When did David Wright's BA slip under .300 finally?

[roger_that]

I figured out the answer this afternoon--I like to do this, find the exact (often very late in career) moment a lifelong .300 batter's BA slipped finally and irrevocably under the .300 mark. I did this for Keith Hernandez, and Mickey Mantle, and it's a bit tedious, searching for the month, the week, the game, the at-bat that a BA went from .2995787485 (say) to .2994801049.



Anyone care to guess before I show my work?



For all I remember, this was a major news story, and lots of people know when it happened, but I can tell you that with Mantle, not only did no media source note the moment, but the NYTIMES didn't even carry the box score for that game.

[MFS62]

Significant enough for us to remember?

Was it a crucial game when he didn't get a hit with the winning runs in scoring position?



Later

[roger_that]

=MFS62 post_id=138256 time=1695774063 user_id=60]
Significant enough for us to remember?

[roger_that]

OK, it was July 28, 2014. The Mets (Big Sexy) beat A.J. Burnett 7-1, but Wright took an ohfer. Burnett struck him out on his second at-bat, sliding his lifetime BA from a smidge over .2995 to .299496945742005 and it never again rose above .300.



He was hitting better than his lifetime .301 average through April and May, but from May 29th on, he batted .245 so that was that.

[Edgy MD]

It was a big deal for Mantle fans — at least it's remembered as such. Strange that the in-the-moment coverage didn't note it.



The real genius was Roberto Alomar, who retired at .30023145596, two oh-for-four-days short of losing his .300 career mark.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I guess Brian Ostrosser. Put me down for Ostrosser. Is Ostrosser the right answer? Is Ostrosser when Wright's BA dipped below .300? Did I say Ostrosser? Ostrosser!



Tomorrow, I'll quiz youse on the identity of the 12th player on the Mets center field depth chart.



These are great quizzes.



Here's another one: What's Carlos Beltran's lifetime Mets batting average to the tenth decimal?

[roger_that]

Edgy MD wrote: It was a big deal for Mantle fans — at least it's remembered as such. Strange that the in-the-moment coverage didn't note it.

And a big deal for Mantle. I published a whole (long) article on players in danger of losing their .300 lifetime BAs, and in the course of writing it, I found that Mantle himself had a whole neurotic set of worries about what dipping below .300 said about him as a hitter and as a human being, which was sad, because in his final year, 1968, of batting .236 he was actually hitting above the AL average (and finished 3rd in the league in OBP). It wasn't Mantle who sucked as much as all AL batters, but he took that .236 average very personally. Kinda pathetic, really.



I was wrong about Joey Votto, who I predicted in 2017 would surely keep his average over .300. He's retiring with a .294 average by dint of batting way below .300 for the past five years, something I didn't see coming. He was at .311 or something like that after the 2017 season--a huge drop.

[roger_that]

I guess Brian Ostrosser. Put me down for Ostrosser. Is Ostrosser the right answer? Is Ostrosser when Wright's BA dipped below .300? Did I say Ostrosser? Ostrosser!

Thanks for reminding me. I got a letter from Brian Ostrosser a few months ago, when we'd been discussing here the post-season payments for 1973, so I asked him if he remembered how much he'd gotten. He sent me the actual letter he'd gotten, notifying him that he'd be getting $100 for his contribution. The entire list is fascinating--it starts out using players' very formal names (Frank E. McGraw, etc.) but ends up going with "Buzz" Capra, etc. which I don't think was on Capra's birth certificate or tax returns. They also got Willie Mays's middle initial wrong, and a bunch of other oddities, like paying some players a penny more than others. I'll try to reproduce it here if I can.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Guest

[roger_that]

and the money shot (so to speak):

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

That's fascinating! Did every member of the grounds crew get that $14,950, or was that divided among all of them?

[Edgy MD]

Tradition is usually that the grounds crew gets a full share to split among all of them.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

Edgy MD wrote: Tradition is usually that the grounds crew gets a full share to split among all of them.

I didn't know that! Good stuff.

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: It was a big deal for Mantle fans — at least it's remembered as such. Strange that the in-the-moment coverage didn't note it.

IIRC, I read during his last years that he and his fans were afraid that if he didn't finish his career at .300, some voters wouldn't vote him to the Hall of Fame. The .300 career average was a magic number for entry back then. And players who didn't have it were looked down upon by some of the old time members and writers.



Later

[stevejrogers]

Edgy MD wrote: It was a big deal for Mantle fans — at least it's remembered as such. Strange that the in-the-moment coverage didn't note it. IIRC, I read during his last years that he and his fans were afraid that if he didn't finish his career at .300, some voters wouldn't vote him to the Hall of Fame. The .300 career average was a magic number for entry back then. And players who didn't have it were looked down upon by some of the old time members and writers. Later

Oddly I have a feeling trying to get them all in a group is why it took Berra a few years, until many writers realized how dumb that idea would be, and Ford an extra year though I can see him legitimately being held over as a “not First Ballot material” if the debates were anything like today.

[stevejrogers]

Edgy MD wrote: It was a big deal for Mantle fans — at least it's remembered as such. Strange that the in-the-moment coverage didn't note it. IIRC, I read during his last years that he and his fans were afraid that if he didn't finish his career at .300, some voters wouldn't vote him to the Hall of Fame. The .300 career average was a magic number for entry back then. And players who didn't have it were looked down upon by some of the old time members and writers. Later

Mick even said that it was still a thorn in his craw in his autobiography that came out in the late 1980s.

[Edgy MD]

Jeff McNeil entered the season with a lofty .307 career average, but has been below .300 since taking an ohfer on July 5, in a 2-1 win over Arizona, the middle game of a three game sweep of the Diamondbacks* in the desert. He currently sits at .29818031 and falling after the collar he took on Sunday.



* The Mets took six of seven against Arizona this season.

[Benjamin Grimm]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=138273 time=1695792441 user_id=68]
Here's another one: What's Carlos Beltran's lifetime Mets batting average to the tenth decimal?

[roger_that]

Edgy MD wrote: has been below .300 since taking an ohfer on July 5, in a 2-1 win over Arizona, the middle game of a three game sweep of the Diamondbacks

But what was the at-bat that did it? And were you aware of this disaster when it happened, or only now discovering it?

[Edgy MD]

I thought about it across the season, but did not take note as it was happening.



Looking back, Jeff's second at-bat — an inning-ending groundout against Tommy Henry with the go-ahead run on third — dropped him to exactly .300 (642 for 2140) on his career. That go-ahead run was in the person of Tommy Pham, who doubtlessly spit in disgust at the sight of Jeff's unpreparedness.



Jeff, lazy and unmotivated as he was, briefly thought of retiring then and there, to preserve his .300 career average without having to ever work again. Unwilling to give Pham the satisfaction of being right, however, he took his next turn, striking out against Kyle Nelson to lead off the seventh, falling below the mark of excellence, possibly forever.



This isn't that strikeout, that game, or even the right season, but it might have played out something like this.



[media=youtube]NzUNM-o7eng[/media]

[batmagadanleadoff]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: =batmagadanleadoff post_id=138273 time=1695792441 user_id=68] Here's another one: What's Carlos Beltran's lifetime Mets batting average to the tenth decimal?

I'm going to guess .2802425790.



(Okay, I peeked!)

[batmagadanleadoff]

What was Jerry Grote's lifetime Mets batting average on the morning of September 8, 1972? No idea. Go look it up for us, and if I give a fuck I will let you know. I couldn't give a flying fuck about the moronic things that you give a flying fuck about.

Edgy MD wrote: Then please don't comment on them.

If Ostrosser is allowed to post about not giving a flying fuck, then so can I. Please stop bullying me by red-lighting my posts. I can't fight back on that level. And you red-light me whimsically and arbitrarily, for personal reasons more than anything else. If you wanna shut me up, please do it fairly, and in a manner that might even garner my respect. I have an enormous amount of respect for intelligent arguments, even those that go against me. Don't just make shit up. I can't comment but he can?

[Edgy MD]

If you don't care about a post, please don't comment on it.