro Leagues and with various
barnstorming teams. Paige accumulated five major league seasons
before seeing his first minor league time. He returned to the bigs for
his swan song at age fifty-nine. Were it not for the color line, Paige
might not have had a spot on this list.
     Winfield is the only current player who has already made the list, with
twenty-one years. But there are three with the clock running who give every
indication of making ten years. Jim Abbott (Michigan), John Olerud (Washington
State), and Pete Incaviglia (Oklahoma State) did their prepping only in the
college game. Abbott also starred for the 1988 Olympic Team. Olerud, who
flirted with .400 late into the 1993 season, was considered as likely to
become a major league hurler as he was a hitter when he was in college. Inky
has received a number of pink slips along the way, but seems to have had a
rebirth with the Phillies. Another collegian, Ben McDonald (L.S.U.), would
also be on the waiting list for this exclusive club, were it not for a
couple-game detour to the minors.
     Ernie Banks and Larry Doby are more troublesome variations of the Horner
problem. Gentleman Ernie played for the Negro League Kansas City Monarchs for
three years prior to joining the Cubs in 1953; Doby played five years with the
Newark Eagles, as a second baseman, before joining the Indians in 1947.
Doby's composite career may someday gain him Hall of Fame admission. Only the
cruel color line of organized baseball prevented many deserving players from
reaching the majors. Some Negro League researchers believe that major league
status should be conferred on the Negro Leagues.
     Most of the players on this list went to college before being picked for
the majors. They should probably rate a special category, since colleges have
served as the equivalent of a big league farm system for many years. Among
the collegians on this list are three who later had their colleges attached to
their names: the Fordham Flash (Frisch), Gettysburg Eddie (Plank), and Colby
Jack (Coombs). The rough-and-tumble players of the early game often ridiculed
collegians.
     Some of the collegians on this list were, for a time, better known on
campus as basketball players (Koufax, Groat, Yost, Chapman, and Winfield).
After setting scoring records at Duke, Groat also played a year of NBA
basketball with the Fort Wayne Pistons.
     Charles Albert "Chief" Bender jumped to the majors directly from the
Carlisle Indian School. He was the first of ten players on this list to be
brought to the big leagues by Connie Mack, all but two of whom (Ross and
Scheib) were collegians. Connie liked smart players with good personal habits
and seemed to favor collegians.
     Barry's development as a shortstop moved Stuffy McInnis to first base and
gave the $100,000 infield defensive wizards at all four spots. Barry later
became one of the college game's most successful coaches, at Holy Cross, which
sent many other players to the Athletics, including Dugan.
     Coombs wrote one of the bestselling and most popular texts on baseball
play while coaching Duke University. He is also a little tainted to be on
this list, having played in the outlaw Vermont League in 1905. Plank, like
Bender, was a Hall of Famer.
     Ethan Allen also wrote a fine text on baseball and created All-Star
Baseball, a terrific table game. Like Koufax, Allen was a product of the
University of Cincinnati. Dave Winfield is another author from this list.
Although his book angered his employer, Winfield has enjoyed a reputation as a
thoughtful man. His athletic ability and tremendous physique were very
impressive. Winfield was drafted by all three major pro sports. Cy Williams
was also an all-around athlete; at Notre Dame, Cy and Knute Rockne were backup
ends on the 1910 football team. Cy also lettered in track as a hurdler. He
made the most of his education, graduating as an architect and gaining as much
prominence in his postplaying career as when he won four home run titles in
the National League.
     Most of the men on this list possessed a high degree of intelligence
along with their ability to hit, run, and throw. This may be a result of the
high percentage of collegians, or it may have been the quality which kept them
in the majors without minor league preparation.
     Ted Lyons (Baylor) and Eppa Rixey (Virginia) won 526 games between them
during twenty-one-year careers. Pete Donohue and Wild Bill Donovan won 320
games, led their leagues in eleven pitching categories, and had five 20-win
seasons. Sisler was such an all-around player that he was both a pitcher and
a first baseman in the majors. Brought to the majors by the St. Louis Browns,
he played for his former college coach at Michigan, the immortal Branch
Rickey. Pitcher George Uhle hit .302 in his brief rookie year, foreshadowing
that he would become the greatest hitting pitcher in the history of the game.
     Steve Milman, who has researched major leaguers who skipped the minors,
has discovered three near misses to this list who had nine years in the
majors. Joe Genewich played only semi-pro ball in Elmira before beginning his
major league career with the 1922 Braves; John "Bull" Henry went to the majors
straight from Amherst College; and Russ Wrightstone spent nine years in the
majors after playing for the Klein Chocolate Club of Elizabethtown,
Pennsylvania.
     An interesting aspect of the first-year accomplishments of these players
is that except for four of the pitchers (Bender, Plank, Powell, and Rusie)
they broke in with modest production. Few were regulars. Most came up to teams
with second-division records and a hole to fill, although Connie Mack brought
up Coombs and Bender to pennant-winning teams and Barry to a second-place
finisher. Milt Gaston also came up to a defending league champ when he joined
the 1924 Yankees.
     Bibb Falk also came up to a defending league champ, but since the 1920
White Sox were decimated by the Black Sox Scandal, there was a lot of room for
new blood. Falk later became a prominent college coach at Texas, the school
which has produced the second-most current major league players and which is
among the top three all-time.
     Carl Scheib, Eddie Yost, and Johnny Antonelli were sixteen, seventeen,
and eighteen, respectively, when they first appeared in a big league game,
during the forties. The first two were helped by the wartime depletion of
talent. Johnny Antonelli was one of the biggest bonus babies of the forties,
signing for a reported $65,000 during the Braves' 1948 pennant-winning season.
Yost needed federal government intervention to stay on this list.
     "The Walking Man" grew up in Brooklyn. He attended NYU in the fall of
1944, playing basketball. He skipped college baseball, playing semipro ball
in New Jersey on weekends. While Senator scout Joe Cambria was on a rare
scouting mission (rare because it was not in a Spanish-speaking country), he
spotted Yost. It is alleged that Yost was signed on the spot. He went to the
majors right away, playing in a few games at the end of the 1944 season.
     Yost spent all of 1945 and much of 1946 in the Navy. When the 1947
season began, Clark Griffith decided that Eddie should serve a little time in
Chattanooga. The Senators' manager, Ossie Bluege, the former great Nat third
sacker, agreed with this assessment. Eddie also agreed, but there was a
congressional act that protected jobs for ex-servicemen. This law said that
Eddie had to be retained until July 15. Yost would likely have languished on
the bench until he could be sent down, except that veteran Cecil Travis
slumped badly and, on May 21, Eddie got a chance to play third as a temporary
regular. He lasted fourteen years with the Senators.
     Among this precocious group, three players stand above the others for the
uniqueness of their accomplishment: Bob Feller, Al Kaline, and Mel Ott. They
each went directly from high school to the majors, without the benefit of
college or semipro experience, and completed Hall of Fame careers without ever
changing teams. Except for the years taken from Feller during the war, all of
these players have had more than twenty years of big league service. In
effect, they wore only one uniform after high school!  They could be the
subject of a story, "From High School to Cooperstown, with Only One Stop in
Between."
     The chart that follows summarizes the accomplishment of the players
referred to in this chapter: KEY: YRS = Seasons in the majors; POS = Primary
Position(s) played during rookie season; TEAMS = Number of teams on during
career; AGE = Years and month of age during April of rookie year;
OPPORTUNITY = Finish of team during season prior to rookie year; RESULT =
Won-lost record (pitchers) or batting average (others) during the rookie year.

No Minor League Experience
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        NAME           YRS      POS   TEAMS   AGE    OPPORTUNITY    RESULT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Allen, Ethan            13       OF     6     22/3      3,1925      .308
Antonelli, Johnny       12        P     3     18/0      3,1947       0-0
Banks, Ernie            19       SS     1     22/3      5,1952      .314
Barry, Jack             11    2B-SS     2     21/0      2,1907      .222
Bender, Chief           16        P     4     20/1      1,1901      17-15
Chapman, Sam            11       OF     2     22/0      7,1937      .259
Coombs, Jack            15        P     3     23/5      1,1905      10-10
Doby, Larry             13       OF     3     22/5      6,1946      .156
Donohue, Pete           12        P     4     20/5      3,1920       7-6
Donovan, Wild Bill      18        P     4     21/6      7,1897       1-6
Dugan, Joe              14       SS     5    19/11      8,1916      .194
Falk, Bibb              12       OF     2     21/3      1,1919      .294
Feller, Bob             18        P     1     17/5      3,1935       5-3
Frisch, Frank           20    2B-3B     2     20/7      2,1918      .226
Gaston, Milton          11        P     5     28/3      1,1923       5-3
Groat, Dick             14       SS     4     21/5      7,1951      .284
Hatton, Grady           12       2B     6     23/6      7,1945      .271
Horner, Bob             11       3B     3     20/8      6,1977      .266
Hunter, Catfish         15        P     2     20/0     10,1964       8-8
Johnson, Walter         21        P     1     19/5      7,1906       5-9
Kaline, Al              23       OF     1     18/4      8,1952      .250
Koufax, Sandy           13        P     1     19/4      2,1954       2-2
Lyons, Ted              21        P     1     22/4      5,1922       2-1
MacFayden, Danny        17        P     6    20/10      8,1925       0-1
Magee, Sherry           16       OF     3     18/8      7,1903      .277
Murray, Red             11       OF     3     22/1      6,1904      .257
O'Dell, Digger          13        P     5     21/2      8,1953       1-1
Ott, Mel                22       OF     1     17/1      2,1925      .383
Plank, Eddie            17        P     3     25/8      0,1901      17-11
Powell, Jack            11        P     3     22/9      2,1896      15-9
Rixey, Eppa             21        P     2    21/11      4,1911      10-10
Ross, Buck              10        P     2     21/2      8,1935       9-14
Rusie, Amos             10        P     3    17/11      7,1888      13-10
Scheib, Carl            11        P     2     16/3      8,1942       0-1
Sisler, George          16  1B-OF-P     3     22/1      6,1914      .285, 4-4
Uhle, George            17        P     4     20/7      2,1918      10-5
Wallace, Bobby          25       SS     3     19/5      3,1893      .154
White, Guy (doc)        13        P     2     22/0      3,1900      14-13
Williams, Cy            19       OF     2     24/4      2,1911      .242
Winfield, Dave          16       OF     2     21/6      6,1972      .277
Witt, Whitey            10       SS     3     20/6      8,1915      .245
Yost, Eddie             18       3B     3     17/6      2,1943      .143
Zachary, Tom            19        P     7     22/1      5,1917       2-0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------