Baseball Passings 2020

[G-Fafif]

Al Kaline retired in 1974 and he's probably still the first player I'll think of if you say "Detroit Tigers" to me.

[Edgy MD]

Al Kaline never played a day in the minors. I don't know who else can make such a claim. Did Ichiro Suzuki bypass the Japanese minors?

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy MD wrote: Al Kaline never played a day in the minors. I don't know who else can make such a claim. Did Ichiro Suzuki bypass the Japanese minors?

Oh there have been others. My first thought was John Olerud but since he played during the era of injury rehab assignments it would depend on how literally one

wants to take 'never'. JO went straight to the majors from college and played 16 seasons before getting 10 minor league ABs (12 PA, naturally he walked twice)

as he prepared to start his 17th and final season in Boston. Those PA appear to have come at the beginning of the year so either it was an injury rehab left over

from the winter or an extended warmup while the BoSox sorted out a roster slot.







P.S. Dave Winfield, 22 seasons ... never got a minor league dinner!

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, was thinking that even the few guys who went straight to the Show would likely have seen a rehab assignment. But yeah, Winnie qualifies.



Robin Yount played a half season in the New York-Penn League at 17.

[Frayed Knot]

Now if one wanted to make the case of who else never played minor league OR college ball then it would be a smaller list and you'd probably have to go back to the front half

of the 20th century to find candidates.



- Kaline made his ML debut in June of 1953 at 18 yrs - 188 days, or presumably just after his HS graduation (no idea if he actually graduated or not). He got only 30 PA that

season so I guess he just sat around a lot as there don't seem to be any injury holes in his game log for that year.



- By 1954/age-19 season he was a full-time player [535 PA] finishing 3rd in ROY [bob Grim -- P, NYY; Jim Finigan -- 3B, Philly A's]



- By '55/21 he was the batting champ [Three - Fuckin' - Forty] while leading the league in hits [200] and Total Bases [321]. He finished 2nd to Yogi in the MVP vote despite

out-OBP'ing him by 72 points [421 to 349] and out-WAR'ing him nearly 2-1 [8.3 - 4.5]. Mantle [9.5] out-WAR'd them both that year but finished 5th [Al Smith, Ted Williams].



- He went on the finish 3rd in the 1956 MVP and racked up nine Top-10's overall although never winning one. Not a bad resume when your career almost perfectly overlaps

with the Mantle-era NYY dynasty.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy MD wrote: Al Kaline never played a day in the minors. I don't know who else can make such a claim. Did Ichiro Suzuki bypass the Japanese minors?

Bob Horner and Jim Abbott.



Al Kaline taught me the value of the base on balls. Strat-o-Matic, 1971 set. By the time I was in Junior High,, the walks column would be the first place my eyes went when I scanned the back of some hitter's baseball card.



Here's this Posnanski piece on Al Kaline I read last week:





https://theathletic.com/1568128/2020/02/05/the-baseball-100-no-51-al-kaline/https://theathletic.com/1568128/2020/02/05/the-baseball-100-no-51-al-kaline/

[Benjamin Grimm]

I remember wondering why his name was printed on batteries.

[Edgy MD]

Edgy MD wrote: Al Kaline never played a day in the minors. I don't know who else can make such a claim. Did Ichiro Suzuki bypass the Japanese minors? Bob Horner and Jim Abbott. Al Kaline taught me the value of the base on balls. Strat-o-Matic, 1971 set. By the time I was in Junior High,, the walks column would be the first place my eyes went when I scanned the back of some hitter's baseball card. Here's this Posnanski piece on Al Kaline I read last week: https://theathletic.com/1568128/2020/02/05/the-baseball-100-no-51-al-kaline/https://theathletic.com/1568128/2020/02/05/the-baseball-100-no-51-al-kaline/

Jeff Burroughs 1978 was my Al Kaline.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I know some folks in Michigan who named their daughter Kaline

[MFS62]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I remember wondering why his name was printed on batteries.

We got it, but were trying to ignore it.

Later

[Willets Point]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I remember wondering why his name was printed on batteries. We got it, but were trying to ignore it. Later

I did pronounce his name as "alkaline" for a long time before I was corrected.

[LWFS]

Al Kaline taught me the value of the base on balls. Strat-o-Matic, 1971 set. By the time I was in Junior High,, the walks column would be the first place my eyes went when I scanned the back of some hitter's baseball card. Here's this Posnanski piece on Al Kaline I read last week: https://theathletic.com/1568128/2020/02/05/the-baseball-100-no-51-al-kaline/https://theathletic.com/1568128/2020/02/05/the-baseball-100-no-51-al-kaline/

Who better to teach you the value of a base than Al Kaline?

[G-Fafif]

Glenn Beckert, All-Star second baseman for the Cubs, 79.

[Benjamin Grimm]

It's striking how many of these "Baseball Passings" call to mind images of baseball cards from 1971, 1972, and 1973. (My peak years.)



I look at this image and it makes me smell bubble gum:



https://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/8665/8665-495775Fr.jpg>



You knew he was a good player because he got an IN ACTION card!



https://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/72/72-46Fr.jpg>

[batmagadanleadoff]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: You knew [beckert]was a good player because he got an IN ACTION card! https://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/72/72-46Fr.jpg>

And you knew Beckert was a good player because he was also on a league leader card!



[FIMG=888]https://images.psacard.com/s3/cu-psa/cardfacts/1972-topps-85-nl-batting-leaders-jtorrergarrgbeckert-36047.jpg?h=1000&format=png&s.roundcorners=10[/FIMG]

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Glenn Beckert is famous to me for being on a 1974 card that was NOT hilarously doctored despite his offseason trade--and also looked weird. Padres label, Cubs uni iirc



https://www.sportlots.com/invenpics/cardkamp/18918.jpg>

[batmagadanleadoff]

Zvon would like this pic of Beckert. It's from when the walls were white. Or toothpasty.



[FIMG=666]https://ansel.frgimages.com/chicago-cubs/signed-glenn-beckert-picture-8x10_ss2_p-10934557+u-pdty9cun7825uaynwtzh+v-36fd98bd397c4d68b67797b777306cfb.jpg?_hv=1&w=900[/FIMG]

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

The version I have of the 74 beckert card is even weirder as it lists San Diego as Washington Nat'l Lea.

[Frayed Knot]

Glenn Beckert and Don Kessinger are linked in my mind the way Alan Trammel and Lou Whitaker are for others, probably even more so in my case since it was

early in my baseball years and in the NL. Coming up the same year ('65) they were pretty much everyday starters at 2B & SS for the Cubs across nine seasons.

And in case you forget how much the role of middle infielders has changed over the years, together they made ten All-Star games between them and garnered

MVP votes five different times despite combining for a total of just 36 career HRs.



Back when spring training was still in gear I caught a glimpse of Kessinger's grandson playing for Houston -- Grae Kessinger, 2nd round draft pick out of U-Miss 2017

Edited April 12, 2020 by Guest

[G-Fafif]

Hank Steinbrenner, 63, brother of Hal. Had been ill a while; reportedly unrelated to COVID-19.

[Frayed Knot]

=G-Fafif post_id=35135 time=1586875969 user_id=55]
Hank Steinbrenner, 63, brother of Hal. Had been ill a while; reportedly unrelated to COVID-19.

[G-Fafif]

Damaso Garcia, 63, backup infielder of yore. Came up with the 1978 MFYs, traded to Jays, played through the eighties.

[Chad ochoseis]

=G-Fafif post_id=35207 time=1586974016 user_id=55]
Damaso Garcia, 63, backup infielder of yore. Came up with the 1978 MFYs, traded to Jays, played through the eighties.

[G-Fafif]

Bobby Winkles, legendary Arizona State coach who went on to manage Angels and A's, 90. One of his Sun Devils was Gary Gentry.

[Edgy MD]

Duffy Dyer and Lenny Randle too, I think.

[batmagadanleadoff]

It was ASU coach Bobby Winkles who told his superstar, Reggie Jackson, considered by many to be the best draft eligible amateur in the nation, that the Mets wouldn't use their overall #1 draft pick on Jackson because Jackson was black and Mets brass had racist-fueled concerns. This allegation was denied years laer by Bob Scheffing, Mets GM. I don't know what's true and what's not, but Scheffing had a motive to lie and conceal the truth, while Winkles, as far as I know, didn't.





The Mets, as youse know, drafted Steve Chilcott with their #1 overall pick in baseball's June 1966 amateur draft.



[FIMG=444]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61OslYqIa4L._AC_SL1050_.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=555]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71OgAHxWGfL._AC_SL1000_.jpg[/FIMG]

[Edgy MD]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=35367 time=1587255740 user_id=68]This allegation was denied years laer by Bob Scheffing, Mets GM. I don't know what's true and what's not, but Scheffing had a motive to lie and conceal the truth, while Winkles, as far as I know, didn't.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy MD wrote: =batmagadanleadoff post_id=35367 time=1587255740 user_id=68]This allegation was denied years laer by Bob Scheffing, Mets GM. I don't know what's true and what's not, but Scheffing had a motive to lie and conceal the truth, while Winkles, as far as I know, didn't.

And Jackson had motivations of his own.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy MD wrote: =batmagadanleadoff post_id=35367 time=1587255740 user_id=68]This allegation was denied years laer by Bob Scheffing, Mets GM. I don't know what's true and what's not, but Scheffing had a motive to lie and conceal the truth, while Winkles, as far as I know, didn't. And Jackson had motivations of his own.

Perhaps. But Winkles never denied the story.

[Frayed Knot]

I also never know how much of that story to believe.

And while Winkles had no motive to lie about it I'm also not sure Winkles ever confirmed this story. Reggie claimed that Winkles told him of NYM disinterest based on issues other than baseball -- and actually

I think the story went that Reggie says Winkles said that he was told of this so the story was second-hand at best even if it were all told accurately. What supposedly made the Mets skittish, meaning on top of

Reggie already having the double whammy of being both a loudmouth AND black in an era when athletes were expected to take whatever they were given without complaint, was that his college girlfriend was

white (actually Mexican). In the parlance of the times, this all added up to Jackson being an 'uppity nigger'. To many that attitude fit the NYM brass at that time or at least it fit a stereotype of the NYM brass.

But this is also Reggie we're talking about here, a guy who is only lying when his lips are moving and, as far as I know, HE is the only one who has ever been a source on this story. Maybe it's true, but my guess

is that it's at best embellished and quite possibly invented entirely. If so he certainly wouldn't be the first or last athlete to invent a story where he is portrayed as the victim for self-motivation purposes.



And then there's the part about how everyone knows what the "correct" draft pick should have been after the fact so side reasons take on an added level of importance because OF COURSE you'd draft Jackson

ahead of Chilcott if just basing things on baseball terms. But in the year that Joe Mauer was to be the first overall pick Baseball America ran an article on the relative lack of success with 1st round catchers up

to that point. Naturally Chilcott's story was brought up and his case got his own sidebar article. The story went that Whitey Herzog, then in charge of the Mets draft, was torn between Chilcott & Jackson and

ultimately went how he went with no mention being made of outside factors or dictations from above. Curious about how other clubs felt, Whitey went around to his [then 19] counterparts to ask who they would

have drafted if they had the #1 pick. He claimed that the results of his informal poll was 10 Jackson / 9 Chilcott, making it of course a dead heat with the Mets vote thrown in. It might help to remember that this

was just the second ever draft in MLB and I think the notion existed early on that drafting them young (Chilcott was a HS player) was better because it gave the team more time to mold them properly. Years later

that attitude would change somewhat but this draft wasn't done years later. Most post-analysis also ignores that it was injuries that drove Chilcott from the game, not failure.

Edited April 18, 2020 by Guest