30-30

[Edgy MD]

From tonight's game notes, who are the only five father/son combinations to both steal 30 bases in a season?

Please opt out if you already caught the report.

[Edgy MD]

By the way, they sorta kinda left one duo out.

[MFS62]

Didn't hear it, so I'll guess the Bonds guys.
(one guess per post?)
Later

[Gwreck]

I didn't watch tonight's game, but I'm going to assume the connection was Eric Young Jr. and Sr.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

The Griffeys

[DocTee]

Jose Cruz and Jose Cruz, Jr.

(Wild, wild guess.)

[Gwreck]

Cecil and Prince Fielder, duh.

Just kidding. The Alomars?

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Bizarro Ray and Bizarro Bob Boone

[Edgy MD]

The Bondses. Yes.

The Youngs. Yes, as of now.

The Griffs. No. Senior did it once, but Junior never did. (I would've guessed the other way.)

Los Cruces. Si.

Fielders and Boones are obviously nos. As are the Hundleys and the Berras. Let's get them off the table right now.

Sandy Alomar, Sr. and Roberto are number four. Good guess, that one, as Sandy wasn't much on offense, but he managed 35 steals in 1970 and 39 more in 1971.

One more pair out there. The daddyo spent his entire big league career in the National League, the son mostly in the AL.

[Ceetar]

Was gonna guess Gwynn but I checked and little one maxed out at 22, well, so far anyway.

[seawolf17]

I heard the question and was fascinated. Would NEVER have guessed the Cruzes if you'd given me 100 guesses. Maybe would have guessed the Alomars. Bondses and Griffeys would have been my first guesses -- figured those were the easy ones.

[Gwreck]

My next guess was the McRaes but that doesn't fit with Edgy's clue.

The Hairstons and Alous don't fit either. The Bufords?

[Frayed Knot]

Shirley & Maury ... no wait, that's not right, it's Maury and Bump.

[Centerfield]

Are Preston and Mookie eligible?

[Edgy MD]

Hairstons: Jerry Sr., amazingly enough (for a guy who played outfield for 14 years with little power), didn't steal at all. Had two in 1984 and five for his career. Son Jerry, Jr. reached 29 for the O's in 2009 and Scott racked up 11 for two teams in 2009. Jerry's brother John played one game in his career and stold bupkis, and paterfamilias did most of his stealing in the negro leagues before logging four stealless games with the White Sox in 1951.

Alous: Moises Alou had some speed when he was healthy, but that was almost never. His top number was 17. His father Felipe got between 10 and 12 six times, so he pretty much found his level. Uncle Jesus never had more than 8. Uncle Mateo was the fastest in the family, usually logging more than 15, but never more than 23. Cousins Mel Rojas and Jose Sosa are still looking for their first steal between them.

Bufords: Damon peaked at 18, Don at 19. Nice guess.

While I was typing this, a new guess comes out of Left Field. Or the former Left Field. The Poviches are incorrect (unless you count the grand theft that is Maury's career and marriage).

The Willses, however, is the last group we are looking for. Maury, of course, stole a then-record 104. Bump, who I have to think twice to remember is Maury's son (I'm guessing he was bi-racial), stole 52 bases at 25 and kept piling up 30+ seasons before stealing 35 at 29 in 128 games and then disappearing to Japan and never playing big league ball again. Did an injury precipitate this or did he just play himself out of the country?

Bump's WAR by Age:

24: 5.4
25: 3.5
26: 3.3
27: 2.2
28: 1.1
29: 0.9

Preston and Mookie Wilson were the guys I'm thinking of that almost kinda oughta qualify as an answer for this quiz. Alas, the Elias guys did not include them, but I probably woulda. Preston stole 36 in 2000. Mookie stole everything.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I don't get it. Why are the Wilsons ineligible?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Not biologically father and son, I assume.

[Edgy MD]

Nephew and stepson. Doesn't meet the high Elias standard.

[seawolf17]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Not biologically father and son, I assume.

I had to Google that. I had no idea.

Bump Wills is a cardboard name for me. I picture his 1983 Topps card every time I hear his name, looking about four feet tall on a follow-through swing for some reason.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

doh I totally forgot that.

[Frayed Knot]

I had no memory of Bump being as good a player as he (briefly) was, but he had six full and pretty decent seasons in MLB before disappearing. I was thinking he was more a 300 AB/yr Tony Gwynn Jr-ish type of player who probably only got as much time as he did on account of the name.

I guessed him/them because after you gave the life-long NL-father clue Maury was the first guy I thought of.

[G-Fafif]

No pressure, kid.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I wrote my name on my glove the same way Bump did on that cover.

WILLS
BUMP
along the pinky finger

[batmagadanleadoff]

G-Fafif wrote: No pressure, kid.

There was a run of a few years, beginning in 1977, when SI's annual Spring Training story on baseball's most promising rookies would make its cover. Wills was the first cover rookie in that run, which would include 1978's phenom, Clint Hurdle, rip-roarin' rookie Kirk Gibson and the littlest rookie, Harry Chappas. Hector Cruz, the featured rookie of 1976, was a year ahead of his time, and thus, missed making the SI cover. Frank Lucchesi's decision to give the rookie Bump Wills the starting job in 1977 led to his vicious knockout at the hands of Lenny Randle, who was then traded to the Mets for Rick Auerbach. The Mets and the Rangers are the only two teams in baseball that wore jersey pullovers with two buttons. Randle and Tom Grieve and Mike Cubbage and Doug Flynn are among the only players to have worn that style uniform for both teams.

[Edgy MD]

Virtually 100% of this shot says "Rec League Softball."

[Guest vtmet]

Edgy MD wrote: Virtually 100% of this shot says "Rec League Softball."

why do teams like the White Sox, A's, Astros, Indians, and Padres consistently have some of the ugliest uniforms in the history of sports? Are the owners color/fashion blind? Or do they figure that if they didn't get attention for gaudy uniforms, then nobody would even notice that they existed?

[Frayed Knot]

vtmet wrote: why do teams like the White Sox, A's, Astros, Indians, and Padres consistently have some of the ugliest uniforms in the history of sports?

Because they mistake brief trends (splashy colors, wide lapels, etc.) for timeless fashion.

[Guest vtmet]

Frayed Knot wrote: vtmet wrote: why do teams like the White Sox, A's, Astros, Indians, and Padres consistently have some of the ugliest uniforms in the history of sports? Because they mistake brief trends (splashy colors, wide lapels, etc.) for timeless fashion.

good point...and while I didn't mention it, what were the Marlins thinking with that hideous ballpark that they built?

and one "trend" that I think all teams should be forced to adopt is putting the players names on the back of the jerseys...I hate seeing the Yanks, Red Sox and the Giants have just numbers on their back; I don't have a scorecard, put the name on the backs...

[Edgy MD]

The Sox have had some handsome duds too. But, you know, what we're talking about isn't the A's and Sox and Padres, so much as Charlie Finley, Bill Veeck, and Ray Krok.

Many of the uniforms that came after the passing of those ownerships were desperate attempts to rebrand.

But I like the Astros rainbow theme. I like some combinations of the A's colors. I like the idea (if not the execution) of the Padres referencing the colors of mission architecture.

Some of these teams have had clothing that has been derided, sure, but in deriding them, we just drive everybody toward making the most conservative choices on reboots, and adopting variations of red and blue in the color schemes. That's not good. Things that makes teams different is good. Teams with different color schemes and different cuts and different philosophies is good for baseball and good for America.